Clutter has been removed, including some very big items. Some items found new spots in other areas of the house, but most of it went to a local charity. It feels so nice to have it looking clean. And of course, we love that we now have space for working out!

The OpenSky Project is a very unique and different kind of shopping experience. Why? It’s a lot more like a community, where passionate people connect and help each other build their businesses. As a blogger, this means a unique shop, where I choose only the products I really love. This is awesome because I often get asked about products that I have found online in smaller shops, and now I will have one place to direct people so they can find these unique things too!

The other great thing about OpenSky is that it connects smaller sellers with great products to a much larger audience. The items you find in an OpenSky shop aren’t things that you will find at your local big box store. If you have been online for long, you know how many amazing home based sellers and small businesses are out there. They can partner with OpenSky too, and create buzz through blogs who love their goods.

I am so excited about putting together my shop and sharing the products that I love with you. The shop won’t have only home and garden products, although most things will be in that category. I plan to share a lot of the things I love, after all, a home is meant to be lived in, and there is a lot more to life than just decorating!

If you know of great products that I should carry in my shop I would love to hear about them! And if you are a maker of great things, I encourage you to check out OpenSky as a supplier.

Someone sent this to me via email, so I don’t have proper photo credit (if it’s yours, let me know so I can credit you, or worse, if you want it taken down, I’ll do that too). Anyway, be sure to click it and look at it larger. It’s truly amazing and breath taking. If this image doesn’t inspire your creative juices for the week, I don’t know what will!

In a dream world, we would be finishing the basement. However, since our budget is zero, we can’t hire an electrician to wire the basement. We’ll make something good happen though, even if we have to leave it unfinished! Here is the horrid before, where you can see just how packed full of “stuff” our poor basement had become. What is it about unfinished basements and their amazing stuff magnet powers?

It also turns out that it’s a hard room to photograph well. You can see that we have shelves for storage, and there is a work bench that was also here when we moved in. We might remove the shelves and put things on the other side of the basement (there is a second room, also unfinished), so we can gain the extra 3 feet that the shelves take up. Of course, that would mean dealing with all the stored items in those shelves too, which after spending all day clearing out the main part of the room, doesn’t sound all the appealing.

Today will bring a run to the thrift shop to donate all the things we are letting go of. And hopefully not much more than that since today is a holiday and we will be spending time with family and lighting fireworks. More photos to come though!

Which brings me to current ugly that needs to be dealt with. The kitchen light.

It’s an old 80′s box style fluorescent lighting fixture, with a yellow oak box. Luckily, most of the time it’s barely noticed, but lately it’s not just being ugly on the outside. It’s being ugly on the inside too! There is something wrong with it. It won’t turn on right away, at times taking up to 5 mins or more to get going. And we have replaced the bulbs too (of course). So, we think it might be more than time to get a new fixture.

What kind of lighting do you like in kitchens? We are leaning towards pot lights, or maybe even some sort of awesome track lighting, but just aren’t sure. Have any of you replaced an old box style light before? Any tips?