one man's trash really is another man's treasure

Craigslist. I love it- you know this. Recently, I've been enjoying the other side of craigslist- selling! Since we got our new living room furniture, I've got end/side tables, chandelier, area rugs, a few shelves, and some other random odds and ends that I am not using anymore. I listed everything 2 weeks ago. Nothing. I only had one inquiry. So, I re-listed everything this week. Bingo. When it comes to craigslist, it's all about timing. So, within the last 3 days, I've sold our old chandelier, coffee and end tables, a frame, and a corner shelf. Sweet right?

Mollie bought our chandelier. She had her washer pipe burst (on the third floor of her townhouse- boo) and needed to replace her dining room chandelier. She got a new light and so did I. I even made 25 bucks on the deal because I found that good deal at homedepot. I call that a win-win.

Mary Ann was looking for new coffee/side tables. Her kids are in their teens and she wanted something nicer. I was looking to get rid of my nice but sharp cornered end tables, and Everett was hoping for a table that he wouldn't hurt himself on. Mary Ann was excited, I was excited. She even dragged her son along to help load and he was happy because he got a trip to Sonic out of it. Again, win-win.

In the end, I'm financing my entire living room/first floor update simply by selling and re-purposing the stuff we've got. I'm even making some money! It's a pretty cool deal. If you haven't tried craigslist, you should.

Buy something, sell something. And while you're at it here's a few tips:

1- Be specific. In your searching, use the search engine and look for exactly what you want. Use key words to help narrow the number of things that you will look at.
2- Be persistent. If you read my stalking craigslist post, then you know what I'm saying. Check craigslist multiple times a day for the things that you want. It's all about timing on the website. If you're buying, check the website a lot. If you're selling, repost your items every few weeks and make sure you have nice clear pictures for buyers to look at.
3- Be safe. I only meet people when Aaron is home and only give out my address if they have already verbally said they want to buy the item. My address is usually the very last thing that I give people. It's only after we've had a number of emails back and forth and I know that they're serious about purchasing the items that I give them our address. If you're wary of this, meet at a public place.
4- Be smart. There are scammers on craigslist. Often when you post something you may get one or two of these people. They will tell you that they're interested in your item. Their second email to you will say something about a money order, moving out of the country, etc. Don't do business with these people. Use common sense. Also, I only accept cash. It just makes sense.

So there you go. Questions, ask. I know my way around craigslist ;)


Happy Craigslisting!

new sign via picnik

 

So, I've been redecorating. You know this. I have also been soaking in tons of inspiration via pinterest. I found a quote on there that I love and wanted to find somewhere and somehow to display it. I also stumbled onto a fantastic blog and found an AMAZING tutorial on how to create free printables on picnik.com (it's a photo editing website that's FREE! I love and adore it and use it all the time). So, this morning over coffee, I came up with a sign for my kitchen. All I have to do is head over to a staples somewhere and print it out! I haven't decided yet if I'm going to frame and hang it or slap on some modge podge and add it to a canvas. Either way, I'm pretty excited about it!  What do you think?

design dilemma- opinions please!

So, I'm stuck. I thought I had made a decision about the space between my new curtains. I had resolved myself to get this fantastic round framed mirror, paint it white and hang it in the middle of the wall. I wanted something simple because of all the pattern in the curtains. I used painters tape to give myself an idea about how much of the wall it would take up and how it would look. I was pumped and then my brother in law burst my bubble. Remember I told you I was spray painting our little mirror/key holder by the door? Well his exact words were, oh another mirror? I hadn't thought about it to that point, but I will then have two mirrors on the same wall. ugh. So now, I need your help. Which option do you think will look best:


Option 1--- Keep the mirror idea. No big deal. It'll still look good:

Option 2--- Try something like this idea from Pinterest. Plain and pretty simple, but cute too:

taken from pinterest

Option 3--- Use fabrics that were used to cover pillows and frame them. Use 3 white frames and 3 different fabrics: My only fear with this one is that it may be too much pattern? It'd have a similar set up to this picture I found on pinterest. I'd use the fabric we got for recovering the pillows.

taken from pinterest

So, what do you think? 1, 2, or 3?! Do you have another idea for me? I'm all ears. And while you're at it, tell me why!

the snowball effect

Remember back in February when I gave you my 2011 DIY to-do list? I revised it again in April and we're getting close to checking off that little list of 11 things that I wanted to accomplish this year. While I should be ecstatic, I am instead looking at a list 3 times that size. Isn't that the way it always works? Example- #6 on the list= rearrange the living room furniture. Done son. But, after I moved it, I got the itch to change it. Enter- new furniture. Then new curtains. Then new pillows... etc, etc, etc. See my dilemma? I think that by the end of this my entire first floor will look different. For now- I will enjoy checking a few things off my original list, celebrate what we've already accomplished, and how much I love it! (All the newly completed stuff is crossed off in blue)

1- Fix the kitchen light.
2- Repaint the dining room.
3. (Neatly) mount the television above our fireplace.
4. Get rid of the Tiffany's-esque chandelier that hangs in an awkward place in our living room.
5. Update the ceiling fan in our bedroom.
6. Rearrange the furniture in the living room.
7. Add some wall art to our master bedroom/bathroom/living room.
8. Update our upstairs bathroom light fixtures.
9. Repaint the red in the half bath.
10. Sell living room and mancave couches on craigslist.
11. Find a sectional for the living room and redecorate!


