My Creative Blog [Search results for Part-Time Blogger] 

{If you didn't hear, The Real Housewives of Bucks County are now East Coast Creative (Get the story here ). You'll still be getting all the DIY, Design, and Monica & Jess that you love, but change your favorites to www.eastcoastcreativeblog.com Thanks!}
Last week we got real with you all and shared some of the struggles of a PTB (Part-Time-Blogger). You can check out the post here, but basically we're trying to figure out how to write a successful, growing blog, when it's not yet your full-time job (Notice we say"yet"… girls can dream right?!?) Due to the huge response we got from so many PTBs, we thought we'd share some of what we've learned along the way.

Pre-plan your posts. We spent about 6 months blogging by the seat of our pants. Ex: 10pm on Monday one of us would be DIYing a project for Tuesday morning. That still happens occasionally, but planning out projects ahead of time, helps us balance out the type of posts per week (DIY, Design Trends, Recipes, etc). It also helps cut down on our time shopping for materials. When you know what projects you're working on for the week, you might be able to cut your Lowes trips down to 2 or 3… sometimes, it used to be 5 or 6!

Using a simple Google calendar is a must for us because there are two of us that need to know the plan. Seeing the month or even two weeks at a time planned out makes things seem nice and manageable!
Check your Memory Card. Don't check to see if it's working, check to see what's on it. Jess and I have commented numerous times that we take more pictures of projects than anything else. Before blogging, I was a camera junkie. I had it with me all the time and we had awesome pictures of our kids. About a month ago, I decided enough was enough. Blogging was getting in the way of family pics. This is a peek at my April 2012 photos in Picasa.

Not one single picture of any of my kids, or even a single human for that matter. Ugh! I made a decision to be intentional and take more pictures of people than things! Here's a peek at May 2012 so far (and yes, I started May's folder about a week early)

I'm happy to be more balanced in this area, and really it's not about the pictures, it's about where my focus is and what memories I want to preserve… projects or people?? I'm choosing people.
Find a Blog Mentor. Officially or unofficially, having someone that you can ask blog questions to is so helpful! Beth from Home Stories A to Z was the first blogger we were able to reach out to with questions. She was always so helpful, even if our questions were silly or kinda obvious.

Having someone that knows the ropes and is willing to give you support when you need it is essential. Don't be afraid to reach out when you have questions. (You can even ask us, but we're still technically considered rookies)
Recently, we got an"Official" Blog Mentor. We write once a month over at Beckie's blog, Infarrantly Creative. That started a relationship that has helped us more than we ever could have imagined. Once a week we conference with Beckie about all things blog related. This lady is amazing! We give her a topic we want to talk about and 60 minutes later we have about 5 pages of notes and are so invigorated and full of ideas and things to try!

If you want to take your PTB to the next level, consider reaching out to someone that you think would make a great blog mentor. It'll rock your world!

Prioritize.
This sounds so obvious, but believe me, once the blog world sucks you in (in a good way, of course!), everything else can take a back seat. Decide what's most important to you, and what things you're ok living without. Actually write your priorites out on paper. It helps! For example: I made a choice to stay home with my kids (I work 10 hours a week outside of our home), so I only blog during their nap time and after they're in bed. Truth be told, I barely open the computer until 1 PM. However, I've had to give up sleep (low on my priority totem pole) in order to keep my top priorities straight. Give and take, right?

Learn when to say Yes and when to say No. We're still learning this one, folks, but here's are our thoughts about it. For the entire first year, we didn't say no to anything. And we're happy about that. Our lives were absolutely crazy, but we firmly believe that to grow your blog (just as you would a business) you have to put yourself out there, put lots of time in and keep your face forefront in everyone's mind. Doing that for the first year gives us the luxury now of choosing what's best for us and our blog, and occasionally saying no when it's not a good fit.

Source: oprah.com via Marivi on Pinterest
Be Consistent. It doesn't matter if you plan on posting twice a week or five times a week, but be consistent. Our favorite blogs are the ones who post on a regular basis- it's what keeps us coming back for more! We don't like to guess when someone might be posting, and we figure you don't either, so we do our best to post five times a week. Side note: if you want to grow your blog, posting often is key! Readers will come back if the content is different each day. You'll definitely lose readers if you post once every other week. It's just the way it is.

Step Away from the Computer If you're anything like us, you'll understand why this is important. We are constantly thinking about new projects, upcoming posts and events, how we can better grow our blog etc., so we could literally sit for hours and hours and hours at the computer and STILL have stuff we want to do. One of the best things that happened this year was our Mexico trip- a forced time away from the blog. And guess what? It was fabulous! We both thought we'd miss blogging terribly and would go through withdrawal. Not so. Real life is so much fun, and you might miss it if you sit on your rear all day staring at the screen.

Stop Comparing Not gonna lie. We went through a slump where we compared our blog and projects to another fabulous blogger. No matter what we did, or how great our projects were, we still felt like they didn't measure up. It stinks and takes away all the fun of blogging. We realized that there are millions of amazingly talented people out there, and someone is always going to be doing something more creative than we are, but who the heck cares?! We do what we do because we love it, and from what we've heard, our readers are pretty happy with it too. Every person has a gift- use yours to the best of your abilities and move on!

Source: imgfave.com via Sarah on Pinterest

These are just a few things we've learned along the way. The PTB dilemma is still something we're working on, but it's come a long way from where we started. Who knows, maybe someday we'll have a Full-Time Blogger Dilemma! That would be wonderful!
So what other tips would you add to our list?

Ok, it's time to get really real with you. About us and our blog. It involves a little something we like to call:

We recently received a very nice comment from a regular follower that prompted us to write this post. Before you read it, I have to say that we were very grateful for this reader's honesty, and the sweet way she voiced her concerns. There's nothing we love more than good, honest feedback from the lovely people who visit our blog every day!

Ack! She nailed our current dilemma right on the head! Let me give you a little back story…when we started this blog a little over a year ago, we did not anticipate it interrupting our lives at all. It was just a place to throw all our ideas and projects. We literally thought that only our moms would read it. Then came Nate (not once, but four times!),

Crafting with the Stars…

local TV coverage, newspaper articles (you get the point) which equalled rapid blog growth. AND WE LOVED IT. All of these amazing opportunities meant that we were doing loads of projects, pouring hours of our time into the blog, and spending a lot of money to keep it all together. The blog is the most important, most rewarding and most fun thing we do (yes, even more than the Nate Show! It's our first love.), so we make every effort to put 5 great posts out per week. We LOVE this blog and it has become bigger and better than we ever expected.

But here's where our dilemma comes in: In addition to the blog, we both work other jobs, raise a bunch of kids and try to be good wives, friends, daughters, sisters etc. Realistically we could not possibly keep up the pace we had been going for the first year, even though we would like to. Not only did this little blog take a lot of time away from our families, but we also spent a lot of our own money to do all those projects! We need to find a better way. We are trying to adjust our own expectations (which, believe me, are sky-high!) and are experimenting a bit with our posts.

So what does all this mean for the blog you love to read?
1 You'll probably see only a few DIY projects a week from us. Instead of scrambling to come up with a DIY project just for the sake of having one to post about, we're being more intentional about our projects so that they're well done, and have a purpose in our homes.

2. We'll be highlighting our wonderful sponsors every once in a while to expose you to their awesomeness and also, to express our gratitude for their support of our blog that allows us to keep doing our projects. Don't worry we won't be throwing them in your faces at every turn, and we promise to only accept sponsor whose products we absolutely love!

3. We might host a guest poster, or highlight other blogs we feel like are worthy of notice! The design blog world is like a family, and we want to promote other people, like others have promoted us!

4. We'll keep bringing you our thoughts on all those fun, crazy and fabulous design trends out there, and how we're incorporating them in our homes!

So, in conclusion (are you still there?), we are crazy about this blog and all of you, and hope to continue doing this for a long time, and even (crossing our fingers) turn it into a full-time job. We hope you'll stick around for the long haul, and be understanding as we try to find balance and a system that works for us.
And now, a question for all you bloggers/mothers/wives etc. out there: How do YOU find balance?

