ORC Week 2: I Have this Thing with Green
An update on Week 2 of the Fall 2019 One Room Challenge: the Workroom Makeover
Green has been my favorite color for almost as long as I can remember. As a little girl I briefly flirted with pink, but green took over early. Green — the color of Ireland, my eyes, the grass in my grandmother’s back yard, my favorite sweatshirt in college. So I suppose it is natural that my Workroom is green. But it isn’t just the paint on the walls. I am working to make this makeover a green one in every way I can. And the Week 2 One Room Challenge update includes a list of the easy ways I’m working to make this room green in the eco-friendly sense, too.
Not only that, but I have TWO tutorials this week both of which will help you make your Billy bookcases (or other stock bookshelves) look cleaner, more like custom shelves, and just absolutely amazing!
Oh, and did I mention the wallpaper? Yeah, click the link and see all the fun this week…
That’s not the only news this week! Orders of The Nice List will begin shipping early next week! If you haven’t ordered yet, or want to order another copy, you can still place an order, but supplies are limited, so don’t dally!
The wind is howling here, and the temperature is plummeting. It was 77 at about 5 pm. But look what’s coming overnight…
I hope you all are having a great week!
Ciao!
Angela
New: The Library!
Introducing the Mid Modern Mama Library of downloads and printables!
Is there a better place to hang out than a library? I’m hard-pressed to think of one! So I’m excited to announce my own personal library of resources available to anyone! So many of the projects I post here have downloads of one kind or another — patterns, graphics, Cricut files. So I put them all in one place: the Library! Here you’ll find all of the file downloads for every project on Mid Modern Mama. And the list of files is growing all the time. So pop by and take a look! I am ready to decorate for Fall, and the files for the Autumn bunting are in the Library now. Very easy to find, and it is an easy project to make, too!
Speaking of projects, we are having a busy weekend around here getting ready for the One Room Challenge this weekend! Next week I’ll be able to tell you which room I am taking on, but let me tell you: it promises to be a BIG transformation. It’s one of those rooms that we tend to neglect in our homes, but by the end of it all, it will be so much more functional and beautiful, too. I am really excited!
And email subscribers will get a sneak-peek at the plans before anyone else, and will get to see the room’s progress before anyone else, too. So if you haven’t already, sign up!
Finally, on Instagram this week I’ve been sharing some of the Greener Living changes we have made in our house — an effort to reduce our carbon footprint. Because I know not everyone is on Instagram, I’ve collected all of those posts together to share here, too. Enjoy!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Ciao!
Angela
Greener Living Tips
a few easy ways to reduce your family’s impact on the Earth
Greener Living: Journaling
A new project: creating an art journal from catalogs. Also Greener Living Tips, an update on the Fall 2019 One Room Challenge, and more!
Last week the world came together for the Global Climate Strike. Our child’s school participated. We did, too. And we were so inspired by the millions of people across the world who turned out to demand action on climate change.
But it is easy to feel powerless in the face of such a huge problem. And indeed individuals can only do so much — policy change is necessary. But there are small, simple steps we can take which do make an impact. They truly do!
Our family is very concerned about reducing our carbon footprint and being good stewards of the Earth. And we know that those changes start in our home. We aren’t perfect, but we have made and continue to make small changes — all of which add up to making a difference in our community and in the world. This week on Instagram I am sharing 7 Greener Living Habits — changes that are simple and easy to implement.
One of those Greener Living Habits: repurposing stuff you already have. In other words, finding a new use for something rather than getting rid of it. We have a long history of repurposing. Dressers have become entertainment centers. Table runners have become window valances. An embroidered shirt became a sewing machine cover. Jam jars have become lunch containers, paint containers, pen cups… well, you get the picture. And I’m sure you do lots of repurposing in your life, too!
So here’s my newest repurposing project: turning catalogs into art journals. I took a stack of catalogs and turned them into my latest art journals perfect for collage, mixed media, use as sketchbooks, watercolors, writing — you are only limited by your imagination! I collected a bunch of tips together and made a video as well as a step-by-step guide to creating your own art journals from catalogs. And they don’t have to be art journals! There are tons of other ways to use them, too!
Here’s the link to the tutorial! Enjoy!
And join me on Instagram this week for the rest of the Greener Living Habits, too. I’d love to know what you are doing at your home to reduce your carbon footprint. Little changes all add up!
@midmodernmama
If you make an art journal, tag me on Instagram! I would love to see it!
In other news: the One Room Challenge starts again the first week of October, and I can’t WAIT to show you what we have in store. I can’t tell you much, but… it is a room which frustrates many people, and I will be doing a LOT of KonMari-ing as part of the process. I’m also working to keep it as green as possible — lots of repurposing happening here! More on that beginning October 3, but I just can’t wait to show you! If you missed our last One Room Challenge, check it out! We did a Guest Room Refresh turning our blank and boring Guest Room into a retro-inspired traveler’s retreat.
Have a wonderful week! Fall starts today… and the temperatures are finally falling! Hooray!
XOXO
Angela
Prime Day Deals I Love!
