The Perfectly Imperfect Life

Hardwood Here We Come!

2011-02-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

I told you all about our recent experience with water damage and how we ended up doing most of the repair work ourselves because we were afraid insurance wouldn’t be covering it. What I’ve neglected to mention is that, while our insurance didn’t cover the roof repair because it was a defect in the roof, they did cover the water damage restoration – they even paid US for the work we did repairing

I Know What Kids Want

2011-02-18T09:17:00.001-08:00

A few days ago, my friend Becca over at Home Is Where My Story Begins told me about an amusing conversation she had had with her 6 year old daughter. It seems her daughter wanted to know why they didn’t have a play room like at Diane’s house. Becca explained that, in order to have a play room, my daughters share a bedroom and that they would have to do the same at their house: her daughter

Mudding and Taping Drywall

2011-02-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to the next installment of our drywall repair project! At this point, we’d added insulation and hung the drywall pieces. The next step was mudding and taping the joints and finishing the corners. The corners were an unknown quantity for us since they’re rounded. Our entire house has round corners, which I dislike (I understand I may be the only one). My dislike was especially

How to Repair Drywall (and take as long as possible to do it)

2011-02-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

When we last left, my husband and I were preparing ourselves for an epic drywall repair project…one week before Christmas. Since the restoration guys cut out part of the outside wall and ceiling, the first order of business was to add some insulation. Insulation is nasty stuff to work with. It’s made from tiny, tiny pieces of fiber glass which will get on your skin and make you itchy and can

Rain, Rain Go Away!

2011-02-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Every December, we go out to a fancy dinner with our long time friends and then stay the night in a hotel. We’ve been doing this for years as a Christmas gift to all of us. It’s always great fun and it’s nice to have a night away. This year (or I guess I should now say: last year) we had a lovely time and returned home the next day (Sunday) to this: That’s paint! Melting down the wall!

Refinishing the Dining Table – Part 2

2011-02-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

In my last post, I had suddenly decided that my dining table needed to be sanded down and re-stained RIGHT NOW (which seems to be how most of my projects come about). The sanding went so well and I was so pleased with the results. It was now time to pick the stain! In case you missed it, here’s what the table looked like before: I knew I wanted a much darker stain that would match my

Refinishing the Dining Table – Part 1

2011-02-05T08:14:00.001-08:00

She’s baaaaack. Maybe. :-) I’ve been avoiding my blog lately because I just couldn’t decide what I wanted it to be or how much effort I wanted to put into it, so I had basically decided that I wasn’t going to blog anymore. I’d even stopped READING other blogs, if you can believe that. I couldn’t quite bring myself to just pull it down, though. Then, yesterday, someone commented on one of my

Coffee Cozy from Goodwill Sweater

2010-12-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I was sitting at home, feeling sorry for myself (thankfully, I can’t even remember why now). I was surfing the Web, trying to find something that would make me smile when I came across a new blog: A Little Junk in My Trunk. This blog is awesome for so many reasons, but what really got me jumping up and running out the door to Goodwill on that day was this coffee cozy made from

Kitchen Feature

2010-12-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

My kitchen was featured yesterday at Envy My Cooking! You can check it out here. Check out the rest of the site too! There’s are tons of great recipes and many more kitchens featured.

Christmas Art

2010-12-10T12:07:00.001-08:00

Have you all seen the great Christmas art that people are posting all over blogland for FREE? Perhaps you have (I’m really behind in my blog reading, so everything seems new and different to me!), but just in case you haven’t, I thought I’d share a few with you. eighteen25 has a very cute Christmas subway art download that I just had to print out immediately! (eighteen25) It’s actually

Old School Tissue Paper Craft

2010-12-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

My girls have been REALLY into art projects lately. Seems that’s all they ever do. They don’t play with their toys much anymore, but reading or art projects keep them happy for hours. We were at Michael’s the other day and I wanted to buy them some supplies that would be new and exciting. We walked by a huge pack of tissue paper and I remembered a craft that I had done many times as a child.