P.S. We'll be doing a follow-up post on our top tips for Part-Time Bloggers, so get excited!; )

We've been keeping a secret from you. And it's a good one. But don't worry! We're about to let you in on it…ready??…ok, here goes: Six weeks ago we asked several amazing bloggers to join with us in a collaboration group we called Blogging 2 Better. We're a bunch of like-minded home, DIYand crafting bloggers that want to learn as much as we can about blogging, while also sharing ideas, encouraging one another and sharing each other's awesome projects as much as we can. We're so fortunate to be part of a blogging community that encourages sharing! (If you write a blog, we strongly suggest getting a group of girls together to learn from. No one understands all that blogging entails except for other bloggers! You can find more about that in our Part-Time Blogger series here.)

Anyway, these girls are really, truly talented and it was a lot of fun getting to know them better. For our final week, we had Beckie from Infarrantly Creative give us a list of materials that we all needed to incorporate into an awesome project. It's like our version of a Nate's Crate Challenge! Woohoo! And today is the day we get to see what everyone's been up to!! Once you finish taking a look at what we created, make sure you hop over to the other gal's blogs to see what they made.

Here's the list of the supplies from Beckie:

And here's what we came up with:

We struggled to come up with a clever name for it, but basically it's a rustic/industrial storage bin. A very easy project that turned out adorable, if we do say so ourselves. You know we love a good pallet project (we've done several here and here), but we also keep loads of barnwood on hand, too. We picked one that was already the perfect length (yay! no extra cutting required!)

We also scored these three wire bins at HomeGoods for four bucks a pop! We didn't love the color, but knew immediately that this is where we could use coral! We spraypainted them with Valspar's Hacienda Tile- the perfect coral.

Next we found a font that we liked and printed number 1 through 3 large on regular, old paper. With a pen, we traced the number while pressing down to leave the outline on the barn wood.

Have you tried paint pens yet? They're so easy to use, but they still looks like paint. We carefully filled in the stencilled numbers with a black Sharpie paint pen.

Once the paint on the bins had dried, we brought them in and laid them down in front of the wood to determind the placement. We measured the board, divided it into thirds and then marked where the hooks would go.

Monica drilled pilot holes where we had previously marked and then we screwed in the eye hooks …Six hooks for three baskets.

Then I gently sanded down the numbers to distress them a bit.

Monica whitewashed the entire board with a mixture of paint and water to give the piece a little more depth. (Side note: working as a team makes the project go faster! We're so fortunate to have each other.: ) (I totally Agree! -Monica)

The last step for the wood piece is to add a coat of water-based polyurethane (water-based won't change the color of the wood!).

To hang it, we took chain, cut it to the length we wanted with wire cutters and screwed threw one of the links directly into the wood. Make sure your screw isn't so long that it goes right through to the other side!

Then we hit a creativity wall. Booo. We could not for the life of us figure out how to incorporate fabric into this project. We toyed with lots of different ideas, but finally decided on a cute hanging pendant banner for one of the baskets. Recently we came across a shop called The Finest Kind and we couldn't get over how cute their stuff is! We decided to purchase three of their typographical tags to use on our pendant. You'll probably catch the significance: EC2.: ) First, we spraypainted the little cuties blue.

Next, we took apart three 2x3 frames so that we could use the cardboard backing. Wierd, I know, but there's always an untraditional use for everything!

We wrapped the fabric around the cardboard and mod podged it right on.

Before the Mod Podge had dried, we stuck our tags on, and voila! An adorable pendant honoring our blog for the basket!

We were thrilled with the finished product, and it has now made it's home in my dining room. And just so you know, it totally inspired me to rearrange my living room and gave me the motivation I needed to start our dining room makeover!

To be completely honest, we liked this project better without the fabric banner, but do think it makes a super cute accessory!

And now for the REALLY fun part! We were so excited to see what our blogging buddies came up with using the same materials, and they did not disappoint!

Please stop over at these amazing ladies blogs to see what their projects. Share the EC2 love with them and tell them we sent you!
Clockwise from top right:
Kim from Sand & Sisal: Surfboard Pallet Art
Brook from Being Brook: Fabric Wall Map
Allison from House of Hepworths: Dangle Earring Frame
Jenna from SAS Interiors: Monogrammed Chevron Pallet Tray
We had SO much fun putting this project together and consider ourselves lucky to be in the company of these awesome bloggers. If you don't already follow them, shame on you! But it's not too late, go ahead and do it now.: )
We want to know: What would YOU do with those materials?

** And if you're loving up all the wood ideas, this one is one of our favorites! Check it out!

**If you're visiting from one of the other bloggers' projects, thanks for stopping by! If you like what you see use the links below to stay up to date with all of our projects and ideas!

Monica here! You know me as the blogger that has a super big farmhouse table and makes her husband take all sorts of weird bloggy pictures for posts.

But, did you know that I'm actually a high school English teacher?
Yup, Mrs. Mangin by day, blogger by night! I have a little quiz for you…

Yes, it's the sad truth! After elementary, it's all downhill… Middle school is hit or miss, but by high school you're lucky if you get a,"Have a good summer" from a parent. Of course I'm generalizing, but it's pretty widespread. Here are my thoughts on the issue (and this is as a mom, not a teacher). I entrust my kids to someone for 7 hours a day… that's a really long time! Yes, it's their job to teach their students, but giving extra encouraging words when a kiddo might be having a rough day, or taking time to talk to a high schooler about their love of punk music, etc. is going beyond the job description and truly playing a role in a child's life. For that reason, I always want to be thanking my kids' teachers and encouraging them as educators. This doesn't end when my kids no longer need help tying their shoes… if anything, when my kids are teens, I want to be encouraging their teachers even more. From what I've heard, the teen years can be a bit of a challenge! So I've got a few Back to School Teacher Gift ideas for you, and don't you forget the high school teachers (honestly, you just might make their day/week/year)

Simple, School-Themed Flowers I'm no florist, but I'm pretty sure these are just some mums and yellow ball thingies. You could even pick some wildflowers. We have tons of black eyed susans around this summer. Pile in some dollar store letter magnets… add mason jar… add ribbon… voila!

Source: None via The Real Housewives on Pinterest
Smooth Year Lotion Ok, this idea comes from a blog with a hysterical name…"Oops, I CRAFT my Pants" HAHA! I honestly laughed right out loud when I read it! Well, she gives a great tutorial and FREE PRINTABLE labels to turn Bath & Body Works lotion into a cute lil' gift.

Source: oopsicraftmypants.net via The Real Housewives on Pinterest
The Legendary Diaper Cake ( Ok, the fact that the best title I could come up with was"Legendary Diaper Cake" has convinced me that I'm far too tired to finish this blog post…"Legendary Diaper Cake""Who says that??" Weak Sauce, if you ask me! So, this blogger is going to bed… it's been a very long day of 4 kids, teaching professional development for the high school staff from 8-4, doing a complementary staging job to help a missionary couple we know, and getting home at 10:30pm… So, you'll have to wait till I wake up refreshed to finish!)
**** Enter Dream Sequence Music****
Well Good Morning! It is I, the refreshed blogger who was up way too late, but got a good night's sleep!
So, let's get back to business!
Diaper Cake with a School Spin
Everyone associates a diaper cake with baby showers (Hello, Captain Obvious), but now we can add a school spin and make it into a rockin' teacher gift. The awesome part about this gift is that all of these supplies are on sale at Target and Walmart for about 99 cents or less! Glue sticks can get pricey, but you can substitute anything you want! I'm pretty sure this gift would be proudly placed in the teachers' lounge and some might even say it's"Legendary!" (hehe)

Source: designdazzle.blogspot.com via The Real Housewives on Pinterest
Back to the Grind This is what my kiddos are giving their teachers this year. We'll just bring them to"Meet the Teacher Night" this Thursday. Did I mention I've been sorta swamped lately? Well that's why it's sorta simple and no frills, but that's also kinda nice because anyone could throw this together in 5 mins! Coffee Tumbler… Ribbon, Giftcard… Cute Printable on Envelope… voila!

31 Reasons I Love School Last year, we gave Kenzie's teacher a Thermal Lunch Tote from 31 Gifts and she LOVED it! I called one of my BFFs, Mandy, a 31 Gifts guru and asked her what she'd recommend. Of course she had awesome ideas, and my favorite was the Mini Organizing Tote filled with supplies and a list that you an your child come up with for 31 Reasons you're excited for a great school year. How cute is this? I love that you can get it personalized for your teacher. If you're thinking of something from 31, click the 31 logo on the sidebar you'll get 15% off your order, which is the special in August (Even if your kids start school really soon, you could still get one in time for Back to School Night I'm sure)

So, whatever you do, even if you can't pull together a"Back to School" gift, a note, or email just saying"Thanks" and"Have a great year" would mean a lot… I know Mrs. Mangin would adore that.

