First Post!

My first contributor post is up on NewlyWife! Check it out here.

Happy Thursday!!

Date Night: Crafts!

William had a recent "aha!"-totally-awesome idea for our stay-dates {time we set aside for just us when we're at home}. We both have some strong interests that we talk about with each other and will often dabble in. But most of the time we're just shoulder-to-shoulder. I'm crafting, he's listening to podcasts about gun safety. I'm researching my next project while he's cleaning his fire-arm at the same table. In child development speak: we're parallel-playing. Nothing wrong with that. A few weeks ago, he came up with the brilliant idea of setting aside some weeknights to do some face-to-face time while doing one hobby together. We're not only interacting but we're also learning more about the others' passions. That man of mine!

We started with a craft. :) I gathered some supplies for a basic project that I was wanting to add to our master bedroom. I figured it was a great start...it including maps and all. That caters to a man, right?! Once the kids were down, we got to work. 

Supplies:

-Maps {free from AAA}

-Three picture Frame {clearance from Marshall's}

-Cricut

-Scrapbook paper {gray, light blue, and red}

 -Glue dots {or glue stick}

-Scissors 

-Pencil

Steps:

-I used the cricut to get a heart for tracing as well as the labels: "Met", "Married", "Live" and the little arrows

-W located our "spots" on the map then traced the hearts with pencil and cut them out

-I introduced W to glue dots while placing the arrows to mark our spots {he didn't love them but gave them a valiant effort}

-We glued the maps and labels to the gray background paper

-Put it all into the frame

And got this final product! :)

 

Now it's his turn to cook up our next activity! 

{linked up to Home Stories A to Z and TatorTots&Jello}

Monthly Contributor

I'm super excited to announce that the girls over at Newlywife have asked me to contribute to their blog on a monthly basis. Yay! Megan and Emily want me to share projects, ideas, and tips about DIY, crafting, and home decor. Such a honor so I'm feeling nervous. :) But at least this will give me a big kick in the pants to finish some of the projects that I've been neglecting. heh.

Check out my introduction here.

Striped Curtains {DIY}

One of the projects that really got me smiling in our updated eating area was the striped curtains. I'd fallen for stripes when they began to pop up all over the place. I wanted some of my own somewhere in the house. But anything worth buying was out of our price range. I went so far as to pin some other ways of getting stripes: painting, buying fabric and making it from scratch or using some other material. Well, I ended up going with the third option, but only after finding the best resource off one of my favorite blogs. I saw this post mentioning how Ashley from Under the Sycamore turned this duvet from Target into curtains. Perfect! I thought. I could totally do that! 

Off to Target to purchase this...then time for some quick math on the back...

Since the curtains had to cover our sliding glass door, the width of the duvet was perfect. I didn't have to mess with the measurements. The duvet's back made for a perfect lining. So I just cut the duvet in half, turned it inside out, and hemmed those two sides. By doing it that way, I had clean lines on both sides of each panel. 

I made the button end the top. The first stripe was gray. I folded that over to make a loop to slide the pole through. That took the length up by 6 inches, making it the perfect height for our door. I sewed on the front side of the curtain, along the line where the white stripe met the gray to get it as straight as possible.

Before...

After...

I truly am in LOVE with these $35 curtains. I may or may not spend extra time downstairs during the day just to be near them. Or invite more people over than necessary just for them to see them. ;)

Things I learned along the way...

...having a large space/table was super helpful. I used my mom's huge island to cut and pin...

...I'm still not a very straight-line kinda of sew-er-- W was the one who recommended sewing against the line where the two colors meet...

..the iron was my BEST friend with this project...

{linked up to Home Stories A to Z}

Stay Awhile {Dining Area Re-do}

Our eating area has gotten a big fat face-lift these last few weeks and I'm so excited to share the updates. I really didn't intent to update this space, although I constantly see it since we spend so much time downstairs. I think it must have all started when I added our up-cycled chalkboard-- from there, things just kinda morphed into lighter and brighter.

So here's a peek of what it looked like before {that is after two large, dark, flower prints were replaced with the chalkboard}...