Possession – Part 2

2010-12-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I shared with you how my kids had suddenly become possessed by little beings that loved to purge and clean. This was a little bit scary for me – I mean, what if they became dangerous? – but I made the best of it and got a clean play room for my troubles. I decided to press my luck and suggest making some changes to their bedroom. These new little creatures whole-heartedly

My Kids Were Possessed – So I Made the Best of It!

2010-12-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago my girls and I all had the day off. Thing 2 had recently been making noises about wanting to purge her toys. This scared me a bit, so whenever she said something like that, I would slowly back away so as not to let whatever was possessing her know I was on to it. Anyway, on this particular Friday, I decided to make the most of Thing 2’s sickness and I suggested we clean out the

Completed Picture Shelves

2010-12-03T09:52:00.001-08:00

You may remember that I showed you how I made some really quick and inexpensive picture shelves for my family room. Here’s what they looked like before: The frames were too orange-y for me, though, and I knew I wanted to paint them white. Several weeks passed as I got busy doing other things, but those frames were driving me nuts every time I walked past them. Finally, I buckled down

Cover That Pillow!

2010-10-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

You may remember that I bought some beautiful fabrics from Calico Corners this summer for curtains and throw pillows for my couch and that picking out that fabric was a little stressful for me. But I finally got them done and they were beautiful and I was happy. So imagine my displeasure when suddenly it wasn’t summer anymore and my nice bright pillows just didn’t fit with my Halloween

There’s a Mouse in the House!

2010-10-29T08:45:00.001-07:00

It’s pretty late to be posting Halloween decorations, but I’ve been meaning to post this for a while and Thing 2 really wanted me to share it, since we worked on it together. So… A while back, I was perusing the blogs and came across the cutest Halloween project for the stairs at Thrifty Decor Chick. She had little mice running up and down her stairs! How cute is this? (Source: Thrifty

Quick and Inexpensive Picture Shelves

2010-10-11T17:54:00.001-07:00

Waaay back in February or March, when I finally got my act together and painted the woodwork in our family room, I also arranged a picture wall behind our couch. I never really liked it (though I could never pinpoint why) and so I never actually finished putting pictures in the frames. If you look closely in this picture, you’ll see that many of the pictures have the same photograph of a lovely

I’m Still Here – SortOf

2010-10-08T12:00:00.001-07:00

Possibly you’ve noticed that I’ve been MIA for the last three weeks and really not much present for the few months before that. I’ve been really struggling for a while with trying to decide what I want my blog to be and I can’t come to any decisions, so I’ve been avoiding it. I’m not much of a writer. I’ve never liked journaling and I’m not sure that I have anything new to say that hasn’t been

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – Post-High School

2010-09-20T20:22:00.001-07:00

For the last 15 weeks, I’ve been participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I wrote stories about my childhood each week, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. This is the last installment. I made it (late, of course)! ************************** I got my first job

Favorite Summer Memory - Linky Party

2010-09-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

One of the things I look forward to the most in summer is tomatoes and basil. To me, those two tastes together are the epitome of summer. If you add a little mozzarella and vinegar, then you’re really cooking! For the past two summers, I’ve had even more to look forward to because I found the most amazing recipe in my Healthy Cooking magazine: Cheese Tortellini with Tomatoes and Corn! I tried

Chores Board

2010-09-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

There’ve been a ton of home-made chalkboards around the blogosphere. Seems everyone’s doing it, so I thought I’d add my own project to the mix. (I think it may be the only other project, besides my stairs, that I’ve done this summer!) I actually started this project around Father’s Day when we made the photographer’s chalkboard thought bubble for my husband. While we were cutting that out

Blog Makeover

2010-09-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Some of you have noticed that the blog has a new look! Pepper at UniqueHorn Designs created a new header and logo for me and I’m thrilled! I even have a button! I’m very excited because I’ve been wanting a new look

Stairway – They’re Done! They’re Done!

