Here's the Plan for Our Bedroom...

Hello! 

So, back to our house. We have been knocking out a TON of projects lately, and quite truthfully, I haven't been dealing with the mess very well, but it feels good to finally see real progress. FINALLY. 

More on those later :).

Another project that I have managed to be crazy enough to start during the existing chaos is making over our bedroom. I cannot take it anymore. Did you know that it is seriously depressing to wake up to this every morning?

These pictures are from our walk-through, so we currently have a bed in here and our dressers from our last bedroom, but that's it. We have not painted (I KNOW), we have not hung anything on the walls, and we definitely have not replaced that icky fan or the water-damaged carpet. 

(creepy mirrors)

I do want to say though, that I LOVE this house. I love this bedroom. I love the size of it! It is huge and it has the perfect spot for a king bed (underneath those creepy mirrors), room for all of our furniture, and plenty of space left over to play and walk around. I've always wanted windows on either side of our bed and now we have them. I am thankful--but I am ready for things to be pretty again.

The main reason we haven't done anything in this room (or most of the house, for that matter) is that I have been trying to save up some money. Well, I did that (!) but then was torn on how I wanted to decorate everything. When we moved into this house, I said that I was going to be more bold in my decorating choices...but I just can't. I am drawn to soft color palettes, natural textures, and clean lines. And I am happy with that. :)

With ALL of that being said...I have finally gotten around to selecting paint and fabrics and putting together an inspiration board for our bedroom. Here it is:

We already have the headboard. It's a Drexel Heritage and I got it at TJ Maxx for $250. It was extremely discounted because it didn't have the frame with it, which was fine because I was just wanting a headboard anyways. I LOVE this thing. It is huge and substantial and a true statement piece but in a subtle way.

The paint color that I have chosen is Benjamin Moore Refined. I'm going to use it at 50% though. I have about seven paint colors on our wall right now and this one is SO pretty and soft. It goes super perfectly with the fabrics for this room. I ordered about 30 swatches from fabrics.com and am SO excited to use these together. (Sidenote: When asked if he cared about using a floral fabric in our room, Bryan immediately rolled his eyes and said "I'm a guy, why would I care?" And that is why I love him ;)

I've already gotten a new quilt from Overstock (this one), and we just got it in the mail two days ago. It is awesome. I also went and got king-sized pillows last night so now we actually have pillows that fit our bed!! If only I could convey my genuine excitement over this fact--it is ridiculous.

I'm still on the lookout for an awesome couple of dressers and have my eye on several bedside tables. I would really like a mirrored set to add another layer to the room. Let me see....a woven bench or set of stools would be amazing for the foot of the bed---something light and airy though--gourd lamps are a must, and so are my favorite bamboo blinds, also from Overstock (I like that place a little too much). I'm also thinking of sticking with my favorite white curtains from Ikea for both windows. They are so airy and nice looking in real life!

We eventually want to replace the old carpet with something like sisal or a natural fiber (along with new baseboards), but that will unfortunately be the last thing we do in the house since we have so much dust and construction going on. I'm trying to be patient about that one but it is hard to wait!

We also have something fun planned for the ceilings and the only thing I'm still truly torn on is whether to stick with a new ceiling fan since we do actually use it throughout the summer (SO HOT), or go the pretty but less practical route and get a glitzy ceiling mount like the one above.

ALSO. There is this weird little corner in the room. It's about 3 feet deep and 6 feet long and neither of us know what to do with it. It's driving me nuts!

Originally we talked about building a desk for me to work at. But then I didn't want to bring work mess into our room, so that idea was nixed. Then we talked about building bookshelves, but we have those in the living room (though they can be moved...), then we talked about being a small sitting area....and then about closing it off to be an extra closet. (We each have our own walk-in closet in our bathroom though.) What do you think? Any ideas? I'm having a hard time finding inspiration for this particular problem and am just stumped.

So that's where we are with that. It's so exciting and refreshing to get going on this. I hope to hear some of your thoughts and suggestions!

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Ten Things to Blog About

Hi!

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to pop in and blog something because, oh, I don't know, I was feeling guilty about starting a new blog and then being the worst blogger ever.

