How To Get a Bird Out of Your House

{Photo by Ryan Jacques, via Unsplash}

Today I have a funny DIY idea for you-what to do when a bird flies into your house. This happened to me once, and since then it has happened to several of my friends (one while I was on the phone with her). I remember how scary it was and how I was frantically trying to Google for a solution while this bird flew from lamp to lamp, pooping all over my home and teasing my cats. So I thought I would share a solution here, and if this ever happens to you, you'll know what to do.

My experience came a couple years ago while I was painting my kitchen. The glass in the back storm door is broken out, since I accidentally slammed it on a cold winter night and it shattered. I was painting on a warm summer day, though, so I opened up the back door and through the broken storm door, I could get fresh air and hear the birds, paint fumes could get out, and the cats would stay in.

I left the room for a minute to get something, and that must have been when the bird flew in. I never saw it enter the house. I was painting right along and watching Felicity on my iPad when all of the sudden, out the corner of my eye, I saw Max's body fly across the dining room and slam into the wall. I ran in to find Max had tackled the bird to the floor and was ready to take a bite. Afraid of having to watch a bird murder and clean blood off my cat, I screamed at Max, who was startled enough to let go of the bird. It began flying back and forth from all the highest perches in the house. It went from the ceiling fan to the tops of the cabinets to the hanging lights and the tops of the windows, dropping little white puddles on my hardwood floors in between stops.

This was driving the cats crazy and I had no idea what to do, so I immediately began trying to Google a solution. It was hard to focus and type on the iPad with so much craziness in the house, and to make things worse, most of what a Google search turned up had to do with superstitions about birds in your house being bad luck. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I was able to dig up a solution on a reply forum that worked.

If a bird flies into your house, here is how you get it out. Turn all the lights off and close any blinds or curtains that you can. Make your house as dark as possible, but open one door or window where you want the bird to fly out. I opened the front door as wide as I could. It was less than 30 seconds before the bird headed straight out the front door.

That's it. My friend I was on the phone with had this happen to her at night. Since I was talking to her while it was happening, I told her what I did. She was able to open her front door and turn on her porch light, and it worked as well. The bird will go toward the light. Unfortunately for her, the bird flew back in and her dog ripped it apart and dragged it over the carpet. Tip: Be sure to close the door as soon as the bird flies out.

Perhaps this advice will be helpful to you in the future. I hope you never have a bird fly into your home, but it happens sometimes, and it is easy to solve if you know what to do. The sooner you act, the less bird poop you will have to clean off your floors.

Moroccan Pillows

{Photo by Teri Lyn Fisher, via Anthology}

Right now I am very inspired by Justina Blakeney, a blogger and designer who is so good at getting the bohemian/globalist look just right. A mid-century/bohemian/globalist style mix seems to be the theme I see in what I'm drawn to and all over my Pinterest boards. I have a hard time with it, though. Even though I'm not always drawn to minimalist design, I tend to think of my style as rather minimalist because of my fear of clutter. I don't want my home to look cluttered or too full of crap, so I have a tendency to edit everything down to the bare minimum. Then I photograph my home and I look at the photos, and I think, "My home is missing something." To me, it looks a little bare and missing personality and oomph.

Justina's rooms really speak to me and have that oomph I'm looking for. Her rooms look well-traveled and lived in. They look like rooms I want to sit down in and stay awhile, because they look comfortable and interesting. She's not afraid of colors or patterns and she's not afraid to fill a room with interesting stuff.

I'm learning a thing or two from her. I still love my white walls and trim, and I like my furniture mid-century, but I'm trying to put my finger on what it is exactly that make her spaces work so well, so I can get some of that action happening in my own rooms.

She recently wrote on her blog an easy little trick for injecting some bohemian life into a room. Hang plants and load up on Moroccan pillows. I can hang plants with the best of them, but I really need some Moroccan pillows in my life. Justina recommends an online store called Baba Souk for finding reasonably-priced Moroccan pillows, so I gathered up a few of my favorites to share with you. They are all so beautiful!

Each pillow is one-of-a-kind, so many of these are already sold out. But hopefully this gives you an idea what I'm looking for. All of these or similar styles are priced at $80 and can be found here.

Now for me, $80 for a pillow is a lot.  I could pay that if I plan to slowly accumulate a collection of the course of a few years, which I may do, but I'm on the lookout for some similar pillows for less.

I also have a lot of questions about what makes these pillows Moroccan. How are they different from other pillows I've seen labeled "Turkish?" How will I know the difference? Ideally, I would travel to all these places to gather these things, like what's implied when I use words like "well-traveled" and "globalist." In the meantime, I would just like to know where these items came from or what country inspired them, even if I can't travel to the source just yet. I have so much to learn!

Be sure to check out Justina's blog and her incredible Pinterest boards.

Manhattan

I love New York. I've only been there once but I fell in love immediately. This opening of Manhattan basically sums up why I love NYC: Rand really outdid me on Christmas gifts this year. We don't get each other a ton of gifts, but we do try to get a few good items for one another to show that we pay attention and know what the other would like. He nailed it this year with this beautiful print from Society6.

I've just been staring at the little details for hours. 

