East Coast Creative {formerly RHBC}

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Visit our NEW Address

Hey! We're glad you're here, but you're at our old address.

To see any posts from May 1, 2012 on, you need to go to www.eastcoastcreativeblog.com

We've got tons of new DIYs and creative ideas,

so head on over and update your favorites!

Thanks!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

What's in a Name? {Introducing East Coast Creative}

Well lookie here… a new blog name and a whole new look! {Eeek!}

Let us tell you that this has been one crazy journey. If you’re new around here or missed the drama he’s the low down…

We’re a DIY and home décor blog. We’re Housewives. We’re Real. But, now we’re East Coast Creative…the bloggers formerly known as “The Real Housewives of Bucks County.” Hey, if Prince can do it, so can we! Change stinks, but we love our new name! So, our name is different, but everything else is the same. We’ll still be bringing you awesome DIY projects, cool design trends, and plenty of goofy Monica and Jess tossed in.

Here’s where you come in…

1. We need help letting people know that East Coast Creative is still us! Facebook it, Tweet it, give us a shout out on your blog, whatever it takes. We want the world to know we’re still here!

2. For now, the old address will work, but (as soon as it's functional, hopefully sometime today) try to get in the habit of using

www.eastcoastcreativeblog.com
*will be working soon!

3. Let’s all just put RHBC behind us and move on. {Excuse us while we weep in the corner}

On another note… none of this would be possible without the amazing talent of Kim at 733 Designs. She put up with a lot of our crazy ideas, slight breakdowns, and was super helpful and fast in making this all happen.

Finally, we are so thankful for all of YOU! The positive feedback we get from you (especially in response to yesterday’s post) is so encouraging. We love this blog no matter what the name,(wait… what’s the name again??) and we’re so glad you do too.

Soooo....what do you think?!

With love,

The Bloggers Formerly Known as The Real Housewives of Bucks County

** Other blog post titles that were considered:-How not to get sued-East Coast What???-The Housewives are Dead to us-Crap we need a blog name-A Case of Mistaken Identity

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Part-Time Blogger's Dilemma {Let's Be Honest}

Ok, it's time to get really real with you. About us and our blog. It involves a little something we like to call:

We recently received a very nice comment from a regular follower that prompted us to write this post. Before you read it, I have to say that we were very grateful for this reader's honesty, and the sweet way she voiced her concerns. There's nothing we love more than good, honest feedback from the lovely people who visit our blog every day!

Ack! She nailed our current dilemma right on the head! Let me give you a little back story...when we started this blog a little over a year ago, we did not anticipate it interrupting our lives at all. It was just a place to throw all our ideas and projects. We literally thought that only our moms would read it. Then came Nate (not once, but four times!),

Crafting with the Stars...

local TV coverage, newspaper articles (you get the point) which equalled rapid blog growth. AND WE LOVED IT. All of these amazing opportunities meant that we were doing loads of projects, pouring hours of our time into the blog, and spending a lot of money to keep it all together. The blog is the most important, most rewarding and most fun thing we do (yes, even more than the Nate Show! It's our first love.), so we make every effort to put 5 great posts out per week. We LOVE this blog and it has become bigger and better than we ever expected.

But here's where our dilemma comes in: In addition to the blog, we both work other jobs, raise a bunch of kids and try to be good wives, friends, daughters, sisters etc. Realistically we could not possibly keep up the pace we had been going for the first year, even though we would like to.

Not only did this little blog take a lot of time away from our families, but we also spent a lot of our own money to do all those projects! We need to find a better way. We are trying to adjust our own expectations (which, believe me, are sky-high!) and are experimenting a bit with our posts.

So what does all this mean for the blog you love to read?

1 You'll probably see only a few DIY projects a week from us. Instead of scrambling to come up with a DIY project just for the sake of having one to post about, we're being more intentional about our projects so that they're well done, and have a purpose in our homes.

2. We'll be highlighting our wonderful sponsors every once in a while to expose you to their awesomeness and also, to express our gratitude for their support of our blog that allows us to keep doing our projects. Don't worry we won't be throwing them in your faces at every turn, and we promise to only accept sponsor whose products we absolutely love!

