Can you believe, this is my fifth year of blogging? It's been an amazing and blessed experience.  Sharing with you here at An Extraordinary Day is something I absolutely love to do. The past few months, I've been sensing that I need to take the blog to a higher level.  But, in order to do that, I need to hear from you. In all this time, I have never given a Reader Survey here on the blog. But, today, we've changed all that!     Although An Extraordinary Day definitely is a creative outlet for me... isn't all about me.  It's about you.  Or at least I want it to be about … [Read more...]

The year is still brand new, and in this season my mind hums with thoughts. Always, I want to be better at whatever I do.  It's in my DNA.  I'm wired to strive towards excellence. These days I'm reading more, spending time fine tuning the behind-the-scenes parts of the blog, learning, and dreaming.  I've also taken a back seat to my online social activities, which I sort of miss.  It's all part of this internal drum in my heart and head to thrive.  I know all that sounds like I've got a map and charted my next steps, knowing where I want to go. I wish. Lately I've been chewing on the idea of … [Read more...]

Raise your hand if you saw a beautiful photo on Pinterest and just had to make it? Keep your hand up if you actually went through with the project. Hold your hand high if that Pinteresting project was an epic craft fail!  You are in good company.   Heather Mann even wrote the book on it... CraftFail When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong  It's a humorous compendium of real-life attempts to re-create the inspiring images seen on the internet or elsewhere. I shared the book with my friend and she laughed all the way through it. Most of us will relate to miss-reading instructions, … [Read more...]

Today's post is for my WordPress blogging friends. If you've been blogging for any length of time, you've struggled with comment spam.     There is nothing I have disliked more than having to check the spam in my comment queue and dredge for the few true readers' comments.  In a blink of an eye there could be hundreds of spam comments. Several months ago I shared a fix that worked for me.  It took a total of three plugins to almost stop my comment spam. There was one problem with my "fix." It also included turning off the comments to blog posts that were more than 90 days … [Read more...]

Thanks for stopping by to join this summer's extraordinary behind the scenes blogland tour. It's been fun to jump on the tour 'bus' throughout the summer and get a behind the scenes view of all the wonderful home and DIY blogs on the tour.   My friend Mary Beth from Cupcakes and Crinoline invited me to join in this extraordinary Blogland Tour.  Earlier in the summer I had other invites, but I just wasn't able to join in the fun.  Her invite came at the perfect moment and I'm so glad to be joining the tour. Thanks Mary Beth! One of the things that we may or may not grasp when we read a blog is … [Read more...]

Spam.  Nobody likes it.  With the latest changes in email filters, we all are experiencing much less spam.  Or are we?  If you're a blogger, you are undoubtedly feeling overwhelmed by the amount of spam hitting your comment box. Wouldn't you like to know how to fix comment spam? It's really very simple.  Turn off comments. What? Turn off comments? Am I crazy? Don't click away....stay with me to see where I take this. When I set up my blog originally, I installed a WordPress plugin called Akismet.  It is supposed to be the premier plugin to prevent comment and trackback spam.   Yet, when I … [Read more...]

Are you one of those blessed few to have you own creative space?     Here's me, hair pulled back, no makeup, with my one and only selfie from my favorite camera, giving you just a peek into my favorite space through a vintage looking-glass.   That's the way we bloggers roll. The before photos don't do the color justice. [wink] Here it looks like light greige, but in reality, it was much darker beige that turned to an odd reddish pink when the sun reflected off the dark brick-red siding into the room.  I couldn't wait to repaint.     With new paint, the room came … [Read more...]

  On these hot summer days, we're all looking for ways to feel cool and comfortable. One way to feel cool as a cucumber is to surround ourselves with cooler colors likes blues, whites, and greens. Last summer I had fun playing around with a tablescape in coastal blues. What blues are coastal blues? Just look at your favorite body of water.  Notice the many, many shades of blue. Use them freely and you're off to feeling cooler and refreshed. Who knew it would be so easy. Now go check out my Casual Coastal Tablescape here.       Can you believe that in a … [Read more...]

