I'm Lovin' This Weather

The last day of winter....it is a BEAUTIFUL 68 degrees here in East Tennessee and spring is blooming every place I look.

Lovely flowers adorn my foyer, rising up to meet me when I come home.

Recent craft projects display happy spring colors.

Little bunnies are starting to pop up unexpectedly.

Yes, the signs of spring are here. And after a long, snowy winter, we are more than ready to welcome it home.

Snow bound projects

I have been taking advantage of the snow days. There has been a LOT of sitting around, starring at tv. There has been dancing and singing. There has been minimal cooking, but yet, still lots of dirty dishes. I have been cleaning a bit too. Every single shelf and drawer in my kitchen has been cleaned out in a early wish-it-was-spring cleaning sweep.

Case in point: my spice/baking shelf. Check. It. Out.

Yeah, don't hate me.

It will only look like that for a few weeks anyway.

And here is my canned goods area, all purged of cans dating as far back as 2005.

What else....

There has been Internet surfing and online shopping.

(Lands End has a great outlet area on their website, by the way.)

There has been junk food eating and sleeping in.

There has also been snowman making and wet clothes drying.

But when all else fails, a good craft can pass the time. Here was an easy one I made.

I was inspired by a picture in the Pottery Barn catalog.

This isn't really the picture, but the closest one I could find on the website. See the bottle with the spoons? Love.

And it just so happens that in the back of my pantry was a old paper bag full of silver spoons and forks from my great grandmother. And they were just begging to come out and play.

I already had a couple of cool containers from the after Christmas Target sale. I just scuffed up the shiny lids a bit with sandpaper to make them look more rustic.

The chalkboard label is courtesy of the Dollar Store. (note: bad cursive writing is courtesy of my 4th grade teacher. ) These are wall stickers with a chalk board surface.

Simply cut into whatever size/shape you want and presto chango! (Pardon the mess on the table. My kids were water coloring at the same time.

They look right at home in my grandmother's hutch.

What have you been doing on snow days to pass the time?

A wee wish for you....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We are celebrating by, of course, wearing green (I hate getting pinched--don't you?) The in laws went to Ireland last year and brought back Irish t-shirts, so the kids are getting to wear them today. I am desperately trying to figure out how much of their food I can die green. The preschool I used to work at always had green milk all day on St. Patty's which was super fun, but a bit gross. I am phobic about drinking bad milk. If I ever did drink bad milk, I am not sure I could ever fully recover. But the centerpiece of our festivities is the leprechaun trap. Yes, we are going to try and catch ourselves a little elfin magic!

As I type, The Girl is painting a shoe box green--the preferred color of the leprechaun.

Here she is beating the beejeebus of out the brush.

Once the paint dries, we will decorate it with these green flower stickers. We even made fool's gold. A little enticement for the wee sprite made from contact paper and gold glitter. He won't know until it is too late!

When school lets out, we will have The Boy join in by going on a clover hunt. We will stuff all of these goodies into the little leprechaun "house" which will be propped up by a stick. Then lights out. When the little man shows and goes all Stingy from Lazy Town up in here, he will bump into the stick, thus, trapping him in our secret trap. At least that is the theory. We will see how it pans out tonight. Until then.....

May God give you...

For every storm, a rainbow,

For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.

I have been abusing my living room curtains

Or rather "mistreating" them. While we are in a Nester frame of mind, I wanted to share my big, scary project of the week! The Nester first got my attention when the bargain board I was reading at the time was raving about her concept of mistreating curtains to save money. The basic idea is that you can make a fancy window treatment that looks like a million bucks without hemming and hawing over it. She uses a hot glue gun, trim, tacks and high heels to McGyver herself some really nice designs. I may not have the high heels, but I did manage to make this!

OK, so picture if you will green tab top curtains that have hung on my living room for about 4 years. When they first came out, I loved the look of tab top curtains, but they were starting to grow old on me. The green was perfect in our living room, but with our gigantic picture window I could not stomach paying over 100 bucks for new curtains. My solution? Turn the curtains upside down, cut about 2 feet off the top to get rid of the tabs and hot glue on some adorable plaid fabric I got for 30% off at Hobby Lobby. Then, cover up the rough edges with trim. See?

Unfortunately, my original cut was too much and the curtains were hanging shorter than the sheers. BOO. Since the whole idea was to not spend much money on these, I used a store credit at Target (from returning an ear thermometer after three attempts--whole other story) to buy some curtain rings thingy majigs. I just clipped those onto the top and hung it all on my existing rod and voila!

Instead of over a hundred bucks I spent about $40 and that was only cause I bought really nice fabric for the bottom. I wanted to splurge a little. *wink*

10 Minutes to a Room You Love

OK, so, yay! This is my first time participating in a linky party and I feel so…official!

So, one of my mostest favoritist blogs (yes, I make up my own words around here)—The Nesting Place—is hosting the 10 Minutes to a Room you Love Party today.



Our assignment was to show off simple techniques we used to spruce up a room in our house. On my tour of Chez Desperate, I wanted to show off my kitchen--the heart of my home…the place where I nourish my family...the place where friends gather.

