More Outdoor Pictures to Share

When my in-laws were visiting, my hubby and I enjoyed some time "landscaping" our yard.

We took a quick trip to Home Depot to purchase some plastic coverings to line our sidewalk and the driveway area and we added more bricks around the shrubs in the back yard and the mail box in the front yard.

When we moved our holly trees  from the front to the back yard, we moved some bricks there too to keep the mulch retained and to add some landscape appeal. We double stacked the bricks to give it a cleaner look.

Out in the front yard, we used these black plastic barriers to line the side walk and driveway. They were a much better deal than buying more bricks and we think they look pretty good with our shrubs.

We used any leftover brick to line around the mail box (which we plan to add flowers to in the future) and the big tree we have in the front yard. We triple stacked the bricks around the tree since we had so many bricks and it turned out great!

I like how the color matches the stone work we have on the front of the house!

My daughter loves placing little pine cones around our little tree. :) It's the perfect size for her!

And this little tree needs some work...actually, the whole front patio needs some lovin', and I have ideas for this space in the future....but I haven't planned on actually working on that yet until we get some other things done with our home.

Do you enjoy doing yard work like this? I'd love to hear!

Thanks for stopping by!

My Great Weekend

Well, every weekend (and day that is!) is really a blessing. I absolutely LOVE spending time with my family and when we have family who visits us from out of town, it is always such a delight. For a week, my in-laws were in town and we had a blast! Seriously, it was so much fun and our girls had a great time too!

Here are a few pictures of their visit with us. And sorry I didn't post yesterday...but I plan on having some pictures us this week of what we were able to do with our yard...it was nice being able to work on that with my hubby while the grandparents watched the girls for a bit.

We took a trip to a nearby museum and could have spent all day there...it was awesome! This museum had so many little exhibits for kids and our daughter was enthralled with it all!

Check out this little classroom below! Too cute!

We went out to eat a few times while they were here...which is always a rarity with two little ones...but they did so well! Our youngest even entertained herself the entire time with a few toys on hand. :)

Our little miss checking out her new ride!!! A bubble lawnmower from the grandparents! I don't think they had such things when I was her age!

It was a great visit and always hard to see them leave, but we are so thankful for Skype and since we do that with them once a week, we know we can look forward to seeing them even though they aren't always here in person.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and have fun plans for the week ahead! I will have more posts this week. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday's Crush #4

Welcome to another post on Friday's Crush.

Today's is going to be a bit different because my Friday Crush is about family!

You see, we have my in-laws in town this week and part of next so we have been enjoying the time we have with them while they are here. :)

We have had some good times while they have been here so far-

1. We took the girls to the play ground

2. We plan on going to some museums and possibly the zoo

3. If weather allows, we will head to the beach

4. We had fun taking the girls to my in-laws RV park to see their cats and to play in the pool

5. My hubby and I even got to have a date night while his parents watched the girls for a good while

It's been a great visit so far and we continue to enjoy our week with them. "Yay" for family visits!!

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday and a GREAT weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Interior Doors in Loft Painted

The loft doors I posted about earlier in the week have been painted! Hooray!!

Here's a quick look.

I love, love, LOVE them! The color helps hide dirt that we occasionally get from little toddler hands...they are easier to clean and they look fabulous! :)

I have been thinking about changing up the blue fabric on the storage bench in the loft to a darker green fabric...but for now it stays.

Whatcha think? Do you like the darker doors in here? Have you painted any in your home?

I have one more to paint up here and that's it for the loft!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Painting A Few More Doors

Slowly, but surely, I have been painting the doors in our home.

I have been using a Sherwin Williams color called Porpoise. Luckily for me, Sherwin Williams has been having a 40% off sale on their paints and supplies so I bought 3 of their sample quarts for about $12 total! That will cover the remaining doors in our house.

In one of my posts I began with painted our entryway doors and our pantry door. I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and paint the doors upstairs and so far I'm loving the look! I only have a few more to do and am taking my sweet time on them because it's been a little hard getting all these projects done around the home when we have other things we like to do as a family. :)

Here is a picture of the doors I still need to paint.

It's funny because in this picture, the doors look nice just painted white...but in person it looks better with the gray/brown color....at least I think so.

I hope to get some pictures up soon of my progress. :)

Do you still like the look of painted interior doors?

Thanks for stopping by!

More Outdoor Progress

We finally have more outdoor progress with the plants we moved from the front yard to the back of the house.

In my last post about our outdoor space we began moving some of our holly trees to the backyard. Not we have all 5 of our holly's moved and we are pretty excited about the change. Take a look!

When these holly trees get to be full size, they should be quite large. :) This will be good because it will provide a little shade for us in the yard and it will block our views of the playground next door.

We still have a few more touches to make to the front yard and the back yard, but so far the progress has turned out really good and we are pretty happy about that!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you had a great weekend!

Friday's Crush #3

I recently stumbled across a post from HGTV called 25 "Ways to Upcycle Your Old Stuff".

It's pretty neat and at the end of this post I will give you the link for the site.

Here are 3 of my favorites from that website.

 

This was a damaged dresser that has been transformed into an outdoor buffet table. Super genius and I love it! I also love the bright, colorful sign hanging above the buffet table.

This reminds me of the buffet table I bought from the thrift store and painted to go in our dining room. What a great way to provide storage for a space!

And if you don't want to get rid of your crib mattress after your little one is done using it, why not turn it into a daybed like the picture above?! So smart!

I know our daughters would love something like this in their room once our youngest is old enough for it. Super cute, right?

 

And this last one if my favorite one...turn an old bookshelf into a child's kitchen and use a baking pan for a sink. Check out the red painted blocks they used to make the faucet. Crazy genius! You could probably also use red Lego's as a faucet too if you want. And the skirt is so fun! What a great way to hide some of the things children like to store in there. :)

What do you think of these ideas? Aren't they great!

And you can find the link by clicking here.

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Master Bathroom Painted

It's been a long time coming, but finally our master bathroom is painted!

Hooray!

After a little over 2 years and much debating on what color to choose, we finally picked the winner.

Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams was the final choice for our bathroom and we are pretty happy with that color.

It's actually a few shades lighter than the color of our master bedroom (which is still a work in progress). But here is a quick picture of part of our room.

Not sure why it looks so grainy...maybe because I didn't have my camera's flash on...Oops!

Anyways, the color in our bedroom is called Dorian Gray. It's a really nice shade and not too dark or too light...it's just the right color for our room.

Our door is painted with SW Porpoise and I am slowly painting the other doors in our house that color. Only a few more doors to paint...Oh! and Sherwin Williams is having a 40% off sale this weekend! :) Yippee...I foresee a paint purchase this weekend!

But back to our master bathroom.

Here are some pictures of it...and remember....

I haven't decorated or anything in there yet so these are just the start!

1. I bought white towels at Target and they were pretty cheap. So far they have lasted a few washes and are doing great.

2. The chair was a thrift store purchase and the blue fabric was left over from the playroom cushions and pillows I made a while back.

3. The curtain is from Target...it's actually a bedroom curtain, but does the job it needs to. The gray stripes pick up the wall color nicely.

4. The light fixtures came with our home when we purchased it and I love them! They are a little bit industrial looking aren't they? :) 

Any other questions about the space, just leave a comment!

I have more to do in here but that will come with time.

Thanks for stopping by!

What I've Learned About Blogging So Far...

Hi everyone!

I have been blogging for a little over a year now and have learned a few things along the way.

You know, when I first began my blog, I blogged about small Do-It-Yourself projects around our home. Then, it turned into blogging about larger projects so that our house could feel more like our home.

With the help of Pinterest and other blogs, there have been tons of good ideas out there I have tried and had success with or that didn't work so well for us.

Here are some of the things I have learned so far...good and/or not so good. :)

 1. Do what you love!

This is probably the biggest thing really. With all the inspiration out there in blogland, it can be hard to veer off path of a plan and go with what is "popular" at the time. If you do what you love, you won't really have that problem.

2. When it comes to painting a home, make sure you test out swatches.

I learned this the hard way at first and bought a few gallons of paint based off of a paint swatch. Oops! Paint does look different based off of lighting and it does look different on the wall verses a paint swatch.

3. Blogs, Magazine, and Pinterest are good places to begin for inspiration, but aren't necessarily the be-all and end-all of a project. Things can be tweaked as you go and can be changed to suit you and your families needs and/or wants.

This kind of goes back to number 1.

