Bah Humbug

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I'm being a bit of a Scrooge this year.  I still haven't put our tree up, I haven't made our Christmas cards, my advent calendar is no where near finished, and while I'm done shopping, I'm dreading the wrapping and making a trip to the post office.

I think I spent so much time cleaning and getting organized that I just don't want to make a mess...and Christmas decorations and wrapping paper make a mess!

I'll be spending the rest of today getting over it and getting stuff done!

Have a great Wednesday!

Dead Ringer: HDC Brookefield Table Lamp & JCP Linden Street Balustrade

I love the look of balustrade lamps.  So timeless!

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This one is from HDC and it's $129.

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This one is from JCP and it's $59!

Check out some other high-end versions of this lamp:

1.  Ballard Designs: $219
2.  Layla Grayce:  $196
3.  Anthropologie: $268
4.  Pottery Barn:  $200


Have a great Monday!

A Little Break To Do a Little Celebrating

We've had a lot going on here for the past seven days, so I decided to take a little break.  My husband's family came into town, we had our 5th wedding anniversary, we completed round one of Christmas, and my husband turned the big 3-0!  Little Man and I had cupcakes waiting on him when he got home!

I've been catching my breath for the past day or so and everything is slowly getting back to normal. 

I'll be back on Monday with a regular post!  Y'all have a good weekend!

DIY Mercury Glass....Kind Of....

I'm a bit late with this, but here's my little ornament tutorial that's hardly a tutorial!

Ok, so I started working on ornaments for my advent calendar.  I had planned to try and do some DIY mercury glass based on this little tutorial by Martha.  Well, my "plan" was really just an idea and I hadn't really looked into the cost of that Krylon mirror spray paint or the places that it was available.  Turns out, most people have to get it from Amazon and it's about $11 a can...and it's a small can.  (Some people have been able to find it at Wal-Mart and I've read that it's available at Hobby Lobby, but we don't have one of those).

I had some liquid silver leaf laying around, so I decided that instead of paying $11 and waiting a few days for the mirror paint to get to me (I'm impatient!), I'd try out the liquid leaf to see what happened.  I followed the steps laid out by Martha and put a little water into my clear glass ornament, swished it around, and got all the excess out.  Then I basically did the same thing with the liquid leaf.  I let it sit upside down for a while to get all the drips out and then I just turned it over to let it dry.

The result is definitely not as shiny as the mirror paint, it's more of a gunmetal color, but I kind of like it.  I also have some gold liquid leaf, but the lid had dried to the bottle (dangit!).  Maybe my husband can get it off.  I'm curious to see what the gold looks like.

I might still order a can of the mirror paint just to have on hand 'cause it's so cool, but the liquid leaf is not a bad alternative, plus it's only about $5.  I bet a combination of the two would look great. 

Hope y'all are having a great Friday!

I'll be linking up to:

Advent Inspiration

Can you believe tomorrow is December 1st!?  I'd planned to have a complete, home-made advent calendar by well...tomorrow, but I haven't even started yet.  I've actually had the plan for my calendar in my head since last Christmas.  I have the ornaments, I just need to buy a few more things and get going.  I really want my calendar to be a special tradition for my little man, and since he's still pretty young I think it's OK that we won't really be able to use it this year, but I'd hate for next Christmas to roll around and still not have a calendar.  I think I'm going to work on the ornaments little by little over the next few weeks to get all 25 done.  Hopefully I'll have a little ornament tutorial by tomorrow.

Since I don't have my own calendar yet, I figured I'd post some that I think are pretty inspiring. 

1.  Don't you love those little mittens?!
2.  I like the idea of having a separate little tree for advent ornaments.
3.  Love advent action cards that encourage children to do things for others.
4.  So pretty!
5.  Genius!  Little magnetic containers that you could put on any magnetic board or even on the refrigerator. 

Have a great Wednesday!

Ornament Wreath

There are about a bajillion different versions of the ornament wreath out there in the blog world (I believe it all started here).  I actually made the one below two years ago.  I used a live wreath from Costco, which dried out and died, but I kept the ornaments strung on the floral wire, so all I have to do is go out and buy a wreath for this year.  I  didn't have time to go get one yesterday, but as soon as I snatch one up, my front door will be nice and decorated.  I figured a post about my old wreath (which will soon be my current wreath) would be better than a post that included pictures of my Christmas decorations all over my living room floor, yes?

