Home Decorating Ideas

Decor Steals giveaway!

**This giveaway is now closed. The winners have been contacted!

Hello all and can I get a whoo for Friday? This week went crazy fast for me! I guess time flies when you’re trying to get a bathroom reno done. :)

This weekend I’ve got another great giveaway from the lovely folks at Decor Steals!

TDC and DS are likethis (tight!), and if you haven’t heard of them yet, you are missing out! Decor Steals is a site that offers one awesome decor item every day for. a. steal. :)

Each one goes live at 10 a.m. EST daily and they now have extended deals that stay on throughout the week as well. I’ve got a few items from DS around the house and have been pleased with all of them!

I showed you my Christmas-slash-spring boxwoods here:

And it looks like you may want to watch out for more coming soon!:

So pretty! I am going to use mine year round now for sure. Bring them out of the Christmas bins people!

I love this upcoming find – fabric used for grain sacks:

Can you imagine the possibilities?

This one NEEDS to be in my backyard! I love it:

So cool! My birds would love it too. :)

I love this wood tray too – you can’t have enough wood trays and bowls, truly:

I still LOVE my bread bowl I got from Decor Steals awhile back:

(I hear another version is coming soon!)

If you have to do laundry, do it in style I say! And these striped laundry sacks are the way to do it:

I use a similar basket for the Bub’s clothes and it is so easy to carry around!

So did I mention shipping is always $5, whether it’s a small item or a big one? (In the 48 contiguous states.) Love that.

I’m super excited about today’s deal though – it will go live at 10 a.m. EST! Don’t you love them?:

So cute!! I need them! They would look so darn good in the powder room. ;)

Soooo, the good news is Decor Steals is giving away a $50 credit to two lucky readers. You’ll be able to have fun with that, I promise!

Here’s how to enter to win one of two $50 credits to Decor Steals:

1. Leave a comment here. What do you have planned this lovely spring weekend?

2. Visit Decor Steals here and check out their pick steals page. Which item do you want to see offered in the future? Come back here to let us know in a comment.

3. Visit their Facebook page and “like” it here. Let us know you did in another comment. (Or let us know if you already do!)

4. Subscribe to their email list here (you’ll get notices about the new deals) and if you do (or are already on the list), leave one more comment here.

* You can enter one, two, three or four 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 the contiguous US only. It will be close this Monday, May 13 at 9 a.m. EST.

Have a beautiful weekend all!

Worse before it gets better?

OK people. I’m on a mission. A mission to complete the two bathrooms I’ve been putting off forever around here. EONS! I’m making great progress in the basement bathroom and showed you the latest on that one here.

At least that one is functional. The upstairs bathroom is only halfway so – it’s been a couple months since we’ve had a sink in there and that’s because of all of the parts of the room that needed to happen first.

I’ve gotten SO much done over the past couple of weeks – I’m so thrilled! But the room doesn’t look much better…yet. ;) I keep telling myself that it always seems to get worse before it gets better.

Let’s hope anyway.

I was laughing to myself in the car earlier this week thinking about this project because it is truly laughable how long it’s taken me. I am not kidding when I say it’s been in an unfinished state for about three years now. For awhile it was because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do…and then it was just because it’s been a really labor intensive space and there’s only one me and now…well, I’m just TIRED. :)

You may remember years back I had had enough of the brown walls and started painting over them, but only one coat. I figured why do all the walls when I knew I was going to do a wood treatment over most of them? You know…three years later?:

Whatever. Who’s counting? :)

I actually started installing the wood on the back wall about a year ago. It’s sat like this – one wall done and a few pieces on another wall -- for all this time:

Then because we got the new floors put in, I had to get the wall behind the toilet and sink done fast, and I showed you how I did that here.

What I don’t think I’ve shown you is the wall color I tried out. Last summer I was playing around with the idea of using a red color above the wood treatment – and I actually did like it:

(Ignore the halfway done door trim.)

But it was really bold and I’m just not feeling the red in this little space. And I used to have some red accents in the nearby family room and I’m phasing those out, so I didn’t feel like it will flow well:

Good thing I only tried it out on a couple little walls, yes? ;)

See? I told you…it’s a hot mess. Yes, our visitors see this every time they come over. I aim to impress.

