Spring Home Tour

Since I've last logged into this blog (about two years ago), there's been plenty of art created and furniture rearranged, but the most precious addition to our family, is a new baby! He's now scooting around with a huge smile on his face, and loving the attention he gets from morning to night. He might just be the cutest baby on the planet... yes, I might be a little biased.

Even though I'm not quite ready to start blogging on a regular basis just yet, I thought I'd sneak on here and share some recent photos while the baby is napping and the older three are outside playing "camping". These photos were snapped after the house was cleaned and the pillows were fluffed; my house does not look like this on a normal day. If you're coming over for dinner, it might, but stop by unannounced and mostly likely you'll walk through legos, and blocks, and school papers and books stacked on just about every table, dirty laundry in a pile, and folded laundry that has a hard time making it to the bedroom closets.

It's fun to look at these clean photos; I love a clean house! But as I'm going through this season of life I'm trying to embrace the messes and love life with these little ones who I've been called to raise. They're precious and much better than a clean and perfect house!

Mantel Decor for Spring (and Easter)

I recently took out a few sparkly Easter eggs to display around the house as we prepare to celebrate the holiday.  Since The Lettered Cottage is having a spring mantel link party this week, I thought it would be the perfect time to show the setup of my mantel and it's new sparkle.

Remember the candlesticks from last year?  Well, two of them got a quick update with a little Rub 'n Buff (I buy mine at Hobby Lobby).  I changed the candlestick color from cream to antique gold.... Rub 'n Buff makes updating things around the house so easy, literally rub and buff.  Such a quick and simple update.

Once the candlesticks had dried (less than an hour), I placed them on the mantel and put a pink sparkly egg in each holder... a perfect fit!

I created the large pink painting here and here, added a white ceramic bird (from Target), and clipped a large branch from a tree in my backyard and placed it in an old apple juice glass jar.

That completes the mantel for now..... later this week I'll be adding one more temporary decoration.  If you have a little man in your life who enjoys Star Wars, you'll really want to come back and check it out :)

 I hope you're enjoying spring-like weather!

Linking up to The Lettered Cottage.

Kitchen and Mini Mudroom Update

Over the past several months, I've slowly tweaked our kitchen table area and small mudroom.  Actually, what I call a mudroom is so, so tiny that I don't even know if I can really call it a mudroom, but we store a few on-the-go-items here, so it's our mini mudroom.

It was about a year ago that I last talked about the kitchen table and mini mudroom (ha- where has the time gone).... this is what it looked like last year....

And now.... progress (after a year!)....

I added zebra print seat cushions to the wooden chairs and recovered the black ottoman with pink alligator faux fabric.  The ottoman has been moved from the wall to the table for use as another seat and storage.... the kids and I keep our everyday shoes inside (the husbands are kept in the black closet).  I only wish the inside of our ottoman looked this neat everyday!

On the small wall next to the back door, I added a painted pink chair (Royal Fuchsia by Benjamin Moore) and covered the seat with a wide black and cream striped outdoor fabric from Tonic Living (the fabric in the frame is also from Tonic Living, Theo).

The setup has been working well so far!  I'll leave you with a picture of the freshness sitting on my kitchen table.

Enjoy your weekend (I'll be watching the NCAA tournament and hoping my brackets finish strong!).

Kitchen Shelving

Open shelves in a kitchen are one of the perfect places to display beautiful bowls, saucers, cups, pitchers, dishes, canisters, vases, frames.... almost anything!  The arrangement can be a mix of pieces that are used everyday, only for special occasions and even objects that are on the shelf purely for color or interest.  I recently rearranged items on the open shelves in my kitchen using our everyday dishes and more....

When we moved in the house, I removed the cabinet doors, painted the inside shelves Wythe Blue by Benjamin Moore (it's more of a green than blue), and arranged the shelves with a few items from around the house.  Now after living in the house for a year (time flies!), I tweaked the arrangement by adding dishes, bowls and a few odds and ends that had been hiding behind closed cabinets.

I love it best when old pieces (hand-me-downs, garage sale finds, collected antiques, etc) are combined with the new.... there's warmth and comfort with the old.  This used to be my grandma's soup warmer (there's an electrical cord in the back).... I love it!

And here's a few more photos of the open shelves.....

If you're looking for styling tips to decorate your shelves, I listed a few here.... the tips could be applied whether it's shelving in the living room, kitchen, a kid's room, etc.

So, what's your favorite way to display items in the kitchen?

The Husband's Art

The husband had a team building exercise at work where he was given a canvas, a brush and a painting lesson.  I was envious.... mostly because painting is probably one of the last things you'd ever find him doing while it's something I love to do.  So.... yes, we are two of the most opposite people..... I'm art and color, he's analytical and black and white!  But somehow all of our differences and opposite interests bring us together.  Kinda funny.

During the painting class, the husband said that the instructor gave his team a basic lesson... well, I think his painting turned out beyond basic.  I think it's awesome!  Looking at it makes me feel like I'm laying on a grassy field staring at a perfectly colored midnight-blue sky while the leaves are lightly falling all around (more like Virginia weather, definitely not Texas!).

The painting is now resting on the bookshelf.....

..... and the bold blue color really catches my eye from across the room.  So beautiful!  For the next date night, I think the husband and I need a painting lesson together!

Leaf Art

The kids and I visited the Houston Arborteum a few weeks ago to learn more about the wildlife in our area.  As we walked along the trails, the kids were looking for anything that crawled, slithered or flew above their heads.  We saw so many beautiful sites that day, a few tiny insects and thankfully no slithering snakes (or large animals)!  After our walk, we stopped at the arboretum's park (very fun!) to eat lunch and my daughter saw an interesting leaf on the ground... a heart shaped leaf!  We took the leaf home and it's now hanging on our living room wall....

To flatten the leaf, we carefully placed it inside a heavy book and let it sit between the pages for a few weeks.  When it was completely flat, we removed the leaf from the book to frame it.  I used a paper adhesive to secure the leaf to black poster board....

..... then wrote "love" using a gold Prismacolor maker (just like here and here).

We framed the heart leaf in a quick frame (it's one of my favorites) and hung it on the gallery wall in the living room.....

It's such a quick and easy project (minus the waiting time for the leaf to flatten)!  What's your favorite way to preserve nature that your kids (or you) bring inside?

Closet Organization

I recently followed Mrs. Limestone's Conquered Closet series and so many of the pictures inspired me to get creative and organize my own closet!  So, over the weekend I painted my coat closet.... it has been transformed from a space we hang coats, aimlessly toss hats and scarves on a shelf and throw shoes on the floor to an organized closet..... an organized black closet!  The new paint color, Benjamin Moore's Black Beauty, is perfect for the closet walls... it completely hides all those shoe scuff marks and brings a little style to the small space!

I started with a double-door closet that is tucked in a hallway toward the back of our house by two bedrooms and a laundry room.

Over time came the closet came to look like this.... no good!

It needed organization.... so I took everything out, cleaned the shelves, baseboards etc...

 

.... and then began the hard work.... squeezing myself inside the closet for a few hours, especially up on the top shelf to paint all the walls black.

Once the paint was dry, I brought most of our coats, shoes, hats, etc back inside the closet (the rest is being donated), plus a few extra goodies.

I bought matching gray suede hangers from Home Goods...

... and two galvanized bins to store our scarves, gloves and hats on the top shelf.  I printed labels and attached them to the bins, just like in our playroom (free printable here).

In an open area, I hung a gold frame with one of my new prints (free printable here).

I put my husbands shoes back in the closet (mine are now in the master bedroom closet- another area that needs to be cleaned and organized!).  The husband's shoes are stored on a make-shift bench of plastic bed risers and an old piece of wood.

And finally, what I love most, a good before and after photo....

 

Now that this closet is organized, it's given me the motivation to organize the rest of the closets in our house (and some drawers).  My mind feels more organized when my closets and drawers are organized.... think spring cleaning over here!