Hi Friends!

How have you all been? I can’t believe that summer’s already in full swing! Jenna and Aubrey have been out of school for a couple of weeks now, and they’re loving every minute of it. And Ayla is ecstatic to have her two, big sister sidekicks back at home. We’ve been bike riding, swimming at the lake, eating watermelon, slip and sliding in the back yard, and hanging out by the kiddie pool whenever we can. We haven’t made it to the beach yet, but we’re going to get there soon! Nothing beats the sound of ocean waves crashing, kids playing, and toes buried in the sand.

Well, I’m excited because I’m revealing my #BaretoBeautifulProject room makeover with all of you today! It has come such a long way! You may remember the before pictures that I was embarrassed to be sharing with the world a few weeks ago. If not, this is what our master bedroom looked like then… You can see all of the before photos {here}.

BEFORE

Oh my, it was frumpy! We never really gave this room any love, because there always seemed to be more important projects that we needed to get done first. Mom’s and Dad’s needs are usually the last ones met, right? But the time finally came to freshen up a space just for us, and I’m so happy with how it turned out!

YAY!

The room feels so serene and fresh, you guys. It’s a cozy, little, retreat now and not a tired afterthought.

[Read more…]

Hi Everyone! Remember how I told you about the #BareToBeautifulProject series that I’m hosting with Jen of Migonis Home this month? If you missed that post, you can find it {here}. Well, I’m popping in today to reveal the space that I’m going to be making over and to share some pretty inspiration photos with all of you! I have to be honest, I’m really excited to get going on this project, and I’m also slightly embarrassed to be welcoming you all into this space today! But here goes…

Hi. Welcome to my master bedroom! {insert little-monkey-covering-eyes emoji here} [Read more…]

Hi Friends!

Well, after a week and a half of absolute household mayhem, I can happily report that our living room makeover is finally done, after looking at some secured loans to help us on our financial makeover way, we were complete. I know what you’re probably thinking. Finally? A week and a half seem like a pretty quick timeline for a project! And it is. It’s just that, going into it, I thought, hey, it’s just some painting and trim work. It should take 3 or 4 days, tops. And before we had our kiddos, that probably would have been true.

But as with all renovations, especially ones where kiddos are assisting you every step of the way, life happens! The girls were into everything, destroyed the upstairs while we worked downstairs, managed to track little footprints made of paint all over the kitchen – and I could literally go on all night about all of the crazy things that made the last 10 days completely exhausting. But I’m learning to adjust to my circumstances, and keep what’s important and meaningful at the center of it all. You can read more of what last week taught me {here}. [Read more…]

Hi Everyone! Happy {almost} Mother’s Day to all of you mommas out there. I thought I’d come on to say hello, share a few photos of what’s going on in the living room, wish you all a Happy Mother’s Day, and explain why not meeting the ‘deadline’ that I’d set for myself earlier this week is so ok with me right now.

When we started this project last Saturday, I really thought that Michael and I would have all of the painting and trim work done by Wednesday, that I’d be decorating by Thursday, and have a post up with all of the living room photos by Saturday. Project checked off the list. No problem. [Read more…]

#BareToBeautifulProject

Hi there, Friends! You know those spaces in your home that just feel bare? The ones that you’ve put on the back burner. Maybe because it’s just not an essential room to decorate, or maybe because there’s just too much other ‘stuff’ going on to make it a priority? We’ve all been there. Hey, I think if we’re honest, we all have spaces just like that! The ones we close the door to, and pretend aren’t there.

Well, I’m popping in today with some exciting news! I’m partnering with Jen Migonis of Migonis Home for a new series that we’re really excited about. [Read more…]

Hi Friends! I was pretty excited going into this week because last weekend started with the welcome revelation that Michael was finally going to have enough of a work break to take off his appraiser’s hat and put on his tool belt for me! We both thought the obvious project to work on was going to be the vent hood so that we can wrap up our kitchen project and finally share the full reveal with all of you.

It is SO close, guys. So close. In all honesty, it’s totally done, except for that darn hood. We did all the tiling, kitchen cabinets and got the most gorgeous flooring from somewhere like N-Hance for wood floor refinishing in San Diego. However, despite all these efforts were still not quite done!

If you follow along on Instagram, you’ve already seen bits and pieces of the kitchen, but I haven’t shown a full shot of it yet. (If you haven’t seen those sneak peeks, here’s one of them!)

(I’ll post a few more at the end of the post.)

The thing is, when I planned the kitchen, the number 1, the most important element in the space, was going to be the hood. [Read more…]

Hi there, Friends! Remember me? 😉 Sorry. It’s kind of been awhile. The blog’s been quiet, because I have been insanely busy these last few weeks! But I’m here now, and I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel amidst all of the craziness – and I am so t h a n k f u l for that.

Between the little sweeties getting colds (all at different times, of course), my work, and my husband’s work, we really haven’t come up for air around here lately. Have I told you that my husband owns his own appraisal company? I do the editing of his reports and take photos for him when I’m not super busy, and then we both alternate with Ayla duty depending on our schedules. So when we’re both busy, life gets c.r.a.z.y!

