Archive for August, 2012
Budget Blooms: Tulips, Take Three
Things I’m great at: making up words to songs when I don’t know them, eating Oreos, dancing like Elaine from Seinfeld.
Things I’m bad at: loading the dishwasher, remembering to get haircuts more than once every few years, and apparently doing monthly budget bloom posts.
I used to do them once a month for over a year, but then I fell off, struggled to get back on it six months ago with one measly post in February, and just never got it together in any sort of regular pattern. So here’s a random Budget Blooms post after over half a year of absence in that department. Won’t you forgive me? In return I played around with these sweet tulips that John brought home from the grocery store for $5 in not one, not two, but three different “vases.” That’s in quotes because only the first containment device is actually a vase…
It’s one of those free ones I got when a good friend of mine sent me birthday flowers a while back.
It was really simple and pretty, but then I broke out my metal thrift store pineapple urn, just because I thought the shape was sort of penny-tile-ish with that going on in the background.
Crazy diagonal shot:
Wannabe-artsy cropped shot:
And here’s my third “vase” – which is actually a tin lantern from HomeGoods a while back that usually lives on the dining room built-ins. It even came with a clear glass cup in the middle of it (maybe for a candle?) so it was perfect for tulips and water too.
Which one’s your favorite? And while I’m asking questions, is anyone else being better about treating themselves to inexpensive monthly budget blooms or doing some other monthly blogging feature? Have you ever done something for over a year and then just inexplicably gotten terrible at it? What’s my deal?
Psst- You can peruse a whole mess of Budget Bloom posts from the good ol’ days here.
Pssst- You might wanna check out the update that we added to the bottom of our homemade basket light. It’s such a small world!
Multiplying Egg Chairs…
I’m back as promised with:
- an egg chair update (since I just tossed pillows on it but promised to share the rest of the details once we figured out a real seat and all that jazz)
- three new egg chairs that we recently brought home
I guess we should skip right ahead to those huh? Don’t worry, our living room doesn’t look like an egg chair family reunion. They’re of the dollhouse variety (you can read more on Clara’s DIY dollhouse here):
When a super sweet reader (thanks Nicole!) told me CB2 had them on clearance for 50 cents each (wahooo!) I couldn’t resist. They’re actually Christmas ornaments (hence the super sale price so far into the year) and all I needed to do was clip off the string that was meant to hang them from the tree and they became serviceable chairs for a certain small pig family. So that’s how three of them somehow ended up in my cart and I just clicked “buy” – and the rest, as they say, is history.
The fun part is that Clara loves putting Olivia and the rest of her family in them since they’re a bit more “hold-y” than her other chairs (they don’t slip out as much as they do in the smoother and smaller brass chairs that she has in a few other rooms). So that’s the dollhouse upgrade that’s going on.
But back to the real-person-sized egg chair in the corner of the living room. Remember when we got it from a local thrift store and he looked like this?
And then we painted him and tossed a few already-had-them-around pillows on during the “just for now” phase?
Well, we’re finally in the “taa-daa, it’s finished” phase thanks to a pretty simple and cheap-o update. Yup, we landed on a permanent seat cushion for the guy. And oh happy day, it doesn’t look like a feminine hygiene product anymore.
Although I thought I might end up buying foam and fabric to make a custom seat, we ended up finding a seat cushion on sale for $14 at Pier 1 in a soft blue tone that’s pretty much a neutral in our house (it’s in nearly every room in some form – like art, pillows, curtains, etc). We weren’t sure if it would fit the chair though (it has a pretty unique rounded shape) so we just bought it and hoped for the best. Turns out it totally didn’t fit at all:
Womp-womp.
But then I wondered what would happen if I turned it around so the rounded part that should be the back of the cushion was facing out towards the front. Lo and behold, it sat a lot better and actually looked like it made sense!
So I cut off the ties and the tag which were screaming “this is the back of the cushion” and didn’t look back. Oh yes, I’m such a rebel. It actually kind of looked like a custom cushion made just for the chair since it’s such an unusual shape and it laid so well on top of the chair. Then it was just back-pillow time and I tossed a few different options on there. Like this blue and white back pillow from HomeGoods a while back:
And this faux fur pillow from Target last year:
And this bunny pillow from HomeGoods a few months back:
I finally landed on this rhino-meets-pig combo (the pig pillow is from a local store called Buford Rd Pharmacy a while back):
So that’s the story of our egg chair’s quickie new cushion solution with a bonus dollhouse egg chair update tossed in there for good measure. Ten points for anyone eating an egg sandwich while reading this post.
Is anyone else out there buying chair cushions or turning things around to see if they work better backwards than forwards? Any other dollhouse decorating going on?
Fab Freebie: Get Your Fixture Fix
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!***
And the random person getting their fixture fix this week is… Anne L (who simply described the problem in her bathroom as: “Pink carpet in bathroom?! Nasty!”) Congrats Anne!
Got a bathroom that could use a new faucet? Or new showerhead? Or new just about every fixture? Well then you’re in luck. The generous folks at Moen are dishing out an ENTIRE suite of bathroom fixtures in your choice of three of their most popular collections: the modern 90 Degree, the sexy Voss or the classic Boardwalk. You’ll get:
- Two bathroom faucets
- A rainshower showerhead and matching tub spout
- One 18-inch towel bar
- Two towel rings, including their new retractable model
- A pivoting toilet paper holder
- Two double robe hooks
- A curved Shower Rod
And just in case you’re not up for DIY-ing the install of all of these sparkly fixtures, they’re gonna toss in a $250 Visa gift card to help you hire it out (or to spend on another finishing touch to your new bathroom makeover). That’s a grand total of up to $1,600 in prizes. I’d say one of you is about to clean up real nice.
- PRIZE: A new suite of Moen bathroom fixtures (in 90 Degree, Voss or Boardwalk) and a $250 Visa gift card
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “FIX ME” and tell us…
- BONUS QUESTION: … what in your bathroom is in the most desperate need of an update? Are you faced with old cracked tiles in your shower every morning? Does your mirror and vanity combo leave something to be desired? Or is your old leaky faucet enough to put you in a bad mood?
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, Aug 22th at 8pm EST or at 10,000 entries (whichever comes first)
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- PRIZE SHIPS: The United States (although we do try to wrangle as many international giveaways as possible)
- USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here on Thursday for the announcement of our winner. Good luck…
Note: We aren’t paid or perked for hosting these giveaways, we just do ‘em to thank you awesome folks for stopping in. See our Giveaway FAQ page for more info. Pics courtesy of Moen.
