Christmas | It's Great To Be Home

Fabulous Finds: Holiday Edition

December 3, 2010 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 2 Comments

Happy Friday, everyone!!

There must be something in the air this holiday season, because everywhere I look bloggers are coming up with crazy awesome ideas for decorating, entertaining, and generally being festive. Want a peek at what I’ve found?

Snuggle up with your loved ones in front of the fire, wrapped in a handmade throw like the one Janell made. Or even better, sew one up as a thoughtful gift!
I can’t wait to try out these Spicy Holiday Oatmeal cookies that Christy made – the girls at the gift exchange I’m going to next week will love them, I’m sure.
Place settings never looked so dapper – at your holiday party, whip out a tried and true Martha special – the napkin gift bow – that I spied on Apartment Therapy.
Want a festive look without a lot of fuss? I think Paula hit the nail on the head with her holiday decor.
What could be a more perfect gift than one from the heart? Linds B’s framed love note is just the ticket (and it’s practically a free gift!).
Black, silver, white and green are colors that don’t scream Christmas, and I think that’s why they look so fab on Julie’s tree.
Hosting an impromptu gathering at your house? How about a sugar-sweet cookie decorating party like the one thrown by Kate for her kiddos?
Need a festive wreath in a hurry? Grab some paper and crank one out with this tutorial from Design*Sponge.
These darling pom-poms found on Full House would make a fab garland on a kids’ tree (and would be a fun family project).

What’s getting you in the holiday spirit this season? For me, it’s snuggling in front of the fire – I look forward to that all year long!

P.S. Even though I’m on the Internet for a ridiculous amount of time each day, I’m sure there are tons of great things out there in blogland that I haven’t found yet! If there’s a project that you think should be featured on the next installment of *Fabulous Finds*, please send me an email to give me a heads up!

Baby Steps – Tackling The Garage

March 8, 2010 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 4 Comments

I’m giddy beyond belief that we can now do something that we haven’t been able to do since we moved into our house over a year ago – park not one but TWO cars in the garage!!!

It’s pitiful that it’s taken us this long to whip the garage into shape but, then again, this is what our garage looked like when we moved in – pretty much filled to the brim with random things left over from the renovation. Not pretty!!

Fast forward one year, and our garage still looked like this:

I know, there’s no excuse!! I’m blaming it partially on being a DIY-er – I hate to get rid of anything that could even possibly be used in some sort of project sometime in the future. Everything has potential, right? Of course, the other explanation for the disaster of a garage is that I have a serious problem when it comes to tackling large mounds of junk – I get intimidated and wind up just leaving it there for way too long. Sad, I know.

After awhile, we kind of stopped trying and would just leave things wherever they happened to fall.

Am I the only one guilty of this?

Anyway, over the weekend I had finally had enough. The weather was beyond gorgeous and I was suddenly filled with inspiration – I was going to tackle the garage (and luckily my hubby was more than willing to jump in and help). Here was my plan:

1. Make piles. We started out with 4 main piles – trash, garage sale, keep in the garage, and take in the house to go through. The small trash went straight into the garbage can and the bigger stuff went to our side yard to wait for bulk trash pickup. The garage sale stuff migrated to the side of the garage where it will live until we finally get around to having a garage sale, and the stuff that we needed to go through went into the house. At that point, all that was left was the stuff that needed to stay in the garage.

As a random aside, we found a box of old wallpaper – remember the fuzzy gold stuff from our entryway and the black & white flocked wallpaper from our bordello-inspired powder room?

Yup, that’s it! That gave us quite a giggle.

2. Make smaller piles. The “stay in the garage” stuff was then divided and organized – moving blankets were folded and put in boxes, empty storage containers were stacked, Christmas goodies were piled together, garden hoses were rolled up, etc.

3. Find places for stuff. We decided to put the smaller things on the shelves to keep them from getting unruly – all the bigger stuff went around the perimeter of the garage. This might not be the approach that everybody would take, but it works for us because it leaves the middle of the garage open for cars.

4. Whip out the broom. I was shocked by how much random debris we had in the garage – dirt, leaves, dust, you name it it was in there. You might want to wear a bandana or something around your nose and mouth so that you don’t breathe all of that nastiness in – I was sneezing and stuffy for the rest of the day, so clearly I should have thought ahead on that one!!

After just a few hours of work, this is how our garage looks now:

You might not see a huge difference, but let me tell ya – now we can actually find things and my car gets to live in the garage instead of the driveway. I’m a happy camper!!

Of course, there’s still a ton of things that I’d like to do to make the garage even more functional, and maybe even a little attractive. I’m envisioning a system of wall hooks to hang our real estate stuff, a painted garage floor & a new paint job on the walls & shelving (it has a gross, speckled look now), and maybe even a little work table in that back right-hand corner next to the sink. We’ll see if another bout of motivation strikes!

What about you guys? Did you tackle any projects around the house? And am I the only one that could only fit one car in her two-car garage?

A Dash Of Doily

December 30, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 12 Comments

“Doily” is my favorite word – is that weird? Say it a few times and I think you’ll become a fan, too – doily, doily, doily, doily . . . or maybe it’s just me?

Anyhoo, when I first ran across this project I just knew I had to try it – anything that cute that involves a doily is right up my alley.

A few weeks before Christmas I assembled all the goodies I needed:

~ canvas totes (they range from $3 – $9 at Michaels, depending on how fancy you want to get – I went for the middle-of-the-road $6 ones)

~ fabric paint in the color(s) of your choice (use fabric paint instead of craft paint because it’s washable)

~ spray adhesive

~ doilies in the sizes and shapes of your choice (I found them in the cake decorating aisle at Michaels)

~ foam brush

~ exacto knife

~ self-healing mat or cutting board

~ typing paper & printer

My plan was to make 4 totes, one for each member of our fun family foursome – because of that, I grabbed 4 different colors of fabric paint, 4 totes and an array of doilies so that each chickie could have a slightly different tote. Once all the goodies were gathered, I got to work!

1. Wash & iron the totes. Some bags come pre-washed and shrunk, but I didn’t want to run the risk of my fabric paint peeling off because of some random residue on the totes. The ironing was necessary because those babies get seriously wrinkled!

2. Pick your poison. This is the part where you play with the doilies and arrange them on the totes in a variety of designs until you find the design that you like the best. I ultimately used a 10″ doily on mine with an “L” in the center, a 10″ and 8″ doily with an “M” for my aunt, and 16″ rectangle doilies for my mom and sister (all in different arrangements).

3. Spray and paint. You may be tempted to skip the spray adhesive, but let me warn you . . . don’t. The detail in the doilies is so fine that the paint will definitely seep under the doily and ruin all your beautiful work if you don’t secure those puppies with a liberal dose of spray adhesive. And the foam brush can also cause the paint to get a little, well, foamy, so keep an eye on how things are going.

4. Peel and admire. Isn’t it crazy how a doily can wind up looking so cool? And don’t fret if a little bit of the doily gets stuck to the tote – just grab a pair of tweezers and go to town.

5. Be exacting. Now that your doily has been perfectly transferred onto the tote, it’s time to paint on the initial, name, monogram, or whatever you’ve chosen. I just printed out the names in different fonts on regular typing paper, then followed the lines of the letters with an exacto knife.

Be sure to hold onto any closed letters (like the a, o and e above) so that you can use them as a guide to fill in the gaps.

6. Behold your awesome creation. These totes are really just too cute, don’t you think? I gave the totes to my mom, aunt and sister for Christmas and the plan is for us to use them on our future jaunts. I can’t wait!

In the meantime, my tote is great for holding my library books and for trips to the grocery store.