A Week Of Projects

My sweet mother has been coming down to Virginia in July to help me out with home projects for at least the last seven years. No project is off the table! We have painted. We have sewn. (Ok, mom has done most of the sewing.) We have going shopping for furniture and always found a deal or too. Really, my mom has been a godsend when it comes to having someone to bounce ideas off! And when I say I have a goal for the week, I know it will get done. 

This year was a little bit different since my mom came down more to watch the boys than complete projects due to B's tournament. However my mom would not be my mom if she did do something! So thank you mom for helping hang the kiddos bathroom hooks!!!

You can also find me at A Stroll Thur Life

Prioritizes & Accessorizes

I don't think that I am alone in my love of Instagram. What started as a fun way to share pictures with friends and family has also turned into a way to see a little bit more of some of my favorite bloggers. Lately, for me, it has turned into much more! Instagram has turned into a great place to find unique buys.

Via

 As you know I do love taking pen to paper but who knew that Instagram would help me make sense out of all of my lists. And how could I not think the Lemon Drop "Priorities" Notepad is something that I need in my life!?!

Via

And if that find was not enough, I also found High Street Market on Instagram. High Street Market seems to love Blue Willow china as much as I do. Don't you just love the idea of your pens being stored in a Blue Willow cup? High Street Market is also having a sale! All of their "vintage" pieces are on sale until midnight on the 4th of July. Just enter code "VINTAGE25" and enjoy 25% off.

What unique finds have you found via Instagram? 

Before & During

I bet you thought B and I just sat on the sofa and eat bon-bons while the boys were fishing. Maybe you thought we were at the spa getting pampered. Or reading John Green books poolside but you would be wrong on all accounts.

B and I spent our Sunday giving her (and the boys') bathroom a little make-over. It all started because all three of my children seemed completely incapable of using their towel rack. All of the damp towels that I was picking up at the end of the day was starting to give me a nervous tick. So my grand idea was to take the offending towel rack down and replace it with three hooks. Easy right?

Before

After Hubby took the towel rack down I repaired the holes in the wall. As I was sanding my patch job, I was reminded of how much I dislike white walls. And since I was going to have to re-paint the walls anyway, why not re-do the room? I have a feeling this line of thinking is the reason Hubby rolls his eyes every time I say "but it will be a little project."

During

While I made a huge mess during the process I think the kiddos' bathroom is coming along nicely! The holes have been repaired and painted. The brass hardware was replaced so it now matches the faucets and the new shower curtain has been hung.

Now I just have find some nice accessories and hang those hooks!

You can also find me at A Stroll Thur Life

Magic Carpet Ride

I started a job in a new city right after college. To say that it was an exciting time would be an understatement! I found a super cute one bedroom apartment in an adorable town north of Boston. While I had the rent money I did not have a ton to finish my first place. When my Gram and Pop heard that I was in need of pretty much everything they went up to their attic and filled their car with all the things they thought I could use.

I was beyond grateful for all of the goodies they brought me. Really their generosity helped make sure that I didn't go into debt while trying to make it on my own. That being said there was one gift that I really loved and still love. It was my great uncle's rug. This colorful and classic rug has been with me ever since that first apartment.

I fear it is way past its prime and that I need to find a replacement very soon. You can see how worn it is in the picture below. Now pretty much all of the edges are unraveling. With three energetic kiddos the rug is becoming a hazard. But I am really having a hard time letting it go....

I know that I should not be so sentimental about a rug that has seen better days but Pop was so pleased that I loved his brother's rug as much as I did. There is also the fact that Pop is no longer with us that makes this even harder for me. Pop was always so giving of his time and love and I have allowed this old rug to be a symbol of his generosity. 

But even my mother (Pop's daughter) let me know on her last visit that it really was time to get a new rug. She was kind enough to remind me that Pop would have been so happy that his granddaughter and his three great-grandchildren used this old rug for so long.

Have you ever had a hard time letting something go? And do you have any rug suggestions for me? 

Ikea Hack Completed

I finally did it! As some of you know I started thinking about this Ikea Hack in July but for a ton of reasons I was not able to get to our "local" Ikea until last month. And when I say "local", I mean it is so far away that I had to rope my poor in-laws into coming over and taking care of my kiddos after school. (Thanks again Mil and Fil!!!) Then the weather took a turn...a very cold turn. Did you know that you should not use spray paint in temperatures lower than 50 degrees? Neither did I!  I can't even begin to tell you all that I have learn because we have had to improvise as we have furnished our home. (Hubby's note- I don't know why she used "we" in that sentence, I had nothing to do with it. I can't even pick out my own clothes much less attempt to decorate a house.)

