bythebrookdesigns

Adoption update

2012-11-05T12:39:00.000-08:00

We have been in the process of adoption for over a year now. Probably closer to 15 months. We are attempting to adopt through our state's foster care system. We have targeted a girl of any ethnicity from age 8-12, for 15 months. No question, no hesitation. Then our hearts broke. We weren't intending to have our hearts broken, in fact we were pretty adamant that we would be the one couple to get through this without too much emotion.

John and I decided to go to an adoption play event. Perspective parents paired with children available for adoption for 2 hours. The only rule was if you walk through the door and see the kids you stay for 2 hours no matter what. I loved that rule. I was really concerned about kids feeling rejected. We walked through the door and my heart went immediately towards two little black boys around age 5, but then I remembered our mission- we we're here to find our girl. Turns out she wasn't there. So we decided to play with the two boys. They were cute and wanted to be pushed on the swings for hours! No problem that was our specialty. Both our children liked to be pushed on the swing so much my husband rigged a pulley system. That's how we put them to bed most nights. Hank especially liked swinging and kept begging for my husband to push him higher. He was doing really well but then adjusted in the seat a little too much and was suddenly hanging upside down! My husband quickly grabbed him and then held him while he cried for a few minutes, so guess what? It's a boy! No one is more surprised then us.

This was two weeks ago. We called dibs and unbelievably have not had a phone call returned saying whether we would even qualify to parent him. Really! Two weeks of waiting. We have already been told to not expect him with us for Christmas. How about next Christmas? I know case managers are overworked but come on people!

So the waiting continues. I can't post a picture because we weren't allowed to take any, but just know he is the cutest little boy ever!

I also opened a craft booth at an antique mall. Lots of tutorials and pics next week.

Lisa

Thrift store tuesday

2012-10-18T09:13:00.002-07:00

Every Tuesday I like to head to my local salvation army thrift store. Around these parts, it's the best. Our goodwill stinks. It's basically a dumping ground for target castoffs. Which sounds good, but they charge more then target does for it's final clearance. Plus all of their other stuff is very over priced. Everyonce in a while I return, hoping it's improved, but nope. So off to salvation army I go. Todays haul was:

5 wool sweaters (cashmere and angora) that I had already felted for this picture. I love to go on tuesdays because it's half price clothes days and I get alot of my wool from there. Each sweater on tuesday is 2.50. The owl bookends. I had decided to not buy anymore owl stuff, since it's everywhere now. But owl bookends are pretty awesome. These will be painted aqua blue and put in my etsy shop soon. Plus my beloved milk glass, sigh. I won't buy it anywhere but thrift stores. People are catching on around here and that piece would have been 20 to 25 dollars in an antique store, but it was 2.99 in the thrift store. Still more then I would pay in mn, but I guess tx has gotten all fancy, ha.

So New topic. Do you like grocery shopping? I'm back and forth on it. But regardless it's my job. So a few months ago I decided that I would buy myself a little something everytime I go. It's usually flowers. I go every two weeks and if I recut the stems after about 5 days and change the water most of my flowers last about 10 days. Here's this weeks gems.

Closed they were scrumptious, opened they are amazeballs. I tend to switch between tulips and hydrangeas, sometimes I get plain ole carnations. Regardless it makes me happy.

This week I went a little farther and got this beautiful pumpkin from whole foods.

I tend to mix 3.98 pumpkins with my stash of fake, but I could not pass this baby up. It was 9.98, but it's just so lovely and looks beautiful in my messy kitchen.

So onto other news I painted my whole family room polar ice. Lived with it a week and decided I didn't like it. So now I am repainted it gray owl from ben moore. Oh my I hope once its all done I will love it. I have company coming for thanksgiving and I would really like to like it.