P.S. Don't forget to VOTE for the CBS Blog of the Year Today!

This guest blogger just so happens to be my personal favorite… I'm allowed to be a little biased because I think he has a crush on me, and I think he's kinda cute too. Make sure you leave a comment and like the post on Facebook because I need lots of positive feedback for this blogger!

This is Eric, husband of the oh-so-talented

Monica. I got word that Jess and

Monica would be having"guest bloggers" and I jokingly asked why I can't be a guest blogger. Well, she called my bluff and told me to put together a post.
Now the conundrum, I am not housewife and as my WHOLE family can vouch for, I am NOT crafty. So what can I post on?
Ah-ha… probably the most important thing (not living) in my whole house would be our photo books! And this is one quasi-crafty thing that I am totally in charge of. So here goes.
If all of you crazy blog-stalkers with kids are anything like my wife, you take thousands (if not millions) of pictures of your kids, your house, your family and really just your whole life. These pictures sit on your camera or computer, occasionally they get dropped into a blog or facebook, but for all intents and purposes, they sit – lost and wasted.
In 2007, I got tired of seeing

Monica take so many awesome pictures without ever doing anything with them. That's when we discovered Blurb. Ever heard of it? The beauty of Blurb is that they offer"book-store quality printing and binding" at incredibly reasonable prices.
Everyone I've talked to seems to get overwhelmed with idea of doing a photo book. But trust me, it's not hard. The longest, hardest, most time-consuming part is just sorting through the tens of thousands of pictures stored on your camera and computer and organizing a years worth of pictures. But… and this is a big but… it's so rewarding going through a full year, seeing all that you've done, re-living all the fun events, seeing how your family has grown over the course of a year.
Ok, so what I do, (and this is just preference), is I go month-by-month, sorting pictures mainly by events. I drop all pictures into folders on my desktop with a name of the even. For example, I'll have folders such as"snow fun,""baking with mommy,""bath-time,""field trip to the farm,""fun with playdough,""Kenzie's soccer," etc., and then I always have a folder for each kid with all the best pictures that we have for them. Then when it's time to actually put the book together, it really just flies!
The great thing about doing a photo book like this versus just printing photos and putting them in an album is that you get to tell stories, explain the events, and actually add personality to your photos. It's a great place to remember some of the crazy things your kids have said or done. With the craziness of moving over this summer, I got way behind on putting these books together. I sat down to do a book for the 2^nd half of 2009 a couple weeks ago and I was amazed at how much I forgot! I saw all these pictures and couldn't quite place where we were, or what we were doing, or some of the fun stories behind the pictures. My goal is to do 2 books per year as soon as that year is finished. There are so many types of books that you can do –

Monica scanned all of Kenzie's art work from a full year of school and made an art book, she made several small books documenting things such as birthday parties or Christmas. We've even given a book to my parents after a week on vacation with them (yes, these books make great presents for the grandparents!)
Enough talk. Here is what Blurb actually looks like (screen shot from our ancient desktop). You log in and all the Blurb books you've created are listed.

Once the book is created, I import all the pictures that I have from a given folder on my desktop (i.e. beach with the Motts). There are dozens of picture/text layouts to choose from and all you have to do is drag-and-drop your pictures wherever you want them and then add the text. The view below is during the editing process.

You can also preview your book to see how it will actually look once published.

I mentioned in the beginning that it's"book-store quality printing and binding" at incredibly reasonable prices. For a 200 page book, with a hard-bound cover, it's only $48.95. A 200 page book can easily hold 600-800 pictures. I know Blurb is not the only company doing this – it just happens to be the one we use. I searched for photo-book reviews and this website seems pretty accurate. It rated Blurb as 4 starts (out of 4) for quality, but lower scores for features and ease of use. Other sites have higher scores for ease of use/features but slightly lower scores for quality. I'm not looking for anything too crazy, so I'll sacrifice a little on the crazy layouts and customizability for quality.
That's it. Now if only I could find a way to do something similar to the hours upon hours of home-videos we have, I'd be all set! Any suggestions?
-Eric (Monica & Jess)
Linked Up to: The Stories of A2Z

Today we're super excited to have Bethany from Blossom Bands guest blogging for us. We asked her to share her story of how she turned a hobby into an awesomely successful, work-from-home business. She's a super cool example of what moms can do! We know you'll love her story and her fabulous products as well (you just might win some)!!

Hi! My name is

Bethany and I am the owner of Blossom Bands! What started off as a hobby has truly become a great adventure that has introduced me into a whole new world of homemade goodies!

It feels like yesterday that I found out I was having a girl, and that was the very beginning of my little girl accessory obsession! I remember the ultrasound tech said “It’s a girl” and do you know the first thing I said was, “Thank God I don’t have to worry about a circumcision!” Ha, who says that!? Well, I guess, I do! Then, the thought settled in, a girl, a beautiful, perfect girl! I nstantly, I was beyond excited to fill her closet and drawers with everything girlie I could get my hands on …and so it started! The first thing I ever made for Calia was a navy blue organza blossom for Thanksgiving. It matched her dress perfectly! I knew it was cute, I was excited to make her more, but when people started commenting on how great it was, the real excitement grew! Before I knew it I was researching ideas, self teaching myself how to make everything I make now! I started dying bands myself, cutting everything by hand, and suffering many needle pricks and glue gun burns! I’m proud that I do everything on my own, I’m proud that I taught myself, and I’m proud of how far I’ve come since November 2010!

In January my website-savvy husband launched http://www.blossombands.com/ and we worked on setting up our Facebook account right after that. I worked and worked on inventory, creating close to 200 products ready to sell! They’re all long gone now, and everything is made to order. I’ve tried to add new items since then, introducing tutu’s and new designs and styles regularly.

I don’t know when I really noticed how successful my little venture was becoming, it seemed to happen overnight! I have people contact me frequently to carry Blossom Bands on their websites or in their stores. I’m in awe of the amazing photographers I’ve been blessed to have photograph my work, like Heidi Hope Photography or Melissa DeCastro Photography who were the first I reached out to. The day I got an email from Piggy Toes Photography to swap a free photo session for Blossom Band props I really got excited! Blossom Bands has grown so fast so quickly, and Facebook has played a huge part in that! Networking, who knew!? I didn’t!

I did this for Calia, because I wanted to make her fun accessories. My children are my world, and have been since I had my son in February of ’07. The one thing I find myself struggling with is time! I am not a sit around and watch TV all day Mom! I’m an “everybody up, everybody get dressed, everybody in the car” kind of Mom. I go places with them; the beach, the zoo, the park, picnics, sandbox adventures, and playdates weekly. It’s hard finding a balance between a business that now demands a lot of time, and being a stay at home Mom. When do I work?!? Nap time & bed time! It works for now! And I know that there is a chance of a third baby in my future which might slow me down a bit, but my number one priority is my family…and then I think, can you imagine how amazing Blossom Bands will be when they’re all in school!? It’s going to be huge, and I hope you stick around to watch Blossom Bands blossom, Ha! So, thanks for letting me share a little bit of my story with you. And, as I finish writing this, I look up to see my son wearing half his clothes and fairy wings and my daughter stomping blueberries into my white rug, and still I know, it’s going to be a good day!
Because Bethany Rocks, she's giving away a Custom Blossom Band to one of our readers!! To enter to win,"Like" The Real Housewives of Bucks County and Blossom Bands on Facebook by clicking HERE and HERE. Then, leave a comment here on the blog letting us know you did!
The winner will be announced Friday morning, with our Fab Find! Good Luck!

Yesterday, I shared my daughter Kira's Colorful Bedroom Makeover with all of you. Check it out here if you missed it. It's interesting when you're doing a room for a little person… there's this part of me that wants to go all crazy blogger-designer-nutso on the space, and then there's the realistic mom side that reminds me that her room will be a disaster of toys in about 3 minutes flat and that I don't need to go over the top to make her happy. Honestly, I'd kind of be going over the top just for my own self-interest. So, with that being said, the mommy voice won out and I went with a fun, yet practical room makeover. I'll guess I'll save up the glitz and glam for the master bedroom (if I ever do tackle it!).

Today I'm going to share with you the focal point of the room… The Mosaic Accent Wall!

