Dates Announced for the 2nd Talent Scouting Party: "All Things Kitchen" Opens April 9

Announcing the 2nd Talent Scouting Party Theme:

"All Things Kitchen"

The Talent Scouting Party @WhisperWood Cottage will be scouting for talented bloggers who would like to be published in Cottages & Bungalows magazine! I know how talented you are! I see it week after week as I make the rounds on the blogs. I want to help you get published!

Periodic party themes for upcoming issues of Cottages & Bungalows Magazine will be announced here at WhisperWood Cottage. Bloggers can link up projects that relate to that theme during the availability period. After the availability period ends, a list of top contenders for the magazine feature will be announced. From the top contenders, a final project will be selected as the winner of an upcoming feature in Cottages & Bungalows Magazine.

So, what theme is up next?...

All Things Kitchen! "All Things Kitchen" means whole kitchens, kitchen makeovers, kitchen islands, kitchen furniture, kitchen decor, kitchen DIY, kitchen organization, kitchen solutions, or any kitchen project (EXCEPT recipes or food-related projects). Projects can be newly or previously completed. If you linked up a kitchen project to the last Talent Scouting Party, you can link it up again as long as it fits with the kitchen theme.

Availability dates to get your talent noticed: Please get your kitchen projects ready to link up beginning on Monday, April 9. You'll have three weeks to finish up any projects and get those linked up, too! The availability party will end on Monday, April 30. Top contenders will be announced on Monday, May 7, and the winner of the magazine feature will be posted on Monday, May 14. The winning project will be featured in the September 2012 issue of Cottages & Bungalows Magazine.

Judges will pick the contenders and the winner based on these qualities...

1. Innovation
2. Usefulness
3. Adaptability to any cottage style
4. Budget friendliness
5. Quality of the project/craftsmanship
6. Quality of the photos (great tips at Donna's workshop series on point & shoot cameras)
7. Entrant follows all party rules

There are a few rules that participants will need to follow. You can review them now by going to the "GET SCOUTED!" page up under the blog header. 

Show that you want to be scouted! Get a head start on the event by grabbing the button below for your sidebar...

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Are you as excited as I am? I hope so!! 

Linky opens on Monday, April 9!

Stay tuned to all the happenings:

Like WhisperWood Cottage on Facebook.

Like Cottages & Bungalows on Facebook.

Follow WhisperWood Cottage on Pinterest.

Why I Love The DIY Club

Hello, bloggy buds! If you've been around here for a while, you probably know that I am one of the four Official DIY Gals at The DIY Club. The DIY Club is celebrating it's two year anniversary in April, and I can't tell you how much fun and work it's been behind the scenes to orchestrate the fabulousness of The DIY Club with Cheri, Holly, and Roeshel.

Cheri, Roeshel, and Holly have become my DIY besties. They have been a blog family to me...honest, caring, and dependable. I have loved working with them, and I will miss being here with them as they continue The DIY Club journey. Yes, it is true. They are going to carry on without me. With love and respect, I say a tearful good-bye to them as fellow DIY Gals, though I am glad to say that we will always be friends. I know that you love them and appreciate their talents as much as I do. They are truly amazing women! Check out the kinds of things we have done over the past two years together and that they will continue to do with a grandeur that only The DIY Club can pull off...

  

What's also amazing about The DIY Club is the constant stream of inspirational projects using the products of our fabulous sponsors. The Official DIY Gals and the Resident Bloggers are talented ladies who love creating, creating, and creating some more. I started putting all my projects together one day, and I discovered I had posted 78 projects over a 24 month period at The DIY Club! Check 'em out:

AMY'S DIY CLUB PROJECTS, 2010-2012:

The events and projects above are like a journal of my time at The DIY Club. Each of them brings back memories of what was happening at the time, the camaraderie shared between the DIY Gals, the work (and lots of it!) that went into making things happen, and the commitment that we all share to doing creative things and doing them well.

