Working on the Guest Room

Do you guys have a room or area in your house that turns into the storage spot or dumping ground for things that you don't know what to do with?  Well we do.  Its called our guest room.  Once a room becomes that area in the house, its so hard to get control over it.  Finally over the weekend we regained control over our guest room and its back in a livable state again.  So since I rarely share that space on the blog, I thought I would start today.  I actually really love this room.  It has a lot of our sentimental and vintage pieces living in there and is probably the most girly spot in our house.  Like the rest of our home though, I still have lots of things that I need or want to do to make this room complete.

Like I said, we still have lots to do...

For example, the walls are completely bare and its even more clear in photos how badly I need to fill in these blank walls.  I also really would like to hang some curtains - maybe even diy some.  That would really help bring some softness and warmth to the space.

I love all of the little vintage and personal things in here.  Pretty much every item has some sort of story or meaning to us.  I love rooms like that.

I keep a lot of my craft items in here as well.  I probably have way too many jars and such so I love using them to store things like pens and chalk.  I even have an antique butter dish that works great for Silas' crayons.

Oh, my little luggage rack found its place in the guest room and our laminate bookshelf that I painted a while back is still going strong.  

So that's a little peek into our guest room.  I have some work to do and can't wait to share the progress as I go along.  Stay tuned!

Hope you have a great week!  I'm loving the time change - spring is just around the corner.  I have some little springy/easter crafts coming at you this week as well as some more organizing fun!  Thanks for stopping by!

House Number Inspiration

So funny story, I still have not written a post about painting our house exterior.  But - I promise our house has been painted (at least mostly).  DIY painting your house exterior is no joke.  We still have little spots here and there that I am slowly finishing.  For the most part its complete so I do intend on posting about it someday sooner rather than later.  Here's a little idea on the color palette we chose.  The purple color is not exact - our color is a Martha Stewart Living color which has been discontinued at Home Depot...so finding the original one online proved very difficult (but it's close).

Now that our house is painted and spring is right around the corner I have started to get an itch for continuing our work on the exterior and updating a few more things.  We need to continue our landscaping, finish our walkway, paint the mailbox, etc.  Today though, lets talk house numbers.  I kind of really love house numbers.  To me, they add so much charm and character to the front exterior of a home.  I have been to the big warehouse stores several times but just can't find anything I really like or that seems to fit our little cottage style house.

After perusing the internet though, I found several options that I really love...

Up first are these awesome tiled house numbers.  I love how pretty this is and I'm kind of thinking this could be diy'ed, hmmmmm.  

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I absolutely love these white ceramic house numbers.  There is something vintage and yet modern about them.

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These painted numbers are so charming and sweet.  This could totally be a diy project as well.  I love the pop of yellow.

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Since our house color is a little on the darker side I like the idea of having just pretty white numbers against the house.  Love the style of these.

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And finally this sweet hand painted number plate.  Its customizable and made from scratch by CMB Studio (etsy shop) and at only $28.00 I think a great price.  Etsy is great place to check out customized and handmade house numbers.

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Ok, so those are some of the house number ideas that I'm digging right now.  So now we just need the weather to actually warm up and act like spring so we can get excited about working outside.  Are you guys starting to get that spring itch like me?  Whose ready for some outdoor projects?!!

Hope you all have a great Thursday!!

Winter Pinterest Challenge: A Fabric Ottoman

Ok, today is the day - time to share our Pinterest Challenge projects!  I'm so excited to see what everyone has done!  We totally took on something we have never tried before so let me get to sharing..

At first I was totally focused on doing some sort of organization type project - since we have been all about that around here lately.  But then, we got a wild whim and decided to just try something we have never done - build a piece of furniture....a fabric ottoman to be exact.  It was actually a lot of fun, not too difficult, we learned a lot and I enjoyed working on the project together with Justin.  This was totally a tag-team effort...with a lot of the effort being on Justin's end of things :).  Someone has to pick out fabric though right?

So here are my pinspiring pinspirations...

I totally love both of these!  The first one is from West Elm and its awesome but I don't have $400 to spend on an ottoman right now.  I love the idea of using an old coffee table for the base of the ottoman done by Meredith from the Not So Newlywed blog but we didn't have a coffee table or have time to try and find something that would work for our room.   So, we just decided to build it from scratch. I feel like we kind of just made this up as we went along but somehow it worked out - thank goodness.  I would not say our method was perfect or the outcome was perfection but like I said, it was fun tackling something new together.

Here is what we did:

First we determined the size we wanted to build our ottoman...I needed visual aid for sizes and laying out tape on the floor totally helped me.

Next we purchased our materials and began measuring and cutting. We bought a heavy duty piece of reinforced plywood and measured and cut it to the right size (this was going to be our base).  We made ours 3'x3'.  We used a laser level to get our edge straight and Justin cut everything off.

