Dream House

We’re back from vacationing with family in Wisconsin.  I hadn’t really ventured very far into Wisconsin before.  It’s pretty.  The thing about there being lots of cows is totally true.  Cows equal cheese.  I kind of liked it there.

So much so that I bought a house…

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In my dreams.

It was love at first sight with this house.  For me.  And Ike. Nate’s sister and her husband even mentioned it to me without knowing that I was already madly in love with it.   Fate, I tell you.

Nate wasn’t really into it.  He kills most of my fun.  He got hung up with the “it appears to be structurally sound” wording in the real estate listing. I’m sure it was just a poor choice of words.  Always a stickler for the details that husband of mine.

Side note:  Here’s some important information that you should know.  It’s a hard job being married to me.  I’m obsessive and compulsive. I want to move to every town we vacation in.

Having said that, I’m madly in love with this house and I haven’t even stepped foot in it.  Because Nate wouldn’t let me. And I don’t like to talk to strangers about setting up house tours.  I totally should have. *kicks self*  I have mentally moved into it though with a guess at what the floor plan is like.  Normal people do this, right? 

Don’t answer that.

Who’s going to buy this house so I can live vicariously through you?  Do you mentally move into houses?  Do you want to move to your vacation destinations?  Does your husband hate fun?

Decor and the Dog Gets Around

Nate, Ike and I are currently vacationing in Wisconsin with the family.  It’s quite lovely.  Even with the family.  ;)

While we are getting around the Midwest, Decor and the Dog is getting around the blogosphere.  Thanks to all that have shared our projects!  Let me return the blog love today.  Stop by these lovely blogs to check out other fantastic projects!

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The lovely folks at Pfister Faucets recently interviewed me. You can read the interview here! I answer fun stuff like why I started blogging and my love for Ike and DIY projects.

pfister interview

NewlyWoodwards shared our vertical garden.  Kim’s You-Must series is always full of fun ideas! (Follow up on the vertical garden on Friday!)

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Michelle over at Ten June has a new series called Tuesdays at Ten June.  She shared our vintage washboard collection.  Check out her post for more info on how to enter your projects!

Ten June

Amanda at Serenity Now shared our Instagram crib frame display.  Her post is full of lots of Instagram inspiration!

Serenity Now

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Don’t forget to enter the fun giveaway from Hello! Enter here!

Did you find any new blogs or great projects?  Did you learn anything from my Pfister interview?

Craft Night-Pottery

I have a tip for you all today.

I highly recommend you get yourself a craft night group.  My craft night group is super fun.  I wouldn’t say any of us are extraordinary crafters.  (We just like to think we are.)  Crafting is something that we all enjoy.  My craft night group just happens to be extra adorable.  (Not a requirement. Just a bonus.)

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My favorite part of craft night is trying crafts that I wouldn’t do on my own.  For instance, the Thursday before last I used a pottery wheel for the first time.  This is definitely something I would not have attempted without the support/pushing/shoving of craft night.

We headed to the Family Museum in Bettendorf for adults only time in the pottery studio. 

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Pottery was the idea of one of the craft night members that couldn’t attend.  Super sad.  We all enjoyed it so I’m sure we’ll go back again!

We started by making pots without the wheel. Boring.  It totally brought back memories from middle school art.

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And then we each got a turn on the wheel.  Super scary and exciting all at the same time.

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Our instructor was filling in that evening.  I bet he was totally regretting covering that shift.  I kid.  (Sort of.)  He was amazingly patient with us.

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Using a pottery wheel is no joke.  I was pretty horrible at it but it was still fun.

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Kim, however, was a pro at making a shot glass.  The size was totally on purpose.  Wink, wink. It turned out quite adorable.

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Here’s my finished pot.  Such skill.  It reminds me of a Fiestaware bowl.

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Oh wait.  That was the bowl of a talented lady that was working while we were there.  She made the wheel look easy. 

Here’s my actual pot.  He’s cute.

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I think I’m going to open my own studio.  What do you think?

Do you have a craft night group?  Have you tried your hand at a pottery wheel?  Any awesome crafts we should try at our next craft night?

Hello to Hello Products + Giveaway

This article is sponsored by hello™.  All opinions are my own.  They’re a hip company and allow me to write whatever I want (which you all know can be dangerous).

Let’s play a game.  There will be prizes.  Pretty prizes.

hello breath spray

How about two truths and a lie?  Always a fun one.  (For those of you that haven’t played before.  I will list two truths and one lie.  You need to determine which is which.)

a: I am the world’s messiest neat person.
b: I love birds.
c: I once had an emergency root canal on my front tooth.

