Month: April 2011

Gimme a Giveaway: Jamie Mari Winner

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If I had to choose a rainy place to visit, I’d love to see Seattle, Portland or Niagara Falls.  Of course, all three would be great!  The winner of a Jamie Mari umbrella painting, number six, Maggie, would love to visit London or Seattle (she also follows us on Facebook).  Congrats, Maggie!  Enjoy your rainy day painting!

On a completely unrelated note, have you seen today’s post at Under the Sycamore?  I know we, and I’m sure many others, get caught up in our own lives, focusing on what we want.  While others all around the world can’t focus on wants, only needs.  I’ve never had to worry if I’ll be able to feed my kids, buy them clothes, send them to school or the doctor.  Sadly, so many people have these worries.  And we can do something to help, by sponsoring a child.  Ashley linked to Compassion International, but there are several other great organizations like Children International, Child Fund, World Vision to name a few.   Or, you can choose to buy items where part (or all) of the proceeds to go to a cause.  Etsy has a ton, just search ‘Japan Disaster Relief’ or another recent event.  Heck, even when you buy stamps, you can select stamps with a cause, like Adopt a Shelter Pet or Breast Cancer Awareness.  Of course, you can choose to give to any organization you are passionate about.  Which is why I’ve decided, if we win the $5000 prize, we will donate part of that money to an undecided organization.  We’d love to hear your suggestions!  Sorry to leave you with such a heavy message on a Friday, but I’ve been thinking about this all morning.

Place Your Vote! Please?

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Before I beg for your votes, I first want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes!  It still amazes me that people read this little ol’ blog and care about our story.  So, thank you so much for such kind comments, encouragement, well wishes, and praise.  We are truly thankful for each and every reader and comment you leave.

Now, we have a huge favor to ask everyone.  We have entered two rooms in The Designer in You contest and we would really appreciate your vote.  You can vote for either our office

the boys’ bedroom, or both.  *Smile*

Each person can vote once in the entire voting process, so please head on over to give us a thumbs up!  To make it easy, I’ve added two buttons to the sidebar.

Click Vote for Our Office

When you’re done voting for the office, please give the bedroom a thumbs up, too.  Our living room was recently added, so check it out while you’re there.

Votes are limited to one per person, per computer through the entire contest.  Of course, the more votes, the better, so, it would greatly help if you would be willing to pass this info along to your friends and family.  Please, with a cherry on top?! Voting ends May 13th.  After voting, the ten rooms with the most thumbs up will then be judged by a panel and the winner will receive $5000.00!  Mama needs money for a kitchen renovation, so, each thumbs up counts!  Come on, you want to see us tackle a major renovation, right?  Well, $5000 could get us started much sooner.

Thank you so much for your continued support!  Fingers crossed!

P.S.  If we make it to the top ten, we’ll have a special giveaway.  Perhaps a custom herringbone pillow?  Hmm…

Cool in the Shade

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Have you found a great lamp base with an ugly shade at a thrift store?  I did, for ten bucks.  The base is great, but the shade has seen better days.

One support was broken, leaving the shade lopsided.  The bright teal, stained pleated fabric shade wasn’t doing it for me either.

So, I took the shade, er, matters into my own hands.  We had a small scrap of canvas left over from sewing a drop cloth curtain for our laundry room.  It was perfect.  Neutral and free!  I set to work on transforming the lampshade.  While my iron was heating up, I ripped all the teal fabric off.

I measured the circumference and height of my shade and cut a piece of canvas slighty larger, keeping one finished edge of the dropcloth.  Using iron on tape, I hemmed the edges to fit.

I clipped the extra fabric from the corners to cut bulk.

Now I was ready to start on the shade.  To cover the shade, first I taped my unfinished edge in place.

Wrap the fabric around the shade, smoothing out along the way.  Tape the finished end in place and in a few other places, just to prevent movement.  Hot glue the unfinished edge to the shade. 

Run a thin bead of hot glue between the edge of the lampshade and the fabric.  Press down to secure.

When you reach the finished edge, hot glue in place.  I was almost finished with my shade.  I still had to fix the broken support.  I dug a bamboo skewer out of the drawer and cut it to fit in the shade.  Then, I added a dollop of hot glue to the shade to secure the skewer.  Worked like a charm!

I popped the shade on the base and it looked like a million bucks.  And we finally have a lamp for the basement bedroom.

Of course, there are tons of options to update a lampshade, like dye, ribbon or coffee filters, to name a few.  Have you updated an old shade?  Maybe you’ve transformed a thrift store lamp or two?  We’d love to see your ideas, so share a link, too.