You can see there that I finally got all the wood up – it actually didn’t take long at all, maybe a couple hours total to finish it up.

What took FOREVER was the priming. I used an oil-based primer to make sure none of the knots come through later on. OH my goodness. Forever! Painting paneling or beadboard is no joke.

I seriously think I may hire out the next two coats of white paint. Did I mention I’m tired?? :)

I was so thrilled with my progress though! I showed my Sis when she came by, expecting a few props. But mostly she just gave it the stink eye and was all…but it’s not DONE, right?

No sister. It’s not. Thanks.

I can’t say I blame her for the stinky eyes thought – it really doesn’t look all that much better right now. The planks don’t match up on all the walls (when I’m done you’ll see why that won’t matter), the primer does the wood no favors, and I still have a bunch of boards to install to hide all the ugly parts.

But I power on!! I got the baseboards installed:

And the new vanity about a third of the way assembled:

Dad is coming to help me hook the sink back up today and he doesn’t know yet that he’ll be helping me finish up that vanity too. ;) It would be the bees knees to have a working sink in there by the weekend!

It doesn’t look like much now, I know. OK…it still looks like a bit of a disaster. But I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, finally. It’s getting there:

At a turtle’s pace…but it is. I’ll show you the wall color next week and hopefully plenty more progress too! I’m on a mission! WHOO!

I know most don’t take three years to do the tiniest of rooms, but please tell me I’m not the only one who doesn’t makeover a room in weeks? Or months? Years.

To Goodwill or not?

Hello there! How are ya?

So I sometimes dig my heels in on stuff when everybody else does it…it’s just my thing. I will avoid something that is super trendy just because it’s…well, super trendy. :) The same went for Instagram – it took me forever to get on the bandwagon but I gotta say I have enjoyed it. It’s fun to share snippets of stuff throughout the day, especially when I’m out and about shopping.

Some interesting conversations have started up on some photos, and the other day was no exception – it got me thinking:

The Bub and I popped into Goodwill before an appointment the other day and I gotta say…some of the prices were a little shocking. ;)

I am and will always be a thrifty girl, but you may have noticed I’m not the Goodwill shopper I used to be. That’s for a few reasons – I just don’t have the time for it like I used to. The kiddo is getting older, the blog is getting bigger and to find the goodies at Goodwill you need to stop in often. I use to stop by one two or more times a week and lately I just haven’t made the time.

When you stop in once every three months it’s hard to find the deals. ;) And when I used to go a lot and I would find fun stuff and it would come home with me and sit. And sit. (Forever.) Because I couldn’t pass it up of COURSE! And there’s only so much time in the day to transform things so the items would take up space in our house and in my head. I finally had to come to terms with it and STOP.

This Goodwill stool I redid with Annie Sloan paint had sat in my garage for a least a year before it got painted:

You see, when you find a deal at Goodwill you have to buy it NOW or it will be gone when you come back – at least 90 percent of the time. And I had a lot of buy-it-nows cluttering up my house. :)

When our stores changed their return policy (you just get a credit back now), that also changed how often I shopped there. If I can’t just return it I won’t buy as much, plain and simple.

But the biggie is that Instagram photo up there – when I have stopped in over the past year or so some of the prices have been shockingly high. The response to that pictures was much of the same – many of your have noticed it as well.

Now PLEASE don’t get me wrong – I used to work closely with our Indiana Goodwill’s and truly believe in their mission and believe they do GOOD work. They provide hundreds of jobs for those who may not be employed otherwise. I also understand the price of everything goes up over time.

But every time I’ve walked through lately I am shocked by a price tag on more than one item. I laugh about it because I wonder if blogs have a little to do with it – over the past five years or so more people are seeing the value in transforming something old or worn and making it work in their home.

I don’t know what it is really, I’ve just noticed the prices have gone up considerably. Target sells some of their extra items to Goodwill and I’ll sometimes see prices at there for higher than you can get it on clearance at Target.

