If you’ve picked up a copy of the winter edition of Flea Market Style or the BHG Christmas Ideas magazine, you may have seen a familiar face…mine.  I will admit it’s been a lofty dream of mine to have my home photographed for a magazine.  I’ve had the honor of having my blog featured and I’ve been a contributor to Cottages & Bungalows Magazine for about a year and a half, but it’s not the same as having a professional photographer come in to take pictures of my space for a feature.  When I received the e-mail from the BHG editor, I cried.  It was going to happen.  My home was going to be photographed for a BHG special interest publication…the ones I’ve been splurging on at the checkout counter for so many years.  I never even dreamed that it would happen to me.  I’m not a “design insider” or

I think it’s pretty obvious from my blog that I like DIY. I like the money-saving aspect, the instant gratification and the satisfaction of doing something on my own.  When it comes to tile, though…that freaks me out a little.  I think I feel confident enough to tackle mosaic tiles in a small bathroom or a kitchen back splash, but when it came down to laying this 18 x 18″ Carrera tile by Daltile in my kitchen.  There was a small part of me that thought, I can tackle this all by myself, but then there was a huge part of me that knew if I messed up, it wouldn’t be easy to fix.  I decided to call in a professional and we happen to have a friend who has been laying tile since he was a teenager. Bringing a professional in for a job doesn’t mean it’s a painless process,

Let me tell you, it’s wonderful working from home and being my own boss, but it really stinks when my home becomes a storage unit/staging area/photography studio.  The story of my house the past couple of weeks has been boxes.  They are taking over the front of the house!     Plus I had a table…     …and couple of mirrors hanging around where they didn’t belong.     So, yesterday, I took some time to get things under control.  All of the boxes are in a neat stack that’s out of the way until all 23 of them are picked up Monday by the UPS guy.  (Yeah, poor guy.)   My husband took the table to the thrift store…(I know, don’t hate me!)…and we carried things to the basement to be stored until I fix them up to sell.  I then took some time today between the e-mailing and article writing and video editing

I mentioned last week that I returned the beautiful rectangular marble tile that I bought a few weeks ago for my kitchen floor.   Well, here’s the full story.  That beautiful rectangular tile I bought online from Home Depot was actually wall tile.  I realized that after I unpacked it and threw all of the boxes away.  I was scooting the boxes around my office and saw the big bold words that read “wall tile” staring me in the face.  Oh crap.  My heart sank as I realized my error.  So, I called Home Depot to find out how to return the wall tile (after I threw away all of the boxes.) They assured me it wasn’t a problem and I could simply return the tile to the store.  Thank you. I loaded the 12 boxes of tile into my van and set off for my local Home Depot store in Hanover, PA.  There was