My Spring Wreath

My Aqua Spring Wreath

I was inspired by this wreath by Liz Galvan. Hers is very lovely. I painted my wreath with Blue Ocean Breeze by Krylon. I love this shade of aqua! Then grabbed 3 different kinds of flowers from the Walmart craft section. I already had the "K" on hand. It took many tries of shoving those flowers in to make it work. Still not 100 percent satisfied. I tried adding a purple bow at the top and decided that was too over-the-top.

So, I'm starting to like it! The colors make me happy :)

Princess Picture

Isn't this sweet?

I pinned it on pinterest a while back knowing it would look adorable in Violet's room. Have you seen her pink room? It's the only finished room in our new house. The printable is from Hannah over at Lily & Thistle. You should visit her blog and print one out for yourself!

The frame is from walmart. It was originally silver. I sprayed it white and then sanded down the details. Then I painted the mat a soft, ocean blue. I added a small "v" sticker to personalize it a little bit. I like how it looks in the reading corner of her room!

Linking up with these great parties!

Violet's New Room

This is the first room that looks almost done in the new house. I love how it turned out! It's sweet & perfect for my pink obsessed 4 year old. I say almost done because we would like to add crown molding, maybe a chandelier & I have fabric waiting to be turned into throw pillows. But I think it looks great the way it is for now. Have a look around! I took plenty of pictures.








Here's a source for those that are curious like me :

Floral Rug- Kohls
Large lamp by bed- 15.00 from HomeGoods
Nightstand & Dresser- Bassett brand found on craigslist for 60.00
Plastic Butterflies- Target, 20.00

Pink Upholstered Headboard- Made by my parents. Dad did all the wood work and mom did the upholstery. Turned out so beautiful! Fabric-30.00, Buttons- 12.00, Batting-10.00, Foam- 12.00 and not sure how much the wood cost. But less than 100 dollars and something similar would cost over 300.

White Quilt- HomeGoods
Pink Dust Ruffle- made by my mom. fabric from JoAnn's
heart shelf- found at Goodwill. It was green. Sprayed it pink.
Watercolor Flowers- sister Jordan painted for me
Mirror above dresser- from Kirkland's for 20.00. It was Gold. Sprayed it white.

Antique Birdcage- my mom repainted it for Violet. It's over 60 years old! One of my favorite things in her room.

Frames- most I had on hand. The tiny ones were from the dollar section at Michael's. Then decorated with stickers & ribbon.

Green bin for books- 10.00 from HomeGoods
Button Butterfly- mom sewed the buttons to canvas and then placed in a frame. Another favorite!

curtains- Target basic white embellished with butterfly & polka dot fabric. I wish I could photograph the fabric better. It is a light yellow in person.

Paint Color is Glidden Sweet Baby Girl

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear from you.

Linking up with these great blogs!

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/


http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/

http://www.fivedaysfiveways.com/

Home Goals 2012

I was inspired by The Nester to make a home goals list. Felt nice to think and put it down "on paper!" Visit her blog to see more home goals.

My Home Goals for 2012

We just bought our first house this past October. You can read more about that here. I have a huge to-do list and I realize not everything has to happen at once! I really love our new place and enjoy making it more "our space".

1. Update the Exterior with shutters and paint the front door a fun color. Pretty up the landscaping. We have a "L" shaped sidewalk that needs something to soften it up.

2. Figure out how to make the office into a guest room as well. Needs to be organized better. Maybe get rid of the glass desk and gets something more functional.

3. Put a roof or something over the back porch. (can you tell I haven't thought this one through?!)

4. Finish painting our master bedroom furniture to all black. Hang up art. I see this room getting neglected because I care more about getting the kids' rooms done and the main living areas.

5. Violet's room is almost done! Just need to finish her gallery wall and throw pillows. See below. Her room makes me happy! It's bright and sweet. I'll be posting a lot more pictures once it's finished!

6. Finish painting the hallway & front living room grey.

7. Get furniture for the front living/dining. Violet always yells "mommy, I'm playing in the room that has no furniture!" haha

8. Paint and decorate Zander's room. I already bought the grey & blue paint. He will have a striped wall behind his crib and a vintage car theme.

9. Paint the movie room. My husband has free reign over this room. I trust his judgement since he used to build media rooms for a living.

10. Get curtains for the living & kitchen area. Replace rug in living room with one that doesn't shed. Hang up art in Living & Kitchen.

11. Eventually I want to replace the backsplash in the kitchen. I'm thinking penny tile or subway tile. I want to paint our light wood cabinets white. Then have maybe a light aqua backsplash. Countertops need to be updated too. They are white laminate and stain so easily.

12. Start putting wood laminate in some of the main rooms.

And I have a lot more going on in my head! But I'll end with 12 since it's 2012. This is already a huge list and will involve quite a bit of money. But I know a year from now our new place will feel a lot more like home!

Here's some pictures of projects I've completed!

Yarn Winter Wreath~
this was so much fun to make! My first time making felt flowers. I see myself making many more.

Gallery Wall in hallway~
read more here.

Violet's new room. It's got a butterfly~princess theme going on and almost completed!

New Gallery Wall

This was my first completed project in the new house. We have been here about a month now. I had most of these frames on a gallery wall in our previous home. So, I didn't have to buy much to update my frame collection. Just bought a few more black & silver frames from Walmart. I ended up spray painting the tiny frame under the "K" silver. Then I got some recent family portraits printed at Walgreens to complete the wall.

Here is the Before~

And AFTER!

I love it! I think I might paint all the frames to match someday but for now I'm enjoying the mix matchy look. I got the "what I love most about my home is who I share it with" from the adorable Eighteen25 blog. It's a free printable. I got my 4 year old to paint me a picture with some blue to match the table. The topiary came in a 3 pack from HomeGoods for around 10 dollars. Got the yellow bird for 5 dollars at Kirklands. The lantern was on sale for 10 dollars there as well. The small dish with a "K" on it was found at Tuesday Morning a couple years ago. The beautiful blue antique table was painted by my mom & sister. She recently used this to hold drink pitchers at her wedding! Thank you Jordan for the table. This project really didn't cost much!

It was hard to get a straight shot of the wall since it's at an angle.

Hope you like my new Gallery Wall layout! Thanks for visiting!
Jill

I'm linking up with Young & Crafty and Iheartnaptime :)

We bought our First House!

(my mom snapped this pic right after we got the keys to go in!)

October has been a busy month for us. We moved into our new home almost 3 weeks ago! Moving Day was actually scheduled on a day that baby Zander got sick and had to stay the night at Cook's Children. But that's a whole 'nother blog! Thank the Lord he's fine now.

Then October 8th was my sister Jordan's wedding. I was the matron of honor and Violet was a flower girl. We had so much fun dancing and enjoying the night even though it rained! Will blog about that soon as well.

Back to the new house stuff! We have so much room now. I've been on Pinterest like crazy lately getting decorating ideas. I love that we are back in my hometown and only 3 minutes away from my family! Oh and like 3 minutes away from Target as well ;) That's always a plus.

Matt has an awesome home theater set-up that he purchased pre children. We never had the space to set it up properly. Now we have a designated room just for movies. Pretty cool! That makes me happy since it always looked awkwardly out of place in our previous homes.

We still have some unpacking left to do and lots of projects. But I'm so excited to make this house our home!

what's coming up...

We are closing on our first home in 10 days!

After years of renting this will be a huge change for our family. You can read about some of our home struggles here. You know what I'm most excited about?! I GET TO PAINT THE WALLS! I love decorating and personalizing a space. Can't wait to get started! We are moving back to my hometown. So, we will be only a few minutes away from my parent's house. It's kind of funny. My husband used to be adamant about not living in Mansfield. I think it was because he wasn't familiar with the area. Then when it came time to go see houses in person. All of his favorites were in Mansfield. I have been praying that God would guide us to the right home for our family.

We are very happy.

