around the house

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

Are you a Black Friday shopper or avoider?  I typically try to avoid it, but sometimes a great deal will persuade me to venture out into the crowds.  It has to be a really, really good deal, though.  Typically, we put up the Christmas tree and decorate.  I love to get in a workout too. Feels so good to move after a day of eating and being lazy.

Today, I thought I'd collect some photos to give you a glimpse of the house.  It's slowly starting to feel like home.  Space by space, room by room.  Turning a house into a home  takes a long time.  I still don't have any curtains hung.  All of my walls are still white like they were when we moved in.  (Except the kitchen which was lemon yellow and is now painted grey.)

I am sort of enjoying the process this time around.  I'm always moving things around and changing up things, so it's an ever-evolving art for me.  Here's a few snapshots of what some of the house looked like this fall.

This little space is in the entryway.  I fond the orange mirror in the Target clearance section, and the "Welcome" sign at yard sale. :)  Those square photos are Instagram prints that I stuck on with masking tape to make changing them up quick and easy.

This was a table centerpiece for awhile until I got tired of  the obstructed view across the table.  I eventually moved the vases to a shelf in the living room.

Z and I making dinner.  Notice the lovely lemon yellow?  My favorite! (sarcasm implied.)

The living room.

Master bedroom.

Repainted kitchen!  Yay for grey!

repurposing a large frame: diy

I hope you had a good weekend! We took a little family outing to IKEA on Friday night. It's a fun outing for everyone. We eat a cheap, yummy meal of sweedish meatballs and chocolate cake (I'm sure it's very healthy for us!), and then David and I get a little date night while the girls play in Small Land. They're brilliant to provide dinner and childcare and fun shopping all in one location. I love IKEA.

I will share my one little tip that we learned the hard way on Friday night. You must have your kids checked into childcare ONE HOUR before the store closes. I was not aware of that little factoid. So we arrived at Small Land at 7:08, and found out the store closed at 8:00pm, and that childcare was closed. It was a very sad moment for everyone. The girls love playing there, and we were looking forward to a little browsing time with just little Z.

Anyway, we ran into an old friend while shopping with the family. And, she totally made my night telling me that she checked this blog everyday! Really? Everyday? That's encouraging. I love hearing that someone reads this blog and enjoys it! Thanks, Jackie!

On to the subject of this post. Remember when I was stuck in a rut? I'm slowly working my way out of it. I decided to keep that large frame and repurpose it. I liked the size of it, and I didn't want to start from scratch, so I decided to try to work with it. I've been wanting to get more of my photography into my living room, and love how this turned out!



I had to tear off the backside of the frame and remove a bunch of staples and large piece of cardboard. When I took the actual print out, I realized it was glued to the matte board, so I just stuck my photos on top of the print by using the oh-so-high-tech scotch tape. Yes, scotch tape. In order to figure out what sized photos would work best, I took lots of measurements, and realized that I could fit 6 rows and 6 columns of 4x6 sized photos almost perfectly. The last column on the right is very slightly overlapped underneath the column beside it.



I just used photos that I already had on hand. (I have a box full still waiting for me to do something with them!) But, now that I know I love this, I'll probably be more diligent about printing out photos I love in order to put them in this frame.



Still don't love my sconces next to the large frame, but I'm so proud of taking a baby step! I'm thinking something more modern. Maybe some W's? I'm going for the non matchy-matchy look. Any more ideas?

the nursery

It's still empty, but here it is, just waiting for a baby boy to come along. Any day now, any day! The picture frames will be much happier once they are filled with the newest little Wood's face.

home decor

Here's my latest home decorating project. I painted the girls' bathroom green with a fun scalloped edge. The finishing touch: three pink circles topped with fabric-matted frames. I love it!

being crafty

I LOVE to be crafty. It's so fun and refreshing for me. Unfortunately, I haven't made much time for craftiness lately. Maybe it's due to my "craft" desk being a dumping grounds for everything else. However, I was inspired to complete a project in A's room that's only been an idea for the last year. Here's what I was up to yesterday.



(Don't mind the mess on the bookshelves. I think this is A's version of cleaning her room.) Thanks, again Dad for building this awesome shelf. We sure love it and use it a TON!



Here's the quilt that inspired me. (Thanks, Grandad! A loves her quilt!)