10,000(!) and month in review

Hey all! First of all, before I say anything else – I need to say a huge THANKS and a WHOOHOO!

Tonight I hit 10,000 followers:

I had to take a screenshot, just to remember that milestone! (I really, really hate that “followers” term by the way.)

But it’s pretty cool to hit five digits. I now have 10,000 of you Squeezies! Squeezays. Squishes. :)

Crazy!!

Anyway, I want to try to bring back the month in review I started doing last year. It’s been a while since I did  recap of the month and it’s kind of fun (for me anyway, you may be snoring already) to see what I accomplished around these parts every month. (I link to each one if you want to check it out.)

The start of this month was an especially special one. We became debt free (except the house) for the first time in our adult lives!!

It’s still so surreal. I find myself thinking about a bill and it hits me -- and I’m grinning from ear to ear. :) We haven’t called in to Dave Ramsey’s show yet – we’d like to take a trip down to Nashville instead. I’ll let you know what we end up doing!

And I’m SO SO excited about an idea that Dave’s peeps have been helping me out with. I hope to announce it in the next couple of weeks.

Next up this month, I took an unused spot in our loft and turned it into functional (and cute!) storage wall:

At the February Before and After Party, I showed you how I took a $5 Goodwill pitcher and transformed it with spray paint:

Can you believe there were 499 posts linked up? Wowza! How cool is that?

Since we’ve become debt free, we are now researching our first “cash” furniture purchase in a long, long time. I’m so excited about a new sofa, I can barely stand it:

There was a great response to that post – I’m pulling all the info you shared together and will do a recap post soon. Lots of great info!

I worked with the folks at My Design Guide to provide my readers an affordable online consultation resource:

I’m not able to do these anymore, so I was thrilled that they were able to help me and my readers out!

My friend Beki shared the love with a fantastic giveaway over at The Rusted Chain:

And then one thing led to another when I took down the drapes in our living room and the transformation started:

When the ice storm of the century hit (that’s what I’m calling it anyway), and we couldn’t leave the house for days, I passed some time by decluttering a linen closet:

You won’t believe how much STUFF was in there. (Many of you asked about the light I used, and a very helpful reader put a link in the comments!)

Next, I showed you a total project FAIL – my beautiful painted pitcher didn’t hold up well, in more ways than one:

Boo. I found a pretty and affordable replacement though. :)

At the Organize It shindig, I showed you how I’ve been using Ziploc bags to organize games and puzzles:

LOVE those things. I used more of them in the basement today! (Check out the nearly 300 links at that party too.)

And finally, this week I shared how I use photos as art throughout our house:

Of course, I’m so thankful to all of my wonderful advertisers…over there to the left. :)

Whew! What a month! Thanks so much for coming along for the ride -- can’t wait for a great March!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Well, it’s official. We’re WEIRD.

You know that guy Dave Ramsey I keep talking about? You know how he says people who don’t have debt are WEIRD?

Well, if you don’t know him…that’s what he says.

“Debt is normal…be weird.”

Well.

As of this morning, we are officially,

completely,

gloriously,

totally,

happily

WEIRD.

WE’RE


DEBT


FREE!!!

(Except the house.)

Whoo, people!! WHOO!!!!

It still hasn’t hit us. Surreal is an understatement. I haven’t cried yet. But I will. Buckets. :)

It’s major. Like, $125,000 in just about three and a half years, MAJOR. (Yes, there were three zeros.)

I told you about our debt story here, (I way underestimated how much we had already paid off at that point) and for the past three years or so, we’ve been fighting, scratching, clawing at it -- taking our finances BACK. And it’s truly been a fight.

We had flooring debt, school debt, hot tub debt, medical debt, clothing debt, I-have-no-clue-what-we-bought debt – you name it, we had it.

We were so tired of it. It was a monkey on our backs. A large, 125,000 pound monkey. And it was exhausting carrying him around. ;)

Getting rid of that monkey – exhilarating.

I thought it was impossible to live without a car payment.

I thought I would be paying off my student loan till I was 45.

I thought I couldn’t pay for a piece of furniture unless we charged it.

I was wrong.