But anyway, I’m popping in today to share this living room refresh that I finished for a client the other day. I actually worked with her to put her living room together last summer, and she asked me to come back and help her freshen up her space for spring.

Here it is!

 

Her budget was small, but we made it work by reusing some of what she already had, and by making a quick run to Target! [Read more…]

Hi there! As I made my way through target yesterday morning, I found a few adorable galvanized buckets in the gardening section that were just too cute to pass up.

I was standing there, staring at these little buckets and asking myself whether or not I really needed them, when my eyes landed on hanging hooks – and a lightbulb went off.

Plant hangers!

I love cooking and gardening, so you’ll pretty much always find fresh herbs in my house. The problem is, the window above my sink is shaded by a big tree in our yard, and the sunnier windows in our house just don’t work for a little, indoor herb garden on the sill. I’ve been trying so hard to get my indoor gardening on the go, that I’ve completely forgotten about the outdoor garden I have! Its gone down hill a little bit over the last few months, so I think I’ll have to get in touch with trugreen in georgia to see if they can help me out and revive my garden. But anyways, we’re hear to talk about my little plant hangers I’m trying to create.

So, with that being said, I really wanted to find a way to prevent garden pests from eating my plants! A friend of mine told me that growing herbs like peppermint and spearmint can keep pests like ants away from your garden and therefore I wanted to cultivate my own natural forms of pest control! Of course, if things ever got out of hand, I would not hesitate to contact a nashville tn pest control expert to address the issue, but I wanted to try a natural form of pest control first!

So for the last {almost} eight years, I’ve kept potted fresh herbs on the counter by my sink, until they’d start looking sad, which would force me to move them to my back windows until they perked up. B u t… it made the window kind of look like a crazy, plant hoarder lived here, which I could only take for a day or two, until I moved them back. And on and on this went.

I feel kind of silly admitting this. Why on earth didn’t I come up with this solution sooner?!

Lack of sleep? Mommy brain? Having 483 questions tossed at me by kiddos at any given moment?

I honestly don’t know. Probably all of the above, honestly. But regardless of what it was, I’m just sooo happy to have this project done. It looks adorable, but what I’m even happier about is the fact that it’s practical, and I’m finally going to be able to keep my little, indoor garden in the sunny spot where it belongs – and not look like a crazy, plant hoarder 😉 Yay! I may even start looking into the best indoor plants for air purification australia now that I’m building up some expertise in indoor plant growing.

I’m going to be using these planters for herbs right now, but I’m thinking that when the weather gets warmer, and I can start to grow everything outside again, I’ll probably replace the pots with flowers or little succulents. [Read more…]

Hi there, Friends!  I hope you’ve had a good week so far.  Yay, it’s almost Friday!

I thought I’d pop in and show you all how I made this pretty spring wreath today.  It was incredibly quick to put together, and so simple to make.

There’s a fun tag going on on Instagram called #Create4Spring, and this week is all about garlands, buntings, and wreaths.  I really hadn’t ever made a wreath before {aside from adding a little extra faux forsythia branches to a predecorated wreath that I bought years ago, if that counts}.

I’ve been wanting to get a new wreath for my front door for years, but wasn’t ever able to find one that I was really in love with.  And wreaths can be expensive, so I didn’t want to spend money on one that I didn’t really love. [Read more…]

Hi Everyone! I have a pretty, spring tablescape to share with all of you, and I’m really excited about it. One, because it means that it’s almost spring, and two, because colors make me happy, and this is one colorful table.

I have vivid memories about a JCPenney catalog that I used to keep under my bed when I was little.

I remember that it was thick and heavy – much like any ‘old fashioned’ catalog – with lots of writing and number references crammed onto most of the pages. But certain sections were full of pretty rooms and design inspiration, and this is precisely why I kept that catalog under my bed. I still remember, quite exactly, what I wanted my dream bedroom to look like.

It had glow in the dark stars and planets covering nearly every square inch of the ceiling, a pretty crazy looking comforter, with a jazzy, early nineties print in fluorescent pink and blue (think Zack Morris outfit gone wrong), and one of those clear telephones with all of the visible colored wires inside. I know I can’t be alone on wanting one of those back in the nineties! Actually, I bet some of you even had one, a n d my eleven year old self is jealous! 🙂

I used to stand outside our bedroom door (my sisters and I shared, by choice!) and tell them that if we took down the wall between our room and the adjacent room, we could have the coolest room of all time – just like my catalog inspiration photo. And I’m guessing I was about eleven or twelve at the time.

So it’s pretty safe to say that interior design and creating pretty spaces is just in my blood. It makes me so happy to pull colors and fabrics together, and actually create a mood in a room.

Isn’t it amazing how colors can do that? Actually make you ‘feel’ something? I love the cheerful energy that this table gives off, which is fitting because it happens to be exactly how I’m feeling about spring being just around the corner! [Read more…]