Our Home Around the Corner

Project: Grocery Store Price List

2012-07-13T11:41:00.000-04:00

Boring adult confession time: I've been thinking a lot lately about how to save money.

Have you ever seen the show Extreme Couponing? This is a show to make you feel bad about your grocery budget. I can hardly get out of the grocery store without spending $40 and they are getting $900 worth of groceries for $15. Of course we all know this isn't realistic for most families, but still, it's very appealing.

I've been collecting my coupons and even have a little coupon holder with sections and it does help me save a little, but not very much. When you eat the way my family does (plant-based) and have a food intolerance (gluten) the items on your grocery list are not common coupons. So what's a non-couponer to do?

That's where my newest project comes in: The Grocery Store Price List

The truth is that most the time I have no idea if something is a good deal or not because I'm not sure what it normally costs. This little list should remedy that. Now I can look at my list to see where the best deal on Broccoli or Cereal is and to see if what a store is saying is a sale is actually a good price. From what I've heard, the potential savings from a list like this is great.

And, thanks to blog land, there's very little work involved up front. There are several lists ready for you to download and use:

Beauty & Bedlam

Organized Home

No Credit Needed

I personally am going to use the second sheet of the Beauty & Bedlam Price List. Hopefully as I get it filled in over the next couple of weeks I can really begin to see some savings! And finally decide whether or not to join Sam's Club!

What are your best grocery money saving tips? Are you a member of Sam's Club or another price club? Do you think it really saves you money?

Timber!

2012-07-11T12:11:00.001-04:00

Remember our yard tour and goals? Well, we finally took another big step for the front yard and curb appeal. If you haven't already guessed by the title of this post, I'll tell you: We cut down the dead tree! I say we, but really it was the husband and his brother. I served as photographer and water fetcher. :)

Of course, they didn't just push the tree down. First, they removed as many big branches as they could.

Then it was time to cut the notch to direct the fall.

Next, he cut through the back until he was very close to the notch.

Then it was time to shove that tree on down!

Men triumphing over nature:

Then came the tough part: cutting it all up and loading it into the truck. But they did it in record time.

First, of course, they needed to survey the kill:

Then, I went inside while they cut up the rest of the tree.

Here it is all loaded up in the truck:

And now, I am very excited to share with you, Our Home Around the Corner's very first official Before & After!

Have you ever cut down a tree? Did it make a huge difference in your yard? If not, what change has made the biggest difference in your yard?

Pinterest Challenge: Office Pegboard

2012-07-10T12:23:00.001-04:00

Have you been on Pinterest? I love it! It's such a great place to keep track of all my internet inspirations and ideas and even to find more. If you've never been on the site, I'll warn you, it can suck you in. An hour passes very quickly while you're looking at all the pretty, pretty pictures.

Today I'm joining the Summer Pinterest Challenge hosted by Katie from Bower Power and Sherry from Young House Love. The thing about Pinterest, is that it's easy to pin lots of things and never actually do any of them. So Katie and Sherry decided to give us all a little kick in the pants.

Behold my Pinterest inspiration from Martha Stewart:

Martha Stewart

Until recently, we've had our home office area upstairs in the 3rd bedroom. The room never felt right and never really made sense in the flow of our house. With our bedroom and all the main living areas on the main floor, we hardly ever went upstairs, which really wasn't working with paying the bills and whatnot. :) One day as I browsed Pinterest I stumbled across this Martha Stewart office and knew exactly what I wanted to do.

The room off our kitchen was intended as a formal dining room, but since we don't really dine formally we've never used it that way. When we first moved in it was storage, then it became my workout area, and now, thanks to this "pinspiration," it serves as our office and pantry storage. I'll fill you in on our non-conventional pantry another day, but what you need to know for today is that we have an Ikea Expedit in the room that we could not move.

Using the Expedit, I was able to divide the room and by attaching the peg board we got a whole new space for storage. Attaching the peg board to the Expedit was fairly simple: we bought 3 4x6 panels of peg board at Home Depot, had them make some cuts for us and attached them to the Expedit with wood screws. If you were doing this directly on a wall you could use drywall anchors and screws. We put screws near each corner and in the middle of each panel.