Oh who am I kidding?

My kitchen is a pain in my tushy.

It is constantly messy, never warm and inviting, always full of junk food.

But what it is, with all certainty, is organized. I may not be able to put on my housewife apron and whip up a delicious pie on a whim, but I can locate the recipe, find the ingredients with ease and then ask someone else to cook it.

So, here is my quick list of organizing tips and tricks of the trade!

Keep it close.

Make your kitchen an actual work area. Cooking is work, people. You must keep your tools at hand. Anything you use on a weekly basis deserves to be at your helm. Here you can see everything I need is within easy reach and is all centered around my stove. So, on the left side I have flour, cooking oils, salt, pepper, spices, cutting board, and rolling pin. To the right (since I am right handed) I have my spoons, spatulas and other items I would need to grab as I am cooking on the stove top.

Get it up.

Magnetic strips are my friend. I use them to hold my spices. I also use them to hold my knives. And I even have an extra strip up for holding notes, recipe cards, etc.

Have it separated.

Here is my baking/cooking cabinet. On the lower shelf I keep anything related to cooking—spices, salts, measuring cups, etc. The shelf above includes all baking items—sugars, powers, soda, flavorings, etc, which are stored in nice see through containers.

Get it together.

This is my recipe book. Not only does it include my recipes in regular rotation, but it also holds recipes I want to try. You see the calendar? I plan my menus in two week sets. I have winter menus and summer menus—4 weeks worth of meals that I can just drop right onto the monthly calendar.

Have it central.

This is my family calendar. It is in a central location in our kitchen—a place both my husband and I can see. I keep the markers in little baskets hanging to the side. The hanging system was a steal on ebay, but it is originally from Ikea. I also used another magnet strip to put up a wipe off board for extra notes throughout the month.

Recycle it.

No one says your recycle bin has to look like it came right out of Whole Foods. This is just a simple $10.00 trash can from Wally World. To make it look all official, I printed out a recycle sign (thanks to Publisher) and taped it on with some packing tape. My kids know exactly where to stick things when I say put it in recycling. When it gets full, I make a trip to the backyard where the bigger bins are. And when those get full I actually make a trip to the recycling center.

Editor's note: Please excuse the tidiness. I promise my house is not like this all the time—I just had the time to clean up a bit. My apologies for the lack of keepin' it real!

Oh, Happy Craft Day!

So, this morning The Boy had to have two of his baby teeth removed in order to make room for the gigantic adult teeth trying to push their way in. Since the roots were in no way prepared to come out, he got a sedation medication, a dose of laughing gas and 2 shots of Novocaine. All went off well and he spent the afternoon mending at home. Since The Girl was in school today, I had the luxury of spending the afternoon catching up on some of my crafts. I like to make signs. I talked about one of them here. And these are the ones I made today!

I LOVE this sweet little bathroom sign. I can't decide if I am keeping it or selling it.

This sign is for a new crafting center I am putting together for the kids.

This sign is going in the kitchen basket I am making a basket auction at The Boy's school.

I made this star a while ago, but finally got around to sealing it up. It is going up for sale!

And as a little extra because I have not shared it before, here is the sign I made for our dining room a while ago.

I just love crafty days!!!

Little Known Facts About Me--A mini series

I love interior design. So much so that at one point in my life, I was interviewed and accepted into the design program at ETSU. However, it was a odd time in my life--I had just finished my BA in English and was trying to decide if I wanted to pursue Interior Decorating or go for a Master's in Education. My safe side won out and I opted to go for the Master's degree. However, I have never given up on my passion for design and want to share with you, dear reader, a few of my favorites sites for inspiration!

The Nesting Place I was turned onto her blog via the BabyCenter Bargain Hunters Board. She has a grace and style about her that I admire and when I cruise into a craft section, finding treasures, I ask myself, "How would the Nester use this?"

Craftster My favorite part about decorating is creating. Sure, I love to buy things right off the shelves, but I also love to have one of a kind designs that I know no one can duplicate. This site gives me plenty of ideas.

Pottery Barn I cannot afford Pottery Barn. But I do love to look at the catalog. Let me rephrase that--I study the catalog. I love the color and texture combinations. I love that they mix old with new. I love that anything goes. And for that reason, I strive for the Pottery Barn look, without the Pottery Barn price.

HGTV Not only do I love the site, I love the channel. Some of my favorite shows are on this channel. I love watching the work of other designers, learning their tricks and methods. You get a great sense of what is in style from this channel and can also learn how to do it yourself.

Bargain Hunters This is a bulletin board I have followed for years. Now, it is not all about decorating, but about bargains. And sense do it yourself projects are a bargain (most of the time) the ladies post a lot about cheap ways to do home decor.

Better Homes and Gardens BHG is my favorite magazine and I so look forward to that day each month when it comes in the mail. I could just eat up every page!

Boogie Woogie Blues

I have been sick since last Friday and not really in the mood to write, soooooooooo I want to share what I made a couple of weeks ago.

Look! A pretty picture for the girl's fairy themed big girl room.

I am slowly transferring everything over to

faith,

trust

and pixie dust

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