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!!!

A New Rug: Men, Kids, Dogs and Nice Things Don’t Mix

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beige family room, Carpet, dogs, family room, German Shepherd, gray, grey, husband, ideas, kids, nutcrackers, rug, ruined, ruining, transitional, writing on furniture

Good news: after the kids and dogs did all the damage they could to our family room area rug, we got a new one! After I did the post Fifty Shades of Grey, I inspired myself. There are two rooms on our first floor that could use my attention, but our family room really needed a new rug asap! The nice thing about grey is that it is a neutral – the new neutral – and can blend where you wouldn’t think it could.

I actually didn’t buy the rug for this room, but am using it here for now:

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:

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:

White Walls: Sumptuous, Intentional and … (wait for it) … Cozy?!?!

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Furniture, how to decorate a white room, ideas, ideas for white walls, luxurious white living rooms, nordic, paint, room with white walls, walls, white, white living room design, white paint colors

In the comment section of another post, a reader asked about white walls – do I love them or hate them? I actually do not have any white walls in my house, but I do have many neutrals. As I told her, I have been in many houses where it was painfully apparent that it was the builder’s white and the rooms felt cold, undone and uninviting, despite residing there for years… and I’ve been in homes, where the walls were Nordic white and the rooms were sumptuous and downright cozy!

If you want versatility, are renting or just hate painting, white walls offer a blank canvas, but they need to be addressed the right way to be successful. In other words, they need to look deliberate in order to work.

White living rooms bespeak of a certain type of lifestyle: chic, sophisticated, metropolitan … and that of no kids, no dogs and no red wine 😉

Smart Little Laundry Rooms

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city kitchens, city space, Closet, dryer, ideas, laundry, laundry room, laundry room ideas, laundry room inspiration, Renovation, small laundry room, small space laundry, washer

A small space takes above average creativity. With a large space, things can be put in willy-nilly and without much thought. That is just not the case if you live in a city or a smaller and/or older home. The placement of a washer and dryer is one of those things that takes some thought. A laundry room just may not exist, so it’s going to have to be tucked in somewhere…and addressed aesthetically.

How gorgeous is this? The tile floor, the wallpaper, the molding, the side panels that are hiding…??? Of course laundry supplies, but how great would laundry bins be too? It appears that this was fitted into an awkward space (with the ceiling slanting in on one side) that would have been unused if not for this brilliant concept.

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: