Dining Room: Before & After

The first time we saw the house, I knew I'd eventually love the dining room. I LOVE the windows! The paint color and the lighting, NO. Ron didn't think the light was bad at all. That night I began stalking Craigslist for a different one. Right away, I found a chandelier a few miles from where we lived. It was only $40 and needed a coat or two of spray paint. I added the Pier 1 curtains that I've had for years, my Craigslist dining table and chairs (I recovered the chairs with some fabric from JoAnn's), and the mirror from Walmart that I was using in my bedroom in the apartment. I started looking around for a buffet. I've been wanting one for a while. At a church dinner, I sat with a friend's mom; she mentioned seeing my post on Facebook that I was looking for a buffet to refinish. She offered to give me one she had in her garage. Yay! I used the same milk paint on it that I used on my mother-in-law's chest. I just sanded and stained the top & added "mercury glass" knobs from Hobby Lobby (later I noticed that Anthroplogie sells the same ones for much more, of course!).

Before... not a fan of the yellow walls (even though I painted my kitchen this color  years ago;)

Before: Love these windows!

Before: The wall color made the floors look more orangey to me.

Before: No words for this...

Years ago, in the world before Pinterest, I TORE this out of Southern Living and kept it in my ideas notebook...

After: Using my mother-in-law's picture, I was able to re-create that look I wanted.

After: The dining room is one of my favorite rooms. I love sitting in here in the mornings.

After: The paint color is Sherwin-Williams wheat grass.

After: I got the blue lamp at Target; I like how it adds color beyond the greens and browns.

After: Centerpieces are hard for me. I found this basket/bowl at TJ Maxx for $12 and filled it with these different balls. It does add color to all the wood in the room. It's sitting on an old cabinet door that came from a yard sale.

After: There was some interesting fabric on these before-- 2 layers, one of which was vinyl.

After: I really want to add a rug in here. I even brought one home from Target, and it looked too small. I think a large neutral striped rug would look good with the dotted curtain panels & floral fabric on chairs...

After: Really happy with how the chandelier turned out. I hope to luck up on some vintage chandelier crystals one of these days.

After: My kitchen overlooks this room. I love how the kitchen and dining room are connected. In our last house, the rooms weren't.

After: I want to add some family pictures in here too.

Amy's Living Room

Jamie and I helped Amy add color to her predominately brown living room. It's been almost a year ago; time flies! We enjoyed working with such a sweet person.

BEFORE: The entry way opens right up to the living room with a little awkward wall that can be seen in the next picture. We removed the red window covering, hung a mirror in place of the landscape, and added a rug, I think. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the entry way after, but you can see it a little in the next picture.. It looks lighter and fresher.

BEFORE: Here's the little half-wall I was talking about it.

AFTER: We moved this table to be the living area for a side table.

BEFORE: We moved this nice bookshelf to the awkward wall.

AFTER: We brought some of our stockpile decor to mix in with Amy's things. She has some pretty pottery & photos.

BEFORE: only browns & golds, no lamp, bare walls, no curtains..

AFTER: added color through pillows, lamps, and a plant

AFTER: the curtains made a big difference

Love her white pottery!

10 down...

I've lost ten pounds with about twenty to go. Once I FINALLY saw the scale budging, I got motivated to continue. It's not easy. And at age 31, here's what I know about myself (I'm sure I'll need to read this back ever so often!):

1. I love food-- anything from home cooking to sushi and everything in between.
2. My sweet tooth seems to get worse with each baby. I wake up in the night sometimes and want to get up to have a nibble of something. Not having it in the house helps, of course.
3. I have to have a workout partner. Period. I do not have the discipline to do it alone even though the act of exercising is something I enjoy (once I'm doing it). Currently, my partner is Jamie, and we've been doing a variety of Jillian Michaels videos. I like them because they aren't long and within a month of starting, I felt stronger.
4. A cup of coffee in the afternoon curbs that need to snack, especially something sweet. Never thought I'd love coffee this much.
5. I buy way too many shoes when I'm not at my goal weight because clothes shopping is no fun. Ha!

Alright, I'll update when this next ten comes off. I can't wait!

Addison: 9 months

Nine months! You are wanting to crawl, but right now you scoot around on your belly. You've been saying da-da and working on cutting another tooth. You love playing with toys and chewing on anything you can get your hands on. At your last appointment, you weighed 17 pounds.
Our favorite thing that you do right now is lay your head over on us and grab our face- it's soooo sweet! What a blessing you are! I love you, Addison! As you can see in the pictures, you're curious and getting mobile!

