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house goals – 2011 edition

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Over at Nesting Place, the Nester came up with a brilliant idea – house goals!

Given that I work full time and procrastinate, leaving me with limited time and energy, I thought that house goals would be perfect for me.

So here are my 2001 house goals…

  1. Repaint the stairway wall
  2. Paint the kids’ bathroom- COMPLETE!
  3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!
  4. Clean up my office
  5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college
  6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!
  7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof
  8. Buy a dishwasher
  9. Tile the kitchen back splash
  10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall
  11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

As you can see, it’s an expansive list.  I probably could have listed 3 or 4 times the number of projects, but in the spirit of keeping it real, I decided to stick with 12, so that I could reasonably do 1 project per month.

Here’s a little more detail around the projects…

1. Repaint the stairway wall

So, the stairwell wall has already been painted, but it still needs another coat. And apparently it’s taken me a while.

Last year at work, we had a holiday white elephant exchange and do you know what I got?  Paint!  Two gallons of slate gray paint!  The exact color that I was planning on painting the stairwell wall already.  Every now and then, fate sends a little gift of home decor love.  Now I’ve got to get on the stick and finish the job.

2. Paint the kids’ bathroom– COMPLETE!

No photos of this madness.  All I have to say is this about that…teenage hair dye explosion. Walls, door trim, baseboard. Splattered with dark brown hair dye.

Needless to say, all future hair dyeing has been banned.

I thought that I might get this project done when I was on vacation over the holidays, but it just didn’t happen.  However, paint has been purchased, so it can happen any time inspiration strikes.

3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!

I just can’t seem to get past the creepy feeling that people can look into the cracks between the blinds.  So curtains are in order.  Just need to find the right ones.

4. Clean up my office

This seems as if it should be a simple enough project, but it’s my combination office, craft room, and general lounging area.  And it’s been neglected for quite some time.  Lots of filing and decisions to be made about what stays and what goes.

5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college

The same teenage daughter who experienced the hair dye explosion has a room that could potentially be condemned by the health department.  And honestly, I’ve given up on getting her to keep it consistently clean.  Every now and then she has a flare-up of cleaning, but it gets out of hand more often than not.

So, when she goes off to school, I’ll be in there in my hazmat suit, ready to sanitize.

6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!

I’m planning to join the Internet Bloggers Drop Cloth Revolution (IBDCR) and make curtains out of drop cloths.  ‘Nuff said.

7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof

So, I happen to have a satellite dish dangling from my roof by a thread.  No, we don’t still use the satellite.  And yes, I’ve become that neighbor.

But who can I hire to get that damn thing off the roof?  I just don’t know who does that kind of thing.

8. Buy a dishwasher

Although my house is only 4 1/2 years old, the dishwasher is no longer working.  I’ve already spent a small fortune to get the problem diagnosed, but it’s still not fixed.  It could be fixed, but the dishwasher repair guy told me that it’s a design flaw, and would likely be broken again within a year.  So I opted to not fix it and put the money toward a new dishwasher.  In the meantime, I’m using a $2.99 solution…a dishpan, and frankly, not doing such a great job of keeping up with the dishes.

9. Tile the kitchen back splash

OK, what I’d really like to do is an extreme kitchen makeover, because the layout of my kitchen is really dumb.  But since I don’t have an extra $10-20k hanging around, I’ve got to make due with what I have.  So I’ll at least add some cosmetic changes, the first being tiling the back splash with those cool & funky little glass tiles.

10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall

Most people probably wouldn’t stop at just 1 kitchen wall, but with an open-concept floor plan, the walls go on forever, without a logical stopping point.  So I’ll start with a goal of 1 wall, and figure out where to go from there.

11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

Well, there’s probably not a whole lot more that needs to be said about this issue.  I’ve been leaning more toward minimizing than maximizing, and I am going to continue to follow that trend, little by little, throughout the year.

Those are my true confession house goals 2011 edition…what are your 2011 house goals?

touch of mod

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Recently, I’ve been trying to add a touch of mod to my vintage-pottery barn-shabby chic style.  Not a major makeover.  Just a hint, to mix things up a bit and add something unexpected to my decor.

So, I went shopping in my basement, where I found a totally fab brown acrylic lamp that was in my home staging supplies.  Bought it on clearance for a steal at Target – a mere $13 – and all I had to do was add a lamp shade. Bought a $15 shade, also from Target.

Here’s what it looked like before…

Nothing terrible.  OK, so the shade does still say “90’s,” but other than that not too bad.  At some point I’ll probably try to find a small drum shade for it and find another place for it.

(And in the keeping it real department, see if you can find the blue laundry basket that tried to hide for the photo…it’s like the decorating version of finding Goldbug in a Richard Scarry book!)

New and improved, with a touch of mod…

Ah, sweet decorating relief…welcome to 2011!

I’ll be adding more pops of mod throughout the house and will post them soon.

Be sure comment about how you’ve modernized your style.  And share some links too!

thanksgiving table

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This Thanksgiving I hosted the Thanksgiving dinner and had a total of 11 guests.  Not a huge production, but certainly more than my usual 3 person deal.

As always, I wanted to create a special tablescape, but using things that I have around the house.  Plus, this year, in addition to making it budget friendly, I wanted it to reflect the more austere times that we and many families are experiencing.  Not too sparse, but nothing extravagant either.  So, I went with a combination that I frequently rely on…shabby chic with a touch of whimsical & mod.

As promised, I used the same tablecloth as last year and the year before.  And no, I didn’t iron it…I’m not that kind of girl!  Besides, that’s part of the “shabby”!

I mixed 2 sets of dishes and tied the dinner and salad plates in fun ribbons that I’ve had since forever…

The ribbon takes care of the whimsical…

…and the mod…

The delicate blue glasses are vintage – they were my mom’s from before I was born.

The “centerpiece” is comprised of repurposed Classico pasta sauce jars, filled with a tealight and topped with ribbon, further contributing to the shabby chicness…

But best of all were the family we were blessed to have joining us at this table…

Here’s wishing all of you a warm and wonderful holiday season, filled with the love and laughter of family and friends!

easy art

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When I redecorated my teen daughter’s room almost 2 years ago, I placed 3 frames on one wall, because she really wanted to hang pictures of her & her friends.

Well, because after 2 years I got tired of waiting for her to add the pictures and looking at this…

…2 of the frames with the original picture that came with the frame and the 3rd frame on the floor collecting lots of dust and hair product overspray.

I finally took matters into my own hands and decided to remedy the problem, since it doesn’t look like the friend photos are happening any time soon.  So, I removed the picture frame girl photo and replaced with 3 different scrapbook papers that match the colors in her room, and that I already had on hand.

Here are the closeups…

Super cute & easy! And cheap, since I already had the paper on hand.  Plus, my daughter likes it!  Good stuff all the way around!

(If only I could show you pics of the rest of her cute room, but I’m afraid the Health Department will recognize it and condemn it!  Maybe after she goes off to college next fall…)

table on a budget

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This year, because money is tight, the theme for our Thanksgiving table was “don’t buy a thing” decor. Also known as “use what you have decorating”.

I wanted to do something different from last year, so I went on a treasure hunt, and scored!

First, I gathered up a couple of tree branches that I’ve been hording for a while. (These branches have been close to being thrown out more than once!) I gave these lovely branches a quick spray painting with an off-white that I had in my garage.

A trip to my basement yielded a couple of blue candles, as well as a couple of small blue mod floral plates. I gathered up some faux pearls and a faux bird.

Then I threw it all together and here’s what I came up with…


The brown tablecloth & napkins were purchased for last year’s holiday…


And the plates are a combination of two sets, since I don’t own a large enough set for our once-a-year big event.


Not too bad for $0!

I encourage you to set your holiday table using a $0 budget if money is tight in your household. After all, the holidays are all about spending time with family and friends.

holiday table setting

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This year, Thanksgiving was a my house, so I decided to make our well-worn dinner table & the six-foot folding table look fabulous!

We were seating 11, rather than our usual four.

This is a table setting that can be put together easily & inexpensively, yet look fabulous & festive!

The theme ~ a rustic holiday, since the first Thanksgiving was more than a little rustic! Same could be said for the first Christmas.

First order of business ~ tablecloths. I went with two brown damask tablecloths from Target.

Also threw in three sets of four plain brown cloth napkins – but they weren’t the matching set for the tablecloth…don’t want things to look too matchy-matchy.

I wrapped the silverware in the cloth napkins & tied them with twine.

For the placemats, I tore up brown paper bags, which were free for the asking at the local grocery story.

For the table centerpiece, I picked up two strands of pine cone & cranberry garland from Target. The garland was topped off with three fabulous handmade recycled glass beaded votive holders.


Since I don’t have 11 place settings of either of the two sets of dishes I own, I mixed & matched, which worked out well & was really cute!


The end result was a lovely table setting, which just about anyone could create a variation of for their table for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or just to beautify your table for winter.

But more important was the opportunity to sit down & have a wonderful dinner with my family. Now that’s something to be thankful for!