The gallery wall in the stairwell is outta here!

{15 months ago…}

I tried. I really tried. But this gallery wall has been a thorn in my side since day one. It makes me cray-to-the-zeeee!

I thought the issue was the wall color. So I painted the stairwell yellow to match my foyer (I also painted under the railing white).

The frames also ended up with a nice coat of white spray paint.

Still hated it. So I took all the little kitchy crap and shelves down. Maybe it will look better with just frames.

Even worse.

Then one day… I was just over it.

Totally over it.

This sofa table was moved to Kinsey’s room last week, leaving an empty spot at the top of my staircase.

See? No more table.

When I “borrowed” the table for Kinsey’s room, I didn’t really have a plan for replacing the table with something else in this now empty spot.

But two days ago, I’d looked at that eyesore of a stairwell gallery wall one. too. many. times.

And something just snapped inside me. Before I knew it, frames were a-flyin’ and I was a-huffin’ and a-hollerin’ and a-hammerin’.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Orange Mocha Frappuccino! Er, I mean…

HALLWAY GALLERY WALL! Woop woop.

I gathered up all my supplies; frames, nails, hammer, level, chair to stand on, and I just started hammering and hanging frames.

Some people pre-measure and cut out newspaper the size of the frames and tape it to the wall.

Oh please, girl! Do you even know how fantastically lazy I am? I mean really? That would take way too long.

Plus, who cares if I screw up. It’s only a teeny tiny little nail hole. It’s not like the house is going to fall down around me.

Basically, the method to my madness consists of grabbing a frame, holding it up to the wall and eyeballing it, and then hanging that sucker up.

This honey badger don’t care! She just does what she wants.

And if it looks like gar-to-the-capital-bidge? Take it down, pull the nail out, and hang it somewhere else. Trial and error baby. Trial and error.

Finally, after a heart thumping 45 minutes, I was done.

Kinda.

I ran out of white frames.

So I started grabbing other frames to fill the gaps. Don’t worry chicklets. They will get painted white in due time. Like, either tomorrow, or whenever I decide to get back on board with this project and finish it.

Could be a day. Could be a month. You really never know when you are dealing with me.

But for now, this is the final result.

I freaking love it and think it’s so fantastic. I grin every time I walk by.

You are probably saying “oh no, girl. No no no. That does not look very good.”

Of course you are saying that! The ugly frames haven’t been painted yet. But trust me, just picture everything white. It will look fab.

And sorry the picture itself sucks so bad. I had a nice camera a year ago. And then I dropped it on the ground like 25 times. And now my photos look like that. Sorry.

Ben says when he can trust me with a camera he might consider talking about getting me a new one. I don’t blame him. I break every camera I own within a few months. Weeks. Days.

Once, when I was in middle school, my parents bought me a camera for my birthday. I was like 13 I guess.

In fact, here’s a picture of my sisters and I on my new gallery wall. Can you guess which one is me?

I’ll give you a hint. Back Right. Oh, sorry, that wasn’t a hint. O-well. And Merideth, please don’t kill me for posting this photo of you. Just tell people it was your “awkward phase”… In fact, I’m pretty sure it was everyone’s awkward phase judging by the photo from 1993.

Anyway, I just got a new camera for my 13th birthday.

I was tearing open the package to retrieve my very first, brand spankin’ new camera that was mine. All mine.

My dad says while I’m opening the brand new camera, and I quote, “Allison, be careful. Don’t drop it on the grou…”

Doh!

The camera slipped out of my hand and smashed on the tile floor.

The rest is history. Me and cameras are mortal enemies.

I’m that way with vacuums too. Don’t bring up “oreck” and “Allison” to my mom. I’m pretty sure she had to purchase at least 4 of them before I moved out.

Where was I?

Oh, gallery wall… Here’s a view from the game room.

For those of you that are so nosy you are squinting at your monitor trying to get a good looksie at my family, I’ll make it easy for you…

This is Travis 3 years ago:

Adorable? I think so. Drives me bonkers? You betcha.

And this is Kinsey (again, 3 years ago):

Prettiest and most ornery 4 year old I ever did meet.

Us goofing around:

Ben and his brothers like 10 years ago, maybe more:

(Ben is in the middle)

Can we all get a collective “awwwww”?

I won’t bore you with every picture on my wall. I’ll save that for when I am totally done, the frames are all painted, and new pictures are inserted. That’s when I’ll bore you to tears.

Wondering about that big ol’ empty stairwell now?

I have some BIG plans swirling around in my mind for the stairwell. You will just have to wait and see what concoction I’ve got up my sleeve for that one.

For now, I’ll leave you with my purposely-asymmetrical gallery wall. I like everything to match, but I get bored with too much symmetry.

I’ve determined people either LOVE gallery walls, or LOATHE them.

What team are you on? Team LOVE or Team LOATHE?

Do tell!

Have a great weekend!

Today one of my friends asked me how I can have blogged for almost 2 years now.

Wouldn’t I run out of content? How do I always think of what to write about?

Well, in short, if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s talking!

My kids get in trouble for talking in class at school. Their teachers will ask me what they can do to get my kids to just stop talking already!

Honestly, I don’t know. I apologize for my children’s behavior and offer up a few half-hearted suggestions like taping their mouth shut or removing their vocal cords. Nothing works.

Poor teachers. They really have absolutely no hope. They are at the wrong end of a losing battle.

I got in trouble for talking too much from grade school through the end of High School. In fact, I was booted from an extra curricular class in 11th grade for talking too much. I seriously cannot seem to just shut the hell up!

It’s genetic. And both my kids inherited it.

