Gracie's Big Girl Room {the before}

February 17, 2015

Just about a year ago I had plans to update our daughter's room. She was only three when we turned the attic space into two bedrooms. At the time I was pregnant with my son and it was important to me for her to have a space all her own. All I kept thinking in my head was that I didn't want the room to be pink. I knew I wanted it to have pink accents, but as far as the walls.... NO pink, NO way!!
I was excited to put her room together and I thought it was the perfect space... right up until Miss Gracie turned six with opinions and tastes all her own, and laundry baskets full of clothes screaming for a new home!!
Well guess what.... She wants pink. Yup, pink walls, pink bedding, pink accents. You name it, she wants it pink. I have been dreading this day for a while now, but I knew it was coming. Then I started thinking about it and it is her room after all and I do want her to enjoy "her" space, but that doesn't mean I can't have my cake and eat it to!! So I made her a deal. She could have her pink room as long as I could pick the paint color. I decided to create an inspiration board for her so she could see how all the pieces would come together. I tried bribing a gray focal wall into the deal but she wasn't having it. So I will have to incorporate the gray accents in somewhere else, but for now here is the inspiration for the "pink" makeover.
 
 
Since the walls will be pink I plan on toning it down with gold and mint accents. I adore the gray accent wall but again, that was a big fat NO!!
 So needless to day, the room was painted pink this past weekend (on Valentine's night no less) and her pink bedding arrived as well. I have to admit I am really enjoying planning this makeover with her. She is picking out her art work for her new gallery wall and we are trying to find a mirror for over her new, vintage dresser updated and restored by yours truly. The gallery wall is honestly the hardest part. I also updated her reading nook and did away with the desk that she had. I thought the desk would be perfect for homework and drawing, but that all just seems to happen in the kitchen and no where else! Before I go I want to share some pictures of her room before this pink makeover that's happening.... Oh and yes, this little project pink is what has been keeping me from sharing photos of our updated master bedroom.... anything for my little girl! I just hope this means she will start sleeping in her bed all night every night!! Ha! wishful thinking!!
 
Gracie's Room ~ BEFORE
 
 





 
Bye ,Bye neutral blue big girl room!!
Stay tuned for the pink reveal coming soon!!
 
Linking up with:

Craftberry Bush
 

Kitchen | Living | Dining Update {inspiration board}

February 13, 2015

Every two years or so I get the itch to change things up. We did a major refresh to our living and dining room just about two years ago. If you missed that post you can find it here. While the change was great and I was so excited it have a fresh new space, I'm ready once again to change things up and this time I am hoping it will last more than two years, but you just never know.... Below is a picture of our living room and how it looked this pass fall. While I love our Pottery Barn sectional and rug I'm looking to lighten up the walls and finally get some new blinds and curtains. The rooms is cozy and fine to live in, but I really love the look of clean white walls. Although I'm loving the all white look and would love to have bead board on the walls throughout our house, right now it's not in the budget and having two young children, finding the time to relax is hard enough as it is. So for now we will just start by painting the walls and changing around the gallery wall for a more light and airy look.
 
 

Another major project that's been on the "to do" list is painting our kitchen cabinets. Right now our cabinets are an opal maple, but as you can see in the photo below, they clearly have a pink hue to them and I cringe every single time I look at them. This spring come hell or high water I vow that those pink cabinets will be a crisp white!!! I plan on painting them myself. I have done a ton of research and the most affordable way to do it is just to tackle it myself. Lets face it, our kitchen isn't huge so I'm hoping to have it done in one long weekend.
 
I also would like to remove the cabinets over the kitchen island and add some open shelving. Not sure how Mr. GB will feel about that, but I'm sure he will love the idea if he has nothing to do with having to deal with that project! It will be great because we will be able to add some much needed pendent lights over the island as well. And while I adore my stools from Restoration Hardware, they had to be replaced with a more "kid friendly" stool. More on that in another post!
As you may have already noticed, directly off our living and kitchen is our dining room, which also happens to be our main entry. I had a mud room bench and cubbies built in our office to house all our shoes, coats, hats, book bags and other everyday items I don't want in my dining room, but as life would have it, they just always seem to make it back into the dining room... On the table no less. There's not much updating is needed in the dining room other than open shelving, a rug, window treatments and adding some type of function to out teeny tiny entry wall. Again, that's  a whole other post!
So what I'm basically looking to do it bring all three space together as one. It does pretty much function as one space since it is an open concept area, but it doesn't represent itself that way due to the contrasting colors and lack of flow... I decided to put together and inspiration board of what I am looking for within these three spaces. Now I may not get this exact look, but it is what I'm drawn to right now and will serve as a starting point for the projects I have planned. I will be tackling the dining room first and then the living room and finally the kitchen.
 
