Domino Effect

Several weeks ago I painted our neutral dining room a bright and mustardy yellow. I loved how the color looked with all of the dark wood tones in the room. It also related well to the gold tones in the window treatment. But the rug seemed very out of place after such a bold color change.

Thankfully, my husband has always hated the rug and was on board with looking for another. While shopping this past weekend at Kohl's, I happened to notice that the rugs were 50% off. I looked through the rugs and one immediately grabbed my attention. I pulled it out and looked at it closer, then put it back on the shelf. I turned to leave and stopped to go back and put the rug in my cart. My mom had an extra 30% off coupon and I figured that I could always return it if my husband did not like it. So we checked out and I got my $100 area rug for just $35!
We got home late that night, so after putting the kids to bed, I opened the rug and immediately placed it under the table. I swear I heard birds singing, it was so lovely! Then I called my husband in to see what he thought of the new rug. His reaction was a little less dramatic: "Looks like a rug to me."
Though my husband was very reserved that night, he did comment the next morning that he did like it. I have to admit that it looked even better to me the next morning also!

Yes that is my son peeking out from the edge of the photo!

He's still there behind the table.

While my husband may not have been very excited, I think that the new rug gives the room a much richer feel. Isn't funny how one change brings about another and then another! What changes have you made lately?

Monogrammed Door Mat

I finally threw away the door mat that we received as a wedding gift almost a decade ago. It was sun-faded and falling apart. Nasty! I did not know those things were so expensive until I tried to replace it. If you want something substantial and cute, it will cost you at least $25. I really liked the monogrammed ones at Bed, Bath and Beyond but was unwilling to spend the money.

I found a plain and inexpensive one at Walmart and decided to dress it up. I have seen lots of painted and spray painted rugs in blogland and decided to give it a try. I had a "W" magnet that I thought would be the perfect size for a monogram on the mat.

I taped off the area around the "W" and sprayed it with some gloss black spray paint. It took about 3 coats to get the coverage that I wanted, though I think that I would have used flat paint if I had had some on hand.



This quick project really helped to make our front door a little more welcoming.

Gone Fishing!

I have wanted to make this magnetic fishing game since I first saw it at Frugal Decor Mom way back in April. On a recent trip to JoAnn's I found three coordinating fabric remnants for less than $5 and knew that they would be perfect! A few days later, while at Walgreen's, I spied several sand buckets on clearance for $0.50 each. You bet your booty I snatched up every last one that they had!

Finding such great deals on the supplies that I needed was the push that I needed to get to work. I immediately looked up the original tutorial here, traced the fish shape off of my computer screen and got to work tracing and cutting. I whipped together about 25 fish and stuffed them. Then I got stuck. I did not have coordinating thread to close up the hole from turning and stuffing the fish. I tried white thread and it looked awful! Also, I needed washers for the magnet to stick to.

The kids were so excited to try out the game and I would not let them play with the fish because I could see fiberfill all over the house! I received the motivation that I needed to get them put together when the neighbor invited the kids and I over and showed them how to cast and reel a fishing pole. This may not seem like much of a motivator, but this activity kept the kids entertained for over an hour! I ran out and bought coordinating thread and begged some washers off Randy's grandpa- he has an abundance of them in his garage and was happy to donate to my project!
Once I had all of my supplies, I spent the kids naptimes stitching the fish closed and adding the washers to their noses. They are so cute!



I was able to make enough fish and acquire enough buckets that I plan to give one to each of my nephews as well!


My kids were so excited to finally be able to play with their fish! Unfortunately they prefer to run around in nothing but underwear while at home (which I am ok with because it saves on laundry!) so I was unable to take any pictures! I plan to give one to my nephew for his birthday this weekend, so hopefully I will get some pictures then!

I have really enjoyed using my sewing machine and have plans to make more fish once I find some more fabric. I would also like to make some like these with the math/counting manipulatives like Counting Coconuts did on her blog. What projects have you finished lately?

Curb Appeal

When we first looked at our house and contemplated purchasing it, I was very disappointed with the curb appeal. The house had very dated wood siding that was in good condition except for the dormer windows on the second story, which were rotted and moldy. The roof had been damaged by tree branches that rested on the roof. We also had leaks and water stains on the ceilings. Finally, there were multiple speakers and intercoms from a radio system that was no longer working.
View of front of the house:

View of back of the house:

The moldy dormer windows:

Deteriorating roof:

One of our neighbors recently tore down the house on his lot and completely rebuilt the home. The remaining neighbors all have well-kept and nicely landscaped homes, so our house definitely kind of stuck out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood. I had contemplated painting the house over the summer and even experimented with Sherwin Williams online tools to see how our house would look with a new paint job. Soon after showing my husband the pictures and explaining how I planned to attempt to paint the house over the summer, he suggested that we check into the cost of having the house roofed and sided. I guess maybe he was afraid of the means I would use to paint the two-story exterior of our home, as I usually just paint by climbing on one of our dining room chairs!

