Nursery With Some Added Updates

Happy Monday, everyone!

I hope everyone had a relaxing and restful weekend! My family and I sure did with yesterday spent with some good friends and good food after church on Sunday.

Before I begin talking about my entire post in detail, I wanted to show you the collage I created in Picasa recently.

(F.Y.I.- Some of the pictures shown are original ones I took after I first completed the nursery).

Here is the second collage (below) that I created after a few updates were made to the nursery.

 The minor updates I am talking about here are mainly just picture editing updates and a few new additions which will be explained in more detail at the end of this post. I know...not a whole lot of changing going on in her room as far as paint or furniture is concerned, but I was playing around with Picasa this weekend and found out how to play around with the collage button. :) I'm a nerd, I know, but it was FUN!!

Anyways, I wanted to play around with the pictures that I had already taken of her room a while ago, which you can read about in one of my first blog posts here.

My whole reasoning for this post was to feature this particular post in a new "Tab" I want to create soon which will showcase parts of our home. I feel a little weird about putting up a bunch of pictures of entire rooms in our home, which may sound weird to some people, but if I'm not comfortable with something, then I won't do it. However, you will still get to see pictures of rooms along the way that have been decorated or redone and you can also read about all of the details, too. If I miss anything or leave a detail out, please feel free to comment and ask away so I can answer your question!  :)

Okay, so now on to talk about where some of the items (new and old) in the nursery came from and I will also mention the paint colors again.

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Paint colors:

Blue on walls is Bubble by Sherwin Williams

Green on walls is Lime Rickey (what a cool name) by Sherwin Williams

Items:

1. Cloud stickers are from Amazon
2. Animal stickers were purchased from Kohls (bought in store at 50% off)

3. Baby bedding and other matching products by Cocalo for Toys "R" Us (given to me by a friend)

4. Stuffed animals were gifts from my baby showers

5. Rocking chair is from Amazon.com (gift)

6. "Baby Sleeps Here Pillow" was hand-made by memaw (my mother-in-law)

7. Emily crib and changing table from Toys "R" Us (also a gift from family)

8. Flower Patterend Rug from Office Max

9. Winnie-the-Pooh and friends art was from my baby days back in the day  :)

10. Painted White End Table from Goodwill
11. Pink knobs on end table from Lowe's

12. Most other miscellaneous items not mentioned were gifts from friends and family

As you can see, most of the items in the nursery were given as gifts or passed down to us from friends and family which makes this nursery very special to us.
I have also recently updated the room a little bit since I finished the nursery last year.

We have added some of our daughter's books to this little shelf as well as use it as a space to hang some of her very first newborn clothes.  :)

 

We also added some new curtains and shade to the windows which you can read more about here.

 

I also painted this Goodwill nightstand and added some new pink knobs for extra storage space in a corner of the nursery.

The cute little pillow was a gift from my family and it fits perfectly on the rocker.

And just a few more pictures...

I think that about does it for this room. As a family, we love spending time in the nursery reading, talking, playing, and praying as a family. The colors and the feel of the room make it so inviting and a great place to spend quality time.  :)

Linking up to http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/

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Contact...Of Course!

Hi there!

Thanks for clicking to read more.  :)

If you have any questions about past or present projects I have done, please feel free to contact me with your question (s). I would love to hear from you.

loveolympiajune@gmail.com

You can also leave a comment and or a question on a particular post you are interested in and I will be sure to respond.

Thanks for taking your time to check out my blog!



Romans 5

Peace with God Through Faith

When I began my devotion on Romans 5, I read about justification. What does justification mean? Well, in reading some Bible Doctrine from Wayne Grudem the other day, he states that justification can be described as "an instantaneous legal act of God in which he thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ's righteousness as belonging to us, and declares us to be righteous in his sight." After further reading, Grudem also makes a contrast between justification and condemnation which is basically saying that justification is the opposite of condemnation and therefore means that it declares a person not guilty.

To explain further, verse 1 in Romans 5 says that we have "been justified by faith and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Because of Christ's death on the cross, he paid the penalty for our sin and we can come boldly to Him and receive his grace. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit resides in believers to allow us to experience God's love. Because of this, we have love for God and love for others (but admitedly it is something I need to be reminded of quite often).

I must admit that I need to constantly be drawn to verses like this in Romans which shows me the amount of love God has for me. God did not need to send his Son to die for us, but chose to send him so we can believe in him and have everlasting life. God first loved me and that is a huge truth for me to keep on my heart. I need to always be reminded of this and return the love to him and to my neighbors.

Going back to what I mentioned earlier about condemnation and justification being opposites of each other, Romans 5:16 says, "For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification." Of course this verse is talking about the death of Christ on the cross for our sins. The first trespass mentioned in this verse is the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden. The second part of this verse talks about the life Christ gives to us even though we are sinners. I am reminded again of the contrast between these two terms and when I forget about what justification means, I can turn to this verse and meditate on it.