2010-09-12T17:24:00.001-07:00

We had our annual End-of-Summer BBQ on Saturday and I had promised myself that the stairs would be done for the party. I had to put in a few late nights, but I kept my promise! (Well, actually, I’m about 90% done. There’s still a bit of finish work to do, but I’m celebrating being done for now.) Just as a reminder, here’s how they looked a month ago: These pictures really don’t show how

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 12 Grade

2010-09-11T08:57:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** Senior Year! Yay! We made it! Senior year was the year I cut all my hair off and became

Stairway Progress (or Will This EVER Be Done?!)

2010-09-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

We’ve added several more hours of labor to the stairs this weekend and they’re really starting to come together. I’m starting to get excited, but there are so many little niggling things to finish, I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever actually be done. On Saturday, the stairs looked like this: Clearly on the right track, but lots and lots of filled nail holes to sand down and then paint and

Stairway Progress - Paneling the Landing

2010-09-06T09:04:00.001-07:00

Earlier last week, my kids had their friends over for a few days and were well entertained without me, so I took the opportunity to start working on the landing. I don’t know if I ever detailed my plan for the landing (which was plain, yicky composite board of some kind) and I’m too lazy to look that up right now, so I’ll just recap: I took a page from Thrifty Decor Chick’s book and decided to

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 11th Grade

2010-09-03T21:05:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** It’s really difficult to remember what happened which year, high school sort of seems

Where Do You Blog?

2010-08-31T08:57:00.001-07:00

Centsational Girl is having a “Where Do You Blog?” Linky party. When I first saw this party, I knew there was no way I would be sharing MY blogging location. Our office is an awful mess and it’s only redeeming value is that it has a door to it that I can close if I can’t stand to see it anymore. As I looked at all the pictures of all the beautiful blogging spaces, though, I knew I had to post

Stairway Progress

2010-08-28T09:06:00.001-07:00

I know you’re all just dying to see what progress we’ve made on our staircase. I apologize for taking so long to get anything up here. We went on vacation the week before last, so no work got done at all. We got back last Monday and took Tuesday off to recover from vacation, so we were able to put in a bunch of work then. Which is good, since nothing more happened this week! Last time I

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 10th Grade

2010-08-28T08:39:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** In 10th grade I got my driver’s license and my first boyfriend! I took the driver’s test

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 9th Grade

2010-08-19T17:57:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** Ninth grade, for me, meant not only the start of High School, but the start of High School

5 Ways to Channel Your Inner Martha Stewart – Guest Post

2010-08-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite bloggers is Booyah’s Mommy over at The Adventures of Chip and Bobo. Her posts always feel like they could have been written about my life and they never fail to make me laugh. I first met her when she tried to hook up my cat Harry with her sweet (yet slightly neglected) kitty, Booyah. I’d love for you to meet her too, so I asked her to do a guest post for me. Happily, she

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 8th Grade

2010-08-15T09:50:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** I am so late with my 8th grade post! In my defense, I’ve been crazy busy this week and

Stairway Progress

2010-08-11T14:23:00.001-07:00

I’ve been spending much of my free time prepping the stair risers and painting the new treads. I believe a lot of work has been done, but you wouldn’t know it looking at our staircase. (You can see what it started at as here.) This is still what it looks like: (Though you may notice that one of these treads is not like the others. That’s actually one of the new treads. More on that later.

It Has Begun – Stairway Teardown

2010-08-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Actually, I think I should have named this post: “My Husband is a Saint”. I’ll explain why later. As I mentioned in my guest post over at Sawdust and Paper Scraps, I’ve been wanting to tear up the carpet in our staircase and paint our stairs for months now. The carpet was in terrible shape and one of our cats has been having “accidents” on it for years. (Though, somehow, I don’t think there

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 7th Grade

2010-08-06T22:02:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** Seventh grade: the beginning of Middle School. What a big year! I went to a very small

Guest Posting

2010-08-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

I’m guest posting over at Sawdust and Paper Scraps today! If you’ve not been there, you should check it out. Sandra always has the most amazing building projects going on and she does it all with her own two hands! Hope y’all are having a great summer!

