Real Decorating for Real People
The United States is full of extreme beauty and you almost need to see it by car to appreciate it. Our car trip through the west was awesome and memorable – you ought to give it a try! I’m not sure if my family is a glutton for punishment or if I just plan a…
Clothing is another area that kids don’t really understand, and they should, everything from putting together a wardrobe to caring for their clothes. OK, has everyone gotten over the arguments, crabbing and general distaste for learning about anything having to do with home? My kids are probably just about ready for their second “Life Training”…
Why not make this year’s Thanksgiving dinner a little easier with a simple but tasty meal using simple ingredients that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Turkey leg that is! I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that Thanksgiving skipped a generation in our family. “What does that mean?” I can hear you asking. Well, my mother’s…
Round up all your recipes from friends, magazines, copied on scrap paper, and lets figure out the best ways to file them so you can actually find them when you want to make something! When it comes to recipes, organization is key. You want to be able to find the recipe when the urge hits…
This recipe is the sweet sister of the baked potato boat! It also adds some great ingredients like cranberries and walnuts to amp up the flavor. Are you looking for something a little different as a side dish for this year’s Thanksgiving celebration? Or, maybe you’re just getting tired of bland white potatoes? Well, this…
I went the easy route and chose Thanksgiving as the theme for my November tree, but I just love everything about it from the colors to the bittersweet to the Pilgrims. I’m a little sad thinking that this is my last month in me year long Christmas tree project. It has been a fun year, loaded with special memories…
This wonderful gingerbread recipe is just the start of a day full of baking, decorating and of course, eating! Unless you can’t bear to destroy your masterpiece! Making gingerbread houses has become a new tradition in our home. It all happens during the afternoon of Thanksgiving. While I am busy in the kitchen, my kids…
The color blue is calming, light tints will open up a room and dark shades will ground a room. Read on for even more benefits of blue. I’ve been tracking color trends for over 20 years. I have found several ways to get the job done, but the one I love the most is available…
These message blocks are great for the holidays because they go together fast and the lettering is simply stick on! This is by far my favorite time of year, not only do I love the fall with all the wonderful colors of the leaves changing, the cooler days and the crisp evenings…I’m a Halloween nut. …
All you need is a witch’s hat as the “star”, to get this Halloween tree off to a great start. Wrap around some spider’s web and bring in a bat or two and you’re well on your way! OK, things are going to start getting really good here as the fall approaches. I’m not sure if the…
Normally, leaf wreaths have leaves laying on the surface, but these leaves are stacked all the way around a wire wreath – beautiful! I know this one looks like it could be tricky, but as with any magic trick, there is just that, a trick, that makes it very simple. There are no unusual materials…
Get the kids involved making ornaments for this fantastic Halloween tree that can go in the entry or be the centerpiece on your dining table. I think I could work on Halloween projects all year long. I don’t know if it’s the colors that attract me, because I do use both black and orange accents…
You can easily make welcoming holiday messages to spread around the house and preserve the lettering in attractive frames. Halloween is the perfect time to start your holiday message collection. Why? Because Halloween has a lot of letters in it! I suppose Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas have no shortage, so maybe that’s the reason….Halloween…
Once you get all of your Halloween decorating in place, why not put on a party to celebrate? You don’t have to do that much more and you can create a memorable evening for your family and friends. It’s a little tougher in Florida to look passed the pool and palm trees, but in other…
If you are looking for Halloween ideas, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s are several that will make your Halloween special. Hooray! It’s that time of the year again and Matt and I are thinking about Halloween! Here are a couple of friendly scarecrows (hmm, I think that’s an oxymoron but they look friendly…
When you select just one of fall’s gorgeous hues to fill your home, you make a bigger statement and at the same time, your seasonal decorating becomes much easier. If there is one season which gets it’s identity from color, it’s autumn. I could survey dozens of people from anywhere in the country and the…
Grab your sashing, corner stones and inner border, it’s time to put this quilt top together! Well, it’s time to put those beautiful blocks together and you are going to need to select a sashing color, which are the red strips in my top; a cornerstone color, which are all of the paisley blocks connecting…
Even though our kids are much smarter than we ever were, they don’t know alot about the practical things, like how does the house work? Well, maybe it’s time for a lesson or two. Kids today are pretty savvy about the world around us. Many of them know what is going on through school discussions family…
Tuscany is so beautiful, you could spend weeks there visiting all the hill towns and trying the wonderful wines, cheeses and gelato! When you travel to Tuscany you must visit some of the hill towns, but don’t forget the beauty of the Tuscan countryside. You could just drive around the area, getting lost here and there, grabbing…
