It's Up and I Love It!!

It's up!

The beadboard is up and I love it.  I am so glad I got over my cold feet and went forward with it.   Thanks for the little nudge.  Now I'm wondering how I could have ever had doubted whether or not to do it.  What was I thinking?

I'm not going to keep you waiting by rambling on! 

Before:

And after!

What a difference it makes!!  The room feels so clean now...and finished, even if it isn't quite finished yet, if that makes sense. 

One thing I learned from doing beadboard, you know, all of one time, is that in order for it to look nice and professionally done is to caulk, caulk, caulk!  I had gaps like this along the bottom:

and I was afraid that I was going to make a mess at all the grooves.  It really wasn't an issue though.  I just applied it like normal (this pic looks really messy):

and as you can see it did creep up a bit into the grooves of the beadboard.  So then, I just used a very slightly damp sponge brush and used that to remove it some and then push and feather  the rest into place:

(Excuse the poor pics.  Its was dark and I was tired!)

I also sanded in between coats to keep everything smooth.  I was quite surprised at what a time suck painting beadboard is!  Not hard, but so tedious because of all the grooves and upper and lower molding!  Painting white on white didn't help much either.  It was worth it though!



I am hoping to wrap things up in here this weekend.  We still have to put this counter in:

Oh, and a toilet, I guess.  That hole in the floor doesn't cut it for me.  We also plan on installing crown molding.  I also have some wood blinds waiting to be installed so we can have some privacy again in here.  All the outlets are being switched to white as well.  Finally, I need to figure out what I want on that empty wall.  Any ideas?  I have been searching and searching and haven't found anything that really jumps out at me.


Are you sick of hearing about my Target trips yet?  I just have one more.  I found these bins, measuring 12"x18"x18"  at my store for $3.74!!  They're so nice and big!

They also had some narrower ones for $3.24.  We had a pretty chaotic morning here Thursday and I needed some order, so I cleared Target out and bought 11 of them!  They're in the kids' playroom and in their bedrooms now.  I haven't completely organized them all yet, but already, I feel better! Ahhh!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  You know what I'll be working on.  How about you?

Toffee! Just in time for Valentine's Day!!

(Scroll to the bottom for an update on Target's home clearance!!)

I'm cutting it close, but I thought I'd share how I make toffee.  Its a great treat to make for Valentine's Day and the great thing about toffee is that you probably have all the ingredients on hand already. 

The thing about toffee though is that there are a few tricks to get it to come out right.  Some of the common complaints about making toffee are that it never gets hard and stays kinda ...bendy.  Another is that it burns easily.  And another is that the butter separates and "pools" on top.

So, like I said before, I love to research this stuff, so I came up with a few tricks to help you make sure yours comes out just right!

You will need:

• A working candy thermometer.  I say WORKING because I had one that was not working properly and that was no good.  How do you tell if your candy thermometer is working?  Boil water in a pot with your candy thermometer inserted.  The thermometer should read 212 degrees F (100 degrees C).  I ended up buying a new one:

• A medium sized, heavy bottomed saucepan.  The heavy bottom (and also cooking at medium heat) will help prevent the toffee from burning while it is cooking on the stove.
• A large rimmed cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, lined with foil
• An offset spatula.  A knife or other type of spatula will work ok too.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup finely chopped, lightly toasted almonds (I omitted these due to my family's preferences)

In the saucepan, combine the butter, sugar and salt. 

 Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter has melted. 

 Place candy thermometer in pan.  Continue stirring until the mixture comes to a boil, then stop stirring constantly.

  Continue to cook until the temperature on the candy thermometer reaches 300 degrees F (149 degrees C), stirring only occasionally. 

(At 300 degrees F)

A better shot of what the mixture will look like.

As soon as the toffee reaches 300 degrees F, pour it out onto your prepared pan.  Then sprinkle your chocolate over the top of it and let it sit for a few minutes.

Then, using your spatula or knife, spread the chocolate evenly over the top of the toffee.

If desired, sprinkle nuts evenly over the chocolate.  I love it with almonds, but no one else in this house does and since I do not need to eat ALL this myself, I skipped this step. 

(I sprinkled mine with coarse sugar sprinkles)

Place toffee in the refrigerator until slightly set and then, to help ensure even, pretty cuts, lightly score your toffee with a serrated knife, cleaning it after each cut.  Put the toffee back in the refrigerator until completely set and break into pieces.  Because of the scoring, it should break pretty cleanly.

Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I posted last week about Target clearancing a bunch of home items right now.  They usually do markdowns on Thursday and I went there yesterday to see what new markdowns they had.  There was quite a bit at 75%!

Some examples (taken with my cell, so excuse the quality):

Shower curtains @ $3.74

These were $6.48

This organization  center was $12 (originally $50)



This duvet was $22 (originally $80)  They had a few different styles by Thomas O'Brien:

I was so tempted to buy this, but I has the reverse colors of this (white with a dark pattern) in my master and didn't want to have too much of the same color in my guest bedroom.  I'm still thinking about buying it so I can change things up in my master for the winter though since the white is more summer like.  We'll see.