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 6th Grade

2010-07-30T07:12:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** Whenever I think about 6th grade, I remember three things: 1) My teacher’s name was

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 5th Grade

2010-07-22T18:25:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** Like many kids, even now, 5th grade meant I was finally old enough to join band! I don’t

Do You Coupon?

2010-07-21T21:15:00.001-07:00

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the amount of money we spend each month on groceries and have been feeling slightly mortified. Let’s just say, I’m not at the $50 per person, per month level that the Grocery Shrink is at. Heck, I’d be ecstatic if I were only at twice that! I used to try to use the grocery store inserts to determine what I’d buy for the week and I kept a price list so

I Won! I Won!

2010-07-21T10:03:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to quickly drop in to let you all know that I won the blog re-design over at Uniquehorn Designs! I’m so excited. I think this is the first time I’ve ever won anything! Pepper’s got a waiting list, so I’ll have to wait a bit, but I’ve already been given a homework assignment to start honing in on what I want my site to look like, so I’ll have to get to work on that! Thanks to you

Our Arbors

2010-07-20T10:18:00.001-07:00

Two years ago, I was regularly searching Craigslist for a big wood swing set for our backyard (well, for our kids really, but it would go in our backyard), but I could never find anything that I liked for what I felt was a reasonable price. Around the same time, we had someone come in and help us draw up a planting plan for our backyard. In the plan, she suggested we build two arbors: one for

How I Spent My Saturday – 7/17/2010

2010-07-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hi all! Hope you had a fantastic weekend! We were very busy campers here. Saturday morning, we were greeted by this site in our driveway: 7 yards of Compost Grove mulch mix! Since the delivery man was so nice as to dump it right-smack-dab in the middle of our driveway, we had to get this pile moved pretty quickly, so we got to work doing this: and this: Until finally it was all

Vote for Me!

2010-07-19T10:47:00.001-07:00

As you’ve probably noticed by now, I’ve been participating in a weekly writing project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales. Each week I, and a bunch of other women, have been writing about a year of our childhood. It’s been a really fun project and I can’t wait to have all my stories finished! I’m hoping to make them into some sort of book for my kids. This week, Janna has a really great giveaway for

Pillow Talk

2010-07-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

I finally got my act together and made me some pillows and I am lovin’ them! Now I’m bummed it took me so long. You may remember that I was so excited to have finally found some inspiration for my family room, but then I freaked out and started questioning my choices. I actually did end up cancelling the order for the ottoman fabric and decided to go with a wood coffee table (which I got

Farewell Old Friend

2010-07-16T20:12:00.001-07:00

This is the sight that greeted me when I walked in the door tonight. Our poor, faithful vacuum cleaner has finally succumbed to whatever was ailing it and has gone kaput. (Notice how it didn’t even have the decency to wait to die until AFTER the carpet was clean?) Actually, that makes it sound like I had some sort of relationship with this thing. In reality, I’ve probably used it fewer

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 4th Grade

2010-07-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** My fourth grade teacher was Mr. Lamp. He was my first (and only) male teacher in

Missing In Action

2010-07-14T20:06:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know, in case you were wondering, that I’m still here. I am just in an anti-computer phase right now. I have tons of stuff waiting for my attention at home and I spend my work day looking at computers, so I’m avoiding my personal computer like the plague. I’m barely checking my email and Facebook right out! I’m finally getting caught up at home, though, and I have

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 3rd Grade

2010-07-08T22:12:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** Third grade must have been a fairly uneventful time for me because I remember very little

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 2nd Grade

2010-07-05T20:40:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** I remember very little about actual 2nd grade. My teacher’s name was Mrs. Green, we

