An Adorable Town and a Winner!

Last week my husband's step-mother passed away.  We quickly flew to Illinois to be with his family.  On the first day, we had a little extra time before everyone got off work, so we spent some time in the cutest little town, Geneva.  I learned about this place from Jennifer Rizzo's blog.  (whom I might add is one of the nicest bloggers out there!) :)   Even though my husband isn't totally thrilled with shopping in cute stores, he was a trooper. 

 I loved this bike in the middle of a planter!

 

 I didn't get a great picture of this statue, but it's right at the end of the main street and is so cute!

 The businesses all look like this.

 This was such a neat wine store!

 

This was my favorite place!  I love the magnets on the door announcing that they are open.

 

The store was FULL of great things!  And they had a couch for my husband to sit on.  :)

 I love this ottoman!

 

 And this canvas print.

 Because we were traveling and had very limited space, I only bought this little bird, but am so thrilled with it!

 

If you're ever in Illinois in the west suburbs of Chicago, you need to check out Geneva!  

Thank you to all who entered my giveaway. 

The winner is:  Joy2Journey 

Thanks for your visit and comments!

Pam

The Advantages of "Custom"

If you are unfamiliar with what exactly makes a custom window treatment (or any other custom-made fabric product for your home) so different from its store bought counterpart, this article might be useful to read before you start the custom design process.

The following are some of the most important advantages of purchasing custom, not store bought:

See it to believe it. We all know the old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Unfortunately, with custom window treatments, that saying doesn't quite apply. Many of the factors that make a custom window treatment so extra special can't be seen in a picture. Custom draperies, for example, are fully lined, making them fuller and heavier. Our custom draperies weigh about 2 - 2.5 pounds per panel on average, whereas the same size, unlined store bought curtain weighs less than a pound. Of course, there are some store bought curtains that are lined. Unfortunately, most are lined with cotton percale fabric, which is a thin sheeting fabric with a low thread count. While it may help to block out the sun and prevent fading to some extent, it does little to add fullness to a drapery.

Lining makes the difference. Custom draperies are lined with a thicker poly cotton fabric that blocks the sun in the best way possible (up to SPF 50). The polyester component in the lining gives a drapery more strength and fullness. Lining is especially useful in rooms that experience more moisture and evaporative fumes. That's because cotton captures and releases these fumes much easier, making lined window treatments a must in busy kitchens and bathrooms. As you see, the ideal lining is made of both cotton and polyester.

Tailored to your needs. Custom window treatments are made especially for your room the way you'd like. Store bought curtains are designed to please the majority of consumers. These include curtains that are made with solid, neutral colours and standard sizes. If you need to dress a very wide nursery window in pink and brown toile fabric, you will have a hard time finding the perfect window treatment that you want. Decorator fabrics come in a wide range of colours, prints, and sizes, giving you endless custom options that most store bought curtains don't offer.

A wise investment. On average, people who purchased custom window treatments keep their custom drapes on their windows for seven years. Store bought curtains are changed every one to two years. The quality of custom window treatments is better, but going after the look that you really want instead of the look that is available will also keep you happy with your room for many years longer. Many of our clients tell us what a relief it is to finally see a custom window treatment on their windows. Unique window treatments are not easy to find if you're looking for a specific look to fit your room. Most consumers start designing their rooms with matching furniture, pictures, walls, and little accents, only to see their designs come to a screeching halt when they realize that they can't find a matching curtain.

There are many more reasons why custom is better than store bought, but the most important one of them is simply value. Custom window treatments pay for themselves throughout all the years that they gracefully cover your windows.

Home Composting: 10 Ways to Make it Successful for You

Gardening is a fun and invigorating activity. It keeps one busy and productive and brings the creativity and ingenuity in everyone. Gardening beautifies our homes but it also produces a good deal of yard waste. What better way to make this waste work out for you than to use it to enrich your garden through composting? You'd be making your soil more fertile for the health of your plants and at the same time, you'd be helping you community dispose of waste in the cleanest, cheapest and easiest manner. Here are some simple ways to make home composting successful for you:

1. Select the best compost material. Composting is simply simulating, if not imitating nature's natural process of breaking down dead matter and using it to replenish the soils nutrients. The best source would obviously be your own yard waste such as the dried leaves, straw and wood chips from your own vegetation. Experts recommend using browns and greens. Browns are rich in carbon while greens are rich in nitrogen.

 2. Correct combination of compost materials. To make home composting successful, it is better to combine different compost materials that to use just one type. Combine some of the materials mentioned in the above tip and shred them into small pieces to make them easier to store in case you might want to pile them later.

3. Use of manure can also mean successful home composting. Manure is also a rich source of organic materials and may come from a variety of animals such as chicken, ducks, pigs, sheep, cow and goats. They are rich sources of nitrogen which plants need in building up their tissues. It is best to layer this manure with dried leaves and to not simply add it into the pile s that it is effectively decomposed and incorporated into the compost.

4. Cold composting. Cold composting is easy enough to do which involves piling all the materials you have chosen as compost materials. Put them up in a pile and give them time to decompose, after months or a year, you'd have a rich compost from the decomposition of these materials.

5. Hot composting is more systematic and laborious than cold composting but it works. The pile should be at least 3- feet deep and is made up of alternating materials. Water is sprinkled regularly on the pile keep it most for microbial growth and action. Once in a while, you may mix the pile to expose the lower layers to oxygen and promote further decomposition of organic matter. This should generate some heat in the compost as gases are produced with the breakdown of organic matter.

6. Stink management is also a key to successful home composting. If the pile is not aerated enough, it begins to give off a bad odor. To resolve this problem, turn and mix the pile once in a while. Do not allow your compost pile to simply stink up.

7. Keep moisture level up but not too much. Adding too much water will waterlog your microorganisms which will not be good for them too and will inhibit their decomposing activities.

8. If the pile is dry and is not heating up, one has to do the entire pile all over again and this time cut the materials into smaller pieces. Add enough water also to make the entire pile moist to stimulate microbial activity.

9. No matter how you are promoting the decomposition of organic waste, you compost should not be a breeding ground for flies and ants that can be sources of diseases and may hard your plants in the long run. Another key to successful home composting is management of these insects by covering the pile with dirt. It does not do if these insects would proliferate in your compost because they may do more harm than your compost may do you good.

10. For a successful home composting, keep your compost pile within your yard. It should be contained within a particular space so it does not look like a dumpsite of some sort. Building a simple fence may do the trick. Your enclosure should also allow some air to get in through the sides.

$2 Chair Transformation

 In November I was at a garage sale and found a chair for $2.  I was really excited about it, as it had so much potential.  My husband was mortified that I'd bring something that disgusting home.  (for the record, it was very, very worn, but not as disgusting as it could have been; however, it was not allowed in the house)  :)

 We started by removing all of the cording. 

  

 The filling was pretty awful.  We probably should've worn masks...  This particular part wasn't too bad.

 My husband spent hours removing hundreds and hundreds of staples.  They were spaced out about every millimeter and were in a groove, so it was very hard to remove them.  He eventually used a Dremel tool to clean out the grooves.  At this point, it was ready for paint.

 Several coats of white paint had it looking much better.

 We kept all of the old pieces of fabric in case we needed the patterns for the new pieces.  This is from the arm (yes, very nice old fabric--I'm sure you're wondering why we didn't use it!)

We did the arms first. 

We then started stapling the fabric to the back.  We got this far and decided that it needed to be ironed.  Ironing right there was our only option.  (this picture is pre-ironed)

I used an electric knife to cut the foam and stuck it in the back.  I used 2" foam from Hobby Lobby and it seemed to fit well.

 For the seat, I used 3" foam.  I also wrapped some batting around it.

 I decided that cutting the exact pattern from the old fabric wasn't great for this part as I needed some extra to allow enough fabric to staple into the groove.  This was before I did any cutting on this piece!

This was prior to gluing on the cording.  The hardest part of this was cutting the edges of the stapled fabric that were hanging out of the groove.  I used little tiny scissors and carefully cut it so it wouldn't be seen once the cording was glued in there.

 I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of the next step.  It was gluing the cording into the grooves.  We used a hot glue gun and stuffed the cord in.  At the ends of the cord, we used a lighter to glob it together so it would cut without fraying.  Luckily it did not catch us on fire and it did firm up the cord quite well.

 I haven't quite figured out where to put it yet.  Here it is by the front door without a pillow.

  

 And with a pillow....

 Here it is in our bedroom, where it will probably stay.

So now my husband is impressed.  He had been telling me that I was crazy to have bought the chair thinking we could redo it.  (I figured we could, and if not, we were out $2!)  I think it turned out beautifully!  With the fabric, foam, and batting, I have about $35 in it.  

Thank you for coming by!  I really appreciate your visits and comments.   

Don't forget to enter my Giveaway    
HERE

Pam


I am linking to the following parties:

 

Potpourri Friday at 2805

My Blog-iversary Giveaway and a Lovely Honor

Today marks one year since I started blogging.  What a joy it's been to join in the party!  I've met so many great friends and have been so inspired.  I spent the last year doing more crafts and projects than ever.

So, to celebrate my 'blogiversary', I am hosting a giveaway.  I was out shopping today and found this pillow and wire cloche to send to the winner.  I will pick the winner on Friday, January 27th via Random Number Generator.

