Word-less Wednesday: Trunk&Treat 2009

I realized that I never posted Luke as the cutest Pooh bear ever! He loves the show "My Friends Tiger and Pooh" and I found this costume on sale, so Pooh Bear it was! Here are a couple of pics from our church's Trunk and Treat. He had a great time and actually kept the headpiece on the whole time! This was a great, fun time!

DIY Day: 3 Ideas for Frames

I feel like I haven't posted an entry about decorating ideas in awhile, so here it comes! One of the cheapest ways to decorate your walls in my opinion, involves repurposing and revamping frames. It is as easy as you want to make it, and it fills up wall space without emptying your wallet! I hope you enjoy a few ideas of mine, and please leave a comment about any ideas you've used in your own home!

Idea #1: Beefin' up a wall clock

This is the wall clock in our dining room. I felt like the clock was too small for the wall space so I decided to put a frame around it.

Here is the upclose view. It was a store bought frame (50% off at Hobby Lobby) that I just sanded the surfaces of to give a worn look. (The piece of glass that came with this frame I kept to use for something else...another DIY project perhaps?)

Idea #2: The layered look is always impressive

These are in my kitchen in the eat-in nook area. These were frames that my grandad made awhile ago. I just distressed them with a hammer and painted several different coats of various paints to give it a multi-layered look of color. I used brown, cream, and green paints. I didn't do any of them exactly the same; ex: the one on the bottom has more green and brown than the other two.

Here's an upclose of the distressing and painting.

And here is an upclose of the layered look-not just layered paint, but layered frames too. I laid out the pattern and Ross nailed the frames together from the back (so there wouldn't be exposed nailheads) with short nails. I love the way this one turned out!

Idea #3: Coverin' the wall with a collage

This is the only frame I didn't paint myself. I got it from Consigning Interiors (LOVE this store!) for about $9. This is hanging in my guest bathroom on a skinny part of the wall between the door and the linen closet. I put this frame on here because it was my inspiration for the ones below that I painted and hung in the master bedroom.

Upclose. I love the detail and the way that the old metalic gold finish of the frame comes through the white paint in some spots. I think almost everyone has these old formal gold frames. This is a great way to give them a new, fresh look--chabby chic!

And here are some before pictures of the ones I did for the bedroom:

These are some art pieces we got a few years ago. I love these, but they just didn't fit with the new decor of the master bedroom.

Upclose of the original finish. I took the prints and glass out so I was left with just the frames.

The finished collage! I took the paint color of the trim in the room and simply brushed it on the frames. I wanted it to look aged and not perfect, so I only did one coat.

From the side. As you can see from the picture above, these 5 frames were enough to fill up this entire wall, and it was at no cost! I could've spent money on shevling and more artwork, but I really was going for a minimal look in our bedroom and feel like this really fills up the wall without looking heavy and cluttered.

Upclose of the finished frame!

I hope you've enjoyed these few ideas. Hopefully, it will inspire you to get that paintbrush out and update a few frames for your walls too!

Photo shoot and 12 month update

So I'm finally posting Luke's 12 month update! He actually is 13 months old today, so I'm a little behind...

-At his 12 mon appt, he weighed 23lbs 8.9oz (50th %) and was 30 1/4in long (60th %).

-He is walking (I should saying running) everywhere! He figured out how to do this and has never looked back to crawling.

-He could live outside! Typical boy I think, but he will go to the door and point and cry to go out and play. He also thinks he is as big as the teenage boys in our neighborhood. He always tries to go play football and baseball with them.

-He is mimicking so many words! Several that he says sounds very much like the actual word. Some things he has said the syllables of are: cheese, shoes, Jake, elephant, lion, Mama, Daddy, hey, hi, book, hot, cold and many more.

-His word of choice right now is "eah". He'll point at something or when he wants to go somewhere and say "eah, eah, eah" until we help him out! I'm trying to tell him each time what the word of what he is wanting is so he'll start saying that instead!

-He definitely understands "no". For the most part he is very obedient. For instance, I've always told him "no" when he tries to touch the fireplace so now he will just stand and stare at it instead of trying to touch it. I'm proud of him!

-He loves Mickey Mouse! Mickey his is friend. He watches him on tv and smiles and gets excited everytime. We went to the Disney store and he got a stuffed Mickey and just squeezed it as hard as he could!
-He waves hello and goodbye to every car that he sees pass by. He also waves bye to either one of us when we have to leave to go somewhere. He gives the sweetest goodbye kisses too!

-He holds up his index finger when we ask him "Are you 1 year old?" and he puts his thumb up when we say "Thumbs up" or "Cool dude!" I'm working on getting him to do an "L" with his index finger and thumb for "Luke"! He's done it several times...so cute!
-We will give him his hairbrush and say "Luke, you want to brush your hair" and he will! He'll also brush my hair if I ask him to!

-He understands what we ask him to do for the most part. We can say "Go get your cup" and point to it and he'll walk right over and pick it up. If we don't point, he'll look around to find whatever it is we are asking him to find. He also will bring whatever he is holding and give it to us when we say "Can I see the elephant?".

-He has completely been weaned off his bottle and formula! 100% sippy cup and milk! I'm so excited about this because it took us a little while to get there (I felt like at least...but I'm always wanting every transition to happen quickly!). But he is doing great and really seems to be doing fine without the bottle. The next challenge will be getting that paci away!

-He eats pretty much any food. He's not picky, but does have preferences. Also, he'll blow on his food when it's hot! It's so cute! Ross or I will blow on it and say "Hot!" and then he'll give his scrunched up nose look and blow too!

-Have I mentioned how much Luke loves music? Anytime music comes on the tv or when we have the radio on he'll stop in his tracks and look/listen! He also dances to the music by bouncing up and down. Not surprising since he heard so much music while in utero (since I taught ballet everyday!), but he also bounces on beat! So cute!

-He loves playing chase and hide and seek. We'll say "Where's Luke?" when he's walked away and he starts giggling and pops out so we can see him! He also loves being chased around the kitchen and dining room tables!

-We are up to 4 and 1/2 teeth! The four central incisiors are in and the top right lateral incisior is half way in with the left one still under the gum. He seems to be taking his sweet time to get these teeth! But that's ok...he'll have teeth the rest of his life!

Also, I hope you enjoy a little glimpse of the awesome family pictures my sister-in-law, Mandy, took for us! I have so many favorites, but here are a few...

Luke's First Birthday!!!

So I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from Luke's first birthday party! I hope you enjoy them! My sister-in-law, Mandy, took all these pictures for us. It was fabulous to have a photographer who knows what she's doing to capture this day for us!

Invitation and party favors! The party was football-themed so I made football shaped invites out of foam sheets and found these Little Debbie football brownies for thank-yous!

Football cake!

Birthday boy trying to get Aunt Mandy's camera

Opening gifts! After eating a chili lunch (Luke ate Mickey Mouse shaped chicken nuggets!), we opened gifts!

Loving the tissue paper, of course! Thanks to everyone for all the special gifts!

Cake time!

It was so entertaining to watch Luke with his cake. He, following his personality to a "t", just picked at his cake and analyzed each little crumb. He didn't dig in until I pushed his hand into it!

Lovin' that cake and icing!

Happy family of 3!:)

"It's my birthday!"

"I love being 1!"

"I'm 1 year old!"

Luke finished his party (before napping) with playing football with Daddy, Pops, Cousin Thomas, Uncle Jeremy, and Uncle Joel

Gettin' Mommy!

Tackling the Uncles:)

Sweet 1 year old boy!

Luke had an awesome 1 year old birthday! The day was perfect, he was perfect; it just couldn't have been better! We loved watching him have so much fun, and also for all the special family and friends who helped make this day so special! It was a great day filled with lots of remembering his birth day, entire first year of development, and many memories of a fun celebration of being 1!

Look for a post later in the week of all his latest happenings and 12 month doctor visit and stats.

DIY Day: Back Porch

Here are a few pictures of how I redesigned our back porch. Before, I just had a few plastic, outdoor chairs, a wicker table, and misc outdoor things out here. Then I cleaned it out and started the process of making this an outdoor living space! I wish I had done it while the weather was still nice (instead of cold), but we'll enjoy it for years to come I'm sure! I have a few other things I'm going to add (of course, of course!), but wanted you guys to see it now!

Burlap pillows for the swing and bench. I covered two pillows I already had with burlap. Easy process, just treated it the same as I did the other fabric.

I decided to try stamping these pillows to add a unique touch. (I got this idea from another blogger who made a stamped burlap pillow for an outdoor bench of hers.) I found these stamps at Hobby Lobby for a couple of bucks. The paisley print matches the other outdoor fabric you'll see in a minute!

Here's the "after" of the pillows! I love the way they came out! I added a few embellishments on the corners also. The stamping was so easy, and I'll definitely try it again!