I'm a total sucker for an accent wall. Honestly, since I was a junior in high school I've been whipping them up! My very first was a blue feather dusted wall in my parents' house. Then, I did a pretty cool square grid wall (again at the 'rents house) when I was a senior. Kenzie's first bedroom had vertical stripes and stars, then I changed to a fun magenta gingham. We had an argyle bedroom too! I wish I had pictures of all of those, but it was in the film day and age- boo! Enough of the trip down memory lane, let's get going with the tutorial! How to Create a Mosaic Accent Wall Since this is the room of my 5 year old, I asked her what she wanted, and she told me LOTS of colors."Mommy, I want purple, blue, green, orange…" and the list went on and on. I thought about it and finally decided, I could give Kira exactly what she asked for- lots of color!

I bought a sample size of each color and a gallon of white paint to use as my base and for all the other walls. One word of caution, Valspar sample paints do not have the normal bonding agents that regular paint has. It will require more coats for solid coverage. Just keep that in mind when you're planning a project. For me, buying 8 quarts wasn't an option (this was a makeover on a budget) and I'd rather have to do a few extra coats of paint. I had JUST enough- it was close, but we stretched the samples far enough.

This unfortunate event occurred as soon as we got home with the paint. Grrr… I was sort of hoping Hurricane Sandy would wash some of the stain away a few weeks ago- No.Such.Luck!
Blogger Fail!

Here's my supply list: Valspar® Sample Paints Base coat paint Purdy® Paint Brush Chalk-line (a DIYer Must Have!) Tape Measure Pencil Frog Tape® Mini Rollers Paint Trays

I had to get rid of that BRIGHT aqua color and amazingly, the Valspar white paint & primer in one did the trick! I was left with a blank"canvas" and two weirdos (the hubs and my oldest)!

There are all kinds of approaches to getting perfectly straight painted lines, but I really think we use the BEST method. I'll tell ya about it, and then you can be the judge…
1- Measure out your stripes and put tick marks on both sides of the wall.

2- Use a Chalk-line to get Perfect Guide Lines- Simply, put the string directly on the tick marks on both sides of the wall, pull the string taut, and snap that baby! It is so much MORE accurate and FASTER than using a level and a pencil. Let me remind you of something… you've seen how awkward I am at dancing… would you trust me to use a level on wall stripes? I think not.

These bad boys are crisp, straight and ready for some Frog Tape!

3- Use Frog Tape to Divide your Stripes. When I'm working on an accent wall, I know it's going to be the main focus of the room, so I have to have crisp, perfect lines (yes, perfectionist tendencies admitted).

My hubs uses a few pieces per stripe, but I'm a one stripe wonder. I definitely prefer to do the entire stripe with one piece to make sure there aren't any uneven seams. Also, make sure you tape off the two side walls.

I love me some stripes!

After all my horizontal stripes were finished, I randomly placed my vertical dividers. I toyed with using a mini level to get them perfect, but then decided I could do it well enough by eye. Please ignore the epitome of frumpy DIY clothes, no shower, and tape on the leg.

Whenever I'm working on a project like this I rip off a bunch of pieces the length I need and keep them on the wall so I can get to them quickly, if I'm not using that method, I keep the roll of tape on my arm. Works like a charm.

4- Paint the Edge of your tape with your Base Color. It's one extra step, but it's the MAGIC INGREDIENT to perfect, crisp lines. Frog Tape alone is excellent, but on an accent wall like this, I had to be sure everything would be perfect. Just take your base coat color (whatever color is under the stripes) and with an semi-dry brush (not dry, but not sopping wet either) paint over every edge. I don't recommend using a roller for this step, I always use a paint brush.

It makes the wall look a little scary, but it will all work out in the end! Allow it to dry- I gave it about 40 minutes before putting color over it.

I had a tray and roller for each color. I wanted to work in a random pattern and that meant making decisions as I went along- no time for washing rollers and brushes.

Finally, it was time to put some color on the walls!

If you want a random look (like mine) I'd recommend working in one section at a time, mixing your colors as you go.

Because of the sample paints, it took 3 coats per square. It was a tad scary at first, but by the second coat, I was confident the coverage would be good.

Jimniy Cricket- Even before I removed the tape I knew I was in love!

Now, for the Moment of Truth-Removing the tape…
Once again Frog Tape & the Mangin Method = Perfection!
Seriously, I do a cheesy dance (you can picture it) every time I remove tape from a project!
I do recommend removing the tape as soon as you're done-I don't wait for the paint to dry, and I remove it VERY slowly and evenly.

Here's the finished product!
It was so simple and took me and Eric about 4 hours from start to finish.

Here's a before and after…

It's a lot of color (as requested by Kira), but I like the extreme contrast that the white walls bring. I also could totally picture doing this with muted tones or even all in one color with an ombre effect!

Almost every morning, I find KJ hunkered down reading books in her PJs… She loves her new room!

Tomorrow, I'll be giving you all the details on the whiteboard wall and Wednesday one of our favorite things… DIY faux canvases with Staples prints! Make sure you check it out!
What do you think of the accent wall? Have you ever tried something bold with paint?

This room makeover all started with a pallet and became the coolest pallet wall ever. This free project made a huge impact with its wooden walls and white wash technique.
We're so excited to share it with you today! ******************************************************************
When the hubs and I moved into our house 12 months ago (holy moly it's been 1 year already!) we decorated 3 out of 4 kid's bedrooms. I wanted to wait until the little man was out of his crib and into a"big boy bed" before tacking the room.

Well, the crib is history and we were ready to make this tiny space small, but mighty!
Jess and I have a thing for pallets. We've written a Pallet Possibilities post and Jess shared a pallet shelves post. Well, this time we thought we'd take it to the next level and do an entire wall of pallet wood!

Here's how we did it: (Shhh… don't tell, but this was super easy and the wood was free!)
We called around and found places that were okay with us taking their pallets. The hard part is taking them apart and not cracking the boards. We started with a hammer or two or three… TIP: don't buy cheap hammers. Then, we moved to a sawsall. It worked okay, but not great. Finally, the hubs pulled out his circular saw and we were in business!

We separated out the keepers and made sure we had a good blend of various lengths and widths. We took out most of the nails for safety, but left a few for character (we put those pieces up high on the wall so the little man would be safe and sound)

Thankfully my hubs is pretty darn smart and helped me and Jess figure out the layout. We placed each piece on the wall temporarily (one nail in each board) just to see the layout and get all the cuts out of the way. We don't have any great tips on this step, just find someone that likes doing puzzles and invite them over to help! (You might notice that between breaking apart the pallets and doing the wall that I moved from a blonde to a reddish brunette. 2 hair colors in one post… is that a blogger foul?)

Once we had the layout, we took each piece down and labeled it so we'd know where to put it back. We gave each row a number and a letter going from left to right… 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B etc… Then we brought all the wood down to the garage to begin the fun part… sanding and whitewashing!

We sanded the wood lightly… we didn't want to lose cool character, but we didn't want splinters for the little man either. We arranged the wood as it would look on the wall, so that we could figure out how we wanted to whitewash the wood.

Some of the"blonde" pieces of wood needed some grey stain to make them look a bit more weathered, so we put in on randomly and rubbed it in a bit.
To make our whitewashing colors we just filled cups with water and added a few dabs of paint. It was trial and error. We used the grey-blue wall paint, white paint, and some navy (which we used full strength). We wanted cool tones, not the warm honey ones it originally had. (Will I ever remember NOT to wear sweatpants for all our projects?)

Once it was all dry, we were so thrilled with the colors and couldn't wait to put it back on the wall!

Before putting the pallet wood on the wall, we added some industrial looking lights. The hubby did this part of the job because these girls don't mess with electric- we have our limits!

To adhere the pallet wood to the wall we just used nails. You could use liquid nails, screws, etc. I thought nails would be the easiest just to spackle over when we we want to change the room (which I don't know if I'll ever will want to). Once we had the wall installed we got busy decorating and then pretty much fell in love with the finished product! How do you like it?

There are so many fun details in this room! You can read about the message board made from reclaimed barnwood here! (Yup, we're still lovin' the reclaimed barnwood!)

Not too shabby for a FREE statement wall eh? My son loves his new room and my only complaint is that we didn't try this fabulous project in one of our master bedrooms! We love it!

