Three Year Houseaversary

Three years ago today, on Friday the Thirteenth, we were sixteen days from getting married and full of SO much excitement as we closed on our first home.  On that day, I had no idea all our house would "see."

This little house has been through a lot with us these last three years.  We moved in engaged and returned as husband & wife.

Not only has our little house endured countless cosmetic updates, but has survived my many DIY and Pinterest fails.

It housed us for two-thirds of O's Law School career, which we surely wouldn't have lived through in our tiny apartment.  It's seen me through job changes and tears over things that are out of my control.

This was Izzie's first yard, and Shelby's only home.

We've spent summer nights grilling out on the deck, drinking and laughing uncontrollably with amazing friends.

All of these things have made our little house a home.  Here's to many more years in our little ranch, filled with even more happiness, if that's even possible.

Pillow Talk

First, how did I not know I had today off until the end of last week?!  Love me a three day weekend!

OK! So, I mentioned a few weeks ago before my Holiday Hiatus that we purchased a new sofa as our Christmas  gift to each other, and that I was in search of less-ugly new pillows.

Well, I couldn't pull the trigger on the West Elm pillows I had been eyeing.  I was worried they were a little too modern for our house--just didn't fit with the rest of our decor.  Of course, buying those would give me a reason to update EVERYTHING to be a little more modern.  I'm sure O would have looooved that.  #not

Anyway, I ended up going with some pillows from Pottery Barn's Rustic Luxe collection.  That way, I was able to keep some of our existing items in the living room.

I love the trim on the cream pillow.  Great blend of textures--makes my little designers heart sing.

Such a huge improvement to the whole room.  You can check out what the living room used to look like here and here.

I could constantly redecorate every room in our house.  But then we'd have to file for bankruptcy.  I'll settle for a little redecorating every once in awhile ;)

Peel and Stick Tile Floor

I totally wanted to share the details of this project with y'all back when we updated the bathroom over Labor Day weekend--better late than never!  I wasn't the one who actually installed the new flooring, O was.  So I had to really ask him a lot of questions to get enough information to actually write a post!

From what I've been told, it really was an easy project.  Just a little time consuming.  For all of $35 we were able to cover up our old, ugly linoleum floor

With much more attractive resilient tile, with grout!  $35!!  You can't beat that in my book!

We started out by cleaning the existing floor really well and allowing it to dry.  O measured the room, and found the center to start with.  Peel the backing off the tile and stick it down and put spacers on each corner. Work your way out.  The only tricky part comes in when its time to cut the tile.

Measure & score on the back side of the tile before removing the paper backing.  Continue to score the back with a utility knife, and then snap it!

Continue peeling and sticking, cutting and snapping until you have covered all of the old flooring.  Then comes the grouting...

Which happened while I was at work one day and someone failed to take pictures of the progress!  Oh well {I failed to get a lot of details as a whole}  Remodelaholic had a great tutorial that explains the process start to finish!

This is the second bathroom where we've used the peel and stick tile with grout & both have held up great!  It really was a great option for updating the bathroom flooring without spending a fortune!

Do you have a favorite inexpensive update?!

Halloween Decor and a Festive Frame

How is it Monday already?!  It was another low key weekend here in Kentucky!  A lot of relaxing and I was able to finish start putting out our sparse halloween decor.

I had the metallic pumpkins left from last year to set out, as well as a few extras I scored from Hobby Lobby on clearance after Halloween a year ago!

I actually forgot that I purchased this great black and white chevron frame last year, and was SO EXCITED to find it in my Fall Decor box.  I decided to embellish it just a tad to make it a little more festive!

It is amazing what a few wooden letters and a little paint can do!

I think it'll be fun to change out year-to-year with a picture of the kids in their costumes.  And by kids, I mean the dogs.  Two possible contenders? A hot dog or shark.  Both might be in the mail already from Shutterfly...

Have y'all decorated for Halloween yet, or am I just late to the game?  I'm going to guess the latter.

Weekend Recap

Monday, already?!  Ugh.  Who on Earth decided it would be a good plan to work five days, and then take off two?  Terrible idea.  I liked last week better when I had a three day weekend.  I think Monday's are extra hard when you've had a fun weekend.  Let's take a minute to recap all the fun we had in the past 48 hours:

Saturday morning I got together with our Life Group girls to have a special breakfast for our sweet Rebecca on one of her last days of being pregnant.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this baby girl any minute!  I love any reason for all of us to get together.