This  project has been a lot like my theory on home decor: your home should grow and change with you. I have great ideas and vision - that has never been my problem. We simply can't decorate our home from head to toe in one shopping spree. Therefore our home is always evolving. And I am more than ok with that. I have enjoyed all of changes we have made and I really love all of my DIY projects.

So I guess my biggest lesson in my Ikea Hack is that sometimes projects take time. Don't feel like a failure because you can't do all of the projects you "pin" as soon as you "pin" them. You will get them done when the time is right for you and your family.

ORC - Week 10

In the beginning of October I decided to take part in Linda's (Calling It Home) One Room Challenge Link-Up. Simply put, you had six weeks to make over a room in your house and each week you would give an update. The idea sounded great to me! I had known that I wanted to make-over our family room since May but had yet to get around to it. Thanks to Linda I was going to have my family all done by the second week in November...or so I thought!

Unfortunately L's hospital stay put a stop to all of my plans. Getting L better was all that matter and I just took a break from my make-over. Slowly after L was feeling better I started to put the finishing touches on our family room and I am now happy to report that it is complete!

The two pictures above my "before" pictures. 

The room color and furniture all stayed the same so I guess you could call this more of a refresher rather than a total make-over. Either way, I am pleased with the results. Before this room had more of a moss green feel that did not seem to flow well with the rest of the house.

While the room is still filled with different colors the feel of the room is now blue, which works well with our open floor plan. (By the way, I love the idea of an open floor plan but living in one is a different story!)

After ten weeks, six curtain panels, four pillows, one painted mirror and some new accessories I am calling it a day! Now all I have to do is get ready for Christmas....

Follow my progress - 

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

You can also find me at From My Front Porch and No Minimalist Here

A Big Old Mess

After having to put all projects on hold while L was not well I am finally getting things done around the house. The only problem is that I just seem to be making things worse not better! I moved all of the furniture around only to pretty much put everything back where it was in the first place. My painted mirror was finished and hung but now I am second guessing the color. Not to mention that I think I might have hung it too high. 

I am full of self-doubt and I fear it is holding me back. I mean really, we are hosting my brother for Thanksgiving. I should be putting the final touches on our house not tearing it apart!!!

Hopefully wise words from my father-in-law will come true....."Sometimes you have to burn the farm in order to save the village." Please tell me I am not the only one trying to do too much!

Trying Not to Get Ahead of Myself

Bad news - we are not going to be able to travel up to New Jersey this year for Thanksgiving. Good news - we are hosting my youngest brother for Thanksgiving. (Hubby's note- Better news: He is bringing beer and I don't have to drive anywhere!) So I have been cleaning like a mad woman to get our home ready for next week. It turns out that a family of five can make some big messes! 

Much of my day today was spent cleaning in our formal living-room. I have to be honest while I love this room, I just don't get to spend a ton of time in there. In fact for most of November I have only gone in the living-room to water the plants. After dinner....in the dark.

So imagine my surprise when I noticed that my Christmas cactus has tiny buds! Since I feel like everything is losing color outside I was so excited to see that soon my plant will be filled with beautiful, bright pink flowers. 

I can't believe I am going to say this but...my little Christmas cactus has put me in the Christmas mood before Thanksgiving. But don't go all crazy thinking that I am decking the halls and all that. One holiday at a time and in order...that's my rule and I am sticking to it!!!

Pillow Talk

It would be an understatement to say that all progress made by me on my family room make-over for the One Room Challenge came to a stand still last week when L got sick. I really wish that I could say that I was Wonder Woman but I am not! 

Luckily though I did not have to lift a finger this week and yet progress was still made. Thanks to a friend and seamstress I have four new pillows!

I might know how to sew simple curtains and I can follow a pattern but there is something about zippers and trim that gets me every time. I really need need to take a sewing class or two but in the mean time I am happy to know that I can always call in for reinforcements!

And would you believe that all three kiddos noticed that something was different in the family room after I placed my new pillows? If you ask me that is a mommy/decorator success!!!

