online consultations!

Well hello there!

I am SO excited to announce a partnership that’s been in the works for awhile now.

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know I used to offer online consultations. I absolutely LOVED doing it, but it got so time intensive, I found it hard to keep up. Something had to give, and that was it. :)

I’ve heard from many of you that you really want an affordable option for decor consultations, and I am thrilled to announce that my friends at My Design Guide can now help you out!

They’ve offered online consults for a while now, but now there’s an even more affordable option, in addition to their other services. The My Design Guide professional designers can answer design questions about your space -- wondering about paint colors, furniture arrangement, window treatments, accessories, whatever? They can help with all of that and more.

WHOO! I’m so excited (for you!).

We’ve worked out an awesome deal for my readers – I hope you’ll check it out. I’m so thrilled to be able to offer you this option.

To find out more, click here! (You can also find it through the tab at the top of my blog.)

**I appreciate all the responses to the sofa post! I’m going to try to break them down and do another post with the pros and cons of the brands mentioned. :)

The plan, Stan. (Or Squeezies)

Heya! Hope you had a fantastic weekend! I spent most of my free moments working on the (final. serious this time. never again.) decrapifying of our basement. I tell you what – I LOVE it!! Oh my, getting rid of crap is best feeling.

But more on that in a bit. :)

My friend the Nester, (did you SEE her bedroom redo??) had a Home Goals party last week that really got me thinkin’. I have all these ideas in my head for our home and what I’d like to accomplish this year. I love talking houses and DIY and decorating, and I thought who better to talk shop with than all of you SQUEEZies.

Now, like Nester mentioned – decorating/DIY/our house is my hobby and my passion and kind of my job?? (Crazy by the way. Best. job. ever.) So my list is long and a bit exhausting for most.

But thinking of it makes me GIDDY. Gleeeee!

So let’s start, shall we? In no particular order, mind you.

I started our mini kitchen redo last umm…May.

I know…it’s been a teensy little while. (For shame.) Most of it’s done – but there’s still a few projects left to do. I need to install some glass fronts on a few of the cabinets. (Hiring out for that one – cutting our cabinet doors would make me pass. out. Sceered.)

I still need to touch up a ton of paint, install crown (which will have to go around the whole great room), and then finish up some accessory projects. I’m also considering a light fixture over the island:

If I do, I’ll remove the pendant light above the sink to open it up. But I’m not doing a thing until I see some pictures in Photoshop. :)

I started a little reworking of the master bedroom a few months ago, but I didn’t want to do any major DIY projects in the room. I did OK with that whole “nothing major” till I decided a month or so ago I wanted to add molding to the whole space. It doesn’t have a lick of it yet:

And I just can’t have that. :)

I also have a Craigslist dresser I need to figure out what to do with (I swear I’ll show you soon!), figure out some new accessories and I think I’m going to repaint the wall behind the bed:

(Older pic, it looks different now. Gotta finish that up too. :) )

I’m just really over those stripes. WAY. They’ve been around for about almost five years. I’ve loved them long time but I’m ready to say buhbye. (You can see more on how I did those here.)

And speaking of finishing projects, I’ve shown you the (slow) progress on my office:

It’s shaping up to be my most dramatic before and after ever. But oh my…much to do still. Woodwork out the wazoo, drapes, recovering cushions, accessories, art, organizing…whew. But FUN. I picked up a few little accessories today that got me excited about getting the board and batten done already so I can get on to the fun stuff. :)

There’s a few rooms I’d like to update a bit this year – first, the downstairs powder room:

I love our chocolate brown dining room, but brown for potty? Really? ;) I do like it, I’m just ready for a change. And I am O.V.E.R. the stencils. Done.

I have no clue what color I’m going to paint it – but it’ll come to me. Some day.

And our guest room (that was stepdaughter’s room) isn’t the most luxurious space for our guests right now:

:) It just about screams GIRL. I’ve already changed the layout of the room and ditched the purple and pink bedding. Now (again) I just need to decide on a color. I’ve had a swatch of grey up on the wall for a year now (no lie), but I’m not doing any painting till I find some inspiration for the room. (In bedding I hope!)

And finally…our two biggest projects of the year. (**We HOPE.)

Since we’ll be debt free soon (except the house), we plan to finally, finally, FINALLY going to finish our basement:

That’s the plan anyway. We say that every. year. But this year we are serious dang it!! Because we’ll be able to pay for it with “cash,” we think this may finally be the year it happens. Finally.

It’s pretty basic really – we already have (most) of the outlets and light fixtures we’ll need. It just needs framed out, electrical and drywall done. Then we need to figure out flooring. And oh yeah, there’s a bathroom that needs to be finished too. Ummm…maybe not so basic. We don’t know yet if we’ll hire a contractor to do it all, or contract everyone out separately for each project.

Anyone out there had a basement finished recently? Did you do it yourself, hire someone to do it all, or hire out to a bunch of folks?

To say I’m excited is a bit of an understatement. The cleaning of another 800+ square feet? Not so excited. But I’ll deal. :)

Actually, I clean down there already, since we really do use the space. That brings me to the decluttering – I’m SEE REE US about it this time. I can’t even imagine the pain it’s going to be finishing it off and dealing with all the stuff we have down there. Don’t. even. want to think about it.

The other BIG project is one that has me positively giddy – it’s a redo of a room that’s less than 40 square feet, but it will be a HUGE change.

I want to revamp our laundry/mud room:

Pretty basic – new paint and finishing the beadboard I never finished.

But my dream, my wish, my heart’s desire…is to move the washer and dryer out and make it a TRUE mud room.

Like, with built ins, cubbies, storage, a ton of coat hooks -- all of it. All of that fantastically wondrous, beautiful, amazing stuff. :)

Why? Because 99.9 percent of the time, the room looks like this:

You think I’m kidding. I’m soooo not kidding. I wish I was. It’s a rare day around here that we can walk through the space without hopping over clothes. Having the laundry right in the way of our entry and exit (how many times a day?) drives me absolutely bonkers. Mad. CRAY-ZAY.

The washer and dryer will either be moved up a level or down one. There are pros and cons to both locations, but either will be a million times better than what we have going on now.

Cause what we have now is madness. :)

The first step is to get a plumber out here to give us an estimate. From there we’ll decide if it’s gonna happen. And I really, really want it to happen.

You have no idea.

Anyone know of a quality, inexpensive plumber in the Indy area? Let me know. For reals. I will love him (or her!) forever and ever, amen.

So there you go – our DIY/decorating list around the TDC casa for 2011. Will any of it happen? I hope so. Will all of it? Highly doubt it. :) But it’s fun to dream.

Do you have any redos, DIY projects, major renovations coming up this year? Do tell – I love this stuff!! :)

A thankful foyer

Hello all! Hope you had a great weekend! We are DONE with marching band season (so proud of them!!) and I now have my hubby back…for approximately two weeks. :)

I haven’t done anything crafty in a while and last week I was feeling my mojo creeping back…so I got busy on a quick Thanksgiving project for our foyer.

I’ve been admiring the cute “Thankful” banners I’ve seen over blogland lately, and figured it was high time I made one of my own. I picked up about $3 of paper from Hobby Lobby:

And warmed up my sah-weet Silhouette machine:

My original thought was to do some circles, then put leaves in pretty colors over those, with letters on the leaves to spell my thankful message:

But after I cut out the leaves, I realized they were going to be way too small for the letters. Plan B was to cut out additional circles a bit smaller than the original ones:

I love love LOVE that cardstock – I use it all the time. It’s got a simpler, lined side, and a side (the one I prefer) with a linen-like texture to it. And aren’t those scalloped edges too cute? (I purchased the design on the Silhouette site for a buck.)

When I was done cutting, I ended up with large and small circular cut outs, the leaves that I wanted to try to use, and the letters:

Normally I use spray adhesive for paper projects, but the glue stick was closer. :) It worked great!:

Using my hole puncher, I added two holes in each one, then strung the letters and little leaves on some twine. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!:

Isn’t that so stinking cute?

I had the buffet in our foyer dressed for fall six weeks ago, but took it all down for the Halloween display. I just put everything back the way I had it, even though it’s only for a few days, week, couple of weeks till Christmas starts peeking out. :)

I plopped one of my (real) blue Cinderella pumpkins on some burlap:

Can you believe I’ve had that pumpkin for about eight weeks now? It’s still perfect! Crazy.

Back in August, I was strolling through Pier 1 and saw some beautiful faux leafy stuff, and it was gorgeous. I especially loved that it was really, really tall and full. I knew I’d need a few of them though, so I held off. (They weren’t really cheap.)

Imagine my glee when I saw something very similar at Hob Lob:

I think they were $3 each, half off? Wicked good. :)

When we were working on my father-in-law’s house a couple of months ago, I saw this beautiful amber glass piece and swooned:

Isn’t it gorgeous? Perfect for my fall display!

I filled it with little beady stuff, pine cones and acorns I’ve used through the years:

All together, with our new Give Thanks garland on the mirror, and it’s a lovely, warm welcome!:

You’ll notice my Cinderella pumpkin tower shrunk by one. I noticed the other day that the middle one had cracked and it was NASTY. Ew!

I can’t even believe the difference a year makes – this little bitty table just didn’t do it for that spot:

Thanks to Craigslist, I have a lovely new spot to decorate each season!:

Yippeeee! For that, I am thankful. ;)

I’ll show you a few more of my fall goodies soon, and then it’s all over folks – get ready for some magic!!!

Are you still working on fall decor? Has Christmas crept up around your house?

Thank you to my sponsor!:

My style is “Suburban”

So I’ve noticed something lately when watching my favorite design shows. There is one word that seems to strike fear in the heart of many a “real” decorator…

Their mouth puckers up like they just drank lemon juice.

They look like they just swallowed a bug.

They look as if they may just spit out the word…cause it’s just so completely hideous.

That word that makes them quiver…

 

SUBURBAN

 

(Runs screaming from the computer. Arms flailing. Trembling. Hives.)

But I don’t get it. Never have. I don’t understand what’s so bad about “suburban.”

I know, I know. It means normal…average…just like the next one.

To them anyway. To me it means warm…cozy…it can even be classic.

And, YES, normal.

What’s wrong with normal? Normal can most certainly be pretty. Warm can definitely be different. Cozy can be innovative once and a while.

But to me, more than anything…”suburban” means

A FAMILY LIVES HERE

Why is that so horrible? 

For years I’ve tried to figure out my own decorating style, and I’ve never really nailed it down. I’m really traditional, a little bit transitional.

But then I heard that “suburban” word one more time a couple of weeks ago, and I realized…that’s ME! My style is Suburban.

And I’m proud of it.

BoooooYAH.

Really. I’ll scream it from the roof of my suburban home. My suburban home in a neighborhood.

In Suburbia.

I love Suburban. It’s home.

To me, it’s family and friends plopping down on your couch, getting something out of your fridge, sitting around your kitchen table playing yuker.

Yeah, I said it. Yuker. I’m a Hoosier. Darn tootin’.

Although I usually just sit and watch…I won’t take the time to really learn how to play it. Which is probably a good thing because I am NOT a good loser.

It’s not pretty. :)

And yes, I know it’s spelled euchre. I’m being a Hoosier. Funny. Get it? :)

I found the definition of Suburban online, just because I was curious:

sub·ur·ban (sə-bûrˈbən)

adjective

1. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a suburb. (Check.)
   2. Located or residing in a suburb. (Check.)
   3. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the culture, customs, and manners typical of life in the suburbs. (Check. Check. Check.)

We dream of having a weekend apartment in New York City someday.

And a mountain cabin…someday.

And one day…maybe moving to a house that’s not in a neighborhood, one that’s older than ten years old, on some land with a creek in the back. (Or crick, if you’re a Hoosier.)

You know – the kind of house that’s more than 30 feet from the road? Yeah. One of those.  :)

But any one of those would still be decorated in my Suburban style. Warm and cozy, cozy and warm…and normal. In my way, normal.

My normal is not your normal, which is why Suburban could never be average. Just in the same way one person’s contemporary isn’t another person’s contemporary. Styles are translated differently by all of us.

And every style can be comfortable and welcoming. Contemporary can most definitely scream A FAMILY LIVES HERE…but that doesn’t make it boring. 

My style is Suburban and I am not ashamed.

What’s yours?  :)

Welcome to my latest advertiser!:

Master bedroom redo: Part one

I know I promised a post about the NYC trip today, but I’m waiting on everyone else to post about it so I can copy all their pictures. ;) That’s how I roll.

So…you may or may not remember my post a couple of months ago about our bed, and why it made me cry I never made it.

I told you then I was on a search for new bedding…and I found it, over time. I big fat LOVE IT.

And oh yeah – IT FITS THE BED. Can I get an AMEN? And a hollaaa?

This process was not a cheap one, and I splurged more than once. So if you don’t like it when this Thrifty Chick splurges, please…just step. away. from. the. blog. now.

We like to sleep and we sleep as often as possible and I believe we deserve some sahhweeet bedding. And we paid for it all in CASH. :) (Don’t hate Dave Ramsey!)

So anyhoo…the transformation started with new sheets. I had my eye on a new duvet cover, and when I decided it would be the one, I knew I wanted luscious chocolate brown sheets to go with it.

We had brown before, but these are luscious chocolate brown. There is a difference:

I love that pretty detail! Oh, and did I mention they are 500 count sheets? LUSCIOUS.

And they actually FIT and stay put:

I believe the package said they fit mattresses up to 18 inches, and ours is a tad over 17 – and they really fit, they weren’t just saying that.  ;)

Total cost was $80 I believe? (At Target.) Totally WORTH IT.

Next up was a biggie – a blanket. We needed something that would go from summer to winter with no issues – not too heavy, not too light.

On a trip to Pottery Barn for my family room pillows a while back, I saw the most simple, beautiful blanket called the Fisherman Knit Blanket. I may or may not have brushed it against my cheek. I’m serious – it was crazy soft.

And so incredibly expensive. About $150 expensive. I know, stop choking. I know.

But I couldn’t get it out of my head. I was obsessed. I looked it up on Ebay for weeks, hoping to find a deal and nada. I looked it up on PB for weeks hoping it would go on sale and nothin’.

And then I saw something that sealed the deal. One customer who reviewed the blanket online said it was just lovely, but to watch out because it stretched…a lot.

Ding ding ding!!! It was the one. I knew it would fit over all sides of our monstrous bed!:

I bit my lip and went in and bought the blanket – the most expensive blanket I’ve ever owned. And it is so freakin’ fantastic, I cannot even stress it to you how fantastic it is. It is like cuddling up with a cloud.

You think I’m kidding. I’m not kidding. I caress it every single night:

One of my biggest complaints of our old comforter/duvet was that it wouldn’t hang over our thick, king-sized mattress. One day I finally realized why. First of all, the duvet cover had shrunk over time (the whole set was only $25 on Ebay, so I’m not surprised) and when I took the comforter out of the duvet, I laid it down to measure it.

My “king-sized” comforter wasn’t king at all – it was a queen. Yeeaaahhh. Four years and I never realized. Really? I know it said king on the package.

So off to Target I went again, to buy a real king size comforter. For reals this time. I checked. :)

The best part is that it has tabs inside so you can tie the duvet to it:

I love smart stuff. I thought only the fancy schmancy duvets and comforters had that little ditty.

And then…it was onto the duvet cover. I was trying to avoid another duvet…I just didn’t want to deal with it again. But this one at Target had been calling to me for months. Every time I went in I would put it in my cart, put it back, put it in my cart, put it back.

And one day, when I had the cash saved up, I got it. And it’s lovely:

It’s all creamy and rusty and chocolatey and soft and it’s SO US. There was very little color in the room other than the walls and drapes before, so I wanted to add a pop of something. And the rust color was that something.

The final splurge was a throw for the end of the bed. I see pictures of beds with a throw laid across the bed and it just screams luxury to me. There was a rust colored throw and shams set that worked perfectly with the duvet (also from Target):

The only part of the bed I haven’t splurged on is the pillows – the throws are all from before.

So now, this bed, that took a good 45 minutes of my life every time I made it:

Has turned into this soothing spot:

 

(Ignore the purple drapes falling off the rod, umkay? They’re going.)

And this science fair of a side:

Is now this:

Best part? It took less than 20 minutes to make, from start to finish. I have actually been known to make our bed lately. Can you believe it??

Close your gaping mouth, it’s true.

So there you have it, our new bedding, step by step. I bought everything over a couple months, as we had the cash to spend. There’s still SO much to do to this room! I’d like some pillows to fill up those shams a bit better , I need to make a (LONG) bedskirt and I have a few ideas in mind for the wall behind the bed:

Plus new lamps, nightstands and drapes! I’ve made a few other changes in here already that I’ll show you soon. The redo is going to happen slowly, but that’s how I do it best. :)

I adore how warm and cozy it is – of course the colors are perfect for fall, but we love them year round. And they work great with the greyish green color on the walls. (Valspar color called Tornado Watch, from Lowes.)

I’m trying to decide what color to do the bedskirt – cream or chocolate? Or maybe rust? Is that too much rust? We’ve gone without a skirt all this time and I really want to get one on there. I’m tired of seeing the extra dining table leaf sticking out from under the bed. ;)

I had fun taking pics for this post with a little somethin’ somethin’ that followed me home from the camera store today:

WHOO!!! :) Isn’t it amazing?! Oh my goodness…I have so much to learn! Can anyone recommend a web site that explains aperture and all that good stuff?

 

Welcome to my latest advertiser!