Adoption news: It's been over a year so now we have to start redoing the dumb classes we had to take the first time. I'm not happy about this , but it's part of the process so tonight we got to adoption 101. Next weekend we are going to an adoption event for kids that are adoptable and families that are licensed, it's in nadogdoches tx and that's about 4 hrs from where we live. I am not sure how I feel about this event. On the one hand it's the closest we have gotten to an actual child. But on the other I'm not sure if they are aware of what is going on and I have no interest in adding to any feelings of rejection that any child might be feeling. I will try it once and see. I'll let you know my thoughts when we get back. Who knows maybe we'll find "the one". It so feels like a bad speed dating experience. Any thoughts on this?

lisa

new pics of bat dress

2012-10-02T13:26:00.004-07:00

So I redid the dress a bit and took new pictures. It will be listed in my etsy shop today.

In the end I decided I didn't like the bottom. So I took off the extra trim and bought some old navy size 4 black and white striped leggings and I think the whole outfit works now.

lisa

I'm a mayflower descendent

2012-09-27T11:04:00.001-07:00

Did I ever mention that? Yep from Francis Eaton. I was born in Massachusetts, so I'm guessing descendents are probably a dime a dozen there. But in Texas, not so much. And since there isn't a whole lot to boast about from side of the family I am embracing this with all my being. If you were my tx friend I would casually mention it at lunch and right before thanksgiving and oh maybe at church. I don't want to be obnoxious about it, but did I ever tell you......? Yep I just found out from one of my aunts who is really into geneaology and apparently it is true.

So because of this new found knowledge I have decided to decorate around that theme this year. I also just painted my family room. I have one wall left to do and then I will show the whole room. The new color is polar ice from lowes. It's a dupe of a sherwin williams color that I can't remember, sorry. I have found that painting a grey color is tough. I think I painted 10 different swatches before I chose this color. A decorator friend of mine also told me that when doing grey it's best to get as close to flat as possible. I usually paint satin, so I went to eggshell. I'm not sure why, I think it has to do with the color staying true.

I have alot of indians and pilgrims, but most of them are really orange and since my house is switching to blue, green, aqua, grey and a pale yellow I tried to pick the least colorful ones for the mantle. I am considering spraypainting the rest of them or seeing if I can make them work on my kitchen china cabinet.

This is my ode to the mayflower. It's not perfect but it gets the point across.

More blues and earthtones.

I have alot of fake pumpkins that I mix with real pumpkins outside and will be painting some of them this year also. Now that my kids are back in school I have lots of projects planned and will be posting more frequently.

So as a recap

1. The new color is polar ice from lowes
2. When painting grey it is best to go a little closer to flat then satin. I won't go completely flat because I like to be able to clean my walls, but eggshell seems to be doing fine.

lisa

new halloween items

2012-09-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. I am starting to really get into halloween and fall decorating. So prepare for lots of posts! This is my first dress for this year. It's an upcycled halloween tshirt. Sizes 4/5 girl.

I think I may need to take clearer pics before I list on etsy, but here's a little peek.

and the back

Yep definately need a better set of pictures.
Coming up are some halloween kitty skirt sets and a black owl. Lots of other stuff too.

lisa

my pretty!

2012-08-21T12:43:00.002-07:00

I spent a large part of my summer in Minnesota. My niece got married and she asked me to be the "divine designer", her words not mine. But I'll take that title. We spent about 2 weeks cutting burlap and lace and just having a ball making stuff. My daughter was a bridesmaid and she made some beautiful items for her cousin's wedding. I was so proud. I will be showing pictures probably in the next week. But if you are familiar with this blog you know that antiquing was also on the list of activities.

I have been looking for a vintage chandy for my kitchen for about a year. I couldn't find anything for less then 250.00. where I live. Not a horrible price but I knew I could do better if I waited till this summer. Well here she is in all her glory

I love her! I found her in one of my usual shops. She was 150.00, I know I could have gotten it alot closer to 100, but the shop owner was on the phone crying. While I was looking around she got a phone call with very bad news about her Dad. I didn't have the heart to haggle or even purchase. I went back another day, I've had that call and I didn't want to interrupt. Not all the crystals came with the chandy, so I will pick up some more on ebay. But I think she's pretty lovely.

A picture from underneath. Sigh!

What I overpaid for the chandy I more then made up for in milkglass. I will show those in more detail this week. It's not the best picture, but I'll take better ones and show them all. I have been loving my summer display so much it's going to hurt to change it out for fall.

