Home Decoration

Outdoor Wood Patio Furniture Completes Your Home Decoration

2011-03-03T23:30:00.001-08:00

When you are looking for patio furniture, you will be bombarded with a number of options. Metal, wicker and plastic furniture come at attractive price tags but when you think carefully about it and want to give a holistic look to your garden, nothing beats wood furniture.
If you are looking to add a touch of class and style to the outdoor furniture, outdoor wood furniture becomes a natural selection.It is available in both natural wood finishes as well as in painted finishes. Both the types are popular with garden and you will fall in love with items Adirondack chairs. Some of the most common natural wood finishes for garden and furniture available in market are teak and cedar. They are mostly used as the best options for wood patio furniture because they offer you great resistance against insect and moisture.
One thing that you will need to keep on mind when going for it is that wood furniture requires more care than any other type of garden and furniture. What you need to know is that natural wood finishes must be oiled on a regular basis so that they do not dry out in due to weather conditions and do not dry out under the sun and discolor. If you do not oil these garden and furniture pieces, they will fade to a silver gray color and will start looking ugly. Do not wait for them to fade because later on the life of it will be lesser against when you take care of them on regular basis.

My biggest purge yet!

2011-03-02T19:27:00.000-08:00

Hello there! Hope you’re having a GREAT week!

I mentioned earlier this week that I’m DONE with the decluttering of the basement…this is huge for me peeps. HUGE. Every year for the past few years, I spend what seems like half the year decrapifying this space.

This time, it only took me a whole year. :)

For reals. Seriously. A YEAR.

One thing I have learned on my decrapification journey is that ridding your home of STUFF is not something you can do just once every twelve months. At least in our house – it’s a constant process.

Now our home is a bit different than most. I mean, I tend to gather stuff faster than the average person. It’s the nature of my “job” – being a home decor blogger. Add to that a thrifty home decor blogger, and it just spells T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

It physically pains a thrifty blogger to leave that perfect such-and-such or so-and-so at their local Goodwill because if I see it, leave it and walk out without it, OHDEARLORDIMIGHTNEEDIT!!!

Like, tomorrow! Or next week. Or next year?

Or something like that. :)

Sheesh. It is intense people.

But over the past year, I was increasingly over the STUFF. I wanted our house back. I wanted empty shelves back. And I was tired of seeing wasted money sitting around.

I got really intense with it late last summer when my father-in-law passed away. As we went through his house (for weeks), I found my tolerance for our unused, unappreciated stuff was less and less.

I decided then that I only wanted items in our house that 1.) we found useful (and currently USED) 2.) were meaningful to us or 3.) we loved (things that were passed down, or that we truly enjoyed).

If it didn’t meet one of these three, it was gone. Our biggest problem area has always been our basement. It’s just a prime landing spot for junk, obviously.

I’m happy to announce I have gone through and organized every. little. bitty. thing in the space now. It’s done.

I started with my craft area back in January:

This spot holds extra pantry and entertaining items, tools, craft supplies, electronics and my stash of decor stuff. Those plastic shelves are awesome! I think they run about $20 each and really hold up great.

The area to the left of my craft room will be our future movie viewing spot:

Hubs envisions a very large flat screen on that long wall. I see some gorgeous built ins. ;)

We used to have a massive weight system in that space:

And it had turned into a perch for STUFF. We never, ever used it. EVER. For months and years, we kept it, thinking we’d use it again.

We didn’t. :)

(In our defense, there were a few problems that needed to be fixed. We kept saying we’d fix them. We didn’t.)

And then I decided it didn’t meet our criteria – so it was GONE. I called a company to see how much they’d charge to take it down, and it was $250. PuSHAW. I figured I could totally do that myself – so I did.

I spent a few days with a socket wrench and took that baby down. It felt SO GOOD.

We didn’t use it, didn’t love it, so why keep it? Yes, I know it was an investment at one time. But I’d rather it go to someone who would use it, rather than sitting in our basement, acting as a coat rack.

Over the last few months, I’ve moved the majority of the Bub’s toys down to this space:

His DIY train tables are a perfect play surface and there’s plenty of floor space (covered with a carpet remnant). It’s so nice to have a spot dedicated to the toys!

The plastic shelves make an appearance in this area too:

We keep the kitty litter in the spot behind these (under the stairs), so to keep that area as separate as possible, I stapled some cheap muslin up on the studs behind the shelves.

I also hot glued a fun polka-dot fabric to the backs of the shelves:

It helps to keep the toys put and it’s just a dash of cute. :)

We already have some great lighting in the basement, but there’s a few spots that need a little extra. I’ve found these plug-in lights at most hardware stores:

They ROCK. Ours hold up to a 150 watt bulb. It’s fantastic for extra light! (They run about $7 each.)

One of my favorite changes in our basement is hubby’s office. It used to look like this:

Actually, it usually looked like a pit of despair. The floor was always covered with fake snow, ornaments, fall leaves and Easter basket filler. :)

Both walls were filled with storage bins, and eventually I realized it was a waste of great space. After MUCH purging, I moved them to the end of the basement instead:

I’m hoping to get some fantabulous shelving to organize these even more. It is ridiculous that shelving makes me so giddy. :)

Now that former bin-filled space is hubby’s office:

It’s actually a really cozy space! As cozy as cement walls and floors can be anyway. I like to think of it as loft-like. ;) Hubs writes music, so he LOVES this spot. It’s far enough away so that he doesn’t bother us with the music and we don’t bother him.

When I said I went through every little thing in this space, I’m not kidding. I can’t even believe how many paint cans we had:

Insanity!!

Even though I had purged the holiday stuff last Christmas, I still had a pile of STUFF that I hadn’t organized:

My tower of junk had fallen, so it gives a little extra drama to the madness. ;)

And I even went through each and every CD and floppy disk from up to ten years ago:

I spent hours at the computer going through files. I was determined to get it ALL done.

I took the last of the purge upstairs over the weekend and I was SO HAPPY when I saw the amount of storage stuff I didn’t need anymore:

Over the past year, I kept count of the large storage bins I’ve sold or given away. It was right at 17. Seventeen big bins – and I didn’t keep ONE. That doesn’t even count all of the baskets, small bins, shelves…whatever. All of them are gone!

I didn’t want the temptation.

From now on, if I can’t fit an item the storage we have, then something has to go. My hope is to never buy another storage bin again…forever and ever AMEN.

I snapped that picture above and texted my girlfriends to come and get free storage stuff…and even after one showed up and took a bunch of them, I still ended up finding more to add to the pile:

And then more:

I was on a roll. :) I gave a bunch to friends, and the rest was donated or taken to consignment.

Obviously, we still have lots of things. I like things. Pretty things, shiny things, thrifty things. I’m just not going to let them take over our home anymore.

So now, our foyer looks like this again:

It’s the first time in months I haven’t had a Goodwill pile by the front door. It feels good. :)

And our problem area, the spot where STUFF went to die…is now organized and ready for the (hopefully this year, crossing my fingers, pretty pretty please!) finished basement:

Whew. Just…WHEW. It nearly beat me people. But I overcame the clutter. :) Now…if I can just keep it in check!

So that’s the tale of my biggest decrapification yet. It didn’t happen over a weekend. Or a month…or even a few months. But it happened. And that’s all that mattered.

WHOO!! :)

Now…onto more decorating and DIY! (Double whoo!)

Thrifting “lady date”

2011-02-28T20:58:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Thanks SO much for all the wonderful comments and emails about our sweet Peanut! Many of you asked, and he’s a Chihuahua/rat terrier mix. They called him a Chia Rat. ;)

We had such a great day with him. He slept ALL night last night and didn’t make a peep! We had a great visit to the vet – and he’s really healthy. (That was a relief!) And tonight he “went” outside for the first time! (TWICE!) It was like potty training the Bub all over again – so exciting!! ;)

Anyway, we’re figuring things out as we go. One thing I know for sure is that he LOVES our son so very very much. OH my…they are nuts about each other. It brings tears to my eyes every time I watch them together.

I’m finishing up a few things in the basement before I show you the difference decluttering made. :) Until then, I wanted to share some finds from my recent trip downtown Indy to Midland Arts and Antiques:

Three girlfriends and I went for a Saturday “lady date” – as one of my friends called it -- (love that!) out to eat and then to Midland for some antiquing.

If you live near Indy and you love the thrill of the hunt…you MUST take a trip there. It’s an old (HUGE!) warehouse full of fabulous finds.

I snapped shots of a few things that caught my eye. As with most antique stores, you’ll find some good, bad and definitely ugly. :) You’ll also find real antiques, lots of vintage (especially mid-century modern right now) and also stuff you could also find at any Goodwill. :)

I found a few clocks turned cloches:

Do they look familiar?:

The only difference – I bought my 80’s clock-turned-cloche for $3 at Goodwill, and these were both over $40 if I remember right. :)

The fabulous light fixtures are endless! Some are funky:

If we had a wine cellar, I would totally put this there! But alas, we don’t. :)

Some just need some spray paint and they’d be a close Pottery Barn knock off:

And check out this one:

SWOON! It looks SO similar to the one hanging in our dining room:

And mine was a knock off of another Pottery Barn light. I think the one at Midland is even bigger, and is the same price as our Home Depot light (now $180 I believe).

I found a gorgeous mirrored tray that would be stunning on any dresser or buffet:

And this mirror would be beautiful as is, painted a bright white or even an unexpected color:

I loved these cane side tables:

And I kept going back to this chair and ottoman:

They were in fantastic condition! I could totally see them in hubby’s office in the basement – but as you know, I’m getting rid of stuff down there right now (for the impending finishing off of the space).