#11 you saw in my craigslist post and the update on our new curtains.
#2 and #9 were painted while Everett and I were out in Pittsburgh at the end of June. It was a happy birthday present from my hubby and brothers in law. I love it. I'll post pics another day.

#4 was fun. That chandelier has been the bane of my existence since day one of living in our house. My living room is rectangular and has a fireplace which can make a layout hard enough. Add in a strangely placed chandelier that hangs about a third of the way into the room and you've got a seriously weird design. I went back and forth on what to do with it. When it came down to it, we really needed at least one hanging light. I struggled though in figuring out how it would ever look normal. One day it just hit me- I would swag the light over to the corner and make myself a reading nook of sorts. With the new sectional I was left with an empty corner, so Aaron and I used part of our discovercard cashback money to buy this little guy for our new reading nook (from target during a 15% off furniture sale)!

It matches the new ottoman perfectly and fills up some of that empty space. See that huge empty wall behind the chair... I've got big plans for it. You'll have to wait and see!

Back to the light- I knew that even if I swagged it I was still going to need a new fixture (side note- when I say swag I mean I bought a little kit that allows you to drill a hook into the ceiling to change the placement of where the a light is hanging).

I'd seen a lot of outdoor looking pendant lamps and liked the idea. I decided to peruse homedepot.com to see if they had any similar lights. They ended up having one that I absolutely loved; however, it was 125 bones. That was a no go. I wanted the pewter fixture, but decided to look at the other colors too. There was a glossy white (which I wasn't interested in) BUT it was only $43. $82 cheaper just because of the color?! Crazy right? So I did what anyone would do, ordered the white and spray painted it. I've been on a bit of a spray painting kick... I'm sure my neighbors think I'm wacky. Either way, I really like the results. It's another thing checked off our list and another step toward "finishing" up the living room. What do you think? Anyone else obsessing lately on spray painting stuff? Anyone else have a project that's snowballing?!

Mom sewed and I tried not to screw it up

I've got pinterest/redesign/DIY fever. It's ridiculous. You already know that I sold our old couches and bought a sweet new-to-us sectional. (Check out that post here if you missed it.) The sectional is very neutral so I wanted to get some new curtains and pillows to bring some color into the room. Side note- we just moved to one income due to God's continued faithfulness to our family, so expensive anything is just not an option. I'm fine with that though, I love hunting down good deals. While I was cutting costs and thifting it up like no ones business, I also knew I wanted nice curtains. So, obviously, for my 28th birthday I decided curtains were at the top of my list. Seriously, curtains. Oh well, so curtains it was. I turned to by oh-so-talented mom to help me make them. I had already found the fabric at Joann's and my mom kindly paid for it and helped me make the curtains and recover some throw pillows for my birthday gift. My mom is a really talented seamstress and has made countless quilts, dresses, and curtains. I always default to her, which is probably why I stink at sewing.

I'm not sure exactly how long it took us to make the curtains--- maybe 3 hours? We started out deciding how long I wanted the curtains. I bought 6.5 yards (which is 234 inches) of fabric. We (okay so my mom thought of this) wanted both curtains to look exactly the same so we had to figure out the exact pattern in the print. It worked out and we cut each curtain at about 100 inches. Once we made sure they lined up, we started pinning the sides of the curtain. Let's be real, I suck at pinning. My mom pinned her entire curtain and I was still finishing up my first side. It was laughable how slow and terrible I was at it. Mom had us double the hem and then pin. (see picture) I guess that gives the curtain a cleaner edge. From there my mom measured to make sure that the pins did in fact all measure exactly the same. Let's just say she had to pull a few million pins from my curtain. Once that was done, Mom just sewed along the pins. Phew, that completed the sides. We did the same thing with the bottoms of the curtains.

Finally, we got the top of the curtains. I had originally planned to just hem the entire curtain (which you can do and it's probably 9000 times easier) and buy the rings that just clip onto the fabric; however, I love grommets. I don't know why, but I do. There's something about them that seems fancy or polished or something. So, I found some snap on grommets at Joanns that looked pretty simple. False. This was the point where my mom almost gave up. It was the math. The curtain was 52 inches across. We were using 8 grommets per curtain and my mom suggested we put a grommet 2 inches in on both sides and then space out the other 6 within that. For some reason though, the math was just not coming out right. My mom pinned and repinned the placement for the grommets about 6 times. Finally after an hour of hassle, she was able to figure it out. Thank goodness - math's not my thing and neither is sewing.I would've been screwed if she did throw in the towel! I taught social studies, remember? So anyway, the package came with a nice little template that you could trace on the fabric with a fabric pen and then cut out the circle of fabric (see picture).

At this point, it was all downhill. Once we cut out the fabric, the grommets pretty easily snapped into place and created these beauties:

My curtain rods were originally black, so I used some spray paint (Rust-oleum metallic spray paint- satin nickel) and they ended up matching my grommets perfectly!  Here are some other shots and the pillows that we recovered.