My next lighting purchase will be 2 vintage industrial lights for over my kitchen island. I showed some pictures of the redo, but I havent' shown the kitchen in all it's glory because it's not completely done yet. It will be soon though. My husband is done with paramedic school and he now only has 2 jobs, so he has more time to help me finish up. Btw 2 jobs for my hubby is being on vacay, the man likes to work.

Adoption news:

For those of you interested we are a week away from being placed with children. A week! It doesn't mean we will get new kid or kids in a week it just means we've passed our home study and they will start presenting us with kids that meet our criteria. I would appreciate much prayers.

lisa

Hiding an ugly problem

2012-08-04T14:37:00.002-07:00

Our house has gone through a bit of a reconfiguring. With 5 bedrooms and only 2 children you would think that we would have plenty of room, and we do. But we need one room for my husband's office and I like to have a nice guestroom. We are the only ones that live in Tx on my side of the family so a guest room is nice to have. I also require a craftroom, not a space. I sound a little spoiled and I guess I am but really for me it's more of a necessity then a guest room or a diningroom. At least it's used a heck of a lot more. My husband realizes this need and has given me the dining room. It's the perfect solution except that it is open to everyone as soon as you walk through our front door. Not ever a pretty sight. At first I thought we would put in french doors and I would frost the glass. But we decided we would probably move sometime this year. So then I hung sheers across the archway. A very ugly sight. I lived with it and then finally came up with a great solution.

Believe it or not it was extremely easy and cheap. All 5 doors came from the renew store. Which is the habitat for humanity thrift store. All things home are donated from homeowners redoing their homes. All the doors were 5 bucks except for the center door which was 10. There were all the colors that they are except the far right. It was off white and I simply spray painted it the grey blue shade.

I changed two of the doorknobs. The far right and the far left. Both were bought 50 percent off at hobby lobby. The decor was stuff that I actually had in my house. I shopped my house and all of a sudden I had a home theme that hadn't looked right anywhere else. The home printable is from the blog eighteen25 and it is in many different colors. Here it is from the side.

You can see a little of the mess it is hiding.

Okay so here's my tips.
1. I actually did this all by myself. It was super easy, but if you can snag someone to help you hold the doors together it would be even easier.

2. I went to lowes and just bought cheap door hinges. They were about 2 bucks each and I used 2 per door. I did not try to reuse the hinges that were already there. That seemed like it would require too much thought and prep. I just left the original hinges and put mine above them or under them. It was very quick work with a little battery powered screw driver. I just added one at a time and voila! About 20 minutes later I had this super cute screen to make my house look less trashy. It truly made a huge difference.

Here it is from my entry way. I turned my old formal living room into the dining room and the old dining room is now the craft room. I think the screen does a great job.

Like the carpet stains? That's my favorite part :)

lisa

summer summer summer SUMMER!!!

2012-06-19T08:20:00.003-07:00

I am off to vegas today. My husband has a conference, because everyone wants to go to vegas in June, ha! I actually just want to hang out with my husband. So we're off in a few hrs. I'm actually looking forward to it. We don't drink and we're $20 gamblers, but I 'm sure we'll still manage to have some fun.

In the meantime I wanted to show a little of my summer decor.

Finally got to put my growing milkglass collection together. All of the paintings are ones I did over the years. The clouds is from art class this year. The beach scene was actually done on the beach at the ritz carlton in maui. I know you can hate me. Do you remember about 15 years ago when companies gave away trips all the time? My husband won a trip to the ritz in maui. It was amazing, but the best part was that there is an art school on the campus, so you could pay for art classes during your stay. It was awesome. The sea was from my fireplace mantle last summer.

Seashells that are on my kitchen table. I have seashells everywhere in the summer.

My summer mantle. I liked my spring mantle so much I really only added a peacock feather to each set of sticks and a seashell in front of the plates.

Adoption news: We have taken every class and filled out every form. We are now waiting for a home study Once that is done we will start to be presented to kids that have had their parental rights terminated by the state. It's then just a matter of time till we have a new child. Crazy exciting and terrifying.

lisa

20 minutes well spent

2012-05-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

I have been running around like a chicken all day. I need to catch up from last week. No posts from me because I had my first and I hope last case of vertigo. Have you ever had it? If it's chronic for you, you have my sympathies and my prayers. It's pretty debilitatitng. I couldn't move without needing to throwup. Blech.