This is what I did buy:

A 2 pack of shelves for $3.74 that I plan to paint:

And two curtain rods for $5.48 each in silver that I plan to use in my master when I redecorate it (soon, I hope).  They look like this:

Of course, the selection varies from store to store, but Target usually has the same clearance schedule throughout the country so its worth a look see.  If you go, I'd love to hear what you see and/or get!

I'm joining the party here:



The Lowdown on Staining Brick

I showed you last time my family room, where I briefly showed you the transformation we did on our fireplace.  Here it is again:

 From this:

To this:

I was not a fan of the coolness of the grey brick and since my husband was bordering on having a stroke at the mention of removing the brick or painting it, I had to figure something out.  So, I took to the internet and came upon this product:

A brick tinting kit made by a company called Dyebrick.   Yay!  After I looked at their gallery of projects and read their testimonials, I knew I had found my answer.  I was able to sell it to my husband because it simply stains the brick, it doesn't change the texture of the surface like paint can sometimes. 

*Since I am going to rave about this product, I feel the need to say that I am not affiliated with them and I'm sure they have no idea that I exist.  Well, I did send them a before and after shot over a year ago, but I am pretty certain they have long forgotten me.

They have a variety of colors to pick from:

For my project, I used the Rustic Brown and Old English Red.  I made two different "strengths" of the Old English Red, which gave me a total of three colors to work with overall.  The company is located in the UK, but does ship to the US.  I was about to order from their website when I decided to do a quick ebay search.  For once in my life, I got lucky and there was someone selling multiple kits!!  And better yet, at a FRACTION of the cost!  Woot! I couldn't believe my luck!  I bought three kits total and this project cost about $110 total.  Pretty cheap considering the impact it had on the room, I think!

From the company's website, some features of dyebrick brick tinting kit are that its:

• Non-toxic
• Non-harmful
• Odourless
• Zero VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)
• Absorbs into and becomes part of the masonry
• Allows the masonry to breathe
• Can be applied to
  • Brickwork
  • Concrete
  • Stone
  • Mortar
  • Render
  • Blocks
  • Concrete Roof Tiles
  • ...and more!

I wish I had taken pictures of the during process, but unfortunately I didn't.  :(  There's really not much to it though.  No prep of the brick, no taping off, nothing.  You just mix your product and start!  It has the consistency of water and really didn't run all over and create too  huge a mess of my grout.  I used my faithful old Purdy brush to apply it, but if I was doing it again, I would at least try it with a foam brush to see what the result was.  Dyebrick's website has great instructions on how to prepare the product for its use and even some videos on its application. 

.

So, while I say it really didn't mess my grout up too badly, it did get on it some (or a lot in some places), but this wasn't a big deal.  I just used a flat head screwdriver to "scratch" it off my grout when I was all done.  What?  A little tool abuse is acceptable sometimes.  I was multi purposing it!  Looking at my grout now, you would never know I ever had to do that.  Well, maybe if you were inches away, inspecting it.  If that were the case though, I'm pretty sure we would have to have a talk about somethin'...

Here is a picture of where I got some stain on my grout:

And what it looks like after a little screwdriver treatment:

Easy peasy! 

(Actually for the above picture I used my 4 y.o.'s safety scissors, but you get the idea!)

And here are some additional shots of the finished product:

It took me a few days to complete this, but I had a one year old and a three year old at the time, so I had to work when they were sleeping or otherwise occupied.  Any other time I tried to work on it, I looked down and had a little munchkin climbing up my ladder to "help" me.  It was very rewarding to do though and I loved how instant the transformation was.  Cleanup was a breeze.  I have no doubt anyone with a little patience and a paint brush would be very successful with this project!

I also wanted to share with you that this is the time of year that Target starts clearances a bunch of home items.  My Target (and I think its pretty consistent throughout the US) does their markdowns on home items on Thursdays.  Right now, they have a bunch of things at 30% and 50% off and some at 75%.  More things will be at 75% in the coming weeks, so start stalking your local Target store, unless you live near me of course, then STAY AWAY!  ;)  Just kidding,  mostly.

I bought these three cute dish rags for $1.24 this past week.  Who says you can't have something cute to wash your dirty dishes?  I love these because my kitchen has this almost exact color palette!

Cute, huh?  The other things I noticed at 75% right now were some sheets and a few really cute decorative pillows that were not the right colors for me.  Its definitely worth checking out!

Happy shopping!  Let me know if you find anything good!

I am linking up with:

I Heart Naptime Sundae Scoop Weekend Wrapup Party

Debbiedoo's Newbie Party:

  

Thrifty Decor Chicks Before&After Party