Passion...

When I was little my mom worked at the public library. Naturally I got to spend time thumbing through books and magazines. Of course I read my fair share of The Babysitters Club, the Cat Fancy magazine and, especially loved the little laminating machine that made the library cards. But most of all I loved Martha Stewart magazine. It was my favorite. Every page was full of beautiful rooms, perfect colors palettes and the "good things" section.  I think I was 8. Since then I have been hooked on all things beautiful for the home.

One year I found a room in those Martha Stewart pages that I just loved. A pale blue and sage green. I peeled off the wall paper in my room and painted it those perfect colors. I even save my money to buy the perfect bedspread to match. I was 10.

I walk into rooms are rearrange them. Moving couches, pictures and, picking colors to make them more like "home". I really find great joy in making houses, homes. A place where a family can be comfortable and feel proud of owning.

What am I getting at? My passion. Truthfully it is hard to admit this out loud to myself. I feel like it could be looked at a frivolous. That my passion should be something huge like teaching under privileged kids or something. It is also hard to say "hey! I am good at this." Without feeling boastful. You know what.... I love interior design and I am good at it. Do I know all the rules? No. Does everything I touch turn out fabulous? No. But I love it and I want to do more of it.

This isn't something that is new to me. I have thought about it for years. How do I do what I love, get enough courage to put myself out there, and feel like others would want the service that I provide? I guess I will never really know until I do it. I am starting small, just dipping my toes in the water. It could go nowhere but who knows? Maybe what I lay awake thinking about at night will be bigger then I could have ever imagined.

I want to help you love your home!

• I can help you with a space you are struggling to finish 
• Bathrooms, living rooms, family rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, offices
• Gallery walls
• shopping for decor
• Choosing curtains, textiles, wall colors and over color palette for rooms
• Accent or focal walls
• I am not currently able to offer painting full rooms or refinishing large pieces of furniture but larger manual labor things can be negotiated and added into my fee. Just ask! We maybe able to work out something that works for you. 

$25 flat fee +

$12 an hour

Outside of Surprise there will be a travel fee.

I can work with what you have but it is best for you to have a budget to get a few new things.

I can work in any budget no matter how big or small. A little creativity goes a long way!

Looking for a deal...

I would have to say about 90% of the things in my home have come from these 3 places. I would not have appreciated any of these places before I got married. I didn't like going to yard sales with my mom on the weekends growing up. I was always afraid I would see someone I knew or people would know that things were second hand. When I got married I didn't know I married such a cheapskate. And I say that in the nicest possible way. Along with my husband's "always got to find a deal" attitude and my learning that money needs to stretch as far as possible perspective, I changed my mind. I have decorated my house for a fraction of the cost of retail and I love everything in it. I can look around my house and remember all the places and yard sales things have come from. I am glad that I got over myself and am not to good for yard sales and second hand stores anymore. Here are a few examples of my latest treasures.

Lee and I went to Goodwill a few weeks age looking for a bar stool little did I know I would walk out with this. I have been searching for a play kitchen for L. This one was at the top of my list in the want column but at the bottom of the list on the price column. You can find it on Amazon used for around $150 and off the kidcraft website it retails for $285. I am grateful for the person who dropped it off at Goodwill so that I could buy it for a total of $22.50!

 Next there was a yard sale in my neighborhood one morning. I drove by it taking the B to preschool, then on the way home, then picking him up and dropping him off. Each time I saw this lamp from the road. Each time I wanted to stop but was in to much of a hurry and I thought it would be to much money. When I did get a moment to stop and check the price it was $15. Too much so I offered $10 and she said sure. I had no money on me so I had to run home get the kids lunch and try to scrounge $10 bucks up from somewhere before my sister got to my house to go to the movies. Well I only found $8.92 around the house. I was to crunched for time to go to the bank so I went back hoping that would be enough for them. It was. So I guess it never hurts to ask. When I got home I looked up the lamp on the Internet and found that it came from Pottery Barn and retails for $150.00. So $15 was a steal and $8.92 was even better. Never hurts to ask. Which leads me to my next great find...

