Saturday, November 15, 2014

Creativity

Creativeness is not normally a word I would use to describe myself -- really, its never been part of my vocab.  A lot of ideas I have are pretty much stolen from somewhere else.

However a good friend of mine was over here the other day and said, "Wow, you're so creative!  How do you come up with all these ideas?"

And I just don't really know.  I know I see a picture of something I like, and well, I want to make it!  I think it really helps that I have a husband who can fix/make just about anything!  :)  And now that I found a seamstress - possibilities are endless! :)

For instance, I saw this picture on pinterest and fell in love.  For those of you who don't know much about pinterest, I suggest you try it.  I'm not really into the 'new thing' -- I don't tweet, I just learned about instagram -- I'm just NOT on the up and coming.  And I'm okay with that.



I would never go with that floral print however, I just love the feel of these curtains.   They feel romantic.  They feel voluptuous.  They are apparently called a balloon curtain.  (scroll to the bottom of that page)

And I found this print at JoAnn's.  Its parisian -- and it has blue butterflies, a pink mannequin-type-thing -- its just great!  


These curtains are going in my closet - yes, I am so fortunate to have such a closet in a 1930's home!  (someone had some money back then!)




That is a sample of the fabric.  We'll definitely put some backing on them.  And no - I don't really use the closet for much - its actually extremely cold in there!  And now I need to get in touch with Elcy and see how much fabric I need for these - they do look like they will take a bit of fabric.  Measured the window - its 36" long by 8 feet wide!  Whew! :)

At any rate, just wanted to share with you my thought process and encourage you all that you can do whatever you dream up!  In my case, you just have to be patient - it may take a while!  (I presume I will have these installed sometime in February or March!) 

Happy saturday-at-home ya'll!

Much love,

Heather

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Linens and Things

I have some exciting news!  (bahaha, its exciting to me at least!)

MY CURTAINS ARE FINISHED!

Elcy - a friend of a friend - made them for me.  Simple, rod pocket, 106" panels.  Nothing special -- other than they are upholstery fabric (so thick and heavy) AND the lining I picked was the heaviest I could find.  (yes, the windows are HUGE and they SUCK out our heated/cooled air in winter and summer!  I'm embarrased to share how high our first gas bill was!!)  I bought the fabric 3 months ago, yowzers.  

Here are my bare windows and the stack of curtains!   (pardon the mess, EVERYWHERE, I have kids, its excusable right?)

 

Elcy did a fantastic job.  I contemplated making them myself, but I am SO thankful I found her and so happy with what she did.  Pittsburghers -- I have her number and she'd be happy to help you! She used to make curtains/drapes for her friend's clients -- her friend, the interior designer.

Here is the finished product:


 

Still need to get different sheers and of course, after I get them up --- I'm wanting to change the wall color and where the rod is hung.  Lesson learned:  HANG the rods when you have your CURTAINS. 

On another note  ---     I NEED YOUR HELP  ----

making a decision.  I have made far too many already, and have another one that I would LOVE your advice on.

I have decided I am going to have this fabric made into 'London shades' in my living room.  I actually already bought the fabric!  (Elcy will be ready for them in January!  At least I really hope!)  Below is an example of the fabric and that particular type of shade.  Elcy knew exactly what a London shade is (new to me!  I just saw this pic and loved it!)  Here is the fabric I have, and what a 'London shade' is:

 

The main reason I am doing that shade, is I don't want it to cover ALL the woodwork.

At any rate - I'm going to put a shade behind it to cover the whole window.  A pull-down blind/shade thing.  I bought a bunch of them from Lowe's and I narrowed it down to 2.  I need your help deciding between the two.

Here is shade #1:
 

This is shade #2:

 

What would you choose?

Here are the two shades with the fabric.  Shade #2 is on left, #1 on right.



 

Two totally different vibes I think.  

THANK YOU for your help!  Yes, I know, I am very fortunate to be making these silly decisions, very fortunate.  My prayers go to those who have much more difficult decision all the time, truly they do.

