Black and white and tan all over

I don't tend to gravitate towards neutrals in my decorating--my front room walls are deep red, the family room is navy--and although I love the serene visuals of all-white rooms I see in magazines, that's just not practical for my life (and to all those people who say all-white homes with kids and pets are just SO simple and livable and easy--I say, liar liar pants on fire).

So it's different territory for me to be in a black and white phase in my front room, the location of the hutch from yesterday's post. I was feeling it even before Christmas, when the lovely creamy package I received from Kelly in the Sparkling Winter White swap really spoke to me in the midst of the the colorful Shiny Brites that spell holiday decor in my home. Even though I decorated with traditional reds for Valentine's Day, I couldn't shake the neutral color scheme rolling around in the back of my head, so as soon as the hearts and cupids were put away, I broke out the beige.

I kept the mercury glass candlesticks and white pillars from Valentine's Day, but replaced the red ribbons and heart ornaments with strips of burlap (left over from my cork board makeover) and various black and white ribbons from my stash.

I filled one glass jar with old spools of brown and black thread, and a larger apothecary jar on the other side with Styrofoam balls that I wrapped with jute twine while I watched ice skating on the Olympics.

I saw that idea somewhere on a blog but I can't remember where to give credit, I'm afraid. They were easy enough (various-sized thrifted Styrofoam balls, a $1.99 ball of jute and a tube of special glue for Styrofoam) and kept my hands busy. I had planned to make more of the larger size, but once the twine was glued on they were too big to fit through the opening of the jar! The little white ceramic birdie was from JoAnn's before Christmas.

On my little white dresser I have a few more silvers and whites, nearly all thrifted. The silver bowl atop a silver tray is filled with dried white beans that support an antique photo of a baby in a white knitted snowsuit & hat, a card of vintage black buttons with the greatest "Paris" graphic, and an old silver baby cup.

The large jar holds a grouping of white balls of crochet thread, all of which I purchased for a dime or a quarter apiece at one of my favorite small-town thrifts in February.

Next to the jar are two thrifted, lidless silver sugar bowls. One holds a collection of silver spoons, and the other holds the one thread ball that wouldn't fit in the jar!

On my white bench I have a skinny metal basket filled with an antique ironstone pitcher (bought to sell someday, but I love it too much right now), my two silver trophies and a pair of candy apple-red frames that add a fun surprise of color in all the neutrals. I found the frames on clearance for $1.20 each at Hobby Lobby (cheaper than the thrift!) and they still lack photos in them more than a month later. Whoops.

The last bit of my neutral decor is on the round table in the room. I haven't had my beloved (thrifted for $9, and YES you may be jealous of me) cloche out for a while so it was high time I used it again. On the zinc platter is a crocheted doily The Mister brought back from Portugal, an old ironstone bowl filled with Scrabble tiles, and a nest containing a sweet silver mercury glass birdie. To dress up the cloche itself I used scraps of black and white ribbons (to mirror those on my candlesticks), jute (to mirror the jute balls), a tiny silver spoon, a chandelier crystal, and a curtain ring clip attached to a vintage-style flashcard that I bought from Andrea a few years ago.

The neutral thing won't last forever with me--I'll be back to my favorite bright reds and turquoise blues soon enough, but it's nice to try something new for a while, isn't it?

The $5 Hutch transformation

So, I have this china hutch. You've probably seen it before on my blog, as I use the top of it for my seasonal decorating. Here's the thing about the hutch:

I actually HATE this piece of furniture.

Oh, it's useful--it provides a lot of display/storage space inside, and the horizontal space up top is perfect for holiday displays and keeping items away from *little* hands. But I think it's just really, really ugly. It was a hand-me-down from some friends from before we got married eight years ago, and I think they probably owned it for at least that long before it came to us. When we got married I was happy to get it because I had no furniture and  it was FREE, and I really didn't have much of a decorating style anyway so it didn't matter to me what it looked like.

Over the last eight years I've finally developed a decorating style, and this hutch just doesn't fit into it. I've seen countless hutch transformations all over blogland, most of which involve taking a dated piece from a thrift store and transforming it with paint. Love the idea, but 1) I'm lazy and 2) my track record for getting pieces refinished within a three-year window of dragging them home is so far batting .000 and 3) I'm cheap. So, while I'm waiting to find the perfect, inexpensive vintage-style hutch to just fall into my lap, I found a way to make a quick fix for less than $5.

