Striped Wall

My sister in law came over the other evening and gave me lots of fun ideas for our house.  I guess it just takes someone else sometimes to get you motivated to do some things that you've been too afraid to do.  I LOVE color. I love fun. I love out of the ordinary, non matching, eclectic style. Sarah helped motivate me to add a little of the color part to our home. I have been afraid of messing up, but it's just paint right?

I also love these bold stripes in grey and white. I'd like to do one wall like this in our living room. I have a can of grey from our office that I think would work...so it wouldn't cost anything!

Living Room: Creating Height

Happy Tuesday!  Hope you're enjoying it so far.  I wanted share a little decor tip with you today.  I have had the hardest time in our living room and dining room with knowing how to decorate and fill the space. I LOVE our tall ceilings and am so thankful we have them, but they are a bit of a challenge.

I've been wanting to get a book shelf for the living room to help fill one wall. All we had were short decor pieces; an end table, the couch and a little entry table/cabinet.  I had been looking and looking here in town for a nice one, but just hadn't been able to find one in good shape for a reasonable price.  

I got this shelf in Chicago at IKEA. Yes...we drove it all the way from Chicago to Springfield.  It was in a box, but a long one that barely fit in my mom's van. My poor sisters willingly agreed to let me try and take it home. We all rotated sleeping under and around the thing the whole way back. Thanks K&K...I will always remember our trip when I look at the shelf =) 

Eclectic Home

Some Inspiration for your home....
I love the fun colors with the white walls...and bookshelves...yes.

Headboard: Hammering in Tacks

My tacks came in the mail Saturday!  I wasn't expecting them until Monday so I was really excited!  Justin helped me hammer them in, which didn't take long at all and we were finished in no time!  It really was a pretty quick and easy project for such a big change!

I put a flat surface up against the outside edge of the headboard so that I had a guideline to go by when measuring how far in to make the tack line. I just measured three inches all the way around and made a mark with a pencil so I could keep the line straight.  It was a bit hard to keep it exact...plus, I'm NOT a perfectionist, so you will probably do better=)


Here's the fabric I chose and us hammering in the tacks with our make-shift "rubber mallet." Just a few rubber bands and an old rag. ( ours had a hole in it by the end...so make sure you don't care if it gets ruined)

DIY Headboard: Stapling the Foam

My Mom gave my a plaque this past Christmas that said I was entitled to her unlimited time of service to the project of my choice...BEST GIFT EVER!  She came over Monday and we went to work. Justin and I built the headboard frame over the weekend so it was ready to go.

The dimensions we used for our Queen Bed are:

5 ft. 4 wide, 3 ft. tall and 3 inches on each side.  If you know the dimensions when you go in to lowes for the main piece, they will cut it for you!  It saves lots of time.  

First things First:  Spray the foam to the wood with a spray adhesive so it won't slide around on you.  We kinda forgot this step and had to open the foam up as much as we could and spray the glue down in the already stapled batting...NOT FUN.  So...spray it first!...it really helps.

Kitchen is Tiled

Here's what the kitchen looks like now with the tile down!  I'm so excited. The grout isn't in yet in these pics, but we just finished up the last of it today. We're letting it dry and will get it all cleaned up tomorrow. Then I get to move the washer and dryer out of the dining room and the fridge out of the living room!  YAY!

Kitchen Progress: Backer Board is Down!

Here's what it looks like with all the backer board down in the kitchen!  I'm so excited.  Our house is a MESS right now though!  The fridge and island are in the living room, and the washer and dryer are in the dining room. There is dust all over our house too! I can't wait to get it all cleaned up.

Christmas Break Projects

Hello all!  It's been a whole week since I've checked in. We've been so busy this Christmas break with family events, home projects, and traveling.  I'm so thankful for the time we had with family and friends.  The week off felt super short and super long all at the same time. When I think of all we did it's kinda crazy!