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – 1st Grade

2010-06-23T21:24:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** I had the best teacher for 1st grade. Her name was Mrs. Lucas and she had bright red hair

Chalkboard Thought Bubble

2010-06-21T09:11:00.001-07:00

Now that Father’s Day is over, I can show you the great project the girls and I made for their dad. He has been seriously into photography lately, which is very nice because it makes it easier to find presents for him. A few weeks before Father’s Day, I caught him checking out a very cool site called PhotoJojo. They have a bunch of fun accessories for the photographer. We did end up

Mommy’s Piggy Tales – The Preschool Years

2010-06-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** Some people (like my husband) have incredibly clear memories of their early years and can

Fabric Freaks Me Out

2010-06-16T18:18:00.001-07:00

I’m freakin’ out just a little bit because I finally had time to order the fabric for my family room! I’m so excited that it will be here soon and I can finally make the room look a bit more…friendly. But I can’t figure out why I picked the fabrics I picked. Lately the rooms I love feature seaglass colors: blues and greens like Kate at Centsational Girl posted about today. I just love the

Sprucing up the Garage - Painting the Door

2010-06-15T06:51:00.001-07:00

As I posted yesterday, I spent Saturday morning cleaning out my garage and Sunday painting my garage door. I thought I’d post today about how I did it. This was actually one of the easiest projects I’ve ever undertaken (once the incredibly heavy door was taken down), so if you’ve ever really wanted to paint a door, but were too nervous to do it, read on: First, we had to get down the door.

How to Spend a Saturday – Cleaning the Garage

2010-06-14T08:53:00.001-07:00

You may remember that I woke up Saturday morning very early (for me), raring to get going on cleaning out our garage. Well, I actually DID go downstairs and start working on the garage. Here’s what I saw Saturday morning: Man, that is really embarrassing. You can see that we were able to still fit a car in…barely. The problem started last year when we cleaned out the garage. We

What? What’s That You Say?

2010-06-12T06:57:00.001-07:00

Five minutes ago, I was lying in bed – just surfacing from sleep. I had no idea what time it was, but I was feeling bummed that I’d have to get up any minute to go to work when I suddenly realized that it’s SATURDAY and it’s SUNNY and I bounded out of bed, even though it’s only 6:30 and I don’t even get up that early on a week day. Isn’t it funny how that works? I’m actually very tired,

Happy Mother’s Day – My Birth Story

2010-06-10T08:06:00.001-07:00

I’m participating in a project called Mommy’s Piggy Tales where I’ll be writing stories about my childhood once a week for 15 weeks, starting with birth and ending with graduation in the hopes that my children, and possibly my children’s children, will one day appreciate it. ************************** My mom’s first Mother’s Day was a doozy! It was the day I was born. My parents

Setting the Bar High

2010-06-09T14:21:00.001-07:00

I’ve been away from the computer for the last two weeks; getting ready for camping and hanging with visiting family. My family is still here, but I just wanted to pop in to say THANK YOU to all of you who’ve left such sweet comments about our coffee table planter. The response to this particular project has just floored me! It’s been featured on several different blogs, including The Shabby

Coffee Table Turned Flower Pot

2010-05-31T11:37:00.001-07:00

We finally finished converting the free coffee table I got off of Craigslist into a flower pot and I LOVE how it turned out! I got the table a week ago thinking I would use it in my family room, but when I got it home, it turned out to be entirely too small. I was trying to think of alternate uses for it when my husband suggested we plant flowers in it. I agreed immediately and began

Cleaning Grand Plan – Misc. Recap

2010-05-30T21:54:00.001-07:00

What a busy week! I felt like I was hardly home and when I was home, I wanted to spend time working on my free Craigslist find and NOT on silly organizing. I did make it through most of my list, though. Here’s my status: Clean Goodwill pile off the dining room table and take it to Goodwill! [x] Put old toy shelf on Craigslist Put away decor items sitting on coffee table in

Inspiration!…Finally!