So there you have it! Free pallets transformed into a crazy, cool statement wall! It was free, simple, and we totally think you should try this at home! So, what pallet possibilities are you thinking of trying?

P.S. Did you see our second Nate episode? How'd we do? We're counting down the days to Cancun and of course will take you all with us through the blog!

So I've confessed that I'm impulsive, but have I mentioned that I'm a procrastinator? Yup, it's true. I never return library books on time… this is awful, but I actually owed over $100 in fines after completing my senior thesis in college (Sorry to any librarians reading our blog!) Anyhow…try as I may, I still put things off all the time occasionally. This week it was my new family room curtains. Since this blog is committed to keepin' it real, I'm going to show you my project anyhow! Painted Curtains
Remember my journey to the perfect stripe? Well, now I needed to journey down the road to painted curtains. It's really simple, so here's what you need to do… Get your Suzie homemaker on… you need to iron! {GASP} People that know me, knowt that I don't iron! Honestly, before our Nate Show appearance a friend ironed for me (she's the best!) I did do this project's ironing all by myself! Go Me!

You need a big open space to complete this project, I wouldn't do it outside though because bugs and dirt could end up as part of your curtains- gross! (Oh, and ignore the wrinkles… I didn't say I ironed well!)

Determine the width of your stripes. I used 19 inches (almost the same as the wall stripes). Then, measure across the stipe and put a few pencil marks to use as guide lines when you're taping it off.

Make sure you get your tape nice and flat and seal it down with your hands a few times

Ta-da! (I swear, they're"wear wrinkles!!")

Now, I took my own advice from Journey to the Perfect Stripe and I used Mod Podge to seal the edges. I'd rather have a clear liquid sneak through than paint. That's the idea with the Mod Podge.

I waited about 10 minutes and then took my handy-dandy foam roller and got to work. I really need to invest in some"decent" looking paint clothes. These pink plaid pants and inside out tee are not the rockin' blogger look I should be going for!

Don't worry if the fabric is a tad bunchy… it will dry fine. I needed to do two coats, but if your curtain will be having any direct light shine through, you'll probably need at least 3.

I heart crisp lines!

Well hello awesome curtain… welcome to my room!

WAIT… Did she say curtain doesn't she mean curtains? Don't you need two panels for the window? Ugh, now we're back to confessions time… I only finished one panel! The other is hung, but plain white!

Maybe you're wondering what's going on with the rods? Well, I didn't measure the window… I bought a rod… it was too short… so I ran with plan B! We're just going to cut down the rod and just have a little mini rod on each side. Even though it was born out of a mistake, I really love how it's going to look… when it gets done…

Now the million dollar questions… how long have they been hanging that way? 9 Days. How long will they remain that way? Either 3 days or 14 (I'm headed out on a little trip soon, so we'll see if I get it done first)
So there you have it… Custom Striped Curtains. This is a totally doable DIY. Ok, well I can't really vouch for that, but half of it is totally doable!

PS One thing we didn't procrastinate on was our Crafting with the Stars Entry! Head over to the contest to see the winners from the first round. We are so excited about the results!! Check it out HERE! We'll give you a little hint…

:)

It's actually incredibly hard to believe that we are 2 years in to this whole blogging thing. Last year we celebrated our one year blogiversary with loads of talented guest posters, giveaways and fun facts about our crazy first year. This year, we have soooo much going on that we just couldn't swing all that, but we still wanted to recognize some of the funny, ridiculous and amazing things that have happened to us over the past two years. But before that we want to thank YOU guys, whether you're a brand new reader or have been here for the long haul, for your support and encouragement to us. We would be nothing without you guys!! So thank you. Now, for the fun part;

Three Posts We Wished We'd Never Written We seriously laugh out loud sometimes about the posts we wrote when we first started. Let's just say it took us awhile to figure out our niche.; ) I'm sure there are tons of other lousy posts, but these are a few of the ones we love to hate.
1. In our second month of blogging we wrote a post entitled, For All You Tomboys Out There about how to braid your hair. Ha! As if we are experts about anything related to hair. Hilarious. (Our friend, Jane, did the braid, and she IS awesome at doing hair, but us? Not so much.)

2. I threw an Angelina Ballerina-themed 3rd birthday party and posted about it way back when. The party was cute enough, but nothing over the top, and the pictures are pitifully bad. The funny part is that this is one of our most successful posts! I guess there aren't too many people throwing Angelina birthday parties??

3. Monica shared her adventures in trying to DIY a belt out of fabric in this post. Even her daughter was like,"Ewww…Mom, don't wear that." Love that.

Blog Design for Beginners We prided ourselves on doing everything by ourself- including our blog design. We did ok for novices, and actually have done everything related to the way our blog runs and looks ourselves until the last 6 months or so. Now, we happily turn our ideas over to Kim, at 733 Design, for our custom blog design. Anyway, take a look at the way things used to be…
Header 1… Designed at 12am the night we randomly decided to start a blog…

Header 2… About 3 months in…

Header 4… this one lasted about 2 minutes. We hated it!

Header 5… this one lasted for almost a year until we had to play the name swaparoo game…

Ahh… How much we love Kim and her design expertise. She"gets" us and did a great job on our logo and header!

Five Incredible Opportunities We've Received as a result of this Blog All that goofiness aside, we have been blessed to have some awesome experiences because of this little ol' blog and we're sure we're on the verge of lots more.
1. The Nate Show: Last year we had the priviledge of being on four episodes of Nate's 2011-2012 season and it was a blast. Nate is a sweetie, and we fell in love with live TV, for sure. This will forever remain as one of the highlights of our blogging careers.

2. Mexico: Thanks to our buddy, Nate, we won a trip for 6 days to Cancun, Mexico that totally rocked. We had such a blast with two other girlfriends and enjoyed loads of down time and really great food. Without this blog= no Mexico= sad girls.

3. HGTV Magazine and Ladies Home Journal

4. Feautred on Young House Love! I think every blogger wants to be featured by John and Sherry (if you're living under a rock, they are THE biggest and most successful home bloggers out there) and we got our opportunity with the Guest Room Makeover we did for a friend. Check that off the bucket list.: )

5. Creating with the Stars. It's crazy how things come full circle, isn't it? We LOVED being a part of this contest, and are even more thrilled to be hosting it this year! Speaking of CWTS, TODAY is the last day to enter your projects! Over the next week, we (with the help of the 12 stars) will be poring over the submissions to choose the best contestants! Don't forget- the contestants and their blog star partners will be announced next Friday, March 1st! Get excited, people, get very excited.

So, we've shared our highs and lows from the past two years, and again we want to say that we are so honored to have had you on this amazing journey with us. 2013 promises to be our BIGGEST year yet, so hold on tight, we're all in for a crazy ride! In honor of 2 Rockin' Years of Blogging, we're gonna open the floor for a little Q and A… Leave a comment asking us anything under the sun and we'll respond. It can be about blogging, life, our friendship, how to braid hair (haha!) or whatever you want to know. We'll comment back throughout the day! So… what do you want to know??

Are you looking for the link party for your Creating with the Stars submission? Yay! We're thrilled to have you! Click here or use the button below to link up. Submissions are now open until February 21st. If you want to read more about the contest and all that it entails, click here.

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We've had some just for adults Valentine's Day ideas on the blog (here and here), but today we're keeping it PG! (I always give Jess a heart attack when I venture into PG-13 land! lol) With 4 kids this year I had 79 valentines to prepare. Thanks to Pinterest, I spent some 1:1 time with each kiddo, browsing for ideas, and then making each of their cards. I gave them each the option to buy, but they were feeling crafty I guess.
Kira went with Arrows and Pencils with kind of a Brave theme. We got the free printables here.

Callen wanted Superheros…and again we found a Free Printable! (noticing a trend here?!?)

Little Bit Funky blog has an awesome tutorial using felt with these printables.
Did you notice that I didn't perfectly coordinate paper or add extra fancy ribbon? I've made it a goal that kid projects (even if being blogged) don't get bogged down by mommy details. It's all about the fun and that boy sure looks like he's having fun! hahah! He actually said,"Mom, look how happy I am… {INSERT CHEESY SMILE}. See, that happy!" My kids kill me.

Kaden is 8 and it's one of those ages where you have to decide if Valentines are cool or lame. Thanks to Minecraft, he decided they were cool!

We just made them together using Google Images and two Minecraft Fonts (find them here and here). Sweet"Cool", Simple, & fun for me and my guy to make together!

