Rug Giveaway!

**This giveaway is now closed. The winner has been contacted via email.

Hello there! I’m off at the Haven Conference this week so I’ve got a few fun posts coming for you – and I’m kicking it off with a GREAT giveaway.

The folks at Rugs USA contacted me about a giveaway and asked if I’d like one to try out myself and I was all HECK YEAH and WHOOHOO and YOU DON’T HAVE TO ASK ME TWICE!

They have been so wonderful to work with, and that’s saying a lot because I could not decide which rug I wanted to save. my. life. I mean, how often does a free rug come my way? Uh, never.

I wanted to go a little bit outside my comfort zone and get something I normally wouldn’t, so I ended up with the Moroccan Trellis rug in charcoal:

It came super fast, and as soon as I rolled it out I LOVED it. I loved the color, the design, everything.

I had planned on putting it in the family room and when I laid it out I loved how it looked against the sectional:

It definitely has a more contemporary vibe I was going for. Thing is, I realized right away that my more traditional pillows and drapes didn’t really go with it. The red pillows work great with our old rug, but with this one it looks a little Fourth of July-ish. :)

So it was either change everything else or move the rug, so I took the cheap easy route and moved the rug. I realized it will work in a couple spots in the basement (eventually) but it ended up in the dining room turned library:

For now anyway. :) It may move again, just because I’m not sure it will work with our open living room (and the natural rug we have in there.)

I do know I LOVE this rug – the color is a lovely dark gray, almost a blue tone. It’s wool but it does NOT shed. Halleluiah!!

Here’s a few of the rugs I was trying waffling back and forth on, and a couple others I think are too cool (you can get to them by clicking on the name):

Fallon:

Frontier:

Trans Ocean Chains:

Quinta Moderno Trellis:

Safavieh Dhurries:

Boardwalk Stripe:

I LOVE that striped rug!! It comes in a TON of different colors too!

Now here’s the best part – the lovely folks at Rugs USA are offering one of you $150 towards an (in stock) rug of your choice! Their prices are pretty fantastic, so you could easily get a smaller rug any of the styles I showed you for that amount. Or if you’d like to order a larger rug, you can use it towards that.

Awesome!!

Here’s how to enter to win:
1. Leave a comment here. What’s up chicken butt?

2. Visit the Rugs USA site here. Check out their rugs and come back to let us know which one you love the most.

3. “Like” Rugs USA on Facebook here. Come back and comment to let us know you did.

* You can enter one or all three times – it’s up to you! All options are not mandatory to win.

* Remember if you comment anonymously or you have a private blog, please include your email address in each entry, and spell it out with “at” and “dot” to avoid any spammy emails coming your way.

This giveaway is open to US residents only and will be open for a week – till Monday June 25 at noon EST.

Show us your outdoor spaces!

Hello all! How was your weekend? Great I hope!

Today we are continuing the Show Us Your House linky parties with a look at outdoor spaces. I’m really excited about this one! (I say that every month, I know.)

Last year our backyard underwent a HUGE redo – we built a large deck on our sloping backyard soon after moving in years ago, but other than that we hadn’t touched it.

We finished paying off $125K worth of debt early last year, and this was our gift to each other for doing so. And yes, we paid cash. :)

We had a patio put in, a bit of landscaping (I’ve added quite a bit more this summer which I’ll show you soon) and our big splurge was this baby:

These pics are from last fall, obviously. I love fall but I’m holding back on the pumpkins at least for a few more weeks months.

The patio and fireplace are truly a dream come true – I cannot express to you how lucky we feel every time we walk out there. We’ve realized this summer the oasis it really is – the trees that line the back of our yard provide a TON of shade on the patio, which is something we’ve never had out there!

We also had our deck restained (HUGE process), and added a gazebo we found on sale at Sears to offer more shade on the deck.

I had fun decorating the space last year:

The gazebo is AWESOME – we can go out at night and shut the sheers and it keeps it relatively bug-free:

Which is nice because mosquitoes LOVE ME.

