Christmas countdown pallet sign

Christmas is only nine days away and I realized I still needed to share this fun project that will help your little one's count down the days!

I started off by assembling my pallet sign and giving a light coat of white paint.

If you have a steady hand you can free hand your words onto the sign, but I'm not crazy about my handwriting so I printed out my wording on the computer.

I attached the paper to my board with tape and slipped a piece of carbon paper (black side down) underneath.

Then I traced over the words with a pencil.

Voila! Perfect wording! 

I used a small paintbrush to fill in the wording.

I found these cute chalkboards at Michael's that I hot glued on after the paint dried.

I used a needle and thread to string some festive pom poms and then hot glued the thread onto the back.

Add a hanger to the back and you are ready to start your countdown.

Cute, inexpensive, and easy a winning combination!

Linking up to...

thewinthropchronicles, homestoriesatoz, Themakers, elizabethandco,

greenwillowpond, outsidethelinkparty, hitmewithyourbestshot,

whimsywednesdays

Staircase gallery wall

Last week I shared the new gallery wall in our family room and promised to show you what else received a new look in our home. Today I want to reveal another new gallery wall, this one is in our staircase.

I also moved our family sign to over the front door.

Since this stairway is one of the first things you see when you enter our home I decided to keep all the frames the same color and use all the black and white photos I previously had scattered around the house. 

It took me a few days to get the walls arranged to my liking, but now I'm loving both the new walls.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up this week to...

winthropchronicles, abowlfulloflemons, timetosparkle, homestoriesatoz, 

elizabeth&co, outsidethebox, whimsywednesday, whatevergoeswednesday,

serenitynow

new gallery wall

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We hosted our family gathering again this year which is always fun! 

I apologize for taking another blogging break the last couple of months. I spent that time trying to get some holiday items (banners and wood signs) stocked in my Etsy shop.

I'm back today to share the new gallery wall I completed just in time for Thanksgiving. I previously had some black and white frames on this wall, but after three years I was ready for a change in our family room.

All of the frames and items were gathered from around the house. The wood arrow I made is available in my Etsy shop, but I'm loving it on my wall!

Of course this means another area in our home got a new look as well. I'll share those photos with you later this week!

Have a great week!

linking up this week to...

mondayfunday, thewinthropchronicles, notjustahousewife, abowlfulloflemons,

timetosparkle, themakers, outsidethebox, housewivesofriverton,

greenwillowpond, whatevergoeswednesday, workitwednesday, embracingchange, 

classyclutter, tatertotsandjello, serenitynow

My Etsy shop

I am extremely excited to announce that my Etsy shop is finally open (insert cheers)!

I'm currently offering handmade banners that are perfect for the upcoming holidays. My fall banners are all made with old dictionary pages for a unique feel.

Here is a sample of what you can find there...

I'm also working on banners for Christmas and Winter and hoping to get those added to my shop shortly.

I would love for you to check it out and let me know what you think. I also need advice for getting traffic or if you have any other suggestions for me.

Thanks for coming by today!

Fall mantel and tour

Happy Monday! 

Hope you all had a great weekend! We had a very cold early morning soccer game (I was looking glamorous with a scarf wrapped around my face and bundled up in a blanket), my girls and I went and saw Maze Runner (thumbs up), and Sunday our family spent the afternoon at a local farm with a huge corn maze and other activities. 

Today I'm finally ready to share my fall mantel and some other fall touches I've added around our home.

I kept decorations minimal and used items I already had from the past years (of course the pumpkins and mums are new). The banner is also a new item I made a couple weeks ago (more on the banner tomorrow)!

Have a great day!

linking up to...

tutorials&tipslinkparty, elizabeth&co, winthropchronicles, notjustahousewife,

abowlfulloflemons, themakers, outsidethebox, hitmewithyourbestshot, wowmewednesday, 

housewivesofriverton, fabulousdiyparty, serentiynow, thecreativecollection

HARVEST wood sign

I love decorating for fall...I love the colors, flowers, pumpkins and even the smells that fall brings. My kids enjoy the caramel apples and fall festivities. 

I was feeling crafty last week and decided to see what kind of fall decor I could whip up with what I had here at home. I rummaged around in our shed and came back with some wood that would be perfect for some small decorative signs.

This is what I started with

I lightly dry brushed the wood with some gray paint

Once the paint dried I brushed on some white

I wrote out my wording in chalk before painting in case I made a mistake

I used a small paintbrush to hand paint on the words

Since I had two pieces of wood I decided to go ahead and make a winter sign as well

I'm still working on my fall decorating and I can't wait to share everything with you when I'm finished!

linking up this week to...

thediy'ers, whatevergoeswednesday, livelaughrowe, serenitynow, the36thavenue,

 creativeinspirationslinkyparty, workitwednesday

Freezer meals round 2

A couple weeks ago I shared my first experience with making freezer meals (you can find that here). That was a LONG day, but it was worth all the work because those meals lasted my family for two weeks. It was a life changer for me, and something I now plan on doing every two weeks.

Last week I decided on some new recipes and went grocery shopping for all the ingredients. Friday I got to work putting everything together.

