Sometimes, independence feels amazing! Sometimes, it feels like painting your house all by yourself for 5 hours straight. A.K.A. AWFUL! Lately, I pride myself in accomplishing things all on my own. Sometimes, you just have to admit when you are in WAY over your head. Let’s just say this house painting project is making me feel a bit like I can’t keep my head above water. I’ve had one very nice man helping me most of the time, but last Saturday I flew solo all day. The entire day was spent tapping into my inner Nemo…”Just keep painting. Just keep painting.” It truly was NOT one of my finer “I can do this all by myself” moments. Thank goodness Sunday came and so did this guy:

He’s the designated paint scraper. I can’t even begin to express how much I appreciate his scraping. It is the absolute worst part of the project! I’m a firm believer in women and the “anything you can do, I can do better” concept, but let’s face it….the guy is WAY better at scraping than me! Sure I could do it better….it’s just going to take months of practice. I’m totally a better painter, though. Together, we make a killer team.

By the end of the day, the house looked like that! A bit scary still. The front is completely scraped, primed, and partially painted! Baby steps, people…Baby steps.

You can kind of start to imagine how it’s going to look! The front door needs another coat of bright, happy yellow paint, and the deck is going to be stained a dark gray to play off of the lighter gray paint on the house. All the trim will be bright white. I have to say, the yellow door makes me indescribably happy. It totally almost makes up for how miserable this whole process has been.

On the agenda for this weekend…finish painting the entire front of the house and landscaping. I have plans for a few more plants, and fresh mulch. Oh…and of course get rid of the weeds in the sidewalk. Weeds are just plain embarrassing! :/

Happy house working this weekend, everyone!

 

It’s rainy out today. Want to know what my absolute favorite thing about a rainy day? It’s having a home that you love to hide out in. Unfortunately, I’m not home quite yet. I love knowing that it’s waiting for me, though. Safe, warm, pretty, and DRY!

Let me update you on some itty bitty changes I’ve made in my kitchen. It’s the little changes that make me love my home, though. Especially on a rainy day!

The first itty bitty change is, I finally got around to hanging up a calendar I bought at the start of the new year.

It only took me 4 months! (Embarrassing…..I know.) Isn’t it beautiful? It came from an artist on Etsy. It wasn’t exactly cheap being that it’s just a piece of paper, but I am 100% in favor of supporting artists! I plan to cut the calendar portion off and frame the “Home Sweet Home” once the year is over. It’s way to pretty to toss out.

Check out the succulents on the fridge! I had extras from the project I showed you last post. I simply found an old bud vase I already had, hot glued magnets on the back, planted the leftover succulents, and I had my very own succulent magnet. This little thing makes me happy beyond believe. I’m not sure why. It just does.

The succulent magnet is a perfect little mate to the calendar.

Those are my new itty bitty changes that rank HUGE on the adore spectrum! My kitchen had been in need of a little beautification. There is more to come, too! I scored an amazing find at Goodwill, and this perfect find lives in the kitchen! I can’t show you just yet, but soon! I promise.

In other news…My dishwasher died. It stopped draining properly, and that led me to find out that the water line connections leak as well. All fixable problems I’m sure, but this guy is vintage….Just not the good kind of vintage. :/ I now have a new dishwasher on the list of upcoming kitchen updates. Although, I’m thinking it may be a while. I hand wash EVERYTHING! I generally forget I have a dishwasher, which will probably mean I’ll generally forget I need a new one! If it takes me four months to hang a calendar….a new dishwasher make take a while!

 

A few weeks ago I was suffering with some serious spring fever. All I could think about were green trees, and the trees just weren’t quite there yet. Since I couldn’t look out my window to see plants, I thought I’d just look inside instead. I planted succulents! Here’s how they turned out:

It was Just a quick little project to help with my need for green. Now there’s green in my kitchen, on the dining room table, and finally outside!

It’s true. My blog has been needing some serious loving! It’s been sitting here all alone and neglected. As any good blog mommy would, I’ve been thinking of ways I might squeeze more time in for my blog child. Some things had to be rearranged in my life. Sorry Facebook, but you had to go! Yep, that’s right. I deactivated Facebook. Now I’m sure this won’t be a forever thing, but it was kind of ruling my life a little. Stupid Facebook phone app! Every spare second seemed to be spent scrolling through pointless status updates. It was like a bad tick and such a waste of time. Now that it’s out the window, I hope to be showing the blog a lot more love!