We decided to live like no one else. So now we can live like no one else.

And it is rockin’ our worlds.

We can live without credit cards. We can save for something and pay for it when we have the money. We can save for our future and change our children’s lives.

It makes me so emotional when I think about how we are completely changing their futures. We will leave them security, not a financial mess. That makes every minute of this process worth it.

Yes, we could have done this without Dave Ramsey. It’s not rocket science. It’s making a budget every month and sticking to it – and telling our money where to go. That was a biggie for me. We were never telling it where to go, we were just floating along. La dee da, la dee da.

But Dave Ramsey inspired us. His conviction and enthusiasm is absolutely contagious. You want to attack your debt like a raging BEAR after you listen to him for five minutes.

And today, I clicked the button that sent the payment to my student loan – our very last debt. It’s all gone – forever and ever and EVER.

It’s the first time in our adult lives we’ve been debt free. We’ve both had debt since we were 18 years old. I have never been an adult and NOT had debt.

Till today. I feel like I could float away, it feels so good.

We are SO WEIRD!!!!

And if being weird is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

I wanted to take a minute and thank you so much for sharing this journey with us! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your comments and emails about our story. It absolutely makes me smile every time.

One thing I know for sure – if we can do it, YOU CAN DO IT. It may take you longer, it may take you less. I know you will be so proud of yourself.

It made us more mature, it bonded us, it changed our marriage, in a really great way. It is one of the best things we have done in entire lives.

And I’ll say it again – WHOOOOOO!!!!  :)

**And yes…we will be calling in to the radio show to scream. But now we want to take a trip down to Nashville and scream it in his lobby. It’s a big deal, and we want to celebrate it.  :)

***I’m quite sure my Google ads will go crazy with credit companies after this post – I don’t personally endorse any of them. Just sayin’.

Well, it’s official. We’re WEIRD.

You know that guy Dave Ramsey I keep talking about? You know how he says people who don’t have debt are WEIRD?

Well, if you don’t know him…that’s what he says.

“Debt is normal…be weird.”

Well.

As of this morning, we are officially,

completely,

gloriously,

totally,

happily

WEIRD.

WE’RE


DEBT


FREE!!!

(Except the house.)

Whoo, people!! WHOO!!!!

It still hasn’t hit us. Surreal is an understatement. I haven’t cried yet. But I will. Buckets. :)

It’s major. Like, $125,000 in just about three and a half years, MAJOR. (Yes, there were three zeros.)

I told you about our debt story here, (I way underestimated how much we had already paid off at that point) and for the past three years or so, we’ve been fighting, scratching, clawing at it -- taking our finances BACK. And it’s truly been a fight.

We had flooring debt, school debt, hot tub debt, medical debt, clothing debt, I-have-no-clue-what-we-bought debt – you name it, we had it.

We were so tired of it. It was a monkey on our backs. A large, 125,000 pound monkey. And it was exhausting carrying him around. ;)

Getting rid of that monkey – exhilarating.

I thought it was impossible to live without a car payment.

I thought I would be paying off my student loan till I was 45.

I thought I couldn’t pay for a piece of furniture unless we charged it.

I was wrong.

We decided to live like no one else. So now we can live like no one else.

And it is rockin’ our worlds.

We can live without credit cards. We can save for something and pay for it when we have the money. We can save for our future and change our children’s lives.

It makes me so emotional when I think about how we are completely changing their futures. We will leave them security, not a financial mess. That makes every minute of this process worth it.

Yes, we could have done this without Dave Ramsey. It’s not rocket science. It’s making a budget every month and sticking to it – and telling our money where to go. That was a biggie for me. We were never telling it where to go, we were just floating along. La dee da, la dee da.

But Dave Ramsey inspired us. His conviction and enthusiasm is absolutely contagious. You want to attack your debt like a raging BEAR after you listen to him for five minutes.

And today, I clicked the button that sent the payment to my student loan – our very last debt. It’s all gone – forever and ever and EVER.

It’s the first time in our adult lives we’ve been debt free. We’ve both had debt since we were 18 years old. I have never been an adult and NOT had debt.

Till today. I feel like I could float away, it feels so good.

