Life After I "Dew"

Wow!  Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I am overstuffed and my eyes might go crossed if I scout out the!best!deal! for one more second.  Because, for real.

With that being said, it's Christmastime!!!  It's the most wonderful time of the year!  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Tis the season!  All of these have been flooding my IG and Facebook feeds over the past couple of days.  I love the feeling of Thanksgiving just as much as the next turkey lover {I actually don't love turkey} but there's just something about Christmastime that is magical, it really is.  It's a feeling, Christmas.  Am I right?

This year is really special for us.  Not only is it our first Christmas as a family of four but this is the first year that Kendall "gets it".  Last year she was still too little to really understand the true meaning of Christmas but over the past year we've gone to church a lot more and she's learning about Jesus at school and so when she asked me why we were decorating on Sunday I was able to tell her it was because we were celebrating Jesus's birthday.  And she got it, I think.  It was a very proud, special moment for me and in that moment I got really excited for this season.

This year we are focusing on what really matters, family, memories, Jesus, love, and giving back.  That's what Christmas means to me {my love}.

I never did an advent calendar as a child, sure we did countdown calendars and paper chains but we never did a real advent with presents, chocolates or memories.  Last year I thought Kendall was too young to do it but this year, right at the last minute, I decided this was the year to start a new family tradition.  I didn't want to focus on presents though, no, I wanted it to be about doing things.  Making memories.  Spending time together.  Giving back.

I scoured Pinterest and there are some CA-UTE ideas out there for DIY advent calendars. Tons.  But?  I am not crafty, had limited supplies, and needed to do this right now. So I found a cute envelope idea and went with it, surprised we had enough envelopes {don't ask me to send a letter or a bill b/c I have officially used all envelopes in the house}.
I got the markers out and Kendall and I spent some quiet time, on the kitchen floor decorating each one.  It was simple, it was easy, it was perfect.  Sure it's not Pinterest-worthy but it made my little angel happy and that's all that matters.

I filled each envelope with special holiday things, decorate the tree, donate food to the local food pantry, visit Santa, host a holiday party, donate to Toys for Tots, make an ornament, see the zoo lights, drink hot chocolate and watch a Christmas movie, etc.  It's all about spending time together and really cherishing this special time.

Kendall has been thrilled, in case you couldn't tell by the above photo.  Not only does she have her Elf on the Shelf to look forward to but now some fun activity too.  We already had to fudge it a bit because day 2 was supposed to be "visit Santa" but we kinda sorta already did that the day before Thanksgiving sooo...we improvised a bit.  Today is our day to take snack to school so we decided to "make a special snack" instead.  Thankfully she can't read yet and it was still festive so I consider it a win.

It was hard to plan the days so far in advance so I'm sure there will be lots of making it up as we go/switching days around but no matter what we will do something special each and every day this month.  I cannot wait and I hope that this is a tradition that we carry on each year from here on out.  I hope that my children appreciate learning what this season is all about and that it humbles them.

This time of year it's so easy to get caught up in the gimme gimmes and focus on buying all the things for all the people but I'm enjoying slowing down and taking a minute or two out of each day and really focusing on what this season is all about.  I hope you do too.

Well boys and girls, Baby Brother's nursery is finally complete.  Actually, it's been complete for about two months now with the exception of the cushion cover for the glider.  Did you know that it's damn near impossible to find a replacement cushion for the Storkcraft glider?  Anyway...it's finished and we are in love with it!
I had posted the inspiration for this room back in March and I'm happy to report that we executed it to a T.  From the colors to the artwork to the furniture.  It is exactly what I had in mind, subtle Star Wars.  And a huge thank you goes out to Kristen and Little Laws Prints, how adorable are those prints above the crib?  She executed my idea perfectly!  And I posted a sneak peek on Instagram and tons of people inquired about the bedding, pretty isn't it?  It's from Beyond Bedding and it was exactly what I had in mind when I started thinking about this room.  Simple, classic, and really affordable.

