More (almost) FREE art!

So I think the art is one of the hardest things to pick out, right? It’s always SO expensive too. As I get older I look for less produced-in-mass-quantity pieces and more one of a kind pieces. But overall my favorite art is photography – I have photos on our walls EVERYWHERE. Mostly because they’re free – I print them right off the computer at home and they look great. (Sometimes I send them off to Walgreens or another local place too.)

Anyway, I saw some blog friends using a new app on Instagram a couple weeks ago and decided to check it out. I’m now obsessed. It’s called Waterlogue, have you seen it? It’s $2.99 and it turns your photos into beautiful watercolor paintings.

I went through my phone to pick out a few to show you – keep in mind the before pics are all unedited and sometimes dark, and yet the Waterlogue drawings still come out beautifully. First up, a few from our latest Disney trip:

Isn’t that awesome? The Epcot “ball” looks especially beautiful:

I got an awesome shot of my son blowing bubbles into my camera and turned that one into a watercolor:

I took pictures of our backyard in a recent snow and even a photo without much color turns out beautifully:

We had a gorgeous sunset the other day – I took this in our neighborhood with my phone:

How cool is that?? There are all kinds of filters too and you can change the size of the file, change it from light to dark, all kinds of things.

I had to deal with all this snow somehow, so I picked up some of my favorite flowers the other day:

It’s not a great shot because it’s so dark, but check out how it turns out:

Are you loving it?

I was curious to see how they printed out and they look wonderful:

I just used white cardstock for these but I’m going to pick up some more white textured cardstock to print out more. It’s kind of cool because you can enlarge the photo and the quality isn’t really affected because it’s all blurry anyway, you know? Now I just have to decide where to put them!

Have you tried this app? I find faces don’t turn out quite as well but I did some of our animals and they were super cute:

SO cool. Let me know if you try it! I believe it’s also available for android phones too. Any other fun apps you love?

Have a GREAT weekend!

Curated sale at Joss & Main

Hello there! I’m SO excited to tell you about a fun event I have going this evening. Well, not me personally – I mean, I’d love to have you all over but that would get a little crazy.

I was thrilled when Joss & Main asked me to curate a collection on their site:

Have you shopped Joss & Main? They are a members only online shop with AWESOME decor at great discounts. I just started shopping their site last year and it’s some serious eye candy.

I was able to pick out a bunch of fun products that I loved and felt like showcased my style for my collection. I’m not a fancy decorator – I always want our home to feel lived in, with a simple but timeless feel. I named my collection Classic Comfort because that really symbolizes what my style is all about.

Here’s a few of my favorites that will be offered in my sale:

See those trunks above? Love those things! You can see how I used one in on the sofa table in my family room photo. You can get a better look at them on this post too. 

Here’s some more shots from the collection:

How COOL! It was an honor to be asked to do this.

Joss & Main is an invite-only site, so if you aren’t signed up yet you can use my invite here. The sale is now LIVE and will be open for a week. Perfect excuse to shop for yourself family and friends!

And I hope to see you back here tomorrow for my Christmas home tour! No, I’m still not done. I’m having fun with it though and I can’t wait to show you! My son reminded me this morning that there are only FIFTEEN more days till Christmas. I haven’t bought one gift…but this is normal for me. I like the thrill of the last minute I guess. :)

Again, the link to the sale is here and if you aren’t a member you can go here to sign up.

Have a great one!

Outdoor decor ideas (My HD video)

Hello all! You gotta love Thursdays right? I do! We’re in the home stretch as far as school for both the hubby and the Bub. Can’t wait to have them home all summer!!

Today I’m sharing one of the Home Depot videos from the shoot I told you about last week! It was a whirlwind of a day and as I mentioned, more fun than I thought it would be. (I was not, in fact, a ball of nerves like I thought.) ;)

All told I did about 15-20 different videos that day that will air on other sites, but this one is just for you guys! I watched it for the first time yesterday and did not want to puke…that’s a good thing.

I haven’t watched it again cause I would nit pick myself like crazy, so I’m sticking with the first decent impression.

I feel like I’m squinting the whole time – they had a big screen up to block the sun but man, those production lights are crazy bright! Soooooo, other than that and I loathe listening to myself talk, it turned out pretty OK! :)

I’m sharing a few quick tips to get ready for outdoor decor and entertaining, enjoy!:

Have a great one Squeezes!

