Oh Hai!

Murray Farms Corn Maze

Well then. It seems like I have fallen off the face of the earth hasn't it? Well I haven't. Life has just completely got in the way and sitting at the slowest computer on the planet doesn't sound like something I am interested in doing these days.

Things have just been a whirlwind these days. The first month of living in our home we were commuting and hour and a half and two hours respectively. Once we started our new jobs things settled down, but our new schedules are a little hectic with both of us working Saturdays, and split days off seem to be having us running a little harried. We try to spend lots of time with Emma on the days we have with her. We have taken her to the Pumpkin patch, she's experienced her first snowfall and are just settling into our home with all the holiday decor up. We are loving life in our new home and just trying to find the balance finding time for everything. It's hard, but we are making it work.

The house is coming together. If you follow me on Instagram (lil_birdie_emma0701) then you will get a weekly, sometimes daily update of what life looks like around these parts. I am going to try and get a weekly post up over here. That way your all not missing out on things over here, but still can get a taste into our lives. Lil miss is transitioning into a one nap lady, and it tends to be pretty short so getting in a post while she sleeps will be hard. Lol.

Were slowly decorating and fixing little issues around the house, It's a good thing I work in a home improvement store.....and get a discount. My goodness there's lots of things you need when you own a home! We bought an island and a credenza for our kitchen, some shelving and a new rug. We still need to figure out how to make the office/guest room function as an office/guest room before my step mom makes the trip in March. I have ideas so I hope they work out and I hope to do a post when its finished.

New credenza and shelving for the dining room

Were hosting Christmas eve with my parents this year so I am off to research new and easy recipes to make for that. The hubby requested turkey.....so I guess I will me making my first ever Turkey. Wish me luck! Well I think that's all I can think of for this ramble post. Here's a couple of photos!

My beauty watching the bubbles!

His happy place.

Our first snowfall!

The Kitchen Island

Two posts in two days! Ya'll I'm feeling a little crazy over here! Hehe. Yesterday I posted the home improvement list and I wanted to take the time to share a couple of little things that we have already done to improve on our living space! We bought a mobile island and the handy hubby put it together! I'm kinda really excited to finally have an island. Having a functional work space in your kitchen is crucial to cooking effectively. If you have ever lived in apartments, you know that they are never effective use of space. In our last apartment the kitchen was coupled with the laundry room, so our hamper was constantly in the way of either the fridge or the the pantry. It was so frustrating. Having an open concept kitchen is nice, but we needed something to be able to make it function better and also more storage space.

Initially I wanted this island (this post is not sponsored by Wayfair) because of the closed cabinet storage and the knife rack in the island. But when I went to order it, the price went up about $60. Boo, of course the price is back down now. So I went perusing and I found the one we actually purchased. It has open storage in the middle so we can't put anything breakable in there because of small fingers, but I thought that it looked very similar to our existing cabinets and the hardware, even though its similar, can be changed out to match. I also like the look of the "butcher block" counter top. I'm considering tying that color wood with these shelves from Ikea on the dining room wall.

Please excuse the mess! Where still moving. Baxton Studio Meryland Modern Kitchen Cart from Wayfair.

Another thing we took on was replacing the lighting in the kitchen. The can lights are new, but I just couldn't understand why when they were on why it felt so HOT in there. Last weekend the hubby pulled a bulb out to see and low and behold Halogen bulbs. No wonder. Halogen bulbs are more cost effective than incandescent but they are twice as hot! UGH! Off to the home improvement store we went to buy some LED bulbs for our cans. Of course they only had one in a Par 30 size so we went with compact fluorescent instead. Then I had the discussion with the hubby about color temperatures. All the existing bulbs in the house are a soft warm light....similar to an incandescent bulb. I hate that pink glow that it casts so I asked him which kind of light he preferred. Soft warm, or a daylight. The smart man chose daylight, I knew I married him for his brains, and off we went with new 5000K CFL bulbs. I don't have a great comparison shot but here's a photo when we bought the house:

See the pink cast that is all over the cabinets and floor? Warm (2700K) bulbs. And I mean warm in both the literal and visual sense. When we installed the new bulbs, it was instantly cooler and just felt better.

Problem is now, that PINK paint! That's next on the to do list! What little home improvements can you all suggest for a big impact?

New Home Tour - Main Living Room

I figured I would do a mini home tour, since we recently moved into our new apartment. I know it's not a house, but every place that we can live as a family is home to us and I would like to document Emma's first official living space for posterity. Since our main living space is the only one that's completed....and the only reason it is was because we needed to put up Christmas decor, we shall start with that space.

Our front door opens into our kitchen and main living space which houses our dining table and desk. While it's not ideal to have three spaces in one large room, it has to work for us. Our kitchen is the largest one we have had and we LOVE it!

We have a bar area, and lots of counter space for cooking. While the appliances could use some work, and the laundry area is in the kitchen, it is super functional and we can utilize every square inch. I need to find some decor for the upper cabinets....they are too plain right now.

Once past the kitchen your in our living space. Which has our television sitting area, dining room and office. I did straighten up for the photo's, but since we are still in the midst of unpacking there's paperwork on our desk and randomness all over. Please forgive any oddities.

Most of our furniture is hand-me downs but we make it work for us. I love our counter high dining table, although it may not work for us once Emma starts eating solids. Behind the table is our desk and work area, where all this magic happens. We have two hand-me-down Lay Z Boy recliners that my hubby loves....around the corner across from the couch sits our media center and GIANT tv, that's not pictured.....honestly those aren't pretty to me. Also the hubby got a wall mount so he needs to install that. Any tips out there for hiding cords for renters?

These guitars were my fathers guitars. The acoustic one is signed by various country artists and he won it at an auction. They will always have a prime spot in my home....and so will my piano, when I have room for it.

The complex offered to paint one wall for free so I picked the "blue" color. Honestly its a cool grey, but I think it works well with our decor and I really like the way it looks.

We love blankets in this home and most of them are homemade quilts and afghans made by my mom. It the winter we love to snuggle up under them and have huge stashes in our closets and trunks. We will never be cold!

Since we are in the age of gallery walls, I knew I needed to incorporate on the large wall space by our front door. I didn't want it to be the same as the one in our last apartment. I knew that I wanted to have it be special and have some significance to us, so I made a "patriotic" wall. I pulled together various pieces that meant USA, in our eyes and pulled it together with some gold elements. I used photo's from our travels around the country, pictures of us, a photo of my dad in his Air Force uniform, classic cars, martinis and of course a map of the United States.

I have been on the hunt for a unique map of the US and I was finally able to find one. I discovered the Fulcrum Gallery website and they had tons of different types of art including different maps of the world and have a whole section for "Art of Places." Once I selected my print I could choose whether to have it framed, put on canvas, or just sent as the print. I chose to have it framed to be cost effective, but I think that it would have been really nice on canvas. While their matt color selections were a little limited, I was able to find one that worked well with the print.

Since all the work is done in the good ole USA and done by a person and not a machine, it took a little time for production and shipping, but it was worth the wait for a quality piece. I was impressed with the paper back finish, the hangar system was wonderful also. It was nice to not see a cheap hangar or a wire, but a real art hangar. It was super easy to install as well as my hubby stated since he did the hanging. Also included were felt backers on the bottom of the back to help from scratching your wall, and a signed sticker assuring quality American craftsmanship. Perfect touch for this patriot lover!

While the amount of prints and art pieces on the site can be overwhelming, I think that the Fulcrum Gallery has something that everyone will love, at any budget. I will be shopping there again. Keeping money and jobs here in the USA is important to me and I am glad to have found a retailer their sticks to those values as well. Good job! Head on over if you need a gift for the holidays or an empty spot on your wall that needs filling. Walls are meant to be filled with meaningful art.

I was sent my artwork in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

Anniversary Subway Art

I have dabbled in wall art for a little while here. When I learned that Photoshop does more than edit photos I knew that I wanted to make Subway Art for our friends and families. It's really popular and its a great addition to your home. I have done Disney inspired art, music lyrics and of course anniversary art for my sister and brother in law.

When my dear cousin asked me to make one for her ten year anniversary, I took to Pinterest to get some inspiration and we talked wording and we came up with this:

The quotes "The art of married life is in the journey." and "It takes faith to go forward together without knowing what the future holds." are verses from their wedding vows. We used dates, various cities and other items that were important to their relationship and we included their little ones name also. I used vintage inspired fonts to keep with their retro theme that is in their home. I put it on a chalkboard background and sent it over to Costco for printing. Three days later and it was ready! It's so fun to make these and I hope to make one for my own family one of these days!

 

Happy Anniversary to my favorite cousin and her family!

Wood Table Refinish DIY

Ok. We all know that Pinterest is a seriously addicting site, sometimes to the detriment of our social lives or conversations with the hubby. I am completely guilty of missing a scene on a show or a statement that the hubs has made because I was engrossed in the app. However, Pinterest has given me hundreds of great ideas and usage for ordinary household products that you never would have thought of. We all know vinegar is an amazing product. It can be used as a food ingredient but it can also be used as a cleaning and beauty product as well! I have been shown the ways of vinegar and I am impressed.

The next use for vinegar that I was a little skeptical about was refinishing wood. I read here, that if you mix olive oil and white vinegar and rub it on your wood piece that it will remove the scratch marks from your wood furniture. I have two end tables that were very inexpensive. We have used and abused them to the point where I was embarrassed to have guests look at them. They either needed to be refinished or thrown away, at $60 a pop we could afford to replace them. But I love their shape and color so why not try this little trick. It was worth a shot.

What You'll Need:
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
Measuring cup
Rag

Directions:
1. Mix your oil and vinegar together. Dip your rag in the mixture and rub onto your surface.
Seriously that is all you do. I was skeptical that it would work, but after an hour of using some elbow grease and continually rubbing the mixture in I was seeing slow results. This won't remove any dents in your finish, but it will rehydrate the wood and bring the stain back to the surface. As you can see in the photo, my table was in pretty bad shape with the water stains, but now it looks 100 times better. Not perfect, but it isn't embarrassing anymore!

Do you have any tricks with vinegar that you like to use? My other favorite is baking soda! Please share any home trick that you like to use in the comment section!

U.S.A. Patriotic Door Hangar - DIY

Last month I did a guest post over at Jo, My Gosh with a Patriotic door sign. I thought that enough time had passed that I could share that tutorial on this space! With 4th of July right around the corner and Labor Day in the next couple of months there is still time for you to create your own little pieces of patriotic craftiness. Seriously, I have no patriotic decor in my house! Such blasphemy since I come from a military background. So I decided to remedy that and make myself this little sign! I'll tell you right now that I had big plans for this, plans that had to be scaled back due to time.....I tend to over think a project trying to figure out all the ways I can do it. Read below as to how I made some errors along the way, hey they help you not make them! Also this is super easy to do, just time consuming.

Supplies:
Scrap piece of wood (mine is about 6"x14")
Sand Paper
Contact paper (you know for lining your kitchen drawers, Dollar Tree!)
Xacto Knife
Paint (Several colors; red, white and blue)
Paint Brushes (Or sponges)
Glitter (optional)
(3) fabrics (for rosettes)
Glue gun and glue
Steel Wire
Eye Hook Screw
Drill and Bits
Pliers with Wire Cutter

1. As you can see, I had planned for it to be a MUCH larger piece. Oh well. Anyways, take your wood and sandpaper and sand the surface down a little to be able to let the paint stick.
2. Paint 2-3 coats of white paint onto the wood, I did fairly light coats and made sure to make my brush strokes seen for that rustic look. I also tried to make it look a little like white wash. How you want it to look is totally up to you!
3. Once your paint has dried (over-nightish) take your sandpaper and sand around the edges and on the surface a little to give that aged effect. I did a little in the corners and some in the middle as well.
4. Ok, here's where it may get tricky.....well at least it did for me. First time experience with using contact paper in my printer.....didn't go too well. Ideally this is what you should do. Cut your contact paper 8-1/2"x11" to fit into your printer. Print out your image onto the top of the contact paper, not the paper back. Using your Xacto knife carefully cut out your stencil, and place it centered on your board. Press the edges of the contact paper down so it sticks nicely and the paint will not seep under. Here's what I did....I printed out my image on regular paper until I figured out a good size. Then I placed my contact paper in my laser printer, mistake 1, upside down, mistake 2. Realized that I did this, I put the *ahem* 'warm' contact paper, mistake 3, back in the machine and re-printed it. It came out of my printer a melted ball of mess. So I took my regular printed paper and did the old scribble on the back with a pencil and then trace onto the contact paper trick. The font that I used was a little tricky to cut out as I had to cut out all the small pieces and then re-position them onto the board, but it made for a really great look! Take the extra time and just do it!

5. Paint over your stencil with a paint sponge or just a brush....I of course found my sponges AFTER the project, so I just used a regular paint brush. I also put glitter on it once my last coat of paint was a little tacky. It looks super fun! Let dry and carefully peel away your stencil. To get the smaller pieces off I used the tip of my Xacto knife.
6. Make your rosettes. I used three different fabrics, two were patriotic and one was blue with a Scottish Terriers on it, but hey rolled up you can't tell! I used this technique to make my rosettes....again first time trying this skill! I cut my fabric 1" wide by about 14" long. For the red and light blue rosette I used two strips and for the navy rosette I used 3.
7. Flip your board over and attach your eye hooks and wire. I would pre-drill the holes to get you started. You can use these instructions to help you out! Once your hanger is attached flip your board back to the front. Take your glue gun and attach your rosettes to the front.
8. If you like you can take a strip of burlap and tie a little bow on the wire. Hang and admire your work! :-)

I'm so excited to have this in my home! I need to get a hanger for my front door. but for now it looks nice hanging under our little family portrait. I hope you enjoyed this post and if your looking for any other crafting projects, or just wish to stop by and look around please head on over to my blog, DD Kimball Road. Thanks for reading!

