Repurposed Window

I found this beautiful old window that someone already did the hard work of

turning into a mirror. Which is exactly what I wanted!

It was $15.00 at a garage sale

and is now hanging in our dining room! 

its so unique and we get so many compliments on it! 

I just love that its "one of a kind"

Pot O Flowers

Holy Cow! Where have I been!

This summer had been so crazy and busy

(in ways we never could have imagined..but more on that later...)

We have been trying to sneak in a few house projects here and there

as well as spend as much time outside with our girls as possible

and soak up every ray of sun.

From the looks of it we are not going to get any grass this summer..

MAJOR BUMMER!

With two toddlers we were hoping for grass at least by the end of summer

but the weather has not been cooperating for seeding

So, the entire extent of our landscaping this year is in three pots on the front porch

Honestly..its great as far as upkeep..HA! 

We are talking all of the money we had been saving for lawnmowers, landscaping, etc

and putting it towards a deck instead

So we can at least enjoy some dinners outside as a family

But this is my extensive flower landscaping

(please not the giant mud piles on either side of the house )

I split up 2 hanging baskets from Menards

 that we one sale for $5.00 each

So my entire "landscaping" cost $10.00

Fancy. 

Driveway

This week we got a driveway! 

May not sound that exciting to some..until you watched your toddlers trip

in the gravel 20 times a day..then you appreciate a smooth driveway! 

Here are some before pictures:

and the AFTER:

next project is getting rid of our white carpet in the dining room.

it only took two toddlers to make it more of a shade of tan in a month and a half

that we have lived here

We are going with a practical laminate that should be MUCH easier to clean! 

Housewarming Gift

We received the most beautiful house warming gift

A giant canvas print of the girls

which was perfect for all of our bare wall space! 

not only is this one of my favorite pictures

the colors just go perfectly in our front hallway

Giant Ruler

We thought it would be so fun to measure the girls when we moved into our new house

and every year after. We wanted something that we could take to our next house

(except after this move we resolved to NEVER move again :)

We started with a solid oak 1/2" x 6" x 6"

and primed and painted it Whipped White by Dutch Boy in a semi gloss finish 

At this point I was not sure whether to paint the numbers on or 

use vinyl but decided on a decal ruler from Abbie's House

After the letting the paint dry for 48 hours we applied the decal

which went on perfectly and looks JUST like a ruler

We then secured it to the wall and both the top, bottom, and middle
(it was bowing a little in the middle but a screw dead center fixed that)

now I just need to keep them still enough to mark it!

Easy Wall Art

I was looking for something easy and interchangeable for the girls room for wall art

I found these great scrap booking papers and loved the colors and design

I went to Target and bought 4 white frames 

added in the paper

and...

exactly what I had in mind! 

Now they can easily be changed out if we change bedding when the girls

get toddler or twin beds in the next year.

We are working on a fun giant ruler for the girls room!

Pictures to come soon..

Kitchen Tile Back splash

We really wanted a glass and stone tile back splash for our kitchen

to help us get that homey look

We found the perfect tile at HOBO

and bought just one sheet to start matching paint 

see the details about paint shopping here

Then once the tile had gone on sale 30% we went back and bought

the rest of the tile we needed (HOBO will price match any sales

with in 30 days so we brought the original sheet back too for the 30% sale price)

It cost us less than $100.00 for all of the tile.

After we finished all of the painting,  Russ and his friend installed the 

tile themselves and it turned out amazing! The tile came in sheets of 12 feet squared

and he rented a tile saw to make the cuts around the microwave and outlet sockets. 

He used thin set underneath the tiles and then a tinted cream grout. 

So, just to re-cap 

this is what our kitchen looked like a few days before we closed on the house

you have to love the "staged" furniture  and decorations

and this is our kitchen one week after we moved in!

Paint and the back splash (and appliances)

make such a huge impact! 

Have a great weekend! 

Paint Shopping

No person should have to pick out an entire house of paint colors! 

Its just too much..

But, what really is too much is moving everything into your house

then covering and moving it all to paint

so we are painting our entire house the week before we move it..

It really did make sense at some point..ha ha..

So, after much deliberation and advice from people we decided to get a few paint samples

for the colors we were having a hard time deciding on.

Which totally kills my dutch soul to spend an extra $2-3 on each tiny sample

when we  are going to buy an entire gallon..but now I am SO glad that I did

The first purple that we got looked like a teenagers bedroom

and since its for our bathroom the tween look was not what we were going for.

We ended up choosing Benjamin Moore Angelina as seen here in Apartment Therapy

The second color we were having a hard time deciding on was what shade of blue to do our kitchen

After finding the perfect back splash at HOBO (more on the tile colors and instillation to come)

we wanted a blue that would really stand out

So, I got two samples of paint (while wrangling two babies) 

and painted them on the wall last night..

Russ and I looked and looked and felt they were very similar

I kept telling him that one was MUCH darker and when they dried he would really see the difference

except this morning there was really no difference

So, I looked at the paint samples again

HMM! They are the same color!!!!!!

Which we do love and are going to use..

HA.

The paint is Nantucket Fog by Benjamin Moore and matches our tile perfectly

We are doing our final walk through of the house on Monday 

and close on Friday! 

WHOO HOOO!