And that, my friends, is why I always have something to say.

Oh, and I’m a huge tinkerer. I’m always tinkering and moving stuff around. There is always and will always be at least one project in the works at my home at all times. I just can’t help myself.

It’s an illness.

So, would you be surprised if I said I’ve been tinkering again? Probably not.

Well, I have. And it involves this horribly ugly, but perfectly clean and organized desk in my family room.

The plan for the past year has been to replace this ugly desk with a pretty one so the kids have a nice place in our family room to work on the laptop, do homework, and color.

What we have had instead is something more like this:

I LOVE keepin’ it real, yo. Just telling it like it really is.

Their desk has turned into the catchall of the house. It is a nightmare.

(pictures were taken in December hence all the Christmas crap)

The kids can’t even use the desk for their homework because it’s always covered in piles and piles of random crap.

And the plastic drawer organizer next to the desk is not doing my family room any favors either.

This little area of my house is one big fat HOT MESS.

I finally put a stop to the hot mess madness. If the kids (oh, okay, myself too) can’t keep their desk clean, then guess what? They don’t get one anymore.

{Don’t worry, I’m not that mean. I relocated their crafting supplies to the kitchen and now they color at the breakfast table.}

I totally found the perfect piece of furniture to replace the desk, and besides being free! (I already owned it) it also fits the space so much better!

Do you remember that sofa table I had behind my couch?

Yes, the same sofa table that use to be my king sized headboard.

Well, I love the new sofa table, but honestly, after a few months of living with it behind the couch, I wasn’t sold. It was hard to see back there, I had to move my couch closer to the TV taking up valuable floor space, and whenever anyone plopped down on the sofa (like, daily) they would inevitably knock something off the table and onto the floor.

Getting rid of the trash heap desk instantly gave me an idea. What if I pulled the sofa table over to the desk wall and scooted my couch back again?

Absolutely love it.

The table fits the wall so much better than the desk. It also shows off the table and makes it a focal point instead of it hiding behind the couch.

It also opens up the walkway a lot more and makes the room feel so much bigger.

(Say hi to Ben!)

I also feel like I have a lot more freedom in decorating the sofa table now. Before, when it was behind the couch, I was afraid to put anything fragile on it in fear that it would get knocked onto the floor.

Well, now I can actually put stuff on it. I’m still trying to figure out how I want to decorate it, but I’m really digging the clutter-free, minimalistic decor approach right now. Less is more they say.

The burlap covered lamp (tutorial here) is a necessity as our family room has horrible lighting.

The pots of grass are all from ikea (both the grass and the pots).

The cute little cacti look perfectly placed nestled in the corner of the table.

(Find out what happened to the cacti’s brother here. Sad, but true story.)

My most recent Target score is this adorable guy:

I’ve been eying this Buddha Pillar Candle Holder for foreveh’. But dang it, it has never once gone on sale. Ever. And I’m way too cheap and broke to pay $30 for it, even though it’s quirky and cute.

Well, as luck would have it, I found it at Target last week for $4.88! I am not yanking your chain y’all.

There were 3 available, and this guy was the only one with a clearance sticker. The other two were full price.

I managed to find one tiny chip on it’s back, hardly visible to the naked eye. I’m assuming this is why he was on clearance? I do not know.

All I know is that I snatched him up so fast and sprinted to the check out. I nervously waited as she rang him up. I just knew it had to be a mistake and she would take my Buddha away from me. But nope. $4.88 later, he was mine. All mine.

My mom thinks I’ve gone crazy loco for collecting not one, but two Buddhas. I don’t know why I like them. I just do.

Here’s a full view of the family room (pre tv-mounting extravaganza) to give you a better idea of the placement of said sofa table.

So see? I’ve been tinkering again. I thought the sofa table had a permanent home behind the sofa, but here we are 4 months later and I’ve already moved it. Maybe it will stay here permanently, but you never know. I love it today, but tomorrow I might drag it around the house again.

All I know is that with all this tinkering and furniture switching, I will probably have enough content for this blog for the next 10 years! So help us all!

Are you a tinkerer? Do you constantly have to be rearranging your furniture and nick-knacks? Or are you of the more sane variety and can just leave stuff alone?!

*the art above the sofa table is by Rodney White. You can read all about my crush on him here.

Well hey there! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. We’ve been busy around here just trying to get this place organized once and for all! Maybe by the end of 2012 I’ll feel like everything is in it’s place.

Last week I showed you my 7 year old daughters room makeover progress. I had just hung some floating shelves (IKEA Lack shelves) above a little sofa table. Eventually this area will be for all her jewelry, (play) makeup, nick-knacks, and desk area.

Unfortunately, all this switching around in her room has left quite a huge mess of toys on her floor.

The solution?

Another trip to IKEA.

This time for IKEA Expedit Shelves.

I decided to go with two of the 2×4 squares Expedit shelves.

I wanted to have a lower shelf that Kinsey could reach the top of to act as a table top, but I also wanted one that was taller to maximize the amount of storage she has. The solution was two shelves, one placed horizontally and one placed vertically.

And just as a quick tip, if you are going to be putting together IKEA furniture it is MUCH EASIER if you purchase a Hex Bit Tip set for your electric drill from the hardware store instead of using the manual “Z” shaped Hex bit that comes with the furniture.

I also decided to splurge and get her four IKEA Knipsa baskets. They had cheaper baskets, but I really love the look of these and feel that the overall look of her room will benefit from them (once I finish the room).

The Knipsa baskets are $16.99 per basket, so I could only justify four at the time. Eventually I plan on snagging a few more of these baskets before all is said and done.