This winter wasn’t as cold as usual, but dang, it was WINDY. The gazebo leans quite a bit now because of all that wind. It’s held up great otherwise, but everything just needs to be tightened up (which we just haven't gotten to yet this summer).

We have three different “rooms” on the deck, which is what we designed it for all those years ago when we had it built:

The gazebo is a cool, shady spot during the day, but it’s most fun at night:

We adore our backyard now, and have spent more time out there in the past nine months than we have in eight years. :)

Now it’s time to see your outdoor spaces! Anything goes – patios, decks, landscaping, DIY projects, I want to see it all!

I’d love a link back, especially if you’d like to be considered in a highlight post:

<div align="center"><a href="http://thriftydecorchick.com/" title="Show Us Your House" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/image34.png" alt="Thrifty Decor Chick" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Here’s the schedule for the rest of the year! Half way in, can you believe it?

July (bathrooms), August (family rooms), September (basements/rec rooms), October (bedrooms, guest or master), November (foyers), December (mud/laundry rooms)

Link up your posts here!

Inspiring kid spaces

Hello there and how the heck are ya? I’ve been working my tail off this week and am getting ready to reward myself with a glass of wine and a bowl of (stovetop…YUM) popcorn.

And now my mouth is watering for that popcorn so this post may be a quick one. ;)

Today I’m showing off some of your kiddo rooms you all shared at the May Show Us Your House party. Take look here if you missed it – more than 260 fun rooms are linked up!

I have to start with this AWESOME pirate room at Batchelor’s Way:

I saw this month’s ago and have admired it since – I think it’s SO well done. A bit of a theme but still classic. My son is all about pirates (and Legos, trains, ninjas, pretty much everything) and he would LOVE this.

My girl Chris at Just a Girl created an absolutely beautiful space for her beautiful girl:

I love that sweet pink mixed with the blue, and the rug is just the perfect little twist. Gorgeous!

I think boys rooms are hard – and this one at Life as We Know it is so fun and colorful and bright:

I just love all the little details like the orange dresser, the chalkboard and the book shelves. This is a happy room! :)

OK, can you imagine having this playroom at Simply Organized as a kid?:

Holy cats, that is AWESOME! I just think this is the bees knees – especially that there’s one for the girls and one for the boys. Coolest. parents. ever.

If boys rooms are hard, then tween rooms are even harder. :) This sweet room at Finding Home is a perfect balance of in between for her tween girl:

I see a peek of an orange chandy in there too – I love how she mixed the colors in this space.

This nursery at Someday, My Favorite is a dramatic gray, and I love the wall art:

The walls are dark, but the colors and fun wall art lighten up the room and make it a very sweet space.

As always you all rocked my socks off with these rooms! I can’t wait to see your outdoors spaces – that linky will go up this coming Monday night.

Remember, if you’d like to pin these, please visit the blogs to do so. :)

And now I’m off to make that popcorn. Nom nom. Have a GREAT weekend!

Butcher block love

Heya! I kinda feel like my head is about to explode this week – the house is a mess (again) – more on that in a bit, the kiddo was sick, I’m trying to tie up presentations for the Haven Conference (NEXT WEEK??) and did I mention we are hosting a party the night before I leave for the conference? Yeah.

I. am. insane.

Anyhoo, when I stress I either curl up in a ball in the corner and rock… or I try to be productive. Right now I’m trying to be more productive and spend less time in the corner. :) I finally finished up a little DIY project for the dining room turned library and it looks gooooood.

As you know if you’ve been around for a while, I’m using butcher block as a base for the bookcases:

I LOOOVE the look of butcher block and I’m planning on using it in a couple of places in the basement soon. We already have it on our kitchen island:

And it’s been surprisingly low maintenance. I love the warmth it brings to our kitchen.

Thankfully all of the butcher we’ve used is pretty inexpensive from IKEA. For both the kitchen island and the bookcases I’ve used the Numerar oak butcher block. Even the largest size they sell is well under $200 and considering the quote I got for our kitchen island years ago, that is fantastic.

