Kitchen progress....

I guess I need to post on my blog more often about how I'd like things to get done around the house! The day after I posted this entry, Joel decided to put the beaded board up! I can't even explain to you what a difference it has made in the kitchen.  I still have to prime and put a fresh coat of white on it before I can show you a true before/after post, but here's a teaser. Check out the walls before!

Nasty formica that was peeling, sticky and just plain ugly. Maybe it was in style when they first put it in back in 19-FOREVER ago.
Now look at what it looks like presently....

Can you even believe that?
Seriously, I could kiss that man on the mouth. Actually, I think I will. :)
Anyway,  after we got the glorious white goodness on the walls, I decided to change the paint color above it.  You can see in the first picture above that it was a light citrus green, sorta 'appley'. Now, it's a light turquoise, painted in a high gloss and it has made such a difference. I couldn't bring myself to do an all-white kitchen, but maybe someday. I guess I'm just a sucker for having at least SOME color on the walls, even if it's light or pale.
Next on the list: touch up the cabinets, get an over-the-range microwave, install a pantry in the garbage cabinet, and hang shelves where the spice racks used to be.
I'll post more pictures as I continue to change things. I SO love re-decorating, much to my husbands' chagrin.  (You love it, honey!)

Ode to my Kitchen

I'm sure lots of you moms out there could say that you spend most of your day in the kitchen. Cooking, cleaning, prepping, serving, washing, etc.  Of all of the rooms in my home, the kitchen is where you will find me probably 71.4% of the time. 

Much of the rest of my day is spent in my little office/guest room/craft room at my desk, or snuggling my kids in the living room. 

Joel and I were talking the other day about all of the house projects on our to-do list.  And a thought suddenly came to me! I spend most of my day tending to things in the kitchen, and while I do want the rest of my home to be lovely, I really want to love my kitchen!  Oh, it doesn't have to be world-class or expensive. Nor does it have to be cutting edge. Just homey, lovely, efficient and inviting. 

We've done a few things to bring it there! Remember the before and after of the kitchen floor? That is the last thing we've done to our kitchen. Just haven't had time or resources! So, next on the list: touch up the cabinets, hang the beadboard to cover up the nasty formica on the wall, put a pantry in the big cabinet where our garbage can currently is,  and get new linoleum countertops.

I think if we can get those 4 things done, I will feel more in love with my kitchen!  I have been collecting ideas on Pinterest on my "Home Stuff" board for what I would love in my kitchen. Here are a few of them:

Apparently I love white kitchens with natural wood accents and splashes of color.   I'll post an update of the kitchen after we've done something else to it. Hopefully the bead board will be up soon!  In the meantime, I keep doing small organizational things in there. I cleaned out the tupperware cupboard and sorted, put a basket in where the tea towels are kept (they were just thrown in there in a pile!), and hung new curtains on the door.  Baby steps, right?

Hope y'all have an awesome weekend.  Spend time lovin' on your kitchen too!

-Jenn :)

Progress on the kids room

So, I told you guys a while back that I was starting to re-do the 3 big kids' room. It was quite an undertaking. The walls were green, the bedspreads didn't match and were NOT cute at all, and some of the furniture was just plain yucky. Some still is...like i said, it's a work in progress!

Here's a few shots of the room before I re-painted.

See the tear on that closet curtain? That thing was a mess since we moved in. So glad to be making a new one finally!

Pretty 'blah' right? Yeah. It really needed help. I grabbed my paint and roller, and got to it! First, I attacked the green. It was sort of a pukey shade and it had to go.  Next, the curtains. Oh...the curtains.  They were the originals, i'm pretty sure. Left to us by the owners, they were the pully kind. Ya know? You pull on one side, and the curtains part in the middle. They were on a track system and everything. Polyester, plastic lined ont he back. Great for blocking out the light, but SO ugly. And half broken! Wish I had gotten a picture of those.
So the curtains were replaced by a nice, thick, brown cotton. After that, I made duvet covers for each kid. Just finished Ro's yesterday, actually!
One of the furniture items that really needed some help was Bella's bedside table.  It was literally gross to look at.

