Pins I’ve Tried: Car Trash Can, Fly Repellant and Beauty Secrets

Baking Soda and Coconut Oil - Best face scrub and moisturizer out there!

Pinterest - how do I love thee? Like my dog loves bacon. Seriously. There are so many really cool ideas on there for saving time, money or natural resources. I just wish I had the time or energy to try them all out.  I've been a little busy around here to post about the pins I've tried individually, so I'm going to do a few all together. As always, you can click on the pictures to be taken to the original website from which it was pinned (unless that pin goes nowhere, in which case I don't … [Read more...]

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Pins I’ve Tried: Alcohol Ink Coasters

orange flower on water, alcohol ink

Unlike some of the pins I've tried on Pinterest that don't work out, this one was definitely worth trying. I saw this pin for alcohol ink coasters, as well as a few more like it, on Pinterest a few weeks back. I was immediately drawn to the vibrant colors and the fun designs. (to go to the original post, click on the picture above) Before seeing this on Pinterest, I had never heard of alcohol ink. It's crazy to think about all the things I'm missing out on! So, when I first saw … [Read more...]

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Pins I’ve Tried: S’more Croissants

smore croissants 1

Although I'm not posting as much as I used to, it's not because I haven't been trying new pins. In fact, I've been putting a lot of pins to the test lately while I'm trying to get ready for the 20 or so people that are coming for Thanksgiving. I love having my family together for the holidays, but I always want my home to look great. Therefore, I spend a few weeks beforehand trying to finish all the little projects I've been putting off. Do you do that too? Please tell me you do, then I'll feel … [Read more...]

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Bathroom Update and a New “Pin’s I’ve Tried” Pinterest Board

Navy Blue Bathroom

The demo on our master bathroom started yesterday, and I foresee many hours being dedicated to it's completion. I am hoping to be able to get a few posts written during the next few weeks, but just in case I don't, don't worry - I haven't fallen into the hole in the floor that used to be my bath tub!  I'm still busy pinning like crazy - especially bathroom pins. Oh, by the way, sorry about clogging up your pinterest feed with them all. But, I am loving how easy it has been to gather ideas for … [Read more...]

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Starting a vegetable garden isn’t as easy as it looks…

I was pretty excited about all the peppers, but my tomatoes weren't coming up.

Maybe a better title for this post would be "I'm a plant murderer". A few months back, I was inspired by this pin, and many others like it, to start a vegetable garden. It looked easy enough - plant seeds in little pods, use old concrete blocks to build a raised bed, fill with garden soil, add plants, water, watch them grow, weed the beds and pick lovely veggies/make lots of salads. Uhm... yeah, not so much. The part about planting the seeds in little starter pods was easy enough, … [Read more...]

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Pinning away – Halloween

Painted Trees by my husband

As I've mentioned before, I love Pinterest. For those of you that don't know the wonder and joy of Pinterest, it's a virtual cork board of sorts. For years, when I found something I found interesting online, I would bookmark it, and then promptly forget about it. Now, I can save all everything to my Pinterest boards and it's there for quick access when I am ready to start my projects. What I love even more is that I can see what other people are finding. I can't begin to tell you how much this … [Read more...]

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Light Fixture Makeovers and Replacements

dining room - after1

When we first looked at our new house, I loved the natural light that filled it. What I didn't like were all the light fixtures. Every one of them were builder-grade, and the cheapest ones at that. There were "pimple" light globes in the bathrooms, hallways and even our bedroom. Every single one of the bathrooms had these light bars above the sink. And the fans on the porch were literally shaped like domes, their blades drooping. I wish I had pictures of them, but it was one of the … [Read more...]

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It almost makes me want to do laundry…

Laundry room 1

So, the laundry room re-do is done!! In case you don't remember, because it was really not memorable at all, this is what it looked like last week. Boring. Bland. A little depressing. But now, after many days of work, and lots of energy spent, this is our new laundry room! We replaced the old washer and dryer, and the new ones were my jumping off point for all the color choices. I was able to find an "oops" paint at Home Depot that worked perfectly with the dark teal. Have I said yet that … [Read more...]

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Easy Halloween decorations

Woman's Day Halloween Hurricane Lamps

While looking for Fall decoration ideas, I found this on Pinterest. While I don't eat much candy corn, decorating with it is fabulous! (Visit Woman's Day for more ideas on decorating with candy corn.) I loved them because they didn't scream "HALLOWEEN!!" at you, so you could use them for all of Fall. Perfect for me because I am not someone who will change decorations too frequently. The only problem was that I wasn't going to pay $40 for the large hurricane glass, or even $25 for the … [Read more...]

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My current project – the laundry room

Laundry room

Currently, I've been working on our laundry room. When we moved here, it was one of the first things I wanted to do, but it kept getting put off because of the nine hundred other things that took priority over it, like getting the water system working. This is the laundry room "before".    Like all the other rooms in the house, except for the kids's bedrooms, it was painted a depressing cream. The entire house was painted, from baseboards to ceilings, a dirty, dingy cream color that … [Read more...]

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Bathroom update

img_7176_thumb255b3255d

 As much as I hate to admit it, I am not the most creative designer on the planet. I AM pretty good at taking an idea and making changes to it so that it works for me. When I first started reading design/craft/home making blogs, Just a Girl's blog was one of the first I started stalking, I mean following, and I fell in love with her bathroom renovation.  (photo courtesy of Justagirlblog.com) When we moved into the new house, I knew I wanted to do something similar … [Read more...]

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The new house

The new house

I love to re-invent things. Whether it be an ugly chair, or a desk that has seen better days. Which is why, when we were looking for a new house, I didn't shy away from the ones that weren't "pretty". My husband wanted a house with more than a quarter of an acre, and in this area of South Florida, it's not a common thing. We wanted to stay in the area because we didn't want to move the kids out of their schools, and it's close proximity to my husband's workplace. For more than a year, we looked … [Read more...]

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