Hit the CTMH Jackpot in June!

I am so excited! We have such an awesome special going on with Close To My Heart this month. June is Jackpot month, and each day there is another opportunity to win big on my CTMH website.Each day at 9:00 AM (Mountain time, so 11:00 our time) the daily special will be posted. It will either be a jackpot day or a goody bag day.

On Jackpot days, there will be five special items available at a reduced price with discounted shipping. One of these items is the "Jackpot" item; if you buy that item, you will win the jackpot shown for the day. If you are the type who prefers guarantees, you can make sure to win the jackpot by buying one of each item.

On Goody bag days, packages of current and recently retired products are available at 50% off (also with reduced shipping). These are a great way to stock up on CTMH favorites at unbelievable savings.

These specials are only available on my website, and must be purchased separately from other items. If you have any questions or trouble ordering, please email me and I will be happy to help you out.

Happy shopping, and I hope you all hit the Jackpot!

Close To My Heart

Yippie! I am now a Close To My Heart consultant. I had been a consultant (er, demonstrator) for another scrapbook-ish company previously, and although I loved the inks and markers, their style of available papers and stamps just didn't fit my personal craft style. I had heard about CTMH previously, but had never actually seen their products until I went to the Williamsburg crop at the end of April. I immediately fell in love!

My favorite product is probably the Close To My Heart My Acrylix stamps. Since they are on simple acrylic sheets instead of bulky wooden blocks, they are so easy to store. They are also a breeze to clean, and are super sturdy. It's also so much fun to mix and match stamps on a single My Acrylix block to create a collage effect.

Of course, the Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads, Exclusive Inks Markers, and coordinating Exclusive Papers are also awesome! All of the products, including the papers, use the CTMH Exclusive Colors, meaning it's super easy to coordinate all my projects.

I'm so excited about everything. I can't wait to do my first Home Gathering and host my first Workshop. If you live in the Northern Virginia area and are interested in earning some awesome free products, visit my website, and I'll show you how!

Sometimes even the best laid crafty plans go awry...

I have read about making your own laundry detergent on several blogs, including on the Dugger Family Website as well as this post on Sew Much Ado. Being into a whole "trying to make things myself just for the heck of it" phase, I was immediately interested in making some. Besides, in researching the "recipe", several places referred to the soap that is called for in the recipe as "very lightly scented", so I figured it would be up to my rigid standards for fragrances (anyone who knows me well is pretty much aware that I'm allergic to most artificial scents and some natural ones). I also have two friends who are going through phases of their lives where I thought this would make a cute crafty gift, so I figured, if I'm going to make some, make a lot of it. 

Thus, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I ended up ordering seven bars of the hard-to-find Fels Naptha soap that the recipe calls for. I had not originally intended to do so; I planned to buy three bars to make three batches. One for me, and one for each of my two friends as "crafty" gifts. However, as is often the case when something takes off in the bloggy world, this particular project has become quite popular all over the blogosphere. So, what is usually not all that difficult to locate (or so they say) is now next to impossible. Since I ended up ordering it online from this site, I figured it would make more sense if  I took advantage of the fact that it costs the same to ship seven bars as to ship one. Thus, the seven bars of Fels Naptha soap currently in my possession. 

I was excited about receiving my soap, and immediately tried to rip into the packaging. I slowed down a bit when I noticed an extremely strong odor coming from the package. Hmmmm....Perhaps this is not the package that I thought it was?

Alas, it was the correct package. The "lightly scented" Fels Naptha has one of the strongest scents of any soap I've ever seen (er, smelt?). Now, granted, there are seven bars in a small contained space, but still. Needless to say, my plans have currently been put on hold until I have a day when I can gulp down two Benadryls, two Ibuprofens, quickly finish the project, and then head straight to bed (to sleep off the Benadryl/Ibuprofen combination). In the meantime, I tried putting the soap into a Zip-top bag to help alleviate the smell, thusly: 

That did not help, so then I put the entire bag in a Wegman's grocery bag and tied it up tight, as so:

That helped some, but I was still having massive headaches just being in the same room with the stuff, so I put that bundle into yet another Zip-top bag, shown here:

No luck. By this point, I was wondering if I was going to have to Freecycle the whole lot because it seemed like that perfume was so potent that no amount of plastic was going to contain it. I was getting a wee bit flabbergasted about the whole project. But my lovely Mom (a.k.a. Woman) recommended that I try one more plastic bag layer, which I did, with this result:

This is what the soap currently looks like. One layer of paper and four layers of plastic (two of which are supposedly "air tight") between me and the potent aroma of "lightly scented" Fels Naptha soap.

I still am eager to make the stuff, and am very hopeful that once I mix up the recipe that the smell of a single batch won't be so strong as it is now. Otherwise, I'll end up having to make it and give it all as gifts, which wouldn't be so bad either. :-)

Some of my Thrifty Finds in Action

For this post, I am going to show some of my thrifty finds in action. Most of the time, I just use my thrifty finds as-is. So far, I haven't needed to do anything in the way of spray painting or re-purposing my finds as I tend to shop for things that can fit my decor just as they are. Although, the vintage valet stand (which you see below) was purchased with the intention of painting it antique white and distressing it, and then using it either to hold some of my really long necklaces  or perhaps to display a vintage quilt. However, after much uproar from my roommate, my friends, my mom, and my personal trainer, I have decided against painting it. I am going to leave it as is, and sell it to someone who likes it in its ugly "wood colored" glory.

So here we go...