You’ll always find the downright weird too. :)

Birds on display anyone?:

And these chairs in your dining room would be a conversation piece for sure!:

I found a few goodies I took home from our trip, of course.

I loved this little bird cagey candleholder:

I won’t use it for candles though. I see a nest or something spring-like nestled in there. :)

I have wanted a vintage fan forEVER…and this one caught my eye:

It was my biggest splurge of the day by far, at $25. I cleaned it up and considered spray painting it. But I also love it as is. Hmmm…

I thought this two-sided mirror was so sweet and dainty:

It’s the perfect addition to my Mom Cave. :)

There were bins full of old Bingo cards:

I only grabbed three for an idea for the playroom. I’m thinking I could use more though.

And this little bunny letter opener was my favorite find of the day:

It was one of those things…I thought it was just adorable. It was only $2, so I couldn’t pass it up.

I had to leave midway through the shopping to get back to the sitter, but it was a good thing. I’m sure it would have been dangerous to stick around too much longer. :)

Sometime I’ll have to coordinate a shopping trip for local readers and bloggers – it’s a great afternoon of digging for goodies!

Have you found any great thrifting finds lately? Any good spots in your neck of the woods?

Introducing Peanut

2011-02-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

Hello all! Hope you had a fantastic weekend!

It’s been a great one around here for more reasons than one. :)

I finally, FINALLY got the decrapification of the basement done. I mean, almost every single bit of it. There’s just a few minor things I want to go through, but the big stuff is DONE!

I even finished up going through the guest room closet, which has been on my list for about a year now.

The house feels like it may just float away it’s so light. :)

I was going to show you some of that massive accomplishment tonight, but then something came up.

This little guy:

We found him this weekend, and before we saw him, adding a dog to our family was the last thing on our minds. I mean, for a while I’ve been telling hubby I’d really like to get a dog for the Bub. But we’ve just been talking about it, here and there.

But lately, when I see a dog, something new has been pulling at my heart strings. It’s kinda been weirding me out -- I mean, we’re cat people. Always have been. We’ve both owned dogs in our life, but it’s been a long time for both of us.

But today, I picked up that shaking little guy and he cuddled his wet nose into the crook of my neck, and something in me just absolutely melted.

He cuddled into me, as if to say, please don’t let me go.

It was the same thing this one did the day I found him:

And it was hard for me to shake that feeling. I put him down. Walked away, went back, picked him up. He hung onto me again. Put him down again…walked away. And went back again. This time, I had tears in my eyes.

It was so incredibly hard to walk away from this pup. That last time I put him back down, trying so hard not to cry.

And after that, all I could think about was him. I couldn’t figure out what in the HECK was wrong with me. I had absolutely fallen deeply in love with that face. Hubby thought I was losing it. I thought I was losing it.

After making MANY phone calls to friends with dogs, doing a ton of research online and much discussion with the hubby…we brought him home:

Look at that SQUISHY face.

I can’t believe we own a DOG. :)

The cat’s are adjusting amazingly well. He’s nuts about them. (For real!) So funny.

Peanut has made himself right at home:

He ADORES my hubby. We adore him.

Now excuse me, as I head to bed extra early tonight. It could be a long one. Wish this new Momma a restful night. ;)

But seriously…isn’t he the sweetest thing you’ve EVER seen??

10,000(!) and month in review

2011-02-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

Hey all! First of all, before I say anything else – I need to say a huge THANKS and a WHOOHOO!

Tonight I hit 10,000 followers:

I had to take a screenshot, just to remember that milestone! (I really, really hate that “followers” term by the way.)

But it’s pretty cool to hit five digits. I now have 10,000 of you Squeezies! Squeezays. Squishes. :)

Crazy!!

Anyway, I want to try to bring back the month in review I started doing last year. It’s been a while since I did recap of the month and it’s kind of fun (for me anyway, you may be snoring already) to see what I accomplished around these parts every month. (I link to each one if you want to check it out.)

The start of this month was an especially special one. We became debt free (except the house) for the first time in our adult lives!!

It’s still so surreal. I find myself thinking about a bill and it hits me -- and I’m grinning from ear to ear. :) We haven’t called in to Dave Ramsey’s show yet – we’d like to take a trip down to Nashville instead. I’ll let you know what we end up doing!

And I’m SO SO excited about an idea that Dave’s peeps have been helping me out with. I hope to announce it in the next couple of weeks.

Next up this month, I took an unused spot in our loft and turned it into functional (and cute!) storage wall:

At the February Before and After Party, I showed you how I took a $5 Goodwill pitcher and transformed it with spray paint:

Can you believe there were 499 posts linked up? Wowza! How cool is that?

Since we’ve become debt free, we are now researching our first “cash” furniture purchase in a long, long time. I’m so excited about a new sofa, I can barely stand it:

There was a great response to that post – I’m pulling all the info you shared together and will do a recap post soon. Lots of great info!

I worked with the folks at My Design Guide to provide my readers an affordable online consultation resource:

I’m not able to do these anymore, so I was thrilled that they were able to help me and my readers out!

My friend Beki shared the love with a fantastic giveaway over at The Rusted Chain:

And then one thing led to another when I took down the drapes in our living room and the transformation started:

When the ice storm of the century hit (that’s what I’m calling it anyway), and we couldn’t leave the house for days, I passed some time by decluttering a linen closet:

You won’t believe how much STUFF was in there. (Many of you asked about the light I used, and a very helpful reader put a link in the comments!)

Next, I showed you a total project FAIL – my beautiful painted pitcher didn’t hold up well, in more ways than one:

Boo. I found a pretty and affordable replacement though. :)

At the Organize It shindig, I showed you how I’ve been using Ziploc bags to organize games and puzzles:

LOVE those things. I used more of them in the basement today! (Check out the nearly 300 links at that party too.)

And finally, this week I shared how I use photos as art throughout our house:

Of course, I’m so thankful to all of my wonderful advertisers…over there to the left. :)

Whew! What a month! Thanks so much for coming along for the ride -- can’t wait for a great March!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Photographs: My favorite art

2011-02-23T20:55:00.000-08:00

Well hello all! Can you believe it’s almost the weekend already? I swear this week has absolutely flown by.

I got one project completed this week that I’m really, really happy with. (GLEE!!) And I did most of it with what I had, which is always a bonus in my book. :)

When it comes to filling wall space, we don’t have much real art in our home. OK, let me rephrase…we have ZERO real art. :)

An outlet Ballard Designs piece is the closest we get to actual art. Instead I’ve fill our walls with a bunch of molding and lots and LOTS of pictures. Bunches. Gaggles. :)

Photographs are my very favorite art. They’re cheap (most of the time I print them out at home and almost all frames are from Goodwill), they’re easy, and they add a personal touch to our home that no art could.

I’ve grouped framed pictures in almost every room in our house. The playroom:

See that squishy face? That’s my baby:

The cowboy is my Dad as a boy. I could die. :)

That wall of photos is getting a redo soon. I may move the shelves around and am definitely adding new photos throughout.

I filled an empty wall on our stairwell with photos as well:

Don’t worry…the mice are gone. As much as I HEART them. :)

And I used photos in a wall in our bedroom as well:

You can see they’re usually hung willy nilly. I like the scattered look when it comes to framed photos, which is REALLY weird for me, since I’m the symmetrical queen.

When I started the impromptu redo of the living room, I knew exactly how I wanted to fill the space between the windows. I took at look at the colorway on the fabric I picked for the drapes for some color inspiration:

I big fat LOVE when they do that! It makes it so easy to work with. You’ll notice there’s 16 different colors in this beautiful fabric, which gave me plenty of options to choose from.

And it turns out, I already had exactly what I needed. :) About eight months ago, I started collecting frames at Goodwill for an idea I had for the living room. I even spray painted them months ago – I bet it’s been about six months.

But when I tried my idea in the room, I didn’t care for it (more about that later!) and left it sitting for months. And wouldn’t you know it – the colors I had already painted the frames worked perfectly for my new idea:

I love using what I have. And I love it even more when the spray painting is already done. ;)

I started finishing off this spot with a Goodwill lamp – it was blinding me with it’s brassiness at the store, but I knew it could be a beauty:

Doesn’t it have the loveliest curves? Oh, she’s so darn pretty. :) I sprayed it with a primer and then a couple coats of Rustoleum’s Heirloom White. I had the shade, and added a ribbon from my stash around the bottom. I love how the color in the ribbon is an exact match to the light brown in the drapes.

That is what I’m talkin’ about! Totally by accident and it worked great. Whooeee!!

I kept the accessories in the HomeGoods tray simple. I didn’t want them to compete with the art:

The rattan ball was a couple bucks on clearance at Pottery Barn years ago. The books are those faux books, and I covered them with a linen fabric last year.

The art is my very favorite part! They’re all shots I took (with my point and shoot camera by the way) last year:

I used a few of the wildflower shots (from our neighborhood) and a leaf from a hike last fall. I was going for bright colors that worked with the drapes. LOVE.

I don’t even use mats most of the time – I just cut out white paper and use spray adhesive or double-sided tape to mount the photos right on top. You can’t even tell they’re not the real thing!

Like I mentioned, I usually print my photos out at home (and usually just on basic printer paper), but this time I splurged a little bit. I uploaded them to Walgreens.com and picked them up an hour later.

Uhh, hello?? How have I missed this fabulousness all these years? I knew about it, just never did it. And I’m now hooked. I think the five pictures were about $12.

The new art is the perfect finishing touch for that part of the room:

I’m so in love with it. I smile every time I walk in this space.

There’s still much I want to do – not sure that mirror is staying on the right (it’s a little small). You’ll see a peek of a Goodwill coffee table that’s waiting for a redo. And there’s pillows to make as well. (I am going to attempt to make a pillow with a zipper people.) ;)

And if you look close enough, you’ll notice the drapes are different lengths, still aren’t hemmed (will they ever be? I don’t know, I don’t know!), and there’s a few holes in the wall I need to paint over.

I was able cover most of those with the frames though. YESSSS.

Because you know I’m a lovah of before and after pics, let’s check out the difference so far, shall we? The dark before:

And with new drapes and a little reworking, the now:

BOO.yah. LOVE it.

I know many of you are loving the fabric as much as I am – I got it from Calico Corners and it’s P. Kaufman fabric:

I’m trying to find it online and haven’t come up with anything yet. I’ll let you know if I find a link!

So, do you use photos as art in your home? I know one thing – if we ever sell our house, the realtor is going to have a heyday with us. Aren’t you supposed to depersonalize? We’ll have LOTS of empty walls! Or they’ll just have to deal. :)

P.S. The lamp shade on the side table was a vintage find years ago. Isn’t is perfect?

P.P.S. The spray paints/colors I used on the frames were Rustoleum’s Heirloom White and Espresso and Valspar’s Everglade.

Organize It Party!

2011-02-21T19:04:00.000-08:00

Well howdy! Hope you had a fantastic weekend and President’s Day! Did you get any purging done? Organizing? Getting rid of STUFF?? :)

If not, hopefully you’ll be inspired to do just that after this shindig!

One of my favorite little tricks of late is a bit of a decluttering/organizing combo. I’ve discovered a new love when it comes to organizing, and it’s not rocket science.

It’s the good old Ziploc bag:

This certainly isn’t anything new – I’ve seen folks all over blogland use them often. But it was just recently that it clicked how AWESOME they are for the kid stuff.

I have a love/hate relationship with the boxes that the Bub’s toys and puzzles come in. I love that they are so easily stacked and put away, but hate that they fall apart so easily and take up SO MUCH space:

Especially those memory games – the actual pieces take up so little space in that big box.

So, I started using bags instead, and I LOVE IT:

It’s such a simple thing! They’ve made a difference though. It must be something about seeing the pieces, or just the ease of getting to them -- but the Bub seems to want to play with his games even more now, and is so helpful when it comes to putting everything away.

Now, we just toss the baggies in big bin, which helps the clean up too:

I now have 14 different games in that one bin – there’s no way 14 boxes would have fit.

This makes Momma HAPPY. And you know when Momma’s happy, everyone’s happy. :) Ha!

But really…it’s the truth. For reals. YouknowwhatI’msayin’.

I also used the baggies to organize the little addition I showed you in our living room:

I pulled the former changing table/former office storage dresser into the room last week and LOVE it.

Like I mentioned, even though this is our “formal” living room, we use the space pretty much every day. I thought the dresser would be a great spot for all of our puzzles.

Oh, the puzzles. And…puzzles. Big ones, little ones, so many puzzles:

But you can see that I could barely fit four large boxes in one drawer, and that wasn’t going to work at all.

Baggies to the rescue again:

Four boxes took up almost the whole drawer, and now six big puzzles take up just over half of the space:

Do you hear the singing? I. love. it. It’s just such a satisfying mix of decluttering and organizing – getting rid of the bulky, torn up boxes, but still having everything separated and easy to get to.

I’ve got the little puzzle pieces in bins, but am planning on putting them each in their own bags as well:

For the floor puzzles, I cut out a picture off the box so we have something to refer to when putting it together. :)

Someday when we’re done with these, I’ll just donate them in the bag – I doubt the box will matter that much to the next family. It’s working out GREAT for us!

So…let’s see what you’ve got! Link up any organization ideas, decluttering tips, even cleaning suggestions. Anything that will help us get our lives under control is perfect for this party!

Make sure to link up to your post – not your blog. The party will be open through next Monday evening.

Have fun and enjoy! (I accidentally made the boxes a little small, sorry about that! Tried fixing it but can’t for some reason.)

Do you love Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs?
You’ll LOVE Knock Off Decor!

Winners and project FAIL

2011-02-18T19:40:00.000-08:00

Howdy all! First of all, the two lucky winners of The Rusted Chain giveaway are…

Kaitlindsay from Brighter than Sunshine and Kristine from Random Robb Stuff.

Yahoo! Ladies, please email me at thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll get you in touch with Beki. :)

Well, all of my projects are not peaches and pink flamingos and fluffy clouds. Some fail miserably, and I try to show you the good and the bad along the way. (Coral and aqua cake anyone?)

Anyhoo, I was SO bummed the other day, because one of my most recent (and favorite!! Pout.) transformations had turned into a total FAIL. And I knew I had to show you so you could avoid a similar fate. (Sniff.)

Remember my beautiful Goodwill pitcher?:

Well, I went to empty out the tulips and water the other day, and when I grabbed the handle, something crackled.

Crackle? What the heck? I looked down and saw a bubble. I touched the bubble and this happened:

DUDE! I was so bummed out! My initial thought was that I could sand it down and respray it.

Then I looked some more and found these:

Little bitty crackley bubbles ALL OVER it. It looked like it had the mumps. :(

Like that wasn’t bad enough, I happened to put my hand under it, and noticed it was a bit damp.

Looked at my beautiful butcher block and it looked like there had been water sitting in a couple spots.

Curses! Shakes fists in air!!

I thought there had to be another explanation for it it, so to test it out, I placed the pitcher (filled with water) on a paper towel for a day. When I lifted it up to check later, I found this:

The darn thing was LEAKING. On my wood island countertop – for a week. Oh, you gotta be kidding me.

Thankfully, a little sanding and drying time and the spot on the butcher block is gone.

But now I know why the pitcher was at Goodwill in the first place. (SAD FACE.)

I primed that thing within an inch of it’s life, so I guess ceramic just doesn’t take it well in general. Any experience with this?

And of course, by then I was completely loving the idea of a pretty white pitcher on our island, so I was on the lookout for a new one. I found a HUGE selection at HomeGoods:

So many beautiful options! Aren’t they pretty? All were $9.99 but were about half the height that I wanted.

And then I remembered that a reader had mentioned one she found at Target. I don’t need to be told twice to take a trip to Tarjay, so off I went. And I scored this beaut:

She’s not as wide as the other one, but she is taller. And still has a graceful handle that I love – all for $13. :)

I have now checked underneath it about 95 times, but all is well:

So…sometimes – once in a while -- thrifting bites you in the butt. But I’m willing to keep taking my chances. :)

Speaking of a trip to HomeGoods, last week I met two readers while shopping – Valerie and Carolyn. They were just the coolest, and it was so fun to chat with them:

Well, that’s me and Valerie. Carolyn was taking the picture. ;)

We ended up talking for a while, and it was absolutely insane what a small world it is…I graduated from the same high school as Carolyn, and turns out her brother was in my class.

SO CRAZY.

Carolyn wrote about our meeting over at her blog here. (They crack me up.) And I’m warning you – you’ll be swooning over her bathroom redo. Here’s a peek:

Ack! Gorgeous! (Jealous!!)

So fun. So if you think you see me shopping at HomeGoods in Indianapolis, come say hello!! :)

The Organize It Party will go up Monday evening, so get those posts ready!:

Have a fantastic weekend! I’ll be thrifting with some girlfriends at my very favorite spots in all of Indy – Midland Arts and Antiques. Can’t wait!!

P.S. Thanks to Click Studio for finding my linen closet light bulb! :) You can see it here.

P.P.S. I am working on finding out more info about the fabric I used in the living room. I’ll let you know next week!!

Do you love Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs?
You’ll LOVE Knock Off Decor!

One linen closet down

2011-02-16T20:59:00.000-08:00

Hello all! How are ya?!

If you were anywhere in…well…the country a couple of weeks ago…you were most likely getting some wicked crazy weather. We certainly did. The temps here have been in the 40’s and high 50’s this week, and we STILL have three inches of ice on our lawn.

The first day or so, I was kinda digging being iced in…by the third day of not leaving (we couldn’t even get out to the mailbox), it was starting to make me twitch. Just a tad.

So I put the twitching to good use. :) We are SO lucky to have a ton of closet space in our house. We have a fantastic linen closet it our downstairs powder room that we use a TON.

Although my before pics are horrendous cell phone pics (bad blogger!), they don’t look too horribly messy, right?:

I didn’t think it was that bad either…till I actually started going through everything.

I plopped my booty on the floor and went bin by bin…and I GOT RID OF CRAP. :)

It’s quite amazing how much STUFF hides in those storage bins:

Seriously? This was the stuff I didn’t keep.

Ummm…I really hope the toilet was clean for the picture. Huh.

No really, seriously? That’s insane people! That’s all stuff we didn’t need or don’t use. Taking up lovely storage space. (In the closet and in my head.)

Well, except the potty step…that just got caught up in the mess. :)

You don’t even get the full effect with that picture since stuff is piled high. Here’s what I bagged up from the closet:

The little bag went to Goodwill. The donate bag was full of cleaning rags and supplies that we DON’T NEED FOR GOODNESS SAKES, and that went to a local shelter. The last bag was just trash.

And some of that pile went down to the basement. Crayzay!

After all of that, I actually got rid of one of the bins, and just reorganized the others.

Here’s the after with a real camera:

I know, the whole good camera thing helps the after pics a bit. :)

This helps too:

Smartie me didn’t have lights installed in our closets, and this one is especially dark. I’ve had this little dodad for years and haven’t really used it till now.

DUH. It works GREAT! I lost the back part that you attach to the wall, so I just nestled it into the wire shelves. See, wire shelves are good for something! :)

Let’s take a little tour, shall we?

