Rearranging some Rooms – Cuz We’re Random Like That

About once every 6 months or so I get the itch to rearrange furniture. Sometimes it’s just a little tweak, like moving our bed from one side of the room to the other. And other times, it’s a massive overhaul of multiple rooms, or all rooms…?, throughout our home. I have always been this way. I remember as a 10 year old BEGGING my parents to switch their dining room and living room. They never gave in. I just thought it would be fun to dine in the living room, people! Ah!

So now that I’m a big girl, living in a space of my own, I guess there’s nothing keeping me from doing something wild and crazy like that. And thankfully, my husband doesn’t mind helping me drag our furniture all around every couple months.

Right now we have a large family room (that we’re currently using as an office/family room/playroom) that has a pass-through to the kitchen as well as a large dining room and a large living room on the other side of the house. Since the day we moved in, it has not sat well with us to have two living areas. We just don’t like the redundancy, nor do we have enough furniture to fill two living areas.

We love the living room so much more for relaxing but whenever we entertain (with Dave’s family), everyone typically congregates in the family room because that’s what Dave’s family used to do (when his parents lived here) and since we’ve got a couch and chairs in there, that’s what naturally happens. My theory is that if the comfy furniture was all moved out of the family room and into the living room, guests would be “forced” into the living room.

And my Aunt Connie recently gave us a baby grand piano and I recently scored a large area rug on Rugsusa.com. So all these things factored together, and the other day I was shifting some furniture around and I thought…”Hey, what if I moved the large dining room table into the family room? and then used the formal living / dining rooms as a living / music room?” That would allow us to use the living room for lounging, the current dining room for the new larger piano and some seating (a.k.a. a music room) and the family room as the office/ informal dining room (because quite honestly, we don’t get too formal around here…).

And then I thought about it for a while longer and while sitting here at the computer in our office area inside the family room, I looked over at the built in bookshelves and thought “Man, they would be great as a built-in china cabinet” and considering we don’t have a china cabinet and that’s basically what has held me up from even using our china for the past 5+ years, I think this would be a fabulous idea to move our dining table over here.


Here are a couple inspirational images I’m going with for now:

We have a large window on the west wall of the now family room similar to this. We’d have a great view while dining in front of the window. It would definitely be a sunny cheerful dining area and it’s by far the largest room in the house so it would be terrific for holding large family gatherings like we often do.


I’d love to create an informal vintage industrial feel kind of like these next few photos:

source

source

source

I could even pull our wicker chairs back in from the mudroom and pair them with our dining table and possibly some new industrial chairs (?).

source

I’m not EXACTLY sure how all this is going to shake down. I admit this idea is half-baked. I love it and all, but I recently began doing a lot of in home daycare for family and friends so I feel the need more than ever for a family friendly living area for the kids to play. And someday I plan on homeschooling so I’m not 100% sold on this idea since I have been using the family room more casually and the living/dining rooms as more formal zones. I’m a bit on the fence. But what do you guys think?

Should I go for it? For now I think I should at least give it a try. We can always move the furniture back around again later if we don’t fall in love.

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 16 - Reclaimed Barnwood Picnic Table

A few weekends ago Dave took our two year old camping in his family's woods. I was a little apprehensive because I haven't heard of that many two year olds going camping. But I was looking forward to the alone time...so I let him go. Turns out he loves it.

We all went out there last Friday night for hot dogs and smores and he lead me down the trail to the campsite. What a BIG boy!

Dave took it upon himself to build a picnic table down there. After we had seen all kinds of reclaimed barnwood projects on Pinterest, he thought it would be a great idea to use some old lumber lying around the farm rather than buying new. 

He ended up building this reclaimed barnwood picnic table. One side rests on a stump and the other wraps around a tree trunk. He used another tree trunk for a bench. It's awesome. Check it out.

He also gathered some flat stones from his brother's recent basement project and made a fire ring.

What a little slice of heaven on earth!

 And a great place for father-son-grandson bonding...

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 15 - Organizing Erica's Linen Closet

We went to visit our friends, Jimmy & Erica, and their three adorable kids in Fort Wayne this weekend.

(the oldest two weren't in the photo...)

