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January 2019
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The Love List12/31/2018 As we settle in and ready ourselves for the festivities over the coming days, I wanted to pause for a moment and say Thank You. Thank you for visiting here, leaving kind comments, and sharing in these moments of my life. I'm very grateful for the time that you spend time here. Wishing you peace, love and joy. Merry Christmas. *** How to host a holiday party, the French way The natural light in this Swedish home is so dreamy In search of last minute gifts? This book or a gift certificate for Audible.com or Audible.ca would be a great idea. On choosing slow this holiday season I'm planning a few changes around here for the new year. One of them will be a subscriber newsletter. In 11+ years of blogging, I've never sent a newsletter to you kind folks who visit here! I'd be honoured if you sign up for my newsletter and let me send additional ideas, inspiration, and interesting things your way. I'd love to get to know you better and think this will be a meaningful and fun way to do that. I promise not to clutter your mailbox and will only send a note when I have something valuable to say ;) I'm not usually a loft person, but I find this one quite charming I need one of these prints in my life. This one might be my favourite Every single piece of pottery they make is stunning I'm enjoying watching Sarah's new family fixer upper come together. Follow the progress in her Instagram highlights I'll be taking a break for the next week and I hope you are enjoying quiet time too. Have a wonderful holiday, friends!
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Minimalist Electric Fireplace12/30/2018 Jenni Radosevich of I SPY DIY has wanted a fireplace ever since they moved into their home. In just a few days, Jenni transformed her living room into a warm and inviting space by adding a minimalist electric fireplace. Minimalist Electric FireplaceHi, I am Jenni from I SPY DIY and excited to be back with another project for The Home Depot! Ever since we started renovating our new house, my hub and I pictured a fireplace in the living room. It's the first thing you see when you walk in the door, and we knew it would add a charm to this 140-year-old home. Sadly, the original fireplace was right in the center of the kitchen, so we had to demo the chimney during the renovation. We went back and forth about getting a gas or electric fireplace, and ended up going with an electric fireplace because of the super-slim profile, which is great for the small living space (the fireplace is less than 10” deep), plus we did not have to run any gas lines or open any walls, which made this a quick project that we could have done before the holidays! I am IN LOVE with how it turned out!! And think it adds so much warmth to the living room. The basics: A few things before you start!The project took about 5 days to complete working on it for around 2 hours each day. The materials cost approximately $150 and the fireplace insert was $300. We went with an electric insert because we wanted a shallow profile, this insert is only 8-in deep. I would not recommend this tutorial if you are using a gas insert. Our electrician installed a 3-prong outlet on the floor to plug in the electric fireplace, check the requirements on the insert you pick. We hid all the cords within the wall, and they can be accessed by pulling out the insert. And we use The Frame TV, which lays flat to the wall and looks like art when it is off. The is a components box that we hid behind the TV, and we just have Netflix and Hulu so there is no cable box. Ok, here we go!Project Supplies:2x4s Sheetrock UltraLight 1/2 in. x 4 ft. x 8 ft. Gypsum Board SHEETROCK Brand All-Purpose 1.75 Pt. Pre-Mixed Joint Compound Grip-Rite #6 x 1-1/4 in. Philips Bugle-Head Coarse Thread Sharp Point Drywall Screws (1 lb.-Pack) USG SHEETROCK Brand 250 ft. Drywall Joint Tape 382175 12 in. Plastic Drywall Mud Pan Wal-Board Tools 6 in. Hammer-End Joint Knife DEWALT Fixed Blade Utility Knife Grip-Rite 2-1/2 in. Construction Screw (1 lb.-Box) Drill GE Supreme Paintable Silicone 10.1 oz. White Window and Door Caulk 3M 16.6 oz. Drywall Corner Bead Adhesive Spray BLACK+DECKER 2.4 Amp Corded 5 in. Random Orbital Sander Classic Flame 36 in. Traditional Built-in Electric Fireplace Insert Step 1First, we measured the wall and sketched up the dimensions based off my in-law's fireplace. Then began constructing the back frame on the floor with 2x4s and wood screws. Step 2After building the back frame, we put in place by screwing into the ceiling stud and the floor. Step 3A couple notes: We cut out the baseboard so it would fit tight to the wall. There are two studs to hang the TV because we wanted options for the height We ended up adding a 3rd horizontal piece to set the TV components on. Ignore the extra pieces of wood on the base, that was a measuring miscalculation! Step 4Next, we built on the front frame, and attached to the back frame with 8.5” pieces of 2x4s. Steps 5 & 6Note: We set the insert in place to make sure it was deep enough to fit before screwing in the front frame. Not shown: We added a 2×4 on the front frame above the insert to hold into place, important because you will screw the drywall