sincerely yours, dena

I have been pining over the mudrooms in the Pottery Barn magazine for years. I finally have a mudroom of my own that can handle a large piece of furniture but I haven’t won the powerball yet to afford it.
During my yard sale travels this summer I’ve procured 2 wooden pegged coat racks for a $1 each. This along with 3 unfinished shelf hangers from A.C. Moore ($9) and scrap wood leftover from the construction I hacked together this pottery barn inspired mudroom coat shelf in a night. I have to say that I’m pretty damn proud of myself.

In my previous house (with no stairs) I clocked how many steps I took in a single day and it turned out that I walked on average 5 miles a day just in my daily activity. Now on top of that, I’m training for a marathon and my new house has two sets of stairs. So needless to say, I get enough exercise in a day, no need for unnecessary trips up and down stairs. To keep my house organized, I put baskets at the top and bottom of the stair cases and it’s expected that passersby’s grab anything within the basket and take it either up or down with them. It saves mucho time and mucho steps.

In celebration of earth day today, I’ve planted some seedlings in containers I pulled out of my recycle bin. One last use before they hit the recycling center.

While drinking my tea this morning I caught myself looking at this shadow box I made 3 years ago. It’s got a pict and beach findings from our first trip to a Maine Beach with Rubbles. It was fun to compare the Rubman then to the massive beast he is now. 3 years and about 70 lbs later, he looks a little different. I’m going to go hunting for a similar shadow box and make another collage with a more recent photo.

Because I NEVER throw anything away, I save all my back issues of the 5 magazines I subscribe to. I always say I’m going to go back and look thru them but I rarely do. So I copied my friend Vanessa who copied her Mom… start ripping out what you want and recycle the rest.

Using a exacto knife, I cut out all the articles that interest or inspire me then I put them in clear protective binder sheets and organize them in a binder by subject. I’ve got a binder for decorating ideas (divided by room), a binder for holidays, a binder for recipes and a binder for crafts. The best part is getting the satisfaction of finally being able to throw something away!

I’m always trying to save time. If it means even a few seconds, I’m doing it. I put a Ball jar in my kitchen window to collect wine corks. Open the bottle, spin on your heels and throw the cork. Once it gets full, I transfer all of them to a shipping box in the closet to be recycled. I save on all the walking back and forth. I could just stop drinking so much wine but what fun would that be.

Over the weekend I went to my first estate sale. The furniture and the artwork were phenomenal. I wanted everything! This chair that would have looked perfect in my bedroom sold for $40 but I just couldn’t pull the trigger and raise my bidding number in the air. So finally when this table was at $10, out of nowhere my natural instincts to buy took over and my arm raised itself. I am a proud owner of a kitchen table (finally) and I only paid $10 for it.

I found an extra piece of our kitchen cabinet backing in my local hardware store (aka my basement) and painted on a coat of magnetic paint and then a coat of chalkboard paint. I painted both sides so on a weekend I can write what’s for dinner one night and flip it over for the next all without having to clean it up till Sunday. I plan to frame it out and come up with a better way to hang it. Right now I have it held up by mirror brackets which was a quick a dirty approach of getting it up for Easter dinner.

I never used to wear jewlery because it was in a jewlery box that I never open. Out of sight, out of mind. I found this old corkboard unused in the attic and I covered it with leftover fabric from a quilting project. All the necklaces are being held up by stick pins. It’s also great way to display the handy work by my mother and sister-in-law both excellent beaders.

Our new bedroom was so boring and blah. It’s the room in our house where we spend the most time in, it deserves to be beautiful. I’ve always read in magazines how you are suppose to change your linens to match the season. Well, we’ve had the same khaki/blue color scheme for several years now. While my husband was away on a boys weekend trip, I went on a mini holiday of my own at Target and Lowe’s. I found this king size comforter on the sale rack for $34. Stores like Target have matching coordinates thru out the store. That’s where I picked up the matching bowl (on the side table) and dinner plate (displayed behind the bed). I am proud to say the miter saw is my new bff.

Before	After

I got the idea of putting a 2 inch shelf on top of the molding in Country Living and I’m so glad I spent the extra $10 and 30 mins cause it’s perfect for rotating pictures without putting holes in your walls.

To dress up the bedside lamp (which is older than the comforter) I glued a strip of fabric ribbon around the brim for an extra punch of “Oh Yeah!” Notice the bedside table, that was found on the side of a Boston city street. It’s one of my favorite finds.