Can you believe that it is already my.... I can hardly believe it!  These have been the fastest two years in history! Who knew when I first pressed "Publish" on April 29th, 2012 that we would be where we are today? Many of my hopes and dreams have been realized.  But, if you know me....I press ahead to make the blog and this space on the web even more meaningful and fruitful.  And truly I am amazed that even in this "in between" we are growing together in so many ways.   Thank you for being here, for taking time to comment and share bits of your life here, too.   Your encouragement … [Read more...]

It's been an extraordinary year here at An Extraordinary Day! It's been a year where I've been forced to dig deep and get creative. It's been a year of discovery as my eyes have undergone a sort of training to see life and things in a whole new way. It's been a year where I've learned that we really can have beautiful homes and decorate with a zero dollar budget. It's been a year of discovering the most amazing elements in nature for decorating our homes. And...It's been fun.  Truly. But most of all, I've discovered that An Extraordinary Day! has the most encouraging and supportive readers.  I try … [Read more...]

Twenty Fourteen will arrive in just a few days... Are you ready for the fresh start and opportunity she will bring?     The New Year is like a beautiful blank book..... We will open the book.  Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce What words are you hoping to write in your new book? ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   Catch up on all that's Extraordinary... this week at An … [Read more...]

Do you love attending home tours? When you go on a holiday home tour, what are you hoping to see? Have you attended any holiday home tours this year?   I bet you'd love to take a tour of my home.  We can't do that this year since everything I own is packed up in storage, but how about we push the button on the time machine and go back in time? Are you ready? Here's a link to some holiday fun at my last house. Be sure to 'sign the guest book' and let me know if you picked up any ideas or what you most liked.   Oh...you're wondering about the 12 Days of Christmas?   We're … [Read more...]

Are you one of those amazing people with your tree decorated and all your presents wrapped the first week of December? Or maybe you haven't even begun hanging wreaths or stringing lights. Whichever camp you're in....there is still plenty of time to make a few whimsical paperback book Christmas trees. They are really popular this year, too.     How do I know this? This post from last year is currently my number one, most viewed post, hands down. The good thing....I wrote a simple and easy to follow tutorial for creating your own amazing paperback book Christmas trees for you to … [Read more...]

  It was an Extraordinary week here on the blog. Here's a rundown of this week's posts... Vintage Flow Blue Thanksgiving Table Setting ::  The Week at a Glance 11/29 Last year's Thanksgiving table with some easy how-tos for creating place card holders and napkin rings.  Plus a quick review of the past week on the blog. Giving Thanks with a Grateful Heart :: Joy Day! Exploring this grateful heart "thing" and then counting our blessings from the week, together. Thanksgiving Tablescape :: Creatively Using Woodland Elements Who knew a Wood Duck could make such an interesting centerpiece? Taking … [Read more...]

Here we are....less than a week from Thanksgiving. Are you ready? Last year I was blessed to have one of my dearest friends drive 8 hours to come for Thanksgiving.  That was an extra special gift to me.     I wanted to make everything special and so I brought out my grandmother's flow blue china and created a very dressy Thanksgiving table setting.   And yes, I even blogged about it.  But, since the post came out just two days before Thanksgiving, you might have been too busy to even notice.  So...I thought I'd link to it again.  You just might get an idea or two or three.  When you pop … [Read more...]

Last year I wrote and shared a tutorial for making Christmas stockings from a sweater. I'm not sure that it caught the attention of very many people....on December 19th. Don't you think most everyone probably already had their stockings ready for Santa? It seems to me that it would be a lot more helpful to be inspired to try your hand at creating a sweater stocking for Christmas on November 19. Or even the November 16. So...that's what I am doing here...     This was a super easy project.  Just what I like. The most difficult part of the project was drawing out the shape of the … [Read more...]

Raise your hand if you enjoy fall nesting. Do you transition your fall decor from September through Thanksgiving?   Last year I had fun playing with my then, new-to-me sideboard. I thought it would be fun to take a look back to see the process I went through. This photo is the last iteration before Christmas.     Please pop over to the post and see where it all started, and the changes that led to this. While you're at it....please let me know which version you like best.   Where are you in the fall nesting process these days?  With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving … [Read more...]