Let's Pretend ...

My last post was on November 14, 2012 entitled, "Let's Pretend it is Fall."  Well, let's pretend I didn't just take almost a year off from blogging. The truth is I did. Now I'm missing it.

seashells and japanese fishing floats on my great grandaddy's table. thank you Miss Shutterbug for the basket!
it is coastal casual, vintage, my signature color and one of the only pretty things completed in our New New house

Hunky Husband showing off his handy
work. He closed in the opening to a formal
living room (framing, drywall, build closet,
move electrical,texture walls, install doors,
 install molding, install ceiling fan & paint)
to create a 4th bedroom. CHA CHING!

While I was gone, Hunky Husband and I found a great deal on a foreclosure just two neighborhoods down from the rental house. We renovated in four weeks changing almost every surface in the place -- took down popcorn ceilings, painted every wall, laid hardwood in almost every room, and repainted the kitchen cabinets.  We also took a formal living room area (as if that would ever happen for our family) and turned it into a fourth bedroom.

I will have some before & afters to come, but right now there are lots of before & durings.


Through all the drywall dust and late nights, I discovered what a superhero HH really is.  He did all the work himself (I painted and did all the Girlie wrangling) and it turned out amazing.


It was telling that during this process, I was super excited about our vision for the NewNew house, but not interested at all so much about staging. I never once thought to take pictures of the depersonalization I did in our rental house. It did not even blip on my radar screen to build my portfolio with before and after pix of the Girlie bedrooms.

It never penetrated my NewNew house induced euphoria when the realty company sent 3 perspective couples to view the property ON OUR MOVING DAY. Yup, you read that right. Moving truck in the yard, they were touring around our cardboard boxes and trying to help them "imagine the space" and "appreciate the great elementary school."

when all the staging is done and the packing begins,
sometimes you just have to take the biggest box and make a girlie castle

So, maybe I should change this whole blog to talk about our NewNew House (another story for another day) and my girls and HH and our life. Except for the fact that without working on this blog at all for almost a year, it has gotten 700-900 page views per month. Without me begging my mom and everyone from high school to click on it, people have come looking for the information that I put here long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.

It is more telling that during this major transformation of our new space, I really did clean and stage the rental house for potential next renters to see. My friends assured me that in a military town, close to the base, at a good price, at the beginning of the summer, blah, blah... our property would rent no matter what shape it was in. I just couldn't imaging letting it roll like that.

This is what I do, this is who I am...I am a stager!

there were lots of late nights on bare concrete floors

So, I think I will finish the last post in the series on the five most adorable things to undo in your house. Nine months in the making -- worse than waiting for the new season of Walking Dead.


I will share some of the insights I got from being a renter showing a house to perspective next renters.  I will try to get some clients to let me post before and after staging photos of their listed properties. I'm looking into taking a certification class for staging so that I can have a very official looking logo to go along with all my fabulousness.

white kitchen cabinet doors coming soon!

I will prolly talk a lot about my NewNew house and all the Pinteresting projects that finish off the place.  We are still in cardboard in two rooms, but getting ready for the big reveal. Que fast forward music from "Trading Spaces."  Bring in the cute, tall twins from Property Brothers to talk about all the improvements.

I will try to make sure that every post from now on is not nearly as populated with the word "I".  Most importantly, I'm going to keep trying to help you live in your show house now by getting a little more VisitReady every day.

just bec

New Business

my new logo

Most of the time, bloggers talk about things they know. That is why you read. To learn things from them that you would not know without them. or laugh or cry or get inspired.

Except, in order to just talk to you about the things I know (or the things that make me cry, laugh & get inspired by) I have to go through a lot of things I do not know.

HTML. link parties. buttons. rss feed.

Lucky for me, I was on yearbook staff in high school. It was a million years ago, but Summerville was a really big school and we had an awesome journalism program.  We had enough Mac computers and laser printers that it looked like we were landing the space shuttle.  In the early 90's, we were one of the first books to submit digital layouts. I wish I could go back and do it all over again with the fun toys efficient tools we have now.

That experience has helped me to embrace computers throughout my career in retail. Every time a new scheduling program would roll out, I would be tech support for the entire district. I could tell you some of the magic I worked on registers, but then I would have to kill you.

I've said all that to say this:

Thank you for coming back to read what I have to say about houses and decor even though the site looks a little different every time you come. I've been playing on Picnik.

Thank you for pinning my pillow, frame & art projects.  I'm finally getting a handle on the linky party madness.

thanx HoH for being my first feature

quick sew pillow

Thank you for "liking" my Facebook page. I've redone that stinkin cover 3 times and I'm still not quite happy with it.

Like my Facebook Page?

Thank you for sharing what you know in your blogs. 733-A Creative Blog showed me how to make my own QR code.  If you scan it with a smart phone, it takes you right to this site. I'm so geeky that it felt like my birthday!

thanx 733 for my own QR code

Thank you for hitting that RSS button. I had to sell my soul to Ivory Soap so she would make it work for me. I gave up wrastlin with it after an hour.


Thank you for giving this frazzled mom a place to come and share all the learning, laughing, crying, and inspiration. In between every post you see, I am learning more about this bloggy world so that I can get better at the sharing part.  Next I'm tackling MyDeco (for mood boards) and The Make Room (for floorplans).  Hope that helps me get this site a little more visit ready.

just bec


linking up just a little:

• hookin up with hoh @ house of hepworths
• flaunt it friday @ chic on a shoestring

Not a Recipe Blog

You are not going to get a lot of recipes from me.  I try to cook almost every night, but mostly it is whatever e-mealz.com tells me to.  I do not bake. Ever.

For Big Girlie's 5th birthday, I brought Publix cupcakes and juice boxes to her class.  The teacher loved them and complimented her on the flavor. Even in kindergarten, girlie knew the facts. She answered, "Yep, my mommy bought these soooo good."

I may not be a pastry chef, but I am a problem solver.  Big girlie doesn't like frosting (or cheese -- healthy by nature, weird, I know).  You would think it would make it easier, but how do you decorate cake without frosting? When I go to buy her class cupcakes every year, the ladies at the bakery give me the strangest look as I ask for one cupcake with no frosting.  Last year she got a bunt cake with the candles that spell out "Happy Birthday." 

You do not need the recipe for this. I had 3 eggs.

These were so cute.  They are shaped like hearts.

The hardest part is getting these off the paper.

And keeping baby sister out of the extra marshmallows.

do not ask why there is a lego on the stove.

You can't really call brownies with candy and marshmallows a healthy alternative. They are just an alternative, a yummy, cute alternative. Happy Birthday, Baby!

Next post we will be back to staging, I promise. Pillows. Its all about cheap pillows.

just bec

Just Do It

.

 The word of the year is DO.

The word of the day is JOB.  J...O...B! Sorry, I hate when I get too close to the movie quote button.

Miss Layla at The Lettered Cottage is hosting a linky party to let everyone share their word for the year. It is a meditation point. A focus for your mind and spirit.  It is also an alternative to setting New Year's Resolutions.  Good, cause I'm kinda really awful at that.

So, in searching my soul I began with the word try.  This year, I am trying to do better and trying new things. Then my 8 year-old girlie and Master Yoda reminded me, "There is no try, there is DO and DO NOT."

Do is a supremely better word. It has been a running theme in my life.

 I am obsessed with Rosie the Riveter.  When we moved an entire time zone away from my family and hometown, I framed this post card in my kitchen. We needed to focus on the strength she embodies.  Hunky Husband is amazed at how well we are doing here -- in no small part to me talking to Rosie while I have my first 2 Diet Cokes.  My girlies know not to say "I can't."  We work together as a family and get things done. They may fight over the remote, but my 3 short people usually end up singing while they clean up their playroom.

I come from one of those tough redneck families they write country music about. If things need to be planned, shingled, fixed, dug, roofed, cooked, wired, cleaned, grown, welded, canned or driven across country, one of us can DO IT.  Of course, my uncles will fight about who did it better. Then my cousins will stand around a bonfire and laugh about how fun it was to do it. My aunts will be grilling something. Whoa. Now I'm homesick and hungry.

When I was in high school, the whole JUST DO IT thing really took off.  I covered my bedroom, then dorm room with Nike Posters.  I looked into having a swoosh tattooed on my foot. When asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I said :

• major in advertising
• move to Seattle
• work for Nike
• run marathons
• drink lots of coffee

Just so you know, I drink lots of coffee. That's about it. 

I still love Nike posters and if Pinterest is any indication. So do a gazillion other people. Just Do It is the title for hundreds of people's motivation & exercise/diet pin board. That is an advertising achievement up there with XEROX and JELLO and BAND-AID.

This year is about helping you do things in your home. All the things you listed when you moved in: the updating, the fixing, the brightening, the freshening, the expanding.  Do not wait till you are moving out to do what you want for your home. Do not make your home visit ready just in time to make yourself a visitor. LIVE IN YOUR SHOWHOUSE TODAY.

If you are selling or renting your home, do not just put out the sign and hope for the best.  Do not be afraid. There are so many things you can do besides sit by the phone and wait for an offer.  Like they say at Home Depot:

joy's hope via Pinterest

Turn your TO DO list, into a TO DONE list
You can DO IT, We can help
More Saving, More DOING

Well, now you see why Hunky Husband and I get along so well. We are totally on the same page. He does look better in orange, though.

This is the year to stop collecting slogans and get to work. 

nike via pinterest

Check out everyone else's words and find some motivation for yourself at TLC.

BTW Hunky Husband suggested my word should be SKA-DOOSH!  I thought that would be irritating by March (or next week as many times as he says it).  I do love the idea of unleashing the secret power within you using a silly word. If you haven't seen Kung Fu Panda, you should. I listened to it coming out of the headrest DVD player in my car about a thousand times first, but now that I've seen it -- two thumbs and one pinkie finger, way up!

just bec

Jumping In -- first post

ed welch - via facebook

We've all heard of jumping in the deep end. Well, starting to blog, I feel more like I'm jumping into Black River, on one of those ropes with a knot tied in it. I'm excited.  I'm sure some of my redneck friends are on the riverbank cheering for me.  I can't see what I'm going to fall into and I'm just praying I don't land on a stump. I also hope my bathing suit doesn't fall off, but that may be taking this metaphor just a little too far.


My best friend "Ivory Soap" has been blogging for years. You can check her out at littlehouseinthesuburbs.com -- she is amazing.  She is the most brilliant person I have ever known.  She is an author, scientist,  counselor and bible know-it-all.  Now she is homeschooling her children, too. Like my other blog hero thriftydecorchick, she has sponsors, contests, and link parties. I know there are a million blogs and new people are starting every day. In my head I know that. But, that first day freshman in my heart told me there was no way I could. I am no Ivory Soap lady.

via pinterest

This fall, I took my three daughters to visit Ivory and her four children. We were having a long talk about my past career as a retail manager (LOFT Outlet, Ann Taylor Factory Store, Ross & Target). Since my coming home to do the domestic goddess thing, she has been my biggest cheerleader. I'm still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. We decided that I should point towards home staging. I love design & decor, but it is the problem solving that really appeals to me.

My first house after college was a 40 year old rental house that needed plenty of TLC. It had bullet holes in the ceiling. With Hunky Husband, I did all the decorating in our first house and then the staging to sell it. It sold in 3 days for over asking price (don't you miss 2007?). Two more designed and sold houses later, we have recently moved to Pensacola. Almost all my new friends are in the military. So, I'll get plenty of practice helping them get ready to sell while I rebuild my inventory of treasures and slowly start a business here.  Then she throws it out there, "and you should blog about it."

Sure. Picture me shivering & sweating. For the next 3 months.

Then enters my new obsession.  My name is Rebecca and I am addicted to Pinterest.  During our (way too many) hours together, it has lead me to lots of new blogs -- many of them only months old. Many of them are newer than the imaginary blog I've been writing in my head. Perhaps that sounds strange, but I had an imaginary iPod for at least 6 months before I purchased one. Every time I heard a good song, I would think, "if I had an iPod, I would sooo download this." My imaginary playlist is far superior to my real one.

Here's hoping that my real blog becomes as good as my imaginary one.

just bec