 
So loving the idea of "white everything" but really not sure I'm ready to commit to a life of white, but I will start with painting the cabinets White Dove by Benjamin Moore and go from there.
I will be using Horizon by Benjamin Moore,
 the same paint color I used when I repainted our dining room a few months back, for our living room. It's a nice light gray that looks blue depending on the lighting but looks almost white in some light as well....
I'm looking forward to taking this on and I hope you will follow along with me!! To see what I'm up to in between posts, you can follow me on Instagram and see what inspires me daily on Pinterest!!
Thanks for stopping by!!
 

Glitter Heart Necklace DIY {part two ~ the packaging}

February 12, 2015

Hi friends!!
As promised I'm back today with Part Two of my DIY Glitter Heart Necklace for Valentine's Day. If you missed Part One you can find it here.
These hearts came out so cute and using the hot glue really made them super sturdy!! One thing I do recommend is tying three or four knots when making the necklaces. The bead landing is very thin and I noticed a few of the necklaces did come undone, but adding a few extra little knots did the trick.
Today I'm sharing what I used to package the necklaces. I thought of using the little brown jewelry boxes you find at Michael's, but I needed twenty-two and at 99 cents each that really wasn't the most affordable option, again, these necklaces are being used for Valentines and I'm sure the first graders these are going to won't care much about the packaging, but the idea would be super cute for party favors!!! However, I still wanted the packaging to be cute. So I came up with something that was super affordable and really made the most sense. I decided to go with mini paper sacks. I only needed twenty-two and they come twenty-five in a bag, but I grabbed two bags in case of writing mistakes, and one bag was only $2.99, plus I had a 20% off coupon, so it worked out perfectly and much cheaper than the boxes.
 

 
I also purchased some glitter washi tape to seal the bags closed. It was perfect and the glitter made them look extra fancy!
 

 
The bags really were the perfect size for the necklaces.
I had Gracie write all the names on the front using a Neon Pink Sharpie!!
Once the names were on, we carefully slipped the necklaces into the bags and sealed them with the glitter washi tape!! Super simple and I'm so please with how they turned out!!
 


How easy is that??
This little craft took some extra time but in the end it was worth it!!
Hope you all enjoyed this!
Have a fabulous Valentine's Day!!
 
 


Glitter Heart Necklace DIY {part one ~ the necklace}

February 8, 2015

It's coming close to that time of year!! Love is in the air and Valentine's Day is drawing near. It seems this holiday could very well be the single most over rated holiday of the year, yet still in love with every part!! No pun intended LOL!! When I was a little girl the extent of handing out Valentine's to class mates was simply signing my name to the back of a flimsy paper card with a chosen theme... Through the years the idea of sending a "Valentine" has become the mother of all DIY activities, and yes I have fallen... Hard. There are some really super cute ideas out there and having Pinterest makes it so much easier...well, harder if you look at it only because there are just so many adorable ideas!! What is a mother to do??!!
Fortunately, my daughters school makes it a tad simpler for us mommy's & daddy's, or so it would seem. The children are only allowed to bring in a non-food item to share as a Valentine and there must be one for every class mate... Ok great so where to begin?? If you missed last years DIY non-food Valentine you can find it here. Now, on to this years, which is now my favorite and easier than I thought it was going to be. I found this idea
here, but tweaked it just a bit!!
 

 
Ok, not only are these adorable, but they are super simple. They only thing I suggest is to get started a few days before if you plan on using them as Valentine's as I am here.
 
Supplies:
 
Creatology Foam Stickers
I used these
 
 
 
 
*If you don't have a hot glue gun on hand you can still use the sticker
to hold the bead landing in place, but for best (and most durable) results
using the hot glue gun is best!*
 
 
 
 
 
Instructions:
 
1. You will need two foam heart stickers of the same size. Lay one down face up so the sticker part is on the bottom. This is important because you will be using the white sticker part to have your child write his/her Valentine message.
 
2. Cut your bead landing string the length you need. Be sure it's long enough to tie a knot and still be able to place over your head.
 
3. Remove the sticker part from your other heart. This is where I used hot clue gun to secure the bead landing string to the bottom heart. Place the heart sticker directly over the bottom heart to secure bead landing in place.
 
4. Before turning the hearts over to have your child write his/her Valentine message with the sharpie pen, be sure the glue has dried. If you didn't use the hot glue still give the stickers a chance to ad hear and put lots of pressure to be sure bead landing is secure.
 
