Winner!

Hello all! Thanks so much for all the funny and sweet entries for the Dimples and Dandelions giveaway! They were SO fun to read. Kids are adorable. Good thing, eh? :)

Anyhoo, the winner of the $50 gift card is Jude from Dolce Cape Cod! Jude, please email me (thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com) and I’ll get you connected with the Dimples and Dandelions folks.

I know I promised you all a post on the stairs this weekend, but I was hit with a lovely cold yesterday and it’s getting worse by the minute. I cross my heart, stick a needle in my eye promise I will share the how-to on the stairs early next week. For now, I must drink hot chocolate. And make soup. And sleep. ;)

Don’t forget about the monthly Before and After Party on Monday! (I’ll probably have the linky up late Sunday night.)

Have a great one!

Science Fair

I know I’m not the only one who has created their own “language” with family and friends. I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. For example, my best friend (since 6th grade!) and I call each other “Bird.” ALL THE TIME. When we call on the phone. When we’re at dinner. ALL the time. 

It comes from the “pretty bird” scene in Dumb and Dumber. I believe we rewound that part of the movie about 80 trillion times that night at her house, laughing so hard we cried. From that evening, “Bird” was born. And it stuck, even 16 years later.  ;)

My husband and I don’t even call each other by our names. It’s usually a variety of cute, loving, puke-inducing terms instead. We have also picked up phrases over the years that mean something to us but no one else would ever know.

Translation = when we are at the store and talk to each other, I’m quite sure folks think we are either foreign or just nuts.

This brings me to “science fair.” It’s a term our friend Mike made up a new meaning for years ago. It basically means a total, complete MESS.

Like, “Wow, that traffic was a science fair!”

Or, “The license branch line was a total science fair.”

Or my current favorite -- “Our basement is a complete science fair.”

(More on that soon.)

You have no idea how many times I have typed those words here and had to delete them because you all would wonder what in the word I am speaking to you.

No more. Now that you are in the know, let me introduce you to my latest science fair. Many of you ask if I ever have a project go wrong. Yes. I do. But I do my best to roll with it and make it work. Like I did with this table. It turned out GORG.

I told you the other day  how I switched some art around from our foyer and family room. Since the day I brought that Ballard Designs art home, I have wanted one of those cool art lights shining down on it.

Since just switching out the art was FREE, and we can always use more light in our family room anyway, I decided to splurge and finally get one.  ($26 from Lowe’s.)

It only came in brass and brushed nickel, so I just spray painted it:

In oil rubbed bronze of course. ;) As you can see if you look carefully, my spray paint job left much to be desired. It looks good from the front, but a mess in the back.

Ah well. I was OK with that. No one will look at it from the back. If you ever come to my house, please don’t look at it from the back.

My only hesitation with this light was the cord issue. You know how I much I desperately despise cords. With a serious, burning passion. So I really didn’t want to see the cord hanging down behind the art. Since my cord trick with the flat screen TV worked so great, I got a wild hair and decided to put more holes in the wall.

Brilliant.

I drilled a hole at the top that would go behind the art. I was all giddy in my cord hiding bliss – then I drilled the lower hole so I could pull the cord through and plug it in.

Giddy.

Then couldn’t get the blasted cord snaked through the wall. I tried and tried, but it wasn’t coming through. I finally gave up on it, after about six tries. I was left with this:

Oh yeah, and one down below too. (Both have since been covered.) Perfect little round holes. In my wall. Two. Actually, more like six. I had to hang the light twice to get it in the right spot. OK, more like eight holes. But only two are large. Oh dear Lord.

Soooo…I have cords showing.

That’s right, I said it. I have cords showing.

I tried to hide them as best I could:

 

I know. Just say it out loud. I know you can see it. Plain as day.

I’ve lost my mind. I’m OK with it.

Come on, you don’t see it right? RIGHT?

  

It’s there just cackling at me. Every time I walk by.

To add to all this, I was a total dunce and just taped over the light bulbs, instead of just taking them out before I spray painted, so when I went to finally turn on the stinking thing and bask in the pretty over-the-art-light…nothing came on.

BOTH bulbs were burned out because the spray paint must have gotten on them.

So I couldn’t even enjoy this bleeping pretty light until the next day, after another Lowe’s trip.

I don’t know if it was worth all that, but I do love it:

Two words: 

Science fair.

Say it yourself a few times. I guarantee you’ll be using this term tomorrow. All. day. long.

Like, “This chick who writes a decorating blog I read is a total science fair.”

And before anyone yells at me – the electrician is coming. (No, not just to deal with this.) And I will get my cord hidden. Oh yes. I will.

So, are there terms you use that no one else gets? I’m not alone, right?

 

P.S. I plan to post the how to on our stairs this weekend. And don’t forget about the next Before and After linky party on Monday!

Oh, and if you want to laugh HARD, read the comments from this week’s giveaway below. I love kids! :) The giveaway is open until tomorrow at noon. (Eastern time.)

Fantastic giveaway!

**This giveaway is now closed.

First of all, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful comments on our stairs! I am so proud of them and it has been a pleasure reading your sweet comments. Thank you so much!

I am SO excited about this fabulous giveaway! I know I say it all the time, but I LOVE my advertisers. Dimples and Dandelions is an online children’s boutique that I swear you are going to fall in love with.

Be prepared. I warned you. ;)

Their selection is like none I’ve ever seen online, or anywhere for that matter. They offer clothing for babies and toddlers, beautiful gifts, unique art, lighting and bedding and SO much more.

