Giveaway weekend!

Now closed, thank you!

This is such a cool giveaway, and like all my others, I’m so excited about it! (For you!)

I really wish I had a way to show you all what I’m talking about when I make suggestions on your consultations –- but I got nuthin’. I mean, I can send you links of items all I want, but it just doesn’t show you what’s in my head. (As some of you know, I usually have a lot going on in there and I wish I could show you what the heck I’m talking about!) I have plans of looking into software to do this, but for now, all I can do is explain the ideas the best I can and show you examples that I’ve done.

Well, this giveaway offers you a chance to really see what your final room would look like after a consultation. The My Design Guide designers offer online consultations with beautiful computer images using all of their suggestions. That means you can see how it will all look in your room. How cool is that?

There are a few things I love about consultations from My Design Guide. First one is the whole being able to see your room thing. :) Second, I love how they take into account items and furniture you already have and want to work with. There’s no “buy all new” mantra – because honestly, how often is that realistic?:

The consults are so thorough, there’s not much left you’ll be wondering about. Even the wall colors and wallpaper suggestions are included, complete with names and paint codes!

My favorite part of these consultations is that the suggestions they make for all bedding, furniture, art and accessories are all laid out for you – and the items can be found online or in stores that are easily accessible for just about anyone.

Accessories from Z Gallerie, Target and Crate and Barrel:

Furniture, art and pillows from Overstock.com, Ballard Designs and Pottery Barn:

Even if you can’t afford a specific item they suggest, you can use the image as inspiration for your space!

And, the best part? At the end of the consult you will get a shopping list with every suggested item on it, complete with prices and the links to the sites where you can find them:

1. Crate and Barrel - Flamenco Centerpiece Bowl $43.00

2. Behr - Behr Spring Hill 420E-3

3. All Coffee Tables - Liverpool Coffee Table Set $408.00

4. Art.com - Celebration Art Print 40" x 28" $50.00

5. Pillows and Throws - Natural Sheer Linen Panel $42.00 - $52.00

OK, that’s awesome. It’s all rolled up into one perfect package!

Here’s an example of the virtual image they can create from your space – the before picture and the after image:

Check out the main page for the fantastic after photo! (You know how much I love after pics!)

Here’s a consultation that I just adore! (Using those awesome Overstock.com chairs above!) I want this room in my house:

Or a girl’s room design, complete with the suggested bedding on the bed. (Love that!):

The folks at My Design Guide also offer a huge variety of design services for all of your needs – big or small:

• Paint color ideas
• Flooring suggestions
• Staging your spaces when selling
• Consults just for art and accessories (which I think are the hardest part of a room!)
• Thirty minute design dilemma consultations (for that problem spot)

They’ve got it all covered! And your satisfaction is guaranteed -- if you're not satisfied, they will give you a full refund of the service price. (How often does that happen anymore?)

So get this -- My Design Guide is offering one of you a FREE full service consultation for the room of your choice! This is a $249 value peeps!! The winner will receive the 3D design including suggestions for furnishings, carpet, window treatments, lighting, art and accessories - everything! You will also get the shopping list of all the products selected (from affordable stores).

Whoohew! That’s awesome! I’m super stoked for whoever wins this one!

To enter, leave a comment here and let me know what space or room in your house you will pick if you win! For another chance, visit the My Design Guide gallery and check out more examples of their work. You can click on the scrolling pictures for a better view, or click the links below the photos to see how the consults are laid out. Come back here and leave a second comment with your favorite virtual consultation image or after photo in the gallery.

That’s it! If you a leaving an anonymous comment, be sure to include an email address so I can contact you if you win. The giveaway will be open till this Monday, the 25th, at noon.

Have fun and have a great weekend!

Rug Rules

You Squeezies didn’t think I would go without showing you the rug that inspired the whole family room redo, did you? No way Joe-say!

(Speaking of Joe-say, can I get a moment of silence that Kath and Kim isn’t coming back? That show was funny.)

I found our new rug at TJMaxx/HomeGoods – it’s a five by almost seven foot rug and it’s awesome. But my hope was to get a rug that was much bigger than our last, because the last wasn’t big enough for our family room, at least according to the “rules.”

