2012 | Home goals...

It's January. So, of course, we should talk about goals. :) I have goals for pretty much everything - literally, reading goals, fitness goals, work goals, relationship goals, life goals, everything. But I'll start with my goals for our home during 2012 as part of the Home Goals Party at the Nesting Place. 

I also shared my home goals in 2011 and promise to share a full update at how I did soon. But this year, my goals are all about showing some love. 


*Show our loves...
This year I want to continue to make our house reflect us. I want our home to be full of things that Nick and I love - our faith, our families, our passions. I want our decorating choices, artwork, etc. to show how important these things are to us. 


I do not want our house to be full of stuff that we do not need or truly care about, which brings me to my next goal...


*Show others some love...
That same stuff that we do not need anymore could be just what someone else needs. I want to focus on cleaning out and donating things that we no longer need...including those boxes that have been in my car to take to Goodwill for, oh, about nine months now. Oops.


*Show our house the love...
I honestly love everything about our home. But...I don't always show our house the love in the form of cleaning. This year I want to get into and maintain good cleaning routines, rather than the massive rush when company is on its way. :) 


I also want to show our house some organizing love. There are areas of our home that are super organized [like our bathroom], but others that still have unpacked boxes [like our offices]. This year I want to organize the house as much as possible. Being organized makes me feel more relaxed, which will only allow me to enjoy and love our home even more. 


*Show the tools the love...
This year I would love to do some furniture makeovers and build some shelves. More on those ideas soon. :)


*Show y'all the love...
I want to take more pictures of our home and projects to share with y'all and to have this little journal to look back on someday. I also want to share all my project ideas. I definitely have more ideas for our home than I have hours [or money] to do them, but I'm going to share those ideas here anyway. :)

Baseball gallery wall...

Baseball gallery wall = DONE! Yay! :)

In laying out the pattern for the wall, I had a pretty good methodology. I started in the middle with the biggest piece that we wanted to be the main focus. From there, I put the other pictures in order of largest to smallest. I started with the largest, picked a place for it, then moved to the next. I tried to somewhat keep in mind things like not having too many horizontal [or vertical] frames in a row, the colors, etc. But the main thing I kept in mind was not to over think it, since I generally tend to be super planned out and symmetrical [which is not what we were going for].

As far as actually hanging the frames, I couldn't really decide on a good method.

I've read a bunch of places about using wrapping paper to make cut-outs of each frame to arrange on the wall first. But I also had read that the wrapping paper rolls up and is annoying. So, I thought I would use the random stack of yellow paper we have. Well, you can see how long that lasted before I got bored of doing that...

Then, I decided to just make pencil marks on the wall of where the edges and middle of the arrangement should be. That was definitely helpful but didn't really give the same effect as seeing something on the wall [teensy-tiny, little pencil dashes don't count as seeing something on the wall in my book]. So, I decided to use tape to mark out some key parts of the arrangement to make sure it looked right. It looks pretty random, but was helpful. After seeing it on the wall, I knew I wanted to move the arrangement up some from what I originally thought.

Then, I was almost ready to start actually hanging things on the wall. Again, I knew I wanted to start by hanging the big piece in the middle to anchor the arrangement. I numbered each piece to know which should go next, which was very helpful. The sides of my arrangement are in a line, so I numbered in a way that I would do those and then space the frames in the middle so that they would fit in between. It was probably especially helpful since I didn't have any real measuring going on. Sure, I knew I wanted some things three fingers apart, but I don't think that counts as real measuring. I actually think my lack of real measuring helped make it easier though, since then I wasn't worried about hanging things so they were exactly two inches apart or something like that.

Okay, enough babbling. Here's how it turned out - first, the view as you walk up the stairs...

Next, as you round the corner into the upstairs area...

And then, the view from in the rec room...

And just for fun [and because I'm very proud of it :)], here is the before and after...

 

Frame "shopping"...

I showed you that we have been working on a gallery wall of pictures for our rec room. The rec room is also known as the baseball room. Yep, we are really cool [and obsessed with baseball], so we have an entire room dedicated to baseball. When I last updated you on the progress, I had just laid out all of the pictures for the baseball gallery wall. Most of the pictures were already framed, but there were five things that needed frames.

So I got busy shopping...our house.

All of the pictures and art already coordinated [since it is all baseball-related] but I wanted all of the frames to also be black to help tie it together even better. Here are the results of my frame "shopping"...

The first few were pretty easy. First, there were two frames that were in the guest bedroom at our old house but weren't currently being used.

This one was used for this picture...

And that one was used for this picture...

Then, I found this frame in our office with a picture from The Today Show during our service trip to New York in college...

I'll find a different frame for that picture, because this one was the perfect size for this...

The last two were the perfect size too, but not quite the perfect look. It was nothing that a couple quick coats of black spraypaint couldn't solve though. First, I took a brown document frame from scholarly to sporty...

Then, I changed a cute, pink and black frame to a cool, black frame...

All in all, I'd say it was a very successful "shopping" trip. :)

Twine vases...

I made these twine-wrapped vases over a year ago and still love them. The problem is...I just can't seem to find a good home for them in our new home. In our first house they had a happy little home on top of the bookshelf by the front door. Their contents changed, but they were always there:

First, they had plain sticks from our yard. Then, I gave the sticks a quick coat of silvery spraypaint to give them some winter-ish shimmer. Then, the sticks were replaced by some cheery, Spring-y flowers.

I actually think that the only time they moved from their spot by the door was when I filled them with clippings from our bushes to be used in the decor for the couples' shower we hosted last Spring. But in our new house, there is no bookcase by the door for them to live on. [In my dream world, I'm going to find an awesome - yet very inexpensive - console table to refinish for our new entryway, but that might be a while.]

Currently, the vases are on the built-in shelves in our sitting room. The problem is the shelves are too low to really put anything in the vases. Kind of awkward. I also tried them on a side table in the living room, but they looked too bare there. Also, kind of awkward. I'm thinking that next I am going to move them upstairs to the guest bedroom - oddly, they would probably go on the same bookcase they were on in our first house. I have some fun DIY ideas for that room that hopefully I'll be tackling in the next few months - and the twine vases will fit in perfectly. :)

White, gray and blue table setting...

As I showed you, our rec room upstairs is currently in a state of disaster. It looks like a hurricane blew through it and now the flooding from the storm is reaching neighboring areas. Which in this case means that the boxes, tubs, pictures and baseball paraphernalia are temporarily taking over other rooms too...the guest bedroom, office, stairs and garage. Awesome.

But there is one area of our home that I can always count on to be clean, orderly and pretty – our table. And as much as I always love a pretty table setting, I love it even more when other areas are temporarily in need of disaster recovery. :)

So, let’s take a look at our current table setting…

This table setting was done using entirely things I already owned…or was recently gifted. :) [The blue placemats were a Christmas gift from my in-laws - thanks again!] The rest of the items are frequent players in my table settings, such the candle holders used in our Christmas table, and the trifle dish* used here.

This time I changed up the trifle dish filler [from my go-to cork collection] and used clear glass marbles. I love the way they shimmer a little in the light and almost look like water or ice. I also like that once again there are items from our wedding used in the table setting – including the trifle dish, the glass marbles and candles. Even the candle holders were a wedding gift. Looking at the pretty table, especially with the wedding memories, makes me smile every time…even if other parts of the house are chaotic.

*I think it’s funny that the trifle dish has never been used for a trifle. Actually, the only times it has ever even been used for food were to hold candy at our wedding and fruit kabobs at a couples’ shower. But this berry trifle recipe looks really good, so I may have to try it out soon. :)

Home goals | Progress update...

It’s hard to believe we are already [more than] a month into 2011. And perhaps even harder to believe, we have already made progress towards our 2011 home goals. Yay!

So, I thought I would give a little progress update:

Laundry – I am doing surprisingly well at keeping my closet picked up all the time. It is amazing how if you just hang things back up one at a time, it is a lot quicker than trying to deal with a giant pile of who knows what. :) I also have a new routine for “laundry Sundays” that is working out very well*. I do laundry throughout the day on Sunday while we hang out, do stuff around the house, work, whatever. And then I fold it all Sunday evening while I watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. I have even managed to plan ahead to still do laundry once a week if I won’t be home on Laundry Sunday. So far, so good.

Kitchen – I can’t take much any credit for this one, but Mr. W is doing awesome at keeping our kitchen looking great all the time. I can’t even explain how lucky, spoiled, blessed, and thankful I am for all he does. He does 99% of the grocery shopping, cooking, and kitchen-cleaning. Seriously, he is amazing.

Rec Room – We are well underway making some major progress up there. We are currently in the state where it looks like we have made no progress, or even negative progress…

But so far we have:

• Purchased and assembled the futon
• Finally assembled our boxing stand
• Started going through the bazillion boxes and tubs of baseball stuff
• Moved the TV and TV stand upstairs from the family room
• Started to mount the TV on the wall [in doing this, Mr. W is definitely getting to use some cool tools, which was another one of our home goals]
• Started a pile of Goodwill donations
• Started to determine where things will be hung, including this future gallery wall of pictures…

On our to-do list before Sunday:

• Finish mounting the TV
• Actually hang things on the wall [also gets double-points on our home goals – put more stuff on the walls and work on rec room]
• Secure the bookcase to the wall and start accessorizing it
• Move the bazillion boxes and tubs out of the way to make the room presentable until we have time to finish it

Hosting more people – On Sunday, we are having a small SuperBowl party at our house. So I need to stop writing this post and get to work - nothing like a deadline to get you motivated. :)

*I did have one slight laundry mishap during the month…Mr. W was sorting through [what I thought was] a big pile of shirts to help me with the laundry. Being the sweet wife that I am, I told him not to worry about it and I would separate out the dress shirts that needed dry cleaning. He happily agreed and just asked me to make sure to pull out the Nautica’s. I finished the sorting without finding the so-called Nautica shirts he was talking about…umm, because he was talking about the three pairs of dry-clean only Nautica pants that I washed. Woops. But with my mad ironing skills [or something like that], I was able to make them look normal again [I think].

Goodwill Christmas trees...

Last year after Christmas I picked up these two glass trees at Goodwill. [If I recall correctly, they were $1 each.] They were so much fun to play with during the Christmas season...

First I left them empty for a while. Then I filled them with red and silver strands of beads from IKEA. Then I swirled the red and silver strands together. Here's the evolution: 

I also think they would be cute filled with candies like M&Ms, kisses, or peppermints. Or I could fill them with something like acorns for a more natural look. So many possibilities. This reminds me that I still need to go check if Goodwill has any good Christmas decor this year. :)

Christmas home tour...

Mr. W and I had a great time decorating our new home for Christmas. Mr. W did the lights outside and I did the inside. Here are [were] the highlights from the inside...

The card holder was simply a red ribbon [hung by a push pin] with clothespins to hold the cards. I spray painted the clothespins a shiny silver to make them a little more festive. :)

The garland on the railing was one of the very few purchases made this year for the Christmas decor. It was $2/strand at Walmart and was quite possibly the best $12 I have ever spent. I wrapped it with extra lights and added in some red and silver ornaments.

The magazine trees were inspired by my friend and I loved how they turned out. If you want to make some yourself next year, I suggest using Real Simple magazine - the pages are thicker than most magazines so they are very sturdy. The red sign in the background is a canvas painting temporarily covered in wrapping paper.

This was one of my favorite areas - I just added the candle in the background and some pretty dollar store ornaments. Love them!

Thanks for checking out my very late Christmas home tour. Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and New Year! :)

2011 | Home goals...

I make lists of everything [seriously, multiple lists a day], so I obviously enjoy making lists of my goals as well. I am really excited about the Nester's home goals link party and thinking specifically about goals for our home.

My first few goals would probably make my mom and grandma cringe that I have to actually list them as goals. They are the type of thing that moms and grandmas make look so easy, but once you have a house of your own, you find out that it is more work than you thought [or at least I did]. I apologize in advance to my mom, but at least she now knows that I'm trying to work on these things. :)

1. Improve the turnaround time on our dishes. [I tried to use some fancy business lingo to make myself sound less lame, but really I just want to work on always loading and unloading the dishwasher right away and not having dirty dishes sit in the sink...yuck.]
2. Do laundry before the hamper is overflowing and fold/hang the laundry right away. I always want to work on keeping my closet picked up. [My closet reminds me of "if you give a mouse a cookie." Except that it is "if you put one dirty shirt on the floor."]
3. Make [and stick to] a schedule of regular cleaning and maintenance that needs done.
4. Keep our house tidy enough that I would never be embarrassed if someone randomly stopped by.

The rest of the goals are more for fun:

1. Hang more pictures, art, etc. on the walls. Right now, I can honestly only think of six things that are hanging on the walls in our house - one TV, two frames and three clocks. We tend to overthink what and wear to hang things, which makes us wait forever before hanging anything. 
2. Finish our rec room, a.k.a. the baseball room. When I asked Mr. W what is home goals were, this was the only thing he mentioned. This is the only room in our house that is not really even usable at the moment. We still have furniture and workout equipment to put together, a TV to setup, things to hang, and about everything else in the world today.
3. Continue to define our personal style and have it reflected in our home.
4. Use some cool tools.
5. Prioritize and work towards finishing projects throughout the house. This goal is really broad, but basically I have ideas of things to do all over our home. Some are needs; some are wants. Some are started; some will probably never be started. Having some priorities on these would definitely be helpful. :)
6. Host more people in our home. We absolutely love our home and love to share it with friends and family. Whether it be overnight visitors, dinner guests, a party, or just a neighbor stopping by to say hi; we want to enjoy our home with those we care about.

Thanksgiving table...

This Thanksgiving Mr. W and I hosted our first family holiday. Not only was it our first holiday to host, but it was also the first time that our families came to stay at our new house. We had so much fun planning, organizing, and just figuring out how to feed and sleep seven guests. One thing that we had to decide on was where all nine of us would sit for Thanksgiving dinner. Our house has an eat-in kitchen with a table that seats four, a bar that seats three, or a dining room that we use a reading / sitting room. Umm...that doesn't really add up to nine very well.

This will all make more sense once I show more pictures of our new house, but we ended up moving the big chairs, coffee table, and end table out of the sitting room to make room for a "dining table." The table actually consisted of two six-foot long folding tables from Lowe's and the tablecloth was a drop cloth from Home Depot. I had this all planned out in my head and kind of completely lucked out that it worked as well as it did - the tables fit perfectly in our dining room, the drop cloth was the perfect size, and the people fit perfectly.

A few days before Thanksgiving, Heart of Light posted about her holiday table planning, including that "You can squeeze in with 18" of space per person around the table if you all like each other - if not, you'll want 24-30" instead." This was the perfect information to put me into full nerd mode - I mapped out our table in PowerPoint to measure that we would in fact all fit and plan how it would look. Here is what I came up with:

As you see, we didn't have enough of any one color of plate or glasses for everyone, but since it was planned out I was able to make it look intentional. The horrible wrinkles in the drop cloth were not so intentional...oops, probably should have ironed. The finished table did end up looking very similar to the plan though. 

We kept it very, very simple and didn't even have a centerpiece so we could all see each other easily. And so we could easily clear the table to start playing our favorite game. :)

 

This last photo has nothing to do with the table or planning, but it is us with our amazing family the day after Thanksgiving at the boardwalk [and random photos and posts in weird orders seem to be my thing lately]. It was such a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with our families!

[P.S. In case you're just dropping by, I do realize it is now January, but it's better late than never, right? :)]