Christmas Already!

I don't know about you guys, but I am chomping at the bit to get my Christmas decorations up! On Friday I was at the Dollar Store looking for some Kitchen Storage Containers and they didn't have what I was looking for.... so, of course I went wandering around and I fell upon the Christmas decorations section. Normally I would totally be thinking "How great can decorations be at the Dollar Store" right... But holy cow, they have some great stuff there that definitely should not be looked over!

In my last house, my Christmas Tree was in the corner of our Family Room, which means that I technically only needed to decorate half of it. Well this year, I am putting my Christmas Tree in my front window which means I will need all four sides decorated.

A few years ago I went on a shopping rampage for tree decorations at my favorite design wholesale place Taiwan Imports. This is a place that only people of the trade can go to. I bought some gorgeous stuff, and even though I still got them on a great deal, they still cost me a bit of money. Well since I have more tree to decorate this year, I needed some extra decorations to fill in all around and I was excited when I came across these!

They had quite a bit to choose from but these are things that will go great with what I already have for my tree.

I love these gold glitter twirl sticks! I actually got these for my moms tree a few years ago (for more money may I add) and they are so fun in there that I wanted to get them for my tree. These red glitter balls were 12 for $1!!! How can you beat that! I bought all of this for $7 and I guarantee that when you see it all in my Christmas Tree, you won't be able to tell what was from the Dollar Store and what is my nice stuff. I am so excited to get it all out and put together, but I guess I should wait just a few more weeks! :)

If you are needing to add some things to your decorations this year or want something completely new, definitely don't shut out the idea of the Dollar Store. I am amazed at some of the things they carry!

Cheap and Simple - Side Table and Basket

I have posted a Cheap and Simple post before and I decided that I was going to do a "series" of these posts, which will be projects for under $10 (usually less) and don't take much artistic skill at all.

A few weeks ago, I was in the DI thriftstore and came across this table.

It was marked at $10 and I was kind of considering it. The bottom tray shelf was broken and needed fixing but I knew I could do that. One of the workers saw me looking at it and approached me and said "If you are willing to buy this, I will mark it down to $5. I need to get the floor cleared for Saturday." He ran out and grabbed his price gun before I even had a chance to answer. What the heck I thought, can't beat a $5 table.

My husband of course thought I was crazy with seeing the broken shelf and told me "you know most of this stuff will just be coming right back here." I looked at him and said "have a little faith in me would ya"

I have pretty much turned our unfinished basement into a spray paint gallery. I took the table down there and fixed the shelf with some Gorilla Glue and then took this left over black paint that I had from a furniture refinish I did years ago.

I got started painting it and realized that I didn't have the patience to sit and paint this whole thing with a few coats of paint and do a good job.

I did a quick cover with the paint and decided to pull the spray paint out!

And here is the final reveal of it. I am going to use this in between my 2 chairs in the office and I am really happy with the way that it turned out.

My husband was even impressed with the way that it turned out and I think that even he would agree that it isn't going back to the DI anytime soon.

I will show it all put together and with the chairs next to it when I show the full office reveal.

I absolutely love these cheap and simple projects and I know that my husband loves that they cost him almost nothing!

Now here is another project I did. On the same DI run as the table, I found this basket. I have been wanting a basket by my front door so that people know to take off their shoes and put them in there. I found this basket for $3 and thought that it would be perfect.

I took some brown spray paint that I had and coated it up (baskets always take a couple of coats from different angles to get inside the weaves) and then after that dried I did a very light coat with some black spray paint at a distance to tone down the brown.

After I got it all sprayed, I realized that if I used the basket for shoes, it would probably take all of the paint off, so I decided to use it for my blankets instead.

I was actually able to do BOTH of these projects for under $10 and I had the spray paint lying around in my basement already. SO cheap and simple!

Office Dilemma

Remember in my Inspiration Post I mentioned how this fabric was my inspiration for the office? Well, I am having a serious dilemma and I'm not quite sure what to do!

My step-dad gave me his chairs from his old work office. There are 4 chairs, I am only using two in my office..... Here is the BIG DILEMMA for me..... They are BLUE!

Do you see any blue in this fabric? And if you read my Paint Post a while ago, you know my feelings on the color blue in my own personal house.

Here is the thing, I can use this fabric and make green slipcovers for the chairs, but to be completely honest, there are a lot of other projects that I would rather spend my time and money on. I also have a lot of pictures and objects from our travels that have blue in them.

