Basement

I've been asked what paint color we used on our basement wall. So let me share. The color is called Pale Spruce and it is by ColorPlace (Walmart Brand). We love the color - now I'm tempted to do the entire basement that color - what do you think?!?

office turned guest bedroom

The office when we moved in...

...plain as can be. Nice stark white walls - the only cute things in the room are the hubby and teeny baby :)



Our office now has a new location housed in a beautiful armoire (more about that here) in a completely different room.

So now we have a room soley dedicated to guests (well plus a closet - or two :) full of crafts!).

Awhile ago I can across a blog that I'm slightly in love with (her kitchen especially - because her old one looks exactly like mine!!! and I can dream and aspire to what mine might someday become) Anyways The Lettered Cottage is the blog - and I fell in love with her oh so charming 'Reading Room'. Find it here.

So I decided to fashion my completely blank canvas of a guest room after hers.

I started by painting mine tan with horizontal stripes running across the back wall.
Next, I got a bamboo shade for our one and only window.


Third, I had a 10 dollar off 10 bucks or more from Kohl's and got this vinyl letter quote for like 3 or 4 dollars. I had some leftover beadboard from our kitchen redo (find more about that here) so I adhered the vinyl to the white beadboard to hang on the wall.


It was a large piece of beadboard so these cute frames I got for 5 bucks a piece at Kohl's as well adorn the sides of the quote.



And just like one of the frames in my dining room it still houses they same picture that came with the frame. I'll get to it one day. Obvisouly it's not too high on the priority list at the moment.It's now waiting for some nice fat molding to go around it and finish it off making it look like a large framed piece.

And finally on the opposite wall is a small frame (it's actually molding torn off my parent's bathtub when they did their bathroom redo - way to recycle right?!?) mounted on the wall with three plain little wreaths (which I got the idea from my way talented friend here).

Next item on the list...a bed - I'm sure our guests would love coming over even more if we had an actual real bed for them to sleep on :)

seasonal wood blocks

Here's the latest vinyl lettering project. For our Church's craft day this year we decided to make these cute seasonal wood blocks.


We got the idea from here. This blog is super fun - they have WAY too many cute cute things and ideas - check them out!

For our project...

We got a 4 inch wide wood post from Home Depot for under 6 bucks (and that made 3 sets of these). We had them cut it every 4 inches to make these cute cubes.

Next, add a couple coats of paint and stain or distress if you'd like.

Finally, adhere some vinyl lettering (we got ours from here.)

So with the wood + vinyl ours cost around 14 bucks. Not bad because these little cuties can spell at least 16 different seasonal words so they can stay up all year round!

kid's bathroom

This was the first bathroom I attempted to redo in our house. It's the kid's/guest bathroom and I wanted to make it fun! This is what it looked like when we bought it - pretty basic...


First thing I did was paint it green and get a jungly shower curtain and a few accessories to go in there.


Then I used those cute little already painted wood things from Michael's. I bought a few unfinished wood frames, painted them red, distressed them, and then fitted them with some cream cardstock and the wood animals.


Next, I used those same wood animals from Michael's and glued them on these wooden pegs I got there as well. The pegs were $1 and I painted them cream and the wood animals were around 50 cents or less.


Finally, I redid the vanity but that deserved it's very own post - found here.

These were some small little very inexpensive changes I made to make the place more of 'our' home. The bigger stuff - like tile, new framed mirror, light fixture, etc. - is currently on the waiting list. But who knows how long it will remain on there - it is only the kid's bathroom remember :)

FHE Board

In our Church we are instructed to have a special time once a week (Monday night) devoted to our families. We call this Family Home Evening.

Our Church's website states, "This is a time for families to study the gospel together and to do other activities that strengthen the family spiritually, create family memories, and increase unity and love. "

Here's one of the crafts I made last year along with other friends to organize our Family Home Evening amongst our family.

It consists of a routered wood board that's painted and distressed black.

Over top of it is a piece of beadboard painted cream.

Finally, the top layer is a piece of sheet metal with vinyl lettering (we get our vinyl lettering from Hathaway Signs) adhered to it.


Finally, I just finished (yes it's been an entire year - that's the way projects seem to be going around here - they've been taking close to a year to finally finish!!!) the stars. I bought the unfinished wood stars from Michael's for 29 cents. I painted and distressed them and then adhered vinyl names and magnets to them.

If you would like to know more specifics (sizes, colors, etc.) just leave a comment and I'll try and get back to ya!

Basement

Lucky for us when we moved into this house one room in the basement was completely finished. It has been the home of toys, toys, and more toys ever since we moved in. It now houses a treadmill and TV as well. It was plain and I never really knew what to do with it until a few weeks ago.


I love the blue/brown decorating colors that are oh so popular right now but they've never really had a place anywhere in my house. Of my friends (who is an awesome decorator and I wish she had a blog) has a room filled with brown, bluish/turquoise, and red accents. I've loved it ever since I saw it over a year ago and finally decided I try it out in the basement.


First, I painted our largest wall blue.We also got this bookshelf from IKEA to store all the gazillions of books and toys we have (which still find themselves all over the floor most of the time). In the future I would love to get some really cute baskets to fill the shelf but in the meantime small plastic baskets that I had leftover from my classroom will have to do.
Then I found these unfinished wood frames at Micheal's. I painted them brown, paired them with some scrapbook paper, and then hot glued a wooden letter to the front.

Below the name will be a whiteboard (hence the painter's tape).
Also underneath the name are some cute art boards we made for craft day this year. Mine still lacks my children's names in cute vinyl lettering but I'll have to post more and more as more projects get completed down here.

Here's just a sneak peek of the process our basement is going through. I'm sure the final project is probably years down the road when it will be finished off with a projector, couches, rug, shelves and picture frames, bookcases, etc. but for now here's what we got going on to make this part of the house more of our home.

Recipe Book

I hate having to look in five million different cook books to find my favorite recipes. So last year as part of a craft day I made my own recipe book to house all of our family favorites.



If I made this last year then why now is this post going up??? Well I'm just now getting around to actually typing up recipes, printing them off, and filling it up.


Now that I'm really using the thing I absolutely love it. I love having one go to spot to find all of the goodies we're gonna cook up around here!

All you need is:
- a binder (the size is your choice)
- some cardstock and cute paper for the dividers and cover
- sheet protectors to house all those recipes from getting covered in spills ;)
- ribbon (optional)