Valentine Party

Our family has loved living in our new home so much; we've been here for almost six months. The huge added bonus to this is living in a quiet cove with friendly neighbors. When we moved in our neighbor, Corrie, across the street came over to introduce herself and her daughters. What a blessing they've been-- a homeschool family with girls around Ava's age. When we are outside, and they are all running around I can't help but smile big. I grew up on a street with two of my best friends; we'd meet up all the time to ride our bikes and play. It's just the best! 
Corrie and I talk about school ideas a lot, so that's where the Valentine's Party started. We loved holiday parties when we were in school. We both invited some friends with girls to come over and make v-day cards and have lunch. Ava and I picked out fun stuff at Target for the party. I explained the concept of the little cards to her-- she worked on those for a long time (thought it was a great idea;). Then since we finally got our computers/printers/ink set up (been out of colored ink for probably three years), we found some printable cupcake toppers & banner-- how did I survive with no ink this long?? It was a really fun day!

Group effort on these cupcakes..My sister always come to my rescue. Ava decorated them.

Lots of paper, stickers, glue, markers, and glitter (don't think it'll ever be gone; it was in my coffee yesterday;)

Target trip for our supplies (Addison's first time to sit in this kind of shopping cart)

Our easy, free printable banner

snack time!

They decided to eat under the table:)

Book Review 12

I've been reading some good stuff! Ron surprised me with a Kindle Fire HD for our anniversary; I had a simple electronic reader that I thought served the purpose just fine that he bought me several years ago for Christmas. I must admit that I love my Kindle (and so does Ava)! If you're looking for one, I recommend it. Here's what I've been reading/I'm currently reading:

LOVED this book! I'm pretty sure I've read all of Tamera Alexander's books now, and this one is my very favorite. It was the kind of book that you feel sad when it's over. I liked the Post-Civil War setting too!

Definitely not my normal read, but I jumped on the bandwagon. I liked it! Ron and I really liked the movie too, which is great because I feel like it's harder and harder to sit through movies...I fidget. ha

Sheet Music is a great straight-forward read from Christian author Dr. Kevin Leman. Years ago, I read Sex Begins in the Kitchen and his book on birth order. I recommend them all.

I picked this one up at Walmart recently when I was in the mood to go home, relax, and read. Sometimes the thought of just curling up to read at the end of the day is the best! I truly enjoyed this book and will be looking for more books by Karen Witemeyer!

Since I'm a big fan of this author, I downloaded this one last week. It starts out sad and slow, but I'm glad I kept reading...It was worth it! 

And here's a look at the books that I'm currently reading; I usually don't start more than two at a time. I think it's the Kindle's fault... I'll post about them when I finish...

Ava & Addison's Room: Before & After

Eventually, the girls will share this room... When we first came to see this house, Ava asked for a pink room; I've been on such a turquoise-kick the past few years so it threw me off a little. Ha. I wanted her to pick though so I started looking at pinks (I've never picked a pink paint color). I always use Sherwin-Williams paint. I saw White Dogwood on Favorite Paint Colors blog and went with it. It turned out good, I think. I like how their room turned out. I think it'll last a long time, and I still have a few things that I want to do!

BEFORE: needed new paint, carpet, and to lose the curtain (which Ava thought was grand;)

At our apartment, I'd used a mismatched bedding with colorful pillows. I was ready to find something else. I looked for a while. I kept hoping I'd run across a cute quilt at Marshall's... Finally, I ordered this Pottery Barn quilt via eBay; I've really liked it for years. Ava liked it a lot too.

Over the bed: I found the A & K at a flea market for $12 total already painted. Then I had the M in my garage; I had used it on my front door for a while. Since the girls have the same initials, it works.

I really need to start taking pictures with my actual camera again.. Sorry for the iphone pics. The wall to the right of the bed is eventually going to be a gallery wall of snap shots of Ava & Addison. I have two white frames with white mattes so far..

I just used the simple white curtains we already had since the quilt is busy. Thought it would balance it all out. I did get the mercury glass-looking rod at Target after we moved in.

Lamp & globe-- Target; Bible verse-- baby gift; cute stuffed animal-- a Brittany yard sale find

Love this little bird-- flea market

My childhood rocking chair from my grandparents; Ava's favorite bear "Mama Bear;" blanket-- Tuesday Morning

Canvas was a birthday gift; repainted my grandmother's birdcage; frame--Gordman's

This pink light was from a friend..BIG improvement from the previous light.

Love this frame-- from that same flea market where the letters & bird came from.