I have fought and fought putting blue in this room and I feel like I am losing the fight.

I have been putting together my photo gallery for the office ( I can't wait to show you how great the picture displays are looking) and I was going through my travel pictures and came across these pictures of my daughter in her Hawaiian dress.

I got looking at the colors and thought maybe this dress would work for my inspiration! It has navy blue in it along with orange and green. My walls are an orangey, caramel color and I have a lot of green items that I was going to put in the room as well as paint an accent wall on my stairs green. I would need to see if I can find some fabric that gives the travel feel for my drapes and pillows for the chairs. I need to go do some hunting, but just maybe I can come to terms with blue in my home and make this office look fabulous still!

Stay Tuned to see the final reveal..... Hopefully it will be coming soon!

Tip Of The Week - Bay Windows

I know that this is something that people will appreciate knowing. This is something that even my husband questioned me on and I will stick strong to this tip.

How many of you have a bay window or a jetted out window like I have here in this picture?

I know that when people are painting their walls and they come to this window, they ask themselves "Do I paint the ceiling in here or do I leave it white?" People usually will leave it white because it is a ceiling, right?!

Well don't!..:)....Please, Please, Please paint the ceiling area of your window the SAME color as the walls!!!

I really want to emphasize this. I really wish I had a DO NOT example but I don't.

If you look at my window, you notice the window! That is the goal, right!

If you leave the ceiling area white, that is what you are going to notice right away and that isn't where your attention should be going.

I hope this tip makes sense to everyone and that they can understand and appreciate it. I hate seeing people have a little bit darker color on their walls and this white ceiling area in their window and all you notice is the ceiling area because it stands out.

Please trust me on this one!

Inspiration Piece

When I posted about Brooklyn's nursery, I mentioned my Inspiration Piece.

This quilt was my inspiration piece for that room. I pretty much design every room that I do in this very same way. I won't start designing a room in my home until I have found that piece that inspires that spark of ideas to flow to me.

If you have ever seen Color Splash with David Bromstad on HGTV before, he designs in this very same way and I love that he does it. It is amazing what ideas can come to you when you have that one piece that you love for that room.

Here are some more of my inspiration pieces that have helped spark those ideas for my own home.

Kenidi's Nursery:

I have been working on my baby-on-the-way's nursery and I wanted something different (of course). I was given this brown bedskirt that my mother-in-law made for my twin nephew and niece that they were no longer using. I found this beadboard picture frame at the DI for $2.00 and I loved it just the way it was, and then this is my favorite shirt that I can wear being pregnant (the color is so pretty and I have always wanted to have it in a room).

If I can find a fabric with all the colors in it, I can get started on this room. I have this room designed in my head and it is going to be GORGEOUS but I need to find that darn Inspiration Fabric so I can get her bedding going.

Family Room/Kitchen:

The inspiration for this area was simply the wall color. I found this color and just had to have it. I had all neutral furniture so I could start from scratch and this was the color that I wanted in my home.

Living Room:

The checkered drapes were my inspiration for getting this room going. I had found the sofa and chair and since they were chocolate, I could put anything with it. I wanted something that was different than my family room but that would flow. There are similar colors in each room but they are very different feels. I fell in love with the checkered fabric and I was able to pull the accent wall color from it (the wall behind it) and I was able to go through my fabric bins and I pulled out the peachy and gold fabrics and thought they would look great incorporated in pillows, and then I found the red fabric at the DI for $3.00 and I am going to create a bench/coffee table upholstered in the red. I am way excited for this room to come together but because it is my front room and I want it a little bit more formal, it is taking me longer to get it together and paid for.

Office:

We like to travel a lot with my family and we wanted our office to represent that and showcase all of our pictures. I wanted it to flow with the rest of my house but still have the fun side of traveling and I found this fabric. I actually found this fabric back years ago and I never did anything with it. I pulled it out a few weeks ago and it inspired the whole pull together of my office.

I have a big gorgeous black desk in my office that is VERY Potterybarnesc and I wanted to tie that in with black picture frames. I got this palm tree statue from Mexico and I took this lamp from a Hourder's house (someone who has an addiction to shopping and just buys for the sake of buying and just lets everything stack up in their home). When I pulled this fabric out, all of those ideas started popping out and I am in the process of putting this room together. You can see in the background that I have got the walls painted and stained, I have just been waiting for them to not be tacky anymore so that I can move forward. Can't wait to show you the final product.