into it. We pulled the thermostat cord for the fireplace out between the 2x4s on the right side so we could access it after drywalling. Plug in your TV power before drywalling, you may need to drill holes in the 2×4 frame to thread cords through to get to power source. Step 7Attach wood mantel by screwing in from underneath. I had this piece of live edge wood that worked perfectly. But you could also use barn wood, just make sure you factor in the thickness of the mantel if mounting a TV. Step 8Time to drywall! Measure, then use a square to mark on your sheetrock. Score each side with a utility knife to cut out. Step 9Attach by screwing each piece into the studs with drywall screws. Note: Make sure the head of the screw ends up just below the surface of the drywall so you can cover up with mud. Step 10You can see where we cut out a space for the TV components, and a hole for the thermostat cord. Step 11We drywalled right up to the wood because I wanted it to look like it was built in to the fireplace. Step 12Next, time to mud! Step 13I found these vinyl corners super easy to use. I started by cutting a piece to fit. Step 14Next spray both of the inner sides with corner bead adhesive. Step 15Then spray both side of the corner. Step 16Push your piece into place, using your fingers or a tool to make sure it adheres. Step 17Fill your pan up with mud and knead it with the knife to get air bubbles out. Working your way from the outside into the corner, start spreading the mud to cover the corner. Step 18You will need 2-3 coats to completely cover the corner piece. I let each layer dry a day. Step 19I wanted a plaster look, so was liberal with the amount of mud I used and was not concerned with texture. Step 20I covered the whole fireplace with one layer of mud, and the nail holes and corners with 2-3 layers. Step 21After all the mud has dried, I sanded down some of the texture and the corners with an orbital sander. I left some of the texture to give it the look of plaster. Step 22Next use paintable caulk around the mantel and where the fireplace touches the wall and ceiling. Step 23After caulking the corner, run your finger to smooth it down flat. Step 24Last step is painting the fireplace! I taped off the mantel and painted on two coats of Behr Cotton Knit in a matte finish. DONE!The post Minimalist Electric Fireplace appeared first on The Home Depot Blog.
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Goodbye 2018 + A Reader Survey12/30/2018
The post Goodbye 2018 + A Reader Survey appeared first on DIY Playbook.
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3 meaningful ways to use your holiday bonus12/30/2018 The holidays are here! That means quality family time, sumptuous dinners, and an endless stream of cheesy Hallmark movies. And if your boss decided to play Santa this year, it might mean a holiday bonus for you. That bonus is likely to be pretty hefty too. The average holiday bonus in 2017 was close to $1,800, according to a survey by staffing and recruitment firm, Accounting Principals, and it's expected to grow with each year. When you get your bonus, you'll find yourself faced with a great question: How should you use your Christmas bonus? We're all about the Rich Life here at I Will Teach You to Be Rich. That means using your money to build the kind of life you want to live. To do that, you should use your holiday bonus three ways:
Let's take a look at each area now and break down how you can optimize your holiday bonus. Christmas bonus tip #1: Spend itThe first - and arguably, most fun - thing to do with your holiday bonus is to spend it. After all, what's a Rich Life without spending extravagantly on the things that you love? Notice I didn't say spend it on the latest tech or fashion. I said spending it extravagantly on the things you love. That could mean spending your bonus on the latest fashion or tech, but if you really examine what you love spending money on, you might be surprised to find it's something else entirely. The area where you love to spend your money is called a Money Dial. These are things you naturally gravitate to when it comes to your spending. Once you recognize your Money Dial, you'll be able to lean into it and spend more in that area - while ignoring most everything else. Take Ramit Sethi, founder of I Will Teach You to Be Rich, for example. If you took a look at his spending habits for just a few minutes, you'll be able to see that his Money Dial is convenience. He knows this too. That's why he has that dial turned all the way up to 11. That means spending money on:
Not to mention his personal assistant who helps plan his day-to-day schedule as well as his travel arrangements. That means when he travels, he'll get his favorite seat on the airplane, the perfect room in the perfect hotel, AND he'll have food waiting for him at the check-in desk so he can keep up with his personalized diet. ![]() Source: Instagram All told, he spends more than $50,000 on convenience each year. That might seem crazy to you - and that's okay. Convenience is a Money Dial for Ramit and a lot of other people. You might have a different one, like travel. People who have the travel Money Dial love to spend money on everything travel related. They tend to know exactly where they're traveling for the next year starting on January 1st, and they have a massive list of potential destinations they want to go to next. If you turned this Money Dial up, that can mean things like:
ACTION STEP: Spend your holiday bonus on your Money DialIf you don't know what Money Dial you naturally gravitate to is, that's okay. It's actually fairly simple to figure it out. As Ramit says, “Show me a person's calendar, and I'll show you their priorities.” If you showed me your bank statements, I could tell you your Money Dial. Spend 10 minutes examining last month's bank statement. What common themes do you see? Are you spending money at the gym and workout clothes? Maybe your Money Dial is fitness. Are you spending money on movies and events with your kids? Maybe your Money Dial is family. Are you spending money on the newest shoes and clothes? Maybe your Money Dial is fashion. Once you've identified this, you can actually save money by spending more toward your Money Dial. By knowing what really matters to you, leaning into it, and mercilessly cutting out spending in other areas, you'll be able to actually save money and put it toward the things that make you happiest. No matter what your Money Dial is, recognizing and leaning into it will help you live a Rich Life. Which brings us to … Christmas bonus tip #2: Save itSure it's easy to spend your holiday bonus money on something fun for yourself - but maybe you should put it away for your savings goals. When it comes to savings goals, there are two great ones you should consider putting your holiday bonus into:
An emergency fund is money you've saved for unexpected spending. While the amount you'll have in your emergency fund is going to be different from the next guy, a solid rule of thumb is to save three to six months of living expenses. This encompasses things like:
Why save for these things? Simple: You don't want to go into a financial crisis because of an unexpected expense. I'm talking about things like emergency medical bills, car repairs, or loss of income. A rainy day fund helps soften the financial impact of an emergency. The second area you can save is for a BIG purchase. I'm talking about things like a down payment on your home or your future wedding. A great way to do this is by saving money in a sub-savings account. These are smaller accounts you can create along with your normal savings account. The difference is that your sub-savings accounts are dedicated to specific purchases or spending. Sub-savings accounts are crucial psychologically. By reminding you of what you're saving for, you'll be able to keep motivated to accomplish your savings goals. When I received my holiday bonus last year, I decided to treat it like I would any paycheck and divide up a specific percentage of it into my different sub-savings account. It was great seeing them balloon even more after the bonus. ![]() My sub-savings accounts. Notice I have one for my emergency fund as well! ACTION STEP: Decide how you want to save your holiday bonusWhether you put some money into an emergency fund or a sub-savings account, saving is a crucial part of ensuring your financial future. If you really want to see your money grow in the long term, though, there's no better way than investing. Christmas bonus tip #3: Invest itInvesting is possibly the most crucial thing you can do today to make sure you're financially stable in the future. That's why you should consider investing a portion of your holiday bonus when you receive it. When you do, your holiday bonus will grow over time. For example, let's assume you got a holiday bonus of $500. Not too shabby. Now let's see what happens if you invested it in a low-cost, index fund that tracked the S&P 500. Assuming an average of 8% interest each year, how much do you think you'd earn by the time you retired? Let's take a look: ![]() Data calculated at investor.gov. Over the course of 50 years, your $500 will have grown to $23,450.81. That's a nearly 47x increase! Also, that's with ZERO monthly contributions to your investment. If you invested just $50 / month on top of the principal, you would end up with $367,712.90! Pretty awesome. ACTION STEP: Invest your holiday bonus for the futureWhen it comes to investing, there's no better way than investing in a 401k and a Roth IRA. These are the two best accounts to save for retirement as they are tax-advantaged, meaning you can avoid paying certain taxes when you invest into them. How will you spend your bonus?Now we want to turn it to you: How are YOU going to spend your holiday bonus? Are you going to be spending it on something you love? Saving it for a rainy day? Or maybe investing it to watch it grow? Leave your answer in the comments below. We would love to hear your thoughts. 3 meaningful ways to use your holiday bonus is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
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Bathroom remodeling is filled with difficult decisions, and sometimes the first ones are the hardest… like what to let go and what to keep! We shared some ideas with you recently, and now we're back with part two, via The Recorder Online, to help you decide what to keep when you remodel your bath! Tired of the tub?We relayed the advice about what to do with your jetted tub – namely, get rid of it. But that doesn't mean just ban the bath!
