Can't get enough of...

The other day when I was at my friend's house, I opened up her fridge to get some water for the kids, and 5 sticks of butter fell out of the door. "Sorry about that," she said, "butter is my 'thing.' I always think I'll need it for some baking project, so I grab some every time I shop, and then I end up with this massive stock pile of extra butter sticks."

You see, she's one of those moms that actually DOES all of the cute Holiday themed sweet treats that we all pin on Pinterest. I could hate her because I am a horrible baker, but I love her because she always volunteers to bring in the preschool snack at the holiday parties- so that I don't have to show up with a store bought box of donuts. And she always makes extra of everything to share with all of her friends, so how can I possibly fault someone for upstaging me in the baking department when it comes with so many benefits? 

Anyway, I had to laugh, because I think we all have that "thing" that we buy every time we go to the store because we think we're out- but really we're not. The other day when I was cleaning out some junk drawers I realized that my thing is birthday candles. I discovered that I have about 700 of them, but EVERY time it's someone's birthday I think that I might not have any- so I buy more- because there is no greater fail than being without birthday candles on a birthday. (Except maybe being without butter to make the cake in the first place- if you're the type that bakes these things from scratch).

I think the moral of the story is that being more organized, checking the pantry, and making a list before going to the store would save us all from becoming unintentional hoarders, but at least between the two of us I know that no birthday celebration will go without an amazingly creative sweet treat, and a handful of candles on top to blow out.

So, I have to know, what's your "thing" that you periodically discover you have 100x more of than what you actually need? Spill it in the comments!

Newlywed Retreat

Are you all sick of hearing about my new house yet? I don't even own it, haven't started a single project in it, and I'm already annoying myself. So how about a good before/after story from someone else's home?

 

My favorite part about this before/after is that I've actually slept in the "before" room, and when I saw the "after" pictures I didn't even realize that it was the same room! In this fabulous story, an outdated Guest Room is turned into a stunning Master Bedroom- and the transformation is truly jaw dropping.

 

This house belongs to my wonderful amazing friend Amy, who I've mentioned on this blog more than once since she's so cool. She and her husband are renting a charming little house in the outskirts of Chicago. As renters they are somewhat limited as to what improvements they can make- but after living with the purple walls for awhile they decided that wall color was one thing that needed to change.

 

Before the makeover, this purple room served mostly as an extra closet space and dressing room for her husband Mike, and occasional overflow sleeping when someone was snoring or bed hogging in the Master.

After Amy and Mike got married, their major purchase with wedding gift money was a new King Sized bed (so that they could both actually sleep comfortably without one of them ending up on the futon). Since they were getting a new bed, it ended up making more sense to turn this guest room into their new master, and then use their old bed as the guest bed. The size and shape of the guest room was better suited to their new King bed anyway, so all that was missing was a color scheme to replace the grape bubble gum walls.

And like any good before/after story, the end result of the room was somewhat of an evolution- based on working with what they had and trying to tie it all together. She started by painting the room a light and bright creamy off white- which ended up slightly tinged with yellow. Replacing the carpet was not an option, so she knew the objective was to come up with a color scheme that would tie the yellow and gray together.

Since they are newlyweds, I love love love that her ultimate inspiration ended up coming from her wedding photos.

The yellow and green trees, along with the stunning photo of them walking along the center line of a country road brought together all of the colors she had in mind. (PS that photo on the left involved the photographer lying down in the middle of the street- and stopping traffic in the process!)

They purchased the headboard on Amazon.com after realizing that the DIY option was probably more trouble than it was worth.

 
She searched high and low for end tables that would fit into the narrow floorplan of their old Chicago home- but a lucky find at a wholesale furniture helped her complete their furniture shopping and tie the color scheme together further.

She found the most perfect bedding by laying different colors and patterns that she found at different stores over the course of a few weeks. The added bonus with the layers is that they now have "his and her" bedding to accommodate different sleeping temperature preferences.

Are you ready for the wide shot?
Eeek, I'm so excited to show you!

She rounded out the decor with a few more wedding presents displayed on the wall including a cross stitch from her sister in law, and her custom painted wedding guest book thumbprint tree, painted by yours truly!

And aside from the fact that she has some of my artwork displayed on her walls, I think my favorite part of this makeover is that her cat Oscar photo bombed almost all of her showcase photos.

 

But seriously, aren't you just dying to spread out on that bed and read a book?

 

This, my friends, is what you call Before/After Magic.

 

To see more of what went down at Amy's wedding (as far as my role in the decor was concerned) check it out here and here. To see more of what this talented gal can do behind the lens of a camera, check her out here.

 

 

Summer Style

It's the middle of May already? Memorial Day is right around the corner? School is almost out? What?