Want a closer look at how I’ve sorted out her toys? This is by no means finished or final. Her room is still VERY MUCH a work-in-progress.

On the tall shelf, one of her new baskets holds all her baby doll stuff, while the other is her new barbie doll storage.

The wide shelf holds her music (she LOVES music)…

…and all her American Girl stuff…

I’m really torn on her huge pink Disney Princess framed poster (on top of the shelf). On the one hand she likes it. A lot. In fact, she’s totally in love with Belle.

But on the other hand, it REALLY is NOT the look I’m trying to obtain while decorating her room. I’ve been planning on hanging the poster above these new shelves, but I just can’t stomach it! I am NOT a Disney Princess type of person. In fact, I am opposed to pretty much any character decor of any type.

She loves the poster though, so I will probably end up sucking it up and hanging it for her (I mean, it is her room after all!).

Here’s what her room looks like with her new Lack floating shelves and Expedit shelves.

And from the hall when you are walking into her room, this is what you now see….

Instead of this huge disaster:

Ah, much better already!

My next big goal with her room is to get her a new bed.

(If you want to know why you can read all about it in this post.)

I know this isn’t as exciting as a huge “reveal” and before and afters. But at the rate I get things done around here (really slow) if I waited until her room was finished to blog about it, I’d probably never blog ever again. lol

I figure I’ll just share the progress of my house as I go along the way. This is real life after all, and in real life, things don’t move as quickly as they do on a 30 minute reality show.

One last thing I want to mention…

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I don’t consider myself a goodwill expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do shop there frequently enough to have learned a few tricks of the trade. Of course, this is all based on my own personal experience with the Goodwills in my area. Your Goodwill may operate a little differently.

If you browse Goodwill frequently you can actually find some pretty great stuff there. You have to be persistent though and hit the store often.

Also, all Goodwills are NOT created equal. Shop all the Goodwills in your area until you learn which ones are better and which ones to avoid. Some have better prices than others, some have better stuff. Some carry more furniture while others tend to have more shoes and clothing. Each Goodwill seems to be it’s own little entity.

You do tend to find better stuff at Goodwills in more expensive areas of town, but not necessarily! A Goodwill employee once told me that just because it’s donated to a specific location does not mean it will hit those shelves. Goodwill likes to mix up their stores and send items all over town. I don’t know if there’s rhyme to their reasoning or if it’s totally random.

Also, this is probably useless information, but Goodwill employees are not allowed to shop at their own store location, even off the clock. This way if they see something awesome they can’t snatch it up before a regular shopper has the opportunity to snag it.

When I first moved back to Austin I visited all the Goodwills in my area at least a few times each so that I could get a feel for each store location. I can pretty much tell you which stores to avoid and which ones are worth the trip. When you are shopping at Goodwill, visit a lot of different ones until you know which ones are worth the effort.

I’ve figured out that there’s one Goodwill near me that purchases all of Target’s “salvage” from them, then re-sells it for pretty cheap.

An employee at that Goodwill told me that Goodwill purchases the Salvage from Target by the container (huge bulk box) at a set price. Sometimes they will have really great stuff in there, other times it’s all junk. No matter what’s in the container, Goodwill pays a set price, and they get a pretty great deal on it allowing for pretty great deals to carry over to the customer.

What is Salvage anyway?

Salvage, at least for Target stuff at Goodwill, is anything that Target deems damaged or unable to sell. Sometimes the item is open or the package is damaged. Most of the time though, it’s all the leftover decor from the previous season that never sold on their own shelves. They have to get rid of it to make way for the new stuff.

I have loads of decor in my home that was purchased at Goodwill as part of Target’s “Salvage” container. I found this lamp and separate shade at Goodwill – brand new “salvage” from Target. I scored the lamp for $10 and the shade for $3!

Then, as luck would have it, I found a 2nd lamp at Goodwill the following week! They were out of shades, but in a rare twist of fate I stumbled upon a 2nd matching shade at my local Target on clearance for $6.

The two matching lamps with shades cost me less than $30 total. For BOTH! And they are BRAND-SPANKIN-NEW!

They have since moved to my bedroom (I’ll show you soon, promise!).

I also was able to grab this large down filled pillow from Goodwill “salvage”. I paid about $3 for it. It was brand-new with the tags still attached.

The reason it was deemed salvage is because the stitching had come undone in one spot on the pillow cover. I was able to stitch it up in just a few minutes. It’s now one of our favorites, and certainly most comfortable pillow on our couch.

Remember that King-Sized white duvet I found for $10 at Goodwill?

Brand-new with tags from Target salvage. The cardboard sleeve around the packaging was torn so it wasn’t worthy to sit on the shelves at Target anymore.

If you want to know if a Goodwill near you receives Salvage from any stores, call them and ask! And if they say yes, find out which store the salvage is from and also what day the salvage arrives each week. For my store, the Target salvage is stocked on Wednesday morning, so I try to hit up Goodwill Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.

Goodwill also has tons of other great stuff that isn’t salvage – it’s just regular ol’ basic stuff people have donated. You have to dig to find the good stuff.

One suggestion I have for you is to put your cash or credit card in your pocket and leave your purse in the car. That way you aren’t fighting with a purse or bag while you are “digging” through the shelves. *edited to add: a commenter pointed out that this might not be the smartest idea. Maybe you should leave your purse at home instead!

Often the items are stuffed to the brim on the shelves. Get in there and move stuff around! Look under platters and boxes. And especially look behind everything! I’ve known of people “hiding” good stuff so they can come back later to get it, so squat down and look behind all the junk on those bottom shelves!