Jimmy just joined the National Guard so they had a combined Going Away party for Jimmy along with their daughter's 3rd Birthday party Saturday. Check out this amazing cake Erica made!

It was also really great for our little family to get away for a weekend. This is the first overnight trip we've made since before we moved 11 months ago. We had lots of quality family time and Levi was such a good little guy for our trip. Check out Levi imitating his Daddy warming his feet by the fire Saturday night...Melt my heart...

And the best part (in my mind) was that Sunday afternoon I got to help Erica re-organize her...get this: walk-in linen closet! I'm such a nerd...

Here are the before photos:

The top shelf holds lots of holiday / seasonal decor and the left side holds the family's towels, bedding, etc. The right side of the closet holds cleaners and extra toiletries.

After taking a quick peak at the closet after lunch Sunday, we headed out to her local Target store to grab some containers. Our goal was to spend as little as possible but still get quite a few containers and a good variety of sizes and make her space look amazing like all the linen closet photos I've gathered on Pinterest.  We also wanted to find some sort of hanging organizer to utilize the empty wall space on the wall opposite the doorway. (As a side note, I was also thrilled to learn that Erica's Target has a Starbucks inside - I miss Indy so much sometimes... ) 

We were probably in the store 20 minutes (and half of that was cuz I had to drool over all the Target merchandise and go to Starbucks). We grabbed 4 colorful containers in the dollar bin and then various sizes of clear Sterilite containers and a clearanced hanging organizer. Then we hurried back home and attempted to get this project done before all the kids woke up from their naps :) 

We pulled things out into the hallway and containerized as we went. Anything she hadn't used for a while or no longer loved went into the Goodwill pile and we also threw away any trash we came across (such as expired lotion or shopping bags and packaging, etc.). That whole process only took about an hour. And I was so into it I forgot to drink my pumpkin spice latte. Can you believe it?

I was so proud of Erica - she did a great job purging and organizing. We ended up with about two garbage bags of trash and two bags and a box of donations and a SUPER organized space (in under two hours!). All she needs to do now is grab her label maker and pop on some labels and keep up with the new system.

We ended up with one container on the top shelf holding kids' swimwear, swim diapers and a sleeping bag and two other containers holding Christmas decorations. The other side of the top shelf was for seasonal silk flower arrangements.

I sorted through the linens and grouped like items together, folding bath towels into thirds rather than halves so they wouldn't hang off the shelves and fall down when bumped. We grouped all the baby blankets and baby washcloths together in their respective containers. And I also grouped hand towels in a container. 

Sheets were piled together towards the back and pillowcases and throws were placed in the hanging organizer on the back wall (it looks a bit crooked in this photo because we needed another nail to hang it from on the top right corner). 

Toiletries were grouped into categories - hair care products in one basket, soaps and body washes in another, feminine products in another and hand soaps and air fresheners in another. First aid items were placed on the shelf above that.

Travel toiletries and cleaning products were placed in their own respective bins.

Christmas DVDs, party supplies and gift bags were put on the bottom right side.

Paper products were put underneath the toiletries. 

I am so thankful that Jimmy & Erica opened up their home to us this weekend, and that Erica even opened up her linen closet to me and let me help her re-organize it and share it on my blog! Not every friend would do that. I love you girl! Dave, Levi & I had a wonderful time with you guys. And you will all be in my prayers as Jimmy heads off to boot camp soon. :)

For more of the 31 Days of Pinterest Projects, just click over here.

Day 30 - Hobbies

Day 30 of the 31 Days to a Clutter Free Home Series  focuses on hobbies and how we spend our free time.

When you're growing up and people tell you, "You can do anything you want in life" they failed to mention that although you can do ANYTHING you want, you can't do EVERYTHING you want!

Over the past decade, Dave & I have both dabbled in a multitude of hobbies and have realized we just can't do it all. There are only so many hours in the week that we can devote to fun activities. In order to really enjoy something, it helps to have lots of practice, etc. and that only happens with time that you can commit to that activity.

Back when, I was extremely interested in scrapbooking.

Likewise, Dave loved playing paintball, hunting,

shooting, spelunking,



and restoring Jeeps. We loved throwing parties and playing games with friends.

In order to do all that, we had to keep tons of supplies on hand. Consequently, at least 1 room in our home was always filled with hobby paraphernalia. We began to realize that our home was just not big enough to hold all that stuff.  And then, once we had our first child, we also realized that we did not have enough time to pursue all those activities.

We also read the book His Needs, Her Needs by Willard F. Harley and we learned that it is also wise for a couple with young children or otherwise really busy schedules to make it a point to only do mutually agreed upon activities. If you only have, say, 10 spare hours a week for fun, it is wise to spend those  hours together doing something you both enjoy than to spend them separately, the husband off with the guys and the wife off with her gal pals. You need to spend time together to nurture your relationship and when you're both off doing your own thing you're actually growing apart. This is not to say that we can never pursue our individual passions again, but it is wise in busy seasons of life to put selfish things aside and spend quality time as a family.

Today I challenge you to look at how much free time you have. Are you spending it wisely? Are there hobbies that you like to do but they take you away from your family? Would you rather just part with that stuff and spend the time with your spouse and kids instead?

Our Baby's Nursery

We had our little man, Levi, last July. Just like any first time mama, I put tons and tons of thought into creating a cozy little space for our newborn. I wanted it to be absolutely perfect for him. We did not know until he was born that he was a boy, so we went with a neutral green and brown color scheme. We painted the walls a neutral color - Shoreline Haze by Valspar and laid down new beige carpeting.

We were blessed to receive a gently used crib and glider from our friends, the Smiths. It just so happened that the glider and ottoman were upholstered in a light green fabric that matched the curtain panels I had for the space perfectly.

My parents got us the crib bedding from Babies R Us, Kids Line Bunny Meadows. I also have other crib sheets that I swap out as needed that are plain green, yellow or polka dotted.

 

I looked into changing tables and dressers and decided that I just wanted to purchase a dresser and put a changing mat on top of it that way the dresser could be used when the he grew up in a big boy room and it would also eliminate the amount of furniture in the space. I scoured Craigslist for a few months and finally found a great 6 drawer dresser for only $20! Sure beats an $800 Pottery Barn one...haha! So I brought it home and refinished it out in our carport in the heat of the summer when I was 8 months pregnant. Click over here for the detailed story on how I turned this dresser:

Into this:

We keep cloth diapers and disposable diapers in the top two drawers of the dresser and Levi's clothes in the bottom 4 drawers. We repurposed a stainless steel trash can for a diaper pail. We have a waterproof drawstring cloth diaper bag on one side of the can and a regular trash bag on the other side for disposables. Smell is not an issue since the trash can seals up well.

I also "shopped our house" and decided to use our Pier One bookshelf (that was a wedding gift from years before) for toy storage. And I gathered up plastic drawer containers that we already had for extra bedding, diapers, wipes, toiletries and other miscellany. I have found that the drawers really help organize the small baby belongings well. I orginally had a lot of this stuff stacked in boxes but then I would have to take out an entire piles of boxes to get to something on the bottom and that was very inconvenient.

I printed labels for the drawers for easy identification. This really helps Daddy and anyone else watching Levi to find things. And it helps me remember where things belong as well.

I really like having all of Levi's toys on the bookshelf inside the closet. This way we can easily close the door on the toys and have a clutter-free looking bedroom. This is especially nice right now while our house is on the market.

If we ever have another baby I may re-upholster the glider and ottoman. It has now been through 2 baby boys, one of which I know for a face was a big spitter. I found this tutorial and I am sure I could do it (maybe with a little help from my sister-in-law...hope that's ok with you Margy...LOL) Re-upholstering the glider/ottoman would open up a whole new world of fabric options! Wow! Just check out these 2 custom designs here.

source

source



As with everything else, Levi's nursery is a work in progress. As he grows and changes, his needs do as well and as a result, the room has been re-arranged and re-organized at least a handful of times over the past 14 months. For example, when he was first born, we went through 1 bib and burp cloth per hour. So we had an entire dresser drawer dedicated to these items. Nowadays, he doesn't really need those but his pants and shirts take up a lot more space, etc. So, my original plan was to somehow label the drawers so others could find things but now 1 year later I realize that would have been an exercise in futility since the drawer contents are always changing.

We still do not have any artwork up on the walls and now that we're attempting to sell our house, we figure we might as well not bother. Fewer nail holes for the future owners to patch, right? But my original idea was to hang a mirror over the dresser/changing table. I also have Levi's birth certificate framed and would like to hang that.

Also, the week Levi was born, my sister and I did a little DIY art while he was napping. My inspiration was this photo I found on Curbly.

source

We took 2 - 12" x 12" x 1" pieces of styrofoam, cut them down to 10" squares with a bread knife and then covered them with scrapbook paper (cutting 1" squares out of the corners and wrapping the paper over the sides). We glued it to the styrofoam and used thumbtacks to hold the sides in place while it dried. It worked well.  It was my idea to create a gallery wall with possibly the mirror, the DIY art, and photos of my sweet little newborn baby, but...yeah...life happened...and the gallery wall, well, didn't.

Still, all regrets aside, at least I can rest easy knowing it does not look like this anymore...Behold: the before picture...complete with dark wood/ white painted trim - a two tone effect, dark green disgustingly dirty carpet, and Victoria's Secret box pink striped walls.

So, thanks for stopping by and checking out our nursery. Hope you enjoyed it. I am linking this up to the Roomspiration Blog Hop today on a la mode. Check out tons of other cute nurseries over there.

Festive Fall Desserts and Other Fall Stuff

My husband, Dave, and I both love fall and pretty much everything that it symbolizes. We love the weather, the festivals, bonfires, and especially the food.

With the first gust of cool fall-feeling air, we are both just overwhelmed with emotion. We may still be here in Indiana about our regular careers and responsibilities, but our hearts are not. Tears come to our eyes. Because each year we realize another 365 days have gone by and we are once again not home with our families in Ohio during harvest. We both grew up on farms in the Buckeye state and harvest was a very special time of year for us. It's in our blood. And it is so hard to not be there.

source

This weekend Dave shared with me that the cooler weather also causes him to begin thinking obsessively about deer hunting. He says each night he dreams of deer.

And I shared with him that it also causes me to want to bake / cook hearty comfort foods. There's just something about the autumn air that makes me want to gather my family in the warm house together and fix things like deer stew, chili, cornbread, pumpkin cookies, apple pie, etc. Even though most of the year we eat quick little meals like fajitas and tacos on weeknights and don't have dessert unless it's a quick bowl of ice cream, in the fall I somehow become my Grandma and I'm fixing cube steak, mashed potatoes, and baking sweets on weeknights! So basically, if you ever want to come stay with us, make sure it's in the fall. You'll get the best food by far.

So, all that being said, today I'm going to share with you some of the yummy fall desserts we've been having lately.

A couple weekends ago, we went to Stuckey Farm Market and Levi (our little 13 month old man) helped us pick a dozen Gala apples off the trees in the orchard. He also really enjoyed the tractor ride and running away from Mom & Dad in his new workboots. He is HOT STUFF in those boots.

We used the apples Wednesday to make an apple pie using my mom's recipe.

Mom concocted her special blend of spices sometime in her 20s when she was at home baking a lot with me and my sister and it always gets rave reviews.

And my own little tip on the apple pie is to peel the apples then use the Pampered Chef Apple Wedger  to cut the apple into wedges, but then cut the wedges into at least 4 even smaller tidbits. This causes your apples to cook more thoroughly while baking and results in a more tender apple pie. My husband's family cooks the apples on the stove before baking the pie and that of course makes them very tender, but I prefer just cutting the apples smaller to begin with and saving a step. Not to mention that I don't really like eating a pie with large wedges of apple that I have to awkwardly tear with my teeth while eating.

Running out of ideas for festive fall foods, I scoured Pinterest for more inspiration. It's my source these days. So we used the rest of the apples on Friday afternoon to make some very yummy Apple Cider Bread.

source

Then Sunday night I made some Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting, also found via Pinterest.

source

In years past, Dave & I have also made homemade caramel apples with nuts

 as well as Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

(which has a very yummy Ginger Snap crust)

and we also love classics like pumpkin pie and pecan pie, and have even tried pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, which are also delicious. Oh my, the possibilities are endless!

I'm linking this up the The DIY Showoff.