Our newest addition…

to the kitchen that is.  Sheesh, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted.  I had to write a catchy title to get your attention! J/K  No big news here.  Just wanted to pop in and share a little something new we added to the kitchen.  I took these pictures along time ago and had plans to post them a long time ago, but photography got the best of me.  I should have warned you that I would be disappearing for a bit.  I had four photo shoots over the last two weekends.  You can check two of them out here.  I’m working on the other two and hopefully will share them soon. 

On to my kitchen.  I was inspired when I went to Arizona in October.  My brother and sil moved into a new house a little while ago and have been working hard to fix it up.  There are so many things I love about it, including the floor plan. But when I got home from my trip, there was one thing I could not get out of my mind.   A dinner bell.  Now, why did that not ever cross my mind?  She randomly found it at TJ Maxx for $15.00 one day.  I came home determined to find one too.  I knew I most likely wouldn’t find one at our TJ’s or Marshall’s since that is such a fluke thing to find.  I found one online.   Here is the one I got. 

I thought it would be such a fun and memorable item to have in my kitchen.  Useful too, to say the least.  This baby is LOOOOUUUDD!!  I hung it up high.  While I want to use it to round up the kiddos, I don’t want them walking by ringing it all the time…because you know they would.  I also hung it by the back door in my kitchen.  That way it can be heard inside and outside.  I just open the back door and they come running.  Much better than me YELLING to get their attention.  They think it’s cool. 

I had Drew be my bell demonstrator one day.  He thought HE was cool.

It has proved to be a great purchase for my family. 

On a side note, I think it’s rather ironic that I am blogging about my sil while we are in the car on a road trip to stay with her and the rest of my family for Thanksgiving.  We are starting our Thanksgiving break early this year and we are SOOOOO excited.  Between vacation, photography and holiday to-do's I might be hit and miss here on the blog for awhile, but I have a lot to share and I am going to try to take time to do just that. 

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving if you don’t hear from me before then! :)

Around Here {Kaylee’s Room}

This week has been a busy one.  A good one, but a busy one. Lots of errands and misc. things to do.  I had to take my brand new Toyota Sienna in to get fixed, for the second time.  We have only had it for 3 months and it has been in two minor accidents.  I have NEVER been in a car accident where I have been behind the wheel and then we get a brand new van that we have been waiting to buy forever and I rear end someone after having it for only a month.  Ugghh…the thought still makes me sick.  It was minor, no one got hurt and my bumper got replaced shortly after that.  I swear, I probably only had it back for maybe another month, when someone came inside Kid to Kid one day while I was shopping to ask if I was the owner of the Grayish Toyota Sienna outside.  Ummmm….I didn’t want to answer and my heart sank, but I said yes, knowing what she was going to tell me.  Sure enough, she had backed out of the parking spot next to me and hit the side of my van.  However nervous I was to call my husband and tell him about this, I was just as grateful that she came in to tell me.  That would have been awful to go outside and find that for myself!.  I can’t even imagine. 

So this week started out with me spending an entire morning taking my van in to get fixed and battling the insurance guy for a rental car.  Fun.  I have felt lost with a tiny rental car and being with out my van  all week.  My husband is actually on his way to pick it up while I type this.  Woo-hoo!  The rest of the week was a Dr. appointment and lunch with Kaylee, visiting teaching 3 of the women in my ward another morning, taking my kids back to school photos one evening, having Activity Days at my house with the young girls from church one night, scheduling and preparing things for holiday photo shoots and preparing for a caramel apple demonstration I taught last night at Relief Society.  It was so fun and they turned out so cute!  I will have to share about that next week.  BTW, have you seen the free monthly printouts for visiting teaching on Pinterest?  I loved that!  So easy and cute.  Also, I made a Photography/Wardrobe inspiration board for my clients to view on Pinterest.  Can you tell I love Pinterest?  I do.  So many of them ask me what they should wear, so I thought I would gather up several ideas  and help give them a head start.  Tomorrow we are going to an A&M football game.  It is an all day event and it will be my first A&M game.  The boys go all the time and love it.  I’m excited to see what the hype is all about.

Alrighty, on to the post.  I thought it was time for another “Around Here” post.  This time I thought I would share Kaylee’s room.  We re-did her room for Christmas last year.  The whole idea of it has been finished since then, but I just barely added the finishing touches, like printing and framing photos.  To see what her room was like before go here. 

Here it is now. 

We both agreed that we wanted it to be a little bit more streamlined and grown up.  She loves.  I love it. We are happy.