ORC - Week 5

At the beginning six weeks seemed like a ton of time but now I think eights weeks would have been better for my One Room Challenge. However I do feel like I am making progress on my family room make over. Slow but steady progress!

After finishing my curtains (which I am loving by the way!) something seemed off. At first I was not sure what but then it dawned on me that it was the lamp shades. I still love the base but I was so over the shade!

Such an easy fix. Simply make a trip to Target and pick up two new Threshold Drum Shades. And to make things even better they were on sale. Win-win! If only painting my mirror was this simple!!!!

It might have been a small change but when I step back and look at the room as a whole I feel like it is really coming together. Progress feels great!

Follow my progress:

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

You can also find me at Calling It Home.

ORC - Week 4

I tried to plan ahead. Really I did! I have a big event tomorrow at the kiddos' school that I have been working on since last school year. This event has sort of taken over my life this week. So I knew that I really needed to plan a project that was easy but would make a big impact for my One Room Challenge. Sounds easy right?

After I hung up my new curtains from week 2 I just loved them. But I then started really disliking the art-work we had over the mantel. In this case I am using "artwork" as a loose term since all that is hanging over our fireplace is a map of Gettysburg Battlefield. It might not be a piece of art to some but to my history-loving Hubby it is a masterpiece. 

Anyway, it was not so much the subject matter that I had a problem with but the matte around the print did not work with my new curtains. So I needed to find a replacement.

This is where my "easy" project started. I had a mirror in our basement that I had gotten a year ago. The only thing that was "wrong" with the mirror was that the color was nothing like the picture online and it would have cost me more than I paid for the mirror to ship it back. It has been just waiting for a make-over!

I had some paint that I mixed to match the blue of my curtains. I painted the frame and used a rag to rub some of the paint off because I wanted to keep some of the ombre effect that the frame already had. This is where my easy project became big headache! My perfect blue paint started to look more teal than blue. Plus I was out of "free time" and I had to just stop. Ugh!!!

So the paint has dried and it is more teal than canton blue. And my "easy project" has become an ORC fail!

What do you think I should do? Live with it a bit or just keep trying?

Follow my progress:

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

You can also find me at Calling It Home.

Split Personality Halloween

I am going to be honest with you  - Halloween does nothing for me. I don't like to wear costumes and pretend that I am some thing I am not. But my feelings on this holiday do not seem to matter. My Hubby loves Halloween for some reason which I totally do not get since he too does not like to wear costumes. And our kiddos love Halloween since it involves more candy than I would ever give them. So I caved.....

When B was just a little toddler I started decorating for Halloween. A pumpkin here and a sweet ghost there. No big deal right!?! What a naive mom I was!!!

Our collection of "sweet" Halloween decor grew but then my babies started getting older and they are still totally into Halloween but just not their momma's sweet version of it. 

As you can see the decorations have taken a more traditional scary Halloween turn as the kids have gotten older. I still prefer my sweet Halloween decorations but the kids love the new, scarier stuff I have started to put up. Which version do you prefer?!

ORC - Week 3

Welcome back to the One Room Challenge! As you may remember, I have six weeks to make over one room in my home, our family-room. My plan for transforming this room involved making a big impact with fabric but not spending a ton! 

Over the summer I made a trip to Calico Corner for some fabric inspiration. As always Calico Corner did not disappoint! I came back with four samples of fabric that I draped over one of our chairs in the family-room so I could "live" with the fabric for a little bit. After a while I decided which fabric would work in the room and how they would be used. The only problem was Calico's prices!

While I do love Calico and the way they group fabrics, I hate their high prices. My mother has always taught me that it is would than A-ok to like high-end products but it is NEVER ok to pay high-end prices. So I did what my mother has always taught me to do - I surfed the web for a better deal! 

First I started looking for the fabric, "Snokel", that I was to use for my curtains. Since I needed over 15 yards of the fabric above I knew I needed to find it for under $8/yard. And I did just that at Fabric Guru.com. They were selling the fabric for just $7.50/yard vs Calico's $15.99/yard. Plus I was able to find a coupon code for free shipping which was a nice bonus. 

Next I started looking for the fabric above, "Wonderland Pearl". This was the easiest fabric of the three fabrics to find online. In July I found the Online Fabric Store had the best price at $22.95/yard. Which was way better than Calico's $42.99!

