trading spaces…completely
So I’m at work today and decide to take a break and walk down to the antique store. While I’m there I remember that I need to check out lace (hopefully large pieces like curtains or tablecloths) for decor for a wedding I’m helping with this summer. Nada. Nothing but teeny scraps or doilies. So that makes me think of possibly buying it from a fabric store and hemming it if needed. So I decide to check out fabric.com. What do I see right on the homepage? Besides a sale on Packers and Steelers print – GO PACKERS!!! But a line of fabric by former Trading Spaces carpenter Ty Pennington! And they’re actually pretty interesting patterns.
I thought they said home decor weight so my first thought was upholstery…but as I look closer it says “use for quilting and craft projects,” so I guess it’s too light. Boo. But they would make a kick-ass quilt! Or pillowcase, even if it isn’t heavy.
Ask and you shall receive! The patterns are available in quilting AND home decor weight – yippee! Yes, I’m too lazy to go back and delete my last comment. Just enjoy the pretty pictures, ok??
For a heftier price per yard…of course.
You’re welcome. 
Go check it out by clicking here.
My dirty little secret
Wow…is anyone out there? I’m surprised this blog hasn’t shriveled up and died from lack of posting! Sorry about that…it was a busy, busy end of the year and 2011 has started off…very…interesting including a trip to the ER for me and a stay in the hospital! Very unexpected but I’m healing and trying to hit the ground running! So anyway, back to the title of this post: my dirty little secret, ha!
It’s not as bad as you’d think, but let’s just say I am seriously neglecting a part of my house. Subconsciously. Well, maybe consciously but I’m not doing anything to stop or slow the neglect, and we’re not doing it on purpose, but I am realizing that if I just let it go we’ll have to do something about it sooner rather than later instead of sticking with the “it’s in good shape” excuse that I’ve been using ever since we moved in 2 and 1/2 years ago! So here it is…my kitchen floor. My dirty, beat up, eroding kitchen floor. Obviously I did not clean up for this photo!
When we moved in that was carpet butting up against the vinyl. But we replaced the carpet with laminate throughout the house. The carpet and vinyl had a metal threshold holding it all together, which helped avoid damage. When we replaced it, we always intended on finding a new threshold, but as you can see the place where they come together is curved…and that’s been a challenge to find. So we’ve done nothing about it…and the poor kitchen floor is suffering because of it. And my subfloor is peeking through. It’s becoming quite the eyesore. And my toddler trips on it occasionally!
But the good news is that means we can replace it!! We have some amazing, space saving, budget conscious ideas to triple the size of our kitchen, and we are realizing that those dreams might not be too far away. A slightly re-worked countertop and bar, moving an appliance, adding some cabinets and bumping out a wall and our kitchen will be HUGE! And the flooring will be replaced smack dab in the middle of it all. On a straight line this time – no curves in sight! I. Am. So. Excited!
So why post this embarrassing picture of my neglected kitchen floor? Oh, you know me…I post anything on here that is embarrassing about myself! (Bikini picture, hello??). But I also want to show you that everyone’s home has dirty little secrets when you look a little closer! And to hold myself accountable for actually accomplishing something awesome in my house. Because my husband does all the dirty work, and because I really, really, really want a new kitchen! ASAP.
Thank you all for reading and checking in on me lately – I really appreciate it! I know I’ve not only neglected my kitchen floor, I’ve neglected my blog and website! Maybe I’ll get my act together soon…but don’t hold your breath!
xo,
L.
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A day in the life
**There are supposed to be camera phone pics with this post but I’ve noticed they don’t always work…that’s what I get for hosting them somewhere else. Just keep refreshing!!**
Just in case any of you were wondering what *exactly* I do for a living, here is a play-by-play of how it all goes down on a (not-so) typical Monday for me. It might interest some of you, might not for others, but I thought it would be interesting to follow myself around for a day and see how I really spend my day. I’ve seen some other bloggers do this recently…thought I would jump in on the fun!
5:25 AM – Husband’s alarm goes off. I stay in bed and think about getting up…can’t…open…my…eyes…yet…
5:40 AM – He comes back in to find clean clothes and turns on his light on his side of the bed and is about to turn it off…I tell him to leave it on to motivate me to get up. Think about working out so I don’t have to do it this evening.
5:55 AM – Still in bed. Husband comes in to say goodbye and tell me he made coffee! Yippee! Reach for my iPod and check Facebook and e-mail. Awake now…still don’t want to get out of my warm bed.
6:35 AM – Still in bed, reading news on my iPod. My alarm goes off and I finally get up. Switch laundry from night before to dryer, start my shower, grab a cup of coffee and start to get ready. Shower, Wonderbar, brush teeth, makeup, clothes, hair. My face routine in chronological order.
Didn’t drink much of my coffee and it’s cold now.
My go-to work outfit: button-up Lands’ End Canvas shirt (no longer available), black cardigan (Metro 7 – bought it off of Walmart.com YEARS ago…still my favorite), Lands’ End Canvas skinny jeans, TOMS Shoes in Ash. We did all of our laundry the day before so it was all ready to go. My shirt is not pressed, but you can’t really tell with a cardigan over it. Awesome camera phone pics.
