Nesting: Chalkboard Menu

With all the weightloss going on lately, most of my free money has gone to a completely new wardrobe (an expensive, but good problem to have).  I haven't bought much for my home lately or even given it much consideration.

Well, last week when I took the kids to Hobby Lobby for markers and paper machete treasure chests for a "color-your-own-treasure-chest-while-Mommy-cleans-all-the-things" craft I got the nesting itch.  There were so many cute things!  I needed it all!

Lucky for me, I had some store credit I had been saving.  While it might have been thriftier to use the credit on these craft supplies, I opted for the more selfish route (and yet, was it selfish? Because everyone wins, really) and filled cart with, like, 4 things.

(paper chain is our Disney World countdown- yay!)

Then I came to my sense and put 3/4 things back and stuck with this red chalkboard.  Our dining room wall is still needing more and I knew it'd be perfect with the red accents in our other art and it would look good near our red dresser we keep in the dining room (as a catch all - bleh).

It was $25, but half off so for $12.50 I felt like a winner.

I brought that baby home, hung it up, and voila!  A little change that goes a long way.  My husband loves it because he's obsessed with knowing ahead of time what we're eating and now he has the menu!  Although, wives be warned: husbands can be quite disappointed if your veer off schedule when they were looking forward to something else all day (unless the change is you're ordering a pizza... they never mind that).

I love it and I love having made a little change towards homeyness.  The downside?  Now the nesting bug has got me in a choke hold and I'm looking around and everything I need to do project-wise and I want to do it all right now!  Hopefully this means more blog posts are forthcoming.

...More than anything else I'm DYING to break out the sewing machine and tackle making a King sized duvet (my husband and I have had a king bed 2 years now and STILL use our queen duvet!).  Anthropologie hack? Yes, please!  Found HERE.

Happy Monday!

Making a House a Home

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you all had lovely weekends!  My weekend included a major annual event - my birthday!

In the last few years my Mom has taken me shopping for my birthday.  Last year I picked out things I needed... bath gel from Bath & Body, more make up from MAC, a nursing tank... But this year I picked things I really wanted for my home.  We've been here almost 4 years and I'm just now discovering curtains.  They're an expensive investment and Josh and I have never made putting money into our home's decor a huge priority (a consequence of annual Disney World visits).  So this year, I asked for curtains and am so thankful my Mom obliged!

We went to Target Thursday and picked up rods and panels and Josh installed it all for me yesterday.  I'm in love!  I am so happy with how much cozier they make my dining/living room look (open concept home).  I also picked up a pillow cover on Saturday when Josh and I were shopping that is burlap and blue chevron and I LOVE it.  They're $6.99 at Hobby Lobby and only $4 after you use a 40% off coupon.  I love how the look with the curtains.

I spent the rest of my Sunday looking at the curtains and the pillow and the room and thinking about all my decor.  I have my birthday money from Josh and my in-laws left and while I really could use a hair cut I want to take all that money and head back to Target and Hobby Lobby for more cute home stuff.  I even texted my Mom Sunday that the changes "have made my nesting instincts kick in!"  And then I thought that was ironic and I should probably write a blog post about it.

The truth is we've always known this home is temporary.  We'd like to leave Oklahoma eventually and even if we didn't we've outgrown this 1200 sq ft home in more ways than just space.  It was a perfect starter home, but we've gotten to the point where hopefully we'll find a forever home in the next few years.  I don't know why that makes me hesitant to invest in things like curtains and decorating and really sprucing up the place because the rest of the truth is every time I tackle a project - a gallery wall, my mantle, seasonal decor, new curtains, repurposing furniture... - I love how it changes my house into a home and effects my mood, productivity levels, and enjoyment of where I live.

So I think my goal for this next year of my life is to focus more on making my house a home.  I think I do well to make my house a home in our lives but not so much in our decor just because I'm not always focused on it.  I don't want to just fill it with things, I want to be intentional about what comes in and fills the walls and space that needs decorating.  And I want to purge and organize and purge some more.

If I can do this little by little a ripple effect should be more love on this blog because OF COURSE I'll have to keep you all involved in the changes.  ;)

Here's to another year of life and to loving my home and making it happier and cozier each day!  Cheers!

Fall Decorating

Good morning, friends & happy Friday!!! 

I'm enjoying the "31 days" series very much, but I want to make sure within the mix I'm posting other things I enjoy as well!  So today in lieu of a lengthy WDW post, I'm posting pics of my fall decorations!  

I think the 31 days is open to interpretation is great and for these 31 days of October I will be posting frequently about WDW, but I don't know if in the end I'll have 31 posts just about that -- especially because I don't like to post on the weekends typically.  ANWAY...

This is my fall mantle!

Josh & I have been married 4 years now and homeowners for 3.5 years, but this is the first time I've EVER decorated for fall!  I actually didn't even have a single "fall" thing except a few things I'd bought 90% off at Hobby Lobby that I didn't really love anymore.  We're pretty strict in our budgeting (because we have to save for Disney World trips, lol) and I knew I couldn't just walk up to Josh and tell him I intended to spend x amount of money to decorate.  Because he wouldn't care and he'd then want to spend x amount of money on video games or something.  So, instead I devoted my allowance (we each get $40 a month) to getting little bits and pieces and told myself to love what I had first (all part of this "live simply" endeavor!) and then pick up a few things.  And you know what?  I spent less than $1 for my mantle/wreath/and mirror banner (excluding the candle which was $5 at Target).

The wreath above was simple enough to make but time consuming.  Wrapping those things takes forever!!! I had actually started wrapping the wreath to make it 4th of July themed but didn't finish in time.  I ended up running out of twine just over half way through the process and didn't want to buy more because I knew stopping mid-project meant I might not have time to ever pick it up again.  I had already planned on using scrap fabric from J's baby quilt to make rosettes, but I opted to glue on some other fabric and I think it looks pretty good and intentional (and so did everyone I asked on Twitter and Instagram - thanks, friends!).  The rosettes are so easy to make, they just take time.  You basically cut a strip of fabric, twist, hot glue, twist, hot glue, twist, hot glue... And that's it!  The whole wreath took me about 2 hours and about an hour of wrapping in July.

I had baby clothes pins lying around so I bought this cute chevron scrapbook paper half off at Hobby Lobby to cut and hang.  I liked the way it turned out so simple and shabby chic.

This was super simple and was actually done when J woke up from his nap so we had a lesson in triangles.  ;)  I just cut them and taped them to yarn and hung it up on the mirror.

I found this "T" at a thrift store for $.25 and was SO thrilled because buying letters is expensive!  I wrapped it in yarn one night while my husband got caught up on Revenge season 1 and then wrapped it with the yellow/orange yarn to make it pop more against our brick.  I used felt to make the rosettes and voila! 

Last weekend we went to Target as a family and they had so many great things clearanced!  I had been eyeing all the pieces in this beautiful collection all summer and have always loved this!  It was $15 originally and the first time I saw it clearanced it was still $10.  Saturday I picked it up for $4.50 and it happily is sitting on my table holding some apples.  Our table is small so it's the perfect size.  I also picked up this frame for under $4.  I'm always picking up frames on clearance, in thrift stores or at garage sales.  I love pictures everywhere, but hate paying high prices.  I have a plan for the frame, but haven't had time to work on it because I have a little man's 1st birthday party to work on these days!

So do you decorate for fall?  I love having more time to do things like this now that my boys are getting a little older and napping a little better and allowing me to do more chores in the waking hours so I can take more "me" time at naps and night.