He asked me (in a sneaky way, to not give away the surprise) if I would like him to order it framed or not. Society6 will send it framed, but it is about $35 extra, and I knew I could do better than that. I thought I would go to Hobby Lobby on a week when their poster frames are half price, so it would cost about $25. However, the nice thing about being a decor hoarder is that I often have exactly what I need in my house already. I already had the correct size frame, and in gold. 

I made this little pixelated paint chip art thing a while back, but I was never really in love with it, so it got the ax. 

Et voila! Much better. The gold frame is perfect for this print, and I thought it would be a nice way to glam up the bedroom a bit. 

Oh yeah. 

Well done, Rand. Thanks for knowing me so well, and I'm sorry the best I could do was that t-shirt.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now tell me:

Did you give any killer gifts this year?

What was your favorite gift you received?

What do you think about NYC? Should I move there? 

The Room Journal on Apartment Therapy

This morning as I was scrolling through my Bloglovin' list, my heart skipped a beat when I saw pictures of my own living room on Apartment Therapy! I should have mentioned my blog on there...rookie mistake. Anyway, the comments were overall pretty positive. How exciting! Please click on over and take a peek.

DIY Leather Drawer Pulls

It's back to the grindstone for me.

Christmas Break is over. I've spent two glorious weeks sleeping in, staying up late, hanging out with family and friends, thrifting, decorating and doing projects all day every day and now it's over. Boo.

So let's kick this week off right with a DIY project to help me adjust my attitude a little. I shared my chest of drawers makeover a while back over at Answers.com, but I kept it pretty short and sweet and I didn't go into very much detail about those little leather drawer pulls I made. Today I'm going to show you step by step how I made these little guys.

Supplies Needed:

Real leather remnants (I chose dark brown and I picked it up at a local craft/hobby store.)
X-Acto knife
Cutting board
Scissors
One machine screw, washer and bolt for each pull you plan to make
Drill
Drill bit the size of your machine screws

1. Cut your leather pieces. I made mine 1"x 3". Using the cutting board, I made the first cut with the X-Acto knife to make a nice clean cut in the smooth, shiny side of the leather. Then I went back over the cut with the scissors to cut the suede-y side of the leather.

2. Make a small hole where you want the screw to go through your pull. I had to puncture the leather with the X-Acto knife, then twist it around a few times to make a hole. Make a matching hole at the other end of the strip of leather.

3. Put a washer on the screw, then stick the screw through the two holes you made in the strip of leather. The washer will keep the leather from trying to slip over the end of the screw when you open the drawer.

4. Drill a hole in the drawer or cabinet door where you want the pull. I measured down 2 1/2" on my drawer and found the center. Put the screw through the hole and tighten the bolt on the back inside the drawer.

Good idea: Make sure the screw is pushed all the way through the drawer so it is on there really tight so your leather pulls won't spin around and be upside down on your drawers.

5. Repeat with remaining drawers or cabinet doors. Congratulate yourself for putting stylish pulls on all your drawers for way cheap.

Enjoy your week!

White Painted Floors in the Bedroom

Happy New Year! 

My bedroom finally has white floors, and oh friends, the whole room GLOWS. 

I followed Anna Dorfman's steps pretty closely, except that I didn't need any shellac spray. The primer she recommended covered everything up beautifully with no wood bleeding. I sanded, primed twice, then brushed on three coats of Royal Porch and Floor paint in Benjamin Moore's Simply White. Going over the floor three times with a paintbrush seemed to take forever, but it looks so good and was completely worth it. It also forced me to examine every square inch of that floor for any remaining staples, nails, and flaws, so now I can walk on this floor barefoot without fear.

The baseboards already had quarter round, so I just went around with caulk and made sure everything was sealed up. I also caulked up a couple of the cracks between the floor boards that seemed larger than the rest, but I left all the other cracks alone. White floors look good with a few imperfections!

Speaking of imperfections, there are still a couple of issues I haven't gotten to yet. The paint just stops at the doorway. I plan to finish ripping up the upstairs carpet and paint it all white at some point, but Rand couldn't handle the furniture piled everywhere downstairs any longer, so that will have to wait. He's going on a weeklong business trip in a couple months, so I think I may do it then. 

The mismatched patch job over the old heat register hole is also still there. It was too overwhelming to try to do it all at once, so I'll come back to this one. For now, it is covered by a rug and it looks fine.

I considered using water-based polyurethane over the whole thing as a last step, so I tested it on a small part of the floor. Sure enough, even the water-based version that promised to dry crystal clear still looked a little yellow, so I sanded it down and repainted that little part. 

I moved the little bookshelf downstairs and replaced it with this painting and magazine cart. The painting hung in Rand's family's house for years and was there when we first started dating. I think his sister bought it at a yard sale. I don't remember how we ended up with it, but I like it.

Max and Mitzi both really love this room now. Although Mitzi thinks it's a little bright in here.

 

Even though this project seemed to take forever with so much painting, then waiting, then more painting and waiting, it felt really satisfying to give my house that kind of love and attention to detail. There is a lot of evidence that this house has been the victim of some neglect and abuse over the last 90 years, so I'm happy to take the time to make it beautiful again.