One of my luckiest and most favorite scores at Goodwill are these two Sand Timers. (These are pictured before I windex’d them. They are both perfectly clear now that they are clean.)

I actually found them together on the same day hidden behind a few large items. They were only $2 each if you can believe it! What makes them an awesome find (besides the price) is that Sand Timers are a popular decorating item right now! Pottery Barn and Ballards think sand timers are hot this season.

My daughter went coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs over this little basket. It is the perfect size Laundry Hamper for her American Girl doll. It rang up at $1. I also found a little rocking chair last week for $1.50.

This cute little green dish was only a few bucks and is chip free! I love the color, that’s why I scooped it up.

This gross looking dish was a diamond in the rough. I almost didn’t even pick it up because it was nasty!

I’m glad I did though! Read what store this dish is from:

Because of the name (Pottery Barn) I knew it was probably real silver and could be cleaned up pretty easily. I paid $5 for it (more than I usually will pay, but because it’s from Pottery Barn I forked over a few extra bucks), took it home, and gave it a good buffing with some silver cleaner.

After about 15 minutes of buffing it now looks almost brand spankin’ new.

These two spice racks had me almost jumping up and down. The jars are heavy and are glass, and the lids are a thick metal. Plus the stands themselves are weighted and excellent quality. Getting the spices out was a huge chore, but for only $6 for both racks (and all the jars) it was worth the hassle.

I’ll give you an update soon with pictures, but the spice racks now sit on my desk and house little beads and crafty supplies. You can actually see them behind my Silhouette machine on the desk (under the hutch) in this picture from our office switch post.

One thing I love about shopping Goodwill is the uniqueness of some of their decor. If you like random quirky stuff, you will probably find a more random selection at Goodwill than at any regular store.

I’m drawn to weird stuff, mainly because I like to be unique and have things that you wouldn’t expect mainstream America to own. They are great conversation pieces and in a world full of trends and popularity, I like to feel like I have my own style.

These either-love-them-or-detest-them Animal Heads are all from Goodwill. I washed them and gave them all a quick coat of spray paint.

As is this adorable little Buda (perched on top of my FIRE stand I made two years ago – I still adore this simple easy DIY stand).

Am I Buddhist? Nope. But this little guy was just too cute not to buy!

You really can’t go wrong with a wine bottle that looks like it got run over by a truck.

I had no idea what I’d use it for, but it was weird and random so I just had to have it. I’ve later learned that people make these and use them as cheese platters. Interesting! I paid $1.50.

This last item is actually not from Goodwill but from a garage sale a neighbor of mine was having. She sold me this cute little Banana dresser for only $7. I was so excited because it looks brand-new. I was even more excited when I saw the same dresser at Target (it’s still there for sale if you want one) for $65! My neighbor could have RETURNED the dresser and received a $65 credit, but instead I was able to snatch it up from her for only $7. What a steal!!

I hope I’ve been able to help give you some good pointers about shopping Goodwill. It really is an experience all on its own.

Oh, one more tip. I’ve never actually done this but my sister SWEARS BY IT. She found a Goodwill Outlet Store. Basically it’s a Goodwill for all the crap that no one wanted at the regular goodwill.

At the Goodwill Outlet they sell stuff by the pound! Isn’t that random? My sister will go down there (with several hours to spare) and will literally spend 3 hours sifting through heaps and heaps of clothes. She always comes home with bags full of almost brand new NAME-BRAND clothing for around 50-65 cents an item.

She’s found Banana Republic, GAP, American Eagle, Aeropostale, Abercrombie, Hollister, etc, some still with the original tags. She brought home a Roxy Quicksilver sheet set a few weeks ago! The only drawback to going to the outlet is that you really have to dig and dig and dig to find the good stuff.

She says the reason there are awesome clothes there is because sometimes the employees at the regular store will overprice something, which causes no one to purchase it. Instead of marking these items down, once an item has sat in a store for a certain amount of time it automatically gets shipped to the Outlet.

One last pointer… I know this is getting really long. Sorry! Some locations will have half-off day. If your location does, go there the night before, just before closing and scout out the store. If there’s something you want to try to score for half-off get there at least 30 minutes before opening the next morning and get in line! Hopefully you’ll get lucky!

So, do you have any tips for shopping Goodwill? What experiences have you had while thrifting at Goodwill? The Good and the Bad! Share ‘em all!

PS – I keep forgetting to tell you this! I’m headed to Blissdom and Haven conferences this year. I hope to see you there!

When we moved into this house over a year ago my daughter’s room was a huge football field.

After torturing my poor daughter in that room for 15 straight months, I finally started her much needed bedroom makeover by hanging lots of board & batten and giving the entire room a fresh coat of paint (or 20, but I lost count).

I’ve been at it again this weekend. I really want to tie up all the lose ends of her room and get it done once and for all.

Let’s start with her furniture. She has great furniture. Her matching set has a sleigh bed, a dresser & mirror, a side table, and a large toy chest (4 pieces total). It’s solid wood, perfect for a little girl, and adorable. Initially I planned to paint all of it white, but after lots of debate, the furniture and I have decided to part ways, and here are a few reasons why:

a) the bed doesn’t allow for a trundle under it, and my daughter is the Sleepover Queen.

b) the dresser is too tall, too big, and takes up too much precious floor space for her toys. It also has too many drawers; half of them are completely empty.

c) she really has no use for a side table.

d) the large toy chest was a magnet for kids playing hide-and-seek and made it a little too easy to quickly “clean” her room by piling trash, laundry, and ALL toys into it. Momma didn’t like that at all!

First step in Project Kinsey’s Room? Moving out her furniture to get ready to put on Craigslist.