The bedding is the Shabby Chic line from Target.  I think I even got the zebra throw there too. The sheets are also from Target.

As are the pillows.  I love Target!

I took down the quilt that was hanging on my shabby board and tied some picture frames around the rod with tulle.  The lamp is from Hob Lob.

 

The two black frames I already had.  We just spray painted them black.  The pink frame was a find at Marshall’s Home Goods, but it was in the room before.

We replaced her old knobs on her dresser with glass ones from Hob Lob.  The lamp is also from there as well as the frames. 

So far, maybe you can tell my favorite decor stores are Target, Hobby Lobby and Marshall’s.  Love them all!

I printed a photo of Kaylee on this old car in a 20 x 24.  I love the texture the car brings to the room.  I bought a canvas in the same size and spray painted it black.  Then used craft spray adhesive to glue it on.  If you haven’t done this before I would advise you to have someone help you.  It is a two person job, for me anyway.   I took the vinyl “Dream” off the wall and placed it on the photo.  I was happy it worked so well for me to re-use.

  We took this bookshelf from Ady’s room and gave her Kaylee’s dollhouse bookshelf.  Ady’s room is different now too.  I will have to share that soon.  This bookshelf is perfect in Kaylee’s room.  Casey made this for the boys years ago.  It has been painted several times. 

My sweet girl.

 

Her desk area got a minor makeover.  The mirror and chair were painted.  My aunt gave Kaylee a new creating memories organizer.  She loves it.

I love her grouping of K’s.  Here is a tip: If you have a couple of similar, small things like this, it makes more of a statement if you put them all together. 

 

And that is that!  I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Thanks for stopping by. :)

 

Linking up to:

Around Here { Entry Way, Heritage Banner }

Complete picture overload, just so you know. :) I’m surprised my computer didn’t crash with this post.  I am running out of room on my computer so badly.  It gets worse every day.  For every 50 photos I delete, I upload 300.  Not good at all!  My disk space is always in the red.   

This post was intended to be about my entry TABLE, not my entire entryway.  hahaha…but while I was taking photos I realized how much has changed since we moved here and I haven’t really ever documented or blogged this space before, so I thought I would take you on a virtual tour.  Here is my interpretation of a virtual tour. 

Welcome to my home.  This is the view you would see from the front door.

If you turn towards your right you would see the dining room.  You can go here to see before and after photos of this room.

I really like my coat tree in the entry way.  I think it feels cozy.  When I first put it here, I didn’t have anything hanging on it.  Awhile later I added our monogram frame.  Just recently I added these keys.  They were hanging on a different wall in the entry, but I like them here.  Even though I have accessories hanging on our coat tree, we still use it for normal things.  Backpacks and coats are here when we are waiting for car pools and when friends come over after school. 

I used to have a shelf with some other decor on the wall below.  I decided it was time for me to frame some family photos that had been hanging out on my computer for far too long.

(The bathroom I shared recently with my gallery wall is behind that door.)

This summer when I went stir crazy in my house re-doing everything, I found this frame at a local antique store.  I love old frames, remember?

Also, here is a fave printing tip.  I print all of my photos at mpix.com.  I can’t say enough good things about them.  I REALLY like the metallic finish they offer.  I don’t print everything in that finish, but I always love how it turns out when I do.  This photo is printed in that finish. 

If your back was towards the dining room, you would be back to the center of the entryway.

Across from the dining room is the office/study.  This is the view standing in the dinning room.  Don’t look to closely at my husbands desk.  It gets a lot of use and I don’t touch his papers. 

The sconces are a recent addition.  Hobby Lobby – 50% off.

This is the view from inside the office.

I have had this clock since my days in Providence, UT.  and I still love it. 

 

Here are a few details of the entry table.  I changed everything pretty much but it is similar in style to how it was before.  I wish I had a before, but  I don’t.  I’m not always the best at remembering that.  I get to eager to pull it all apart. 

I sanded the top of the table and re-stained it.  I absolutely love this!  It is such a simple thing, but it is one of my favorite re-do’s from the summer.  It used to be a light pine, glossy colored top.  It had to go.  I still liked the style of table and the neutral color.  The new stain fixed everything for me.  I added the glass knob too.  You know me and hardware.  I found the matching lamps at the same antique store I found the frame.  This was my splurge!  I even had to go home and sleep on it for a night or two before I bought them.  I couldn’t get them out of my mind and we all know what that means.  They had my name written on them.  I have not regretted this purchase once.  They are nice heavy duty lamps that I will not get sick of.

