The Complete Guide To Imperfect Homemaking

The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking
Share Report Abuse Next Blog Create Blog
Page 1
Sign In
Home
About Me
Frequently Asked Questions
Homemaker's Cheat Sheet
My Amazon Store
M A RC H 1, 20 12
{Home Staging 101} Part 2: My Living Room

This is part two in an eight (give or take a few...) part series on staging your home. Click here to read part one.
Welcome
Subscribe
Search
Welcome! My name is Kelly and I am passionate about keeping house, living simply, and painting things teal. Click HERE to learn more about me.
Kym Tarr from Shoestring Home Staging and Interior Redesign is showing us how to stage a home for maximum appeal and today the focus is on Living Rooms. Here is what our living room usually looks like:
http://www.imperfecthomemaking.com/
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 2
And here is the freshly staged space:
Join this site

with Google Friend Connect
Members (1595)
More
Already a member? Sign in
Coffee Table from an Old Door
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 3
Cameo Throw Pillows
Hooded Car Seat Blankie
The Imperfect Homemaking Book Store
Rag Quilt Tutorial
What we did: Simplified the mantel display Removed some decorative items Pared down distractions on the bookshelf and china hutch. Switched dark dramatic curtains for lighter , brighter ones.
Elephant Mobiles
Home Comforts Cheryl Mendelson New $14 .28 Best $7.23
Organized Simplicity Tsh Oxenreider New $11 .48 Best $9.50
What I wish I'd done before we decided to sell: The bookshelf! Doesn't it look fabulous?! When Kym suggested that I move the stereo to the second shelf from the bottom I thought it would look weird and get destroyed by my children in a heartbeat. But the bookshelf looks so happy and tidy now, and the kids haven't even tried once to stick a cracker in the cd tray.
The New Moosewood Cookbook Mollie Katzen New $12 .22 Best $3.26 Parenting Phil Callaway Best $0.01
Unclutter Your Life in One Week Erin R Doland, Dav.. . New $10 .20 Best $5.38
Privacy Information
*** Shopping my Amazon Store is a great way to support this blog and get great books at great prices!
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 4
Kym's Tips for staging Living rooms: Arrange items in odd groupings such as 3, 5 or 7. Use bright colors for accents such as flowers, pillows, throws. Arrange furniture in vignettes to create conversation areas. Artful placement of mirrors can add depth or dimension. Just make sure you are not showcasing the ceiling! Don 't block windows, let in the light. Use lamps to illuminate dark corners. To learn more about Kym and her Virtual Home Staging services, visit her website Shoestring Interiors. You can also follow Kym on Twitter and follow her boards on Pinterest .
Thank you for visiting the Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking. Want to make sure you don 't miss the rest of this series? Sign up for my RSS feed or "like" me on facebook.
SHARE THIS POST:
1 person +1' d this
22 COMMENTS
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 5
I've been asked by a few readers how I store and organize my children' s artwork. I will share my own method at the bottom of this post, but first I want to show you some of the creative solutions I've seen around the web. Tonya from Create-Celebrate-Explore had the brilliant idea of creating a photo book of her kid's art projects. What I love about this idea is that it allows you to record large items and 3-d projects in a small amount of space.
via Create-Celebrate -Explore
Jen from A Thousand Words created a completely amazing duvet cover from her son's doodles. This might be one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 6
via A Thousand Words
And Jen from I Heart Organizing created this filing system for her children's school papers, but it would work equally well to store artwork.
via I Heart Organizing
I ruthlessly edit our collection of masterpieces to consist only of the works that best reflect our life and my kids' current skills, then I mount those on a piece of cardstock in a page protector and display them in my scrapbook. I make a little label that includes a title and the child's name and age. In true Imperfect Homemaking fashion I'm showing you the most embarrassing drawing I could find: A drawing of me, when I was 8 months pregnant with the twins.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 7
It's really quite an accurate portrayal.... Thanks so much for visiting The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking. Please take a moment to "Like" me on facebook or follow me on twitter!
SHARE THIS POST:
2 people +1' d this
8 COMMENTS
F EB RUA RY 27 , 20 12
Reusing Activity Pages with Page Protectors
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 8
I use page protectors to make my children's activity pages, and even their school books, reusable. As many of you know, I have 5 kids very close in age and we home school. But this tip is useful even if you don't home school .
This year I purchased several pieces of curriculum from The Critical Thinking Co . I love their products! But their awesome full colour workbooks aren't cheap, and I may need to use each one five times in the next 5 years! I solved the problem by cutting the binding off each book and hole punching the pages to fit in a binder. Each day, my kids do their worksheets in a plastic page protector using a dry erase marker or dry erase crayon. I check their work, we erase it, and then I remove that page protector and slip tomorrow's page in.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 9
I always know where we are at in the workbook because our next page is the one in the page protector. To cut the binding off the book I used a retractable craft knife, a ruler, and some patience. But I've heard that copy shops can sometimes cut bindings off books for a small fee.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 10
This tip could be used for books of mazes, connect-the-dots, logic puzzles, or free activity sheets printed off the Internet.
If you are looking for some good free printable worksheets for young children, check out education.com
Crayola Dry Erase Crayons Bright Crayola Buy New $5.99
A&W Products Crystal Clear Sheet Pro... A&W Products Buy New $4.49
Expo Low Odor Dry Erase Pen-Style Ma... 0 Buy New $13. 83
Privacy Information
Privacy Information
Privacy Information
Thank You for Visiting the Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking!

