Ribbon + Lamp Shades

This week-end’s painting project sucked up all of my creative juices. 

I did do something a little crafty the week-end before last.

I bought some boring lamp shades and glued some ribbon on them.  Call me Martha. I should have my own show.



I wanted to glue the ribbon to the top and bottom…but I failed. Epically. The ribbon kept bunching up all weird-like.  The fact that the lamp shades were cones and not circles took me down.  Why must I be cheap?  I should have sprung for the circular lamp shades.  But vertical ribbon looks ok, right?

I learned how to remove hot glue from fabric during this epic fail.  How?  A blow dryer.  It reheats the glue and makes it easier to remove. (Or you can stick the fabric in the freezer but I thought it was a little too weird to stick a lamp shade in the freezer). What did I do before google?

And here are the lamps shades are hanging out in the guest bedroom….with the dead-to-me macademia on the walls behind them….


Anyone else had a great idea that they failed to execute?  I like to “keep it real” here on decorandthedog.

Dyson DC28 Animal

When registering for our wedding, Nate and I joked about adding a Dyson to our registry. No one in their right mind would spend that much on a vacuum for us and we definitely weren’t going to shell out the cash for a fancy vacuum.

Fast forward 5 years and I’m writing a blog post about our vacuum, the Dyson Animal….that we paid $47.90 for. (Read more about it here.  I would like to thank Mr. Zuckerberg for his wonderful social network creation). 

Do we like our Dyson Animal?



Short answer: Yes!

Long answer:

It definitely has it’s pros.

It does have amazing sucking power.  We also own a  Bissell Pet Hair Eraser that we paid ~$140 for.  The Dyson does suck up more than the Bissell.  Does it suck up enough to make up for the $500.00 price difference?  I, personally, don’t think so. 

The Dyson is very well designed.  The handle makes it easy for little ol’ me to carry it up and down 2 flights of stairs.



It’s easy to dump out the contents…just a click of a button. The Bissell definitely involves some touching of nastiness while the Dyson is nasty-touching free.



The attachments are nice.  Good for cleaning 2 sets of stairs.

The cord is long and reaches half way across our house.

I don’t really have any more cons about the vacuum.  It is a little hard to push in comparison to the Bissell but I attribute that to the extra sucking power.

Having said that, would I buy it again for $47.90? Absolutely!

Would I buy it for $599.00?  No…unless I win the lotto and researchers have found a cure for every horrible disease imaginable and I have no other useful place to put my money.  The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser is a pretty comparable vacuum with a much more agreeable price.

If I’m going to pay $599.00 for a vacuum, it’s going to vacuum the floors for me…and maybe even fold my laundry afterwards.....

Mudroom

Awhile back I shared with you my "secret" to appearing to have a super clean and organized home.

There is more.  As embarrassing as it is.

Our mudroom looked pretty innocent.

Until you opened the doors....

No matter how hard I tried, we could not keep this closet clean and organized.

One of the main problems was the shoe situation.  Shoes were stored where they landed after we kicked them off. 

Unacceptable.

I found this shoe organizer at Lowe's for $12. 

It was supposed to be easy to assemble. 

Obviously 8 years of college did me no good in shoe storage assembly because this thing almost made me cry. 

They forget to mention in the directions that there are "right (painted)" and "wrong (unpainted)" sides that are important to pay attention to when assembling so you don't end up with a nasty looking finished project. 

(Yes, common sense would be handy here but not all of us are blessed with such skills.)

After about 45 minutes (for a project that should have take 15 minutes...max), I had a nice storage solution.

I then moved on to cleaning out the closet.  This included taking everying out and moving items to their appropriate home.  I threw a few things away.  I then wiped the area down, moved everything back in the closet, and wah-lah.....

It makes me smile. 

Well, it did until Nate told me that the shoe shelf was too hard to use because he can't just kick his shoes off.  A girl can't win.

Have I inspired you to clean out a closet?  Or does Nate's comment make you realize it's probably not worth the effort?