Simple Fall touches

Fall begins...

Our Rental Living Room {Before and After}

We sold our ranch house and have chosen to live in a cute little rental for now. Nationwide, it seems to be a great time to sell, but not to buy. Our ranch house was too big! And had too many issues that we didn't want to put money into. It felt right and it sold fairly quickly and painlessly.

So here we are with the living room BEFORE:

We bought a new smaller sofa from Ashley Furniture here in town after we sold our sectional. We already had the TV stand, TV and clock. The floors are loud and uncomfortable so I searched online until I found the perfect rug and pillows.


And here is the living room AFTER:

I still would like to find some nice artwork for that wall. For now I just threw up a family picture.
I found the pillows at Gordman's and Pottery Barn, the blanket is old from a Pottery Barn outlet, the pots and faux plants and books I already had. Overall I think it turned out great, especially since I had never seen the rug in person, just took a chance on Home Depot online and we ended up loving it!

Well I'm off to try and enjoy the last few weeks of summer before the kids go back to school!
~Rebecca

Current Mood {Living Room Mood Board}

We sold our sectional as it was just too big for our new space and bought a new sofa. I thought it would be fun to gather a few pictures of things I'm currently loving to see how they all look together and get a feel or mood for the room. Here is what I came up with: three different pillows in neutrals and stripes (my favorite! The first pillow does have a blue stripe for a touch of color), a great rug with more blue to tie the colors together, and a pouf/ottoman that I have been eyeing for a long time. I've been wanting to add a little more blue and little more streamlined/modern look but still keep it comfortable and working with our sometimes country/farmhouse style that we like too. I'm really liking the idea of these things for the living room, what do you think?

Have a great Summer week! ~ Rebecca

Graduation gift idea for Young Women

The time of year has come to think about the upcoming graduates in your life! This year in our church youth organization, we have 4 young women graduating. We love and are so proud of these girls and wanted to give them a gift of encouragement as they start a new chapter in their lives.

First of all, I must give credit where credit is due. Thanks to Pinterest (as always!), I got this great idea for the wrapping from here and the necklace from here. This gift idea has a cute "Adventure Awaits" theme that we wanted to use.

I started by buying cute journals and pens from Family Dollar.

I bought anchor necklaces from Amazon. I re-typed the necklace card using the original inspiration and added a few words, too. I printed them out, cut to size, cut the notches for the chain and re-inserted them into their plastic package.

Then I just used microsoft word to type up the tags like the inspiration photo. I personalized them and added a globe from the word program. I used some tag templates I had to trace the outline of the tag and cut them out.

I tied all the goodies together like so:

Then I wrapped them all up with world map gift wrap that I bought on Ebay.

I think they turned out pretty cute and very similar to the original idea I saw on Pinterest which was the goal. I hope the young women like them! All together, this gift only cost about $13 each, not bad considering the original anchor necklace alone is $40!

Cheers to all the upcoming grads and I hope you have a great week!

~Rebecca

Teacher Appreciation Door Ideas

Teacher Appreciation is next week. I was asked to make some door posters for the staff at my kids' school. The school provided the poster board and black cardstock and I came up with the ideas (with the help of Pinterest). My friend has a Cricut machine and cut all the letters and designs and I glued them on. They turned out soo cute! The reason we did poster board and not the full door size paper is because the fire marshall said it was against fire code. So if that is true, I just wanted to pass that important information along. Personally, I think doing it on poster board instead of the full door was a huge benefit for my time and was much easier to make and transport to the school. We did 14 posters in all.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all teachers out there!

My New Headboard and Master Bedroom Reveal! {DIY Project - Before and After}

We have been without a headboard since our last one broke when I tried to move it myself several years ago. The old one was a great Ikea wood bed frame that honestly lasted much longer than expected considering how many times it had been moved, taken apart, and put back together.

When my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday back in January, I showed him the plans for the King farmhouse headboard online and he totally came through, as he always does! Of course it took a few more months and some teamwork to actually get it finished, but all the best projects do:)

He got all the materials at our hardware store. Here is a picture of all the wood cut and laid together on my birthday:

I couldn't decide whether to paint or stain it. Or what color. After we put it together and I sanded it, we put it in the bedroom to see how it would look and think about what finish we wanted to give it.

So here is the BEFORE of our bedroom: 

And here is the AFTER!

We LOVE how it turned out. I ended up painting it white and spray painting the lamps black.

At first I was thinking of painting it black because I love contrast and it would look great against the white bedding but he didn't want to hide all of the beautiful wood.
Then I was thinking of staining it but there's nothing that would look good with my wood nighstands or hope chest. And I love my nightstands and hope chest even if they are a little dated. The nightstands are very high quality and solid wood Ethan Allens that belonged to my parents. The hope chest is a Lane cedar chest that I got from my parents for my high school graduation. Yes, even as a youth I wanted furniture for gifts, haha! Interior decor and design has always been my passion from a young age!
I love how our bedroom is full of meaningful pieces that bring me joy. Even the bedding that has been put together over the years and not bought in a bed-in-a-bag type set, makes me happy :) The quilt was a wedding gift from my husbands grandmother and he will never let me replace it, even though I have tried just because I've had to sew a few rips and tears! The king and standard pillows have pillowcases from my favorite super soft and affordable Target Threshold sheet sets. The throw pillows are my favorite color and I love my homemade Pottery Barn napkin accent pillow.
All together it has the perfect look and feel I was going for and is so "us!"

I'm so glad to be finished with this project, and on to the next!

MASTER BEDROOM SOURCE LIST:
(Click on the links below to be directed to the product page)
Ana White Farmhouse King Headboard
Headboard paint color Sherwin Williams Alabaster
White quilt is Laura Ashley from 15 years ago
Threshold Organic Cotton Solid Sheet Set in White
Threshold Printed Flannel Sheet Set in Gray Stripe
H&M Home similar Canvas Pillow Cover and Insert
Pottery Barn Block Print Blue Floral Napkin (can buy in store individually) and Napkin Pillow Cover Tutorial
Threshold Yarn Dye Stripe Ringspun Cotton Blanket Metallic Blue (not pictured)
Vintage Ethan Allen nightstands
Ikea Barometer Lamp (spray painted black)
Hobby Lobby Gray Diamond Patterned Cement Pot
Plants, similiar
Magnolia Art Print Set from here (no longer sold)
Majgull Blackout Curtains
Vintage Lane Cedar Chest