I have a couple of things bouncing around my head tonight and I thought I would share them since this is my blog and all.

{1} We finished our laundry room! I will take pictures at some point in 2014 ;). And we went all out, too. New everything--floors, ceilings, door casings (craftsman style!), shelving, paint, lighting, and accessories. Going in there makes me happy which is a big deal because laundry sucks.

{2} This little one is turning 2 in a couple of months and I started planning his birthday party this week. I am bound and determined to keep it small and simple, but I love the theme. It has to do with some of his favorite things, which are construction trucks. :)

 

(Oh, those times that he wraps his arms around me and smiles! Melts me.)

{3} We are in Austin right now at a SUPER nice resort that has been fully funded by the school district thanks to the fact the Bryan's golf team is playing in a tournament and I'm the official "women's sponsor". I had to get a background check and everything. We are having a blast and even bribed my mom (with Parker's presence) to fly down from Denver (Go Broncos!) and spend the long weekend with us.

Yesterday, we shopped around the famous 6th Street District (more like on 2nd Street though), saw the capitol, and ate some great food. (Annie's and Hula Hut for the locals.) Today, we are going to the park so Parker can ride the "too-too" train and possibly to the children's museum if we have time.

 

(Picture of the resort. Yep!)

{4} I have read a lot of books since Christmas break and have loved most of them. They are: The Divergent Series (Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant---I can't even...they are good...and I don't want to spoil anything, but I had a hard time with the last one), The Spectacular Now (great book, and maybe the only book I've ever read that I liked the movie more--I mean, it has Kyle Chandler in it! Coach Taylor!), If I Stay (sad), The Maze Runner, and Reconstructing Amelia (it was good, although it has a ton of plot holes). I am currently on Sisterland. It's great so far.

{5} I need to re-paint my brand spankin' new-to-me barstools that were a total score off of Craigslist (3 for $60). Yep. And they look almost identical to these from Pottery Barn but with a natural wooden seat instead of woven:

 

 I can't decide between the original black or maybe a gray or maybe like a deep gulf green?

 

{6} Speaking of barstools, I also need to suck it up finish the kitchen and post pictures. It is done from a glance, but we still need to:

-Paint the pantry door
-Put new craftsman door casings on pantry and kitchen entrances (this is Bryan's to-do), paint
-Paint baseboards to match cabinets
-Pick out a freaking chandelier. Guys, this has been torturing me for months. Maybe I should blog about it?
-Get a new rug for the dining room
-Paint barstools
-Possible paint door hardware and knobs (is anyone opposed to the antique brass trend?)
-Possibly, maybe, but probably not convince my husband do to a bead board backsplash
-I would love a new SS dishwasher and stove but that ain't gonna happen right now. Patience is a virtue! And appliances are expensive.

 {7} The shop has been super busy lately which I am extremely grateful for! Parker isn't going to college and our house isn't getting decorated without my little shop on Etsy. (You think I'm kidding, but I'm actually not, ha!) This is my newest invite and I like it a lot--just added it the other night.

{8} Bryan just finished talking in his sleep. Something about toilet paper and effectiveness. My mom and I died laughing as I egged him on. And yes, I am writing this post in the middle of the night. And yes, my mom passed her insomnia on to me and my sisters.

{9} My main New Year's resolution was to go to bed before midnight which I am failing at miserably right now. Oh well, I'm on vacation, right?

{10} While shopping in Austin, we came across a FLOR store, which I have seen around blog world and was interested in since I (eventually) would like to get a new living room rug. The one we have right now is too small for the room so I am being forced to shop. ;)  I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of FLOR's carpet tiles! After going to the store, I'm also thinking of using them wall-to-wall in our bedrooms, since you can just switch out the tiles if they are ruined and they have some great natural fiber options which is what I have been planning to put in the bedrooms anyways. My favorites are Roadside Attraction, Weave a Story, A Tisket A Tasket, and Suit Yourself.

 (Roadside Attraction)

 Well, I HAVE to go to bed, especially after this novel. What has been going on in your world? Any new projects? Books? Trips? Great places to go in Austin?

 

Have a wonderful day!

My First Oversized Poster Print!

To be perfectly honest, one of the main reasons I wanted to start decorating with black in our new house was because of my obsession with chalkboard prints. :) I know that I share this obsession with a lot of people right now and that is fine by me! Now that we finally have some black in our kitchen and dining room (cabinet hardware, shelf brackets, etc....so exciting!), I thought I would make my very own chalkboard print for Christmas. I used Isaiah 9:6. I had this verse on my bible cover when I was like 9 and have been obsessed with it ever since, haha. Just a side note. :)

I made this to fit a cheap-o Ikea frame that I've had for about a year now. I actually think it looks really nice when spray painted with gold leaf...not too cheap at all! I may spray paint it a different color eventually because it was hard to get the gold to look even, but we will see.

This was also my first time to print one of those super popular over-sized blue print posters from Fed Ex. It cost me all of $3 for a 20"x28" black and white poster!

(Aaaaand you can see me. Looking awkward. I think I was trying to duck from the tri-pod, haha)

The quality is actually pretty nice, except for that it didn't print quite as much of the chalkboard texture as I would have liked. For the price though, I am A-okay with that. ;)

I put this on our Craigslist buffet which now has a new home in the dining room. I LOVE it here! 

I may end up moving this poster to the mantel, but I wanted to get a few quick pictures today because I have listed it in my shop! It is available as an instant download 8x10 printable OR as a custom-sized print. (Perfect for these oversized posters!) Please head over there to check it out!

We just got our NEW faucet in the mail today and I am in love! Hopefully Bryan can install it tonight and then I will take some pictures. And then after that maybe I will get around to decorating the rest of our house for Christmas! Y'all, I can't handle our house right now. I am looking at pumpkins and ornaments in the same room and it's driving me nuts. 

Yay! Two posts in one week. Go me! Have a great rest of your week.

New Curtains and Shower Decorations

Hello! We've had a crazy couple of weeks, but I wanted to pop in and share a little peek of our new dining room curtains and some of the decor my friend and I made for a lingerie shower this past weekend. I LOVED it. 

My friend Alli pinned a triangle garland that we both fell in love with, so we decided to make our own version. I ran these through my sewing machine and was amazed at how much I loved the look! 

We went with the super popular gold and pastel color scheme. I found some beautiful lace fabric on super sale (very similar to this inspiration image) and we used that as our table cloth. The shower was at night so I took all of these before the food was out...all of the platters have sticky note labels on them if you were to zoom out :). 

We also did a monogram theme and had several B's around the house (for the bride-to-be's future last name) as well as some delicious custom monogram cookies that I forgot to take a picture of! (Similar to this but in our colors....if you live in Lubbock I will hook you up with the best cookie lady ever!) I got that frame at Goodwill and painted the frame gold, the matte board white, and the original print with chalkboard paint. Alli drew the B and the laurel....she is great with chalk!

I also sewed a few ruffle garlands and basically want to keep them up forever. I LOVE them. They don't look as substantial in the pictures as they do in real life, but they added a lot to the table backdrop! Easy to make, too.

Our new curtains are from Ikea and so is the curtain rod. The curtains are pretty popular in blog world and I think they look a lot more expensive than they actually are. They are thick with a linen look and have the hidden pinch pleats which is a plus! Also, finding reasonably priced curtain rods for bay windows was a pain in the hiney and I was so relieved to see them at Ikea! 

In the living room I hung more paper and ruffle garlands. And added a B. I never know how to decorate living rooms for showers but I like how this turned out. When I took these, we were in the middle of a nasty dust storm so all of the colors look weird since it was brown and dark outside...sorry. ;)

We also finished our KITCHEN. Yay!!! Well, it's not completely finished--I ordered a new faucet and am still waiting to get it in the mail... and I also need to paint the pantry door and the trim, but other than that we are done for now! Y'all...it makes me so happy when I walk in there. I absolutely, positively, LOVE it. Cannot wait to share! Oh, the power of paint and a handy husband :). 

Have a great day!

Fireplace Makeover! And some shelves...

Hello, hello!

Today I wanted to share our fireplace makeover. Although I think we might like to add more to it in the future, I am REALLY loving what it looks like right now. 

If you'll remember, we started out with this...

And then we put in new floors, painted the walls, and the trim and came to this...

I was still SO bothered with how dark the brick was, so one day I just started painting it with white primer. Bryan and I talked about how else we could change it without spending too much, and about a week and $40 later, we came up with this:

(We're going to pretend the the floors aren't dirty, okay?)

I am seriously loving it! 

After some debate, I've decided to go a bit more vintage/coastal with this house since I tend to buy home accessories and art (especially seasonal decor) that lean toward those styles. That decision is what led us to move forward with painted brick and a bit more rustic looking mantle.

I used Benjamin Moore Gray Owl (75%) for the color and we bought plain pine boards at Home Depot and stained them with (what else) Danish Oil. We also finally added quarter round to the base of the fireplace.

I still need to caulk and paint the trim on the sides (we tried to remove it completely but the brick doesn't even meet that wall so that was a no go!), but after that I will be done with this thing!

I also had a bit of fun last week and moved my Ikea shelves that we originally had in the craft room to the living room. Kind of shocked Bryan with that one when he came home from work, but I think he likes it. I thought it would be a good way to display our books and some extra decor, and most importantly, to hide of all of Parker's toys!

(Five points if you can spot the two-year-old TJ Maxx price tag that I have never taken off and the tipped over wreath--I'm obviously not that observant when I take pictures.)

This has truly made nightly clean-ups SO much easier since I don't have to sneak in Parker's room and put away his toys (or stuff them in a corner for the next day). ;)

I still have a couple of more things to do in the living room before I'm happy with it (for the moment, anyway). We finally hung curtains a few weeks ago but I still need to hem and iron them. I also ordered blinds and am anxiously awaiting getting them in the mail, AND I need to paint the back door and touch up all the trim...and hang artwork. (and, and, and...)

Also, if I were to pull back the lens on these photos, you would see that our living room is currently home to our kitchen cabinets which I am halfway through painting. I would be done, but stinky weather has put me on hold for now...darn. 

Cannot wait to share more! We are moving, moving, moving.

We also took this kid to the pumpkin patch tonight.

He's my favorite crazy car-loving boy on the planet!

Have a great week!

Movie Night Gift and a Popcorn Recipe

Today I thought I would share our gift for a 'Favorite Things' couples shower that we went to last weekend. The invitation instructed us to think of something that we truly loved or was a favorite item of ours--like a favorite kitchen gadget, favorite restaurant gift card, favorite type of food, etc., and give it as a gift to the bride and groom-to-be. I thought it was a really cute idea!

Bryan and I are big-time homebodies and love to spend our evenings watching movies and eating popcorn. We have a favorite homemade popcorn recipe that I make ALL the time, so I thought it would be cute to turn this favorite date night of ours into a gift.

First, I made a recipe card and attached it to a bag of popcorn kernels. I originally got the recipe from The Nourishing Home (great site!)--but since we like a lot more fat and salt (shame), I have revised it quite a bit and have a few techniques of my own to prevent it from burning :). 

We are total popcorn snobs, but this popcorn is AH-mazing and really does taste like it's from a movie theater! It's super easy and quick to make too, which is a plus. We haven't used bagged popcorn since we first started using this recipe (which is really saying something).

I bought most of the ingredients (with the exception of butter sticks) and put them all in a giant popcorn bowl. I couldn't find one that was really cute and inexpensive, so I settled for a plain black plastic one.

I also got a Red Box gift card online, printed it, and stuck it in there with everything else. (5 movies for $6 or something crazy cheap like that!)

After everything was assembled, I topped the whole thing off with some tissue paper (Target) and managed to make a cute little leopard print bow using some wrapping paper and hot glue. 

Of course, a lot of people like movies and popcorn so there were different variations of a movie night gift...including an actual popcorn machine. HA! I'm not kidding, though. :) 

For anyone who may want to print this recipe card, all you have to do is click here to download. You can thank me later. After you've eaten the entire bowl in 20 minutes.

Have a wonderful weekend!

