Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger Magazine Feature~

A couple of weeks ago, I told you all about winning Best Decorating Blog in the Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards and my trip to New York City for the awards ceremony.

Well....I was so excited when my mother called me last week to tell me she got her copy of Country Living Magazine in the mail last week, and I was on page 12!

I was on pins and needles because I hadn't received my copy yet.  So I drove my family crazy while I waited patiently for her to bring her copy over when she visited on Saturday.

It was so exciting to open the magazine and see little old me featured in the pages of Country Living!  I couldn't be more thrilled!

The magazine hits newstands on November 22.  You bet I'll be there bright and early to pick up a copy (or 10). 

Thanks again Country Living for this honor.  And thanks to my readers for making my blog such a happy place for me to be.

xoxo
Wendy

Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards: My Trip to The Big Apple~

What an exciting week I had last week!!

Back in September I announced that The Shabby Nest had been chosen as a finalist in Country Living's 1st Annual Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards. 

Well, you can imagine my elation when I found out that my blog had been chosen as the Judge's Choice for best Decorating Blog!! I was giddy (and humbled because the other finalists are such talented bloggers themselves)!!   I spent the next few weeks eagerly anticipating my trip to New York City for the awards luncheon.


I took off for the big city bright and early Wednesday morning.  

After checking into the fabulous Dream hotel,

Amazing fish tank inside the Dream Hotel

Photo courtesy of Always a Project

 and being greeted with some scrumptious cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery - courtesy of Country Living -

Photo courtesy of Tillysnest.com

I met up with the Hubby's parents who came up from Massachusetts to spend some time with me since he couldn't make it. (I love my in-laws so much...it was so fun to see them!)  We took in Times Square, Broadway and Central Park, and enjoyed eating some great New York cuisine. 



My cute father-in-law checking out the crowd waiting for Broadway tickets


Friday morning, after my in-laws had headed home, I made my way over to Rockerfeller Center to see the morning taping of The Today Show.  Turns out they were interviewing Justin Bieber. Wow.  Tween girl central.  But, thanks to a nice (tall) couple standing near me,  I did get a great photo of him for The Princess. And then took some photos of the Today Show cast for myself once all those girls cleared out after the interview. LOL!

Now to the really fun stuff...



 Thursday was the day of the Awards Banquet on the 44th Floor of the Hearst Tower!

photo courtesy of Tillysnest.com

Photo courtesy of Tillysnest.com

It was amazing!! The views were spectacular!!

And the other winners were such a wonderful, talented group of women.  I was so honored to be a part of this amazing group. 

We got to know one another, and took a ton of photos. 




All of the Winners (from Left, Rachel Garza, me, Sydney Kramer, Linda Ly, Beth Styles, Aimee Carpenter and Melissa Caughey) Photo courtesy of Tillysnest.com



All of the Winners (from Left, me, Beth Styles, Linda Ly, Sydney Kramer, Melissa Caughey, Aimee Carpenter and Rachel Garza) Photo courtesy of Tillysnest.com

Photo courtesy of Tillysnest.com

Honorees with the Judges  Photo courtesy of Tillysnest.com

Then we enjoyed a fabulous meal and were each presented with our beautiful awards. 

We had a chance to meet three of the amazing judges Cooper Boone (and his guest, the lovely Emme), Jodi Kahn and Sarah McColl , as well as the gracious staff of Country Living Magazine including Sarah Gray Miller!

Me with Sarah Gray Miller (not the greatest photo of me...but that's Sarah Gray Miller!!!!!) 
Photo courtesy of Tillysnest.com

Make sure you check out the blogs of the other amazing honorees...you're in for a treat...

• Aimee Carpenter, Crafty Farm Girl
•  Melissa Caughey,  Tilly's Nest
• Rachel  Garza,  Always a Project
• Sydney Kramer, Crepes of Wrath
•  Linda Ly, Garden Betty
• Beth Styles, Parsimonia: Second Hand with Style

I just want to take a minute to thank the wonderful folks at Country Living yet again for this fabulous award and the wonderful opportunity to attend the awards ceremony in New York.  I am so honored.  It was such an amazing experience!

