Category Archives: Home Goods

Style Waffle

Posted on by
27

Many moons ago I wrote about not really having a particular style (I’m too lazy to find and link).  Nothing that totally embodies or screams “me” because frankly, I like a lot of stuff.  And this new house is proving it.

We’ve been shopping, yo.

livingroom3

And things look a little different around here.  But it feels juuuuust right.

livingroom2

In other news, I am too tall for maxi dresses and that makes me sad because I don’t like to shave my legs.

In further and more salacious news, remember the 90′s when everyone had their bellybuttons pierced?  Well.  I found a ring in my jewelry box and am sporting some naval bling as I type this.  D was just this side of horrified so I think I’ll leave it a few more days just for enjoyment’s sake.

I’m listening to this song right now.

So what’s up?  Are you a style waffler too?  This could get expensive.

 

Share

My First Housewarming Gift

Posted on by
24

I have this bloggy friend, Gabbi.  Perhaps you’ve heard of her?  Of Retro Ranch Renovation fame?  I thought so. 

gabs

(definitely used that picture without permission.)  (Hiiiiiii, Pete!)

Back in October, she posted about some art work she had made for her bedroom.  And it spoke to me.  And I needed one for myself.  I emailed her and pitifully begged and offered her dollars for one of my own.  Sweet girl graciously agreed to make me one, but would NOT accept any form of payment.  So I said fine!  Imma send you something back (which I still have not done) (though I do have a plan) (and good intentions).

And that’s where this comedy of errors begins.  She sent me a message letting me know that my priceless piece was on it’s way!  She double checked my mailing address since she knew we were moving.  We lived in small town America, so we had a PO Box.  One we planned to keep until the dust had settled at the new place.  I confirmed and waited.  And got a message that a ne’er-do-well with good intentions had taped the package for her…. right over all her stamps…. so it was returned.

I got another message that the package was on it’s way again.  I sent a virtual high five, checked the mail, and waited.  Got a slip in the box telling me a package had arrived and I needed to claim it.  Arrived at post office during business hours to gather my prize.  And learned that there are definite down sides to living in small town America!  The post office marm happened to live across the street from us.  She’d noticed that we’d moved out, and TOOK THE LIBERTY OF CLOSING OUR PO BOX AND RETURNING ALL OUR MAIL TO THE SENDERS.  No biggie.  I was only waiting on final bills and important loan documents.  Whatev.

Poor Gabbi.  I regretfully informed her it was on it’s way back to New Jersey again.  To which she responded “NOOOOOOO”!!!

Finally, finally, my package arrived.  I was walking in the front door of my parents house informing my mom I’d worn a pair of her shoes that day when I saw it sitting on the table and screamed.  And straight murdered that package.

gabbigift

It was wrapped in a bow and had the sweetest note attached to it. 

gabbigivt2

I may or may not have teared up a little.

gabbigift3

Isn’t that great?!  I love the sentiment, the stain, and the placement.  It was everything I’d ever hoped it would be!  And look – it’s husband approved!

gabsgift

It’s the first thing we have gotten just especially for the new house, and It’s already really special to me.  You guys, if you’re going to beg a gift off someone, might I suggest Gabbi?  She won’t accept any payment – not even in the form of stamps after multiple mailing attempts – she obviously does great work, AND this beaut came with hanging dealie attachments already on the back.

Girl’s got class.

Thanks, Gabs.  :)

Share

It’s Christmas Outside Too

Posted on by
27

Remember when I made happy little wreaths and hung them in all my merry little windows?

I didn’t stop there.  Oh no, I didn’t. 

Actually, I would have.  I was sleepy.  But D started pulling the bigger wreaths out and asking how to go about making bows for them.  I don’t doubt he would have done a fine job, but there was a bigger, underlying issue here.

D… can be somewhat grinchy about Christmas festivities.  I know, I know!  He seems so perfect in every other domestic way.  But if Jingle Bells lands in his ears before about December 23rd, he’s been known to bah-humbug it.  In fact, he even carries around a coffee mug with it in big black lettering.

I had to rally so as not to be outdone by Ebenezer.

We picked up the wreaths at Hobby Lobby on 50% off day, so we’ve only got $5 in each of these.  D did the fluffing whilst I made jolly bows out of the same patterned ribbon as the indoor wreaths.  Then we hung them on our exterior lights.

The front porch.

Notice the tricky angle photography that excludes the pumpkins still sitting on the deck.

I love those lights… all covered in dust.

And the garage.  (I tried to type this as I’m prone to pronounce it, like GAYrage… but then it looks like gay rage and that doesn’t feel very in tune with the Christmas spirit.)

I like these lights too.  I shall be sad to leave them behind.

