So Fresh and So Clean

We are ALMOST nearing the end of our major housing projects! I know I will always be decorating the house but these are projects only my husband can do, that is until I learn how to use his power tools! I have been a little dizzy since Avery was born (low iron levels) so I figure the power tools will have to wait until my levels are back up! Anyway, I painted every room in the entire house when we moved in but left the guest bath blank. I was way to overwhelmed to think about this room. I am so glad I waited because I was able to get what I really wanted. I started with towels, I needed something to give me a kick start. I knew I wanted it to be serene but not beachy (although, I love beachy, just not in this bathroom). We firsted painted it a grey color which turned out blue! Ugh..... then we decided to take the paint that we used in the kitchen and hall way and add a little black to it. We slapped a coat on the wall and VIOLA, perfection! I used almost everything I already in the decor cupboard, some got a revamp, others got a little spray paint. I made the soap despensers out of mason type jars from Michaels. I just used the pump from our old soap dispensers. And yes, I actually used my husbands drill myself. Thank you very much!

We used this tutorial for the mirror and it completely transformed the bathroom. She also did the laundry room that I am gaga over! In fact, Jim just framed our master bathroom yesterday which is waiting to get a brown coat of paint on it and a little shabby, which I will show you later. I put the design on the candle myself, great tutorial here and I love it!

Hope you enjoyed our bathroom reaveal!

Switchin It Up

I have to admit, I have not really had any luck with my sewing projects lately. So I am trying my skills on some new projects. I made this Bless Our Nest sign last week and I am in LOVE! I made it out of this huge piece of plywood that was on our side yard when we bought our house. I had my hubby cut it up (One of my 2010 goals is to learn to use his tools!) so I can make many signs! I have so many different ideas that I probably need to scale them down a tad!

My 2nd project is Averys scrapbook/baby book. I received the most amazing scrapbook/baby book for my baby shower when I was pregnant with Riley from my aunt. It actually could be one of my all time favorite gifts. Many hours went into it and I absolutely cherish it. I have never scrapbooked in my life but I figured I could go page by page through Rileys and make Averys, just the boy version! The problem is, my wallet does not like scrapbooking! I spent $30 to get me started, this doesn't include the album!! Which is $50 on EBAY! So I figured that I would only buy materials when they are on sale or if I have a 40% off coupon. I was able to buy a set of 20 decorative scissors on ebay for $12.00, which retail for about $30 I think. I have decided that I will do a page per month per child. I still need to play catch up on Rileys but my first page for her will be graduating Level 1 of swim lessons! Although she hated every minute of it, I just have to document it!

A Place for Mommy

I have only been working on this desk for weeks! It was painted blue with an antique finish on it. So there were many layers to sand off. I painted it white and sanded the edges, I then decided to modpodge paper on the drawers to give it some funk!

I needed a place for my sewing machine and a place to retreat to when I wanted to craft. The other day while the kiddos were sleeping, I turned on Pandora and retreated to my new space. It was pure bliss! I bought the two picture frames at a yard sale for .50 cents a piece and at the same sale I bought a huge cork board for $1.00. I popped the glass out of the frames and cut up the cork board to fit in the frames. I made the tack flowers out of paper and glued buttons on the center. This will be a place where I can tack up reminders or just special encouraging notes to myself! I finally have a place where I can feel inspired and calm!

What Can Under $100.00 Getcha?

I just want to point out that I have blogged 3 days in a row! That deserves some sort of prize, right?! Anywho, this weekend we got an itch. A small remodel itch. It just so happened it was about 4pm on Saturday. The hubs and I never start projects early in the morning, that would be to easy =) We have been wanting to reface the front of our kitchen bar and with DJ's upcoming birthday party this was the perfect time to get started. We originally knew we wanted beadboard and chunky moulding to fancy up the place but when we got to talking we decided to go gloss black and I couldn't be more thrilled. The before was boring and very white! We needed the black contrast. We have some left over bead board and I plan on painting it black and sticking it in the cupboards where our glass fronts are. This will really help our glass pieces show! And if I don't like it, I just repaint it! Easy peasy!

Quatrefoil Craze!

Quatrefoil has been all the craze around the blogging world. And I am as equally in love with it as some other bloggers! Remember I posted here about using the Quatrefoil template from Tatertots and Jello. We really have been wanting to purchase new furniture for our bedroom but came to the realization that it is not in the cards right now. We have a light wood (not even sure what it's called) bedroom set that is about 15 years old. It actually looks pretty good but the light wood was not our style. I asked my hubby to go pick out a brown paint color at the store (yes, I let him pick it out!) I was quite impressed that it had an olive tint to it and I loved it!

Well, I tried it on a much smaller scale than my planned laundry room. I am so glad I tested it on a smaller area because I learned some things. 1. Listen to my husband 2. My husband will re-sand the project after I mess up! 3. Do not spray the adhesive directly to the piece of furniture, spray it on the stencil. 4. Use a sharp exacto knife to cut the stencil and if you are not patient, have your husband do it =) 5. Let the paint completely dry before you try to peel it off! 6. For a small piece of furniture, it works best to use a sponge brush and almost do a "sponge painting" motion.

Overall, I am really happy with how it turned out. I would really like to update our lamps and find some more decorative things for our bedside. But this was definately a start! Stay tuned for a peek at a big kitchen project we worked on this weekend that completey transformed our house!!