Then we used two by fours and cut those into smaller square blocks to add a little extra height and stability to the legs and base and nailed those to the plywood.

Next came the cutting and glueing of the foam down to our plywood.  We bought our foam at Joanne fabrics.  We laughed because they cut it for you at the store with what looks like an electric turkey carving knife.  So when we got home the best we could mimic was a bread knife - and it worked.  After the foam was glued down we covered it with fabric batting - stapling it around the entire base and then covered that with our fabric.  I just used a staple gun and made sure everything was pulled tight and even and that the fabric was straight.  Oh, the fabric I used for this project is actually a shower curtain that I found at Target!  I loved the ikat print so I went with it and its a pretty durable fabric as well.

I think one of the toughest parts of this project was keeping Silas from jumping/sitting on it while we were working.  He was so excited and enjoyed helping.  I think all of his cars and animals also had an adventure on it during the building process.  I have a feeling this ottoman will be used for many more car and train expeditions.

Ok, back to the project - we nailed another block to the corners base to give it more height, drilled in the holes for the legs and screwed the legs in.  We were getting close to being finished.  Next, we added a piece of trim around all of the edges to just finish it out a bit.

Finally, I remembered that I needed to paint the legs - so I actually did this last, which worked out fine.  It might would have been slightly easier to do this before you screw them in.

We love the result!  We also love that it only took us a day - and that was including shopping for all of the materials.

We have small house and limited seating so adding a few more spots to sit when we have a big crowd is nice.  Our students come over a lot and usually end up on the floor so we are hoping this will give us a few more spots for group time, bible studies and whatever else. Plus Silas has been calling it his big chair so it has already gotten plenty of action.  We loved the feeling of accomplishment after we finished.  Justin declared that he was going to build a sofa next - I said maybe we should try something like shelves.  This has definitely got us ready for the next project!

Don't forget to check out Katie, Sherry and Michelle today!  They have some awesome projects they are sharing - you don't want to miss them!!

Now comes the part where you share your amazing projects too!

- If you have already blogged about it just link up your projects below! 

1.  Click on the "add your link" button

2.  Add the url of your specific post

3. Type in the name or description of your project in the "name" blank

We'd love for you to link back over to our projects within your own post- (here's Sherry's, Katie's and Michelle's)

*Also remember to link back to your inspiration project found on pinterest and to link back to the original source so they also get some love too!

We can't wait to see the amazing projects you guys have been working on!

Getting Organized: Bedside Drawers

Today I have another installment of project - get organized.  Our bedside drawers were pretty much a disaster, overrun with junk, papers and cords.  It was time to tackle both and get them clean, organized and functional.  

So this getting the house organized thing has become a goal of mine for this year.  I've chosen to take it slow and do it right - tackling one drawer or cabinet at a time.  I think it has really helped me to not get overwhelmed and frustrated and also stay on track.  So far we have conquered our kitchen junk drawer, organized our small office space and created a shared and pretty organized space for our laundry, craft and utility supplies.  Things are looking good and we are liking the new organized spaces.  Ok, so on to our before & after shots of the bedside drawers...

So much better right?  So like all the others spaces I have tackled, I started this the same way - taking all of the junk out and sorting through it.  Its always amazing to me how many things can just be thrown away.  After sorting and throwing away the useless junk then I begin putting things in the right places and I'm usually left with much less than I began with.  Next its time to line the drawer with pretty paper (this one is a wrapping paper from Target) and then finding the right arrangement with my new organizers.  The blue and pink containers were from the Target dollar spot, the white ones were left over from a pack I got at Homegoods for my desk and the clear ones I found at Homegoods as well.

We had a ridiculous amount of cords in these drawers so I needed to come up with a way to keep them all corralled and neat.  I just simply used a few binder clips to keep each cord together and designated one of my containers for all of the cords.  

Its amazing how much extra room you have after you purge and organize.  We always think we don't have a lot of space and then after you finish you realize you have plenty - we were just not properly using it.

I also added a little catch all tray for Justin for things that might be in his pockets and such.  

It's so nice to know where to find things now.  The cord situation is so much better - no more searching and searching for that specific charger or usb that you can't find.  I always thought that staying organized would be impossible for us but it has been amazingly easy.  Once you get going and figure out the best methods and function for your home it really isn't difficult.  I'm beginning to realize that organization is really attainable for everyone.  Just check out those before & afters again.

So I'm kind of thinking my next move is going to be tackling the kitchen cabinets.  Its a much bigger task but one that needs to be done.  

What is next on your list of organizing?  Any kitchen organizing going on? Share with me!

Have a fantastic day!

Linking Up Here:

Inspiration Gallery

2012 - Is it Over Already?

