a little love bird...

this weekend i found myself playing around with some graphics.

this was due to my attempt to use my creative abilities to create Christmas gifts since Paris is taking our Christmas fund lol.

i am excited to say i have come up with some awesomeness. 

but i can't share all that until AFTER Christmas.

however, i'm in the Christmas spirit and feeling generous.....

so - here's one for you!

feel free to take the below image for yourself.

this little gem will be hanging in our bedroom soon!

craft time!

it's no secret that i've been a depressed debbie and a crabby patty.

truth.

but sunday i decided to do a lil' crafting to help my funk.

and craft i did!!!

i have a new baby niece scheduled to arrive at the end of next month.

and i couldn't be more excited!!!

of course i've been buying everything in sight, but i felt she needed a little auntie homemade goodness.

so i made a banner for her room!

yay!

they are decorating in a yellow floral pattern and i found the most perfect burlap daisies at michaels the other day.

i already had some blank burlap tags just begging to be used, so i painted her name on them!

it was super easy.

materials needed: burlap tags (packs of 3 were $2 or $3 at hobby lobby), jute yarn, and clip on flowers.

i used a paint pen to stencil the letters.

i took a glue gun to double the width of the jute, then just hot glued each letter.

then clipped on the flowers and done!

i am so very pleased with how it turned out!

this could be dangerous....i could be making banners for every room and holiday/season now.

let the banner making begin!

could it get any better?

i mentioned last week that hubs got a new job working for earth fare.

this weekend he worked on his first video project for the online specials.

he had filmed some at the office, but then he wanted to get some additional shots on our farm table at home.

of course i was giddy with excitement to get to play with pretty foods.

the special this week is on grapes, so the video was showcasing fun things to do with grapes besides eating them all by themselves.

grapes are fabulous in lemonade.

i made fresh squeezed lemonade just for this.

and grapes make a lovely addition to salads. ;)

and of course i had to put some flowers in the mix. 

none other than a hydrangea would do.

any excuse to have them in my house works for me!

give me a vase of hydrangeas and peonies = heaven. 

pure, absolute, heaven.

so then of course i had to find the perfect place to display my pretty flower. 

this was SO much fun.

i will be so sad now if every single video isn't here. haha.

maybe i missed my calling....

i could be lauren thomas - food stylist extraordinaire.

bahahaha.

we'll add that to my never ending list of life goals. ha!

organized at last!

ok, so i know you saw this post earlier this week about our bright idea to reorganize, right?
well i'm happy to say, it's all done!
finally, finally, finally we managed to find a place for our enormous amount of crap.
closets - check!
and guess what....i can even see my floors!
i'm especially proud of how it turned out.
so naturally i felt the need to share, even if you don't really care!
oh see what i did there? i made a rhyme!

so this is our office closet. before we began the transformation, it was packed as tight as it could be with boxes. so we went to walmart and bought a cube organization system. we filled it with books and scrapbook supplies ;)





this here is a poster i bought several months ago to help a friend in her journey to adopt two sweet girls from uganda. and you know i love the orphans! so it's hanging proud in the office.



while we're in the office, let's look at my new desk.
so i found this standard antique wood desk at an awesome little antique store a few weeks ago.
i haggled it down to $35. whah???
i love a good deal.
so then of course i painted it! and added some new hardware. i love how it turned out!
i'm going to buy some fabric full of bright colors to make no-sew curtains.
why yes, of course i'll share how that turns out. don't you doubt it!



we got chris a cool desk too at the same place. we paid $40 for his, and he's weird and didn't want me to paint his. party pooper.
and of course, we had to move wallace in there too.



so we have this nook in our hallway. our landlord said most people put a desk in it.
i made a craft station out of it with my mom's antique china cabinet.
i'm going to paint it, but i'll probably save that project for one day when we have our own house.
it turned out so good though!



see those "create" letters? well they're one of my projects to paint and make beautiful.
everything is all nicely organized and happy here.



moving to the living room.
so i had boxes of framed pictures and no where to set them out.
i have to be careful with what's out because the dog chases the cat, and the cat jumps on things and knocks everything off.
yes, my cats don't allow me to have cool things.

so...we made a frame wall. it will eventually be floor to ceiling. i'm getting some more pictures printed to fill up more empty frames that i have.
i absolutely love it. i've also got a few frames i'm going to paint to add some color.
seriously, i get so excited every time i walk by it!



the dining area is one of my favorites.
it's just simple and shabby. love, love, love.









see what i mean? there's the cat on the bar.
and don't you love that fan?
i know, it's hideous. apparently the guy who lived here before us installed it.
if we buy a new one the apartments will install it for us.
however, if we have it running, you can't really tell it belongs in an island hut.



so there you have it.
all nice and clean.
ahhh...i can actually breathe.

now what in the world will occupy our weekends?
i see lots of crafting in my future!
maybe i'll finally learn how to use my sewing machine!

organization is a good thing right?

i mean i thought it was a good thing.
and so did hubs.
so about a week ago he got the bug to unpack all of the boxes we had stashed away in the closets and organize everything.
it was desperately needed....i mean honestly we had NO closet space.
we have done lots of downsizing before, but for some reason, this move was a particularly hard one for unpacking.