Here is the "before" of the storage/sitting bench my dad made for me. We designed this specifically for the space, and he used scrap wood so it was no cost! Can't beat that!

Here's the bench after it was primed. You can see the outdoor beadboard he used around the sides, and also the hinged top pieces. This way I can store things inside the bench. Hang in there...you'll see the finished product in a minute...

"Before" of the back porch, first glimpse as you walk out of the kitchen. Cleaned and ready to be designed! By the way, last summer Ross and my dad screened it in back here, so that was a DIY project also!

Left corner.

Right corner.

Luke break!:) This was the little boy "helping" hang the swing. So cute!

Now to the "after" pictures! Here is the first look coming out of the kitchen.

These two lanterns I bought at Old Time Pottery last summer and spray painted them "Bahama Sea", Krylon indoor/outdoor gloss spray paint. Hung them high and low for interest.

Left corner. Here is the storage bench! After I primed it, I took brown paint (Sherwin Williams' "Spicewood") and brushed it on, then sprayed water on it to thin it down (very David Bromstad of me), brushed that more to spread it out which gives it a distressed, weathered look. Made the pillows also (see below for an explanation of those). Also, spray-painted the hanging "candlelier" the same as the lanterns (Krylon's "Bahama Sea"). Again, my dad made this for me a couple of years ago and I finally have a place to hang it up!

And here is the swing! My grandad made this swing for me! I primed it and painted it with the Sherwin Williams' "Spicewood" also (this time not thinned out). The pillows were a fun project! I got the outdoor fabric and pillow forms at the new Joann Fabric store in Hoover, and really got a great deal on all of it because I bought it during their Grand Opening sale. I wish I had taken a picture closer up so you could see the detail of the fabric, but you can click here and here to see it on their website. I took one Saturday, about a month ago, and made all these pillows (9 in total)! It was fun!

I hope you enjoyed the "tour" of our back porch! I just love all the outdoor living spaces I see on HGTV so I'm glad to have a small space of our own now. Do you have space outside that you have made into a little living area? Tell me about it!

Pictures of Luke's first birthday are coming next week! Check back!

DIY Day: Office Nook

Our house has three bedrooms; master bedroom (which you recently saw re-vamped), Luke's room, and what has been the office/storage room. Well, I decided (especially after Luke's 1st birthday) to make the office/storage room a playroom for Luke, which leaves me needing some place to write bills, store pens, paper, tape, etc. So, I ended up making the end of the hall in between Luke's room and playroom, a little office nook. The end of the hall started out as just that; a plain, dark end of the hall. The inspiration for this project is Rhoda's office space seen here. Here's how mine turned out...

Before: The wall as the same color as the other walls; antique piece of furniture (called a secretary) that I used as the office component, the front of it folds down to make a desk top and it has four drawers below and a cabinet display shelf unit above.

First step: Painting the wall; this is the same color as my guest bathroom (I'll be posting about those DIY projects soon), it is a Behr color called Caribbean Coral.

Second step: Adding the trim; I added this chocolate, velvet trim that I bought at Joann Fabric. I ended up using white thumb tacks to hold it to the wall. I thought this worked out nicely, because it looks a little like upholstery tacks.

Final step: Decorating and accessorizing-my favorite part!:) I re-purposed these three Southern Living at Home trivets as wall art and used my small library of decorating books on the left side of the top of the secretary. I also used an antique apothecary jar, more books, and a hurricane candle holder to finish out decorating the top.

Here is the cabinet shelf unit. I forgot to take an upclose picture, but I taped scrapbook paper to the back that has a paisley pattern and a lot of the colors of my house in the design. My mom helped me get the items on the shelves arranged just right and I love the way it came it. I also used velcro to add push lights to the top to add some lighting down in this dark end of the hall and so you could see all the "pretties" better.


And here's the final product! Like I said when I was doing the master bedroom re-do, decorating is never "done" to me, but this at least is a great start and result up to this point!

Let me know what ya think, and also how have you incorporated an office into your house? Do you have a room or just a little space you would call a nook? Also, look for a post at the end of the week to see how I've re-vamped our back porch and still to come--Luke's first birthday recap!

Word-less Wednesday: Little Preview

Here's a little preview of Luke's birthday. I'm making a very short post today (I know, I know it's supposed to be that way on Wednesdays!) because I've got two big posts coming up (Luke's birthday and a couple of DIY projects I've been working on). This is after Luke's party and an afternoon nap; he's playing with his new Noah's ark and animals given to him by GranMary and Pops. Stay tuned for lots of updates and pictures!