Boxes are still waiting to be unpacked, but there has definitely been a big improvement in the stuff area.  I have taken a carload to Goodwill, and I am working on another one. We have filled up our big trashcan several times. I have stuck to my promise that nothing comes into the house unless it has a purpose and a place.  That doesn’t mean we still don’t have a ton of “stuff”, but I’m hoping it is far less than where we started on moving day.

We absolutely LOVE this house (ok, my love does not refer to the exterior paint colors but definitely everything else)! I know some people still think it is weird that we choose to rent instead of buy, but I love the flexibility we have AND that we have a home we can love.  The space in this house is incredible compared to our last one.  And the backyard…it is my favorite part of this house.  There is a door off the dining room/playroom that opens right to the deck.  Jonah can run in and out as he pleases.  I can be playing with Penny inside or getting dinner ready while Jo plays in my view right out back.  It is such a blessing.

I’m trying to focus on getting one room done at a time, but I have so many ideas and just want it all done at once.  It is overwhelming at times, but as of now we are living and playing and eating and sleeping.  Here is where we are at the moment:

• Lucky Penelope is the only one with a “finished” room. She has all her furniture in place and art on the walls.
• Jonah’s room is basically set up, but we want to add some more big boy furniture and fun art.
• Our room is liveable, but I need something on the walls. I haven’t quite decided what I want to do in there.
• The living room is in desperate need of furniture! We are couch hunting now and hope to make a decision soon.  We purchased a new tv stand in February, so we are excited to add to that.
• The kitchen is functional but needs art and some more organization.
• The playroom is finally coming along after a couple weeks of chaos and toys everywhere. We have a rug, some toy storage, and a fun wall treatment in there already.  I need to work on adding an art area and more storage.  I’m hoping this room will be the next one “finished”.

So, we are getting there.  As hard as it is to sit in unfinished spaces, I have to keep reminding myself that making a house “home” takes time.  I like to live in the space and see what works best.  Of course we can keep changing things as we go, but for the sake of our bank account, I like to try to make long-term decisions.  I’ll post pictures as rooms get more finished because right now, I promise, there isn’t much to see.

ps: Penny turned 7 months old last week.  I think I still may be in denial.  Did I mention she can sit up alone and she has started eating foods?! Where did the time go…

As far as my to-do list goes, here is how I am doing:

• get matching, bedside lamps
• find/make curtains for large window
• hang up art above bed for focal point and needed color
• find/make new pillows and add a light colored blanket to change-up bedding
• hang mirror above desk or dresser??
• recover ottoman at foot of bed
• add personal/sentimental art to make the space really special

Before you see the results of those checked off items, here is how the space was looking before, with only a new addition of side tables.

And here is how we are looking now:

Much better right?  (These pictures were taken at night, by the way, so please excuse the crazy lighting.)  Anyways, as you can see, I added bedside table lamps, which were much needed.  They are from Target.  I added the two abstract paintings above the bed (see how I made the first one here).  The wall was just too big for one.

I also bought new cream-colored shams (from Anthropologie) and added two homemade pillows that I made from fabric remnants to lighten up all the gray bedding.

I’m definitely loving the changes.  It is already such a happier room to walk into.  What’s funny, though, is comparing it to my inspiration bedroom:

Besides the fact that we both have birds on our pillows, the rooms are way different.  I ended up using bolder colors and more modern lamps and tables.  The room has less of a polished, pretty feel.  However, I absolutely love my room the way I made it.  I just find it interesting how what inspired me isn’t what I actually want to live with.  This room is much more “Josh and Angela” and makes us both really happy.

Does that ever happen to you? Is your finished product much farther from your inspiration than you thought it would be?   There is still more work to be done, and between Jonah and Christmas I hope to find some time to wrap this project up.  I’ll keep you posted!

Not only do I think it came out really cute, it was also completely FREE! I just used burlap, felt, and paint I had lying around the house.  It may have taken some time, but I saved $35 (if I would have bought its inspiration instead).

This Christmas, and for the past couple of Christmases, we have tried to focus on giving more and spending less, hence the free calendar.  I try to use this time of the year to live out the true meaning of Christmas: giving, loving others, and celebrating Jesus’ birth.  One great resource I have used is Advent Conspiracy for inspiration and ideas on making this holiday meaningful and not focused on gifts and getting.

Advent Conspiracy centers around four simple ideas: worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all.  We try to purposefully incorporate these into our Christmas. One way I do this, is by using the Advent calendar to have a special activity each day that, hopefully, focuses on one of the four ideas.  Some of my activities are more fun than anything, but what is Christmas without joy and celebration? And even though not all of the activities are baby-friendly, I want to try to include Jonah in as much as possible.  I truly believe that a child of any age can learn something during this season.  You just have to try things and see how they go.

Anyways, here is my list of Advent activities, in no particular order.

