Best of 2013 at Concord Cottage

Hi Friends and Happy New Year to you and your family!! Every year I love to take time to reflect a little on my year and what was accomplished as well as what I’ll work on the following year. This was my first year (well began in August so really a 1/2 year) as a blogger and Hometalker. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you following along and taking this little journey with me. I have some HUGE plans for 2014 and hope you’ll continue to watch as we come up with some great ways to improve our 93 year old home on a budget. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of 2013. We showed you how we updated our out dated 1922 kitchen and got rid of the striped floral wall paper, wood cabinet doors on cream cabinets and made it into a shabby n chic kitchen on a budget. We showed you how we updated our Living Room by stripping the wall paper and painting it and added a Gallery Wall from a wedding gift and Thrift Store Mirrors. We updated my daughter’s room into a Teen inspired purple and black haven and took a $10 Yard Sale find and turned it into a cute black and zebra teen Vanity that she loves. We showed you how we updated our back yard on a budget and used $1 Store Pots that we painted to add a lot of color back there. We showed you how we stripped 6 layers of wallpaper and added a shower where there was only a tub in our upstairs bathroom and turned it into a “Pink Powder Room”. We showed you how we used Nfl Paint Color and T-shirts for some great Sports Themed Artwork in my hubs “Pittsburgh Steelers Tv Room or Mancave.” including a hand painted Ceiling Fan. We showed you how we gave our Laundry Room a makeover and made a ruffled drape and chicken wire chandelier. We shared with you How to Sell your stuff on Ebay. I’ve been selling Designer Bedding and Clothing on Ebay for over 12 years and it’s such a great way to make extra money to supplement your family income. We did a lot of fun things for the Halloween and Fall Season and did a Fall Round Up post to share them. We showed you are Animal Print bathroom we did on a budget with mainly a can of paint and an animal print skirt. In late October I found out that I was selected as one of Scotch’s 8 Most Gift Wrappers and won the chance to go to New York and compete in a Gift Wrapping Contest for $10,000. The story about it here. I shared our wonderful trip to New York here and although I didn’t win the big money I had a wonderful time with my husband and made some great new friends too. I got an early start decorating for Christmas because of our trip, and shared our Holiday House Tour here, Holiday Kitchen here and Holiday House Tour Part 3 here. So 2013 was a busy year and I guess we did accomplish quite a bit in our home over this past year too. I have some great ideas and lots of things I want to do to improve our home in 2014 so stay tuned. Wishing you a very Happy New Year to you and yours, Lisa