Plate Chargers go bathroom

I picked up some plate chargers (decorative plates usually placed under regular plates to pretty them up a bit) at Wal-Mart the day after Christmas. I got a set of 4 for $2.50. They are nothing fancy, just plastic but the creative possibilities are endless!

I chose to use them in our master bathroom as a wash rag holder and a bath-additions holder (that's the empty one right now, I gotta get some bubble bath and stuff!) .

I had originally planned to use them as a candle holder for candles of various sizes, but then I found the floating flower candle you see in the picture and the glass bowl- all at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and went that direction instead. I plan to put some decorative rock in the bottom of the glass bowl to match the gray/silver of the plates.


Do you have any creative ideas for chargers?

Lines-N-Things is back... sort of

I don't know if you guys had a Linens-N-Things where you are, but we used to. (For those who don't know, they were a similiar store to Bed, Bath, & Beyond.) I even shopped for last-minute deals when they were going out of business.

So, just for fun, I went online today (http://www.linensnthings.com) to see if their website was still active. And it appears that they are now an online-only company that sells home goods. I was pretty excited to find a new spot to shop for deals. Except I noticed something.

Linens-N-Things:
Kohls:

Now, granted, the bed is different... but you can see the similarities, right?

Let's try it again:

Linens-N-Things:

Kohls:

I mean, on that one there's not even a different bed!

Linens-N-Things also seems to have similiar pricing to Kohls (including seemingly inflated 'compare to' prices). In a couple cases, L-N-T had more options available (i.e. comforter sets AND duvet sets in the same style) but other than that, (and their odd return policy- you have to get a return number before you can return it) not too impressed.

I will say I want this orange decorative pillow though:

... and the white branchy one next to it. Now I just need to find them in the $10.00 range!

Budget Friendly Wall Decor

How much would you pay for the above 'art'? $20? $30?
If you buy it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, it's going to cost you $215.00. For four 14.5"x19" prints. In frames. And hopefully the frames are made of gold b/c only then would that outrageous price tag make sense to me.

I'm taking a more budget-friendly approach to wall decor.

A book I bought suggested buying books solely for the pictures and using them for art. But I just couldn't bring myself to plop down $30.00 (and higher!) for a book with decent pictures only to tear it up. (And a lot of the great pictures were spread across two pages, which just wouldn't work) Then I was shopping at Borders one day around this time last year and they had all their calendars on sale for $.99-$1.99. And then the light bulb went off.

Have you ever bought a calendar because the pictures were pretty? For me, it would be a calendar like this:

I love scenic calendars.

But there are calendars for EVERY taste out there. Farm life, black and white, sports figures, arts, etc. And they come in varying sizes- big, small, medium, extra big. AND a lot of them have great photos in them. Photos that can be easily framed and used as art.

Last year, I bought 4 calendars. One of Greece (beautiful!), one of bridges (breathtaking!), one of black and white captures (so neat!) and one of Italy (gorgeous!). They each cost me less than $2.00 a calendar and each contains at least 12 photos (a couple have 16 photos).

My plan is to pick some of my favorite photos and frame them myself. I'll post pictures when I'm done, but I wanted to give others the idea so that you can maybe catch the Clearance Calendars that are on sale right now.

A few things to remember:
1.) Look for calendars that have the 'calendar' and the 'photo' separated. (i.e. calendars that are folded with the photo in the top half and calendar portions in the bottom half)
2.) Get calendars of varied size so that your pictures are varied sizes and allow some creativity.

What is your favorite thing to see on your walls?

Home Depot- Crown Moulding Sale!!

Home Depot Crown Moulding

I'll be honest.

The only reason we decided to put crown moulding up in our house was to cover my paint marks on the ceiling. (Hello! Lazy party of ONE!)

Just this past weekend we started putting crown up. We bought 3 1/4" primed moulding from Lowes for $1.49 a linear foot. We only bought enough for one room so that MrC could get the hang of it.

And it's a good thing-

Because this week Home Depot has the contractor packs (60 linear feet total) at $.49 a foot! (Shown in picture above) That's 1/3 the price of what we paid at Lowes!! You can do a 14' x 14' room for $29.00!!! So we're headed to Home Depot this week to stock up on crown. Like enough to do the rest of the house. You can't beat that price. I just hope they (and their stock) are ready for us!

I'm sure it varies by region, but Atlanta, Georgia also has the same deal. (As well as Louisville, Kentucky (my area) and surrounding areas)

Get the same look for less- Hotel Style Bedding

If there's one thing I've noticed, it's that you can find similar bedding at various stores. Take, for instance the tan and white hotel-inspired bedding:

From Kohls:

The ColorBlock Collection at Kohls. Shown in "Sand". Also available in Aqua/white and Chocolate.
Click here to go to Kohl's website and see the collection.