You can see from the picture above that we really needed to clear some things off the desk. The great thing about this was that I only had to purchase one mixed set of pegs from Target for $6 and then I was able to use things from around the house.

Using pegs from the kit, I hung up a set of pockets for both myself and my husband, and another pocket for things we need to shred. I was also able to hang office supplies like our tape, stapler, scissors, cords and pens. To hang the pens I used a key basket on a peg. Then I used some old curtain rings to hang pictures. We can easily switch these out for other pictures or art whenever we want. I finished things off with some cute labels for our hanging folders. Now we have a clear work space and everything we need is right in front of us.

Source list: Curtain rings (Target), Khaki Pocket (Target), Aqua Pockets (Martha Stewart for Staples), Peg set (Target-in store), Peg board (Home Depot-in store), Expedit (Ikea), Desk (Ikea), Labels (Delightful Distractions)

Be sure to check out the other Pinterest Challengers at Bower Power, Centsational Girl, Ten June, and Young House Love.

How To: Amateur Abstract Art

2012-07-06T10:09:00.000-04:00

It was love at first sight for the Ballard Designs painting "In Plain Site" and I. It's all sorts of pretty and gigantic and I knew it would look perfect on the wall in my dining room. The $500 price tag cooled things off a bit.

The more I thought about it though, the more I wanted to try to make one on my own. I happened to have a spare canvas lying around (from an ill-fated fabric wall panel idea) and could use paint I already owned so it was a low risk, potential high reward situation.

First, I gathered my supplies:

Paint (black, tan, green, aqua, turquoise, white, yellow), foam brushes, putty knife

Then I put down my canvas and got to work. I worked in layers, putting on one color and then another, using the Ballard Designs painting as a loose guide. After several colors were on the canvas, I began to use my putty knife to scrape and pull the colors through each other, giving the painting texture.

My painting doesn't look exactly like the Ballard Designs painting, but that was never the point. I will say that I really wish I had had an easel. It would have been much easier than having to walk and crouch all around the painting's perimeter. Also, I waited a good half hour between layers 9 and 10.

Here is the finished product:

I'm really pleased with how it came out. I'd like to coat it with a clear gloss to give it a little shine and protection and then hopefully I'll be able to call it done and show it to you in the space.

See you Monday!

Linking up at:

Fourth of July

2012-07-02T10:35:00.000-04:00

It's not too late to get together a little July 4th decor--here are some of my favorites that are also simple and quick:

All you need is a color printer (or a trip to Kinko's) and a frame for these printables:

The Crafting Chicks

Landee See, Landee Do

Eighteen25

These simple treats add a lot of color to your table for a small amount of work:

Martha Stewart

Living Locurto

Cupcakes and Cashmere

Add the finishing touch with these easy decorations:

A Soft Place to Land

All You

Disney Family Fun

Link up any other quick, simple Independence Day decor in the comments. Hope everyone is staying cool out there!

A Yard Tour

2012-06-29T13:51:00.002-04:00

When we first saw the house, the yard wasn't exactly a selling point. This is how it looked during our first visit:

It was overgrown, with lots of spider webs and a dead tree. But it had potential.

Here's how it looks today:

We still have a lot to do, but we've also done a lot. Michael and his brother tore out all the old landscaping, then we tilled the soil and mulched. My mom and I painted the shutters and the door black and trimmed the tree on the corner. In the interest of "keeping it real," there are some serious weeds growing right now. I tried to pull them up before taking this picture, but the first one wouldn't budge and it was already climbing toward 100 degrees, so I let it go.

We'd like to plant this fall. This is the plan right now:

Oh yeah, and remove the dead tree. We'll see how it goes. :)

Now for the backyard....

When we first bought the house I thought the backyard was the least of our problems. That was until the bees came. Swarms of them and all the time. We couldn't go outside during the day because there were so many and they were territorial. So one night we went outside and Weed-B-Gone-d everything. Then we did it again the next night. That was the end of the bees. And all the plants in our backyard.