*** Update--We have had a death in the family so I can't pick a winner on the original date.  I will pick a winner on Monday, January 30***

 




It's easy to enter:

• You need to be a follower of my blog and leave a comment.
• This giveaway is only open to US residents.   
• Please be sure that I have a way to contact you via your blog or an email address.

Good luck!


The other part of my post is in regard to a huge honor that I've been given.  When I was in high school, my basketball team won the state championship.  It was the first championship to be won by any girls' team at my school.  This weekend, they are inducting our team into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.  I am so honored and so grateful for the friendships and memories I have from that time.   Unfortunately, I am not able to attend, but many of my former teammates will be there.  My Dad is standing in for me.  I am thrilled and so is he!  :)


Here we were way back when. I'm holding the trophy.  Those were some short shorts we wore!  :)

Thanks so much for coming by.  And thank you for making the past year so much fun!

Pam

Basement Finishing Ideas For DIY Enthusiasts

Basements can be a major selling point when it comes to real estate. Many people like having a finished basement for many different reasons. For some it is a recreation room where they can set up a pool table or a ping-pong table. 

For some it is a storage area, a great place to put things that won't fit in the attic. For many, however, it is a wasted area that is partly storage, partly a game room, and mostly unused. But, for those of you with a little DIY heating and plumbing knowledge and the ability to get a home remodeling loan, the basement can easily be turned into the best spot in the house.

Why Remodel The Basement?

Most basements in America were not built for much of anything except extra storage space. They are usually left unfinished by the builder with nothing more than a 60-watt light in the middle of a large, open room. The biggest reason to remodel your basement is because of all the useable square footage that it will provide. There is a lot of wasted space in a basement because it was never finished enough to be able to do anything with it. All the other reasons for remodeling come in the form of what you will be able to use the space for.

I think that the best use for a basement is to convert it into an entertaining area. It is very nice to have a place to bring a lot of guests to without worrying about the whole house getting trashed. There is also a lot of benefit as far as noise goes. If the party is always in the basement, the noise will never reach the complaining neighbors! It is also a very unique entertaining experience to have a separate, slightly isolated area for entertaining. And so, the question now is, how can you make a dull, lifeless basement transform into an exciting, vibrant entertainment area? Here are a few basement-finishing ideas to help you out.

Make it warm and inviting

Basements are usually cold and inconvenient, that is why nobody ever goes down into them. Start with a heating and air conditioning upgrade. Run a few heating and air vents throughout the basement so that every section of it stays nice. A wise thing to do would be to allow the basement heat and air to be turned off when no one is using the basement in order to save money. Basement lighting is also quite inadequate most of the time. Run a few wires around and add more light. Be careful when working with electricity, as this is one of the most common causes of residential construction accidents.

Section it off

It isn't that difficult to add a few walls here and there. Throw up a few walls for a bathroom, add some dividers to separate a kitchen area, and even put a small bedroom to accommodate guests. The addition of a few walls will make the basement much more appealing.

Put in a bathroom

When entertaining, you do not want to have to ask your guests to walk upstairs in order to use the bathroom, especially if you are serving alcoholic beverages, which increase traffic to the restroom exponentially. You also do not want to house guests in your basement and make them travel upstairs in order to brush their teeth or wash their face. A small bathroom, with or without a shower, will be a huge asset. Check out a lot of different bathroom designs in order to find the one that suits your situation. If you will not be sleeping guests in the basement, all you need is a toilet and sink. If you will have people staying in the basement, it would be nice to have a nice shower, sink, toilet, and closet space. Someone with a little DIY plumbing knowledge and an eye for bathroom design can put in a nice bathroom very easily.

Use it often

There is no point in doing anything to a basement if you are not going to do anything in the basement. Once you have put all the time and effort into remodeling, don't let it gather any dust. But be careful, with a nice finished basement, you may never have a quiet night to yourself ever again!

Hooking a Friend Up

Last summer we took at trip to the Palm Springs area to visit friends.  My friend and I were shopping at Pottery Barn and found these numbered hooks on sale.  I was thrilled that the numbers 1-4 were available.  I wasn't sure where I'd use them, but loved how crisp the numbers were and how sturdy the hooks were.

 They stayed on a shelf until right before Christmas.  I decided that the perfect place for them would be in my friend's house.

My husband cut a board and routed the edges.

 

 We painted it white and measured very carefully to space the hooks across the board.

Holes were drilled on the ends to attach it to the wall.

 And off it went with anchors to attach it to the wall and plugs to fill the holes.  She hung it today and says she loves it! 

 

I'm sure she'll play around with what to hang on it.  I think it looks great!

Thanks for your visit.

Pam

I am linking up to the following parties: