Friends in the Blogosphere: Melanie!

It seems I have a bit of an obsession with rugs in the sense that when I find one I love... I end up posting about it and mentioning it several times here in my little blog world of 9-oh-6. So, in true form, here I go again talking about the chains rug that I've been chattering about for a few days now as part of the big bedroom makeover.

I found an ebay seller willing to give me the 8x11" natural color of the rug "at-cost" for $315 shipped, which is a steal by any means for this particular rug, which runs close to $500 elsewhere on the web. But... it's still $315 which is obviously quite a bit more than the $35 jute rug craiglist score that is unfortunately not going to work in the room like I originally planned. Since I'm a total cheapskate and will find any excuse to save $20 or so, I emailed the seller back and offered to buy it immediately if they could go down to $285. In all honesty, I will probably buy it either way, but I figured the extra little discount was worth a shot.

In all of this negotiating, I've learned a little something interesting - The seller told me they would give me the rug for "my cost plus shipping" - $315. It is typically listed in their shop for $480. As I mentioned above, it is listed at about $500 (without tax or shipping!) at several other locations across the web. I'm not very good at math, but I can subtract... and $480-$315 is an outrageous $165. Are you kidding me?!? $165 is quite a markup, don't you think? Now don't get me wrong, I am well aware of the fact that this is how businesses survive... I guess I just hadn't realized that the increase in cost from wholesale to retail is quite so high. For someone trying to do everything in the world on a major budget, I have to admit that realizations like this make me feel a little bit ripped off. But, I digress. The reality of the situation is that I've been offered a great deal on it, without the insane markup, so I'll end my little rant there.

Now, the title of this posting is what's really important here! I first found the chains rug in a posting from my tried and true favorite - Little Green Notebook. I read through all of the comments and saw one from Melanie, who mentioned scoring the 8x11 on Overstock for a major steal. After a solid hour of getting angry at my computer when I couldn't find it on Overstock, I decided to email Melanie and ask her how she found it, and also find out if she loved the rug as much in person as she did seeing it online. WELL, not only did Melanie write me back, but when I wrote her again today looking for more details she promptly responded with a TON of great info about the texture and fluff-factor of the rug, AND linked me to another blog with a great close up shot to see detail. THEN she signed up to follow little old me, which just made me giddy with excitement because I'm a spaz like that.

Besides being super helpful, Melanie is a mother of two adorable little girls, with a boy on the way! If you're looking for simple recipes, cute kid stories (I especially love the one about her daughter stating that God gave her a cookie), and some decorating eye candy in between, give her a visit over at Joyful and Grateful! And Melanie, a huge thanks to you for being so willing to help a random blogger. It's people like you who make me love the blog world so much!

Cop Out

I'm in full force on the bedroom makeover! Well, sort of. I'm hard at work trying to negotiate a decent price with an ebay store on the chains rug, I got a multitude of neutral paint swatches Tuesday night to tape up on the walls and check throughout different daylight times, and I made myself a template for the artwork for above the bed. Hopefully some of this will evolve into real changes this weekend.

I also did a little more research about silver leafing the nightstands and started looking up pricing for all of the supplies I would need to complete the project... and while I still love the idea of trying it someday, the materials are currently out of stock on the site I found, and at $50 for a box of 500 leaf sheets, the cost is higher than I would like considering the nightstands are just old furniture I'm looking to spruce up. Sooo, thanks to a bit of googling and a super helpful Home Depot employee, I'm going a different - but still very similar - and insanely affordable route. And that route, my friends, is a gray primer base coated in a gorgeous shade from the Ralph Lauren Regent Metallics line called Ambassador Sterling. Applied with a textured roller, the metallic over the gray base will provide essentially the same "silvery" finish as the leafing, with the same natural imperfections where the primer peeks through the glaze. While a quart of RL Regent Metallic is pricey at around $20, that plus the fancy mini roller and quart of gray tinted Behr primer still ran me under $30. Even better, if all goes as planned the primer will also cover the other funky craigslist find I've been being all secretive about.

I. Am. SO. Excited.

Here's a couple of images from the RL website of walls in some of the bolder Regent Metallic shades:



I truly think this route is going to provide the just-different-enough and just-bold-enough look that I'm going for on the nightstands. At the very least, I'd like to get everything primed this weekend, although I have high hopes for doing all of the painting. Fingers crossed!

