Faking Large Scale Molding

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adding molding, architectural details, crown, faux molding, how to add molding, inexpensive home ideas, molding, Moulding, stack, stacking molding, stock molding, wall

Molding can really make or break a house, but it can also make or break a budget. Unfortunately, I just can’t get enough of it! You may have noticed in a lot of the pictures of my house that I have ornate molding – but I also have areas where we installed simpler, linear molding. Let’s face it, the fancy-smancy stuff isn’t for everyone and it has to suit the architecture of the house. It can also be pretty pricy. The problem I run into is that I have tall ceilings – 12′ on the main floor and 10′ in the basement and upper level. With that, the molding has to be in scale, so in many rooms I have stacked moldings or, in the case of our mudroom, duped the eye and used a trick that builders use to get the most bang for the buck.

Here’s what I opted for in our mudroom, which was SOOOO dreadfully plain, boring and devoid of any details:

I incorporated the wall into the molding by painting it the same color, which added several inches to the height. All the pieces are generic stock molding that can be bought off the shelf at Home Depot or Lowes. I SO wish I remember how much I paid for this project, but it wasn’t much!

Call Off the Search Party – I AM Alive ;-)

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APT, Blogging, cats, critical infrastructure, cybe warfare, cyber security, dog, dog and child in bed, guest posts, kid, Pets, product placement, sponsored posts, telecom

Where did the time go and where the heck have I been?!?!?

With my little ones on winter vacation I took some time off  – and my blogging, which I normally do during at night, got interrupted by this debacle:

Every. Single. Night!!!

What To Do for a Child’s December Birthday Party

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child's party ideas, Children's party, Christmas, Claus, December, December birthday ideas children's invites, December party ideas, handmade invitations, holidays, Horchow, Mrs. Claus, party planning, Santa, The White House Santa, Xmas

If you have a child that is born in December, celebrating with a party can be quite a challenge. Before I had children, one of my friends told me that children’s parties were very “competitive” these days, which at the time struck me as odd and I thought that he may be exaggerating. Nope. He was right … or maybe it’s just here. My children are invited to parties with a guest list of 70 to 150 children (plus parents and siblings ?!?!) with every form of entertainment you can imagine. When did it become a three-ring circus and what ever happened to the sweet, little parties of our youth? Those were great!

None of these large 70-150 children parties have to contend with cold weather either, which keeps them indoors and throws a monkey-wrench in burning off the “exuberance“ that seems to multiply in intensity with each munchkin added. Since I don’t want to spend that kind of money on a children’s party that they A.) may not remember and B.) would have just as good of a time if I put them in a room full of balloons, balls and dogs, I keep the girls’ parties on a smaller scale and just invite their little classmates/close friends.

What better solution to a December birthday than a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus?

DIY $1 Nutcracker Ornaments

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beautiful ornaments, Christmas, Christmas tree, DIY ornaments, Dollar Store crafts, Dollar Tree, holidays, how to make nutcracker ornaments, inexpensive nutcrackers, nutcracker, nutcracker ornaments, plaid ribbon, set of nutcrackers, tartan, Xmas

Ornaments can be crazy expensive, but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for a skimpy tree or a tree full of balls; it just means you need to have your eyes open. The Dollar Tree has adorable 8″ nutcrackers for $1 that I have made into ornaments that look gorgeous on my nine foot tree.

And if the stigma of something from a Dollar Store gives you pause, bear in mind, I have ornaments on my tree that are extremely pricey and these blend in seamlessly, and I am very picky!!

How to Make a Baby Sleeping Sign

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baby sleeping sign, diy, diy a sign, diy art, diy kids' art, door knob, door sign, green and brown nursery, how to make a plaque, how to make a sign, name plaque, Nursery, Nursery ideas, wall plaque, wooden plaque

My older brother, the City Mouse, had a baby two months ago and I wanted to give him something that I made (along with some other gifts) because this would not be something in his realm. I decided to make him a “Baby Sleeping” sign for the nursery:

How To Make a Child-Size Table

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birthday party, build, child-size table, children's play table, children's table, craft table, diy, how to make a coffee table, How To Make a Kid's Play Table, how to make a table, kids play table, kids' table, kitchen table, Wood

With two little ones, the need for a child’s table was needed for many reasons, but came in handy for more occasions than I imagined when I made it…

DIY Baby Sleeping Sign

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baby, baby sleeping, baby sleeping sign, children's sign, diy baby sign, DIY baby sleeping sign, door hanger, door plaque, Downtown Manhattan, Financial District, green nursery, green white polka dots, how to make a baby sign, Hurricane Sandy, Mercer Street, Nursery, NYC

My older brother, the City Mouse, and his wife had a baby two months ago, which they yearned for – they had been trying for many, many years …with many, many bumps along the way 😦 So it was truly glorious that this pregnancy went to term. In addition to some presents, I wanted them to have something from me that wasn’t bought or manufactured, so I set out to make a “baby sleeping” sign for the nursery door knob.