Of course, now she’s down a dresser. In my opinion, dressers are totally over-rated. I prefer built-ins and shelving in the closet any day over a dresser, especially for children who need the extra floor space to play.

I came up with a simple solution that I think is the bees knees. I drug her bookshelf into her closet and put all her clothing on it. (I’ve also been busy adding stuff to her walls.)

This is the same shelf that she helped put together last year.

Here’s how I organized it:

(The zebra boxes are her Duct Tape Boxes (Tutorial HERE). They have held up amazingly well! They are perfect for her underwear and all her dance clothing. We keep socks downstairs in the mud room.)

And on the other side of her closet:

Stealing the shelf away has now left us with this huge disaster though. Lots of toy storage is now needed (I’ll share the toy storage in the next post.)

A view into her room from the hallway…

(Fluffy coffee filter wreath tutorial can be found here)

The shelf use to be along this wall, but the shelf is now in the closet and I “stole” the sofa table from the game room.

The plan was to get her a cute little dressing table with a mirror, but I opted for the sofa table because (besides the fact that I already own it so it’s essentially free) the sofa table is not as deep as a traditional desk or table and this little space is too awkward for a big protruding desk.

The plan was for a big pretty mirror to hang above so Kinsey can put on her jewelry and spend time primping, but after short consideration I concluded that she owns way too much crap and needed storage in lieu of a mirror.

Ikea to the rescue! I purchased 2 floating shelves (lack) for her room, and it was my lucky day because ikea just lowered the price down to $15 per shelf. Woot!

And now, after they are hung!

What a difference, right?! I’m thrilled with how they turned out. I say “progress” though because the sofa table needs to be painted, more artwork and accessories need to be hung, and my piano bench needs to be returned to my piano room and replaced with a cute little chair for Miss Kinsey to sit on.

(Yellow and Gray artwork of Kinsey above bedroom door, upper left corner of room, can be found here.)

She now {finally} has a place for all those little girlie things that she loves that aren’t exactly toys, but still need a place to call home.

I won’t sugar coat this and lie though, installing those shelves was pretty much a pain in the arse. Apparently ikea changed the design of them from when I bought a longer version for my dining room.

Instead of using basic Phillips Head (plusie) screws under the shelves, they now use Hex screws.

What are Hex Screws? I’m so glad you asked! They are screws that take a Hex bit to tighten them. You can’t use your basic screwdriver, so the shelves come with this little Hex bit to tighten them. Except tightening them by hand is almost impossible unless you are a body builder.

The solution? A $5 trip to Home Depot.

If you put together a lot of assemble-yourself furniture, I highly recommend you purchase a set of Hex bits and a Bit Tip Holder. Heck, I’d purchase a set just to put together ONE piece of furniture. The set is cheap, and made the job so much easier and faster.

To use the Hex Bit set, all you do is find the bit that fits your screw, then insert said bit into the holder.

From there, attach the bit holder to your electric drill.

Now you can assemble your furniture in less than a minute and without pulling a muscle in your arm.

Closet and shelves down…

…toy storage to go…

As soon as I get the toy storage situation under control I’ll be sure to give you an update. After that all I need to do is unload all the furniture on Craigslist, buy a new bed, and accessorize!

I’m really looking forward to getting the room finished. I’ve got a few more little projects up my sleeve too. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to check a room off my list once and for all! Of course, with all this work going on in sissy’s room, big brother Travis is starting to feel a little jealous, so I’ll be starting his room next.

It’s never-ending! Good thing I LOVE IT.

I hope you have a great MLK day and an even better week!

This weekend Ben and I FINALLY got around to mounting our TV on the wall.

Mounting a TV on a wall (and concealing all the cords) is really not that hard. And it only took us about an hour or so. So, remind me again why it took us year and a half?

Oh rrrright. Because I’m the President of the Procrastinators Club. I even added this project to my to-do list, and I still put it off another 5 months. Shame.

Okay, so here’s the eye sore before we tackled this afternoon project:

If there’s one thing Sarah and I have in common, it’s our general loathing of power cords.

Every time I walk to my bedroom, the laundry room, or the garage, I’m greeted by that horrible disaster of cords. I’ve got permanent hives and a twitch in my left eye just from seeing that monstrosity several times a day for a year and a half.

But check it out NOW! No more cords! All is right in the world.

I’m going to give a quick run-thru on how to hang the tv and run the cords through the wall, but honestly, if you just follow the directions that come with the mounting kit you will be just fine.

First thing you need to do is buy a mounting kit. You can get the exact same one at Amazon for about 70 bucks.

To mount the TV you will need to attach brackets to the back of the TV and a large mounting bracket to the wall.

We laid the TV face down to attach the brackets. AFTER we were totally finished Ben googled whether you are suppose to lay a plasma tv flat on the ground. Apparently you are not. Whoops. Probably should have googled BEFORE we started. Ours still works just fine, but you may want to keep your TV upright when you attach the brackets to the back of it. Just sayin. Don’t sue me if you lay your TV flat on the ground and it explodes or something.

There should be some screws on the back of your TV plugging the holes where the kit goes. Remove them.

Here are the holes after we removed the 4 screws.

Using the hardware that came with the kit, mount the brackets onto the backside of the TV.

(The kit came with 2 sets of brackets – one to mount the TV very close to the wall and one to mount it a little further out, but gives the ability to tilt the TV. We initially used the brackets that make the TV sit closer to the wall, but the cords didn’t fit, so we swapped the brackets out for the 2nd set. All the photos you see are the smaller set, but if you do this yourself please be aware that we ended up using the tilting brackets.)

You are now ready to mount the big daddy bracket to the wall.

