2012 Blog Squad!

Well HELLO!  How the heck are ya?

I’m thrilled to announce a little…uhh, announcement. I’m so excited to be joining the True Value Blog Squad again for 2012!:

I’ve loved working with True Value and love my local TV so I’m psyched to get going again this year!

I’ve mentioned my True Value’s AWESOMESAUCE spray paint aisle:

Stop your drooling, I know.

And the fantastic hardware aisle:

Both rock my socks off. :)

This year I’m hoping to take advantage of the lumberyard a bit more (yes, they have a lumberyard – told you it’s awesome).

Last summer my Dad and I made my potting bench:

And I hope to build some more projects this year too. I’ve already got a few in mind. Did you doubt it? :)

I feel. in. love. with Kristin’s live edge table when I saw it:

 
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Isn’t that gorgeous? SO want to make on of my own.

Ana White posted this “X” console table a while back and I couldn’t believe my luck:

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Kid you not, I had been planning on building one for months. And now I know how. ;)

I’ve also been planning on creating some in wall storage in our bathroom for awhile too, like this one:

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I think I can do it – we’ll see how it turns out.

And the biggie – I really hope I can get started on the mud room that will be a MUD ROOM and not a laundry room. Swoon:

(source)

Be still my heart. This will not be how ours looks but I can dream, right?

So I hope to show you how to build more things than I have in the past, with some easier projects mixed in. AND a little somethin’ for you all thrown in here and there. :)

Can’t wait to get started -- I know the first project I’m working on! Can’t wait to show you…if it turns out. (Probably even if it doesn’t.)

Have a GREAT weekend!! Will you be celebrating the Fourth early? I LOVE the Fourth of July!

 

“I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.”

Haven conference, finally!

Well, it finally arrived – after a year of planning, the Haven Conference happened last week and I really find it hard to put into words how wonderful it was.

I know you’re probably seeing a lot of these recaps all over blogland today, and I know how hard it is to see these if you weren’t able to attend or just plain have no idea what the heck we’re talking about. So for those reasons, I’ll try to keep this short.

I do have to tell you that throughout the week I was continually overwhelmed (in a good way), humbled, overjoyed…it’s really hard to express what a special experience it was.

The Haven team is made up of some of my best friends (can I tell you how hard it is to have best friends who you see once a year??), and even though we were always going and working hard, we were ALWAYS having fun:

(I had to borrow these pics cause I forgot my camera. And business cards. At a blogging conference. I am smart.)

We spent the first day unloading a meeellion swag bags, setting up registration and putting an obscene amount of paper lanterns together.

I spoke at a couple sessions each day, and we kicked off I Like Big Blogs with a little dance:

Cause we like big blogs and we cannot lie. ;)

My dear friends Beckie and Julia spoke at the advertising session  with me and I think Beckie rocked some worlds with her info:

I want to be her. ;)

I try to tell bloggers that when you meet other bloggers for the first time, there is an instant bond that’s hard to explain. I have so many women I consider friends and even though I met some of them for the first time last week, I’ve felt like they’ve lived down the street for years:

I think the blogger who wins the award for the most excited was Beth from Free Stylin:

She was a doll (as was everyone) and she almost made me cry she was so happy. She’s been reading TDC from the beginning and it was so awesome to meet her and so many other long-time readers.

I met so many incredible bloggers and non-bloggers and heard three things over and over:

1. TDC was the first blog they found. LOVE that.
2. I need to keep showing messes in my house cause people like that. ;) (I do too.)
3. I am in person what I “sound like” on the blog – and I don’t think I could’ve received a bigger compliment. (Which means that yes, I really am a HUGE dork.) It made my week every time someone said that.

It was an amazing week that brought me to (happy) tears more than once. I feel fortunate to have been able to meet so many amazing women (and a few men!) and I am so thrilled to have these six fantastic bloggers in my life:

Left to right: Kate, me, Beth, Rhoda (who with our coordinator Kristin did a TON of the work), Traci, Chris and Marian. (Kristi had to catch a train home early!)

I think this picture better represents us though:

Love them. Loved every bit of it.

I missed my boys so much and was so happy to get home! It took me a couple days to recoup (I figured out that I had gotten 18 hours of sleep in five days), I was back at the DIY today. I can’t stay away for long. :)

If you were able to attend Haven this year, thank you! If not, I hope we’ll see you there next year!