Much, much love -

Heather

Monday, October 27, 2014

Salvage finds





The high/low challenge from HGTV was fun -- if you're into that kind of stuff -- which, if you're reading, you probably are.  Look at these four sets of items and choose which one has the lowest price tag:











Then find the answers here!  This was that contest I won... or well, at least won a HGTV t-shirt or something! :)

----        anyhooo.... back to reality....     ------


There is this 'surplus' or 'recycle' store that I've visited a few times now - called Construction Junction.  Sometimes there is a lot of junk, sometimes there is a lot of cool finds -- like this one:


AND I found TWO of them!  Perfect!  I have two open holes next to the guest bed windows.  They look period-specifics (at least to me... 1930's that is...).  Actually I found these a year ago and just haven't used them yet.  I believe $8 a piece or $8 total.  Yes, not a hell-uv-a-good-deal but that's okay.

They have some paint on them, so we polish it off AND find some brass!  Perfect!  


We'll just peel the paint away (sanding, polishing, or soaking in a slow cooker on high with dish soapy water -- then peeling it off) and then we'll have a beautiful brass fixture!

Or not...



There is a yucky steel under this paint.  Blech.

So, we found some hammered nickel spray paint so that will look well with the ceiling fan.  Spray painting is the easy part -- wiring it is not!  That is on our to-do list this wknd... as well as too many other things :)

Hopefully I'll be able to share a picture of these installed... soon... (Tom?)

On a different note - I am in serious need of covering or 'dressing' my windows. We have far TOO many windows, truly (38 windows?  Tom?).  We MADE some curtains on Saturday - yahoo!  MAJOR thanks to my amazing mother-in-law!  (and then that night, she watched the kiddos while we went out for our anniversary!!)

Check them out!  Still need to add some more hooks to make it sit against the window better.. And now I also feel like I need to add something up top!  That will be a wayyyy later type of project...



A couple weeks ago I had an interior designer here, Kay.  She's not very good with using email, but she definitely has the designer 'look' going on for an older woman! 



She was with Caldwell's Windoware.  I was impressed actually (despite thinking I might not be after a few conversations...  She brought some awesome samples though!




I believe we will go with one of those 'bamboo' looking shades with a valance up top - that way I don't hide the beautiful woodwork we took so much time to strip/sand/stain last year.  I think our living room will be our project for the next spring/summer/fall.  We need to close those holes in the fireplace, paint that, install a beautiful mantle, fix the french doors - DRESS the doors and windows... and probably get new furniture to fit.  Thats a LOAD of work - but enough work for the entire year I think! :)

Do you spy what I spy?  :)  Besides the mess of course...

Reduce, reuse, recycle,

Heather

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

WOW

WOW.

I literally said, "WOW!!" out loud the other day.  And then I said, "I can't believe its only been two months!".

In a matter of two months time, we have gone from this:



To this:





THAT IS UNREAL!  We have done ALL of this ourselves (other than carpet install, but I still had to go there and pick it out!)

AND with a small infant and 3 yr old!  Of course, couldn't have done it without the help of family, friends, babysitters, etc.  Mind you, we don't have any family in town!  (Although the in-laws make it here pretty frequently)

What color should I add to this gray room?  Let me know.. I'm debating.  Rick agreed with me, it needs a pop of color!

Next up?  Finish this dag-on bathroom!  We have visitors (in-laws) this weekend - and we haven't had a chance to have the ducts cleaned.  Too much construction debris in there to turn on the furnace...

Also, I found someone to make drapes for us!  Yes!  She is currently working on those, I cannot wait!  I have some more projects for her after the new year too (granted she does a great job).  Anyone in Pittsburgh - she said she love to sew something for you if you need it!  Apparently, I know a bunch of moms who are great sewers (I just talked to another mom who made her babies crib sheets!  What?!?!)

Happy Tuesday ya'll!

OH!  I forgot!  I felt like a real 'home designer' the other day!  There was this challenge on HGTV - and I won!  Basically, it had photos of two very similar items, and you had to guess which one was the cheapest.  I didn't see anyone else with the same comments as me... but I went with my gut :).  Here is the link - take a guess and make a comment below... I'll write the answer next time!

In the name of good home design -

Heather



Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Productive Weekend - YIPPEE!

I can't contain my excitement...
 