Darn

So, the jute rug I scored on craigslist is in great shape and I love the color. I'm not insanely crazy about the sort of rough texture in the bedroom, as we often walk around in bare feet in there... but the texture is the least of my concerns as Dan seems to be possibly allergic to it. It's been in the bedroom since we picked it up the other day and he's been fine, but he did have little red bumps all over his arm after carrying it in the house and up the stairs. So, chances are if he's not rolling around on it like a puppy there won't be a problem, but is that really worth the risk?

There's the possibility we'll move it to the front porch where we rarely are anyways, but I think instead I would rather repost it on craigslist and use my money towards an 8x11 of this awesome neutral:

The 5x8 was recently $129.99 on Overstock but is currently sold out... and although available all over the web, the 8x11 seems to run WELL out of my price range around $500. One commenter I stumbled on mentioned snatching it for $245, which is much more doable, so I'm on the hunt to find it affordably.

I did a whole lot of nothing project-related this weekend, and although I had good intentions of getting something done today when I was off of work I instead took 2 naps and some tylenol for a fever. I did go to Menards on a paint hunt for another craigslist find I'm saving for a fun before and after reveal, but just couldn't settle on a color out of their fairly small paint swatch collection. Thinking a trip to Home Depot is in the cards this week!

Thanks to my two naps, I'm wide awake at 12:30 in the morning. Not good. Here's hoping I'm not actually getting sick and will be able to get some rest tonight.

Bedroom Makeover

Well, it's official. I need to lose the blue in the bedroom. Why, you ask? So I can have THIS:

It's the first room board I've made myself and I am 110% in LOVE. The best part is that I already have the majority of the pieces in the board above... and the rest are little accents that will be easy to pull together!

- The dresser, bed, brown accent wall and pillows are all already in the room, with the exception of the cream shag pillow which I just ordered today. What's even better is that the little navy blue pillow in our room was Dan's as a child and has a felt Peter Rabbit on it. It's one of my favorite little things in our house.

- The light blue block of color in the bottom left corner is there as a stand-in for our simple Ikea super sale bedding, which I cannot find a picture of ANYwhere online. But, it's that color, so it works.

- I found a great 6x9' Crate & Barrel jute rug on craigslist today - $35 and it will be mine tomorrow morning! Here's hoping it's in great shape as the ad says.

- Thanks to my new neutral color palette, my dream of silver-leafing my new-to-me nightstands is definitely in the plans. I'm excited to see how the mix of furniture tones will work in the room.

- I have all of the supplies for my knockoff version of the insanely expensive "You have my whole heart" artwork. I'm thinking about working on it Sunday since Dan has a long day at work, but I'm honestly a little more anxious about the nightstands and may tackle those first.

- Due to the lack of electric sockets in our bedroom I can't have lamps on the nightstands like tons of people do. But, I like the idea of spray painting a cheap-o thrift store find metallic, sticking a new white shade on it, and putting it on the white dresser to draw the color from the nightstands across the room.

- The chandelier is SUUUUPER pricey, and definitely not in my future any time soon... but I put it on here because I simply love it. And hey, a girl can (and should) dream.

- We have a little 4-shelf piece in front of the bed that basically looks like a smaller version of our dresser, and I'd love to make a cushion for the top out of the flowered green fabric above to pull in a subtle accent color. I figure I can tweak the insanely simple upholstered headboard tutorials I've been seeing everywhere and do this with some foam and a staple gun in no time. And for another little hint of the green... does anyone that knows how to sew want to make me a pillow or 2 out of the awesome (on sale) green chevron fabric I found? I'll bake you something or take you to dinner in return! :)

One thing I almost forgot is figuring out what to do with our 2 side-by-side windows, which currently have plain (cheap) white blinds on them. I remembered that I bought plain navy blue curtain panels online for literally next to nothing when Linens-n-Things was closing down and haven't used them anywhere yet. The original plan was to put them up in the dining room, but I quickly decided that just would not work in there... so, they may be finding a home in the bedroom soon! Maybe with some fun curtain hooks to hold them back and let the light in?

Clearly, I have a little bit of work cut out for me. Nightstands and walls to paint, artwork to make, lamps to find and update, and a very expensive chandelier to save up for (ha).

Little Touches

So, I'm bored at work today. REALLY bored. So bored that I sent out the "if anyone needs help, let me know!" email that my manager refers to as the kiss of death. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten a single response, which likely means I'm not the only one wasting my day away on the internet. Also unfortunate is the fact that when I am this bored and spending my day browsing all of my regular favorites... I end up also spending money. Oops.