So…in a nutshell that’s why I’ve moved more towards antique malls and Craigslist over the years to find most of treasures. I find at antique stores you don’t have to worry quite as much about an item being gone…I’ve left many things and come home to think about them and they are still there when I return.

Craigslist is nice because when I want something specific I can search for it over time and wait for the right piece and price.

There are still a few go-to items I visit Goodwill for, of course. I love to use books when decorating and end up picking some up from Goodwill occasionally. I always find books I would actually read but it doesn’t hurt to find a pretty one. ;)

I picked up a few coffee table-style books to fill in the library built ins:

DIY built ins

And of course Goodwill is always great for frames, although even with those you have to watch the price lately. I love that I can find so many different styles and sizes all in one spot. I found a big one for the basement here and had a few on hand from Goodwill for the kitchen chalkboard:

And most of the frames in my office were collected at Goodwill over time (and then painted white):

I love that they look like just that – collected.

So are you still a Goodwill shopper? Never was? If you are, have you noticed the difference in price over the past year or so like me? I will continue to shop there and support their mission…just not quite as often as I used to.

**To see more of my Goodwill transformations, go here.

May Before and After Party!

Hey hey all! How was your weekend? Ours was fantastic!

Welcome to another Before and After Party to kick off the month! I’m sharing a few of your awesome projects from last month first today and then you’ll be able to link up yours!

First up – I loved how simple (and cheap!) Angie’s mirror project was!:

It’s one of those ideas that makes you wonder why in the heck you didn’t think of it??

Julie added a few spring updates to her gorgeous dining room:

LOVE that room! So classic and pretty!

Ann made some simple changes to her dining room as well:

Again, what a pretty space!

You won’t even believe how this beautiful mirrored dresser of Laura’s started out!:

Seriously, you have to go see the before – amazing job!

Elizabeth shared her gorgeous, bright kitchen redo:

This is another one where you have to go see the before to truly appreciate the transformation. ;)

I LOVED this sweet boy’s room of Janel’s:

Isn’t that so much fun? What a cool room for a little boy!

And finally, but certainly not least – I couldn’t believe Nicki’s new kitchen backsplash:

I couldn't believe it because it’s not tile. ;) Awesome!

As always, if you’d like to pin these awesome projects and spaces, please do so from their respective sites.

Now it’s time to see what you’ve been up to this month! If you’d like to be considered in next month’s review, please ad a link or the html for this button to your post:

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/" title="TDC Before and After" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/beforeAndAfterButton_thumb1.gif" alt="TDC Before and After" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Here you go, link up yours now!:

Pineapple angel food cake

OK peeps, I don’t share recipes around here often but when I do you know it’s going to be either really easy or really good or really easy and good. This is both, score!!

I don’t have a source for this, (a friend reposted it on Facebook) so if you’ve seen it somewhere let me know. I don’t even know what to call it? Pineapple angel food cake? Pineangel food cake? Pineapple fluffy goodness?

I don’t know. It’s yummy though, and stupid easy. You just take a box of angel food cake and a 20 ounce can of pineapple:

I’m sure you could use fresh pineapple (just keep the juices!) but wow…this is supposed to be easy remember? ;)

You just dump the pineapple in with the cake mix:

And that’s the only ingredients! When I first saw this I thought, wow, that’s crazy easy! And then I remembered you only need water with the angel food cake mix anyway, but I digress…it’s still easy.

The pineapple juice will react with the mix and make it super frothy and fluffy – it was fun to watch:

The more you mix it the bigger it will get!

Then you just pour it into a pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. That’s it! (I ended up using a 9 by 13 pan.)

I starting mauwing on it right out of the pan when it was done and it was SO GOOD warm. Wow. YUMMO.

But I soon realized I could make a little parfait:

I just layered the pineapple goodness and whipped topping and it was SO. good. The cake was just fine at room temp but like I said, I loved it heated up a little.

So there you go – a super easy, really yummy dessert. Perfect for this time of year with the pineapple and great for when you have people coming by and need something fast:

Or when you’re home alone in the middle of the day. Whatever.