My husband had never been one to take on any major projects in any of our previous homes until we were ready to sell. So you can imagine my suprise when after only 18 months, my hubby suggested that we give the house a facelift! My immediate reaction was fear that he was ready to put the house on the market and move on! (That scenario did cross his mind at one point, since we still own the lot that we were originally going to build on.) This fear subsided as we began to do some research into our options for the project.

After meeting with several different companies we decided on Mainstream Home Improvement. We signed our contract and anxiously awaited the start of work on our home. Finally, July 13th, they began work on the roof. It was several days before we saw any changes as they had to remove the old roof and replace several sheets of plywood that were wet and rotten. They also found a gutter between the garage and an addition to the home which channeled water into the ceiling and caused a leak. They removed the gutter and replaced all of the damaged wood in this area. Two weeks later we had a brand new beautiful roof. They began work on the siding the very next week. Unfortunately it was several days again before we saw much of a change. They worked their way around the house doing all of the trim work and soffits before starting on the actual siding. I never imagined that there was so much work to be done to prep for the actual siding! They spent the first full week trimming all of the windows and putting in the soffits.
Soffits before:

Soffits after:

Finally they wrapped the whole house in Tyvek and began the actual siding. When I saw the first pieces go up I could not believe the difference! When the whole project was done, I just wandered around the exterior of the house admiring how beautifully it turned out!





Though we had discussed going with a darker color to create more contrast, we decided to stick with a light yellow very similiar to the color of the original wood siding. As a result of the color of the siding being very similiar to the original color the difference is very subtle at a distance. As a matter of fact, we actually had a person stop on the highway in front of our house to be able to take a better look soon after the job was finished.

Some side by side before and after shots so you can see the changes! The front door:

Garage side:

The roof and siding crews from Mainstream were so professional and helpful. They suggested things like new light fixtures to replace the rusted and bulky flood lights. Since they had to remove the old ones anyway, they said they could put up whatever we provided. They put tarps out all around the work areas so that all of the nails, screws and debris from their work was easily cleaned up at the end of the day. They also swept the yard and perimeter of the house for all metal and debris, which was very nice. The kids and I were outside playing every night after they had finished working and never had to worry about finding dangerous debris. On the last day of the project, they packed away their tools and did a quick sweep, leaving us to simply enjoy our home and not with a bunch of clean up.

One more before and after for ya!


And we have enjoyed it! We hosted a party at our house the weekend before Labor Day and were so proud to show off our beautiful home. We still have many more projects to do: landscaping, tree removal and repairing the driveway, but for now I am content to sit and take in the amazing changes that have occurred thus far.

I am linking to Thrifty Decor Chicks September Before and After Party.

Disclaimer: I have not been compensated in any way by Mainstream Home Improvement for mentioning them on my blog.

Family Pictures

Since our oldest child was born we have always gone to the photography studios that supplied instant gratification! We schedule an appointment, take some pictures and walk out 1 hour later with photos in hand to disperse to various family members.
A family friend recently started doing photography and I was so excited to try her out. Though it was nice in the past to have pictures taken and receive the prints the same afternoon, I was tired of the same old poses and backgrounds. Our family friend was willing to meet us anywhere we chose to do outdoor shots. We chose a local park, where the kids could run around and play. Though it took us about 2 hours to get all of the shots that we wanted, it was a lot less stressful for me not having to hold the kids down screaming and crying to take a picture in a blank white room. Without further adieu, here are our family portraits all courtesy of Lynn at Portraits by Lynn.

A totally impromptu moment where Reese grabbed Aidan in a big hug!


Randy and I looking at each other with googly eyes.


Family portrait


Love, love, love this one!


Pretty as a princess.


My handsome little prince.


There are so many more, I don't know how I am ever going to choose!

Freebie dresser and a fail

We have had my cheapie college dresser in Reese's room since she was born. It was a perfect fit flanked by several matching shelves to give her open closet a built in look. A little girls dream closet!

When we moved into our current house, the dresser was really starting to fall apart (I don't know why, it was only 8 years old!). Though we had glued and screwed it back together, the drawer fronts continued to pull off when you opened the drawer.
I had been trolling Craigslist and found a white Ikea Hemnes 8 drawer dresser listed for $100. It was too good to be true! Even though I contacted the seller immediately, I never heard back. Unfortunately, someone must have beat me to it!

Recently, my neighbor asked if I knew anyone that would be interested in a dresser. She was trying to clean out her garage and she was willing to give it away to get rid of it. I jumped on the opportunity and snatched it right up. I cleaned it up and drug it upstairs to my daughter's room. It fits perfectly on the wall by her closet and provides so much more storage.

My neighbor thought that I should paint it, but the chips in the paint add to the shabby chic feel that goes perfectly with the rest of the furniture in the room. I do plan to add some different pulls eventually, hopefully some dainty glass knobs to dress it up a little bit.

The old dresser found a new home hidden in her closet. It houses clothing that is out of season and therefore is not used as much.

I had added some cork board to the changing table/dresser in my daughter's room to make it functional for displaying artwork.

Unfortunately, the adhesive included with the cork board was not strong enough and the cork fell of within a few days. I reattached the cork using an adhesive spray that I had on hand and again, the cork fell of within a few days. I have not gotten around to replacing the cork, but hopefully some gorilla glue or other adhesive will be effective in keeping it in place because it is looking pretty ugly now!


On a positive note, roofing and siding has started on our house and we should be ready for a reveal in about 2 weeks! It is looking so good, I cannot wait to share!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Things sure have been busy in our neck of the woods, and they are not about to slow down, even after the 4th of July holiday weekend. In the past two weeks I have worked on several small projects between spending lots of time with my family. You might want to have a snack or something to drink, this could be a long one!

I put our summer to do list up on our chalkboard (like Andi's from Jane of all Crafts) so that we could keep track of all of the things that we want to do/have done this summer. Since I am able to stay home during the summer months I want to spend some quality time doing things with the kids that we usually don't have time/don't make time for. The items on our list are also great opportunities for learning about and exploring our surroundings. The John Deere Expo in Moline, IL was a huge hit with the kids! They spent about an hour climbing on and off of all of the tractors on display. It was the perfect activity for a rainy day because most of the tractor models are displayed indoors and it is completely free, unless you walk into the gift shop full of toy tractors and John Deere paraphernalia.

We also purchased a membership to and visited our local zoo for the first time.


The vinyl that I purchased for my living room photo wall was a complete fail. The vinyl did not stick well at all on our textured walls. I was able to save the quote by covering over it with mod podge. The decorative scrolls simply kept falling off of the wall even with the addition of mod podge. So I attached the vinyl to a paper shopping bag and cut it out using a craft knife. I then traced the shape onto the wall and hand painted the scrolls.



After fixing the vinyl in the living room, we did a little bit of relaxing by the pool.


We are so fortunate that my in-laws have a pool in their backyard. It is so convenient and nice to have a private quiet place to cool off and relax without fighting the crowds.

After a refreshing swim, I worked on updating our kitchen by giving several items a coat of glossy black spray paint. We received the spice rack, knife block, cup holder, paper towel holder and utensil container for our wedding almost a decade ago.


I was tired of the wood tones and decided to paint them all black.



Did you see all of those little white plastic squares on my kitchen countertops? No they are not the latest kitchen design trend, rather they are to try to control a little problem that we have in our house every summer: ANTS! No matter how obsessively I clean and try to keep the kids eating and drinking only at the table, we have had a problem with ants both of the years we have lived in this house. Our neighbor recommended a pest control company which I called and had do a fumigation. Unfortunately, the fumigation was not as effective as I would have hoped. They told me in advance that ants come in the house to find a dry enviroment, but it has not rained here in about 2 weeks. Do any of you have any ideas for getting rid of ants?

During the weekend of the 4th of July, we spent a lot of time on the good ol' muddy Mississppi. We have had about as many boats as we have had houses, but since purchasing our pontoon boat, we have spent even more time on the river and especially at the local beach.




Finally, I created button bracelets for my daughter and I, using buttons that I had on hand.

The buttons are simply sewn onto a piece of elastic. The possibilities for these are absolutely endless!

Whew! I am tired, but I just realized today that school supplies are filling the store shelves, which means that summer is coming to a close. I only have about 6 weeks left to enjoy being a stay at home mommy before going back to work for the school year. So there will be no rest for the weary and we will be hitting the to do list hard and creating lots of fun family memories!