House Updates

I've been off my DIY game for a while, but this last week I have managed to get a few little things done before the craziness of Christmas. The first thing is actually something Jason did, not myself. We had some MAJOR issues with our kitchen sink (totally stopped up, snaked several times, plunged, acid poured in with no change) and ended up having to call a plumber. But not before Jason made a valiant effort to fix it himself. He spent many hours doing what he could to fix it and it turns out it needed to be snaked from the vent on top of the house. Anywho, while he was working on it he decided to swap out our faucet and sprayer (the sprayer hasn't worked since we moved in). Here is the old:

And now the new:

Please excuse all of the dirty dishes waiting to be washed. It is amazing the difference having a sprayer makes! So much easier to clean the sink now. So thanks, honey! I appreciate your huge effort in trying to fix the drain, plus giving me a little bonus of a new sprayer that works. 

Next up is the mancave bathroom. When we moved in I took before pics of the house, but somehow managed to forget the entire downstairs. I didn't think to do it before painting any of it either, so you will just have to visualize the before. Basically, it was the same hint-of-blue paint as the rest of the house's before pics. This bathroom is the largest although it doesn't have a tub or shower. We are hoping to install one eventually since there is already space to do it. The downstairs is Jason's domain, since I have a whole room dedicated to my piano upstairs. He is going for a masculine, library-ish vibe. Since we have a great pop of color in the mancave with the orange-red walls, he decided on brown as a neutralizing color for the bathroom. Here is the finished product (sorry the pics are kinda hard to see, it is a hard room to photograph):

(we still have plans to frame out the mirror and paint/replace the cabinet)

(I totally ORBed the towel rack and toilet paper holder, you know I can't stand gold!)

I am SO glad to have this done before our company comes! New paint/decor combined with the fact that the toilet actually works now (woot woot!) is enough to tickle my bones. As a side note, the plumber we hired was absolutely wonderful. He got in and out as quick as he could (since they charge by the hour), gave me tips on what to do if we ever have the same problems again, was courteous and friendly and quiet so my kids didn't wake up from their naps, and fixed two things that make a difference in our everyday lives (the kitchen sink and toilet downstairs), all for a measly $85. Sometimes, it is totally worth calling the professionals. If you are local and have any plumbing needs, please check out Bodenheimer Plumbing! 

The last little tweak we made was another that rocks my socks off. The last goldtastic light fixture in the house was replaced! Remember this guy?

Well, he's been upgraded:

I just love my little flying orb of a planet! It lends the perfect modern touch coming into the house, leading into the music room. We have actually had the fixture for a while (from IKEA, of course), but didn't have the funds to have it installed. We would have done it ourselves, but didn't have a ladder that would work in the awkward entryway/stairwell. A friend of ours from church installed it for us and I surprised Jason with it last week. Another simple swap that makes all the difference in my mind. 

I didn't finish my to-do list for before Christmas, but I am happy with where we are especially since I have had so much back trouble the last 6 months. But come the new year - I'm gonna be tackling all the trim and doors in the house. Then maybe, just maybe, I can retire my paint brush for a while. :) 

2nd Time's a Charm!

So remember when our dining room wall looked like this?

And we hated it so much we had to take it down, and then it looked like this?

Well...now it looks like this!

And I absolutely love it. I have been quite enamored with all of the silhouette projects on pinterest and I knew I wanted to incorporate our sweet little babies' heads into our home decor somehow. It is a somewhat more formal look than we are used to, so the dining room seemed the best option since it is the most formal space we have. 

They aren't perfect - all of them aren't exactly the same size-wise and Harry's doesn't have as much neck/chest as the others. But I am learning how to let go of my perfectionist streak and simply enjoy what I have been able to accomplish. I mean, seriously - up close, that little mouth of Harry's is so precious, hanging slightly open, and Eden's little demure, dainty sweetness is adorable! I love the personalized touch they add to our home.

And the two side frames looked like this when I got them:

Ew, right? They were $1 each at a yard sale. And if you know me at all, you know I would never keep that goldtastic color! I sprayed them black and framed some beautiful fabric found by my SIL (thanks, Sarah!). I actually had a lot of good ideas from my crafty peeps on facebook. Such a resource, I tell ya! 