2010-05-28T22:33:00.001-07:00

I am so excited that I’m practically bouncing in my seat! I finally (finally!) have some inspiration for how I want to finish my family room. I talked about it a bit when I showed you my TV-cubby-turned-bookshelf, but that’s the last thing we did with it and it’s been sitting there – a hodge-podge of furniture and colors - for months. And it’s been driving me crazy! The problem was, I had no

Versatile Blogger Award

2010-05-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

I just received my first blogger award from Mandy at http://mintnclandycreate.blogspot.com/. Thank you, Mandy!Mandy’s blog is dedicated to “craft, creation & fun!” and she has some really cute ideas. I especially love her butterfly mobile. Plus, she has blog posts dating back to 2005. (Do I sense a tech-y somewhere in the household?) You should check her out!So, the rules for receiving this

Have You Had THE TALK?

2010-05-26T21:13:00.001-07:00

So, it turns out that I’m also a Girl Scout leader. Who knew?! I just got back from watching the girls bridge from Brownies to Juniors and I was thinking about something that happened last weekend, so I thought I’d share… I’ve led this troop since she they were in kindergarten. They are now 9 year old Brownies who sold a TON of cookies this year. One of the activities they planned to spend

Free Pots Makeover

2010-05-25T19:29:00.001-07:00

I mentioned the other day that I got some pots from our neighborhood garage sale. They’re plastic, but they’re large and they were FREE! I’ve been thinking I need to put some pots on the front porch, so when I saw these, I grabbed as many as I could carry! Yesterday, I decided to start their makeover. I gave them a good cleaning and set them out on a tarp to receive their special

Cleaning Grand Plan – Dining Room/Misc

2010-05-24T22:56:00.001-07:00

I had planned on writing this post much earlier today, but was side-tracked by my keys going missing. Normally this wouldn’t cause much upheaval, but they went missing at the same time that my neighbor came over to tell me about break-ins in our neighborhood, so when we couldn’t find them after several searches, we started worrying that they’d been stolen! Luckily, after several more searches of

Cleaning Grand Plan – Kitchen Recap

2010-05-23T20:30:00.001-07:00

Today was the last day of my first week of the Cleaning Grand Plan. Last week, I chose to work on my kitchen. I came up with a fairly aggressive list for the time I had and I didn’t quiiiite finish everything, but I was able to address several things that would have otherwise been left undone, so I feel pretty good! Here’s where I ended up: Wipe down all cabinets [x] Wipe down chairs and

Pantry Re-Org

2010-05-23T10:43:00.001-07:00

As you may know, earlier this week, I made a commitment to concentrate on deep cleaning one area of my home for the next 13 weeks. *gulp*This week, I’m working on my kitchen. One of the major tasks on the list was cleaning out the pantry. It’s generally fairly well-organized, but in the last few months, it’s gotten completely out-of-hand. I must have been buying too many groceries or something

Art Wall Tips

2010-05-21T17:24:00.001-07:00

Thank you all for the kind words you left about my kids’ play room! They were so wonderful to read! As I mentioned in that post, I stepped outside of the box (for me) and decided to behave like a grown up and actually do some preparation when hanging the frames for my kids’ art wall. This is a big deal for me. “Preparation” is a dirty word in my book. “That’s not my bag, baby.” And that’

Play Room and Day Bed Reveal

2010-05-20T18:53:00.001-07:00

They’re done! The day bed and the play room are (mostly) done! I actually used the comforter from my bed and the pillows from my girls’ beds, so the bedrooms look a bit of a mess, but hey, maybe I’ll decide to keep it this way and get a new comforter for MY room!Let me give you a tour. You’ve seen the day bed, but here it is again. Doesn’t it look nice?Mr. Harry sure thinks so… I also grabbed