I found a few of my favorites just to show you a sampling…

What I love is many of the decor items could easily be used in any room – not just for a kid’s space. I adore each and every one of these rugs:

How fun would those be in a craft room, and office, a bathroom? There are so many possibilities. And if you did use them in a girl’s room, any one of them would work for a nursery or a teen’s room, easy.

The same goes for their fantastic variety of lighting. Of course there’s the cutie patootie stuff like this star lamp, perfect for a baby boy or toddler:

But this beautiful chandelier also work over a desk or craft table too:

There is also an incredible selection of clothing – items I’ve never seen anywhere else!

They actually have cute boy’s clothes. Do you know how hard it is to find CUTE boy clothes? I don’t understand it. I so wish this was still available in the Bub’s size because this Momma would be the bees knees if I got this one:

OK, he thinks I’m the bees knees anyway. (At least for now!)

How perfect is this one for Easter?:

And for you ladies with girls, you just better give up now. You’ll just die. How impossibly sweet is this hat?:

Check out this onesie…with a tutu sewn on. Dying:

There are unique gifts that any new Mommy (or Bub!) would love to have:

The decor items are just lovely. I love the detail on the hanging letters:

And these height charts are so fun – the monkeys!! Oh, the monkeys:

I kept finding more and more I wanted to show you – told you I warned you. This art is so adorable:

I ordered the “Woo Woo” (fire truck) birthday banner for my son tonight:

There’s also a fantastic selection of furniture:

And last, but certainly not least, their bedding selection is like I’ve never seen!

I want this bedding in my room:

My girlfriend (hey Krista!) is going to DIE when she sees this one – sock monkey bedding:

Seriously? Sock monkeys! They make me smile. (They also have nursery bedding in this as well.)

And their selection also includes bedding that any teen girl would love:

See? Told you! Fantastic!!

Dimples and Dandelions has graciously offered one of you $50 free to use as you wish at their online shop! Yahoo!

You know the deal – two chances to win! First leave a comment here for your first entry. Let’s make these comments an extra fun read -- share the funniest thing a little person in your life has said. (If you don’t have kids, no worries – you don’t have to share. It’s just for fun.) I can’t wait to read these!

For your second entry, go to Dimples and Dandelions and check out their products. Once you find an item you love, come back and let us know in another comment.

This giveaway will be open until Friday at noon, eastern time.

I’ll start it off – the Bub says things that have us rolling all the time but it’s still mostly stuff only Mommy and Daddy “get.” ;) So instead, I’ll share something Stink Eye Sister said as a child. (She used to be so darn cute.) She used to pronounce Cosmopolitan magazine as “Cos-mop-eh-light-in.” We didn’t correct her for years and would laugh hysterically every time she said it. (Years!) I think she was still saying that way as a teenager. Ha! Love it.

Have fun, good luck and enjoy browsing!

My biggest DIY project: The stairs

Well, I know it took forever, but here. they. are.

My gorgeous, beautiful, I-am-so-stinking-proud-of-them (and myself!) stairs:

 

I will give you a play by play on how I finished these up later this week. For now, let’s just enjoy, shall we? :) (Cause seriously, I am pooped.)

Sorry for the craptastic pictures – it’s a dreary day here, so the lighting wasn’t great for these, but I couldn’t wait to show you. (And I knew you would hunt me down if I didn’t.)

Some of you correctly guessed my little added touch to the project…molding. :)

Ah, duh.

Where is the molding you ask? Well, the Queen of Molding (that’s me) was totally thrown for a loop with the angles on this wall -- I could not figure them out for the life of me!

My Dad came over today and we played around with the miter saw and he figured it out! Whoohoo! (Thanks Dad!!) It involves making my own jig for the saw, and we figured out a super easy way to do it.

Umkay, I know I just lost about 90 percent of you with the “saw” and “jig” talk, so let’s get back to the pretties, shall we? :)

The landing turned out just beautifully!:

It stained up a little uneven but I have to say I quite like it. I thought it would take three coats but two was perfect.

I’ll do the same molding treatment on the upper stairs as well. You’ll notice the first few steps on this set stained a bit darker:

Not sure why, and it makes them just a tad darker than the landing, but I don’t. even. care. My Dad just says that the nature of pine, to vary just a bit.

LURVE IT.

(You’ll also notice I haven’t puttied the nail holes in the quarter round either. Still much to do!)

Many of you have asked about the darker band of color along the side:

I did that years ago and I absolutely love it! The ceilings in our stair way are ridiculously high, and it’s a visual thing that just helps to ground them. It’s just very thin (cheap!) molding, then I painted the darker shade of the wall color inside.

I’m trying to decide if I’ll go the traditional white for the molding on the walls. I’ve already painted them out, but of course now I’m thinking the contrast with this darker color would look really fab with the white molding too. Hmmm…will this one ever end? ;)

The biggest thing I was worried about was the slip factor on the wood stairs. I have to tell you – these are WAY, WAY less slippery than carpet – at least so far. The pine is just rough enough to give it grip:

Sigh. Love.

The stain I used was a poly/stain mix, so I’m still not sure if I’ll add a coat of poly or not. At this point, I’d rather not. But it would make them a bit shinier and give them even more protection. I’m going to wait it out and see.

Here’s a few more views:

  Again, sorry so dark. If the sun would come out, that would help.           

Here’s the most recent before picture I have…can you believe I didn’t stop to take a true before shot before I started ripping up carpet? Oh, you can? Umkay…

And after:

Did I mention I love it???

LURVE.