Home Depot video shoot

Hello all! First of all, I have to send out prayers to those in Oklahoma. We are just seeing all the news this morning and it’s heartbreaking.

I’m back today with a recap of the recent Home Depot video shoot at my house. When they contacted me about doing a video in the backyard a couple months ago I was all, sure, that sounds like fun! I don’t have to leave my house, low stress right?

Well then I realized I was doing interviews for three hours and the nerves started to creep in. ;) I gotta say, in the end it was actually a really fun day and I feel like it went pretty well. (Everyone else said so too, but I’m still not sure if they’re supposed to say that or what.)

The promotion was set up so that I could chat with about 15 other bloggers via the phone while I was taped. We were talking about the new Procter and Gamble cleaning items at Home Depot specifically -- they are great for outdoor grime and dirt. The bloggers and I talked about getting your outdoor spaces ready for the season and some fun entertaining ideas.

I’ll share one of the videos with you soon (I haven’t seen any yet – yikes!!) but for now I wanted to share what went into the shoot. It was mind boggling! The production crew came a couple weeks earlier to check out the house and patio, and when six guys walked in I started to realize what a big deal this was. ;)

The day of the shoot we had more like ten crew members and then the producer from NYC (thanks Evan!) and the PR contact from Chicago (hey Mara!). They were super efficient but still took a couple hours:

There were monitors and cords and stuff everywhere! It was insane! (In a fun way!)

Here’s a better view of the kitchen:

Thank goodness for the new, bigger kitchen table. ;) There’s no way all of that would have fit on the old one.

Speaking of, the old one served as our food station – both breakfast and lunch were catered in, ohh la la!:

Having the food brought in was actually a huge relief to me. All along I had been planning on feeding everyone and that was a huge thing I didn’t have to worry about that day.

The patio was as crazy as the inside – they moved everything around so the fireplace was the focal point:

We had a beautiful, sunny day so the big screen was up to offer some shade for the shoot – I asked if they would leave it and they said no, dangit. :)

My sis was there for the day, thank goodness! It was a relief to have her there to help me prepare and just for support. She got a bunch of pics while I was getting prepped for the shoot:

Nice face:

I have to say, EVERYONE was awesome -- the crew, Evan, Mara – they all made it fun and it was surprisingly laid back, which is good for me. I feel comfortable in front of a camera and have done it numerous times in my life (both for blogging and in my previous life in PR), but if everyone is stressed and hyper it makes me nervous.

It was quite fun and even though I was nervous, I was way more relaxed than I thought I would be. I didn’t mess up too bad – except for the time I kept saying “cucumber” instead of couponer – over and over. And over. It didn’t help that I’d also hear everyone inside through my earpiece cackling every time I said it. :)

You know how you say something wrong a couple times and then your brain just quits on you and you just CANNOT say it right after that? Yeah. I think it took six tries before I got it.

Oh well, everyone needs some outtakes right??

It was a fun day and we flew through the interviews – the crew was packed up and the house was back to normal by mid-afternoon. It was a blast and I couldn’t have done it without my sister there with me:

Love her. :)

The lovely folks at Procter and Gamble and Home Depot have put a little giveaway package together for one of you to win! You’ll get all the items I talked about that day – the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Outdoor Pro pack, Mr. Clean Outdoor Pro spray, a roll of Bounty paper towels and a $50 Home Depot gift card!

WHOOT! I have already tried the cleaning supplies and they rock! Anyone else obsessed with the Magic Erasers? Love them. And with the gift card you can kick off Memorial Day right with some flowers from Home Depot, or maybe some outdoor pillows? Hope the winner does something fun with it! :)

**This giveaway is now closed – the winner has been contacted.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment here. Remember if you are anonymous, leave your email as well! This will be open through Thursday at noon.

Haven tickets available now!

Whoo hoo! The time has arrived!

The Haven Conference (I told you about here) is going to be so. much. fun.

Tickets are available NOW and will go FAST! DIYers, bloggers and DIY bloggers are all welcome! ;) The conference rate is fantastic, and the hotel rate is a great deal too.

To register, go to the Haven site here and click on the “Register” paint can on the right side of the page to purchase your tickets.

To get updates and more info on the conference line-up, visit and “like” the Haven Conference Facebook page. You can also follow us on Twitter!