Do not be intimidated. This is easy!!

First, locate the studs in the wall. You want the bracket to be bolted directly to the studs. Otherwise it will probably fall out of your wall and break your TV. No worries though! Finding the studs is easy!

If you don’t have a stud finder (I don’t b/c I’m too cheap to spend like 20 bucks on one), all you have to do is nail a small nail into the wall. If it goes in easily, there’s no stud. If it is hard to hammer in, you’ve hit a stud. Pretty easy. So just take your nail and hammer it every inch down your wall until you hit a stud.

Once you’ve located a stud, it’s even easier to find the 2nd one. If your house is built to code, your studs will be exactly 16″ apart from the center of one stud to the center of the next stud. This is called “16 inches on center”. Also, studs are made from 2×4′s, so your studs will all be exactly 1.5″ wide. Make sure you find the center of your stud.

Once your studs are all located and marked with a pencil on the wall, hold up your bracket, use a level to make sure it’s level, and use a pencil to mark all the holes where your bolts will go. Now remove the bracket and drill a pilot hole into the center of each of your bolt markings, like this:

Once your holes are drilled, put your bracket back up and bolt that bad boy to the wall. If you managed to find all 4 studs and bolted directly into the stud, your 4 bolts will be plenty to keep your tv mounted and safe.

Now double check to make sure everything is level.

Oh man, are we good or what?!

Your mounting kit is officially ready to go. Now the real fun begins. Let’s run those cables through the wall!!

To hide your cords, all you have to do is cut two holes in your sheetrock and drop them through the wall. It’s really easy as pie.

Start by cutting your top hole. Cut it inside the bracket area to make sure it’s well hidden once your TV is mounted.

Once the first hole is cut, you will cut your second hole about a foot off the ground directly below the first hole.

Don’t be scared. Sheetrock can totally be patched if you botch it up.

If you are dropping cables through an interior wall (meaning it isn’t a wall that has the outdoors on the other side of it), there will probably be no insulation inside your wall making it even easier to drop the cables. If you are mounting your TV on an exterior wall (the other side of the wall is the great outdoors) you will probably have to push through insulation to get your cables through the wall.

All you need to do now is shove those cords through the wall. But wait! There’s a really easy way to do this. It’s called Steel Fish Tape.

This is Steel Fish Tape:

It’s a thin flexible piece of steel (kind of like a tape measure but more sturdy) that comes on a roll. You unroll a bit of it and “fish” it through your wall. Here, I’ll show you. It’s easier than trying to explain it.

Shove the end of the Fish Tape through the top hole in the wall…

…and then pull the end out through your 2nd hole in the wall.

Use tape or whatever you can find and attach your cables to the end of the Fish Tape.

Now just wind the tape back up and pull the cords right on up through the wall. So easy!

I seriously get giddy when I have a chance to use the Fish Tape. It is fun feeding random stuff through your walls.

Now that you’ve got your cords hidden in your wall, plug them all into the back of your TV. From there, lift the TV up and hook it onto the mounting bracket.

You are done!

No more cords. No more ugly!

Woot Woot!

I’m releived I can finally check off another project from my daunting to-do list.

Do you have your TV mounted on your wall? Did you do it yourself or hire a professional?

Four long months ago I proclaimed I was going to hang curtains in the piano room.

Sounded simple enough. Hell, I already had the curtains. How long could hanging two curtain panels really take?

I tried them out by hanging them on the wall with some tacks…

They were waiting for Noah’s Flood, so I tested out some gray fabric I picked up at ikea. Yup, this little plan I hatched was going to work out perfectly.

I even added this little curtain project to my list of 24 projects I should have finished by now (project #6) {aka I’m a huge procrastinator}.

So why is it freaking January 2012 and I’m just now mentioning them again?

Because of my life mantra – Nothing I do is as easy as it should be.

Really, there were only two tasks to complete this little should-only-take-an-hour-or-so Project: 1) buy and hang two curtain rods, & 2) attach fabric to the bottom of the curtain panels. NOT THAT HARD, ALLISON. Srsly.

And that’s where things went horribly off track…

First off, the panels were dirty so I carefully read the label and washed them as directed.

When I pulled them out of the dryer, to my horror the toile fabric SHRUNK. Like, a lot.

Oh, this is for real, folks. I can’t even make this crap up.

All FOUR panels shrunk. In a moderate temper tantrum, I threw them on my floor and ignored them for a week or so. But then the curtain bug bit again. There had to be a way to salvage these curtains.

Yup, I went all Freddy Krueger on them and hacked the lining right out.

I had originally planned to use only two curtain panels (though I had 4), but once they shrunk to all hell and then I removed the lining, they seemed really sad and thin, so I ended up using two panels per window (I used all 4 panels instead of just 2).

Well, this pretty much screwed me on the gray fabric. I had enough to cover two panels, not four. No biggie… I headed back to ikea to buy another yard.

{Here comes big issue #2 with hanging these dag-gum curtains}

FAIL. Ikea has been sold out of that gray fabric for four freaking months now!

So now they look like this:

Because of the shrinkage, they are now waiting for an even bigger flood than before. {Maybe I should give up on the ikea fabric and just go get some at the fabric store…}

Well, there has been one semi-good thing to come from all this.

I bought and hung two curtain rods!

I say “semi-good” because, well, I bought these rods and hung them before my DIY curtain rod was even dreamed up…

If I could go back in time, I’d do one long rod on the windows in the piano room (like the DIY one in the dining room) instead of the two shorter rods. {sigh}

Eventually I may swap these out for one long one, but for now, these are paid for and hung, so I’m just gonna go with it.

