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It’s no secret that Target is one of my all-time favorite stores. Where else can you go to buy a cute dress and the perfect lamp for your bedroom at the same time? (And if you’re anything like me, some random clearance item that you just couldn’t pass up.)

Today, I’m giving away a $25 Target gift-card to one lucky reader. Yep, it could be you! Entering is easy. All you have to do is comment on this post and tell me,

 “What’s something you’d like to see more of from Something Like That Designs?”

Bonus Entries: For each completed bonus entry, re-comment on this post letting me know which task you completed. If you complete all the bonus entries, plus your initial entry, you should have four separate comments on this post.

1. Share this giveaway on Facebook.

2. Retweet this giveaway on Twitter.

3. “Like” Something Like That Designs On Facebook.

This giveaway is open until Monday, June 18th at 7:59 am EST and is open to the US only (sorry!). The winner will be announced at Noon on the same day using a random number generator.

Good luck!

It’s Monday and it’s gloomy which makes today the perfect day to share a really easy project that’s under $10 and can be done in under an hour. Cheap and easy? Just the kind of project I like.

Enter, the placemat pillow.

I was walking around Target the other day (shocking, I know) and happened upon this cute placemat. I loved the pattern and thought it would make a great pillow for our master bedroom. At $2.99, I snatched it up and excitedly called Justin to tell him my plans. Why are guys never as excited about pillows as women are? Unless he’s sleeping on it, Justin could care less if there wasn’t one throw pillow in the house. What a horrible thought. I don’t even want to think about a world without throw pillows. Shudder.

For the project, you’ll need a placemat, a seam ripper, stuffing and a needle and thread. Here’s what I started out with…

Step 1: Use the seam ripper to undo the stitching on one side of the placemat. I went with the shorter side since it meant less sewing later.

Once you remove the thread, this is what you’re left with.

Step 2: Stuff the placemat with the stuffing (duh!). I used this $4 fiberfill bag from JoAnne’s. It’s really important to break apart the stuffing as you put in in the placemat to avoid any lumps. I simply grabbed large handfuls and pulled them apart before I stuffed them in.

Step 4: Sew up the open side of the placemat and like magic you have a pillow! (P.S. Ignore my creepy hand in the picture below.)

There you have it,  a quick and easy project that’s perfect for a rainy afternoon!

This week I’ve been working on a big project for a client. The final installation is on Saturday so I’ve been trying to find the last few pieces we need to complete the design. One of the main things I’ve been looking for is lamps. My inspiration came from two, rather expensive, lamps. This one from Pottery Barn for $150 (without the shade) and this one from west elm for $150 (with the shade). Pretty pricey, no?

I managed to find two great options at one of my favorite places in the world, Homegoods, that remind me of each of the inspiration lamps. Best part? Each lamp was only $39.99. Heck, yes.

Which one is your favorite?

Hope you all had a great weekend! Since it’s Monday, I thought we could all use a little laugh. My mom recently found a book where she had written all the funny things my brother (Robbie) and I said growing up. All I have to say is, I’m not as dumb as I sound. Promise.

Here’s a few gems…

——–

After Jennifer and Robbie had teeth pulled they were rinsing their mouths with salt water.  Robbie asked Jennifer if she swallowed any.  She said, “I only swallowed a pigeon.”  (smidgeon…)

——–

Jennifer, Mom and Robbie were playing Upwards.  Robbie asked what “rabbi” meant; he said, ” like a Rabbi steak?”   (rib-eye)

——–

At dinner I (mom) said I’d get the drinks.  Robbie, 11 years old, said he’d have wine.  Jennifer jokingly asked if he wanted a beer.  I asked what kind, and she asked if he wanted an “Eisenhower”.  (Anheuser Busch)

——–

While on vacation in Disney World Jennifer went into a restroom and heard the sound of a vending machine and yelled out, “Oh boy, candy!”  Then she realized what kind of a machine it was…

——–

Mom told Robbie not to eat in his room because he’d get ants.  He said, “Well, the ants would just say:  Let’s get out of this dump and go next door where there’s an all you can eat buffet!  (Jennifer’s room)

——–

On a  trip to Chicago Mom told Dad he needed to eat; his blood sugar was dropping.  Jennifer said, ” Why don’t you give him a glaucoma tablet?”  (sucrose tablet)

——–

Jennifer was going to visit family in Texas.  She was wearing a t-shirt from her London trip.  The “ticket man” asked if she’d been to London and she said, “Yes, London AND England.”  The employee proceeded to tease her…

Well, hope that gave you a laugh. Any funny stories you remember from growing up? Come on, we all have ‘em.

Even though it’s my favorite room in the house, last weekend wasn’t all about the kitchen. We decided the back of our house needed some love too, so we took advantage of the paint deal I told y’all about last week and re-painted the guest room!

