Archive for July, 2009
Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
We recently came across these five rules for happiness in a few local home decor stores near the cash register (LaDiff and Mongrel among others). And although they’re a bit more life related than home-focused, they really struck a chord with me.
Each little charm is sold separately but I love them all. Here’s what they say:
- Free your heart from hatred.
- Free your mind from worries.
- Live simply.
- Give more.
- Expect less.
We were struck by how simple each “secret” is, and we couldn’t agree more. Life really is better spent free of worry, hate, and ridiculously high expectations- and somehow giving a little more always makes you smile and living with less feels so freeing. And of course those five statements got us thinking about you guys. Do you have any mantras to happiness that calm you down or lift you up? Any phrases that you use to remind yourself that every little thing is gonna be alright? Do you do something (meditate? take deep breaths? pump Miley Cyrus?) to get out of a funk or gain perspective? Spill the be happy beans.
For another phrase that really struck us, check out how we made free art from an inspirational quote.
Image courtesy of YBellaCreations.
Let’s Tackle It Together: The Garage
We’re a bit embarassed about what we’re about to share with you guys. So we’ll preface it by reminding you that we’re only human. Like you, we tend to be pretty busy and occasionally some projects sink to the bottom of our to-do list as life gets in the way. As is the case with our garage, which suffers from a bad case of Out Of Sight Out Of Mind Sydrome. After all, it’s detached from the house so we don’t really have to see it every day.
Now we’re admittedly a bit hesitant to unveil our dirty secret, but we figured that the best way to keep this task from perpetually being scheduled for “next weekend” would be to open the door to the world and basically shame ourselves into getting ‘er done. So, without further ado (or stalling) here’s the current sad state of our two-car garage:
Yuck, we know. It’s bad. And I probably don’t need to say this, but we literally didn’t move a thing before snapping these pictures. We wanted you to see it in its full box-filled, yard-equipment-strewn and distinctly no-room-for-parking-one-car-let-alone-two glory. In fact we haven’t done significant maintenance on it since its first major clean-up last summer. The shame.
But we’re not just sharing these “befores” to force ourselves to get to work making “afters.” We also want to invite you guys to join us this weekend in giving some TLC to a neglected space in your home. Maybe your garage resembles ours? Or perhaps it’s your shed, attic, basement, closet, or even a junk drawer that’s feeling a bit chaotic? Whatever it is, let’s tackle it together this weekend… and next week we’ll regroup to share our afters (you can post ‘em on our Facebook page or send them to john [at] younghouselove [dot] com). So don’t forget to snap those before pictures up front and those after pics once the happy dance commences on the back end. Sound like a plan? We can’t wait to see your afters. Heck, we can’t wait to see ours either. Stay tuned…
Let The Rain Fall Down Freebie Winner!
Thanks so much to all of you for making our first official giveaway as Young House Love such an amazing success. With nearly 2300 entries, it’s clear you all not only love the rain but also these eco- and water-bill-friendly rain barrels from The Rain Barrel Company!
And speaking of being clear, Sherry wanted me to come clean about the fact that the Hilary-Duff-inspired title of this freebie was all my doing. It’s a long story, but basically that song was once a big inside joke with some of my college friends (shout out to Quan and Sarah) so it’s forever engrained in my mind. Which is why I just couldn’t help but break it out when it was so appropriate for this giveaway (and yes, I even snuck in another lyric in my admission statement above – did ya catch it?)
But you’re probably wondering who the lucky lady or gent is who’ll soon be watching the rain fall down into their new rain barrel. Well, we plugged numbers into our trusty random.org and it spat out… Shifra. Congrats! We can’t wait to hear whether you’ll be going for the paintable Californian barrel or one of the planter-topped Cascata models. Either way, thanks in advance for recycling your rainwater with us. In fact, we’re going to be washing our car with some of our barrel water this weekend.
For everyone else, don’t forget you can also learn how to make your own DIY barrel on our How To page. And we’re just a few days away from announcing next week’s giveaway on our usual Monday schedule. So stick around (and yes, that’s a clue).
Psst, have you updated your bookmarks / reader / blogroll / outgoing links / Twitter/ Facebook yet? If you’re still heading our way using old TYH methods, they won’t last for long so don’t forget to make the switch! We’d hate to lose a single one of you freebie-lovin’ folks.
