Tag: sponsored

More Light for the Library

This post and giveaway are sponsored by GE reveal^®.

We’ve come to the last of four #100reveal makeovers in four weeks, using just $100 from Target each time, plus GE reveal^® LED light bulbs. I’ve had a total of $4000 in Target gift cards and plenty of GE reveal^® lighting to give away too, so that each week, 10 readers win everything they need for their own #100reveal makeovers at home! I’ve already shown the changes I’ve made to the dining room, my work space, and our playroom as part of this series, and the library is the fourth and final space, so let’s get to it!

What the room needed most was more light. The secretary desk that I’d added recently was fine to use during the day, but once it got dark out, that corner of the room was in shadow. I used half of my Target budget this week to buy a brass floor lamp, and then used the other half for a couple of vases that were on sale.

I arranged the vases on top of the secretary for a bit more height, and I like that their colors reference the wall color of the entryway just beyond the doorframe. Of course, as nice as those vases are, the biggest change in the library was the addition of the much-needed floor lamp.

The other floor lamp in the room, next to the floral chair, had two CFL bulbs in it. Their light was always very yellow, so I swapped them out for GE reveal^® LED bulbs. The dingy color they cast was gone, and the pattern in the chair was much more vibrant in the new lighting. Even the books on the shelves looked better!

You can see more of the library’s #100reveal makeover in this week’s video.

Giveaway

How would you set up a reading spot of your own using GE reveal^® and a $100 gift card to Target? Comment on this post mentioning #100reveal for your chance to win!

There will be ten winners drawn. See the complete rules for more information, and good luck!

I’m so excited to be a GE reveal^® #100reveal sponsored blogger. Opinions are my own, projects have been chosen by me, and additional products used in the project were selected by me and provided by GE reveal^®.

March 17, 2015
Black and Blue

This post is sponsored by Loloi.

Ever borrow something from a friend, and then after seeing how good it looks on you, you wish you didn’t have to give it back? That’s kind of the situation here, except it’s my house that’s wearing the borrowed item. A rug, in this case. And a couple of pillows.

I’d been seeing Loloi popping up in the design world a lot lately, and when they reached out about a potential partnership, we decided that it would be fun to feature one of their rugs by styling it in my home. I chose one of my favorites (JO-10 in indigo/blue, from their new Journey collection) and it was on its way here.

Loloi has rugs in a huge variety of styles. I almost went with their Sahara rug, but I thought it would be fun to try out something with a more saturated color palette. The blue is so beautiful, isn’t it? I wasn’t sure how it would play against my sofa, but it’s working. Oh, yes it is.

Since everything was sent on loan to be photographed, it will be on its way back to Loloi soon and I’ll be sad to see it go. The floors are bare throughout most of the first floor right now and I’d forgotten how nice it is to have a soft, plush rug underfoot, let alone one so pretty. I find myself standing in the doorway, checking out the room the way you might put on something new and check yourself out in the mirror. Lookin’ good, room.

The pillows by Loloi will be in stores soon, and I think that at the very least I’m going to need to get one of those multicolored pillows for keeps. The rugs are available now though, in retailers across the nation and online through sites like Wayfair and Rugs Direct.

So fun to see the room dressed a bit differently, and rugs always have the power to really change a room. What do you think? Are you liking the black and blue together in the room as much as I am?

March 12, 2015
The Playroom’s #100reveal Makeover

This post and giveaway are sponsored by GE reveal^®.

I’ve been making over four spaces in my home over the course of four weeks, using just $100 from Target each time, plus GE reveal^® LED light bulbs. I’ve also had a total of $4000 in Target gift cards and plenty of GE reveal^® lighting to give away so that each week, 10 readers win everything they need for their own #100reveal makeovers! The rules and information are at the bottom of this post, so be sure to enter.

You’ve already seen what I’ve done to update my dining room and work space, and this week I worked on our playroom.

The room is divided into a few different zones with one side set up for art projects, plenty of toys on shelves and a big open space in the middle for playing, and then what I jokingly refer to as the kids’ apartment, over by the window. There’s a nicely stocked play kitchen, a small table and chairs for hosting tea parties, and a couple of chairs that divide the space and provide a spot for the grownups to sit. That’s the side I focused on for my #100reveal makeover. I used my budget at Target to pick up a wire cubby, a large wire basket, a clock, picture frame, and some fake flowers for the kids’ table.

The cubby, picture frame, and clock were hung on the wall to the left of the play kitchen. The cubby is acting as a pantry, the sweet print in the frame is from Petit Pippin, and I figure every kitchen (pretend or not) needs a clock.

I like to have fresh flowers on our dining table, so the kids like having them for their table too and an artificial arrangement is more practical for them to play with. The wire basket holds stuffed animals for tea parties.

