Pinterest Monday

By Teresa Sutton /

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I know, whatever could my new series be about? I really should come up with some super clever series name, but we all know I’m a lazy blogger, so I’m not going to worry about it. Feel free to throw some out there

So, each Monday (or most Mondays ), I’m going to pick my three favorite pins of the week and my 1 least favorite pin. I was always told to say 3 nice things to every 1 not-so-nice thing. I’ve always wondered… why say that 1 not-so-nice thing? Can’t we just say 3 nice things? Anyway, my least favorite pin is probably going to be something that doesn’t work as advertised.

Favorite Pins of the Week:
Via: The Rainbow Room Handmade by Clara Luna

Wouldn’t this be the cutest favor at a birthday party? They are melted crayons in silicone letters. My question is how many crayons does it take and how long do they take to dry? Because you’re going to need to use each mold more than once, ya know.

Via: Pepper Deisgn Blog

Dining Room

By Teresa Sutton /

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2 years ago at almost exactly this time, I was updating my Dining Room. It turned out pretty great:

I loved it… for a little while. Until I realized that I can not comfortably fit more than 6 people in that room. I definitely intend on hosting more than 6 people. Plus, it’s pretty dark with that one window. So for the past 2 years, I’ve been brainstorming and figuring out what it would take to make our living room our dining room. This room has molds before but look at now! The room looks so clean and mold-free! Special thanks to a reliable mold removal that got rid all the molds of this room.

Our living room is the first room you see when you walk in the house and since we’ve moved in, it’s been the spare furniture room. I plan to install wall panels from IPSL on this room, check out these IPSL discount codes I found. Furnished with our leftovers that we didn’t know what to do with. The room is 19×13, so it’s huge and can seat way more than 6 people. Negatives: it doesn’t have an overhead light, it has carpet (so does the dining room) and it’s not right next to the kitchen. The kitchen is on the other side of that right wall. But it’s very close and accessible from both doors to the room, which helps with flow.

So here’s the BIG to do list:

1. Scrap ceilings – CHECK! John and I have tackled that this week.
2. Install light fixture. My Dad and John are wiring it up this week.
3. Paint ceilings, walls and molding.
4. Make dining room table. – CHECK! John made me my dining room table for my birthday and it’s AMAZING. It’s so beautiful. I can’t wait to show you. I was supposed to show you that today but right now it is sitting in the dining room, covered with a drop cloth and then about 10 pounds of ceiling popcorn on top.
5. Purchase Buffet. – CHECK! I bought a beautiful, antique buffet from Craigslist for $100. Score!
6. Purchase dining room chairs.  and probably refinish because the budget does not allow for new dining room chairs.

I have a party at my house on October 26th, so that all needs to be done before then. Plus we’re converting the current dining room back into a regular room. For the time being, we’re going to use it as a playroom for Jack. So I need to paint in there as well.

I actually really like that we have a deadline. I mean, because we’ve been so reliable lately about getting things done… 

We experienced water damaged caused by flood when a natural disaster occurred. The water inside the home can cause damage to your belongings, including chairs, tables, clothes, shoes, photo albums, and all the other important items you own. Trying to get rid of all the water by yourself could turn into a tiring and time-consuming task. We hired a professional water damage restoration company to assist with extracting all the water from our property.

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Jack was 7 months old yesterday. Crazy! Even crazier is that I’m just now posting his nursery reveal. You know what’s harder than blogging as a new Mom… blogging about a nursery reveal as a new Mom. Here’s the rub: when I have time to take pictures of the nursery was when Jack is taking a nap… but guess where I can’t go when Jack is taking a nap??? The nursery. So to all you preggo Mommy bloggers (ahem, Erin), take the pictures of your nursery before your sweet one arrives.

Now on to the main event…

Ta da!

