A New Bed!

Patrick built our bed a few months ago, right before T Patrick was born. It was a good first attempt, but it was a little sloppy, albiet the sturdiest bed you have ever seen! It was all 2x4s and 2x6s screwed together with huge screws and 3in bolts...heavy stuff. We had made panels to go around three sides, with big plans to make hinges on the top so they could be lifted for storage under the bed. They might be visible in the pictures in the "House Tour" page. Anyway, they were just leaning up against the bed for the last 6 months, pretending to be attached. And they were magnets for stubbing toes, knocking them over, exposing the particle board on the other side, just kind of a pain in general. One we hadn't been able to come up with a solution for. Also the sides of the headboard were unfinished, and our plan for finishing them wasn't making much progress and I didn't really have a lot of confidence that it would do the trick. So after six months, I decided we needed a change. Something lighter, sleeker, less of a big deal.

Here is what I ended up with after a few hours last night:

I love how it looks, even though it's still raw wood. I couldn't decide on a finish so I just made it and I can do something to it later. It definitely needs some more support too. But for now it's ok. And at least it's pretty! Up next is a headboard in this fabric:

I saw this on younghouselove and fell in LOVE with it. It is SO pretty! And incorporates both of the colors I have going on in my bedroom so nicely! I can't wait til it gets here! 

Abigail is waking up so this is going to be a quick post. I did take some photos of the bed-making process and will post more later!

Gallery Wall, Take Two

I LOVE gallery walls. The only reason I had a big wedding, and had babies is so I could have tons of lovely photos to fill up gallery walls all over my house! Ok, that is not the only reason, but it is a happy by-product of those life events! Anyway, I thought the wall about my sofa in the the living room would be a great place for a gallery wall. Original, I know. I really liked the idea of this project from Iheart Organizing:

I like how the clips add some interest, and allow you to change the artwork/photos on a whim, without the work of picking those little tabs and taking out the old photos, getting the frame back in the right spot, etc. 

Then there is this cute wall, from younghouselove:

And also from younghouselove, the ultimate gallery wall, it's like picture frame wallpaper! 

Now that I've shared with you my inspiration, let me show you my first attempt at a gallery wall:

Not very pretty, is it? I bought a bunch of these frames from Ikea a long time ago in anticipation of some great family photos after Tee Patrick was born. (That's cajun for Little Patrick, and it's what we decided to call him after nobody in either of our families was thrilled about calling him PJ.) Oh, and there used to be a vertical white 8x10 frame hanging in that blank spot, but I stole it for some art in Abigail's room because this wall was stupid anyway. 

I used that photo hanging thing, I forget what it's called, but it has an infomercial, it's like a little thumbtack gun you hit with a hammer and it puts an angled tack into the wall...anyway, not worth it, if you are considering getting one, don't waste your time! The other big problems with this wall are, in no particular order: the black thing that makes the frame able to stand on a table skews the frame and makes them all look wonky and slanted, I do not exactly have the most artistic eye when it comes to making "random" arrangements like this, and I didn't measure. Woops. However, I did at least lay them out on my kitchen table in an arrangement I was fairly happy with. I guess something got lost in translation from the table to the wall! 

All that to say, I have new plans for a different arrangement with different frames. I am going to get some flat white frames from Ikea soon and use those. I think I will still keep my eye out at our local ReStore (habitat for humanity) for some plain cabinet doors for a future project though! 

I don't have an after photo yet, but I did get my prints in the mail, and I think this is the arrangement I have settled on:

What do you all think? Yay or nay? Also, does anyone know of a REALLY GOOD photo printing site? I have been really unhappy with Riteaid lately, and ordered these prints from snapfish.com, and they are very grainy. Anyone have any better luck with another company? Please let me know! thanks :-)

Abigail is TWO!

My little baby turned 2 years old on June 27th! This post is a little late, but nowadays everything I do is a little late. Anywho. Her actual birthday was not all that exciting, since most of her friends have moved away, so no party. (Such is the life of an "Army Brat" right?) Her birthday was on a Wednesday, but we waited til Friday to celebrate since Patrick was off work. He surprised Abigail (and me!) by coming home from the store with a Dora cake! (Just so everyone knows, I had planned on getting her a small cake too, he just beat me to it!) That afternoon we went to Jumpin' Jacks which is an indoor play place with a bunch of bouncy houses. She had a lot of fun, and really held her own bouncing with the bigger kids. She had a blast on this HUGE slide thing, and climbed up the super tall ladder all by herself! Her favorite thing to do though was pretend to drive the car video game. 

{Almost} Finished Backsplashes!

I am really excited to have ALMOST completed my very first tile installation! I was feeling motivated this morning, and demo'd the tile backsplash around the sinks in our bathroom before I dropped Abigail off at daycare. I hadn't originally planned on doing that part this soon because I thought I would have to take the mirror down in order to knock of the tile, but I figured out a way to do it without taking off the mirror. I knocked the tiles from each side off easy peasy, but the back wall was tricky because there was wall on one side. and mirror on top, so my options were limited in terms of crow-bar placement. (I was hammering a crow bar between the tiles and the wall to pry them off.) Then I got the bright idea to take off the outlet cover and start there where I had some space and an exposed edge of tile to work with. Well I grabbed the outlet to pull it out of the way a little after removing the cover, and it turns out those screws on the top with copper wire around them have electricity running through them. Yep, I sure did electrocute myself, y'all. It wasn't terrible though, my arm started tingling and I was like "huh that's weird...Oh! I think I'm being electrocuted..." So, moral of the story: don't touch the screws on the top of the outlet. 

Moving on...backsplash demo'd. Filled in some holes with caulk so they could dry while I ran errands. Sadly, another daycare session not spent working on Lindsey's curtains. But hey, we needed pork from the commissary. Gotta eat to make curtains! (I can only sew when Abigail is at daycare because currently her bedroom is the only place I can sew in our house.) Sidetracked again...Anyway, I picked Abigail up from daycare at 12:15 and went to Home Depot to rent a wet saw. (I had already tried the Lowes right down the street, but they don't rent tools. Darn.) Fast forward an entire afternoon and here is where I ended up:

(Bonus: a nice view in the mirror of the pile of socks that need to be matched and put away on the dresser!) 

Can I just say that cutting little pieces of glass mosaic on a big saw is not very easy? Because it's not. It's actually pretty hard. But I did a good enough job I think, and it should look pretty darn good once it's grouted! 

I will post a more detailed post on how I did all this very soon, as well as a post about Abigail's birthday and some 4th of July photos! But for now it's late and I need to get some sleep!

Some Quick Storage

Our bathroom is quickly running out of storage space. We have the space underneath the two sinks, plus 4 drawers in between. There is a closet in the bathroom, but I turned it into our shoe closet quite a while ago since there wasn't room in our walk-in closet for shoes. So, no linen closet means towels must go under the sink, along with cleaning supplies, various medicines, toilet brush (can't have that out in the open with toddlers running around!), my make-up, hair dryer, brushes, straightener, you get the idea. We have a lot of stuff that needs a home. Enter these babies from Home Depot:

I got two of the 36" shelves for now. I will probably add a third on top in a couple pay-days. (How will I reach it, you ask? Fun fact: closed toilet doubles as a step stool! Genius, I know.) I could make my own shelves for cheaper probably, but the fact that I installed both of these in about 5 minutes makes the price tag worth it. Sometimes time is a precious commodity when you have two babies running around! (Or one running around, and one scooching backwards all over the floor...) Anyway, I didn't take a before picture, but just imagine that area with a blank wall and no shelves. That vertical space was definitely some valuable storage real estate that I can't believe I am just now getting around to using! I already plopped my make-up bag in that basket ($3 from goodwill) and my favorite earrings live in that turquoise ceramic egg crate on the top shelf. I need to add more to decorate, and once it's finished I will try to get a better picture. But for now, I am excited to have that egg crate off the counter and an almost empty drawer!

And, just because I love this guy so much, here is a photo of my squishy trying to eat my purse while I was packing for our trip to Louisiana:

Pardon my crappy picture taking, I was having trouble getting it to focus. Must keep practicing!