OK, so here's the process:  first, I took off the metal tops of the ornaments and hot glued them back to the glass balls.  Apparently if you don't do this they'll just pop off.  Then I just strung the ornaments onto floral wire.  (Other versions use a coat hanger, but trying to bend a coat hanger into a circle didn't sound like fun to me.)

Once the ornaments were on the wire, I just had to spread them out onto the wreath.



I used more floral wire to attach the ornaments to the wreath.  I think I had to secure it in about ten different places before I could pick up the wreath and not have sagging ornaments.

So easy!  And since I'm trying to spend as little money as possible, especially on Christmas decorations which will just come down in a few weeks, it's nice to not have to go out and buy new supplies.  I can just reuse the string of ornaments I already have.

I'll be linking up to:

Who's Finished Decorating for Christmas?!

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Not me!  Not even close....haven't even started.  Those beautiful ornaments above are from BH&G.  My ornaments are still packed away in boxes.

I'm usually done decorating by now, but we've had more important things to do around here.  More cleaning, more organizing, and taking care of a sick toddler. 

I'm going to get started today, so maybe I'll have something festive to show off tomorrow.

Hope every one had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Break

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I'm taking an impromptu, early Thanksgiving break!  We had such a busy weekend that I didn't get all of my cleaning and organizing done.  The time is running out to get it finished, so the boring chores are going to the top of my priority list and the fun little projects and posts are going to the bottom.  I may be able to squeeze a quick post in sometime this week, but just in case I can't, have a relaxing Thanksgiving!

Thrifty Inspiration

I've got sort of a potpourri of inspiring projects for y'all today.

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Teryn at Vintage Romance made this sign out of wood she found on the side of the road!  It looks awesome and don't you just love the stenciled wall behind it?

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Here's another treasure that was saved from the trash.  Liz Marie at Liz Marie Blog gave this chair new life and a new burlap covered seat.

Note to self:  do a little dumpster diving.

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Kim at Keller Creative gave her foyer a new look with some accessories and she painted her entry table a pretty gray color.

I'm going to take a break from cleaning to do a teensy bit of shopping today.  I have to drive an hour to the nearest Hobby Lobby so hopefully I'll come back with something to show for it.

Have a great weekend!

Pre Holiday Season Cleaning!

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I've been doing some really boring and not so pretty organizing for the past couple of days.  I figured I'd post that beautiful picture of a bathroom cabinet from BH&G instead of the garbage bags of clutter that I'm getting rid of.

With family visits and Christmas decorating right around the corner, I better get it done now, right?

Hope you're doing something much more interesting with your day!

Laundry Room

This little laundry room make-over is a bit more impressive in person.  Maybe if I give a little reminder of what it looked like before that will help it not seem so "meh".

It's amazing how a little paint and a few accessories have completely changed how I feel about my laundry room.  I used to get in and out of there as quickly as possible, but a little time and money have made it a much more pleasant place to be.  I actually kept the door open yesterday instead of trying to hide it.

I ended up spending $80 to transform my laundry room.  Cleaning it out was free...and I should have done it a long time ago.  The laundry sorter was $60, but I paid $48 (if you missed it, here's the post that explains why I went with that sorter over building something myself) and the baskets were $32.  I found them at Home Goods and they fit on that shelf perfectly.  If I ever come across more of them, I'll have to snag them up.  I think I could fit about 4 more of them up there.  They're holding all sorts of odds and ends and the little one on the sorter is holding stain removers and dryer sheets.

I already had some of the supplies and accessories that I used.  I already had the paint.  It's the same shade that's in our powder room, I just added a bunch of white to it to lighten it up.  I also already had the frames and the fabric that I put in them.  I bought the fabric from a remnant bin months ago, I love it, and I'm glad I found a use for it.  I made one of the frames into a chalkboard by just painting chalkboard paint onto the glass that came with it and one of them is a pin board.  I just cut a cork tile to fit in the frame under the fabric.

There are still a few things that I'd like to add, but I'll just have to do it little by little as I get the money.  Eventually I'd like to put new shelves in and add some kind of wall mounted drying rack.  I also need two little trash cans, one for trash and one for cloth diapers (I like these).  I may also add a new light fixture.  There's a little chandelier at Ikea that would be pretty cute.

I'll update as I make changes or additions...well maybe not if I just get new trashcans, that would be pretty boring, but if I find and use any cheap organization products or projects, I'll let y'all know!

Hope you're having a great Monday!

p.s. The vaccuum and the hot water heater are still hanging out, fully exposed in the corner next to the dryer.  Oh, well.

