Ryans Room

This last weekend Ryan finally had time to work on his room. It was an awful shade of tan, that made it look so much smaller than it was.

He knew he wanted it be "masculine" and he had seen these shades of green/grey that he liked. So he put them against the wall with some art he planned on using. He finally decided on the color on the left called "Thunderhead"

He knew it would be too dark to do all four walls so he chose the lighter accent color too. Im not sure its name but it ended up being almost a grey white. I think it turned out great, and he seems to really love it!

 Ah, you can see here a perfect example of how guys are easily satisfied. He has neon green sheets, and no bed skirt. But hey all you do is sleep in it right? boys.

The Crepe Paper Rose Ball

On this Inspiration page, you will find me linking to some of my favorite posts. Some ideas will be big decorating projects, and some will small accents.  I hope that maybe some ideas I post can be an inspiration to you as well.


Lately I have been working on a smaller project called a Rose Ball. I loved the soft look of them and I plan to make a few. I found the tutorial Here at the House of Smith's blog. This blog has come to be one of my very favorites. I'm sure you will be seeing a lot of links to her blog, as well as a lot of her ideas around my house.

The Rose Ball has been so simple to make, yet a little time consuming. I love that it is made with something ordinary and easy to find like crepe paper. I cant wait to see what fun colors I can find. So far I have started out with white (since its my favorite color.) This is what my Rose Ball looks like so far...

I love that the roses don't have to be perfect, because no rose is.

Things you will need to make these:

• Crepe Paper
• Hot glue
• Styrofoam ball
• a lot of patience  :)

And that's it!!

Ryans Bathroom

I have come to learn that when a man sets out to do a project, he doesn't pace himself, or go one step at a time. When his mind is made up to do something, he will do whatever it takes to get ALL of it done. Last weekend Ryan was home and decided he would do some work on his bathroom which also happens to be the guest bathroom. The bathroom was a not-so-cute brown on the bottom half, and a pale yellow on the top half. I figured he would slap some paint up and call it good. Oh no. I was wrong. He started out by ripping out all the trim and base around the whole bathroom.



Under the trim was this interesting layer of blue with what looked like blue smears on it?



He then added bead board which already made a drastic difference. He sprayed the bead board white, and since he already had the sprayer out, why not go ahead and do the cabinet to?  He picked out a dark blue paint that could have looked good in another room... in another house. But in this room, and in this house it just didnt work.



Maybe it was because he was distracted?



So the next time he decided it was a good idea to start out with the sample sizes. On the second go around he picked out an amazing dusty grayish/blue to go above the bead board. And while he was at Home Depot, he just so happened to see some vinyl wood flooring on clearance. So hey why not slap down some flooring while your at it.




The floor before the vinyl was laid



So after a three day weekend and staying up until two in the morning, the bathroom was done. Well almost done.

Painting the Kitchen

Several days after we had been in the house we starting talking about painting the kitchen. The color that was in there was somewhere between a yellow and tan. We picked the color out with the intention to "someday" paint the kitchen. Well I couldnt stand knowing that this project was just waiting to be done. It felt like a big cloud hanging over my head. So late one sunday evening  I decided that "someday" was right now. So we stopped by and got a gallon of Behr Ultra paint - French Silver. I am so happy with the color that we picked. It makes our kitchen look so much more up-to-date and clean. What do you think?

The Kitchen Cabinets

The cabinets in the kitchen started out oak. They were nice cabinets but again it just wasnt "us". So we decided to paint them all white. This ended up being quite the project. The boys cleaned them, sanded, primed and painted. But we started noticing that after each coat of paint started to dry, this yellow stain would start appearing. So after two coats of primer and probably 6 coats of paint we decided to call it good. We will need to go back and touch up where the yellow is still barely visable but we are still happy with the overall look. Note to self: go ahead and splurge on the more expensive sealer/primer. It will be worth it in the end. :)

The RED wall

When we did one of our first walk-thru's the dining room wall caught my eye. It was covered in bead board (which I love!!) but it was also bright red. It wasnt a bad color, it just wasnt "me." It also had a lot of dings and holes so it was in desperate need of a little TLC. It didnt take long for us to decide that the bead board needed to go back to its original color. White.