Diane

DIY Patriotic Sign Guest Post at Jo, My Gosh!

Hey Guys!!! I know I don't normally post on Saturdays, but Jo over at Jo, My Gosh asked that I do a guest post for her. Her beau is back from overseas and she wants to spend lots of time with him. We all understand that right? I would soak all the time in if my hubby had been gone for a year!

So she asked for anything that was Patriotic related....food, drinks, crafts. Also stories of homecomings. I contributed by making a really cute rustic sign to hang on our door. We didn't really have much that was Patriotic in our home so this was the perfect start. I had some hiccups along the way, but head on over and give my tutorial a read! Also tell her thanks for her and her loves sacrifice for our country! We couldn't be the USA without people like them!

Crochet Pillow Cover

A couple of weeks back I posted about this ADORABLE crochet pillow cover that I wanted to do. I have a ton of leftover yarn from Christmas projects and I am in a "lets recover every pillow we own in our entire home" kind of mood lately. The husband gives me a side eye whenever I utter the words, pillow or re-cover. Hey. At the end of the day I'm saving us money by not going out and shopping! Right?! Right. So anyways I saw this adorable pillow and I knew instantly that I could re-create it. So here she is!

I am so excited to add this baby to our collection of teal pillows on our bed. Head on over to check out the other pillows I re-covered already! Also I am linking up for Saw It, Pinned It, Did It with Beautiful Mess and Keep Calm and Carry On.

DIY $10 Chalkboard and Frame Re-Wire Tutorial!

Since its been all the rage on Pinterest I have been wanting to make a chalkboard for sometime now. Several months ago I was walking our pup and I noticed a vacant garage with a beat up and broken mirror sitting alone in it. I went to our leasing office to make sure it was abandoned before I claimed it. The previous owners obviously broke the mirror while moving and just decided to leave it there. Once given the blessing from our leasing office that it was indeed abandoned, I cleaned it up a bit and got my supplies ready. The frame itself had a lot of potential once spruced up, and repainted from the dirty gold color that it was. It also needed to be re-wired because, #1 it was wired landscape and I wanted it portrait and #2 because the wire was bent out of shape and just needed replacing!

How it looked before!

DIY $10 Chalkboard and Frame Re-wire

What You Need:
Frame with wood back board (Free!)
Paint or Spray paint (I used existing wall paint that we had in our garage- Free!)
Paint Brush
Chalkboard Paint or Spray paint (I used spray paint cause it was cheaper - $6)
Steel Wire ($2)
Eye Hook Screws ($2)
Staple Gun and Staples
Pencil and Measuring Tape
Drill and Bits
Pliers with Wire Cutter

Directions:
1. Make sure your frame is clean and free of dust and dirt. Paint your frame your desired color, probably do two coats of paint for adequate coverage. You should probably sand your  frame before hand to ensure good paint coverage, but I was lazy and skipped that step. We will see how well it holds up! Let dry overnight.

2. Spray paint/brush paint your wood back with chalkboard paint according to package directions. If spray painting make sure its WELL ventilated! Let dry completely at least 2 hours

3. Align your back on the backside of the frame evenly. Using your staple gun, staple the board to the frame ever 3 inches or so to insure the board will stay. My hubby even stapled diagonally in the corners!

4. Measure 6" down from the top of the frame and make a mark with your pencil. Take your drill and select a bit that is slightly smaller than your eye hook screw. Drill a starter hole about 1/4" into the wood on both sides. And screw in your eye hook screws.

5. Take your steel wire and thread through your eye hook about 4" or so. Bend up and start wrapping the wire back onto itself. Twist until the wire is completely wrapped and pinch in using your pliers. Extend the wire to the other side making sure that its long enough for hanging, but not too long that it extends above the top of the frame, clip the desired length with your wire cutters, thread wire through eye hook and wrap wire back onto itself until completely wrapped and pinch the end in.

6. Hang and admire your work! This is my first attempt at a graphic design using chalk! I guess I need a little practice!  I have seen many tips on writing on chalkboards on various websites, i.e. Pinterest. Also I have read that you need to 'prime' your chalkboard before you start writing on it to prevent ghosting. Take the side of a piece of chalk and rub it over the entire board and that should help. You will still see some ghosting, but hopefully not too bad! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!