And there you have it.  The extent of our exterior Christmas decor. 

I feel comfortable telling you that this will, in fact, be the extent of it, as ol Scrooge over here announced more than once and completely unsolicited that he will not be hanging Christmas lights.

Who wants to come hang some for me?  Anyone?  Anyone?

Share

A Handmade Christmas

Posted on by
19

Don’t get too excited, people in my real life.  I’d love to say that you’re all getting really neat gifts I made with my own two hands out of love… But gift certificates are nice too!

Just in case I get a wild hair or extra hours in the day, I have found some pretty neat DIY for Christmas.

Candy Cane body scrub, anyone?

(via)

I actually did do this one year, and it makes for quite a refreshing bath.

Socks and wine.  SOCKS AND WINE!

(via)

Genius.  Pure genius.

(via)

My mom made Junior his own tree for his room.  Didn’t she make the cutest little ornaments?

 (via)

 Smelly goods.

(via)

And I just had to add this after Michelle posted it.  This could be yours for $2, people!

(via)

 There you have it.  Fantastic, inexpensive, homemade gifts you won’t be getting from me but might want to make for someone else.  ;)

Happy Friday!

 

 

Share

A Happy Little Wreath

Posted on by
32

Thanksgiving was great and blah blah blah.  Food and family and blah.  No one cares now that it’s over, right?  Now we’re all like,

Know what’s sad?  D doesn’t find Will Ferrell as hilarious as I do. 

Him: I love you.

Me: I love lamp.

Him: Are you drunk?

Sad.

Anyway, now that we got the whole ‘being thankful for stuff’ out of the way, it’s time to celebrate little baby Jesus by acquiring more stuff to be thankful for next November.

I started by acquiring five little wreaths.

And affixing five little bows.

And cutting five little pieces of ribbon.

And scotch taping them to five little windows.

See those Santas?  My dad carved them and my mom painted them.  Don’t you think they should start an Etsy store to sell them??  They’d be rich!  Then by proxy, I’d be rich!  We’d be like Duck Dynasty: The Santa Edition, and the boys could grow their beards out while us girls just stood around looking fine.

Genius.

Share

We’re Ready!

Posted on by
24

Thanksgiving is tomorrow.  The bird is thawed, everyone (except me) has their dishes assigned to them, and I’ve got the house as ready as it’s going to get.

That’s right!  My dining room chairs are done!  We won’t all be sitting Indian style on the floor this year.  I know my 82 year old grandma will thank me.  However, they aren’t exactly ready to show yet because our electric sander blew up, then the replacement one broke, so I got the last one painted by the skin of my teeth last night and it’s still drying.

I spiffed up the front porch to greet my turkey eaters.

 And made a happy little vignette in the entrance.

If you come over later for leftover turkey sandwiches, I’d appreciate it if you would pretend not to notice the wonky candle on the right.  Either we have a ghost harboring a beef with candles, or that one is suicidal.  It fell to it’s almost death, but we revived it enough to attend Thanksgiving.  Wonkily.

And that brings us to the much agonized over dining room table.

A shredded piece of burlap and a hand-me-down pumpkin table runner.  And that’s the toolbox out of the carpenter’s chest that’s in the powder room.

I filled it with fakey leaf garland and cinnamon scented pine cones.  (Oh ho ho.. I spy a couple blue chairs.)

I picked up five glass, uh, hurricane things, five bags of pinto beans, and some tea lights from the dollar store. 

Mom lent me the little turkey tea light holders on the ends, and Junior gathered the pinecones that are scattered on each side when we were in Colorado.

And I must say, I am rather pleased with my $11 Thanksgiving table.

Are you all ready to go?  Tables set?  Wonky candles lit?

Hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving!

Share

Turkey Table

Posted on by
25

My grandma came over for a visit recently, and brought some pumpkin doughnuts to share with us. 

Me:  Want some coffee?

Her: Yep!

Me: OK, I’ll go get D.

True story.  I’m rather inept in the kitchen, so imagine my dismay at hosting Thanksgiving.  The safest bet is to leave D in charge of the turkey, and just make all our guests bring everything else.  Brilliant hostess plan, no?

So instead of worrying about the noms, I’ve been focusing on making sure the house is pretty.  With all of my one dining room chairs.  Of course, Pinterest is a constant source of inspeeeratiun.

(via)

(via)

But unfortunately for me, everyone just sort of jumps from Halloween to Christmas now so I didn’t find anything Thanksgiving-y on my shopping excursion.

I did, however, end up with a load of Christmas stuff at 50% off.  Thanks, Hobby Lobby!

But it looks like I’ll be left to my own devices this Thanksgiving, and have started on the table just a little bit.

D: Are those… sticks?

Me: It’s driftwood and it’s classy!

I’ve obviously got some tweaking to do.  Got any good ideas?  Shoot them my way!

Share

They Can’t All Be Winners..

Posted on by
21

Yesterday, while my main man was working outdoors, and my little man was napping, I got bit by the crafty bug.

Dun, dun, DUNNNNNNN!!!

I remembered that we have a perfectly good pallet leaning against the trailer we still have on our property full of leftover building material.. So I ran out and asked D if we needed it for any particular reason.

D: ~suspicious face~  No.  Why?

Me: Cause I’m feeling CRAF-TAY!  ~runs away cackling~

I grabbed my trusty hammer and was ready to smash that sucker to smithereens,

When a broken piece of slate caught my eye.

Me: Do you need this??

D: WHY

Me: ~runs away cackling~

I abandoned the pallet wood and took my slate in instead.  I laid it out and penciled on a favorite lyric of mine. 

“Take the time to take my breath”

10 cool points to anyone that can name that song!  (Hint: It’s this one)

I used the same paint I’m using on the dining room chairs and when I was finished, I felt very “meh” about it.

And half hid it behind some more preferable decor.

I think I might scrap it and go back to the pallet idea. 

What do you think?  Have you finished any “meh” projects lately?

Share

Dining Room Chairs

Posted on by
28

I have this theory.  Well, I have lots of theories.  But today’s theory is this: If you say things outloud, the universe answers you faster than if you simply think about them.  (I say universe instead of God, because I’m just not arrogant enough to believe God cares about where my bum rests when I eat.)

Usually, the universe likes to slap me around and keep me in my place.  For example… Me: I want to win the lottery and pay off my student loans! Universe: ~makes Amy step in puddle~

But sometimes I’m thrown a bone.  On the very day I posted about our completed dining room table, I said that I needed to get serious about finding some chairs.  Later that afternoon, I got on Facebook and a friend had four antique chairs he was selling.  Bam!

40 bucks, so we’re right around $100 for the entire dining room furniture set.  Win!

When we went to pick them up, D was all “Blargggg, this looks like a lot of work.”  I told him this was my project and he wouldn’t have to lift a pretty little finger.  He didn’t believe me, but I proved him wrong.  Oh yes I did.  (DIDN’T I, D?!)  Gloating is a sign of a healthy marriage, yes?

Now I will share another theory with you: If I keep a generally neutral space, I can change the over all feel of it more often with just accent pieces.  So I decided that for $40, I could afford to have a little fun with these chairs.

Lucky for me, they sanded really easily.

I was going to town, sawdust flying everywhere when D informed me that I didn’t have to strip ALL the color… just the shiny stuff.

Oh.

Things moved much faster after that.

I decided I didn’t want an overly distressed look, but I didn’t want them to look brand new either, so I left some places juuuust unpainted enough to make people wonder if I did it on purpose.

I totally did.

And there you have it!  Our brand new, blue dining room chairs.

I’ll wait until I’ve got all four done to share how they look with the table… but so far?  Me likey.

Share

Dining Room Table: The “Finally” Edition

Posted on by
40

We’ve been in the house for about, oh, 5 months now and have just had a giant gaping hole where the dining room set up should have been.   We sold our other set knowing that we D was going to build us a new one.  Some of you have followed this progress on Instagram (@amymccarter_br), but for the rest of you…. our table is done!

We got the legs from a table we bought for $25 at an antique store, then painted them black.

They had to come in first, because the table top is so unbelievably heavy.  It is made from three planks of apple wood that came out of the old BNSF (Santa Fe rail road) box cars that carried wine.  They were already a beautiful color, and I liked the remnants of detail, so D lightly sanded and then poly’d about three layers.

They weigh about 100 lbs each.  That is not an exaggeration.

I tried to help D carry it in.  Honestly, I did.  But my wimpy arms could barely lift it off the stand, so we had to call for back up in the form of Nate, D’s heterosexual life partner.

God bless that man.

I recall extra grunting and cursing at this point.

But they got it in without incident!  And used 4 1/2 inch black screws to fasten it directly to the legs.

You can see Nate’s hatred of my wimpy arms in his eyes.

But it’s in!  And I love it with my whole heart.

(Those are the flowers D brought me after being out of town.  D’awww…)

Next stop: Chairs!

 And something for that big blank wall.

 My favorite view.

We bought a huge stack of those boards, at about $15 a piece, plus the $25 for the legs.  We already had the poly and we used the same black paint as on the kitchen cabinets.  So we are in to this table for about $70.  Not bad… not bad…

Major props to my main man, D.  I am continually impressed with and proud of how hard he works to give us these beautiful and affordable things.

Share