Hello my friends! As you can tell, my late owl tendencies start up again in the summer -- our whole family goes back to our natural schedule of staying up late and getting up late. It's so wonderful for the summer but torture when school starts up again. It's the reason for my later posts over the past few weeks -- I'm working on getting these up sooner!
So I heard this weekend that Amazon is doing their "Prime Day" again on July 12 -- have you heard about this? It's supposed to be a day with big deals for Prime members only. We've been members for some time now and it's really changed how we shop. We order SO much more online than we used to and the convenience of it is great. I've found most items are delivered the same day if we order early enough, and if not that day then the next day.
Some items are more than we'd pay in the store but I've found I end up spending less overall because I don't pick up the little random things like usual. (HELLO dollar spot at Target.) I'm even considering ordering groceries online, do any of you do that?
Anyway, since tomorrow is Prime Day I thought I'd share some of my absolute favorite Amazon items here with you today. One of the things I love best about shopping online is that I often find random products that I can't always find at the store.
One project in particular is the cabinet lighting I added in the kitchen:
You can see how I did it here with a whole list of the items you'll need. It is surprisingly NOT a hard project to do and the price is really quite reasonable for the lighting.
Here's an image to pin if you want to save it for later:
I loved that I was able to grab everything I needed for that project in just a few minutes online. Normally I'm walking through the hardware store for an hour trying to find each thing.
Another favorite Amazon item is the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up:
I say it a lot but I don't say it lightly -- this book changed my life. I finished the whole-house purge a couple months ago and I keep meaning to write more about our life after the clutter was removed. It's wonderful and one of the best things I've done for our house, our family and for my sanity. ;)
The next product is one that saved me thousands during our kitchen renovation. I decided to paint our kitchen cabinets on my own and I'm SO so happy I did. It would have been at least $3000 to pay someone to do it. Honestly, I think mine turned out better than some professional jobs I've seen. Toot goes my horn, I know. But seriously:
I shared all of the steps on how to paint your kitchen cabinets here and more about the sprayer I used here:
It. is. awesome. I love that you don't have to water down the paint -- if you've used sprayers before you'll understand why that's so nice. The finish is fantastic and looks professionally done. (AND they are holding up beautifully!)
When I did a quick and cheap makeover on our son's bathroom I discovered the LED daylight bulb and it quite literally makes everything look SO much better:
You can find them here (there are different version available though). The difference still blows my mind. Regular incandescents give off a yellow tone and I didn't realize how much until I installed the daylight version. In some rooms I still like the softer look, but in bathrooms, the laundry and the basement these have been SO great.
One of my absolute favorite painting brushes is the square Zebra brush. It is hard to tell here but it's shaped in a square:
I use it ALL of the time when painting trim, and it's especially great for detail on furniture:
It paints so smooth and it is mightier than it looks. It fans out quite a bit and covers a lot. It also holds a surprising amount of paint.
Another project you can get nearly all the materials for online is the DIY tufted headboard project I shared with you years ago. Ours is still as beautiful as it was then! I love it:
I link to all of the items you'll need in that post, from button covers to foam to nailhead trim. The only thing you'll have to get on your own is the wood and fabric!
This is one of my favorite items because it makes taking photos of our home SO much easier. I was truly shocked the first time I used this -- it eliminates that glare coming from the windows and brightens everything up beautifully. It's called the Neewer TT560 Speedlite flash:
I shared a few before and after photos and more details here but this gives you an idea how well photos turn out in darker areas or spots with windows:
You can actually SEE out those windows! I had this sitting in a drawer for at least a year and still kick myself for not pulling it out sooner!
I found these Open It scissors years ago and we always have at least two on hand now because they work so well:
They make opening plastic packages a breeze. I especially love them at Christmas because we use them so much for toys. As you can see I also use them on DIY projects -- I've cut vinyl tile and "wood" with them and they are easier to use than any razor I've found.
This is a recent project but one that we can't get enough of. We added outdoor string lights to our pergola last year and loved them…but we had no idea how pretty they would look over our patio as well:
They are commercial grade and this is an instance when I think the cost is totally worth it. You can find them at Costco or at Amazon (I link to them in the post above). The lights truly transformed our outdoor space and we've been out there nearly every night since we put them up.
Last but not least, one of my all time favorite products that I use EVERY day -- the Scrub Daddy sponges:
You can read more about why I love them so much here, but the bottom line is they get major messes clean but can be softened with warm water to do more regular dish cleaning. They also NEVER smell. Ever.
The one on the left was used and the ones on the right are newer ones. I LOVE THEM. And they're cute!:
Their little happy faces really do make me smile too. :)
I love to hear of products that work well for other people so I try to share those that I think you'll find useful too. I've used all of these and love them, I think you will too.
If you have been interested in Amazon Prime, this would be a good day to do it. And this is NOT a sponsored post -- I just love the membership and the items I've found on there. :) If you want to try out Amazon Prime for 30 days you can sign up here.
Have you tried any of these? Any fun products you've found that you would recommend? I'll be back this week with some REAL progress in the loft! I'm so excited -- I really want to get that room done before school starts so it's crunch time now.
Affiliate links included for your convenience!