So anyways I really just wanted to spend 20 minutes doing something creative. This is what I came up with.

What a difference 20 minutes can make, Huh? It was so easy. I bought 3 bath sheets for each chaise lounge from walmart. They were 3or 4 dollars each. I took one to my local embroiderer and had them do the logo. It was 15 dollars for each monogram. Mine are a little too large, so if you went smaller it would be cheaper. Then I just sewed the towels together like a big pillow case. I left the top of the 3rd unattached and put velcro on it once I had it on the cushion. I also attached a few pieces of white material to tie on the lounge chair. The whole thing took 20 minutes, because I already had the embroidery done.

lisa

linking to
craftomaniac
house of hepworth

a lamp redo

2012-04-23T14:45:00.004-07:00

I have these two lamps that I bought at kirklands a few years back. I've started redecorating my house and they just didn't work anymore, but I still liked the shape of the lampbase and the barrel shade.

World's worst picture right. I didn't check until after I had already changed the lamps so this is as good as it gets. The base shape was working for me but not the two toned gold and oil rubbed bronze finish and I wanted an aqua blue shade.

So I got out my krylon oil rubbed bronze spraypaint and just quickly painted the gold area. This is my basic spray paint set up. I use a lazy susan from ikea that was 7 bucks and put it on my grass and I can turn the lazy susan and spray paint. It works great. Plus by the next time you mow the lawn the paint evidence is gone.

Next I needed to change the lampshade. I was at tuesday morning and found xlarge aqua blue ricrac in their craft section. I love tuesday morning craft supplies, they are high quality but a great price. Anyways the ricrac was 25 yards, which was not enough to do 2 lampshades so I went back and got the off white ricrac also.

Here is the end result. I love it! Many finger blisters from the hot glue gun later and it's exactly what I wanted.

lisa

linking to craftomaniac

I couldn't live with it a second longer

2012-04-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

What? the new pinwheel buckets in my backyard. I know it's crazy but it was bugging me. They just looked tacky. So here is what I came up with.

Ahhh! Much better. I used some of my beloved milk glass. I have more then 2 of this style so if it kisses the back fence I won't be too sad. We're supposed to get tornadoes today, so we'll see if they last. I have them filled with pea gravel.

So I still think the pinwheels are cute and fun, but the containers make them fit the backyard fireplace area better.

I have 2 more projects for this backyard besides the general cleanup needed and one of those will contain moe pinwheels.

lisa

backyard mantle

2012-04-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Okay remember my princess problem. I have a beautiful backyard but no way to decorate because of the winds we get. No glass, no ceramics. Plus because it gets so hot in the summer here, it's not very colorful. So I am trying to add color through my decorations. Theses aren't perfect, but I can make them cute

I love pinwheels! They are just so happy. I found these yellow buckets in the paint bucket section at lowes. They were 3 dollars each. The pinwheels are from hobby lobby, this week they are 40 percent off, so they were about 2.50 each. Then I added polkadots by using duct tape. They didn't turn out so well. I think I am taking off the duct tape and painting them. But since I had them done I put them on the mantle because today is pretty windy and I want to see if they make it. There is a ton of dirt and rocks in the buckets, so hopefully they will stay in place.

The metal/ wood decoration is the only thing that made it through last summer. The star fire screen is actually broken, yep last year it was flung against the fence in high winds. Crazy right?

lisa

tips on sewing with ruffles

2012-04-11T13:00:00.008-07:00

Today I made a table runner for my backyard table. Now that I have the heavy tool box, I can actually put something under it and not worry where it has "flown" to after the next storm.

At first I was going to do canvas as the big piece of material, but when I was rummaging through my fabric I found this pink and white heavy cotton twill.

close up of one side

And the other.

Ok so here is my ruffle tip. I don't have any sewing training. I am completely self taught, but I have been sewing for over a decade now and know my sewing does last. I used to be so worried about it, but as long as it looks right and stays that way, who cares. Okay off my soapbox. For ruffles, I hate hand making them or machine stitching them and then pulling the thread through. It is a big waste of time. When you break down a ruffle it's really just a series of creases in material. So I make those creases by hand. Just a few, I can't seem to do more them a few without messing it up. Then I start the machine and stop and then do some more ruffles, start stitching, stop, do somemore. I have seen project runway contestants put their hand on the material a certain way and then continuously make a ruffle. I can't do that, but this stop and start method works for me. Even though I am probably not saving time, I feel like I am and that is all that matters.

lisa

linking to
laugh love and craft
rufflesandbows
savvy southern style
sew woodsy
sugaranddots
sasselife

my backyard

2012-04-09T09:43:00.006-07:00

I have a beautiful backyard. We planned for it for along time.

We don't seem to have any pictures of just our backyard. So here is one of my daughter for her first day of school this year. The pool is obviously in the background and then if you keep going to your right we have a shade structure with a fireplace.

That's my dog, but the fireplace is to the right and there is a huge shade structure over it. Now so what's the problem, it's a small one but it has become a big deal. We live in Tx and the winds can get up to 40 or 50 mph in the spring and summer and it seems to go straight down the pool and through the shade structure. Everything gets blown all over the yard. I had such beautiful plans to decorate this and none have worked out because of the stinking wind. Well I'm not one to wallow or feel sorry for myself for such a PRINCESS problem, so this spring I am praying and thinking about it and I think I have my first success.

For the top of my table I bought this huge old tool box. It's probably 2 feet by 8 inches wide. It's heavy and it holds stuff. I spraypainted it a light blue green. I didn't distress it because it will get that way on it's own. It's cute, it's heavy, it won't get blown by the wind and I can put pretty stuff in it and it's not blown away either.

Here's what it holds

8 inch plates (plastic) paper towel roll, cups, a mason jar filled with silverware and my beautiful milkglass vase with snapdragons in them. The front row I think will hold our condiments, I'm not sure yet about that. But it's practical and beautiful at the same time. Come back all week for more wind bustin backyard decor ideas.

lisa

linking to
craftomaniac
becolorful
between naps on the porch
bedazzle me monday
lines across my face
missmustardseed

spring

2012-04-03T10:17:00.005-07:00

I don't know why but I am not loving holidays this year. Around this time my mom was the same way. She went all out and then one day was not interested. I think mom's just have so many years in them and then we just get tired. Plus the expectations are there because you have always done this. Blech! So I will do my best to not show my true feelings, especially to my youngest. She loves all holidays! In fact I may enlist her help this year. Hmm, I might be on to something.

So I put up the door cross. 6 days before isn't bad right?

A close up. Here is the tutorial from last year for this.

Its pretty easy. I have also been planting. Trying to get the yard in shape for spring and summer

In my opinion snapdragons and not daisies are the friendliest flower. But they don't last long here in Dallas, but I will take them as long as I can.

This is called moss rose. It is a succulent so it lasts all through summer. It's so hot here that can be a problem. Plus and this is the deciding factor for me in all my plant choices. It can be sprayed with roundup and it doesn't kill it. So I can kill the weeds and not baby this plant. Woohoo! I also like gerbera daisies for the same reason.

So what are you doing for Easter? We are having my niece and nephew over. They have parents, but it's the kids that count. Only kidding;) We will heat up the pool. It's hot here already but the pool is still pretty icy cold. We will have a bar b que and so I will be working on my back yard all this week.

lisa

Linking to
dearlillyhttp://dearlillieblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/Easter-Link-party.html
live love craft
will see it wednesdays
someday crafts
whatever you want wednesday

my new milkglass

2012-03-29T12:05:00.004-07:00

Remember a few weeks ago I went to Minnesota to visit my sister? Well here is the beautiful milkglass that I got.

Beautiful vase. It's huge and only cost .50cents. Crazy right? Crazy!

Here is the beautiful fruit bowl that I scored. I think my mom may have had this exact one.

This one broke the bank at a whopping 2.50. I love thrift stores in small midwestern towns. They have the best loot.

lisa

linking to
houseofhepworths
52 mantles
shabbycreekcottage
somewhat simple

reality isn't always pretty

2012-03-23T12:25:00.001-07:00

We are moving. It has been decided. Sometimes I'm sad, sometimes I'm happy. We are moving for lots of reasons, mostly because all of us want to. But we have lived here for 12 years and have always said this is it. We have made changes based on that and now I am overwhelmed with the thought of staging my house and repainting it etc. So it's very bitter sweet.

We live in a very highly regulated hoa community. But we all really want to move about 5 miles away to the country. To the biggest, ugliest, nastiest one story with a barn we can find. I mean I want a pit of a house that I can renovate. But we are not listing this house for about 6 mths. So that gives me plenty of time to start packing away, throwing out, donating and redoing. But it is still overwhelming. Another thing that is prompting this post is that I just found out that the adoption agency we are working with wants pictures of our current children's bedrooms. Did you hear a pin drop? Can you hear my heart pounding? Is it hot in here? I have teenagers and I am very loosey goosey about their room situations. I'm panicking So here is true confessions time. This is my current 15 year old daughter's room. Are you ready? You might want to have young children leave the room...............................................

Yep, that's right I didn't pick up a thing.

Chalkboard wall, I don't know if we will paint over that or not. I really don't want to, but we are painting the rest of the walls plain white and then adding a thick horizontal green stripe on the opposite wall.

This is the section I am going to try and work on this week. Making that bookcase more useable, getting all the junk into piles for her to go through and decluttering her desk. I also plan to set up her headboard. She adores it, we found it in a thriftstore. I would adore it if she would let me spraypaint it lime green or orange, but she won't. Plus I am making new curtains that are lined. I promise this time I will. I have to. So if you are wondering if my daughter and I battle about her room constantly, the anwser is nope. I really don't care. I'm very loosey goosey in this area. She cleans up her mess in the house and her bathroom has to be company ready at all times, but her bedroom can look like this as long as every two weeks it gets cleaned properly. So this is at the end of two weeks and pre the big cleanup. But now things will have to change and rooms will have to be ready at all times, so I will help her organize this disaster and make it easily cleanable.

This weekend I have an all day adoption class and I work at church all day on Sunday. I am aiming to get the one side done. We'll see. I'll post by Sunday what is done.

Quick story: My senior year of high school our house caught fire during the day. It was a mess and we had to move out for a few months to have everything worked on. My mom loved to give tours of the disaster and whenever they got to my room the person would inevitable ask if this is where the fire started because the fireman really destroyed this room. Nope, that was how my room always was. My family loves to tell that story to this day. I find it funny myself. So I'm wondering did I reveal to much? Do you still like me or are you horrified? I'd love to know and don't worry I have no plans on linking this post up, this is just for us. Although I will link the afters.

lisa

button cross art

2012-03-21T13:13:00.004-07:00

Last night I had an adoption training class. 3 hours of utter boredom laced with terror. I think it's how they vet out the people who are committed. Really not a fun time. Just 2 classes to go and then it's just turning in the 1000 pages of paperwork. Since my husband couldn't make this class and I knew what to expect I brought a craft to do

I have been loving the initial button art I have seen on pinterest and decided, why not? It was very easy. I googled a cross image I liked. Then took the paper to the window and put my fabric over the paper and traced out the design with a light pencil line. Once I got to class I just put a pile of buttons on my table and started stitching them within the lines. The first level looks a little sparse when you are done so then I added more on top, in between the buttons. Very simple.

It only took an hour though, so two more hours of boredom laced with terror. The stories that are told. Anyways one very sad thing that was said by a caseworker was that out of the 25 kids she has on her caseload, 4 are adoption failures. Kids that were adopted and their parents put them in foster care after the adoption was completed. How sad is that. It made me wonder about my girl. Since we are aiming for a 10 to 12 year old girl, that maybe her story. What alot of heartbreak for one little heart to bear.

