Hey everyone ~ what a fabulous weekend we had!  It was a great party Saturday night with many of our friends and family in attendance.  We all gathered in the living room around the piano and sang carols with a loud rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas that included everyone at the party ~ it’s the highlight and an annual tradition.  We spent Sunday in San Francisco at the Dickens Fair (ever been? very fun!) and touring Union Square with the big tree right in the center all lit up for the season.  Here’s another tour of San Francisco at Christmas you might enjoy . . .

As you all know, the mister and I adopted a house earlier this year (see this post on origin of the Alma Project) and we’ve spend the year fixing up the house when we had a spare weekend thanks to donations from so many of you.  On Friday, we stopped by to surprise the families with a Christmas tree and some other holiday decorations.

Becky from Vinyl Crafts kindly donated this inspirational subway art for the wall and a fresh wreath and poinsettias brought some Christmas cheer to the kitchen nook.

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Oh hello y’all, how are things?  I’m feeling pretty good today having finally finished the laundry room over at our adopted Alma House.   For those who don’t know, earlier this year, the hubs and I decided to adopt a house in partnership with our local COTS (Committee on the Shelterless). 

The Alma Project began as the transformation of a fixer upper house into a comfortable functional home for women who desperately need it. Living inside the Alma House are single mothers, previously homeless, who reside for free on the condition that they are learning skills, stabilizing their lives, attending counseling, and that they remain drug and alcohol free. Busy remodeling their lives, these mothers have no time or money to fix up this house.

Over the past few months, we’ve given our time to this project with money donated by so many of you. Some of you blogged about the Alma house and others held small fundraisers to benefit the project.  We cannot thank you enough. 

In April, we spent a day transforming the entry hallway to create better utility:

In May, we built them this media center. 

Over the summer, we set out to build the families a laundry room center in the garage and at last it is complete! 

Here’s a glimpse of the space a few months ago:

Here it is today!

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Greetings all, and thanks for all the kind comments on the Peacock Blue Bamboo Chest earlier this week!  And did you see?  It was featured on Apartment Therapy, woot!  So exciting!

What DIY projects are you working on this weekend?  We’ve got plans to start another revamp over at our Alma House – we’re starting the process of building them a fully functional laundry room space, look for a post on that soon!

Want a little extra spending dough?  How about a chance to win a $75 Amazon Gift Card?  This weekend, one of my sponsors is giving away two gift cards, each one in the amount of $75 bucks! 

About One, is an online family management resource, and a digital filing cabinet, designed as a place to safely store all of your household information in one place.  About One has been featured everywhere from the New York Times to CNBC and USA Today. 

With About One, you can create files for home maintenance, your family’s health history, for babysitters or caregivers, even assemble education history for college applications.  Track volunteer hours, your valuables, or capital gains, even create your own family newsletter to keep your friends and family up to date on what’s going on in your home.  It’s a verified secure site to guarantee your personal privacy protection.

For every person that signs up, About One will donate $1 dollar to our Alma House project.  We love that kind of support!  Signing up requires no purchase or credit card, I promise!   Sign up here, it takes less than a minute!

When you sign up for your free account, you’ll be eligible to win one of two $75 Amazon Gift cards and be supporting our Alma Project. 

For your chance to win a $75 Amazon Gift Card:

1) Sign up for a free account at About One, then come back and leave a comment saying “I’m signed up!”  That’s all.  

By signing up and also leaving a comment here, you’ll be entered to win one of two $75 Amazon Gift Cards, and a $1 donation will go to our Alma Project.  Giveaway ends Monday July 18th at 8 p.m PST.  Two winners chosen at random. 

Wishing you all a great weekend, and good luck!

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Wow, thanks everyone for linking up your amazing projects at the ‘Outdoor Ideas’ party, so much inspiration to be seen in over 250 links!  A few caught my eye and I wanted to share. 

Kathy from All About Vignettes built a screened in porch then furnished it with European flair.  Wow, this view is like something out of House Beautiful, the columns, the mirror, the fabrics… swoon!

Beth at Unskinny Boppy turned an old ladder into the perfect support for jar lanterns on her enchanting patio.

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Hey everybody, hope you moms had a relaxing Mother’s Day!  Last week, I spent a few hours constructing a media and storage center for our Alma Project.  I struggled for weeks on how to accomplish this task, at first scouring thrift stores and Craigslist for bookcases with no luck.  Why is it so hard to find two solid wood matching bookcases these days?  I contemplated either going to IKEA or having them built, but the bid came in at $400 which I was not willing to spend. 

My parents came to the rescue.   They moved all their belongings last week and they happened to have two solid bookcases they didn’t need anymore since they’re downsizing, so they generously donated them to this project. 

To create the new media center, I reused the existing TV stand and paired it with the donated bookshelves, one on each side.  Then I purchased two new pressboard shelves for the top and between the bookcases.  I primed the pieces, then assembled them all together and painted it all white to create one large wall unit.  And we did it all for under $60 dollars.

Here is what the family room wall looked like a few weeks ago:

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Here is the wall after we constructed a new media and storage center:

Fantastic right? 

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