A Messy Room is a Messy Mind

I heard this saying a long time ago. Have you? It seems to really ring true with me and my life. For some reason I can keep my "work life" super organized, almost effortlessly. Home life? That's another story. We have lived in our home almost two years, and moved in with nothing but a few pieces of furniture. Now, we have packed every closet, and seem to have cluttered it quite successfully. My office, forget about it. The only room not "under construction" this very moment is our master bedroom. I NEED the bedroom to be clean. But then again I do have a packed suitcase in there...

So in efforts to commit myself to keeping my mind less messy, I am making a public statement! I am going to organize my whole life in the next thirty days! I have about four weeks before I head back out to LA, and I am planning to use every non-working moment to work on the mess and chaos around me.

I found some fanatic tools to help me with my mission. So excited to share!

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Design Finch has a slew of these awesome downloadables along with some more! Check out her blog post about Sunday Planning if you want to snag these free downloadables. 

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I have been using this list above I found on Perideau Designs. You can also download this one for free. 

The to-do list over the next thirty days looks a little something like this:

1.) Finish the kitchen cabinets (oil polyurethane yellowed, now we need to redo with water based. we were warned).

2.) Finish the curtains in the guest room; I reordered the fabric! Should be here soon! + Finish styling

3.) Greywash fireplace in bedroom

4.) Greywash heater covers in bedroom

5.) *Bonus* Greywash whole closet in master bedroom.

6.) Patch water leak in dining room + paint entire dining room

7.) Patch water leak in foyer + paint entire foyer ceiling

8.) Paint/Stencil downstairs guestroom

9.) Patch wall in downstairs bathroom

10.) Move couch to Joey's office; two flights of stairs...ugh!

11.) Buy new dishwasher and have it installed

12.) Buy five (yes five!) fans and install

13.) Install backsplash in kitchen

14.) Install counters in kitchen

15.) Purge my closet, big time - Hello Goodwill!

16.) Install light outside we bought two years ago - I know, I know...

17.) Hang pillars in bedroom + finish that window wall

Being we both work 15 hours days, this is a super aggressive list, but we are going to do everything in our power to make it happen! Wish us luck!

Let us know about your goals and how you accomplish them. Do you make lists? Do you have a system that works for you? Spill the beans!

How to be a renter when you own(ed) a house...

Hi lovelies! How is your week been thus far? We have been thinking a lot about how to be a renter. We are giving up our 6,200 square foot home to move into a more modest model in good 'ol Cali. We aren't quite ready to sell our little love nest, so we will be renting her out while we rent a new pad across the USA. It took us a while to put holes in the walls and in a house we own, so we wonder what it will be like when what we do to our new place won't really be "ours". We wonder what our renters will do to our home. Will they want to paint? Will they put holes in the wall? It got us worried, and excited, and researching. Here are some renter-friendly picks we decided would be that happy medium of making our new house a home.

Let's start with the walls. To me the walls are the most heart breaking part of renting. Make them cool, and you are all set. Get stuck with how they come, it could be a drag. I don't know "who we will be" when we move to LA. Right now we are a little British-Cowboy-Silly, and with the shopping I have done in LA I am not seeing a lot of what we have been doing in our 1930's tutor. I am thinking a little retro when we move. Which is so funny because that was our apartment in Williamsburg. Totally 70's.

I am wondering. Can I get into something like this:

Tempaper has the right idea. Non-committal wallpaper. Seems comforting to know you can wallpaper a rental and then take it down without the drama of wallpaper glue. I honestly wish they had a larger selection because they have sold me on their product, just not their designs. Could I relax and get into something more fun like the ones above?

I don't know if I could get away with this. Not because I don't love it to the moon and back, but because Joey has strong opinions and I have a feeling he wouldn't let this fly. Each panel is 24 inches wide x 120 inches high and only $80. I was surprised to find this super cute shop, Wallpaper Dolls on Etsy to say the least. Maybe I can get away with it in my office, or how cute would this be in a guest bathroom?!

Nate Burkus had the right idea when we showed us how to make "wallpaper" out of fabric, and I even found a great Apartment Therapy article to show me how. 

I am pretty sure a room or two will boast this fabric wallpaper scenario. I have always loved this print from Orla Kiely, and would be smitten to walk into my foyer faced with this every day:

A little less pricey, this option would go in the bedroom:

Look familiar? It's the fabric from our guest room. I kinda crush it big time. 

We know for sure there will be some stencil action again. Right now we have our eyes on these guys:

You can find them at Cutting Edge Stencils, which btw, we have a giveaway going on right now! You can also get 10% off with code JLana! 

It's kinda funny how into wall coverings I am, considering we haven't even found the "perfect" neighborhood to move to. I remember renting in Brooklyn and being too scared to do anything to the walls. I am excited there are now renters wallpaper options. It will make things feel more homey for sure.

Have you every tried temporary wall paper? Have you lived to tell the tale? We want to hear all about the good and the bad! 

Mornin' Glory + Giveaway

***This giveaway is now closed!***

Yep. Giveaway. Another one. We love ringing in the holiday season with awesomeness. Welcome to giveaway Monday! A new amazing giveaway every Monday while we celebrate the changing of seasons and many celebrations we will come across from now until January 2, 2012! Talk about a celebration! One of our proudest moments in DIYing was this:

You can read allllllll about how we fell in love with stencils here, and here. And for those of you we haven't had the pleasure of "meeting" back in February, and for those who didn't win that Cutting Edge Stencil giveaway, behold, a second chance! Hold on though! First I want to talk about pretty stencils some more!

We found Cutting Edge Stencils while we were pricing wallpaper. I wanted to wallpaper something sooooo bad. It was on the house-ownership-bucket-list. Once we started pricing things out we realized, oh geez, this can get really expensive. A wall was going to cost about $600, a room over $3,000. I never ever thought I would get into stencils, then I found these guys and I couldn't pick what I liked best because I wanted like five for each room. Don't be scared of stenciling! Watch their Yourtube station and see how easy and awesome it is! It was less than $100 for supplies AND paint and we got exactly what we wanted. We will be doing it again and again, especially since we will be renting soon when we find a rental in LA.

Giveaway info:

Prize: $50 to spend as you please at Cutting Edge Stencils (That covers (most stencils) an awesome stencil and some tools!)
How to Enter: Tell us in the form of a comment what room you are planning to stencil!
Extra Entry: Tweet: Falling in love with this stencil giveaway! @makeahouseahome @CEStencils OR "Like" Cutting Edge Stencils on Facebook. Don't forget to come back and comment you did!
Giveaway Ends: Sunday October 9th at 9:00pm EST
How Many Lucky Winners?!: One (1)
Ships to: US Only
Also: Please only enter once, with the exception of the extra entry. We select our winners using random.org and will select a winner by October 12th and notify by email, so use a real email address!