And here it is today...

We've had {and still have} many gatherings so I've kept the two leaves in our table. I've updated the curtains, added a paper circle garland to the chalkboard {more on those later}, and hung a custom banner {courtesy of my talented new friend, Heather, from CMHandmade}.  I also still have some spring loot hanging around on the cabinet, including the faux blossoms I made`with tissue paper.

Our jasmine bush is currently in bloom. It smells oh-so-yummy in our backyard. E has been helping me bring in some of its flowers to fill a jar with. It's seriously the only plant we haven't killed yet and is so massive right now. We're getting ready for veggie garden attempt #3. Third times the charm, right?!

I would love to exchange the chandelier for something more simple and re-cover the chairs. Upholstery definitely terrifies me, or at least the tops of the chairs. But maybe there's a pinterest pin for that? ;)

I wanted to eventually update this space, but figured it'd be while. So, things just happened without much forethought. Ideas and resources that I'd been looking for just seemed to pop up at the right time so I jumped on them. It really is a fun place to eat, craft, and entertain now. Hopefully, folks will be encouraged to stay for awhile.

{linked up to Home Stories A to Z}

Easter Weekend {a tad bit late}

Our Easter weekend was FULL. We met with our Life Group on Saturday night and got the boys to bed late. Then we had church, naps and our Easter feast at my parents. Needless to say, that Monday was pretty much a crank fest although I was surprisingly productive. Don't know how that happened. 

I didn't get any family pictures on Sunday which I'm totally bummed about. But the boys were already going off less sleep and I had to wake E from his nap to get to my parents' in time. I'll just say that they looked incredibly cute in their matching green ties. 

I did, however, get some pictures of our table. I volunteered to set the table this year. I stuck with yellow, blue, white and gray. A fun little perk to not hosting the dinner...having the time for the fluff stuff. :)

 For the favors, I put caramel-filled Cadbury eggs atop felt nests with the plastic grass. I put them inside strawberry baskets and put a name tag {that I cut with the cricut} and tied with twine.

The food was amazing. I made sure to stuff my face with it. Most, if not all, the recipes came from pinterest this year. It did not disappoint. The dessert was a Peep cake that my mom made.

Our family is definitely "out of shape" when it comes to busy weekends. But we enjoyed the time with family as we celebrated Christ and his sacrifice of atonement.

Unofficial Birthday Wishlist

William and my birthdays are both next month. And my mom has a gift. A gift of giving. She has impeccable taste and you can tell she really enjoys it. But there is a caveat: she really likes to surprise you. In fact, she's been known to not get you something if she knows you may be thinking she's getting that for you. That would be why I'm labeling this my unofficial wishlist. I'm figuring she wouldn't get anything from it anyway. ;)

{no particular order}

New to Ikea this spring. I can think of a dozen and one great uses for this beauty. I'm loving this color and the mint green option. So cute yet so functional!!!

Yes, I already have a "s" but it's by far my favorite mug! I go to great lengths {uh, like washing it by hand} to use it multiple times a week. I could totally see a "j' being added to my monogram collection.

I've seen these necklaces from allora handmade before, but not until recently did I get excited about them. I could really use a deep red, lemon, mustard, or pacific one to add a pop of color to my mommy uniform.

A store credit to Shabby Apple. I've been eyeing these dresses and skirts for quite some time. Great quality with a vintage feel. They definitely aren't cheap so you shouldn't buy one if you're thinking about getting pregnant any time soon...which kinda happened the last time I was looking at buying one. ;) And they just came out with their "color block" collection--so many fun bright colors!

Some crafting supplies: a roll of kraft paper, liquid chalk, chalkboard contact paper...things that have been lying around in my amazon cart, waiting to be purchased.

And I'll end on a really really high {as in expensive} bag. I've had my eye on the Marc Jacobs' Petal to the Metal line since it came out last fall. This sure is the perfect gray bag. Makes me drool.

Anyway, back to reality. Time to finish prepping for Easter! Huzza!

Happy Friday, y'all!