Home and Garden

How I Installed My New USB Outlet

January 20, 2019 by Susan 2 Comments

WARNING: Use all precautions when working with electricity in your home. Make sure you know what you’re doing. If you aren’t comfortable, hire a handyman.

As a family of five, all with cell phones, we found ourselves constantly arguing over “cubes” – the things that allowed us to plug our lightning cables into the power outlet. We’d lose them, find them, find out someone else had “borrowed” them, or whatever…it seems like even if we owned more cubes than there were people, we could never find one.

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Dining Chair Update – Part 2, Reupholstering

December 31, 2018 by Susan 2 Comments

On the last day of 2018, I can finally say I finished this project. I’m not happy with the outcome. But I think it’s important to be honest about the things that go wrong, as well as the things that go right.

We’re all learning as we go through this live, right?

I wrote the first part of this post back in October, when I took the chairs apart and stained them using General Finishes Java Gel Stain. Then they sat in the garage throughout November and December. Part of the reason for that was the holidays, but the other part was the fact that I lost my staple gun.

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Garage Pegboard Storage

December 10, 2018 by Susan Leave a Comment

When I was last working on the garage, I installed a pegboard. Let me tell you, it’s been a-MAZ-ing! It got a lot of loose stuff off the shelves, things that didn’t fit in bins or otherwise just didn’t go there.

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Dining Room Chair Update – Part 1, Staining

October 11, 2018 by Susan 2 Comments

It’s time for the ubiquitous post that every lifestyle blog must have. You guessed it…

Java Gel Stain

LOL. I’ve seen so many great Pinterest pins leading to major overhauls on cabinetry, and it ends up looking amazing. But I don’t ever trust myself to start with something that big, because while most things I try work out well, some just don’t. At all. And since I was afraid the gel stain would fall into this category, I decided to do it on my dining room chairs.

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Fall Decorating

September 30, 2018 by Susan 6 Comments

It’s officially fall in the northern hemisphere. I thought I’d try to get in the spirit by doing some decorating. I needed a day off anyway, so I headed over to Home Goods with $50 in gift certificates from my TJ Maxx credit card. I was mainly looking for dishes to use for food photography for the blog, but I came across a CUTE table runner and decided it would look awesome under the pot of orange mums in a galvanized bucket that was a gift from my BFF. And it was long enough for my farmhouse table – where 72″ will simply not cut it.

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My New Friend Joe

September 18, 2018 by Susan Leave a Comment

Meet Joe.

Joe is short for Sun Joe SPX3001, which just happens to be my new power washer.

I really didn’t think we needed a power washer. The brick pavers looked a bit dingy, but they’d been washed a couple of years ago when the house was painted, so they should still be good, right?

Wrong….

10 Coolest Kids Room Themes

September 24, 2011 by Susan 24 Comments

Kids’ rooms are fun to design because you get to stretch your imagination, and really run with a theme. If you’re thinking about decorating your child’s room, check out these fantastic theme designs.

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Coolest High Chair Ever

July 15, 2010 by Susan 177 Comments

You guys! Check out this amazing homemade high chair. It looks exactly like a giraffe – well, maybe a bit shorter but otherwise so lifelike! I wish I could tell you where you can go buy one of these, but unfortunately it’s a custom piece of furniture that a friend of my brother-in-law’s made for his granddaughter.

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