front door facelift

I have had the same wreath on my front door for about 2 years now.  I bought a grapevine wreath last February to make a Spring wreath, but I never got around to making it.  I couldn't really find a cute idea.  I recently found this wreath on Pinterest and I just knew it would look great on my front door!!

Here's what you'll need......

 {paintbrush, glue gun, wire, wire cutter}

 {craft paint, ribbon, wooden numbers (house numbers)}

 {5 big flowers, grapevine wreath}

There is no need for me to even type out directions. This was probably the easiest craft I have ever done!!

I just love the way it looks on my black door.  

And the great thing is that is only cost $26 to make.  Everything was half price at Hobby Lobby!!

spring?

The last day of winter was sunny skies and 70 degrees.

And now this....

A little ironic don't ya think??

wall of fame

No more big blank wall in my hall!! Yay!!

My Dad helped me hang all these picture frames over a month ago, but I just finished filling them this weekend. I love how they turned out!

I can't wait to fill all these frames with our children someday!! For now I'll have pictures of all our sweet nieces and nephew, my puppy, and my hubby!!

project peeks

I've had so much fun decorating my house lately. I feel like everything is really starting to come together. I have been working on some projects around the house for the past couple of weeks, but I can't seem to finish one before I start the next.

Here are a few peeks of my projects that I hope to have finished by the end of the week.

I'm going to hopefully post pictures of the final products this weekend, but I'm not making any promises!!

bathroom curtain

My Mom put a certifcate in my stocking that said....

"Good for one custom green & brown valence"

Made by Mom & Installed by Dad

I cashed in my certificate and here's what I got.....

Thanks Mom for the cute valence! I love i!!

my new kitchen

Let me remind you what it looked like before....

And here is how my kitchen looks now!!

I'm just now getting around to posting pictures because we just officially finished it last night. We decided to cut costs and save our backsplash. We didn't realize that the granite was a little shorter than the formica that we had, so when the granite guys were all done there was a small gap between the tile and the granite.

(If you click on the picture you can see it better.)

So last night, with the help of my Dad, we cut some small tile, filled in the small spaces, and caulked it to make it look like it was all part of the plan. Here is how it looks now.

While I'm showing you pictures of our new countertops, I thought I would give you a little tour of our kitchen.

This is the view from our living room.

I know I've already shown you my office space, but I thought I would show you again because I'm kind of obsessed with it. It's where I'm blogging right now!! The door goes into our laundry room.

Here's our laundry room.

Here's our eating area and the door goes out to our back patio.

I can't show this picture of our kitchen table without showing you a picture of what our kitchen table looked like before.

Mom found this table at a garage sale for about $20 or 30. It was ugly green and only had 5 chairs, but we saw potential in it. Mom painted it black for me and then we went to Canton and found a bench for $40, that was originally marked $120. Score!!!

I am so glad to have my kitchen all put back together. Maybe I'll be able to talk my husband into that Stainless Steel oven and microwave sooner than later so we can really be done with remodeling the kitchen!!

(Matty, if you are reading this.....hint hint, babe)

Oh and for those of you wondering how we got locked out of house last night. Here's the story in a nutshell.....

We decided to take a break from the tile work and go get dinner with my Dad.

Matt closed the garage door and ran out. We both realized that we didn't have our keys. We went and ate, hoping we had left a door unlocked. We came back home to discover no doors were unlocked. Our only spare key was in Rockwall with my Mom where she was eating dinner with friends. So we had to wait until she got home to get back in our house, We had enough time to watch a movie with my Dad at my parents house. My Mom finally got home around 10pm. So needless to say, we will be getting a couple more spare keys!!

office space

We have an extra bedroom in our house that is supposed to serve as our "office", but I just hate being in there. It's the only unfinished/not decorated room in our house. I have no desire to finish it because someday it's going to have to be a nursery. (Not any time soon though, so don't get your hopes up!) So this past week I have been working on my new office space in the corner of my kitchen.

Here is what I started with....

A little desk that I got at a garage sale two summers ago for $2...

That was apparently a liquor cabinet because we unscrewed these off the side.

(I had been using it as a desk before I married Matt and the labels were all turned around. We didn't discover it was a liquor cabinet until the week!!)

After completely taking it apart.....

....sanding it....

......two coats of red paint.....

......two coats of black paint....

.....a little bit more sanding so the red would show through...

.....and some new decorations.

This is how my new office space turned out!!

I wanted the red paint to show through a little bit more, but hopefully it will in the future with some normal wear and tear. I also changed the hardware from the ugly gold handle to one that matches the hardware on my kitchen drawers.

Here's closer look at the new decor. The large picture frame was on clearance for $5 because the glass was cracked and there were some nicks on the side. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it, but my little decorator husband came up with the idea to put the L in it. The shelf was 50% off at Hobby Lobby and the lamp, chair and all the picture frames are old decorations I had in college. The bulletin board was also something I had in college, but it was green, so I just painted it black.

I just love my new office space!!

feeling crafty

Mom and I made this for my guest bathroom for under $10!

You know I love me some cheap decor!!!

kitchen CLOSED...

Why you ask??

Because my stove is no longer where it should be...

......my sink and countertops are no longer there.....

.....my sink is actually in the garage.....

.....my stove is in the corner and unplugged.....

.....my refrigerator is pulled out into the middle of my kitchen.....

.....my island countertop is gone.....

......there are countertops in my living room.....

......everything that used to be on my countertops

and in the cabinets is now in the hall closet.....

.....all my pots and pans and drawers are in the study......

.....everything under my sink is now in boxes....

That's why my kitchen is CLOSED!!!

before & after before the before & after

A while back I mention here, that I was teaching summer school and that my husband said we could get granite with the extra money. If you follow me on facebook or twitter, you have probably read that we are finally getting our granite countertops!! Yay!!

Before we get our new granite countertops put in, I thought I would show you what our kitchen looked like before we moved in and after we did a little bit of work. After we get our granite countertops put in, I'll show you the new before & after pictures!!!

Before:

After:

Since we've moved in, we've torn down the border, painted the walls a brighter red, added hardware to the cabinets and drawers, changed all the gold door knobs to brushed nickel, and bought a new stainless steel refrigerator and dishwasher. Hopefully in the near future we'll get a new stainless steel oven and microwave to have all matching appliances. But for now, we are doing granite countertops, so our matching appliances can wait!! Oh, and my parents gave Matt and I recessed lighting for our birthdays! You can't see it in the picture, but that is something else that we did. You know you are old when you get lights for your birthday!! Hah!

Check back next Wednesday to see the new before and after pictures of our kitchen!!