3. We might host a guest poster, or highlight other blogs we feel like are worthy of notice! The design blog world is like a family, and we want to promote other people, like others have promoted us!

4. We'll keep bringing you our thoughts on all those fun, crazy and fabulous design trends out there, and how we're incorporating them in our homes!

So, in conclusion (are you still there?), we are crazy about this blog and all of you, and hope to continue doing this for a long time, and even (crossing our fingers) turn it into a full-time job. We hope you'll stick around for the long haul, and be understanding as we try to find balance and a system that works for us.

And now, a question for all you bloggers/mothers/wives etc. out there: How do YOU find balance?

P.S. We'll be doing a follow-up post on our top tips for Part-Time Bloggers, so get excited! ;)

How to Add {Awesome} House Numbers

Thanks for all your great comments about my new front door color. Valspar's Spritz of Lime paint might be a new obsession for me! I gave you a little sneak peek of the door numbers yesterday, but today I'll give you the full low down. Adding numbers to a metal door can be tricky, but don't worry, I made all the mistakes for you and can save you some time!

My front door is heavy, and metal or something like it... bottom line, it's not wood. I didn't want to make any holes in it. I found these clean lined, modern house numbers at Lowes. I had big plans to DIY numbers out of MDF, but for $4.99 each, I decided these would work just fine. I'm all about the DIY, but not when it makes more sense to just buy em!

So... metal numbers on a metal door... hmm... I'm smart (or so I think...) so I decided heavy-duty, double sided magnet was a perfect non-permanent solution. This way, depending on what wreath (or not) I have on my door, I can move the numbers around! Pure Genius!

The magnet has adhesive on one side, so just cut little strips and stick it to the back.

Like this!

Umm... Guess what?? I guess my door isn't really metal and doesn't work with a magnet. DARN! Would have been nice to check that out first. Oops!

They work great on my fridge! So if you even need house numbers on a fridge, now you know how!

Okay, plan B... off I went to Lowe's with plans to get double sided adhesive. I asked the nice man where the industrial strength tape would be found. Of course he asked about my project and had a better idea. He suggested industrial velcro.

It's nice and heavy duty, so I was swayed from my plan and gave it a try.

Apply it the same as the magnet...

Because this stuff is sticky, I wanted to be sure I had it straight. Look how muddy my level is... not really sure why...

Peel the plastic off the adhesive and firmly press on...

Wait 30 seconds and...
watch them fall to the ground. ARRRGGG! This is the point where I started to get a wee bit annoyed. Then I started to laugh... why would I think velcro was a better idea than just double sided adhesive? I must have had temporary brain loss.

Here's the winner and what I should have used from the start. So, if you want to add house numbers, just begin here and skip the other methods I tried!

Finally! There they are. Nice and permanent (well sorta, if I want to remove them I can pull them off, and I'd just need to touch up paint)

I love the way they look against the green/yellow!

And just as a reminder, here's what else I have planned for my porch!

There ya have it... 2 ways NOT to add numbers, and 1 way that works like a charm! Aren't you glad you have me to do all the trial and error for you?

Do you have numbers on your door? Do Tell!

Monica

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

How to Paint a Front Door {and my color reveal!}

About a month ago, I asked for your help deciding what color to paint my front door. I was really stumped! Thanks to all of you for your input! We collected over 400 responses! Best.Readers.Ever! Door Collage

Here's what you all suggested...

Red was clearly the winner with 52% of the vote and I agree that red would look fabulous on this house... if someone else owned it. For me, it's just too typical. I'm not the type that has to be different just for the sake of being different, but I do want my house to reflect me inside and out, and I just wasn't feeling the red.

So after staring at my house and this picture for what seemed like an eternity, I made my decision...

Tips for How to Paint Your Front Door

1. Clean the door well and let it dry (clearly this picture was pre-cleaning). Doors get really dingy and you want your paint on the door, not the dirt!

2. Tape your hardware Some people might suggest that taping is for a bad painter, but for me, I paid a pretty penny for this hardware and I don't want to be scraping paint off. Put your painter's pride aside and tape that baby nice and tightly!

3. Use Steel wool on any imperfections. Have any old drips or sticky spots? Steel wool will take care of that and make it nice and smooth. I had used some Zots on my door and had some sticky residue... not anymore!