and so we pulled everything out.
well....this is what happened:







looks amazingly organized right?
if you only knew how stressed out this made us!
so we headed to the grand ol' wal-mart to purchase organization tools!
and this weekend, we managed to get the last of it all cleaned up.
well with the exception of a few minor things still looking for their "spot".
i'll be posting the "after" pictures in a couple of days...you know, once everything has finally found it's spot.
but i can assure you it looks nothing like this!

what is your best organizational tidbit?

be still my heart.

this weekend was a doozy, in the best kind of way.

my lil brother and sis in-law spent the night on friday and we had a fun little slumber party. 

priceless moments.

as i've mentioned, we're moving in a couple of weeks.

and saturday i went to see my nephew play baseball.

it was opening day. 

my goodness, he's a cutie pie.

and i cried through the whole game, knowing it was the last one i'd see this season.

ugh.

but you know what made it awesome?

well besides a perfect game?

my precious niece showing up to the game with the same tennis shoes as me!

twinsies.

sunday was filled with crafting.

holli's gettin' married y'all!

so we started the center piece making.

i can't wait to see them all put together, and i don't want to give too many details away before the big day.

but as you can see, we got all kinds of dirty!

these are some mighty fine wine bottles!

oh!!! and you see the yellow piece beside it?

well i repurposed a vanity that my step mom gave me.

it was old 1960s laminate and now it's a beautiful butter cup yellow!

i'll have some pics of it soon.

i'm super proud of how it turned out!

and then i literally spent 3 hours doing 30 minutes worth of homework because i'm a procrastinator.

boo!

oh, and be prepping a post full of music goodness for tomorrow's link up!

New Decor!

I have a chronic problem. You see, I am a Pinterest addict, but it's not too often that I actually DO the things I pin. 

I have been dying to redo our bedroom.

It just needed to be done. 

I have been completely obsessed with gray and yellow. And as a result, I have been on a pinning frenzy!

So this weekend, after apparently effectively sharing my vision with Chris, we were on a mission to find all of the pieces...on a budget.

First, let's take a look at our bedroom before.

Before heading out to buy all things new, we rearranged the room. We moved our dresser into the closet, freeing up lots of space in the room itself. We pulled a few pieces from other rooms in and created a sitting area. And then we were off!

The winning pieces came from Target.

We started with HomeGoods, Marshall's and TJ Maxx, but couldn't find anything we absolutely loved.

I should have known Target would have met all my needs ;)

We got the quilt, shams and two pillows for $69!

I also bought a yellow blanket to go under the quilt since it's not as thick as our previous comforter.

This lamp....I am completely smitten with.

So of course I have lots of plans for the walls. We have a big open wall that I want to put 2 big black and white photos on. 

But I also wanted to paint something for our room, and I had the perfect wall for it.

I love dandelions and I wanted to make a sort of abstract piece.

So Sunday afternoon, I dove in!

Voila! 

I love it!

So what greatness did you do this weekend?

a tour of the hizzy

ok, ok. i've been talking about decorating my house and getting unpacked for weeks now.

well i'm happy to say that we've finally got the house put together...for the most part.

and as i've been talking about it, i've been promising pictures.

today is the day to deliver on my promise!

meet the front door.
this little suitcase table we made for chris's bedside table earlier this year.
however, this seemed to be the perfect place for it, so it has moved.
the "thomas" picture is something chris made for me for our anniversary last year.
it's a compilation of some of my favorite photos that i've taken with my photography business.

last week i got a little crafty and made this little wreath. i absolutely love it!

and here we have the living room, well one corner of it at least.

this lovely window on the mantle was one of my super fabulous finds at antique alley back in october.

it's missing one of the window panes...which i love. i filled the opening with snowflake garland that i made. i had bought some snow flakes made out of book pages and then i added a few strands of lace. it looks real cute in person...it's hard to see in the picture.

and here friends, is the white tree that i have embraced.

i super love it! so much fun!

how do you like our frame wall? 

i want to keep adding to it and i want to make it a wall of t's. so it will be an ever evolving work of art!

let's move on to the kitchen.

i may have gone overboard on refrigerator photos....but i can't help it.

i love this picture of me and my momma.

i have it by the stove so she can "help" me while i cook.

she and i always hung out in the kitchen, so it only seemed appropriate for her picture to be there too.

the dining room.

i super love this table.

i love it even more now that we bought some chairs to go with it!

and here we have the master bedroom. 

slowly but surely, it's coming together.

i'm probably most excited about the guest bedroom.

remember that $20 antique bed i got at antique alley?

well it's finally put together!

this room is all about color.

and red.

and teal.

oh, and also great deals! 

ok, so the bed frame was $20. 

the mattress and boxspring were free from a relative.

the comforter....found in the "as is" section of ikea for $14. only because it was returned without the package. no stains or tears.

i also made the teal fabric garland over the top. 

love.

and how perfect is the red table with teal accessories?

happiness i tell you. happiness.

Linking up with Kelly's Korner Christmas tour of homes!