A few of my favorites are on sale for Amazon Prime Day. Check them out!
It’s Amazon Prime Day, and I spotted a few bargains that I wanted to share with you. These are all products I love personally and can recommend highly or that are on my wish list right now. If you aren’t a member, there’s a link above for a free 30-day trial which will allow you to take advantage of all of the Prime Day bargains.
Happy Shopping!
Working
Having a good printer is a must, and I really love my Epson EcoTank printer. I have an older version of this one. Here’s what I love: the ink lasts forever. It is more expensive to buy it, but Epson has changed the printer/ink model. They charge more for the printer, and you don’t have to buy ink nearly as often. The ink also doesn’t come in cartridges. It comes in bottles which you use to fill the tanks — less plastic waste! If you are in the market for a new printer, this is a good one!
When I was traveling more than I do now, I always carried my LaCie Rugged Mini External Hard Drive. It is a great device for offloading photographs while on a long trip — or even for hauling around lots of photos or documents when going to client meetings. Now that it comes in a 4TB size, too, it is even more valuable.
Tired of your office or home never being the right temperature? We recommend a Nest. We have one, and we love it! We easily manage the temperature settings for our house, and save money and energy when we aren’t home without even thinking about it.
Making
I have the Cricut Maker, but this is a great price on the Explore Air 2! And it includes lots of goodies to get you started!
I snagged a set of these. I find I need multiple mats to be more efficient when I am doing complicated projects.
Watercolors just work best on watercolor paper. It’s hard to find it on sale, too!
Reading
As an author, I always try to buy the book instead of checking it out of the library. We have to stick together, you know! But I don’t have room in my house for all of those books! My Kindle makes me so very happy for that very reason. It helps keep our home tidy! Though I do still read A LOT on paper, too!
I can’t stop raving about Madeline Miller’s two novels, The Song of Achilles and Circe. I loved them both, and they are amongst a very few books available for Prime Day. I highly recommend them!
Mothering
There aren’t many books on the Prime Day sale list, but these caught my eye. We love all of them! I Want My Hat Back is especially funny when read almost as a play at bedtime. And the Elephant and Piggie books are fabulous for early readers. The Tale of Despereaux is a sweet chapter book that is wonderful read aloud!
Building
My sister won Aunt-of-the-Year when she gave Bambino the Star Wars Darth Vader’s Castle for his birthday. I am not sure who enjoyed putting it together more — Bambino or my husband.
Bambino also loves this tree house set, and has had hours of imaginative play with all kinds of animals and characters hanging out in the tree house.
This is a great, basic Lego set with some simple instructions for making a frog, a helicopter, and anything else you can imagine. A really good starter or add-on set!
Organizing
I know Marie Kondo says not to buy anything for drawer organizing, but I did buy a set like this which keeps ties, underwear, and tights well-organized in our drawers. You could absolutely do it with a shoe box as she recommends, but I think the dividers in these boxes are just a bit tidier.
I always have a stack of plain paper bags on hand for quick gift wrapping or dropping something off at someone’s house.
My office would be a mess without boxes like these. I keep the clothes that I am selling, unfinished projects, supplies, and those awkward things that don’t seem to fit anywhere else — all in boxes like these. Mine came from Ikea, but I know these are essentially the same. Neat and tidy!
Drinking
Ditch the plastic straws! I like paper straws and try to keep a bunch in my purse, so I can refuse plastic straws when needed. I also like these other reusable options, and just might be ordering some to try them out, too.
Homemaking
Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my Roomba? Nope? Well, it was one of the best Christmas gifts EVER! I absolutely love it, and this is a newer, fancier version which I am eyeing when mine needs to be replaced — but I’ve had it for more than 4 years, and it is still going strong. Dogs? Cats? Kids? Get a Roomba!
My last vacuum cleaner lasted for more than 20 years. I know. It was a workhorse, but when it came time to replace it, I chose one like this Dyson which I truly love. We have had it for more than 3 years, and I am happy with it every time I pull it out to vacuum.
We don’t have one yet, but we just got back from Hawaii where our hotel had Toto Washlets in the bathrooms. It was Bambino’s first bidet experience, and he is on a mission to convert the world now. So this will be on the wish list for our new bathrooms when we renovate them for sure!
Journaling
I am also stocking up on both of these. We go through a lot of glue in our house. I use Super77 when I am art journaling, and both Bambino and I use glue sticks almost daily!
Ok. I don’t have this one yet, but it is on my journaling wish list!
Traveling
Bambino has the best suitcase in the family: a hardside suitcase with spinner wheels. As we replace our luggage, we will all get hardside suitcases like this one.
I’ve written about how Marie Kondo has changed my life, but I’ve never told you about how the KonMari Method has changed my packing practices. Well, it has. And I’ll tell you more about that soon, but these packing cubes are an important part of that practice. They make packing and unpacking a suitcase so much better!
I have a box almost identical to this with which I travel, and it is one of the best little things I’ve ever purchased. I just love it!
If you found any Prime Day deals that I need to know about, leave them in the comments! Ciao!
New DIY Tutorials!
I have several new DIY tutorials up. Check them out!
I have a few new tutorials and a summary page for all of the One Room Challenge tutorials, too. I hope you will check them all out! Seriously — this cute little container for my dryer balls took about 15 minutes, and was super easy! And making duvet covers from sheets: a breeze!
And on this page you will find links to all 14 DIY project tutorials from our Guest Room Refresh — everything from the Ikea bed frame hack to lining a cupboard with wrapping paper and so much more. Enjoy!
Guest Room Refresh: One Room Challenge Week One
Come along as we refresh our guest room repurposing furniture including two twin beds, choosing everything from a fresh, new wall color to bedding, luggage racks, wall art, window treatments, and amenities in this makeover on a budget. Lots of DIY ideas with vintage-inspired decor.
It’s here! The 2019 One Room Challenge! We are redoing our guest room — a refresh with vintage inspiration and modern sensibilities. Check out week one with the furniture we will be reusing, an inspiration board, and the two items which inspired it all: a vintage map and my favorite bakery.
Lots to do! Aloha!
A
#The100DayProject and #OneRoomChallenge
This month I am launching two big projects: The 100 Day Project and the One Room Challenge. I’m excited to share both with you!
Aloha! It is Wednesday — so much going on! I am fairly certain I have lost my mind. You see, I’m already participating in the One Room Challenge which starts tomorrow. Eek! I’m really excited to show you our Guest Room Refresh as it unfolds — more on that tomorrow.
But then I was reading about another community event on Instagram — #The100DayProject — and I decided I just HAD to do that, too. They are totally different exercises, but both use the same creative muscles.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, the sculptor, painter, poet, and architect, wrote about the flow of creative energy he experienced as “furor divinus” — the divine fire. As creative people we must tend that fire, adding kindling, branches, logs, stoking it and making sure that fire has enough oxygen to keep burning. My fire has been smoldering a bit of late as I have been buried in the business and technical sides of my endeavors. So I am excited that yesterday was the start of The 100 Day Project — a worldwide focus on sparking creativity in any medium. I am jumping in with both feet, committing to my art journal every day for the next 100 days. My project will be an intersection between words and images beginning with today’s piece — a collage using paper, watercolor, and acrylic paints.
I find communal challenges like this great to getting my creative spark aflame. And working in a different medium — visual art rather than words — stretches me and forces me to think differently. Are you doing #the100DayProject ? If so, tag me! I would love to follow along. I learn so much from everyone — new techniques and different ways of looking at the world.
So here we go!
Day 1: Suddenly all my Ancestors are Behind Me | Collage, Mixed Media
Day 2: Creative Muscles | Watercolor, Mixed Media
I’ll have more about the One Room Challenge tomorrow, but here’s a sneak peek. We found this amazing map of Hawaii in the attic of our 1948 Suburban Sweetheart when we were renovating it. This gorgeous map is the inspiration for our Guest Room Refresh. I did a little research about it. It was created by a Hungarian immigrant, trained in Italy, who fell in love with Hawaii and spent much of his life living and teaching in Honolulu. His name was Joseph Feher, and I’ve written a bit about him. Read and enjoy!
Who is the artist?
I did a little research into our inspiration piece, and the story of Joseph Feher, the artist, is fascinating. Enjoy!
New Things are Coming! And Instagram!
I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram. It is fun to meet new people and to learn new things, but I open it up, and immediately an hour of my life slips away! Yikes! However, I have been working hard on several projects which are coming, and I’d love to connect with you on Instagram!
What is coming up?
#oneroomchallenge
I’m working on the #oneroomchallenge on Instagram! I love this idea — focus on ONE ROOM in your house and get it DONE. We are hard at work on our guest room. Honestly, this was low-hanging fruit. Making it beautiful doesn’t require construction or craziness. It just means some paint, some organizing, and making the room pretty — with a little flair. I’m excited to show you the final product! I’ll be unveiling the room bit-by-bit beginning April 4 as part of #oneroomchallenge. And I will have some great budget-friendly ideas that you can use in your own homes!
So, I hope you’ll follow me on Instagram. I have two handles: @midmodernmama is all things lifestyle especially home decor — and that’s the account where I’ll be doing the #oneroomchallenge. And then I have the other part of my split personality: @piningforrome which is all travel all the time. If you need beauty and travel inspiration, look no further.
Follow me!
Follow me!
Which brings me to my second project…
Pining for Rome Relaunch
So, I actually started my very first website 11 YEARS AGO this month! Yikes! And it is still there with lots of good content. But it is looking rather tired, so I have been working for weeks and weeks and weeks to update every page, refresh every photo, and organize all of the information. And I am rebranding everything. So soon Pining for Rome will be a fabulous place for all things travel! I’m super-excited, and I can’t wait to bring you the new-and-improved Pining for Rome!
Not on Instagram?
Follow me on Facebook!
I post everything in both places, so you won’t miss a thing!
Soon there will be gardening to be done, more renovation projects, and dinners out on the patio again. For now: snow in the forecast for next week. But the yard is greening every day!
Happy Spring!
XOXO
A
