Let There Be Light

We have lived in our duplex for almost a year now. I can't believe it has been that long. We've made a lot of progress but there is still so much to do. When we first moved in JP and I were both working, but neither one of us was making a whole lot. When he got laid off I had to pick up more shifts. So for about 6 months I was working almost every day and could barely pay our bills. Didn't leave much time or $$ to fix up our house. We finally caught a slight break. I still work a lot, but I can finally afford to fix up the house a bit. :)

Enough about all that though.

Like a said, almost a year here. Almost a year of this.

This is our hallway. This is how it has been since we moved in. This is what we had to deal with every night as we went to our room. We've had light bulbs and step ladders, just never used them together in the hall.

Until now.

Ta-Da!!!!!

We can finally see! And yuck! The hallway is pretty gross. I really need to clean it up. It turns into another catch-all.

But look at those amazing bare walls. Wonder what to do with them?? :) :)

The Start Of A Gallery Wall

As you know we recently painted one wall in the living room light blue. I really want to turn half of the wall into a wallpaper effect gallery wall. That means it will go from floor to ceiling with frames and items. I can't wait to get started on it. I plan on using Ikea frames, Ribba and Nyttja. I will be doing it in black, mostly because I just bought like 8 black frames for some of the wedding pictures. Not too worried about it being too dark though.

Yes, I said part of the wall. Because we plan on making a hallway! To do this we are going to curtain off JP area so that he can have his space and keep it how he wants, without me going insane over its yucky-ness. Win win for everyone.With the layout of the new room we will be able to create a hallway that leads into the family space, which will be the other half of the living room. So, the "hallway" will be the gallery wall! It's going to be awesome!!! :)

I have an idea about what I want to put there. But I have picked out a lot of prints that I'm not sure about. I need your help!!!

These are the choices ::::::::

These are all from Etsy and the shops are in my favorites.

I can't decide which ones I like the most. If I should only pick one or two, or all of them!

What do you think? I could really use the feedback :)

Sneak Peek At The Room

Hey :) My kid is back. It's been awesome spending time with her. And JP of course, I missed him too.

Before they got home I was able to finish a couple of my projects. Like this one!

Our wall is blue! It's so pretty :)

My paint

Everything I needed. It ended up taking me longer than I wanted. I didn't get enough paint the first time. But, it's finished :)


I also finished the revamp of the mellow yellow sofa table. Didn't know I was doing that did ya? :)

I really like this color a lot better. It's softer and matches better. There is way to much stuff on it, but that's because all of the pictures are going on our new gallery wall.

So, I'm not entirely sure what will go on it.

And we are planning out a new layout for the living room. We are going to make a hallway that holds the gallery wall. Then we are dividing up the room into 2 equal spaces. We plan on hanging curtains to block of "JP". I'm super excited about the gallery wall. I've been spending way to much time at Young House Love. I love their gallery wall and can't wait to do it our way!

So, my family is back. I'm totally happy about it. And I'm working on the kitchen next :)

Missing You

It's been a lonely week. I'm missing my little family :)

Come home soon! :)

All The Little Things

Hello! I'm back for a quick little post.

Story and JP went on a little trip so I've had some unexpected free time. Of course I started multiple projects, none of which are complete :) That's just how I roll.


I will start with the small thing I did in the  kitchen. Remember our trip to Ikea?.....

I got a Grundtal magnetic strip and canisters! They are awesome. The smaller colorful ones I picked up at World Market, for $1.99 each! I also hung the Bygel rail and S hooks. I have another one of those and a few other surprises for this wall.

Sorry the picture is blurry. I didn't realize at the time I was taking such crappy photos. I was probably too excited :)

One morning I decided to just get up and go to Target. I brushed my teeth and put a sweater on over my PJ's and left. It's nuts, I never seldom do things like that. It's okay though, cause I picked up a lot of cute things.

I couldn't resist this had towel. I've been wanting to get a few colorful ones. Majority of mine are coffee themed and I've changed that up.

Here is that bad boy in action. I love the pop of color.

I also piked up 2 canisters from Ikea. They are clear. And pretty much empty in the picture. (it's always a sad day when the coffee canister is almost empty)

So that's it for the kitchen.

Now it's time to move on to the living room.

Big excitement!

This is a close up of our wall. Isn't it awful? There are spots like this all over the place. We have one long wall in the living room with both entrances on either side of it. Makes for difficult furniture spacing. I got rid of the tall table.

And then I painted.

Yes, all of that discoloration is really there. The landlady had left a gallon of paint with a note saying it was to be used for touch-ups after we were moved in. So that's what I did. But it's the wrong color white. Instead of living in a house where everything is just the same color, we have about 4 different colors of white all over the place. I of course didn't realize this until after I had painted the ENTIRE wall :) So, it had to be fixed. And I did. But it's not finished :) Later.


Back to the living room though. While I was at Target I picked up a few other things.

This is a solar paneled lantern. I didn't get it for that. I just thought it was super cute.

I also found this little treasure. From World Market, it was in their bathroom section, for $4.99. Awesome! It went in the living room.



So, this is it for now. I hope to finish the rest of the projects and show you a completed space.

Soon, I promise :)

Got My Ikea Fix

Story and I went to Ikea today!!! 

This is a trip I have wanted to take for about a month now. We had planned on going before the dryer broke. After we sorted all that out we had to start saving to fix our car. Turns out there is a lot of expensive stuff wrong with it. Luckily it's nothing that has to be fixed right away. So, we had a little bit of extra savings (thanks to Dad and Diana for their help with the yard sale). 

I got to work on my list. :) At first I had everything that I could possibly want listed. It was outrageous, and awesome. Then I started trimming down, and down, and down some more, before I came up with the basics. It was a lot of fun.

I knew how much I wanted to spend (how much I could)

Story had the maps all ready. She wanted me to take a picture of her backpack as well. She is very proud of it, she packed it herself. 

"Just us girls going to Ikea. We got our map. This is the way to Ikea. The other way is to Nina's. Gramma and Grandaddy's house is on here too. Daddy is staying home. Take a picture of my backpack Mom. I'm ready to go. Lets go. Come on Mom...." Story Sunshine

So with our maps, bags and money the first stop was to the bank.

Then off we went.

It's not too far away from our house. About 20 miles and 30-40 minutes, depending on traffic. We have a lot of traffic around here. But the trip went pretty smooth. We only got lost one time. And it wasn't my fault.... They were doing construction and the street I was supposed to turn onto had been renamed. We drove through the construction about 4 times before I figured it out. Story wasn't too pleased with that.

It doesn't look like much. But it caused me to drive like 2 extra miles each time I went through it. 

But we made it!

Story was, of course, starving by this point so the first thing we did was grab a bite to eat.

Story got the Swedish meatballs. She liked them okay enough. But next time I'll order her something else. I tried the dill salmon with mustard dill sauce. It was okay. Being the dummy that I am I didn't ask about food allergies. So as I'm eating this, thinking it's safe, I start to question the sauce. So I stop eating that. And then I get scared so I stop eating all of it. I was extremely hungry by the time we got home.

Story had a chance to play with all the cool toys they had set out. She even made a few new friends. It was really hard to tear her away from it. But I managed. We had a great time looking through the store. She became restless at the end, but I don't blame her. We were there for 4 hours :)

Here is a sneak peek at all the awesome stuff we got!!!! I can't wait to put it all together. I didn't get any screw so it will all have to wait a few more days. I got everything I wanted, and a little bit extra, and stayed under budget!!! Woohoo!!!!! :) :)

JP was really pleased with it all. He wanted to put something together.

Our new lamp! Our old one was pretty much destroyed. So this is a nice change. I only had one bulb so it's not as bright as it will be. It's a little too short as well, but we'll get used to it.

I hope to have some pictures of everything here in a few days. I have a pretty hectic work week and JP is trying to finish recording (which involves Story and I leaving for hours at a time). But I'll show you as soon as I can!!