I’ve been slowly collecting items (like this ladder) to use in the room, but I knew painting would make the biggest difference. This is what we started with…

The new color palate is going to be white, turquoise, coral and tan. I’ll whip up a moodboard to share with you guys in the next couple weeks so you can get a feel for where I’m going with this room. As far as paint goes, I knew I wanted a lighter color on the walls since this room doesn’t get much sun.

Tip #1 : Many people forget that white is a color too! It makes a great backdrop for colorful accessories and bold patterns. So, white went the walls. (Say that three times fast.)

To add a bit of whimsy to the room, I decided to paint the ceiling, YES the ceiling, a light aqua.

Tip #2 : Look up! Painting your ceiling can dramatically change your space. Just try to keep it light since darker colors will make the room feel shorter.

We LOVE the color combo. It’s calming and relaxed, with just a bit of the unexpected thrown in. Just how we like it. Oh and if the walls look a bit pink on your screen or the ceiling gray, blame it on the iPhone. They really are white/aqua.

I can’t wait to show you everything else I’ve gathered for this room. I have bedding, a lamp, a re-covered chair, pillows…lots to share!

What about you? Ever painted a ceiling?

Remember when I mentioned last week that I might have a 392743953297 pound oven sitting in my kitchen?

Well, I did. And it really did weigh a million pounds. In fact, it took FOUR people just to get it out of my car and up to the kitchen. Two of those people innocently came over to eat lunch. I might as well warn you now, we make you work for your food at the Smith house.

We hadn’t really planned on replacing the old double oven yet (even though it was 20+ years old and only one of the ovens worked), but when I found this deal there was NO way we could pass it up. I have two words for you, Habitat Restore.

Habitat Restore is a place where people donate building materials and when they’re sold, the proceeds benefit Habitat for Humanity. It’s like a Goodwill that only sells things for the home. In other words, right up my alley. It’s located in Atlanta so I don’t go very often, but I am signed up to get their emails.

A couple weeks ago I got an email with a caption that caught my eye. They had a Kenmore Elite double oven for sale. That’s the exact same line both our dishwasher and refrigerator are from so I was immediately interested. I’d been pricing double ovens for the past few months and even on sale, and on sale some more, they are still at least $1,800-$2,000. When I called the store to ask about the price, I almost dropped the phone when they said it was $554. I very nearly ran to my car and drove straight down to Atlanta, but cooler heads prevailed.

If I waited until the morning and the oven was still there, I could get an extra 20% off due to a special promotion. I’m so glad I waited! I was standing at the front door at 9am sharp and ran straight for the oven. It was even more beautiful in person, but here were two problems,

1) there was no guarantee it would work and if it was returned, we’d only get store credit.

2) it was bigger than the current double oven so we weren’t sure if it would fit.

Taking a leap of faith, I snatched the tag and went up front to pay. It was a bit nerve wracking during the installation, but y’all, it works! And it fits! Hallelujah!

Here’s a reminder of what we started with

And here it is now!

We still need to order a piece of trim for the bottom and re-attach a piece of granite they had to remove above the dishwasher but other than that it’s perfect!

For a grand total of $450 we are now the owner of two beautiful stainless steel double ovens. Heck to the yes.

Morale of the story: you never know what great deal is just around the corner.

What about you guys? Any fun deals lately?

Just wanted to share with any of you that are thinking about taking on a few projects this Memorial Day weekend, Home Depot is having a great sale on paint! My favorite brand of paint, Behr Premium Plus Ultra (a mouthful!) has the paint and primer in one and really is fantastic. This weekend they have an extra $5 off a gallon. Score!

Now for the hard part…which color to get.

We’ve done quite a few things to our bathroom since we’ve moved in, not all of which I’ve shared on the blog. Today I’m getting you all caught up!

Here’s the bathroom in all of it’s original glory. If glory is ugly and painted like Kermit the frog.

Aaaannnd here it is today. Sorry for the weird yellow glow but that’s what you get for using your i-Phone. The biggest change was painting the room a nice, calm bluish-gray. It really is  amazing how much a $30 gallon of paint can change a space.

We also replaced the gold chandelier with a much sleeker recessed LED light. This was the first electrical project Justin and I took on together and when it actually worked, well, I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder. We’ve found out that the wiring in the house is a bit interesting, so we’re approaching future projects with a it’s-going-to-take-much-longer-and-more-effort-that-you-think attitude. For now, we’re extremely happy to have said good-bye to the gold!

Another extremely affordable project I tackled was spray painting the cabinet hardware. Since we really want to completely re-do the bathroom down the road, I didn’t want to invest a lot of money on new drawer knobs right now. Instead, I spent $7 on a can of spray paint and in an hour had completely “new” knobs. In case you can’t remember what the old ones are, or don’t want to scroll up, they were gold. See a theme here?