One of the (many) issues I have with the hutch is the mirrored interior. I use this piece to display mostly glass/crystal/silver items, and combined with the reflective mirrors, glass shelves and the abundant light that streams in from a south-facing window in the room, there was just WAY too much reflection going on. All of those shiny surfaces + light combined to make a whole lot of visual chaos, which wasn't helped by the fact that I probably had too much crammed in there in the first place.

See what I mean? Too much stuff to begin with, and the mirrors multiply everything anyway so there's no where for your eye to focus.

The fix was EASY. So easy, and required only four tools: decorative scrapbook paper, a tape measure, a paper cutter, and double-sided scrapbooking adhesive. I bought the paper from Hobby Lobby, but waited until it went 3/$1 (I'm cheap, remember?). I measured my mirrors ahead of time and did some quick math to estimate how many 12"x12" sheets I'd need to purchase. From there, it was simple: Apply tape to back of paper, adhere directly over mirror.

I had to do a tiny bit of trimming to make it fit, but I was lucky because the majority of the mirrors were just about 12" high to begin with. Where I needed to fit two sheets together, I just overlapped them slightly, and I didn't even try very hard to match up the pattern because no one will be looking that close and it will be covered up by the display items anyway (I'm lazy, remember?).

I LOVE the result! I think the non-reflective background is so much better and the neutral paper makes the items in front of it really stand out and be noticed, whereas before they just got lost in all the shine and reflection. I also removed some of the items I had in there to reduce the visual clutter even more. The black and white check goes with the decorating thing I have going on in that room right now (you can see a bit on the top of the hutch) but I think it's neutral and has enough vintage-style charm that it will go with my decor in the future as well. And hey--if I get tired of it, $5 more worth of paper will change the look again.

I like it even more at night, when there's no glare on the glass from the windows in the room and the lights inside the hutch cast a nice glow that makes the silver shine.

Is there a spot in your house where $5 worth of scrapbooking paper could make a decorating difference?

Two weeks.

I'm pooped.

The last two weeks have been busy for me. They were filled with fun and family but at the same time it's a relief to get back to the quiet and relative calm of my life. Here's what I've been doing over the past two weeks:

Made 14 eggs for Shara's Egg-stra Fun Easter Swap. Here's a teeny sneak peek:

Designed and oversaw the construction of 80 party favors for a church dinner on Wednesday night. Also helped set up for and clean up after said dinner. Here are a few of the favors:

The Mister's parents flew in on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend and we experienced Blizzard #1.

Planned and executed Maren's cupcake-themed birthday party on Saturday morning. I was not nearly as organized as usual and threw it all together in about 24 hours.

Hosted 8 party guests + Maren but it all went very smoothly. I was thrilled that I actually had more planned for the kids to do than I had time for (previous year they blew through all the planned activities in about 45 minutes, leaving me scrambling to fill the remaining half of the party with something other than running around and screaming)

Because one party in a day is just not enough, I hosted a Ziploc Home Organization House Party on Saturday evening, complete with Ziploc swag to give away and a build-your-own cupcake bar:

Hey, the house was already clean for the first party and I ended up with 3 dozen cupcakes by accident, so this one was easy!

On Monday, The Mister's parents flew out. Tuesday morning my parents flew in. Tuesday night we had Blizzard #2.

Wednesday was Maren's actual birthday. School was canceled because of the previous night's snow. We went out to lunch at Maren's favorite restaurant, Chick Fil A (after I told her that her first choice, 'Old' McDonald's, was NOT an option). That night we went to see Mary Poppins, which was fabulous! I'm a BIG MP fan--see my Halloween 2008 costume for proof.

The show was fun (although quite a bit different from the movie) and we had GREAT seats. It was a bit too long for Maren's five-year-old attention span, and she was pretty wiggly throughout the entire second half. Still, I think she enjoyed it and next time we'll go for the matinee. Didn't get home until 11:30 pm and we were wiped out by the time it was over.

Thursday morning Maren had school, so I was up early to take her. Spent the day enjoying time with my folks, then took them to the airport that afternoon. Attempted to catch up on 300+ entries in my Google Reader, helped The Mister proofread his homework for this weekend, went to bed far too late.