We are SO WEIRD!!!!

And if being weird is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

I wanted to take a minute and thank you so much for sharing this journey with us! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your comments and emails about our story. It absolutely makes me smile every time.

One thing I know for sure – if we can do it, YOU CAN DO IT. It may take you longer, it may take you less. I know you will be so proud of yourself.

It made us more mature, it bonded us, it changed our marriage, in a really great way. It is one of the best things we have done in entire lives.

And I’ll say it again – WHOOOOOO!!!!  :)

**And yes…we will be calling in to the radio show to scream. But now we want to take a trip down to Nashville and scream it in his lobby. It’s a big deal, and we want to celebrate it.  :)

***I’m quite sure my Google ads will go crazy with credit companies after this post – I don’t personally endorse any of them. Just sayin’.

Giveaway Winners!

Hello hello! I have a bunch of winners to announce from past giveaways! Yay!

The winner of the Modern Bird Studios art piece is Stephanie at skarpicke (at) gmail (dot) com!

The winner of the Wuslu gift card is Sarah at The Mama Pirate!

And the winner of the Deeply Fabulous gift card is Kimberly at berly02 (at) hotmail (dot) com. (Remember you can still use a special 15 percent discount using the coupon code: "IPinkPuffyHeartTDC" from now through Sunday, December 12th.

Yahoo! Ladies, please email me at thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll hook you up with your winnings. :)

Well…I had a fun announcement that I know many of you already saw, but I got word I can’t say anything about it right now. Oops -- didn’t know that. :)

So sorry I had to erase the comments on this post, but for those of you who left sweet comments, THANK YOU!

For those of you who are wondering what in the heck I’m talking about, I promise it will make sense soon. (Sorry about that!)

The Christmas tree party is still on for tonight! I will do my best to get it up by ten p.m. (EST) – hope to see you there!

Giveaway Winners!

Hello hello! I have a bunch of winners to announce from past giveaways! Yay!

The winner of the Modern Bird Studios art piece is Stephanie at skarpicke (at) gmail (dot) com!

The winner of the Wuslu gift card is Sarah at The Mama Pirate!

And the winner of the Deeply Fabulous gift card is Kimberly at berly02 (at) hotmail (dot) com. (Remember you can still use a special 15 percent discount using the coupon code: "IPinkPuffyHeartTDC" from now through Sunday, December 12th.

Yahoo! Ladies, please email me at thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll hook you up with your winnings. :)

Well…I had a fun announcement that I know many of you already saw, but I got word I can’t say anything about it right now. Oops -- didn’t know that. :)

So sorry I had to erase the comments on this post, but for those of you who left sweet comments, THANK YOU!

For those of you who are wondering what in the heck I’m talking about, I promise it will make sense soon. (Sorry about that!)

The Christmas tree party is still on for tonight! I will do my best to get it up by ten p.m. (EST) – hope to see you there!

Winners and a video

Hello all! I wanted to announce the winners of the Accessory Steals and Decor Steals giveaways before I forgot. :)

The winner of Accessory Steals $50 gift card is:

Melissa at Honey Bee Hive

The winner of the Decor Steals $50 gift card is:

Callie at Babbling with the Bowers

Congrats ladies! Email me at thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com so I can get you hooked up.

I finally got video of the Thrifty Decor Chick segment taped -- this is the third try. :) I gave up on shushing the cats, so there’s a point when you’ll hear our (pee) cat doing her totally weird meow. It’s a little freaky sounding, so sorry about that. :)

Oh, and she’s rubbing against the volume control about half way in, so it gets a teensy bit loud for a few seconds. GAH.

But anyway…here you go!:

 

I’ll be back later with a HUGE decrapification project! WHOO!

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Winners and a video

Hello all! I wanted to announce the winners of the Accessory Steals and Decor Steals giveaways before I forgot. :)

The winner of Accessory Steals $50 gift card is:

Melissa at Honey Bee Hive

The winner of the Decor Steals $50 gift card is:

Callie at Babbling with the Bowers

Congrats ladies! Email me at thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com so I can get you hooked up.