And I LOVE breakfast food.  Our spread included breakfast casserole, fruit, and a quiche.  It was SO.GOOD.

And as if that wasn't enough fun, Abby and I ran up to Ikea Sunday afternoon.  This has been a much discussed trip to Ikea.  Months in the making.

We may have mentioned something about taking a U-Haul with us at one point, but the husbands quickly shut that down.  Which is a good thing, because I would have come home with this kitchen, more accessories for the new bathroom and all of page 136 in the 2014 catalog.  I did come home with a few fun accessories though!

We wrapped up the weekend grilling and enjoying the gorgeous weather.  It won't be long before it's dark at 5:00pm and too cold to sit outside on the deck {sad face}

What fun things did you do this weekend?!

Budget Master Bath Make-Over: After

Well we did it.  Three days, four colors, and miles of painters tape, but we finished our mini bathroom makeover.  Because the room is so small, it didn't take any time {silver lining?}.  But once I painted the walls "Toasty Grey," I just felt like it needed a little something extra.  I found tons of great ideas on Pinterest, but found inspiration right in front of me {literally}

Sooooo, we painted an accent wall with thick stripes {look familiar?  Oh hey, blog background!}  Curveball, I know.  Painting the stripes wasn't that bad.  The worst part was the measuring and taping around all of the fixtures.  I used Virginia at Live Love DIY's tips for measuring the wall and Megan at Honey We're Home's method of sealing and painting.  Both worked like a charm.  Crisp, evenly spaced, wide stripes.  And I LOVE it.  Just last week, I was explaining my hatred for our tiny master bathroom, and now it's easily my favorite room in our house!  Better yet? I came in under my self imposed budget.  A little paint goes a long way!

  

In addition to painting the walls and vanity, we replaced our dated medicine cabinet with a larger one, sans frame.  I envisioned a great decorative mirror like this in the bathroom, but we just couldn't give up the extra storage, so a new medicine cabinet it was.

I also picked up a few new accessories from HomeGoods and Target.

And one of the biggest changes, new floor!  Adios 1990's linoleum, hello clean tile.  This isn't just any tile.  It's peel-and-stick!  With grout!  {Thanks O!}  More on that later.

I can't get over how different this space is now.  SO much brighter than before, and the stripes create an optical illusion that makes the room feel wider and taller.  Mission accomplished.

Bathroom Inspiration

We're just getting started on our Mini Master Bath project.  And by "started" I mean O went to HoPo yesterday for paint.  Here's a few things I've been pinnin' as inspiration--I can only hope it turns out the way I'm picturing

1 - 2 - 3

It's such a small space, that I'm going for light, bright and monochromatic gray with silver and mercury glass accents.  I'm worried it may not be exciting enough, but we'll see! 

Budget Master Bath Make-Over: Before

Fact: We have the smallest master bathroom ever.  Another fact: I hate it.  Ok, I don't hate it.  But I don't love it.  It's one of the only rooms I haven't put a lot of attention into.  All thats about to change.

Here's what our master bathroom looked like on move-in day:

{the good} I've tried to make minor improvements here and there over the last two years.  Like replacing the light fixture

{the bad} Painting the vanity a dark espresso color adding new hardware.  Painting the vanity a super dark color just made the room feel *that much* smaller

And {the ugly} attempting to make that gold medicine cabinet a little more attractive by adding some silver rub 'n buff to the frame.  Major Pinterest fail.

Enough is enough.  This bathroom needs a little love, even if we are the only two people who ever see it!  I'm giving myself a $200 budget & a three day weekend for the whole shebang.

O's probably taking bets on how much I'll go over the budget, and how many additional days it'll take for me to wrap this up.  I do love a challenge ;)

Pssst!  Check out the finished bathroom here!

I have a thing for Bee's.

Those close to me already know this fun little tid-bit of information. It's true, I love bees. My sweet Nanny gave me the nickname of "Bee" as a toddler, because I was "busy as a bee." {Still accurate}

I have acquired quite the bee collection over the years.  Most of these items, if not all, were gifts from sweet friends and family members who know how close I was with my Nanny and how these little things help to keep her spirit alive.

Today marks seven years since my Nanny passed away, but I love to look around my home and see her everywhere, in the form of bees.