There are many rules I’ve heard you should follow when purchasing a rug for a space. One mistake I know most of us make (I say “us” because I’ve done it many times!) is to buy a rug that is too small. I do it for one reason -- pure and simple – the cost. Big rugs are expensive, no matter where you buy them.

For example, a rug under the dining room table or kitchen table should be big enough so that when someone sits down to eat and pulls in their chair, the whole chair is still on the rug.

I found a fun, round rug at Target for our kitchen a few months ago, and I was so pleased to get it home and find it worked great:

I didn’t want one much bigger because we don’t have a ton of space in our kitchen, and anything bigger would have given the illusion of a cramped space. Smaller would just look weird. That’s the thing – you’ll know it when it’s not right. It just doesn’t sit right to the eye.

Our family room has had a rug from JCPenneys for the past few years that I loved:

It had all of the colors I’ve used to decorate our family room, kitchen and den – rust, green and brown tones. The only thing that bothered me was it was just a bit too small. It didn’t bother me too much, obviously. I mean, we had it for at least three years. :) A few months ago, I looked at JCP online for a larger one and this rug was discontinued, so no luck there.

Then, a couple weeks ago while at TJMaxx, I spotted a beautiful, bright, fun rug that had all of the perfect colors but was a bit more contemporary than I typically go for. It was one of those when I knew I loved it but didn’t know if it was right for me. You know that feeling?

I touched it, admired it, walked away from it. Turned around, looked at it again, touched it, put it on the floor, admired it. Put it back, touched it. Walked away, freaked out because someone might buy it while I looked around more (that happens there all the time!), ran back, smiled when I saw it was still there, touched it again and said what the heck Sarah just buy the dang thing!!! Whew.

It really was like that. Serious.

So I bought it. It always could go back, right? Well, it took a few minutes and some tweeting to my tweeters but I fell. in. love:

Only thing -- it was even smaller than the one I had! (By inches.) The “rules” are a bit shady when it comes to rugs for spaces like this. I’ve heard the furniture should sit completely on the rug (meaning all four legs of each piece) or at least have the front legs on the rug to anchor it. A rug that is large enough for all of our furniture to sit on it would be 9 by 12 feet, and I just don’t want to spend that kind of cash right now.

So…I thunk and I thunk and I thunked. And then while in World Market the other day – it hit me. I found a 6 by 9 jute rug for $99 and figured it would work GREAT as a “base” of sorts for the other new rug. They had a creamy color, which I went for initially, but I realized it would just melt into the other one. Instead, I picked up the green rug so it would make the smaller one pop:

And I luuuuurved it! (The kitty does too!) It looks like it’s a band around the smaller rug – if you just glance at it, it looks like it’s just one rug. Super cool. The green color is just a tad bit darker than I wanted, but it still gives nice contrast and the smaller rug keeps the room bright. I’m still playing around with the placement of it but I really love how it turned out!

So it wasn’t cheap -- $200 total for the two rugs. But I got what I love, which is the hardest part!

Of course this has started a snowball effect – the way too big coffee table had to go (I loved it but it’s always seemed too big to me), the lamps got a facelift (see below!), the accessories are getting lighter and now I am getting the itch to replace the drapes. ;) The new coffee table is almost complete, so I’ll show you that next week.

Oh, and just to show you how I kick the “rules” to the curb most of the time – the rug in the kitchen and this rug don’t really go – I mean, they are both floral prints, mostly the same colors – but I would normally do a solid and a print in spaces so close to each other. But I love them both, they look great in their separate spaces, and the rules can kiss my booty.

(Sticks out tongue.) ;)

Stay tuned for another great giveaway this weekend!!

Family room lamp redos

What a FUN party! If you haven’t checked out the cleaning shindig yet, take a look below for some great tips. I love it!

Well, I’m in the midst of a family room mini-redo that started innocently enough – with a new rug. I found a gorg, lighter rug at TJ Maxx and couldn’t resist it. Once that was down in the room, it was all over – it seemed like everything was calling out to be refreshed.

I am a lover of warm, cozy spaces – which usually tends to lean in the darker tones. The family room had a dark rug and when it was replaced with a lighter one, I realized something…I could still have a warm space without it being quite so dark.

It’s been fun to lighten things up just a bit. And just in time for spring!! Uhhh…wait. Just in time for spring in two months! Yeah.

The first stage of the redo was to change out some lamps and lighten up the shades. This little lamp stood on our little corner table in the room:

I showed you how I cover lamps (and did this one) in this post. I love this little guy but it’s always been just a bit too short for what we need here. And the dark fabric cut down on the light. Maybe it’s because it’s dark at 5 p.m. lately, but the more light the better as far as I’m concerned!

I found this cute blue shade at Goodwill for $2 a while back for a lamp in my craft area, and it was perfect for the lamp I relocated to this spot:

You can deconstruct most lampshades – I took the trim off of this one easily. Sometimes you can even take the fabric off of the plastic shade to start fresh, but it’s not necessary.

This one is pretty straight forward – just a green, simple fabric and it was done!:

 

It fits this spot so much better, and because it’s taller and the shade is lighter, it lets off a ton more light!:

 

The next lamp is one that has had a few different shades because I haven’t found one I love. You can see the latest one in this pic:

The shade was just so stinkin’ wide at the bottom, it drove me batty!  And, yet again, it was so dark very little light was getting through.

Enter a shade from the office:

I love it’s (almost) drum shape! It was the perfect size! I was trying so hard not to spend much money but I did end up getting a new drum shade for this lamp too. Can’t have a naked lamp peeps! :) I’ll show you that soon too!

A few weeks ago I picked up extra of the linen-type fabric I used on the dining room chairs (just in case!). It was the perfect texture and color for what I wanted in our family room, and I had plenty to use for this project.

After I covered it, it still needed a little somethin’. I went to my trusty grosgrain ribbon I had on hand. I wrapped it around the top and bottom, and was reminded of an issue I’ve dealt with before:

Because the shade curves a bit, the ribbon kind of gaps. Which drives. me. batty. I tried and tried but it just wouldn’t lay flat. Argh!

Then…it hit me…I had some buttons left over from a project gone wrong (I’ll tell you more about that next week). I covered them with the linen fabric as well (they were the kind you just snap together – so easy and only about $2 for three! at Joann’s), then pulled the wire out used to thread them so they would lay flat:

I just hot glued those babies on! What would I do without my hot glue?! I don’t want to find out. A travesty for sure. Whew.

I had a skeleton key I wasn’t doing much with, so I hung it from the switch for some fun and a bit of color:

I think it’s SO cauuuute!:

 

And so much brighter now!

          Yessss!

This time, to cover the edge where the fabrics meet up, I just used the hot glue and an extra piece of fabric to make a little band:

 

You’ll notice that when the light’s on, you can see all the imperfections on the edges of the fabric (if it’s not cut straight). If you will be able to see the lamp from all sides be aware of that. It’s so totally annoying to finish it up, ooooh and ahhh over it, then turn it on and see annoying uneven fabric.  :)

But if it’s against the wall -- out of sight, out of mind!

Sorry for the craptastic pictures – the dark at 5 p.m. thing kind of cramps my picture taking style. ;) More on the family room soon, and another fantastic giveaway coming up this weekend!

So Fresh and So Clean Party!

I apologize now for the OutKast song that will now be playing in your head for the next 24 hours. (At least.) Buwahahaha!

So it’s time for a new kind of party at TDC. I’ve told you before I’m a bit of a weirdo (which you know on many different levels). I like to clean. It makes me feel good. I mean, again, if I could go shopping or clean the house – I’d probably pick shopping. But if it were laundry or cleaning – hands down cleaning. My favorite part of it is vacuuming – but more on that later. ;)

First of all – a few of the products I use constantly and love. (No, I’m not getting paid for any of these. I just love em!) I told you about my love of the green Shaklee products last weekend. They are quickly replacing most of the products I use because I really do love them and they WORK. There are still a couple others that I use and love for certain areas, mostly because of their ease of use.