The top shelf is just extras and our hand towels rolled up in a small bin:

The next one holds a bin for batteries and random toy parts. (I put broken pieces in here so when I find the match, I know where to look.) There’s also a bin for light bulbs:

LIGHT. BULB! Sorry, couldn’t resist the Despicable Me reference. :) Lurve.

This is one of the shelves that gives me little bitty hives cause a bin doesn’t match:

Just go with it Sarah. Breathe. Life will go on. You’ll survive this.

Anyhoo, that odd one there holds all floor care stuff, and the other holds all other cleaning supplies. You can see I only kept the stuff we USE and got rid of or stored the extra stuff that we didn’t.

On the next shelf, we have a bin for air fresheners (cause it is a bathroom) and my Bath and Body Works plug in jobbies that I’m obsessed with. I keep the supply for the house here:

The other bin is for dirty clothing and towels. I learned about two days after bringing the Bub home from the hospital that I needed a spot for dirty clothes downstairs. It works great for random socks and kitchen towels.

Down one more shelf (isn’t this SO EXCITING???) is a bin for the vacuum parts and one for rags:

I had an obscene amount of rags. I mean, it was positively ridiculous. Got rid of half of them.

I’ve always used the back of the door for storage, but I added a couple more hooks – one for covers for the floor broom (upper left), and one for the potty seat on the bottom:

This space is ALL about function over form. :) But I am thrilled that we now have a spot for that seat. Now when friends drop by, they’re not greeted with a bright yellow potty seat. You know what I’m sayin’.

The closet can now breathe again:

And the very best part? I was so excited to have it organized again, I finally got rid of the brassy knob and hinges on the door:

WHOO HOO! I’ve had them for a YEAR now…that’s how slow that process has gone. Almost done switching them all out – when I’m done I’ll tell you more about that DIY project. :)

So…have you been decrapifying? Organizing? Loving it? :) I hope so! If you haven’t, maybe a little shindig will get you in the mood:

This coming Monday, come one come all! :) Link up all of your decluttering or cleaning projects. Can’t wait to see your tips and tricks!

P.S. There is usually a child proof door handle on the knob to the closet. Because I had just changed it out it’s not on for the pictures. :)

Do you love Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs?
You’ll LOVE Knock Off Decor!

COLOR! (in the living room)

2011-02-14T20:50:00.000-08:00

First of all, Happy Valentine’s Day my SQUEEZIES! :) Hope you had a great one.

I’ve been working on some changes in our living room over the last couple of weeks, and I’m nowhere near close to done, but I just couldn’t wait to show you! I am LOVING how it's turning out -- so excited.

I don’t know if it’s the three inches of ice that have finally melted off our driveway (for the first time in two weeks), or the warmer temps we’re getting this week that is giving us hope for spring, or maybe it’s because the cat peed on the drapes…any one of them could be the reason for my spur-of-the-moment decision to make some changes to our front room.

What’s that? Hmmmm? Oh yeah…I skipped over the pee cat thing. She was off her meds for two long and the inevitable happened. This time though…I’m GLAD. Because that’s actually what started this ball rolling. See – pee cats are good for something! (And she’s really sweet and loving and yada yada…)

Anyhoo, enough mentions of pee for one post. Onward! It started when I took a drape down to wash it, and it just spiraled out of control from there.

For the past year or so, I’ve been trying to add more color to our living room. It looked like this back in the day:

OK, well there’s been color – it’s just been one color. Red. :)

And then I made a few more changes and it looked like this for quite some time:

Notice the trend? DARK. A ton of dark peices and accessories, and red fabrics – ONLY red. You see, for the longest time I thought our wall color was hard to work with. It’s called Beechwood Grey from Porter, and I like it – but for a long time I just felt like I needed to match it, you know?

So red was the direction I went…and I liked it for a while. But my style…it is a changin’. :)

And taking that one drape down kind of got my wheels turning. I noticed how much brighter it got in the room with just the one panel down. So I took another down…and another…and you get the picture.

The front of our house doesn’t get direct sunlight, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell – the room was positively glowing. And I was in luuurve.

That’s what started the ball started rolling – and the wheels in my head churning. First up was to trim out the windows like I showed you here. I’ve slowly but surely done this around the house, and I’m about half way through the windows now.

And then, since I was going to paint the sills and everything around the window, I went ahead and recaulked both of them:

I didn’t even keep it clean and pretty, because I knew I was painting over it all in white.

And that I did – the new trim and drywall around the windows was painted out in glossy white. See how this started with a little bitty thing and got HUGE? :)

Then another idea came to mind. I love love LOVE my free sewing cabinet and Ballard-esque cafe shelves between the windows, but they have seemed so HEAVY to me lately:

(The iron snowflakes hanging in the windows that I tried to convince myself didn’t look like snowflakes have been gone for a while. They are now packed away in the Christmas decor. Cause they are snowflakes.)

Anyway…I’ve always felt like I needed something more substantial between those windows.

So I took it all away:

(I had just wiped down the wall – hence the dark marks.)

I contemplated leaving those windows nekked by the way, just like in our kitchen. I was smitten, I tell you.

But then…then, I found THIS:

I was perusing Calico Corners last week (I hadn’t been to the fabric store in forEVER), saw this and couldn’t get it out of my head. It had COLOR – so many beautiful colors. And I just thought the print was stunning.

I couldn’t resist it. And I’m so glad I didn’t. Cause now that dark room looks like this:

Now, I’m showing you in between pics here – keep that in mind. I like to show the process of things so I really wanted to show you the progress thus far.

I think it’s a dramatic change, yes?:

That dresser has made the rounds around our house. It was the Bub’s changing table forever, then it moved to the office, and then it was in the basement for a while.

I made hubs drag it up the stairs to see if it would work and I fell. in. love.

Do you see how differently the wall color photographs? It drives me a little batty. It’s looking way pink in these pics, when it really has more of a greyish tint like in the nekked window picture above.

I’ve mentioned before that we don’t use this as a formal living room – we use it constantly. So the dresser is going to be fantastic storage for puzzles and other activities we do out there:

I have a Goodwill lamp that’s almost ready for the left up on top there. The beautiful wood crate? HomeGoods baby! (For $16!) Doesn’t it looked like I plucked it out of an antique store? LOVE that color too.

One of the things I’d love to do, especially now, is to get a slipcover made for the chair and sofa:

But even without covers, I love them SO MUCH MORE in this room now. It’s just crazy – I don’t know why, but they don’t bother me nearly as much. (But I AM going to slipcover. Oh yes…I am.)

I have a plan for the wall above the dresser too – I already have everything I’ll need. Can’t wait to get it up there!:

And yes, there ARE about 50 holes in that wall from the various changes I’ve made to it. :) They’ll all be covered with my plan. I’m not even gonna fill them. Buwahahaha!!! :)

I’m hoping to get the rest of the changes made to this part of the room by the end of this week, so I’ll show you as soon as I’m done. There’s some other stuff I’m working on elsewhere in the space too, but that is going to take a bit longer.

But for now…I simple cannot believe the difference a little editing and new drapes made…the before:

And after:

WHOO, swoon, ACK…Happy Valentine’s Day to ME…I am love! Ha! :)

Can’t wait to show you the rest! So far it’s turning out just like it looked in my head…just hope the rest of it does. (I love when that happens!)

P.S. I have not even hemmed the drapes yet…that’s how not completed this room is. Did I mention I have little to no patience?? :)

Like my version of the Ballard Designs cafe shelves?
You’ll LOVE Knock Off Decor!

Giveaway Weekend!

2011-02-11T20:40:00.000-08:00

Hello there! I’m back with another great giveaway this weekend, and it’s one of my favorites. My friend Beki of The Rusted Chain is not only funny, pretty and sahweeeet…but she’s also super talented.

I like her a lot. (Said like Lloyd Christmas.) :)

She’s made a name for herself with her stamped jewelry, but has a beautiful selection of other pieces as well. I picked out a few of my favorites from her shop, all in a Valentine’s Day theme. Perfect for this weekend!

You know Honeysuckle is the Pantone color of the year, right? It’s a beautiful pink and I am smitten with it. I fell in LOVE with the touches of it in this necklace:

Isn’t that beautiful? A touch of unexpected fun mixed in with pretty and traditional. :)

And there are earrings to match:

Just lovely. Perfect for spring! (Sigh…spring…)

If you’re looking for a Valentine’s gift for just about…well…any female on the face of the earth, I’m betting she’d love any of the following:

Please feel free to forward this post to your significant other with the subject line “Any will do.” I think they appreciate the hints. :)

Not only is this one perfect for V-Day, but it’s also a great gift idea for the newly engaged or married woman in your life:

Just precious! So sweet.

This one is my favorite with a “love” theme:

The sweet little heart and hugs and kisses put it over the top. LOVE.

And I have to mention my favorite of all of Beki’s pieces, because it’s the one I own:

I absolutely love it. It’s pretty and delicate and says it all in one word. It’s one of my favorite necklaces and I wear it constantly.

So those are some of my favorites – I know you’ll find plenty of your own. :)

Here’s the best part -- Beki has graciously offered a $25 gift certificate for TWO winners! Since most of her jewelry is under $30, you'll be sure to find something you’ll love.

Here’s the drill – leave a comment here for your first entry. For your second entry, go to Beki’s site here and pick out one of your favorite pieces. Come back here to leave a second comment letting us know what that is. That’s it!

**You can also take advantage of a 15 percent discount on any purchase through the end of the month by entering the code “TDC15.”

The giveaway will be open until Monday, Valentine’s Day at noon Eastern time.

Have a GREAT weekend! :)

online consultations!

2011-02-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

Well hello there!

I am SO excited to announce a partnership that’s been in the works for awhile now.