pssst.. .The Amazon.com links above are affiliate links.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM

SHARE THIS POST:
1 person +1' d this
Page 11
16 COMMENTS
F EB RUA RY 24 , 20 12
{Recipe} Homemade Pita Bread (and Pita Chips too!)
Once you've tried homemade Pitas, you won't ever want to go back to the dry , brittle supermarket kind. These pitas are moist, flavourful,and at least as versatile as a slice of bread. My instructions are going to assume you have a decent stand mixer with a dough hook, but if you don' t you could still totally do this by hand ! You will need: 1 1 1 1 cup of warm tap water 1/2 tsp quick-rise yeast Tbsp Honey tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour http://www.imperfecthomemaking.com/ 3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 12
thing. It will begin to look something like this:
2. Add the Honey and salt and flour.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 13
3. Mix with your dough hook until it all comes together as a smooth dough. As with any bread recipe, the flour is approximate. There are a number of variables that affect how much flour a bread needs and it will never be the same twice. You will need a fairly solid dough, not too soft or sticky. If you don't think you could make it into a ball and throw it across the room with any precision, it needs more flour.
4. Place your ball of dough on an oiled counter to rise for 30 minutes. 5. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees . Divide your dough into 6 pieces and roll each piece out to be about the size of a dessert plate.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 14
6. Place on a greased cookie sheet and let sit for 15 minutes.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking 7. Bake for 5-6 minutes. Yes, you read that right, these puppies bake up in just five minutes! While in the oven something magical will happen and your pitas will puff up, forming pockets in the middle. (I know it is just steam. But knowing that kinda steals the magically-ness of it, doesn't it?)
Page 15
8. You're not done yet! To keep your pitas from turning into crackers you have to wrap them in a moist dish towel and let them rest for another 15 minutes.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 16
Ta-da! Delicious easy thrifty pitas!
Wait? Some of your pitas didn't magically pocket? Or they only sorta kinda pocketed on one side? That happens to me too. One way to avoid that is to switch all the whole wheat flour out for white. But I like the taste of the whole wheat , and any pitas that don't pocket I can just use to make mini pizzas, or pita chips!
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 17
To make pita chips : Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut or tear pitas into bits. Place on a cookie sheet and brush on some olive oil.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM
Page 18
Sprinkle on some kosher salt and then bake for 5-6 minutes or until crispy! I like serving these with hummus, a white bean dip, or my Cucumber Mango Salsa Recipe! Confession: The first time I made pitas I was so scared about using my oven at 500 degrees that I got the fire extinguish out and kept it on the counter while they baked.
Confession #2: Above, in the first confession, when I said "the first time" I meant "the first hundred times".
This recipe was adapted from this cookbook:
The New Moosewood Cookbook Mollie Katzen Buy New $12 .22
Privacy Information
Thanks so much for visiting the complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking! Will you please take a moment to "Like" me on Facebook?
SHARE THIS POST:
2 people +1' d this
23 COMMENTS
Home
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Older Posts
31
DAYS
TO
AN
This blog contains paid advertisements and affiliate links. Click here to learn
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM

entryway
Page 19
family faith giveaway greener choices haven making

kitchen laundry
meals
recipes
organizing
thrifty
<a
tutorial
The content of this website belongs to me. You may not use my images or text without crediting me. If you would like to share something you enjoyed on The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking on your own website, you may use one picture and /or a small selection of text, placed in quotation marks , credited and linked to me. I work hard to create this blog. Don't steal my work !
2010-2012 Kelly Oribine | The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking. Logo by Dan Gosse. Powered by Blogger.
3/4/2012 10:33:27 AM

The Complete Guide To Imperfect Homemaking

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Complete Guide To Imperfect Homemaking

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking

Share Report Abuse Next Blog Create Blog

Frequently Asked Questions

Homemaker's Cheat Sheet

{Home Staging 101} Part 2: My Living Room