Friday, April 24, 2015

Friday Faves

Who is ready for the weekend?! I am! That's because tomorrow I get to go shopping with one of my friends. Woohoo! I get to escape the chaos for a little bit. :)

Let's get started with some weekend reading!

First up is a good friend of mine, Brooke. She has a beauty blog called Beauty by Brooke LeAnne. She always looks good! Beautiful hair, beautiful makeup and a great fashion sense. So of course I asked her if I could share one of her posts, Mac Dupes. I don't know a lot about makeup so this post was very helpful!


A House Full of Sunshine is a great down to earth blog and Karen is from Australia! She recently posted how to make a DIY Upholstered Window Seat. I have been wanting to make this into a bench for our dining room table but we decided to wait a few more years since our kids are little. But this is super easy and now I want to make one!


Even though it's only 40 degrees where I am, it is still Spring. The DecorChick has a great Spring Mantel to share with us.


The girls at DIY Playbook share some tips on how to make the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. These look sooooo good!


I hope you have a great weekend!


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Choosing Hardware For Your Cabinets

I have been in the process of picking out cabinetry hardware for our main bathroom as well as our kitchen. I'll be honest, after years of looking at knobs, pulls, and handles, I have a pretty good idea of what I want.

Let's rewind really quick to my last house. It was built in 1860 so I wanted to stay with a classic look. I chose black door knobs and black hardware for the kitchen. They had a small shimmer of gold on them to give it a unique feel. It really gave it a pop of color on a white background. These were purchased at Lowe's.


 
There are thousands of options for hardware. Black, brushed nickel, satin nickel, white, clear, even colored knobs. There are knobs, cup pulls, straight bar handles, and even shaped knobs. These are the selections at Lowe's. Not to mention there are many online stores to buy from as well. Hobby Lobby even has some unique knobs, like flowers!
 
 
For our current home I knew I wanted something a little different. These cup pulls have been in style for a few years now. At first I thought they were ugly and didn't seem very practical to use.
 
However, don't knock it until you try it! After seeing them on so many blogs, I decided to actually use one of these at the store. It wasn't as bad as I thought. I was also starting to fall in love with the design. Different, timeless, elegant, and a rustic feel at the same time.
 
Normally you would use cup pulls or handles on drawers. Knobs are meant for cabinet doors.
 
 
 

So I decided our kitchen will be getting these cup pulls. I love them! These were purchased at Lowe's for $3.59. You can find cup pulls online for cheaper than this. However, knowing how my husband and I tackle projects, we may be back to pick up more of these or return some because we didn't count right!
 
 
For our bathroom vanity drawers I knew in my head what I wanted and luckily Lowe's had those as well. I chose a straight handle in Satin for the drawers. I love that it is simple but has a slight design to it as well. It just seems like it was made to be in my bathroom! These will also be great for little hands that want access to all the goodies in the drawers. :)
 
 
For our vanity doors I chose these knobs, also in Satin and found at Lowe's. I will recommend that you stay with the same finish a room.
 
 
It really comes down to your style preference. What finish matches the décor in your home. Do you want something traditional and safe or are you wanting to be daring and maybe even colorful?! It's fun to mix and match knobs and handles and make your own unique style in whatever room you choose.


Monday, April 20, 2015

All You Need to Know About Curtains

I have had a love/hate relationship with curtains. In my first home I went pretty neutral with my curtain choices because my paint colors were out of this world.

These were gorgeous! A shimmery silver that I'm guessing I found at Lowe's.


A nice subtle green in the master bedroom


{These pictures were taken before the invention of the iPhone... wow we have come a long way!}

In my second home I had a good mix of neutral curtains and some with patterns. The dining room had these amazing curtains from World Market. Probably my biggest splurge ever on curtains. Since our home was built in the 1860's, I was trying to keep with the theme and give it a classic look.



The living room had slightly off white curtains from IKEA that had a little pattern in them. This room was huge and needed 8 curtains! I wanted to have a subtle pattern in here because there were so many curtains. It would drown the room if I went too bold.


When looking at decorating blogs or house pictures for our new home, I realized I was loving the very neutral walls and neutral curtains with pops of color in pictures, flowers, or décor pieces. So I painted the walls a light gray color and got all white curtains.

One thing I want to share is a before and after picture of our windows without curtains and then our windows with curtains. If you notice the before, it looks and feels sterile. The room seems cold. However, once those curtains were added it made the room feel warm and also brightened up the space.



A good tip I have for you is where to place your curtains. You do not want to put them right on top of your trim. This is a mistake I've made in my past 2 homes. This makes the room feel smaller. You either want to put your curtains all the way up to the ceiling or halfway between the ceiling and trim. This helps bring your eyes up and make the ceiling seem taller and your room feel bigger.

In our dining room/living room area I really needed to go all the way to the ceiling because the window is slightly taller then the sliding door. This would make the halfway point different between the two and that would totally bug me since they are so close together. I love the floor to ceiling look so that is how all my curtains are.


Sources:
Wall Color: Balboa Mist by Benjamin Moore but color matched at Sherwin Williams
Curtains: Ritva from IKEA
Curtain Rods: Amazon

Friday, April 17, 2015

Friday Faves

It's Friday! Time to partaaaayyy. Who am I kidding, I do not party. Unless you call going to bed at 9:30 on the weekends a big old party. Maybe I'll stay up until 10:00 tonight and be a mommy rebel!

Tomorrow we have a family wedding so I'll consider that my party night. Let's hope baby will let me stay up past 8:00. :)

Let's start our Friday Faves for this week!

First up is Young House Love. I actually started following their blog just after they stopped blogging. Wah! However, they have kept their blog up because they have sooooo many awesome projects. Like these No-Sew Curtains! I have no clue how to sew and I'm sure there are others out there so these would be a great cheaper, easier option.


Dear Lillie is a blog I've been following for a while. Her style is simply gorgeous and elegant. Here she shows us her guest room in all its gray and white glory. I'm in love!


Two Twenty One is a great blog by Chelsea. She has everything from tips and tricks, baby necessities, and recipes! Doesn't this Cherry Cobbler look amazing?!


Cassie just painted her master bedroom.... BLACK! I am not that brave but this turned out beautiful! I can't wait to see what the room looks like when it's done.


Vignette... isn't that a fun word to say out loud? I almost feel French... almost. Carmel at Our Fifth House gives us some Vignette Styling Ideas. I think I may use some of her great ideas for a project I have been working on.


I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

A Big Announcement!

Remember Tuesday when I wrote this post about my lack of motivation? Well there may have been another reason for my laziness but I couldn't share it until now...

I AM PREGNANT!


Wow, I have been wanting to spill the beans for the past 4 1/2 weeks. It feels so good to finally be able to tell the world that we are expecting baby #3 on November 24, 2015. A Thanksgiving baby! Something to be very grateful for this year.

Rewind to March 16 when I was able to tell my husband the good news (although he was already curious). I had this planned out in my head (since about a year ago) on how I would tell him. I gave the kids white t-shirts and wrote #1 and #2 on them. I decided to let them color the shirts because why not?! I, of course, wrote a #3 on my shirt. We paraded in the room starting with my daughter, then son, and then me.

 
Little Babe is doing great with a heart beat of 169 and measuring in at 8 weeks 2 days.

This will most likely be our last baby so I am trying to enjoy every moment of this pregnancy and also savor my last few months of being a mommy to two. I've heard the transition of 2 to 3 is easier than 0 to 1 or 1 to 2. So I'm really counting on that being true!

We asked Big Sister what she wants the baby to be: A Girl


And we asked Big Brother what he wants: A sister! I have literally asked him 10 different times, "Do you want a brother or sister?" "Sissy!" "Do you want a girl or a boy?" "Girl." Every single time! It's because he loves his big sister so much. :)


So far this pregnancy has been more like my daughter's so I guess we will see!

We feel very blessed that God has given us these three precious gifts of life. I can't wait to see what this little one looks like!

Now onto getting some projects done around the house ASAP because I'm running out of time!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Who Stole My Motivation?

Somebody stole my motivation! Who was it?

I'll be honest, I've been struggling the past few weeks to get things done. I'm sure it is partially the weather's fault. These rainy dreary days make me want to snuggle up with my kids on the couch and pretend like they'll be this little for another 10 years. Part of it is dealing with my whiny, screamy, temper tantrum throwing, overly tired but won't sleep 3 year old. I am so exhausted by lunch time dealing with all of those things that I just want to take a break from the world and nap on the couch. I'm sure it has to do with trying to feed a family of 4 picky eaters who all want different things and running out of options by Tuesday. Or maybe it's the list in my head of all the things I want to get done in our house but it just seems so overwhelming that I can't even seem to start.

A few weeks of being lazy on the couch makes me feel like a slug. Then I start looking like a slug and I'm sure no one appreciates that! It's at this point that I tend to feel pretty defeated in every area of my life. My faith, the things I eat, the lies I tell myself about how I'm not worthy, how I am as a mother, wife, etc..


