by Jennifer Griffin | May 8, 2013
With the summer vacation season right around the corner, today I wanted to share a handy website that I’ve used a couple of times in planning our trips. Especially when we’re on vacation, I always try to be a good steward of our resources and this service helps me do that! Have you heard of Vacation Rentals By Owner? It’s a site where you can search privately owned properties when looking for a great place to stay.
With some of the listings, you deal directly with the owner, but the majority are run by management companies. Sometimes you may be staying in a personal residence that is being rented out, or it may be a company-owned property.
We have used VRBO twice in the last few years, and always check it out when we’re headed somewhere new that we’re not familiar with. The first time we booked with VRBO was on our 15th Anniversary trip to New York City. We decided the general area of town we wanted to stay in, and then searched for nearby listings.
We were able to stay in a flat in a neighborhood near Times Square. It was a 1 bedroom with bath and full kitchen and living area. The rate was much less than we would have had for a tiny hotel room elsewhere. The kitchen was a major benefit (although we ate out more than we planned to!), and we really felt like locals when walking through the neighborhood up to the flat, rather than tourists heading towards the hotels.
Our place was not lavishlike a fancy hotel, but comfortable, and I guess spacious in NYC terms!
We also used VRBO for our beach vacation last summer. Once again, we were able to get a 2 bed, 2 bath condo with a full kitchen, washer & dryer in the room, and balcony overlooking the ocean, right on the beach, for less than we could have rented a standard hotel room for. We made 1 trip to the store for quick fix, easy meals and saved money by only eating out one time. I also really appreciate the washer and dryer-I love coming home from a trip with all of the laundry already done!
Nothing super fancy, but perfect for our needs and budget.
Best of all, this was our balcony. Right on the sand!
My only caution is to always make sure you know what’s included and not included…parking? towels? paper goods? etc. Usually the listing is very upfront but the owner or contact person is very helpful if you have any questions and need to contact them.
Once again, by doing a bit of research and being willing to cook and eat most vacation meals in, our family is able to be good stewards even while on vacation. VRBO is the first site we check when planning a trip. Have you ever used it?
“In this regard, it is expected of managers that each one of them be found faithful.”
1 Corinthians 4:2 (HCSB)
by Jennifer Griffin | Apr 11, 2013
Striped walls are all the rage right now, and they can add loads of personality to your home when used as an accent wall, in a bathroom, or in a corner of your house that you want to set apart from the rest. It’s actually easy to get crisp clean lines when painting stripes if you follow a few simple guidelines.
1) If you are painting only one wall, tape the corners. I was very skeptical of this next step, but wanted to try it. (Come to find out, it’s crucial! It’s the key to this whole thing!) After taping, paint over the edge of your tape with your BASE color (the color that’s underneath the tape). Do two coats, just to make sure it’s good and sealed. My side walls were staying green so I painted my two coats of green over the inside edge of the tape.
This step accomplishes two things. If there is any “leakage” under the tape, all that is leaking under is the color that’s already there. Secondly, the paint makes a kind of seal along the edge of the tape, so that any other colors painted on top of that base color are locked out and away from the tape edge. Hopefully that makes sense.
2) I had already decided that I wanted seven wide stripes and wanted the top and bottom stripe to be black. I measured the wall from the bottom of the crown molding to the top of the baseboard. It was 102″, so I just divided by 7 and got 14 1/2″ per stripe. I marked off the rough measurements where I wanted each line on each end of the wall, and then painted the white stripes. The edges didn’t have to be perfect on these, this was just my base and would get clean edges when layering on the black paint.
3) Per the instructions on the painter’s tape, I waited 24 hours to let the white stripes dry. I knew I’d be taping on top of them and didn’t want any of the white paint peeling off when the tape was removed. When dry I re-marked my measurements where I wanted the stripes.
4) Next, I used a secret weapon borrowed from my dad…a chalk line.
If you’ve never used one, they are a great tool to use for marking a straight line over a large space. It’s like a little tape measure, just with string and chalk inside instead of a measure. The inside re-chalks the string when the line is wound back into the housing. To use it, someone holds the end of the string and someone else stretches it across the wall, pulling it as taut as possible.
I was home alone when I was ready to mark the lines and couldn’t reach my trusty neighbor to come over and lend a hand, so I used a piece of tape for one end and stretched the line out myself.
Making sure to line up each end with your pencil marks, you “snap” the line against the wall and it leaves a perfectly marked line all the way across. Popping that string was the most fun part of this whole job!
You could also use a laser level or a good old measuring tape to mark your lines off if you don’t have any of these tools.