Kitchen Cleaning Progress

2010-05-19T20:01:00.001-07:00

When I left you last, I had made a rather hopeful list of all the kitchen cleaning tasks I planned to get done this week. It’s been a few days, so I thought I’d check in with my progress.Here’s my updated list:Wipe down all cabinets [x] Wipe down chairs and barstools [x] Wipe down baseboards [x] Clean windows [x] Clean out fridge Clean stainless steel appliances [x] Organize pantry [x]

The Cleaning Grand Plan: Kitchen

2010-05-18T06:59:00.001-07:00

A few posts ago, I mentioned one of my favorite Web sites: The Organized Home. One of my favorite things about it is “The Cleaning Grand Plan” (or at least, I love the idea of it: I’ve never actually completed one).I haven’t thought about it in at least a year, but as I was tornado-ing through the house today - cleaning up the mess that appeared during camping-prep - I started thinking again

How to Spend a Saturday

2010-05-17T15:41:00.001-07:00

We had an absolutely beautiful weekend here in the Pacific Northwest and I did NOT spend it working on my house or my yard. Instead, we went camping and had a wonderful time! A few months ago, my oldest friend (well, she’s not that old – she’s younger than me, in fact – but she’s the one I’ve known the longest) sent out an email looking for people to go camping at a KOA up north. It was my

Here Comes Spring!

2010-05-13T06:28:00.001-07:00

OK, I know Spring technically arrived a while ago, but here in the Northwest, it’s been pretty grey. I can’t complain too much since we had such a mild winter and an absolutely beautiful February, but I’ve really not wanted to get outside lately. A few weeks ago, on the way home from preschool, the little girls (one mine, one a friends) and I decided to take a field trip to Flower World!

My Goodwill Finds

2010-05-12T06:32:00.001-07:00

I wasn’t going to post about this project because I’m not entirely pleased with it, but I figured that’s no reason not to share.Over the past few months, I’ve seen several bloggers who’ve made a cute little cloche out of a cheese dome and candlestick. My favorite is at House of Hepworths – I love it! I’ve been wanting to make one myself for forever, but I’ve not seen a cheese dome at Goodwill

You’ve Made Your Bed – Now Lie in It!

2010-05-10T20:18:00.001-07:00

Just thought I’d give an update on our progress with the day bed that my girls and I have been working on. It’s taken a while to get this far because I’ve tried to wait for when they’re available so that they can paint too. Today, I just said, “To heck with it!” and finished the painting. Of course, I’m not actually totally done. I still think the trim could use one more coat, but I was

Menu Planning Woes

2010-04-29T17:51:00.001-07:00

A few years ago, I found Organized Home. It’s an awesome site devoted to helping you organize all aspects of your home. One of the suggestions I put into place was weekly (or monthly) menu planning. I’m sure many of you know how nice it is to know exactly what is on the menu for the evening and to know that you actually have the ingredients to make it! No last minute grocery stops (well,

Girls' Project - The Making of a Daybed

2010-04-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

My sister and her baby are coming for a visit next month and it's been weighing on my mind that we don't actually have anywhere for her to sleep. I've been considering all the options (from our inflatable bed to displacing Thing 1 and Thing 2 for a week) and I haven't liked any of them. One thing I have been liking, however, is this PB knock-off daybed from Knock-off Wood. That little beauty

How to Spend a Saturday - 4/17/2010

2010-04-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

This will be the second time I've written about how I spent my Saturday. My husband reminds me regularly that two events do not a trend make, but what does he know? I'm thinking How to Spend a Saturday should become a regular event (mostly because it guarantees I'll have at least one post a week). And how else do you celebrate the start of something new? Fireworks of course! OK. Well,

Traditions...Traditions!

