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Monday, May 20, 2013

Makeover Monday ~ Easy Ways to Brighten a Room

Monday, May 20, 2013
We will be taking a slight break in our Jaimee makeovers to bring you a bit more Operation Home Tranformation from Tiffany.  I can't promise you Jaimee greatness, but I do have some easy, affordable tips to give your room a little face lift from clutter and overall blahness.


So today I am going to tell you some quick easy, cheap ways to brighten and open up a dark room.  I will be using my living room death tomb as an example.  Here it is in its normal, daily, ho hum state.


There were some obvious issues I needed to tackle first before I started brightening things.  


Our wainscoting was a job we started almost 2 years ago.  Then all our money started going to healthcare for my oldest and the wainscoting got put to the side.  It's been bothering me all this time so it was time to finish it.  This is where most my time and budget went to.  

I also ditched the rug because it was pretty beat up, and wasn't doing much to add to the room.  Someday I think I might want a yellow rug to go there, but they are expensive and I just couldn't fit it into the budget.  It was best just to do without it.  And the fire screen went away for now because it's spring and we aren't using the fire place.

When my youngest was a baby, I had created a space under my entertainment center along with a couple ottomans for his toys because I didn't want him down in the basement playroom alone. And since then, his toys have expanded and gotten bigger and exploded out of their little places. Most of which he was too old for.  My husband's electronics have also exploded out of their place.  My youngest is almost 4 now and can go into the playroom unsupervised.  And it remains to be seen if my husband can be unsupervised with his video games, but it was time for all this to go to better places.

I put the toys he was too young for in storage and the rest in the basement.  With the exception of some electronic toys that he needs help with and puzzles that he can do quietly upstairs, limiting the toys to a small box that fit under the end table.  Remotes got put in a basket and unused gaming devices and cases got put away in storage.


Once that was conquered, I finally got to focus on the darkness of the room.  The biggest culprit for this dark, dreary living room was my couches.  They're big, they're dark, and they just take up the room like a giant mass of big, dark, couchness.  Since buying new furniture wasn't in my budget, I decided what it needed was some bright, happy colors to cheer the place up.  

Since the layout of my main floor is all connected, (the kitchen is connected to the dining room which is connected to the living room on up the stairs), I needed a universal color to tie it all together.  And since there is blue in my dining room and my mega couches are blue along with my walls, it was pretty obvious that the blue was staying.  I just had to come up with a bright, happy color to go with the navy blue.

What color is brighter and happier than yellow, really?

So I went to add some bright yellow pillows to brighten up my couches.  As far as pillows go, I highly recommend IKEA pillows.  They have this magical filler inside that can be squished in a tiny little ball for years and then opened up and it pops into a full fluffy pillow.  What this means is they don't lose their shape or squish with time.  This is excellent for me since this is what my previous pillows looked like.  Keeping it real for ya folks.


The pillow inserts themselves were about $7 each and the covers were on sale for $2.50 each.  Making it about $40 for four pillows.  And if you ever want to change the colors of your pillows, you can just replace the covers for $12.  I wanted a pattern on my pillows so I bought white covers and painted them with yellow fabric paint. 

I used fashion forward red ninja duck tape to block off the stripes I wanted white and measured the distance between the white stripes.  I wanted the yellow stripes to be bigger than the white, so I made the yellow stripes 3 inches.  It fit perfectly on the pillow case.  Then I painted the untaped area and peeled off the tape. 



Voila! Stripes!

This simple addition did so much to brighten and freshen up my couches.


Now, the final thing I need to focus on was lighting.  I have no idea what they were thinking when they  put the lighting in my living room, but the only source of light is a small overhead light position on the side of the room over my fire place.


I also had a small lamp. I once had two of that lamp but my oldest tried to use one as an umbrella.  
It didn't make it.

So, first I purchased a floor lamp on clearance at Target for $15.  It had a good stretch to its lighting and could really fill the room.  In fact, the Mr. says it's too bright.  But he's a vampire so his vote doesn't count.  And then I set out to get some more light coming through my windows.

I knew I wanted yellow curtains.  Thing is, the only yellow I could find came with gray.  That wasn't going to work for me. So I found an adorable ombre yellow shower curtain.  It was $20 and I bought two of them.  It was really simple making them in to curtains.  I simply cut it in half and hemmed up the raw edge.  Then I folded the top edge over and sewed 1-2 inches from the top. 

Instant curtain!



Now, you may already be aware of this, but I was not.  I've always thought curtains go over the windows.  To shut out the light, right?  Although it never crossed my mind that I had blinds for that.  So, I came across a trick that not only brings tons of light into your room, but also makes your windows appear twice as big!

The trick?  

Placing your curtains on the outside of your windows instead of inside. 

Like I said, you probably already knew this trick. But it was totally new to me.  So, I extended the curtain rod and placed the curtains on the outside.  

Look at the difference!


These two windows are exactly the same size.  Just different placing of the curtain.  (Excuse the mess)

And there you have it!  A brightened, opened up room for less than $100 (I didn't count the wainscoting).  Here's the before and after.


And there you go!  The kitchen will be coming up next!