Eventually Michael tore out all the dead plants and here's what everything looks like now:

One weird thing about our existing landscaping is that it's very asymmetrical. On the right side, huge, thriving bushes and trees. On the left side, two teeny tiny bushes. Let's go to the pictures:

Left side

Right Side

Left side

Right side

The first thing on our backyard agenda is to wash and stain/seal the deck. Then we'd like to tear out some of the landscaping and plant grass. We're just not feeling the lava rocks.

Then we'll have to address the asymmetry of the yard. We've got a lot of hard work ahead of us, but at least we'll look cool doing it. :)

Thanks for hanging in there for this tour. Have suggestions for our yard? Please leave them in the comments. We are complete novices and would love any and all help we can get!

Closet Dreams

2012-06-27T09:35:00.000-04:00

Our master closet needs a major overhaul. I go through it, I get rid of things, I think it works for a week or two or three, and then we're right back where we started: a messy, angry-making, stressful closet. Trying to work with what we have isn't working.

It's time to rethink the whole thing and finally make it what we need.

Change out the door for a curtain.

We have three doors in about 10 cubic feet of space. The other two we need, this one needs to go.

Better Homes & Gardens

Install one major shoe cabinet.

Right now our shoes are spread across four different racks, one of which is on the to-be-removed door.

Ballard Designs

Make good use of every square inch.

Of course, this is the part where things get foggy. I'd love to hear what has worked for you in your own closet--especially if it's cheap. :)

IKEA

Purge and sort our clothing, shoes and accessories.

This one falls mostly to me, and is something I've been working on a lot since our move last year. I've gotten rid of most the clutter, but it's always a work in progress. (Am I the only one who always thinks of this scene from Clueless when I'm getting rid of clothes?)

Madeover Mad

Install better lighting.

No windows and just one light in the closet = dark and shadowy. If we're actually going to pick outfits and dress in here, we need more light.

Natural Lighting

So there is my loose plan. I have a feeling this process will take a few weeks, so check back to see my progress. And of course, please leave any closet organization tips in the comments. On tap for Friday: a tour of our yard! Aren't you excited?!

Weekend Recap

2012-06-25T11:05:00.001-04:00

We spent the weekend hanging out with friends. Not one house related thing--other than the dishes, that is. :)

We would have scared away any on-coming trains.

Quality time with my Godson Jack! (and his momma!)

Back to you with more home-related goodness when we've recovered!

Five Things Friday

2012-06-22T13:38:00.000-04:00

Here are five things I'm loving this Friday:

1. These curtains at Target:

Mosaic Brocade

2. This tupperware storage method from Better Homes & Gardens:

3. This reminder from The Silver Pen:

4. This Office Chair Facelift by Nikkala on The Crafting Chicks:

5. This perfect coastal living room on House of Turquoise:

We've got a fun filled weekend weekend with friends planned--see you Monday!

Welcome to Our Home Around the Corner

2012-06-19T16:20:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to blog about transforming our little short sale that could into something a little more stylish ever since we moved in last July. Of course, the actual transforming took up so much of my free time, that blogging never quite happened. Now that we've been here a year, things are starting to slow down. We're past the major project every weekend phase. But it's not finished. Not nearly. And that's where this blog comes in. I plan to chronicle our upcoming projects as novice handy-people and to go back in time to tell you about what we've already done.

Who is we? Three of us live in our home around the corner.

From left to right: Emma (the sister), Michael (the husband) and me (the Jessica). And I'm truly sorry the only picture I could find of the three of us is from 2009.

Let's try for something more recent:

The Husband and I have been married five years and Emma moved in with us about a year and a half ago. When it comes to home improvement, I'm the planner, designer and handy-woman, the husband is the muscle and the sister just walks through our mess and laughs. Of course, we couldn't get much done without our families, which on my side is my mother, who talks me through all my home improvement madness and on the Husband's side is a whole big family ready to come rescue him from under an Expedit when it turns out I can't actually help him carry it down the stairs.

Of course, you'll see more than home improvement here, because our life is about more than DIY.

And now we are introduced. If you've stuck it out this far, please leave a comment and tell me about yourself!