My Pier 1 Stock Up

I went to Pier 1 this past weekend for a couple of reasons, but I do like to stop in from time to time anyway to check out their clearance items.  This trip netted me lots of stationary products and some items to use as gifts for Christmas.  Perhaps even as a giveaway. {Hmmmm. . . .}

Two desk sets, two different prices, but they were both a bargain.

They had a bunch of cards on sale, some birthday, some thank you, and some are blank inside.  I picked up several for various occasions and I’ll use them to start my stash to have on hand.  These will be going in the card box I found at Goodwill a month or so ago {and just did a scrapbook paper on the top to make it more me}.

    

Love these stoppers!  At least one of these {one of the clock ones} is destined for a gift.   These were not on clearance, but were $4.95 and $4.50 (middle one).

Chandy magnets for under $2.00 for the package.

Little pocket pads with the magnetic closure.  Love these!  Also not on sale, but still a good price I thought at $4.95.  Here’s the outside.

Here’s the inside.

These cards are so colorful and I like that they are in plastic sleeves.  I will probably keep them like this when I store them.  The most expensive card was $2.16, most were $1.00 and the least expensive was $.68 {the feather and nest card for a new homeowner}.

I’m pretty happy about these purchases.  Two things I didn’t get in the picture are a chandy/bird paper weight {regularly priced} and a pink chandy wrapping paper {also regular price}.  This is the time of year when I start sporadically looking around and if I see something that I think would make a good Christmas gift, I pick it up.  The only problem with this is that I need to remember where I put it come Christmas time!

What’s Your Color?

I came across the Pantone Colorstrology site through two other blogs I was visiting earlier today.  Of course, once you’ve clicked through several blogs {some from others’ comments, some from blogs listed on other blogger’s blog rolls} you lose track.  At any rate, I remembered the website and thought you might like to test this out.

Part of what they say on the website is:

“It is important to understand that your birth color and your favorite color may not be one in the same.  Your birth color is designed to honor the real you.”

Who knows how accurate it really is.  It’s one of those fun things to do and if you agree with it, you’ll say, “Oh my gosh, it’s got me dead on”, but if you don’t agree with the outcome, it will be one of those things you pooh-pooh and get on with life.

 My birthday, October 31st, came up with:

“Your courage and persistence will help you attain many of life’s blessings.  Once you are interested in something, you have the necessary willpower and tenacity to attain it.  Seeing the fruits of your labor is vital to your well-being.  You are a born detective and appreciate a challenge.  Wearing, meditating or surrounding yourself with Tibetan Red helps you sink your teeth into something while keeping you lighthearted and flexible during the journey”.

I will agree with the detective and challenge part, as well as that once I am interested in something I will try to go after it.   However, it is not vital to me to see the fruits of my labor ~ nice, but not vital.

If nothing else, it’s a novel way to bring an interest to some new paint color names.

By the way, I bought those flash drives two years ago as Christmas gifts for my kids and co-workers at the day job.  Loved the choice of colors and I had a few monogrammed.   I think everything else shown here is also available for purchase.  If you have a designer/decorator on your gift list, you may be able to find something for them here.

So, what’s your birth color?

Photos from Pantone

Quick local business update:  My Fall 2010 Adult Education Class at Mount Sinai High School is scheduled for Thursday, October 14, 2010, at 7:30 p.m.  The brochure lists the class running for 2 hours, but it is 1 hour.  The class will cover “Top Decorating Mistakes”. You can obtain a registration form from the brochure you receive in the mail or online at the school’s website.

A Quick & Easy Room Darkening Shade

This was my daughter’s old bedroom in its staged and ready for sale look last Summer.  Before the holidays last year, we took our house off the market because we would have been unable to look at houses together if ours sold{due to hubby’s job}, and I wanted to be able to decorate for the holidays without having to worry about how it would affect the sale of my house.

Shortly after that, we found out that my daughter would be expecting her first child {our first grandchild} and we had her and her hubby come stay with us, where they took over her old room.   When we fixed this room up, I removed her purple roman shades {one of which was broken anyway}.  This “no shade” look was fine for an unoccupied room.    This room gets very bright now since we had painted it a wonderful yellow.  Being a north facing room the previous purple was not helping it.

However, when they moved in, I thought it was necessary to put something up, without spending a lot of money, that would darken the room so they wouldn’t be up at the crack of dawn.  I purchased brown black-out drapes from Target.  My daughter didn’t like the way they looked and she liked the orange ones.  While they sat on the side to be returned, I found a bunch of tension rods on a shelf in my basement, when I was down there looking for something else {doesn’t that always happen?}.   I suggested to her that we cut two of the panels from the brown black-out lined drapes down to the length of the actual window and use it as a shade.

See that sun coming in the one window above.  That is about 1:00 p.m.  Here is the second window ~ not as much sun yet. 

I left the top of the panels as they were and cut the bottom off after measuring my length.  The width was fine so I didn’t have to cut or sew that.  I sewed the bottom portion that I had cut leaving a pocket/hem wide enough to hold a tension rod.   The only sewing involved is sewing the bottom where you’ve cut and depending on your fabric you may be able to get away with hot glue or fabric glue.

With a tension rod at the top and a tension rod at the bottom we pretty much made a top down/bottom up shade of our own.  Just by moving one of the tension rods you could bring in some sunlight or none.  It worked out great for our temporary needs!  I think this is also a good idea for those places where you may not want to, or be able to, mount window treatments to a wall, such as in an apartment or even dorm room.

Linking this post up with the following linky parties:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch

It’s So Very Creative at It’s So Very Cheri 

Cleaning “House”

I finally figured out how to add pages to my blog, so I will be “cleaning” it up a bit by moving things to their own page {like Blogs Featured At, which I just accomplished} this morning.  I hate a blog that scrolls down forever when I’m just looking for the comment box {or when you jump to “End” to get to the comment box, and then you have to scroll back up for 15 minutes to find the comment box}!  I don’t want that to be me, so cleaning it is.

What are some things you like to see on a blog sidebar?

The Allegria Hotel

I recently had the opportunity to stay at The Allegria Hotel in Long Beach {New York} recently.  While I didn’t take a whole bunch of pictures I thought I’d share a few of what I did take.  These are decorative and design elements that really grabbed my attention.

This bed(?)/couch was in the lobby.  Is this not fabulous?   Obviously, not something that would work in a suburban home, but what about in a loft or in a climate where you live outside 24/7.

 

I loved these pieces in the picture below.  Is it lighting or is it art?  Decorative and functional!  This looked great at night, by the way.

I’m loving that this is modern design but you’ve got texture and shape here; not something I typically think of in modern design.  I’m more  inclined to think of straight lines, smooth surfaces, limited “clutter”, when I think of modern.

This is the lighting in the ballroom!  I loved it and, especially after my most recent post on lighting, these really caught my eye.  Beautiful!  I love the drum shade with the crystals.  I think it evoked the modern yet traditional feel that a ballroom is supposed to have, but was in keeping with the design of the hotel.   I also like that there are different sizes in the lighting fixtures.

The Allegria Hotel is of modern design with lots of glass and straight lines.  {Here is the website, http://www.allegriahotel.com .   It seems the website has been down, so I won’t put it in as a clickable link}. 

 I don’t want to turn this into a review, but I did find the decor pleasing {and I’m not a modern person}, the room was clean and well set-up.  The best thing I think hubby and I both liked was that there was no carpet.  No carpet!  I’m sure it was laminate flooring {I didn’t get down on the floor to check}, but the entrance and bathroom area looked like a tile and the bedroom area was a wood floor laminate.  Very nice!  I like that ~ especially with the apparent resurgence of the bugs that shall not be named. {I credit that line to Beth from The Stories of A to Z, although I like a good Harry Potter reference myself}.

Have you ever stayed in a hotel that had a different decorating style then your own, and you wound up really liking it?