As I say a tearful good-bye to The DIY Club as an Official DIY Gal, they will always have a special place in my heart, and I will always have a sense of ownership and caring about what happens there. I will continue to support them and their amazing events. Big hugs to all you DIY Club Members and the inspiration you bring to the DIY Project Party every month. Big hugs to the amazing sponsors who provide endless inspiration through your product lines. Big hugs to Roeshel, Holly, and Cheri, and the resident bloggers, who have become a blog family to me.

With love and respect,

Amy

 

Flea Market Workspace Solution for Small, High-Traffic Area

Have you ever thought about how to take advantage of those high-traffice areas, like hallways, that don't get used much other than getting from one room to another?

This is one of those spaces in our home. It is too narrow for a permanent piece of furniture, so it has just remained unused for the most part. 

Well, here is an idea I decided to try out...based upon a flea market find from a while back. Actually, it is an occasional sale purchase. 

See that galvanized metal box? I was told that it had something to do with dairy farms and receipts for the milk. It opens up like this...

...and you can store all kinds of things! Here are a few ideas:

note: postcards shown are from Amy at four corners design

4 IDEAS FOR REPURPOSING

A VINTAGE DAIRY RECEIPT BOX

1. STATIONERY STATION: Keep your stationery, greeting cards, postcards, pens, and postage in one area. Use it as a letter writing station.
2. BILL CENTER: Need to keep those bills organized? Store bills, the checkbook, pens, and a calculator. Use it as a bill paying center.
3. INSPIRATION BOARD: How about organizing all those magazine pages, room sketches, and other forms of inspiration in an uncluttered way? Sketch out your next inspired room or project.
4. KID'S PORTABLE ART DESK: Keep paper, scissors, etc. all in one place. Kids can create while it's hanging on the wall. OR grab it off the wall and take it portable!

Add a piece of artwork above.

Move in a stool from around the corner and, voila!, a usable workspace!

When not in use, it simply folds up and becomes part of the decor.

Do you have any other ideas for how this junk find could be used?

Tutorial for Efficiently Turning Old T-shirts into Rags

I pulled out the rotary cutter yesterday. Why? I was feeling kind. Not that feeling kind is a rarity for me, but volunteering to do "domestic" tasks is definitely a rarity! :) Like a good blogger, I had my camera at the ready to capture my excitement over this mundane task.

Ron had a stack of t-shirts that he was planning to turn into garage rags. He has always handled this task himself, but I thought I'd surprise him by doing it for him! So, of course, my plan was to figure out the most efficient way to take care of the task. After all, just because I'm volunteering to do it doesn't mean the task has to last longer than necessary! I've seen my mom use her rotary cutter for cutting quilt squares, so I thought I'd see how it worked for this process. After a trial and error process, here's the most efficient way I came up with.

SHORT-SLEEVED T-SHIRTS...

Fold the t-shirt in half (sleeve to sleeve) and make sure the outside edges are lined up evenly.

Line up the straight edge ruler parallel to the outside edges of the t-shirt and across the sleeve.

Leave about 1/4 inch of fabric between the edge of the straight edge and edge of the t-shirt.

Use the rotary cutter to cut from the middle of the t-shirt up through the sleeve.

Move the straight edge ruler down and cut the rest of the t-shirt to the bottom.

Rotate the t-shirt (still folded) 90 degrees.

Place the straight edge ruler about 1/4 inch below the collar,

keeping it 90 degrees to where the sleeve used to be.

Use the rotary cutter to cut away.

That will leave you with two squares of fabric.

The larger the t-shirt, the larger the squares will be.

 LONG-SLEEVED T-SHIRTS...

For the main part of the shirt, follow the same instruction above for short-sleeved t-shirts. Then follow the instruction below for the long sleeves.

Stack one sleeve on top of the other and place them on the cutting mat as shown.

Align the straight edge ruler about 1/4 inch from the cuff seam.

Use the rotary cutter to cut the cuffs away.

Keeping the sleeves stacked, place the seemed edges of the sleeves to the right (if right-handed).

Align the straight edge ruler about 1/4 inch away from the seamed edges.

Trim with the rotary cutter.

That will give you good sized, but somewhat oddly shaped, rags.

THE OUTCOME...