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know I used to offer online consultations. I absolutely LOVED doing it, but it got so time intensive, I found it hard to keep up. Something had to give, and that was it. :)

I’ve heard from many of you that you really want an affordable option for decor consultations, and I am thrilled to announce that my friends at My Design Guide can now help you out!

They’ve offered online consults for a while now, but now there’s an even more affordable option, in addition to their other services. The My Design Guide professional designers can answer design questions about your space -- wondering about paint colors, furniture arrangement, window treatments, accessories, whatever? They can help with all of that and more.

WHOO! I’m so excited (for you!).

We’ve worked out an awesome deal for my readers – I hope you’ll check it out. I’m so thrilled to be able to offer you this option.

To find out more, click here! (You can also find it through the tab at the top of my blog.)

**I appreciate all the responses to the sofa post! I’m going to try to break them down and do another post with the pros and cons of the brands mentioned. :)

Searching for a sofa

2011-02-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

Well the time has come people…and I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Yippee!! :)

Because we are now debt free (did I mention that??), I can move forward with my plan for a new sofa in our family room.

SO EXCITED!

Excited because it will be the first time we’ll pay cash for a major piece of furniture since we moved into this house seven years ago. And excited because I am so, so over our sofa, it’s just ridiculous. (More on that in a bit.)

I showed you back in January how I went against the sofa rules and removed the loveseat from the family room:

We love love LOVE it!! It’s made a huge difference in this room. I have another big change in the works as well that is going to help a ton too, but for now, it’s time for a new sofa.

Are you excited?! SO EXCITED. :)

I get emails asking about our sofas often – and from far away they look really great. They have that going for them.

They are comfy too. They’ve got that too. But that’s about it.

We bought the sofa and loveseat about three years ago from a local furniture store. They look like we’ve had them around for about twice as long.

I’m thoroughly annoyed with how they’ve held up, considering the cost. Over the years, I’ve found more and more things that bother me and have learned what to look for in a future purchase…

When you lay on the sofa and put your feet up against the arm – it pops in and out:

It feels like cardboard under there. For reals. (That’s what I’m doing in the pic, by the way. :) I can do it with my hand – it’s that flimsy.)

The sides and back are not wrapped in any way, other than with the fabric:

That’s part of the reason I ended up getting a sofa table for behind the sofa. I was so afraid the fabric was going to get punctured with some random pointy toy and then we’d have a gaping hole.

The frame is flimsy, at best:

Another reason for the sofa table – people would lean against the back of the sofa and kind of sit on it, and I would nearly have a heart attack every. time. It creaks and pops, like it’s about to snap at any second.

Those are some big issues, but the biggest for me is the fabric. OHHH the fabric. I feel like a total goob because I used to work in the decor biz and would create custom sofas for people – so I know about fabrics and those that are good for wear and tear.

This stuff is not. It’s a chenille-type fabric, and it’s already worn really, really thin:

And my very favorite part (NOT), is that when you try to clean them, this happens:

Did I mention we have a preschooler and THREE cats? It’s hopeless with these sofas – everything changes the color of the fabric. You can’t use water and soap to clean them. Well, you can, and I do…but that’s what I get.

I can’t even use the cleaning stuff they gave me to use – now how does that make sense? They can only be professionally cleaned. I’m not calling professionals every time a drop of milk spills.

DUMB on my part. I don’t know what in the world I was thinking. Gah.

So now, up close, they look positively grody. I mean, they’re clean, they just look GRODY.

SO…(excited giggle)…I’m starting to look for a new sofa.

And we’re doing it right this time…I’m doing my research and we’ll probably spend a little more, but I want something that will last and is built well.

Like I’ve mentioned before, our family room is really large, but we have NO walls for a sofa. (Again, dumb on my part when we built.) So we have space issues as far as the size of the sofa is concerned – it can’t be too large.

I’ve been researching for months now and finally found one that works perfectly size-wise:

It’s the Buchanan Chaise Sofa from Pottery Barn. It’s absolutely the PERFECT size. We need to watch how wide we go, and this one is just right. (I feel like Goldilocks right now.)

I love the chaise part, so more than one of us can lay on the sofa at one time. It’s also great extra seating for when we entertain.

I love the lines and traditional look of the slipcovered Basic Chaise Sofa as well:

But it’s a LOT more expensive, and it’s about 20 inches wider, which I think is going to be too big.

I went to check out the Buchanan in the store today and it was SO comfy – the seats are really deep (one of the things you want to look for). It was so funny though – it looked so teeny in the store. WAY smaller than our current sofa. I took some measurements – seat height, back height, etc. – and checked them against our current sofa when I got home.

It turns out it’s actually quite a bit bigger than ours. It blew my mind. I’m sure it has something to do with it’s placement in the huge showroom compared to our normal family room. But the fact that it’s higher off the ground and taller made me fall in love with it even more…so I’m getting really excited. :)

I picked out a few color and fabric options:

We’ll go with twill or canvas – I don’t care for the microsuede look, at least the PB version. And the really light options you see up there? Yeah…those were knocked out of contention as soon as I got home. No way can I keep up with that. :) On a slipcovered sofa sure, but not on an upholstered piece. My goal is to NOT worry about stains this time around.

Sooo…this is where I ask for some input my Squeezies. Do you have a sofa you LOVE? What fabric is on it? Does it hold up well? Are the cushions still cushy for your tushy? Where did you get it? Do you own or have you owned a Pottery Barn sofa? (We never have.)

I’ve heard really good things about the slipcovered Ikea sofas as well – anyone have feedback on those? I’ve also seen great things online about some sofas at Macy’s.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Like I mentioned, we’re not going the microsuede route, and won’t be doing leather either.

And FOR SURE none of that chenilley, nubby, whatever-it-is stuff we currently have. Did I mention that is the fabric we have on ALL of our sofas in the house? GAH! And OH YEAH, we have THREE cats? I swear, they are so much harder to keep up with than our son! (Hairballs people…hairballs.)

Now that I’ve left you with that lovely visual…I’d love to hear your thoughts! Fill me in on the sofas you LOVE. (And the ones you don’t!) Thanks in advance!

P.S. The Before and After Party is ROCKIN’! Check out the more than 430 links…awesome!

P.S.S. Now that I look at the pics of our sofa and realize how nasty it looks, I hope you all realize that it really is clean. Cross my heart, pinky promise, swear. But you see why I’m ready to banish it to the basement, yes? :)

February Before & After: A pretty pitcher

2011-02-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I’m back this month with a very simple but beautiful (I think so anyway) before and after project!

It started with a recent trip to Goodwill – I don’t go as often as I used to (see my STUFF post), so I haven’t found nearly as much good stuff as I used to. (You have to go fairly often to get the good pickins.)

But that day, the heavens shined down on this beauty on the top shelf:

Ummm…OK, well the shape was beautiful. I guess the flowers weren’t that bad, they just weren’t what I was going for. :)

But the size, the lovely lines, the beautiful spout – they had me at Hello.

I knew I could spruce her up with a few coats of spray paint. And a “few” coats turned into about eleventy billion. Or so. Maybe about seven. Whatever.

It took five coats of spray primer to get those purdy flowers covered up. I did an additional two coats of a glossy white on top.

After trip to Trader Joe’s for some (fairly) cheap tulips, I was able to bring my vision for this cutie to life:

Oh SWOON. Just…swoon. I am so ready for tulips people. I actually don’t mind the snow that much – but we’ve been hammered with it and ice over the past couple of months (way more than usual) and I’m really starting to miss green grass.

Will I ever see it again?

I don’t care what Punxsutawney Phil says, I think it’s gonna be awhile. :)

Even with the meeeellion coats of spray paint, this is one of my easiest and favorite spray paint transformations yet:

I wish I could have gotten some shots in the daylight, but we got home from dinner too late. I’m ready for more photo taking hours in the day too, while we’re talking about spring. :)

I absolutely love the pretty shape – looks like it came out of a Pottery Barn catalog doesn’t it?

Only their version -- $39. Mine? A whole five buckaroos. :)

WHOO HOO!

Now, I won’t be pouring any lemonade with mine – it’s just for holding beautiful flowers. And I’m totally OK with that.

I just LOVE IT.

Soooo…my before and after for the month – a Goodwill find transformed with my beloved. My BFF. Spray paint:

Now it’s time to see what you’ve been up to!

Be sure to link up to your post, not your blog. And I’d love it if you’d include this pretty little button and a link back to this post:

I’m trying a new linky this time, so I hope this works! :)

Have fun – I’ll leave this open for a week, so link. it. up!

The party is tonight!

2011-02-07T16:47:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Just wanted to let you all know the February Before and After Party will go up later this evening! Get those posts ready to go. :)

To tide you over, I just had to share this skit my friend Melissa posted the other day. I guess it’s from a show called Portlandia? (I had never heard of it till now.)

All I know is, one of the writers is an etsy, blog or Pottery Barn fan. :)

SO FUNNY:

I’ll be back soon with the par-tay!

Work what ya got

2011-02-04T14:44:00.000-08:00

Well hello!! I got a fun little project accomplished yesterday that I absolutely LOVE. :)

It started with some house envy, believe it or not. :) Yes, even I see beautiful homes in blogland and sometimes that little green monster starts rearing it’s head. You all know I LOVE our house, so it’s not a big monster, mind you -- just a little one.

I just love little corners, niches, interesting spots in homes, and I adore how some people use awkward spots to their full potential. Like hallways – I just love a long hallway with hardwood floors, a beautiful runner and woodwork as far as the eye can see. Add a gallery of family photos and I’m swooning.