My brain is stuck in mid March I think.  But trying to redirect my thoughts to summer makes me hungry for big sunglasses, straw hats, huge bags full of pool gear, beachy hair and strappy shoes.

Although, am I cool enough to pull any of this stuf off? Probably not...
I'll see ya at the beach in my pony tail, baseball cap, and Old Navy plastic flip flops.

Let them have Crayons!

I am in a bit of a holding pattern with any house projects, because my main focus lately has been on getting ready for our move. I am brainstorming what to do with the new house, and attempting to pack up this place while still living here.

In the process of slowing packing up more and more of what I deem to be "excess," inventory- aka things we can live without for another month or so- I've come to the realization that now that the weather is warming up, the only thing that my kids need to keep them happy is fresh air.

And art supplies.

You guys, I bought them a new ream of white paper, some new crayons and markers, a few rolls of tape and a stapler, and it has been all that they have played with for weeks. Why play with toys when you can make them? They've made super-hero capes, paper dolls, play money, and so many homemade books that they have opened up their own library (complete with homemade library cards of course).

One of the most important things to me is giving my kids ample opportunity to use their creativity, and have independent and unlimited access to art supplies. I will absolutely limit their TV and their electronic time- but I will never say no to drawing, coloring, writing or creating. (Painting? Well, I say no to painting 50% of the time- but they still paint almost daily!)

But ohmygosh the mess. Have I not posted at least some version of this photo at least a dozen times? (and this is the cleaned up version- imagine this plus a thousand scraps of paper and sequins and dried up glue bottles left open overnight). This is what my house looks like ALL OF THE TIME.

I love our little Ikea art desk- it gets used more than any other surface in our home- but I am going to go on record and say that the drawers suck. They are not meant to hold 17 lbs of crayons and markers, or be opened and closed roughly by little kids 38 times a day.

Also, crayon and markers should be sold in Tupperware containers, not cardboard boxes- because I have never had a box hold up for more than a week. The wooden dividers I was using only sort of did the trick because they were overflowing and barely fit into the poorly constructed drawers. So how can we contain all of these drawing utensils?

Well, if you're me and you start to have an anxiety attack over the disorganized nature of it all- you buy a bunch of pretty little buckets at Target (dollar spot FTW!) and proceed to spend an entire morning organizing them all by color.

It was strangely therapeutic.

The minute my kids walked in the door from school they noticed the rainbow of fresh coloring supplies, and got straight to creating. And this time when they were done- they markers were all put away!

I'm not sure where we will set up the art desk in our new house, but I know that it will end up somewhere and I need to be able to keep my zen when I look at it. These little buckets help.

(Look! Boxes! Evidence that I am packing!)

 

 

Bring the Gardening Indoors (Revisited)

Another oldie but goodie from the archives. And it still rings true. I still stink at gardening, and I still need to continually re-evaluate what takes priority in my life and when it's time to let something go.

* * * *

It's been well established in our home that I am not a good gardener or "plant parent" as I like to call it.  I just stink at keeping plants alive.  Thankfully my kids tell me when they are hungry or thirsty, and so far I've been more successful at keeping them happy than I have been with any sort of houseplant.

Earlier this year we bought some hanging flower baskets, and since they weren't the cheapest thing in the world, I've been trying to take good care of them with semi-regular watering and such. 

But, after awhile most of the pretty yellow flowers on the one plant withered and died...and it wasn't looking so hot.  I did a little online research and found that in order to keep your plants blooming you have to do something called "deadheading" which involves trimming the stems to remove the spent flowers. This helps the plant to focus its energy on producing new flowers rather than keeping old stems alive.

So, not only does it keep the plant looking better (more green, less brown), it encourages new blooms to form. Win- win!

As I was deadheading my flowers, I started to think about how the process is kind of like decluttering.  Piles of junk and unfinished projects become the spent flowers, and unless you take the time to clear them away, there is no space for new blooms to form.

The same goes for our own energy.  We can waste the majority of it maintaining dying stems, or we can focus it on the formation of new blooms.  A little bit of life decluttering might be worthwhile as well- cut out some of the things that bring you little joy and make room for something new.

Navy Update

So I have to share what happened after I posted the last post with those stunning navy blue walls.
I posted it on my personal FB page as well, because I have some friends that read my blog but don't necessarily follow my blog's FB fan page- my husband Rob being one of those people. (Actually, he rarely reads my blog, and if our mutual friend Erin hadn't tagged him in her comment, he probably never would have seen the post to begin with).

So.....is a navy blue living space back on the table? I had just convinced myself that I could live without it...and maybe I would eventually do our Master bedroom in that color (once we peel off the floral wallpaper that currently resides there). Now I need to start thinking about rugs and curtains and couch slipcovers! I'll keep ya posted!