CSN Giveaway!

The wonderful people at CSN Stores have offered to host another giveaway!

CSN Stores features over 200 stores with one checkout! They have everything you need to get ready for spring! Are you looking for a fun wooden swing set to keep the kids occupied while you do your spring cleaning? They've got 'em!

There are two ways to enter for a $35 CSN Stores gift card (in the form of a promotional code). You may do either one, or both!

1. Tell me what "Spring Project" you want to tackle this year
2. Become a follower of Red Hen Home

Winner will be chosen through a random drawing on Tuesday, March 1, 2011.

I can't wait for spring! My projects have been few and far between this winter (I'm sure you've noticed). But I bought a new air compressor a couple of weeks ago, and I can't wait to try it out!

Legwarmers are back??

As a child of the 80s, I am very familiar with Legwarmers. How about you? Do you remember high-top shoes, stirrup pants, and legwarmers? Or at the very least, socks pulled over your stirrup pants?

I can't say that I was particularly sad...or that I even noticed...how legwarmers gradually fell out of popularity. But not too long ago, my sister and I visited a yarn store that had a sample knit up of the CUTEST legwarmers ever.

It may be time to bring them back!

I made these for my sister using some of my "stash" yarn. The pattern calls for a bulky yarn, and I used a worsted-weight held double. If I were to do it again...I would use it triple. However, then I wouldn't have had enough yarn, so I guess it's a moot point!

The pattern is Bulky Cabled Legwarmers with Buttons.

What do you think? Should legwarmers come back or be banned forever?

One thing at a time

I can only do one thing at a time...that is, I can only be obsessed with one thing at a time!

It can be reading. Or knitting. Or furniture-refinishing & decorating. Or cooking.

This winter....it is knitting.
(Okay, there's a little bit of reading thrown in.)

Here's a cute little hat my seven-year-old picked out. (She had to have a hat, since I made her older sister a beret.)



The pattern is "I Heart Pom-Poms," and it's FREE! (my favorite price)


One skein of yarn was enough for this hat, although not enough for the pom-poms. Instead, I picked some pink and green yarn from my stash and made multi-colored pom-poms!

I think she likes it. ;-)

Notice anything different?

I started this blog during the summer at my daughter's urging. I picked a layout, learned a (very) few tricks, but haven't spent a lot of time in gussy-ing it up!

Friday, however, I was visiting one of my favorite beautiful blogs, Tracy's Trinkets & Treasures



Tracy was offering to create a blog button for an interested party! Let me tell you, the keyboard was smokin' as I promptly indicated *my* interest.

But you know how these giveaways on blogs work. Those random number generators always pick someone else's number!

Not today.

Tracy had 15 entries, and instead of picking one...she decided to make buttons for all fifteen of us! Wow. Truly, you meet some of the nicest people in Blog Land!

In addition, I mentioned to Tracy that my header was pretty pathetic...so she improved that for me as well.

All I can say is thankyouthankyouthankyou! Tracy, you made my day/week/month!

She has posted her other button creations on her blog here. Be sure to stop by and admire her talent!

Yep. It's a Good Day!

Bathroom Facelift Phase 2: Mirror & Light!

My bathroom facelift project is creeping along at a snail's pace...sorry about that! If you missed Phase 1, you can find it here.

Phase 2 consisted of building a frame for the mirror, and replacing the ugly (and crooked) racetrack light fixture!

There was absolutely nothing wrong with our builder-grade bathroom mirror. Not much that can be wrong with a big flat mirror glued to the wall--unless you count the "glued to the wall" part, which I do. I "googled" how-to-remove-a-mirror-glued-to-the-wall, and it really didn't look like a DIY-type project, unless I was interested in 1,294 years of bad luck! (I'm not!)

So the alternative was to embrace the glue concept, and build a frame which I could GLUE to the mirror! Oh boy!

I purchased two different pieces of molding to construct my mirror frame. The first piece was a plain rectangular board, and the second was a chair rail. Placed together, they made a nice wide frame.

I cut all the pieces to size, then used Liquid Nails to adhere the molding to the mirror. I used my thirteen-year-old daughter...and some Frog Tape...to hold the molding in place while the glue dried.


My cutting isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and the boards aren't perfectly flat. So there are gaps to be filled, and I used a caulk on the little cracks, and wood filler on the big ones.

Looking better...

Next I replaced the "racetrack" style light fixture. I never noticed it was installed crooked until I painted the stripes! I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a new fixture; I found one that was nice enough for around $50.

Changing out a light fixture is really pretty easy. Just make sure you turn the power off FIRST!


Here's what the light box looked like after I removed the old fixture. There are three wires: white, black, and ground (usually copper colored).

These match up with the three wires on the new fixture.


Match up your wires and twist the ends together. Then you screw on the handy-dandy little plastic wire nuts.

Your new fixture will come with a mounting plate that screws on to your light box; there are usually no new holes to drill. Bolt your fixture to the mounting plate, and you're done!

See? New light! (I'm pretty sure it's the picture that is crooked, not the light.)


And here's the big picture...




I haven't yet replaced the towel or toilet paper holders because....well, I'm cheap. I haven't been in the mood to spend $30 (minimum) to replace something that is really still OK. Hopefully I'll either a.) win the lottery, or b.) find a great sale!

Nothing is on the walls yet, either. Still waiting to be inspired for that one.

And then there's the cabinet. To paint or not to paint? What do you think?