Even with all of those things going on around me, I know that I feel like a better person when I get things done. So I decided to start my To Do list. I'll be honest again, I make these things all the time. Only to be forgotten about and never seen again. This time I am making it a priority to see things get crossed off, one by one. But this time I am telling myself that it's ok if it takes me a week, two weeks, or even a month to complete a project. I am a busy mom, taking care of a big house, and trying to take care of my family. I may need to repeat this to myself when I feel like a failure for not accomplishing something in a day or even a week.

Your house may not get vacuumed this week, that picture may take two weeks to get hung up on the wall, toys may end up in your bed and I won't tell if you just stuff your laundry into your drawers without folding them. :)

I hope this encourages just one of you to start that To Do list or that project you've been wanting to do but have put off. And to let you know that it is perfectly fine if life has just gotten in the way. It happens to everyone at some point or another. We have all been there and will probably be there again someday. Cheer up, put a smile on that face and enjoy this wonderful day that the Lord has given you!

Monday, April 13, 2015

Master Bedroom Wall Inspiration

It's probably not true for everyone, but I know for a lot of parents the master bedroom is one of the last rooms to get painted, decorated, and finished. Kids take priority, other rooms in the house take priority (like the ones your guests will see), and life just gets in the way.

I am making it my mission in our new home to take the time and make our master bedroom a retreat. A place where we can go after the kids are asleep to relax and unwind. It seems like as parents we put ourselves last but I really believe we should have our own special room in the house that brings us peace.

In our first house (before kids), we were able to make our master bedroom our own with Craigslist furniture. Although I never got around to hanging any pictures on the walls. I know, I know... it's brown!


In our second home, I did not touch the master bedroom until about 2 months before we moved! I wanted it to look nice for showings and that's all the time I had to spend on it while we lived there. It never got pictures on the walls either.

This is before we moved in. An older couple lived here for a long time and didn't do much to keep it up to date.


Here it is after I finally took off that wallpaper border and painted it 2 years later. The color is Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore. A greige color that is a perfect neutral for anyone to fall in love with.


I have painted our bedroom now with Comfort Gray by Sherwin Williams. I have a love-hate relationship with it. In the daytime it's a beautiful color mixed with blues-greens-grays. When it gets dark outside, it's plain old green. Since the rest of our house is pretty neutral, I figured I would make our bedroom bold (at least for me anyway).


At first I wanted to paint it gray. Totally insane I tell you! So I'm living with this color for now but have fallen in love with a few ways to make it unique. I wanted to share them with you!

One of my favorites bloggers, Jen, has a similar color in her bedroom. She created a border with trim and added these awesome pictures which I totally plan on copying!


Kate at Centsational Girl did this amazing trellis wall in her bedroom. It adds a feminine effect so hopefully your husband won't mind. :)


The Nester did this diamond wall with duct tape! Did you hear see that?! DUCT TAPE!


Another one of my favorites, Thrifty Décor Chick, did this amazing board and batten wall in a beautiful dark gray color. It adds so much character. Love it!


There are so many different options for the master bedroom. I definitely want the wall behind our bed to be the focal wall so now I just have deicide which one of these is my favorite. Hopefully it takes me less than 2 years to decide, huh?!

Friday, April 10, 2015

Friday Faves: Off Topic

Did you miss the Friday Faves last week? I was a bit under the weather and hoped you all would survive without one. :) This weeks edition is going to be very off topic with decorating and home décor. Why not?! Let's have some fun.

Fabric. Pillows, curtains, your comforter on your bed, your couch, your chairs... they are all made from fabric. Can you imagine designing your own fabric and launching those designs for others to buy?! Wow! That's exactly what Kate Riley did and these are amazing!

I don't read too many make up tutorials because to be honest, I am lucky if I have time to put make up on! Ok just kidding, I try to wear it most days because it makes me feel like a woman and not a mommy.. in yoga pants.. with spaghetti sauce on my shirt.. and my hair in a bun that hasn't been washed in a few days. :) 

Kate at The Small Things blog is such a sweet and talented girl. Why have I never thought of Layered Eyeliner?!


Who is hungry?! Oh, just me?? Well these Meatballs from 100 Days of Real Food are amazing. My son gobbles them up. I love that they're not store bought and processed with things I can't pronounce. I always make a double batch and freeze the rest.


How cute are these sweatpants? It's totally acceptable to wear sweatpants while your lounging around the house, chasing kids into every room of the house, or while cuddling with your husband watching a movie after the kids go to bed. But Carmel makes these look appealing to wear to the grocery store! How cute!