I have a recurring dream about a house we buy and are fixing up, and in each dream I find a new little nook or a tiny room I didn’t know was there before. I LOVE that dream. :)

But alas, we have no nooks, no niches. Not even a hallway. Not one hallway in our entire house. That’s the new open concept for ya – plenty of open spaces (which we love), but sometimes I do crave a little nook.

About a month ago or so, I realized we a needed a storage solution for our son’s dress up stuff. Now, not dress up like princess dresses. Manly dress up like policemen, train conductors and firemen.

(Insert Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunt here.)

So I thunk and I thunk, and I thought of the closest thing to a hallway we have – the half wall in our playroom/loft:

And the idea hit me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

First step was to paint the wall out in semi-gloss white:

Didn’t he do a great job?:

I kid! I kid! No child labor here folks.

Mostly because he wasn’t doing it right.

I kid! Not really.

OK, onward! You’ll notice I didn’t even paint the edges of the wall. I didn’t need to because it was going to be covered up with my next step. I took primed mdf from Lowe’s and started installing my vision:

I took some video to give some more detail, but it’s so straightforward – boards across the top, bottom and sides. Then I did some measuring to figure out the spacing between the rest of the boards.

The math went like this – the space between the two outside boards was almost exactly six feet. So I took:

6 feet x 12 (for inches) = 72 inches

The boards were 3.5 inches wide, so I figured out how many sections I wanted (five) and knew that would take four additional pieces of mdf:

3.5 (mdf boards) x 4 = 14 inches

Take the 72 inches minus 14 and you get 58 inches.

Divide 58 inches by the five sections I wanted, and you get 11.6 sections between each vertical board.

Does that make sense? Math and I are not friends, and I swear it’s easy. Once you do it one time, it’ll make more sense for the next time. :) I use that method for any spot where I’m adding molding to a specific amount of space (and I want it to look uniform.)

I took a quick video to show you a couple of my other tricks:

Sooo…anyhoo, after a couple more coats of paint on the mdf, some caulk (remember, it’s your BFF folks!), and hooks – I got this:

Isn’t it gorgeous? I mean, really. I want it all. over. my. house. ALL OVER. It’s just classic and pretty and yummy.

I can’t believe how happy woodwork makes me. It’s just ridiculous.

Now we have a spot for all of the make believe outfits:

I almost hated to cover it all up, but it’s for the sake of my sanity. Those hats have been laying around here and there for months because I haven’t found a good spot for them.

I especially love how it ties into the mdf I added to the staircase last year:

And you smarties will notice that NO, I have not painted that railing yet. Only the bottom section is done:

That is how I roll. :)

I just love how it turned out! I took an empty wall that wasn’t doing anything:

And made it functional and pretty:

Gotta love that!

The wood was el cheapo – I think I spent $15 on the mdf. I got the ORB hooks at Lowe’s as well. Love, love, LOVE!

Now I’m so pumped to get moving on the board and batten in the office! My plan is to get started on that this weekend.

Have a GREAT one!

Giveaway Winner and THANKS!

2011-02-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

First of all, THANK YOU for all of your amazing comments and emails about my last post. (I read every single one.)

We are so thrilled and still pinching ourselves a bit. :) I think it’s going to take a while to sink in. I really, really appreciate all your support. It means a lot to us both!

I wanted to make sure to announce the winner of the Amy Peters’ Studio giveaway from last weekend. Becky from Doodlebug Drama, you are the lucky winner! WHOO! Please send me a quick email at thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com.

I have to give a quick shout out to my friend Stefanie over at Brooklyn Limestone – last week I guest posted for her junk drawer series:

If you need some decluttering inspiration, you’ll want to check out these posts! (You can see my post here.)

And finally, I started and almost finished a DIY project today that I can’t wait to show you! It involves a lot of this:

I was thisclose to done with it tonight, but at the last minute my drill ran out of juice. CURSES!!

I’ll show you tomorrow for sure. I love it! :)

Till then, have a great Friday!

Well, it’s official. We’re WEIRD.

2011-02-01T20:55:00.000-08:00

You know that guy Dave Ramsey I keep talking about? You know how he says people who don’t have debt are WEIRD?

Well, if you don’t know him…that’s what he says.

“Debt is normal…be weird.”

Well.

As of this morning, we are officially,

completely,

gloriously,

totally,

happily

WEIRD.

WE’RE

DEBT

FREE!!!

(Except the house.)

Whoo, people!! WHOO!!!!

It still hasn’t hit us. Surreal is an understatement. I haven’t cried yet. But I will. Buckets. :)

It’s major. Like, $125,000 in just about three and a half years, MAJOR. (Yes, there were three zeros.)

I told you about our debt story here, (I way underestimated how much we had already paid off at that point) and for the past three years or so, we’ve been fighting, scratching, clawing at it -- taking our finances BACK. And it’s truly been a fight.

We had flooring debt, school debt, hot tub debt, medical debt, clothing debt, I-have-no-clue-what-we-bought debt – you name it, we had it.

We were so tired of it. It was a monkey on our backs. A large, 125,000 pound monkey. And it was exhausting carrying him around. ;)

Getting rid of that monkey – exhilarating.

I thought it was impossible to live without a car payment.

I thought I would be paying off my student loan till I was 45.

I thought I couldn’t pay for a piece of furniture unless we charged it.

I was wrong.

We decided to live like no one else. So now we can live like no one else.

And it is rockin’ our worlds.

We can live without credit cards. We can save for something and pay for it when we have the money. We can save for our future and change our children’s lives.

It makes me so emotional when I think about how we are completely changing their futures. We will leave them security, not a financial mess. That makes every minute of this process worth it.

Yes, we could have done this without Dave Ramsey. It’s not rocket science. It’s making a budget every month and sticking to it – and telling our money where to go. That was a biggie for me. We were never telling it where to go, we were just floating along. La dee da, la dee da.

But Dave Ramsey inspired us. His conviction and enthusiasm is absolutely contagious. You want to attack your debt like a raging BEAR after you listen to him for five minutes.

And today, I clicked the button that sent the payment to my student loan – our very last debt. It’s all gone – forever and ever and EVER.

It’s the first time in our adult lives we’ve been debt free. We’ve both had debt since we were 18 years old. I have never been an adult and NOT had debt.

Till today. I feel like I could float away, it feels so good.

We are SO WEIRD!!!!

And if being weird is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

I wanted to take a minute and thank you so much for sharing this journey with us! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your comments and emails about our story. It absolutely makes me smile every time.

One thing I know for sure – if we can do it, YOU CAN DO IT. It may take you longer, it may take you less. I know you will be so proud of yourself.

It made us more mature, it bonded us, it changed our marriage, in a really great way. It is one of the best things we have done in entire lives.

And I’ll say it again – WHOOOOOO!!!! :)

**And yes…we will be calling in to the radio show to scream. But now we want to take a trip down to Nashville and scream it in his lobby. It’s a big deal, and we want to celebrate it. :)

***I’m quite sure my Google ads will go crazy with credit companies after this post – I don’t personally endorse any of them. Just sayin’.

There was no line dancing…

2011-01-31T18:21:00.000-08:00

But there was beauty, everywhere you looked:

The Opryland Hotel is seriously one of the most magnificent places I have ever stayed. Absolutely gorgeous. And just like last year, I didn’t have nearly enough time to look around!

I only got night shots, and they’re still amazing:

There was plenty of goofing off:

I’m trying to bring Traci to the dark side…that would be giving up the sweet nectar that is soda. It’s not happening. But that’s why I love her! :)

We even fit in some thrifting:

Kate and Chris’s faces are the BEST. (We weren’t too sure about those chairs.) And no, that is not a beer in my hand, it’s a root beer. ;)

I got to meet the man who inspired us to change our lives, and our family tree:

Thanks SO MUCH to Jen for having me along!! (More on that soon!)

But more than anything, there was a lot of smiling:

(Chris and me)

TONS of hugging:

(Marian and me)

Bonding:

(Lorie and me)

A LOT of laughter:

(Myra, Chris, Richella, me, Traci and Rhoda)

Making new friends:

(Shauna and Ashley, new friends; me and Layla, an “old” friend)

And generally having an absolutely fantastic time!!:

I reconnected with the friends I’ve already met over the past year, and I finally got to meet so many bloggers I knew were friends but I had never met in real life. It never ceases to amaze me how I can meet someone for the first time, yet it’s as if I’ve known them for years and YEARS.

It’s instant friendship and love and understanding, and I am so fortunate to call all of these women friends and coworkers. It overwhelms me. What a blessing blogging is.

To say we had a blast would be an understatement. :)

Cheers to all of you – bloggers who were friends before we knew we were. :)

(If we met and I didn’t mention you, I mean YOU too!!)

A special shout out to my roomies – Chris, Rhoda and Beth:

I already miss our late night talks!! :) You are a few of the loveliest, funniest, best women I know.

I got home from Nashville just in time for the storm of the century (echo, echo, echo)…ice, snow and wind for the next couple of days. This was our bedroom window one hour into it tonight:

That would be a sheet of ice. Thankyouverymuch.

We are warming up, hunkering down and planning on staying in for the next 24 hours, at least. I hope to get some projects started and a few finished since we’ll be stuck inside. Stay safe if you are facing the same!!

**Some photos borrowed from Beth and Kate! :)

Giveaway Weekend

2011-01-29T20:26:00.000-08:00

Well hello! I am back from a FANTASTIC few days hanging with some amazing bloggy friends. I’ll tell you more about it soon, but I have a fabulous giveaway for you all first!

Amy from Amy Peters Studio makes some of the most adorable stamped jewelry around – I love her variety and the sweet messages on her pieces. And she’s been doing this since she was EIGHT years old – she’s a pro now, to say the least. ;)

Of course, I picked out a few of my faves to show you. And of course, I had 20 pictures saved and had to get a grip on myself to whittle that down just a tad.

