Instant Relaxation

Since we have moved into our new home, I new that the color in the living room was not going to work for me. Too dark! And you know how I like things to be light and airy feeling! While I haven’t fully accomplished that entirely through my house, it’s a work in progress.

Back in January, we ordered two new sofas to go in the living room. We chose quality in our sofas because we knew that they would be what we would have in there for a very long time. So far, I can’t be any more pleased. They are comfortable to sit in, and I’m definitely glad we chose to pay the extra $20 or $30 for both of them to be sofa size instead of a sofa and a loveseat. It’s worth it to be able to sit that extra person or two when you have company over.

So, let’s just flash back to what the room looked like in January before the furniture arrived and while carpet was being installed in our guest bedroom.

It’s a good thing the only thing on my mind during that time was sleeping…..thank you, Baby Langham.

Then, the sofas arrived, and we moved all of the random furniture back into the room it belonged in {kind of}, and I planned for the future of my living room to make it a little more friendly to the eye.

Since we knew things were about to get real crazy around here with a baby shower and a new kid added to the mix, we changed this room around drastically within a week’s time.

Colby painted the room in one night and did the trim on another day. I scored lamps from T.J. Maxx, pulled out frames and accessories from my stash of things I buy and haven’t used yet, and bought and painted a mirror found at the Habitat Restore.

The layout of the couches wasn’t exactly working for me. The couches were way too far apart. While the couches were pulled out to paint the walls, I quickly realized how well they would do if one of the couches wasn’t on the wall and met the corner of the other couch. I then moved one of the side tables in the middle of the two couches to make it make more sense.

Here are the before and afters from the different angles…

For those of you wondering, the paint color is Benjamin Moore’s Palladian Blue with White Diamond trim.

So, now I can plan for getting this room to a more finished state.

I might even want to add in a chair by the fireplace and between the piano. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I have ideas for it all, but I’ll share it all once I have it all together.

P.S. I have a nursery update coming. I promise. It’s actually half-way done. It just needs a few things here and there.

P.S.S. My computer is on the brink of dying. I’m praying it will hold on just a little bit longer. The good news is that I’ve backed everything up. Woohoo!

Trying Something New {A Paint Party}

Alright ladies….I know many of you have already been doing this for quite some time, but now you can do it in our own town. If you haven’t tried it, I really encourage you to get a group up and give it a go!

The Dot Shop is one of the newer shops in town with some of the newest styles in clothes and jewelry….not to mention the cutest door hangers on the block!

Some of the girls got in contact with the owner and set up the date and time. We brought some snacks and drinks and got busy! We picked our two designs that we wanted to do ahead of time, and she had them cut out and ready to go when we got there.

Some of us did the mason jars, and the others did flowers. I knew I needed something pretty simple, and come to find out even that was too hard for me. I just don’t have enough confidence in myself. Luckily, the owner was happy to help so that we left with something we were proud of and looked awesome!

We can’t wait to do another one in the fall! It might be the only way we can ever all get together! Life is way too busy!

Seriously though….schedule your party with your gal pals! It’s a good time!

Rain or Shine….The Show Must Go On!

Boy, oh boy! Saturday was a whirlwind….as was the week leading up to it!

We turned the house upside down, had our air conditioner replaced, and had a baby shower at our house all in one week! In the upcoming week, I’ll share with you some updates we made to the house this week to get it ready for company, but for now I wanted to share with you the awesome baby shower hosted by my three best friends in honor of the upcoming arrival of our new little boy!

The amount of preparation these girls did to make this party a success can never be appreciated enough! It was a party full of good friends, good food, and a good time! And some really great gifts!

In an effort to do my part, I put vases of hydrangeas in nearly every room in the house. What can I say? It’s my favorite flower!

The girls set up the party in the yard. Tables were accented by baby’s breath and candles in mason jars that were tied off with a twine bow.

The cake table was set with the burlap runner used from my wedding, a gorgeous paisley cake atop a milk glass cake plate {seriously….this couldn’t be any more fitting for me} surrounded with baby’s breath, and all of the essentials to dig in.

The appetizer table held all kinds of yummy treats including fruit kabobs, a sausage dip, and a chicken ball. If you could walk past that table and not make a plate, you have way more will power than me. The tree in the middle served as the “wishing/advice” tree….and boy did I get some advice!

Boys that you’ve gone to school with nearly your whole life give interesting and humorous advice!

The gift table was complete with rocking chairs for the husband and I to open up the goodies that we were going to be blessed with.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of the food table with all of the delish food on it, but I did get a before photo! Just imagine it with grilled chicken quarters, baked beans, potato salad, and I can’t even remember what else! Tea was served in mason jars and in a whiskey barrel full of bottled sodas or water.

Can it get any more southern of a party?

The guests began to arrive and settle in….

all before the the rain came…..

and thinking that the rain would pass quickly like it always does, the boys did their part to save the party {moved the food tables under the porch and turned the chairs at an angle}! And even hung out under the trees while the ladies moved under the porch!

The rain got harder, and we quickly realized that it wasn’t planning on letting up any time soon….not to mention that everything was soaking wet!

On to Plan B….move the party inside!

Inside or outside though, we all still had a great time and adjusted easily.

Thanks to everyone who came! Rain couldn’t mess up our good time! I love spending time with each and every one of you! You all mean so much to me, and I can’t wait for you all to meet our little guy! To be quite honest, I’m getting more and more anxious to meet him myself!

31 weeks and going!

Oh Baby!

If you follow my blog on Facebook, you probably know that it is complete chaos at my house right now. We have a baby shower/housewarming party coming up, and every project {well….maybe only 1/4 of it} that has been on my list since we moved here is getting some attention.

Did I mention that we haven’t had a.c. for I don’t know how long?!?!? It hasn’t been completely miserable. Surprisingly, I do believe it could be much worse. And, we do have a separate unit to work our bedrooms, so if I need to cool off I can just go chill back there. They’re here right now, and I can’t wait for them to be done, so we can crank it up.

Because I knew they were coming, I didn’t do my weekly cleaning. I didn’t see the point of cleaning….only to have to re-clean once they leave. Plus….too many projects going on to waste time cleaning. It’s seriously driving me insane though. Dirtiness and messiness does not sit well with me!

Since I’ve  been stuck here today, I figured I would whip out a craft. The perk of the shower being at your house is that you get to contribute in ways here and there. Some people might think that to be a perk, but a crafty person like myself does. Plus, you don’t have to go anywhere. The people come to you!

I saw a wreath on Pinterest {linked here}, and it looked easy enough to do. I figured that I had half of the materials, and it’s a wreath that I can easily undo and make into something else.

Here’s what you need:

• Brown yarn
• Large needle
• Paint of your color choice
• Small paint brush
• Paper plate to put paint on
• Burlap
• Scissors
• Chalk
• Computer & Printer
• Grapevine wreath
• Raffia
• Poster board {or some kind of surface to paint on}

Here’s how you do it….

• Using a computer program like Microsoft Word, make a large triangle shape, print it, and cut it to the size you need. You can always trim from the top if it’s too large…easy fix!
• Lay your burlap out flat. Trace your triangle onto the burlap using the chalk.
• Cut out the triangles.
• Lay your triangles out on the poster board. Put your paint on the plate and start painting on your triangles. Make sure you give your triangles time to dry before moving on to the next step.

• After the triangles are dry, cut yourself a piece of yarn long enough to thread the triangles through and tie to the wreath. Thread the yarn through the needle and begin weaving them through.
• Tie to your wreath.
• Use the raffia to make a not-so-perfect bow and tie it to the wreath.
• On the back of your wreath, use a small piece of yarn to make a way to attach the wreath to the door.
• And now….hang on your door and admire!

It’s a very simple wreath! The best thing is that it can be adopted for all kinds of events or holidays! I’m already thinking of a way to use it for the 4th of July!

On another note, I did go to the doctor last week and had an ultrasound done. I’m not sure if I shared previously, but I was told at the beginning of the pregnancy that I had a common condition called a partial placenta previa that could correct itself as the pregnancy went on. The good news is that everything looked great, so Baby Langham can actually try to get out on his own instead of having no way out except through a c-section.

I’m now 30 weeks, so I graduated to the appointments being every two weeks……yay {not}! I’ve gained 12 pounds in all, and at least 2+ of those pounds are him. He’s still a tiny mite, so he’s going to definitely be cooking for a while longer!  During the ultrasound, he was head down, but we all know that can change. He’s still got plenty of time left to move around as he pleases, and he is definitely a mover here lately. My ribs are taking a beating.

Other good news that came at the appointment was that I passed my sugar test! So glad I don’t have to do the 3 hour test! The first one was bad enough!

His nursery is coming right along, and I promise I’ll be sharing more about that coming up. I just need to get his daddy to do a few more things in there before I show you our “progress” photo. I don’t think it will even be “complete” before he arrives. I’m not giving up hope though! The curtains did get hung last night though.

Be back soon with other house updates and news!

Serving Up a Makeover

You know how sometimes you get gifts for your wedding or your birthday or for some other reason, and you think that it’s a good gift but doesn’t really fit your needs? I’ve had a tray floating around my house for the past three years, stuck in storage, and serving no purpose at all.

It was one of those black photo collage trays, and I’m the world’s worst person about printing photos. It just wasn’t my style, and it definitely wasn’t working for me. It was working against me. I was beginning to think I just needed to give it a new home, but then I had a great idea of what to do with it.

Give it a makeover. A coat of paint and some fabric and it was good as new!

Don’t worry….I used a mask when doing this project for those of you worried about baby.

I gave the tray a good spraying of primer before giving it a couple of coats of glossy white spray paint. After letting it dry in the blazing hot sun, I relocated it to the courtyard to finish the project.

To give you an idea of what it looked like before, you can look at the photo above.

To finish the project, I gathered my supplies. I actually had some fabric samples that have been sitting in a box for years. They were the perfect size to cut to fit. I ended up choosing the lighter colored fabric, but I could easily change it for whatever occasion was coming up.