If you have questions, please email haventeam@havenconference.com.

Interested in sponsoring the Haven Conference? Send us an email at sponsors@havenconference.com.

We are so excited and hope to see you there!!

10,000(!) and month in review

Hey all! First of all, before I say anything else – I need to say a huge THANKS and a WHOOHOO!

Tonight I hit 10,000 followers:

I had to take a screenshot, just to remember that milestone! (I really, really hate that “followers” term by the way.)

But it’s pretty cool to hit five digits. I now have 10,000 of you Squeezies! Squeezays. Squishes. :)

Crazy!!

Anyway, I want to try to bring back the month in review I started doing last year. It’s been a while since I did  recap of the month and it’s kind of fun (for me anyway, you may be snoring already) to see what I accomplished around these parts every month. (I link to each one if you want to check it out.)

The start of this month was an especially special one. We became debt free (except the house) for the first time in our adult lives!!

It’s still so surreal. I find myself thinking about a bill and it hits me -- and I’m grinning from ear to ear. :) We haven’t called in to Dave Ramsey’s show yet – we’d like to take a trip down to Nashville instead. I’ll let you know what we end up doing!

And I’m SO SO excited about an idea that Dave’s peeps have been helping me out with. I hope to announce it in the next couple of weeks.

Next up this month, I took an unused spot in our loft and turned it into functional (and cute!) storage wall:

At the February Before and After Party, I showed you how I took a $5 Goodwill pitcher and transformed it with spray paint:

Can you believe there were 499 posts linked up? Wowza! How cool is that?

Since we’ve become debt free, we are now researching our first “cash” furniture purchase in a long, long time. I’m so excited about a new sofa, I can barely stand it:

There was a great response to that post – I’m pulling all the info you shared together and will do a recap post soon. Lots of great info!

I worked with the folks at My Design Guide to provide my readers an affordable online consultation resource:

I’m not able to do these anymore, so I was thrilled that they were able to help me and my readers out!

My friend Beki shared the love with a fantastic giveaway over at The Rusted Chain:

And then one thing led to another when I took down the drapes in our living room and the transformation started:

When the ice storm of the century hit (that’s what I’m calling it anyway), and we couldn’t leave the house for days, I passed some time by decluttering a linen closet:

You won’t believe how much STUFF was in there. (Many of you asked about the light I used, and a very helpful reader put a link in the comments!)

Next, I showed you a total project FAIL – my beautiful painted pitcher didn’t hold up well, in more ways than one:

Boo. I found a pretty and affordable replacement though. :)

At the Organize It shindig, I showed you how I’ve been using Ziploc bags to organize games and puzzles:

LOVE those things. I used more of them in the basement today! (Check out the nearly 300 links at that party too.)

And finally, this week I shared how I use photos as art throughout our house:

Of course, I’m so thankful to all of my wonderful advertisers…over there to the left. :)

Whew! What a month! Thanks so much for coming along for the ride -- can’t wait for a great March!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Giveaway Winners!

Hello hello! I have a bunch of winners to announce from past giveaways! Yay!

The winner of the Modern Bird Studios art piece is Stephanie at skarpicke (at) gmail (dot) com!

The winner of the Wuslu gift card is Sarah at The Mama Pirate!

And the winner of the Deeply Fabulous gift card is Kimberly at berly02 (at) hotmail (dot) com. (Remember you can still use a special 15 percent discount using the coupon code: "IPinkPuffyHeartTDC" from now through Sunday, December 12th.

Yahoo! Ladies, please email me at simplehomeinteriordesign (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll hook you up with your winnings. :)

Well…I had a fun announcement that I know many of you already saw, but I got word I can’t say anything about it right now. Oops -- didn’t know that. :)

So sorry I had to erase the comments on this post, but for those of you who left sweet comments, THANK YOU!

For those of you who are wondering what in the heck I’m talking about, I promise it will make sense soon. (Sorry about that!)

The Christmas tree party is still on for tonight! I will do my best to get it up by ten p.m. (EST) – hope to see you there!

Winners and a video

Hello all!

I finally got video of the Thrifty Decor Chick segment taped -- this is the third try. :) I gave up on shushing the cats, so there’s a point when you’ll hear our (pee) cat doing her totally weird meow. It’s a little freaky sounding, so sorry about that. :)

Oh, and she’s rubbing against the volume control about half way in, so it gets a teensy bit loud for a few seconds. GAH.

