Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Decisions...What Color Should I Paint My House?


We are going to be having the exterior of our house painted next month.
A few years ago we painted the trim & added shutters, but now the stucco on the main portion of the house has some cracking, especially on the back of the house & could use some freshening up.
 I'm so excited, but also so confused... I don't know what color to pick!  We have been driving around looking at different houses & I've been searching the internet for ideas.

When we first moved into our home, this is what it looked like...
October 2004


This is what it looks like when we painted the trim & added black wood shutters...
May 2012 
It's amazing what painting the trim did!
You can see all the changes we've made  HERE.

I definitely want to keep the black shutters, but I can't decide if I want grey & white or a tan & white color.

Here are a few of my inspiration photos...
I LOVE the color, hardie board & the porch on this one! 
Exterior traditional exterior

Here is more of a grey color with the black door...love the porch too!

Here is a brown color, with white trim & the black shutters.
cheap exterior home e1281401066891 4 Cheap Ways to Improve the Exterior of your Home


This is kind of a mix of tan & grey...

What do you think would look best?
I keep changing my mind...I'm not sure which would look best with our red brick.
Would you paint the brick?  Decisions...Decisions!  I'm not very good at them!!

Here it is Now...

 Click Here to see our EXTERIOR HOUSE REVEAL.

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Monday, May 21, 2012

"Pinned" It, Tried It, Loved It! { #1}


There are so many wonderful ideas on Pinterest...It's addicting!
I've decided to start something called,
"Pinned It, Tried It, Loved It!"  
This is where I'll try out some of the ideas that I find on Pinterest & blog about the ones that I love.

Today I'm going to share with you an easy & wonderful idea that I have tried & LOVED!
A scooter stand...
My kids' scooters would never stay up!  
 They were always tipped over on the floor in the garage.

Then I found this great Pin that was only a picture & my husband built us one.  
It works great & solved the problem of scooters laying all over the garage.  

It took me a while to find the "original" source, but I finally found it! The picture that I had pinned was from the blog,
You can find a complete tutorial on the blog HERE.

I'm sharing with these blogs:
Home Stories A to Z
My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Freaktastic Furniture Challenge



Mandi at Vintage Revivals is having a challenge on her blog today.  The challenge is  to buy a piece of furniture for your house  that kind of scares you a little.  Last summer, was the first time I started buying used furniture & painting it.  It is a little scary!  

This is the beauty I took a risk on....
It was unique & I loved the shape of the legs!
It was only $20! So I figured even if it didn't work, It wasn't a huge risk!
We cleaned it, sanded, & wiped on liquid sander over the whole piece.  Next, we primed it & covered it with a few coats of white spray paint. Then we just spray painted the hardware that was already on it & put them back on & it was all done!  
Here it is now!
It turned out perfect for my daughter's bedroom!
You can see more of her room HERE.
It was a risk that I'm so glad we took! 
Since then I've purchased quite a few pieces of cheap furniture & refinished them...it's a lot of fun!!

Stop by Mandi's blog Vintage Revivals & check out the cool couch she is taking a risk on!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Rent Textbooks & Help Operation Smile


For my readers who are currently going to college, have kids in college or maybe you know someone that will be starting school next fall,  I have found a wonderful company that might be of interest to you. 
 It's a great place to "rent" your textbooks!
 I wish there had been something like this when I was in school. It's such a great concept and it can save you money on the cost of books!  
  The website is called :

Buying your books can be such a huge cost when you're going to school. 
 So here are just a few of the perks of renting your books from CampusBookRentals.com:
-Save 40-90% off of bookstore prices!
-Free Shipping both ways!
-You can search your book by Author, Title, Keyword or ISBN
-You are able to highlight in the textbooks!
-They have flexible renting periods!
-They give you a 30 day risk free guarantee!

And my favorite part....
-They donate to Operation Smile with each textbook rented! 
They have committed to donating enough to cover a minimum of 1,000 life changing surgeries and hope to beat that number!

So go check out their website now!
You can also find them on Facebook HERE!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Adding A Touch of "GREEN"

Another thing that I love to decorate with is greenery or plants.  
If you notice, mine aren't real...I'm not too good at keeping them alive!
I just put a decorative ball on top of a candle stick & tied a bow around it.  

I think the green plant completed the look on my lamp table...remember how I love to decorate with birds too!
In my great room I added put some greenery on a plant stand in the corner...

This topiary plant add a little color to my mantel....


I added a grass box to the top of our piano.

I added a green wreath to my mirror above the couch in the living room...
I placed a wreath around the rooster on my dining room table...
A little more green in my dining/great room area...
 I think a little bit of green adds a lot.  
What do you like to decorate with??

Then when I was taking pictures, I told my boys to move from the table so I could clean up our lunch  & take a few more pictures.  Then one of my boys said, "I know mom take a picture while it's messy & then take one after you clean up...it can be a before & after picture!" 
 Oh no, I think this blogging thing must be wearing off on them!
So here they are...
BEFORE

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Magazine Holder...

I love any decor that has birds on it!
I've used them in my living room, my daughter's nursery & in my kitchen.  

Today I was shopping at T.J. Maxx & found these adorable paper magazine holders.
 I fell in love because they had a cute saying & they were decorated with birds.  
I loved the price too, only $5.99!  
It says, "Do What Makes Your Heart Smile".

I added a few flowers & some magazines & placed them by the love seat in my room.
It looks kind of "springy" too!  
Cute & functional, my favorite kind of decorating!
If you'd like to see the changes we've made to our master bedroom over the years, you can see it HERE.
This couch actually used to be red...I used a slipcover to make it white!
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