Have you ever searched for gender neutral nurseries on Pinterest? No? Well let me tell you, there’s not much there. Beige, beige and more beige. Now I don’t have anything against beige (ok, yes I do), but I didn’t want a tan, cream, white or grey nursery. I wanted color. I wanted sweet baby colors. I did this room backwards. Normally, I start with a fabric and pull the colors from it. This time I started with the colors that I loved and found a fabric to match (the Lord was smiling on me). I wanted the theme to be: soft, calming, vintage-y (yes that’s a word).  I went with pale green walls and a watery blue ceiling. Neither of those colors are exclusively boy or girl. Also, I knew that it would be easy to add pink or darker blue accents after the baby arrived.

I fell in love with the tree wall decal and absolutely drove the girl from Modern Wall Decals on Etsy crazy in customizing it (give her some love). She made it bigger, gave me 2 owls, and added a new branch that she didn’t even sell before. I’m not getting anything for mentioning her, she was just really great. We hired affordable and reputable foundation contractors to repair some cracks in this room.

 

I don’t know why the owl in the middle looks like the wall is a different color. It’s not. The pale green is the right color.

I love my bumper and crib set. It’s from Pottery Barn. It’s classic and simple and just exactly what I wanted. The mobile is a vintage mobile of the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” that my Mom found on ebay. She also found this sweet little lamp and the little duck that I use to coral things on the changing table:

The lamp was a little prophetic since it’s Jack and Jill. How cool is it that the well is a nightlight?

I love this bookshelf. There’s an awkward space in this room between the door and the closest. This is not a big room and I didn’t want to loose the space. I found these corner shelves at Home Depot (here). Stacked together, they make a perfect bookshelf.

Don’t you love that I don’t have a picture in that frame? See, the blog is not the only thing that I’ve neglected over the past 7 months.

That’s it! I love they way the nursery turned out. It’s peaceful and so babyish. They only get to have a nursery once, so why not make it completely baby specific? Plus this way, I can put the next little one in here and move Jack to a big boy’s room at the right time.

What do you think?

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By Teresa Sutton /

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I can honestly tell you that I didn’t think I would ever write another blog post… and I was fine with it. For 5 of the past 6 months, I didn’t miss it. I was burnt out. But many times, I’ve found myself wondering if y’all were still out there. I wondered what y’all were doing and about your projects and who’s preggo and who’s getting married. I didn’t miss my blog as much, but I missed yours. Then, in the past two weeks, I’ve found myself subconsciously writing blog posts in my head and wanting to show you what we’re working on. So I’m back, sorta kinda…

At the moment, it feels easier to tell you about the things that I don’t know, like…

• I don’t know how often I’ll post. My goal is once a week, but definitely not as often as I was before. Hopefully, limiting the posts will allow me to keep this as a fun hobby and keep quality posts. I do not have enough time or material to do quality posts three times a week.
• I don’t know what I’ll write about. It could be the same or Life on Mars with recipes, projects, room reveals and DIY. But buyer beware, it could also be a lot of ADORABLE baby pics and all that comes with it (diapers, baby food, the color of his last spitup… it’s all fair game).

See? I just can’t help myself.

• I don’t know what the future of this blog looks like in the immediate or long-term. I’m not putting pressure on myself with any expectations.
• and I usually don’t know what day of the week it is.

Here’s what I do know…

• I know my priorities. I am a full-time wife and mother, part-time, at-home employee and sometime blogger. I intend to remember that this time around. I got things a little backwards before.
• I know I am doing what I have always been called to do. Being a mother just fits. I’ve never been happier, more content and more at peace with my day-to-day life.

So, that’s basically where we are and what’s up. Here’s what I know is coming up on the blog in the next few weeks… The nursery reveal! How many times have I promised that? Well, it’s actually finished and that only happened last week even though Jack is almost 6 months old. I am going to be 31 in a couple of weeks and I’m not overly excited about it. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve come to terms with being 30, so 31 is a real wake-up call. But with birthdays comes presents and I’m pumped about two of my presents. I’ll tell you more soon.