Also, my sister Jordan is getting married to Alejandro in October! I'm so excited for them. I took their engagement pictures. Don't they look pretty?! I'm hosting her Bridal Shower this weekend. We are about to be busy! Oh, and Violet is one of the flower girls.

And last but not least. My baby Zander will be turning ONE in November. It's time for me to start brainstorming birthday party ideas!

New Bedding Ideas

My bedroom needs some sprucing up! There is no art on the wall or paint. I most likely won't paint since were renting. But I should go ahead and add some excitement with new bedding and make a headboard. I'm going to upholster the headboard in white or black depending on the bedding I get.

Option 1- Duvet cover and shams by West Elm. This is so gorgeous and unique to me. The room colors would be white, cream, gold and grey.


Option 2- Hologram Platinum bedding by Zgallerie. I feel like this is the more safe choice of the two. The room colors would be grey, silver and maybe plum.

I love everything Centsational Girl does with her home. I feel like I could use some of her decor ideas if I went with the platinum bedding. Look at her bedroom!

Which one would you pick if you had to?

Picture Gallery

This wall is in our living room. We finally filled all the frames we had grouped together! The huge frame was empty for months. I found that frame at Goodwill for 5.00! The sticker from Michael's on the back was still there for 35.00. I lovee good deals. The glass was missing and that's why it was empty for so long.

My nice husband went to Lowe's and got glass cut to fit the frame. So happy it's done! Almost all of these frames were spray painted Heirloom White to have a cohesive look. We still have space left on the sides to add a few more. I'm saving a special spot for a picture of our little boy on the way.

I did a blog a while back about the watercolor paintings here.

Younghouselove has a simple tutorial on how to hang your frames. You should check them out!

Messy Desk

Desk Before- This is our office/throw all extra's in there room! My husband's work stuff was all over the place.

Desk After! Ahhh, much cleaner. I found those white boxes half off at Hobby Lobby to hide stuff. I need more of those for other rooms. Then I scrubbed the glass clean. This setup will work for now.
Tied a ribbon around an old salsa jar to hold pens.

This room still needs more organizing. The other half is used as an art/play area for our daughter. That's next on the To-Do List!

One room a week Challenge

My friend Mandy and I decided we needed motivation to clean some rooms in our house. We are going to start picking one room a week to really deep clean and take pictures along the way. I started with Violet's room.

See how messy? Go ahead and enlarge it. I know you want to!

After an hour of cleaning. Making progress.

The After. I have a project planned for the big blank spot above her bed.


Dollar Store frame I painted and added a ribbon hanger to. Leftover scrapbook paper is the mat.

Dress up center.

Reading corner.

She looks pretty pleased!

Now why are there still toys all over the rest of the house? Gotta pick my next room. On a side note I am so ready to redo Violet's room. Not sure when that will be. We still have over a year left on our lease so we may wait until we get a more permanent place to paint the walls and settle in.

Nightstand Makeover

Blah nightstand before pic.

I have been inspired ya'll! Since we moved into our new house I've become addicted to craigslist and thrift stores to find hidden treasures. It's really fun too.

We recently bought this 1970's nightstand off craigslist for 20.00. I liked the boxy shape of it and the fact that it has 4 working drawers. Oh and the 20 dollar part helped too. But all of our bedroom furniture is dark, chocolate wood or almost black. So, I bought some spray paint and finished this project in a couple of hours.

Ta Da! Here it is finished with the lamp on.

Here it is with the light off. The drawer pulls work for now but I will eventually buy some silver ones to match Matt's nightstand.

All I did was spray grey primer on. Then 2 coats of black spray paint. I spray painted the drawer pulls as well.

If your house needs some sprucing up check out Thrifty Decor Chick, The Nester and Living with Lindsey to name a few.

I have found so many crafts that I want to try! Here's another fun site, Dollar Store Crafts. For Christmas I made my mom apothecary jars almost identical to the ones that Pottery Barn sells for 39.00 and up. Will post about them soon when I remember where I found that idea.

Here's an after/after. I put new drawer pulls on err I mean Matt did.