Happy Easter

Ok, so I know I already had one Happy Easter post, but as the day is coming to a close I thought I would write another one.

Today was such a wonderful, beautiful day.

I am so very thankful for all that God has blessed me with.

Including {but not limited to} this super cute baby:

Yeah.  I’m one lucky mommy.

I’ve seen this video floating around the internet.  I didn’t see it live and I really wish I would’ve caught it.  I’m not a big country fan, but I have always respected Vince Gill & how can you not be blown away by Carrie Underwood.  I thought it would be the perfect song/video to end the day:

Be blessed.

xoxo,

Amy

What’s that I smell?

 

I think I smell a giveaway coming soooonnnn!!!!  Yay! 

If you’ve been following my blog for any amount of time now, you know that I promised a cute giveaway when I reached 50 followers!  {I’m setting small goals for myself and this bloggin’ bit}.

Well, I just checked and I am currently at 46 followers!

Woooooo-hooooo!

Tell your mama, tell your daddy, tell all your friends!  We’re almost to 50!

And to my faithful 46…….THANK YOU!  You guys are the best!

And if you read my blog often but aren’t a “follower”, why not go ahead and click that little follow button over on the right sidebar!  You’ll be glad you did!       -------------->

I’ll post more about the giveaway when we get a little closer, but let’s just say I’m excited about it!

Now, go tell your friends to follow my blog!  :-)

xoxo,

Amy

 

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a relaxing Easter weekend!

We are headed over to my parent’s house tomorrow for Easter dinner and for Emily’s first egg hunt!!

I’ll leave you with some pics of Emily with the Easter Bunny.

 

 

xoxo,

Amy

New-ish family room

The day has finally come!

WE FINALLY HAVE NEW FAMILY ROOM FURNITURE!!!! 

We have a smaller, carpeted room off the kitchen/breakfast nook where we hang out.  It’s our family room.  We love it because it’s right off the kitchen so I can be cooking or doing dishes, and still be connected to the family watching TV in the family room.  The problem is, it’s kind of small.

Before, we had a large leather sectional sofa in this room.  The sectional was nice and we got a killer deal on it when a furniture store in town was closing.  It had a queen sleeper sofa and dual recliners.  So, it was a great piece of furniture.  The problem??  It was waaaaayyy too big for the room.  It was also starting to get a bit worn and just not our my style anymore.

 

This isn’t a great picture of the room before.  But, to the left of the couch is an entryway to the 1/2 bath and the back porch/garage area.  The end table to the left was blocking that entryway.  You can’t tell, but the left of the couch isn’t pushed all the way up against the wall.  If it were, it would totally block the entryway.  To the right of the sofa, there is an entertainment center with our TV.  There was no room for a coffee table or anything.  Such a small space!!!

But, not anymore!! 

 Another thing that was wrong with the room was the carpet.  It was DISGUSTING!!!  It was builder grade “loopy” carpet. We have a dog who sheds like crazy and his hair just wouldn’t come out of the carpet.  He also chewed a hole in the carpet (ummm….he’s like 10 years old.  What was he thinking!?!?).  Then our little chihuahua still has some “accidents” every once in a while and our carpet was her backyard.  Not good.

So, we sold our couch on Craigslist for $600 (!!!!!) and got new sofas & new carpet!

Here are the afters:

The new carpet!  It’s Martha Stewart’s Winterthur design in potter’s clay. 

Close-up of the pattern

 

Sooooo much better!

I am DIYing a project to replace that clock above the entertainment center.  It just doesn’t go anymore.

I love, love, love it!!!! 

I’m ready to have a Spring BBQ or something!!

So, what do you think?  Have you made any changes to your den/living/family room lately?

xoxo,

Amy

Linking up to these fab parties:

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What do you do when you can’t find what you want? Make it, of course!

I have been searching for a coffee table ottoman for weeks now!  We bought new couches (post & pics on that coming soon) and literally are having new carpet installed as I type this.  We have carpet in just the family room of our house, which is nice especially since Pee Wee is becoming more and more mobile.  I’ll share all the details in another post!  Back to the ottoman…..

Our couches don’t recline.  Bummer.  We are a reclining family, for sure!  So, not being able to put our feet up with these new couches is kind of cramping our style to say the least.  To remedy this problem, I have been searching high and low for a cocktail ottoman to double as a coffee table for our new family room.  I have found a couple that like, but to the tune of $400 and up.  UGH!  My love is this beauty from West Elm:

LOVE IT!  But with shipping and tax and everything else, it’s well over $400!  We are trying to do this on the cheap, cheap (especially considering we just bought a couch, loveseat, end tables, carpet, padding, installation of said carpet, and removal of old carpet).

I’ve done a little bloggy research and found a few blogs where people made cocktail ottomans out of Craigslist coffee tables!  Ummm….genius!

