Laundry Room Makeover -- Inspiration

My laundry room is horribly boring. I feel like that's typically a pretty boring room in any house. But we enter our house through the garage about 95% of the time, and we walk in to the laundry room first thing. Whenever we have guests, they have to walk through the laundry room to get to the half bath. Also, I feel like I spend an absurd amount of time in there these days....seriously, does laundry ever stop??? So even though it's not that exciting of a place to be I feel like I've got plenty of motivation to make it pleasing to the eye. Or my eyes, more specifically.

I don't want to do a big overhaul, because this is something I'll have to fit in during nap times. I wish we could replace the floors. Oh, how I wish. The laundry room, half bath, and guest bath upstairs all have that awful linoleum flooring that was so popular in the early 90s when our house was built. I desperately want to replace it all, but it's not really in the budget at the moment.

So basically, I need something inexpensive and easy that I can do on my own in not a lot of time. Simple, yeah? I've been browsing through Pinterest and houzz lately for some inspiration, and these are my favorites so far.

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I'm all over the place here. No real consistent thing I'm going for yet, obviously. A couple of notes: it's a small room, only wide enough for a washer/dryer. There are three doors (to the guest bath, garage, and living room), so the only solid wall is the back wall behind the washer/dryer. No windows, no natural light whatsoever. So, yeah...not a whole lot to work with!

So, anybody have any great advice/suggestions/ideas for me? I would LOVE the help!

Sprucing Things Up

I love decorating. I love home decor. I love crafty little projects. I love working on crafty little projects to decorate our home. Seems simple, yeah? Somehow, with a wittle baby, it seems like it's been about 18 years since I have done anything remotely crafty at all, and just as long since I've done anything new to our house. So since my mind is a big ol' jumble and I can't ever remember exactly what it was that I was thinking I wanted to do to (insert random project here), I think I'll make a little list to keep me on track in the fleeting moments of free time I get in a day. I plan to DIY as much of this as possible...or thrift and re-do. Now that I'm a stay at home mama I gotta save that $$$!

• Buy new plants for the pots on our front porch...and keep them alive. Not crafty, but good Lordy it needs to be done.
• Add light fixtures to the front columns of the house. 
• Line the flower beds with rock or brick.
• Paint the front door. Black? Dark Gray? Black/Brown? Red? Who knows...

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• Rug for the entry.
• New light fixture for the entry.
• Sofa table to replace our 1987 super shiny hand-me-down.
• Paint the banister on the stairs.
• Get black and white wedding photo canvas for gallery wall by stairs.
• Paint kitchen walls something other than gross golden-yellow.
• Brighten up kitchen with more colorful accents.
• Paint credenza in garage and move to breakfast nook area.
• Organize kitchen cabinets...somehow.
• Paint accent wall behind TV Darker color? Stripes?

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• New shade/blinds for back door.
• Tear out deck in backyard.
• Tear down tree in backyard.
• Have concrete/brick patio put in. 

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• Add sod, small trees/bushes to backyard.
• Tile floors to replace blah linoleum in laundry room and half bath.
• Add shelf above washer and dryer.
• Paint laundry room.
• New faceplates on light switches throughout house.
• Add something above bed in master bedroom. Gallery wall? Large piece of art?
• New light fixture by shower in master bath.
• Paint cabinets in master bath.
• Tile floor to replace linoleum in upstairs bathroom.
• Paint walls in upstairs bathroom.

So. That should keep me pretty busy. I've got several other little bitty projects I want to work on for random decor stuff, but those are the real "house projects" that I want to accomplish. I've got loads of inspiration gathered on Pinterest and Houzz, so I should be good to go.

I'm hoping this will keep me accountable and ensure that I actually get one or two of these things done in the next few months. I mean, some days I'm lucky if I get to brush my hair, so we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck! 

Also, don't forget to enter to win a $50 gift card to Walgreens from Dr. Smith's! 

A Semi-Productive Weekend

This past weekend was a good one. My mom came to visit from Wednesday until Monday, so we had some good mother/daughter time. And her husband came down Thursday and was a HUGE help! We've been wanting to get started on the nursery for awhile, and a couple weekends ago we got one wall painted...and that was it. Well, he was down here for a day and got the entire room painted, the new blinds hung up, and the new ceiling fan installed! I seriously don't know how he did it all so quickly. I mean, my mom helped, but I think he probably did most of the heavy lifting.

If you're wondering, Arsen was at work and I was working from home on Friday when they did all of this work, we weren't just being the most terrible, lazy people ever. But I'm pretty sure Arsen was quite relieved that Basil decided to do all the work on Friday when he conveniently couldn't participate...

Our practically new hand-me-downs from Arsen's sister! 

We decided to go neutral with gray walls so it will work boy or girl. Also, I'm thinking we most likely won't space our kids out too far, so if the next one is the opposite of whatever this one happens to be I didn't want to have to re-do everything. I really like how it turned out! I'm planning on going pretty bright with the bedding and everything, so I think it will look great!

On Saturday we went and picked out a crib and dresser to go in our beautiful new nursery, although we didn't make the purchase yet. Umm, baby furniture is expensive! Who knew? Luckily, Nana Vicki (my mom) plans on buying the crib for us, so that will be a huge help. She and I also went shopping that day to get me a few maternity tops. As you may have noticed if you saw my 16 week update, I've got a bit of a belly now. Since all I've been wearing is leggings, I needed more long shirts to go with those. So that was kind of fun. Although I felt like I had some sort of weird identity crisis when I saw the "Motherhood" tags in my new clothes...like, I'm actually going to be someone's mother? It made me feel old, what can I say. Happy-old, but still old.

We also had our first fire of the year! It wasn't even really all that cold, but it was fun. I made Addie pose with me for a photo....I tried to get Arsen in on a family photo, but he wasn't having it.

 Could I be any creepier?

Demon Eyes!

I must say, it was a pretty nice little weekend. Arsen and I have both been super overwhelmed and stressed at our jobs lately, so a good weekend was much needed. I hope we're just going through a little trial in our lives for some reason, cause it's getting old. But thankfully, this week is a short one! Two more work days, then off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving! I'm excited to head to Oklahoma for a few days and visit family. If I'm not back before then, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Kitchen Updates (ish)

When we moved into our home, pretty much the only room that didn't need some type of update was the kitchen. It was pretty beautiful. Granite counter tops, nice floors, stainless steel appliances...in fact, the kitchen is what really sold us on the house.

So the fact that I'm doing this "update" post really just means that I cleaned the kitchen and rearranged some things, so I thought it would be a good time to take some photos. I'll give you a taste of the before photos. Please excuse the poor-quality iPhone pics:

And here's what we've done with it. I think the most telling photos are the ones of the sink, which show the changes we've made in the living room. Yikes.

Now, if I had designed this kitchen I might have picked a different granite, and I definitely would have used a different wall color. But overall I think it's really quite beautiful and I am so incredibly thankful that we don't have to upgrade the kitchen at all. Kitchens can be so expensive, and we were dreading buying a fridge when we got a home....but the guy left his! One thing he refused to leave was the flat screen he had mounted on the wall by the desk, but oh well. He said it was a special gift from a family member. Alright guy, keep your TV.

Anyhow, we are still lacking a table and chairs in the bay window area, and need a chair for the desk, but that's really about it. I'm constantly rearranging things on the counters, so this current arrangement should stick for a couple months before I take everything off, set it on the center island thing, and rearrange all over again. Spending a couple hours cleaning, arranging and rearranging things until I think they look good is one of my favorite things. What can I say, it brings me joy :)

Bathroom Updates

Well....I just learned a very valuable lesson. Don't EVER try to edit anything on blogger from your iPad. I went in to tag this post and...it was gone. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Maybe the most frustrating thing ever. So, now that I'm back on my trusty laptop, let's try this again, shall we?

As a recap of what I just posted, when A and I first moved into this house, we knew there were a lot of things we wanted to change. A lot. It wasn't horribly out-dated or anything, but there were quite a few things that screamed mid-90s. Brass doorknobs and seashell shaped bathroom sinks to name a few. I immediately knew something had to be done about the master bathroom. It wasn't horrible....it was just super plain. A blank canvas, if you will. Definitely could have been worse. Here's a little "before" action for you:

Pretty. So yeah....that's what we were working with. I knew I wanted to paint, because to me nothing is more boring than plain white walls, but A prefers black and white and...nothing else. So I thought grey would work nicely. And it made it easy to sneak some red in with a few small accents. So here are the most recent photos. Like everything else in our house, it's a work in progress, but I'm pretty pleased with how it looks so far:

Other than the paint, which made a huge difference (paint is my #1 favorite way to update a room on the cheap), we replaced the towel racks, tore down the awful wallpaper behind the mirror, and replaced the mirror with two individual ones that we got at Ross for something like $50 bucks each. Other than that it was just adding a few decorations here and there. 

So there you have it! Now, after re-typing this post I am super tired and beyond ready for bed. So that's it. Goodnight friends!

Our (not so) Productive Weekend

This weekend was all about relaxation. For the first time in I don't know how long, we literally didn't have a single thing we *had* to do. It was amazing. Of course I was super ambitious going into the weekend, and had a list of about 137 things I wanted to accomplish...and then I didn't.

Last week I was still feeling quite horrible, so when Friday rolled around I wanted nothing more than to put on sweatpants and relax on my couch. And that's basically what I did. We picked up around the house a little bit, but the majority of the evening was spent watching TV in our sweats. Perfection.

Saturday was a bit more productive. I was determined to hit up some garage sales that morning...and then I slept until 9. But I managed to get up and around in time to go to one measly sale before my hair appointment at 11. It was Arsen's first garage sale experience, and he wasn't too impressed. This is a recap of what he told me:

"I don't really get excited about getting new stuff. Like, I don't care if I have new things. So shopping all day to try and find good deals sounds horrible, because I don't care about good deals. I don't need anything".

Sigh. What is wrong with this man, and how are we married? I get more joy out of finding a good deal than I get from almost anything else in life. It's unbelievable. But I digress...

In our 10 minutes of garage sale-ing (not a word?), we did manage to find a couple of things that I was oh-so-excited about. I found these adorable little "cappuccino mugs" (as Arsen called them). There were only three, so not a complete set, but they were $1 for the entire bunch. Are you kidding? I love anything kitchen/dining related, so finding cute cups and dishes and whatnot is pure joy for me.

I also got this little basket for a quarter! I've been meaning to buy a basket or something to keep all of our Wii stuff in, like the remotes and joystick thingys and games, but I keep forgetting. Arsen actually picked up a couple of baskets and was like "Do we need these for anything?". Oh yeah, that's why we're married! I ramble on and on about all the stuff I need to buy, and sometimes he pays attention and reminds me. Nice! I'm actually planning on spray painting it to make it a little cuter. I wanted to do something fun and bright, like blue or yellow, but the look of disgust that came from Arsen when he heard that suggestion shut that idea down real quick. I'll probably go with white. Fun hater.

After my hair appointment where I became a "real" blonde again, we went to a yummy Mexican restaurant, Mattito's, in downtown Frisco for some queso and chips, beer (for him), and fajitas. It was pretty amazing. And so filling. We didn't have another bite to eat for the rest of the day.

Then we decided to hit up Lowe's because I've been obsessed with finally planting something in the pots that have been sitting on our front porch completely empty since we moved in like 10 months ago. After a long, looong time of debating, I picked some pretty pink ones. And no, I don't remember what kind they are. I'm not really an attention-to-detail kind of girl most of the time (I'm trying to improve). But I think they are quite lovely!

The evening was finished up with a Grey's Anatomy marathon and several Bloody Mary's. Quite the perfect Saturday in my opinion.

Sunday we went to visit his parent's, who live about 20 minutes away. We had breakfast with the two of them, his sister, and her two oldest boys. It's always so nice to see everyone, even if it's only for a couple of hours. It's crazy that we live so close to them, but we only see each other every couple of months. Well, we see his parents usually about once a week or so, but his sister and brother and their families, not so much. On our list of things we want to improve upon!

After a quick jog (where my lungs almost gave out) and a bit of cleaning house, the weekend ended the same way it started. On the couch in sweats, watching TV. Overall, it was one of the best weekends we've had in awhile. I guess when you get old, and partying takes so much energy, and the hangovers are SO much worse, and you realize the incredible amounts of money you are blowing on $8 drinks, a quite weekend at home is pretty great :)

Weekend Bliss

I love weekends. LOVE them. I never really understood why weekends were such a big deal until I started working 8-5 Monday through Friday.

Don't get me wrong, I like working. Arsen may disagree, but I actually get super bored if I don't have something going on, so I think I would die without a job. But I loooove having free time to do whatever I want. It's crazy how difficult it is to get things done when you're at work 40 hours a week. So I seriously treasure my time off.

This weekend turned out totally different than what we planned. We were supposed to be going to Dallas to hang out with friends for St. Patrick's day, but Arsen decided to work Saturday morning for a little overtime, and then by the time he got back we were both tired and decided it would be a huge hassle. Going into St. Patty's day madness at like 4 pm when everyone else has been drinking for hours just didn't seem like the most pleasant thing in the world. So we decided to save it for another weekend.

 Addie in her St. Patty's Day beads

Also, yesterday was our 6 month anniversary. I kind of can't believe it's already been that long. We didn't do much to celebrate since we had made other plans, so as a bit of a fall back we went out to dinner at Razzoo's so Arsen could get his precious crawfish.

We came home and decided to be productive, so we tackled a random project that I found on my love Pinterest. All of the door knobs in our house are disgusting brassy gold, so we picked up some Rustoleum spray paint at Lowe's and spray painted them an oil rubbed bronze color. It makes a HUGE difference, and actually is super easy....and cost about 6 bucks.

I also worked on a crafty little project I'm doing for my friend Katie's bridal shower. It took way longer than planned, but turned out super cute. I think I'll actually save all the stuff I'm doing for her shower for a later post :)

On a side note, Addie has been sick all weekend. I'm not sure what's going on with her, but she has been doing nothing but moping around and sleeping. Friday night around midnight she got sick and threw up several times. Of course I have been freaking out and am convinced she's horribly ill, but it's probably just allergies or something.

 My poor sick little one

This is how I know I have the best mom ever, and how I know she married the most understanding man alive. I called her earlier today saying I'm so worried about Addie, I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow because I don't want to leave her home alone all day, and I don't really know the people at her new daycare (yes she goes to daycare) well enough to ask them to keep an eye on her and all that. We got off the phone, and five minutes later her husband called and said they were packing an overnight bag and would be driving down so they could stay with Addie while Arsen and I work tomorrow. They live about four hours from us. Are you kidding me??? I felt a bit like a spoiled brat, but they promised they really wanted to come. So now I am incredibly relieved and won't be worrying about my tiny dog all day tomorrow.

Second week of the new job starts tomorrow....so far I'm loving it! It's been a little crazy and overwhelming, like any new job, but I think I'm going to absolutely love it.

Now, gotta get back to my door knobs :)