I said all along that I wanted the focus to be more on the colors, grey, orange, and navy with hints of Star Wars thrown into the mix.  Jimmy knew from the moment we found out we were having a boy that he wanted a Star Wars room and I shuttered at the thought.  But after all is said and done I think it's the perfect mix of his taste and mine.

I am glad that Jimmy is such an avid Star Wars fan because I would have been lost with most of this stuff as I know NOTHING about the movies, characters, books, you name it.  I am clueless, no matter how many times Jimmy tries to get me to watch the series with him.

One of my favorite things about this room is the chalkboard closet doors.  Before they were an awful greenish brown {you can see more here} and they were not going to fly in this room.  The chalkboard paint is a total pain in the a$$.  I mean it's runny, it takes a million coats, it smells, but hot damn if I don't love the results!  I imagine writing him sweet little notes each day on it.

The glider was the finishing touch.  I even emailed the company to get a replacement {it was pink gingham} and they wanted to charge me $107 for a cushion, mind you the entire chair and ottoman cost $135.  Not happening, Storkcraft.  Thank God for a crafty aunt and it's like we have a brand new chair.

Yet another print from Little Laws Prints and a piece of fabric framed and my sweet boys profile.  I love this little corner of the room.  I can just imagine rocking him in there every night and sweet baby snuggles.

The mobile might be Jimmy's favorite part of the room.  I don't really know what any of the things hanging from it are, I ask Jimmy every time, but I do think it looks pretty cool.  That counts for something, right?  I only wish it were a little bit bigger.

This area of the room, nearly killed me.  OK not really but see that frame?  I scored it for a really great deal at Hobby Lobby only to come home and break the glass in it 20 minutes later.  Which resulted in me going back to Hobby Lobby, buying a replacement glass only to have Jimmy break it later that night.  Third times a charm, right?  No.  I bought plexi-glass and there you have it.  Also the mat?  Had to be custom cut.  So my hell of a good deal frame actually ended up costing me upwards of $60.  #decoratingfail  But I do love the print and that little chubby Storm Tropper lamp makes me so happy.

And there you have it folks.  A lot of people commented when I posted my inspiration, telling me how there husbands would LOVE if they would let them do this and I'm here to say, do it!  I wasn't thrilled with the idea when Jimmy first mentioned it but now that it's here and done, I love it!  Whether it's Star Wars or a sports team or even hunting, you can make anything acceptable and cute these days.  That's what Pinterest is for!

It's hard for me to wrap my head around this reveal because I'm pretty sure I JUST posted her nursery reveal.  But alas I have a big girl now.

We started working on her big girl room transformation around Christmas when we got the bedding. I slowly started making changes to the wall art, changing out the baby blankets for baskets full of girly toys on the changer, new curtains {goodbye hideous valance!}, and moving the glider into the new nursery.  Then one day in February we decided it was finally time to bite the big girl bed bullet and never looked back.

At first she didn't like all of the changes. She didn't want the mirror hung above her changer, she wanted the glider back and she definitely didn't want me taking her original wall art from over her crib.  But now? Girlfriend LOVES it!  Any time someone comes over she can't wait to show them her new!big!girl!room! even if they've already seen it a dozen times before {sorry mom}.

I had a hard time just picking the bedding because while I wanted her room to be all Big Girl I still wanted it to be toddler appropriate, she's only 2 after all.  But Jimmy and I both fell in love with the owls and most importantly it matched her walls already {even if I secretly wanted to repaint them}.

Her butterfly mobile and butterfly wall art that I made before she was born stayed put because I loved them and couldn't part with them just yet.  Due to too many toys it was time to get her table and chair set out of the playroom and I thought it'd be nice to give her a little spot in her room that she can have quiet time and so she's got a little nook that she plays tea party mostly.

This bedroom makeover has been years in the making.  When we first moved in {almost 3 years ago} we decided that all of the other rooms were more important, because more people see them, and so our bedroom has always been put on the back burner.  At first it didn't bother me because we didn't spend much time in there and so who cares.  Then one day it was like "DUH!" the reason we don't spend any time in there is because it SUCKS and we are husband and wife and damn it we deserve a nice place to rest our heads at night!