I finally got video of the Thrifty Decor Chick segment taped -- this is the third try. :) I gave up on shushing the cats, so there’s a point when you’ll hear our (pee) cat doing her totally weird meow. It’s a little freaky sounding, so sorry about that. :)

Oh, and she’s rubbing against the volume control about half way in, so it gets a teensy bit loud for a few seconds. GAH.

But anyway…here you go!:

 

I’ll be back later with a HUGE decrapification project! WHOO!

Thank you to my sponsor!:

TDC on The Nate Show!

WHOO to the HOO. I am so excited! I’ve been keeping you in the dark about this fun little news – sorry about that. :) I just didn’t want to say anything till I had an air date, knowing the little I know about TV production…and even now with an air date scheduled, I know it could still end up on the cutting room floor.

But…WHOOHOO!

I’m optimistic and excited so I’m spilling! :)

It started a few weeks ago when I got an email late one night that started:

“Hey Sarah, 
My name is Michelle and I’m a producer on The Nate Berkus Show…”

UM. Hello Michelle!

I woke up hubby from a deep sleep for that one. :)

Anyway, we talked over email and the phone off and on about me coming out, and then I got word early this week that the segment they were thinking about me coming out for was cut.

But they wanted to use my site in a segment called Nate’s Finds – at first I thought it would be just a quick mention, but I think it’s going to be a few minutes worth. (I think. I really have no idea…I haven’t seen what they taped.) So I spent most of the day Tuesday emailing pictures, links, info, and more pictures to one of the producers.

I hear Nate himself was digging one of my project in particular, and did one of his own – can’t wait to see it!

I got word today that the Thrifty Decor Chick segment will be on an episode that airs Tuesday, November 16th.

I have to admit – I was kind of relieved they didn’t need me to come out right now. I’m a planner and the thought of getting the call and flying out the next day was giving me hives. :) At least this time of year -- with the holidays, hubby’s job (three words = marching band season), needing a hair cut, child care, wanting to lose ten pounds. You know.

And now I get to watch and not worry that I look like a total dweeb. It will just be cutie Nate. Showing pictures of my stuff. I can handle that!

Maybe some day I’ll get to go out there and hug swoon over meet Nate in person. ;)

Until then, I can’t wait to see my little “there in spirit” segment! Hope you can catch it!

And as always, thanks for your support! :)

TDC on The Nate Show!

WHOO to the HOO. I am so excited! I’ve been keeping you in the dark about this fun little news – sorry about that. :) I just didn’t want to say anything till I had an air date, knowing the little I know about TV production…and even now with an air date scheduled, I know it could still end up on the cutting room floor.

But…WHOOHOO!

I’m optimistic and excited so I’m spilling! :)

It started a few weeks ago when I got an email late one night that started:

“Hey Sarah, 
My name is Michelle and I’m a producer on The Nate Berkus Show…”

UM. Hello Michelle!

I woke up hubby from a deep sleep for that one. :)

Anyway, we talked over email and the phone off and on about me coming out, and then I got word early this week that the segment they were thinking about me coming out for was cut.

But they wanted to use my site in a segment called Nate’s Finds – at first I thought it would be just a quick mention, but I think it’s going to be a few minutes worth. (I think. I really have no idea…I haven’t seen what they taped.) So I spent most of the day Tuesday emailing pictures, links, info, and more pictures to one of the producers.

I hear Nate himself was digging one of my project in particular, and did one of his own – can’t wait to see it!

I got word today that the Thrifty Decor Chick segment will be on an episode that airs Tuesday, November 16th.

I have to admit – I was kind of relieved they didn’t need me to come out right now. I’m a planner and the thought of getting the call and flying out the next day was giving me hives. :) At least this time of year -- with the holidays, hubby’s job (three words = marching band season), needing a hair cut, child care, wanting to lose ten pounds. You know.

And now I get to watch and not worry that I look like a total dweeb. It will just be cutie Nate. Showing pictures of my stuff. I can handle that!

Maybe some day I’ll get to go out there and hug swoon over meet Nate in person. ;)

Until then, I can’t wait to see my little “there in spirit” segment! Hope you can catch it!

And as always, thanks for your support! :)

I did not say “Um”

Well, first of all, I have to tell you how much I loved reading your comments on my last post. I wrote that one hoping to help some of you that get negative comments, but look what happened yet again…you go and make me feel all gushy and mushy and LOVED. Thank you so much. (Really truly.)

So anyhoo -- today I was on TV! Yes, freak. out!

It was a local morning show called Indy Style. I have been on television a couple of times before, back in the day when I worked in PR/marketing. But it was usually during some kind of crisis with five microphones stuck in my face. Needless to say, it wasn’t fun. Notsomuch.

This was fun!! I really did have a ball. I was a little anxious beforehand, but that was mostly due to the I hope I don’t sleep in on accident, I gotta do my hair and put on makeup, make sure the car is packed, I hope I didn’t leave a light on in the car and walk out to dead battery, have to get the kiddo up and to the sitter, and gotta get through rush hour traffic (oh how I DON’T miss that!) stuff that goes into getting downtown early. (Early for ME.)

I really wish I would have added “gotta get a spray tan” to that list because OH LORDY I am pasty, Elmer’s glue, blindingly white:

But it was a feat I got everything else done and got there in time, so I’m not complaining. (Did I mention I’m not a morning person?)

My sis served as my assistant for the morning, and it was so wonderful to have her there with me. :) She took a few pics of my segment from the “green room”:

  

We both couldn’t believe how big the set looks on TV, but it’s just one large room, with areas for different segments:

I imagined it being four times this size! It was super cool to see the behind the scenes work to make a show like this happen -- really impressive. And everyone there was so fun and SO nice. Ack! I loved it!

Of course, the video of my segment is the only one not working online, so until it’s fixed, I took a video of it on our TV. It looks awful, bear with me. I figured some of you would want to see it and didn’t want to leave you hanging.

Oh, and I can operate a saw and nail gun like nobody’s business, but I don’t know how to turn off closed captioning on the TV:

 

You’ll notice that I didn’t say “um” much but I did say “Yes,” “Yep,” and “Yeah” about a bagillion times. Gah.

Yep. Yes I did. Yeah.

(And those of you who know me in real life – YES I am still married. :) I use my maiden name for press stuff.)

I was so tired from the day when we got home, I didn’t finish up the chair just yet (six minutes went SO FAST and we ran out of time to show it!), but I’ll show you this weekend. It’s super cute!

If they are able to get the video working on the web site, I’ll link to that instead because the quality is MUCH better. :)

Because I know many of you wanted to know more about the airplane art above the Bub’s bed – here’s a run down of how I hung it:

1. Take a large poster frame – the cheapy ones with the thin plastic frame around them – and discard the cheapy plastic frame. 

2. I kept the cardboard backing, put the poster on top, then put the acrylic over the poster. I wrapped pieces of painter’s tape along the sides and edges to keep the poster from slipping out while I installed it.

3. Put the whole thing up on the wall (figure out your center first!) then secure it temporarily. I actually used my nail gun and put a nail into it, thinking I would secure the whole thing to the wall that way and then put molding over it. I realized after the first nail that is NOT a good idea – it split the acrylic. Oops!

4. The acrylic did end up coming loose from the nail towards the end, but it served it’s purpose and held it up long enough for me to get most of the molding installed around it. If you just have a second set of hands, that should be all you need.

5. Then I just installed the molding, but I only nailed into the molding on the bottom and middle, if that makes sense. I didn’t nail into the molding on the inside – near the poster. I only nailed around the outside. So it’s is secure enough to hold the poster and acrylic but I didn’t nail into the acrylic.

From what I can tell, there’s enough give in the acrylic so that I can wedge it out someday to replace the art. I have not tried to take it out because I spent too much time putting it up and wasn’t about to mess it up. :) But it feels like I’ll be able to get it out of there fine.

Even if I’m not able to get it out, it won’t take long at all to pry the molding off of one side to slide it all out, replace the art, and slide it back in.

I hope that helps – sorry I don’t have visuals for that one, but I didn’t take any pictures of the process. I know, bad DIY blogger!!

Another giveaway weekend is coming up tomorrow! Till then, have a GREAT Friday!

