Life lately

Hi! It's been a while! I'm still here, just very busy. While I really enjoy blogging it's been nice to take some time off. Id like to say I'll be around more often but I can't promise that, especially because we have no computer and this is really hard on my phone. If you're wondering though,  here's what you missed this past year: (50 first dates-anyone?)

We finished up our kitchen remodel almost a year ago and I apologize for keeping you hanging (if you don't follow me on fb or Instagram). 

Halfway through our kitchen remodel we got some exciting news! 

Morning sickness + no kitchen + sharing a bathroom with contractors (even if they are really good friends) was not as exciting though!

A few months later, in July, we found out that baby # 4 was a little girl. After having three boys, most everyone thought we'd have another. I, however, knew from the very beginning that this baby was a girl. Not many people believed me and to say our family was shocked when she was in fact a she, is an understatement. We made our closet into her nursery since we're running out of bedrooms upstairs. :)

In August for my 30th birthday, my parents helped pitch in for some built ins in the living room. We bought the base cabinets, plain old upper kitchen cabinets, on a local garage sale site. My brother in law then built the top/shelves from a sketch I made. 

They turned out amazing! I've rearranged them a few times now but I think I'll be sticking with this most recent neutral palette.

On December 7th, after a very long and complicated pregnancy (that included many late night hospital trips and bed rest) we welcomed our daughter Jemimah.

We've had a long road the past few months with complications from my third c-section and issues with breast feeding. Things are finally starting to settle down and we're finding a rhythm. She is such an easy baby and has all of us wrapped around her finger!

Right now I'm working on updating our master bedroom. It's true what they say about that being the last room you work on! I painted one wall three years ago in preparation for moving the older two boys into there together and haven't touched anything since then. Now our  oldest has his own room and we switched rooms with the younger two boys. They have the actual master bedroom since their bunk beds fit in there better and we took over their room. Last week I finished the painting, trim on the curtains and yesterday found a great carpet remnant we'll have bound. I wasn't planning on doing this room anytime soon but we made a big adult purchase (new mattress!!!!) and figured why not do it all now. Here's the rug, curtains and trim and beautiful Suzani I got to recover our headboard. We also snagged these night stands and dresser (which is in the boys room) on Craigslist. They're vintage Thomasville and in pristine condition. We've never had matching/nice night stands so I'm really excited about them!

I'll be posting bedroom and life updates  on Instagram if you care to follow along, sorry if this post is all screwed up, trying to do this on my phone is a nightmare!   

Real estate re-do: Master bedroom

Fabulous art, statement bed, a beni and some wallpaper......you don't need much more than that!


*I jumped the gun :) here is the pic of the master bedroom from the mls listing:

We got the new rug and some new art, pics next week!

Happy hump day

I'm back!

Wow, the last month really got away from me!

I needed a little break though.

Here's what happened while I was gone:

Winter came! We had record setting sub-zero temps here in Montana for almost a full week along with a few winter storm watches. Last Saturday it dropped to -33 the wind chill was almost -50!! We still have about 8 inches of snow but man 35 degrees feels like tropical weather after -50! Hoping we have a White Christmas!

Jude starting reading a few weeks ago-makes my Mommy/teacher heart so happy!!

Our bedroom was finished....horrible photos, again, I know :(  Camera suggestions under $600-ish?!!?

I started running a few months ago. I've never been a runner per se but I really enjoy it, although I'm not very good. My cousin and a friend and I signed up for a Run or Dye 5K...date to be set in 2014. I set a goal for myself last month to get a 12 minute mile by February, (6 months ago I was walking a 20 minute mile and I'd been able to whittle it down to 14-15 min.) the day before Thanksgiving I ran a 12:06 mile! :)
I then took 10 days off and nearly died yesterday getting back into it but I pushed through and did 3 miles in 44 minutes!

I was asked to help out with some design work at a local retirement home. There is no budget so it's mostly working with what they have and just rearranging. I'm excited about this project though because it's such a great way to give back to the community (I'm donating my time).....more on that later though.

