Master Bedroom Makeover

When we purchased our house in December, we knew that it would need a little (read: a lot) of love. While the previous owners had done a relatively good job of keeping it up, it was looking pretty dated! Unfortunately, some of the big projects that we wanted to do, like gutting the kitchen, were - and still are - not in the budget. So we went to the metaphorical drawing board!

December 21, 2012 - Right after closing! Note the plants in the front flowerbed.

Thinking about which project would make the biggest impact on the "comfort level" of our house, without making the biggest dent in our budget led us to remodeling the master bedroom. Naively, we expected the project to be quick and easy. Gorgeous, easy-to-install, laminate flooring, a couple of coats of "Thin Ice" colored paint, and the replacement of some flimsy closet doors and discolored blinds. Sounds simple, right?

Wrong.

Step one was to take out the flimsy old closet doors. No problem!

Step two involved us ripping up the old laminate flooring. Actually, it involved my DAD ripping up the old laminate flooring, with a little assistance from my Prince Charming (henceforth referred to as PC). This is where we made a "lovely" discovery. Shocking to all of us, there were little tiny roots from the plants GROWING THROUGH THE CONCRETE BLOCK WALL to soak up moisture, which had seeped into the concrete because the soil level in the flowerbed was higher than the foundation of the house.

Beautiful, yes? Cellphone photo courtesy of PC.

Thankfully, my PC has an uncle who has worked in the construction business for many years. After some conferring between PC's uncle and my Dad, they determined that the best course of action was to rip out the garden, relocate all of the excess dirt, and replace the bed with rocks. You might be surprised to find out that I was all for it! Replacing the bushes with a container garden was already on my list of "Things To Do Someday!"

While front garden demolition was in progress, we had time to repaint the bedroom with the help of PC's dad and replace all of the blinds. Immediately after that, the new flooring was purchased and installed by my Dad. (He's great! I'm so thankful that he lives around the corner and is willing to help with projects that Dustin and I aren't handy enough to do ourselves.)

From Instagram: Toby enjoying (holding down?) our new flooring!

It's taken a few months (and several trips to IKEA) to get everything arranged "just so," but I couldn't be happier with the final result.

Behold, our master bedroom!

June 9, 2013 - Finished at long last!

More projects to come soon, but for now, it's time for a little nap on my comfy bed in our beautiful new room!

Friday Freebie: Printable Chalk Art

I've been experimenting with creating chalkboard art on my computer this week, since I love the style, but can't stand the thought of actual, real-for-real chalk. This is one of the neat little quotes that I've fancied up this week, and seeing as though Thanksgiving is on THURSDAY (can you believe it?) I thought I'd share.

To download (Instructions for PC Users):

- Right click on the image and select "Open in New Tab" from the menu.
- In the new tab, right click on the image again and click "Save Image As"
- Save and print!

I usually send mine to Walgreens or CVS and have it printed as an 8x10 for my subway art frame, but you could definitely print it at home or at the photo printer of your choice. :)

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Printable {Round-Up}

November has arrived! Can you believe that the Holiday season is upon us? 

Since Prince Charming was at our church's men's retreat, sis and I spent the entire weekend lounged in my living room watching the Hallmark Channel's Christmas preview weekend. (In other words, we watched at least half a dozen super cheesy Christmas movies and stuffed ourselves silly with junk food while surfing Pinterest.)

ANYWAY. 

Thanksgiving is a mere 2 1/2 weeks away! I've been searching the internet for some sweet [free] swag to use for my Thanksgiving morning "brunch and parade viewing mini-party" with my family... and seeing as though this is the season of sharing, I thought you might like to enjoy some of the cuteness I've rounded up.

Below you'll find a dozen links to some of the best*Thanksgiving printables on the web.

Enjoy! :)

1. HUGE Thanksgiving Party Printable Set by DimplePrints

2. Weswen Design's Thanksgiving Menu Printable

3. Gorgeous Victorian Printables by B.Nute Productions

4. Thanksgiving Planner Pages by Life Your Way

5. Blessing Mix Favor Tag by Jen Carver

6. Pieces for Fall Crafts at Jess Gordon Design 

7. Sweet Placemat, Straw Flags, Etc. at Paper Glitter

8. Kind Over Matter's Thanksgiving Fortune "Cookies"

9. "Turkey Talk" Conversation Cards at Happy Home Fairy

10. With A Grateful Heart Print on Landee See, Landee Do

11. Blessings Printable by Rebecca of Somewhat Simple

12. Printable Toothpick Flags by Rebecca of Somewhat Simple

*I will admit that I'm a bit biased about these being the best, seeing as though I picked them all out!

31 Days: One Sentence a Day

So far, all of my posts for this 31 Days series have been on capturing memories photographically.

However, this week, I'm going to do something a little different, and I challenge you to join in:

I'm going to start keeping a one-sentence journal on Twitter!

The idea began when I read this article a few months ago.

I love the idea of recording my memories, without feeling like I'm dealing with some sort of cumbersome daily task... with this set-up, in the worst case scenario, I can simply update right before I go to sleep from my phone.

I will have a link to my Twitter feed up in the side-column tomorrow, but for tonight, it's time to get some rest!

If you decide to join me, please leave a link to your Twitter in the comments so that I can follow you! :)

31 Days: I Fell Off the Bandwagon

Remember last Sunday when I said that I had been feeling crummy?

Well... maybe it wasn't so much a "had been feeling crummy" as it was a "currently feeling crummy."

Regardless, I've spent much of the last week vacillating between having tons of energy and feeling like death warmed over. As you can probably imagine, this hasn't left much time for blogging.

I do promise, however, to hop back on the bandwagon this week - two posts a day to make things up. :)

There are, after all, only 10 days left in this blogging challenge. It's time to finish strong!

31 Days: A Few Quick Reflections

Not much to post today, and to be honest, I can't say too much because I'm currently stuck posting from my phone. Apparently my computer is on a blogging strike.

Anyway.

I've spent the last 24 hours sorting on and off through a box of photos of my early years, and it's a rather interesting experience. There are so many photos that I couldn't possibly keep them all, but how do you determine the value of one photo over another?

I'm struggling with little decisions, like do I keep this photo of an unimportant event that I have actual memories of, or this cute photo of an equally unimportant event that I don't remember?

What pictures do I think my future children will be interested in? What will I wish I had copies of later in life?

Maybe I'm a photo hoarder, maybe I'm sentimental, or maybe I'm just normal... But this task is much more difficult than I thought it would be!

31 Days: We Will Remember

For today's Sunday inspirational post, I thought I'd share a song. We've been singing this song at church and I absolutely love it!

Enjoy!