Let's add one more style session to the mix. Cassie always looks so fabulous and put together. She has a great series called Look For Less which is so helpful when you don't want to spend a fortune on one piece of clothing. Definitely go check it out!


I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Inspiration for the Mantel

There's a big project brewing over here and I can't wait to share it with you! If you remember a few weeks ago, I showed you how to DIY a White Wash Fireplace. That fireplace is going to be getting a makeover soon!

Right now there is just brick surrounding the fireplace. It looks very plain and I've always loved a good mantel. So we're going to build one. This will be our first big project... ever! I'm so nervous, terrified, and excited at the same time!


My main inspiration comes from Sarah at Thrifty Décor Chick. She actually had her fireplace moved in her home and built a fabulous mantel with surrounding cabinets. I plan on building something very similar to what she has.

Totally gorgeous!


I also love that planked wall on top and she has a full tutorial on that here. I plan on doing this exact same thing with ours. Notice she actually has her TV built right into that planked wall and that's totally a genius idea. Not having any cords showing gives it a nice crisp look.


Another inspiration for the mantel is this gorgeous one.


I love the clean lines. It's simple yet beautiful at the same time. You could really paint this any color you'd like. I have a dark gray couch in the living room so I think I'll stick with white but maybe down the road I'll have some fun and paint it a shade of gray. But then again, I am loving gray right now so who knows!

Kate's fireplace over at Centsational Girl is stunning. Elegant, romantic and subtle.


I think you can see where I'm going with my inspiration but I want to give you a few more looks just incase you're ready for a change!

Carmel at Our Fifth House did an amazing Chalkboard Brick Fireplace Makeover. It would have never crossed my mind to do this!


Young House Love is a great blog and I'm super sad that they stopped blogging about 6 months ago. However, they have 7 years of house DIY tutorials still up and this fireplace redo is one of them.


There are so many options when it comes to a fireplace. You can gut it completely and design it exactly how you'd like. Or you can work with what you have but still make it fit your own style. You can paint brick, tile, or use chalkboard paint! The possibilities are endless.

Wish us luck! This project will probably take a few months to complete with little kids running around but I'm excited to get started.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Bathroom Renovations: Master Bathroom: House #2

If you remember here I told you all about our main bathroom renovation at our last house. At the same time we also had our master bathroom renovated. This whole process took 2 months but felt like 2 years!

Our master bathroom started off as a half bath and completely outdated.


 

The master bedroom was HUGE. It's really hard to see it in pictures but I'll try to show you. It was wonderful to have all that space but most of it was just wasted. That door to the left is the half bath. We made a huge, gigantic, enormous change to this room and actually put the new bathroom where that closet is and also expanded it out into the room.


Yes that is my wedding dress in the closet and every now and then I try to put it on and walk around the house in it.

We created a huge bathroom with a walk in closet. Although if you remember me talking about the odd layout of this house, this bedroom leads directly into the office (which acts as a hallway to the kids bedrooms and other bathroom). So the closet area had to be a little odd shaped due to the location of the office, but we made it work.

I knew how I wanted this bathroom to look even before the renovations were planned. White, white, white and gray! A white vanity, the same white tiled floor as the main bathroom, a beautiful white and gray swirl marble countertop, a nice big tub for all baths I said I would take, and gray walls. We went all out in this bathroom and it was definitely the hardest room to leave.

Pretty much everything in this bathroom was purchased at Lowe's.


Look at how huge this tub is! And in the 8 months we lived here with it, I never once took a bath. What is wrong with me?!


We decided to go with an already built shower surround. Rather than spending our money on tiling the shower, we wanted to spend more money on a nice floor and marble countertop.


This tile is beautiful for a bathroom floor. It was just under $3 for a square foot at Lowe's. I went with a medium gray grout color that compliments the wall color.


The gorgeous marble countertop. I wanted to rip it off and take it with me!






I will say the one thing I regret in this bathroom were the double mirrors. I really feel that one big mirror would have looked better in this space.


We had a decent sized linen closet in there.


The master closet was connected to the bathroom so it was all one big area. This organizer was really nice. It was also purchased at Lowe's.


I ordered those towel hooks and plaque off of Amazon. It's hard to tell but they matched the vanity perfectly!


This view is looking into the bathroom from the bedroom. That long mirror is from IKEA.


The wall color is Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams. It matched perfectly with the countertops and grout. I am actually using it in the main bathroom in our current home.

Let's take a quick look at the Before and After!

Before...


During...


After...



We love this bathroom so much that we plan on using all the same materials for our master bathroom renovation in our house now. Although this time I think we'll do some of the work ourselves. That will be interesting!