My friend Morgan had painted this thing a few years back, and when she gave it to me, it was in great condition, but I guess that's what 4 kids will do to your furniture! :)
I gave that baby a paint job, which you can see in the pics below.
I then hung some stuff up, rearranged a few things, and decided it was time for some pictures for y'all.
Keep in mind it's not done yet!

I got the idea for this painting from Smile And Wave; she is a genius!

Gotta find some cute stuff to put on top of that dresser

The closet curtain you see here is just a bed sheet. Actual curtain coming soon!

I made this garland after I saw it at www.danamadeit.com! so cute!

Asher's bedspread was made with some of Joels and my old dress shirts, as well as fabric scraps I've had forever.

this dresser is my next project. Color ideas? I was thinking dark grey or a light greyish-green, and probably some knobs.

see? Really needs some help!

I think this is my favorite view.

There's a few more things I plan on doing to spruce this room up, so you guys will see them as soon as I'm done!
Paint dresser
More wall stuff, probably their initials above their beds
Paint bottom of boys beds
Closet curtain

Any other ideas?!

new life for an old chest of drawers!

The previous homeowners of our house decided to leave a bunch of furniture for us, which was awesome because we barely had any! I was so thankful. One of the things they left was this little yellow set of drawers. Looked to have been painted several times, but was in great shape.
I decided that I liked the charmed, vintage look of it, but after a while, the chipping paint starting wearing on me.
So, a few days ago, I mixed up some paint I had and gave it a little facelift! Here's what it looked like previously:

Not all that bad right? Should have gotten a closeup. It was pretty beat up looking when you looked at it closer.
Anyway, after some sanding and couple of coats of new paint...ta da!

Ok, so you can't really tell that well, but it really is quite an improvement!  Maybe not the best before/after post ever written, but you get the idea. :)

On a more personal note, I'm so very sorry  I have been neglecting my blog! I know I have a couple of faithful readers, so thanks for sticking around. :) I've been super busy with the holidays and now I'm preparing for 2 baby showers that I'm co-hosting! Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures of some of the gifts I'll be making for these precious ladies. Then I may have something to actually show you on here!
Have a good day, everyone. Much love!

Jenn

New picture wall!

Without the pictures!
So I was surfing on Pinterest sometime during the past 100 bazillion times I've surfed Pinterest, and I found this photo.

How cute is that? Seriously cute. And i looked at it an instantly I knew in my heart...this...was meant to be. In my home. On my wall, forever and ever amen.

This is what my wall previously looked like. Snooze McGee.

So, I got my hands on lots of frames. I already had several, and I bought a few more at the thrift store. My sweet grandma got the kids a little chalkboard for Christmas, and I already had the paint!
I got to work.
Painted, waited, more paint, wait. Measuring, leveling, mapping out, etc.  Finally, I felt like I had enough frames ready.  Got them up on the wall.

Seemed like something was missing. It just wasn't enough awesomeness, am I right? I wasn't satisfied. So I looked around my house for more un-used or waiting-for-a-new-purpose frames and found 2 more plus a cute little hoop. VOILA!

I am so pleased! I love it. And the kids like the chalkboard more than before because now they get to take it off the wall and use it, then put it back to display their masterpiece.  And I just LOVE being able to put my kids school stuff on the wall, instead of the fridge, where it often gets lost in the mix of calanders, pictures, etc.

I've been working on lots of other projects as well, like finishing the kids rooms and my office. It's coming along, but slowly. You may have noticed my extended absence from blogging (again.), oops. I was going NUTS making all the Christmas gifts I had committed myself to! Made one for every family member, except a few of the kids. It was so fun, but sure was time consuming.

For the kids room, I hung up a few pieces of art that I made, and one that I just printed from the Interwebs, and then I made this garland. And then this. (the pic is the one I was inspired by.)

It is so cute.  As soon as I finish the boys duvet covers, I'll post the before/after. I know you are all on the edge of your seats!

Some amazing news happened amidst all the crazy though! I am an aunt for the very first time, on my side of the family! My big sis, Bets, had her first baby, Maggie, on Christmas day! Mommy and baby are doing fine, although a bit sleep deprived, but as soon as that passes, I'm excited to see how much they enjoy life together.  So happy for that cute little family! And I have to say, it's fun to be an aunt. :)

Bless you guys! see ya when I see ya.

Jenn

My dining room wall.

I thought it was about time to show you my pretty wall!
I suppose I should preface this with telling you that I'm incapable of hanging pictures straight. No matter what I do, it's just not possible for me.  Not to mention that in our old house, none of the floors or ceilings are straight either. So, on that note, here's what the wall used to look like:

Yeah...I thought it looked good after I hung them all.  Ha!!
So a little while ago, my mother in law, who is amazing at most things, helped me hang shelves up so that I could put my pictures on them and they'd stay straight!

Isn't that better?! I think so.  I let out an audible sigh of gratitude and appreciation when they were finished being hung.  And how do you like my Christmas decoration!?  That's as good as it gets in my house this year....hopefully next year I'll be more motivated to get festive.

Hope you enjoyed this little peek into my home! Have a good rest of the week. Blessings!

So so so ready...

I am so jealous of all of my friends in the south. Their kids started school yesterday....mine don't go back for another 3 weeks! Will we make it?!!

Well of course we will, but it seems so far away. We don't spend a ton of time outside right now due to the  two pitbulls that moved in on either side of us (Sorry if you own one. I hate them. Like, hate. With a fiery passion.), and we're waiting for our backyard fence to be finished getting installed.  It's going to be a beautiful thing. I can't WAIT!
But wait we must.
So, we'll be doing some fun things to keep busy! I've been looking up some fun ideas for us to do, and thought I'd share some of the inspiration. For all you moms out there who are looking for ways to fill up the last few weeks of summer, here ya go!

DIY Window Paints at Modern Parents, Messy Kids

Tissue Paper pom-poms by Martha Stewart (I know this is a stupid idea since all the tiny pieces of tissue paper will end up on every surface of my home within minutes, but it'll keep them happy, and that's what it's about.)

Fitted Sheet Tent by Martha Stewart
I think my kids will love this one if they would just not touch the broom!

 Painting Rocks!  (also by Ms. Martha)

Homemade Playdough!

I'm sure there'll be more that I think of soon, but for now, these should keep us busy. Hoping to find some good projects online to do with cardboard boxes...any ideas?

If you've been following the progress on the house, we're getting there! I've finished painting the part under the front windows, and we've got our new mailbox up, after some wood repair. Joel still has quite a bit of repairing and patching up to do around the windows before we can finish that, and I need to get up on the top of the porch and scrape so we can paint the window trim up there, but I'll be sure to post pictures when it's all done!
 I hope everyone gets motivated to do some small (or big!) touch ups on their houses too! It feels good and makes the neighborhood look a little brighter too.
I'm on the lookout for one of these:

That's my next wish! In the meantime, I'll be doing some fun redecorating IN the house.

I've been spending my spare time listening to David Pawson, who is one of my favorite teachers. So encouraging, informative and just a sweet old man. Check him out if you want to be changed, educated, and convicted.  Years ago, I listened to entire 12 disc series he taught on the book of Revelation, but lately I've been going through his teachings on this website. I LOVED all the information he gave on the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. His British accent makes him so easy to listen to, but don't listen while you're too tired, or he may just lull you into a nap. :)

Have a good day, friends! Let me know what fun projects you've been doing with your kids, and what new decorating projects you are/will be doing!