I know I should save the very best for last, but I couldn’t resist putting these first – TOO cute! Check out the itty bitty cutie patootie fortune cookie necklaces:

UGH. Are you dying? I. am. dying. There’s actually two sizes – the one on the left is a bit bigger. The one on the right is the teensy one. ADORABLE. :)

Like I mentioned, I love the messages on Amy’s pieces. This one has the “take the road less traveled” message:

Wouldn’t that be a great one for a teen in high school or going off to college? A reminder that they don’t always have to follow the crowd is definitely a good thing. ;)

I love that you can purchase the chain and charm, or just the charm for that one. I have plenty of necklaces, so being able to just buy the charm is brilliant!

This one is just plain sweet:

Too cute! If Stink Eye sis is nice, maybe I’ll get it for her. :) This piece is available as a necklace or a bracelet.

I’m also in love with Amy’s dainty, stackable rings. How adorable would this one be, stacked three or four high?:

I love, love, LOVE that little flower!

And the message on this one says “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey”:

Perfect for any woman in your life who is starting on a new phase – job, school, family, whatever.

And I couldn’t resist showing you this ring stand as well:

Ack! Stinkin’ cute!

Aren’t they so sweet? I just love them all. She has an amazing selection!

Here’s the best part -- one of you lovelies will get to spend $75 as you wish at Amy Peters Studio:

WHOO!! I love giving away stuff. This is so fun. :)

Here’s the drill – leave a comment here for your first entry. For your second entry, go to Amy’s site here and pick out one of your favorite pieces. Come back here to leave a second comment letting us know what that is. That’s it!

The giveaway will be open until Tuesday the 1st at noon Eastern time.

Have a GREAT weekend! I’m off to squish my son a few more times – missed him SO MUCH!!! :)

Showing off The Newbies

2011-01-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

While I was away at Blissdom, I highlighted a bunch of “newbie” blogs – it was fantastic!! SO many talented ladies out there!

I gave each newbie their own post for that weekend, but to keep things simple for readers I thought it would be best to condense all of the posts (with links!) into one. :)

So, here we go, in the order they were posted!

A Little of This, a Little of That

Virginia Beach Housewife

Two Girls Being Crafty

The Little Apple Seed

A Chirp in the Forest

In My Own Style

Erika with a K

Year of Home and Health

My Life as Prose

Free Stylin’

Nat Mac’s Knick Knacks

Little Brown House

Wow! I am blown away by the talent out there in blogland!! Hope you enjoy browsing these newer sites. :)

A little love

2011-01-24T19:40:00.000-08:00

Heya all! How the heck are ya? Hope you had a great weekend!

Today I was feeling a little Valentine’s crafty mojo and worked on a couple SUPER quick projects.

Melissa’s cutie Scrabble art last year had me at “love”and I’ve wanted to do it since. I threw it together with a Goodwill frame, some pink paper behind the glass, and the Scrabble tiles hot glued to the top:

It would be way cauuuter with some adorable V-Day paper behind it (and maybe a nicer frame?), but I was trying to use what I had. :)

I wanted to fill the long frame, so I added the “forever” to what Melissa did. Now that I look at it, it reminds me of this book, so I may change this out after the holiday and put it in the Bub’s room somewhere. :) Maybe a navy blue frame and a white background to match his space? So fun!

This one was along the same lines, another Goodwill frame, with paper and a sparkly Target dollar spot heart glued to the front:

Simple but oh-so-precious!

I hope to put a little Valentine’s vignette together soon. (Check out Melissa’s! Adorable!) That little project will have to wait though, because I’m heading out to Nashville this week to hang with many of my bloggy friends at the Blissdom conference. I am SO excited to see the women I know and now consider friends in real life, and to meet so many new ones!

This picture tells the story of last year, words are not needed:

AnNicole, we will miss you!! Kate, when are we going line dancing? :)

Anyhoo – I decided a couple weeks ago that I wanted to share a little love and highlight some bloggers that are NOT attending Blissdom this year. I thought I’d be able to go through some of your blogs and pick projects, but because the response on Twitter and Facebook was so great I need your help.

I’d love to share some of your fantastic blogs while I’m gone!

Here’s the info:

1. Your blog must be a DIY/craft/decor blog.

2. You must be less than a year old. (Uhhh, your blog, not you.)

3. You are not attending Blissdom this year.

4. If you meet all three of those criteria, send me html of a post bragging about your blog. Maybe highlight three of your top projects?

5. Please make it a brief post and no more than three pictures. I’m going to try to get as many of these scheduled as I can, so I need them quick and easy and html ONLY.

6. If I have any issues getting your html to work, I’ll try to communicate with you to let you know, but I can’t make any promises. I have to do laundry before I leave (and that’s gonna take a while). :)

7. I’ll accept your posts starting…NOW. I’ll take them through Tuesday (January 25th) at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Anything after that won’t be used (cause I have to get to that dreaded laundry.)

8. If you send a post, I will highlight you in the order received. I will get as many scheduled as I can, but yours may not make it. If it doesn’t, I’ll keep it for a Show Her Off post in the future.

9. Send the email to thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com and put “NEWBIE” in the subject line. (Anyone else thinking of the Scrubs sitcom right now?)

Does that sound good? I want to promote some of you newer bloggers and I figured this would be a great time to do that!

And finally, I’m asking for a little love for me tomorrow (Tuesday). I was called back to do another mammogram, which I know is not unusual. They mentioned about 45 times (or so) that this would probably happen (since it was my first mammogram there is no baseline).

Even though I expected it, getting the call was still a little disheartening. I’m expecting and hoping for good news, but I would appreciate any tiny prayers you can send my way. I know there are so many out there who need prayers more than me, so thank you if you do. :)

Have a great week and stay tuned for some highlights of new(er) bloggers! Unless no one sends me posts. Then there will just be lots of crickets. Chirping.

P.S. Thank you to Daria in Pennsylvania for the extra Scrabble tiles! :)

A DIY memo board

2011-01-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

Well hello there!! I am just overwhelmed at your response to my last post. You made me feel SO much better! :) I was so happy to read your comments and to hear many of you are making time to take care of YOU! It made my week! (Really.)

Because of I’ve been organizing like mad, and throwing in a few more work outs in here and there lately – my DIY/crafty/decorating time has been suffering. :) I rectified that today with a project I’ve been meaning to do forEVER.

I needed a new memo board for the light and bright office redo I’ve been working on. I made this one years ago:

It’s looking a little sad now. :) To make it, I just covered a piece of insulation foam with fabric. I wrapped the ribbon around it and hung it -- done!

I wanted something huge and it worked perfect! (See that squishy face in the picture on top? That’s my Bub’s birth announcements. Still LOVE.)

Well, about a year ago (yes, a YEAR) I found this huge frame for $10 at Goodwill:

I think it was even half off – it’s been so long I can’t remember! I knew it would work perfect for a new memo board. (I was planning ahead.)

I liked how chunky the frame was, but it wasn’t in the best shape:

It also had a band of linen-type fabric that I actually quite liked.

I had a plan in mind for this baby and I absolutely luuuurve how it turned out! Not just love – LURVE.

First step was to prime the heck out of the sucker. I laid it down on my “spray painting” sheet on the garage floor and did a couple quick coats.

I need to mention that it was NINE degrees outside when I did this. It was unreal, it was so cold.

I am nothing if not dedicated! :)

Once I got feeling back in my hands, I brought it inside to dry. (Spray paint takes forever to dry in extreme temps.)

After that it was ready for paint. Because I wanted to use only what I had, I painted it the blue ceiling paint I used in the office. While it was drying, I moved onto the “memo” part:

This stuff is that thick foam insulation you can get at the hardware store. I love it! I got a few sheets to cover our crawl space openings into the basement years ago. It works GREAT – keeps the cold and the spiders out! Eww!

Anyhoo, I wanted to reuse the foamy stuff for this memo board as well. I measured the size I needed, then used my Dremel to cut it out:

Awe-some!! (Said in a sing song voice.)

I wrapped it with my fabric, securing it to the back with hot glue:

I nail gunned it to the back of the frame and it worked like a charm!

For now it's hanging right behind the desk:

I think it will stay on that wall, but not sure where exactly. :) My plan for the board and batten includes a small ledge, so after that’s done I’ll have to play around with the memo board.

Of course I used the stripe fabric, which is a pain in the booty to get just right:

It has to be perfectly straight or it will drive. you. MAD. Or maybe it just drives me mad. :)

When I primed the frame, I sprayed right over the linen fabric (one word: L.A.Z.Y.) and the primer didn’t even cover it. So weird – it looks just like it did before!:

I just left the little gold strip inside the frame primed. Again…laaaaazy.

I got the fabric pretty straight:

Enough that it doesn’t give my hives to look at it. :) It’ll be covered with notes anyway. That’s what I keep telling myself.

Did you notice my little addition to the DIY drum shade fixture?:

A picture in a magazine inspired it – I saw a beautiful drum shade trimmed out with beautiful, large glass beads. It was GORG. I searched ev.er.y.where. online and couldn’t find anything that looked like it – and then one day I checked out Hobby Lobby and found this.

It is just a precious little beaded trim – I adore it:

Is it possible to be in love with cute beaded trim? Is it normal to be in love with cute beaded trim? I don’t care – I am. :)

I am loving how the room is coming along! The time has come though – I need to buck up buttercup and just get that board and batten DONE.

