Design Star 7, Episode 5

This week the designers picked a card, any card and designed a lounge in that style for a Hollywood Chamber of Commerce party. Basically a white box challenge with only a floor to start with.

A few things were abundantly clear from the beginning of the episode:

• Kris says, “Amazing” a lot.

• Rachel complains about pulling the Victorian style card ALL THE TIME.

• Brittany thinks too much about designing a space that is in her professional design style.

And I completely agree with Kris when he said the 1970’s were a time of pure design tragedy. I don’t agree with the last part of his statement when he said the 1970’s were also a time of purse design brilliance. Nope, nay, never, tacky, yuck!

Not that I have a strong personal opinion of 1970's style or anything.

My Craft Wars Audition Video

Finally, finally, FINALLY! There is a new craft show on TV. It is called Craft Wars. The first episode airs on TLC tonight. Now I can spill the beans. I auditioned for it.

Yep. I made a total goof of myself in my audition video. I sound like I have a lisp because of the microphone on Husband's point and shoot camera. Despite that the casting people asked me to reshoot it and add bigger projects to my audition video. That's why I'm wearing different clothes during the last part of my video. I took it as a good sign.

I had to sign a contract that I wouldn't tell anyone until after the show airs even if they didn't cast me. I figure it's OK because the first episode airs tonight.

HGTV Design Star: Tiny House Challenge

This week the designers designed a whole house in two days. Fortunately, a house is the same size as a playhouse. Those teeny tiny houses are so adorable I want one in my teeny tiny backyard.

If there was any challenge the designers had to bring it, it is this one. Meg knocked her camera challenges out of the park per usual. Karl is coming into his own on the camera challenges. I loved the comment about not wanting to roll out of the loft bed and into the sink. Mark sealed his fate with his trip up on the first camera challenge although his second was as personable as we know him to be. 

Side note: was there an unofficial requirement for the designers to hang animal antlers in their houses? I think all three of them had them. For some reason, Karl and Mark’s antler art reminds me of a Jackelope.

 Jackelops are real because they are on the Internet. Look it up.

Photo courtesy of Animal Picture Archive

HGTV Design Star – Home Owner Challenge

Three episodes into Design Star and the personalities of the designers are starting to emerge. The unofficial theme of tonight’s episode? How to work nicely with others. Doug and Cathy take note.

The other theme? Product placement! Product placement! Product placement! It was the usual HGTV sponsor suspects – Lumber Liquidators and Cabinets To Go, with a few surprises thrown in. Painters tape! Accessory stores! Furniture storage! Oooh la la! (Not really.)

The final design count: two great rooms, one meh room, and one Oh my God, what the hell were you thinking?! room. I found it interesting that the Callegaris family ended up with the absolute best and worst rooms from the challenge in their home. Sorry kids. You rolled the dice, won, and lost with this thing. Hope you enjoy repainting your living room!

What worked:

HGTV Design Star – Hope for Season Six

Did you watch HGTV's Design Star last week? What did you think? Thankfully, the tone for Season Six is not Survivor with Paint Rollers like Season Five.

Whew.

That’s not to say there was not drama! Cathy and Leslie went at it during the traditional first episode Design Your Living Space Challenge. When designers on the same team clash, their room is usually the worst one. I was surprised given the fireworks; Cathy and Leslie’s room was not only one of my favorites but won the  challenge!

I am in LOVE with Leslie’s tire coffee table. I’ll take one please.

Five Unusual Ways to Keep Warm in a Cold House

Welcome Weather Channel viewers! This morning I did another 58 Degree Challenge interview on The Weather Channel. I talked about how my family stays toasty warm in snowy Ohio with our daytime thermostat set at 58 degrees (F). Here are five ways we stay warm in a cold house.

1. Dress in layers. Sweaters are good but fleece layered over another long sleeved shirt is my favorite. I must have ice water running through my veins because I get cold more easily than Husband. I sometimes wear long underwear under my clothes too. Not only at home but sometimes in cold office buildings. Because like I said before, I get cold easily.

How to Repop Popcorn Kernels

One of my favorite go to snacks is popcorn. I like to make my popcorn old school – in a pot on the stove. It’s less wasteful than microwave popcorn, inexpensive, and if you don’t slather it in butter (real or fake), it’s pretty darn healthy.

After enjoying a bowl of popcorn during a pay per view movie on cable (no, not that kind of pay per view movie - get your mind out of the gutter – we watched Momma Mia! ) there were quite a few unpopped kernels in the bottom of the bowl. Normally I’d chuck them in the trash bin because I don’t think the kernels would break down in the composter and the last thing I need is for The Condo to look like Green Acres with corn accidently growing all over my front flowerbeds!

I looked at the unpopped popcorn kernels and thought about Crunchy Chicken’s Food Waste Reduction Challenge. I’d actually have something to report if I them threw away unless…I repopped those unpopcorn kernels and ate them.

I remember my mom telling me that her Grandmother would repop popcorn kernels but my mom said that it never worked for her. I figured what the hey? The worse that could happen is that I burn the kernels and throw them out which I was about to do anyway. I tried it and guess what – it worked!

How to Pop Popcorn on the Stove

Crochet Your Own Doctor Who Dolls

Geek alert! I have a confession, “Hi, my name’s Lisa and I am a Doctor Who fan.”
“Hi Lisa!” you say.

I’ve been watching Doctor Who since I found old episodes of the show running on PBS in the 90’s. Naturally, I’m watching the new Doctor Who series. Husband and I make it appointment television.

Seriously.
Husband even bought me my own Doctor Who sonic screwdriver toy (and pen!) for Christmas one year. It sits on my desk in front of my computer at all times just in case I need to write a note, put up a lot of cupboards, or confuse a Dalek – your choice.

So imagine my interest when I checked out snuffykin's journal and saw that she crocheted an amigurumi style Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) doll. So cute!

Help Me Pick a Halloween Costume!

I love dressing up for Halloween. It's the one time of year that I can please my inner child and play dress up. Because if you're an adult and if you don't have a kid, playing dress up at any other time of the year could be all shades of creepy, scary, fetishy or all three (your choice - you pick!)

Husband and I are going to a Halloween party. The theme is Scary. After rooting around what costume pieces we had around the house (not only a budget conscious costume but environmentally friendly too), I put together three options. I'm not sure which one I should do. Will you help me decide?

Option 1: Witch

These costume pieces have evolved into what you see now. Originally I bought the vest at Rag O Rama (hands down the best thrift store in the city!) and wore it with black boots and leggings for a couple of sword fighting shows. Later I needed an Elizabethan gown to do a hand to hand stage combat show and made the black skirt. A few years later I developed an on-line training course and needed a photo of an 1898 woman. I added sleeves to the vest and a walking bustle to the skirt. Then after seeing Wicked and channeling the latest Harry Potter film I added the conical hat. It’s not as good as Professor McGonagall’s (oh how I love the hats they built for the character in the Harry Potter movies!) but I didn't have to time to beef up the store bought hat with feathers et al. at the time) and was a witch. I use the broom as a decoration on my front porch. I like the texture of the bamboo handle and that it's beat up a bit. Like it's defied gravity and flown many, many miles into the night.

How to Make Old Doc Martin Boots into a Hip Flower Pot

Husband and I spent at weekend at the Dublin Irish Festival. We saw the sights, we ate some pretty good haggis (yes, it’s a Scottish food, but we Celts in America sometimes have to have Scottish stuff at our Irish events because we don’t have access to 100% Irish entertainment or food vendors all the time like they do in say, Ireland), listened to great bands such as The Tartan Terrors (friends of ours from our Renaissance Festival days), Gaelic Storm (you might recognize them as the steerage band in that tiny film about a boat that sank), and spent quite a bit of time at the Celtic rock stage listening to The Prodigals, and yes, Bad Haggis.

After that I got the itch to make something creative and yes, a little bit rock and roll. Even, dare I say, a little punk rock? I decided to dig out my very first pair of Doctor Martian boots and make a flower planter out of them.

First I made a self watering planter from a plastic water bottle Husband got after running a road race and a bit of leftover t-shirt material.

Environmentally Friendly Low VOC Wood Glue, Who Knew?

Good things come to those who blog, or in my case, those who are lucky enough to win a contest because I won a nifty tool bag and two bottles of environmentally friendly wood glue called EcoGlue Premium Wood Adhesive from The Handyguy’s Podcast. Thank you Brian and Paul, you're the best!

Now I have to admit that not until I got the bottles of low VOC EcoGlue in my hot little hands did I ever think about the ecological or environmental ramifications of glue. It never crossed my mind. So I wanted to know what made EcoGlue so special. Well, it turns out that most wood glues contain Volatile Organic Compounds, which are also know as VOCs. In the case of wood glue, it’s generally formaldehyde.

Um, OK. That made me ask myself, “What actually is a VOC? What does it do? How much exposure to it is bad? And why the heck should I care?”

Put Away the White Shoes, It’s Labor Day!

Labor Day is here
should I keep wearing white shoes?
Serial Mom says no

Ah, Labor Day. Time to say good-bye to summer (my favorite season), hi to fall, and a big HELLO GORGEOUS to the Labor Day sales at the home improvement stores!

I also say a little sad good bye to kicky summer sandals, even the white ones. Now, I was taught that you shouldn’t wear white shoes after Labor Day. Apparently, arbiters of What Not to Wear fashion Staci and Clinton disagree. They say you can wear white shoes after Labor Day.

Fashion, like home decorating and design ebbs and flows. Things change. Over time what’s in goes out, what’s out is in, up is down, black is white. I get it. Therefore, I’d be willing to give the white shoes after Labor Day thing a chance if it weren’t for one thing. The movie Serial Mom.

The woman scares me to bits. Come on. You have to remember how John Water’s seemly sweet and perfect homemaker Beverly Sutphin (played by the amazing Kathleen Turner) was really a raging sociopath who humorously and violently offed her neighbors for such heinous offenses as not recycling. She bludgeoned a woman with a leg of lamb for not rewinding a rented videotape (hey, the movie was made in 1994 way before Netflix.) And then Beverly gets even with a juror who commits the sin of continually wearing white shoes after Labor Day during her trial.

Remember?!!

Six Strange Things You Can and Cannot Compost

We have a new kooky little game we play here now that we know that the covert  composter works. We call it Will It Compost?

Six Weird Things That Will Compost

1. Dog fur tumbleweeds from Blitzkrieg’s hairbrush.

2. Dryer lint.


3. Dirt from the Roomba.


4. A 100% white cotton sock.


5. Corn-based plastic coffee lid from a paper take out cup of coffee. Husband and I threw it into the compost bin just to see if it would compost - it did!

6. Wine Corks. Obviously, I'm talking about composting wine corks made from real cork instead of the fake corks that are made from plastic.

Six Weird Things I Will Not Compost