The last big change in this space so far has been the window. If you remember, there was a faux stained glass window insert that I blogged about removing { here }. Once the insert was removed, we were left with a completely blank canvas.

When I was in Home Depot one day, I happened to pass a curtain panel in the pattern below. It wasn’t the right style since it was a single long panel, but I figured I could work with it. Using my favorite no-sew tape I hemmed the curtain to fit our window and then layered the fabric to give the appearance of a roman shade. I started at the top left and every six inches or so I hand sewed a stitch. I repeated it for every row and it added a fun effect to the curtain.

Here’s a better picture from the side. It’s almost ruffled, but in a more relaxed and imperfect way. We finished it off by adding a set of blinds for extra privacy and have been very happy with the results!

We’ve also managed to replace the ugly shell toilet, but I didn’t figure you guys needed to see that. I mean it’s a toilet. Not such an exciting project. There are still a million things to do for this bathroom but all in good time. The big things on our list are to find a rug, add some artwork and replace the faucets. Again, this project is more about updating this bathroom as cheaply as we can since we plan to remodel down the road.

For under $150, we took this bathroom from outdated to updated. Not too shabby, I’d say.

Well, this is awkward.

I accidentally took a break from social media. Blogging, Twitter, Pinterest….you name it.

See, we snuck away for an early 5 year anniversary trip and  you know how life gets crazy before and after a vacation.

The good news is I’m back and I have lots of catching up to do!

(And I may or may not have a 10109432987 pound double oven sitting in my kitchen right now to catch you up on.)

For now, I’m taking a break to daydream about my trip.

Thank heaven for breaks.

Disclaimer: Don’t read this post if you’re hungry. This post is 100% drool inducing food.

Last night Justin and I got to attend the first Atlanta Culinary Tour of Woodstock.

And it was delicious. I also won the tickets so it was free.

Is there anything better than delicious free food? Nope. Not at all.

The first stop on our tour was Ipps, which is a new restaurant from the same people who own Ippolito’s. Oh my heavens. They were the first stop, and hands down the best stop. Here’s the spread…

They started us off with a glass of red sangria and later a glass of white. I must be a bad wife because Justin has never had good sangria before (the horror!). I think he’s a little obsessed with it now. Their sangria is fantastic!

The samples we tried were an eggplant rolentini, a cannoli and one of the best things I’ve EVER eaten called Pepe. It’s a piece of sausage wrapped in dough and cooked with honey and marinara sauce. That honey, oh good gracious. I’m going to need that again soon. Real soon.

The next tour stop was the Foxtale Bookshop. I have a thing for cute, independent bookstores and this one fit the bill. I can’t wait to go back and browse around.

They also had the most quaint bathroom I’ve ever seen. It was so cozy I wanted to curl up with a book. In a bathroom. Weird, I know.

Our next stop was Freight Kitchen and Tap. We’ve actually eaten here before and love that it’s located right next to the railroad tracks. It’s the perfect spot to sit outside and enjoy the pretty weather. I started with a Singapore Sling, which is evidently a cocktail from my parent’s generation. I loved it!

First up on our tasting was a fried green tomato with a bacon aioli (vat of that to-go please!). Enough said.

The star of the show, however, was the braised pork over cheddar grits. Melt-in-your-mouth good. Next time we come, I’ll take whatever braise they’ve got going.

Moving on. Are you full yet? We certainly were but we still had three stops to go! The next stop was Pure Taqueria. Their upstairs patio is the place to be at night. Especially if you have one of their peach margaritas in hand.

They brought us out plates full of calamari, mussels, guacamole, salsa and cheese dip. I could have eaten that cheese dip all night and been a happy girl. What can I say? I’m easy to please.

Last but not least, the final “dinner” food of the night was at Firestone Pizza and Grill. Here we tried a new ceviche dish and their sausage pizza. They also have a great patio that we’re looking forward to visiting again. So many options for places to go!

Finally, for the grand finale we headed to the new cupcake shop, Cupcakelicious. We got to sample their oreo cupcake, birthday cupcake, and a sweet and salty cupcake. To say Justin was obsessed with the oreo one would be an understatement. My guess is we’ll be back this weekend. When he told the owner how much he and I liked the cupcake, he actually referred to me as a “cupcake aficionado”. I think my face turned bright red. Yes, cupcakes are my thing but “aficionado”, I’m not too sure.

There you have it, our tour of Woodstock. The guys leading the tour did a great job and it’s easily worth the money. I mean, look at all we got to do! They also offer tours for other areas of Atlanta so if you’re looking for a fun date night or group outing, check them out! Your stomach will be glad you did.

Find all the tour info { here }.