I was clicking through one of my newest favorite blogs - Live Creating Yourself - and checking out friend in the blogosphere Alaina's newest photos of her apartment when I realized she had the beloved Andalusia Rug from West Elm (she found hers on craigslist!)... so I went on one of my little rug kicks where I scour the sales at my favorite sites looking for something affordable to jump out at me. While I didn't find anything amazing for the bedroom, which I've been looking to spruce up lately, I did see something that made my little heart happy -

The quirky little "Carpet Diem" rug that I vowed to buy for my kitchen... and then forgot about... on sale for $9.99 down from $19.99. Oh, happy day.

And wouldn't you know it... I just went back to the website to get the direct link and this awesome mustard yellow color is no longer available, which leads me to believe I may have gotten the very last one. Phew.

Since shipping was looking like it'd be $6 either way, I went ahead and treated myself to this awesome jersey shag pillow that I am already excited to toss on the bed. This little guy originally went for $28, which is WAY out of my pillow price range (it's just a pillow, why on earth would I spend more on it than a pair of jeans?! I'm cheap, I know, but it works for me), so I jumped on it at $9.99.

Looks like this find is still available, and also in a seafoamy green.

Found!

I found a pair of nightstands! On craigslist! For $25!

Here's the little gems just begging for some bright paint:

Now I just have to decide on a color! Which may or may not involve having to repaint the blue in the bedroom to match. I know, I know, I just HAD to have that blue with the dark brown accent wall. But now I'm starting to feel like I'm sleeping in a little boy's nursery. Maybe I'll put together an "inspiration board" for myself to base my little bedroom makeover on.

In all of it's glory... The Hutch!!

Thinking back over the course of this blog, I'm pretty sure the infamous hutch is one of the things I have written about the most. I've been saying for at LEAST a year that we'd love to finish it, and now for the last couple of months I've been talking about the last little finishing touches that it needed before making it's grand appearance on the blog as fully "complete". Thanks to the long weekend, we were able to take some time today to screw on the backplates that I whined about for a month while I waited for them to come in the mail, and put on the doors that have just been leaning against the wall since we had the glass replaced over the holidays.

All in all, this was probably the most time consuming project we've tackled, so here's the documentation in pictures, with the gorgeous "afters" at the end!

As a reminder... here's where we started - several coats of paint, one broken pane of glass, destroyed hardware, old molding -

When we first got the house, I'd work on the hutch with the heat gun when Dan worked on other projects that I couldn't be much help with (like hanging the cabinets with our dads)

Then, over Christmas break LAST year (2008), Manda, Dan and I literally spent 14 hours one day working on it together -

Unfortunately, that was the last time for, um, a year, that we found an entire day to devote to the project. So, until Christmas break rolled around again a couple of months ago, the hutch sat just waiting for the finishing touches - more sanding, staining, hardware, new glass, snazzy molding.

Admittedly, even over break when I had more free time than I knew what to do with, Dan had to talk me into finishing the thing up. In my own defense, the sound of sandpaper is like nails on a chalkboard to me, so I wasn't particularly looking forward to that step. To make matters worse, I was continuously paranoid that all of our hard work wouldn't pay off in the end - what if I saw it all pretty and stained and wished it was just painted white again? In fact, after the first coat of stain dried I nearly had a breakdown when I thought it was WAY too dark, and for a minute we actually considered RE-stripping it and starting over with a lighter stain color.

Oh dear Lord I can be complicated sometimes.

Thankfully, I looked at the hutch in a new light (literally - seeing it in the daylight made a huge difference), and decided it looked PERFECT. I brushed on the second coat, Dan nailed on the molding, and we were able to step back and finally admire all of the time and work we put into it!

And then we got to wait a month for those darned backplates.

But, they're here now, and they're all in place and looking even better than I could have hoped. And with that... here are the "afters"!

Much-anticipated hardware

Ta-da!
Fancy molding... and the little bowl that holds my wine corks.
Some of my favorite glasses.

The vase I got with a Christmas giftcard from the Lawlers. Love the crackled texture, and love even more how perfect it fits in the corner!

Isn't it great?!?

Resolutions Update

As February rushes by, I am proud to say that I've done a fairly decent job of sticking to my little resolutions so far. Here's a little list reminder of the minor promises I made myself this year:

1. Read one book per month
2. Bring my breakfast AND lunch to work at least three times a week
3. Take a class
4. Volunteer more / do more good deeds.
5. Run a 5K
6. De-clutter

Resolution #1 was pretty easy for January, since Erin received a book for Christmas that I wanted to borrow when she finished. I breezed through her copy of A Journal For Jordan, and for the most part, really enjoyed it. I'm a little late for February but am confident if I get out this weekend to grab a new read I'll still have plenty of commutes to polish another book off before month's end!