I think they balance out the square arrangement of the silhouettes well and also tie into the curtains too, bringing everything together in the room. Ah, I love it when things come together!

So it just goes to show, sometimes you think you know exactly what you want but it just doesn't turn out to be right for the space. Turns out the 2nd time was the charm for this wall! 

Spickle de Spackle

This is one of the most important posts I will ever make about DIY projects. Okay, that is not true. It is probably one of the most boring posts I will ever make. In fact, the only reason I am posting it at all is so that you will not lose faith in my home improvement plans, but realize I am just being very slow about proceeding.  The latest project has been spackling the dining room wall where the spray painted rubber mat used to be. We put so many holes in the wall trying to give it enough security to actually stay up there that by the time I got done patching all the holes it looked like this:

Yep, just like a kid with the chicken pox. But now I have managed to touch up the paint and we have a nice blank wall again. I have ideas for what I want to do up there and am in the process of finishing it. I will let you know when it's all done!

Just as a DIY side note, I would like to say how proud of I am of Jason. I *accidentally* stuffed our washer too full of clothes (bed linens, actually) and about 10 minutes into the cycle, that thing started bouncing around like a two year old on mountain dew. Jason ran down and stopped it, but not before it decided to knock out the spin feature. After bailing out all of the water, taking apart the entire thing, figuring out what was wrong, buying a replacement part and installing it - the washer works like new again.  He's so handy! 

Outside of that, there hasn't been much DIYing going on. Honestly, there probably won't be a ton of stuff going on between now and Christmas. Usually I would have myself a list of things to accomplish before the holidays, but with my back still giving me grief I know I won't be able to do much. The closest I will get to home projects will be decorating for Christmas, and you can bet I will post all about that! 

Light Fixtures

So I'm sure you guys remember the goldtastic light fixture in our dining room:

Well, we have now upgraded to a modern, brushed nickel fixture:

(sorry it is hard to see in this one due to the white decor, but that will soon be coming down)

Not bad, eh? And the best part: it was FREE. That's right folks, F-R-E-E! I found it on Craigslist doing a random search on light fixtures, trying to see if I could find anything cheap. A woman was getting rid of a lot of stuff after a divorce and wasn't charging for anything! We had to drive to the other side of Greensboro (took about 25-30 minutes) but still, it was a great deal (especially since buying similar models new can be $80+). 

I love that the table is now centered in the room, there is no more gold(!), and it matches the curtains so well. Now if I can just get rid of that rubber mat on the wall and replace it with my newest inspiration, this room will be close to done! Oh, and I guess I have to finish painting that trim at some point too...

House Tidbits

Nothing major going on in the house right now with my back being somewhat out of commission,  but here are a couple little tidbits for ya. 

I wanted to move some of my toiletries from below the sink (where a certain little boy could get to them) to somewhere easily accessible in our bathroom. I got two extra shelves at IKEA when I bought the ones for Eden's room (see here) and decided they would be perfect. Sprayed them with my favorite ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint and hung them up behind the door. Here is the new storage:

While at Target last week looking for prizes for Eden's potty training, I spotted this little guy in the dollar bin:

Don't ask me why, but I just love him! He stole my heart much like Clive did. I believe the reason I like him so much is because he reminds me of my cousin, Tazma. She has a horse farm in SC and every time I see a beautiful horse I think of her. She is one of the sweetest people I know and her home and personality are so inviting. I hope that by having her inspire a bit of our decor we will reflect the same thing to others when they visit our home. 

So our latest animal addition is at home on the mantel for now. Oh, and his name is Marcus, short for Neiman Marcus. :) 

House Projects

We have still been working in the house, little by little. One of the most recent things I have done is hung some decor in the dining room. This is a rubber mat, spray painted white. I am trying to decide whether to sand it some to copy the look from the website, or just leave it white. Opinions?

Sorry about the horrible pictures, you will have to use some imagination. :)  I got the idea from here, and thought it looked really pretty but still simple. Not to mention cheap! And I needed something somewhat large on that wall. I still need to add some sconces to each side, but then I think that will be it. I don't like to overdecorate, just to fill a huge space. Once the table is centered, new light fixture installed, etc., I think it will be a nice clean space.  