And I want to thank you, my lovely readers, for coming here and visiting.  I love writing The Shabby Nest.  I love sharing my ideas with you.  It is one of my great joys!

Unless otherwise noted all photos are mine.

Have a great day~

Hey Homies!

Hi kids! I'm blogging on the road from somewhere in Ohio using the hubby's blackberry...so please forgive any typos (and the lack of photos)

Just wanted to pop in and say that my little old blog was nominated for a Homie award!!

Now here's the kicker...I don't know how to post a link from this phone, and I could really use the votes.

So if you have some time, track me down at the Homie awards and vote. Pretty please!

Celebrity x 2~

So a couple of days ago I get a little package from Meredith publishing.


I say to myself, "Self, what do you suppose this is?"


I open it up and inside is a copy of BHG's latest issue of 100 decorating ideas under $100 with a card that says "This issue comes to you with our compliments...The Editors."


I think to myself, "Self, hmmmmm, I wonder..."


I flipped it open, and there on page 8 is my mini-mudroom with a great little write-up (and they got it right this time....beadboard not wallpaper!)


I exclaimed to myself, "Self, this is so exciting!!! More magazine-love for my little mudroom!"


And for your viewing pleasure...I scanned the article...you can enlarge the pics to read it!! (Just being a proud stage-mom again!)

And, I will post about some home staging tomorrow for sure! Anybody ever seen that episode of Spongebob where Patrick and Spongebob "adopt" a baby scallop? And Spongebob keeps asking Patrick to give him a break, and Patrick says "Tomorrow for Sure!" Yeah, well I really will post about it tomorrow for sure...unlike Patrick who never does get around to giving Spongebob a break. (Okay, yeah, it's pretty scary that I have almost every Spongebob episode memorized...I think I let my kids watch it too much...okay I know I do. sigh.)

Tomorrow for sure~

Celebrity~

Well, I"m certainly no celebrity, but my mudroom is!!! It was featured in the summer edition of BHG's Creative Home magazine!!! I feel just like a proud stage mom!

I'm not sure if you can read this scanned page or not (you should be able to if you click on the image to enlarge it), but my mudroom is the feature called "classy closet". They only made one little error when they said that we put up wallpaper. It is actually beadboard. But you know, I"m not going to be picky. I'm just so excited for the press.

It's such a lovely publication. They're on the newstands now just chock full of decorating goodness.

Have a great Thursday~

Spring Spruce-up Week...a winner...and other stuff~

Welcome to the first day of Spring Spruce-up Week at the Shabby Nest!!! Today our Springiest of Spring topics is Spring Cleaning! Stop that! I can see you rolling your eyes. I've got some interesting stuff for you all here...including some tips I bet you've never heard before. (And besides, somewhere in this post, I'll announce the winner of my Etsy drawing.)

So here we go...

For most of us Spring Cleaning is not exactly something we look forward to. It's a necessity. One of those things that we need to do to keep our homes in tip-top shape. But, the end result can certainly make you smile. For instance the closet where I keep my cleaning supplies was looking a little worse for wear. (The Hubby has somewhat of an OCD obsession with purchasing cleaning products.) Here is the before... Yikes, I know. Notice my poor sewing machine...it was feeling a little out of place...

But in about fifteen minutes... I had a garbage bag full of empty bottles, I had relocated out of place items like sunscreen (???) and Stingeze (???) and my poor sewing machine, and I had divided like items and placed them in these pretty little baskets that I got at the Dollar Store. Really. Then I added some hang tags to each basket, so my short little self could see what was in the basket without having to get a stepstool...that took another 5 minutes. So the whole project took 20 minutes and $7. Not bad. And now I get a smile when I see bright blue baskets in my boring beige closet! (Almost makes me want to clean the bathroom...almost.)

So on to some of the tips I promised...

1. Use Spring cleaning time as a chance to change out batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors (you can do the same in September around the first day of fall...or when the clocks change back.)

2. Make sure you wash down your walls...they get a lot dirtier than you think. Or, if you are like my hubby, repaint the entire interior of the house, and patch every hole with spackle...but leave the spackle there for a week so that your spouse can get sufficiently sick and tired of the polk-a-dots and will really appreciate the new paint. ;-)

3. Freshen your garbage disposal. Yes, sometimes our garbage disposals get bad breath. Use a little bit of baking soda and dish soap and scrub. Then run some citrus rinds through the disposal for a nice fresh scent.