**I believe Rhoda will have a Haven Conference link up on Tuesday if you went and would like to link your post!

**I borrowed these pics from Tonya, Traci, Beth and Julia. Thanks ladies. ;)

Carpet cleaning giveaway

**This giveaway is now closed. The winner has been contacted via email.

Hello there! As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m off at the Haven Conference, so I have a few fun giveaways planned for you all. The first one was for a decor item, which is always fun, and this one is more of a cleaning/necessity giveaway. Sometimes those are my favorites!

Remember when I wrote that HUGE to do list in April? Well, I didn’t get all of it done by the end of May – but that’s another post. ;) Thanks to the folks at Stanley Steemer I did get one big project done – they emailed me offering to clean our carpets and then offered to give one of you a cleaning session!

HECK YEAH!

I’ve had our carpets cleaned before and I can honestly say I have never seen more care taken when it came to our house. I was SO pleased at the little things they did to protect our furniture and us:

That thing on the front door kept it open enough for the hose but then kept the hot air from coming in the house – I thought that was brilliant. The little signs were stuck on all the handrails and hard floors near the carpets and they warned us about walking with wet feet on those spots.

They did a fantastic job – I couldn’t even believe the difference in our carpets. They were not pretty before – think three cats and one dog not pretty.

I will spare you the befores of those but I will share one – the marker stain on the carpet that I couldn’t get out:

 

There is absolutely no sign of it – there’s no sign of any of the stains. I can’t tell where any of them were. Let’s just say that’s saying a lot. Ahem.

Annnnd then a few days later the cat puked on the clean carpets. Not once, but twice. Fun times. I’ll be calling them again. ;)

The carpets were dry by the time we went to bed that night – so they weren’t left really wet which I love. I didn’t realize they cleaned furniture as well, so when I found out I had them clean our family room sectional and it looked great when they were done.

I tell you the truth about services and products that I try and I was honestly thrilled with the results. I’ll be using them from now on for sure.

Here’s the best part – Stanley Steemer has offered $100 toward carpet cleaning services for one of you as well. Whoo!! Who doesn’t love free cleaning??

Here’s the dealio to win $100 in free carpet cleaning:

1. Leave a comment here.

2. Uhh, that’s it. :) Nice huh?

* Remember if you comment anonymously or you have a private blog, please include your email address in each entry, and spell it out with “at” and “dot” to avoid any spammy emails coming your way.

This giveaway is open to US residents only and will be open for a week – till Monday June 25 at noon EST.

Rug Giveaway!

**This giveaway is now closed. The winner has been contacted via email.

Hello there! I’m off at the Haven Conference this week so I’ve got a few fun posts coming for you – and I’m kicking it off with a GREAT giveaway.

The folks at Rugs USA contacted me about a giveaway and asked if I’d like one to try out myself and I was all HECK YEAH and WHOOHOO and YOU DON’T HAVE TO ASK ME TWICE!

They have been so wonderful to work with, and that’s saying a lot because I could not decide which rug I wanted to save. my. life. I mean, how often does a free rug come my way? Uh, never.

I wanted to go a little bit outside my comfort zone and get something I normally wouldn’t, so I ended up with the Moroccan Trellis rug in charcoal:

It came super fast, and as soon as I rolled it out I LOVED it. I loved the color, the design, everything.

I had planned on putting it in the family room and when I laid it out I loved how it looked against the sectional:

It definitely has a more contemporary vibe I was going for. Thing is, I realized right away that my more traditional pillows and drapes didn’t really go with it. The red pillows work great with our old rug, but with this one it looks a little Fourth of July-ish. :)

So it was either change everything else or move the rug, so I took the cheap easy route and moved the rug. I realized it will work in a couple spots in the basement (eventually) but it ended up in the dining room turned library:

For now anyway. :) It may move again, just because I’m not sure it will work with our open living room (and the natural rug we have in there.)

I do know I LOVE this rug – the color is a lovely dark gray, almost a blue tone. It’s wool but it does NOT shed. Halleluiah!!

Here’s a few of the rugs I was trying waffling back and forth on, and a couple others I think are too cool (you can get to them by clicking on the name):

Fallon:

Frontier:

Trans Ocean Chains:

Quinta Moderno Trellis:

Safavieh Dhurries:

Boardwalk Stripe:

I LOVE that striped rug!! It comes in a TON of different colors too!

Now here’s the best part – the lovely folks at Rugs USA are offering one of you $150 towards an (in stock) rug of your choice! Their prices are pretty fantastic, so you could easily get a smaller rug any of the styles I showed you for that amount. Or if you’d like to order a larger rug, you can use it towards that.

Awesome!!

Here’s how to enter to win:
1. Leave a comment here. What’s up chicken butt?

2. Visit the Rugs USA site here. Check out their rugs and come back to let us know which one you love the most.

3. “Like” Rugs USA on Facebook here. Come back and comment to let us know you did.

* You can enter one or all three times – it’s up to you! All options are not mandatory to win.

* Remember if you comment anonymously or you have a private blog, please include your email address in each entry, and spell it out with “at” and “dot” to avoid any spammy emails coming your way.

This giveaway is open to US residents only and will be open for a week – till Monday June 25 at noon EST.

Show us your outdoor spaces!

Hello all! How was your weekend? Great I hope!

Today we are continuing the Show Us Your House linky parties with a look at outdoor spaces. I’m really excited about this one! (I say that every month, I know.)

Last year our backyard underwent a HUGE redo – we built a large deck on our sloping backyard soon after moving in years ago, but other than that we hadn’t touched it.

We finished paying off $125K worth of debt early last year, and this was our gift to each other for doing so. And yes, we paid cash. :)

We had a patio put in, a bit of landscaping (I’ve added quite a bit more this summer which I’ll show you soon) and our big splurge was this baby:

These pics are from last fall, obviously. I love fall but I’m holding back on the pumpkins at least for a few more weeks months.

The patio and fireplace are truly a dream come true – I cannot express to you how lucky we feel every time we walk out there. We’ve realized this summer the oasis it really is – the trees that line the back of our yard provide a TON of shade on the patio, which is something we’ve never had out there!

We also had our deck restained (HUGE process), and added a gazebo we found on sale at Sears to offer more shade on the deck.

I had fun decorating the space last year:

The gazebo is AWESOME – we can go out at night and shut the sheers and it keeps it relatively bug-free:

Which is nice because mosquitoes LOVE ME.

This winter wasn’t as cold as usual, but dang, it was WINDY. The gazebo leans quite a bit now because of all that wind. It’s held up great otherwise, but everything just needs to be tightened up (which we just haven't gotten to yet this summer).

We have three different “rooms” on the deck, which is what we designed it for all those years ago when we had it built:

The gazebo is a cool, shady spot during the day, but it’s most fun at night:

We adore our backyard now, and have spent more time out there in the past nine months than we have in eight years. :)

Now it’s time to see your outdoor spaces! Anything goes – patios, decks, landscaping, DIY projects, I want to see it all!

I’d love a link back, especially if you’d like to be considered in a highlight post:

<div align="center"><a href="http://simplehomeinteriordesign.com/" title="Show Us Your House" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/image34.png" alt="Thrifty Decor Chick" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Here’s the schedule for the rest of the year! Half way in, can you believe it?

July (bathrooms), August (family rooms), September (basements/rec rooms), October (bedrooms, guest or master), November (foyers), December (mud/laundry rooms)

Link up your posts here!

Inspiring kid spaces

Hello there and how the heck are ya? I’ve been working my tail off this week and am getting ready to reward myself with a glass of wine and a bowl of (stovetop…YUM) popcorn.

And now my mouth is watering for that popcorn so this post may be a quick one. ;)

Today I’m showing off some of your kiddo rooms you all shared at the May Show Us Your House party. Take look here if you missed it – more than 260 fun rooms are linked up!

I have to start with this AWESOME pirate room at Batchelor’s Way:

I saw this month’s ago and have admired it since – I think it’s SO well done. A bit of a theme but still classic. My son is all about pirates (and Legos, trains, ninjas, pretty much everything) and he would LOVE this.

My girl Chris at Just a Girl created an absolutely beautiful space for her beautiful girl:

I love that sweet pink mixed with the blue, and the rug is just the perfect little twist. Gorgeous!

I think boys rooms are hard – and this one at Life as We Know it is so fun and colorful and bright:

I just love all the little details like the orange dresser, the chalkboard and the book shelves. This is a happy room! :)

OK, can you imagine having this playroom at Simply Organized as a kid?:

Holy cats, that is AWESOME! I just think this is the bees knees – especially that there’s one for the girls and one for the boys. Coolest. parents. ever.