2010-04-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

My friend Becca is hosting her first linky party over at Home Is Where My Story Begins. The theme is "Home and Family". I've been wracking my brain about what to write since I've had no time for projects this week, but then it hit me: Family Traditions. I'm sure we all have a ton of traditions surrounding Christmas, but that's another blog post. I'm hoping you'll join me today in talking about

Frozen with Indecision

2010-04-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember my redone kitchen. It's about 95% done, but I've been waiting to find a good deal on a pedestal table on Craigslist because I don't think the square table quite works in my eating area. Well, yesterday, I found that great deal. We went and looked and brought home a new (to us) clawfoot pedestal table with leaf. Unfortunately, when we got it in place, it was too small

How to Spend a Sunny Saturday

2010-04-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

I finally got the organizing/Spring cleaning bug yesterday. I’ve been waiting and waiting and it just came on suddenly Friday morning. Of course, I had to work on Friday, so Saturday morning I asked my husband which room he thought was in the most need of a thorough cleaning. After some discussion, he and I both reluctantly agreed that it should be the office. We were reluctant because it looks

The Best Laid Plans

2010-04-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes things just don’t go according to plan… When my oldest daughter (we’ll call her Thing 1) was very small, I had my mother-in-law teach me to knit. I picked it up pretty quickly and eventually decided to knit my little girl a blanket. I chose a very nice cabled pattern and a pretty rose-colored yarn. Unfortunately, I’d never done a cable knit before and I soon found out that I don’t

Hole in the Wall - No More!

2010-04-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I caved and allowed my husband to talk me into getting a monstrous TV. I think it's like 1024 inches. Or something like that. It's large. While I do enjoy watching TV on it, it does leave something to be desired on the decorating front. It also left a big empty cabinet in our family room built-ins. Do you see the empty square on the left just above the chair? That's where

My Blue Heaven - Kitchen Part Tres

2010-04-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

So, now you've seen the before and during of my kitchen redesign. Now let's finish it up! The hardest parts were done: the cabinets and walls had been painted and the new countertop was in. Now all we needed was to tile the backsplash and get some decorations up. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures during tiling, but I do have tons of afters, so let's just move right along. Here's my

Demolition Man - Kitchen Part Deux

2010-03-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I showed you my kitchen as it was and the inspiration photo from Layla at The Lettered Cottage. Now, I can show you what we did. As soon as school started in September, I got to work! I had done a minimal amount of research (which is generally my way: learn just enough to make me think I can do it and get myself into trouble) and had bought my paint and paint brushes. Let me

The BEST Wood Product EVER!

2010-03-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

I just made the most amazing transformation on my grand piano and I had to share the product that caused it: Howard Restor-A-Finish. This was recommended to me a few years ago by my piano tuner. I have a grand piano that I inherited from my Great Aunt. I love this piano, but the cats are very hard on it (it seems to be a trend). They don't scratch the piano on purpose, they just seem to be

Our Little Green Friends

2010-03-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

As I sit at my computer, I can hear a chorus of Springtime music and I think it's wonderful. It's frogs. Lots and lots of little frogs. We have a reservoir behind our house and I imagine they all congregate there at night to do a little courting. Like the frog equivalent of Spring Break. We find lone frogs hanging around our yard fairly regularly this time of year. This is NOT what they

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine - Kitchen Part One

2010-03-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had big plans for our kitchen. We've lived in this house for 7 years now and, while I thought our kitchen was to die for when we moved in, I quickly got over that feeling. Our house was practically brand new, though, and I felt like it was wasteful to do anything to it until it had been properly amortized. I figured it had to be 10 years old before I could

Jonesing for a Project

2010-03-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

It was bad. I was jittery and jumpy. It was August and I needed a project! I knew it couldn't be a big project because we were crazy busy that summer, but it had to be a meaty project. I had recently stumbled across this tutorial on a faux board and batten treatment at It's the Little Things that Make a House a Home and I loved it. I really wanted to do it in one of the main floor rooms, but

Oh, the pressure!

2010-03-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

I'm giving in to peer pressure. Specifically, Becca-pressure. Some of you may know the kind of pressure I'm speaking of. You may have your own Becca. Becca is my friend and co-decorating-conspirator. Becca is always up for a new project. Becca does not take no for an answer. And when she gets an idea in her head, watch out! You may not want to do her idea. You may fight it, kicking