12 Red, White, and Blue Patriotic Summer Decor Ideas

Memorial Day kicks off my favorite season - summer! Woo hoo!

Husband and I have an even better reason to celebrate this year. Good friends will visit us from Germany that weekend. What better way to welcome our friends to the United States and celebrate Memorial Day (and pre decorate for the Fourth of July) than with patriotic red, white, and blue decor!

I like to hang banners and garlands on my porch rails. I like the texture of Uncommon Designs burlap flag banner and how it will work in a variety of decorating styles.

Photo courtesy of Uncommon Designs

I also like the stripe detail on Sweeter than Sweets star garland. Can you believe she made it out of paint chips?

Photo courtesy of Sweeter than Sweets

I'm tucking Better Homes and Gardens red, white, and blue bunting into the Idea Center of my mind (AKA Lisa's Kooky Idea Center if you listen to how Husband describes it which you probably shouldn't because Condo Blues is not his blog. It is mine.) Every summer when I finally remember to buy porch bunting it is too close to the Fourth of July and the stores are sold out. Their project is an incentive to use some of the fabric in my stash to make it.

Make a Yardstick Drawer Organizer in 15 Minutes!

Welcome to the most disorganized drawer in my kitchen.

It drives me crazy!

  

 I'll teach you how to build an easy drawer organizer that will 

take you from cluttered to calm in 15 minutes tops!  

This drawer is just small enough that every drawer organizer on the market won’t fit inside the drawer - or at least it seems that way.

One day, I got fed up with my disorganized drawer and decided to do something about it. I built a quick custom kitchen drawer organizer from what I had on hand – yardsticks!

Project Me

Our ongoing lesson with Lacey is to teach her Husband and I are her leaders to help build her confidence and help her with her fear issues.

  

The big difference between Dog World and Human World is to be happy, a dog needs a good leader. Not someone who leads by yelling or hitting but the type of leader who stays calm in a crisis, like an ER nurse. If a dog doesn't think you are doing the job, it is going to try to take over. Human World considers this bad behavior but Dog World considers this the way stuff gets done. 

Lacey is trying to be the boss of this pack. It is stressing her out because she knows she isn’t a strong leader. Unfortunately Lacey isn’t cluing in that I am her leader either.

The Dog World Leader always goes first. Lacey knows her humans walk through doors and up stairs first. She now knows sit, stay, down, and is pretty good on shake with both voice and hand signals. Husband and I use these tricks as a way for Lacey to earn positive things (for example she has to sit so I can put her leash on her for a walk) or to give her something positive to focus on (and the treat reward) when she thinks something is scary.

We are having a heck of a time teaching Lacey to walk by her human’s side and not pull on the leash! This is something we started working on as soon as Lacey came to live with us and before we started working with our behaviorist.

We are on Technique #3 to teach Lacey how to walk on a loose leash. *sigh*

I now understand why some people claim their dogs are dumb and can’t learn. I don’t think that is true with Lacey. Lacey walks well with our behaviorist. Lacey doesn’t yank Husband around (unless she sees a bird) with our new teaching technique but not with me. At all. Lacey, what is wrong with you?!

How to Make Paprika and Poppy Seed Soap

Hi my name is Lisa and I am a soapaholic. I seriously love, love, love handmade soaps and lotions.

Since we are fans of hygiene, and I found a very past its prime bottle of poppy seeds in the back of the pantry, I thought I'd make myself a little Happy Mother's Day to me gift of poppy seed soap.

I also turned to my spice rack for non artificial soap dye. Paprika works for dying Easter eggs, let's see if it works for dying soap red (it does! The soap does not turn our skin colors either.)

How to Make Quick and Easy Paprika and Poppy Seed Soap - Artificial Dye Free!

How to Keep Dogs Out of the Garden

I took advantage of an actually-feels-like-Spring day to clear the flowerbeds of leaves and weeds. Like most DIY projects around here it:

1. Snowballing into another project - Operation: Keep Lacey Out of the Flower Beds

2. Required a  trip to the store for supplies.

Why I Bought a Condo

Looks like a free standing house, acts like a condo. The best of both worlds!

Husband and I were renters for a long time before we even considered buying a house. We were busy with lot of outside activities and knew that once we bought a house, we'd be married to the extra work and expenses it takes to keep a house running.  Our landlord never raised the rent which was another incentive to stay put.

Cheap rent that allowed us to buy off a bunch of bills and have money leftover for fun things kept us there longer than most of our relatives thought we should. I lost count how many times we were told we needed to buy a house to "be happy." One well meaning person not so subtly showed us house listings no matter what truth (not now) or excuse (We didn't realize we aren't happy. We were pretty happy on the awesome beach vacation we paid for in cash last summer) we gave him. 

Eventually our schedules calmed down. Husband and I decided it was time to go house shopping. Especially since my steady diet of DIY shows and shelter magazines had me itching to paint/remodel/decorate my home  in any way I wanted and without asking the landlord's permission. The idea of living somewhere where we could banish the white walls Husband and I rented forever influenced us to create an accent wall like this: