Halloween Decorating

So, as I have already said I am kind of a nerd about holiday decorating, I totally love it. 

I found these headless black and white pictures at potterybarn.com last year and I knew they would be perfect on our family picture wall.  I absolutely love the way they look, people don't notice them right away and then they're like, "wait, those people don't have heads"

I did these halloween silhouettes last year, and even though there are some mistakes the kids think they are kind of cool.  So they stay up. I love these halloween decorations because they are simple, easy  and a little unexpected.

Camille's Room

Kid rooms are my favorite places to decorate. I love that they are smaller so little things make a big impact, you can use fun colors and there are so many cool things you can do for wall art. So as soon as we found out that we were having a girl I got busy.

 I had an idea to paint the room gray but then I remembered that I absolutely hate painting and I decided the yellow worked fine. I liked Brooke's baby bedding but I felt like it didn't make a huge impact, so I decided to rip up the blanket because you never use it anyways and use the fabric. I used the fabric to make a bunting, rosettes for a throw pillow and decorate the lampshade.  The fabric definitely makes more of an impact used throughout the room than it did just on the blanket.  I especially love the bunting and that I didn't even have to sew!

  For the walls I had the kids each make some pictures for her and framed them.  They love telling people about how they made pictures for Baby Millie and I love that I was able to include them in getting ready for her.  For the other pictures I did an ABC art that spelled out her name that I saw on Pinterest and I cut out some butterflies. 

I really love her room its simple and cute and girly without being pepto-bismalish.

House Projects

I've definitely been getting a little crazy trying to get some things done before the baby comes.  Reid's to do list was getting kind of long, but luckily he puts up with me and we were able to get a pretty good start on my list.

Laundry Room

We made this coat rack to hang sports stuff, and wet towels from the pool, it seems like we can never have enough hooks for things.  I put up the pictures with the clothespins and I think they look so great.



Front Porch 

Our front porch was in need of a little pick me up.  So I made the wreath and got the pot and flowers.  Reid, made the bench.  Yeah, you can kind of tell one of us has a little more skill than the other.

I love this bench.  It looks so good, I'm so impressed with Reid and that he can do these things.  I think he's pretty awesome, even though I am a little biased.

Back Patio

Reid made these planters out of pallets over the winter.  I think they are perfect for our herbs and I just love the style. 

We also got a picnic table.  It is perfect for dinner outside, and for the kids to color on. 

FHE Board

OK, so this is kind of a silly little project, but we were definitely in need of something to help us organize our FHE.  I didn't want to mess with getting vinyl, so I used chalkboard paint and the wooden shapes from Hobby Lobby.  The kids think it is pretty cool and it works so that is good enough for me.

Copycat

'Tis the season!  I saw both of these DIY wreaths on line and they looked so cheap and easy I had to try them.  I think they both look really cool, see what you think.

Split Pea Wreath
From See Kate Sew

Coffee Filter Wreath
From Lowes

Our Christmas Tree

I was dreading putting our Christmas tree up this year.  I kept thinking about how little and ugly it is and how we really NEED a new Christmas tree, and how it was going to look so silly in our living room with our higher ceilings.  But somebody went a little over budget on Christmas shopping this year and we're trying to save up for a few things so the line was drawn at getting a beautiful, new 9 foot, pre-lit Christmas tree.  So we put up our little 5 1/2  foot, little Christmas tree.  And you know what?  I love it! Looking at that tree reminds me of when we bought it.  It was our first Christmas after we were married, it was early to mid November and it had snowed.  So Reid and I were out sledding one Friday night, when we started talking about how excited we were for Christmas and we decided to go get a Christmas tree right then.  So we went down to Big Lots and bought a 6 foot (there is one branch at the top that sticks up about a foot so even though it is only 5 feet, it counts as 6) Christmas tree for $25 which was basically a small fortune to us at the time.  We took it  home with the lights that we had bought and set it up and later we painted wooden ornaments to hang on it.  Looking at that Christmas tree brings back so many memories of how excited we were to spend Christmas together and how beautiful I thought that sad, little Christmas tree was.  It helps me to remember that it isn't all about how gorgeous and big and fancy your Christmas decorations are (not that there is anything wrong with a 9 ft. Christmas tree) but the memories that you create that bring your family closer together.

No Sew Christmas Throw Pillows

So I can't really sew and sometimes this can be a bit of a problem for my crafty plans.  But sometimes my sewing limitations force me to be more creative and come up with something I might not have thought of if I was a sewing genius.  These pillows are like that.  I was looking through some magazines and kept thinking how just a few simple holiday pillows really made a huge difference.  I thought about looking at HomeGoods or Ross but then I remembered the burlap sacks I used for our Halloween costumes and I thought I could use them to make some cool pillows.

  I really like them and I love that it cost me $2.50 for 2 throw pillows, awesome!

Copycat

I saw this idea on the nester a while ago and I thought I would try it.  I love word art, but the idea of picking a quote to permanently display on my walls freaks me out.  So I loved this idea of  the names of the streets we've lived on, because it is meaningful to us, but I'm not going to find the same thing written on someone else's wall.

Copycat

I saw this post on Make and Takes about making a Halloween magnet board. 

I didn't have the stuff to make a magnet board, plus it seemed like a lot of work, but I did like the idea of having a place to put several Halloween pictures.  So I got a frame I wasn't using,  some scraps of corkboard I had on hand, and a few Halloween stickers and embellishments and I had my very own Halloween pinboard.  I really like it and I love having a place to display old Halloween pictures and see my cute kids costumes over the years.  Do you see that cute little elephant? She is now a kindergartener, crazy! Anyways my point is a lot of times you can take a cool idea you saw on a blog and adjust it a little bit, and do a project with stuff you already have on hand.  Which is so exciting!

Copycat

Almost two years ago I saw this on Calico and I loved it.  I knew that I would do something similar in my house one day, as I didn't have one right then.  So I waited, and I looked at the different doilies that I had collected from Romania, and Reid's grandma and then I asked Reid's grandma to make us two more, and she did (she's so nice).  Then I arranged and rearranged and pondered this ever important life decision.  Then I asked Reid to make me some frames, but he never got around to it and then one day about a year later, I realized I had enough frames.  So I finally got these up in my kitchen and I love them.  I think they are such beautiful art, I love looking at them and thinking about Reid's grandma and my time in Romania.  I just love putting things on my walls that are important to me.

Copycat

I love to look at blogs and copy different ideas I see, I love trying new ideas I just can't come up with any cool ideas on my own. So I thought it would be fun to show some of my copycat projects.  This family tree is something I made recently. 

I saw this on 71 toes and thought the family tree would be an easy project and a great birthday gift for my mother in law.  So I went to Hobby Lobby got some scrapbook paper, borrowed a leaf punch from a very nice scrapbooker I know and was ready to get started. 
Except then I remembered that the point of the family tree was having our genealogy written down.  So I had to try and track down all of the family names, our family history had been done it was just getting it all together that took time.  That was definitely the most time consuming part of this project for me. 

I used the picture from 71 toes as a guide and just started cutting the brown paper.  It took me 3 tries but I got the tree looking the way I wanted to.  Then I punched out all the leaves.  I decided to use blue for the female names and green for the male names because I couldn't find two colors of green that contrasted well.  Then I did one main branch at a time, writing the names out , placing them and then gluing them. 

It was a simple project, and I love having it on our wall to remind me of all the people that went before us and are a part of our family.

Free is good

I am kind of obsessed with Craig's List. It can be a pain and can take a while but every once in a while you find a great deal. Like when I got this dresser, a chest of drawers and a large mirror all for FREE. Then, when I was showing my friend the gray paint samples I had picked out she said one was really close to some paint she had left over. So I got this really cool dresser and the great paint color for free. Which meant I could spend a little money on a cool lamp and picture frame, right? That is justified after I got a dresser for free, right?

Bedroom Redo

Before

After


This was kind of a spur of the moment redo. I wanted a way to hang up a few pictures, but when I painted this old frame, I realized it didn't match our room. So, I decided to paint a lot of our bedroom furniture to match the frame (I know that is weird). And then, I needed new bedding, because the old bedding didn't match the new furniture and then I needed new lamps, and new baskets, and... But anyways enough about how I spiral out of control, here are some more pictures.


Reid made these nightstands. They are very cool, and I love them, and I think it is awesome that he made them, but I really didn't like the color. So, I painted them. He kind of freaked out at first, but, I think they are growing on him.


This was the only picture I could find of the old dresser we got as a hand me down. Suffice it to say, it was ugly. I almost felt bad wasting paint on it, it was so ugly. But now that it is done I kind of like it.

House Projects

I'm in the middle of painting all my bedroom furniture right now. But I thought in the mean time I'd share a few recent house projects.


I saw this door idea on a blog and I thought it was cool. I got the door for free so I thought it was kind of awesome to be able to decorate a whole wall for $6 (paint and knob). And I had a friend make the throw pillows for me, which I love!


This is probably my favorite decorating in our house. I love these pictures. I love how you can see a resemblance from our ancestors to our kids. I love the letter we have from Reid's great grandma and the handkerchief from my grandma and the doilie Reid's grandma made. I really just love the way it came together.


This was our big project this fall. My mom gave us their old dining table a few years ago. And I really liked the style of it, but the color wasn't my favorite and the finish was worn off. So we (meaning Reid) sanded down the top and stained it with deep ebony and then painted the base and chairs black. I am so excited about the way it turned out. I love when you can take something you already have and make it just what you wanted.


I've had this license plate idea for a long time because of how much we've moved. I used the ones we had and then I just asked friends and family for the other ones. This picture is kind of dark, but in real life I think it looks cool and boyish.


Brooke's room has been mostly done since we moved in, but then I found a few old frames and decided to make some pictures. So I just used scrapbook paper and cut out some flowers and birds, super easy! It really completes her room, they look great!
Hopefully my bedroom projects will turn out as well and I'll share those later.