Monday, February 28, 2011

Valspar Paint Sample Giveaway

Valspar is giving away 1,000 free paint samples everyday, for 100 days.  Order yours here!


In addition to the paint sample you will also receive a mini paint tray and roller, $5 off one gallon of Valspar paint purchased from Lowes, coordinating paint chips and instruction card.  Plus it ships for free.  Pretty sweet deal!

Choosing a paint color online probably isn't the best option, because colors vary on everyone's computer screen, but this is just a sample and its FREE, so go ahead :)  Just don't expect the color to be the exact color you saw on your computer, when you ordered it.  

(I believe this promotion started January 17th, so it will end 100 days from then.)

Happy Painting!

Cheers!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Chalkboard Vases

I've been wanting to try chalkboard paint for a while now and I finally got the chance to.  A little over a week ago, it warmed up a little, so I could do a little painting in the garage.  I chose to use the chalkboard spray paint, it seemed like an easier option for my first chalkboard project.  You can use the paint on almost any surface.  It worked on recycled wine and champagne bottles.  You need a couple coats of paint and you need to let it dry for 24 hours before you can use chalk on the surface.






They are kind of cool and would be fun for a party.  However, it is kind of hard to draw/write on a round object.  I think the next time I use chalkboard paint it will be on a flat service.

Now, it just needs to warm up so I can work on some other projects.  It was -20 this morning!  (Yes, thats a negative before the 20)  Brrrr!  You can't paint when its cold.  Come on Mother Nature, I'm getting a little impatient.  I'm ready for some warm weather!

Have a great weekend!

Cheers!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Prosecco Thursday

While perusing the aisles of CVS today looking for a bottle of Champagne for tonight, I decided we would try a bottle of Prosecco.  The La Marca Prosecco label caught my eye, I liked the blue color and it was voted one of the "Top 100 Wines of the Year" by Wine Spectator.  La Marca is the only Prosecco producer to be awarded this honor.  And in case any of you are wondering, it was $13.



What we will be trying tonight
The description from the back of the bottle, "Grown in Italy, the Prosecco grape is cherished for its expressiveness.  This sparkling wine offers a fresh and vibrant bouquet of golden apple, white peach and honeysuckle."


Prosecco
Champagne
Italian sparkling wine from the Veneto region
Effervescent wine made in the Champagne region of France. It can only be produced there and all other wines that are effervescent are sparkling wines
Prosecco does not ferment in the bottle and grows stale with time
Sparkling wine produced by inducing the in-bottle secondary fermentation of the wine to effect carbonation
It should be drunk as young as possible and preferably before it is two years old
Meant to age
Most often made from Glera grapes (previously also known as Prosecco grapes).
Primary grapes used in the production of Champagne are Pinot noir, Chard and Pinot Meunier 
average high quality prosecco is often half to a fifth of the price of more seriously regarded champagnes



Another fun fact about Prosecco, in Italy its considered an everyday drink.  :)

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Information about Prosecco found at WiseGeek & Wikipedia

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

My 1st Reupholstering Project

This past weekend we were in Helena, dog/cat/house sitting for my parents and I decided I need a little project. My mom had been talking about getting her dining room chairs reupholstered for a quite a while now, so I decided I would do it myself. 


All I needed for this project was fabric, a screwdriver, scissors, staple gun, staples and Scotchgard.  I've been wanting to reupholster something for a while now and I figured these chairs would be great for a first reupholstering project.  It was a fairly straight forward project.  Unscrew the seat, remove old fabric, cut new fabric to the correct size, begin stapling, make sure to pull the fabric tight while stapling, screw the seat back on the chair and then spray with Scotchgard.  The only part that was a little difficult was getting the corners right. 



Jo-Ann Fabrics was having an awesome President's Day Sale.  I found some great, sage colored suede fabric that matches their dining room perfectly.  The fabric was in the clearance section for $7 a yard, then all the clearance fabric was an additional 50% off, plus I had a 10% off coupon.  I got 3 yards for less than $10!  It was plenty of fabric to cover their six chairs, with left overs to cover an additional four chairs they have. 



Before
Very loved chairs that needed a little update

Prepped to unscrew the seat

Staple gun ready

New fabric stapled on

Screwing the seat back on

After

I sprayed the fabric with a couple coats of Scotchgard  to give it a little added protection 

A little surprise for my parents when they got back

An easy, inexpensive update!

Cheers!

