making progress [office and playroom]

The time has officially come for Joel to handover his claim to the spare bedroom.  He has enjoyed four years of peaceful video game playing, but we have quickly realized that we need a place where we both can have separate functioning spaces and a spot for Judah to enjoy while I'm working on my laptop or Joel is playing video games.

So we set out to the ReStore last weekend and found the perfect tables to create the long work station we have in mind.  Yay!  Here Judah and I are checking out the mirrors and doors.  The next project on our list is to finally decorate our bedroom, so of course that means make a headboard.  And if I can find an older door with fun accents to replace our pantry door, I may just have to bump that up my list as well.

We also decided to just get rid of the bed that is currently in our spare room.  It was such a freeing decision and we figured that we can just buy a really nice blow up mattress for when we do get the rare overnight visitor.  Why didn't we do this sooner??

Once the decision was made to open up all that space, my mind raced with possibilities!  So I realized that I needed to reign them in and do what I did for Judah's nursery--an inspiration board.  I still love Judah's nursery so much and I think a lot of that is because I made a plan to it and stuck to it.  I also stayed within the budget easily because if something didn't fit with my plan, then I didn't buy it.  Who knows what knick-knacks I would have ended up with if I allowed myself to buy every cute thing I came across.

So here is what I'm dreaming up for our new space:

We are picking up the second desk this weekend and getting our paint. Progress!  We're going to paint the room a light grey with some beige undertones (I hate saying greige because it's so trendy, but yeah, we're painting it greige), and picking it out was so difficult.  Can you tell?

They were all basically the same color! We decided to go with Hazy Skies by Benjamin Moore (or really Home Depot's version) and I can not wait to cover up that dark blue. Bring on the light!

We're shooting to have complete by the holidays, so hopefully I'll be able to keep you updated on our progress.

Until then, I'll be scouring garage sales and thrift stores for wooden kid table sets (ideally round table), fun kid-friendly decor, and desk accessories. Wish me luck!

snow twice in a row

i can't believe we got snow again! i wasn't expecting it, so i was pleasantly surprised when i woke up this morning to the downpour of white. it was so thick and powdery...just lovely.



joel and i had so much fun taking pics and playing in the snow, despite the pain that followed from making snowballs with bare hands. we're celebrating valentine's day today, so it was a great start to what will be such a fun day! now i'm off to watch a movie with this handsome fellow. :)



happy snow day!!

pictures, presents, and pillows

i can't believe Christmas has already come and gone. i had such a blast hanging out with friends and family and am sad it's already over. here are a few things we did over the break:

we finally put up our pictures. i LOVE them and they make me so happy when i see them.


my high school girls came in. they wanted to see the house, so over the break while jamie was in town, they all drove up. it meant so much to me that they came. i've known most of these girls since elementary school, and it's always so fun catching up and seeing where life has taken us. we have another wedding coming up (yay betsy!), and i can't wait! she's going to make a beautiful bride.


santa came! i, unfortunately, was sick during Christmas but still enjoyed it to the fullest. me and joel woke up, made coffee, opened our presents from each other, and lounged around until we headed to his family's place to eat and open/give more presents. i just love seeing people's reactions when they open gifts...it never gets old!


this was what i gave joel. in case you don't know, we LOVE coffee. he tried a machine similar to this one that made a cup of coffee in no time at my aunt carla's house and he was in love. so i did some research and found a great deal on this machine that makes coffee AND espresso, cappuccinos, macchiatos, and lattes. he loves it and has dedicated an entire cabinet to his discs and mugs. he was so hilarious to watch setting it all up.





the sunday after Christmas, we had Christmas with my mom's side. this is us in front of my nana and papa's house. it was lots of fun and we got to see baby stella that was born a couple weeks before.


we then went back to our house and had my family's Christmas. i was especially excited to give mal her present since it was her and james' first Christmas engaged and hers was the only handmade gift i was able to make this year. she has a little dog and pledged phi mu this past fall, so i knew just the thing! it was so fun designing and making it with her in mind. i think she loved it...or else she's a really good actress. :)




and last but not least, i finally finished the pillow i'd been working on!! i saw this tutorial a few months back and knew i HAD to make one myself. it was pretty easy but time consuming. i LOVE ruffles and this same thing can be done for headbands and belts. i love how it came out!!