Pepper Design Blog - Page 86 of 358 - A Little of This & That... Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

Guest Blog Interview: Erin of House of Earnest

April 5, 2013

I have a special guest to introduce to you all today. Erin from House of Earnest is popping over to share her answers to PDB’s Friday Guest Interview questions and I know you’ll love her inspiration and answers!

Through House of Earnest, Erin chronicles her favorite home decor, entertaining ideas and crafty solutions. She’s so talented – what I’m drawn to most is her unique spin on the everyday and the beautiful way she captures it all with the photos she shares. Take these gold + avocado seed place settings, for example. How beautiful! Or these gold foil confetti tumblers that I’m dying to try, these incredibly unique crated photos, or the lacquered animal bookends that Erin reveals in the the new 5th question addition that I’ve added to this series (after 3 years of hosting this little Friday special with just four great questions on inspiration and trends – I’m introducing a new favorite DIY-related Q&A addition, and you must check out Erin’s answer).

Or how about this beautiful summery brunch? See… so talented.

Erin was recently named as one of the “Best Up-And-Coming” blogs by a panel at Altitude Design Summit, she writes for Etsy twice a month and has been featured over at design*sponge and HGTV.com. Thank you for joining us today, Erin! Come check out all of her answers and inspirational photos after the jump. Continue reading →

Patching & Painting with Brushless Paint Tubes

April 4, 2013

I have a horrible little secret. We hoard paint cans over here as if they were going out of style. Every size, shape, color – even long after that little label from the paint store begins to wear off from old age and we can no longer read the brand, sheen or color composite – still we hoard. Our paint cabinet overfloweth.

When Color-Glide Pro reached out to me regarding their new brushless paint sample tubes (that you fill and label yourself to keep on hand for little touch up projects) a little light in my head went off and I began dreaming of a certain over flowing cabinet suddenly becoming empty and clean. I screen product reviews here pretty thoroughly and I often don’t take on a project that I don’t think will fit in line with how we work on home projects or ones that won’t jive well with the blog. BUT this particular sample landed in my inbox with perfect timing. I’ve been imagining a product just like this and if they hadn’t invented this genius of a little squirt tube, I would have been on it like a fly to honey. It’s that smart.

Here is just a wee selection of paint that a friend and I drug out of our garage a little while back to sort.

Then we opened up all of those cans, made notes on which paint belonged to which rooms (with lots of swatch testing going back and forth since the labels were all practically gone) and used the 10 or so pump + tubes that come with each Color-Glide Pro applicator to reorganize.

I loved that each tube had its own pump. You set the pump into the open can of paint and fill, fill, fill.

The tube is easily recycled afterwards (there would be no way for multiple colors to share the same tube, I thought about it but cleaning would be a mess).

The outside of the tube allows you to label the color name, brand or store, which room the paint is for, the sheen and any other details you’d like to add with a sharpie.

The best part? When it comes time to actually put the now nicely organized paint samples to use. We recently repaired two big plaster spots in our kitchen just a day or so before an appraiser was set to conduct a house tour (for a refinance that we’re in the middle of) and just hours before his arrival I quickly repainted the large blemishes using the brushless applicators in the Color-Glide Pro tubes.

Here’s an in-progress shot (though the paint is still wet in each photo and the texture of the walls makes it appear a little crazy). The end of the tube has a little felt applicator that you gently squeeze paint out onto (kind of like the automatic dish soap dispenser scrubber – do you use that too? – in your kitchen sink). No need for brushes or tape or cleaning of any kind, just shape the tube (there’s a little ball inside to mix everything up) squeeze a bit of paint out onto the felt applicator and rub onto your patch area. When finished, wipe off the felt and pop the plastic lid back on. The plastic lip on the applicator acts as a little barrier between raised surfaces and the paint so I didn’t actually tape off the light switches below, even though I was able to get a perfectly smooth line right along the edge.

Finished! The three different types of trim in the below picture are driving me crazy, but for now the paint looks awesome. Except maybe for where the wall meets ceiling, looks like I have a couple of spots to patch up now that the ceiling has been replastered as well…

I must confess that my paint cabinet in the garage still overfloweth – I had a hard time parting with near full gallons or quarts of paint that I *hope* to use on a future project. But now at the very front of my cabinet sit my paint tubes, ready and waiting for repairs in the house!

It’s nice to know that if we’re patching a hole where a picture frame used to hang in the dining room or replacing trim in the office, I can run out to the garage and grab the correct tube and quickly finish the project – sans all of the paint supplies and clean up that it used to involve (and therefore was always relegated to last on the to-do list).

Thank you to the folks over at Color-Glide Pro for suppling the brushless paint tube applicators for me to try out. Here’s a link to their website for more information and a plethora of application videos. You can also find a pack of four sample tubes available on Amazon with Prime shipping.

Favorite Toddler Products: 18-24 Months

April 2, 2013

Liv turned two almost three months ago, I can’t believe it! For me, it’s almost as if she skipped toddlerhood all together and jumped straight from my baby to my big girl. I’m a little behind on this post but I thought I’d share a few of the products that have been most successful for us during that baby-to-toddler transition time.

One of my favorite things about this blog is the ability to share little finds that I come across… tips or games or craft projects or favorite baby items. All of us moms benefit from sharing ‘the goods’! Here’s a round up of favorite baby items starting at the beginning: 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months and 12-18 months.

And now on to the 18-24 month collage:

1. When it comes to snack time, I’m a huge proponent of easy and convenient. Yet I can’t get myself to buy those $1-2/each fruit pouches that are all over the grocery store – it seems like such a waste! That goes for most prepackaged baggies of food. We gave a version of a reusable pouch a go here but when a daily deal popped up in my email to give Squooshies a try at 50% off, I jumped on it and now love them. We fill them with yogurt and applesauce for trips to the park or when we’re on the go! Reusable, easy to clean and easy for Liv to use. Sold.

2. These days we’ve practically abandoned all other sippy cups and have settled on the Gerber Grips. I hate rifling through a drawer of plastic cups with no matching lids so I invested in about four of these guys and I’m planning on storing all other transitional cups (those with straws – never loved those, soft spouts, etc) until baby #2 is ready for them. Or maybe we’ll stick with these for all and make it easy peasy. Why I love them? They’re small and fit in the outside pockets of my bags and Liv’s backpacks, plus there are only two pieces – no extra straws or suction cups or small crevices to try and clean.

3. I had been eying a small, collapsible stroller for around town and trips for some time and did my research for months before choosing the Maclaren Triumph. So happy with it. It reclines for naps, fits babies and toddlers (and up) of all sizes and has a huge umbrella canopy for hot days. Plus, you can collapse and store it in two seconds which proved to be perfect for our trip to Europe when we were jumping on and off of buses.

4. I’ve mentioned these before but Minnetonka Moccasins are are still Liv’s favorite shoes! I’ll have to order the next size up soon – but boy can they go through their fair share of wear and tear, and they’re still adorable! I love them because they have a zipper that extends to the sole of the shoe (making them easy to pull on and off) and are made of a very soft leather that will last a long time.

5. In other clothes-worthy mentions, I stocked up on about 4 or 5 kids cardigans while at the H&M in Ireland. We live in them. Wish we had a kids H&M here in San Diego!

6. I heard this tip from a friend and it’s the best I’ve received for introducing teeth brushing. When a toothbrush is a novelty and fun to use it’s looked forward to – and when it’s electric mom or dad can get that toothbrushing job done in seconds with real results (toddler morning breath? Oh man). Genius. This is the one we love and they’re fairly inexpensive.

7. We were given this soap and this cream when Liv was just a wee one, and I have sparingly used it with love and care since! So amazingly sweet to smell that you will look forward to bath time all of the time.

8. My aunt gave Liv a cuddly sheep pillow that is absolutely worth a mention. We don’t travel with it but it would be easy to add to a bag if your child needed one, and it converts from pillow to stuffy for multi use. The girl is crazy about having a pillow :).

9-12. Now we’re venturing in to favorite toys. A coloring station is a must at this age, but besides the obvious I adore sticker books for Liv, this memory game (a gift from a friend) that we love to play together, she’s newly in love with dolls and the best might be a mini stroller that she pushes her babies about it.

13. A toddler sized set of table and chairs is a must! I found this set of chairs through Room & Board and this round table – love them both very much. We even dipped the table legs for a little fun.

14. Last but definitely not least are books. We are within walking distance to our local library so we regularly switch out the collection (more of a benefit to the reader than the toddler :)), but these are absolutely some of our favorite series: Llama Llama, Biscuit Adventures, Olivia books (thanks, Sarah for the tips!).

PS Just as a reminder, here are a few of my other baby round up posts: 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months and 12-18 months