4. If you like "green" cleaning products...try making your own glass cleaner by mixing vinegar and water in a spray bottle. (This works best if you use newspaper to wipe the windows rather than a rag.)

5. And here is a tip I bet you haven't heard...if you have brown stains inside your dishwasher, they are probably due to rust. There are expensive products out there that can remove the stains, but try this first. Take some Tang powder (you know, that Orange flavored Astronaut drink) and use it just like you would use dish detergent. Run a cycle (without dishes of course...unless you want everything you eat for the next few days to taste like orange punch). During the cycle, once the washer is filled with water, toss in a couple more tablespoons of the Tang powder. You may have to repeat the whole cycle a couple of times, but it does remove the rust stains. REALLY....I've done it!!

6. To remove Water Rings on wood, mix equal amounts of baking soda and plain white toothpaste (not gel) . Use a soft cloth to gently rub the mixture in a circular motion on rings.

7. Finally, do you have a budding Picaso...in other words, do you have crayon on the walls? Mister Clean Magic Eraser rocks!!!

Once your house is all sparkly and clean...you'll be a happy camper!

Don't Forget! Tomorrow is Toile Tuesday!!! Hop over to Pretty Organized Palace and link up with your posts about TOILE! It will be tons o' fun!

Aaaaaaaaand, I was interviewed this past week by the lovely Giorgina at Decor Medley. You can find the interview here. Please pop over!! (She did a beautiful job, and I feel like a mini-celebrity!)

And finally, the winner of my Etsy drawing - as chosen by Random.org - is...........

Princess!!!! Princess, you didn't leave me any contact info, so please drop me an email or leave me a comment with an email address so I can get your prize to you!! CONGRATULATIONS!!

I have some fun projects and Spring Decor in store as Spring Spruce-up Week continues, so y'all come back now!!!

Have a lovely Monday~

From One Little Birdie to Another...a giveaway~

I'm incredibly fortunate to be featured over at the Nester's blog today! For those of you popping over here for the first time....Welcome!....Look Around!....I hope this will be the first of many visits for you! For those of you who read my blog already....Welcome Back! I just love my readers! And because I love you all so much, I'm offering a great giveaway today!!

In honor of my feature on Nesting Place, I'm giving one of my lucky readers any pillow of their choice from my Etsy Shop. You can even pick one of my custom pillows! Whatever you want!!!

But that's not all (now I'm sounding like an infomercial), not only will you get a pillow, but I'll throw in a packet of my Nest Notecards as well. After all this is the Shabby NEST.

To enter please leave a comment on this post telling me which pillow from my Etsy store you would like if you win. I will leave the drawing open until 12:00 midnight EST on Friday. Random.org will pick a winner, and I will announce the winner on Monday. Good Luck!!

A Little Nestkeeping~

I have a few housekeeping nestkeeping items to take care of...

First, I want to thank Steph at Southern Fairy Designs for this very cute award!!!

And thank you to Nora at Faithful Days for the lemonade award!!!

And a little Etsy news! I am happy to take special orders for pillows...just convo me or email me. And I am almost finished with all of the special orders I currently have, so rest assured that if you have placed a special order it will be listed very soon. Aaaaaand some fun new products are coming soon....stay tuned....

I'm off to Maine with my family for a little R&R...

Have a great weekend~

A quick project for the laundry room~

Some of you might remember my laundry room remodel from a few months back. Well, I can't leave well enough alone. I am always tweaking. There are still some things I have on my list to do before the laundry room is "finished" (ha! like that word is really in my decorating vocabulary!) For instance, I would like to add a counter top like the one in my inspiration laundry room below.

Image from Cottage Living

But, that is not what I'm going to share today. (Had y'all a little excited to see a new counter didn't I?) Nope. My project for today is much simpler...but it is cute!

I just made me this little sign for the room. Typed up the definition of laundry and printed it out. That's not the fun part of this project. The fun part is the way I hung it up. I just clipped that little sign in a pant hanger and hung it from one of the shelf brackets. How. cute. is. that? So simple, but a great statement for the laundry room!