Now I can post pictures and ramble on aimlessly about them on here, because I like doing that. In all seriousness, I feel like this is an exciting time in my life. I like that this blog can serve as a sort of journal to document who I was, and what I did in my mid twenties. I want to remember these times.

So let’s get to it. Pointless pictures and aimless chattering, here we come!

I feel like I might just need to kind of share what I’ve been up to lately. First of all, I’ve been elated with this warm spring we’ve had. It’s cooled down a bit now, but there were a couple of weeks that I absolutely adored my Indiana home. There may not be anything more therapeutic than sunshine, 80 degrees, and an Indiana country road. I’ve vowed to head south where it’s exceptable to not own a snow shovel, (I currently do not own a snow shovel….not OK in Indiana.) but something tells me my visits back will always include a county drive. Open fields? Yes please!

Besides country drives, I’ve also been adoring my wonderful pupps. Aren’t they just cute?!?

Adoring the pupps always includes a TON of Tulip snuggles. I’m telling you…this dog LIVES for snuggles.

She even gets Ginger to snuggle. That’s hard to do….Trust me.

I’ve been reading a bit. That usually looks like this….

Seriously, this girl will do anything just to be touching you. She just gently rests her head there and looks at you….the very definition of puppy dog eyes!

When I don’t just put the book down and snugggle…I read about how beautifully I’m created and how beautifully I’m loved.

Yeah, I’ve been reading Captivating for a good 5 months now… Mostly, just because ever sentence resonates so deeply that I feel the need to read it over and over and over again. I’m learning to truly love myself…If I get stuck reading this book for 10 years…I’m ok with that.

Those are the fun and enjoyable things I’ve been doing. Now for the HORRIBLE things I’ve been doing….Dun Dun Dun. I’ve been painting my house. The outside. Oh my gosh, it’s a horrible, horrible job. I like to paint. I let my mind get away from me and dream up the most wonderful things. Painting is relaxing. The problem with painting my house is that it first requires a TON of scraping. I mean a TON! So far I have scraped and primed one and a half sides. Three weeks, two bloody hands, and one extreme blow to the head and I only have one and a half sides PARTIALLY done. I’m thinking this might take me all summer. I’m ok with that, though. I have decided I will not get stressed out about it, and at the end I will reward myself with landscaping projects!!! That part, I am SERIOUSLY excited about! Poor house really needs it, too! Here’s what The house looked like before…

Clearly, things are in need of love. Stay tuned for the after picture. It will probably be done sometime around Christmas…. It’s going to be a long spring! It will be worth it! At least I keep telling myself that…

Alright, I know it’s been FOREVER since I’ve posted! What can I say? I’ve been a busy girl! Busy doing what? Uhhhgggg! That’s always the tricky part! I know I’ve been busy, but when I look back it sure doesn’t seem like I have much to show for all that hustle and bustle! Hmmm….oh well. In looking back over the past couple of weeks, there is really only one project that I did. Want to here about it? I’m just going to assume that you do!

Antlers are all over the place right now in design!

If you’re this girl you put an entire Bambi on your wall! Now I’m a bit hesitant to stick that up on my wall, but I have to admit…I like the way it looks here. Since I’m a Bambi lover…I’d rather opt for a friendly faux version like this:

Unfortunetly, I don’t have a room quite big enough to accommodate such a statement piece.

There are so many antler/Bambi inspirations out there.

I have to say…I love the Bambi train. So I decided to hop on board! I had seen some inspiration involving antler sheds. I felt like this was a good fit for me. Antler sheds are animal friendly. They fall off deer natuarally! I checked out Ebay and Etsy and found some to purchase. (You know…since I don’t have time to go stomping through the woods in search of antler sheds.) I settled on buying them from someone on Etsy. I got 5 sheds for $20. They range from about 12 to 14 inches long.

My plan was to leave the sheds in their natural form. I’ll be honest, when I got them…they grossed me out a little bit. I’m not sure why. It felt a little like I was setting out dead stuff around my house. So the brainstorming continued.

I found these by an artist named Cassandra Smith, and I thought they were beautiful!

Her designs and colors completely bring these “dead” things to life! I decided to do a little antler painting of my own!

Here is what they looked like before…

Here they are after I got a hold of them!

I’m not crazy about the one on the far left, but painted can be painted over!

Finally here they are in their new “natural” habitat!

I have plans to make them hooks for jewelry, scarves, and such….but who knows when this busy girl will get to that!?

I guess it’s just my insane love for design, (or likely just a lack of sleep) but every now and then I find inspiration that literally brings tears to my eyes.

I’ll preach over and over again to those of you wanting to increase your design knowledge or just redo your living room…FLOOD your brain with images. It’s my trick to the trade. The more images your brain has the better it will be able to mix and match the data to come up with images and ideas of it’s own. I spend a huge chunk of my free time gathering image data. I like to collect and browse magazines, and Pinterest is a great source for collecting images. My main means for flooding my brain are blogs, however. There are so many amazing blogs out there! I’ve got a few favorites that I read religiously. On my religious read list is www.designsponge.com. Be sure to check it out.

The folks at Design Sponge post things that bring tears to my eyes on a regular basis! The “oh my I just love that so much” kind of tears. Most of the house tours they post give me tummy butterflies.

Words cannot describe how much I love this. The tears should speak for themselves…

My heart wishes….REALLY WISHES that I had nice new walls. Alas, I do not. Turns out 100 year old houses have cracked and bumpy plaster walls. If my walls were perfect my entire house would be white. BRIGHT WHITE! (At least until I got sick of it and completely changed it all! I like change!)

Perhaps, it’s the combination of the very earthy rug colors mixed with the bright graphic artwork that make me all weepy. (Again, maybe it’s just the lack of sleep. Hard telling!)

Fabulous!

This picture has convinced me to try a table cloth. We’ll see what I think when I try it!

Adore the rug. There’s really nothing about this that I don’t adore, actually!

I’m totally waiting for these homeowners to invite me for a sleepover…I would have the sweetest of dreams in this bedroom! (I might be a creeper, but I’m ok with it…It’s better to just accept it.)

Well there it is! A fabulous house! Hopefully it added some fabulousness to your Friday! Happy Friday everyone!

P.S. I’ve demanded of myself to make time for a project this weekend! I’ve been planning it but haven’t found the time yet. This weekend is the time! It’s just a small project, but I’m excited about it! I’ll keep you posted!

Let me tell you the best part of making my plans for my home public knowledge… People always seem to be on the hunt for things that I have said I wanted. A while back I had mentioned that I would really like a round table in my dining room. When cute boy found out that his brother and fiance were getting rid of theirs, he snagged it for me! YAY for completely free stuff!!! Sure, it’s a pretty run of the mill table, but it’s solid and built well. I actually love the way the traditional table looks with the modern chairs, too! (Ignore the folding chairs sitting there. We will get to that in a minute.)

I’ve tossed around the idea of painting the table a bright color, but I’m torn. I like the wood for now. There are a few scratches, however. What do you think?! Paint it or not? What color?! For now she’s going to stay wood.

I think it’s so much better than the “in the meantime” Walmart table. That table is headed to the basement to become a project table. The round table just flows better with the room and the chairs. Here’s the old table:

Now to the folding chairs. Probably about a year ago I helped a friend move. He asked if anyone wanted the folding chairs. I usually take stuff like that, because I know there will come a time I’m glad I have them! I gladly took them.  Well, they got left behind when I moved and it took a tad bit of work to recollect them, but I have them! I love, love the way they look on the wall. They are easily lifted off the screws and can actually be used in the event that I have company. I suppose I should probably have some friends over for dinner now!

Did you notice the furry pillows? They are made from the extras of the beloved furry vest turned stool project. The dining room is really shaping up! I only have a few more little changes in mind. Eventually I’ll need to decide if I want curtains. Right now I like it without. It is a bit of a privacy issue I suppose. Who knows?! Maybe i’ll go with blinds. Either way, the empty curtain rod needs to be remedied. I’ll either take it down or fill it at some point. We’ll see.

Have you ever have one of those weeks? The the kind of week where nothing really goes wrong, (besides maybe some self sabotaging) but everything feels so off. I had one of those weeks last week. We are talking 7 straight days of, “What is going on?! I feel so off!” (I didn’t even really do many projects last week!!! I know, right?!?! SOOOO not me!) It was a week filled with “What If?” For no apparent reason my mind asked every “What If?” It went a little something like this:

1. What if I had made different decisions?

2. What if he had actually been what I thought he was?

3. What if my chances are up?

4. What if he’s not as great as he seems?

5. What if things just don’t work?

6. What if I end up wasting more time?

7. What if I never get where I want to be?

8. What if I fail?

9. What if people think I have already failed?

10. What if my ex’s best friend makes a cruel T-shirt about me and then my ex actually wears it?

11. What if people always just disappoint me?

12. What if he IS actually as great as he seems?

13. What if things had been timed differently?

14. What if life never calms down?

15. What if I could start all over?

Annoying huh? We all do it. At some point we all step back and go through the scenarios. Hopefully, not all of you decide to torture yourself for an entire week like I did. It was one of those weeks you can’t wait to be over, but it was followed by one of those nights…one of those nights of absolute clarity and peace. Throughout the entire week, I was trying to answer those questions like this:

2. What if he had actually been what I thought he was? Things would have been so perfect, and we would have been so happy.

It feels like so often we forget that a logical answer to all the what if’s is actually: It doesn’t matter. That answer isn’t just an option. It’s the best option. Tonight it’s clear that I’ve accomplished all the things I’ve worked so hard to accomplish in myself. I’m there…actually there. (Where ever “there” is. It doesn’t matter.) There’s no point in looking backward or forward. After all…I’ve worked hard to get here… Exactly right here….I should probably take some time to enjoy it.

Tonight I’ve answered all the what if’s….actually answered them.

1. What if I had made different decisions? It doesn’t matter. You didn’t.

2. What if he had actually been what I thought he was? It doesn’t matter. He isn’t and won’t ever be.

3. What if my chances are up? It doesn’t matter. You’ll open doors rather than wait for chance.

4. What if that cute boy is not as great as he seems? It doesn’t matter. He’s great right now.

5. What if things just don’t work? It doesn’t matter. Things ARE working now.

6. What if I end up wasting more time? It doesn’t matter. Don’t forget how young you are!

7. What if I never get where I want to be? It doesn’t matter. You are WHO you want to be.

8. What if I fail? It doesn’t matter. Sometimes you will.

9. What if people think I have already failed? It doesn’t matter. You haven’t.

10. What if my ex’s best friend makes a cruel T-shirt about me and then my ex actually wears it? (Oh wait…that is less of a ”What if?” and more of a “Did you seriously do that? Wow”) It doesn’t matter. It can only hurt your feelings if you let it.

11. What if people always just disappoint me? It doesn’t matter. Some people will, but some will astonish you with their patience, understanding, kindness, and wisdom.

12. What if that cute boy IS actually as great as he seems? It doesn’t matter. If you find out he is, it will be great! (Why on earth would you really worry about that?)

13. What if things had been timed differently? It doesn’t matter. They weren’t, and maybe that’s best. 

14. What if life never calms down? It doesn’t matter. You’re one tough cookie!

15. What if I could start all over? It doesn’t matter. You can’t… and come on?! Would you really go back and do high school all over again!? (No…No No NO)

Perhaps, this is a good time to show you (and remind myself) what I have decided this year was going to be about and the rest….It doesn’t matter.

I made this in a Word document early on in January. I printed it and framed it for my bathroom so that I could see it everyday when I get ready.

I apologize that the picture is a bit blurry and hard to see. I do not apologize that I am throwing a peace sign in my bathrobe, however. So far…I’m succeeding at everything I set out to make this year. With the small exception that I’m maybe not breaking out in random dance as much as I’d like. It should be a daily occurence, and I know I’ve missed a few days. I’m going to work on it, though. I promise! Everything else I’ve set out to be or do, I have or I’m in the process. The rest…well…it just doesn’t matter.

Let me just tell you…I love this kind of articles from Apartment Therapy. The kind where they take fashion and translate it into a room.

They did it here: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ryan-gosling-was-here-movie-st-161842 with outfits of Ryan Gosling. Check out that article.

Ok, so that fact that Ryan is WAY easy on the eyes didn’t hurt my love for that article at all. That’s a huge reason  not the only reason I loved the Ryan article, however. So, when Apartement Therapy posted this article: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/runway-to-room-ny-fashion-week-as-decor-166012  I was equally thrilled!

One of the reasons I love this fashion/room comparasions is,  I adore the notion that our homes could be as trendy and evolving as runway fashion.

We expect fashion, products, businesses, advertising, and society to all be on the forefront of innovation? Why would we expect the spaces we surround ourselves with to look like our mother’s homes? (Mom, your house isn’t bad. It’s way better now than it’s ever been, but just like you wouldn’t wear my loud clothing….I wouldn’t choose your traditional decor.)

Every year we see new trends on the runway. Why shouldn’t they translate to our homes and spaces?!

Beautiful!

I think we should all dare to be a bit trendy. So what if you feel you need to repaint, recover, or revamp it next year?! That’s what trendy is…ever evolving!

The Love Nest Project has a BIG announcement! We are expanding! Not in a monetary, company expansion kind of way. (I only wish.) We have grown in the LOVE sort of way! Meet Tulip!

Our little family of two is now a family of three!

This accurately captures my favorite moment of every day! That moment when they are just SOOO glad you are home. Ahh it feels so nice to be loved. (Sigh) Emily, Ginger, and Tulip. The three amigas! 

Let me tell you the story of Tulip. It’s a beautiful one! The cute boy I mention from time to time and I were taking our dogs on a walk a couple weekends ago. (Superbowl Sunday to be exact.) At one point, I turned around and noticed a dog following us. I love dogs, but if any of you know Ginger… you know she does not take after her mamma in that respect. Ginger can be a bit dog agressive, so I get nervous when dogs I don’t know come around her. It would only take Ginger showing her little attitude to the wrong dog ONCE to make it that last. So, I insisted that Cute Boy try and scare strange dog off. He yelled at her and she backed off looking a little pathetic and sad.

We continued our walk but a few minutes later I felt the need to look back and be sure she was gone. She was still there. The second I turned around she stopped dead in her tracks and looked off with that, “What?! I wasn’t still following you??!” look. Cute Boy scared her off again and we walked again. Sure enough, I looked back and she did the same, straight out of a cartoon, routine. She even ducked behind a car pretending she wasn’t following us. She never got closer than probably 40 feet but she followed us all the way back home. It became pretty apparent by this time that she was a sweet dog. We didn’t show her much attention, however. Neither one of us wanted another dog. Cute Boy continued trying to scare her off. We went inside, with guilty hearts, hoping she would just go away.

About an hour later we headed off to a Superbowl party. Guess who was still in the front yard…yep. As we got in the car and drove off, that sweet girl watched us drive away. My heart absolutely melted. (Keep in mind…I’ve barely touched this dog by this point. I didn’t want to make her think she had found a new home. We didn’t feed her and we basically had only tried scaring her off.) I was convinced it was the last time I’d ever see her.

Six hours later we came home from the party to find that sweet girl still in the front yard!!! I’ll be honest…this was the moment this dog secretely became mine. I tried to “find her a home,” but it just felt too fateful. We got out of the car and I just couldn’t do it anymore. There was no way that dog was spending the night out in the cold. We invited her into the garage and she literally b-lined for some blankets piled under a table. It was pretty much all over. She spent the night in the garage and the next night…..

Yep, she was mine. I had her scanned for a microchip and put a picture up on Facebook, the whole time holding my breath hoping no one would want her or claim her. I feel in love SOOOO quickly.

She is truly a sweet dog! She loves to be snuggled and LOVES, I MEAN LOVES, Ginger…attitude and all. Surprisingly, Ginger loves her too! I’ve been hard pressed to find a dog Ginger was really a fan of. She’s got that small dog attitude. Tulip and Ginger are, and were immediately, best buddies! They play constantly, and 48lbs Tulip is so gental with 13lbs Ginger. They took to playing the very first night, and it hasn’t stopped.

Ginger even shares her bed with Tulip! Hehe mommy needs to get Tulip a big girl bed! It feels like it was just meant to be! She’s perfectly well behaved. She hasn’t had a single accident in the house, she’s very calm, and friendly to everyone! Ginger and I have a new buddy and we couldn’t be happier! She had her first vet trip yesterday and she’s completely healthy. The vet said she’s not any older than a year. So, it looks like we have a new buddy for many years to come.