I've been meaning to share this post with you all summer and never managed to get around to it. I'm not sure what took me so long, since this pretty girl has been sitting in my living room since Mother's Day. For those of you who don't know, Josh poured concrete to put himself through college and eventually starting his own business when we were newlyweds (didn't I say all of this last week?). When the housing market took a nosedive, he got a great job in human resources and has been working from home ever since. Several months ago, he started reading about a concrete product he had never worked with before. It's reinforced with fiberglass particles, which makes it very strong and much lighter than conventional concrete. We've always know that if we ever get into our forever house, we ...
our house
Budget Boho Bathroom: Before & After
With Josh traveling most of this month, I've been working on a few projects around the house. Our only bathroom has been bothering me for awhile, so I decided to take everything out in an attempt to create a Budget Boho Bathroom. See how below! Our house has been on the market for a year with very little luck. We know we're priced right, but it's a buyer's market and we live in a hundred year old home. It's going to take the perfect buyer to sell this cutie, so we're being patient and trying not to be discouraged. Since we knew we were going to sell, we've been hesitant to put any money into it over the last year. Once we came to the realization that we're going to be here for an undetermined number of days, it seemed silly not to really love my house while I live in. I don't say that ...
Around the house
After I found myself unexpectedly at home for the day on Monday, I decided to resist the urge to be lazy while Josh was working and try to accomplish a few things that were lurking on my to-do list. Our house hasn't been really cleaned since the holidays and I can always find an excuse to avoid those mundane tasks if at all possible. One of my favorite bloggers posts about her days sometimes and I wonder why I don't take "every day" photos like that anymore. Just pictures of what I'm doing instead of pictures of events. As Ella gets older and I question what to share publicly, this kind of blogging really speaks to me and I find myself gravitating towards that kind of sharing. When Josh caught me taking pictures as I worked, he laughed and started drafting a blog post out loud for me, ...
Yay, for big girl beds!
We've been talking about moving the girls into the same bed, ever since we moved them into the same room. It is well established that my children sleep MUCH better when snuggled up next to someone. Hence the many nights each week that someone ends up between their mommy and daddy or begging for some snuggle time before bed. We were hoping that letting them sleep together would provide us with much better sleep and a later start to our weekend mornings. To say they were excited is a little of an understatement! They knew on Friday that it was their last night in separate beds (although we're leaving the crib up for a few weeks in case of an emergency). On Saturday morning, we loaded up and ran to the storage building to pick up the bed frame and mattress that we've had since buying our ...
IKEA: It’s All About the Food!
When I planned a girls' weekend road trip to the closest IKEA, I had no idea our day would revolve around food. On Saturday morning, I loaded up with Garan and K and we spent two and a half hours of a rainy drive to Atlanta for our first ever stroll around IKEA. I've heard of it plenty, even ordered the magazine and shopped on-line a few times, but if you are reading any design blogs you know that there is plenty of goodness to be had here on the cheap. The big blue warehouse greeted us right off of the interstate and we were all a little giddy. I was armed with a little bit of cash and a long list of wishes for the newly painted living and dining rooms. Mom & K really wanted to scope out couches and I kind of wanted to do some mattress testing for SD. We started out in the ...
Singin’ the Blues
To say that I am pleased with the way these two rooms turned out would be a vast understatement. I still find myself sitting around staring at the walls, giddy with excitement. I haven't spent a single dime on anything frivolous for myself or the girls since the first of the year and it's all because I keep thinking of things I want to add here and I'm saving my pennies for a few finishing touches. The "after" is such a dramatic change that Ella comments regularly on the fact that we "live in a different house" and everyone who stops by can't believe its transformation. It is so BRIGHT in here now and I can actually take photographs without a flash. I feel like we've been living in a dungeon for the last six years and we've finally been let out! This is the view when you come in the ...
Progress & Some Inspiration
I had secretly been dreaming of painting our living area a soft blue color, but couldn't imagine what it might look like. I knew we had to keep our rugs since they were fairly new and a bit of an investment. I wasn't sure how to make soft blue work with all of our natural woods and the yellow and orange in the rooms already. Then I saw this picture in Better Homes & Gardens and just knew it would work. The way the natural wood looks with those walls and the patterned rug. Oh and the curtains! I am in love with the bold blue curtains and cannot wait to replicate that look on a budget for my own room. Now I was convinced, but I just knew Josh was going to die when I mentioned painting the rooms. He didn't even bat an eyelash -- he agreed that after six years in this house we needed an ...
The Befores
Does anybody know how long I've been saying that I would share our living and dining room makeovers? It's been exactly 6 weeks since we emptied the rooms and gave them a face lift and I've finally taken pictures of the "afters" this morning. I wanted this to be one of those projects that was complete inside a month, but I quickly realized how silly that was! We are pretty close to being finished, but I have a few more things to pick up and make and the new goal is to have everything done by Sophie's birthday party on April 16th! The photographs below were taken in May of 2009 right after we bought new rugs for the rooms. A few pieces of furniture had been moved since then and I'm sure we bought some accessories, but in general, this is what the rooms looked liked just six weeks ...