4. Try and watermark your pictures for your blog so people know who created those fabulous projects of yours!

There have been a few times where I have come across pictures online that don't have the original source marked somewhere on them. It's hard to give credit to the person who took the picture if their personal information isn't on it.

5. Spray paint has done wonders for our furniture and I love using it!!

It seriously can turn a piece of furniture I have thought about throwing out into something new that I can reuse in our home! Love when that happens!

6. Be yourself!

I still struggle with this myself sometimes. If you aren't yourself when you are blogging, then how will people expect to believe your writing and your work.

I do enjoy reading other blogs to get ideas, but really I need to make things my own in order to have my own ideas.

7. Take pictures as you go.

I use to take tons and tons of photos of things and slowed down after having 2 girls...funny how that happens. But I'm getting into the swing of things again and trying to remember to take more pictures of my projects to post to better my blog.

8. If you can't blog 5 days a week, don't fret!!
I try to blog when I can but sometimes it's not always feasible to blog all the time, you know?! I personally follow blogs that post often but understand if you can't blog 5 days a week or more. Some bloggers do blog more than I do and that's great but I try not to give myself a hard time if I miss a day or two of blogging.

So there you have it!

Just a few things I can think of of what I have learned so far in my blogging experience.

I do hope this helps some of you! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Backyard Progress

Ever since we moved in to our home a few years ago, we haven't touched our backyard. It is in need of a change so we decided to do something about that.

We recently took some holly trees from our front yard and added them to our backyard. Boy was that some hard work...digging up our grass, digging up the holly trees, digging holes for the trees, and then replanting them! We only were able to move 2 of them last weekend and we still have 3 more to move.

But here is where we are at now:

The area that was dug up use to look like the picture below. 

No going back now. ;)

We also moved the old grass to parts of the lawn that had dirt patches.

Our oldest daughter played outside while the youngest was either with me or napping.

Don't worry, I did plenty of the work too. :)

We removed the holly trees from the front yard and placed them in the backyard.

Then we purchased more of these little guys and put them where the holly trees use to be.

We only need to buy 3 more and move 3 more holly trees and we are done with that part of the yard!

Hooray!

 Do you enjoy doing yard work?

I have to say it was definitely HARD work, but the end result is a good pay off.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday's Crush #2

Good morning and welcome to my 2nd post about "Friday's Crush"!

This week I have been crushing on a photo taken off of Pinterest but originally found here.

There are so many things to LOVE about this bedroom!

 

1. I love the mix of black, white, and brown!! I'm really excited that these colors can be mixed together if done correctly.

2. I love the jute rug and the jute/tan blanket on the bed. It helps the space feel so cozy, doesn't it?!

3. The wallpaper is super fabulous...not sure I would be bold enough to wallpaper a space in our home, but this one is gorgeous!

4. The nightstand is also practical and stylish. I love the glass and the black paint on it...makes it classy and sophisticated in this space.

Ohh!! And I also love that they have a white ceiling fan as opposed to a chandelier...we have ceilings in our home and it's definitely practical for sure!

What about you? What do you love about this room?

It definitely gives me inspiration for my own home! I would love to have a guest bedroom that looks likes this someday in our house!!

Thanks for stopping by and happy weekend everyone!

My Sweet Family

I don't post often of my family because my blog is mainly about DIY and projects, but sometimes I just feel that there are pictures I want to share with you all. :)

We had a busy week last week, a busy weekend, and this weekend is full of activities as well...but you know what is nice? 

It's nice to just "be" with my family and enjoy life. 

You know what I mean?

I realize how the Lord has truly blessed my family and I and it's hard not to share a little bit with you all.

I love taking pictures of my family and I because those pictures serve as tangible memories we will have with us in the years to come. It's also fun to look back at the past and remember the sweetness.

These are just a few that I wanted to post and they sure do make me smile! :)

Take time to always enjoy the blessings the Lord has given you.

Thanks for stopping by!

House Tour Update

Hi there!

Welcome!

First up on the tour is our entryway...where we keep all of our essentials before heading out some place.

On to the main hangout center of our home...the family room.

Let's move on to the dining area- still a work in progress.

The kitchen...where meals are cooked well (because we likes to eat!)

The loft- home to the playroom and office.

And you know I had to post one of these pictures.

You know...how things usually look around our home mid-day.
Not gonna lie!