Jan 29 2013

Verifying Pinterest On A WordPress Blog

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Truthfully, I have been driving myself insane the last few weeks trying to verify my blog website on my Pinterest page. Everything I tried returned with a 404 website not found message. Finally, I fiqured it out.

  1.  Go to your Pinterest site and look under your name for the Settings tab. Scroll down to your email and click on the verify tab to the right.
  2. Follow the directions to copy the URL(not the meta tag options).
  3. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click on Pages > Add New.
  4. Title the page Pinterest.
  5. Under the Tools section on your web browser, click on the pinterest download ( should look something like pinterest-2ecf0.html (this is mine, yours will be similar)
  6. Right click on the file and click on Copy Downlink.
  7. In the section to place the text on your new page Left Click and Copy. Now click Publish.
  8. Go back to your Pinterest page and click #3 to complete.
  9. Congratulations. Your web site is now verified on Pinterest.

Pinterest

Jan 27 2013

Easy Ribbon Storage Project

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Organization is a huge struggle for almost everyone.  In the craft room, there are hundreds of “solutions” for the overload of ribbons, papers, materials, and embellishments that one collects easily.  Being a visual person, if the item cannot be seen then it probably doesn’t exist.  So, when faced with task in my new craft area in the basement, I wanted to develop an place that is colorful, comfortable and inspiring.

First, how to deal with ribbons.  Hobby Lobby had a great sale on jars for 50 percent off.

020 The next aisle over, I found some cute wooden finials to glue on top.

021 After spray painting the jar lids with primer, I spayed each lid with a bright, fun color.

023 When the lids were dry, I wrap some grosgrain ribbon around the sides of the lid.  The last step in the project was to wrap the various ribbons and trims around a wooden craft stick and place in the jars.

056 The jars look great sitting on a Salvation Army hutch that I found for $12,  It was originally an ugly brown, but it was easily transformed with some sanding and spray paint.

055 This is one solution out of many ideas for great storage.  What about you?  I would love to see some of your solutions.

See ya’ll later, Anita

 

Jan 24 2013

Recovering Plain Binders For A Custom Look

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Most everyone has a couple of plain, mismatched binders in their home, most likely, in their office.  Part of the rearranging and decorating of our family office space involves giving our binder collection a cohesive look.  I originally covered the binders in a tan striped material, but the material lacked any pizzazz against the newly tan walls.  So, act two involved a great maroon, tan, and green striped decorator fabric that I found for $9.99 a yard at the Jo-Ann’s Winter Sale.  At 54 inches wide, the width allowed for a lot of project mileage for a little investment.  Whatever material you choose, it needs to have some weight to handle repeated usage and the hot glue needed to apply the material to the binder.

Please note that the fabric doesn’t have to be cut perfectly.  The insides will be covered and any little mistakes will be hidden.

001 First, you must decide which binders to cover.  I covered my Blog, Home, Food, and Medical binders.

006 Next, you need to find some nice binder clips.  This line is from Martha Stewart at Staples.  I used coordinating cardstock to make my inserts.

016

Cut the material to allow about an inch around each side.  Heat up the glue gun and start at one of the short sides with the glue.  Flip the binder off and close it to glue the other side.  If you glue it while open it could be too tight to close.

019 Some of the D rings on the inside of the binder will not allow the material to fit under easily.  At this point, you can cut out a half moon to make it fit.

018 Almost there.  Now fold the corners and glue down the long sides.  Be careful, the glue is hot.

022 The next to last step is to cut an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of material to cover the inside flaps and to hide all the uneven edges and the glue.  The last step is to attach the binder clips and to insert your cardstock labels.  You can also use the inserts that come with the kit.

023 As you can see, these binders came out great.  Nothing wrong with the original effort except for style points.  One quick tip for applying the binder clips.  I lined mine up on the bookcase and applied them in this position.  Laying the binders flat makes it difficult to line the clips up evenly.

Okay, now it’s your turn.  I would love to see how yours turned out.  Give me a holler when you are done.

Now back to painting, Anita

Jan 22 2013

No More Pink Lamps For Sam

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One of the first things you would notice about my father-in-law’s home is the abundance of pink and baby blue in the decor.  After moving to Michigan to help care for him, my husband, Tim, and I knew that some major redecorating was in our future, except on a very limited budget.  Sam’s room looked more like a room for a little girl with the pink lamps and baby blue sheers.  With his dementia advancing rapidly, we need to block out the street lights that made him think that the sun was coming up ( at 2 am).  Sam is retired Navy and a proud PT boater.  We used a naval color scheme in his room and moved some of his naval mementos into his room where he could see them.  He also had some great recruitment posters down in the basement.  Since he could not navigate the stairs, we reframed the posters and put them up in his room.

Now, the pink lamps.  First, I spray painted them with a pewter color spray paint.  Next, I used the lampshade to roll out a pattern for the lampshade on a poster board.  Using the bottom edge of the poster board as a fold for the pattern, I cut out a new lampshade from some beach theme material.  Next, I glued the material to the lampshade.  Using the selvage, I folded it over at the overlap and glued it down.