P.S.  I turn a quarter of a century old today, maybe I’ll have some b-day goodies to share with you…

Quick Coat Closet Update

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When winter set in, I was itching to organize our entry and small coat closet.  Sadly, I didn’t get very far.  We bought a storage ottoman, which is great for seating and tucking away seldom used items, but fizzled out after that.

So, last weekend while wandering the aisles of Hobby Lobby, I stopped in the hook and drawer pull section.  I found white double hooks for $2.99 each.  Usually, I only buy items on sale, which these weren’t, but I decided to buy two.  I know, I could have bought about 4 more at Home Depot for the same price, but I wanted to get the ball rolling.   After finding hooks, I headed toward the paper, but saw organizers along the way.  I looked at the assorted baskets and didn’t see anything I needed.  But, on the other side of the display were plastic hanging baskets for $1.49 each, so I took two home.

When I returned, I started working right away.

I decided to remove the large mirror on the back of the door to make room for the two new hooks.  Then, I simply screwed the hooks in.  One of our entry problems is a lack of kid accessible storage.  So, I placed the hooks low enough for Vincent (and Everett in a few years) to reach.

The height (and width) is perfect for small kids jackets.  Now, Vincent has a place to hang his jacket, not throw it on the floor.  Score!  One less thing to trip over or have to pick up.  See those blue baskets peeking around the corner?  Here’s a better look.

(No, in the three years since building the closet shelving, we still haven’t installed baseboard – or painted where they were.  Don’t judge me.)

Those are the hanging baskets I picked up, sized perfectly for little shoes (or flip-flops).  When I brought them home, I made another discovery about these handy guys.  Loops on the backs, so the baskets can hang in a string.  Which means, only one nail in the wall!  Now, the little shoes don’t get pushed to the back of the shoe racks, and again, Vincent has a designated place to find, and put away, his shoes.

Now, this dreary day seems like the perfect time to sort through the closet to find items to purge for Jen’s 30 in 30 challenge.  Wish me luck.

Do you have any coat closet organization tips for me?  Kid friendly tips?  Where do you store out-of-season gear?  Please share your secrets.

P.S.  We would appreciate your vote in the Designer in You challenge.  Head on over to give your opinion!

Musical Chairs

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A little over a week ago, I shared that my baby turned one.  But, I didn’t tell you that my parents visited from Minnesota to celebrate.  They arrived on the 24th and stayed until this Saturday.  My dad has had a rocking chair since I was a baby.  He’s addicted to it.  So, he bought one for our house so he had one while visiting.  Well, I think it’s ugly, so when they’re not here, it stays in the large basement bedroom.

Yep, it’s buried under the sleeping blanket we use for our backyard picnics.  Well, we were a little slow to bring it up this visit.  I swear my dad became physically sick because he didn’t have his rocker.  Then, we realized what the problem was, hauled the chair up from the basement and he was completely fine from that point on.  So, for the past week, we’ve lived with our living room disassembled a bit.

The Dolce chair moved to the guest bedroom, the matching club chair took its place and the rocker took the club chair’s place.  Musical chairs, I tell ya.  You might have noticed something is missing, too.  If you haven’t, maybe this picture will help.

Yep, the child’s desk we’ve used for the past four years is gone.  My sister just bought a house, so she asked if we would send our small desk back for her.  Fortunately, that desk was a temporary solution from day one, so we loaded it up and said good riddance to it.  Even though I hated that desk with a passion, I’m sort of missing it.  Without the desk, I have no designated place to surf the web, which is fine because of the laptop, but the cords bug me.  Anywhere I sit, the cord follows.

And yes, our house is messy without my maid mom here.  Just kidding, mom.  Our house usually has this kind of mess.  Check out our living room.

On a really good day, (or really bad, depending if you prefer the mess) our house looks like this.

We always have my family haul things out from IKEA, like a Ribba frame for my new print from Little Brown Pen.

Occasionally, they return home with some goodies, too.  Other than the desk, we sent my parents home with a floor lamp that we were no longer using, a bag of books, and another bag of clothes.

Speaking of giving things away, I’m taking Jen’s 30 in 30 challenge to purge our home of thirty items in thirty days.  Technically, those four items we pawned off in April, so they count, right?  Or is that wishful thinking?  Maybe we’ll count them if we’re short at the end of the challenge…

Now you’ve seen our house strewn with toys and cords and in disarray with chair swapping.  Are feeling the itch to get some spring cleaning done?  Care to join me and Jen to shed our homes of 30 items?  Have you received furniture from a friend or family member recently?  Maybe you’re addicted to a rocking chair just like my dad?