But anyway…here you go!:

 

I’ll be back later with a HUGE decrapification project! WHOO!

I did not say “Um”

Well, first of all, I have to tell you how much I loved reading your comments on my last post. I wrote that one hoping to help some of you that get negative comments, but look what happened yet again…you go and make me feel all gushy and mushy and LOVED. Thank you so much. (Really truly.)

So anyhoo -- today I was on TV! Yes, freak. out!

It was a local morning show called Indy Style. I have been on television a couple of times before, back in the day when I worked in PR/marketing. But it was usually during some kind of crisis with five microphones stuck in my face. Needless to say, it wasn’t fun. Notsomuch.

This was fun!! I really did have a ball. I was a little anxious beforehand, but that was mostly due to the I hope I don’t sleep in on accident, I gotta do my hair and put on makeup, make sure the car is packed, I hope I didn’t leave a light on in the car and walk out to dead battery, have to get the kiddo up and to the sitter, and gotta get through rush hour traffic (oh how I DON’T miss that!) stuff that goes into getting downtown early. (Early for ME.)

I really wish I would have added “gotta get a spray tan” to that list because OH LORDY I am pasty, Elmer’s glue, blindingly white:

But it was a feat I got everything else done and got there in time, so I’m not complaining. (Did I mention I’m not a morning person?)

My sis served as my assistant for the morning, and it was so wonderful to have her there with me. :) She took a few pics of my segment from the “green room”:

  

We both couldn’t believe how big the set looks on TV, but it’s just one large room, with areas for different segments:

I imagined it being four times this size! It was super cool to see the behind the scenes work to make a show like this happen -- really impressive. And everyone there was so fun and SO nice. Ack! I loved it!

Of course, the video of my segment is the only one not working online, so until it’s fixed, I took a video of it on our TV. It looks awful, bear with me. I figured some of you would want to see it and didn’t want to leave you hanging.

Oh, and I can operate a saw and nail gun like nobody’s business, but I don’t know how to turn off closed captioning on the TV:

 

You’ll notice that I didn’t say “um” much but I did say “Yes,” “Yep,” and “Yeah” about a bagillion times. Gah.

Yep. Yes I did. Yeah.

(And those of you who know me in real life – YES I am still married. :) I use my maiden name for press stuff.)

I was so tired from the day when we got home, I didn’t finish up the chair just yet (six minutes went SO FAST and we ran out of time to show it!), but I’ll show you this weekend. It’s super cute!

If they are able to get the video working on the web site, I’ll link to that instead because the quality is MUCH better. :)

Because I know many of you wanted to know more about the airplane art above the Bub’s bed – here’s a run down of how I hung it:

1. Take a large poster frame – the cheapy ones with the thin plastic frame around them – and discard the cheapy plastic frame. 

2. I kept the cardboard backing, put the poster on top, then put the acrylic over the poster. I wrapped pieces of painter’s tape along the sides and edges to keep the poster from slipping out while I installed it.

3. Put the whole thing up on the wall (figure out your center first!) then secure it temporarily. I actually used my nail gun and put a nail into it, thinking I would secure the whole thing to the wall that way and then put molding over it. I realized after the first nail that is NOT a good idea – it split the acrylic. Oops!

4. The acrylic did end up coming loose from the nail towards the end, but it served it’s purpose and held it up long enough for me to get most of the molding installed around it. If you just have a second set of hands, that should be all you need.

5. Then I just installed the molding, but I only nailed into the molding on the bottom and middle, if that makes sense. I didn’t nail into the molding on the inside – near the poster. I only nailed around the outside. So it’s is secure enough to hold the poster and acrylic but I didn’t nail into the acrylic.

From what I can tell, there’s enough give in the acrylic so that I can wedge it out someday to replace the art. I have not tried to take it out because I spent too much time putting it up and wasn’t about to mess it up. :) But it feels like I’ll be able to get it out of there fine.

Even if I’m not able to get it out, it won’t take long at all to pry the molding off of one side to slide it all out, replace the art, and slide it back in.

I hope that helps – sorry I don’t have visuals for that one, but I didn’t take any pictures of the process. I know, bad DIY blogger!!

Another giveaway weekend is coming up tomorrow! Till then, have a GREAT Friday!