So, now that I’ve been all Debbie-Downer on the curtain rods, let me tell you all about them!

I found the two curtain rods at Wal-Mart for $14 each.

They are nice rods, but man that $2 conduit pipe rod sure sounds nice right about now…

So anyway, I bought two rods from Wal-Mart…

…and also two packages of rings with clips ($7 a package).

I attached the rings the same way I explained here to create a faux pinch pleat.

That’s pretty much it. After four long months, the rods and curtains are finally hung, but I still can’t check this project off my to-do list because the bottom of the curtains are unfinished.

It’s all good though. This large randomly placed basket with no use hides the unraveling edge pretty well.

On a good day, the piano room and entry way are looking pretty good. Not finished, but better than before. (Ben is in a band, so the piano room is usually littered with at least 2-3 guitars, a large amp, a banjo, and his Russian accordion. Yes, I’m married to a musical wiz. I gave up trying to compete years ago. (I play the piano. But, of course, he does that better too!))

I have exactly two sets of curtains hung in this house (pathetic, I know). And you can see both of them at the same exact time:

I like the way the toile looks in the piano room, but man, I just adore my orange curtains. I could wear them I love them so much.

Posts are always WAY more fun with a good ol’ before and after, so here ya go!

{Before}

{Now}

I’d say that room looks pretty smokin’ hot compared to the “before”. Only a few more tweaks until I can check it off the list!

I guess in four more months I’ll update you again when I finally have the gray sewn to the bottom of the toile curtains. lol

And, as always, thanks for reading! Make yourself at home.

So. How’s it going?! First off, a huge thanks for all the well-wishes. I’ll keep you posted.

Okay, so I showed you how I moved the sofa table over to the staircase wall…

In it’s previous life it was a headboard. I cut it down, gave it a coat of paint, and turned it into a retro sofa table:

I’m still totally diggin’ the table. Like, A Lot. I like it a lot. You couldn’t really see it very well behind the couch though, so I moved it where my kids art desk use to be:

Which is just fine by me because their desk usually looks like a complete disaster. Don’t believe me?

Um, ya. I just couldn’t take it any longer. So I banished them from the living room and they now have to do projects at the kitchen table, which has actually stayed a lot cleaner…

So now my living room is looking more like this:

…which brings me to the point of the post.

I’m loving my Silhouette Advent Calendar. It has been so much fun!

The only problem is, what the heck do I put in those 25 drawers?? I mean, some are big. Some are small. Some are tall. I hit up Target and Dollar Tree and left empty handed. I was at a total loss.

Until it dawned on me. Why had I never thought of the Mother-Load of all things party-favor?!

That’s right. Party City! (This is NOT a promotional post.) They seriously pulled through for me in a big way.

I shopped around until I had two sets of 25 items (I have two kids – hence the two sets). When I got home I just dumped everything out on the floor and went to work.

I tried to sort most stuff before I began stuffing boxes, and I made sure to put the largest items in the boxes first so that I wouldn’t end up with a big fat toy and no big boxes left.

After some switching around and finagling I managed to get all the little prizes into the boxes.

The kids have LOVED this Advent Calendar. I pretty much threatened them with their life if I caught them peeking in the box before the appropriate day. If I caught them peeking (or their sibling did and told on them) they would have that days prize forfeited. They haven’t cheated once!

Here is just a sampling of the different items they’ve received. I started day 1 with bells. They each got a carabiner bell set to attach to their backpack and a mini-bells ring. I’m sure their teachers have loved me this month with all the jangling going on.

Cards are always fun for my kids – especially when they are mini cards. Kinsey has already added this mini Uno set to her American Girl accessories collection.

Bouncy balls are always great. Until they break a lamp or something…

And who can resist Slinky from Toy Story? Not me!

We’re only half-way through the month, but the mini Mad-Libs have definitely been the hit this season. The kids have gone coo-coo for Mad-Libs! Now if I could only get them to use words other than “fart”.

We are a Peeps-lovin’ family around here, so of course they had to try the chocolate covered peeps trees.

What kid doesn’t love Clackers? They were always one of my favorite toys as a kid. Probably because they are annoying as hell.

I’m excited for them to get these fun mini paint sets. I don’t know what it is about mini stuff, but I.just.love.it.so.much. Mini stuff is adorable!

The kids think the candy-filled ones are lame. Who would have thought? Next year I’ll put less candy and more little trinkets. But we can’t have Christmas Eve without candy canes to add to the tree, so I filled box 24 with mini ones.

I never thought coming up with 25 little treats for the Advent would be such a challenge, but it really took some thought. The kids have loved it so much and I’m sure to make this fun Advent Calendar a Family Tradition from now on.

Oh, and for those of you who complimented me on my CLEAN house in my last post about my Holiday Decor…

Thank You! But I’ll be honest. I clean for pictures. It’s true. Just the night before my family room looked like this:

Oh snap.

I drank a Diet Dr Pepper, put on some Christmas music, and cleaned the heck out the room so I could get it pretty for pictures. That’s one good thing about Blogging – my house gets cleaner faster because I HAVE to clean to take pics.

Have a super very merry Christmas!

One more thing…

The kids are off school now. The boy-toy (hubbs) is off work too. So I’ll be taking some time off to be with the fam. It is Christmas after all. I’ve got posts pre-scheduled for next week, but I just want you to know that I’ll be ignoring my email even more than I already do (which is next to impossible since I’m horrible at following through with email, but you get the idea.)

I wanted to get my Christmas decor posted, oh about 12 days ago, but well… It obviously didn’t happen. I was hoping to be able to join in on all the fun link parties around the blog ‘hood. Better late than never!