I'm DONE with my Christmas shopping. I'm usually getting things the day before so this is big progress for me! As far as gifts for our boys we do...
-something you want
-something you need
-something to wear
-something to read

I read about this idea here two years ago.....love it!


Hope you've all been well....glad to be back!

PS- Our bathroom remodel is on Apartment Therapy!!!!

Round these parts...

Thanks for the breaky break peeps, I needed it for sure. 

The creative juices were dammed up behind a lot of stress and I didn't feel like posting crap truth be told. After giving up taking a break from working out (going to the Dr. 10 weeks into a VIGOROUS exercise program/diet change and finding out that you haven't lost any weight will do that to you) I'm back in the game. Vanity aside, I function better, as a wife and especially as a Mom when I get a work out in. Stress relieved (for the most part), heart and body and Mommy healthier and happier. 

5:30 am comes way too early though!

I don't have an amazing comeback post unfortunately (just some random stuff), but I need to post something because looking at those pictures of my baby all wired up every time I come to check my blog roll is KILLING me!

Told you, they make me super sad to look at.

Onward and upward!

Last week I cooked up two of my favorite pizza's for the hubs and I. 

Thai Peanut Chicken and Caramelized Onion, Pear and Blue Cheese.

They are sooooooo good!!!! 

Too good not to share.......

I made mine on whole wheat naan this time around but you can use whatever crust you like.

The Thai Peanut has peanut sauce, duh, grilled chicken, dry roasted peanuts, cilantro and mandarin oranges. You can also add red bell pepper, which is good but gives me major heartburn so, no bueno.

For the other, caramelize some sweet onions in a pan. Layer those with some sliced pears, more grilled chicken (I had a bunch left from the other pizza but this is just as good without it) and blue cheese, drizzle with a good quality olive oil. I like to add pine nuts too but didn't have any on hand.

I topped both with mozzarella cheese but you can use whatever you like, provolone would be good too. I also use sliced cheese instead of grated, I don't like a ton of cheese and the slices melt thin and perfect.

Cook and enjoy!

I've made some changes in the dining room over the past few weeks.

New light fixture (old one is going in the stairwell by our back door).

Brass and acrylic beauty....$20 on Craigslist.

Also here is my new free dining set.

^ Buzz Lightyear's down for the count

Vintage parsons beauty my uncle gave us and vintage brass Chromcraft  Breuer style chairs, new upholstery soon, from an old church friend (thanks Sandy!!!) 

LOVE!!!!

I've been working on getting the living room painted this week, one wall at a time. Anyone else  do that? I usually clear the room and just knock it out but I can't do that when I'm home with all three boys. So, I've been blocking one side of the room off with furniture and painting. It's been chaos but it's slowly getting done.

I also painted the bookshelf in question, the white is the wall color (Swiss Coffee by Behr) and the black is high gloss oil based Rustoleum.

 Nice non styling huh? 

I especially like the sunglasses that a certain one year old threw up there. 

Art is changing, shelves will be properly styled but it's progress none the less. 

(See my wicker mini peacock chair? It was fifty cents at a garage sale :)

I'm still, still, STILL not done with our bedroom.

Headboard needs nail head trim, art needs some tweaking and nightstands need some love but I still love the color-Billiard Table in high gloss by Behr.

I really, really love the way our crappy shutter closet doors look painted! 

I think if I had the chance to swap them out for solid panel doors I wouldn't.

Remember the ottoman I made? I'm working on making two for a friend of mine and I'm going to take some pictures and show you the whole process......soon. I also need to make another one for myself, sold that one. :)

Hope you are having a great week!

It's good to be back.

PS- I just watched Atonement this week. 

Have you seen it?

How have I not until now?!??

Absolutely amazing and I totally did the ugly cry at the end. 

Watch it!!!

Master bedroom sneak peek

Three walls painted, wallpaper being stripped today on the fourth wall, my HUGE canvas painted and hung.

We're almost finished!!! 

Nightstand Styling Contest

Source: serenaandlily.com via Katie on Pinterest

Want to help me win a PAIR(!!!) of these gorgeous ombre nesting nightstands from Serena and Lily??