Firstly:

This is a picture showing various items that are currently on the hearth of my fireplace, including the vintage valet stand. I am not a fan of that dark old fashioned kind of wood, but evidently I am in the definite minority as I have had several people tell me if I painted it, they'd kill me. You can also see a fabulous wire basket on top of the small faux fireplace. That was another thrift store find (the basket; not the faux fireplace) and I love it! Right now it is basically not being used but I have a fabulous idea for some cool balls to put in there. The famous shutters are also visible on either side, as are two really cool candle sticks. I didn't have to do anything to them either, as they were already cream colored with some awesome distressing going on.

Next:

This focuses on the mantel portion of my fireplace. Most of the items up there were thrifted. The awesome cherub lamp on the end was 10.00. I had been eyeballing it for two weeks, but finally gave in because it actually works and was just what I had been looking for. Then beside it are three various brass candle sticks of varying height and styles. I think they give it a nice eclectic look. Beside the candle sticks is an awesome mantel clock. It isn't really a mantel clock, but really just a plastic reproduction, but from a distance, you can't even tell! Then there's the large resin candle stick, whose mate is in another corner of the room at the moment. I thought it would be too big for the mantel, but it really helps to add height up there. The mirror in the awesome gold frame was part of my latest thrifty excursion, and was only 6.00! Then the plate beside it was a buck or two. It is resting on a plate stand from Home Goods (not thrifted obviously, but replaced an awesome wine themed one in the dining room that was thrifted, so it sort of fits). Beside that is a stack of thrifted vintage books with a really cool (at least I think so) cheruby, fountainy thing that I put some vines in to add a splash of green. And finally, an awesome silver (I think it's real) tea pot for 4.00 that had just exactly the right amount of tarnish on it.

If you look to the left of the mantel, you'll see a vintage mirror. Here's a close up of it:

It's not my favorite thing (and man does this picture show that it needs to be cleaned a little better!) but it sort of "matches" (more coordinates with really) the other vintage mirror to the other side of the door, shown here:

They are approximately the same size and both have gold toned frames, so I thought they played nicely off each other.

Next we have a couple pics showing a few various knick knacks and the like:

This one is kind of hard to see, but the milk glass bowl/vase thingee is thrifted, as is the turquoise candy dish/bauble holder dish thingee. I don't collect the old timey colored glass (at least not yet), so it's kind out of place in my living room,  but it reminded me of some of the things my Mammaw used to have, so it's kind of an homage to her.

Then below you can see a couple more pieces of milk glass as well as a really cool wash basin/pitcher set (between my two Renn Faire mugs). The basin set reminds me of my days growing up in a Primitive Baptist church where we actually had "foot warshin" once a year. We used much bigger basins for that, but they looked just like this set otherwise. This is my one piece that came from an antique store. I later found another set at the Salvation Army thrift store in Annendale VA that was actually more than this set, so I think I got a pretty good deal.

Finally, here is a pic of an adorable silver (not sure if it's real) tea set:

Those are 5x7 photos in the background, so you can see it's not very big. But neither is it a "Mineature", so I'm not sure why it's at that specific scale. I think it was probably intended to be used during "high tea" and needed to be small to fit on the larger tea tray, but someone who knows more about those kinds of things would have to confirm.

So that pretty much wraps up the thrifty items in my living room. I have several thrifted items in my dining room, but will save those for another post. I just wanted to show some of the things that I have collected on recent lunch-time and weekend excursions to the fabulous thrift stores in Leesburg VA!

My Dining Room--Before

This post is about the horror of my current dining room situation.

Here is a picture of the back of the kitchen cabinets above the kitchen sink. If you look closely you can see through to the stove (with a lovely backs plash that I did all by my lonesome!). You can also see how dark it is in there. There is absolutely zero natural light that can make it through to the kitchen. None!

Here is a picture of the longest wall in my dining room, in all its wall papered glory. You can just see the edge of my "secretary" desk over in the corner. Of course the wall is longer than this (not by much!), but this is just to give you an idea of the awful wall paper:

Lastly, here is a full on picture of the secretary and the little attempts at decoration that I've made on that side of the room (notice the wine theme?)

I'm not going to show you the final (and shortest) wall right now because that would entail showing you my completely "naked" shelves that are only half organized and half a mess. But it's more of the same.

Plans for this room are to take down the wall paper and remove the divider between the two rooms (and figure out how to get some additional storage space back once I've done so). Then the top half (currently wall papered) will be painted a sort of wine-ish color (Rambling Rose from Sherwin Williams) and the bottom half (currently wood colored bead board) will be painted Antique White and glazed with an antiquing glaze to give it a softer look.

Technically this post is only the "before" part of a "Before and After" but I wanted everyone to be able to see the hideousness that is my dining room before we got started on the improvements. Once they're done you can be sure I'll shout it from the rooftop (or I would if I could get up there). Then I'll be able to start on my upstairs bathroom and my bedroom. But one step at a time I always say...

Welcome to my new blog!

I am giving Blogger another chance now that they have updated their platforms and supposedly made posting easier. I may end up back over at Wordpress, but for now, here I am. I hope you like the new look. I added a custom background and banner courtesy of Karen over at The Background Fairy (also of The Graphics Fairy fame). Thanks Karen for being so generous!

In case this is your first time stumbling upon my blog, I post about whatever strikes my fancy, so you may find anything from recipes to craft projects to decorating ideas to whoops of joy about my latest thrifty find. I welcome comments, suggestions, new ideas, and new bloggy friends, so feel free to say hi. And I'd love to have you "follow" me if you're so inclined.

So, thanks again for reading and I hope you find something interesting while you're here.