Blackout Curtains FTW

If you like a darkened room for, well, pretty much anything, then you're probably already rocking some blackout curtains.  Since we're trying to get my son into his Big Boy Bed, I also thought that eliminating any other extraneous issues might help our cause.  Enter: Walmart and their Eclipse blackout curtains!  Thanks heavens for affordable alternatives because my mom and I were looking at Bed, Bath, & Beyond a few days back and gawked at the prices for their similarly styled curtains.  Good thing I didn't have the window measurements on hand or we might have overspent.

Since I didn't feel the need to drill extra holes in the walls or get an extended curtain rod, it was all quite simple.  The look, design, or color of the curtain was a moot point since it's behind a set of white vertical blinds like you see above.  A simple tension rod, also from Walmart, fit into the window well just so and voila!  Only $30 ($8 rod, $22 set of 2 curtains) and 10 minutes later, we had a darkened room.  As you can see, it's not blackout, per se, but it sure does darken the room.  Bonus: it also keeps it much cooler (I know, it says so on the packaging, but it also says blackout, so, meh) and seems to have quite the insulating on it, all things considered.

I was even too lazy to cut it or try and customize it to fit the A/C, so you can see there's definitely some light leakage.  I'm not too concerned, though, because even in the middle of the day it looks like a super faint sunset rather than the beaming sun that graces us here in Hawaii.  An added benefit is that at night, it looks like night, since we live in a townhome complex, there's always some ambient light from the surrounding community.  Luckily, the outer facing backing is also white (as it seems most blackout fabric is) which is a regulation according to the association in the complex as well.  All in all, it's a pretty good achievement to me and at a budget friendly price to boot.

Lampshade Rehab

Isn't that lampshade just the bees knees?!  Well, it better because this is my after picture and there is no before. AGAIN. I know. Bad habits die hard, I guess.  Best part of this whole thing is that I had the old ugly lampshade literally up until last night when I put it in the trash.  Ain't that just how it always happens?

So, what's the big deal?  The lampshade.  I mean seriously, have you ever seen a lamp uglier than a hairy fruit and completely written it off?  I have.  Giving credit where credit is due, this is a really nice custom, family heirloom koa wood lamp base that my uncle actually made for our family.  That being said, it's probably one of the only reasons I would never put paint to it.  However, there are many, I'm sure, that could use a nice coat of paint to make it all better.

Go around your house, your neighbors house, the furniture store, the thrift shop, wherever - and take a second look at the pieces themselves as individuals.  Sometimes that ugly lamp in the vintage shop up the street just needs a nice new lampshade.  I lucked out and got this one on clearance at Target.  Time will tell if I decide to do something fun and different with it.  I've seen those Mod Podge lampshades or I could just add a cute little ribbon accent on the top or bottom edge.  As you can see, I haven't even taken off the packaging yet, so I'm definitely not ready to go all craft-addict on it either. Yet.

Clutter Busting! - Dining Room

Is summer just that special time of year when people get sick of all their junk because it's so hot outside that when you spend extra time indoors (in A/C!) you slowly grow a small, secret hatred for the extra stuff you have that's surrounding you?  Really, I'd love some insight.

I've noticed everyone is going clutter-busting happy these days.  Crystal just finished a Clutter-Busting Challenge in May and even my Pinterest seems to be exploding with clutter-busting suggestions.  Don't misunderstand, I'm so not complaining!

Since we recently moved in with my mother (hey, Hawaii is expensive!), it's been a long and painful process.  No, I'm not sick of my mom already (well, maybe...) but she's got a tiny place and an abundance of...stuff.  I know, I know, feel bad for my mom - she raised me out of the house, and then I had a baby and added a fiance and NOW is when I move back in with her into her retirement-sized (aka meant for one person and a solitary temporary visitor) home.  She'll sue me later.

Forgive the brain fart - I only took the after picture.  I've got a bad habit of doing that.  Usually, when it comes time to get down to clutter-busting, I get fed up an emotional and dive right in, then take a picture in my moment of pride and pout because I didn't get a before picture.  Trust me when I say, this is a monumental improvement. Those pantry doors didn't used to be usable unless you moved 9 bajillion other things out of the way first.  Don't even get me started on the table - we consider this usable - if you saw the before, you'd wonder where the table was at all.

For now, I'm going to try and keep tackling bits and pieces of the house little by little and simply document my achievements - if I started rambling about the how-to parts of this clutter-busting, I'll have written a collection of novels.  Hopefully, there will be some similar tactics I'll come across as I start clutter-busting room to room and give a cliff notes version.  Wish me luck!