What’s your guess?  Think hard.  I told you there would be prizes, right?

B is a total lie.  I hate birds.  You can’t trust anything with pointy beaks.  Seriously.  Someday people will listen to me. When birds attack.  It’s bound to happen.

That leaves A and C as being truths.  And they both relate to today’s post.  Amazing how that works, right?

Let’s start with A.  I am the world’s messiest neat person.  My living room must be spotless.  My kitchen counters must shine.  The fridge must be free of finger smudges.

But my hair gel.  All over the place.  Caps are never put on any product.  My toothpaste is a total hot mess.  There is crusty toothpaste on the cap so there is no possible way to close it.  The tube is always wrinkled.  Who squeezes from the bottom?  Weirdos.

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Nate refuses to share anything with me because he gets so irritated at me destroying tubes and not closing caps.  (This coming from the dude that will hop over a laundry basket in a doorway.)
We have a vacation coming up and we are trying not to double up on packing items that we can share (like toothpaste and mouthwash). 

hello products offered us some products to test out.  Not only are they good for your teeth but they also come in pretty packaging.  (Pretty is always important with me.  Usually over function.)

hello dental products

How fun are those packages??? hello isn’t just a pretty face.  They are the first line of seriously friendly oral care. The products debuted in March. hello promises a friendly mouth!  The products do not contain artificial sweeteners, dyes or alcohol. The products were designed by BMW DesignworksUSA, which explains their fancy appearance.

All of the products are made in the USA using naturally derived ingredients wherever possible. The products are never tested on animals. Flavors include supermint, pink grapefruit mint, mojito mint, and sweet cinnamint."

I tried (and am still using) the supermint toothpaste, the pink grapefruit mint mouthwash and the mojito mint breath spray

I was super skeptical about a grapefruit mint mouthwash. It’s crazy.  It’s like this delicious grapefruit taste at first and then a nice mint once you spit.  My mind is blown.  Seriously. I’m still trying to figure it out.

The breath sprays are quite tasty.  Perfect for us non gum chewers.  The package is cute and fits nicely in my purse (also a mess hole). 

The toothpaste has a strong mint flavor.  It was a little strong for me at first but I am a big fan after using it a few times.  My mouth has never felt cleaner. The extra bonus is the awesome packaging, which has proven hard for me to ruin. Impressive work, BMW DesignworksUSA.  I give hello a gold star for that one.

hello toothpaste

Now onto C.  I am super particular about what dental products I use.  About 4 years ago, I was out in the yard with Ike.  I bent down to pet him and he jumped up into my face.  He ended up moving one of my front teeth.  I called the dentist and he popped the tooth back into place and he thought I would be fine. I followed up a week later and my tooth was dying.  I needed an emergency root canal that day or I would lose my front tooth. The tooth was saved but it is still sensitive so I have to be careful with the dental products that I use.  No issues with hello!  It’s also a good thing that dog of mine is cute!

Hello Ike

Side note: hello is not for dogs.  Ike has his own toothpaste.  He was just jealous of the awesome packaging of my toothpaste.  He also has a thing for pretty new things.  Just like his mother.

Want to try hello products out yourself?

Currently you can purchase hello products at Walgreens and in select Targets. More retailers are coming soon! You can also purchase hello products online at  soap[dot]com, vine[dot]com or drugstore[dot]com.

Want a coupon?  Who doesn’t love coupons?  Take $1.00 off any hello toothpaste, mouthwash or breath spray. To access the coupon, “like” hello on Facebook and then click on the “coupons” box under the “like” button. Coupons are limited to one per person.

You can also enter a little giveaway (via rafflecopter) for a free breath spray.  It’s a cute, free breath spray.  Can you go wrong?

a Rafflecopter giveaway


What hello products are you excited to try?  Are you a sucker for pretty packaging?  Did you win the two truths and a lie game? 

14 Creative Copper Projects

I have a new title to add behind my name besides pharmacist and blogger.  I’m now a curator. 

Fancy, right?  I thought so.

The fine folks over at hometalk liked our DIY console table tutorial.  Especially the use of copper for the legs.

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They asked me to curate a collection of awesome copper projects from the interwebs.  Copper is such a fun metal and I fell in love with these creative uses from other hometalk users!  (Click the photo below or visit my clipboard for other great copper projects!)

