Deactivation

I'm not quite sure how to say it so I'm just gonna: we're deactivating Putter Wall! {Gasp! Oh no! Blood-curdling scream} I know, I know you two, but it's going to be fine. We plan to keep the blog up, we just may not post on it for awhile and didn't want to lead you on. (I hate it when blogs do that!)

We love the idea of PutterWall but want it to be quality and feel right now we don't have the time to make it quality. Its all about seasons, people, and right now is just not PW's season! But we hope and plan that there will be future times and seasons for our beloved PW and we'll be sure let you know when they are. Until then we'll carry out our current thoughts on domesticity via our personal blogs.

It was a good ride...that three months...a good ride, indeed. {sniff}

Midwest Modern 2

The new Amy Butler fabric is out! I didn't know this until I looked at decor8 today. But take a look see... which palate is your favorite? I'm partial any swatch that involves her yellows and greens. I know she probably won't ever do this since her trademark is bright colors, BUT I would love to see what she could do with my preferred autumn tones. The mind can only reel!

To get more information on these beautiful fabrics go here.

My Very Own Deco File...

In homage to Jazzy's little creative notebook, I think today I am going to start my Deco file here at Domino magazine. I already have a creative notebook, okay, who am I kidding, I have about nine million of the things. My posterity will get sick of reading them... But what's a gal to do about all the cool stuff she discovers while browsing the Internet? I say put it in your own deco file. I'll let you know how it works out for me, and if I actually end up using it. My favorite article for this month is this one. It's a fantastic slide show of some of their best work from the past three years.

These are a few of my favorite things....

If any of you are like me and you're trying to figure out what you like or even remember things you like, for that matter, then you might be interested in keeping a creative journal. I made mine in a book binding class at BYU and thought it fitting that I use it specifically to record my creative thoughts and then act as a place to turn to when those creative juices refuse to flow. It has actually been really fun for me. Plus, it's one of those very non-commital journals that you can update whenever you want, which usually makes it a very enjoyable experience because you only write, draw or glue things in it when you're excited about something. Anyhow, if this is something that sounds like fun to you, below is a photo of mine along with a list of things I put in there to get you started. Plus, I know you might not think of this journal as something to fill a family history itch or anything, but come one, how fun would it be to find your mom's or grandma's or g-grandmas' or ggggg-grandma's creative journal? Priceless people, priceless.


What I put in my CJ:

• List of books I want to read one day
• List of movies I want to own/watch
• Cutouts of cool decorating ideas from catalogs
• List of things I love
• Paint swatches
• Fabric swatches
• Writing ideas for songs
  
• Good quotes
  
• Sketches of craft projects
• Cutout of cool haircuts
  
• List of meals I like to make
• Sketch out the layout of rooms (for ideas of the many ways I can rearrange my furniture)
  
• List of projects I want to accomplish in the near fuuture
• List of clothing items I'd like to purchase
• The possibilities are endless!!!
  

Deck the Halls on a Discount

Hey, hey! "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" and that means time to start thinking about decorating for Christmas! Wahoo! Are some of you saying to yourselves, "Back the Polar Express up a bit, no mon, no holiday fun" or "decorating is on the bottom of my holiday budget list this year." {gasp} Not to worry, friends! There are a multitude of ways to make your house looking like a PotteryBarn catalog in no time and for hardly any money at all. (Seriously. It's like where I got all my ideas).

First off, check out the origami tree! PB actually sells the papers to fold the birds. OR you could just go to Target and Costco and pick out some bold wrapping paper to pull of the same effect. And apparently the origami crane is symbolic of peace and stuff. So there you go!
Another idea that would be inexpensive that I thought clever were these little jars full of peppermints. Just go to IKEA, grab some of the $4 jars and on your way home, swing by See's and bada-bing, bada-boom. You've got some eye-catching decorations and a holiday treat never to far away from you or your guest. And try mixing it up a bit with different varieties, candy sticks, peppermints balls... the possibilities are endless! However, note how they take the wrappers off and fill them to the brim to give it the, "this is delectable-potentially-home-made- candy-found-only-in-really-cool-family-owned-candy-stores-on-the-street-corners-in-quaint-parts-of-big-cities". Okay...maybe too much, but you get my drift.