I hope you’re still out there. What’s new? What have I missed in your life? Fill me in…

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By Teresa Sutton /

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Sorry for the long vacation. We had a pretty major change of plans and our little bundle of joy made his (yes, I was right all along and we had a perfect little boy) appearance 3 weeks early. So I’ve been very happily distracted from anything non-baby related this week with this adorable little face:

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By Teresa Sutton /

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So remember how I’ve been promising preggo pictures? Remember how I was going to take bi-weekly pictures of the entire pregnancy? Remember how I haven’t taken a picture of myself since week 17? Yeah, I remember that too. It was a nice goal. It didn’t happen.

These goals are not like that goal in that I actually intend to follow through on them.

1. NURSERY!

This is top goal because there’s this looming deadline to have it finished. Technically, that deadline is February 18th. However, since I’d really rather not be hanging the curtains as I go into labor, I plan on having this finished by January 31st. The picture above is the BEFORE picture. it doesn’t look like this right now. It’s well on it’s way to being adorable. Here’s where we stand right now:

• Remove painted wallpaper boarder and fix walls
• Paint ceiling, walls, trim and closet doors
• Add bookshelf, crib, dresser and glider
• Reupholster ottoman
• Add tree/branch/animal decals
• Replace ceiling fan
• Hang curtains
• Hang pictures
• Make cross-stich sampler (this will make sense later, I promise)

I don’t even have a picture of the entryway, but I really hate the color. Plus, I’m hoping to look under the nasty carpet and reveal beautiful hardwood treads… then I’ll wake up from my fantasy.

3. Living Room to Dining Room Transition

This is the second major goal of the year. I will be moving the Dining Room into the current Living Room:

It’s bigger, it’s brighter and it’s the first room you see in our house, so I don’t want it to be wasted space. We’re going to make the current dining room into a downstairs play/crafting area.

This will be a gradual project. First up… popcorn removal and getting an electrician from Kaneohe electrician to install an overhead light. The full list is:

• Popcorn removal
• Add overhead lighting
• Replace dining room table
• Replace carpet with hardwoods
• Add chunkier crown molding
• Paint walls, ceiling, and trim
• Add buffet

4. Outside

Our roof built by a professional roofer on Hawaii-Roofing.com that has a quality roof and service.

There are some big projects I’d like to tackle outside, but I’d be happy if I just painted the shutters and changed out some plants.

We also resurfaced our pool from swimming pool resurfacing company that specializes in pool resurfacing, pool repair, resurfacing of pool decks.

I know, I know… you’re thinking,” Only 4 projects, are you sick or something? You completed 6 rooms this year!” Not exactly, I’m pregnant and figure life is going to be pretty interesting over the next 12 months and I might want to give myself a little leeway. With that said, I am not going to be posting 3 times a week for the near future. I will be posting 1-2 times. I love my blog and I don’t want it to become a burden so that I just quit. Plus, I have priorities like my new family, my job and retaining my sanity (hopefully), so those will take precedence.

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By Teresa Sutton /

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OK, I know. I feel off the face of the earth again and I’m probably going to do it again in the next few weeks. However, I wanted to get this post in before I disappear into babyhood.

In November, I was contacted to review Mr. Beams LED Wireless Motion Sensing Lights. Long name for a nifty little product. We didn’t need it under the counters (John was planning on doing a big under cabinet lighting project as part of my Christmas project… more on that in a later post). However, we had the darkest pantry… I’m talking you can’t see anything in there.

Seriously, I’ve been known to pull out a flashlight to look around in there. So when I had the change to review these lights, I jumped at it.

They were SUPER easy to install (maybe 5 minutes) and made an immediately difference:

(Please don’t judge the state of my pantry. It’s crazy messy and on my to-do list for this year. We’ll call these real life pictures.)

Now, before I reviewed these, I wanted to live with them for a bit. I had bought some inexpensive wireless lights a few months back and they died in about 3 weeks. Now, to be honest, I never remembered to turn them off, but still. Not an effective solution.

