Month in review (and a winner!)

Hello all! Hope you got a touch of spring this weekend like we did! It was SO nice today – just a bit insanely windy. I’ll take it though!!

I’m back for another month in review, just in case you missed that one post.I know it would be awful, really.

But first, I need to announce the winner of the Sentry Safe! The lucky chick is Katie Lott of Kate Congdon Designs! Yay, congrats Katie! Please email me at simplehomeinteriordesign (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll hook you up with your free fire safe!

OK, onto a recap of the March posts.

I jumped the gun with last month’s recap, so I’m adding in a couple from the end of February – cause I can’t leave out this guy:

That is our Peanut, or as I like to call him, The Nut. He’s a Chihuahua Rat Terrier mix and is cuddling against me as I type. :) He’s the cutest, the snuggliest, the craziest little pup we’ve ever met. He and the Bub are now best buds for life. He and the cats…notsomuch. ;)

Actually, he LOVES them – they just have very little tolerance for him. One of the cats has been great with him, the other two are still getting used to the idea of a puppy. Puppy? What the heck is a PUPPY? And why is he in OUR house?? (I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re thinking.)

I promise to do a Peanut post again soon. I’ve got plenty of content for that one.

I shared some pictures of a lady date friends and I took to one of my favorite antiquing spots in Indy:

If you live near or in Indy and haven’t been, I highly recommend it. Be ready to dig, and plan on spending at least an hour!

I FINALLY finished purging the basement, and it only took, like, five years:

We use the space often, even though it’s unfinished. But we’re starting to plan the finishing process…hopefully taking steps by summer. (YAHOO!!!)

I posted a giveaway to Oriental Furniture, and was a bit surprised to find all of the beautiful pieces that would work in our home:

The March Before and After party was the biggest yet!! I shared how the eating area in our kitchen has changed over the years:

I’ll post this month’s party tomorrow evening – get your posts ready!

Next I talked about how the economy has affected the value of our house and what we decided to do about it:

Meaning, we’re not doing anything about it. :) Staying put.

I showed off the sweet and funny Allison of House of Hepworths:

If you missed all her great projects, go here.

Next I played musical dressers with the help of Craig and his List:

I found the perfect dresser for the Bub’s room, and it had been sitting in the family room all along. :)

It took me a year, but I got all of the knobs in the house changed out from shiny brass to beeeeeautiful oil-rubbed bronze:

I showed you the steps to change out knobs, and I promise it’s not hard! Many of you asked why I didn’t spray paint the knobs – it’s because I did my research and found for the most part, they just don’t hold up. I knew I’d be banging my head against the wall if I had taken all that time to prime, spray and top coat them and then the paint came off! Ugh.

My friend Melissa at 320 Sycamore did a post about how hers turned out, and you can find that here. My friend Beckie has had better luck with her knobs, here. She emphasizes how important each step is though – including sanding each knob.

Overall, I spent less than $300 on all of our knobs, but I also have tendency to take down doors, so I didn’t purchase them for all of the doors we’ve removed. ;)

Next up, I was giddy to be able to take TWO trips to IKEA in just two weeks:

I shared some of my favorites with you in this post. Geez, I love that place.

I found a $5 light at our Habitat ReStore and with a little spray paint, it looked like a million bucks!:

OK, a million is pushing it. Maybe $15. ;)

I was tired of waiting around for perfect baseboards in the office, and went ahead and finally installed the board and batten treatment:

And ohhh my, I love it! I smile every time I walk in the room!

I shared a few little things around the house that I like, and the Zip It was a hit with you all:

And I told you not to watch the video on their site, didn’t I? :)

I didn’t realize it, but the towels I mentioned were on clearance on the Meijer site and you all SOLD THEM OUT! Ha! I freakin’ love it. But I heard from a reader that they have discountinued the towels in the store?? This I do not love. I am going to check it out on my next trip there to see what’s up!

I shared how I have tamed the paper clutter in our house:

It’s a process that’s working (for me) so far – I hope it’s helped some of you!

Last week I used mossy rocks, a sheet of moss and reindeer moss to create…you guessed it -- a mossy vignette:

Turns out I am SO not the first to make that big honkin version of the Pottery Barn letter! If you search “mossy letter” you’ll find about 5,400 ways to do it. ;)

And finally, last week I shared that our house is rarely perfectly clean, usually quite messy, how I feel like I’m barely keeping up with life sometimes and that’s why we have items like toilet seats in our bedroom at times:

I so appreciate your comments on that post! I read every. single. one.

So that’s it! March was a great month peeps – here’s to a fantastic April!

Don’t forget the April Before and After Party will go up tomorrow evening. Have a great Monday!