I decided to keep it simple on the table top and reuse what I already had. 

  

I ripped the covers off a few of my old books.  I had to think twice about that.  I really like the look, but once you do that it’s a done deal.  Old books are hard to come by sometimes and they aren’t cheap anymore.  It was so worth it.  I am TEMPTED to do this to all of them.  Tempted.  I ripped pages out of these same books and rolled them up inside the glass jar.  Tied it with some vintage ribbon and it was complete.  

I printed a new photo for this frame.  I like the pop of turquoise.  I LOVE that boy.

This was what I really wanted to share.  It was the inspiration for this post.  My Heritage Banner. 

I have inherited so many old family photos.  My family on my side as well as Casey’s side, knows how much I really do appreciate photos.  I have collected these through out my married years.  I used to have them framed through out my home, but when I re-did things recently I decided to make a statement with them all in one place.  I usually have some type of banner or holiday accessory on this mirror.  I really don’t like it when it is empty.  Probably because I am so used to seeing something on it.  This was the perfect place to display something like this.  Everyone walks through here and everyone will see it.  It also goes well with the vinyl words above the mirror. 

I used some of my vintage ribbon I stocked up on during my last trip to McKinney.  I hot glued each end to the mirror and then used small clothes pins I bought at Hob-Lob to clip the photos in place.

  

I added this photo of the Salt Lake Temple that Andrea took a long time ago.  Casey and I were married here.  That is where our family started.  Temples represent Eternal Families.  Even though not all of our ancestors are members of the church, temple work is what will bring us all back together again.  This photo completes my Heritage Banner.  (If you have any questions about Temples please ask).

And this view completes my virtual tour of our entryway.     

 

 The End. 

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Around Here {Gallery Walls}

First of all, thank you for all of your thoughtful comments and encouragement on my last post.  It’s always nice to be reminded that we aren’t alone and everyone has similar struggles.  I am feeling much better.  Sometimes it just helps to get thoughts out of my mind and on “paper”.  It is therapy all on its own.   We had a great Labor Day Weekend.  I hope you all did!  Ours included Kaylee having a bestie sleep over, an afternoon of errand running, a lemonade stand, and tackling our 72 hour kits.  There was also a nice big bonus for me.

My husband spoiled me a little bit…ok, A LOT.  He had a voucher to try this new hotel in town.  It was equipped with a pool (of course) a splash pad and a breakfast buffet. So he took the kids Sunday after church and stayed until mid afternoon on Monday…and left me home alone.  That is some HUGE therapy!  I enjoyed lots and lots of quiet.  I didn’t turn the T.V. or the radio on once.  I didn’t even think about it.  I read a lot, organized a lot and finished up some random little projects…and I did not clean once!   He understands how much time alone is soothing to me and can fix so many things.  It gave me time to miss my kids and appreciate my family all over again.  I am so, so blessed!

Onto my post…

This post is a two for one.  Two gallery walls to share in one post.  One of my favorite boards on Pinterest is my Gallery Walls.  I love how creative they can be and the rule is: anything goes!  There are so many different types of gallery walls out there.  You can choose a theme; empty frames, quotes, prints, family photos, clocks, mirrors,or a mix of all of them and whatever randomness you can think of.  There are also so many ways to display them; it can take up the space of one entire wall, it can be a small collage, they can go from the floor up to the ceiling, it can include all the same size frames or it can have all different sized frames.  It can be in a random mix-match placement or in a very streamlined and organized placement.  Once again: anything goes!  It is one of my favorite ways to decorate my walls.  I have a love for frames and photos anyway, but this helps to mix it up and put a spin on things. 

I thought I would share two walls in my home that I have been meaning to share for a really long time.   This is the wall you see when you open the door to the half bath downstairs. 

I had the large rectangle frame already in this bathroom.  On my list for awhile was to add frames to this and make a new gallery wall.  This summer when I went to Arkansas to visit Andrea I knew I had to take advantage of the antiquing.  They have the very best!  I am always guaranteed to find what I am looking for.  It is one of my favorite things! One afternoon Jonathan was kind enough to keep the big kids for us so we could get our “thrill” in.  We both love to dig for treasures.  I came home with everything I needed to finish my wall.

  I added the mirror and silhouette for my little bit of random.  The silhouette was 4.99 and the mirror was on sale for 18.00 A little pricier than I would have liked to spend, but it is a really heavy, nice old mirror and definitely worth the price.   I found all of the other frames there as well.  All at the same store.  I love when that happens.  I also love when I can hang it all up in 10 min.  because it all just worked together. 

