Haven Giveaway!

Hey all!! Hope you are having a lovely Tuesday! I loved reading all of your Disney comments on my last post. ;) We were considering a trip around Christmas and now I’m determined more than ever to get back then!

I’m back today with the last of our Haven Conference ticket giveaways! If you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say Haven, go here to check it out. I’ll wait. :)

We have ONE more ticket to give away and I’ve got it! WHOO!

If you’ve already bought a ticket, you are still welcome to enter – you can sell your old ticket! There are a ton of people waiting to buy one, check out our Haven Facebook page to find someone who may want to attend!

If you are attending, don’t forget to add the button to your site!:

Can’t wait to see you all there in two short months!

To enter, just leave a comment here! (Remember to include an email if you don’t have one attached to your account.) The giveaway will be open till this Thursday, June 13 at noon.

Haven conference, finally!

Well, it finally arrived – after a year of planning, the Haven Conference happened last week and I really find it hard to put into words how wonderful it was.

I know you’re probably seeing a lot of these recaps all over blogland today, and I know how hard it is to see these if you weren’t able to attend or just plain have no idea what the heck we’re talking about. So for those reasons, I’ll try to keep this short.

I do have to tell you that throughout the week I was continually overwhelmed (in a good way), humbled, overjoyed…it’s really hard to express what a special experience it was.

The Haven team is made up of some of my best friends (can I tell you how hard it is to have best friends who you see once a year??), and even though we were always going and working hard, we were ALWAYS having fun:

(I had to borrow these pics cause I forgot my camera. And business cards. At a blogging conference. I am smart.)

We spent the first day unloading a meeellion swag bags, setting up registration and putting an obscene amount of paper lanterns together.

I spoke at a couple sessions each day, and we kicked off I Like Big Blogs with a little dance:

Cause we like big blogs and we cannot lie. ;)

My dear friends Beckie and Julia spoke at the advertising session  with me and I think Beckie rocked some worlds with her info:

I want to be her. ;)

I try to tell bloggers that when you meet other bloggers for the first time, there is an instant bond that’s hard to explain. I have so many women I consider friends and even though I met some of them for the first time last week, I’ve felt like they’ve lived down the street for years:

I think the blogger who wins the award for the most excited was Beth from Free Stylin:

She was a doll (as was everyone) and she almost made me cry she was so happy. She’s been reading TDC from the beginning and it was so awesome to meet her and so many other long-time readers.

I met so many incredible bloggers and non-bloggers and heard three things over and over:

1. TDC was the first blog they found. LOVE that.
2. I need to keep showing messes in my house cause people like that. ;) (I do too.)
3. I am in person what I “sound like” on the blog – and I don’t think I could’ve received a bigger compliment. (Which means that yes, I really am a HUGE dork.) It made my week every time someone said that.

It was an amazing week that brought me to (happy) tears more than once. I feel fortunate to have been able to meet so many amazing women (and a few men!) and I am so thrilled to have these six fantastic bloggers in my life:

Left to right: Kate, me, Beth, Rhoda (who with our coordinator Kristin did a TON of the work), Traci, Chris and Marian. (Kristi had to catch a train home early!)

I think this picture better represents us though:

Love them. Loved every bit of it.

I missed my boys so much and was so happy to get home! It took me a couple days to recoup (I figured out that I had gotten 18 hours of sleep in five days), I was back at the DIY today. I can’t stay away for long. :)

If you were able to attend Haven this year, thank you! If not, I hope we’ll see you there next year!

**I believe Rhoda will have a Haven Conference link up on Tuesday if you went and would like to link your post!

**I borrowed these pics from Tonya, Traci, Beth and Julia. Thanks ladies. ;)

Month in review and winners!

Helloooo! Are you ready for some weekend?! I am – and it’s going to be a busy one. Today was hubby’s birthday and we have the Bub’s birthday party and a holiday show tomorrow.

Have I mentioned our family has seven major events in December? My step-brother’s birthday, my hubby’s birthday, my son’s birthday, my nephew’s birthday, our anniversary, Christmas and then New Years.