This week I have been really thinking about how important it is to show my love for God and to show my love for others, especially my spouse. I can get so caught up in my own selfish pride, but am quickly convicted because I am not showing love when I do so. I am so thankful that Christ has come, Christ is Risen, and Christ loves! 

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Furniture: Couches, Sofas, and Other Seating

Hello everyone and happy Thursday!!

My family and I will be on the hunt for some new family room furniture soon! (Well, I say "soon" but really it may not be for another year! Is that soon?)  :)

Because of this, I wanted to do a post about different kinds of family room seating out there on the market. My family and I would like to replace our used leather sofa with something more up-to-date and comfortable. In general, leather couches can be comfy, but our couch has a unique shape too (not an L-shape or a plain straight sofa, but it has more of a U-Shape?) which makes it hard to add decor and furnishings around this couch because our family room isn't large either.

I wanted to post some pictures of couches I recently looked up and they are ones that I love!!! We won't be purchasing one for a while because we need to save a little bit before we do that.  :)

In the meantime, it is fun to dream a little bit!

Rown Grand Sofa PB

I love the extra seating that this couch looks like it provides!

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Rowan Armchair PB

This armchair would go perfect with the sofa pictured above! I love it's simplicity and it looks super comfy too!

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Buchanan Apartment Sofa PB

This one may be a little too small for our room, but it looks classic.
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Before I keep going, if you haven't noticed, all of these seating styles can be bought at Pottery Barn. Which means we need to save some major $$$ if we are going to splurge on a piece similar to what is being shown.
And moving on to some more pretty pictures....

Greenwich Sofa PB

Oohh...I love the lines of this sofa! Look at those dark wood legs!

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Square Upholstered Sofa PB

This one is my favorite! It would be perfect for my family.

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All of these are so elegant! They also look extremely comfortable, but with the high price tag, we need to wait to purchase something from there. I have heard that Pottery Barn's furniture is very sturdy and worth the high price which is always good to know.

Baylor Armchair PB

I really the scroll arms in this chair. Looks like it wouldn't take up too much space in a room either.
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Brighton Chair- Hampton Stripe PB

The stripes on this chair are beautiful and the style looks timeless.
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Brighton Chair- Ingrid Palampore PB

Probably wouldn't actually purchase this chair, but it does look fun!

On second thought...I may keep this chair in mind for the future.

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Marcel Armchair PB

The legs on this chair would match perfectly with our Thrift Store dresser turned T.V. stand.
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AND.....
This is our family room and you can see that the dark leather couch really brings weight to the room. Seeing these Pottery Barn images of sofas and armchairs really gets me excited about changing our older couch in for a newer one someday!  :)







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Finished T.V. Stand and Easter Mantle Addition

I am so happy to report that our T.V. stand has been fully painted and even though the paint was still drying when I snapped my pictures for the blog, I just couldn't wait to post them! So the pictures you will see of our finished T.V. stand will have fresh paint and magazine pages underneath.  :) Oops...sorry!

Let's take a quick walk down memory lane.

If you remember folks, this is what we started with.

(This was what our thrift store dresser looked like before it got a good paint treatment).

Of course, it wasn't terrible to begin with, but the wood tone was too dark for our family room and I wanted something lighter.

As you can see in these two photos (above and below), the legs of the T.V. stand still needed to be painted.

So I grabbed my paint brush and brushed away.

I had to use two coats of paint for the legs and the base so the stand had a more even look.

This picture was taken while the paint was drying, can't you tell?  :)

Here is our finished stand! I absolutely love how it turned out!!

I am glad I didn't paint the top of the stand where our T.V. sits. It really gives a more comfortable, casual look having everything painted except for the top of the stand.

To read more about how I began painting our T.V. stand, click here.

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And because I couldn't resist...I wanted to take a few shots of the new addition to our mantle for April.
(I know, there is only another week left in April, but I just wanted to post about this anyways).

I added my daughter's Peter Rabbit book to our decor. She was trying to  eat   read the book one day (Hey, she is only 9 1/2 months so what do you expect) and I thought, "This would look great on our mantle for the month of April!"   :)

So we put it up there and it looks really cute!

I really enjoy decorating our fireplace mantle and adding things here and there. 

To see how I made our April egg decor, click here.