I did not say “Um”

Well, first of all, I have to tell you how much I loved reading your comments on my last post. I wrote that one hoping to help some of you that get negative comments, but look what happened yet again…you go and make me feel all gushy and mushy and LOVED. Thank you so much. (Really truly.)

So anyhoo -- today I was on TV! Yes, freak. out!

It was a local morning show called Indy Style. I have been on television a couple of times before, back in the day when I worked in PR/marketing. But it was usually during some kind of crisis with five microphones stuck in my face. Needless to say, it wasn’t fun. Notsomuch.

This was fun!! I really did have a ball. I was a little anxious beforehand, but that was mostly due to the I hope I don’t sleep in on accident, I gotta do my hair and put on makeup, make sure the car is packed, I hope I didn’t leave a light on in the car and walk out to dead battery, have to get the kiddo up and to the sitter, and gotta get through rush hour traffic (oh how I DON’T miss that!) stuff that goes into getting downtown early. (Early for ME.)

I really wish I would have added “gotta get a spray tan” to that list because OH LORDY I am pasty, Elmer’s glue, blindingly white:

But it was a feat I got everything else done and got there in time, so I’m not complaining. (Did I mention I’m not a morning person?)

My sis served as my assistant for the morning, and it was so wonderful to have her there with me. :) She took a few pics of my segment from the “green room”:

  

We both couldn’t believe how big the set looks on TV, but it’s just one large room, with areas for different segments:

I imagined it being four times this size! It was super cool to see the behind the scenes work to make a show like this happen -- really impressive. And everyone there was so fun and SO nice. Ack! I loved it!

Of course, the video of my segment is the only one not working online, so until it’s fixed, I took a video of it on our TV. It looks awful, bear with me. I figured some of you would want to see it and didn’t want to leave you hanging.

Oh, and I can operate a saw and nail gun like nobody’s business, but I don’t know how to turn off closed captioning on the TV:

 

You’ll notice that I didn’t say “um” much but I did say “Yes,” “Yep,” and “Yeah” about a bagillion times. Gah.

Yep. Yes I did. Yeah.

(And those of you who know me in real life – YES I am still married. :) I use my maiden name for press stuff.)

I was so tired from the day when we got home, I didn’t finish up the chair just yet (six minutes went SO FAST and we ran out of time to show it!), but I’ll show you this weekend. It’s super cute!

If they are able to get the video working on the web site, I’ll link to that instead because the quality is MUCH better. :)

Because I know many of you wanted to know more about the airplane art above the Bub’s bed – here’s a run down of how I hung it:

1. Take a large poster frame – the cheapy ones with the thin plastic frame around them – and discard the cheapy plastic frame. 

2. I kept the cardboard backing, put the poster on top, then put the acrylic over the poster. I wrapped pieces of painter’s tape along the sides and edges to keep the poster from slipping out while I installed it.

3. Put the whole thing up on the wall (figure out your center first!) then secure it temporarily. I actually used my nail gun and put a nail into it, thinking I would secure the whole thing to the wall that way and then put molding over it. I realized after the first nail that is NOT a good idea – it split the acrylic. Oops!

4. The acrylic did end up coming loose from the nail towards the end, but it served it’s purpose and held it up long enough for me to get most of the molding installed around it. If you just have a second set of hands, that should be all you need.

5. Then I just installed the molding, but I only nailed into the molding on the bottom and middle, if that makes sense. I didn’t nail into the molding on the inside – near the poster. I only nailed around the outside. So it’s is secure enough to hold the poster and acrylic but I didn’t nail into the acrylic.

From what I can tell, there’s enough give in the acrylic so that I can wedge it out someday to replace the art. I have not tried to take it out because I spent too much time putting it up and wasn’t about to mess it up. :) But it feels like I’ll be able to get it out of there fine.

Even if I’m not able to get it out, it won’t take long at all to pry the molding off of one side to slide it all out, replace the art, and slide it back in.

I hope that helps – sorry I don’t have visuals for that one, but I didn’t take any pictures of the process. I know, bad DIY blogger!!

Another giveaway weekend is coming up tomorrow! Till then, have a GREAT Friday!