Living Room Update

My husband and I are mutually getting sick of the decor in the living room. We both really like the colors but there are things we would love to change. Like those mirrors on the wall above the couch. Or the couch itself. 

One of the perks that my husband's job has been doing is giving small gift cards here and there that you can choose where to spend them. Usually, he picks Amazon or Lowe’s. They are pretty handy to have and we have even been saving up here and there to buy a new dishwasher once our’s gives out (which we know might be soon).

Saturday, I decided on a whim to redo the living room frame of the kids. Ellie has been pointing at that one and the kitchen one and saying everyone, and looking for herself as well. I thought it would be a quick fix to add some new pictures and be done. But if you give Rebecca a a picture, it turns into a collage, which turns into…..a whole new project. And I got a jig saw for my birthday I was dying to put to use. But the cool part about this project is that it cost us nothing to do, and we used a lot of what we had here at home!

Here’s the before: ( This is a very old picture, I need to add pictures of the little entry way by the door. I have changed it up a lot over there!)

Buh-bye mirrors over couch!

This is the original collage that I was fixing.

which turned into a scalloped piece.

which turned into a larger frame of the scalloped piece.

Then we decided to frame it out above the couch.

And then paint it.

Then take those old ikea mirrors and make new frames. I drew out the shapes and then we cut them out with the jig saw and router-ed the edges and painted them.

Which all turned into this:

It’s hard to really show the details in the pictures, but we are both super happy with it. And Ellie loves standing on the couch looking at all the pictures of….herself.

We also put new feet on our couch just to raise it up (which is cheaper than buying a new couch!) and can tell a difference between that and our love seat (that we still need to do). And now I have an empty wall space in the living room I can add something new to (I have ideas)!

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Family Art Work

If you follow me on pinterest, did you see this adorable idea fromSamster Mommy's Natasha? She got everyone in her family (including the pets!) and created a beautiful masterpiece!

I have been collecting a couple of things here and there to eventually redo the wall above our couch into more of a gallery type wall. (And by a couple, I mean, I have two frames so far.) I don't want to start it until I can finish it, and it might take awhile to get everything and figure out what I want to do, so I am not rushing it. But i thought this would be a perfect center to the whole thing.

I got everyone together (minus the dog, because it was hard enough to keep a 19 month old's hands contained during this) and we all had a blast creating it together!

(and what art session isn't complete without their nerf guns?)

I already had scrapbooking letters to spell out family, a primed canvas and the acrylic paints on hand. We each took a color that each family member tends to gravitate to, which ended up blended together pretty well! The colors in my living room tend to be a tiffany blue and browns, and I have been wanting to incorporate more whites and greens as well.

I love the gloppy textures, I love that you can not tell they are handprints of every size unless you look at it for awhile, because it just makes a "firework" display as my 4 year old called it. I really like the family as lowercased too on ours. Its just us!

On the back, I wrote our names and the year, everyone's ages and how many years we have been married.

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A fun and easy dress from Make it and Love it

I made this dress found here and loved how simple it was to make, how comfortable it is for her to wear, but how fun and cute it is to look at!

And supposedly, knowing how to braid a 5 strand is a useful skill to have, so my husband tells me! 

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One shoulder shirt

Yeah, I disappeared again. I am enjoying every second of the summer with my three beautiful children! Still sewing, crafting and creating, but blogging isn't a top priority right now!

Thought I would share a super fun link that I used to create this today! Luvinthemommyhood is doing a mini theme on knits and I thought this was too adorable not to try and share!

Til next time!

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A friendly (weightloss) competition

My husband and I are in a battle. We are battling to see who can reach their own weight loss goal in three months. There's money on the line, people!

I will admit, having three kids in 4 1/2 years and using excuses because of busy life, schedules, etc hasn't helped me one bit, but I will be 30 next year and really want to get into shape and feel good about myself before a new set of numbers begin!

I started yesterday and wasn't pleased at the options I saw on the menu at Red Robin (where he chose for Father's day), so I am scouting out new choices, recipes, etc.

I am also drinking tons more water and began exercising as well. The exercise part is lacking big time, and I am already finding myself using the 100+ temps outside as an excuse. I am starting small though, alternating yoga and bike riding.


So in my quest to find things to try to keep this fun and exciting, I stumbled upon this book yesterday and plan on ordering it. Anyone have this?

And let me know if you have any tips and tricks for me! I am pretty open to hear anything and would love to hear your own thoughts! I know its a process and I want to do it the right way, but I have GOT to beat him! 

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Didn't disappear!

Hey guys!

I haven't disappeared! I had blogged a lot of entries ahead of time before we went out of town and then did a few more while we were out of town. We were gone for two and a half weeks, including some time with zero internet or cell phone service (gasp!)

Now that we are home, I am getting ready to do a yard sale here soon, and I was busy doing laundry and unpacking and getting back into our normal routine. Also...I LOVE summer! I love having all three kids home with me at once! I am treasuring every minute and having so much fun with them. They grow way too fast!

I have been working on some projects too!

Talk to you soon and enjoy those men in your life this weekend. They deserve it!

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Duct Tape Roses Tutorial

My grandma has discovered the world of duct tape crafts.

So, she taught me how to do duct tape roses.

Here's what you do:

Get about 4 inches of wire to tape the petals to.  She uses this old lap board to do all of her taping and measuring with.

Then start cutting 3 inch long strips for petals. You will need to cut 24. 

Now fold over like this:

and then over again like this: 

Wrap the petal around your wire.

Keep wrapping petals around as you make them:

After you have done all 24, it should look like this:

Now let's work on the petals. 

Cut a 6 inch strip of green and 4 pieces of 3 inches apiece of wire, 

Place the four pieces of wire on the sticky part of the tape, then cover with another piece of tape.

Cut leaf shapes out:

Twist the four leafs together

Then wrap the whole stem with the rose and leaves together with another piece of green

Complete!

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Petal Pillow (antique)

Growing up, I always played and adored my mom's petal pillows that she inherited from her grandmother. They were so much fun to look at all the fabric colors and designs when I was supposed to be taking a nap.

I mentioned the pillow to my grandma and off she went to find hers. And then...she gave it to me!! This is something that I will forever treasure!

Check out the back of the pillow. Isn't it neat?

Apparently, she made at least 7 of these pillows (different shapes and varieties) possibly more. Can you imagine the patience?

I googled it, and found an owl pattern that I bought to try. Christmas presents for the kids! It will be a great stash buster for all those scraps, and something that maybe they will enjoy as much as I did.




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