This little red wagon. After buying the kitchen I had to pull around the back so that it could get loaded up at Goodwill. Right in front of me a lady had a uhaul full of things she was donating. I have joked in the past that I wish I could go through the thing people donated before they dropped it off at Goodwill. So my sister and I were in the car and I noticed the red wagon. I was like should I ask her if she is giving it away. L was all for it. So I worked up my nerves a little bit, got out of the car and asked if she was donating the wagon. She said yep an asked me if I wanted it. I said yes! So just my asking this lady if I could have her wagon I saved $89.99. Free is always good!

Then there was this bedroom set. I already mentioned the dresser and 2 nightstands but never posted the bed. All 4 pieces were $350 off of craigslist. My stomach was in knots over the price tag. It seemed like so much money! Luckily because of my preschool money and a bit of money saved from one of my husbands off duty jobs I could get it. I am glad I did. The people we bought it from mentioned they bought it new a few years ago from Ashely Furniture. $350 may have been a lot for me to spent but it not only gave L a bed but finished off my bedroom set too. It is still for sale at Ashely furniture so I looked up the prices; twin bed $314, Dresser with mirror $288.00. 2 nightstands $240. Retail price $842.  So $350, not to shabby.



If I had bought each one of these items at full price I would have spent $1366.99 without tax. But by being patient and searching for a good deal I spent a total of $381.92. Saving me $985.07.

I have had people ask me before how I find such good deals. Well you have to be looking for them and not be afraid to look through a bunch of crap to find the good stuff. You can't go to Goodwill once and not find anything and never go again. You have to go to yard sales, Goodwill and search craigslist consistently to find  the deals. I go to Goodwill 4 or 5 times a month. I don't always leave buying things. I have a mental list of the things I am looking for, if it isn't there I don't need to spend money. Don't be afraid to rummage through stuff or ask for a deal. Happy hunting everyone!

It's about time...

for a master bedroom redo!

One of the things I wanted to get done this year (last year) was decorating the master bedroom. It has always been neglected in every house we have lived in. No one ever sees it so I never took the time to make it nice. But I really wanted to make it a room that I don't mind being in, not just a place where we sleep. I have been going to Goodwill pretty regularly to try and find some nightstands. Once I found those I figured that I would paint them along with the dresser my mom had given me. We after months and months of searching for nightstands I never found a set. Last week I was looking on Craigslist for nothing really and I came across a twin bed for L that had a matching dresser and two nightstands. The twin bed looks really similar to my bed. So I debated for a few days and then decided to buy the set. The dresser and nightstands match the bed in the master bedroom so it finished off the master bedroom. Getting the rest of the furniture inspired me to get the rest of the room together. 

Here is the before...

And the after...

I didn't have any extra money to spend after buying the furniture so I had to shop my house to pull it all together. Most of the stuff on the wall I had in the master bed room. I added the hanging plates over the bed from plated that were on the red hutch down stairs. My older sister gave me the curtains and don't laugh, but they are hung up there by 2 old batons and a few staples. It is called a mistreatment . One day I might buy a curtain rod, for now this works just fine. I still will keep looking for some accessories, probably some nicer lamps. I will repaint and add some foam and fabric to the chest at the end of the bed to make it look more like a bench. For now it is nice to walk into. It makes me happy. I asked B what he thought and he said it was nice and cute. :) One day I hope to actually use some money and buy things to make this room perfect, but again, for now this will do. I want to add in the pale blue grey of the bedding, slipcover the chair and lots of crisp whites to pull it all together. 

Home Tour...

Take a tour of our new house...

Walking through the front door.

I have plans to paint the cabinet and tweak it a bit, but for now this will do.

Right off the entry way there is a half bath, a closet and a laundry room.

I LOVE my new washer and dryer. They make doing laundry to quick and easy. Now I just need to find a laundry folding machine and we will be good.

The living room.

I like this space. It is so great to have a room that is kid and toy free. It almost always looks like this except for the mounds of laundry that pile up on the couch. Again I need a laundry folding machine. I am going to add some curtains or some kind of window treatment to the big window.