So run out and grab a pant hanger (I found 4 for $2.50 at the dollar spot at Target), and put up a picture, or a definition like mine, or anything that might make doing laundry a little more bearable!

I also wanted to thank Amy at Down South Musings for this great award!

Have a lovely Monday~

A bunch of random stuff (and the winner of my Grand Opening Giveaway!)

Okay so today's post is a lot of random unrelated stuff...but here we go...

First, I want to thank everyone who participated in yesterday's Taming Kid Clutter Linky Party! And especially Pretty Organizer for helping me coordinate the party and get the word out. There are tons of great ideas to steal, er, uh, borrow. So if you haven't had a chance to read through the posts, scroll on down to yesterday's post, get yourself a Diet Coke (okay, that's what I would get) and some chocolate (lots of chocolate) , kick your feet up, and get ready for some great organizing inspiration! Edited to add: New posts have been added since yesterday, so even if you visited yesterday, you will want to scroll down and see what's new! Don't miss these great ideas!!!

Now on to some awards...
I want to thank Jenny at L.O.T.s of Love for this cute award






And I also want to thank Reese & Marie for this lovely award!
Both of these ladies are fabulous! So if you haven't been to their blogs, drop by and tell 'em I sent ya!



Blogging is such an amazing way to connect with people you would otherwise never meet. In my post a couple of days ago, I shared this fabulous photo...
See those darling chairs? They're painted to look like hockey sticks and pucks! They're so cute! Well, I got an email from the artist who painted them for this particular room. She was so surprised and delighted to see her work featured on my blog! Her name is Heather Mattos. She is very talented. I just wanted to give her a shout out since this is one of my favorite kid's rooms of all time!

And last but certainly not least.....the winner of my Etsy store Grand Opening Giveaway is What's Next Girls? Drop me an email and I'll get that pendant in the mail to you! I am currently sold out of the crown pendants in my Etsy, but if anyone is interested in purchasing one, I will have some listed again in the near future...I'll keep y'all posted!

That's all for now...

Have a wonderful Thursday~

A Little Decorating Compromise and Some Awards~

First, I have to apologize for this photo. I just could not get a good picture of this wall. No matter what time of day I try, there is always glare on one of these frames. That said, let's talk a little bit about compromising with the kiddos.

Okay, I know, my oldest is 8, I have yet to see the real disagreements begin when it comes to decorating. But still, he has his own ideas of what he wants. Now, the trick is the fact that he shares a room with my two other boys. I didn't want it to be too specifically tailored to one boy over another. But Mr. One is a HUGE (and we're talking HUGE) Star Wars fan. He would have loved it if I'd used this bedding in his room, but I couldn't bring myself to do an entire room of Star Wars...even if it DID come from PB Kids. So we compromised. I took a couple of Star Wars movie poster from his old calendar and framed them up. Then I had these vinyl letters custom made. I figured that "May the Force be with You" was a somewhat inspiring phrase. At least the most inspiring I could think of...aside from "Size Matters Not" in the framed poster.

It turned out to be pretty cute, actually. And it apeased him. At least for now...




Now on to some fun awards.

First I want to thank Meg for the Kreativ Blogger Award. So to play along with this award, I'm supposed to list 6 things that inspire my creativity. It was kind of hard for me to narrow it down, but here it goes:

1. My family. My children are a constant source of inspiration. And my talented photographer Hubby does his fair share of inspiring too!


2. Design books. I can't get enough of them. I have a bookshelf full and my collection is still growing.


3. Along those same lines...magazines, shelter mags, design mags, specialty mags like those from Stampington and Co.


4. This beautiful earth...especially the mountains and the ocean. I grew up living at the base of the Wasatch mountains, and now I live only about an hour from the ocean. God's creations are amazing. How can anyone not be inspired when they see them?


5. The Arts...but especially Dance. I danced for nearly 25 years, and then I worked in Marketing and PR for a professional ballet company until my oldest was born. There is something incredibly magical about Dance.


6. Blogging. Since I started blogging, I have been thoroughly amazed at the amount of talent that people are so willing to share. I am constantly inspired by the blogging community that I am a part of, and my head spins with ideas from all the wonderful things you all share. Not only that, but this little corner of the blogosphere is so uplifting and supportive, it is lovely to read all of your INSPIRING comments on a daily basis. Please keep them coming!
   