This morning (Friday), The Mister got up for a 7:30 am flight to Washington DC, leaving me and the kiddos alone for the weekend. I've been busy all day digging out from the festivities of the past two weeks, buying groceries to fill the empty fridge, washing loads of sheets & towels and going through the various piles of paper and mail that got shoved in the corners during quick cleaning sprees. It has rained and snowed on and off all evening, with more snow forecast for tomorrow. Two straight weeks of cleaning, planning, late bedtimes, bad weather, vacuuming multiple times a day in a vain attempt to control the dog hair situation, baking, and a baby who has hit some crazy growth spurt that has caused him to wake a minimum of 2x per night to eat and an additional 2x per night to merely whimper, and you might understand why...

I'm pooped.

Happy Happy Birthday, Baby

Today is Miss Maren's 5th birthday! We had a crazy blizzard last night that resulted in a Snow Day for the kids today. Maren was sad to miss school on her birthday--I think she'll have to be a bit older to realize that NO SCHOOL on her birthday is one of the best gifts a kid could ask for. :)

Here are some things about Maren at age 5:

**Maren does her own thing. One Sunday, she put these tiger-striped sunglasses on just after the start of church, and proceeded to wear them throughout the following 3 hours of meetings. People stopped her and told her, "Nice glasses, Maren" and she just said "thanks" and continued on. She wasn't wearing them to get a reaction or to be silly, she just liked them!

**Maren is no shrinking violet! She's assertive and competitive. Last week at P/T conferences, Maren's teacher remarked on what a leader she is.

**Maren has a vivid imagination! She has an imaginary mouse friend (Jerry, like from Tom & Jerry) and an imaginary girl friend named Lauren (after her favorite little friend from preschool.)

**Maren loves to be creative and to make crafts, which makes her crafty Mommy proud. :) She is happiest with a big stack of blank copy paper and a fistful of crayons. Throw in a pair of scissors and a glue stick, and she'll be busy for hours!

**Maren loves: Scooby Doo, My Little Ponies, grilled cheese sandwiches, orange juice, riding her scooter, getting superhero flights from Daddy, playing with her little brother Porter, open gym at the rec center, stickers, glitter, PINK, cupcakes, unicorns, dolphins, her stuffed Sea Lion named Baby Suzy, going to the Children's Museum, taffy, collecting rocks, baking cookies in her pink kitchen, watching Space Ghost with her Papa Chris, Word Girl, and making videos with the Flip camera.

I truly can't imagine my life without my sweet girl! She captivates and charms everyone she meets, and the world is truly a brighter place because she is in it!

Tonight we're off to see the Broadway production of Mary Poppins to celebrate! I'm not sure who's more excited. :)

Just in time for my return to blogging, it just got easier!

I may be the last Blogger user on earth to find this out, but did you know that there is a new Post Editor? I first found out about it on Funky Junk Interiors. It's easy to change your editor style and here is an explanation of all the new features. The ones I'm most excited about are the ability to make the box you write your posts in larger (the tiny box always drove me NUTS!) and the fact that photos no longer load all at the top of your post. I need to do some more playing with it to figure out all the new features, but so far it looks like the changes are great!

Remember me?

Oh, hi.

It's been a month, hasn't it? The longest break I've ever taken from blogging since I started several years ago. I hadn't intended to stop for so long--I was away for the weekend but planned to come right back and post about my small-town thrift finds, but then a week passed without posting, then a week more, and now we're here, a full month since my last post. Phew.

Honestly, the break was quite enjoyable. Blogging for me seemed like just another chore, right there with the laundry and vacuuming and all the other things that I'm not exactly jumping with joy to do. I forgot why I like to blog and why it's fun, and was putting too much pressure on myself. Not anymore! I'm feeling guilt-free and re-energized and ready to go again, so I'll start with something easy--a Gratuitous Cute Baby post!

When I last posted, Porter had just hit the 5-month mark. Today he is 6 months old! Some fun things about Porter at 6 months:

*He's getting his first tooth (bottom left) and consequently drooling like a little faucet. Hard to tell who's droolier--the baby or the dog.