Master Bedroom:

There were a few things that actually contributed to my master bedroom. First off, this greenish/bronze colored bedding. This was old bedding of my sister's that she let us take and use while we were finding some bedding that we wanted. Well, it turned out that my husband really liked it and didn't want to get rid of it. I on the other hand, needed more color. I had this red blanket that I had gotten a year or so earlier and wanted to use that. I decided that I needed to compromise with my husband, so I kept the bedding that he liked, but then I added the checkered bedding that I have on there. It is a very layered affect, but it is something that makes both him and me happy. (I know there is a lot of red on my bed, but that will be dispersed throughout the room once I get a sitting area put in.)

This is also something that was important for me to use in the room. These are candlestick holder's that were my grandmother's. I haven't found a spot for them yet, but you can bet that I will try and find a creative way to use them in the room or in the master bathroom.

Spare Bedroom:

I haven't really done anything yet with this room, but I have had these pillows for years. They have been sitting in a box and I decided that I wanted to use them as my inspiration pieces for the spare. I have a lot of orange items that I don't have anywhere to put in this house, so I thought they would work well in the spare bedroom. I am still waiting for that flood of ideas to come from the pillows though! :)

Guest/Kid's bathroom:

My favorite season of the year is the Fall time. James and I had these pictures taken a few years ago and I loved the colors so much that I wanted to incorporate those colors in a room. Well, it went to the bathroom.

I found this shower curtain that had all of the colors in it. I have a few other accessories up in there but the room is so tiny that I can't really do a whole lot with it. Plus, because it is my kid's bathroom, I also have to be practical.

Laundry Room:

I bought this rug a couple of years ago for my front door. It is really flimsy so we didn't want to use it there in this house. I decided to put it in my laundry room and I think it will work great in there. My laundry room is actually our only bathroom also on the main level so it gets seen more than laundry rooms should. Since you can't see the rug colors real great, they are rust orange/red, olive green and golden yellow. I have actually bought the paint already and we are going to paint this room green. I can't wait to actually get going on it and make this room look presentable for people to use it.

Well, there are my inspirations for my house. Do you have something that you love that has helped sparked those ideas. I have found that this is the best way to start off designing a room. Go out and find those Inspiration Pieces that you can use in your home.

Open House for Home Decor

BACK HOME DECOR

Back home decor is the company that I spoke about in a post of mine a few days ago. These two, Katie and Karen, offer home decor at a fraction of the cost of retailers. They have some great every day home decor, but they have some darling holiday items right now. If you have Christmas on the brain like I do, they have some awesome things that can be used in your Christmas trees (beady thingys which I LOVE in Christmas Trees), as well as cute Halloween and Fall decor.

If you are interested in going, send me an email or leave a comment and I will give you the exact address.... I didn't want to leave their home address up on the blog. Here is the invitation.

Check them out! You can do some early Christmas shopping!

Type:

Party - House Party

Date:	Saturday, October 24, 2009
Time:	1:00pm - 4:00pm
Location:	Lehi UT 84043

Amazing Home Decor at discount Prices! Come get all your Holiday needs.
Open House
Katie & Karen are starting a business where we are selling Home decor Items at almost half the cost of what are in stores.. We have been selling online and in California and wanted to share our savings with our friends and family.. We have cute Holiday and Everyday home decor. Come and visit we'd love to see you all!!
Great prices on Home Decor, also decorating Ideas and info.
Kids are Welcome so come at any time!!
C-ya There

Cheap and Simple - Waste Basket

I was at the dollar store and ran into this everyday basket.

I looked at that and thought Waste Basket! I don't know about you guys, but I have had an 8 year old yucky, ugly waste basket in my laundry room/bathroom and I was sick of it. Sure it was functional, but I wanted something that was attractive, and have you ever gone and looked to purchase a nice waste basket at the store? They can be extremely pricey and who wants to pay that for their trash?!

So... I took my handy dandy black spray paint and sprayed the thing down, bought some little garbage bags to put inside and wala!...

A new, more attractive waste basket

And the best part.... I only cost me $1 people!!!! I am thinking that I am going to go purchase another one for my master bathroom now. How can you pass up such a cheap and simple thing as that?!