As far as bringing food to work, I have to give myself an A+ for breakfasts and maybe a B for lunches. I don't think I've actually slipped up at all on the 3-days a week rule, but I have gotten off easy with lots of in-house work presentations and vendor lunches that have broken up the days of sandwiches quite nicely. Obviously, the true test of this resolution will be when it gets warmer and all I want to do is go outside at lunch time.

Thanks to one of my favorite little deal sites - We Give To Get - resolution #3 (Take a class) is on it's way to being completed! Today's deal was screaming my name and Dan immediately thought of me when he saw it this morning. For $30, I signed myself up for a PERSONAL self defense training session! Chicago In-Home Self Defense provides one on one (or technically, two on one, as there are two instructors) self defense training in your home (or other location of your choice if preferred), giving participants a specialized and personal experience that you wouldn't otherwise get in a typical class setting. Seeing as I have a pretty tough time feeling safe while walking home from the train in the dark and deal with some major anxiety from it, I'm thrilled to have two martial arts experts (who quite honestly look like they could kill someone with their bare hands - check out the photos on their website) teach me self defense techniques that I can use in an unfortunate situation. And, I'm sure I will learn a TON more from them in a one-on-one situation than I would in a class where I'm busy being paranoid that I look awkward or weak in front of strangers. Usually $100, this was a major steal, and I am SO excited for some decent weather so I can schedule my training out in the backyard.

Resolution #4 is beginning slowly but surely. I signed up for "Volunteer Club" at work but so far the only opportunities they've sent out to the group are during work hours and on March 6, which just happens to be Forest Park St. Patrick's Day... and I don't miss that for anything.

I'm not going to lie and say I've done ANYTHING about my resolution to run a 5K, but I wasn't really expecting myself to bother with that in the sub-zero temps anyways... so I'll work on progressing with that one in the spring :).

Last up on the list was my late addition promise to myself to declutter my house, and in turn, my life. I've sort of made progress - Playing my "Do I use it? Do I love it? Is it useful?" game actually proved to work quite well when I sat down in the office last week for a few hours, and I managed to clear out lots of old papers and notebooks, along with 3 stacks of magazines that Dan can use for work next month. There's still a ways to go, but I'm getting excited about a clean and clutter-free office in my not-too-distant future!

In other news, we had plans to head down to Florida to visit Kevin and Erica for the long weekend, but are ending up staying home instead. While I was excited to see them, I have to admit I'm also kind of excited to reschedule our trip as it was barely going to be 50 degrees this weekend... and when I go to Florida I want sun and heat! Dan has informed me that he's planning surprises for our now wide open weekend, so I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day with him. First up is dinner at Gibson's Steak House (YUM!) tonight thanks to a gift card from my parents, along with a horse-drawn carriage ride through the city thanks to a Groupon we jumped on back in September!

Thoughts

Why don't adults get snow days? If I had one today I would...

...maybe - keyword being MAYBE - try to talk Dan into bundling up to build a snowman in the yard.
...stay cozy in a long hoodie, some leggings and my slipper boots (that I got for 15 cents at Old Navy a few weeks ago and have barely taken off since).
...work on finishing up a couple of projects I started over the weekend (including the buttons project and the copycat artwork for above our bed).
...watch The Bachelor since I missed it last night (TV at it's best, I know).
...bake banana bread (which I'm doing tonight regardless).
...try and convince myself that spending $25 for a tote bag is ok as long as I love it as much as I love this (spotted by a work pal!)



...drool over these office supplies (saw them here)



...and ask my lovely boyfriend to find "Welcome to Macintosh" for me online. It's a CNBC special on Macs that I apparently missed, but am now aware of thanks to The Lil Bee.

Clearly, I did NOT get a snow day today and I'm writing this at work while trying to pretend there isn't a blizzard outside that I'm going to have to commute home in just a couple of hours from now. Sigh.

Freeze Me

Thanks to our teeny tiny kitchen, we also have a teeny tiny refrigerator... and therefore a teeny tiny freezer. Teeny to the point that between a box of frozen waffles and a couple of pizzas the thing is practically full. Last year, my parents jumped on a freezer deal at Jewel that we've been waiting to see again, and a trip to the store with Manda yesterday turned out to be successful as we saw the sale running again through today (2/8) only.

Here's the deal - Buy an Igloo 5.2 cubic foot freezer for $149 with preferred card, get $150 worth of free item coupons for frozen foods to stock your new freezer with. A little quick math shows that this makes the freezer, essentially, FREE! That's my kind of deal, so you'd better believe we jumped on it right away last night. (For future reference - grocery shopping in the middle of the Super Bowl is glorious. We practically had the store to ourselves.)

Isn't it handy looking?


We need to make sure it's "up to code" to plug it in next to the washer and dryer in the basement, so I haven't rushed out to gather all our free frozen items just yet, BUT I do have to say I'm excited about them. Lots of ice cream treats we wouldn't typically buy (like Skinny Cow sundae cones), frozen fruit and veggies, "fancy" frozen pizza brands, tater tots and french fries (perfect for bbqs in the summer), ravioli (yum), and lots of other good stuff!

More bedroom inspiration

I absolutely, positively LOVE every single tiny little thing about this picture. The headboard, the decor, the bedding, that wallpaper, those throw pillows! But mostly, I'm loving the idea of skinny bookshelves flanking the bed instead of shorter nightstands.


Because of the dormered wall that our bed sits on, I would need to find a nice short set nearly identical to those in the picture. Seeing as I haven't found a pair of matching nightstands begging for a couple coats of paint yet, I'll add these skinny bookcases to my searching.

Tidbits

Some notes for this afternoon, which is so far moving waaaay too slowly for my liking.

1. I got my backplates for the hutch!!! I have 3 words for this - About. Damn. Time.

2. I made Pioneer Woman's Monkey Muffins that I mentioned here. Seeing as Manda, Dan and I devoured 10 of them in, um, about 10 minutes flat, I think it's safe to say they were a hit. AND they only took 20 minutes from the time I started to the time they were done baking. YUM.

3. I found the original "You have my whole heart..." artwork that I've become obsessed with copying for my own room... FOR $300. Yeah. So, that gives me about 275 reasons to figure out a way to make it myself, since I'm fairly certain I can do it for around $25.

4. I'm on the hunt for the perfect pair of nightstands. We currently have one, and it drives me INSANE that there is nothing matching on the other side of the bed. Ikea doesn't sell the one we have anymore, which has given me the perfect excuse to try and find some at a thrift store that I can paint. And while Dan is usually not a fan of me painting pieces ("Why can't you just leave them alone as they are?"), he understands that I'm looking to spend next to nothing on said nightstands, so for the most part it seems like he doesn't care what I plan to do with them.

Little Green Notebook strikes again with an amazing tutorial on silver leafing dressers, which I am reeeeeeally tempted to try depending on the pieces I find... but that might be pushing it for the boy.

Happy Monday

Honestly, it's not often that I feel this great about a Monday, but it's sort of sunny out today and a whopping 25 degrees is surprisingly bearable when it's not ugly and gray out. Thanks to a wide open weekend with no "real" plans, I had lots of time and energy to clean a little, cook a little, and in true fashion - shop a little. I'm feeling refreshed and ready for what's usually a dreary month. Here's what I'm looking forward to this week -

1. Beginning my Grandma's buttons project. I bought a gaudy gold frame at Michael's on sale and some fun paint to spruce it up with. I still need something to mount the buttons to, but nothing a quick trip to the fabric store can't solve. Also, for anyone keeping track - the jar of buttons was NOT in my basement like I was so sure of, and I had a minor panic attack Friday night trying to find it. Turns out it was in my parent's basement, hidden in a box. In my own defense - my dad thought I had the jar too, so who knows when it actually made it's way back to their house. Thankfully, I have it now and Dan didn't laugh at me too hard when I freaked out about it.

2. More de-cluttering. I think I'm going to try and really tackle the office this week - which is a bold statement to say the least. Here's hoping I can play the "Do I use it? Do I love it? Is it useful?" game truthfully and manage to get rid of some old design stuff that's just taking up space. I'm using the below image - from one of my favorite reads: We Met In A Bar - as inspiration for managing a bit of clutter and clean lines together in one space. I love that she has some books stacked horizontally, and I think that just by freeing up a couple of shelves for little vases and knick-knacks as shown here will make a huge difference in the office looking more open. And, on a slightly off-subject note - can I just mention how much I LOVE her vintage-looking cake stands?!


3. Finally FINALLY finishing the hutch - for real! It's just been sitting pretty in the dining room waiting on the backplates I ordered ON JANUARY 10, which have finally (supposedly) shipped today. I've been so frustrated with the company they're coming from that I don't want to get my hopes up... but I did get a tracking number, so that's a good sign, right?

Everything above is dependent on my health, so here's hoping my "no-sick winter" keeps up. Unfortunately, today I'm feeling like I may be coming down with something, and half of my department has been sick in the last couple of weeks so I wouldn't be surprised if I have a full-on cold by tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm taking lots of Emergen-c and drinking lots of water - fingers crossed!