Question And Answer Time

Have questions about Exquisitely Unremarkable DIYs, projects or crafts? You're not alone. So let's get to the answers.
Today, I'm going to try something totally new here at Exquisitely Unremarkable. Today, they'll be no DIY, no crafty creations and no decorating reveal.

Nope.

Today, I'm going to answer some of your {not so} burning questions.
Over the years I have received many, many inquiries about my projects and crafts. You would think that there would be a huge variety of topics and interests, but, funny thing is, I find myself answering the same questions over and over again.

I finally decided to get smart and take the time to put some of the answers in one place. I've listed them kind of in order, starting with the questions I'm asked most frequently. I also threw in a few random ones...because, come on, it's the internet.

There's bound to be a few sillies in there. I've been at this almost seven years. Trust me there have been some doozies, but since Exquisitely Unremarkable is rated G, I'll keep it clean.

Let's start with some snowflakes, shall we? This one comes up at least once a week. Even in the summer.

How many snowflakes did you use for your dollar store snowflake wreath?

Given my feelings about winter, I find it ironic that this snowflake wreath is my all time most popular post on Pinterest. I don't know why, but it's been a huge hit for years. Understandably, I get a lot of questions about it...and number one is...how many snowflakes did you use?

I think it's funny, because you could also just count them in the picture, but I'm happy to do it for you.

There really is no hard and fast rule, you can use as many as you like, it's all about personal taste and depending on the size of your wreath frame that number will change.

For mine, I used a 12" wire frame and 24 snowflakes. Mystery solved.

How do you wash your handmade curtains?

This one is a close second. The answer?

It depends. I will say right off the bat that I never wash them in the machine. They would probably shrink or run, and I wouldn't want to chance it. I'm not a professional seamstress and every creation is a hard won battle.

Instead, I either have them dry cleaned or I simply hang them outside on a sunny day. It's the dust I want to get rid of so a good shake usually does the trick.

I mean they're curtains. How dirty are they getting? Like my mom used to say, They weren't out mining coal!

Gosh, I'm getting old.

How is that kitchen sink skirt holding up? Doesn't it get germy and wet? That's gross.

Well, so far so good. I have to say that we don't grab it with dirty, wet hands. We didn't handle the cabinet door like that, with a hand full of raw chop meat, so we don't touch the curtain like that either. It still looks pristine.

However, if it gets icky looking or an accident happens, I'll take it off and have it cleaned. That's a simple fix...or better yet, I'll make a new one with something from my fabric stash.

While it's made from the same material as the curtains, in this case, I don't think a good shake would be sufficient.

How is your patchwork chair skirt holding up? 

Clearly, I get a lot of fabric questions. I also receive questions about how my DIYs have held up. I think that's fair.

The chair is still super fabulous. Many people sit on it every single day and none of them are careful. Well, expect me. I tackled that DIY about three and a half years ago and the iron-on web is still firmly stuck in place. Nothing has budged, wrinkled or ripped.

The only disappointment I've had is that fact that I don't have another chair to cover that way. Yet.

I can't sew but I want to make your {Fill In The Sewing Project Here}... 

I don't know why so many people are terrified of needles and thread, but boy oh boy, it's a real thing. As soon as I mention the word sewing, the emails come in in droves. Followed by all the I can'ts...

Here's my answer. It's one no one wants to hear - learn. It's super easy. Seriously, if you can drive a car, you can use a sewing machine. You push down on the pedal and steer the material slowly along the path under the needle. That's all there is to it.

The hard part is the planning. The measuring, the mapping, the folding, ironing and pinning. And even that's not hard, just time consuming and kind of annoying. Once you have that down, the stitching is a breeze. Well, if your machine behaves, but that's another story,


HOWEVER, if you really, really don't want to learn, but you want to make the pillow or apron or valance, then use the fusible webbing that I used on my chair. I can't recommend fabric glue since I've never used it, but that webbing? Absolutely.




Just place it wherever you need two pieces of fabric joined together and iron it in place. Trust me, it works!

What do you use to hang your holiday lights in the window? 

Now here's a question I get that always shocks me, since I've only talked about hanging lights in my window frames one time last Halloween, but people refer to Christmas lights. I did hang them inside the frames last year, but I never really posted specifically about it. I guess people see the pictures and wonder.


Here's the deal. So when I hung Christmas lights in the past, I just draped them over the window valances, like garland, even though I preferred the look of the lights anchored to the windows, square and neat. I never had the patience to tackle that project. Or the know how.

Then last fall, my youngest wanted orange lights in the windows, like that, so I taped them to the glass with clear packing tape. It worked, but not well, they kept falling down from the variation in temperature on the glass...heat, then cold and even a teeny bit of condensation some mornings. The tape also left a sticky mess behind.

At Christmas, I was determined to make that look work with white lights, so I tried every sticky window hook I could find from Command to no name brands and the best were the cheap ones from Home Depot.

This 25 pack of mini light adhesive clips worked like a charm! I bought extras to have on hand but haven't needed them.