The outside of a clawfoot tub can often be painted to match your other decor. And the inside, if it has seen better days, may be a candidate for reglazing. Don't get sunk at the sink!Even if your sink is functional, it can be… well… less than ideal.
It may be as simple as a new aerator, or as involved as a new basin. Either way, the sink is something you use (hopefully, anyway) every time you use the bathroom. It's deserving of an upgrade. Mirror mirror, on the wall!In the future, archeologists may be resigned to using our bathroom mirrors to determine the relative age of our homes. And it would work. Your mirror will date your bathroom faster than anything else.
If you can't do away with the dreaded mirror wall, try adding a frame or shelves to tone it down a bit!
Can you think of other items that should definitely stay – or go! – during a bathroom remodel? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! The post Decisions, Decisions… More of What to Keep When You Remodel the Bath! appeared first on Welcome to O'Gorman Brothers Bath Fitter.
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![]() Merry Christmas you guys!! I hope you are having a wonderful holiday with the people you love the most! Every Christmas Court's siblings get together for our annual family photo. This is our 8th year and believe me when I say, this is our favorite part of Christmas. It started off as a funny gift for Court's parents and has become the highlight of our entire year. I'll link all of the past years photos below! The year we channeled our inner hairband and went full on 80's glam rock. Please note Brem doing “spidey hands” Love you all! 2012: You'll Shoot Your Eye Out! 2013: How The Grinch Stole Christmas! 2017: Have a Very (Geri)atric Christmas The post Annual Family Christmas Picture 2019: Rock You Like A Snowstorm appeared first on Vintage Revivals.
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We did it!! We raised $18,002 for charity12/28/2018 A year and a half ago, I saw a speech that changed my life - and the lives of at least 600 other people in the developing world. I was at the World Domination Summit in Portland, where I'd later be speaking. I sat in the audience as Scott Harrison took the stage. Scott is a former nightclub promoter who, at age 28, had a crisis of conscience. His job was encouraging people to get drunk. He smoked two packs a day. He gambled. He felt like he wasn't adding anything to the world. And he wasn't sure if, or how, he could. “One day, I woke up and I realized I was the worst person I knew,” he wrote in an article on Medium. He quit his job, sold most of his possessions, and spent the next two years as a photojournalist on a hospital ship off the coast of Liberia in west Africa. He saw diseases that were unlike anything he'd imagined. As WIRED describes: “Some of the patients were grotesquely deformed by grapefruit-sized tumors, while others were nearly blind from cataracts that turned their eyes opaque.” (Here are images.) He felt surprised - and then sad, then angry, then determined - when he realized that thousands of people die from preventable diseases, like cholera and dysentery, that are spread by drinking dirty water. More than 660 million people in the world don't have access to clean drinking water, which is almost 1 out of every 10 people. That's twice the population of the U.S. That's unacceptable. Scott decided to spend his life bringing safe water to the villages and communities that need it most. He came back to the U.S., threw a party at a nightclub, and raised the initial seed capital for charity:water. More than a decade later, he stood on the stage in Portland, sharing photos of the people whose lives he's changed.
I've seen many nonprofit leaders deliver speeches. But there was something about Scott's mission that struck me. Maybe it's because nearly everyone at that conference in Portland seemed to be carrying a BPA-free water bottle. Maybe it was the experience of walking past the hallway drinking fountains without a second glance. But for some reason, in that moment, I thought: “I have a platform. I could use it to save lives.” Cue the eyeroll. I get it. I get it. “Saving lives” is a lofty goal, and its achievement is hard to pinpoint. That's the thing about prevention; you never know whom you may have spared. A decade ago, when I worked at a newspaper, we'd write articles about community nonprofits on slow news days. The staff would refer to these as “angel-sheds-a-tear” stories. Don't get me wrong; we supported these efforts. But the stories seemed so cliche, so repetitive, that a part of me wondered: “Are we actually doing anything, or are we just making ourselves feel better?” The gulf between cynicism and hope is bridged by effectiveness, and Scott built an organization that's indisputably effective. Their mission is critical. What's more basic, more fundamental to survival, than drinking water? Their results are tangible, specific, and easy to verify. They've funded more than 28,000 water projects, like digging wells, creating rainwater catchment systems, and distributing biosand filters. Their projects can be tracked on Google Maps. They've also opened two separate bank accounts. They use one account for their administrative overhead. This account gets funded by a small group of donors. They use 100 percent of their