5. Once all your hearts have messages on them, it's time to glitter them up!!
Apply a good amount of the glittering glue and then add the color glitter of your choice. Let the glue and glitter dry completely. At least a few hours, especially if your putting them in a box, which I will be doing and showing you how we decorated the box in part two!!
 
Stay tuned!!



Changing Tastes {my design style}

February 4, 2015

It's amazing how something you loved two short years ago and had to have suddenly isn't of interest any longer. Now, I'm not talking about how I feel about my hubby by any means because Mr. GB is the best and wouldn't trade him for the world! What I'm referring to here my friends is design style. My tastes have evolved so much and I've learned not to listen to what "experts" say or what others say is right or wrong. I've learned to go with what I like and move from there. For example, ever since I was a little girl I have always loved chalkboards. I loved writing on them and I loved being able to erase and change my mind, not to mention black is my favorite color! So I decided on day to make the side of my large empty pantry cabinet wall a chalkboard and wow the flack I got... I had this one telling me, "Oh no it's just too messy, there will be chalk all over your house!" and my hubby saying "But what if we sell the house!!??" And others just asking me the simple question "Why!!??" Why you ask??? Uhmmm..... maybe because I never followed through on living out my childhood dream of being a teacher, or maybe just because I like it!! And now when people come over and see a chalkboard in every room in our home they just get the fact that I love chalkboards and probably will forever!!
No one has the right to come into your home and tell you that you can't do this or you can't do that! Unless you rent which is a totally different post!!
Your home is your castle and should be a reflection of you and how your home needs to work (and look) best for  you and your family.
People ask me all the time where I "learned" to decorate. Well, it's quite simple really. Over the years and even as a young adult far before I was married with kids, I would collect magazine clippings and read decorating books. When I would go over to people's houses I would actually take note of what I liked about it, how it made me feel and I would put it in my "someday" binder. It was pretty much Pinterest in a binder!! I still do this to this very day, though a camera phone makes it much easier!!
Pinterest is obviously my best friend when it comes to my décor style and how I found it. I didn't always know exactly what I wanted or what I could do. So having Pinterest to fall back on really and truly helped me mold how I want my home to look and feel.
Although Pinterest is a phenomenal tool and I don't really know what I would do without it, you must understand that it's not "Pinterest" that's responsible for helping my design style evolve, but it's actually the people behind the pins! It's the designers and bloggers that really make Pinterest what it is. This fact really does go overlooked which is very sad because if people actually took a moment to click on the link (and hopefully the correct link) they would find the most amazingly talented people behind all these great ideas!! I have over 60,000 pins!!! I know crazy, but I was one of the very first to jump on the Pinterest ban wagon more than four years ago!!
That being said, I did a ton of research to find exactly what I was looking for and who was responsible for such style and décor ideas.
I have a handful of bloggers and designers that I follow faithfully! Pretty much on a daily basis. They are all different and amazing in their own way and that's what I love about them. So if you have ever wondered what my "design style" is you can find a touch if it from the following blogger/designers. Ok, so it's more than a handful, but I just love them all!!
 
 
grand design co.
 
 
chip & Joanna gaines

milk and honey home

jill hinson interiors

holly mathis


house seven

jenna sue design

my sweet savannah
I find décor inspiration everywhere!! I love walking into others homes and seeing how they live and how they decorate! I also find daily inspiration from Instagram which I find myself on more and more!! It's great because it's the "behind the scenes" of bloggers, friends and family and what they are doing on a daily basis!! So much fun!!
So I guess if someone were to ask me my design style right this very moment I guess my answer would be....
A little bit new.... a little bit old... a little bit county... a little bit rock and roll and somewhere in between!!
 


Happy February {free printable}

February 1, 2015

Happy February friends!!
Hope everyone is staying warm up here in the northeast!! It's been bitterly cold and the snow has been falling with more expected tonight!!
Although it may seem like winter is the never ending season, it is moving along!! Today we welcome a new month and to celebrate I'm sharing a free printable with you!! If you haven't checked out Rhonna Designs you must!! So much fun creating fun and inspiring prints to share!! I created the printable I'm sharing with you today using the rhonna designs app and I so pleased with how it turned out!!
 
 
I love the neutral colors!! Perfect to display anywhere!!
To enjoy and print this out yourself just right click and save to your computer! Hope you enjoy it!!
If you follow me on IG you already know about my own
#stopstartingover get healthy and fit journey! I will be blogging about my progress, meal plans and workouts this month so stay tuned!!
To see what I'm up to when I'm not blogging
you can find me on social media!!
 
 
Have a fabulous February!!