Eden and I also did some new decor for her room. She is all about ballerinas these days, so I thought it would be fun for her to paint some dance pictures on a couple of canvases. Here she is getting her creative side going:

These are just stick-on stencils from Hobby Lobby, leftover from a baby shower project. 

All done and ready to hang:

Here they are hung in her room above her changing table. This is the wall we eventually want to have the tree mural, so this looks fairly simple on such a large wall. Any ideas on how to help it look a little more beefy?

We also made her a little reading nook, as inspired by pinterest. Check out my inspiration here, here, here and here. The book shelves are just $5 spice racks from IKEA, spray painted white. The letters are from Hobby Lobby for $3 each.

As she gets older I would like to expand it to something like this with shelves around it, but for now it is a cute addition to her room decor. Plus, she loves saying the letters out loud to spell "read." :) 

Current projects include sconce hunting for the dining room, assembling an IKEA light fixture for the entry, spraying/hanging shelves (the same spice racks from IKEA) in our bathroom for my hair products and such, and a futon makeover. Pics and posts to come!

Homemade Cleaning Wipes Review

As most of you know, I love pinterest. It has SO many great ideas on everything from crafts, parenting, home decor, DIY projects, recipes, etc. It is a fantastic resource! One of the things I had pinned that I wanted to try was homemade cleaning wipes. I go through clorox wipes super fast, but they are super expensive. A homemade approach seemed try-worthy! I got my recipe from here (kinda cool that I even had the exact containers from IKEA that she used!). 

Here are all of the supplies, ready to be used:

Really simple: cut a roll of paper towels in half, add the wet ingredients to the container, mix, add paper towels. Voila:

I let the container sit upside down for about 10 minutes to make sure all the towels got nice and soaked.  They are very wet, so I have to wring them out before using unless I want to go back over it with another paper towel, defeating the purpose of trying to save money. 

Next time I am definitely going to add some kind of disinfectant, because there is just something about knowing everything is nice and cloroxed when you use the clorox wipes. I also really liked the smell of mine, because I used the "Spicy Odor-Be-Gone" essential oil from the local lady I buy candles from (Lighthouse Candle Factory). It had a more home-y smell than the normal clean smell of the clorox wipes (not that I mind that smell either). Another idea I found online was to use old t-shirts cut into wipe size that can be washed and re-used, furthering the money saved. 

So all in all, a good experiment. I can definitely use them in a pinch and maybe I can even get used to using them regularly with a little tweaking to the recipe. 

Just for an added bonus, a video of the kids! This is completely unrelated to the cleaning wipes review, but I couldn't resist adding this in just for kicks. We have been working with Eden on not grabbing her stuff back when Harry takes it from her, and this is proof that maybe it is sinking in a bit. She very calmly hands him his own juice while taking hers back. Not bad for a two-year-old. :) 

Curb Appeal

In all of our excitement to get to the inside of the house, we can't forget the outside! This is what our house looked like when we first found it:

Not bad, but kinda basic. We had/have plans to help it along a bit, and so far we have hung the flag, painted the front door and shutters and had the outside pressure-washed:

We spray painted the shutters black and I think it really helps them pop a little more against the white siding. The red door goes a long way in adding some personality too, and I love the home-y-ness of the flag. We still need to update the porch lights, replace the storm door, finish painting around the sidelights (there is currently a yellow trim around them), and get some nice patio furniture and planters. A work in progress, but already better!

Statues, Stars, and Stripes

So my latest project is one that I didn't even come up with myself. My friend Deanna had a yard sale find that she was sure needed to go in my house. Enter a huge, creepy Beethoven bust:

I admit when she first texted me his picture I was a little freaked out...I mean look at those eyes! He was just a little too life-like for me. But the more I started thinking about how I could change him, the more interested I was in getting started. I'm sure you can all guess my plan of attack: spray paint. :) 

I started with a coat of primer, just to make sure he would be well-covered. I had to use a new brand of spray paint this time (Rustoleum did not offer the color I wanted), so Valspar was the the winner. 