And from Macys:

The Hotel Color Block Collection at Macys. Shown in "Champagne". Also available in Tri ColorBlock Dune and Marine Tri Colorblock.

Click here to go to Macys website and see the bedding collection.

The difference is mainly in the price (and I'm sure the Macys collection is higher quality). But if you're on a budget and love the look- going the Kohls route may work for you.
Here's a breakdown of the price differences:

Kohls:
Queen comforter set: (set includes: comforter, 2 standard shams, 2 euro shams, and bedskirt) $84.99
Sateen Sheet set: 34.99
Striped neckroll pillow: 11.99
Square pillow: 11.99

Macys:
Queen duvet cover: 120.99
Square pillow: 30.99
Bedskirt: 53.99
Standard sham: 30.99

In a perfect world, the colors would match up perfectly and you could buy the duvet cover at Macys (for it's higher quality) and then buy accessories from Kohls. But without seeing them in person, it's impossible to tell if they match that closely.

And here's a hint: Ebay is LOADED with the Hotel Collection from Macys. (Search Hotel Collection Color Block) So make sure you check out those deals too!!

Bedding- Duvet Cover

There are 2 things that are important to me when purchasing bedding:
1.) PRICE
2.) Machine-washable

I recently bought my first down comforter and LOVED IT. (Another JCPenney Day-After-Thanksgiving-Day find) But I needed to buy a duvet cover to protect it.

Enter West Elm.

West Elm is a division of Pottery Barn. But I tend to like West Elm's styling a little better.

My First West Elm purchase was the Pin-Tuck duvet cover for the lakehouse master bedroom. But I bought it on ebay for about 25% less than it costs in the store. It washes well, and it looks as pretty on my unprofessionally made bed as it did in the picture. (As a side note, do not buy THIS duvet cover from Kohls - called the Apt 9 Cafe Lait Duvet Set- which I tried first. It looks cheap and is not worth the $90.00)

I've been eyeing this duvet cover on West Elm's website but couldn't find it on ebay:



and then the heavens opened up and it's now ON SALE. For 50% off the original price. The full/queen duvet is now $59.97.
It's called the Washed Linen Duvet Cover and can be found HERE on WestElm.com.


Did I mention it's 50% OFF?!?! And if you order the steel color, you get free shipping. And yes I ordered mine (although it's on backorder until the 12th) so feel free to grab them while you can!! (The photo at the top of the page is the same duvet cover, shown on a bed)

Let me know if you order it and what you think!!

Bath- Towels & Mats

**These are my honest opinions about products I have purchased. I do not get paid for this, I just learn from my purchasing and decorating mistakes**

When I was furnishing my apartment, I bought things blindly. Like bath mats and bath towels. I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond b/c Hello! It's a home good store! For sure they must have good things! Especially at those prices! They have to be high quality!

And I was disappointed. The towels weren't soft. The bath mats slid all over the floor and didn't stay 'fluffy' like I had hoped. And after spending a little over $100 on 2 bath mats? I was expecting them to practically massage my feet. (Okay, maybe I expect a lot for my money)

Enter in Day-After-Thanksgiving day shopping 2008. JCPenney had towels on sale- Buy 1 for $9.99 and get one 1/2 off. So I got two of them- although I was cautious. No way would a towel for $8.00 stay this fluffy after a wash.

But it did! And they were fabulous. And I fell in love. Of course they aren't really PERFECT. After a couple of washings, they started getting loose strings. And the band on them is pretty wide which can sometimes hurt when you unknowingly use it to dry your face off. And some of the colors seem to discolor a little when washed. (I bought the cream, brown, and linen colors and didn't notice any discoloring)
But for the price? They are so worth it. And now our lake house is stocked with them.
Find them HERE at JCPenney.com. And here's a hint: They are sometimes cheaper in the store.
The current prices (2-9-2010) are:

Bath Towel: $9.99
Hand Towel: $7.99
Wash Cloth: $5.99
Tub Mat: $9.99

After my extreme happiness with the towels, I decided to buy the bath mats. And I was even more pleased with them. I've washed them a couple of times and there have been no loose strings (I haven't put them in the dryer due to the rubber backing) and they are fluffy and I love the feel of stepping out onto them after a shower. Also? They don't slide around on the floor b/c of the rubber backing.

You can find them HERE at JCPenney.com. Their current prices range from $9.99 to $24.99 and they have the toilet lid covers available as well.

Both of these products are from the American Living Hamilton Bath Collection. The last time I went to JCPenney, the sales guy said that Tommy Hilfiger is behind this collection. I'm not sure if that's true or not.

Let me know if you buy any of these and what you think about them.