From 11 shirts, I now have a total of 30 rags...22 large rags (made from the center parts of the shirts) and 8 smaller rags (made from the sleeves of 4 long-sleeve shirts). The scrap pile is on the right. The rags are now stacked in the garage awaiting the mopping up of oil, the cleaning up of paint, and/or the wiping down of anything grungy, dusty, or dirty. I hope Ron appreciates my small surprise. Small things can mean so much! :)

Do y'all make rags from old t-shirts? What's your system?

***********************************

Here's what's coming up in the next post:

Any ideas?

THE TALENT SCOUTING PARTY: Two Winners of a Cottages & Bungalows Mag Feature

Are you ready to find out who won the feature in Cottages & Bungalows Magazine with their Flea Market Transformation projects? All entries in The Talent Scouting Party were amazing and the final top contenders were inspiring. You'll also want to check out the 12 Furniture Makeovers to Make You {Swoon}! and the 22 Sublime Junk-inspired Flea Market Transformations. Thanks to everyone who entered!

There were two projects who tied for 1st place. So, guess what! They both win a feature! 

That's right, there are two winners! 

Who are they? Congratulations to...

#137 Salvaged coffee door table at This (Sorta) Old Life

#169 Pallet wood outdoor sofa at Funky Junk Interiors

Rita & Donna, please display your winner button proudly! You earned it! Shoot me an email to get the feature process rolling!

<a href="http://www.whisperwoodcottage.com/"><img height="427" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-FeTJ1kJw5YQ/T2qIW5vjdTI/AAAAAAAAJIo/MyYuwER2C28/s800/talent-scout-winner-button.png" width="300" /></a>

Thanks to everyone who linked up! You were inspiring beyond words! Keep these dates in mind for upcoming Talent Scouting Parties and more chances to win your own magazine feature:

April/May...Kitchens

July...Fall and Halloween

Specific dates to be announced. Old and new projects welcome!

Get event details under the Get Scouted! tab.

Flea Market Transformation Finalists: Top Contenders for a Magazine Feature in Cottages & Bungalows Mag

Are you ready for the run-down of top contenders for the magazine feature in Cottages & Bungalows Magazine? From all the fantabulous projects linked up to The Talent Scouting Party for Flea Market Transformations, the field was narrowed to the projects below based up on the following criteria:

1. Innovation
2. Usefulness
3. Adaptability to any cottage style
4. Budget friendliness
5. Quality of the project/craftsmanship
6. Quality of the photos
7. Entrant follows all party rules

The winner of the magazine feature will be announced tomorrow night...March 21. In the meantime, check out these contenders! One of these talented ladies will be featured in the July issue of Cottages & Bungalows Magazine! Pin your favorites and stop by their blogs to tell them how awesome they are!

#35 Flea market ladder vignette at Life as a Thrifter

#40 Red & white chair at Leone Design

#68 Family room mantel at It's Overflowing

#77 Vintage crate and wire basket shelves at A Sort of Fairytale

#91 Slipcovered daybed at Somewhat Quirky

#116 Catchall shutter organizer at Life as a Thrifter

#137 Salvaged coffee door table at This (Sorta) Old Life

#169 Pallet wood outdoor sofa at Funky Junk Interiors

#191 Salvaged chair photo display at Mamie Jane's

#18 Dresser makeover at Turnstyle Vogue

#183 Barn board headboard at Buckets of Burlap

#19 Thrifted canvas silhouettes at The Space Between

#135 Sleeping porch at Maple & Magnolia

#154 Bed frame vases at Four Corners Design

#185 Trumeau mirror at Gail's Decorative Touch

#150 Numbered cottage dresser makeover at Cozy. Cottage. Cute.

#3 Yardstick staircase at The Painted Home

TOP CONTENDERS, GRAB A BUTTON!

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Thanks to everyone who linked up! The winner will be announced tomorrow. Yes, there will be more chances for you to win your own feature. Keep these dates in mind for upcoming Talent Scouting Parties:

April/May...Kitchens

July...Fall and Halloween

Specific dates to be announced. Old and new projects welcome!