Laundry Room {Progress}

When we purchased our house five years ago, we knew immediately that the laundry room layout was not going to work (it was more of a hallway than a place to fold clothes).  We also immediately knew what to do. We borrowed space from bedroom #3 by reframing the closet and moving the door location. The bedroom lost a little bit of closet space but not much. The other benefit of moving the bedroom closet to the right was the addition of double doors on the adjacent wall.  We use this room as additional living space (not as a bedroom).  The double door entry faces the living room in the revised layout.

Indian Corn Fall Wreath

Happy Black Friday!  

No crazy 3am shopping experience for me today.  I did take advantage of one online sale though.

The big plan for today was to put up the tree. My little blonds helped me put "Fall" away and pull out some Christmas boxes from the basement.  My 8 year old is growing up too fast. He helped me carry in the tree.  Then he set it up for me! I added the mesh ribbon, but he single handedly decorated our tree. It was so fun to have his help.

We removed our pumpkins and fall wreath from the porch to replace with Christmas decor. I thought
I'd share my super simple and cheap wreath I had up this year…also, you can see the lovely shade of turquoise that I recently painted.

Projects of Christmas Past

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving! 

Christmas is right around the corner, and I have a ton of crafts I'd like to do and not a whole lot of energy to get them done! Anyone else feel that way too? So instead of creating something new to share, I thought I'd do a wrap up post of some of my Christmas posts from last year. 

Joy to the World Printable Banner

(print, cut and hang)  

Christmas Carol Napkin Rings

(a quick and easy addition to your table)

   

O Come Let us Adore Him! Printable - Black & White

O Come Let us Adore Him! Printable - Color Versions 

Christmas Carol Snowflakes

Christmas Card Wreath

(a simple way to display your Christmas cards)

Christmas Gift Planning 

(want, need, wear, read)

Weekend Art

The post where I brag on my little artist....

Three Teeny Tiny *Beautiful* Pumpkins

It's fall!

My little blonds and I have been eagerly watching our pumpkins grow for several months.

I had hopes for a larger crop.  My gardening skills are lacking though, so I am thrilled with my three lovely little ones.

They happily greet us every time we pull up. 

If you are looking for inspiring porch ideas, check out Thistlewood Farms front door ideas. 

The land yields its harvest;

God, our God, blesses us.

Psalms 67:6

A Cardboard Party

My little blonds have summer birthdays. This year we decided to throw them one huge birthday bash.

My oldest is very creative and loves to transform a cardboard box into something else with a little tape and cutting. Little brother loves anything that big brother loves, so we thought "cardboard" would be a fun and easy theme.

We've been planning since March, I think.  We've been saving boxes and toilet paper rolls and anything else "cardboard" related for months!  I can't wait to have my garage back for parking real cars (not cardboard ones).  My oldest blond browsed pinterest with me and help me pick out and plan all of the cardboard decorations and games.  Let me just say that it was WAY more work than we imagined but totally fun too!  Thanks to my team of helpers (Hi Mom & Dad!) we pulled it off somehow.

Here are a few of the party pictures. I didn't get a chance to capture everything we did to set it up because time got away from me.

Angry Birds Bean Bag Game

{Cardboard Party}

Inspired by this angry bird can game, we decided to make our own yard game with cardboard boxes, plastic containers and bean bags.

Built-in Tic Tac Toe & Hopscotch

When we landscaped the front yard a few years back, we did not take the grass all the way to the garage.  We left a "driveway" area that we eventually want to have paved. 

In the meantime, it looks very unfinished.  There are some rocks and plenty of weeds that take up residence there.  Sometimes there is a trailer or truck parked there. 

In an attempt to make this unfinished space look more finished, I added some small paving stones for a tic tac toe game and hopscotch. 

Yard Scrabble & Boggle

{Cardboard Party}

Bean Bag Bowling (Coffee Creamers)

{Cardboard Party....although no actual "cardboard" was used}

I love coffee...with cream!

Ok, I love creamer.

As we were busy saving our trash (cardboard) for months for the big cardboard party, I decided to save my creamer containers.  The point of the cardboard party was to save cardboard and make all of our decorations and games (see here, here, and here).  So even though they aren't cardboard, they were perfect for a homemade game of bowling.

A Snack Bar for Dinner

{Cardboard Party}

I had a hard time deciding what type of food goes with a cardboard party.  Rice cakes? People always say those taste like cardboard.  :)

Since I decided to have a gas station, cars, and drive-in theater for the party, I figured a "Snack Bar" that would have been found at a drive-in sounded better than rice cakes.

Coffee Filter Decorations

{Cardboard Party}

Coffee Filters

Easy floral centerpieces made from oatmeal containers, coffee filters & pipe cleaners.

Cardboard Party Lemonade Stand

{Cardboard Party}

Oh the cuteness you can find on Pinterest!  I wanted to have a lemonade stand to serve drinks from at the boys' birthday party but with the hundreds of other crafty things we had to get ready, I needed a simple solution to dress up the drink table!

A "Lemonade" sign dressed up the front of the table and cups where stored in a small cardboard box.  I attached a marker to a rope so it wouldn't get misplaced. Thanks to my momma for that great idea and for sticking on blank address labels ahead of time.  :)  My dad wrapped an ice chest with cardboard to hold water and juice boxes.

You Made a Wreath From What?

Toilet Paper Wreath {Cardboard Party}

A simple circle wreath form was cut from a flat sheet of cardboard.

Toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls were trimmed down to form the flowers and the leaves.

Cute little blond assistants handed their momma pieces to hot glue down and a funky floral toilet paper wreath was made!

For more toilet paper craft ideas, check out this website and a few more cardboard wreath ideas here and here.

See more from the cardboard party here.

Easy Birthday Money Card

This is the day the LORD has made; 

we will rejoice and be glad in it. 

Psalm 118:24

Although birthdays come around the same time every year, I still find myself struggling to keep up with them!

Finding the perfect gift for someone happens at times, but I have no problem giving cash or gift cards as presents.  In fact, I prefer it! Sometimes it is hard to know what someone wants or what toys kiddos already have.

And then there are cards...

Occasionally, I don't mind spending a few bucks on a card, but usually I just fold over a piece of construction paper and let my little blonds make a card. Those sweet cards can mean more than store bought cards anyway.

This weekend we headed to a party, and like usual, didn't have a gift purchased ahead of time.  We decided on a cash gift (what kid doesn't like a little cash!).  Instead of my go-to homemade card, I had an idea to make a card and money holder in one! I hope you can get some use out of it too.

Print on regular white copy paper, colored paper or cardstock.  

Fold in thirds.

Staple, glue or tape up the ends to make a pocket for your cash, check or gift cards. 

And one birthday I will never forget...the one that made me a momma! 

Happy Birthday to my firstborn son today! :)

Elephant Baby Shower

My friend threw a beautiful baby shower for her daughter over the weekend. As a mother of boys, it was different and fun to be around so much pink. I arrived early to help with a few finishing touches. I snapped a few pictures with my phone before the party began. I wish I had taken more! There were so many beautiful and sweet touches.

On display by the entry was the mother-to-be's baby gown and bracelet. So sweet!

Diaper cake with tutus

I hung two plastic tablecloths to make a gift table backdrop with paper elephants cut from this modified to look more like the Wild Safari party supplies used from Oriental Trading Co.

Homemade burp cloth bouquet

Baby Ella "Elephant" Banner

Another plastic table cloth backdrop (attached to a pvc stand) behind the cake table.

Plastic tablecloth pompoms made from this tutorial.

The star of the day...the cake!

Belly cake with footprint in light pink and white animal print.

Nail polish favors with elephant on one side and a thank you note on the opposite side.

Rock candy bouquets

Baby buggy fruit bowl

It was a beautiful celebration of baby Ella and the new mommy to be.  

It was so much fun to be a part of this special day.

Boys' Bathroom Update {Progress}

Having company is a sure fire way to inspire you to finish up a project. Thank you, 4th of July!

On the summer to do list is our hall bathroom used by the boys and guests. It was a jumbled up mess of different styles.

The original design direction for our house was to transform it to look more like a 1900's craftsman and less 1997. We used some dark greens and brown paint to help achieve this (hence the green vanity).  At some point this shifted to a more cowboy-chic direction in the bathroom, and I added a teal & blue shower curtain, iron accents, and blue-green walls....but left the vanity dark green.  Oh my. Then my taste shifted again from turn of the century craftsman to old farmhouse.

In an attempt to transform the whole bathroom into one cohesive style, the vanity was painted white, two layers of trim were added to the wall (along with paint), and a new shower curtain was purchased (Target).

The boys aren't capable of hanging their towels properly on a traditional towel bar so the hooks were added.

The white vanity and walls brighten up the dark, poorly lit room (new lighting to be added soon...hopefully).

Art, accessories, new countertop, and a new light fixture are still on the to do list, but I'm very pleased with the transformation so far!