other account for water projects. This account is funded by public donations. This means every dime they raise from the public goes directly to water projects. Their accounts are audited. They can prove it. I interviewed Scott on my podcast last year, and I told my audience that I had a lofty goal: I wanted to raise at least $12,000 in the year 2018 for charity:water. If we raised that amount, Afford Anything could sponsor a water project. We would fund a specific project, tangible and GPS-identifiable. It would exist because of this community. I started 2018 with huge enthusiasm for this goal. My Chief Sanity Officer Erin and I designed three shirts and sold them on Amazon, and we donated 100 percent of profits ($5.38 per shirt) to charity:water. I also set up a page on the charity:water website where people could make direct donations. Then I waited. And watched. And bummed myself out. By July 2018, we'd raised around $3,000. While that's amazing and helpful and I'm grateful for it … it also felt like a blow. We were halfway through the year, but only one-fourth of the way to our $12,000 goal. There was no way we'd be able to raise $12,000 by the end of the year, I thought. I felt deflated. Disappointed. I knew I should feel grateful for what we have achieved, but I kept feeling like this was a setback. I'd been in contact with Anna, who works on the charity:water team, both last year and this year; we'd spoken on the phone about Afford Anything's sponsorship campaign. I didn't want to have to call Anna at the end of 2018 and say, “Sorry, we failed. We tried to raise enough to sponsor a project, and we failed.” I spent the late summer and fall making peace with that idea. I told myself that if I could make any difference at all, that's something to celebrate. I told myself that it's better to fall short of lofty goals than to create errors-of-thinking-too-small, as I'm prone to doing. I told myself that it doesn't matter if we sponsor a project or not; what matters is that there's at least one human being who won't suffer from typhoid or cholera or guinea worm disease. This isn't about us, it's about the person on the other side. I found peace with it. I let it go. I accepted what is. And then I checked the charity:water fundraising page, and saw this: HOLY MOLY WE DID IT!!!!!!!!! We did it, we did it, we did it, we did it, we did it!!!! We - no pun intended - we blew it out of the water!!!!! I'd like to express massive, massive gratitude to several people right now, starting with Richard Potter, a podcast listener who generously matched donations up to $4,000. He fueled the fire that made this possible. He made the donation that brought us up to the $4,000 mark, and then he announced that he'd match contributions, dollar-for-dollar, up to a $4,000 limit. When I announced this on my podcast, the floodgates opened (no pun intended yet again). This community responded with enthusiasm unlike anything I've ever seen. Donations skyrocketed from $4,000 to $8,000 nearly overnight. Richard matched these donations, as promised, which brought the total balance to $12,000 and allowed us, the Afford Anything community, to become the official project sponsor of a water project. WE DID IT!!! And can I admit something? I thought it would stop there. Yes, I know; ye of little faith. I thought that once we reached the matching contribution limit, donations would slow to a trickle. (So many puns. I can't help it.) Thank goodness I was wrong. You all amaze me so much … the donations keep coming! Here are a few of the many: Susan, a podcast listener, gave $300 after she watched an interview with Scott. A family in Israel, including their daughters ages 9, 13 and 16, contributed $191. A podcast listener named Clara gave $15 with a note that said, “Only a little bit as I'm a student, but it all helps.” And a listener named Mark donated $250 with a note that said, “I'm so proud of how you handled Suze.” Massive thanks to Lancy Erdmann, who donated $2,000, J Clark, who donated $1,500, two anonymous donors who gave $1,000 each, Charles Rosenbusch, who gave $500, and the many, many people who gave $100, $50, $25, $20, $15, $10 and $5. I'm also grateful to everyone who bought a t-shirt to support the campaign. The support keeps coming!! Wow. Tonight, as I write this, with 15 days remaining before the end of the year, we've raised more than $18,000 for clean drinking water.
Thank you. This is amazing. Afford Anything is you. It's this community. It's this incredible group, gathering together to improve lives and help others and focus on money and purpose and meaning and contribution and life. We are Afford Anything. And we are creating a legacy. ____ To support this campaign:
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Countdown to Thankfulness12/28/2018 ![]() Over the past few days, I have been wrapping up things in my office to prepare for the new year, and reflecting on all that I accomplished in 2018. Before taking a holiday break though, I wanted to bring 2018 to a close with a post thanking YOU… my readers. Without YOU… I would have... If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy the easy to follow DIY Decorating Tutorials and Creative Ideas on my blog, In My Own Style.com Republishing this article in full or in part is a violation of Copyright law @2009-2015, all rights reserved |