I'm a Cheater...

....a big one.  I completely scrapped my plan of using my own two hands to build that laundry basket dresser.  I broke down and bought a laundry sorter from a store, because, as it turns out building one laundry basket dresser would have cost about the same, if not more, than the sorter that I found at Target.  

Here's the whole story:   I had convinced my husband to spend Friday evening working on the laundry basket dresser that I'd planned to make.  I had convinced him of how easy it was going to be and that it was only going to cost about $30.  I even convinced him to go to Lowe's and pick up the supplies.  When he got there he discovered that it was going to cost a lot more than $30, but he couldn't convince me (shame on me).

I had to see for myself, so I went to Home Depot and found a very nice employee (who was very knowledgeable) to help me.  I told him that I wanted to build the laundry basket dresser for as cheap as possible, I showed him the plans, and he pointed out the most inexpensive materials they had and sure enough, there was no way I was going to get out of there without spending $50.  He wasn't just trying to over-sell to me either, he actually ended up asking me if I was sure I still wanted to make it and ultimately told me to look around and see if I could find something pre-made before I committed to making that thing.

So that's what I did.  I drove across the parking lot, went to Target, and lo and behold there was the solution to my laundry mess.  It's about the same dimensions as the laundry basket dresser, holds the same amount of clothes, and even has a lid to serve as a little counter top.  I had $18 left on a gift card which made the original price of $60 come to about $48 after tax.

Usually saving money means making something yourself, but in this case it didn't.  "Cheating" paid off.  I have no idea how other people have made that laundry basket dresser for as cheap as $30.  Maybe they already had some supplies on hand or they were just smart enough to figure out another way to get it done.

I was a little heart broken when I found out that I was not going to be able to build the dresser for as little money as I'd originally thought.  That's how stubborn I am....heart broken over a laundry basket dresser...ridiculous.  BUT, it was soooo nice to not spend a single second putting something together.  My husband put the sorter together and it only took him about 20 minutes.

I'm writing all this, mostly as a reminder to myself, to say:  do the homework before getting stuck on a plan or idea.  I was shocked to find out that something store-bought was going to actually save me money and, maybe even more importantly, time.  Thank goodness for that Home Depot employee that convinced me to go elsewhere!

I'll have my whole laundry room posted tomorrow morning!

p.s.  I think it would make sense to build the laundry basket dresser if you need two of them, otherwise, because of the way plywood is sold and the amount you need, you end up spending money on more supplies than you need.

Happy Friday!

No "Thrifty Inspiration" post today due to sickness at my house.

When I'm back to posting on Monday I'll have my laundry room reveal and it will look like this:

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Haha, not really....not even close, but I should be finished with it.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Clean and Painted Laundry Room

Who knew such a small space would take so long to paint?!  We had a stomach bug visit my son Monday night.  It was pitiful, but I'm happy to say that we survived our first one!  Once I could get back to painting, I had to maneuver around the machines, the shelf, and the monstrosity that's hiding just to the right when you enter the laundry room. 

Here it is:

The water heater.  I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can do to cover it up because it would probably be some kind of fire hazard, but I'm gonna look into it.

So there it is, my blank canvas of a laundry room.  I think I'm going to get started on some accessories and organization and try and get the laundry basket dresser (the space that's taped off in the first picture shows where it will fit) completed this weekend.

Hope you're having a great Wednesday!

So Embarrassing....

Yall, that's what my laundry room looked like 24 hours ago.  The door wouldn't open all the way because there was so much stuff behind it.

I have completely neglected this space for soooooo long.  When I was working full time this room was definitely at the bottom of my priority list, and it just kept getting messier and messier.  Since I've been home, I've been avoiding the mess that accumulated over the months when I was working.  I'd pretty much throw clothes in and out of the machines, get out of there as quickly as possible, close the door behind me, and try to forget about what I had seen.

I faced the mess head on this weekend and got it cleaned out, but not painted.  Womp, womp.  I'm hoping to paint today and have more pictures tomorrow!

Do y'all have a space that's in need of some major cleaning/organization that you're planning on tackling soon?  Any good ideas to pass on!?

Thrifty Inspiration: Laundry Rooms

Very few people see my laundry room (mainly because I always keep the door shut to prevent the clothes from flooding our hallway) and it's tiny (slightly larger than the appliances themselves), but I've decided  to put some effort into making it a more organized and attractive space.  Plus, I have most of the supplies that I need and the ones that I don't have should be pretty inexpensive.

