Category Archives: imagine the impossibilities

imperfection is the new black

  By Karah | February 20, 2012 - 7:08 am | , , , , , , , , , ,
21 Comments

Seriously. I mean, who’s into perfect anymore? Well, I’m sure there are many out there.  But not this girl. Is there really any better way to set yourself up for disappointment…than to expect perfection? For starters, I would never be living in this house.  Oh, how you are imperfect…let me count the ways.  But let me only point out the tile…oh the tile of which you have an abundance. But what was it that someone once said…where ever you are, I am home…or, my favorite thing about my house is who I share it with…or, as long as we’re living here together I can overlook the tile…it was something like that.  ;) And it really isn’t about the structure, or even the things in it, is it?!? Oh, if it were about the perfection of the things… I would probably shudder at the sight of that silly, un-level driftwood shelf in my new one screw gallery wall every time I walked in the room.  Or, I might have finished re-upholstering that chair by now…8 years later. Or, I might not have gotten disproportionately excited when I bought these hideous couches for $65 for the pair. I can’t even tell you how hard it is to find “American” sized furniture for a reasonable price on an island. As an aside, if you’re looking for perfection, definitely don’t move to a Caribbean island…I know some people who learned that lesson the hard way.  Please refer back to that comment I made earlier…something about the expectation of perfection = surefire disappointment.  :) Now, I have to give a shout out to the Nester for the idea of Celebrating the Imperfect with a link party. And, in contemplating her idea, I realize, that through my never-ending search for a steal deal, my need to find ways, albeit … continue reading →

giveaway winner and impossible features

  By Karah | February 7, 2012 - 7:08 am | , ,
22 Comments

And the winner of the $50 Lowe’s gift card is…drum roll please… Email me Michelle and I’ll get you all hooked up! And an especially big Thank You! to One Project Closer for sponsoring the giveaway!  You guys are awesome!! … And now, my Imagine the Impossibilities Link Party Features! To say that we were overjoyed at all of the awesome link ups we had (361 to be exact) would be an understatement.  I really can’t thank everyone who participated enough! This little impossible challenge has turned into such a wonderful adventure.  :) And, because there was so much awesomeness, my co-hosts and I couldn’t only feature 5 projects a piece, which was our original plan.  I will not only feature 10 great link ups here, but I will be facebooking about others and pinning some beautiful pictures throughout the week.  Hopefully we’re connected on Facebook and Pinterest so you don’t miss a thing.  :) And (Who says you can’t start a sentence with the word and?), don’t forget to check out who my co-hosts are featuring today! And (Clearly, I don’t say that.), if you’ve been featured, be sure to grab a button below and brag about it.  You’ve earned it!! Now, all I can say is, you HAVE to visit these 10 great posts.  Some are crafty, some are serious DIY, some are seemingly impossible life lessons.  And they are ALL worth a look. I have so much I can say about why I love these posts, but you really just need to click over to check them out for yourselves.  And be sure to let them know that you saw their feature here!! Now, let’s get to it… Who wouldn’t want to own their house free and clear before they turn 30?  See how Abbie from 5 … continue reading →

how to hang a {gallery wall}

  By Karah | February 3, 2012 - 7:08 am | , , , , , , , ,
57 Comments

Update:  I’ve installed the new Linky Follower Tool in my right sidebar.  As a wordpress.com site I have never been able to have Google Friend Connect, which is rumored to be going away entirely.  It would be great if you wanted to sign up to follow along using that tool.  If you’re a blogger, let me know you did and I will, of course, follow you back.  :) Wow, what a week we’ve had.  Over 320 links at our very first Imagine the Impossibilities link party.  Are you kidding?!?!  That is just awesomeness people.  Thank You!! to all who have participated. If you haven’t joined the fun, the party is open until midnight tonight…in some time zone.  (Hopefully you’re laughing Linda!)  Click here to get linked up…or to just check out all of the inspiration. And, if you haven’t signed up for a chance to win the $50 Lowe’s Gift Card what’s the matter with you?  Click here to get your entries in. Now, fair warning as you read on. This is really about the minutia of hanging my one screw gallery wall.  If you want pretty, reveal type pictures please click here.  If you want to know how to pull something like this off yourself, please read on, but be sure to get your cup of coffee first, and maybe a scone or two.  :) First, I created 9 of the items hanging as part of the wall from scratch so that would obviously be step 1 – Decide what items you want to include in your gallery wall. Once you have your selections compiled, play around with different layouts.  I used the floor instead of going through the trouble of making paper templates and taping them to the wall because I’m lazy efficient.  Here is one option I … continue reading →

imagine the impossibilities {link party}

  By Karah | January 31, 2012 - 7:08 am | , ,
26 Comments

It’s here.  The big day is finally here!  Welcome to the Imagine the Impossibilities Link Party! First, if you haven’t entered to win the $50 Lowe’s gift card click here to get signed up. The giveaway is sponsored by OPC.  One Project Closer maintains a very up-to-date list of Home Improvement Coupons from most of the major home improvement stores that we all love so much.  Their site is updated daily by a real person (Kim, one of the editors at OPC).  So, after you hopefully win the gift card and before heading off to Lowe’s to get all of the supplies for your next project, you should stop by OPC for a Lowe’s Coupon and save upwards of 10%.  I recommend bookmarking the page for future reference! Boy, did this month fly by after we all decided to tackle our most daunting tasks, or what? Or, was that just my 10 day trip to Maine then 9 days of house guests, all the while trying to hang a whole gallery wall on one screw? Yesterday I, along with my fellow challenge hosts, posted my Impossible project reveal and today is all about YOU! Even if you haven’t completed your project, you switched projects midstream, or your project didn’t work out as planned it would be great to see you linked up.  We’d all love to learn from the journey. And speaking of love, don’t we all LOVE comments?  Well, I sure do, so it would be super cool if you took some time to give your fellow challengers some “Hoorahs” along the way. We’ve set up the party so you only have to link up ONCE and you will appear on the party page from each of the co-hosts blogs.  But then definitely click on my co-hosts buttons below to be sure to show them some love today on … continue reading →

