NYR#15, Swing Arm Lamp Installation

Although I love many aspects of our bedroom, the lighting on our bedside tables has never been one of them.
I've always wanted a pair of swing arm lamps, but I could never find any I liked that were cheaper than $75.00 each and I wasn't willing to spend that much money.
But I kept looking because the state of our bedside tables kept bugging me. What? You don't think they looked that bad? Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Fix was reading by the light of a clip-on lamp he bought before he knew me.

And I kept a weak spotlight and a travel reading lamp on my side to help illuminate my late-night reading.
Then, last week, my husband (Thank you thank you thank you honey!) found the most wonderfully perfect swing arm lamps at HOME DEPOT for $35.00 each!

They are the perfect size, shape, color, etc. for our room.

By the way, I have listed this post as an NYR because I installed them all by myself.

After I hung them, I stood and looked at them for a good 5 minutes straight. Since then I've been walking around with a goofy grin on my face. I just can't help it.

My name is Rachel. And I'm addicted to my new swing-arm lamps.

Pinkalicious!

So this past weekend I squeezed in some time during all our family festivities to make these adorable cookies.

I completely copied the idea of baking with felt from my friend Missy.

Then I put them in this random bag I had in our wrapping paper box, substituted a hot pink ribbon for the boring white one the bag came with....

And added them to my birthday gift for my niece Addy. In case you haven't read it yet, Pinkalicious is an adorable book for little girls (and boys too I guess) about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes. If only I was talented enough to make felt cupcakes.... sigh.

I also made her this adorable pink dress that probably won't fit her until her next birthday (does anyone else have as much trouble with toddler sizing as I do?!) Happy Birthday Miss Addy!

NYR #14: Embellishing A Top

I may be smiling in this picture, but that's because I didn't realize yet that I had somehow LOST half of the pictures I took of this project.
I had intended to give a detailed account/tutorial of how I took a dumpy t-shirt and gave it some cute details around the neckline and sleeves. But, again, I lost half the pictures. UGH! FRUSTRATION!

So now you can only see 'after' pictures. Sigh. I guess the good news is that I have completed another NYR...

And I still have some kickin' modeling skills.

Thursday Things I Love! (Nikon)

Was I ever happy to get my mail last week!

My beloved Nikon (which looks exactly like, but is not in fact, the one above) is BACK!!!!! And this puppy is most definitely qualifies as a T.T.I.L.

I was especially pleased that the lens repair was covered under warranty.

Look for much better pictures to come!

Quick Fix Friday (Hole in Cami)

This little hole in one of my white camisoles has driven me bonkers for months now.

And it literally took me a minute to take these pictures, pin it, and sew it.

Will I ever learn how easy these fixes can be if I just pause and do them?!

Thursday Things I Love! (Salt and Pepper)

This week, you get two Thursday Things I Love for the price of one! Okay so I'm not charging you, but you get the idea.
Let's start with these. For Mother's Day my super-fab husband bought me the salt and pepper shakers that match our New Wave dishes.

I LOVE them!

And because I have them on the dining room table, I can now leave my other shakers on the stove within easy reach of any food I need to flavor.

But this caused another problem. The pepper mill was always dropping little black bits across the top of my white stove. Frustrating!

Thankfully -- I have a friend who is a ceramics wizard. Carrie made us this fabulous tray just for us.

The glaze is actually a lot more blue-green than it appears in these pictures and it works nicely with all the other blue in our kitchen and dining room.

Best of all, it works! No more continually cleaning up pepper for me! Thank you thank you thank you Carrie!

Quick Fix Friday (Taped Books)

Does anyone else have a toddler who likes to randomly engage in the sport of book-ripping?

This week's Quick Fix Friday was performed with simple tape.

It's not much to report, but I finally taped up Rock's ripped books...

And restored them to read-ready status. So before you throw away your kids 'well-loved' stories, apply a little clear packing tape and give them a second chance!

Amazing how a little tape can take this and make it look like....

THIS!

Some News

So I finally got the word from Simplicity and ASG regarding the Creativity Contest...

Oh well. I didn't get the big prize. But I'm okay with that. It was a major confidence boost to be selected as a finalist.

And I still LOVE this dress. I'm so glad I participated in this contest and can't wait to try again next year!

Depression.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or a thousand tears in my case.

Thursday Things I Love! (Glass Bowls)

Here's my first of what I hope will be another reoccurring feature on Design Fix... THURSDAY THINGS I LOVE! And the credit for this week's post goes to my husband, Fix.

He really wanted more bowls to use in our kitchen. Specifically, he wanted glass bowls. We had all of three stainless silver bowls to use for kitchen mixing/prepping and it was just not enough. Although we found some glass bowls we liked at Crate and Barrel but they were a little pricey.

Enter BJ's. Oh how that store has enriched my life! We found the bowls pictured here, plus 6 others for only $19.99! AND, included in the box were (red!) plastic lids for 20 of the 26 bowls. Why they didn't include lids for all of the bowls, I do not know...

But man-o-man, I love these things! They make kitchen prep SO much easier and because they have such nice clean lines, I can use them as serving dishes too. They match everything. So, there you go. The first Thursday Thing I Love!