I had one piece cut down the middle for the dining room and it was a perfect fit. It sat unfinished for months and it was high time to get that fixed. I left the kitchen island natural with just some Tung oil to protect it, but I wanted this one to be dark like our hardwood floors.

I set up the sawhorses in the garage and pulled out the sander:

I used a 220 grit sandpaper and it was perfect for this project – it only took a couple minutes to get the little bit of finish off.

It is easy to see where it’s not knocked down enough:

You just go over those spots till they are more of a matte finish.

Before I stained I made sure to get all of the sawdust off the block – a tack cloth is good for that but I cannot stand how they feel (kinda sticky) so I just use wet paper towels. Much better. :)

Our floors are a finish called Jacobean but I couldn’t find that, so I just went with walnut, which is very close.

I always use a foam brush to apply my stain – I find it gives great coverage and I barely have to use any stain with it. You want to make sure to leave a “wet edge” when staining, don’t let one section dry as you are applying or you’ll see where you started and stopped:

It barely takes any time at all to stain – it really is super easy!

You can leave it to sit on the surface for a bit to let it really sink in – the longer you leave it (up to about ten minutes), the darker it will be.

Usually I’m pleased with it right away, so I rarely let it sit. I wiped it down immediately with a clean rag:

You need to do this or it will NEVER dry. :)

Isn’t it just gorgeous?? OH my gah, I just love how it shows off all the details of the wood:

This has me SO tempted to stain our kitchen island top as well. It’s just so rich and beautiful!

I finished it off with one coat of polyurethane to protect it and give it a nice finish. I used this clear satin that I used on my vintage rolling crate a couple weeks ago:

Unfortunately I don’t have a great after of the installed butcher block – I thought I had taken a pic, but I guess Dad and I moved too fast on the bookshelves and I didn’t get one.

You can see it installed in this photo:

Those are the start of the bookshelves, which I’ll show you soon! I still have SO much to do on them, but the progress is hampered a bit this week by this:

I tell you what, I move from one mess to another, really. But I welcome this one – the pink(ish) walls that have been in our foyer, living room, hallway, staircase and loft for eight years are FINALLY getting painted. I. AM. THRILLED. I welcome the mess – at least for a few days. After that you’ll find me in the corner. :)

More on that project soon – but by next week I’m hoping the dust will settle around here and I can turn into my normal summer slug. :) For real.

Have you used butcher block in your home? If they are protected well I’ve seen them used successfully around kitchen sinks – I still don’t know if I would have it for every surface in my kitchen, but I do love it as an accent.

DIY orb light fixture

Hello all! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! My Dad came down and we got a TON done in the dining room – I am so excited about it! And yesterday I worked on a quick project that I’ve been dreaming up for a while.

I had a light installed over my DIY craft table in the basement so I could have some task lighting when I needed it. I’ve been trying to think of something fun and funky and that I could DIY to put over it, and I found my inspiration in this Ballard Designs orb light:

But yeah, the small version is $400 – I don’t need a $400 light hanging over the craft table. :)

Thing is, I wanted something a little more funky and less pretty anyway. I’m going in a kind of cool, slightly industrial look for the basement and this one doesn’t really fit.

So I came up with a different version that was a lot cheaper and that I think is a little more rustic. I started it last night because I was on the sofa all day with a very sick boy:

:( He’s NEVER sick so it was a rare chance to cuddle on the couch for hours. After he fell asleep I started this project. It was easy and I didn’t have to move off of my booty for most of it. :)

I had gathered my supplies weeks ago, and they really only consisted of embroidery hoops. I got the two biggest sizes I could find – from Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I drilled two holes in each one:

The holes are directly across from each other, you’ll see why in a minute. And forgive the pics – they were taken at night with my cell. :)

I should mention I used the inside part of the embroidery hoops, without the hardware on them.

I matched up the holes and created an “orb” shape:

Then I realized it looked more like a pumpkin than the look I was going for – so I put the smaller embroidery hoops I had together in the same way. I put that one orb inside the bigger one and then hunted down a couple long screws to secure them together on both sides:

When I was done I had used five large hoops and four small ones to create my orb:

My vision was coming together. :)

Next I installed the light fixture kit I found at World Market a few weeks ago:

It was $12 and it came in a silver finish, so I spray painted it an oil rubbed bronze (ORB) color and then the hoop contraption ORB as well.

My orb is ORB. Har! (Oh it was begging for it.)

A first I was trying to find an old brass chandelier to put in the middle of it like the Ballard version, but I couldn’t find one and figured in the end I wanted it a little funkier anyway, so I found one of those Edison bulbs at Lowes and my funky, rustic orb light fixture was complete:

Initially I stared at it for what felt like hours to figure out how to get the cord attached to the hoops. I finally decided I was way over thinking it and just sat a couple of the hoops on the actual fixture:

I’d like to have it hang into the center a bit more, but until brilliance strikes I’m happy with how this looks!

You can see it here a bit better:

The fixture doesn’t get hot and the hoops don’t move unless I move them, so it will be fine just as is.

I gotta say, I’m in love with it! I think it’s totally hip and cool and I LOVE the side views:

Isn’t that pretty?

It gives of plenty of light, and the bulb is more of a pretty, subdued light:

I’m hoping the cord straightens out cause that is driving me a little batty, but I know with time it will:

You can see we’ve had a bit more progress with the basement – we have (some) doors. Just a few, cause a couple are on special order. More on that soon.

It’s so funny how a couple doors can make the space feel so finished though – every little update we make feels HUGE.

So my orb ORB light (OK, that never gets old…for me) that measures about 14 inches around was $23 bucks – it’s about ten inches smaller than the Ballard version, but that one was too big for this spot anyway. And at $23 instead of $400, well, I’ll take it. :)

And if I ever feel like changing it out, which is not unusual around here, it won’t be a big deal. I think the orb is cool just on it’s own as an accessory too – I could see it on display somewhere. I dig it!

Giveaway Weekend!

**This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to winner Doreen at House Honeys! (Email me to get your winnings.)

Hey there! Welcome to the weekend! :) I am ready!

I’ve got a lovely giveaway for you all – the folks at Saffron Marigold are back!

Saffron Marigold sells a selection of hand block printed home linens that are just beautiful. I love that they continue the hand block tradition without the aid of mechanization or computerization – these are truly hand made pieces.

So lets check out a few of my favorites first shall we? :)

They sell a number of pillow shams and throws, and you’ll notice I’m a little smitten with this dark blue color:

Actually the one on the right is described as purple, but it looks like a beautiful rich blue to me.

Saffron Marigold also carries a variety of table linens, like tablecloths, napkins and runners:

I thought the blue batik napkins would be perfect for a Fourth of July picnic!:

Stars and stripes – love! :)

They sell a number of colorful shower curtains as well. I thought this one would be just adorable in a girls bathroom:

Orange is making a comeback in a BIG way in decor and I love it paired with that pretty blue.

Their curtains come in two to four different sizes, which is awesome. It can be so hard it is to find 96” and 108” inch lengths!:

Again with the blue, but isn’t it gorgeous?

I loved all of the color, but when I saw their new Vanilla Glace line, I was smitten:

So light and airy and pretty, yes? Love it!

The kind folks at Saffron Marigold are offering one of you $50 to spend as you wish at their online shop!

Here’s how to enter to win $50 to Saffron Marigold:
1. Leave a comment here. What do you have planned this weekend? We’re kicking it off with Madagascar 3 and I’m so excited it’s just stupid.

2. Visit the Saffron Marigold site here. Check out their products and come back to let us know which one you love the most.

3. “Like” them on Facebook here. Come back and comment to let us know you did.

* You can enter one or all three times – it’s up to you! All options are not mandatory to win.

* Remember if you comment anonymously or you have a private blog, please include your email address in each entry, and spell it out with “at” and “dot” to avoid any spammy emails coming your way.

This giveaway is open to US residents only and will be open till this Monday, June 11 at noon EST.

Hope you have a lovely, fun weekend!