Clean & DeClutter in 15 minutes- Before and Afters

Cleaning and DeCluttering makes such a difference to your home. . . and it doesn't have to take a lot of time. It's amazing what you can do in 15 minutes! Check out these Before and After pictures-- and each area took about 5 minutes to clean.

Laundry Room

Before

Laundry Room

After

Kitchen Counter

Before

Kitchen Counter

After

Guest Room Chair & Side Table

Before

Guest Room Chair & Side Table
After

Small Space Living: Pare Down and Look UP!

If you live in a small space, I applaud you for reducing your imprint on the environment-- I'm a big advocate of using all the space we have-- who needs a big house? It's just more to clean! But how do you live simply in a small space with other people and all your belongings? Here's how: Edit, edit, edit! If you can reduce the amount of things you have, that in itself will make life easier. The key to editing? Keep just the things you use ALL the time or REALLY love.

Donating to Goodwill, selling or gifting valuables, and, (Gasp!) throwing things away is so FREEING! Then, once you edit down, there are ways to arrange your space so it's more efficient. In a small space, a good suggestion is to look UP. Can you put shelves up higher? Look over the door. Can you put a shelf up there? I just put ten shelves up and around my window in the living room (see photo) and I was able to arrange a lot of books and accessories on those shelves. Hire a handyman to do it for you, and you can get shelves at Lowe's or Home Depot.

I got featured in Best of CafeMom!

I'm really excited because my scrapbook wall art got featured in CafeMom's Daily Buzz on their Home & Garden Channel. CafeMom is a wonderful site especially for moms, and the Daily Buzz is the "Best of CafeMom." The Daily Buzz is organized by "Channels" and my scrapbook art got featured on the Home and Garden Channel. Yay! Check it out:

http://www.cafemom.com/dailybuzz/home_garden

She Cleaned Her Room!

This morning I walked out of my bedroom, blurry eyed and groggy, and saw this taped to my daughter Jenna's bedroom door: (She's taking Spanish in school and has started calling me Madre.)

Ahh, kids can be so sweet sometimes . . . (but did I tell you this 15 1/2 year-old wants to look at a 2002 Volvo C70 convertible today?) Oh well, she's worth it . . .

Wall Art Idea: Frame Scrapbook Papers

Here's an easy idea for wall art: Take scrapbook papers in any theme you like (I chose Heirloom Papers) and frame them with inexpensive discount store frames. I framed nine papers in identical frames from Walmart. The frames are all black with white mats and cost about $12 each-- they may be inexpensive, but the simplicity of black and white is a classic choice that makes any paper look good, especially when you group the frames en masse. Above is a photo of the end result:

And here's a pic of one of the individually framed scrapbook papers:

Here's a photo of the wall art integrated with the living room:



Try it! It's easy as pie to do . . .

A Hawk in the Backyard

Well yesterday I had a thrill-- a hawk was sitting on a branch in one of our backyard trees. I couldn't believe my luck-- I love hawks . . . such a symbol of western life. They're independent, strong & fearless.

Unfortunately, this particular hawk was, I believe, hoping to have lunch. You see, about a month ago I put up a bird feeder to attract the local sparrows. And they do enjoy our free food! But apparently not without notice of this particular hawk.

That hawk stayed in our yard for half an hour. He tried to swoop down on some sparrows, but luckily they got away. You see, I like hawks, but I prefer that they leave the little birds alone.

Kind of like economics and big government. Yesterday was another bloodbath on Wall Street, and it's hard not to panic about our hard earned nest egg getting devoured by the "economic hawk." But my ever wise dad pointed out that we shouldn't have a victim mentality, even if life is unfair at times. So hopefully if, like the sparrow, I mind my own business and maintain a defensive position, our nest egg will remain safe-- or at least grow again someday when the market rallies again, which it is bound to do.

Before and After Vintage Desk

Well, this is my first post, and I'm really excited to become a part of the blogging world. My goal is to blog about redesign and decorating and share my love of this field, but also give glimpses into my daily life. I can't wait to get started, so here goes!

Yesterday I turned an old vintage desk into a new vintage desk. It all started when I needed more desk space for my little office (think living room with shelves and a little desk and bulletin board) and swiped my 15 year-old daughter's desk to give myself a corner return with more table top space. But after I took her desk (which, by the way, was no problem matching to my living room desk because I had painted them the same way, a sunset beige tone with oil-rubbed bronze handles) I realized she needed another desk-- so I jumped in the car, drove to Goodwill and immediately found a faded, yellowed old French Provincial desk. It had good bones, and when I looked in the drawers, I saw it was manufactured by Drexel Heritage. Perfect. I hauled it home and looked it up online-- it was part of the Touraine collection, made in the 1960s. Some of Craigslist ads priced some pieces from the Touraine line at up to $450.

I got it for $49. A bit pricey for Goodwill, but oh well. Inflation has hit thrift stores too. Here's what it looked like:

I painted it with decorative finishes from the Country Living Artisan Collection from Caromal Colours. (Don't intend to promote, but it's actually great paint for decorative painting.) After cleaning it up a bit and taking off the knobs, I followed the paint's directions and smooshed on the Parchment Colour all over the main parts of the desk, then trimmed it with Peppercorn (a black color) and Cobblestone (a muted green). Then I sanded corners and places where I thought it would be worn with an electric hand-sander. Finally, I brushed on toner and wiped it down with a wet wash cloth. I put the knobs back on and it was done.
So here's the after photo.


It looks like a vintage desk still, but I think it's better looking than before. Prettier and cleaner and "newer" in a vintage sort of way. My daughter loves it. It has more drawers than her other desk (which I'll show another time) and she's got all her entertainment stuff on the left side and her school stuff on the right side. What do you think?

I welcome your comments and am thrilled to be blogging. Much more to come!