After the coat of primer, already an improvement:

Although it is a bit unorthodox, I wanted him to pop and serve as an accent in the music room. Since our accent color is turquoise, "Sea Mist" fit the bill. Here is his blue debut:

I am aware that this will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I really like him! He adds an interest factor in my somewhat boring, predictable decor. And I really like how his color bounces off of the other turquoise accents in the room. I think even Jason is beginning to like him. :) 

The other big project on my to-do list was painting the shutters and I am SO happy to say that I have finished them! That means every item on my "finish before the beach trip" is done (YAY!!!).  The only downside is that they will not be hung up again until after we get back from the beach trip (which means our family coming in will have to see our windows bare). We purchased a groupon for a pressure-washing company and they are coming while we are away at the beach. We figured it made more sense to leave the shutters off while they cleaned the house. But let me tell you, Jason held one up in place to see if it would look good with the fresh coat of black paint (coming from a gray-blue color) and it is gonna look GREAT! I can't wait to have them up again. I think the black shutters against the white siding and gray brick will look nice with our red door and other new addition this week:

A flag! I have been wanting one for a while and while at Lowes this weekend I found one on sale (take note of the naked windows in this shot, poor little DIRTY things...). Of course, our flag is not just for our country but for my brother, Joe - we are so proud of him! He is in the army and we are happy to show our support for him and the other troops. 

In other news, all of the holes that needed it have been spackled and re-painted so we are moving along just fine! When we get back from the beach, the painting starts again - this time will hopefully bring it to an end. The next to-do list will be up after our week of relaxation. :) 

Everything and Nothing Special

This post is about everything special to me - our everyday life! It isn't anything fancy, just our normal day-to-day. Here goes!

I tried several new recipes this week, including Crockpot Italian Chicken and Honey Sesame Chicken. Both were good, but the honey chicken was the best. We both really liked it and have actually been eating the leftovers (which hardly ever happens!). Here it is half-eaten, haha:  

(in the crockpot) 

(we ate it over rice, which I made in my Pampered Chef rice cooker, one of the few PC items I actually like and use).

I have been trying to vary what we eat a bit, since I seem to always cook the same things (tacos, chili, meatloaf, chicken, etc.). It is fun to do new stuff but it is amazing to me how many calories are in these new recipes! Most of them I find on pinterest and it seems taste is more important than nutrition on the ones I pin. I have been able to alter most of the recipes though and make them a little less calorie-dense. 

I have a few more things I am planning to try soon, including Baked Bananas, Cauliflower Tater Tots, and Chicken Caesar Sandwiches.

Speaking of cooking, Jason decided he was in the mood for pancakes one night this week so he made some for himself and Eden. I thought they looked so cute sharing pancakes together (as an after dinner/before bedtime snack):    

Next up is a little Harry collage (been having a lot of those recently). Here he is trying to climb into my lap while I'm working on the computer:

I went to wake him up from a nap one morning and was able to snap a picture of his favorite sleeping position:

And here's a few of him standing all by himself! He is SO close to walking...any day now!

Last, I think we have finally settled on an arrangement for Eden's room. We have left a space in the middle of the wall for the tree painting we talked about in this previous post. Here is a shot of when you first walk in the room (we got the canopy hung back up again...not sure if I like it, but it is staying for now):

To the right when you walk in:

The center, where the tree will go:

We have also been into a ton of other little (nothing special) things like painting trim and doors, re-painting and re-hanging the banister in the stairwell, re-hemming shower curtains (and ironing ours finally!), jimmy-rigging weights for the music room curtains to keep them from moving so much, and spackling holes in the bathrooms left from new light fixtures. They definitely add up to finish some things. 

The list to finish by next Friday is:

1. Spackle holes in kitchen ceiling (from fan installation)

2. Paint spackled holes in bathrooms

3. Paint outdoor shutters

Not sure if that last one will get done but I am very happy with how much is done on the list that was deadlined by our beach trip next week. Once we get back, I will have a post on our list to finish by Christmas! May seem a little early to be talking holidays but it's only 201 days! :D