i love summer

It's amazing what you can get done when you don't have to go to work for 10 hours during the day!  I love summer break...

I love NOT setting an alarm.
I love waking up and getting Peyton from his crib.
I love getting to eat breakfast and drink coffee while sitting on my couch instead of while driving in my car.
I love getting to watch the news or other random morning talk shows.. and daytime shows like "A Baby Story."
I love having nowhere to be and nothing in particular to do. 
I  love the feeling of having ENERGY.. and not feeling so drained and exhausted that I can't function past 4pm.
I love having time to clean, organize, and make all of the things I pinned on Pinterest!

And that brings me to what I've done the last two days...

I cleaned and organized our main level.  I filled and threw away three trash bags of junk.  Then I redecorated!  It all started with a trip to HomeGoods.

I bought new curtains.. blue with white stitching.  I am awful with measurements so they are too short as they always are.. but oh well. (sorry for the bad pictures... I didn't edit any of them and they were taken at night).

I also bought a few baskets so that I could better organize things under our sofa table.

I bought a few pictures frames so that I could finally make my picture collage on the wall behind the couch.  I moved the picture that was there to a different room, took a trip to AC Moore, got some more supplies and worked on it for two days.

First I started with the canvas.  I bought a blank canvas, painted it blue, then let it dry.  Once it was dry, I distressed it a little (or tried to).

Then I used yellow scrapbook paper (with gold dots) to cut out the word HOME.  I used white paint to paint the rest of the lyric "is wherever I am with you."

I also bought some paper flowers that I glued on to the corner of the canvas.  You'll see that in the final pictures.

Next I pulled out the picture frames that I bought on clearance.  I painted two of them white and cut out scrapbook paper to use as art inside each frame.  I distressed the other two using sandpaper.  In one I added a picture of Peyton.  With the other one, I threw out the glass and backing so that I would only have the frame.

Last, I painted yellow stripes onto a big wooded letter "C" that I bought.  I added some of the paper flowers that I glued to the canvas for decoration.  Then I planned to outline the C with the empty distressed frame.

And last... I put it all together to make a collage.....

Final product...

  

I also bought from HomeGoods the blue vase on the right and the lantern on the left.  I'm really bad at accessorizing.. but I'm trying :-)

Next I'm moving on to my bedroom... then Peyton's big boy room....then I should relax, but to be honest it makes me feel really at ease to look around and see organization!  Did I mention I loooovvveee summer?!

Spring Break 2012 Cancun!! ... or not.

     No, Spring Break was not happening in Cancun this year.  I'm spending this break at my house, which is perfectly fine with me.  I love being home during the week and it's nice to be able to relax.  Peyton is at a really fun age to be home with and it makes me really excited for this summer!

So Spring Break started off a little busy...

Spring Break: Day 1

I decided that I would use this time off to complete a home project.  I've been wanting to put in a kitchen backsplash.  Neither Brandon nor I are handy, so even easy projects don't always work out so well for us.  Despite this, we headed to Lowes.

Peyton was an excellent shopper and waited very patiently as we looked around.

Now when it came to backsplash options, there were several.  This is what I was pretty sure I wanted:

• glass tile
• easy
• greenish maybe?

So we found glass tile and we found easy (at least it was supposed to be).  Unfortunately the easy tile didn't come in any greenish colors- so we went with a white/pearl and brown color pattern that looked like this...

The product was the DIY Network Backsplash kit in Pecan.  It's glass tiles that come in sheets of 12x12.  The kit was staged in the store in front of a video of how "easy" it is to do.  The glass tiles are stick on, so you don't have to putty the wall first... which did make it easier.  Here's how it describes itself on the Lowes website:

• DIY network glass tile backsplash kit - 15 sq. ft
• All tools and materials needed for installation included in the box
• Peel-and-stick mosaics and pre-mixed grout
• Save time and money, install and grout on the same day
• Can be installed over almost any flat and smooth surface
• The DIY backsplash kit utilizes a new peel and stick technology specially designed for glass mosaics and a pre-mixed ready-to-use grout
• The DIY backsplash kit is the ultimate ready to use kit for home improvement

Now I will break down the PROS and CONS...

Pros:

1. Peel-and-stick does make it easier.
2. Small tiles are easy to cut and fit in the space we needed them.
3. Pretty inexpensive.  The initial kit cost $145ish.  We had to buy an additional pack of tiles which was about $45 and our own grout.  So it was ended up costing around $200.00.

Cons:

1. The grout was awful.  All of the reviews I read online said to buy your own grout.. but of course I didn't listen.  They were right- I was wrong.  The grout was a mess and Brandon had to go back out TWICE (the first time he got the wrong color) to get pre-mixed grout.
2. Also they say it can be done in less than 2 hours... that was a lie- at least in our case.

So despite the extreme mess we made with the grout... the project was an overall success.  I think it looks ok and I am happy with it for now.  It's far from perfect, but I don't ever expect perfect when it's Brandon and I doing the decorating.

BEFORE PICTURE:

AFTER PICTURE:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Excuse the dirty dishes... it was a long night.

AFTER:

i can't seem to stick to one color

    Recently I decided I've become bored with my living room.  This is typical of me.  When I was younger and lived at home, I moved my furniture around every few months.  Out of nowhere I'd become bored with the location of my bed and decide to de-clutter, throw away junk, and move my bed and dressers.

Now my living room is a little bit different.  Living in a townhouse, the space isn't very big and we have a large sectional in this room, so rearranging furniture is.... well somewhat impossible.  So when I get bored, I change colors!  We've lived in this house for three years now and we've now had three different color themes for our living room.  Now before you go on let me warn you that I AM NO DESIGNER.  Don't get me wrong- I try.  I'm an avid HGTV watcher...but unfortunately I have no knack for actually putting things together, especially accessories (so if you ever want to help, you input is more than welcome)!

We started with this....

Red was the theme.  I bought the mirror from Pier 1 and red pillows to match. Please disregard the big flower thing in the back, that was decoration for Thanksgiving.  And the red pillow with the eyes- that was not part of the design theme :-)

A year or so later, I got tired of red.  And I wanted cool colors to match our blue walls.  So I bought a new mirror and moved the old one to another room in the house.  Looking through all my old pictures, I realize I have NONE of our living room at that stage... so to give you an idea of what it looked like...

The new mirror came from Pier 1 too.  It sits horizontally above our (faux) fireplace.  Our new theme became Bluish/Turquoise and Cream.

 Here's a picture of our serious(ly handsome) little man sitting in our wicker chair, with the pillow that was my inspiration for that theme...

Unfortunately, Bluish/Turquoise didn't last long.  I've changed my mind again and something made me want yellow.  So, our new theme is Yellow/Gray.  So far, I've only replaced the pillows and added the yellow throw and yellow candles on the fireplace.  Here's how it looks so far....

I think I want to replace the curtains too.  I also decided that there are too many random pictures on my surfaces and it's looking too crowded, so I have a few projects in mind for my spring break.  My goals are primarily for the living room and kitchen...  I want to
1. make a picture frame collage behind the couch on the wall
2. and we plan to put up a backsplash in the kitchen- which will be a major project because Brandon and I are in no way interior designers or contractors.  So wish us luck.  I'll post pictures if we actually get to it!