The last fabric, "Poppy", was impossible to find elsewhere. Night after night I tried search after search for this fabric but I could not find it anywhere much to my chagrin! So I simply waited for Calico to have a sale, because they always do. And the first week in August I got a coupon code for 25% off any fabric so I jumped on the offer. Full price was $49.99 vs the sale price of $37.50. 

Did it take time to locate my fabrics on-line for a better price? Yes. Did it take longer than just buying everything at Calico? Yes. But instead of paying $332.83, I only paid $172.95 so I would say that it was more than worth the time and effort!

Follow my progress:

Week One

Week Two

You can also find me at Calling It Home.

ORC - Week 2

Welcome back to my family-room make over! Once again I am linking up with Linda from Calling It Home for her One Room Challenge. Simply put, I will be making over my family room over a six week period and each week you can see how the room is shaping up.

This week I feel like I have been swimming in fabric! I know that some people have a hard time picking out fabric but I don't feel like I have too hard of a time with that. I tend to know what I like and if it will work for me. What is a hard for me is making the first cut of the fabric. And this time it was even harder since I have 15 yards of fabric that I need to turn into 5 curtain panels. There is very little wiggle room so I measured more than twice before making the first cut!

Everything I have learned about sewing I have learned from my mother. Thanks to my mother I have learned to be mindful for pattern repeats. This helps to insure that each curtain panel starts and ends at the same spot. My mother also taught me to iron before, during and after sewing your curtains. I used to think that this was just busy work but I have to admit that mom was right. (Aren't they always right!?!) All of that ironing really does make it easier to run your fabric through your sewing machine. Plus your curtains will hang so nicely too!

Above is a "before" and below is the "after".

 

I know that I have a long way to go with my make-over but it feels like I made a lot of progress by starting with the curtains. And it does not really matter that I have totally neglected my family right!?!

If you would like you can see my first week here and I hope that you will stop by next week!

You can also find me at Calling It Home.

TGIF XI

Since I am working on making-over our family room I thought that I would share with you some accessories that I simply "need". And by "need" I mean that I will only be buying this items if I find a money tree and/or we win the lottery!

{1} Blue & White

I just love these jars from Wisteria. They would be beautiful by themselves or with flowers. Since I already have lots of blue & white china in the front of the house as well as the back of the house, I think these beautiful pieces would help balance the first floor.

{2} Fabric

Ok these are not wish list items since I already have purchased all of the fabric that I need for my make-over. But I just could not help but share a little sneak peak since I am giddy about my new fabric!!!

{3} Ceiling Fan

Our family room is a two story room which gets a ton of beautiful, yet hot, sunlight. For that reason I would love to put in a ceiling fan. Hopefully someday soon we will install one but I don't think it will happen in 2013. 

{4} Cashmere Throw

Who would not love to be wrapped in a cashmere blanket!?! I would happily take the second cashmere throw from the bottom.

{5} Ottomans

I would love to find a replacement for our coffee table. And I am starting to think that an ottoman is the way to go. Hubby just loves to put his feet up after a long day, so an oversize ottomans seems to be the way to go. Too bad this ottoman starts at $1800!

Thank you so much A. Liz Adventures, Carolina Charm, Hello! Happiness and The Good Life Blog.

ORC - Week 1

I feel like this is a two for one - you get to see my family room as it is now and then you get to watch me slowly transform it. So not only will you be getting a little house tour but you will also get a make-over. What's not to love!?!

Our family room is a bright and open two story space. It is also part of an open floor plan so you can see the family room when standing in most of the other rooms on the first floor. You can look down into the room from the second floor. So after our two front rooms were updated this summer our family room has been calling for a little make-over. If not thing else I feel like it will help with flow of our home.

The room was painted a cheery yellow a little while ago. Since the paint is in good shape and  painting this two story room is not an easy under taking - the color stays for this make-over. The sofa and chair will be staying too. I had them re-covered this spring plus they are so comfy my family would revolt if I even thought of getting rid of them.

So what will I be changing for this make-over? The curtains for sure! They matched the old slip-cover and have seen better days. And after the curtains have been made-over I will be working on some new threw pillows to coordinate with the new curtains. I need to do something about our coffee table! Then I plan to freshen up the accessories. Oh and maybe some new lamps, too!

Man that's a lot to do in six weeks. I better get started!!!

You can also find me at Calling It Home.