5) With the lines marked, I then taped all of the stripes right along the edges of my chalk lines. I also taped the side trim to the doorway that is on this wall.
6) Now, time to seal some more edges. Before going any further, I sealed the tape down the edge of the door trim with white paint, 2 coats, so none of the black paint would leak onto the trim. I also did two coats of white along the outside edges of all of the white stripes (where the black stripe would be touching the white), and two coats along the baseboard which was also taped off.
7) Time for your second color! After my tape sealing coats were dry, I cut in with black along the top crown, ends of the black stripes, and baseboard, followed by rolling a coat on the remaining sections. The black stripes took two coats.
8) Tip time: Whenever I’m painting, this is always how my supplies look:
I line my paint tray with a plastic bag before pouring in the paint. Then, if I’m not using it I slide it inside another plastic bag just to keep it from drying out until I come back to it. When not in use in between coats, I put my trim brush in a ziploc bag, cover my trim cup with a baggie, and wrap a plastic bag around my roller. You basically just want to block any air from getting to the paint so everything won’t dry out. I’ve left these for several days before and they’re always ready to go when I come back to them. It’s really nice not to have to rinse everything out until you’re finished. When you’re finished with the paint tray, pour the leftover paint back in the can and toss the bag. No clean-up!
9) After the final coat, I peeled all of the tape off immediately. I paused for a minute before doing it, really expecting to see scraggly lines under the tape. Much to my delight, the lines were PERFECT, even on my textured walls. So much better than I ever hoped for. The lines look totally professional and clean.
This wall can remind everybody who comes into my house of the best kind of stripes:
“But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
by Jennifer Griffin | Mar 25, 2013
The day I wrote this post, the weather was a gorgeous 75 degrees and we enjoyed one of our first tastes of spring. I don’t know about you, but with the changing of the seasons I’m ready for some fresh outfits!
Although I have plenty of choices in my closet, sometimes I need some new ideas for how to mix up what I already have to make a cute new outfit. Today I wanted to show you some fun outfits to try as we transition from winter to warmer weather. With chilly mornings and warm afternoons, layers are great! Hopefully you can create a similar look with pieces you already own. But, if you need to supplement your wardrobe a bit, here are some classic pieces to consider adding:
1. At least one pair of colored jeans
Source-Polyvore
2. A denim shirt and cropped jeans
Source-The Pleated Poppy
3. A colored blazer and a lightweight scarf
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4. Anything with stripes
Source-Atlantic-Pacific
5. A white button-up shirt
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6. A statement necklace classes up any outfit!
Source-Pinterest
These pieces don’t have to be expensive. TJ Maxx, Ross, Target, and Marshall’s are great places to find current fashions for a reasonable price. I’ve even added some classic pieces to my wardrobe from the thrift store lately!
What’s your favorite piece in your closet for spring?
by Jennifer Griffin | Mar 5, 2013
As the time for spring clean-up in the yard approaches, be on the lookout for items from nature that you can use in your home. It doesn’t take long when browsing design magazines to come across a common item incorporated into home décor…tree stumps!
I love the interest and little bit of quirkiness of stumps as accent tables. I knew that I could easily make my own, for next to nothing, rather than dish out hundreds of dollars (seriously!) for one. I kept an eye out curbside for stumps being thrown out, but I never saw anything that was the right size. So, we went to the wood lot where we buy our firewood and the guy was willing to let me look through the pile that hadn’t been split yet. I chose 2 that were about the same size (about 15″ tall).
After bringing the stumps home we rinsed them off and sprayed them with bug spray and let them sit for a few days. Then, I washed them off again just because I didn’t want any pesticide residue on them. You do want to make sure that your wood is nice and clean and doesn’t have any unwanted visitors living inside it.
I wanted casters on them to add a little height, but also because these things are heavy! The rollers have been invaluable when I need to move them around for cleaning or whatever.
I like the look of the bark left on, so all I did was sand the top a bit and rubbed 3 coats of paste wax on. I wanted it to repel water just in case a sweaty glass was left on it. The darker portion in the picture is where I had just applied the wax, but as it dried the wood went back to the original color.
If you don’t like the look of the bark, it can easily be stripped off and with a light sanding and maybe some sealer the wood is beautiful on it’s own. I’ve even seen them painted white, or whatever color you desire.
These are so handy and are the perfect spot for the remote and a drink. In a pinch they also work well as extra seating. You could even make a grouping of them in slightly varied heights for a show-stopping coffee table arrangement. And, they would be very cool for extra seating on a patio or around a fire-pit.
We paid the wood lot guy $5 for both stumps and the casters were about $6 for 2 at Home Depot. I think less than $30 was a great investment for this project!