• mail out Christmas cards
• make ornaments with Jonah
• buy a gift from the World Vision catalog
• drink hot cocoa by a fire
• wrap presents
• visit a nursing home as a family
• watch a Christmas movie
• make Christmas cookies for neighbors
• read the Christmas story from the Bible
• donate a toy to Toys for Tots
• play with fake snow (we live in Louisiana)
• donate to the food bank
• drive around and look at lights
• invite friends over for a special dinner
• research and try a French Christmas tradition (we love France)
• take family Christmas pictures by the tree
• read Christmas books in our jammies
• leave a gift for the mail carrier
• visit Santa at the mall
• buy coffee/meal for a stranger
• make a gingerbread house
• attend a Christmas eve service
• leave an anonymous gift for a friend or neighbor
• exchange gifts on Christmas morning
• attend a Christmas concert

I wrote out each activity on a piece of cardstock and placed it in an appropriate pocket on my calendar.  I am going to try to let Jonah take out the card each day.  I am also thinking of putting a few small gifts in some of the pockets that he will find and take out.  We will see how that goes.

I can’t wait to get started!  Are you ready for December 1st to start your countdown? Do you use an Advent Calendar like I do or do you just check off the days? Any other fun ideas for my list? I’d love to hear them!

I am fine with painting letters, words, and simple images.  But when it comes to actual art, I’m better at picking out what I like then actually making it myself.  I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to abstract painting, and this was my first attempt at making something that resembled real art.  Just a quick note to all the actual artists that may be reading, please don’t hate.  I did this for fun, and I’m not claiming to know anything about this genre of painting.  Ok, with that out of the way, here is what I made.

I was inspired by a painting in my aunt’s house–the house where Josh and I were married.  We had a few pictures of us with said painting in the background, so I used those as a guide.  Not only is the painting beautiful, but it reminds us of a very special day.  I like for my art to be meaningful and nice to look at, and I feel like I captured both.

Here’s how it all went down.  My painting began with a board of MDF, which I painted white.

Yes, that doesn’t make sense. Yes, I should have used a canvas.  But the MDF was already in our garage, sitting unused.  It wasn’t super thick, so I’m not worried about it being too heavy.  Plus, it is a really smooth wood, so paint goes on really well.  Once I covered it with two coats of white, I added a little gray for depth. (That sounds like I know what I’m talking about right?!)

Honestly, at this point, I had no clue what I was doing. I just did it.  Next, I picked out the colors from my stash that most closely matched the actual painting (wish I could show you pictures of that, but I don’t have digital copies of them).  I took my brush and just went for it.  I would just keep referring back to the inspiration painting to have something to follow.  After that got tiring, I just filled in spaces with what I thought looked good.

I’m kind of in love with the finished product.  You may not like it, but I’ve learned that art is a super opinionated thing.  If I love it, you may not, but you also don’t have to sleep in my bedroom.  I asked Josh if he liked it, and he actually does! Yay! So we are happy with it, it was free, pretty quick to make, and reminds us of our wedding day.  What could be better?  Now, if I can just figure out how to hang it up… I’ll keep you posted. Update: I have found the artist who made the original painting.  Her name is Helene Pfeffer.  Unfortunately, I still can’t track down an image of the actual painting. 

First up, here’s what I’m using as inspiration for the look I want to achieve in our master bedroom.  I used dear, time-consuming Pinterest for some ideas and found this:

Obviously our room looks nothing like this (we don’t have a window above the bed, we don’t have wallpaper, etc.), but I love how calm and serene the room is.  I love the dark wood of the bed contrasting with the white side tables (which is very close to what we have now).  And I love the colors, understated bedding, and symmetry in the room.  I think this room looks super relaxing and beautiful and that is my goal in our bedroom. Here is what we are working with at the moment, which is very far from where I’d like it to be.

We definitely have a ways to go to achieve that serene, airy look, but I’m going to surely try.  First off, we desperately need reading lamps.  At this moment, we are both sitting in the dark with the glow of our laptops working away.  Some lamps would be really nice. Now, here’s the other side of the room:

The door on the left is our bathroom, and the one on the right is our closet.  The famous blue desk is in its new home and loving it.  The dresser was a hand-me-down, but is super functional and solid.  The brown thing at the foot of the bed is actually an old coffee table that we don’t use anymore. It works fairly well as an ottoman/bench, but needs to be cushioned and covered. As you can see, there are no curtains on the big, mini-blinded window. Curtains are coming after lamps, for shhuuurre! And you also notice that the walls are just pretty bare and blah.