Pencil pleating is a refined and upscale heading for your special draperies and it i a snap to accomplish with pleater tape! This is my first try at pencil pleated draperies, but what I have found is that the toughest part is actually finding the pencil pleating tape. I finally went to the internet and found…
Here are 8 different ideas for updating your kitchen that you can do on your own and save a lot of money doing so. Matt always says he loves decorating kitchens because there’s no furniture to move around! What he doesn’t realize is that there are plenty of other projects to keep us busy, and…
Caramel apples are a fall tradition where I come from and they will certainly become a tradition in your family once you try them! The funny thing is neither Matt nor I remember ever making them ourselves. Now that we’ve both experienced the fun, we’ll never buy caramel apples again!! Ingredients List: 5 apples (Jonathan’s…
A Back To School tree just might get the kids a little bit more excited for the inevitable end of summer event…maybe? There was no question in my mind what to do for September when the time came to change out the tree for all seasons. One of the most universal events in our world…
Reading is a glorious pastime and starting a book club is a great way to promote it in your family. What’s a book club? Well, generally it’s a mother and daughter or father and son thing but mix it up any way you like. The point is to get into reading, experience all the joy’s…
Fabric roller shades offer great light control at your windows and work beautifully under valances, cornice boards or draperies. You know, certain decorative projects that I work on can bring back memories of my past. This shade project is one of them. I had those plain old white shades in my bedroom for as long as…
All it takes is a few pieces of particle board and some pine boards and you too can have a very sturdy new bed. Add a mattress and bedding and you’r done…the headboard is extra! This platform bed project is a long time favorite of Shari’s and mine. We were working with a young couple…
Don’t listen to those scary movies about bats getting caught in your hair and remeber that having these creatures around is actually good for you – put up a bat house and prove it! Did you know that insect-eating bats eat billions of tons of insects each summer? They protect our crops and keep our costs…
Who says artwork is only for walls? How about using some of your handiwork on your floors with a hand painted floor cloth? Well, a painted floor cloth is a wonderful way to bring pattern and color into a room with hard surface floorings. They are easy to clean up, and their value isn’t in…
A baker’s rack is one of those pieces that will fit in any room in your home, and who doesn’t need versatility like that? I guess everyone doesn’t need a baker’s rack, but if you have a kitchen with a little extra wall space, or a porch, entry or dining room — heck, even a…
Appliques are fun to do, especially when you are working on a sampler quilt and getting tired of putting together tones of little squares and triangles! With an applique, you add a design to a full background square. Hooray, hooray this is the last block in our Year Long Sampler Quilt. Not that I want…
There’s something for everyone in a shrimp and sausage boil from a variety of meats to potatoes and veggies too! I found a recipe similar to this in one of my old magazines and had it clipped out and saved forever! So, this Fourth of July I decided to give it a try. It was…
I didn’t say it was low in calories, I said it was the best chicken salad ever and I mean it! I seem to be surrounded by girlfriends who really know how to cook. I know I’ve mentioned my friend Sharlee before and have shared some of her recipes with you. Well, this chicken salad…
Italy has so many fantastic places to go, but make sure Tuscany and it’s hill towns are one of the areas you visit! This is the second half of the story about my trip to Italy. I can’t say this was my favorite part of the trip because Rome is…well…ROME!! Nothing can compare to it! …
During the course of a year, there has to be a tree to celebrate special ocassions like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings or new babies, and the month of August holds all of my family’s birthdays! Believe it or not, I’m still creating trees for the months of the year. Actually for August you might say I’m…
Flag banners can be stretched across your rooms for a festive look on that special ocassion, but be prepared, you might like them so much you won’t want to take them down! Now doesn’t this say summer to you? It sure does to me, and the pretty blue plaid fabrics seem fresh and cooling. This…
Sometimes all it takes is one photo to get you started on something new and that happened to me with a magazine photo showing a new color combination. Matt visits my house once every two or three months. We do some taping and going out to eat and then he heads for home. In the…
Red is wonderful in a dining room where you want to encourage conversation, but in a bedroom it could be unsettling. Red is a good place to start when we are studying colors and their effects on us and in our homes. Red, after all, is the top color in the rainbow. It is also the…
When I started sewing in my early teens, I used patterns all the time and I think that basic knowledge is what has given me the confidence to try things on my own. It’s been quite some time since I used a pattern for sewing and I had the opportunity a few weeks ago when…
Bruschetta is wonderful on it’s own, but when you add grilled chicken to it, then dinner can be served! I have liked Bruschetta for a long time but my experiences with it were only in restaurants. However, a trip to Maine a few years ago go me even more interested in it when the restaurant…
Even though a flag headboard seems like it is perfect for the patriotic summer holidays, it can also just be an intersting focal point in a geat looking bedroom! One of our favorite holidays is the Fourth of July not only because it’s the birthday of our nation, but it’s a special day to spend with…