If boys rooms are hard, then tween rooms are even harder. :) This sweet room at Finding Home is a perfect balance of in between for her tween girl:

I see a peek of an orange chandy in there too – I love how she mixed the colors in this space.

This nursery at Someday, My Favorite is a dramatic gray, and I love the wall art:

The walls are dark, but the colors and fun wall art lighten up the room and make it a very sweet space.

As always you all rocked my socks off with these rooms! I can’t wait to see your outdoors spaces – that linky will go up this coming Monday night.

Remember, if you’d like to pin these, please visit the blogs to do so. :)

And now I’m off to make that popcorn. Nom nom. Have a GREAT weekend!

Butcher block love

Heya! I kinda feel like my head is about to explode this week – the house is a mess (again) – more on that in a bit, the kiddo was sick, I’m trying to tie up presentations for the Haven Conference (NEXT WEEK??) and did I mention we are hosting a party the night before I leave for the conference? Yeah.

I. am. insane.

Anyhoo, when I stress I either curl up in a ball in the corner and rock… or I try to be productive. Right now I’m trying to be more productive and spend less time in the corner. :) I finally finished up a little DIY project for the dining room turned library and it looks gooooood.

As you know if you’ve been around for a while, I’m using butcher block as a base for the bookcases:

I LOOOVE the look of butcher block and I’m planning on using it in a couple of places in the basement soon. We already have it on our kitchen island:

And it’s been surprisingly low maintenance. I love the warmth it brings to our kitchen.

Thankfully all of the butcher we’ve used is pretty inexpensive from IKEA. For both the kitchen island and the bookcases I’ve used the Numerar oak butcher block. Even the largest size they sell is well under $200 and considering the quote I got for our kitchen island years ago, that is fantastic.

I had one piece cut down the middle for the dining room and it was a perfect fit. It sat unfinished for months and it was high time to get that fixed. I left the kitchen island natural with just some Tung oil to protect it, but I wanted this one to be dark like our hardwood floors.

I set up the sawhorses in the garage and pulled out the sander:

I used a 220 grit sandpaper and it was perfect for this project – it only took a couple minutes to get the little bit of finish off.

It is easy to see where it’s not knocked down enough:

You just go over those spots till they are more of a matte finish.

Before I stained I made sure to get all of the sawdust off the block – a tack cloth is good for that but I cannot stand how they feel (kinda sticky) so I just use wet paper towels. Much better. :)

Our floors are a finish called Jacobean but I couldn’t find that, so I just went with walnut, which is very close.

I always use a foam brush to apply my stain – I find it gives great coverage and I barely have to use any stain with it. You want to make sure to leave a “wet edge” when staining, don’t let one section dry as you are applying or you’ll see where you started and stopped:

It barely takes any time at all to stain – it really is super easy!

You can leave it to sit on the surface for a bit to let it really sink in – the longer you leave it (up to about ten minutes), the darker it will be.

Usually I’m pleased with it right away, so I rarely let it sit. I wiped it down immediately with a clean rag:

You need to do this or it will NEVER dry. :)

Isn’t it just gorgeous?? OH my gah, I just love how it shows off all the details of the wood:

This has me SO tempted to stain our kitchen island top as well. It’s just so rich and beautiful!

I finished it off with one coat of polyurethane to protect it and give it a nice finish. I used this clear satin that I used on my vintage rolling crate a couple weeks ago:

Unfortunately I don’t have a great after of the installed butcher block – I thought I had taken a pic, but I guess Dad and I moved too fast on the bookshelves and I didn’t get one.

You can see it installed in this photo:

Those are the start of the bookshelves, which I’ll show you soon! I still have SO much to do on them, but the progress is hampered a bit this week by this:

I tell you what, I move from one mess to another, really. But I welcome this one – the pink(ish) walls that have been in our foyer, living room, hallway, staircase and loft for eight years are FINALLY getting painted. I. AM. THRILLED. I welcome the mess – at least for a few days. After that you’ll find me in the corner. :)

More on that project soon – but by next week I’m hoping the dust will settle around here and I can turn into my normal summer slug. :) For real.

Have you used butcher block in your home? If they are protected well I’ve seen them used successfully around kitchen sinks – I still don’t know if I would have it for every surface in my kitchen, but I do love it as an accent.