 I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I have a love hate relationship with the fire place. I love the idea of it. It is pretty, decorating it for the holidays will be so fun. It will be a picturesque Christmas eve with a fire going but other than that I don't really care to much for it. It takes up valuable space. Space that would have been perfect for my piano (which is currently resting in  my little sister's living room for 2 years until I have space for it again). The big hole above the mantle is hard to decorate and really, who needs a fire place in the desert of Arizona?

The kitchen is my favorite. It is big and inviting. We are having Thanksgiving at my house this year and I am excited to have my mom, sisters and sister-in-law's over to cook in in the kitchen. The only minor glitch is the fridge... it is tiny. I am currently looking to replace it with something bigger.

One thing that had to be addressed as soon as we moved in was the big arcadia door. At night it turns into a big black whole from the inside, which creeps me out, and a big open peep show for the neighbors. Before we moved in I knew I was going to need to get big curtains for that window. I looked online  and check out a few fabric stores just in case I decided to make them. Either way it was going to be expensive. With that much yardage buying fabric was out of the question. So I started looking for curtains. I found these at the JC Penny home store for 60% off. yay! I really dragged my feet with them though. I bought them and almost took them back. I was afraid that people would think that plaid curtains were to country. But heck! I love them. They are so very me. And if "me" is a plaid country girl then so be it. I love my big plaid curtains :)

Up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs is the computer area. To the left is the kids bathroom. Although they prefer our bedroom. Probably because it has a pool aka a big tub.

Then there is the loft/playroom/family room/ preschool area. The kids trash this room everyday. I could care less, it is up stairs and I don't have to step over toys all day since it isn't the main living area.

Then there is B's room. He loves it. He is particularly proud of the "Radiator Springs" signs They are the traffic signs he picked out at Hobby Lobby. Soon we will be moving the white sleigh bed out of  his room and into Laine's room where it belongs. But that requires getting a new bed for B and getting L out of her crib. I am not ready to do either of those things so it will stay how it is for now.

Then there is L's plain room for now. Next spring when she graduates into a big girl bed we will decorate it more. Right now she could care less. 

Finally we have the master bedroom. It is full of boxes, unhung pictures and laundry.

 So we will save that for another day.

What is it about January....

Every year after I take down all the Christmas decorations the house feels so bare. Although I am glad to not have the tree up anymore, it took up so much space, but it makes the room feel so full and welcoming. Once it is gone it feels to naked. To fill the empty space that the tree left I decided to make a couple of these...

With the help of my sisters and the quick sawing skills of my husband we made these...

 (from this tutorial)

I didn't want the corbels to stick out as much as the ones in the original picture and I wanted much thicker decorative molding. So with a few tweaks, figuring out how to use a miter box, a nail gun and the wonderful forgiveness of wood filler, I think they came out beautifully. After buying all the supplies for the shelves, about $60, there wasn't much  left over for the decorating of the shelves. A quick trip to Beals Outlet and a bit of digging through their clearance bin, I found all the frames, the key, bike, and family blocks all for a whooping $22.00. Plus just an fyi it is an extra 15% off for 49 and younger on Fridays. That store is pretty hit or miss but if you look hard enough you can find some fun stuff.

After putting up the shelves on one side, the opposite side of the wall looked pretty bare. So I repainted this shelf I already had and added some decor. I still think it needs some color and a bit of tweaking but for now it works.

For Christmas my older sister Jill made me this shelf. It is beautiful. I had seen the tutorial online and had wanted to attempt to make it myself. But I was too chicken to try it. It is perfect for my entryway. I love it!

A

The whole view of the room. I love the look on both sides of the window but, you knew that was coming right, now the window is huge bare and needs a window treatment. I think I have just enough material left over from the kitchen windows to make these roman blinds. My projects never end...

*gold star to whoever can guess what movie I am watching :)

Can't get enough...

I have a serious love for the 2 toned look right now. I love a dark stained top paired with a nice crisp white on the bottom. That is why I love this coffee table. Lisa from A Thing for Roses did a wonderful job turning this old oak table into the prefect pedestal coffee table. I can't wait to have a bigger house so I will have the need for 2 coffee tables, because this will be the next one I have.

After

For more on Lisa's project go here.

Before

Happy Memorial Day...

Photo via CL