Goodbye, house

Well, it's official. We're homeless. Okay, not really, but we're hotel dwellers for the rest of this week. Yesterday we finished packing up our lovely little house and said farewell to the home where we shared our first year together.

The most practical moving tip I can share from this (my TWENTY-FIRST!) move is to buy room label packing tape! It's not strong enough to use for assembling your packing boxes, but a strip across the top or around the side of a box sure makes a world of difference when you're trying to sort out which room your boxes belong in without having to open everything up.

My second favorite discovery from this move is that when you do your mail forwarding on the postal service website they give you printable coupons for a variety of things, including Budget, who we rented our moving truck from. Even though we had already received a quote, we were still able to take the 20% off coupon in when we picked up our truck and they applied it to our fees. It really only covered the taxes, which aren't included in their quote, but when you're renting a moving truck and car trailer for two weeks and driving them half way across the country, every bit of savings makes a difference. Another coupon that would have been really great was for Vista Print. Unfortunately, I had already purchased our change of address cards from Vista and they were already being shipped so I couldn't use the coupon, but hopefully I'll have just saved you some money on yours!

Goodbye, house!

Bedside Lamp

I have a small bedside stand that I've been looking to put a lamp on for ages but haven't been able to find anything well suited. Lamps are so boring and lamp shades take up too much space. I recently saw some lighting fixtures in an Urban Outfitters store and thought to try it out for myself. 

For years I've owned a cord for hanging a single bulb, I assume intended for paper lamps and such, but hadn't found use for it. I decided to cut the wire frame out of a lampshade I already owned and turn it into a mini version of the fixtures I'd seen at Urban. 

I started out with scissors but switched to a razor blade because it was easier to maneuver. I cut off the fabric, tossed the bottom of the frame and only used the smaller top piece, attached the bulb and frame to the cord, and ta-da! Perfect bedside lighting that I can switch on and off from bed instead of having to walk over to the switch.

Pottery Barn and the Grandma Chair

Confession- I have a major style crush on Pottery Barn. I would live inside a Pottery Barn if mall security would let me. I can't help but stroll through, running my fingers over the cable knit throws and tinkering with the home office accessories, picturing in my head where each item would go in my imaginary cottage. Cottage, yes, because my dream home would be more a cross between French country boutique and Z Gallery white on white on white. My current home is oh so very Kimberly, but has definitely been styled around a few key hand-me-down pieces including "the grandma chair." My grandparents had it for ages but, in a compromise to get Gramps' card table covered in projects out of their dining room and into their home office, Grams sacrificed the chair to make space. I couldn't bear to see it lost in a yard sale so I gave it a new home. Unfortunately, the grandma chair has been sitting in a corner of my living room looking far too plain! It's unusually petite for an arm chair so every pillow and throw I've paired with it seemed overbearing. Pottery Barn clearance wall to the rescue! Sunday, on one of my above mentioned daydreaming strolls through a Pottery Barn, this time in Pleasanton, I stumbled across this darling little pillow marked down to a jaw dropping $10. It's perfect.