Floating Shelves Please :)

So, thanks to Pinterest, I finally decided what I wanted to put on the left side of our fireplace.  You may remember that previously, it was just a blank wall.  So sad and pitiful.

Something obviously needed to go there, but I just couldn't decide what!  So, after nearly 2 years of living here, I did what smart women do (ha!), I went to Pinterest.  I found this picture and blog post, and I loved it!

From the Shanty-2-Chic blog

So I announced my decision to Parker, and he was like (-_-).

Just kidding.  

He was like, "Ok!  I'll see what I can do."  So, he looked at the plans, we made a list, and headed to Lowes.  (Can I just say that I have an awesome husband?  I can't believe he just goes along with my whims and makes my ideas come to life!  How did I get so lucky?)

<Insert funny side story>

When we got to Lowes, we ran into a family friend that works there.  He asked what we were up to and we showed him our plans for the shelves.  He was all, "Oh yeah, floating shelves.  That looks nice.  Let me show you where the molding is so you can add to it." I shook my head and was like, "Um, no, that's okay, we're not really going for the molding look," and then he preceded to explain to us that the shelves looked cheap and we definitely wanted to having molding on them.  Ha!  So I thanked him for telling us our soon-to-be shelves looked cheap, but assured him we, in fact, did not want molding... but if we ever changed our mind, it wouldn't be hard to add down the road."  Then, Parker really was like (-_-).  Hahaha!

So anyway, we bought the supplies and Parker and his brother cut up the wood.  When everything was cut and ready, he put the shelves together and I stained them.

Voilà!

I added some knickknacks that I'm sure I'll change 5 million more times before I'm happy... but I love the shelves!  Parker did a great job as usual!

Thanks babe!

PS.  This is counting towards my 52 crafts in a year!  (I'm on craft #10!)

How to Paint Perfect Stripes

We get comments all the time from family, friends, the furniture deliverers, carpet cleaners, you-name-it that go something like, "Oh my gosh!  Look at these stripes!  They look awesome!  How long did they take you to do?!?!"

Internet, let me let you in on a little secret.  It looks way harder than it actually was... but Shhh.  It's a secret.  I plan to continue basking in the glory of our amazing hall and letting people think I'm just-that-awesome.  Ha!  But, since you're my awesome blog readers, I'll teach you how! ;-)

What do you need:

• 2 paint colors (if you aren't using the color that's already on the wall as one)
• A paint brush/ roller
• Lots of painter's tape
• Yardstick
• Pencil
• Scrap sheet of paper
• Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

Our hall was already white, so all I had to do was paint the dark color.  If you have to paint both colors, go ahead and paint the entire wall with the lighter color first.  (It's easier to paint dark over light than it is to paint light over dark.)

After that, do the hardest part, which is the planning.  Get yourself a scrap sheet of paper and sketch out your wall.  Measure where your chair rail is and draw it in.

Then, think about how many stripes you want to have roughly and do a quick calculation of about how many inches high each stripe should be.

Quick tip:  Measure the area above your door so you don't end up with an awkward little strip of a stripe right above the door casing.

Now, I knew that I wanted my top and bottom stripes to be the darker color since the molding was white.  Otherwise, the top and bottom stripes would appear to be bigger than the rest because the molding would blend in with the white stripe.  Same goes for the chair rail - I wanted it to be nestled between beige stripes so it wouldn't seem bigger than the other stripes.

Once you've perfected the measurements and placements on your sketch, get a ruler/yardstick and make tick marks on the wall at the appropriate height in the corners and about every 2-3 feet.  I found that spacing the tick marks out (as opposed to putting them so close together) helped me tape a neater line.

Then, take your handy dandy tape and with one, really long piece, tape from corner to corner using the tick marks as a guide.  The key to a nice straight line = using one long piece of tape.

Then, carefully pull off your tape while the paint is semi-wet (it'll be easier to fix mistakes) and voila!

Make sure you go in with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and clean off your tick marks.

See?  Totally not that hard!  :)

*I linked up with Hope Studios Tutorial Tuesdays!  Check it out!

Christmas 2014 Home Tour

I had big plans for decorating for Christmas this year.  Pinterest is tricky because it inspires me with tons of ideas and then boom!  Time runs out.  I need to start decorating in November... like the beginning of November, maybe even October.  Most of our decorations went up just two days before Christmas.  :(  Oh well!  They are still up and we are going to enjoy them for another week!

I made our stockings this year and LOVE them, Santa's cookie plate is a painted pottery project from last year, and the springing Santa by the fire place is Ava Kate's new best buddy.

Jolly the Elf had his last lazy Christmas since Ava Kate might notice if he stays in the same place all month next year.  Ha.

Our Advent calendar on the crib spring is a total copy of our friends Heather & Lawrence's idea.  I had big hopes of a cutesy crib spring, but alas, time ran out.

Don't be alarmed if you sent a Christmas card and it's not on the shutter... we have a stack that haven't made it up there this year.  Time people.  There's not enough of it.

Look at our toilet paper snow man!  AHH.  I love it.  It makes me smile every time I see it.

Sorry about the blurry cell phone pictures.

Nursery

Welcome to Ava Kate's nursery!  It is probably my favorite room of our house!  It has so many special touches and I'm pretty proud of it!

Here is the before... it was bright lime green.  I mean, bright.  We didn't paint it when we moved in because we knew it would one day be a nursery and we wanted to know if it we'd have a boy/girl before we chose the paint color.

Here is the after:

We are so blessed to have family and friends who love us and are so generous!  The crib came from my cousin Rebecca.  It was brown (see the before picture), but we painted it white.  We decided to have white furniture since the space is small and we thought it'd be a little brighter and seem more open if we had lighter colored furniture.  My dad and Weston built and painted her bookshelf so that it'd be the perfect fit.  The lower dresser that is doubling as a changing table is hand-me-down from a friend who got it as a hand-me-down from another friend.  The tall dresser is Parker's old dresser from his parents' house that his mom so graciously gave us.  The rocking chair... I'll get to it in a minute.  It deserves its own paragraph.  :)  Besides the chair & the bookshelf, we painted all the furniture.

I made the bedding and the curtains and I'm pretty dang proud of myself.  The fabric came from JoAnn's although I searched forever and everywhere for something that fit the bill.  I made the bumper and the crib skirt.  The crib skirt is adjustable so that we can fix it as we lower the mattress.  Thank you Pinterest and Google.  :)  Mrs. Lydia crocheted an afghan using yarn she saved from Parker's granny's collection.  It sits on top of the bookshelf.

Now, on to the rocking chair.  This is the rocking chair that my mom had when Weston & I were babies.  When I was in high school and my dear friend Carrie was pregnant with her first baby, I painted it and personalized it with her son Davis' name & a bible verse.  We wrote a message on the bottom and we gave it to her.  I so do not regret sharing this precious chair with her, but after my mom passed away, I so wanted to have it to rock my babies in and to tell them all about my mom... However, I would never ask for it back... Carrie surprised us with it anyways.  I sobbed.  She sobbed.  It was perfect.  She also wrote a message on the bottom of it... I love the history of it all and I hope my children get to use it one day too and it'll have a collection of messages and prayers from each of the givers.

We also have Mrs. Lydia's rocking chair that she rocked the boys in.  We put it in our living room because it is dark stained wood and it matches our furniture in there, and the white one matches the nursery furniture.  Both are so precious to us.  I love them.

On the white chair is a quilt made by my sister-in-law, Candice, with Ava Kate's name monogrammed on it.  Beside it is a book rack refurbished by Parker's cousin.  Speaking of books, we have tons of books.  Tammy gave us over 100 books to fill our bookshelf and I think it's safe to say we have ourselves a children's library in the nursery :)

I made the wall art above the dresser and crib... and yes we need to put pictures in the frames, I'm aware.  Ava Kate is having her newborn pictures next week and then we'll get on that! ;-)

I think that's about all.  Thanks for touring!  :)

Our New Home!

Now that we've been in our home for 2 months, I figured it's about time I blogged about it!  We love it so much!  The neighbors are great, the yard is awesome, and it just feels like home!  We've painted a lot already - the foyer, living room, hall, kitchen, and front bathroom.  Let me give you a tour of what we've done so far....

Our foyer with one of my new favorite things - a huge custom chalkboard!  The color is called Dainty Blue and it turned out a tad Carolina blue, which is okay, but I really thought it was going to be grayer.  Oh well, we still like it!

Then comes our living room and the only "grown up" furniture we've ever bought for ourselves (everything else we have is hand-me-down), but we are loving it!  The paint color is called Toasted Almond... or Roasted Almond?  I don't know, but you can see that it's neutral.

Okay, now for the kitchen... it was yellow, now it's Paris Green.  We're still looking for a kitchen table.  We're picky.  And on a budget.  And I'm seriously tempted to just build it because I'm tired of looking for one.

I added some special-ness above the pantry and laundry room doors:

Then, possibly my favorite painting job from the summer is our striped hall.  It was just white, but we used the color from the living room to paint the stripes.

Let's look at it again.  From another angle.  It's awesome.  I love it.  :)

The most recently finished room is the front bathroom.  It's an aqua-ish color.  In person, it actually looks more like the color in the mirror.  It was BRIGHT coral.  I mean BRIGHT coral.

We also have a lime green 2nd bedroom and bright yellow 3rd bedroom/office.  Our bedroom is a dark brown, but I think I'm going to paint that too... and we will definitely be painting the lime green and bright yellow eventually!  The upstairs has 2 unfinished rooms and attic space, so we have room to grow if/when we want!

Lastly, the deck & part of our awesome backyard:

Including the fire pit:

Yay!  Thanks for stopping by for the tour of what we've done so far!