by Wendy Scheel | Jan 13, 2017 | New Products
Have you ever wondered how to make money blogging?
Me too.
So in full disclosure, in the last 18 months that I have been blogging, I have not directly made a single penny.
Womp,womp
That will change, I have faith. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
But if you are interested in starting a blog, Miss Mustard Seed and Thistlewood Farms both have blog series starting today on how to do exactly that. Marian and KariAnne are the best of the best.
With Marian and KariAnne sharing their insight on heavy issues like making money….I would like to show you my most recent light-hearted obsession.
Like me, you have probably seen this reversible mermaid sequins fabric everywhere. You rub the sequins one way and they are pink,
And you rub them the other way and they are silver,
You can make messages,
You can make designs
*****WARNING: This fabric is addictive*****
I bought a couple of yards in a pink and silver combination and a couple of yards in a gold and silver combination.(The gold and silver won’t be available until late February, it is shipping from China!)
Does anyone need a unique Valentines gift? I have six covers listed in my Etsy shop with an option of buying the cover and the insert. They would make a great new obsession for any one of your Valentines.
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 11, 2017 | DIY
Not only did we tile the desk backsplash while Wade had some time off from work, but we also upgraded our bedroom closet.
By definition alone, upgrade as a verb means that you,
raise (something) to a higher standard, improve by adding or replacing components
And that is exactly what we did. There was nothing wrong with the bedroom closet . The organizational shelving was already in place when we purchased our house, but it needed to be “cuter”.
As long as I am being all Webster’s Dictionary today, I asked Siri if cuter was a word and it is not. But Wikipedia gave a definition so I am using it. 🙂
Moving on….
There isn’t a defined entrance to our closet. Technically I guess it would be called a walk-in, but you have to walk past the double vanity, the shower and the toilet room to finally reach it. There is no door, just a big open space.
This is the before picture of the cubbies in the closet that we upgraded.
Like I said, it looked fine, but it was always jumbled. To make it look more uniform and organized, I wanted new containers besides the awkward variety of clear plastic ones I had been using.
While Samantha and I took a quick trip to sunny Texas for the weekend to visit my parents, Wade shopped at Lowes, Target, Walmart and Menards for the perfect containers.
He didn’t find them and when he did find something he liked, there weren’t enough of them or they were a bit pricey.
Now, I know that I recently shared with you our new ottoman and how much I loved the At Home store, but I went to Ikea to look for containers this time. Besides, it was Tuesday and I was taking some friends to the airport anyway (which is about 3 miles away from Ikea) so why pass up the chance.
Total side note: If you have an Ikea in your area, go on a Tuesday between snowstorms. There is no one there! They only had two checkout lines open and it still only took me 5 minutes to purchase my things.
Amazing.
Okay, back to the point of this post. I found these perfectly sized, sturdy neutral baskets.
The smaller ones on the bottom shelves were $8.99 and the taller ones were $14.99. That catapults the closet into the cuter category for about $100.
Better?
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 10, 2017 | DIY
Thanks for checking in today to see the reveal of our backsplash tiling project.
As I said in part one, this project was a lot easier and more fun than doing the whole kitchen.
But let’s jump to the chase.
Here’s the before:
And here’s the after:
One thing I should explain is our reasoning for extending the tile beyond the cabinet and the desktop.
The logical thing to do was end the tile at the same place as the desk, or the cabinet above, and we thought about doing that. But the light switch on the left extended beyond both those borders, so that was really the only logical place to end the tiling. It would have looked really wonky to have half of the light switch plate sticking out from the tiling, don’t you think?
Then, to avoid an unfinished look, we added decorative edge tiles along the border.
Do you like the area tiled? Or would you have left the area alone?
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 8, 2017 | DIY
Having my husband home during his vacation between Christmas and New Years allowed us to spend some down time together and get a few projects tackled.
We did a big project this summer where we tiled our kitchen backsplash. Neither of us had tiled before so when I say this was a big project, I mean this was a BIG project, from beginning to end. If you want to know more, or review how that experience went, you can read about it here, here and here.
If you want the super quick version, here are the before and after pictures:
Notice the desk area on the left of the after picture? The area behind the yellow flowers?
We decided at the time not to tile this area because we were tiled…I mean tired! We had planned on finishing it, but we wanted to live without it for a while to make sure it that was something the kitchen really needed.
And it did.
This time around the previous tiling experience helped us get the project done a lot faster.
The planning and painting of the edges with a dark paint was faster.
Mixing mortar and placing tiles was faster.
Grouting was faster, but still the most painstaking part of the process.
Even the sealing of the tile and daily clean-up. The whole process was easier and faster, and we are very happy with the result.
I guess what they say about practice is true. 🙂 Come back Wednesday to see the result!
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 4, 2017 | Life
Let’s have a little chit-chat about New Year’s Resolutions.
According to about.com the top ten resolutions are:
- Spend more time with family and friends
- Fit in Fitness
- Tame the Bulge
- Quit Smoking
- Enjoy Life More
- Quit Drinking
- Get out of Debt
- Learn Something New
- Help Others
- Get Organized
Do any of these sound familiar? Yea, me too.
Except this year I would make my number one resolution: Stress Less.
And since we are already on day four of this new year, I am going to totally win the New Year’s Resolution game and NOT make ANY resolutions.
BAM! DONE!
Instantly less stress.
BUT if I had an actual resolution list, I would also have mastered number ten: Get Organized.
A lot of people are cleaning out, purging and fixing up areas of their home to make room for things or get the things they have into the right place.
Not at our house.
My forever tall and handsome husband finds organizing a stress reducer. (Bless his heart, right?!)
On any given day, I will hear him downstairs organizing something.
Yesterday, when I came downstairs to take a break from sewing I opened my pantry door and found this:
This is how my pantry looks 99.9% of the time. My Mom lovingly named this space our “bomb shelter” because the two of us could live for years in this pantry and never go hungry.
Okay so maybe I personally haven’t mastered the “Get Organized”, but Wade has and it allows me to Stress Less, so I’ll go with it.
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 3, 2017 | Get To Know Me
I started to write a post about organizing and then this popped up in my email box.
What?????
People, this is huge for me!
I have been selling with Etsy since October of 2012. There are hundreds of thousands of sellers. To be found among those sellers and then actually sell something is a small miracle in itself. But to have “Etsy” pick your item, and list it in a feature to be seen by millions of buyers?! That is a big deal.
From a seller’s standpoint, more “views” of your item translates to more sales.
For example, Tuesdays are typically one of my lower days of “views”. I average about 100 in a 24 hour period.
Today (Tuesday) at noon, there were 166 views.
Considering that patience is not my strong suit, this just goes to show that patience is a virtue. I’ll work on that. 🙂
Starting out 2017 very grateful,
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 1, 2017 | New Products
Happy New Year!
I was writing out some checks this morning and it felt weird writing 2017. Just like 365 days ago it felt weird to write 2016. And soon enough I will be saying the same thing about writing 2018.
Time flies, no one will debate that.
Over the New Year weekend, Wade and I took down and packed up our Christmas decorations. Being on a blogging time frame, most things happen weeks, sometimes months before a non-bloggers time frame. For instance, our fall decor is set up around late August, early September and within the first week of November, everything changes from a fall color scheme to a festive Christmas theme.
So, by the time holiday things slow down, we are ready to pack up the tree and wreaths and hang on to a winter vibe for the next three months.
It was fun to look back and see what our Christmas house looked like in 2015. My Mom helped me decorate that year. She has such a great eye for styling different areas of the house. Each area felt like it could tell a story.
The biggest change for our 2016 house was the tall Christmas tree. I made a trade with my neighbor Becky, a chair I had painted and upholstered for a tree that she could no longer use in her new house. Win-win.
And now as we move into our winter theme, I have arranged the furniture a little closer to encourage conversation and togetherness. There will be a lot of togetherness since it will be too cold to go outside for very long. 🙂
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Old Lake George
Did you notice? Did you notice my amazing new ottoman? I love furniture. But let me tell you, I am giddy in love with this tufted ottoman.
Seriously, the neutral fabric, the nail head trim and the casters. Oh, the casters.
I found this beauty at the At Home store.
I was familiar with the At Home store already because every year when I visited my parents in Texas, we would spend hours walking up and down the isles there oogling at all of the various pieces. Sadly I never got to bring anything home that was bigger than my carry on.
But this past fall, At Home finally made it to Minnesota! If you haven’t been to an At Home store drive as fast as you can to the nearest one.
Actually, drive safely to the nearest store. We are under another snow storm watch.
Tis the season,
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Dec 29, 2016 | Life
We are putting the final touches on 2016 and now it is time to look forward to 2017. I have so many ideas in my brain, that I hope my pocket-book can keep up!
This is the project I am most excited about:
Our daughter’s wedding in August 2017!
Okay, so it’s technically not a “project” but we are DIYing a lot of the little things to personalize their big day. The closer the date gets, the more posts will be wedding-themed and the bigger my proud-Mom crocodile tears will become.
Another dream I have been milling around is tearing down this rock around the fireplace.
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The Family Room
The ideal design would be to move the entire fireplace insert to the right, put a mantel above it and then mount the TV above that. I would love to then place a window on the back wall making an entire wall of windows looking out onto the lake.
I like the stone fireplace wall but I don’t love the funky angle it sits at and how it is finished across the top. Plus the fact that putting the fireplace in the middle of the wall will allow for more furniture arrangements.
You know how I love to move furniture around!
(Quick story: Last night Wade went to bed to read a book and relax. Our bedroom wall and the family room wall are one in the same. I wanted to try a new furniture arrangement but to say that Wade doesn’t like to change the furniture around would be an understatement. So, I pushed our two lightweight love seats to where I wanted them and then clumsily wiggled the big bulky leather recliner into its new spot. I must not have been as quiet as I thought I was because an anxious yet wanting-to-be-supportive voice from the bedroom says, “Do you need help?”)
26 years of marriage….he gets me. 🙂
I am looking forward to 2017 with so many more things to share and all that life throws our way!
Have a safe and Happy New Year,
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Dec 26, 2016 | Life
Have I ever shared with you how blogging and having a shop on Etsy are similar to living on a deserted island? (Granted I never lived on a deserted island, but I would guess that it might be lonely wondering if anyone else is even out there.)
My point is that so many times I blog and hold my breath that someone posts a comment so I know that people are actually out there reading it from the big ol blogging world. And many of you do respond and I can release my breath and be thankful you care enough to take a second and share your thoughts.
The same is true of my Etsy shop. I have sold over 1700 orders in the past four years and I love it when a customer takes the time to send me a picture of how they decorated their home with something that started upstairs in my shop.
So for today’s continued before and after segment, I would like to show you some pictures that customers have sent me over the years, showcasing their homes with things they have purchased from my OldLakeGeorge Etsy shop.
How fun it that?! To think that some simple coasters and pillows can bring so much joy!
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Dec 24, 2016 | Life
This weekend is about family, friends and loved ones and so I will be taking a short blogging break as I enjoy the festivities of the season.
Happy Holidays from our family to yours.
See you next week,
~Wendy
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