Tea Giveaway

One of my dear friends has started a lovely blog about her stories, travels, and love of tea. Currently, she is hosting a giveaway for a DAVIDsTEA perfect tea set, put together especially by her.

 

Head on over by clicking here. While you're there, stay a while and have a look around. She has some really big plans for her newfound blogging journey, so make sure to bookmark and check back often!

Spring Cleaning Quick Tip

 

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way getting paid for this product review. J and I were wandering around The Container Store last Sunday and I came across these little plastic interlocking drawer organizers.

 

They were $5.99 so I figured it wouldn't be a huge loss if they turned out to be junk. I have a small makeup drawer in our bathroom that was in desperate need of organization, and these were actually short enough to allow the drawer to close properly. The added bonus is that you can configure them into any size, shape, and layout that your little heart desires.

 

This morning, while preheating the oven for breakfast, I figured I'd do something productive. I wound up only using about one and a half of the strips (package includes 5), so I have plenty left over for other organization projects. I also picked up a pack of the larger (ie. taller) sized ones for my dresser drawers.

 

The verdict? Totally worth the $6. These are simple to use, they break apart easily, and they are totally customizable. The only con is that they can slide around inside the drawer. This isn't an issue if you fill the entire drawer with them, but I only needed it in half of my makeup drawer so it does shift a tiny bit. All in all though, I'm happy. It was cheap, simple, and did exactly what I needed it to do!

 

Craft Studio Renovation

We did it! Finally, after months of debate and procrastination, we buckled down and completely renovated my studio. We repaired the walls and ceiling (from our adventure in homeowners claims), painted every surface that could possibly be painted, ripped out the carpet, and replaced the flooring and trim. AND we did it all in about two days, including the time it took me to move my stuff back into the room... and I have a lot of stuff.

 

It isn't 100% completed yet, but I am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. It is such a drastic change from the way the room was previously that it's hard to believe that the pictures are even from the same house.

 

Here is how the room looked when we first moved in, and after my stuff was set up (click for larger images):

 

Pretty boring, right? The carpet and the walls were basically the same color, which made the room look completely blah. The fan is also totally dated, and we haven't replaced it as of yet, but it is on the list of little finishing touches for the room.

 

Regardless of lack of style, the initial pictures of the studio still look infinitely better than it did after our little leak issue:

 

That was a fantastic day. Mold, water, gross stuff... fun times. Really fun times. After having everything professionally dried up and torn out, the room sat in a state of disrepair while we worked on renovations to our downstairs. Since that is our main living space, the studio and it's adjoining bathroom we're put off until last. The bathroom is next weekend's project, but I digress...

 

Back to the current studio work:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd also like to take this opportunity to show off the craft table that J built for me. I need to refinish the top, but it is a beast in terms of storage capabilities. Plus, it only cost a fraction of what the similar tables from Pottery Barn sell for.

 

 

 

And there you have it! I still need a rug, a new light fixture, and some wall decor, but the major construction work is done. I'm going for a Cape May, NJ theme with the room, since my dollhouse reminds me of the brightly colored Victorian houses there. I want some large vintage postcard prints, and I'm going to try to encorporate some very subtle beachy items into the room (rope, stripes, sand dollars, etc). I'm going to carry the theme into the adjoining bathroom as well, but it will be painted gray, instead of the blue. So stay tuned for that project because if the studio is any indication of what we can do in a weekend, we should have that bathroom done even faster!