The next one is my kids bathroom upstairs.  I guess the theme of my gallery wall post today is bathrooms?  Not very glamorous.  Who wants to look at a toilet?  Sick.  I will try to not show one very often. 

This is the Jack and Jill bathroom that connects the boys room with Kaylee’s.  This bathroom has always been a struggle for me because you see it from both of their rooms.  Well, Kaylee’s room has very different colors than the boys room, so how do you make that work? 

WHITE! 

That is the answer.  They have an all white bathroom and I absolutely love it.  Well, it’s all white with pops of two different shades of green.  The green is what ties it to Kaylee’s room and the white is what keeps it neutral enough for the view from the boys room.

Here is what I’m talking about. (Please ignore  how awful the green looks on Kaylee’s walls.  I had the lighting focused on the bathroom wall and it made her paint color look a bit CrAzY.) 

This is the view from Kaylee’s room.

This is the view from the boys’ room. 

White solved all of my problems!

Back to the gallery wall.  This wall was inspired by one of Andrea’s posts.  In fact, when she came to visit last January we whipped this room right up.  It is still one of my fave’s. 

This wall has a theme of phrases; bathroom and children related. 

It has all different sizes and types of frames.  Most of which I had.  I bought 3 wooden frames in the craft section at Walmart and painted them white.

 

The phrases are:

Comb your hair

I love you. No, I love you. I love you more. No, I love you more.

Dare to be Different

Brush your teeth

You are my Sunshine

Wash your hands

Love is spoken here

Just a few ideas.  Have fun with a gallery wall in your home.  Get creative and make up your own rules.  I love how they turn out and how many options there are.  I also love an all white room.  I was so nervous about it at first, but I have enjoyed it every day since then.  Take a risk!

The Big Reveal…the dining room

Are you ready???  I know it has taken me FOREVER to get these photos posted.  I got sucked in and just kept going.  I’m on a roll around here.  Since my last post I have switched things around in the office and the entry way and now I am in the middle of the family room, which has involved paint.  I will have to share photos of it all soon.  I don’t know why I am nesting like this.  I told my sister the other day that I was nesting for her.  She is having a baby in the next week and I haven’t gotten to see her pregnant once during this whole pregnancy!  That’s what happens when we live far away. 

Anyway, I am ripping my house apart.  I am purging, organizing, decorating and deep cleaning every room, one room at a time.  I have to say that it feels so good.  I haven’t played like this in my house in a really long time.  I have started plenty of projects, but haven’t finished them and now is the time! 

Ok.  Now for the real reason of this post.  Here is the dining room before:

Red, red and more red.

Here is the after:

 

I am in love.

I try to find any reason at all to come to the front of the house just so I can get a glimpse of it.

I am not a blue person at all so I took a risk with the color.  Taking risks is scary but it pays off.  I was ready to switch up my pallet a bit.  Actually these photos make the color look really blue but in real life it doesn’t look quite this brilliant.

When you are in the room the color looks more like the next few photos.  Which is what I was going for.

Grey with a blue undertone.  The color is Homberg Gray by Sherwin Williams.

 

I really didn’t have to buy much for this room.  I had the white plates already.  I love the clean and simple look of this wall.

I love the simple centerpiece of white flowers. I already had the vase but purchased the flowers at Hobby Lobby.

The curtains were in this room before.  I still love them and did not want to replace them.  Curtains are my nemeses.  I hate shopping for them and I hate making them. I wanted them to be a part of my neutral color scheme.

The chandelier was a MUST!  It totally makes the room for me.  Actually every single thing makes the room for me, but it would not be the same with out this piece.  I looked all over and I had a price range for myself which of course makes it tricky with chandeliers, but I found this one at Lowes.  It is perfect.

I had all of these frames as well.  I took the large one down from above my fireplace, since it is getting a makeover of its own.  Then I hunted the house for some other frames.  I had antique family photos in most of them.  I took them out and did something different them, which I will have to share soon because I love the idea of it.  Anyway, I had the silver platter in this room before.  I like the silver and gold together.  I have a lot of warm tones through out my house and I am trying to mix some cool tones in with them.  Lets not forget about the trim that Casey put up for me.  We should have had this in the room a long time ago!

I think it worked perfectly in here!  My favorite part is how simple and timeless it is.

If you want to see my inspiration photos, scroll down to the next post.  Pinterest is awesome…seriously!