Here is one I found that is fabulous and it sounds so easy!

Look how great that looks!

I was immediately inspired!  I thought, “Hey!  I can do that!”.  So I am going to attempt my own coffee table ottoman.

I started my search on Craigslist and found a coffee table that I think will work!

And it’s only $50, which means I can probably get it for $30 or $40 at the most!  Score!

I am still deciding on fabric to cover it with. 

I am hoping this project is not just a pipe dream and that I can actually do it.  We shall see.

I’ll keep ya posted!

Amy

 

DIY Mercury Glass

I Luuuuuurve the look of mercury glass.  I have been seeing it a lot lately in design magazines and on oodles of blogs.  I have a couple mercury glass pieces, but I want more!!  My husband says that’s my motto…..I want more! 
So anyway…..I have a ton of clear vases that are just hanging out in my garage collecting dust and pollen.  My wheels were spinnin’ about what I could do with these vases.  So, to Google I went!
I Googled “DIY Mercury Glass” and found a great article on Martha Stewart about making your own mercury glass.  I don’t know about you guys, but all of her tutorials seem so vague to me!!  I need some serious step-by-step instructions, people!!!  But, I could actually handle this tutorial.  It was pretty straight forward. 

{via}

All I really needed was the Krylon Looking Glass spray paint.

Three ridiculous days & 5 home improvement and craft stores later, I still could not find the Krylon Looking Glass spray paint!!  No one in my town carries it!  I could have ordered it off of Amazon by now and it would have been here in 2 days!  UGH!  So, I checked one last place that I always forget about…..Ace Hardware.  No luck there either.  But, I did find an alternative (or so I hoped).  It is Krylon’s Chrome Aluminum spray paint.  It still had that “mirrored” finish that I was looking for.  So I bought it & thought I’d give it a whirl.  And IT WORKED!!!   Woo-hoo!
So here’s how you do it:
You will need:

• a squirt bottle filled with water
• a clear vase or votive holder or candlestick or whatever else you want to make into mercury glass
• Krylon’s Looking Glass spray paint OR Krylon’s Chrome Aluminum spray paint

First, you need to make sure your vase is clean so give it a good rinse and wipe down first. 
Then, you are going to mist the inside of the vase with the squirt bottle.  You don’t want to douse the inside and puddle it with water.  You just want to mist all around the inside.

It should look something like this when you’re done misting:
  
See all the little beads of water?  That’s what you want!  That’s what is going to give it the “aged” or “antiqued” look you’re going for.
Next, you want to lightly spray the inside of the vase with the Looking Glass or Chrome Aluminum spray paint (use the rules of spray painting with this project too!  Light, even coats does the trick).

You really only need to do one or two coats (depending on how dark you want it to be).
Turn the vase upside down on a ventilated surface (a cooling rack will be just fine).  I have a basket that has a “mesh” top and so I just sat it on that.
Let the vase dry overnight.
When it’s all dry, it will look something like this:
 


This is a different vase that I did a couple of weeks ago.  It looks A LOT better in person!  The pictures just don’t do it justice! 
This is a simple project that took me all of about 10 minutes!
If you try it, let me know how it turns out! 

Amy

 

Emily – 5 Months

Wow!  I absolutely cannot believe my baby is already 5 months!!  So much has changed since 4 months!!  It’s crazy!
Here are some pictures I took of her on April 3, 2011


 
Here are Miss Emily's 5 month stats:
Height:  Not sure.  We didn’t have a doc’s appt. this month.  I’m going to assume she’s around 25”.
Weight: Probably somewhere around 14.5 or 15 pounds
Head Circumference: Not sure (again, no doctor’s appointment)
New Developments: Wow!  Where do I start???  Emily, you have started rolling like a mad woman!  A couple weeks ago, you really started rolling from your back to your stomach.  Then, you would get on your stomach and not know how to get to your back!  You are still rolling like crazy.  You have even started doing it in your sleep.  You now sleep on your tummy pretty much every night.  It scared us pretty bad at first, but we are more comfortable with it now and you seem happy, so we are okay!  You have also started on some “solid” foods.  I started you out on rice cereal from a spoon.  You did pretty good.  But then, I went to a class that said rice cereal is actually not the best first food for you!  So, I started giving you some bananas (today, in fact)!  You seem to really like bananas.  I can’t wait to start making you your own baby food!  You are talking more than ever!  You make all kinds of noises with your mouth.  You also giggle a lot.  You are really playing with your toys more and more.  You can hold on to things pretty well.  You took your first beach trip about a week ago.  You got in the pool and seemed to really enjoy it.  You are in size 2 diapers and wear size 3-6 months clothes.  You are growing like  a weed and we just cannot believe it.  I pray that we remember and cherish this time forever!