;)

I’m off to get more ingredients today so I can make it again this weekend. Have you tried this easy dessert? Any other simple sweet recipes you’ve tried? (Some readers on Facebook said they have tried it with cherry filling too – doing that next!)

**Check out my other easy recipes here!

Haven (no place like it!)

Hello all! Hope you’re having a beautiful day so far!

My fellow team members and I are getting SO excited for the upcoming Haven Conference this summer:

Last year was our first year for this DIY/design conference and it was a huge success – we are pumped for another year! This year Haven will be held at the beautiful Buckhead Grand Hyatt in Atlanta, Georgia from Thursday, August 1 to Saturday, August 3.

Just in case you don’t know the Haven team, here we are:

It includes myself, Beth from Home Stories A to Z, Chris from Just a Girl, Rhoda from Southern Hospitality and Traci from Beneath My Heart. Oh, and we can’t forget rock star Kristin who is a BIG part of making the details of the location and logistics happen.

First and foremost, we need to give a BIG shout out to our awesome sponsors – The Home Depot, Frogtape, Rustoleum and GMC just to name a few:

We’re busy finalizing the sessions for the conference and we have an incredible group of designers, bloggers and business people who will be sharing their knowledge with attendees. Go here to see who will be joining us (we are still adding them so check back often!).

The conference is sold out but we will be offering five ticket giveaways on our blogs over the next few weeks:

May 13th: Just a Girl
May 20th: Home Stories A to Z
May 27th: Beneath My Heart
June 3rd: Southern Hospitality
June 10th: Thrifty Decor Chick

If you’d like to join us and don’t have a ticket keep an eye out for each of those! And if you aren’t already following us on Facebook here than please do so – many have to sell their tickets as we get closer to the conference and will announce it there. (Just a reminder to ticket holders – there will be no transfers honored after July 1st!)

If you already have your ticket you should have received an invite to the Haven Mavens Facebook (private) page – if you didn’t email one of us {thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com} to let us know so we can get you added on. It’s a great place to chat and “meet” each other before the conference! We’ve also created a Haven Conference Instagram account – you can follow it at “havenconf”.

We’ve also started up a linky party over at the Haven Conference site (for attendees) – if you are joining us please link up your blog and visit those who will be attending as well!

And of course, feel free to add the Haven Maven button to your blog to let everyone know you’ll be there!Are you attending the conference this year? It’s only three months away – I can hardly believe it! Can’t wait to see you there!

April in review!

Hello all! Happy MAY! I’m back today with a quick recap of some of the bigger (or sometimes small with a big impact) projects that I finished up in April!

Did you miss one?

Early last month I added some super CUTE handles to the sofa table in the family room – they were the perfect finishing touch:

And I got the hardware from Target of all places!

We had a few lovely days early in the month so I busted out the spray paint baby! And yes, I sprayed our floor vents:

They hold up surprisingly well!

I hosted a fun impromptu linky party and and shared a little somethin’ I added in the bathrooms:

It was a “little things” kind of week and I truly think they can make the biggest difference in your home!

Next up I shared the new breakfast nook in a couple stages – I showed you how I reworked an IKEA table and made it into the farmhouse table I’ve always wanted. And then I came back and shared the other new additions to the space.

So now the area that used to look like this:

Now looks like this:

Who would have thought a long rectangular table would work in this spot better than a round one? Not me!

Next up I shared a project I’m SUPER DUPER excited about, but it’s going to take forever to finish up throughout the house:

The craftsman-style door trim was SO much easier than I thought it would be. I love how it turned out!

We took a walk down memory lane to see how our stairs went from covered in carpet to these today:

It was one of those projects I was so nervous about tackling years ago but I’m SO glad I did!

Thanks for all your kind comments on the progress in the basement bathroom! I’m so thrilled to have it almost done!:

You can see more about the accessories I used and the how-to on the shelves here.

And finally, some blog friends and I shared a few tips that have helped us along the way on yesterday’s post:

Well there you go! The biggies I accomplished this month – did you catch them all?

I’m off to spend more time outside today – hope it’s lovely where you are too!