This is the front…

Patterned Rollers for the Wallpaper Phobic

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DIY Channel, fabric on walls, hang, hanging fabric, hanging wallpaper, HGTV, paint, patterned roller, remove, removing wallpaper, rolling stencil, Stencil, wall, wall treatments, wallpaper

Because of HGTV and the DIY Channel, I am a little nervous to hang wallpaper. It’s difficult to put up well and time consuming to take down. Bottom line: it’s a commitment. But it’s soooo pretty!

Pretty, right?

Halloween Treats for Your Sweets

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blood, Bond Street, Bond Street Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate skull, classroom parties, diy, DIY Halloween candy, DIY Halloween treats, DIY Halloween worms, edible eyeballs, edible fingers, Halloween, how to make candy, how to make candy worms, pumpkin cake, treats

Halloween parties….I have two children, which means two classroom parties. So what goodies to bring for the little ghouls? I’m not a rookie at this, but I feel a little bit of pressure for some “shock and awe”. Last year, my youngest was in preschool at a Montessori school that didn’t have classroom parties. But now, she’s at her big sister’s school, so I need to bring out the big guns. Here’s what I’ve been looking at:

Guest Post by a DIY Network Host

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art, Chevron, diy, DIY Channel, DIY Network, Fresh Coat, graphite, guest post, host, how to make a stencil, how to paint a pattern on a wall, how to paint furniture, how to trace a pattern, paint, paint ceiling, paint furniture, Painted Ceiling, Pinterest, Shannon Kaye, Stencil, tracing paper, transfer technique, tv host

Recently I received a submission which I thought was compelling enough to share. I love receiving submissions and requests for guest posts, but because I look for unique projects and instructions, this will only be the second guest post I’ve had on my blog! Shannon Kaye, who hosted DIY Network Channel’s “Fresh Coat” and is now launching a series of videos on DIY’s website, contacted me a few weeks ago, submitting her work to my blog. I was actually familiar with her work and had a picture of her chevron painted ceiling in one of my files:

DIY Funky, Cool Office Art

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art, canvas, chips, computer, diy, diy decorations, frame, Leonardo Ulian, mixed media, office, parts, spare, wire

Want a crazy-cool piece of art for your office? If you have old, broken computers lying around, you may want to convert them to art as Leonardo Ulian did. You do not need some great artistic ability with a paintbrush, merely an eye  for where to glue pieces on a canvas.

It’s so simple that it’s genius.

In a World of Evites…

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adorable, Birthday, Children, cookies, custom, diy, handmade, invitations, kids, lifestyle, parenting, parties

With my children back in school, my inbox is just flooded with evites for birthday parties. Being the DIYer that I am, I always prefer to have something tangible, something which I can fret over, plan, design and hold.

You too may want an alternative to electronic or paper invitations. If so, how about:

Large and Lovely Laundry Rooms

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apothecary jars, clothes pins, colorful rooms, drying rack, Home Depot, how to decorate a laundry room, ironing boards, large laundry room, laundry, laundry baskets, laundry bins, laundry detergent, laundry room, laundry room design, laundry room ideas, laundry room inspiration, recessed ironing boards, small laundry room, tile ideas, tile patterns, wrapping paper storage

I mentioned in my last post, Smart Little Laundry Rooms, that it takes real ingenuity to design a small space because every inch needs to serve a purpose and be maximized. Larger areas? Not as much. It’s a luxury…and a real curse (more surface area for junk to accumulate, more cleaning…)! But if you do have a dedicated or larger laundry room, how do you decorate it? Like any other room. Think about functionality first and then the aesthetics.

The paint color actually matches the ironing board and the shelves were painted as well to disappear into the wall.

Even here, they have a retractable drying rack as I talked about in my last post. Putting the clothing pins in a glass jar in very pretty. (In case you don’t know where to buy clothing pins, they sell them at Home Depot – I think a pack of 50 is $3. How do I know? I live at Home Depot!)

Again with clothing pins in a glass (apothecary) jar, as well as powdered detergent. See my previous post for a brilliant liquid detergent equivalent. Note that the fold out ironing board door is wallpapered on the inside too. It’s details like this that show incredible thought. Ready for the other half of the room?

Colorful, Customizable T-Shirts

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Children, Craft, customized, customized clothing, diy, kids clothes, kids' shirts, personalized clothing

Little did I realize when I started blogging just how much it would help me and how fabulous and close this community is. I want to thank everyone for such kind comments on my last post. To take the time – your time – and offer comfort to someone that you have never even met is nothing short of amazing. It means so much to me, but it is taking me a while to address each comment (as I can only address a few at a time before being a complete mess.) But onto something lighter…

Since I had saved my back to school business cards, but was waiting on a selection from my youngest, I received a promo offer from Vistaprint for kids’ t-shirts for $2…I am never going to get out of this website because you get to design your own shirt. I love designing, no matter what it is!

Of course I had to customize it within an inch of its life: