Home Goals 2012 - How Did I Do?

One of the fun things about blogging is that it is a chronicle of my life.  It's a place where I can keep track of where I have been and where I want to go.  Last year I put together a list of home goals for 2012.  Let's take a look back to see how I did.

My first home goal was to transform our home gym.  We finished it last January and have been using it several times a week since.  It was one of the best things we have ever done for ourselves. You can check out all of the details here.  

I also wanted to create a gallery wall in our upstairs hallway.  I'm so glad I did.  

I love looking at it each time I walk by.  

 There were five projects on the original list.  We did plenty of other projects this year, but from my original list, those are the only two that actually got achieved.  Third on the list was lightening up the living room/dining room.  I am still in debate over changing the wall color in our living room and dining room. I would love to lighten things up.  I love this color this time of year, but in general, I think it's time to lighten things up.  This will probably go on my list this year again. 

How about you?  Have you achieved all of your home goals for 2012?

-Judy

Hurricane Sandy Transformation

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  Ours was just perfect, spending it with family and friends.   

 As many of you know, we live in the New York, and so many people in this area were dramatically effected by Hurricane Sandy.  My brother lives in Staten Island, and although he sustained minimal damage to his home, so many parts of Staten Island were not so lucky.   He is friends with a family whose basement was completely flooded.  They lost so much, however, they were able to salvage a few items after the storm, one of which was this doll cradle.  They have a young daughter, Riley,  who lost most of her toys to the storm, so my brother asked if I could work a little magic on this cradle.

 It started out as an old wood doll cradle.

I lightly sanded it, then sprayed it with primer and several coats of white spray paint.

Next, I started to decorative paint it.  I don't know this family at all, but I was told that the little girl liked pastel colors.  

I was also told that she really liked the chair I had transformed for my niece. 

I took that information and ran with it.

Obviously the old "cushion" wouldn't do anymore.

I covered a board with batting and some toile fabric I had in a pale pink and cream.

My hot glue gun made it easy to cover with batting and fabric.

I used my Silhouette machine to cut her name out of pink vinyl.

Isn't it so cute?

Here's one more look at the transformation.

I hope Riley will enjoy her "new" cradle and that it will bring a little joy to her and her family in an otherwise tough time.

Can't wait to hear what you think.

-Judy

Winter Blues Wednesday - It's a Party #97

Merry Christmas and welcome to this week's Winter Blues Wednesday.

I hope you all have enjoyed your Christmas!  I can't wait to see what you've been up to.  

A few rules:

1.  Please become a follower (if you already follow me on Google, I would love for you to follow me on Linky Followers, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest as well).  

2.  Please grab my party button above and display it either on your sidebar or somewhere in your post.  This way word can spread about the party.  The more people at the party, the more fun we will have.

3.  Please enter the link to your actual post, not just a link to your main blog page.

4. Please visit others who have linked up.   Everyone works hard on their projects and blogs...let's show each other some love by visiting each other.  Let's have some fun and hopefully make a few new friends along the way.

Ok...Let's Party

-Judy

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

I hope you all have a blessed day!

For those of you around, I will still be hosting my Winter Blues Wednesday party.
It will open at 8pm EST tonight.  If you don't catch it tonight, it will be up all day tomorrow and stays open through Friday.  

-Judy

Christmas Eve 2012

Twas the night before Christmas...and we will be spending it with family and friends.   

To be more specific...we are having 34 people coming for Christmas Eve dinner!!

We have our traditional feast of the seven fishes. 

The inspiration for the tablescape color scheme in my dining room came

from my dishes.

I spied these dishes at Home Goods and knew they would be so fun for Christmas.

Notice the coordinating place cards - I made those using my Silhouette machine.

My centerpiece is simple yet elegant using an aqua ceramic deep pasta bowl and I filled it with silver and aqua ornaments.  In the center is a tall, white candle.  

Crystal candle stick holders with aqua candles are placed on festive mirrors.

At one end of the dining room are two mini Christmas trees.

I decorated the trees, which I got on clearance at Target, with the remaining ornaments and plenty of ribbon I got for 70% off at Michael's.  

As you can imagine, 34 people do not fit in my dining room.

Four will be at the counter, ten more at the kitchen table, five more at a table downstairs plus a special table for our three year old guests.

The festivities begin at 4pm today.  

How about you?  How are you spending Christmas Eve?

Merry Christmas to all!!

-Judy

Stop Spending on the Non-Essentials in your Home

I'd like to welcome Anna Hicks who has written a post especially for DIYbyDesign.

Most people spend the majority of their money on things for the house that they don’t genuinely need. Then, when then things go bad or there is an emergency, they are left to stand there and wonder “but I earn plenty of money! Where did it all go?!?” Here are some ways to make sure that this does not happen to you.

Figure out what your priorities truly are. What good does having the most expensive furniture in the city matter if someone can break into your house with nothing more than a butter knife and steal all of that furniture out from under you? Home security definitely matters more than aesthetics. That doesn’t mean, though, that you need to spend a fortune on it. There are lots of companies, like home automation expert Vivint for instance, that will outfit your home with the latest in home security (video surveillance, automatically locking doors, motion sensor lights, etc) without eating up your entire savings account.

Do you really need to keep everything you’ve ever purchased? At some point we all toe the line between “frugal saver” and “hoarder.” Why not go through that jam packed garage and sell the things you don’t need? You’ll clear up a lot of space and earn some extra money that you can put toward home repairs or property tax bills.

Once again, it’s worth checking out companies like Vivint if you’re facing exorbitant household costs. Having automated thermostats and other appliances can help you save quite a lot of money on your utility bills—money that you can save up to move to a better home or spend on the fun things that you’ve been giving up because your power bill has been so high.

If you just remodeled the bathroom six months ago do you really need to completely gut it again? If you’re bored with how it looks (or it simply turns out that it doesn’t function as well as you thought it would) there are quick and more affordable ways to fix it up. Change a few small things before you have the entire thing redone again. Then, take the money that you would have spent on the remodel and put it into a high interest savings account to serve as your “emergency fund.”

It’s easy to get caught up in a game of trying to keep up with your neighbors, especially if you live in a competitive neighborhood. Before you lose control, though, it’s important to examine the priorities we talked about at the beginning of this article. What good does having a lot of expensive stuff do for you if your home isn’t secure and you can’t stay afloat during an emergency?

Thanks Anna.

-Judy