MIA...

I have a small family thing going on.... be back in a few days.....

Jen

A shade better.. and a make-over party

Remember the lamp I liked, but wasn't sure about? I liked the shape, but wasn't sure what it was, something just seemed off.

All it took was a new shade( as many of you smart girls suggested...) ON SALE from Pottery Barn the make all of the difference...

I love this lamp now!

And it's nice to have one lamp that I don't have to rewire myself, or worry about being a fire hazard! ;)

So let's see your projects, make-overs and transformations! Link up! I have to work in the morning, so I'll be checking in on your fabulous things later in the day!

The only rules are you have to link back to this post and make sure you enter your post link, not your blog link.

Let's party! :)

Jen

Picture perfect giveaway.....

My fabulous cousin, Lorraine Shannon, is a super-talented photographer. She has a web page where she sells prints of her work.

Since she is of course as generous ( and beautiful) as she is talented;

(and those things run in families you know ;)

she's offered to giveaway one of her 8 x 12 prints of your choice.. a $40 value!!

All you have to do is go to her site Lorraine Shannon Photography

take a peek around and then come back here, and tell me which print you would like if you win.

as always, joining as a follower gets you another entry and since this is for my 'cuz, tweeting about it, facebooking it and posting about it gives you extra entires. Just let me know in the comments what you did... on the honor system of course. :)

I might just have one more secret goody to giveaway for one more winner too...

don't you just love surprises?

Drawing open until Wednesday at Midnight Chicago time....

Good luck!

Jen

P.S. Join in on the 25th for a "see what I did!" make-over party! Let's see those transformations and projects!

Etsy shop update...

I am finally getting some shop updating done!

There's still more to come over the next few days!

Hand painted table runners

Vintage items

and some of those NEST reusable canvas bas (sorry, but these are empty inside!) which will be great for those summer farmer's markets, and flea markets! :)

Hope you've had a nice weekend! I see some of you are already starting with spring!

We are still under a deluge of snow here and I have been pouring through my gardening magazines for relief.

I hope Mr. Groundhog was right!

Jen

Time machine...From Real estate listing to real home......

 I was going through pictures last night, I came across a picture of the space from the real estate listing when we bought our house a little over 10 years ago.

I think it's amazing what a little paint and "stuff" will do.

Jen

It's in the bag...Winner's

Thank you to everyone who entered and left such nice comments!!

I won't delay any further!!!

The winners of the tote bags are:

Carolyn at Little Bear Studio

Deb at Posted from Home

And

Holly days closet

Congrats to you all! :) E-mail me with your info/address at

Thecraftyhome (at) comcast (dot) net

I am having another special giveaway next week, so stop on back. :)

Jen

Sit, relax and enjoy...

The anticipation was the hardest part of planning.... wanting everything to be perfect for our first meeting of fellow bloggers and readers.

Amy was so generous in opening up her gorgeous home to us.

We wanted it to be welcoming for everyone attending and who had taken the time out of their day to come. We even had some out-of-state guests!

(Let me preface this post by saying Amy and I are "feeders". No one should leave one of our gatherings hungry! )

We had the glasses shined...

and drinks chilled...

The coffee cups were at the ready...

coffee and chocolate were perfect just before Valentine's Day.

Red velvet cupcakes, fruit salad and muffins served on vintage dishes.

Pain-au-chocolat and croissants with clotted cream and jelly,

and a small desert bar waited our guests.

We were so happy to see Janet.

And Joy. She is so, so, so lovely. She is one of the very first blogs I started reading when I started blogging. She is such a kindred spirit.

There were these fabulous and very talented ladies Rebecca, Traci , Suzanne, Heidi and Judy.

Traci and Suzanne have some great pics of the event on their blogs as well.

There was the wonderful and enjoyable Joan with Jayme and Cindy (who both came in 3 hours from Indiana.). Cindy makes the most amazing soap and Jayme is hilarious. She tells the best chicken stories.

and two wonderful and sweet readers ( we are renaming "lurkers" to "readers" because "lurker" sounds a bit in the bushes after midnight, doesn't it?) Penny and Pat. We were so happy they could come. They are such lovely ladies.

First we ate and chatted, and loaded up on coffee.

Then we started the raffle with lots of wonderful things that people brought or donated, like Tricia who donated a candle from Backyard candle company.

Pat won a wonderful gift from Tara that included sweet, little vintage forks.

Heidi won an awesome pillow from Tracey. Amy and I almost conspired to hide it until the raffle was over.

Sweet Judy was a big winner too with a fabulous basket put together by Pat full of Pottery Barn goodies.

Everyone won something, and after the raffle, we went around and introduced ourselves and were able to chat about blog topics and creative ideas. Annie was too funny. I loved talking to her; She has a great delivery.

Tracey with an -ey is as sweet and nice as she is on her blog, and Traci with an -i is so warm and open.

Anne Marie came in a sweet frock she had made herself, and I just loved her earthiness and that she is in person exactly as she is on her blog...

I could have talked to these ladies all day, but as the day wore on, unfortunately, we all had real lives we had to go back to.

Thank you ladies for giving me such an amazing day.

So let's do this again? Okay? Summertime? So those of your who couldn't make it last time can come the next time? What do you think?

Jen

PS... I didn't forget the giveaway of our gift bags... I am leaving it open until Wednesday at Midnight Chicago time.... Leave a comment on the previous post if you haven't already. I'll announce Thursday. :)

Humbled...

...By true friends I never knew I had, and...

...By all of the wonderful women I met this weekend.

What a great experience!

They were all so amazingly sweet, warm and friendly. Much more than I could have ever imagined.

I have so much to tell you, but as I compile my thoughts and pictures, and reflect on all of the talented women I met, I wanted to take a minute to thank you for being such good blog buddies.

I have 3 canvas "goodie bags" left over filled with fabulous little things that some of the ladies brought.

I want to give them to 3 lucky commenters.

You can leave a comment for one entry, and join as a follower for a second, or let me know if you already are one.

I'll announce the winner on Wednesday with the party post!

Good luck!

Jen

Really unnecessary party projects.....

Do you ever do that? You are having a big event/party and suddenly are struck with the urge to do a couple of U.P.P.s? Even when you know it's isn't going to make a difference?

In the midst of getting ready for our girls get together tomorrow; I had the sudden urge to cover over my faux kitchen tile and use the rest of my beadboard wallpaper.

Not only am I already running like crazy, but it's not even at my house!

I was tired of the dingy look and wanted something

much cleaner looking. The best part was, it was all with leftovers. No cost!

So of course I am mostly there...but it looks better already. :)

Jen

The shimmy shimmy Earth shake...

Ummm.. Dear Mother Nature,

I live in Chicago... the land of tornados,

and blizzards

and high winds.

Not Earthquakes...

Except for last night when we had a 3.8 earthquake just outside of Sycamore, IL.

It woke us up about 4 a.m.

How rude.

That's our second one in 5 years

in the middle of the night.

Everything shook for about 10 seconds.

It woke me up, not scary, just so rude.

It's like when your neighbors have a loud party on a week night.

You know I need my beauty sleep.

It must have really shimmied even closer to the site, if it shook us here.

My husband got up and checked the house. We thought a snow plow hit our house, or something exploded near by.

This is not San Francisco. A good friend of mine lived there for over 10 years and had never felt one earthquake.

She moves to IL and has 2.

Maybe she brought them with her.

See N.. it's your fault.

Mother Nature, what's going on?

At least next time make it in the middle of the day.

I'm lookin' pretty ugly this morning.

Thank you,

Jen

National lamp-oon...

I thought I would treat myself to a new lamp that I didn't have to worry about being a fire hazard. I have a lot of vintage lamps I rewire, but I thought it would be nice to have something a bit modern to spice it up a little. And new.

This is the lamp I have now. I think it's pretty, but a bit fussy.

These are the two I picked up from Homegoods to try out.

Nice, but I think a bit blah. Maybe too modern? I like the shape.. maybe it's the shade?

I don't know what I was thinking with this one, all I need is a lava lamp and a black light.

I still kind of dug the white one so I tried it somewhere else. No go.

So I am back to brave the mini-blizzard out here today for the sake of decorating.

~Jen

LOVE those oldies but goodies....

Here's a cute, quick and easy Valentine's craft "revisit" from a previous post.

I love this project!

I also love that inside the frame it says "special moments"...

Really? This frame is for my "special moments?" Really?

Like I am going to use it for the crappy ones??

That's the dollar store for you...

Anyhoo...Dollar store frame.....

Meet scrapbook paper and computer printing...

~Jen

Last call..

If I've missed you.. or fogotten you for the blog get together on the 13th.... please e-mail me asap!

With the illnesses running through our house I've been so turned around... please don't let me forget you!

Oh and a few people have asked if they can attend, but I have no contact e-mail address/blog to get back to you at!

Email me at

Thecraftyhome (at) comcast (dot) net

jen

Can I... ? Wood I?

Lately I am hooked on an idea (Which, as usual, I can guarantee that poor Mr. R has no idea about. Until now.), that when I paint my cabinets, I would have to have new counter tops because cream cabinets with a cream countertop just doesn't go.

So even though I would love granite, I am also completely enamored with the idea of wood countertops.

It's not like it's a new idea. After all, it's what they had before man figured out how to grow laminate trees.

Butcher block is old ,old, old and trustworthy.

But I am interested in planked lumber in a lovely dark Carmel-ly tone.

All worn with age and use.

Gorgeous.

Warm and natural...

Rustic and homey.

So Mr. R... what do you think?

~Jen

*Images from Country Living