*Porter is adept at rolling all over the floor. He rolls and flops and scoots all over the place! If he sees something he wants, he can easily perform a combination of rolls, flips and pivots to get to it.*He gets up on hands and knees and rocks back and forth like he wants to crawl.
*He pushes up on his side to an upright position. I think sitting up is coming soon.
*Porter's eyes are almost completely turned from newborn gray to brown.*He's stopped spitting up so much. Don't know if that's due to the new sensitive tummy formula or just getting bigger, but my carpets are thankful. (extremely spitty baby + rolling all around = nasty carpet stains)
*Porter is such a happy baby! He rarely fusses or cries unless he's hungry or tired.
*His smile melts me into a puddle of goo. :)*He's still the Most Adorable Baby In The History Of The World!

I was busy on my blog break. Evidence of my Craft ADD to come!

Memories of 2002: Winter Olympics pins

Watching the current Winter Olympics has been so fun--come on, how awesome was Shaun White last night? I was jumping up and down like a fool when he did that crazy trick on his second run, weren't you? And between Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso and the Austrian girl that medals podium looked like a shampoo commercial or a Charlie's Angels promo, what with all the toothy white smiles and gorgeous long hair.

I've been reminded of when my hometown, Salt Lake City, hosted the Winter Games in 2002. I will admit that up until 2002, I wasn't too thrilled at the idea of the whole world showing up and seeing what a good thing we had going, and messing it all up. I thought having the Olympics in SLC would prove to be a BIG mistake.
Boy, was I wrong. The 2002 Olympics were like having the most amazing party ever in your own backyard for two solid weeks! The city was beautiful and as cliche as it sounds, there truly was excitement in the air. I even got to attend a biathlon competition--I don't particularly care about the sport, but at least now I can say I've been to an Olympic event.

My big regret is that I wish I could have volunteered. Thousands of citizens volunteered and many had amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I had a full-time job when the call for volunteers went out so I didn't bother to apply. By the time the Olympics actually rolled around, my job was gone and I would have been free to volunteer, but by then it was too late. Rats!

One of the fun things about any Olympics is the pin trading. Hundreds of pins are designed for each Olympics and we had fun searching out those that were funny and significant to us. Compared to the amount available we bought only a teeny handful, but I thought I might share them with you (and my Utah & Mo friends will get a giggle out of them, I'm sure). The Fry Sauce pin was one of the most coveted for collectors. It was sold only at Arctic Circle, a Utah fast-food chain that claims to be the inventor of fry sauce. I tried to get one but they sold out quickly, but somehow Quin was able to get his hands on one and that was when I knew I should marry him. Okay, I was going to marry him anyway (we were engaged at the time) but that certainly confirmed that I'd made the right choice! In addition to the fry sauce pin, there were a green and a red Jello pin that were coveted and rare as well.In addition to the pins, one company made a series of special Utah-themed charms. I'm a big ol' sucker for charms, so I bought a whole bunch and made a bracelet: (click on the photos to enlarge so you can read the writing)It's been fun to look through my charms and pins and remember the fun we had in 2002. It reminds me that I need to get my pins framed or put in a shadowbox or something so that we can enjoy them more than every four years!

REDnesday: Cute baby edition

I hope you'll indulge me...(photo-heavy post ahead)

Today this little monkey is five months old!

Here are some things about Porter at five months:

He's such a happy little guy. People remark all the time at how pleasant he is and how little he fusses or cries.He adores his big sister Maren. She's the only one who can make him belly laugh! (she's also who he was looking at when was taking these photos)He's a chow hound and eats like he's starving every time. He's just started eating rice cereal and seems to really like it.Mommy calls him Porter Pie, Daddy calls him P-Mac, and Maren calls him Goo Goos.He is starting to sleep better through the night (BIG sigh of relief from Mommy!) He usually goes to bed around 10:30 pm and wakes up around 5:00 am.
He still has big hands a feet, just like a little puppy. :) Looks like he may follow the rest of the Morgan boys and be TALL!He can roll both directions now and wants desperately to be able to sit up.Porter is a joy to have in our home! It's so fun to watch him grow and discover new things. I look forward to learning more about who he is and see his personality.

To see more RED things, visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for her REDnesday party every week!

