June 30, 2010

{ patriotic love }

We have quite a bit of American pride 'round our house. 

My hubbs was thisclose to signing up for the Marines.  He tore his hamstring practically in half the day before he was going in to sign up, and by the time it healed, he had other responsibilities to attend to.  His favorite song is "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood, and he tears up at the sight of soldiers or memorabilia about our great country. 

Even with all of this, we haven't been able to celebrate the 4th of July properly - because pretty much since we've been married, my husband's job takes us out of state all summer long.  We leave our home and family and travel to somewhere else in the country.  Don't get me wrong, we LOVE these adventures, but I wish I could decorate our house during this time to show our American pride. 

We do have a little something up...it stays up all year to remind us how lucky we are to live here:
(don't mind the messy messy entertainment center...I swear that thing will be the death of me one day.)

I'll zoom in to give you a closer look:
Now, I know that I don't have to decorate to show pride, but, let's be honest, it's a fun way to do so!
Especially after seeing some of the awesome ideas around blogland.

Take this for example:
How stinking adorable is that?  Those girls over at How Does She? never fail to amaze me.  I might stalk their site for new ideas....maybe....I'll never tell!
As soon as I saw that, I about died.  "I MUST have that!" I thought to myself.  And I will be making one as soon as I get back home.  I'll show you the finished product soon, I promise!

And then I saw Thrifty Decor Chick's post about this same decoration PLUS her own twist on it to make it into a door hanging:
Ack!  Could you just die?  I just love it.  So simple.  So sweet.
Sarah never ceases to amaze me with what she comes up with.

So then I decided I had to make one of those too.  Darn it all.  Why do you all have to be so talented?
If you could give me about a lifetime minute to catch up, that would be great!

And then, if all that weren't enough (sheesh! Seriously.), I blogstalked stumbled upon Living with Lindsay's Teach Me Tuesday post.  Her guest blogger this Tuesday was Sarah from A Little of This, A Little of That.  Sarah made the most adorable little girl's American flag shirt.  Seriously. To. Die. For.

Don't take my word for it though, see for yourself:
I am pretty sure I have to make this for my little Taelie-girl now.
In fact, as soon as she wakes up from her nap, I just might have to run to the store.
Yup.  I'm gonna have to.
The best part is, all of these girls gave us tutorials so we can be as crafty as them!  Score!  Just click on the links with their names and you'll be taken right to their sites.  (Nope, no one paid me to advertise these girls -- no one knows I'm here, I'm a newbie!  I just love these ideas that much!)

What are you waiting for?  Get busy crafting!  Have you seen any other to-die-for 4th ideas that I've missed? If so, let me know, and I'd LOVE to check them them out!

June 29, 2010

{ the kitchen: in the beginning }

When we bought our condo almost 3 years ago, (eesh! Has it really been THAT long?) I was so thrilled to have a kitchen large enough that more than one person could actually fit in it at one time.  Now, keep in mind that our condo is NOT huge (only about 1300 sqare feet.), and the kitchen itself is only about 500 square feet.  But compared to the teensy basement apartment we had lived in -- it felt like a mansion!

Here is what our kitchen looked like when we bought the house:
(pic from previous owners)
I know it's terrible quality.  Please forgive me.  When we took these pics, I didn't realize I would ever need to refer back to them.  Oh, how wrong I was!
Before we moved in, we painted all the walls in our house a yummy toasty tan - just to get rid of the stark builder's-white paint that was there (and to cover up some other rooms in the house...but that's a story for later!).

After moving in, our kitchen turned into this:

and this:

I have loved the dark brown in there, but sadly, it's going to have to go.  Not all the way, but it's definitely getting changed up.  I have big plans for our condo come fall time.  We will be doing a major overhaul (I seriously can't wait for it!  Squeal!)

  I am trying to convince my hubbs to let us do a backsplash -- three years of just a painted wall is MORE than enough -- but I have been unsuccessful so far.  He seems to think there are plenty of other projects already in the works without starting another huge one.  pssshaa!  Does he not know me at all?

Overall, I think the paint transformed this little space quite a bit.  It always amazes me how much a little paint cant change the look of a room -- easiest & cheapest too!

What about you?  Any rooms in your house that you've fixed up with just a little bit of paint?  Even if it's something you know you're going to change later -- paint makes SUCH a difference, and I'd love to see your projects!

June 28, 2010

{ starting fresh }

Welcome to my blog!
I am seriously SO happy you stopped by.  A {very very very} few of you might remember me from my old blog, The Inspiration Studio.  I started that one about a year ago, but I never had any real direction with it, and, well, sad to say, it was very much neglected.

I recently discovered The Inspired Room, (I know! I know!  Took me long enough, huh?  AWESOME blog.) and didn't want Melissa to think I was copying her name.  So between those two reasons, a new blog was formed, and I am just thrilled about it.  I have so many ideas to post, I can't wait to get started.

So nice to *meet* you, and I hope you'll come back again!