Here are a couple cheap laundry room projects that seriously have me believing that it's possible to create a pretty space out of the hole in the wall that is our laundry room.

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Tamsyn at Max and Me created this gallery wall for her laundry room as part of the Pinterest Challenge.  I'm a big fan of gallery walls (here and here) and something like this would look great in my laundry room.

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Diana at Our Vintage Home Love has a fantastic laundry room.  It looks amazing without fancy cabinetry or a front-loading washer/dryer.  So inspiring!  I love the shelves and the little counter top she created on the dryer.  Anyone could achieve this look without spending a fortune.

I'll probably only have time to clean our laundry room out this weekend, but I'm gonna try really hard to get it painted.  Of course I'll update on Monday!

Y'all have a good weekend!

Pinterest Challege: Complete!

Happy Wednesday!  Here's my quick little Pinterest Challenge post!

 

 

Both of the projects I've completed that were inspired by something that I pinned on Pinterest have found a home on the left side of my bed (which I'm sure some of you are so tired of seeing by now).

I kind of used to just forget about projects I wanted to complete, or at least forget where I saw them, but thanks to Pinterest I did not forget about this trunk that I saw at In the Fun Lane...

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 ...and my trunk did not remain in this state...

Read the full post on my trunk here.

I also did not forget about this sunburst mirror I saw at Centsational Girl.  

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Read the full post on my version of this sunburst mirror here.

My trunk an mirror have made a huge difference in my bedroom and both projects cost less than $20 total!  Amazing!  Thanks again, Pinterest!

Back to:

Not Quite and Up Next!

I didn't quite get the cute costume, Halloween picture I wanted yesterday.  I think I'll cheat and try to get one another day.  This is the best I could get:

Our Halloween was completely rained out, but it was kind of nice to just sit around on the couch all evening. 

In other news:  I think I've decided what I'm going to work on next.  Here's a hint:

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I'm excited!

Hope you're having a great Tuesday!

Happy Halloween!

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I hope everyone will enjoy (or enjoyed) some super fun Halloween festivities.   We weren't  planning on getting dressed up this year because my little guy is still too young to trick-or-treat and we don't have a party or anything to go to, but then I realized that I would really regret not having a picture of him in a costume.

I  mean, just look at the picture I got last year when he was 8 months old.

He literally had that costume on for about 20 minutes, but I will love that picture forever.

I will be spending a good portion of my day today combing through a very picked over selection of costumes just so I can get a good picture.

Wish me luck!

Thrifty Inspiration: Thrift Store Finds + Paint

I haven't made any trips to thrift stores recently because the last time I made the rounds I came up completely empty handed....well, I guess not completely empty handed.  I did find the nightstand that I slip-covered at the Salvation Army down the street. 

That was kind of a fluke.  Usually, when I go thrifting I spend way more time driving around than I actually do in the stores.  Driving around wastes a lot of gas, and gas wasting seriously discourages frequent thrift store trips.  I think thrift stores should be located in a mall-like space so you only have to get out of your car once.  Who's with me?

These ladies have inspired me to give my local thrift stores another go.  They've had a bit more luck than I have and created some fabulous pieces with their finds. 

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Brandi at Blue Cedar Lane has a great eye.  She bought a vase from Good Will and gave it a paint job that transformed it into a West Elm knock-off.

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 Can you believe Dana at Crafted Niche paid $7.50 for that table?  Amazing!

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Here's another thrifter with a great eye.  Jeniffer at Contemporary Harbor found this clock for $3 and painted it white.

Maybe I'll do some planning and plot out the shortest distance to a few thrift stores and hit 'em up this weekend to see what I can find!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Booooooring

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Not much is going on here.  I'm doing a lot of mundane house-keeping lately.  I've got loads of stuff that needs to be organized and sent to Good Will or sold on Craigslist...not very interesting, but necessary.

On top of that, I can't decide what to work on next.  I'm in a bit of a rut.  Hopefully my friend Pinterest will help me get out of said rut.

Y'all have a good Thursday!

p.s.  Did you see this yesterday?

I Need Birds!

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I saw this yesterday via Pinterest.  I'm in love. 

I was thinking about putting black and white pictures in the frames next to my bed, but now I really want to find some colorful prints....free ones of course.

I'm currently scouring Graphics Fairy and Botaicus.org, but I haven't come across anything that I love yet.

Any tips on where to find free prints?