So when I saw that these were motion sensing, I thought it might be the solution. They are awesome! They immediately come on when I open the pantry and turn off after 20 seconds of no motion. They have been one of my favorite practical solutions for the kitchen and I highly recommend them. Amazon actually has them on sale right now for $24 for 2, so if you have a couple of dark spots in your house, you should definitely look into these!

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By Teresa Sutton /

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So in 2012, I set three types of goals for myself: Blog, Personal and Home. So I’m going to do the same thing for 2013. But first, let’s check in on the 2012 goals and see how I measured up.

BLOG Resolutions for 2012:

1. Hit 350 followers by my 1 year blogiversary in April. – Check!
2. Start having guest bloggers – Check… kinda. I had a few and then stopped.
3. Hit 500 followers by 2013. – Check! Currently sitting at 577 Feedburner subscribers, 60 Linky Followers and 226 Facebook likes.
4. Most importantly, I’d like to stop comparing my blog to other blogs. I want this to be a creative outlet for me, not a job. – Yeah, this one’s a work in progress.

Personal Resolutions for 2012:

1. Stop biting my nails. – Check! I’ve now gone 2 1/2 months without biting. Yay!

Home Resolutions for 2013:

1. Rooms I’d like to update:
   • Master Bedroom
   • Guest Room
   • Entry way

We didn’t get the Entryway, but we did add the Mudroom (again), finished the Kitchen, Guest Bath, Master Bath and started on the Nursery.

1. We have a lot of work to do outside including but not limited to:
   • removing some trees in the backyard – I talked John out of this one for now
   • replacing our fence – Check!
   • adding some privacy trees – nope, that’s back on the list for this year
   • adding a garden – Ditto.
   • painting the shutters – Ditto.
   • adding 2 columns to the front of the house – Check!
   • painting the front door (again) – nope
   • reseeding the lawn (again) – Check!

Overall, I am totally happy with what we accomplished in 2012! It was a busy year, but my house is a million times more in order than it was in 2011. Almost the whole downstairs is done. We have the Living Room left and that’s definitely on the list for this year, along with the Entry way.

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By Teresa Sutton /

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Sorry for the long hiatus. My attention hasn’t really been on blogging or projects lately and I hate posting “filler,” if you know what I mean.

Can you believe it’s the end of 2012? I feel like I was just writing this post for 2011 (check it out HERE if you’re interested).

I love this valance. It pulled the entire room together (see the room down on #6). For those of you who are wondering, the valance has stayed in place this time.

This is one of those projects that I kind of made up as I went along and it worked out! For the record, the Guest Bedroom Makeover is probably #11 on my list and should you want to check it out, you can do that HERE.

Make sure your guest bedroom, sofas, and curtains are clean and not infested with bed bugs. If you see a bed bugs lingering on your bed and sofas, call Buffalo Bed Bug Pest Control. It’s not your typical pest-control company. They are unique because they not only take care of pesty bed bugs but they also take care of other invasive insects such as cockroaches, ants, termites, and the list goes on and on.

It may not look like much to you, but this table has improved my life:

It provides a warmth and a “completeness” to this room that it was lacking before. Plus, now that I’m way preggo , the coffee table (and my drink) feels very far away when I’m curled up in that corner seat.

I picked this picture up from a flea market in Asheville over the summer.A little spray paint, a little silver leaf and a little glaze gave me this beautiful antiqued finish on the frame. Honestly, the picture looks so much better because the frame is pretty!

Don’t you love how much difference some paint can make? I mean really… that’s ALL that changed in this room. It’s a much brighter, happier place to wake up to and get ready in the morning.

Yeah, I’m basically the luckiest girl in the world. My husband is so incredible and I’m so blessed. He put so much work into this room and I LOVE it. We know that this is tiring work, you can call a remodeling company to do this for you. Spring Hill remodeling can help you turn a sketch or an idea into a whole new section of your home. It was important to me to have a pretty laundry room because that door at the end is our half bath and the only bathroom on the first floor, so all of our guests come through here. Now I don’t have to cringe when they walk through. (For more proof that my husband is pretty much incredible, see #2).