I still can’t believe the transformation so far. The office before:

And after:

WHOO! Love it! And my office will be extra insulated now. ;)

**I still don’t know what I’m doing with that chair – the cover I had was the wrong blue, (total clash with the memo board) so I took it off for now. I think I have something in mind. (Do you hear my mind crankin’?)

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!!

Who’s on first?

2011-01-19T19:59:00.000-08:00

Well hello! I’m loving all of the suggestions (and empathizers) to the paper dilemma! (Dun dun duuunnnn.)

Number 9,324 I love blogging – you peeps get me. :)

Reason 9,325 that I love blogging – because when something’s on my mind, I tend to yuck it up on my virtual notepad…this blog. And you guys put up with it. :) I’ve had a bit of an epiphany lately and I was inspired to write about it tonight.

It’s a big one…and it’s about time. It only took 35 years for it to happen.

I’ve decided to GROW UP.

Not too much, mind you. Cause grown ups don’t say “Squeezaaays” and “cauuute.” I’m guessing they don’t anyway. (I have it on good authority they do say “lurve” though.)

I guess it started when we started to get serious about paying off our mountain of debt. The more we’ve paid off, the closer we’ve gotten to becoming debt free – the more mature we’ve become. That whole “only spend what you have” thing kind of forces that.

It’s made me (us) be more accountable, spend wiser, delay gratification – all that annoying grown up crap. :)

A few weeks ago I realized I needed to do that in another area in my life as well. You see, I felt like I was growing – not up, but OUT. (No, I’m not pregnant.) ;)

It wasn’t so much the holiday weight that we all feel – I’ve just been putting on weight for months now.

Make that years.

No one I know sees it like I do, of course. But you know how that goes -- we’re our own worst critics. And I just felt like a SLUG. You know what I mean? Like a puffy slug. Not pretty. Or fun.

But it wasn’t until I was visiting our family doc a few weeks ago (for my second case of strep throat in six weeks) that it hit me…I have to start taking better care of myself.

I mentioned to the doctor that I felt like I was gaining weight like crazy, and we had an interesting talk about it. I told him I wasn’t doing anything different, but felt like I was gaining by the month.

And he said something that caused one of those “LIGHT.BULB.” (name that movie!) moments. His response?

“Well, that’s the point – you’re not doing anything different.”

I’m getting older and I can’t keep doing what I’ve always done. (I know 35 is still young, believe me. But 35 is not 25. And it’s certainly not 17. Dang it!)

I tell you what – I walked out of that appointment a different person. It finally hit me – I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF.

I’m pretty much addicted to soda:

(Oh sweet, sweet nectar.)

And I walked out of that doc’s office and gave up soda. I’ve tried it before and couldn’t do it for long. This time, it was cake. Almost twenty-something years of (at least) two sodas a day, and I just stopped.

I thought it would be hard, but something in me clicked this time. Every once and a while I’ll crave a soda and get one, but most of the time it doesn’t even taste good. The odd times it does, I just drink a tiny bit and that’s all I need.

More than three weeks in and I get the craving for it less and less.

I want to grow up and take care of my body. I take care of everyone else – our child, my husband (as much as he’ll let me!) and our HOUSE. But I don’t take time to take care of me.

I don’t know what’s hit me, but I’m tired of it.

So for the last three weeks, I’ve reintroduced myself to this one and her DVDs:

I’m not liking her very much right now…but I might in a couple months. If I can walk then.

I’ve been doing this again:

Aww, look how cute I look!

I kid! That’s not me. Yet. (Someday I’ll look that happy on the treadmill.)

And today, I did something I have dreaded for years. YEARS.

I got a mammogram.

Yes, I’m only 35 and I got my first mammogram. It’s not as unusual as you might think. I had a bump years ago that turned out to just a fluid-filled cyst (determined through an ultrasound). But because of that, the docs wanted me to get a baseline mammogram at 35 instead of 40.

I got the notice months ago, and kind of ignored it. I didn’t make it a priority. I didn’t think it applied to me. I thought, I am only 35.

And then a month ago I got news that a dear family member (who is just a few years older than me) found out she has breast cancer. She has a child younger than mine. She has to undergo chemo. She started shopping for wigs.

It’s rocked me to my core.

She is my new hero, by the way. Her most amazing attitude inspires me to be a better person – I hope to be like her when I (finish) growing up.

Because of her, I finally scheduled that mammogram.

Was it uncomfortable? Yep. Was it painful? Yep. But the uncomfortable and the painful lasted for mere seconds.

Was it worth it? YES.

It was time for me to act like the wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend that I am. I needed to grow up and started taking steps take care of ME.

This isn’t a new year’s resolution. It’s who I’ve decided to be from now on. It took me a LONG time to realize I need to put myself FIRST sometimes. I need to eat more responsibly, get more exercise and grow the heck up. :)

I don’t know the results of my mammogram yet, but we’re obviously praying for a standard letter in the mail next week, and not a call from the doc in a few days. :)

I’m not writing this to preach to any of you. I’m not trying to get anyone to exercise more or at all. I AM asking you to give yourself a few more minutes a day. I do want you to ask your doctor when you should get your first mammogram. If you’re over 40, I want you to schedule your mammogram.

Yes, I’m bossing you around. Yes, I want you to put yourself first, for 20 minutes a day. Or the hour out of your week it will take to get a mammogram.

I’m still a newbie at this, so I’m certainly no expert. But I know something for sure – I’m not going back. I don’t know what’s gotten into me, but I like it, and I plan to keep it up. :)

**I waffled back and forth about getting this personal on here. I mean, I never even mention the words “b.r.a.” or “u.n.d.e.r.w.e.a.r.” on this blog, just because of the wackos out there. IfyouknowwhatI’msayin. ;)

But I decided to put on my big girl u.n.d.i.e.s and just do it – write it and hit publish. I don’t hesitate to hit publish much, but this one has my finger hovering. :)

If it gets just one of you to make more time to take care of YOU for just a few minutes a day, it’ll be worth it.

And now…I am hitting…publish.

THE PAPER

2011-01-17T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well, last week it was the craft/tool/decorative stuff area in our basement, and that before was pret-ty bad. This week I’m tackling the clutter that doesn’t make a big mess physically, but it does take up a lot of space in my head. It’s presence wears on me, makes me feel completely unorganized and occasionally costs us money.

It’s the PAPER. (Dun dun duuuun.)

I swear to you – it is the one thing I just can’t get it figured out. It. drives. me. NUTS.

It’s like laundry. I ignore it as much as possible. :)

But like laundry, it’s kinda hard to ignore. Bills and socks and all that good stuff. Drats.

My process with paper that comes in our home is to not really bring it into our home. I let it pile up in my car till it’s just ridiculous. Then when I can’t find the so-and-so bill, I grab it all, dump it on the floor and sort.

That happens about once a month. Or so. Or less. Whatever.

Anyway, I’m determined to conquer the PAPER this year. No more junk mail as the floor mat in the car. I’m going to figure. it. out! YEAH!

But first, I needed to go through the piles we already have. And it ain’t pretty people. We’ve had piles going in the basement for quite a while now – and I knew I had to address those before I started a new paper process.

The first pile was just random papers, cards, stuff that I had laying around:

Not so bad huh? Yes, it is so bad, but once you see the other piles, you’ll realize this was CAKE.

My problem with the papers is not having a spot for them as soon as they get in the house. (Because the file cabinets have been stuffed to the gills for ummm…years.)

My other problem is I’m a bit of a hoarder when I comes to the paper stuff. I keep cards from birthdays and anniversaries forever and ever and EVER. I also keep little pieces of paper that are a memory for me – ticket stubs, business cards from favorite restaurants, whatever. It’s one of those things I just can’t give up. I think I’m going to start scanning them all into the computer, so I can save the words and memories, but still keep some space.

After the first batch, I had this pile to shred:

Funny how the pile looks so innocent and short. It was a TON of paper.

It was when I addressed the next set of files that I realized something:

The teeny tiny shredder that overheats in two minutes just wasn’t going to cut it. :)

I went out and got the biggest, baddest shredder I could find (at Target):

Awww yeah – POWERSHRED baby!! :)

I need that sucker by the time I went through the last of the files:

Hold me. Please?

It took forever. I’ve been at this for three days now. Well not three days, 24/7 – but you know. It’s taken a long dang time.

The latest shred pile:

It’s killing me – I’m only through half of that pile, and I have THREE trash bags full:

I will never, ever buy gift bag stuffing again. :) And I’ll be vacuuming up this stuff for weeks from all over the house. Awesome.

All of this is going heading out to be recycled when I’m done. I’m betting I’ll have seven trash bags.

THAT IS INSANE.

Some things I’ve realized when it comes to the paper clutter:

1. Being organized saves you money. I found a warranty for our windows we didn’t know about, and we have two that need to be replaced. SCORE!

2. I don’t really need to keep ALL of my class schedules from college. Really.

3. I think I’ll get by without the product pamphlet for our $10 can opener. Maybe.

4. We will never, ever go back to credit card debt:

(Two years worth of credit card bills.)

5. Three trips to the hospital in pre-term labor and then five days in the hospital when the Bub finally came (three weeks early!) equaled some crazy debt that added to that pile up there. :) (I think I had blocked those numbers out – sheesh.)

6. And finally – it’s funny how some things never change:

All these – still true 25 years later. Hate my ears, still don’t make my bed, stay up way too late, still hit snooze about five times in the morning, hate math, eat too much, and still hate to change my sister’s diaper.

HA! (Love ya Stink Eye.)

I just have one little pile left to sort through – then I’m reorganizing it ALL. I’ll show you my (new) methods soon and let you know if they work. :)

So, is paper your nemesis? Have you ignored the growing piles for years like me? Or have you found a process that works? Do tell! PLEASE. I’m begging.