Last, but not least was Kenzie… at almost 11, valentines are almost a thing of the past, but since school still does them, they had to be Epic (at least in her mind). Eric and I don't let the kids have Facebook accounts or anything, but we did let Kenz get an Instagram account (set to private). You might see her commenting on my pictures 24-7: ) Anyhow, Instagram is very cool in her class this year, so we made Instagram Valentine's… but wait, there's more… we also added a scratch off element! Booyah! (Haha, sorry, I got a tad excited)

I'll warn you… all these pics were taken with my phone, that's another part of kid crafting,"No annoying Mom pictures"…
Here's how we made them… We started off with a picture Kenzie took on Instagram (Fried Egg A-la-Kenzie). Using my I phone, I took a screen shot.

We saved the picture and pulled it into Picmonkey where we covered the eggs with a little Valentine's note. We put a few different comments in the area below the picture…

We printed our design out on plain computer paper. Kenz liked the scratch off idea we saw on Pinterest, so… we added that too! First, take a clear (or white if you don't have clear- we didn't) crayon and color over the area to scratch off.

Then we mixed together silver paint and dish washing soap. We used about 2 parts paint to one part soap. Then you just paint it over the colored area. (Let it dry a full 24 hours before moving them around. They need to really cure, so they don't wipe off too easily)

Blogger mommy might have suggested we make the scratch off area in a fun shape or something, but plain old mommy bit her tongue: )
We attached the Instagram print onto cardstock- and of course, we did it in happy face fashion…

And then it occurred to me that most 5th graders don't carry coins, so we used a little washi to attach a penny on the back of each card. Kenz and I both liked this little touch!

It took us about an hour to make all 27 pretty awesome Instagram-Scratch-Off Valentines. It might be the last year we get to make them together (who knows what middle school will bring), so it was an hour very well spent!

So, 79 Valentines later, I had one really fun afternoon of crafting with my kids and 4 sets of pretty cool Valentines. What kind of cards are your kids giving this year?

YOU GUYS, the countdown is officially on. Yup, that's right. You have only a few days to enter your best project for the chance of a lifetime to work with your favorite blogger and earn awesome prizes. Just to prove it to you, (and because we love some crunch-time project drama) here's the official countdown:

Did you know that we waited until literally the last hour to submit our project? We had done this piece of barnwood art for one of our Nate Show episodes, and weren't technically allowed to post about it yet, but we were dying to be a part of the contest so we slipped it in just under the wire.

So, we totally get it if you're major procrastinators like us. Or, if you need some additional encouragement because you're a little nervous or afraid your stuff isn't good enough, here it is: JUST DO IT! This contest could be a major boost to your blogging career! Just trust us about this. After we won this contest, we got a whole lot more traffic and made a name for ourselves. And you know the awesome Mandi, from Vintage Revivals? She won this contest too, and we all know how incredible her blog is now. Don't waste anymore time. Enter your project here right now!

Also, I bet you might not have known that, YOU (our awesome readers), have the power to select the 12th contestant in this contest! How, you ask? Take a peek at all the fabulous entries and click through for the tutorials.

I know! Isn't that so fun? So, go ahead and tell all your friends to come vote for your project. I mean, really, who wouldn't want to be Miss Popular?? We are so excited about this contest, and already have a few favorites as we click through to see them all!!
We'll be keeping you updated on all the last minute CWTS excitement on Facebook, so make sure you've liked our page or do it right here… we double dog dare you!

Tell us: which project is YOUR fav so far, and which STAR would you most like to work with if you get the chance?

YOU GUYS, the countdown is officially on. Yup, that's right. You have only a few days to enter your best project for the chance of a lifetime to work with your favorite blogger and earn awesome prizes. Just to prove it to you, (and because we love some crunch-time project drama) here's the official countdown:

Did you know that we waited until literally the last hour to submit our project? We had done this piece of barnwood art for one of our Nate Show episodes, and weren't technically allowed to post about it yet, but we were dying to be a part of the contest so we slipped it in just under the wire.

So, we totally get it if you're major procrastinators like us. Or, if you need some additional encouragement because you're a little nervous or afraid your stuff isn't good enough, here it is: JUST DO IT! This contest could be a major boost to your blogging career! Just trust us about this. After we won this contest, we got a whole lot more traffic and made a name for ourselves. And you know the awesome Mandi, from Vintage Revivals? She won this contest too, and we all know how incredible her blog is now. Don't waste anymore time. Enter your project here right now!

Also, I bet you might not have known that, YOU (our awesome readers), have the power to select the 12th contestant in this contest! How, you ask? Take a peek at all the fabulous entries and click through for the tutorials.

I know! Isn't that so fun? So, go ahead and tell all your friends to come vote for your project. I mean, really, who wouldn't want to be Miss Popular?? We are so excited about this contest, and already have a few favorites as we click through to see them all!!
We'll be keeping you updated on all the last minute CWTS excitement on Facebook, so make sure you've liked our page or do it right here… we double dog dare you!

Tell us: which project is YOUR fav so far, and which STAR would you most like to work with if you get the chance?

Jess and I think today's Fab Find is pretty darn fabulous… It's our"Contact Us" tab! Now, before you tune me out, give this post a chance!

We thought we'd share a recent question that we got from one of our readers! We love hearing from all of you and we want to hear from you even more! We got the following message from a reader"Jess" (and no, we did not send ourselves a fake email just to make us feel good!) Here's her message:
Hi Girls — love your site! So I wanted to ask if you might be doing a post on nursery ideas in the near future (or maybe you've already done so). I'll need to start planning in the next few months…we don't have a lot of space to work with and don't want to spend a lot of money (of course). If you could point me in the direction of any good websites with simple but modern ideas, that would be great. Thanks, you girls are amazing! So… Thanks for your email Jess and here's our answer for ya! Nursery Ideas on a Budget Since I wasn't exactly sure what style the fabulous Jess wants for her nursery, I thought we'd just focus on a few money saving ideas that will still have a big impact. (Click on any of the pictures below for more info) 1. Don't tie yourself down to Babies R Us… Sure everyone thinks they need the standard, crib, changing table, armoire matchy matchy combo, but I beg to differ. Flea market, Salvation Army, Restore, and Craigslist can be your very BFF when furnishing your nursery. I love using a dresser for a changing table and there are plenty of little DIY add ons you can do to make it safe for the little one. Of course I adore this yellow buffet-turned-changing-table… does it remind you of this post?

Source: None via The Real Housewives on Pinterest
Just to prove this, I took 60 seconds and found this piece on Craigslist for $20!! Seriously, I'm tempted to buy it myself! New Paint and this piece would be amazing!

Another repurposed piece. I also love the storage idea they used. You don't have to commit to the standard canvas bins. These little details can go a long way.

Source: blondiensc.typepad.com via The Real Housewives on Pinterest
2. Make your storage pretty, so it counts as art… This is huge when you're wanting to be a frugal fanny. Rather than adding a million accessories and details that add up in cost, just make the practical things cute! I love these fabric book shelves and just think of all the possibilities because there are a bajillion fabrics in the world to choose from. (Yes, bajillion is a real number in my world).

Source: pennycarnival.typepad.com via The Real Housewives on Pinterest
I think these planters-turned-storage-bins are adorable. Now would be a great time to buy these because most likely they're on clearance at Lowes and Home Depot.

Source: centsationalgirl.com via The Real Housewives on Pinterest
3. Use fabric… I wanted some witty name, but really, all I mean is just use fabric. Sure fabric can be expensive, but you can also find great clearance fabrics. Using fabric as part of your decor is both adorable and can be economical.

Source: lh6.googleusercontent.com via The Real Housewives on Pinterest I don't sew. {GASP!} How can she be a blogger and not sew! Well, don't get your panties all in a knot… I have a bundle of fusible web and also a grandmother-in-law that lends a hand. The moral of my confession is that you don't need to sew to make cool things with fabric. It's amazing what you can do with a good pair of scissors. I haven't tried this fabric idea, but it's on my list of things to try. Simply wrap inexpensive painter's canvas with fabric and hang… instant art!

Source: conspicuousstyle.com via Cami on Pinterest
4. Paint your way to a pretty cool nursery… I love using a $30 can of paint to make a HUGE impact in a room. Paint has a crazy return on investment and just takes a little time and creativity. a few years ago I helped a friend do this bold wall for her twin boys' nursery.