8:00 AM – I hear my little 2 year old talking to herself in her room so I go and get her. Bring her into the bathroom and set her on the potty – SUCCESS!! She’s very proud. And brings all of her friends to the potty with her. Then we wash our hands and brush her teeth. Put a clean diaper on her. I get her a cup of milk and get her dressed. She sits on the couch with the dog until I’m ready to take her to the car. Warm up my coffee, grab our bags and take them to the car, start it to warm it up.
Quick check in the mirror before we leave.
8:35 AM – Bring Harper out to the car, get in the driver’s seat and see my gas light is on. Forgot that it came on Saturday night. Do some math in my head and pray I can get to town without running out of gas.
8:35 – 8:55 AM – Drive to town (18 miles). Sing. Point out cows and test Harper on her animal noises. She passes with flying colors.
8:55 AM – Drop Harper off at her nanny’s (aka Aunt Erin’s!). We talk about Harper peeing on the potty. Make a big deal of it. Kiss Harper good-bye and make her tell me “I Love You Mommy!”
8:59 AM – Drive to my office, then decide to go get gas first.
9:04 AM – Made it back to work! Yes, it’s a cool 35 degrees outside. And no, I don’t have a passenger, it’s just all the c-r-a-p in my front seat that I lug around with me. Magazines, purse, planner, laptop. Change the clock on my car because I haven’t yet for daylight savings.
Boot up my work computer. Check e-mail on iPod again…waiting for some client e-mails. Search for external hard drive for laptop…not sure where I left it…start organizing my to-do list.
9:11 AM – Grab some hot water from the dispenser and make a cup of black tea.
9:26 AM – Notice my other sister-in-law played a word on our game of Words with Friends. Play “JOINED” for 50 points. Take that, Kayte! 
9:30 AM – Mike (my colleague, who I share an office with) asks me if I’m interested in doing a hand-rendered elevation for his client. Said client’s wife asked about it and would be by at 12:30 to discuss it. Of course I’m up for it! First I tweet my excitement. Then I start researching design fees for renderings and thinking about how long it might take me…search for my portfolio to show her. Which was at home. Boo.
10:00 AM – Walk-in asks about pricing for pole-barn/carport plans. Mini-meeting with him.
10:30 AM – Start on client’s shopping for kids’ bedroom. Purchase lots of goodies (with client’s approval), and promptly e-mail her the receipts. Apologize in my e-mails for being late on October’s invoice as I can’t find my external hard drive. Promise her a proper invoice soon but give her my hours. Hey – I’m a one-woman show – give me a break!
10:46 AM – Realize I’m hungry and eat a banana. Lunch packed in my Baggu bag that I originally bought for Harper’s stuff, but it’s perfect for lunches!
11:45 AM – Finish purchasing and organizing receipts. Check blogs I follow, Facebook, Twitter. Eat an apple and string cheese. Start to write this post and do some more research.
12:22 PM – Client who said they’d come in at 12:30/1:00 calls and says they’ll come in at 2. Go back to blogging, e-mailing, researching.
1:09 PM – Remember I was supposed to bring my sister-in-law some milk for Harper. Run to the store. On the drive, realize they’ve re-paved Warner Street!!! Very exciting as I thought that was the worst street in town. Get a hot dog at the cafe next door before I come back to the office.
1:40 PM – Check e-mail. Client says other purchase is a go. Go buy some sheets…and add some boots I’ve been wanting to the cart for free shipping. Don’t worry – I’m not charging her for the boots!!
1:45 PM – Look at photos of the house I’ll be doing a rendering of. I’ll probably have to change the colors, add some landscaping, new siding, a fence. Very cute! Client meeting…
2:45 PM – Remind myself to drink more water. Eat a few Cinnamon Brown Sugar almonds. Throw away the last of my anniversary flowers that have died. Play another word on Words with Friends (different game that’s been going on for a few days with a random opponent – I played SAVOURED for 94 points…and I’m not even kidding!!!! Hit me up if you want your butt kicked (kidding!) – my username is LindsayC. Check e-mail and do some more shopping for my client (was waiting for my trade account to be updated at the website first and it was).
3:15 PM – Leave to go take another photo of the house, along with a house that this contractor has built to see the details I need to add.
3:45 PM – Back in the office, check on my orders I placed earlier. Try and print my pictures that I took but the wireless network connections are on the fritz so I can’t print to the wireless printer. Uuuggghhh…so I update my calendar with what hours I’ve worked today and finish reading through and check out my ad in the Cal Pines Log. Got the printer to work! Took a restart…PC’s…
4:45 PM – I decide to take off for the day. Off to the grocery store – after I go pick up my little monkey. Buy her some dried cranberries and she HAS to hold them in the store and eat them on the drive home. It’s dark now, so I hear lots of “Mama! Moon!” and “Nigh-night moon!” coming from the back seat. As well as “Yummy cranberries!” How cute are 2 year olds??
5:35PM – Made it home. Was rocking out to Sugarland on Hits 1 on my Sirius on the way home (love that device, makes my commute much better). Don’t worry, I took this picture when I pulled into the driveway. See our Packers flag on the garage door?