I honestly can't believe that 2013 is just around the corner.  This past year has been so chocked full that I feel like I can barely believe its coming to an end - although I really am eager in anticipation to see what kind of year 2013 will be.  In thinking of this last year I can honestly say that this has been a year of transition for us.  We experienced lots of changes and have been learning how to adjust our family, ourselves and our lives to the new things.  Through this process of change I can say that I have learned a lot - especially a lot about God - maybe even more so than if things would have just been super easy.  So here is just a little look back on 2012 from this here blog and also a little personal perspective.

1.  Our big house project:  Painting the Exterior.  Ok, I think this is kind of funny because our huge project for this year (that took up a huge chuck of time) was dedicated to painting and revamping our house exterior.  The funny part is that I have never showed you a final look.  I shared the process of choosing colors, how we had lots of help, our newly painted doors, our painted shed, new lighting and the beginning of new landscaping but never did I share a painting of the house post.  That is definitely a new blog post resolution that I will work on soon!

2.  Another big project for us inside our house was working on our laundry room, bathroom and closet area (all connected in the back of our house).  I'm still working on the organization of that space as we have little space to work with so I want it to be maximized to its potential.  That is definitely an area that will see more attention again this year.

3.  I got super crafty this year - I painted silhouettes, made roman shades, pillow covers, jewelry, paint chip art and went crazy this christmas hand making ornaments and making square wreaths.  Getting crafty always helps keeps me in check, as I wrote about in this post.

4.  We had a big transition in our life this year when it came to Justin's job and student ministry.  Honestly, we look at student ministry as more of a part of our life than our job - it just wouldn't work for us any other way.  I got to start hosting girls ministry events and hosting a small group each week - both things that I have really loved doing.  This year has been difficult to juggle for me at times since I now have a two year old - who requires a lot of my attention.  I love being a mom and I love that I get to spend so much time with Silas.  It does however make it different for me when it comes to working with the youth group.  Some of the things I used to do just have to be on hold right now.  But, then I get the weekly moments with my small group as well as many other things that I still do with Justin so it has been really good.  It just took some time to figure out how to make it all work.  I'm sure that we will adjust and grow each year as our family situations change and our student ministry changes.  But over it all God is still the same and knowing that strengthens my faith.

5.  I believe this year that God has stretched us - and through that we have been taught things that we would not have learned if we had been left the same.  The greatness of God has been evident and proven over and over to us this year.  The tenderness and loving embrace of God's word and presence of the Holy Spirit has been evident - many times leaning on God's wisdom and strength to walk us through different situations.  For me, the word Faith has been brought forth many times - God has wanted me to strengthen my faith and learn how to fully trust Him in every little detail.  I pray for an increase in faith daily and God is still showing me how faithful He is.  Justin and I have definitely grown this year spiritually and I believe closer as a couple as life has changed and shifted.  God is always molding and shaping us - pruning us when we need to grow.  I'm thankful for all of that.

6.  This year I have done a lot of praying about this blog - about what it needs to be, where God wants it to go and honestly if I even wanted to continue.  As odd as it might sound I finally feel at peace with it and am excited about the direction its going.  This blog has meant a lot to me - I've put a lot of time, sweat and emotion into it (as many other bloggers would totally agree with when it comes to their own blogs).  For me it has been an outlet of sorts and also just something that I truly enjoy doing.  I'm so thankful for all of you that have been on this journey with me and continue to come back.  You guys are the best and I can't wait to see where this blog goes in 2013!

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year!  We are on our way to Atlanta for the Passion Conference and we can't wait!  I'll be sharing with you soon!!

PS - I have finally updated my project page with all of our projects, events and crafts!  Everything should be easier to find now, yay!

Linking Up Here!

New Message Board and Updates

Some things you just can't leave alone.  I have this little message board that I made way back and is now on to its third rendition.  Maybe its because its such an easy project to redo, maybe its because I just can't make up my mind or maybe I just enjoy change every now and again.  Either way, I like the new message board and maybe I'll stick with it for a while this time.  Here's how the board started -

And then it went on to look like this...

Then I decided to make a new kitchen chalkboard which took over the message board living space so it moved and received a new update to now look like this...

I simply took off the twine and the old fabric and pins and recovered it with new fabric and spray painted the frame a glossy navy blue.  Simple changes but I love the result.

So moving on, I am totally already into the Christmas spirit and next week I will start sharing with you some of the Christmasy things I have been working on, can't wait!  I think its because Silas is so much more aware of things this year and I know he will be so into Christmas this year so I am so into to.  Can I say so one more time?

I've also working on some changes around here on the old blog - I'm working on a new project page which will hopefully be easier to navigate and find older project posts and soon I will be updating the home tour page as well.  I've also added a little space for holiday projects on the sidebar and I will be updating it with the new things happening next week.  So many bloggy things going on so check back soon!

Hope you guys have a wonderful Friday and great weekend!!