We purchased a range hood for our 36" range in December of last year.  DECEMBER OF LAST YEAR.  It's been sitting in our basement ever since.  True story.  Hard for me to believe but not hard when I think about all we've actually done since December of last year.  (Moved, had a baby, gutted and still renovating a bedroom and bathroom... I know you know, but when I stop to write it out it still kinda blows my mind).
 
ANYHOO.  This is the hood we purchased (a Costco buy, yet again --- due to the cost, of course!  But I do trust them to choose good products...) 

I think we've been delaying the installation because it required Tom to cut a hole in our roof.  Yeah - I would probably hesitate on that one too.
 
And we had to make sure our dear friend Mickey was available to help.  Probably would have NEVER got this done without him!  Here are some parts and pieces and the beginning of the work...
 

 
To my ergonomic buddies - YES, I corrected Tom's poor posture in that photo and praised Mickey!

The instructions said the hood needs to go 24 - 30" above the stove top.  That would have placed it under the top line of the mosaic tile over stove.  SO - we went something like 40".  Mickey said it was okay - and he's done this plenty before - so I hope he's right! :)

 
I got to look at this beautiful face while instructing the men on the proper height...
 
 
 
Here are some more pics of the process.

 

It was quite the process.  Yes, I decided to hang my laundry the same day.  WTF was I thinking?!?

Here is Tom waltzing over the remaining awning posts we have yet to know what to do with.

 

 Do you spy a small metal clip on that ledge of shingles?!? 

 
Oh yeah, and Mickey's head from inside?!?!  Bahaha.

It was hard to know where to cut the hole in the roof.  They measured from inside, and then Tom measured from outside.  BUT we forgot to add in the fact that the shingles hang over the brick a few inches... so once we got that figured out I think they did a great job of being spot on!

All in all, this project took about 3 hours (6 man hours total).  Not too bad - I AM ONE HAPPY MAMA!  Go Mickey and Tom!


Looking good, eh?!?

On a side note, the stove is also from Costco.  Started using it in January, then noticed some minor issues with it.  Nothing was that big - until we realized the enamel on the inside was chipping.  Yikes.  SO, we wanted a new stove.  This is an all gas stove, as we do not have a 220 circuit for a duel fuel range.  Wouldn't you know that almost ALL 36" ranges are duel fuel?!?  So, we got the same stove again.  I really really hope that this stove doesn't have any issues.  It is highly rated online and Costco was surprised I was having issues with it.  Good thing their return policy was super easy.

Anyways, it was a busy weekend.  But we still had time for some fun.  Took a 1 hour bike ride Sunday morning.  (too bad it took us 1.5 hours to get everything ready for the bike ride!).  GO Tom for carting an extra 50 lbs!


Mary Alice said Sunday night while getting ready for bed, "I had a FUN day with you guys today!".  :)

Happy Tuesday ya'll!

Heather

Friday, September 26, 2014

20 minute fix!

Its been slow progress on the home front lately...

But yesterday I was inspired.  I was cleaning and organizing and stumbled upon this chalkboard peel-and-stick roll I purchased from Living Social forever ago (9 months?).

I've been thinking about putting something up next to this open chimney hole we have in the kitchen.

So I did!  Mary Alice was sleeping and William was playing nicely so I got it all done in about 20 min!  Here's the first picture I took of the process:

I first measured the hole opening in the chimney and figured I wanted the chalkboard cut-out to be 22" long.  I also realized on the back of the roll they had a grid I could use to make sure whatever I made was symmetrical.

 
I started drawing my design on the back of the roll, and tried to make it look the same on all four sides.  I quickly realized that I only needed to draw 1 quarter of it - then gently fold the paper in half and trace it!  WOW - that worked like a charm!  Here is the finished product.



Not bad for 20 minutes, eh?  Yes, it actually took me about that long.  And no, we never got around to eating ice cream for dessert.  :0

Now if only I could make that kind of progress for the duration of the 2 hours they've been sleeping today!  I'm thinking turning HGTV on was my problem :)  I do like that show Fixer Upper a bit, but all the houses are decorated with the same type of decor, as Joanna always does the finishing touches -- so they all look the same!

Here's to a productive weekend (as Tom is already home and already working!  I'm cooking up a storm to help fuel him!)

My best,

Heather