 

There are still plenty of things that I'd like to finish/change/paint in the room. See that black mirror by the entryway- I'm spray painting it white as we speak. See the space between the curtains- I'm looking for something to fill that space. I'm leaning toward a circular framed white mirror. Anyone other ideas on how to fill that space?  I'm also debating between pulling the curtain back and leaving it hang, DIY-ing a sign for the other part of the room, finding some accessories, and possibly a plain yellow or green fabric for a few more pillows. So there you have it. Progress in the living room. Later this week I'll show you the other side of the living room with a new light and chair! Here's the quick before/after of the living room from just a few weeks ago:

I love the way they turned out and loved that I got to make them with my mama! 

Thanks Mom- you're the best! 

living room sneak peek

Here's a little sneak peek at the pillows and curtains my mom and I made this week. Okay, so Jan made most of them, I did a little pinning (which I'm terrible at), ironing, and snapping on some grommets. It was definitely a labor of love at points, but I couldn't be happier with the outcome- curtains especially! I can't wait to see them up at the house along with some other projects that Aaron took care of while I was in the burgh this week! Stay tuned for lots of living room/house project updates next week. For now, here's my mom's handiwork and a new pattern I found to change up the look a little. (I'm still searching for the perfect olive green or mustard yellow to complete the pillow ensemble.)  Whoop whoop!

Cribs- Everett style

While I was pregnant, I documented everything, including the progress of Everett's nursery; however, I never put up the final product. Since Everett arrived all sneakily with my water breaking, I never ended up taking final pictures and posting them to the blog. I also never found a good reason to post them until now. So here you go- Everett's nursery reveal- 1 year late :)

So there you have it folks- Everett's room

doing it yourself

When Everett was new out of the womb he slept a lot and I consequently read a lot. DIY blogs to be exact(Young House Love, Bower Power, and Centsational Girl are my favorites). HGTV is also my favorite tv channel and I've watched way too many episodes of "get it sold" and other DIY shows! Since then, I've been inspired to finish some projects around the house. I am by no means as talented or creative as Sabrina Soto or these three blogger ladies, but I think (along with my handy husband) we can get some stuff done! So, here are some projects that we'd like to get done around the house and hope to complete in 2011. Some are easier and others more in depth, but either way I'll update you throughout the year when we finish!


1- Fix this light:
It has been an eyesore in my kitchen since we moved here, and despite the fact that I claimed it would be the "first thing I'd change" it is still there. So, for now, I simply want to paint the hideous thing black. Maybe one day we'll figure out how to get rid of it completely.

2- Repaint the dining room. When we moved in everything was white. I was liking red and so we painted 3 walls in the dining room a maroon/red color. I'm tired of the dark red and ready for something new, hence the repainting.

3. (Neatly) mount the television above our fireplace. Aaron and I decided that we don't use our nice big tv enough (currently located in his man cave). We are going to mount the tv above the fireplace, cut out the drywall and run the wires behind the wall to one neat and tidy outlet. Fingers crossed that all works out.

4. Get rid of the Tiffany's-esque chandelier that hangs in an awkward place in our living room. Replace it with either a plate or new lighting of some sort. While we're at it, paint the ceiling where Aaron had to patch a leak last year.

5. Update the ceiling fan in our bedroom. It's a little outdated and does not match our bedroom. I am going to paint the blades white and spray paint the nasty gold a more muted silver color. I also want to replace the glass around the lightbulbs.

6. Rearrange the furniture in the living room. We've lived in our house for almost 3 years now and I am getting the itch to change things up. Mounting the tv above the fireplace will free up some room to move things around and change up our current design!

7. Add some wall art to our master bedroom/bathroom. I have been looking forever for things to liven up the walls, but to no avail. I'll see what I can come up with here...etsy? make my own?

8. Update our upstairs bathroom light fixtures. We need to replace our builder beauties in our master and hall bathrooms. They are gold and nasty and I'm on the lookout for some new chic lighting to update the spaces.


So there you have it. Our 2011 project list. Any major 2011 projects for you and yours?

A long overdue thank you...

Some of my best childhood memories I remember through photos. Crazy outfits worn by kels, pictures of halloween when we were little, and of course pictures of my sisters and I in matching dresses. Every Christmas and Easter until I was about 10 my mom made Erika, Kelsey, and I matching dresses. It was always fun to help mom pick out the fabric and wear our pretty dresses on special holidays. Everyone at church waited to see what my mom would come up with next. Since then, I have turned to my mom to make me clothes, bedding, fix Aarons pants, hem my pants, etc. She is always trying to get me to sew... but I'm not the seamstress she is. When we moved into our house, she told us she wanted to make us a quilt for our bedroom. So, when her and dad came to visit in June we spent a day running around Chester and Berks counties to find the perfect fabric for our quilt. My mom worked tirelessly on the quilt (and curtains, pillows, and bedskirt!) and had it done for me the beginning of August! It is beautiful and we LOVE it! Mom, thanks for the many gifts, but especially this one. We love you :)

pictures of mom's handiwork: