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What’s your method?

March 10th, 2010 · Cleaning Party

With the house on the market for the past week I haven’t had much time to trot out any new projects. In fact, I’ve spent most of my time cleaning and picking up, and cleaning, oh and cleaning. We’ve watched enough Design to Sell episodes to know we need a spic and span casa to get an offer. I thought I’d share a new product with you…

Although I love my Clorox cleanup, I decided to give going green another shot. It didn’t workout with the dishsoap but I had heard rave reviews about Mrs. Meyers All Purpose Spray. Eek, at $4.99 for 16 ounces it was pretty steep (the Lemon Verbena smelled great though!). I opted for Method’s Pink Grapefruit All Purpose Spray. It smells delicious and was only $2.99 for 28 ounces-we picked it up at Target.

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I’m happy to say that this even shines up our black cooktop which the Clorox left with streaks. We loved it so much we picked up the stainless steel spray cleaner.

So what’s your go to cleaning product?

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Let there be light

March 8th, 2010 · Before & After

Since ye olde homestead is up for sale we’ve had to tackle all of the projects that we pushed waaay back to the end of our to-do list. Like re-paint the bathroom ceiling and add a new light fixture. Sounds fun, right? It’s not. We called in the backup troops with our latest projects since we were on a pretty strict deadline. Handyman extraordinaire (aka my step-dad Doug) came to rescue.

Here’s what we started with-yuck!

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Here’s our beautiful after

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It isn’t a dramatic difference but it makes the whole room (which is small anyhow) look more put together and finished. Yay for finishing projects!

Have you finished anything on your to-do list lately?

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The Most Magical Place on Earth

March 5th, 2010 · Happy Homemakers

Since we’re mostly a home improvement blog I won’t put you through all of our Epcot pictures (there are a lot). I’ll wait for the cheers to subside. Ahem, anyway….

While we were there we did notice how great all of the flowers and trees looked. Maybe it was us yearning for Spring, but Mr. Disney sure does a heck of job with the landscaping. In fact, I know I had read an article in Southern Living interviewing one of their garden specialists. Here’s some of the shots we got that will hopefully inspire our Spring outdoor decor. Please ignore the hordes of people-they wouldn’t get out of the way. Even though I explained to them that we are blogging about this. The nerve of some people!

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One of the coolest things (in my humble opinion) was the greenhouse. They have a team working there for innovative gardening and farming ideas. Check out the size of those eggplants! Almost all of the food they grow in the greenhouse is used in the parks. Very cool!

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And that wraps up your Disney agriculture lesson. Are you inspired? Will you be growing a garden maze like the one above or sticking to the hanging baskets?

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Color Me Happy

March 4th, 2010 · Happy Homemakers, Random Musings

I’m sure you’ve seen the color career test floating around. I’ve seen it at How About Orange and Young House Love.

Matt and I gave it a shot. I was always a sucker for those tests in school where they tally up you answers and tell you what you should be when you grow up. So without further ado….

I was pegged as an  ORGANIZER (shocker, right?).

Keywords: Self-Control, Practical, Self-Contained, Orderly, Systematic, Precise, and Accurate.

My back up career is a PERSUADER

Keywords:Witty, Competitive, Sociable, Talkative, Ambitious, Argumentative, and Aggressive.

 

Matt was described as a CREATOR.

Keywords

Nonconforming, Impulsive, Expressive, Romantic, Intuitive, Sensitive, and Emotional.

His backup career is SOCIAL MANAGER

Keywords:

Tactful, Cooperative, Generous, Understanding, Insightful, Friendly, and Cheerful

No surprises on my results! We both said “huh?” when we got Matt’s. Don’t get me wrong-he’s very romantic, sensitive and generous. The test listed architect as a good career fit and Matt was an architect major for a year. But then his love of finance and all things numbers took over. I’ll just have to keep in mind his creative side in mind the next time I take on another project!

So tell us, what did your test reveal? Did it just confirm your suspicions like mine or was it a surprise like Matt’s?

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Ruffles

March 2nd, 2010 · Craftiness

My sewing class is finally finished and I can proudly say “I made something!” Behold, my beautiful ruffle apron. I found the tutorial here. The fabric was pretty inexpensive. I spent about $3 a yard for the print and $1.50 a yard for the solid pink.

I think it turned out pretty cute!

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Our View From Here

March 1st, 2010 · Our View From Here

Our First Home is officially for sale. Matt was accepted to USC a couple of weeks ago and we are moving to sunny California. With a winter like this, neither one of us is sad to leave the snow behind. We are both so excited to start our new adventure but are pretty sad thinking about leaving our friends, families, and of course-our first home.

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There are definitely mixed emotions seeing that sign in the front yard. Ranging from-man I hope this sells in 2 days to aww, we’re never going to have another patio party.

Of course we’ll continue to blog on Our Poverty with a View. Although, now its going to be a whole new kind of poverty (have you seen rent prices in California?!) and definitely a different view (hello ocean!).

I hope you’ll keep up with us on this new adventure!

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Snow Birds

February 19th, 2010 · Happy Homemakers

We are out of this wintery mess for five glorious days of fun in the sun in Florida! We were a little distraught by Florida’s unseasonably cold weather (38 degrees?!) but our vacation antics will not be deterred. We will return ready to regale you with stories of our fabulous adventure and sunburns to boot.

See ya on the flip side!

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Etsy Love

February 18th, 2010 · Craftiness

I’m always feeling the homemade love. When I found etsy.com I was head over heels. When I found out that crafters posted tutorials-eek. I was swooning. I found the tutorial for a rosette pillow. Easy peasy, right?

The fabric (felt) was relatively inexpensive but the time, oh the time it took to cut out one milllleeeooon of those little circles to make the rosettes. I even doubled over the fabric and it still took forever. It was totally worth it but just a warning to those ready to jump on the rosette making bandwagon.

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Lulu was just as thrilled about the circle scraps as I was.

After I cut out all of the circles, I hand sewed them to the pillow. I deserve a medal. Seriously. At least a participation medal. I don’t have photos of the in progress because my hands were bleeding from all of the circle cutting so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

I used my new fandangled sewing machine (thanks Grandma!) and sewed a perfect little pillow including a zipper. I love it. It now has a happy little home in our guest room. It has replaced a pillow that someone ate.

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Houston, we have video

February 17th, 2010 · Chiweenies

We received a pretty snazzy Santa gift this year. An HP digital video camera. This Saturday, I decided to take it for a spin. We put Lily in her finest winter wear and gave it a go. Lulu was zipped into my snow jacket. She isn’t a real fan of the winter months.

Snow Day from Brittney Ahrens on Vimeo.

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Our View from Here

February 16th, 2010 · Our View From Here

Another wintery blast has made me feel extra desperate crafty lately. I think I’ve finally figured out how to wrangle that wild beast of a sewing machine. I’m making ruffle-y aprons, rosette pillows, yoga bags, oh my! At least the whurr of the machine puts the dogs to sleep. Hopefully soon I’ll have some tutorials to show you!

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