14 Creative Copper Projects

Row 1: Penny Fireplace, Coffee Table, Bathroom Vanity

Row 2: Console Table, Kitchen Sink, Barn Sign

Row 3: Repurposed Headboard, Gazing Ball, Coffee Table

Row 4:Copper Mobile, Teacup, Roof

Are you a copper fan?  Are you a hometalk member?

***I was not compensated by hometalk.  I just like sharing.  Maybe I should add over-sharer to my credentials.***

Vintage Washboard Collection

I have a thing with collections.  I like the thrill of the hunt. 

I have a globe collection.  I can no longer cram any more globes in the office so I needed something new to collect.  I turned my ever short attention to vintage washboards.

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I’d pick them up here and there from antique stores. I had 3 or 4 just hanging out in my laundry room closet.  For like the past year.  Or two.  I picked up a few more this past weekend to finish out the ol’ collection.

Vintage Washboards in Laundry Room

I’m using these boards as a reminder of how far the human race has come in terms of laundry.  I need to appreciate my lovely washer and dryer. 

Vintage Washboards in Laundry Room

Wait, who am I kidding?  Laundry is still horrible.  At least I now have a pretty collection to look at.

Vintage Washboards in Laundry Room
Vintage Washboards in Laundry Room

Ike just wants to know if his blanket is clean yet.  He gets cold at night after his recent hair cut. (He also wasn’t into modeling. He had just woken up from a nap.  A nap in my blankets.)

Vintage Washboards in Laundry Room

Now I need something new to collect.  Suggestions?  Are you a collector?

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New Arrival

There’s something I’d like to share with you all.

Grey and white chevron quilt from Sew Midwestern

There’s a new baby quilt available over at Sew Midwestern!  Super exciting right???

I love messing with people about babies.  Everyone keeps expecting me to be pregnant.  Last week I really wanted a kid.  This week, not so much.  Anyone want to co-parent with Nate and I? One week we have the kid, the next week you have it.  Genius, right?  I’m sure the kid wouldn’t be maladjusted at all.  (Don’t send me hate mail. I’m totally joking.  Or am I?)

All joking aside, the above quilt is lovely.  I kind of wanted to keep it for Ike. I will totally have about four when the time comes for me to give up sleep.  I mean, cuddle a bundle of joy.

Kim and I worked on this lovely quilt together.  These quilts are a labor of love. The quilt  features carefully-chosen 100% cotton fabric.  It is machine pieced and straight-line quilted. (Not easy tasks.)  It is then pre-washed for a soft, broken-in feel. Many woman hours went into creating this handmade keepsake.

Grey and white chevron quilt from Sew Midwestern

Grey and white chevron quilt from Sew Midwestern

We hope you all love it as much as we do!

See more quilt options at Sew Midwestern!

Have a fabulous weekend!  My family is in town which means junk shopping galore!  Woo hoo!

Who loves chevron quilts?  Anyone interested in co-parenting? (I kid. I kid.)

Bathroom Progress

Do you remember when I told you about us partnering with The Tile Shop to spruce up our master bathroom?  Yeah, I barely remember since we last discussed the tile at  end of May.  Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?

Zero Summer weekend plans quickly turned into weekends full of fun and celebration.  We figured the tile would wait.  And it did.  Good tile.

Here’s a refresher on what we were starting with.  Not bad but there was some room for improvement.

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We decided to tackle one of the vanities this past weekend.  I’m not sure why it takes us 100 times longer to do a DIY project than it used.  Must be old age.  Young Nate and Michelle would have that entire bathroom tiled and crown molding hung.  (Okay, maybe not but that’s how I would like to remember our youth. Go with it.)

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Nate removed the old mirror with a pry bar. The tape was on the mirror to help prevent the mirror from shattering.  We safely removed the mirror with no breakage.  We carried it to the garage and then I accidently set it down too hard and it cracked.  Go team Michelle.

Our next step was to determine if we wanted to place the tile horizontally or vertically. 

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Nate was big on the vertical.  I was impartial. My brain had trouble visualizing the vertical.  I decided to trust Nate.  He has pretty decent taste.  I mean, he’s married to me.  We understand that the vertical is a personal preference.  We have all intentions of this being our forever (or at least a very, very long time) home so we went for it.

We first applied the Pro Mastic to the wall. I was most concerned about this step beings we used The Tile Mat in our kitchen.  I'll write a post comparing the two in the future.  The mastic was easy to work with.  My only complaint was the smell.  But I also had that complaint about Nate that day as well and I keep him around.