And this fun award comes from Kasey at All that is Good. For this award, I'm supposed to list 5 things that I'm addicted to, and then pass it on to 5 blogs that I'm addicted to. So here goes nothing...

1. Just like my last award, #1 goes to my family. I just love them so much! My kiddos are just so wonderful...even though they can drive me crazy sometimes ;-)


2. Diet Coke. Especially with ice. Hey...it's zero points on Weight Watchers...know what I mean?


3. Shelter magazines and books.


4. Creating! I love to write, draw, sew, craft, etc. etc.


5. Blogging....of course we knew this one, didn't we?

And although it was very difficult for me to narrow it down, (and I really mean that), I'm going to pass this award along to:

1. Holly at Holly's Haven. Yeah, I know, she's my little sister. But she is also one of the most talented people I know. If you haven't visited her before, head on over to her blog, tell her I sent you!


2. Kari & Kijsa. Such a wonderful blog. And they love diet coke!


3. Reese & Marie. She's got such great taste - I just love her style.


4. Ms. Tee at Delightful Home. Her blog always makes me happy.


5. Stacy at 19 Butternut. She and I like so many of the same things. Love to read her blog!

And one last thing...come join me over at Blissfully Domestic where I'm telling you all how to make my decoupaged barn star. Hope to see you there!

Have a wonderful weekend~

Today's Agenda

Fall has definitely fallen... On today's agenda...a little leaf clean-up (okay, a lot of leaf clean-up...and maybe a little fun).

And thanks to Holly for this pretty award. She claims that there is no nepotism involved in the giving of this award. I'm not so sure, but I am grateful. It's so pretty! I'm supposed to list 6 things I love. It's always hard for me to do these things...I want to preface this by saying that I, of course, love my family, my friends and my religion, the important stuff said...here are some of my more frivolous loves...

1. Chocolate. (especially a good cup of hot cocoa)

2. Decorating (a room, a house, the Princess' doll house...nothing is safe)

3. Creating (drawing, sewing, crafting, you name it)

4. Jane Austen's books (no explanation needed)

5. A good romantic comedy (I'm a sucker for happy endings)

6. Photography (although I'm still learning)

Have a lovely Wednesday~

A Little Birdy Vignette

I am the daughter of a mother who collect "things". And when I say she collects "things" I mean she collects just about everything. One of her favorite things to do with her treasures is to make little displays. She would come up with an idea and get very excited as she gathered up all of her things and then VOILA! she would have a fabulous display. So today I realized that I HAVE BECOME MY MOTHER. As I was trying to decide what to do with my little bird's nest, I got very excited. I hurried down to my computer and printed off these lovely egg prints and little bird painting that I found on this lovely lady's blog. I framed them up and placed my little nest lovingly in a little apothecary jar (well, it's really a cookie jar, but let's just call it an apothecary jar so I can sound oh so stylish!) I threw in a few feathers and lest you can't tell what the nest is inside the apothecary cookie jar, I added a little tag. And TADA! I have a lovely little vignette (now I really do sound oh so stylish!) My little nest looks great until I can locate the perfect cloche or cheese dome/cake plate for it, and I love the whole birdy theme! Who knew becoming your mother could be so satisfying ;-)

I was wearing my new favorite tee shirt yesterday, so against my better judgement, I took a "lovely" portrait of moi sporting my-you guessed it- crown shirt! I loved the one I made for the Princess so much, I HAD to make one for myself. And I wanted all you ladies out there to see how cute it looks on a grown up. Too bad I had indoor lighting to work with *gasp*... and my hair wasn't done *double gasp*...and I have one eye that looks a little squinty...but you get the idea anyway. So those of you who asked about crown shirts for grown ups, here you go! (Ugh. Now I'm going to get back behind the camera lens where I belong). I am going to source out tee shirts before I settle on prices for either little girls or ladies...so I'll have to get back to you all...and I'm also working on the home accessories which were actually the original plan for this and other drawings to share with you later.

And before I forget, I want to thank both Sandy Toes and Carrie for this sweet award! Love my readers!!!!