Obviously, I am in love with this nursery for about a million reasons, but look at that chevron wall. Tape + Paint = simply awesome. There's so much you can do with paint and if you choose something bold enough, you won't need much in the way of art.

Source: madebygirl.blogspot.com via The Real Housewives on Pinterest No budget for moulding? Just paint it on… how cool is this? The pictures alone are beautiful, but the border really makes it a focal point and hikes up the awesomeness factor.

Source: potterybarnkids.com via The Real Housewives on Pinterest
5. Pin before you begin… If you haven't yet, join Pinterest and get inspired! It's amazing how creative people are, so head on over and make a plan.

So Jess, I hope this has gotten your creative juices flowing! You're definitely going to have to share your finished product with us so we can share it with everyone! We hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well and we're so excited for you guys to welcome your little one into the world!
-Monica (& Jess) So, there you have it… Contact Us! Who knows you might just get your very own post too!

Oooh, I so wish you could see my hallway bathroom right now. It is coming along exactly how I had envisioned. Mostly because I finally found the perfect piece of furniture for my new custom vanity. This vanity earned us a spot in Round 3 of Crafting with the Stars over at Sew Dang Cute, and although she's pretty darn cute in pictures, she's absolutely gorgeous in real life. So, here's the breakdown of the transformation this little table underwent:
Antiquated to Awesome Table Transformation While browsing one of our local antique stores, I stumbled across this table in an out-of-the-way-spot covered in loads of other stuff.

Now, she doesn't look like anything special, but I could see through her battered, yellowing self to see the potential in her simple lines and aged charm. My initial thought was to sand the yellowish tones off to hopefully reveal a distressed white/wood look. After what seemed like an eternity of sanding with two palm sanders, I realized that this piece probably really was an antique and that the paint had mostly likely been there forever. I hesitate to reveal this information for fear of the antique-lovers out there giving me a hard time about sanding such an old piece, but hey, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

So anyway, the chippy paint look I was going for totally didn't happen because sanding it made the paint appear the color of a peach and that just was not at all the look I was going for.

So, on to plan B. Monica came over to help out and she brought the custom gray stain they used on their farmhouse table and also a mahogany stain she had. We had some walnut stain left over from when we originally stained our kitchen cabinets, so we tested all three on the top of the piece. We knew we could always sand out the stains we didn't like, but we made sure to place the sample stains in the middle where the vessel sink would go, anyway.

In the end, we decided on doing a custom mix of walnut and gray stains.

I brushed on the walnut stain first in long even strokes.

After about a minute, Monica wiped the stain off with a staining pad.

Even with just the walnut stain, it was absolutely beautiful, but I knew that the addition of the gray stain would make it match the colors in the bathroom even better, so again, I brushed the gray stain overtop of the walnut in long even strokes.

After wiping it off, we had this:

Note to self: Do not stain a piece of furniture in your kitchen. If you're not careful, stain will get everywhere leaving you in a slight panic and making lots of extra work for yourself.

Ahh! Let me stop here to point out how crazy our work environment was that evening:

How we got anything done is a mystery to me. Monica and I work very quickly and as a result, leave a trail of disaster in our wakes. We were simultaneously working on the table, painting a custom destination sign with coordinates for a customer, planning our posts for the next few weeks and drinking our favorite Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino from Wawa. Craziness, I tell you. But I digress… on with the project:

After the hours of sanding the top, I really REALLY didn't want to sand the legs, so we came up with the idea of doing a whitewash treatment. Basically, whitewashing is a combination of paint mixed with water that creates a translucent glaze of color.

You can see that adding the whitewash took away the yellow tones, but kept all that yummy aged character of the piece.

Finally, we broke out the power tools and got ready to make our holes for the new sink and faucet. This is a lot easier than you probably think it is. After measuring the center of the table where the sink would go, we used a drill with a 1 1/2" circle bit to make a hole for the pipes to run through.

This creates a lot of sawdust which for us was a problem. DESIGN BLOGGER FOUL! We should have drilled the holes FIRST before we stained!

Brushing off the saw dust on stain that hadn't dried yet gave us a minor heart attack, but we recovered after restained the parts that needed it. Phew! No big deal. (But if you attempt this project, drill first, stain second!)

We added the sink that we bought at Lowes so we could determine the placement of the hole for the faucet. We didn't use any scientific method here; we simply placed the faucet next to the sink and eyeballed where it should go. Remember folks, I don't claim to be a perfectionist.: )

In pictures, the faucet looks kind of goldish, but in reality it has a brushed nickel finish that adds just a touch of modern that is perfect.

We wanted to add some detailing to the piece to make it more unique, so I picked up some oil-rubbed bronze knobs from Lowe's. Monica pre-drilled a few holes, and then we screwed them right in. They look so cool and give the affect of a drawer on the front.

So, at the end of night one, this is how the table looked. Pretty sweet, huh? But the fun part was putting it all together the next day after I (and my mom who wanted to save me some time while I was coaching my tennis team) added 6-7 layers of a water-based polyurethane to the top to prevent water damage that may occur from my very messy wonderful family. We went with a water-based poly because it doesn't change the color of the wood tones. I'm not 100% sure this will be enough protection, and I'm paranoid about anything marring the surface of this beauty, so I'm going to be doing a bit more research on protecting the wood before we use it. Any suggestions?
So now that all is said and done, this is how my beautiful vanity looks:

I am so in love with this table, and am thrilled to death that it turned out just like I was hoping. It looks amazing in the bathroom, and pictures just don't do it justice. Next week, I'll be showing you the final reveal of our hallway bathroom after I add some finishing touches and I can't wait!
What do you think of my table-turned-vanity? Have you ever turned a thrift or antique store find into something fabulous?

Now, on to Round 3!

Linking up to: TT & J, Show & Tell Saturday, Tips & Tutorials Tip Me Tuesday, Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase

Ahhhhhh…I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Well, kinda. Our kitchen renovation that I've chronicled here, here, here and here, is done…for now! You may remember that it all started like this:

Ugh. That's a sad picture, people. It's not sad anymore, though, just look at it now in all it's *almost* finished glory!

Seriously, that is one big difference! I am absolutely crazy about our open shelves, new kitchen layout and big opening to the dining room. (Although I REALLY wish I made some sort of effort to clean up our dining room before snapping pics! Bad blogger!) I've been decorating and undecorating the shelves for weeks now, and I'm pretty happy with them, so I figured it was about time I shared. This is how they look right now, but I can absolutely guarantee you that they won't stay this way forever, since I crave change after about 4 days of anything staying the same.

The blue and green add just the right pop to my otherwise serene color scheme. I really do love the contrast of the fancy stencil with the trendy aqua blue accents. So fun! Those two round pie plates were wedding gifts, but they're only hanging out there until I can find a tray or something that I love- the blues just aren't perfectly spot on.

Up close and personal:

You've already seen the printable I made, but the plate right next to it is from the Pottery Barn Outlet. Can't get enough of that thing. That and the bird (from Joann's) are the only new things I bought for the shelves. Everything else was gathered from around the house- you got to work with what you have sometimes, right? Ok, I lied. I forgot that I bought this blue vase at a flea market this weekend for $4, and the mugs came from Ikea.

I have been scouring the stores to find dish towels that I liked and that matched the kitchen, and couldn't find anything that wasn't chevron (no offense to all you chevron-lovers out there, but I'm just not on that bandwagon!), but I found this one at Kmart! Yes, I was shocked too.: ) Cute, cute, cute!

I'm showing you this picture of all our mail for two reasons: 1) I just got this mail sorter from Kmart and it's a lifesaver. Really. All that stuff used to just lay on my counter making my already frazzled brain even more frazzled (if that's possible), and 2) See that uncovered outlet? I didn't even realize it didn't have a cover on it until I looked at this picture. It's so ridiculous what you get used to living with, and then start to ignore. *Fingers crossed that that baby EVER gets a cover.*

Here's a view of the other side of the kitchen:

We finally cut and hung two more open shelves to house our microwave. I gotta tell you, I so enjoy the extra space on the counters now that thing is off of it. So roomy! And if you're wondering about that crack in the counter, it's there because we moved a cabinet and it's counter from it's original spot on the other side of the fridge. It'll stay like that until we upgrade our countertops, and then it'll be seamless. Technically, I could hide the seam using a painting method a friend told me about, but, honestly, there are so many other things I'd rather be doing with my time.; )

I'm thrilled that, after 8 years of marriage, I can finally easily access my china. What a nice surprise to see that it actually works really well with my damask stencil and the colors in the kitchen. Woohoo for happy accidents!

Oh yes! I almost forgot that we installed this new light fixture above the window, and it's stinkin' awesome. Forget about all the additional light it gives off, it's adorable!

***Update: Several people have asked where I got this light. It's Allen + Roth from Lowes.

And finally, a view from the hall. I'm contemplating adding simple, wooden blinds to the window because it seems a bit bare. Anyone have thoughts about that? Should I or shouldn't I?

So now I've promised my husband that I'll tackle only really easy projects that don't involve him for a while.: ) I think this room has come a long way, and it just feels so much more like me. After a few annoying touchups on paint, fixing some broken tile and installing one more light switch, this pretty baby will be complete. Phew! Next week I'll show you what I finally decided about the curtain situation on the other side of the room.

Next on my agenda? A dining room redesign! I can't wait to show you what I have up my sleeve.

So, what's your favorite part about my new kitchen? Color scheme, open shelving, white cabinets, something else entirely?

Linking up to: Tutorials & Tips

We're secretly hoping that we are introducing you to Beckie for the first time, but chances are, you're already addicted to her sites, like us. Beckie must be one of the hardest-working women in the blogosphere because she writes THREE blogs! I know, crazy, right? But she is just that awesome. Plus, we are super-excited to be monthly contributors on Infarrantly Creative beginning this month, so you'll be hearing a whole lot more about Beckie here on our blog. Lucky you!!
Take it away, Beckie!
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Hi, my is Beckie and I am the mommy to three babies…

Yes I am a tri-blogger. But these are actually my real babies!

Yes I am a mom to two, wife of one, spray paint addict and Roadkill Rescue hero! What is that, you ask? No I don’t scoop dead animal carcass off the side of the road, but rather rescue discarded furniture and turn it into usable and beautiful décor for my home.
Here is the lighted end table I made for my husband’s office. You will never guess what this originated from…

Our church was remodeled last year to accommodate more people. Along with tearing out pews and adding new theatre seats they upgraded their lighting, which meant tearing down the dated chandeliers.

The chandeliers are HUUUGE! They took them down and before they hauled them off to the dump I snagged a bunch of the arms.
Here is what one of them looked like.

On the inside was 8 sockets for lights.

So after tugging, twisting, turning, clamping, and unscrewing I had everything taken apart.

I decided it would be fun to make one of the arms of the chandies a lighted end tables for my husband’s office. See my husband is a pastor at the church. It is kind of symbolic for him in a sense, since he is such an integral part of the growth and change happening right now. I lightly sanded all the brassiness with my 3M Sandblaster Pad and then wiped it down. I sprayed it with Clean Metal Primer by Rustoleum. After it was dry I sprayed it with some Oil Rubbed Bronze Metallic spray paint by Krylon.

I purchased a pine tabletop at Menards for $9.44.

In order to accommodate the threaded pipes I needed the tabletop to be drilled a bit so it would fit in place.

So I flipped it upside down and had my husband press it down so that it made an indention into the wood top. Since pine is a soft wood it worked pretty well.

Then I marked the spots and used a drill press to drill down into the table top. Then I placed the tabletop on top. Perfect fit!

I primed and painted the tabletop (Krylon’s Oil Rubbed Bronze) as well.
I wanted there to be a light still inside the table. So I asked my licensed electrician friend to show me how to use the parts I had to created a light fixture inside with an attached cord. After cutting some of the wire and removing the extra sockets. It went from this…

to this…

I measured the bottom harness and cut a circle out of a piece of scrap wood to fit perfectly inside.

Then I drilled a hole in the middle of the wood circle and added the light fixture securing it at the bottom with a nut.

Then I set my light into the harness and added 3 fifteen watt bulbs.

Then I put the white plexiglass in place and the top of the fixture.

Then I dabbed some Gorilla Glue onto the thread pipes and then pressed the wood tabletop in place. I weighted it down and let it dry.

And there it is… from church chandie to hub’s new end table.

And here it is plugged in…

Roadkill Rescue… success! Do you love trash to treasure projects? Well come check out all my Roadkill Rescues here.
Guess what?! I had another chandelier arm that I turned into something fabulous as well. Come check it out!

Thanks, girls, for having me and Happy 30th Birthday my friends! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aren't some people just so creative??!!! Thank you so much, Beckie, for stopping by our blog! We're hoping you leave a little more inspired today.

P.S. Don't forget to"like" us on Facebook for all the up-to-date details on our Mexico trip!

We made it to Friday! Phew… it was a crazy one in my world! It was actually my last full week off before heading back to school. Boo! Since it was my last week off, I spent lots of time in the evenings catching up on some of my favorite blogs. Today, I'm sharing one with you.

This super-cool blogger has a style very similar to my own and I wanted to share one amazing room re-do she recently did as part of a contest. Before

Amazing After

Awesome isn't it? Head on over to Mandi's blog to see more pictures and get all the details. Also, be sure to check out her cool Anthropologie inspired acid mirrors. They're fabulously cool!
Ok, I'm off to enjoy my last few days of"teacher summer vacation." Have a great weekend and don't forget to enter our Meet Nate Contest!

(For Monica and Jess!)

This is a sponsored post brought to you by The Home Depot! We love them for sponsoring CWTS and challenging us with this awesome project! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few weeks ago, I introduced you to the vertical garden project I'm working on (if you missed it, check it out here). I'm super excited about the challenge of pulling off such a cool look with a pretty simple DIY! Today it's all about the shopping!! Woot woot!

I wear a lot of hats… mom, teacher, blogger, wife, and now TV host (still sounds crazy!!), but that means that sometimes project shopping trips look like this… 4 kiddos ready to shop till we drop at Home Depot!

Yes, we get a lot of strange looks from people- I wish I took an after pic of the full cart with all the kids on it! Crazy town I tell ya! Thankfully, my kids are pretty awesome and were excited to be" on a special project for The Home Depot!"

Here's a funny story… while we were shopping, we were approached about five times by helpful Home Depot employees offering to help us. One thing I love about Home Depot is that they'll make cuts for you! This plywood never would have fit in my car and cutting it down to the exact size I need, will save me a step at home! Sweet!

Okay, so back to the story… after the nice fella helped us cut the wood the kids decided that The Home Depot must know we're here on a special project for them, because they're being so helpful and nice! Ha! I promised them they had no idea who we are and they're always just nice. The kids totally didn't buy it, and they walked with a little extra spring in their step thinking they were kinda famous at HD! (Even Kira's very dirty Teddy was proud to be Home Depot famous!)

If you're planning on building your own vertical garden along with me, here are the exact directions and material list I'm following. The Home Depot's huge library of how-to-videos and project planning tools are super helpful for actually getting you to do the projects you've been thinking of! It's updated often, so there's never a lack of awesome ideas!

Now let's talk flowers… I'll be 100% honest- I picked my flowers almost completely based on looks! I wanted a mainly orange-yellow combo, but then the purple-ish blue petunias added such a fun pop in the mix! But, I didn't want all my work to result in a bunch of dead-as-a-doornail flowers in a few weeks! So, of course I visited The Home Depot Garden Club website and checked to make sure they were all okay for my zone. So I knew I was good there, but here on the East Coast there's always a"you can't plant until after Mother's Day" rumor… Rather than risk it, I checked out the Home Depot Garden Forums and posted a question… Boom! Got my answer- the green light to #Digin and start planting!

Aren't the colors awesome? I still have some work to do on my garden, so stay tuned next week and I'll walk you through my build. So far it's been pretty simple- can't wait until it's finished and hung!

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too. Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts. Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership. This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you hear our BIG NEWS?

Click here for our announcement post with all the fun details!!
We can't wait for July 7th!!

As you all know there are a lot of issues going on right now with blogger and I wasn't immune to the snafus. For a week I wasn't able to do anything on my blog and that left me a bit manic. I kept trying to tell myself that my blog didn't matter, it's just a computer but the truth of the matter is my blog matters to me. It's something that I've put a lot of time into and shared parts of my life openly, my blog is me. But the most important part are the friendships I've made over the last year, people I've come to know far and wide who are sharing their daily life. The good news is thanks to all of you for your help and advice I'm now back on my blog so thank you my friends for all your support and help, you all mean the world to me!