Christmas cards are one of my favorite things about December!! I was also excited to work with a new Etsy shop this year. Salsa L Design was so great to work with and her designs were so beautiful. Simple but still trendy, exactly what I'm looking for with a design for a Christmas card. Piling up on the couch to stuff the envelopes and send out our huge stack of cards during nap time last week was such a sweet time. I had some music playing and as I read each family on the envelope, I felt so much thankfulness for the people God has put in our life. We truly are so blessed! 

Also, these envelopes were such a BIG time saver! My tongue was also very happy ;) 

Make sure to check out Salsa L Design!!

ten things I love at ten months.

The world of an almost one year old is an exciting one! I can't believe we are almost at that point. There are so many things that Solomon is doing lately that crack me up. He is such a funny kid.....

1 // the "aahhhhh" face. 

The one above, he makes that face all the time. I'm going to cry when he stops making it. He does it when he's happy, and can't contain the happiness no longer, and just needs to let some out. I also mentioned this same thing during the 6 things I love at 6 months. I still believe that one reason I love it so much, is because of how it reminds me of myself a little bit. Happy mommas make happy babies, right?!? ;)

2 // all the kisses.

He has just started giving kisses all the time but they are always on my shoulder when I pick him up or someone hands him to me. Randomly he will give me kisses on my face or head but most of the time they are on my shoulder and he makes this "mmah" kissy noise when he does it. Sweetest. Thing. Ever.

3 // quick rest.

Sometimes while he is playing in the living room he will crawl to this one spot, by the chair and in front of the tv, and lay down. Never for long, just a few seconds, then he's up and moving again. It's so weird, funny and adorable! 

4 // in and out.

His fascination with putting things into other things and then back out again is so cute. He does it over and over and I find myself in a trance watching him sometimes, it's oddly relaxing for me. Little things into a box, blankets in between his legs and then out again, anything repetitive.

5 // the couch slide.

When he's having some milk on the couch and he's finished he will let go and slowly slide off my lap and then off the side of the couch really slow until his feet touch the floor. Then he stands up super straight and smiles before he leaves to find a toy. It is so precious and funny!!! 

6 // drinking water.

He actually prefers to drink water from a normal cup and it's so funny. He actually guzzles it down, and gets mad when we take it away. Not so fun when we are trying to eat, but it's cute. 

7 // grocery shopping.

I swear, he could spend an hour in a grocery store! He looks around, talks to people that are walking by & if I'm not moving the cart for too long, he rocks back and forth like he might be able to move the cart all by himself. 

8 // just before sleep.

He will stop drinking and clap his hands together, just 3-4 claps, then he goes back to his milk and closes his eyes. Within a few minutes he's knocked out asleep. Like one last hoorah before he gives in, ha! 

9 // book love.

He has also started to love books and will sit and put them in his lap and turn the pages back and forth. I can't remember the last time he put a book in his mouth!! It's super cute to watch, I'll even say "go get your book!" & he will crawl over and start looking at it. 

10 // toy search.

The new car seat has cup holders and he likes to put his toys in them. Little animals, wooden blocks, basically anything that will fit. Once we put him in the car seat, he frantically searches for whatever was left in the cup holders last. It's so funny and I'm thankful that the cup holders have made his car seat experience a little more fun!

the curtains.

Yes! The. Curtains. They are officially up and hanging proud. From beginning to end, these little devils were a pain in my rear but I am so happy with them. Mainly happy to be finished with them, but I also love the way they turned out!

It all started with an idea I found on Pinterest. Like most ideas that seem like a great idea until you try it and then you want to scream and yell at that stupid website that makes you feel like any DIY project is really easy. We have all had our Pinterest catastrophes, right? Well, these curtains are mine. I wanted curtains that ended up like THIS but after several trial runs with a straight line and a few screams at the tape, hard wood floors, my aching back and Pinterest I decided that stripes were not going to happen! Then I found THIS lovely DIY curtain painting project and I was sold! I ran to my local Michaels art store and picked up the same exact foam stamps that A Beautiful Mess used and I was ready to go!

I have to give Peter credit for the help with hanging the curtains and for the idea of the design. Going from large circles to small circles all the way up the curtains makes me think of champagne, and champagne is always a good thing! I love how they turned out!!!

Living Room Re-Do // Part Two

Several weeks ago I decided it was time to tackle the second project for the living room. The first was painting the walls and since that was a quick and easy job I was excited to do something a little more fun. When we first saw the house I loved the fireplace. I didn’t want to change it at all but the more we started adding new cool colors to the house the more the fireplace looked out of place. My mom had said from the start that we should do the white wash but I wasn’t so sure but after a lot of thinking and internet searching for DIY White Washing I decided to go for it! Thankfully with mom’s help {both on the fireplace and with pictures} we completed the job and I am so happy with it!!!

The room looks so much bigger and brighter thanks to the lighter color on the brick which was a huge plus. It didn’t take long at all and it honestly was a lot of fun and the steps are so easy….

1 // mix 2 cups of white paint with 1 cup of water. Stir vigorously with a paint stick until the paint is thinned out and it has a watered down glue consistency.

2 // tape off all the areas you wish to protect from the paint .