And finally, we have a gift garland below. Save your Christmas wrapping scraps small boxes ladies, because you can wrap them, put fun ribbon on 'em and string them up like so:

Good Book?

So, I've got a sick-ish baby and very few hours of sleep, which leaves me a shell of a woman...a mere shell. So, I was wondering if anyone has got this book, Seams to Me, by Anna Marie Horner. What do you think? Should I throw it in my Amazon wish list?

Free Laundary Detergent!...well, almost

So last night we had a really cool Enrichment night where I learned some cool things that I thought I'd pass a long. They held a budget buster class where one thing they taught us was how to make your own liquid laundry detergent. And through their own little testing process have determined it to be pretty efficient...and cheap. Apparently, your store-bought detergents, like Tide, cost about $.47 per load. With this stuff it's $.01 !!! Which they said if you do 5 loads a week equals $120 per year. Hello, ladies!!! If you're into frugality, it doesn't get any better than that!

It calls for some unusual ingredients. If you live near a Winco grocery store, they told us that they carry all of these products. Oh, and it makes 3 gallons at a time, so you may want to make it with a friend. Also, they thought it was sensitive to all types of skin, but we had one 'tester' who has a couple of sons with irritable skin and one I believe has some minor issues with it. So it might be best to test if first.

1 Bar Fels-Naptha soap, grated. (makes 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups Washing Soda
1 1/2 cups Borax
All of these can be purchased at a major market or Winco

Boil 1/2 gallon hot water and then add grated soap until dissoved. Keep stirring, add other soaps until dissolve. Take off of stove and keep stirring.

Add 1/2 gallon cool water and stir. This stirring process will keep it emulsified. Add 1 gallon cool water and stir about every 15 minutes with a mixer or stick blender. At this point you have 2 gal of water. I transfer to 5 gal bucket and add the last 1 gallon cool water (3 gal total). keep stirring with a long handle spoon. As soon as it will not separate put in containers. I use 1 gallon milk jugs.
Us 1/4 cup per load. This is safe for front load washers. Before I us soap, I give it a hard shake.

Merry Christmas to Me!

So, when I first saw the poster pictured below...I fell in love...with the saying, not necessarily the poster itself. I loved it, but wasn't sure it was exactly my style. I didn't know where I would put it...(even though with kids in a house it could go really anywhere). And then, one happy day, I stumbled upon...This little beauty! Perfect for my kitchen. Oh what a happy day! I saw it in September and it's been on my mind ever since. It's perfectly my style, the color, the cupcake, the saying. It's hand painted, so it's a little pricey(for me). Anyway, I check it daily to make sure it's doing okay, and then I saw that it's a six week wait to get one, then I got all panicky...I told Sean to order me one pronto because I want it for Christmas. At first he couldn't get one, because they were all sold out, but he emailed them and now I have one coming my way(phew)...for Christmas. So, there you have it. I won't be surprised, but I will be happy...and calm and I might have a cupcake or two.

Silhouettes

So I've noticed a trend with silhouettes of late throughout the home decor blogosphere. Nienie is known for her silhouette wall. Some are done professionaly with amazing detail. And then there are lots of places that give easy instructions on how to make your own through various methods here, here and my personal favorite found here. The first two are easier to do without too much computer knowledge. The last one I think provides more detail as long as you know you're way around a photoshop program. I like this idea and was curious to see if I could do it so the other day on a whim, I gave it a whirl.

I started by taking a photo of Peanut in front of a light background (with a little help from Dad).


After downloading the photo, I just used one program (Scrapbook Deluxe) to take out the light background and then put it in Publisher and messed around with the Contrast and Brightness until I got this. I know most of you are far more talented than myself in Photoshop and could do this easy peezy lemon squeezy. Anyhow this is what I came up with:

Can you guess who it is? Can you? Can you? Like I said, I did this on a whim. As you can see my subjects where never sitting still, which didn't give my silhoette the sharpest edge in the world and oh, yeah, he is wearing a hoodie :) I did like it with his mouth open smiling however.

This was super fun to do and I plan to mess around with it some more in the future. Hopefully, I'll get it down just right.

Clever Idea

So, I'm thinking about ordering these hangers. Wouldn't they be cute somewhere in my kitchen or in my hallway to hold all of Gracie's art work? I think so. I have one in my check out box...I just need to be brave and order it.