It doesn’t take a lot of money to make your house a home, just a little ingenuity and some elbow grease.

Check back soon to see the progress on our office.  See ya’ll later.

 

Infamous pink lamp before refinishing with spray paint. Remember that the pattern is for halp the lampshade. Using the fold doubles the size. I used fabric glue with the first lampshade and my glue gun for the second. The glue gun is definitely easier. The finished project. It is a definite improvement over the pink version, especially in a man's room. New curtains, new bedding, a pillow from his brother, recruitment posters reframed, and lamps redone. Now this room is fit for a retired PT Boater.

Jan 15 2013

Miss Organized I Ain’t

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I love pinning beautiful photos onto my Home Sweet Organized Home Pinterest board and I dream of a beautifully organized home.  Some of my favorite bloggers have gorgeous homes with every nook and cranny sorted, labeled, and placed just so.  Little green monsters are egging me on as I write this post.  Of course, it doesn’t help that my husband just looked over my shoulder at the title and snorted, “You got that right!”  So what is a girl to do about the problem?

My Grandmother always told me, “if you don’t like it, fix it.”  My home is so far from organized that I am giving serious thought to just giving it all away and then starting over.  Wimpy, right?  January is as good a time as any to start making changes.

Where does one start?  Taxes are just around the corner so the office is a really good choice.  The piles of paperwork are threatening an avalanche as I type.

File it?  Shred it?  Make new piles?  I am not really happy with any of those choices.  Have set up filing systems before and the system never worked because, frankly, filing should be reserved for some level of Purgatory.  Piles are not working either.  Shredding works great until you need that piece of paper that somehow got made into compost.  Solution?  I think that scanning documents and filing on the computer is the way to go.  I have a scanner but setting up the file system stinks as much as manually filing.  Not to mention, the time it takes to scan and title each document.  Still like this solution, I am just not crazy about the process.  I have been eyeing the Neat Receipts scanner from the infomercials.  (You watch them too, so give a girl a break)  I took the plunge and ordered the system yesterday.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I have started going through the paper piles and getting ready to scan important documents.  Trying to imitate the great organizational bloggers I follow, I have set up binders for the home, food storage, medical, and for this blog.

Please don’t have too much fun laughing at my office because by the end of the month, I will be so organized that a chalkboard label would be proud to be seen in my home.  Speaking of a good laugh, I am posting two before pictures of my office.  I am putting my resolution to be more organized on the web.  No backsliding now.

When you catch your breath from the laughing, you can check back with me and Gasp! check out my next project – the pantry.

See ya’ll later, Anita

The paper avalanche sitting on my desk waiting for it's moment to cause havoc.

The paper avalanche sitting on my desk waiting for it’s moment to cause havoc.

This is the result of my half-brained early attempts to tame my organizational mess of an office.

This is the result of my half-brained earlier attempts to tame my organizational mess of an office.

 

Jan 13 2013

Happy Hunting in the Flea Market Jungle

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Happily perusing home decorating magazines makes finding the “new thing” seem easy.  Reality sets in quickly while wandering around crowded stalls and milling crowds of your local flea market.  Questions about prices, authenticity, and marketability freeze brain synapses with indecision.  How do you know what to buy?  Can it be repurposed?  Am I paying too much?

I admit it.  The first few times I shopped at a flea market, I came away empty-handed with more questions than answers and plenty of buyer’s remorse.  So what is a suitable plan of action for dealing with the jungle of treasures, junk and vendors?

  • Do your homework.  Recognizing a bargain takes more than luck.  When looking at those magazines take notes about items that give you a tingle or make you drool.  Any patterns developing?  Do you just love mid-century kitsch?  How about primitives?  Recognize what makes you happy and learn all you can about the subject.  Study websites, EBay, Pinterest, blogs, Craigslist or visit your library to check their references.  Become familiar with prices, names and characteristics of the period.  Be that educated consumer.
  • Make a wish list and check it twice.  Don’t become so star struck over an item that you blindly dump your wallet in the willing vendor’s hand.  Pull out that measuring tape and check it against your list of room dimensions.  What!  You don’t know if the object of your desire will fit in that perfect space you are seeing in your head.  Stop, breathe, and think. If the item still makes your heart flutter, then step up to the plate and bargain away.  Bargaining is to be expected, just remember that win-win is the goal.  Don’t be insulting.
  • Smile while you shop.  Nice people get the best bargains.  Ask questions and show interest.  Flea markets are addictive and vendors will recognize you after a few visits.  Cultivate those relationships.  Can’t find what you really want?  Your new friend can be your best lead.  Be patient and be prepared.

The best advice I can give someone new to the flea market scene is to be an educated passionate consumer.  When you find something that you love and will love to have in your home go ahead a buy it.  Buyers in the magazines need to fill pages of a magazine.  You are shopping for your home.  If you find something that you love, it will be a treasure to you.

Happy hunting!

The web site for Flea Market Decor has a great directory of flea markets in your area - http://www.fleamarketdecor.com/flea-market-directory-2/

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