Not only did they stay up all season, they're still on my windows today...holding up another season of orange lights.

I never took them down. They were inconspicuous all year long and now I'm ready for Christmas without the fuss. Keep in mind I only use these clips inside. I doubt they'd work well out and I did occasionally have to replace one or two, but overall, a huge success.

You cook in a convection oven, how do I adjust your blueberry pie recipe for my regular oven? 

A convection oven usually cooks about 25% faster than a conventional one, so if my recipe calls for 45 minutes of baking time, you would keep your pie in for about an hour. Of course, all times are estimates based on your particular oven. So set a timer and check it often.

What is your dream car?

Ok first off, it's not red. Can you believe it? My friend Carla and I just had this discussion. I'm a big fan of black or white when it comes to cars. I'm solid there, but with so many choices, it's hard to pick a favorite model.

If forced to pick, I adore classic hot rods. My favorite one being the 1967 black Camaro featured in John Cusack's movie, Better Off Dead. I love that car. Classic muscle, elegant sleek lines and it's in a funny movie.

It's a cool dream to own one, but it's not very practical. None of today's safety features, no back up camera and no hands free access to Siri. That just wouldn't work. So if I had to choose anything else, I would get a brand new Ford F150. So big, but so beautiful. In real though, I'm a Jeep girl. Had many, love them all.

And like I said, not a red one in the bunch.

Do you have any pets?

Pets. Well, no, not currently...unless you count the fish in the pond...which I might add, I have named. So maybe?

In the past, the Exquisitely Unremarkable household consisted of two kitties, Scarlett {my first baby} and Tommy, a Yorkie named Pepper, hermit crabs, turtles, frogs and more goldfish and fighting fish than I care to count.

Do I miss them? Sometimes. The furry patter was so sweet and I spoke to them all day long. Scarlett used to answer. She was the sweetest. However at the moment, I've hit my limit on the responsibility front.

No more, at least not for now.

How do you keep your house that clean all the time?

Ha! I don't. Pictures are marvelous. You can just push all the dirty dishes and laundry out of the way and snap that shot. That is how I keep my house looking clean all the time. At least on the internet.

My home is my happy place, and decor is my passion, so yes, I do try to make it look magazine worthy every day, for my own enjoyment, but I'd be a big fat liar if I said it looked like that all the time.

In real life, that's just not possible and I make no bones about it. While it's rarely this bad, I shared this picture back in 2013 after a very crazy day. A lot of people live here and decor is not their passion nor their priority.


There are often shoes at the door, backpacks on the floor, pillows tossed all over and paperwork on the kitchen table. Sometimes it makes me cringe, but as I told my friend this morning, it is what it is.

I will say that overall my house is very organized, I make my bed every day and wipe down the bathrooms and I don't keep a lot of clutter around. When in doubt, throw it out had become my motto. That all makes it much easier to tidy it up quickly so I can get to the good stuff.

Oh...and no one wears their shoes in the house. That's my only hard and fast rule.

How do you drink hot water with nothing in it?

One sip at a time. 😉

Why did you pick formica countertops? 

This is another perennial favorite and I never know if people are asking because they think they look nice or I just cheap-ed out...which I did. But not for the reason you may think. It's not like I wanted granite or marble and we couldn't afford it so I picked laminate instead. It was very deliberate.

Every kitchen I walked into back in the early 2000's had those stone countertops and I didn't like them. They were too shiny, too flashy and just not my style. I wanted a muted palate, a warm room, nothing slick or modern.

My dream was wood, but both my contractor and my husband said, no way, that's a building and upkeep nightmare. Plus, I wanted mahogany which was pricey.

If that wasn't an option, I wanted something that was muted, that would blend and almost fade away. So laminate it was...and lucky me, it wasn't expensive at all.

15+ years later, I couldn't be happier with it. I adore the look, it doesn't have a scratch or stain on it and it suits my sweet cottage so well.

Would I do it again? You betcha.

How do you start a blog?

This is probably the only question I don't know how to answer, since when I started blogging, I just jumped in without a clue. I picked Blogger to start because it was free and I actually really liked it.

I was talked into moving to WordPress, because it's supposedly the gold standard, back in 2014 and was hacked immediately, so I came back to Blogger. Most people don't do that.


So, I'm truly the last person that should be dishing out advice here. I learned it all the hard way through Google and trial and error. I've gone against the grain and I'm actually still learning, every single day.

What I do recommend, is do your research, think about your goals, are you in it to make cash or just as a hobby? Either way there will be expenses for domain names, email providers to send your newsletters out, photo equipment and editing software and if you choose WordPress, you'll have to pay for hosting every month, security and back up.

There's a huge learning curve and it's way more time consuming than I ever imagined, but also way more fulfilling that I ever dreamed.

And that makes it all worth it.

Well, that's all I've got for now folks.

This concludes my first question and answer session.

I hope you learned something.

And if not, I hope you at least enjoyed it.

Oh...and if you have any questions for me, ask away!

Maybe we'll do this again!