Good Idea #23: Sweet Home 3D

This week design sponge contributor Kate Pruitt shared her Top 5 Apps for Design Lovers on My Life Scoop.  One of the five is a free, downloadable room design program called Sweet Home 3D.  This program is so much fun and, once you get the hang of it, very easy to use (I recommend watching the video tutorial first).  You can start from scratch or upload a floor plan of your house or room as a guide.  I found a floor plans for my apartment building on a rental website.  It was a slightly different model apartment, but I only had to measure a few walls to make the corrections.  You can change the wall and floor color, add doors and windows and then start adding furniture.  The furniture database is pretty complete, and you can manipulate the dimensions and color of pieces to match your own.  This is my apartment so far:



It's a bit time consuming to get all the furniture right (I've been at this for a couple hours now and this is as far as I've gotten).  But once you get all the furniture in there you can start having fun.  Has there ever been any easier way to rearrange your furniture?  You could try endless configurations and even move things from one room to another with no sweat.  This will be great for figuring out how furniture will fit into a new place, too!

Speaking of which, did you know that you can find out more about my current place and my hopes to move at my newest blogging endeavor?  Click here!

Good Idea #22: Best Potatoes Ever

Here's another irresistible and incredibly easy dinner idea.   These are the best baked mashed potatoes I have ever had, let alone made myself.  The trick is loading up on the bad stuff.  The recipe actually called for whipped cream (as in, real cream that has been whipped, not sugary stuff from a can).  I didn't have any cream so I used almost an entire small tub of sour cream and it worked great.  Then add in a ton of Parmesan cheese.  For the amount above (about 6 good sized potatoes) I used about 3/4 cup.  Of course a little butter, salt and pepper to taste is always welcome.  The cheese and cream make the potatoes amazingly light and fluffy.  Then you just butter a dish and coat it with bread crumbs, plop the mashed potatoes in and stick them in the oven until they brown up on top.  I would have browned these longer, but I misjudged how long it would take and started the rest of my meal too soon.  Next time I'll make sure they have at least a good 30 minutes on about 400 degrees to get good and crispy.  Paired with a grilled steak (my cast-iron grill pan is a good idea in itself) and some steamed asparagus this meal was about as delicious as they come.

A note for budget-conscious carnivores:  we save money around here by splitting one fat steak and loading up on delicious and more reasonably priced potatoes.  Eat your steak and keep your money, too.  Yum.

 

Good Idea #21: Love of My Life

One of my favorite bloggers, Jen, got a pretty awesome Valentine's gift from her husband Kev.  He set up a website where people from all over the world can share their love.  Participants simply print out the Love of My Life flyer, take a picture of it wherever they want, upload it to the site and dedicate it to a loved one.  In just a few weeks there have been posts from all over the world.

So get in the Valentine's spirit and dedicate a flyer to a loved one.  Head over to withoutyouitsjustnot.us to see all the posts and to share the love!

Good Idea #20: Two Free Projects

We're getting to the point in our lives when we're thinking about buying a house.  The lease on our apartment is up in a few months so in hopes that we might not have to renew we're saving like crazy.  This means we're working on a zero dollar decorating budget.  Here are two quick updates that I did this week without spending a dime:

I am always up for some good shelving.  Unfortunately floating shelves haven't ended up being a priority in our decorating budget.  I decided, money or not, I really wanted a shelf above the little desk that we have in our bedroom.  So I made one out of a cardboard box.  I had a really sturdy shoebox lying around, so I simply cut the end off the cover, angled the corners and covered it with my favorite sturdy wrapping paper from Ikea.  Covering the corners was a little tricky and took some patience, but it's hung pretty high up so you can't see the imperfections.  Of course a cardboard shelf doesn't do much for our book collection, but it makes a perfect little decorative display for some photo mats and a little mahogany buffalo.

I think it adds a little height and interest to the wall over the desk.

We've also had this big blank wall in our apartment for the two and a half years that we've lived in this apartment:

This September we bought two large photographs of Zion National Park for ourselves for our first wedding anniversary.  They came mounted on museum board but not framed.  For the last five months they've been sitting in our bedroom just waiting for a mischievous cat to take a good swipe at them.  Needless to say we've been getting pretty anxious to get them up on the wall, but with no budget for custom framing I had to resort to other methods.  There was no way I was going to ruin the photos or museum board with double stick tape or by sticking tacks through it, so I ended up simply tacking the top and bottom of the pictures with nails:

It ended up working really well and is a great temporary way to get the photos off the floor and fill that empty wall at the same time.

Little things like this freshen up and add new life to a living space and of course save money for bigger and better things! 

And... Click here for four more quick and easy project ideas on ApartmentTherapy.com.

Good Idea #19: Nick Dothée

There are so many things that I love about Nick Dothée.  Since I have the privilege of knowing him personally I can testify that he is one of the sweetest, most down-to-earth, honest souls that I know.  These traits translate perfectly into his music.  Nick's first Solo EP, My Own Devices, set to release tomorrow comes straight from the heart.  Listening to it you can feel Nick's  process of learning, growth and discovery and the importance that music holds in his life.  I have had the privilege of interviewing Nick twice in the last year.  Once shortly after his move to Portland and again in anticipation of the new EP.  Check out both interviews at: www.nw23rdav.wordpress.com.

Photo by Corey Bruce www.aislinncreative.com

My Own Devices will be available tomorrow, February 8th on iTunes, Amazon, and in select stores.  Mp3 downloads and hard copies are available now and always at www.nickdothee.com.

Click here to read my first interview with Nick from June 2010.

Click here to read my new interview with Nick and find out more about the music, the EP, the release and upcoming shows.

Always visit www.nickdothee.com to find out more.  And tell your friends.

In April, Nick will release a live EP, The Secret Society Sessions.  Personally I am really looking forward to that release.  In the little bit of a preview that I've heard, the live setting really brings out the honesty in Nick's music.  It will include vocals by Jordan Harris as well live piano and violin.  It's just a little teaser, but I love love love this video and I'm so very excited for the release and to see Nick perform live starting next month.