This along with others will be in my etsy shop. I have an 8 hr class on Saturday, so I will be making more. ;)

lisa

linking to
laughlovecraft
willseeit
someday crafts
freeprettythings

the color orange

2012-03-19T10:15:00.003-07:00

Not my favorite. In fact my least favorite until recently. I have noticed it popping up in my house lately. I have a pretty colorful house but the 3 colors I don't much appreciate, unless it's halloween are orange, purple and pink. Sometimes I'll go with pink but it's never a focal color.

But everytime I walk by my mantle I find myself focusing on this little arrangement. It's so pretty, how did orange slip in there? I love it with aqua blue.

And then there's my tulips. There were other colors available, but these sung to me. I told you I adore cheap white milk glass.

And then there is my spring kitchen plate display, orange crept in there too. I may have to change my mind about orange. What about you fan, or hater?

lisa

linking to
craftomaniac
be colorful
lines across my face
making the world cuter

spring in texas

2012-03-17T08:43:00.002-07:00

But let's face it, it's been spring all winter. Craziness

lisa

the lazy girls way to clean a white ektorp slipcovered couch

2012-03-17T08:15:00.003-07:00

Disclaimer: This works for me and hopefully it will work for you. But I in no way guarantee this, I am just sharing what has worked for me.

Okay I feel better now. I have a lovely corner ektorp sofa with a white slipcover.

The only reason I bought this couch was because miss mustard seed told me I could. I'm serious. She did a whole post on how she has a white slipcovered sofa from ikea and even though she has two toddlers and a youth pastor husband, with youth kids eating pizza on her couch every weekend, it has held up. And if that wasn't enough she explained that every year after Christmas the white slipcovers go on sale for 50 bucks and she gets a new one. SOLD!

I got mine about 8 months ago. I will get a new slip cover every year. The corner sofa is 100 bucks. But in the meantime it needs to be clean. I have 2 teenagers, a dog and a cat that shed. I don't limit my kids eating on the sofa. When they have sleepovers it's usually on this couch. With the oily teenage heads and cheetos and pizza etc. I'm a thrill seeker what can I say. The first time I thought it needed a cleaning I washed the whole thing. Not horrible, but if I can avoid it again I will.

Here is the system I have come up with for cleaning it. I did this two months ago and have been watching the fabric where I cleaned and it seems absolutely fine.

Here's what you will need. A bleach pen, a white soft cloth and a 1 to 1 ratio of hydrogen peroxide and water. This last item needs to be made and handy before you start bleaching.

Here's the stain. I believe it is chef boyardee. I take the pen and just put the bleach over the stain. Then I very closely watch it. It can take from 2 seconds to about 20, but it's quick. As soon as the stain is gone I take the hydrogen peroxide solution and saturate the area with it and then take the other end of the towel to sop up any extra liquid. This is key because hydrogen peroxide apparently neutralizes the bleach, so you don't damage the material or the foam underneath. Today I did 5 spots. The last time I did this was 2 months ago and I did 2. So this seems to work.

Tips for washing your slipcover

1. Be ok with a shabby chic look. A slipcover means a shlumpy look. If you aren't comfortable with that, it's not for you.

2. Don't dry the slipcover completely. If its a little damp the material stretches and it's easier to get back on. Mine actually dried completely and then didn't fit back on. I rewashed it and then tried again and it was fine. You are supposed to have it drycleaned, but once again I'm a thrill seeker and washed and dried it.

3. Plan on buying a new slipcover every year. White is just not going to hold up for all time, that's why I went with ikea. I knew I could afford a yearly slipcover.

lisa

linking to

tatertots and jello
funky junk
whipperberry

making a floor rug out of smaller rugs

2012-03-14T12:16:00.004-07:00

I'm not the first to attempt this, but I thought it was worth a tutorial. When we first built our house we had hardwoods installed and I thought it would be a great idea to leave some carpet in the middle of the family room so that I could put an area rug on top and it would be extra soft. Brilliant, except I'm not a detail person and I didn't have them leave it an actual rug size. It's way too big of an area and costs a fortune to have a rug made and bound the right size.

So on to the next idea. While at Ikea I came across some area rugs that were lime green shag. Love! Love! Love! Of course they were too small so I bought four and decided to tape them together. This is the tape I bought. It's from lowes.

It's called ez seam pressure sensitive seaming tape. The pressure sensitive is important because the other tape is heat sealed and you have to heat it with your iron and it gets goopy. This I just set my rugs the way I wanted making sure that the seams were lined up and then layed the tape down and walked on top of it a few times. It was very easy.

This is how it looks when it is done.

Neat and clean and no gumminess. Can you see my aqua blue toes? They snuck in there.

Here it is finished. It's been here for about 2 weeks and everything is staying as it should. If you look on the left side of my couch you can see my 20 dollar thrifted quilt from Mn. I will show more of my fab finds later this week. I'm waiting for my aunt to ship a box, yep we scored that much.

lisa

P.s. Remember my bemoaning of the lose of picnik. Well the previous owners have a new site called picmonkey.com and it is the same. Hallelujah!

linking to
reason to skip housework
tip junkie
uncommon life of suburbia
tuesday to do

I thrift therefore I am...

2012-03-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

I love thrift store shopping. I know it's very trendy but I loved it before it was cool. I love finding worn out stuff to redo somehow. Tomorrow is my big thrift store day while I'm on vacation. I vow that every piece of milk glass in mt lake mn will be mine. Every single piece, even if it costs me one whole dollar. Because if I find 20 pieces here it would still be less then that. It's crazy how undervalued it is here. So wish me luck and if you live anywhere in the southeast corner of Minnesota and hear a crazy woman screaming its because I hit the mother lode

Lisa

Stuff i'm bad at!

2012-03-07T19:36:00.000-08:00

Ever since picnick decided to end, I have had problems with photo editing. I know their still around but I can't seem to connect with them. This Christmas I got an iPad and thought wouldn't it be great if I could download and edit photos on my iPad. Wouldn't it? If only I could figure thar out it would be, by the way does anyone know of a good substitute for picnik? I loved it so! Why is it leaving me?

Other things I stink at, since we're discussing it is answering my phone. I hate it, it's an albatross around my neck. I would rather do almost anything then actually talk on the phone. I don't even like to speak to my own husband on the phone. The only person I enjoy talking on the phone with is my best friend and that's only because we haven't lived in the same state since college and she is texting and Facebook impaired.

I cannot follow a weekly meal plan or grocery shop from a list. I can not! Many have tried and failed to help me in this area. It must be a genetic flaw that can not be overcome. The thought of making a grocery list makes me feel very twitchy and anxious. I can think of 3 or 4 things for dinner and get that and guess at the rest but that's as good as it gets plus I usually forget a bag when I leave the store or forget to buy something. This quality is especially annoying to my children.

The final flaw for today's blogpost is that I am very introverted, not shy, introverted. I must have quiet time to myself. I'm visiting my sister this week and by about 5 pm everyday I am ready for bed. Just because I desperately need to be alone. If there was one quality I could change about myself it's this. I stretch myself till about 8 pm and feel like I'm possibly going to implode and then go to bed. I think it hurts her feelings. We are complete opposites. She is up till 2 am and extremely extroverted. How did we come from the same gene pool? My husband is extremely extroverted also. My 2 children are exact opposites as well, one very social and the other craving solitude.

Ok I'm off to bed for real now. Thanks for listening to my flaws and liking me anyway. Hopefully someone is just like me. Sorry no pictures, I need to figure out this iPad photo downloading

Lisa

randomness

2012-02-23T18:50:00.000-08:00

Today I got this in the mail

Sorry about the glare.

It was 82 degrees in texas today. Not the norm. Yesterday it was 80. It was so beautiful. I'm starting to get ready for spring because I can't help myself.

Here's part of my spring mantle. I can not express how much I love cheap milk glass. I'm visiting my sister in a few weeks in Mn. I plan to buy at least 5 pieces and they will probably total a dollar. Here it would be over 25.00.

Today my 17 yr old presented me with plans to graduate 6 months early. He wants to go on a 3 or 4 month missions trip before he starts college. If I scream, " I'm not ready"! Would you judge me? Cuz I'm not ready. He turns 18 before his senior year starts but I really wasn't planning on him doing this. I'm proud of him though, just not ready.

lisa