3 // brush the mixture on one piece of brick to test the color and with a dry, clean rag blot the paint off. If you want a darker white wash keep layering the paint on and blotting until you find the coverage you desire.

{ I didn’t want a lot of coverage so I only put one layer of paint and blotted quickly }

4 // stand back and enjoy!!

I will definitely enjoy this project even more once the gold framing for the fire place is spray painted black. I will be doing that pretty soon and you know I will share the fun with all of you!

Living Room Re-Do // Part One

It's that time agian... On to a new room. All the rooms in the house are starting to feel more finished everyday and it really is exciting. The living room is probably the room I want to finish the most since it will be the most used room on a daily basis. I wanted it to feel cozy and comfy. This room is also the darkest room in the house so I wanted the colors to be bright and happy. Here are some of my ideas from that wonderful world called the Internet. 

^^^ its honestly creepy how similar our chairs are!!! 

via House Beautiful

via The Yellow Cape Cod

unknown, please comment if you know credit. 

via 6th Street Design School

To make a happy & calm room, that is the main goal. So far so good but you know the drill, more on the rest later!!

twenty dollar treasure!

Thanks to my love of estate sale shopping I found this beauty a few weeks ago and I couldn't wait to start working on it. I knew I wanted to give the famous Annie Sloan Chalk Paint a try and I felt like this piece was perfect for a test run. 

I've been looking for a piece of furniture for the living room for a while now. Just something simple and small to put a lamp and a few picture frames on but I couldn't find the right thing.  I wanted a little bit of character but also something small enough for the space by the back door to the deck and once I saw this little guy sitting in the garage at the estate sale I felt it speak to me. You know, like those Pier1 commercials... "hey lady... Psssst, over here. check me out. I know I have some cobwebs, holes in my drawers & I'm missing some knobs but I just need some love." Which of course lead me to respond with, "oh, okay... let me love you!" I then asked if they would take $20 instead of $30 and it was a sealed deal... 

love was in the air.

As far as the ASCP goes... I was a little nervous. I was told that this paint didn't need any prepping at all. No sanding, priming, nada. Just clean the surface and start brushing away. All was going wonderfully until I got to the top of the piece. I guess there was some sort of water stain that wasn't noticeable until the white paint was brushed on top of it. It started with a light orange shade coming through the paint and the more ASCP I added the stain started to become a darker outline. I decided to take some Kilz primer spray paint to try and cover the stain. After dabbing on the Kilz with a paper towel and letting it dry I tried a second layer of ASCP on top. Success! The stain started to disappear. 

Then it was on to the wax. After reading a ton of blogs on how to complete this process I figured out less is definitely more. I was told by the shop I bought the paint and wax from that 100% cotton rag or even a sock works best. So, using one of Peter's old soccer socks I applied the wax all over the piece of furniture in the same stroke motions that I applied the paint. Like I said, less is more. I put enough to see the difference but it was still smooth to the touch and not thick. After leaving it for a day to sit and dry everything looked great. 

So, after a little bit of nervousness with this process and a lot of brushing I was very happy with the outcome. Now the only thing left to do is buy some pretty knobs for the drawers and add wood in the bottom of each drawer. Those need a little extra love and that is perfectly fine with me! I will share the final product once he's completed and the decor is finished in the room... I know you all are dying with anticipation. ;) 

4th of July and some other fun things...

Happy 4th of July errrybody!

I’m pretty excited about this year’s holiday! Last year was a little different.  I had to work and we did the whole fireworks and eat a lot of food downtown kind of thing which is always fun but its just not going to happen this year. I am once again working but not my 9-5 job. I’m working at my anytime I have time to actually do something at the house job which is a lot more fun. We have a lot of painting, sanding, cleaning, sanding, patching walls, and more sanding to complete before we can take a rest. I also have a feeling after a day of hard work the only thing I will want to do is shower, sit in my pajamas and have a cold beer while watching some Netflix. Don’t judge. It will be awesome. Plus, I’ve never been a huge fan of fireworks for some reason? Just for fun here are some more updates for the house......

 

I'll be honest... I didn't want to share my excitement too early in the planning stages since I was a little afraid it wouldn't happen. You never know what might come up and we weren't 100% sure removing part of the wall would actually work. My Uncle Larry was so kind to help during this whole process, from checking the structure of the house to finally tearing down some house!

We were hoping that we could do a half wall but thanks to some copper pipes from the second floor bathroom we were limited to only widening the door. The more I thought about it, I started to realize I liked that option even more. I think it will be nice to have the open flow from our kitchen to living room but still have a secluded area for our kitchen table.

^^^Thank God for technology... the only scale we had on hand was on Peter's iPhone. 

^^^lots of wires... I was so confused. Thankfully, they were not. 

^^^ Big open space to the kitchen now! 

^^^Peter has started filling in the part of the dry wall that was cut to check on the pipes and once the walls are wallpaper free and everything is smooth we can finally start panting our kitchen!

I know I sound like a broken record over here but I can't wait to live in this place!! I do feel super blessed that we aren't handling all of these changes while living in the house but it also feels a little bit like torture to not really call this place home yet. I know it will feel so surreal once that changes.

I also want to express my gratitude and thankfulness to my wonderful uncle that helped with this project. He was so sweet to take time out of his busy schedule last week to help us out.

We really are super thankful!