Before and afters...

This post is LONG overdue! Over the summer we moved in to a fun, older house. There were lots things to "fix up." In fact, we are still working on it and probably will be for some time. The house was built in 1980 (the year I was born :) and had many of it's original features. We did a little bit of work before we moved in and are continuing the process over time. I found some great deals on some "interesting" furniture on Craigslist and updated them a bit. Here are a few before and after photos. I'm sure there will be many more to come in the future. I am currently working on our master bedroom, so that will be coming soon.

Everything in the house was brown, brown, brown. Brown wood paneling, brown cabinets, brown doors with gold knobs...you get the idea. Now everything has been freshened up with a creamy white with silver accents. So much better!

Family Room Before
Here is a shot from another angle in the family room. We had the front door painted black on the inside and out and changed the hardware from gold to silver. Big difference!
We had hard woods put in throughout the entire house (minus the bedrooms and bathrooms).

Kitchen Before and AfterThe house had 2 great built-ins already, including my desk in the kitchen. I love it!

The Playroom
Sadly I do not have a before photo, but picture a big rectangular room with beige carpet being used as a formal living area.
We had this built in added and put french doors on the opening so we could close it off. I'm still adding things to the walls. This is probably the most used room in the house :)

I love these shelves. I made them from rain gutters from Home Depot all by myself! They are super easy. I had seen this idea online when I was teaching and filed it away. They are perfect for this space. The kids can get the books they want so easily. I think the whole project cost about $14. (just google rain gutter bookshelves if you're interested)


Craigslist Finds
I got 6 of these chairs for less than the price of 1 from Pottery Barn. A little paint and some new fabric...
I really like how this corner computer cabinet turned out. I bought if off Craigslist for $40. Just painted it and bought some ring pull knobs off ebay.
More pictures coming soon. I love making old stuff look new again! :)

Visit to Daddy's Work, Nana's Birthday and Halloween!

3 completely unrelated events (other than they all happened in the month of October)...

We went up to Scott's work at the beginning of the month to have lunch with him and let Mallory take a tour of the plant. For those who don't know, Scott is a chemical engineer for a food processing company (hence the awesome hairnets!). Mallory loved seeing Daddy's work, she has asked to go back several times already. Her favorite part of the day was wearing the hairnets.

Mallory even wore the hairnet out to lunch (I'm sure people thought she lice or something). Here is her face when I suggested that maybe we take it off before going in to the restaurant.

We had a fun time celebrating my mom's birthday at Babe's. So yummy and child friendly. Here's Nana with all 5 of her grandchildren. Impressive that everyone is looking at the camera in this picture, no?
Will and I went up to Mallory's preschool for her carnival. She didn't really pay any attention to us, miss independent, but it was fun to meet her classmates.

Will even played a few of the games. Is it sad that my 15 month old can say sucker?

We had a fun time at our church's trunk or treat.

Halloween Night
Now we are getting ready for winter!

Pumpkin Day!

Today is October 1st, which is officially (at least in our house) considered Pumpkin Day! What do you do on Pumpkin Day, you might ask...you invite your sweet friends over to decorate a pumpkin! And that's exactly what we did.

Mallory and Annalee, waiting patiently to explore all the pumpkin choices

Will and Grace

Grace was such a super model today...what at cutie!Mallory and Annalee after decorating their pumpkins!

On a side note, you may have noticed in the first photo, that Mallory and Annalee are wearing matching shirts (total accident by the way). That is because Lori and I have been friends for so long now and have such similar taste. In fact, if you check out the photo below from 2006 (Oh yes Lori, I found it!!) you will see another example of our accidental matching.

Yep, we sure did accidentally wear the exact same outfit to work one day! It was both funny and slightly embarrassing at the same time. Nothing like having 80 second graders point out all day that you and Mrs. Beck match. It was awesome! :)

Hoot Hoot, I'm cute!

Mallory and I had fun making this sweet fall treat yesterday! I came across some owl crackers online the other day and thought they were too cute, so we had to try them!

They were super easy to make.
You need:
Graham Crackers
Marshmallows (I used the big ones and cut them in fourths)
Yellow Candy melts (got mine from Hobby Lobby)
Chocolate Chips
Candy Corns
We simply broke the crackers in half, put 2 marshmallow pieces together and heated in the microwave for about 7 seconds. Once they puff up nicely, add the candy melts by pushing them into the marshmallows. Then, we heated them a few more seconds to get the candy melts warm enough for the chocolate chips to stick and added the candy corn nose.

After they cooled, we packaged them up to share with our friends, neighbors and teachers. What a fun (and yummy) way to welcome Fall!!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Birthday!

I love that Mallory is getting old enough to have opinions about things. When I asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted this year, she immediately responded with the title of her current favorite book. "A Chicka Chicka Boom Boom birthday Mom!" Not exactly what I had in mind but I quickly started brainstorming and then I too got excited about Mallory's creative party theme. So, thanks to Mallory, we had a colorful party themed with letters and coconut trees! If you have not read this book, go buy it! It's adorable!

Mallory's Inspiration



The Invitation

(custom created by Silly Seira Designs, she is awesome!)

The birthday girl

(adorable tee shirt purchased from Fly Duds)

The Decor



The Snacks
included letter shaped jello, coconut tree cookies, marshmallow pops, suckers, letter gummies and cupcakes of course!




The Activities
included fishing for magnetic letters, a letter hunt around the yard (kids hunted for the letters to spell their name), playdough with letter shaped cookie cutters, an alphabet floor puzzle and the giant coconut tree bounce house!



The Favors
included a copy of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (thank you Lori for the great deal!), gummie letters and alphabet silly bandz


Thanks to our family and friends for coming and making Mallory's party a great day of fun!