I use Clorox wipes for ev.er.y.thing:

Counters, sinks, baseboards, window sills, toilets (eww!) – I use them constantly. We get the ginormous packs of them at Costco or wherever so I can keep one or two on each floor of the house.

I guess you can use them on mirrors too, but I haven’t tried that. Mostly because I think of this commercial every time I think about trying it. Ummm…that commercial totally grosses me out. I mean, I’m not even kidding. Ew.

Speaking of mirrors – this Pledge stuff is fanfreakingtastic:

I use this one for anything I need to dust – even electronics (spray the microfiber cloth, not the electronic!). It’s also awesome on mirrors, window and stainless steel. It’s hard to find cleaning products that work well on stainless well.

Anyone else ever tried olive oil on their stainless? I saw that on HGTV last year and gave it a try – HUGE mess. Didn’t work for me.

I have, however, had luck with using newspaper to clean windows. It’s crazy weird, but it works. No streaks, no mess on the windows. There is, however, a mess on your hands, so I stick with paper towels and microfiber clothes now.

Umkay, I’ve mentioned I detest laundry, right? Oh yeah, I guess so. (With a burning passion, in case you didn’t catch that.) Well, this weekend was spent decluttering and organizing our master closet. It looks AMAZING!! (Sing song voice.) Although, it took doing about 12 loads of laundry to get it the way I wanted, which just about put me over the edge.

There is a product for the laundry we starting using a few months ago that I LOVE. It at least makes the whole job just a teensy bit easier. Those Bounce bars that you stick in the dryer ROCK my WORLD! Awesome! You just stick it on the inside of the dryer:

When it is worn off, you will start to see the word “replace” --

When that shows you just slide it out and slide the new one in. They work! Maybe it’s the lazy in me, but skipping the step of grabbing a dryer sheet (or two) is awesome. Our last bar lasted at least three months – I bet it was more like four. I think they’re about four bucks.

Has anyone tried the Purex sheets? The ones with the detergent, softener and dryer sheet in one? I’ve always wondered if those work.

Finally – my two favorites. I love to vacuum because my vacuum sucks:

BIG TIME! Oh my heart goes pitter pat when I see you, you Animal. I LOVE TO VACUUM! The Dyson is one of the best investments we’ve ever made in our house – I highly recommend it.

One of my girlfriends got one a few years ago, and was going on and on and ON about it so I finally borrowed it. Um. Helloooooo AWESOME! It wasn’t even two weeks later that I went out and got our own. I even vacuumed with our (decent) vacuum before I went to the store on that glorious day and then vacuumed the same room again with the Dyson when I got home just to see the difference.

Uh, I don’t know if it was good or bad that the canister was FULL. Good that this purple little guy SUCKS. Bad that we had been living with a vacuum for didn’t for so long. With three cats, it’s a necessity in this house.

It is an investment. I got ours years ago when we used credit cards – which we don’t anymore. ;) At the time I think it was about $350. I always said I would never in a meeeellion years spend that much on a vacuum and yet again I have eaten my “never” words.

My other vacuum I love – the Shark dust buster. Perfect for those quick trips around the hard floors – especially in the kitchen. It’s powerful enough to pick up the trail of crackers the Bub leaves behind and also for all the cat hair around this joint.

Love it!!:

Yes. Oh yes. I took a picture with my sweet little Shark. It’s that awesome. I lurve it.

Because the Dyson was jealous:

Oh my word, I am SO glad my husband did not walk in on that picture. He would know for a fact I have lost my mind. I was laughing so hard I was crying when I looked at that picture after I took it. Ha! That’s me with no makeup, hair up after a day of decluttering. Ahhhh yes…bliss!

Now share your cleaning gems with us! Great organizing and decluttering tips are welcomed too! Anyone find an easy way to clean out the oven? Know how to fold a fitted sheet? Let us know!

Only links to your post will be accepted – not to your blog. Right click on the title of your post, copy, then paste it into the linky. Have fun! You can add to the party till next Sunday evening. (The linky is being touchy -- come back soon if it doesn't show up for you.)