Our Home Away From Home

Sunday, September 8, 2013

TUESDAYS AT OUR HOME #27

Hello, there!.

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

Ours was quite, my husband worked some more on the back porch and I just did a little tweaking around the house and planning for my outdoor Fall decor and flower bed :)

With the change of season almost here, I was thinking of may be planting some mums on my flower bed
like I have always done.

This Summer has been so very hot, I decided not to plant any flowers and I am really missing them, but the truth is that with the drought, triple digit temperatures and no rain, they would of lasted a week.
On the other hand, the bushes on our flower bed are loving the heat and they have grown so much that I don't know if I will have any space left for mums. :)

This is what our flower bed looked like five years ago when we moved in.

A year and a half later

Last year

And now

Big difference, right?

We just had all the bushes cut and trimmed and I still don't think I will have room for Fall flowers.

Well, I guess I will have to see what I can do. :)

Now, lets get ready for another great party.

Welcome to Tuesdays at Our Home!

You can link up any posts that are home decor, gardening, crafting, painting, sewing, cooking,or DIY related.

RULES ARE VERY SIMPLE:

-Please put a link or my party button on your post

-No link to Etsy shops, parties or advertising, please

-Become a follower of my blog

That's it!

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit!

Have fun!

Friday, September 6, 2013

NO SEW WINDOW VALANCE

I had several emails from my readers asking me about the window valance in my craft room.

I made this valance last year and it was super easy.
No sewing involved! My kind of project! :)

So for those of you interested in making one, here is a quick tutorial.

My valance is 62 inches wide by 25 inches long.
I picked a light fabric because that room only has one window and I want to have as much natural light as possible.

Items needed:

-Fabric of your choice
-Ribbon
-Two tassels
-Scissors

And, of course, your trusty Stitch Witchery (hem tape).

Using this tape and a hot iron, I seamed a one inch hem all around and a three inch hem on the top to have enough space to insert the curtain rod.

Once the piece was ironed, I hanged it on the bar and using three pieces of ribbon formed the pleats and I also added two small tassels before tying it up on the top.

Total cost of the finished project was $5.50.
Not bad! This way, if I get tired of this valance, I won't feel bad about replacing it. :)
By the way, I already washed this valance in my washing machine twice since I made it and it is holding up just fine.
The hem tape did not come apart.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I can NOT take a picture on front of a window to save my life!

Thank you all for stopping by!
Will be back tomorrow with the top viewed links of this week's link party, Tuesdays at Our Home.
We had some great entries and beautiful projects.

Until then!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

THE MANY "LOOKS" OF OUR KITCHEN ISLAND

Those of you that have been visiting my blog for a while know that I love to play and have fun
with the decor on my kitchen island.

I have been doing this since we moved in the house and it gets changed around a few times a year.
At first, I used to decorate/stage it using dishes and other decor items, but let me tell you, having to move everything all the time to clean and dust the counter got tiring very soon. :)

In the last year, I started changing the look of the island and tried to make it a little more simple, but I still try to set up a pretty vignette to go with every season.

This is the way it looked at the end of last Summer.

And then came Fall!

Christmas 2012

Last winter I changed it a couple of times.
What can I say? It was a long winter! :)

Spring/Easter 2013

Summer 2013

As you can see , I reuse the items I have over and over again and just add some other small decorations.
You would be surprise how many things you already have at home that you can use to create pretty vignettes.

I am already trying to do something for Fall, but not quite have it figured out yet. LOL
Meanwhile, I already cleared up the island a little and it sits kind of empty.
Maybe this will give me the push I need! :)

Do you decorate your kitchens for the different seasons?

I hope this post gives you a little inspiration.
I will be sharing soon my Fall decor for this year.

Tuesdays at Our Home is still live and going strong.
Stop by for a visit. Great inspiration all around!

Hope you guys have a lovely day.
See you soon!

ENJOYING OUR NEW PURCHASE

Good afternoon!
I hope you are having a great Tuesday.

It has been over a week now since we had our new range delivered so I thought I give you an update.

After a lot of research and trying to decide if we wanted a gas or electric range (our kitchen is equipped for both) and reading hundreds of reviews, we decided to buy a Whirlpool Gold Series electric range with double oven.

All the reviews on it were excellent and not only we liked the clean and modern lines of this stove, but also the specifications and energy saving features were exactly what we were looking for.

One of the best features is the Accubake temperature management system which uses a sensor to cook your food evenly at all times. We also liked the large size of both ovens and the five element cook top.

The top oven is plenty large for everyday use and it will be nice to have the larger oven for holiday cooking

and family dinners.

And so far, I really like the way it performs.

It is cooking our food beautifully and in less time.

We are very glad making this decision is over! :)

And because most of the stores were already having their Labor Day sales, we were able to save almost five hundred dollars on this purchase. Can't ask for more! :)

Tuesdays at Our Home is live right now!

Come join us for some great fun and beautiful inspiration.

See you all soon!

Monday, September 2, 2013

TUESDAYS AT OUR HOME #26

Happy Labor Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.

Ours has been quite. The last few weeks have been crazy for us, so we decided a long weekend at home was needed.
We have just been relaxing and taking it easy for a change.

I have been spending some time in my craft room putting together some Fall vignettes and also making some burlap flowers and bows.

My husband has been working on building the top frame on our back porch for a few hours every morning until the heat becomes unbearable. We are still in the triple digits, so the early morning hours is the only time that any work can be done outdoors.

Yes, my outdoor curtains had to come down! But no worries, they will be back up as soon as all the building is finished. Can't wait!

Are you all ready for another fun get together?
Welcome to Tuesdays at Our Home!

Let's see what projects you have been working on this week! You can link up any posts that are home decor, gardening, crafting, painting, sewing, cooking,or DIY related.