$50 Lowe’s gift card giveaway

  By Karah | January 30, 2012 - 3:17 pm | , , , , , , , ,
190 Comments

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. Hello again, and Happy Monday Afternoon!  I hope you all enjoyed my Imagine the Impossibilities Challenge project reveal this morning. Update:  The Imagine the Impossibilities Link Party is here.   If you missed it, you can read here about how I made a gallery wall using only one screw in the wall.  Heck yeah! I now sit so I can peak at the gallery wall every now and again.  :) To learn more about the “I Might Be Screwed (Just Once), A Gallery Wall Experiment” process click here, here and here. Now to the real business at hand this fine afternoon.  The first evah TSB giveaway, sponsored by OPC!  I am down right giddy about this giveaway. In no small part due to the fact that I have a love affair with Lowe’s!  Well, in my mind, I actually have a love affair with this guy. Seriously, could I be standing any closer to him???  :) He’s Chad Knaus and he’s the crew chief for the NASCAR team sponsored by Lowe’s.  Due to our long standing love affair with him this NASCAR team, my husband and I have become so brand loyal to Lowe’s it’s just a teensy bit scary. So, for the first TSB giveaway to be a $50 gift card to this company that we love so much … I can hardly stand it! And, it’s all thanks to OPC.  That’s One Project Closer.  If you do not already know, OPC is a fantastic online resource for all things DIY.  They publish How-To articles, Tool Reviews, Crafts and more! If you enjoy home improvement projects, how-to guides, tool reviews, and more, you NEED to check out One Project Closer. Follow along as they shadow contractors on the job site, test out the latest tools, and … continue reading →

the one screw {gallery wall} is HERE!

  By Karah | January 30, 2012 - 7:08 am | , , , , , , , ,
103 Comments

I did it!  I really did!  Here’s the proof!  (Beware – there are plenty more exclamation points to come!) If you’re new here, you may want to go here, here and here to get caught up on my “I Might Be Screwed (Just Once), A Gallery Wall Experiment”. Because today is all about the result.  The glorious, one little screw, only cost me $15 result!  Booyah! Although, it did almost cost me my sanity … and the tip of my right index finger.  Which I really can’t spare … although I’ve learned I never really needed the left one.  :) Unfortunately, I have no pics of the times when all balance was lost.  When one suffers in solitary, there are no spare hands for photo ops when you’re almost breaking the antique mirror your mom just gave you. My original layout was this.  (Minus the canvas pic of downtown Willemstad, Curacao along the top.) I wanted the canvas silhouettes of the dogs to be front and center – they are by far my favorite DIY project of all time part of this project.  And when I had it all laid out on the floor I thought I would be OK with just the 2 canvases in that one column.  But, once it all got hung, there was too much space at the bottom for my liking. Don’t you hate it when that happens?  :/ I think it is because the frame with the coral, to the left of the center column, is hanging just a scosh lower on the left side than the right. Which is due to the driftwood shelf hanging a little lower on the left.  More details on that another time.  Let’s just say, driftwood shelf = bane of my one screw gallery wall existence.  :) Also, the B … continue reading →

friday features

  By Karah | January 27, 2012 - 7:08 am | , ,
12 Comments

TGIF!  Although, I was just reminded that I have signed up for an 8k road race on Sunday and I still don’t have the whole gallery wall hung yet.  :/ No matter what, I (along with all of my challenge co-hosts) will be posting my big reveal on Monday morning.  I’m just not exactly sure what I’ll be revealing just yet.  Sigh. AND, Monday will be home to two firsts here at TSB … I will be publishing a Monday afternoon post – 1st time for 2 posts in 1 day because … Monday afternoon will be the very first TSB GIVEAWAY!  It’s a $50 gift card to Lowe’s so you will want to be sure to come back and give yourself a chance to win! Then Tuesday is the Imagine the Impossibilities Progressive Link Party!  We all go live at 7am eastern time, I am sooooo looking forward to seeing what everyone has accomplished.  Down right giddy I tell ya. Now, let’s take a look at some of those projects in progress, shall we?!? Pamela over at Pink Hammers and Sippy Cups had plans to tackle the art of baking pretzels as her challenge.  Then a little bit of life happened and she has a whole new, much more challenging, project she NEEDS to tackle.  Here’s a sneak peak of one of her inspiration pics, but you have to click here to find out her big news. Suzy over at Saved by Suzy decided to tackle organizing a few closets and her pantry for this challenge and she is making awesome progress.  She may have had to toss some pantry items that were 5 years old, but it’s now looking like this, with some empty shelves and all. She still has her master bedroom closet to finish.  Be sure to … continue reading →