I sewed those patterned curtains years ago for my studio, back when I was running my stationery shop and before Brandon and I had any kids. I loved the pattern then and I still do, all these years later! (The fabric is called “Mom’s Couch” by Moda, but it was discontinued ages ago.) There are three lights in the playroom: one in the ceiling fan, a floor lamp, and a matching task lamp. Swapping out their bulbs for GE reveal^®& LED bulbs really made that pattern in the curtains pop! The white walls looked far better at night too, without the former lighting’s yellow cast.

You can see more of this week’s #100reveal makeover in action in the video below.

Eleanor and August patiently waited for me to finish up working on the room so they could come up to play. The new additions were a big hit, and the lighting made it much nicer to be up there as the sun went down.

Giveaway

Do you have a playroom or other fun space in need of some updating? Comment below about setting up the perfect place to relax and play using GE reveal^® and a $100 gift card to Target, mentioning #100reveal for your chance to win!

There will be ten winners drawn. See the complete rules for more information, and good luck!

I’m so excited to be a GE reveal^® #100reveal sponsored blogger. Opinions are my own, projects have been chosen by me, and additional products used in the project were selected by me and provided by GE reveal^®.

March 10, 2015
Working on My Work Space

This post and giveaway are sponsored by GE reveal^®.

I’ve been making over four spaces in my home over the course of four weeks, using just $100 from Target and GE reveal^® LED light bulbs. I’ve also had a total of $4000 in Target gift cards and plenty of GE reveal^® lighting to give away so that each week, 10 readers win everything they need for their own #100reveal makeovers! The rules and information are at the bottom of this post, so be sure to enter.

This week, I’m working on my work space. I had some difficulty while pregnant with my third baby but I still had to work at my computer, so to limit my going up and down stairs, Brandon helped set up my desk in our bedroom. It was supposed to be a temporary solution, but Calvin is five months old already and I’m still working from the same spot! It was a bit of surprise, how much I would love working here.

Since I see my desk all the time, I figured it was about time I spruced it up a bit. The task lighting needed to be addressed, and I knew I could pick up a handful of things from Target with my $100 makeover budget that would help my cluttered desktop and drawer.

You can see how I put everything to use and the difference that GE reveal^® bulbs made in this week’s #100reveal video.

The drawer needed a lot of help. I know some people are OK with an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mess, but that kind of thing drives me crazy! I’m far from being neat all the time, but I do like my drawers, cabinets, and closets to be tidy. I picked up a jewelry organizer that fit perfectly inside the desk and separated everything into compartments.

Just about everything that was in the drawer was put back, the only exception being the printer ink refills which went in one of the nesting boxes I picked up at Target.

The room is flooded with beautiful light during the day, but it was less lovely when the sun went down. We rely on lamps in the bedroom rather than overhead lighting, but the bulbs cast a yellow tint that turned our blue/gray walls green. Switching them to GE reveal^® LED bulbs kept the colors true and the room instantly looked better.

I can get pretty hungry throughout the day since I’m nursing, so I’ve been keeping chocolate covered almonds at my desk (yum!). The container isn’t so nice to look at though, so I tucked it inside another of the nesting boxes I picked up. I keep water nearby too, and the occasional cup of coffee.

My desk wasn’t terrible before, but it’s much better now with a little organization and a lighting upgrade.

Giveaway

Do you have a desk or home office in need of some updating? Comment below about creating your perfect work space with GE reveal^® and a $100 gift card to Target, mentioning #100reveal for your chance to win!

There will be ten winners drawn. See the complete rules for more information, and good luck!

I’m so excited to be a GE reveal^® #100reveal sponsored blogger. Opinions are my own, projects have been chosen by me, and additional products used in the project were selected by me and provided by GE reveal^®.

March 3, 2015
Making Over the Dining Room

This post and giveaway are sponsored by GE reveal^®.

Our dining room had creamy white walls when we moved in, and a large freestanding oak hutch that the previous owners left to us. Brandon and I plunked our dining table and chairs in the room, filled the hutch and arranged a display on its shelves, and that was about it. I would love to put up wallpaper eventually, but we still have some work to do on the first floor that will have us opening up the walls so it doesn’t make sense to paper them now. I was growing tired of the wall color though, and I figured it was time for a new coat of paint.

The dining room windows are north-facing and the house next door is pretty close, so we don’t get a ton of natural light in there. I didn’t want to go too dark with the walls since I had already painted the adjacent room black, so I chose Benjamin Moore’s ‘Basking Ridge Beige.’

It’s a subtle, historical pink, one shade darker than the color I used in the nearby library. I love the way it turned out, but at night the room still read as really yellow.

I’ll be working on four projects over the next four weeks, making over rooms with just $100 from Target and GE reveal^® LED light bulbs. I knew right away that the dining room would be my first pick for this series, because swapping out that old fluorescent bulb would definitely improve the look and feel of the space. I also decided to use sheets of wrapping paper that we had on hand to line the hutch, new candleholders that I’d repurpose as vases, and napkins that played off of the pierced metal hurricanes.

I put together this video, detailing the changes to the room.

So much better! We eat every meal in our dining room, and we need the light on more often than not. The wall color looks far more true with the new bulb than it did before. Also, I’m so glad that my idea for fixing the lighting fixture with parts from a decorative knob worked! That hole in the bottom of the glass always bugged me.

Ah, the table. It would be lovely to have fresh flowers all the time, but of course I can use the candleholders for their intended purpose too, and the napkins work with them either way.

The dining room was fine before, but it’s making me much happier now.

I’ll be hosting a Twitter chat with GE Lighting, along with Mandi from Vintage Revivals and Brooke from All Things Thrifty this Thursday night at 7:30 Central. I hope you can join us!

Also, Target will be holding a demo day for GE LED bulbs (including GE reveal^®) across the country on March 1 with $1 off coupons. The bulbs are also on sale, buy two get one free March 1-7 with no coupon required.

Giveaway

If you had a $100 gift card to Target and GE reveal^® bulbs, what would you bring in to update your dining room? Comment below for a chance to win your own #100reveal makeover!

See the complete rules for more information.

I’m so excited to be a GE reveal^® #100reveal sponsored blogger. Opinions are my own, projects have been chosen by me, and additional products used in the project were selected by me and provided by GE reveal^®.

February 24, 2015
No More Excuses

Sponsored by Blue Apron.

Do you eat dinner together as a family every night? We do, but until a couple of weeks ago, we didn’t always finish together. Eleanor and August know that they have to ask “may I be excused?” before they leave the table. (I highly recommend teaching your kids to do this too, because once they’re in the habit and they do it in front of company or at a friend’s house, they look super-polite and you get a million parenting points. Grandparents especially notice.) The problem is that we started getting to the point where the kids would each finish their meal and immediately ask to be excused — leaving the rest of us still at the table. So now we’re trying a new rule where they stay at the table until everyone is done.

The pictures in this post are from a dinner we made over the weekend: blood orange roasted salmon, from Blue Apron.

I’ve partnered with Blue Apron before, and I’m happy to continue to do so. They deliver fresh ingredients to your door, saving you a trip to the grocery store, and delivering exactly the right proportions for each recipe. I like it because the recipes don’t take too long (40 minutes or less), and they push me to include extra touches that I wouldn’t think to add otherwise. Do I usually top my food with pepitas or use a blood orange in place of a regular one? No, and adding them made our dinner feel more special, like we were getting a restaurant-style meal at home.

The recipe we made called for the salmon to be roasted, which meant cooking in our unpredictable antique oven. We’re pretty used to its quirks and we do often make fish in it, but I finally bought an oven thermometer so now we know that “Hot” actually means 500 degrees. (I suppose that’s why we’ve never seen the gauge go all the way to “Very Hot.” Can you imagine?)

You know the pink dishes I painted last week? I went and picked some up, and let me tell you — everything looks prettier on a pink plate!

Using gold flatware helps too, as demonstrated by my little hand model. She was a big fan of the salmon.

So, the new rule? It’s working so far! The kids are getting an exercise in patience, waiting until everyone has finished before being excused, and it’s giving us a little more time to sit at the table as a family and talk. Of course, a lot of that ‘talk’ is made up of little kid jokes that don’t make any sense, but it’s still nice. (And won’t the grandparents be impressed!)

If you’d like to try Blue Apron, I have a discount offer to share with you. The first 50 readers to sign up via Making it Lovely get two free meals on their first Blue Apron order!

The service is available nationwide to over 80% of the country. The plans have changed a little since I last wrote about the service and they now offer two types: the 2-Person Plan and Family Plan. We use the Family Plan, which is designed for a family of four (or more, if your kids are little and don’t eat a ton at each meal). Each delivery has enough food for two meals to be served family-style, you can choose to receive either one or two deliveries per week. The price is $69.92 per delivery ($8.74/serving) but there’s also a 2-Person plan offering one delivery a week with three meals for $59.94 ($9.99/serving). The food arrives in a refrigerated box so the ingredients will stay fresh, and they have a Blue Apron market with kitchenware, should you find yourself wanting to add a few new tools to your arsenal. They add new dishes all the time, shipping is always free, and there’s no commitment — you can skip or cancel whenever you’d like to.

January 20, 2015