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Friday, May 17, 2013

Fun Jar Friday #48 ~ Sugar or Salt Art

Friday, May 17, 2013
Today on Fun Jar Friday~


Do you remember the sand art you used to do at the State Fair?  Maybe that was just me.  Well, this is how you can make those bottles of layered sand at home using things you already have on hand.

But first, a story about sugar and salt.

When I was 8 years old, I decided to make peanut butter cookies.  I can't remember if this was my first time making cookies on my own or not. It's just the first time I specifically remember making cookies.

I know that I knew what I was doing. I knew how to turn on the oven and follow the directions so there is a good chance this was not my first time making cookies.  But for the sake of my own dignity, I will say that it was my first.

Wanting desperately to do this all on my own and do it well, I opened up my Betty Crocker cook book (the same one in every household of the 80s) and carefully pulled out all the ingredients one by one.  Then I began carefully measuring and adding the ingredients.

I put in the flour, the baking soda and baking powder and the 1 cup of sugar it asked for.

Then I got distracted by something so unimportant that I can't remember what it was.  

When I came back to the recipe I was feeling pretty sure of myself.  After all, I had managed to follow all the directions perfectly at this point.  So I quickly glanced at the recipe where I left off and put in the 1 cup of salt, and the peanut butter, shortening, butter and egg and mixed it all together.

You see where I'm going with this story, right?


Somehow in my over confident reading, I had read the sugar amount in place of the salt amount.  And being a baking newbie, it didn't ever occur to me that there was a problem.  But Houston, was there ever a problem.

Well, after I had everything all mixed together, my mom walked in at that point.  And like a good baker, she grabbed a spoon and dug out a large spoonful of that cookie dough.  With a proud smile on my face I watched as she put that spoonful of cookie dough in to her mouth.

And with a big smile she did so.

 And then the smile changed.  Her eyes got big and her mouth got small and a look of utter horror crossed her face.  

But being a good mom, she quickly recovered herself and swallowed.  But it was too late.  I knew I had done something terribly wrong with my cookies.

And together we threw them away.

The good news is today's fun jar activity is one you can safely do with either salt or sugar.  You can even do it with white sand but chances are you have more salt and sugar around the house then white sand.

I saw this activity on Flax and Twine.  She used salt and her kids must have much more patience then mine because they got super nice bright colors.  Pop over to her site for some more really great kids crafts.  Lots of inspiration!

So, pick one.  Either salt, sugar or sand, and gather some sidewalk chalk of different colors.  Preferably clean ones.  We all know how dirty and mucky chalk can get when it's been left outside in the elements for awhile. Don't use those.

There are two different ways to color your sugar (from here on out, I will just say sugar because that is what we used.  But just know that you can substitute salt or sand when I say sugar)

1.  Pour the sugar on a plate and roll the chalk in it with the palm of your hand until it is colored.

or

2. Put the sugar and chalk in a ziplock and squish, rub and scrub it around until the chalk turns color.

We went for option #2. It's the cleaner option.  And I was using the leftover pieces of chalk from my Roseart Surprise Inside Chalk pack which didn't roll so well.

So, we put the chalk and sugar in a bag.  How much you put in doesn't matter.  But for the record, I put in about a 1/2 cup of sugar.  Any size of chalk works too.  It doesn't take much chalk to get color.

Then we rubbed and scrubbed the chalk in the bag until it started to change color.  The longer you scrub, the brighter the color.  This applies to both coloring options.

Once we the got the color we desired, we put the sugar in bowls and then layered the colors in a glass jar.  I probably don't have to tell you this but DON'T SHAKE THE JAR!

That's it!  Just pour the sugar in in layers until you reach the top.

Now go enjoy your art with a plate of peanut butter cookies!  Preferably with the correct amount of salt.




Sharing @
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5 for Friday ~ Outdoor Game Fun

Summa summatime is comin'!  Our weather here has been perfect for spending lots of family time outdoors.  In another month it will be roasting hot in the south!  I've had my eye on several of these ideas for quite awhile and now is the perfect time to share them with all of you...
Outdoor Game Ideas -  that you can do yourself!

1) Giant Deck Gameboard
I remember seeing this last year and it knocked my socks off.  What a FUN idea!!
You must go check it out : )

2) Lawn Twister
Great for a picnic or party, or just anytime!  I like the way she used a box as a template.

3) DIY Outdoor Dominoes
These are so cool!  They look classy stained, but could be fun and casual painted, too.

4) DIY Yard Dice
I loved this pic from pinterest - it screams summer picnic! But I found tutorials at the two blogs linked above - the first one is painted 4x4 blocks, and the second one has recessed dots using a drill bit.  
The tutorial is fab. 

5) Picnic Game Blanket
This picnic game blanket is genius!  It has boards for checkers, bingo and tic tac toe, 
plus velcro pockets on the corners to hold game pieces and extra card games.
The tutorial shows step-by-step how to make it - fabric backed with a vinyl tablecloth.  So smart!

{Bonus} 6. Tiff's Giant Patio Gameboard
One more giant gameboard - Tiffany's spin on the one above, from our Summer Fun Jar archives.


Stick with us for LOTS more summer fun ideas as Tiff kicks off her Summer Fun Jar 2013!
I'm so thrilled to have her here to share all her fab activity ideas with us : )
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