Whew. We are not the best planners. ;)

I’m back today to share the month of November in review, but first I need to share all of the winners of the Thanksgiving week giveaways!

$50 to Kirkland's: Jenny at cjy5787 (at) gmail (dot) com
$100 to Dimples and Dandelions: Lisalulu at The Davis Dialogues
Free ticket to the Haven Conference next year: Becky at Organizing Made Fun
$50 to Old Time Pottery: Angela at Decorating Cents
$150 to MirrorMate: Elizabeth with Keeping up with the Joneses
$50 to Target from Hometalk: scg00387 (at) yahoo (dot) com
$50 to Back 40 Life: Jennibell at Jenni’s Seasons
$50 to Wuslu.com: Cathy at cathysimpson100 (at) yahoo (dot) com
$50 to Wuslu.com: Joyce at joycehackley (at) msn (dot) com

Whew! (Again.) Winners, please email me at thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll get you connected!

Now, the November in review. Cause I know you are just on PINS AND NEEDLES!! Or something like that.

First up, I shared how I’ve been cleaning our new floors – this steam mop is rocking my world!:

A few of you asked about using the steam mop on the floors. I did a bunch of research before I decided to use this one – because it uses so little steam on the wood option, I feel comfortable using it. Our floors were also finished on site and have a good seal.

Annnnd…if you know how often I clean the floors, you’d know there’s little worry about damaging them. That’s all I gotta say about that. :)

If you have wood or laminate floors I encourage you to do your own research and decide if it’s right for you!

Next up, we announced our upcoming holiday shindig!:

My pals Kate, Layla and Rhoda and I are joining up again to celebrate the season! I have my mantel ready (OMG…I love it.) but I need to get moving on the table setting. Hope the weather cooperates this weekend cause I need to spray paint a TON.

At the November before and after party, I showed you how I transformed the Craigslist dresser in the office with some half off knobs from Hob Lob:

I still can’t believe the difference they made! Love the pops of white on the black dresser:

Be sure to check out the more than 500 posts that folks linked up! So much talent out there, it’s astounding!!

Then I shared my design confusion – our house is a mix of farmhouse, traditional, modern, industrial and a bunch of other styles:

No matter what my style is, it’s warm and cozy and we love it!

Next up I shared an update on our debt free story and paid it forward a little:

Pretty awesome. :)

I showed you here how I changed up a clearanced out Pottery Barn bath caddy and made it work for the art supplies:

Many of you asked how I can keep this stuff out where the Bub can get to it so easily. Well, he’s almost five, so there’s not much danger of drawing on the walls anymore. And his entire life, he’s never gotten into stuff like this. I never have to worry about him – and YES I know how awesome (and crazy!) that is. :)

I shared how I installed the peel and stick tile in our laundry room next:

It’s still going strong! And it still looks JUST like real tile. And I still big fat love it!

After the holiday, I shared what I had been up to for a couple weeks:

With some help, we were able to enclose our formerly SO ANNOYING corner fireplace and make into a real fireplace:

And yes, I still stare at it every time I walk in the room. I think this is one of my top three changes I’ve made to this house.

This week I also shared horrible pictures of my hands:

OK, you should be looking at the nails, not the hands. ;) This polish is still going strong! My Sis and I put up our tree today and that did take a bit of a toll on them – they’re definitely more scratched up. But overall they still look fantastic, considering it’s been two weeks since I had them painted.

I ended the month by sharing how I use our year-round accessories to decorate for Christmas:

I feel so behind this year with the holiday decor, but I’m staring at the beautiful tree right now as I type, and I can’t help feeling totally chill about the whole thing. I’m certainly enjoying the process. :)

So there you go! Hope one of these posts helped or inspired you in some way!

I’ll let you all know when the Before and After Party will be next week – I’m thinking Monday evening, but with Layla’s party I need to figure out the timing. Be back soon!

Hollaaaa!