Making My House A Home: Wall Clock

So it's been 7 weeks (ish) since I made my resolution to blog at least once a week and I have officially failed.  As much as I'm not a fan of failure it does feel good to not have that pressure anymore :-)  I would check my blog in a panic trying to remember when I last blogged.  It's not for a lack of ideas, I've got a ton of posts started, but then I forget to take the pictures I need and then...yeah.  So I'm moving forward!

Want to know a secret?  I'm not very good at decorating.  Well I guess I should be a little more specific.  I'm not very good at decorating walls.  Yes, it's sad, but true.  If you come to my house the walls are sadly lacking in anything.  In fact, besides a State Seal signed by all the State Representatives and the artwork on the walls in the nursery we don't have anything on our walls.  It's shameful, especially since we've lived in our house for 3 years now.  Oi.

I can't really explain why, I guess I'm just intimidated by all the blank space. It's kind of weird because I don't have that problem with shelves or centerpieces.  I see an empty shelf or flat (horizontal) space and I have almost no problem envisioning what I want there.  For example these are the built in shelves in our 2nd floor bathroom:

There are a couple more things on them now than when this picture was taken, but it looks just like I pictured in my mind.  It took some scouting at antique stores, but I got the pieces and I love the clean look.

This, on the other hand, makes me shake in my boots:

Too. Much. Empty. Space.

Part of the problem is the fact that several of the rooms where I want to put things on the wall  need to be painted, and for some reason I feel like they should be painted before I put stuff up.  I'm not sure there's any real logic there, just a feeling I have.  Plus to put things on the wall you have to have things to put on the wall.  That takes money which, to quote my mom, doesn't grow on trees around these parts.  So my walls remain bare.

However, since the advent of Pinterest I'm beginning to realize that it doesn't have to take a lot of money to make your house a home, but doing so takes more than just art on the walls.  It's the little things.  So that's what I'm hoping to accomplish in the coming year.  The little things around the house that make it a tad more cozy, a tad more inviting, and make my husband excited to come home after work each day.

That being said I'm going to be starting a series called "Making My House A Home" where I blog about cozy-fying (spell-check doesn't like the word I made up) my house and turning it into a home.  Doing it on the cheap will also be a key feature since, you know, we have that whole money not growing on trees thing going on.

So my first post in this series is about the wall decal clock that we recently put up.  This was a huge decision for me because it means that we aren't planning to paint our living room anytime in the near future.  For whatever reason this particular type of decal can't be removed and reapplied.  Once it's up, it's up :-)  I picked up this clock decal kit at Target three years ago for about $5 on clearance.  It was a great find and I was excited to put it up.  But once I got home I became indecisive and my palms got sweaty and I put it down in the basement. 

Fast forward three years and I rediscovered the clock while I was cleaning the basement and Will and I decided to put it up.  Will did most all of the work, and believe me, it was work.  But I think it turned out great and I love hearing Liam exclaim, "Clock!" every time he comes downstairs!

The kit came with about 12 extra little birds that you could add to the wall around the clock.  That's a lot of birds.  So far I haven't done anything with them because I'm liking the simplicity of the clock with just the one bird but we'll see, I might get adventurous and add some more!

Cost: $5 (Target)
Time Involved: 45 minutes of Will's life

Calling 99V or was that 66A?

So today I had one of those "DUH!" moments.  You know the kind, when you feel a little bit, no, a lotta bit ridiculous?!  Yeah, those ones.  Today I was at the Secretary of State renewing my driver's license and plate tabs.  I went through the initial paper check area and the lady handed me my paper-clipped packet of papers, current license and the ticket which read 99V.  I looked at the blinking red numbers and they said 11.  You've GOT to be kidding me.  I have to wait for 88 people to go ahead of me?!  I happened to be at the Supercenter at the mall which ended up being a good thing.


I texted my friend who told me to go shopping.  I was a little nervous because what if everyone left and suddenly it was my turn and I wasn't there?!  She coaxed me into going so I roamed the mall looking first into Old Navy, then TJ Maxx, then Nordstrom Rack, and on the list goes.  During that time I frequently passed the SOS office to check the flashing red number.  I finally decided to give up my trekking and head back in around number 58.  I watched as they flew through numbers 62-70, all no-shows, and rejoiced at the stupidity of the people who had missed their number being called.  Their loss was my gain!


At number 78 I looked at my cell phone clock.  I'd been there for one hour and 15 minutes and I still had a ways to go.  At that time I also happened to look down at my packet of papers, which was turned upside down. The ticket had become dislodged from the paper clip and I stared in horror at the number-letter combination that stared up at me.  66A. I couldn't believe it.  They were now on 80.  I had missed my number!  I was one of the stupid ones I had so recently mocked!!


I humbly returned to the line where tickets were given out and waited for about 10 minutes.  I then confessed my inability to read properly to the lady who had a good laugh and sent me to the Return line.  She and I were able to work out what had happened.  The lady had pulled the ticket off in a manner so that she could read 66A.  Then she tucked it under the paper clip so she could still read it, with the curve of the paper clip laying in just such a way to cover the cross-bar of the A thus making it look like a V.  Boy did I feel chagrined :-)


Anyway, I figured a nice lighthearted, laugh-at-my-expense story was just the thing to bring me back to the world of blogging from my time away!

Cash Crate!

Please note: The thoughts in this post are my own and I am not being reimbursed by Cash Crate for them.  However, all links will take you directly to my referral page!

As I mentioned earlier today on Facebook I recently started using a new survey/offers website where you can earn a few (or more!) dollars each month.  Will and I have been poring over our budget recently and have been looking for a way to give our income a little boost.  The cost of gas for Will to drive to work each day has been taking it's toll so I decided to give Cash Crate a try.

You get $1 just for signing up and then you can complete varying levels of free offers (or paying offers) for different amounts of money.  There are also surveys and cash tasks that you can complete too.  In my spare time (i.e. while Liam was napping) I was able to complete almost $8 worth of offers and surveys.  I'd say that hour was well spent!  You have to earn $20 before they send you a check, but they pay every month like clock-work if you earn more than $20! 

They also have a nice referral system where you earn 20% of what people you refer earn, and then 10% of what people they refer earn.  If you bump up to the next tier of referral earning you jump to 30% and 20% respectively.  That sounds like a pretty nice deal to me!

Cash Crate has been around since 2006 and after having done some research I've come to the conclusion that it is a legitimate way to earn money online.  I really like that they also let people who earn money post pictures of their checks on the website.  It might seem like a small thing, but the additional transparency is always nice to see! 

Hopefully I'll be able to post a picture of my first check soon!  In the meantime, check out Cash Crate and let me know how it works for you!