I had been bugging and nagging and bribing and begging Jimmy to "PLEASE let's redo our bedroom!!!" and finally, after nearly three years we have a place that we love to be in at night. Actually we just love being in there period.  I finally love showing guests our bedroom instead of closing the door and saying, "Oh it's a mess".

For reminders, this is what our room looked like when we first moved in.  I wish I could say it looked this "good" right before we redid it but sadly it got worse over the course of the years and the real "before" pics resemble a college dorm room, pathetic. We should be ashamed of ourselves.  Yes this was "good" for us.


Yeah, it got worse from there. Sad, huh?

The after required not that much work, actually.  We bought all new furniture and bedding but besides that I was able to use pieces from other areas of the house for decor.  Spray paint some frames, print some free printables from Pinterest, move lamps and frames from room to room {making more projects in those other rooms} but at least I'm finally happy with our room and we love to spend time in here now.


I can hardly believe this is the same room as before.  We loved the colors of the walls and so we knew we wanted to work with the grey.  I've always loved yellow and grey together and when I found this comforter at Kmart} for $30 I knew I had to have it and that's what I based the entire room off of.


My favorite part of the room is this view, right above our bed.  I love the mini collage wall and how it's not symmetrical yet still balances.  Does that make sense?  At first I didn't like the headboard of this bed, I'm still not in love with it, but it's very functional.  We have two drawers that we keep things like the remotes, Jimmy's watch, a book, loose change, etc in without having it cluttered all on top of the dressers.


This was the thing I couldn't wait for.  Curtains!  I hate hate hate vertical blinds and if I never see them again it'll be too soon.  Not to mention, when it storms or when Casey wants to go outside, she RUNS through them and when you are sleeping that shit scares you.  So new curtains have made a world of difference, not only aesthetically but for our sanity too.


Initially I wanted to do white furniture because of all the white trim and white doors but I kinda like the look of the black furniture with the white.  Plus when I mentioned white furniture to Jimmy he asked if I was trying to turn our house into a beach house...


Like I said, I used things that we had in other rooms of the house and one of them was this family picture {our last/most current one, shame}.  It was in our spare room {future nursery} and therefore we never saw it.  Now we see it every day and I'm so happy because this is one of my favorite pictures of us.

We need to get some throw/decorative pillows still and I'm thinking we need some sconces on either side of the mirrored dresser but right now I'm just thrilled with this much progress.  Hard to believe how long it looked like such a hot mess.  Oh and now that I'm seeing this in pictures I'm realizing how much those cream colored switch plates are annoying me and now I want to change all of those out.  So, besides those things, I love this room just as it is.

I'm so happy that this is finally finished and now I'm wondering why we waited so long.  Kendall loves it and every time she walks in she says, "OH look at mommy's new big girl bed!" and loves to snuggle in and watch movies at night before bed.  We all really love being in this room now and it feels good to finally show it off when people come over!

Today is day two of our Jingle Bell Rock Blog Hop {sadly I missed day one, blogger fail} and I'm so excited to share this.  Today is  Elf on the Shelf ideas hosted by the fabulous and adorable Cheryl from Nap Time is the New Happy Hour.

This has been our first experience with Elf on the Shelf and I have to say, it's been fun!  A lot of people have asked if Kendall "gets it" and the answer is no, probably not.  I don't think she understands the concept of the Elf, Rich, being sent from Santa to see if she's being naughty or nice.  She does, however, love to wake up each morning and find him and she knows that she's not allowed to touch him or "him lose him magic powers".


From making messes and drawing pictures to eating mini doughnuts and going potty in the dollhouse, Rich is making Kendall smile each morning. Most of the ideas I have used so far have come from Pinterest, seriously what did we do without that site?

Now head on over to Cheryl's neck of the woods and share your awesome Elf on the Shelf ideas!  I can't wait to see what everyone's come up with!