Eat a rotisserie chicken from the store for dinner. Didn’t want to take a lot of time making dinner as I wanted time to work out this evening (as you might recall I didn’t work out in the morning!). Was going to make some asparagus, but we eat a lot of it and Glenn didn’t feel like it so I let him figure out his own veggie. Give Harper some frozen corn (her favorite!) with her chicken. I make myself a peach smoothie for some fruit (made with frozen peaches, plain yogurt and Stevia to sweeten).
Glenn asks if I’ll bake a batch of peanut butter bars for him (remember the jars we made last holiday season? One of those.). Bust out the stand mixer and mix it up, pop it in the oven.
I change a diaper and put some panties on the little one. Show her where her little potty is if she needs it.
7:30PM – Harper comes out of the spare bedroom (where the spare TV is, and her little potty) saying “uh oh! Wet!” We go and check it out…she peed on the floor and soaked her socks. The potty was about 2 feet away, but she peed in it in the same exact spot the night before! You win some, you lose some…
Sanitize the floor and my Pilates machine as she tracked wet footprints all over it. Put a diaper on her. Let her finish ‘Yo Gabba Gabba’ and some more cranberries before bedtime.
7:50 PM – Peanut Butter bars are done! Refrain from eating any…for now…
8:00 PM – Kiss Harper goodnight while daddy brushes her teeth and takes her to bed. We alternate nights. Go workout on my newly sanitized Pilates machine (the routine takes about half an hour). Then cuddle on the couch with my husband and watch some TV.
9:45 PM – Falling asleep on the couch…get up and quickly clean up the kitchen, wash (Wonderbar) my face, brush my teeth, in bed at 10. Watch a little more TV with Glenn in bed, but I’m sure I was asleep by 10:06. It was a good day.
[So now that I look back, that actually was not a typical Monday for me. Way more of an interior design-y day with shopping, photos and drawing. Normally I'm at my work PC drawing roof framing plans, foundation plans, floor framing plans, etc...not as exciting but I love it just the same. And I'm learning a lot about construction, which I also love. If you need building permit plans, I'm your girl.
Note: I work on PC because of CAD, but I love my little white apple laptop...it is falling apart physically but still chugs along for me.
And if you follow my design page on Facebook, you've probably seen this already, but here is the finished product of my whirlwind hand-rendering assignment.]
Put Some Wheels On It
As you might know, I’ve gone a little ‘crate-crazy’ at my house. I currently have 4 antique crates living at my house and I think I need more because they’re so great for storage. I’m really digging the antiques+contemporary style mixed look (some might call my style eclectic?) for my home, so my stash of crates fits right in. I love the logos and typography on them, plus they have character and charm that you can’t find from something new. The one in my bathroom even has hand-written instructions on it to “Keep In Bar.” Love it.
I screwed one right to the wall in my bathroom…holds the essentials for a bathroom: TP, candle, plant, and 2 are screwed to the wall on each side of our bed to act as floating nightstands. This is a perfect plan for our bedroom because we have a platform bed with storage drawers, so any traditional side tables would stop us from opening them, and as they’re attached to the wall, it gives us plenty of room to use the drawers without bumping into table legs.
The 4th crate lives in my living room and this is what I did with it:
$15 Antique whisky crate + $3 IKEA casters = magazine storage that won’t scratch my floors! (Almost) Everything is better with wheels, right?
I simply dug around for the shortest screws I could find, and screwed them right to the edges of the underside so that screws aren’t poking up under the bottom into the box. So I paid less than $20 for this whole set-up: stylish and functional. What do you think?
Plus Harper likes to put her baby dolls in it and push it around! Who needs toys when you can push furniture around, right??
Read MoreNo Tricks, just Treats
I’m kind of an HSN addict. I keep it on at home when I’m trying to get work done and half-listen. Okay, okay…I stop and check things out a lot. But I don’t buy anything that often. Today they talked about this neat little Halloween Trick-or-Treat bag. It is not only made of burlap, which I love, and made for Halloween, another thing I love, but the purchase of this little bag does good things for malnourished children around the world. When you buy this cute bag, HSN will make a donation to UNICEF to give a child a year’s supply of vitamins.
Click here to buy the FEED Trick-or-Treat Bag to benefit UNICEF
I can’t decide if I’ll get one for Harper, or one for me, or one for both of us! I’ve been looking for her first official trick-or-treat bag. Happy fall!
Read MoreGlossy eyed
New magazines make me happy. Especially when they’re devoted to my favorite things: decor, travel, design, entertaining, gardening and culture. And this one you can actually buy a subscription to and hold in your hands!
Welcome, Anthology!
Print Is Not Dead from Anthology Magazine on Vimeo.
And don’t forget the VERY inspirational (and FREE!) online magazine that we’ve come to know and love: Lonny!
Images and video via Anthology Magazine.
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About Me
I'm an interior designer and a draftsperson, but I live in the country. I like it that way. I'm also a firefighter's wife, mom to 2 cute kids, and a homeowner and I like that even better. But right after that is a pretty and affordable space...and I mean a REALLY affordable space. Because I believe good design can be for EVERYONE!
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