Coffee filter ruffle heart box 'wreath'

Last week at the commissary I happened to be in the coffee aisle (I say happened, because we don't drink it so I never go down that aisle) and saw the coffee filters on the shelf. I've seen them used in cute crafty endeavors all across blogland and they're CHEAP, so I threw both a large package of brown and white filters in my cart and knew I could figure out what to do with them later.Later in the week I came across this Coffee Filter Ruffled Heart Box Wreath with a fabulous video tutorial over at the House of 3 blog and I knew just what do with my coffee filters! I had some empty candy boxes in my Valentine decor so I used the bottom of one box as the base for my wreath. I followed Rhonda's tutorial pretty closely, except I didn't do the altered chandelier crystal and the piece I stuck on the front is different. For that I used a doily and an image cut out of Victoria magazine that I have been hanging onto for probably 15 years--no lie! Pack-rattery at its finest.

Now that my wreath is finished, I honestly can't say that I love it. In fact, it may not even make the cut to be held over until next year's Valentine decorations. However, it was nearly free (I might have used 50¢ worth of coffee filters; only a small portion of the package) and it provided several hours of mindless crafting enjoyment, so I'm counting it as a WIN.

Oh, and Valentine's Day around here was delightful! Major Hottie simply outdid himself this year: beautiful flowers, a sweet card, a handful of my favorite British candy bars, and he signed us up for DANCE LESSONS (shut up, I know)--did I win the lottery or what? He's amazing. Also, my cute brother proposed to his Lovely Girl atop the Empire State building and she said YES! I couldn't be happier for them and I'm so excited to have her as a sister-in-law. Good stuff, I tell you, good stuff indeed.

Valentine's craftiness

A few more peeks at my Valentine decor. Here's my muffin tin table, dressed for the holiday. I'm really tickled with how it turned out for Valentine's so I'm going to leave it this way for a while.
I'm a big sucker for tissue honeycomb decorations, so when I saw these at Michael's I knew I could do something fun:
The package included three honeycomb medallions and a plethora of glittery white hearts, which I gave to Maren.
For the centers I created pleated pinwheels from old dictionary pages and topped them with 4" doilies and glass-glittered hearts cut from vintage bingo cards. In the center of each heart is a K & Co scrapbook embellishment from a few years ago. Then I hot-glued the pinwheel to the center of each medallion.
I bought a package of cut dowels at Michael's as well and hot-glued one to the bottom of each pinwheel.
They're stuck into a piece of floral foam in a vase that held flowers from The Mister a few years ago. They were easy, inexpensive and fun to make!

Speaking of lollies, there's a great video tutorial over here at House of 3. Rhonna's lollies are made using paper rather than tissue honeycomb and there are some good techniques for making the pleated pinwheels that were new to me.

I'm still doing Valentine crafting--a little late to the game, I know. In process is this coffee filter ruffled heart 'wreath', also from House of 3. I've also started a project involving vintage prize ribbons. My hot glue gun is calling me....

REDnesday: Valentine edition

A peek at the display for Valentine's Day atop my china cabinet this year:
Proud to say that nearly everything in my display was purchased from a thrift store or on super-clearance from a retail store!

--The three largest mercury glass candlesticks are from 75% off post-Christmas clearance at Target, as were the four smaller votive holders.
--The other four mercury glass candlesticks were purchased at a thrift.--The silver bowl with silk roses was purchased at a thrift store, 50% off just before Christmas.
--The large silver champagne bucket was thrifted as well.
--The red tinsel tree was bought several years ago 90% off post-Christmas clearance at Target.
--The red candle holder was purchased years ago after Christmas at Target but was probably only50% off.--The antique beveled-edge mirror was thrifted a few years ago.
--The striped ribbon on the candles was after-Christmas clearance from JoAnn's, and the grosgrain and organdy ribbons were thrifted.

Not too bad! The jeweled vinyl frame on the mirror is from House of 3. They won't stick to my heavily-textured walls, but I love how they look on mirrors! I got my inspiration for the ribbon & heart ornaments on the pillar candles from Joy at Joys of Home.

Another bit of RED in my house this week:My first RED lipstick from MAC. Russian Red, to be exact, which the salesgirl told me was originally developed for Madonna back in the 1980s. I think I'll pair it with my shiny red heels for our Valentine's date. Look out, Major Hottie! Woo-woo!

Every Wednesday is REDnesday at Sue's place! Visit It's a Very Cherry World to see the rest of the players. Andie (my fellow RED-lover and my MAC lipstick idol also has great red stuff on her blog today, including a quilted carry-on that I COVET.)