My freezer is now stocked with enough meals for more than two weeks! 

Right now we have a standard side by side freezer which is rather small in my opinion. I would love to have a freezer chest as well, but my husband and I are stumped as to where to put one. So for now I'm somewhat limited in how many meals I can make at a time.

Here are the meals I made for this round.


Teriyaki chicken



Spaghizza (spaghetti pizza)

Spinach lasagna rolls

I made mine without the spinach.

Chicken broccoli alfredo

Parmesan meatloaf

Breakfast burritos

I made two of each recipe and almost thirty of the breakfast burritos. I also made three servings of hamburgers that we can easily throw on the grill for dinner.

It has been such a relief the last two weeks not having to worry about rushing to put dinner together. Plus my family is getting to try some new recipes.

Have a great day!

Early fall shelf decor

It is hard to believe that it's already September. Summer flies by way too quickly every year. Now the kids have all settled into their new school schedules and my body has somewhat adjusted to having to wake up so early!

I had a little free time last week and decided to get a head start on my fall decorating by accessorizing the shelf in our foyer. It's fun to change out this shelf every season and for holidays.

I was at Hobby Lobby last week and fell in love with the little fox, I also picked up the artwork there as well. The ceramic pumpkins were a Dollar Tree find last year.

Now if only the weather would cool off it would really start to feel like fall.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by! 

linking up to

themakers, thediy'ers, hitmewithyourbestshot, whimsywednesday, yourwhimswednesday,

theseptemberinspirationexchange, workitwednesday, housewivesofriverton, serenitynow,

mondayfunday, polkadotsonparade, prettypreppylinkparty

Home tour

Where does the time go? It's hard to believe that summer is over and the kids are back in school. My son is a sophomore this year and my girls are both in middle school 8th and 6th grade (yes my baby started middle school this year). Now that school is back in session it means I am babysitting again and chasing around a super fast crawling 13 month old cutie pie. I only babysit three days a week so I'm hoping to find time to squeeze in some projects!

One thing I've been wanting to do for awhile is put together an updated home tour and answer some common asked questions about my home. Feel free to scold me now, I'm a terrible blogger and sometimes I get too busy or forget to answer some of your questions (I am sorry). I thought this would make it easier for readers to get those answers.

Let's get started...

foyer

The paint colors are Valspar barnwood (darker) and Valspar Khaki (lighter)

You can read more about my foyer below

striped foyer reveal, how to paint stripes, staircase gallery wall, black interior doors

Craft room/office

My desk and bookcases are all from the expedit series at Ikea. I painted the striped curtains and patterned wall.

You can read more about this room below

rearranged craft room, formal living room becomes craft room, living room, painted stripe curtains

Dining room

More on my dining room here.

Kitchen

The most common question I get asked about our kitchen is the size of our pantry, it is 42" x 45"

You can read all about our kitchen remodel below

kitchen reveal, my baking cabinet, new pantry

half bathroom

family room

You can find my diy wood sign tutorial here.

Family room before here.

mudroom

Our mudroom is my favorite makeover simply because this room didn't exist when we bought our home, it was part of our garage. 

The mudroom is roughly 9 feet x 4 feet

the shoe cubbie/bench is 16" deep

To see the entire room being built you can check out part 1, part 2, or skip to the big reveal.

basement

Paint color is Glidden wood smoke

Our basement is the perfect place for our family to relax together and watch a movie. It is also great for when the kids have friends over!

Before it became strictly a game/theatre room it also doubled as my scrapbooking space.

You can see all my basement posts here.

kid's bathroom

You can find more about their bathroom below

bathroom reveal, pallet clock, original brown and blue bathroom.

boy bedroom

The room color Behr retro avocado.

Yes I painted his fan and I still love it

For more room details and pics go here.

girl bedroom

This girl has loved pink since... FOREVER! Now that she is getting older she has decided for her next birthday we should makeover her room! Yeah she is my mini me. Even though her birthday is a whole nine months away we've already been talking about colors and bedding etc. 

You can see her entire room here, and her zebra desk makeover here.

Chevron girl bedroom

Her room is Olympic secret passage and the dark in the chevron and on dresser is Behr elephant skin (same as master bedroom).

You can see more of her completed room here along with a detailed price breakdown. 

master bedroom

Paint color is Behr elephant skin.

Our master bedroom was completed on a tight budget of $3oo. You can see before photos and price breakdown here.

master bathroom

Paint color is Behr graceful gray.

Patterned towels were purchased at Meijer.

View bathroom reveal here along with the before pictures.

laundry room

Laundry room reveal here.

Thanks for checking out my home tour!

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Linking up to the following

creativecollectionlinkyparty, tatertotsandjello, homestoriesatoz, thewinthropchronicles,

notjustahousewife, themakers, thediy'ers, hitmewithyourbestshot, whimsywednesday,

theseptemberinspirationexchange, workitwednesday, housewivesofriverton, serenitynow,

mondayfunday, polkadotsonparade, prettypreppylinkparty, creativeinspirationslinkyparty