Archive for November, 2012
Fab Freebie: A Cultivated Kitchen
***This giveaway is now closed – see who won below!***
Sorry for the hit-and-miss quiz taking y’all. Apparently you guys enjoy a good quiz as much as we do! Anyways, the lucky (random) winner this week is… Kate Bateman (who was able to get a quiz result and said her “Traditional” diagnosis was almost spot on). Congrats!
I bet most of you guys spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen over the last few days, and if it had you yearning to make some changes in there, you’ve stumbled onto the right giveaway. The folks behind some of our favorite stores (West Elm, Williams-Sonoma, and Pottery Barn) have a sister site chock full of kitchen inspiration called Cultivate. In addition to photo galleries, expert advice, and a blog, they’ve also got one of our favorite ways to kill a few minutes: a Find Your Style quiz. Just pick your favorite between 10 pairs of photos and get ready for your diagnosis. And to help you put your kitchen prescription into action, they’re giving one of you a $200 gift card to use at Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, or West Elm. Sweet. Update: We hear the quiz is still running very slowly/crashing. Looks like Cultivate wasn’t quite ready for all of you quiz-loving folks. So sorry about that, guys!
- PRIZE: A $200 gift card to West Elm, Williams-Sonoma, or Pottery Barn courtesy of Cultivate
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “CULTIVATE ME!” and tell us…
- BONUS QUESTION: …if you were lucky enough to get through and take the quiz without it crashing, what was your result? Was it accurate? Somewhere in the middle? Did it surprise you? I was shocked that my result (Contemporary) suggested a non-white kitchen. And if you can’t get through, we’re so sorry it’s running slowly/crashing!
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, Nov 28th at 8pm EST or at 10,000 entries (whichever comes first)
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- PRIZE SHIPS: We always beg every vendor to ship internationally but some companies are not legally able to vend things beyond the US (more on that here). This giveaway is open to The United States.
- 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…
- ***COMMENT ISSUES? If you’re trying to enter but keep getting a “duplicate comment” warning, click here to see how to solve it!
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 Cultivate.
Pink & Orange For Da Bean
Quick note: To anyone who missed this announcement last week with Thanksgiving break and all, we finally have finalized DC/Living Social details, so click here to sign up. If these sell out or you can’t make it we also have a free event here in Richmond on December 2nd (and the drive from DC to RVA isn’t usually that bad on a weekend). Otherwise you can always buy a signed book here and have it shipped right to your door!
Oh yeah, it’s about time Clara got a nickname a la $herdog, so Da Bean it is. Kinda like Da Band, but with less P Diddy. Anyway, remember when John mused about who would win the bathroom race (he wanted to frame out the mirror and I was on the window shade train) here? Well, chugga chugga, baby. Momma won.
We got the fabric waaay back here and then we threw Clara a wormy birthday party with her two favorite colors (pink & orange) so when it came to picking out the fabric for the hall bathroom (where we log some serious potty and bath time with beansie) I couldn’t resist adding some fun with the bold patterned fabric that featured a few of Clara’s favorite colors – especially since so much of the room is such a safe/neutral tone (lots of white tile and trim + gray walls with a soft plum undertone). So it’s fun to bring some pops of color with the turquoise knobs that we added to the vanity, some colorful art, and our new window shade.
As for the process, it was a semi-similar system to the shade I recently made for the kitchen – except even simpler. Yup, this baby was an $8, fifteen minute curtain (the kitchen one took about an hour). There was still no sewing machine involved, but this time there was also no pinning and less fabric (I only needed half a yard) – so it took a lot less time. You ready for the breakdown? I thought it would be fun to do a minute by minute rundown, so here we go:
Minutes 1-3: I broke out six pieces of cardstock and the tape to make a quick paper template for the exact width and length of the window.
Then I taped it up in place. Sometimes it just helps to visualize things before committing to a certain size/shape. Plus once I was done I got to put the paper in Clara’s drawing/sticker pile. Waste not, want not.
Minutes 4-5: Next I carefully placed my paper template on my fabric (so the pattern was centered) and cut it out with an inch border on each side and the bottom with a wider border along the top (3″) since that extra fabric would be used to mount it at the top.
The reason I cut the fabric to just be an inch wider on those three sides was because that’s the width of my hem tape, so once it was hemmed I knew I’d end up with a shade that was exactly the width of the paper template, which perfectly fit our window.
Minutes 6-8: Then I just hemmed all of the sides with no-sew iron on tape (I like heavy duty Heat N Bond, which I get for a few bucks at Michaels). Oh and there’s a little video tutorial on how to use no-sew tape here for anyone interested.
Minutes 9-11: After all four sides were hemmed and the fabric was now the same width as my paper template and two inches taller on the top for mounting reasons, we got a piece of 1″ x 2″ scrap wood from the basement and cut it to be a tiny bit narrower than the width of the fabric.
Meanwhile Clara ran off with the measuring tape and was found “helping us measure the tub.” Thanks, girl!
Minutes 12-15: You can see from this photo that we secured the fabric to the piece of wood. I used a staple gun to attach it so it would be firmly held in place once the wood piece was screwed directly into the top of the window (just like you’d hang an inside mount shade). And see that rolled bottom edge in John’s left hand in the picture below?
I also grabbed a scrap dowel that we had in the basement and cut it to the same slightly-narrower-than-the-width-of-the-shade size and rolled it into the fabric at the bottom of the shade to create a nice finished bottom edge with a bit of weight to it so it would hang nicely. I secured that rolled edge with a few stitches in a few places (no sewing machine came out, so it was just a minute of “tacking” the fabric in a few spots to hold that tight curl around the dowel). That’s optional though, because the shade in the kitchen doesn’t have a dowel at the bottom and it still looks clean and straight. Maybe I was just in a dowel mood?
Then, like a finely cooked steak, that baby was done. And since the entire window is also frosted (see how we did that last week), there’s privacy but light still streams in – so it doesn’t feel dark. I love how the colors in the fish canvas not only tie into the gray-plum walls but are also echoed in the window fabric. I mean if you can’t have fun with fish art and some bold window fabric in the bathroom, where we can you have fun with it? #fishcanvas4eva
Update: We’ve had a few “but how do you wash it?” questions, so here’s that answer for ya: just like any other store-bought roman shade or blind, it’s not washable, but we didn’t have any issues with the white Ikea shades that we had for over four years in our first house (which couldn’t be washed). If you really wanted to be able to wash yours, maybe you could connect it at the top to the wood mounting piece with washable velcro instead of stapling it?
It still looks a little undone in here since we have to frame out the mirror and I’m planning to bring in a few more pops of color to tie in the curtain, but it’s getting there. The sweet thing is that the other side of the bathroom has some nice bright colors that balance things out pretty well already.
And the room as a whole is definitely looking a lot more “us” than when we started…
So if you have a basic looking bathroom, a half-yard of colorful fabric, and a few bright accessories you can hopefully spice things up without a total gut job. A cheerful little patterned curtain isn’t even a giant commitment since it’s so easy to switch out down the line. Oh and did you notice how I colored my brassy doorknob black in the photo below thanks to a little one-second photoshop work? Hah! Someday I’ll actually spray him for real.
In the meantime Clara will keep doing her DIY thing. #everydayI’mmeasurin’
And yes, her shirt says Rad Like Dad. Because she is.
Here’s the updated bathroom list:
rehang the shower curtain at ceiling height
trim out the unbalanced window(more on that here)switch out the light fixture(more on that here)add some meaningful art(more on that here)build in a shelf over the toilet for some leaning art(more on that here)paint the walls a fresher color to help the original tile pop(more on that here)upgrade the vanity hardware(more on that here)
frost the window(more on that here)make a bold fabric shade for the window- frame out the mirror over the vanity for a less builder-basic look
- ORB that brassy gold doorknob
- paint the whitewashed shelf in a solid white tone (since the room is coming together more & we’re feeling that now – we’ll keep you posted!)
- add finishing touches/accessories and dish out a budget breakdown for you guys
What did you guys do this weekend? Are you still in a turkey fog? Or stuffing down leftover stuffing like a champ? Oh and are you competing with your hubby to get something checked off the list? Feels good to win for once. Just sayin’.
October Superlatives: Better Late Than Never…
We’re nearly a week away from December, which makes rewinding all the way back to the beginning of October a little strange, but since a few book tour stops threw our productivity for a loop this month, our usual wrap-up of the previous month (in yearbook-style superlatives) is coming to you a bit late (ok, way late) in the middle of Thanksgiving break. As always you can read back through January of 2011 right here in just 21 posts instead of 700. Oh yeah, and we’ve also snuck in a clue about Monday’s giveaway at the bottom. Hope you guys are having a great Thanksgiving weekend with the fam!
Most Adventurous: Sherry, for braving our overgrown butterfly bush to get this picture before we started cutting away at it. I know what you’re thinking. What’s so brave about going into a bush for butterflies? Well, we found a snake in it later…
Simplest: This quick little key art project that Sherry whipped up, which represents the four Petersiks from left to right: me, Sherry, Clara and Burger (since he doesn’t stand upright like the rest of us).
Biggest Eyesore: The trash-filled Bagster that sat at the end of our driveway for a couple of days before it was hauled off. But the temporarily ugliness was all in the name of creating some long-lasting pretty-ness in our basement. #worthit
Hottest: According to this mood board Sherry whipped up, School Nostalgia gets this award (which is perhaps a subliminal reason why we do these yearbook-style superlatives?). It was our first shot at a round-up mood board like this, but there will be more down the road since you guys seemed to like it.
The Hand-Me-Down / Hang-Me-Up Award: Our old bedroom sconces. They never quite found a spot here in the new house, so we gave them to our cousins and even hung them up on a recent trip to their home outside of Washington DC.
Most Asked: “How do you know when to DIY something versus when to hire it out?” Since that was such a popular question, we finally dedicated a post to answering it using our french door non-DIY as an example.
Most Coveted: Some of the items spotted on a run through Target last month for one of our occasional Window Shopping posts. Arrowhead notebook, anyone?
Most Open: The oh-so-wide access to our deck, as demonstrated by this “after” photo from our french door installation.
Fastest: Sherry’s fall mantle decorating, thanks to the little time lapse effect that we applied to the process. Because who wants to watch her futz around for 30 minutes?
Most Satisfying: Finally, finally, finally hosting a yard sale to get rid of some of the “overflow” items that we’ve been accumulating around here – including things from the last house that after nearly two years have yet to find a home (and some things for my sister so we could put “multi-family” on the signs).
Most Satisfying (Runner-Up): Finally, finally, finally getting rid of some of the insane amount of liriope in our backyard… and discovering that our brick pathways are wider and more charming than we originally thought!
Oddest: This moose lamp found at a moving sale in West Virginia. But once it was sprayed white (and reimagined with a colorful shade thanks to Photoshop since we couldn’t reveal the real secret-book-project one) it went from odd to oddly awesome. At least for nature geeks like us.
Most Nerve-Wracking: Our book finally coming out. Sherry laid out all of our fears and anxieties about it finally being born in this post, with Burger capturing our sometimes-want-to-hide-under-the-covers feeling pretty perfectly.
Cuddliest: This baby squirrel? Admittedly we didn’t attempt to cuddle it, but Sherry really really wanted to. Thankfully it ran off and we could get back to more bushwhacking in the backyard.
Most Boring: I say this in the sense that it’s the project that required that I bore lots of holes… in pumpkins. There was something sickeningly awesome about drilling into a pumpkin and having all of its orange guts spill out (all so that Sherry could later weave fake snakes through them).
Manliest: Well, maybe “manliest” is a stretch – but this rundown on guy-friendly fabrics (at least, in my humble opinion) even included tips for honing in on a few not-insanely-girly florals…
Most Historic: Some of the items uncovered while cleaning up my basement workshop. My favorite is the fire extinguisher that was last inspected when we were about Clara’s age.
Creepiest: Sherry, in this Halloween photo from 1994 that she used to announce this season’s Pinterest Challenge. For the record, she was supposed to be a ??????.
Most Polarizing: This fast and free duck makeover that was a big hit with some of you and not quite as lovely to other folks. It was admittedly a bit quirky, but it only has to live in our house so… no harm, no fowl? #duckpunforthewin
Nerdiest: Both of us – well, especially Sherry – during our first book tour stop in Cincinnati last month. Among embarrassing photos like geeking out over seeing stacks of our book for the first time, overdramatic cooing for babies, stuffing chili into our chili-holes, and this photobomb near Cortney Novogratz, we had a grand ol’ time in the O.H.I.O.
Most Improved: I’m giving this award to our backyard, which is looking worlds better after finally getting those overgrown bushes out of the way and making room for some grassy open areas. We can’t believe it’s the same place and it only took a few phases of digging, leveling, and seeding.
Most Obsessed: Sherry, particularly when it comes to Nate Berkus. Which is why we drove to four Targets before finding some new stuff from his collection to bring home.
Spottiest: This kid-friendly pumpkin project that we tackled with Clara this year (since she’s not yet old enough to get her carve on). The tissue paper polka dots were right up our little sticker-lover’s alley.
Biggest Flirt: Me, at least when I’m in the presence of my basement pegboard. Seeing my tools all organized neatly gets me so hot under the collar that I’m like this Kristen Wiig character named Shana around it. Side note: this post’s title (“Classic Peg”) was one of two SNL Justin Timberlake references of the month.
Most Pinteresting: Our project for this fall’s Pinterest Challenge. A scrap piece of plywood + some cheap framing lumber + stain + chalkboard paint = this rustic, oversized chalkboard for our living room. Plus we added some already-owned magnet paint to make it magnetic too.
Most Pencil-tastic: What? Your high school didn’t have this superlative? If it did, it would probably go to something like this shadowbox which we made to commemorate meaningful items from our book writing process – like the many pencils that we ground down while going through rounds and rounds of editing.
Most Adorable: We gotta give that award to Clara, er, Jessie for her homemade, Toy Story-inspired Halloween costume that Sherry whipped up. Oh yeah, and Burger’s Slinky Dog costume should get the “Most Likely To Require An Explanation” award.
Most Likely To Give You $200: Monday’s giveaway, which is coming from one of our favorite stores. And to make you work a bit to figure it out, just test yourself with this anagram below (i.e. rearrange the letters to form the answer). Hint: the answer doesn’t follow the same letter-per-word count.
So how was your October? Did you get anything major or minor checked off? Can you even think back that far now that it’s almost December?