Linking up to

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Painted T.V. Stand

Before I begin about my DIY project, I just want to mention that I played around with Picasa to edit my photos and am trying to figure out what looks best. Since I am still very new to picture editing and blogging for that matter, the pictures may or may not look good in this post. I like how they turned out, so I will probably keep editing the rest of the pictures this way.  :)

On to today's post! Recently, well maybe more like a few months ago, my family and I shopped around our local thrift store and found a nice surprise! We bought this 70's-ish dresser for $50.00 and wanted to use it as our T.V. stand, so we did! And a little f.y.i. about our thrift store...it seems as though the prices have been raised on furniture in the past week. I don't know if that happens all the time or if it is because summer is approaching so all thrift stores raise their prices a little bit, but it was a little sad to see furniture prices more than double what they were before. Because of this, we really haven't purchased any furniture from there since. Hopefully, the prices will drop dramatically so we can furnish the rest of our house!  :)

Okay, no more rambling on about the thrift store prices now that I got that out of my system!

:)

Here is a quick little picture we took after we bought our dresser/T.V. stand.

In this picture, the stand doesn't look too bad and the brown-toned wood doesn't bother me at all. The reason I wanted to paint this stand was because it felt too heavy in our family room. We have darker furniture, for now, and our fireplace can be a bit heavy too in the room next to the black leather couch.

See, you can really tell from this picture that the stand looks very heavy in our room right now. Also, our dark couch is being replaced someday, but we need to save a little more before we buy something new. It will be fun picking out couches when we are ready to do that!

Upon closer look, the stand has a grainy look which wasn't what I was going for in a T.V. stand so I decided to paint it with Sherwin Williams Extra White.

This was after the first coat of paint was put on. I know it doesn't look that pretty here but with another coat of paint and possibly some spray paint for a more finished look, it will look fantastic!

I also love that the drawers hold all of our DVD's, remotes, and other T.V. electronics!! Got to love the storage this thing provides!

I needed to take the drawers off, actually my hubby did that for me, before painting more. It was hard to get in to the sides and middle of the stand when the drawers were still in tact.

Here are a few of the drawers after the second coat of paint was applied.

Oh..I musn't forget to add that I also had to take off the handles. I am not sure what I am going to do with the handles just yet. I may give them a silver finish because I am not really feeling the brassy color. Maybe brass is coming back, but I am not sure I like the look, so they will be changed up.

BEFORE

AFTER

Painting the T.V. stand definitely lightens up the space from what it was before.

I still need to paint the legs (more on that tomorrow) but I am keeping the top of the T.V. stand original to give it a Pottery Barn look. (at least that is what I will keep telling myself it resembles!)  :)


Have you painted any big furniture items lately?


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Fields of Gold

Does anyone recognize the song "Fields of Gold" by Sting??

This song was the one that my hubby and I danced our first dance to at our wedding 3 years ago.  :)

I can't believe we have been married 3 years already. I know that doesn't sound like many years, but it does go by fast and we have been so blessed thru it all!

The reason why I want to do a post about this song is because I printed the lyrics when we first moved into our house and framed it for one of our walls near our bedroom. The original paper I printed the lyrics on was a bright yellow color that doesn't really go well with our decor now. In fact, I took a picture to show you what it looked like.  :)

Nice, huh?!

Well, it really was a bright yellow and so I needed to change it up a bit. So what did I decide to do?

I recopied the lyrics to a Word document and printed it out on plain printer paper. I didn't want a crazy paper color because that would take away from the lyrics and I didn't want that.

I also wanted to keep the rose that was in the original picture. The background of the wooden planks reminds me of the place we had our ceremony. There was a beautiful wooden walkway that led up to the church where we got married so it has sentimental value to us.  :)

This is the spot where I want to hang our wedding lyrics...right above "Family".

I already had the black frame which ties in to our stairwell gallery wall, so it fit perfectly right there.

This is another shot of our gallery wall. I love how it looks already but adding our new piece to it will still make our stairwell look great....maybe even better!

This is a shot coming down the stairs after I hung our lyrics up.

Love!

I really love the maternity pictures we had done by a wonderful photographer named Kerry B. Smith. She was really sweet and did such a fabulous job!!

 

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New Flowers in Canvas Vase

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. ~Emma Goldman

Okay, so maybe I am not going to post about real roses, because I'm not...hehe...BUT I am going to post about some flowers. Fake flowers that is. I went to Wal-Mart last week to purchase a few more fake flowers and this time I went with a white carnation. These flowers go well with the red ones I bought for Christmas last year.

So why fake flowers and not real ones? Well, anytime we have real plants in the house, they don't really seem to last that long. I am not much of a gardener so the flowers wouldn't last long in our house, but if I could buy new flowers every week for our dining table centerpieces, I sure would!

I took some quick pictures of our new centerpieces and I love them!! Fake or not, flowers are a great way to dress up any table or space.

One of the canvas vases shown here...you can read about how I turned our glass vase into a canvas vase here.

I really like how the mix of red, white, silver, and green play together.

This is one of my favorite shots. I love the simple look of my centerpieces because it gives a little bit of a classic look to our home and makes our room feel warm at the same time.

Have you found a neat way to dress up your dining room table?

 

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