Reader Redesign: Board Member
When Christy over at Simply Dwell sent us pictures of her jewelry organization system it was too good not to share. Here’s her letter:
As a daily reader, I loved how Sherry posted her solution to organizing her jewelry. I am a fan of all things large and in charge when it comes to my baubles, so here is my way of putting them all in their place:
1. Take a store bought cork message board.
2. Sand then paint the trim dark brown.
3. Find a cute fabric and cut to size, then hot glue in place.
4. Buy coordinating ribbon and cut to size horizontally.
5. Pin ribbon in place with thumbtacks.
6. Screw cup hooks at the bottom for necklaces.
7. Attach a ribbon loop to hang from and ta-da!!
So far it is working very well. All of my earrings are out for me to survey every morning and my necklaces are clump free! Thanks for all the inspiration, and keep it up! -Christy
Isn’t that super chic and functional? We love that everything’s out in plain sight and it looks like pure art. Oh and that artichoke fabric is really fun, isn’t it? Thanks so much for sending your mini makeover our way Christy!
Steals & Deals: Stone Cold Fox
Surprise! John and I actually snuck off to the beach in Rehoboth Delaware (where John’s parents have a lovely beach house) around the 4th of July. And yes, John did take this photo to document our trip with his freakishly long arm:
We didn’t do much except for veg on the beach, publish posts so you guys wouldn’t think we went missing, and whip up this watermelon project. Oh and of course we did a little deal hunting by swinging through our favorite secondhand store while we were there: Beach Plum Antiques.
You’ll notice me getting my Vanna White on above (look, second picture in a row where I’m not wearing black!). The reason for the big smile and the gameshow pose? I’m standing next to the cutest little carrera marble topped table that I dug out from under a pile of stuff. It’s as if the universe hid it until I could show up and unearth it. Let me loose in a thrift store and I’m like an archeologist hot on the trail of a T-Rex femur.
We’d been looking for a small table for the sunroom for a while and this baby fit the bill. Plus we’ve never had anything marble in our house so the idea admittedly felt very swanky. But how much would the fancy pants table set us back?
What? Does that price tag really say $20? You betcha. And do you know how much we actually paid? $19 (because they only accept cash and that’s all we had on us). Again, the universe wanted us to have this table. The owner actually laughed when we approached him to buy it saying he had just marked it down from $45 the day before (and sure enough, when we peeled off the stickers after we got it home we saw that it had originally been $75, then $45, and finally $20 after sitting around for a while without getting much attention).
How this little gem of a table could go unnoticed for so long is beyond me. I mean she’s almost as cheap as an Ikea lack table and SHE’S MADE WITH CARRERA MARBLE. In mint condition no less. Just for comparison’s sake, here’s a marble table from CB2. It’s $149! And here’s a Knoll one on sale for $607! Doesn’t that make $19 sound even better? Plus our sunroom could totally use a little side table. So we brought her home.
Here’s a close-up for you marble loving fools (present company included- as in, me). Isn’t she a beaut? We love the ornate carved detailing around the perimeter and the legs. And although we originally toyed with the idea of painting them white (or even a soft celery green), we actually fell hard for the existing patina of the wood as soon as we put it down next to the teak chair and saw that it still worked.
By now you guys probably know that we’re much more about complementary tones, subtle texture and varied materials than anyting formulaic or overly matchy-matchy. And our new $19 side table introduced so much more interest to the whole room thanks to the marble top (yeah, we’re officially fancy), antiqued carved detailing (for luxe texture to spare), and the coordinating but not matching weathered wood tone (see how the teak chair and the bookcase on the other side of that wall are the same color but somehow this lighter piece still looks right at home between them?).
The key to achieving a mixed and layered effect that feels collected over time instead of “garage sale dorm room” is just to keep certain commonalities between the items in the space so it doesn’t look completely chaotic and unrelated. The ceramic dog (who was also quite a steal, check out that story here) and the pillow both boast the same crisp white tone, as does the top of the table (which instantly ties them together in the space). And the cream colored wall behind everything adds warmth and creates an even more layered and soft effect.
So there it is. The tale of an under-twenty-dollar-table that crossed state lines to come home with us and live next to a life-sized ceramic pooch. Have you guys found anything good at secondhand stores lately? What about garage sales? Now that it’s summer they’re popping up everywhere, so we’re wondering what you’re snagging on the cheap.
p.s. Speaking of secondhand shopping, we feel really good about our recently purchased refurbished Flip video camera (snagged on woot.com for $70 off) and our newly refurbished MacBook (from apple.com for $350 off). “Recycling” never felt so good- and they’ll both help us serve up more fun around these parts for years to come- so stay tuned…