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We didn’t do so well with math on the first row.  There was just a sliver of a tile on the end.  I didn’t photograph it because we were pretty stressed out at that point.  We were able to remove all of the tile safely and fix our error.  It was pretty smooth sailing after that.  Until we realized that the right side of the wall is not straight.  There were some foundation issues during our build.  Our builder did an overall great job of correcting the foundation errors.  We are just finding more of the errors as we do further projects to the house. I guess we are getting that old home “character” that we were wanting. 

Side note.  I do not recommend doing a new arm workout before installing tile on a wall.  You will want to crawl up in a ball and cry.  Not that I would know.

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28,000 hours later, we had a lovely tiled wall.  Okay, it wasn’t quite 28,000 hours.  We’re just impatient.  It was probably more like 3-4.  Nate and I have decided to start a tile installation business.  We’ll charge by the hour.  We’re going to billionaires.

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We still need to grout.  And complete the entire other vanity. Look for that update in October.

Are you a fan of vertical tile?  Is it hard for you to complete DIY projects with a smelly spouse?  Is old age slowing your DIY projects?

Ike picked the winners of the Frosty Paws Travel packs.  Was your pup a lucky winner? Find out here!

Exploring the Caves

Well, hello.  How are you all?

I hope all of our American readers had a fantastic 4th.  I hope all of our non-American readers had an awesome first week of July.

We had a great 4th.  I love Independence day.  It’s a holiday that it isn’t accompanied by a lot of obligations and “rules”.  You just celebrate as you please.  Nate and I decided that we would use the 4th of July for a fun day.  No housework. No yard work.  No grown-up stuff.  No “fun” activities that we do on a regular basis.  (AKA watch a movie at home, walk in town, DIY crap.  Party animals.)

We started celebrating on Wednesday night by enjoying caramel corn and fireworks by the Mississippi.  The Mississippi has flooded at least 100 times over the past two months so we didn’t have a great viewing angle. And it smelled raunchy. Eh. Still pretty.  (If you want to see all of our fireworks photos, check out our Flickr!)

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On the 4th, we decided to hike at a park we hadn’t been to.  We decided on the Maquoketa Caves State Park. It’s about 30 minutes from our house.

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We decided to take the fur ball too.  I made him take his tie off for the occasion.   He told me celebrating was his job and he takes it seriously.

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We arrived at the park.  We were assuming Ike wouldn’t be allowed in the caves but the Park Ranger said he could go anywhere he wanted to go.  He might, however, come out a brown dog instead of a white one.  Ike told us “YOLO” and we headed into the park.

The trails were great. 

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The place was beautiful.  And Ike LOVED hiking.  He smiled the entire time.  Everyone (seriously, everyone) laughed when we walked by with him.  He was hopping over downed trees.  Climbing rocks.  Loving life even more that usual.

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In the park some kid was like “Hey, Mom.  Is this free?”  The mom said yes.  The kid was all like “Are you sure?  Because it’s fun.”  Youths.  But the kid was right.  Free and fun.

You have to crawl to get into most of the caves. My claustrophic self wasn’t really into that.  We did enjoy a few caves you could walk through.

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We felt like we were on vacation at the park.  Probably because we hike on a lot of our vacations and we, obviously, don’t do it enough at home.  We’ve decided to check out one new place each month during the Summer and Fall.  Let’s hope being adults doesn’t hold us back!  I’m pretty sure this guy won’t let that happen.

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Have you ventured somewhere new in your area recently?  Did you enjoy the 4th?  Does your dog smile when he hikes?

Frosty Paws Travel Pack Giveaway

This post is for the dogs.

Did you know that Summer is Ike’s favorite season?

There’s nothing he loves more than sunbathing.

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He’s a grill master.

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He also loves hanging out at the lake on family vacation. (Aww, baby Ike.)

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We all know that it’s hard for pups to keep cool in the summer.  Frosty Paws is here to help!

Frosty Paws gave Ike 4 Frosty Paws themed summer travel packs to giveaway to Decor and the Dog readers (US only). The travel packs include an insulated backpack, a water bottle for your pup, a pop-up treat bowl, an insulated food container, and a plastic bone filled with doggy waste bags, as well as one Frosty Paws frozen snacks VIP coupon.  Bonus!

Frosty Paws Getaway Bag

Ike loves his (especially that water bottle).  We’re sure your dog will enjoy the pack as well.  Enter below using Rafflecopter!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Follow Frosty Paws on facebook for more product info!

***I was not compensated for this post.  Ike received a travel pack of his own.  We thought they were fun and were happy to share!***