Our biggest project was starting on our kitchen tile.  I always have a really hopeful outlook on big projects like this one. I think, "Oh, we'll just put in the whole kitchen/laundry/bathroom tile in a couple days...no biggie"... little do I know.  Thanks to my dad, we were actually ready to lay tile down the day we were planning on starting the whole project.

I was unaware of ALL the time it takes to prepare the area.  Here are just a few things we had to do BEFORE we were able to lay down tile:

1. Cut the trim boards around the doors so the backer board and tile will fit under all of them.
2. Take off and number all base boards.
3. Lay down backer board.
4. Put about 40 screws in EACH piece of backer board...ya that leaves a nice callus.
5. Unhook Washer, Dryer, Fridge
6. Take out toilet and sink in bathroom (which lead to going under the house to shut off the main water to the house, since the toilet was leaking...then going to Lowes to get more parts to fix the toilet.)
    *oh, and scraping off the nasty toilet sealant that's stuck on the floor when you move the toilet...ya, not fun!  I had no idea what was under those!

Keep in mind...this is ALL PREP WORK!  Thank you Dad for helping us so much with this part!

Here's the before pics:

Bedroom Makeover

My Christmas present this year from Justin is a bedroom makeover!  I'm so excited. I get to spruce up a few things.  I've had some ideas since we moved in but haven't done them yet. I think our room kinda got the left-over look. I can't complain...it's a beautiful room, but I'd love for it to have a little more cohesion.  I can't wait to get started!

I want to make a tufted headboard.  My friend Jenny (check out her blog!) sent me this link on how to make one!  It doesn't look TOOOO hard and it's fairly cheap...at least compared to buying a new one!

Here's the link.

I might chicken out and just get a simple normal bed...but I think I'm up for another project=)  I like the shape of the one on bottom better than the home-made one. I guess I'd draw up my own pattern. Lots of work, but seems worth it!

I also really like these horizontal striped curtains. They are so bold and fun.

...and some simple night stands

 Isn't this room fun?!  It's so put together.  I don't know if I could do it. I am way too eclectic. I do like how they used different shades of color though. It all goes, but isn't too matchy-matchy.


Have a good day!

Mini Apple Pies

There's nothing quite like the smell of an apple pie baking in the oven in your home. It's so festive.  I love how warm and cozy the house feels when there's something yummy baking in the oven.  Maybe that's because my mom is the master cook=)  Around the holidays especially, she always had something yummy filling the home with an amazing aroma. 

She taught me how to freeze apple pie filling so that all you have to do when you're ready to make one is make the crust and plop it in!  It's an amazing trick and a huge time saver.

All you do is make up your apple pie filling.  Put it in a freezer bag, put it in a pie pan and pat down the apples.  Then you just freeze the filling in the pan and when it has frozen, take the pan out of the freezer, keeping the filling in the freezer. It's as easy as that! 

I decided since there are only two of us, I should make some mini ones.  I used the same technique but just put the filling in a large cupcake pan.  They looked like this.

 Just make up the crust, roll it out so it's big enough to fold over the top of the apple filling.  Mine didn't turn out too pretty, but if you took a little more time, they would be really cute!

Bake at 350 until the crust is golden brown and apples are done. Enjoy!

Cornish Hen's a Roastin'...

One the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...two Cornish Hens.  I finally made the cornish hens that we bought for thanksgiving.  I guess they were our Thanksmas dinner.  Things get so crazy around the holidays anyway, so it was kinda nice to have a fancy meal in between it all. 

Look at the beauts=) I will have to admit, I was kinda proud of them...and a little grossed out at the same time.  The whole ENTIRE bird thing kinda weirded me out.

colored doors

A lot of rooms in our home are neutral colors.  I've been thinking it could be really fun to paint some doors a fun color.  I don't know though.  It seems a bit risky.  I'd have to be really sure of the color.  That's always the hard part. It would only take a quart though, so it wouldn't cost much if I wanted to change it.  Hmmmm....

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Hope you enjoy the snow today! 

Kendra

Eclectic yet put together

It's been a while since I've posted some of my design likes. These are all so fun because they are put together, but yet are not entirely matchy-matchy. I sometimes have trouble knowing how to put my crazy eclecticness into an orderly fashion.  I love these bold colors and statements.

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Oh Christmas Tree...

I thought I'd share our Christmas Decor with you today.  I love looking at other people's too. It's so fun and cheery!  We have two trees this year, a white one in the dining room and a green one in the living room. I love Christmas lights and I think by the time the season is over, I'll have some in every room of the house. They are just so pretty!

Hope you enjoy...

Wall Art: Vintage painting with Text

Here's the finished product!  I had so much fun making these two pieces of art. I've had the matching floral paintings for a long time, but never really liked them the way they were. I loved the frames though!  So, I decided to give them a makeover.  I haven't painted in a long time. I didn't know how much I missed it! It was so relaxing.

This past weekend, Justin went hunting and I got really motivated to hang up a bunch of things at our house.  I always think he should do it (because I usually put way too many holes in the wall)...but I think I did ok this time.  I just went for it. Now we FINALLY have stuff hung up. I just had to get over my intimidation of more wall space, and just decide already!

I put these two on either side of our dining room window. Trying to figure out if I should paint the frames a fun color?  I like the antique look they have, but a fun bold color would be fun too.

To make one yourself...

*First, simply stencil or free hand your text on an old painting with a pencil
*Next, pick a color of paint and start painting around the outline of your text, to leave only the text  showing!
*Lastly...hang and enjoy!

New Art From Old

I saw this piece of art from Sarah's blog and loved the idea.

She just tok and old piece of art from a thrift store and painted on top of it. There are so many neat things you could do with this!  I saw this pic and thought it was really neat too.  I think I'm gonna do one with text too though...I've had these two old canvases for a long time that kinda go together, but are really ugly paintings. I love the colors in them though, so it should be fun!

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Hope you have a great Tuesday!

Kendra

TV Stand Plans

I have still been keeping my eye out for a TV stand, and haven't found any that fit the bill. SO...I think we are gonna try and make one.  When I say we, I mean that I have asked my brother if he'd be willing to help...while I stand by and encourage.  I would like to say I will contribute...but I don't know how much of a help I would be. I will try though. I like that sort of thing, just don't know much about it, other than the one semester of shop class I had in high school.

Anyway, it's so nice of Derek to be willing to help. Him and Justin built Justin's office desk and it turned out really neat.  Derek has built lots of really amazing things for his family too. He is quite talented. Becky designed a similar stand for their TV.  I told her I liked it so much I wanted to copy.

Here's the initial sketch I have of the stand.  I'd like for there to be doors on part of it to hide cords, games, movies, etc. The rest would be neat for books and organizational baskets.   

I guess we'll see if the final project turns out like this or if I change my mind a million times. I'm good at that. But I suppose I can't really do that when the project involves cutting, gluing and nailing.

Hope you all have a great start to your week today.  Remember to be thankful today.

Vintage Table Runner

I got this dainty little runner at a garage sale a while back.  I love finds like these.  I always wonder who put all the time into making it. I think this one is so beautiful.  The colors and pattern is so fun!

More Decor

I was looking at more decor pics and love these. I just want to get lots of ideas before I make too many decisions...since decisions usually = money...if ya know what I mean.

 I love this chair!  And the tv stand is simple and timeless.  The speakers are really neat too!  They actually look like art on the wall and not just a big black box.  I like.

I like how simple the bathroom colors are too. Super cozy.

Photos found here.

Furnishing Our House

We've been in our new house for over five months now and I still feel like we're settling in. I realize that things aren't going to be how you want them for a long time...but I am getting a little stir crazy.  I want to hang more stuff up, make more curtains, organize, and make it feel more like home.  That's all fun for me, but I've just been overwhelmed with all the different ways it could look, that I don't do anything at all.

Here's a few pieces of furniture I like.  I'd love to get a few book shelves for the living room and our bedroom.  I still havn't found our tv stand that I've been looking for over a year now. I guess I'm just too picky!