Right now, there is a housewarming/baby shower planned to be happening in two weekends from now, so I thought the top fabric would fit perfectly with the blues, greens, and yellows.

I used the matte as my guide to cut my fabric. I cut it just a teeny tiny bit bigger than the matte, so the edges wouldn’t be shown through the glass. I then put the glass back in {clean}, laid my fabric flat, put the matte in behind it {for future use}, and attached the back.

Voila! The final product! A much better fit for me! An easy, quick project!

A Big Day of Celebration

On this day three years ago, I married my very best friend, and I love him more now than I did then. Our love has certainly grown over these past three years, and our lives have changed a lot since then.

I got a teaching job and finished my Master’s Degree. Colby became an Advanced EMT and went to more classes {near and far} than I could have ever imagined. We got a dog and bought a house.

Now, three years later to the date, we celebrated the coming of our first little bundle of joy with my first ever baby shower in my honor at school. Did I mention that we only have two days of school left?!?! Can you sing “School’s Out For Summer”? You know you sang that like Alice Cooper. If you didn’t, you should be ashamed.

Anyhow, the ladies of my grade level hosted an amazing shower that left me with a bundle of gifts that we are counting our blessings for. We are so thankful for so many people that have taken the time to make this baby transition as easy as possible.

The décor and food was way more than one would expect in the school library. The lovely ladies in my grade level can take all of the credit for that. Absolutely lovely and delicious!

And how fitting that my favorite flower was chosen to be a part of the décor as well!

Then, there was the cake….french vanilla…..and it was decadent. Super moist!

Thanks to everyone who made my day today! For a week with a rough start, this sure did turn it around!

10 Bits of Randomness

{One}

It’s finally set in that this baby is coming and is coming soon. We’re three months away! I can’t believe how quickly all of this has gone by. I’ve been busy planning out the nursery, getting things ordered, and making plenty of lists of all the things that need to be done in there before I’m fully satisfied.

The fabric for the curtains came this weekend, so now it’s up to me to hand them over for someone to make them for me. One step closer! My mom is ordering the crib this week, and I’m hoping for a sale to come up at PB Kids before I order the bedding. That might be like asking for a miracle!

{Two}

Zeb turned one! It seems like we were just getting picture of him and trying to decide which one we wanted. Of course, we pretty much knew he was the one for us right away. Sometimes he makes us question our sanity, but we love him anyway. Luckily, he’s slowly but surely getting better behaved. I just hope this is a trend that continues.

{Three}

Colby has been hard at work in the yard lately. That horrible stump is now gone thanks to Colby and one of our dear and generous friends. Colby’s new stump grinder is awesome! It’s easier to convince your wife that you need a stump grinder for the business when the big, ugly stump in the backyard can be made to disappear!

And the stump now….

Now, we just need to plant a tree and give some organization to the plants around it. I don’t know if we’ll ever get this giant flowerbed landscaped!

{Four}

Colby and a few friends around to help have been trying to get the posts ready for our new privacy fence! When that thing is done, I might be doing a little dance. For once, we’ll actually have some privacy and not be giving passers by the opportunity to sneak a peek inside our house from the street. Not to mention the fact that our neighbors will finally get some peace and quiet! Hallelujah!

{Five}

Colby also cut down the azaleas alongside the fence by the road, so our yard is kind of looking like a train wreck. Hopefully, the end is near and things will be better than ever! In the mean time, it may stress me out in this in-between stage.

{Six}

This week is Teacher Appreciation week. As a teacher, I can definitely say that it is a nice little pick-me-up when people just do something thoughtful to say thank-you for taking care of their children during the day and for teaching them and preparing them for the future. Don’t forget to thank your child’s teacher! A simple thank-you note does the trick!

I must give a big shout-out to our PTO and the 4th grade parents! Today, we had an awesome food spread of yummy finger foods….right up a teacher’s alley!

Yesterday, we got this bottle of smell-good soap.

We are certainly not complaining, and I must say that the consensus is the same for all of the teachers I’ve spoken to.

{Seven}

My first baby shower is this month! What?!?!?! I can’t believe it is already time for that. I totally can’t wait though! Showers just make it that much more real! Especially since he’ll actually have things at our house and in his room finally!

And we even had a baby gift surprise this week that totally made my day!

{Eight}

I had my first hydrangea bloom….little bitty or not…it still counts!

{Nine}

I have had a good run in this pregnancy so far, but I believe I’m finally entering the uncomfortable stage. Some days I feel great and could easily forget that the little guy is in there, but others like today really take a toll on me. The months of being semi-skinny are over, and the baby bump is making its appearance. No pictures….sorry. You’ll be lucky if you see too many of those. With the ever-growing baby bump, there comes the pains of stretching and making room for the little guy to hang out for another three months.

{Ten}

We have picked a name! And it is…..

Something I’m going to keep a secret until the very day he is born!

Since I haven’t got to share news about the little man in the way I planned thus far, I figured I could have some reign over that.

His initials, however, are LRL {first, middle, last}. 

Have fun guessing until then!