Monday, February 14, 2011

You Can Get A Whole Bunch of Mumm's

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tonight we will be toasting with a glass of Mumm's



"Would anybody care for a bottle of Oyster Bay Drug and Sundries finest champagne?"





Greg: And what's your most expensive bottle of champagne?
Sales Clerk: Mumm's. It's on sale for 13.95.
Greg: Really? That's it ? You don't have, like, a nice, like, 80 or $100 bottle of something?
Sales Clerk: You can get a whole bunch of Mumm's.

Quote from Meet The Parents


(Unfortunately this bottle wasn't on sale for $13.95, it was $20.)


Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!


XOXO

Cheers!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Deal of the Week

I found these cute little bowls at Michaels this week for $0.49 each.  They are great for Valentine's Day and the solid colored bowls can be used at anytime.


Red, Pink & White

mmmmm....m&m's
Parker's favorite

My favorite :)
Dove Dark Chocolates

Cheers!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

A Little Bubbly

What we will be drinking tonight....



We've been celebrating our Champagne Thursdays with Korbel Brut Champagne recently.  Its a nice, light tasting bottle of bubbly that you can usually find on sale for around $10.




Our sweet new ice bucket

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

New Throw Pillows

I wanted some new fun throw pillows, but didn't want to spend much.  Throw pillows are expensive!  So, I bought some fabric and made cases for pillows I already had.  Thanks to some good sales at Jo-Ann Fabric, I was able to make a few pillows for under $10 and I still have a little fabric left over.

sample of the fabric

broke out the sewing machine

New pillows

Back of the pillow
I overlapped the fabric so I could easily insert the pillow,
so I didn't need to add a zipper or completely close the case.


Parker thinks its funny to close his eyes when I tell him to smile for the camera.
Little punk!
Yay, for cheap and easy updates!

Cheers!

I'm linking up to
freckled laundry

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Magazine Clean Up

I love Magazines!  They are one my guilty pleasures.  It's pretty cheap entertainment, especially when you have a subscription.  Anyways, when you have a quite a few subscriptions like I do, magazines tend to pile up rather quickly.  I probably had a stack close to three feet high (should have taken a picture).  They were taking up too much space, so I decided to go through them and get rid of (recycle) them.  Over the course of a week, I went through all of them and tore out ideas, articles, recipes, etc that I wanted to keep and organized them into a file folder.  My goal is to tear out pages the first time I look through a magazine so they don't start piling up again.



A few of my favorite magazines

The ONE and ONLY magazine I kept

Ideas, articles, recipes, etc. that made the cut

Takes up a fraction of the space of all those magazines


A few of my favorite subscriptions:
Better Homes & Gardens (1-year) - $6 - Awesome deal!


Cheers!

http://www.goodbyehousehellohome.blogspot.com/

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Something To Warm Up With

Brrrrrr.....it's bitterly cold outside!  And what better way to warm up than with a Rice Bag and maybe some hot chocolate.  What's a Rice Bag?  It's a bag filled with rice that you microwave and then it becomes a little heater to snuggle up with and keep you warm or help heal your aches and pains.  My mom and sister like to call their rice bags their "boyfriends"  You can also freeze them and use them as cold packs, but I've never done that.



Rice bags are easy to make.  All you need is some fabric, preferably something fun, white long grain rice (not instant) and a sewing machine.  I guess you could sew it by hand, but a sewing machine makes things way easier.  You can make your rice bag any size you like, mine are approximately 6 inches by 12 inches.  Fill the bag approximately 75% full of rice.  You cannot wash your rice bag for obvious reasons, so I like to make a case (like a pillow case) for mine that I can take off and throw in the washing machine.  Next time I make a rice bag I'm going to add a few drops of essential oil, to give it a nice scent.  Microwave your bag for 2-3 minutes, depending on how hot you would like it.

Rice bag with case




Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Filler Flowers?

I love having flowers around but I don't like spending a lot of money on them.  Carnations are fairly inexpensive, they last for quite a while and you can get them in pretty much any color.   Even though Charlotte on Sex and the City declared carnations as "filler flowers," I still like them.  

I thought this combination would be fun for Valentine's Day.

Pink + Red = XOXO


Cheers!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Word Art

Create a word with photography letter art.  Here's a fun way to display your last name or any word for that matter.  We received our last name framed as a Christmas present and I love it!  The words are put together with pictures of objects that resemble letters of the alphabet.  I love the picture of the slide that looks like the letter S.  Very creative.

Here's a few examples:





If you are interested in finding out more, you can contact Heather Sanders at Sandersfamily@charter.net

Cheers!