We arent sure if we are going to keep it white, but for now it works. It has brightened up the dining room considerably, which is always a good thing.

Step 1: Living room

There were a few projects we decided to do before we moved everything in:

• Paint the ceilings
• Paint the living room
• Paint the kitchen cabinets

All of these projects would have otherwise meant a lot of furniture moving and a lot more masking. The boys sprayed the ceilings while I was at the other house finishing some last minute packing. But my mother in law and I painted the living room, and what a difference it made! We tried a few samples but as soon as we started painting this color on the walls I was in love!

You better believe that in a house with two boys, I had to fight for that color, but it was so worth it. The color is amazing, during the day with the sun it looks so bright and cheery. But during the evening it looks so much more grey, which is why I think the boys are starting to like it.

The color is Behr Plus Ozone from Home Depot.

Along came Ryan

Once upon a time, Ryan, (Evans older brother) came to us with a proposition. He had been wanting to buy a home for awhile but his loan qualification wasnt enough to get something decent. So he asked us if we would be interested in going in on a house together. We jumped at the opportunity because we knew that it would be such a good investment. We decided we would all live together in an apartment first, to see how we got along and save up money. This is when our wonderful cousin, who is a real estate agent, found an amazing deal for us. One of the ladies that she worked with was trying to rent out a house that was going to be going into forclosure. But with the mass amounts of forclosed homes, this one had been overlooked. We grabbed at the opportunity and moved into a 3 bedroom 2 bath home, rather than another tiny apartment.

We lived there for almost a year when we found our home. We went through all the usual hassel that comes with buying a home. The walk thru's in the pouring rain, getting our offers denied on houses we really liked,  digging up all of the neccesary paperwork etc. This house was no different. We put an offer in, and several months later we finally heard back. We then recieved the news that if we didnt act fast this house would go into forclosure. Which would mean that we would have to wait for the forclosure process to finish and then start all over. We scrambled to get all the paperwork turned in on time. We were told that we would be in the house by the end of the year. We were so excited! It just so happend that my husband would be getting a three day weekend for new years so we would be all hands on deck for moving day.

 Then we were told that the appraiser messed up. The underwriter wouldnt be able to get the paperwork done in time to finish by the end of the year. Not only were we bummed that we wouldnt get the house as soon as we wanted, that also meant that all our moving plans were going to change. Ryan was working out of town for the week, so it looked like we were going to be on our own. We would have to be moving at night after Evan got off work. We couldnt believe it!

Then a miracle happened. On December 30th at 10:30 a.m. we got the call. Our underwriter was able to get the paperwork done, and we needed to get down to the title office and get all the papers signed and turned in by noon. We all rushed down there, Ryan coming in from out of town, and signed until our hands were numb. That afternoon we got the keys.

So now the fun stuff really gets started. Now its time for paint, and decorating. And making this empty house our home.

First comes love, then comes a Marriage

Then there were two. After a century ahem, a year long engagement, on a hot September day, we were finally married.

We were so excited to start our lives together. To live the fairytale life and live happily every after. Happy we were but, a fairytale? Far from it. We started out in a tiny one bedroom apartment, with hand-me-down furniture and an empty fridge. My husband was working construction at the time, or at least attempting to, and work was scarce. There would be weeks in a row where he wouldnt have any work at all. Which, at first, was fun that he was able to stay home with me, that is until the paycheck came. hehe. We learned what it was like to live off frozen chicken and rice a roni.

Looking back Im thankful for those days, because I know that it stregthened our marriage. It strengthened our relationship with God and it helped us to grow up, fast. And we still love chicken and rice a roni!

And so it begins...

At first there was one. His name is Evan. We went to high school together and almost missed each other completely. Until the last month of our senior year. He felt pity for me as I was complaining about not having a date to my senior prom. (can you remember when that was the biggest thing in your life?!) So this shy, and oh so cute guy softly told me, "Ill take you to prom if you want." I almost said no seeing as how I hardly knew him, and didn't know if he would even enjoy such an event. But I am so glad I said YES!!!

From that night on we knew something was different, and we knew things were going to change.

 16 months later we were engaged.