The Plan For Our Kitchen

Hi, everyone! I had to take a little break this past week (and a half) because things were just super crazy! We got home from Colorado last week only to leave a couple of days later for Amarillo...and have somehow managed to keep up with all of our normal activities as well. We also have four showers, two birthday parties, and numerous Halloween activities to go to this month...so it's been really busy but really fun. Anyways...I'm back for the moment...and I'm going to write some about our kitchen today!

One of my favorite things about blogging is that I can usually sort out some of the craziness in my head when I write out a post. So, please excuse the explosion of my thoughts regarding our kitchen in this post. It really does help ;).

Our kitchen is probably the room in our house that I dream about more than any other, and it's easy to see why when you know that it looked like this when we moved in...

Ahhhhhhhh!!! It's like a horror movie. I know! I know. But really, the room has such  potential. Seriously, I am so excited about it, I can't stand it. It opens up to the dining room with the huge bay window that I have shown you before, so it has a lot of natural light. It also has a great layout, and, like everything else in the house, is very basic and bare so is pretty much a blank slate. The only things we've done since these pictures were taken is paint the walls and put in wood floors. I've attempted to accessorize, but it doesn't do too much good in this situation ;).

The cabinets are total crap (shallow, no shelving, literally falling off the hinges), so we want to replace them. The original plan was to gut everything sometime next summer...like really...everything, and put in some kitchen cabinets from Ikea. I've read great things about them, and have seen them in real life and love the look. I'm thinking the Lidingo system in white. 

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We also wanted to build them up to the ceiling to look custom with some pretty crown moulding, put in a new sink, hardware, frame out the fridge, new backsplash, new counters, put in a stainless stove and dishwasher, build a custom vent hood, put in new lighting...the works.

Then we looked at our bank account and laughed really hard. ;)

So that plan has recently become the "in a few years when we've save enough" plan. And by a few years, I'm guessing more than 2 or 3. In the meantime though, I CANNOT live in this ugly kitchen anymore. We were trying to be frugal and just deal with it, but I just can't. I need pretty things for my sanity day after day. It's a creative drain to live in a house where everything is bare and white. SO, we have begun brainstorming a new plan...which is to paint the existing cabinets, maybe add some crown to the tops, add some open shelving, change out the lighting, build a small vent hood, add hardware, and possibly add a new faucet.

I've sketched this and researched this SO many times and now I am pretty pumped! I just bought this paint sprayer, and am planning to start sanding the cabinets and painting sometime in the next month or so. I think we are painting them in Benjamin Moore Paper Mache. 

Here is some of my general inspiration for this makeover:

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Can you tell that I want to do open shelving? ;) And that's not even all of the inspiration...it's only just the tip of the iceburg. I have a zillion other kitchen pins on Pinterest.

I love these black nantucket pulls for our drawers.

And something simple like these black knobs for our lower cabinets.

And these knobs from Anthro for the 3 upper cabinets we're planning to leave up.

We will do open shelving on almost the entire wall above the sink (but will leave the uppers on either side of the stove). I want to do natural looking shelves, not painted or anything (we'll probably stain them with danish oil), and I want to use pretty brackets similar to these, also from Anthropologie. (I would like something black though, I think.) 

We are planning to leave the open shelving even when we gut the rest of the kitchen, so I'm willing to invest a bit more in that. Cannot wait to get them styled!

I'm not positive if we'll do a backsplash right now, since I would hate to rip it up when we gut the kitchen down the road, but if we need to we'll probably just throw some beadboard up, since it's timeless and cheap. 

I can't wait for a new faucet (and would LOVE a new farmhouse sink too, but we're trying to save money...), but I love this one from Ikea:

(We need a single-hole faucet to fit our current sink or else I would go with something more elaborate.)

For the vent hood, I'm trying to coax Bryan is building something like the one in this picture...(a mini version)

He acts like he's not excited...but I know he's secretly looking forward to it :)

So there's that. I need to end this novel of a post now, but I'm excited to get started! (Along with the zillion other projects we have halfway started, haha!) Also, I painted the fireplace last week! Well, just primed it. But I'm hoping to get it completely done by the end of the weekend. And I finally got curtains for the living room! I am excited to share those as well.

Have a great day!! Thanks for reading through the mess of my head.