So the room isn’t huge and doesn’t have much going on.  It is in major need of some color and interest and some personality.  The blue desk gives me a great start, but feels very alone.  So, once again I searched Pinterest–this time looking for color inspiration. Here is what I found:

I love the colors in that chair fabric.  So much.  So I played around with them on my photo editor, and this is what I came up with:

As you can see with my rough sketch, we already have the dark brown in the bed and our dresser, the blue in the desk, and the gray background in the bedding.  I want to add in the light mustard and more of the aqua with curtains, pillows, art, accessories, etc.  I’m hoping these colors together will help me achieve that calm, beautiful look from my inspiration bedroom.  And, come to think of it, the colors are fairly similar in this bedroom!

Finally, here is the tentative plan I have mapped out for our room.  Because I am trying to do this quickly and cheaply, the tweaks will be small, but will hopefully make a huge impact.

• get matching, bedside lamps
• find/make curtains for large window
• hang up art above bed for focal point and needed color
• find/make new pillows and add a light colored blanket to change-up bedding
• hang mirror above desk or dresser??
• recover ottoman at foot of bed
• add personal/sentimental art to make the space really special

That’s the plan! I’ll keep you posted along the way.  Have a wonderful weekend! We will be out shopping for lamps and curtains…hopefully.

But, for now, let’s just focus on issue #1: end tables.  Here’s what we have been working with for the last year and a half.

Yikes!  It was definitely time for a change.  In July, I purchased two, matching end tables, which sadly stayed in their boxes for 5 months, just waiting to be opened and used.  I’m just that crazy person that leaves things unfinished for way too long.  Sigh.  Finally, this weekend, the tables were taken out of the box and assembled.  They were really easy to put together.  I just used two tools and a helper.

He was a really cute helper but not so great for work efficiency.  Way too distracting and liked to steal the screwdriver.

Once the tables were set up and in place, I did a little reorganizing and styling of our bedside areas.  I just love the new look!

It is fresh, clean, modern, and functional.  I like that they don’t take away from our beautiful bed (which was a wedding gift!), but instead they complement the clean lines.  I also like that they lighten up the space against the dark wood of the bed and they gray/beige walls.

Yes, my husband keeps a baseball bat, flashlight, and fire extinguisher next to the bed.  Are we ready or what?!

It is such a dramatic change.  I still can’t believe how great they look for only $30 a pop and from Wal-Mart!  And I love that we have a drawer in each one, too.  I’m all about seeing less clutter, especially in a room where I just want to relax.  The bedside area has gone from ugly and non-existent to modern and beautiful.  Bedroom Project Part 1 =  SUCCESS!

Did you guess white, Parson-style, end tables? Well, aren’t you smart!  I ordered these (back in July) when I realized our need to have two end tables in our bedroom.

Right now we have one end table, and it is next to the hubby’s side of the bed.  I get a basket and a magazine rack.  It is one of those things that we just never thought about purchasing when we got our bed.  I guess I always figured we had some extra little tables around that would do the trick.  And then in July I realized my mistake (since we only had one pretty ugly table and nothing else), and I ordered the new ones.

The new tables are from Wal-Mart for $30 each.  I rarely think about furniture at Wal-Mart, but I wanted something cheap and simple that I could do my own thing with but not worry about messing up.  Usually, I would hit up garage sales and Goodwill and trash piles, but maybe in July I was feeling lazy and just wanted it done.  Funny, how they are still in the box.

So, what finally spurred me to take these babies out of the box and get them set up in our bedroom?  I guess I realized that the master bedroom was the one room in our house that I have completely ignored.  It is the room that no one else sees.  It is a room where we spend the majority of our time just sleeping.  Putting effort and money into decorating it just didn’t seem that important.

But now, I realize my mistake.  I have let my husband and myself down by not taking pride in our space.  Our marriage should always come first and our bedroom is a tiny piece of what makes our marriage successful.  I don’t think it will make or break anything, but to be able to come into our room at night and feel relaxed and be surrounded by beautiful things together can only make us happier.  Right?  That is my thinking and that is why I am dedicating this month to improving our bedroom and making it a beautiful and functional place that we can both enjoy. Step one being opening boxes.

What are your thoughts? Do you think having a beautiful bedroom makes you and your spouse happier?  Are you like me and leave your space as the last one to put effort into?

I owe this pre-Christmas excitement to the latest version of the Pinterest Challenge.  I joined the challenge in the summer with a foodie photo-collage for my kitchen.  This time around, I crafted some wall decor that will be only used during the month of December, but I wanted to get an early start on making it.  One of our holiday traditions is to count down to Christmas using an Advent calendar.  I thought this year I would make my own, so I trolled Pinterest to find a little inspiration.  Here is what I found:

I fell in love and knew it was in my capacity to DIY.  This particular calendar is sold by Land of Nod, and is made of a canvas material.  I loved the idea of the 25 pockets to hide little gifts or notes, but I wanted to be able to make it with what I had around the house (aka for free).  Lucky for me, I had a lot of extra burlap lying around from Jonah’s birthday party decor, so the cutting began.