I don’t like making excuses on my blog. If I don’t post for a few days, you generally won’t see an apology from me. I’ll just pick up where I left off. I get annoyed when I read excuses on other blogs, so I try to leave them off of mine.

With that being said, I’ll be honest with you guys. I haven’t been as motivated lately with decorating and blogging. I haven’t been feeling well for awhile now, and it’s finally really catching up with me. I don’t know if it’s the cold, or the allergies, or what, but I feel even crappier than I usually feel.

I never feel 100%. Ever. I’ve struggled for a long time to figure out why I feel so run down and tired all the time. I have to drink an energy drink just to get basic tasks done. I’ve finally narrowed it down to two things that I’m pretty sure are the root causes of my feeling like I have a mild flu every day.

I’m about 99% sure I have Non Celiac Gluten Intolerance. Sucks. Really Bad. But at least when I don’t eat any gluten I feel a whole lot better. My sister was recently diagnosed, and we share the same symptoms. I’ve been gluten free for about 3 months and am feeling better already.

I’m also pretty sure I have Hypothyroidism. The more I read, the more I think I’ve had it for years and it’s just getting worse and worse. I have an appointment with an Endocrinologist next month and am anxiously counting down the days. It’s genetic, and my dad and grandma both have/had hypothyroidism, so I feel I’m a pretty good candidate for having it myself.

So, I’m sorry I’ve been posting less lately. I genuinely want to be here with you guys, I just haven’t felt awake enough.

This year I decided to go “minimal”. I brought down all the Christmas decor, and after a week of it covering the floor and me not feeling motivated to deal with it, I put out a few decorations, boxed the rest back up, and stuffed it in the garage. We do have a beautiful tree and mantle though so I don’t feel like too much of a Scrooge.

I decorated with tons of Target Dollar Spot ornaments last year {here & here}, so this year I just added them to all my glass jars and my big red lantern.

I also added all my glitter pinecones to the mantle because I’m pretty much obsessed with sparkly glittery things. In addition to the glitter pinecones, I also added my glitter framed vinyl tree to the mantle.

Last year I hung our bright ‘n funky Old Navy Stockings on the mantle for a more casual feel, but I decided to go more traditional this year with my handmade velvet stockings I made years ago.

Besides the mantle and the tree, I also decorated the railing on our staircase. I couldn’t resist the Old Navy Stockings. They are so bright and cute. The kids are so confused now and keep asking if Santa is going to fill both of their stockings. Maybe it’s a faux pas to have multiple sets of stockings in the same room but I don’t care one bit. I love them all.

Some Walgreens glitter trees and Target reindeer (both from last year) have been added to my green cart in the entry.

Ben and I have a set of glass ornaments from Russia that we try to put out each year. They are too fragile to put on the tree so I hung them from an ornament stand I picked up at ikea.

Here are some snow and candles on the shelves in our dining room, which I shared with you last week.

The rest of the decorating is on the headboard turned sofa table that I dragged from behind the couch. I might leave it here instead of putting it back behind the couch. I really like it here so much better.

Some of the decor on the sofa table are my terra cotta Christmas trees, West Elm Nutcracker Knock-Offs, and Silhouette Advent Calendar. There’s also a bowl of candy, a stack of children’s Christmas books, and a few of random decorations.

And that’s pretty much it for Christmas 2011. This is the year of simplicity. Even though I haven’t been crafting like a crazy person, covering everything in glitter, and decorating every square inch of the place, I still think it’s safe to say my mantle is looking a lot prettier this year than last.

Last year:

This year:

I think it’s safe to say I’m slowly getting better at decorating. Not perfect by any stretch, but better.

I hope you have a nice easy simple holiday season!

The house is as decorated for Christmas as it’s going to get. The stockings are hung and the tree is up. Now if only I could just pull myself away from reruns of The Wonder Years (on Netflix) long enough to actually blog about the decor…

It isn’t much, but I’m pulling myself away from Kevin Arnold, his side-kick Paul, and the beautiful Winnie to give you a quick decorating tip.

= fake snow =

Yes, I’m dedicating an entire post to fake snow, and how to make it sparkle. I pretty much already gave it away, so I’ll be blunt.
Epsom salt + glitter = fake snow.

Buy some of this at your local grocery store (in the medicine/drug section):

(I got mine at Target for around $2 I think)

Take your sparkly white or clear glitter:

…and mix them together. I did about a cup of epsom salt and 2 tbsp glitter, but really I didn’t measure, I just dumped them together. Just imagine the epsom salt is sugar, and the glitter is cinnamon, and mix in about the same ratio you’d mix to make cinnamon-sugar.

Now stick a candle in the middle, add some pics and call it done.

It is one of the easiest, cheapest fillers to create, and it really adds that wintery vibe to everything. And the best part, when you are done with Christmas you can add it to your bath water… you may end up picking glitter out of your hair though.

I also added some sparkly fake snow to this quirky light bulb jar I found at HobLob.

I don’t know why but I am just drawn to weird stuff like this. One day I’ll do an entire post of all the weird quirky stuff I own. You’ll think I’m such a nerd, if you don’t already.

So I added the glitter epsom snow to the bulb and I thought it was pretty cute…

…until my friend walked in and the first thing out of her mouth was, “that is a really cute salt shaker!”

I guess it does look like a salt shaker now that she pointed it out. Bummer. Now I’ll have to think of something else to put in it. Any suggestions? All I can think of are pom-pom balls.

If I can drag myself out of my super-lazy state, then I’ll be back later tonight or tomorrow with another post. Curse you Kevin Arnold. Curse you.