This was my favorite kind of project. Quick, simple, cheap and turned out great! I left this wreath on my door from May through November and just changed out the accessories.

It also doesn’t hurt that this is my most pinned, most viewed post ever with over 61,000 pageviews. That’s triple any other post. Crazy and thanks to everyone who pinned it!

This is another one of those before and after’s that are just amazing all because of some paint. I love this bathroom now. It just makes me happy, which is great since I’ll be using it A LOT more in the coming years.

Let’s just step back and remember where this kitchen started:

The picture on the left is our kitchen when we moved in. On the right is after removing upper cabinets and painting. We never changed the layout to save money and I’m so glad.

We also extended the space of our kitchen because it just has a small space so that I like to cook food with wide space. We contact a concrete demolition service for concrete removal.

By far, this kitchen makeover has made the biggest difference in the way I feel about my house. I love cooking in this kitchen. Plus, every time I wipe the counters, I remember what a gift and labor of love this was from my husband. He worked so hard and did such an incredible job. I am so grateful for him.

Is the deck starting to give you trouble? Decks are an integral part of the property and need to be well-maintained throughout the year. For those looking to fix potential cracks and/or damaged parts of the deck, it’s time to call in the deck repair pros.

So, the nursery isn’t finished and I don’t have any pictures to show you, but it’s coming along perfectly. I love that room. More than the project itself, this is my favorite project because what (or rather who) it represents. The Nursury represents all that is to come in 2013. 2012 has been an incredible year and I’m actually overwhelmed as I think of how much better 2013 will be. The Lord has so abundantly blessed me and He’s about to bless me in a completely new way.

I’ll be back in the New Year with regular posts and updates. I PROMISE I’ll bring you a bump picture, which hasn’t happened since 17 weeks (how is that 15 weeks ago???), a 2013 project list and regular updates. Have a wonderful, safe New Year!

Christmas

By Teresa Sutton /

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I know… where have I been? I don’t know… time is getting away from me. Christmas is busy around our family and at work and I just haven’t had time to craft, blog, take pictures, etc. My goal for the month is not to stress myself out with that stuff. I just want to enjoy this month, so I’m probably only going to be posting about once/week until after the new year.

Plus, I’m feeling a little uninspired and most of my craftiness is going into the nursery anyway. So since about half of you weren’t around this time last year, I thought I’d show you some of the crafting I did last year and claim it for this year too. Plus when I started looking back, I did enough crafting last year for both years.

By far, my favorite is my Vintage Ornament Wreath that I made with my Mom. She has had one of these wreaths for years and it’s always been my favorite decoration of hers and now I have one at my house. Check out the tutorial HERE.

Next is the least crafty but definitely a fun decoration. I used $2 worth of ribbons, 3M strips and mini-cloths pins to display my Christmas cards. I love to display the Christmas cards we receive but I never had a great way to do it before and I don’t have the wall space for one of those huge holders. This is perfect and doesn’t take up much wall space.

This is a “semi-homemade” craft. I bought a basic pinecone wreath at HomeDepot for $20, spray painted it silver and then coated it in glitter. I liked it so much that I left it up through Julylast year. #ChristmasinJuly I think I can get away with February since it’s very wintery, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a July decoration.

This hangs in my powder room and I always have a candle lit in there. I love how it sparkles in the candlelight. Check out the tutorial HERE (even though I basically told you how to do it).

This is a great decoration for a bookshelf or as “filler.” The only thing I wish I’d done differently is use chunkier letters and to put some kind of wooden piece on the back to act as a stand. I might add that this year. Maybe that can be my craftiness for the year? Pathetic, I know.

There you go! Hope you get a little inspiration out of my recycled Christmas crafts.