Once I had all the pieces cut out for the pockets, I ironed each square/rectangle and placed them on the large piece of burlap I had cut out. A few, select pockets got a coat of red paint (as seen in inspiration pic) and were left to dry.

In the meantime came the slightly annoying and tedious cutting of numbers.  I decided to cut the numbers out of white felt by hand.  It was what I had, and to be honest, I didn’t think it would take as long as it did.  Believe me it took FOREVER.  They came out really cute, but I think you could get the same effect with pre-cut numbers or even drawn on numbers.  I will have to remember that next time.

With the numbers finally cut out, I hot glued them to the appropriate pocket.  And then glued each pocket down onto the burlap backing (with glue only on 3 sides so that they could actually be used as pockets).  The pictures below are pre-glue.

Here it is this morning post-glue with a little Halloween candy doing some modeling.

I think it looks great, but obviously not quite finished.  I still need to figure out a way to make a border for the whole piece.  I’m thinking maybe a ribbon trim.  I also might add some more red details to the pockets, similar to the inspiration picture and then figure out a way to hang the entire calendar.  But that is for another day.  I’m telling you those numbers wore me out for the night!

This does get me excited about the holidays and our Advent countdown.  Maybe we will put notes in each pocket or small gifts for Jonah or different Advent activities we plan out.  The wheels are spinning. Here’s to looking forward to the fun things to come, but also remembering to treasure each day!  See, I didn’t forget.

Good news? I have 78 items to load up and drop off at Goodwill this week.  There is a good mix of stuff in there, and I have quite a pile to show for it.  When it comes to making space in this 1100 sq ft house, that pile is equivalent to one of our closets!  Yay for a new, empty closet! Well, sort of.

Although I was 22 items short of reaching my 100 things goal, I did throw a lot of stuff away, too.  So, technically, I “got rid of” at least 100 items, if not more, but I only chose to count what I was donating.  On a side note, I think if I would have had more time, like another week, I could have reached my goal.  The hubby would not let me go through his clothes for this challenge.  Believe me when I say I would have struck gold there in the “giveaway” department.  That man knows how to hang on to stuff that he NEVER wears. So, with more time, I could have worn him down and convinced him to give up his stuff.  A project for another day.

As far as the stuff breakdown, here is a list of what is leaving our home, just in case you wanted every, last detail.

• 8 baby clothes items
• 1 pair baby shoes
• 4 stuffed animals
• 14 shirts
• 2 hats
• 9 pairs of shoes
• 2 shorts
• 3 pants
• 9 sweaters
• 1 dress
• 1 comforter
• 1 pillow
• 1 sheet
• 1 play mat
• 1 toy
• 1 pool raft
• 2 photo albums
• 1 baby sign
• 1 night light
• 1 piggy bank
• 1 basket
• 1 set of coasters
• 1 corkscrew
• 1 water bottle
• 1 flash light
• 1 surge protector
• 1 humidifier
• 1 set wooden shims
• 1 bag drawer pulls
• 1 bag faux apples
• 1 gift box
• 2 books
• 1 tripod

TOTAL: 78 items

Even though the challenge is officially over, I am always on the lookout for unused items in our home that are just taking up space.  We haven’t even touched the boxes in the attic.  I’m sure I could find some goodies up there.  So, did anyone join me, or do you plan on taking this challenge for yourself? Christmas if just around the corner, so why not donate some items that other people would love to have?  Does anyone have their own method for de-cluttering and making room?  I would love to hear about it!

We have a small house.  It is around 1100 sq ft and that doesn’t include a lot of storage.  Josh and I do our best to keep things to a minimum, but like most people, we have stuff and it takes up space.  I think our attic is maxed out.  As are the closets.  Begin annual clean sweep.

Here’s how I do it.  I set a goal to get rid of / donate 100 things.  I will be honest, it is not the easiest thing to do.  In the past, I have done the 100-things challenge right before Christmas, when I know there will be an influx of gifts and new things coming in.  But, since Jonah’s birthday party and my new hobby of gathering beautiful things, I feel like I need to start now.

How do I start?  I pick a drawer, room, or closet, arm myself with a trash bag, and just start going through it.  Anything that hasn’t been used in the last year and has no foreseeable use in the near future gets tossed in the bag.  After I work on one large area, I count what I have.  I do this until I hit at least 100 items.  I count each item individually unless it is really small (like a pen) or has a pair or group (like shoes or a stack of paper).  I don’t try to cheat.

As of today, I have filled up one bag after going though some old clothes and our hall closet.  Guess how much I got out of that?

11 items.

89 more to go.  It’s not easy, but it makes me feel better for some weird reason.  And it makes my house feel better.  And it makes Goodwill feel better.  I’m setting a goal to have my 100 things by Sunday night.  Now that it is on the blog, I have to do it, right? Here’s hoping I can!  Will you join me?