Wouldn't they be fab in our master bedroom!?

Yes, yes they would.

Emily Henderson and Serena and Lily have an awesome Nightstand Styling Contest going on and I just entered.

Here is my styled up nightstand

Go here to vote...please and thank you!!!!!

*It may take a while for my entry to be approved before you can see it to vote, thank you!

What have I been up to?

We've had so much stuff going on lately that the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I started school with Jude after Labor Day and we've been slowly plugging along. Homeschooling is not easy let me tell you, not even if it's only preschool/kindergarten! Last year Jude LOVED school, he would sit at the table and do school work for hours if I let him. I prayed and prayed that it would last! No such luck. It's not like pulling teeth or anything the novelty has definitely worn off.

He still loves helping fold the laundry though!

School work and laundry aside, I have done a few small projects around the house. I decided that the new shades in the boys room were too plain so I added some fabric to them. Here they are before with just the trim.

And with the fabric:

Much better! I don't know what I did though, maybe cut off too much of the vinyl shade, but the other two shades will not roll up now. Thankfully I saved the left over shade that I cut off. I'm hoping that if I add some length back that will fix the problem. 

Almost every Saturday morning from July to September my Mom and I load up all three of my boys in her car and hit the garage sales. The Jude and Phin watch a DVD, Isaac sleeps and we get some awesome stuff!  I got this cow(?) skull for a dollar one morning.....I do live in Montana after all. It sat in the garage for a few weeks until I decided it needed to be silver, so last week I spray painted it and hung it the living room.

One of the Saturdays that I missed, my Mom went out with my brother and his wife. She found a pair of  these awesome chairs for five dollars each. 

 They came with a small table, also five dollars, that I have in the basement family room. I knew that I wanted to either make new covers for them or find some sheepskins to lay over them. The next day I was at Target and found these faux fur rugs on sale for fifteen dollars each. They work quite well I think. They are just sitting on top of the cushion and  I have them pulled up rather high so they don't fall down but I hate seeing the cushion peeking out at the bottom. I'm planning on stitching the rug to the cushions at the top so they won't fall down and that should cover the cushion at the bottom.

This last weekend I found these vintage black and white photos at a garage sale, a dollar for a set of three. They are kind of creepy but I love them!

Here is a close up of  the third one in the set (it's a long panoramic type shot like the other one above). I can't look at it without thinking of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm going to give it to my horror movie loving brother. 

Yeah I definitely can't have that on my wall.


With new art I figured I should rearrange everything on the TV cabinet (of course!), here's what it looks like now. Any bets on how long it stays this way? 

 A couple weeks ago I finally sewed the drapes for our bedroom from this David Hicks for Groundworks  fabric.  I've looked online but I can't find it in the black colorway that I have, except for this remnant for $69.00, if you're interested I did find it in Moss or Tan colorways. I got mine from fabricguru.com about two years ago on clearance for $7.95 a yard. I didn't even know that it was a David Hicks or Groundworks fabric since it was just listed as "Pomegranate". I liked the pattern so I ordered a yard. When I got it I couldn't believe the quality (a beautiful linen-it wasn't even listed as linen.) and since it said "David Hicks for Groundworks" on the selvage I looked it up online. After I knew what it was I ordered quite a few more yards, to say the least. 

Here is one of the panels hanging in our room. I'm planning on reupholstering our headboard in this fabric and I have just enough left over to upholster a headboard for my parents guest room-pictures coming soon of that makeover. 

Oh and that pink is not a paint color it's the old wallpaper we still need to strip. I couldn't handle the dusty mini-blinds for another day so I threw them out and put the drapes up. We'll just take the rods down when we strip the wallpaper, which may be happening soon! The hubs is trying to take some vacation time before the holiday rush hits, he manages the meat department at a local grocery store and things are CRAZY from November to January! We have quite a few projects we want to tackle around here while he is off. The living room carpet needs to get ripped up first, I can't wait to get that done!

So, what projects have you tackled recently?

Help!

For the last few weeks I've been going back and forth on my paint choice for our bedroom.

Just to remind you this is what we have going on in our very small bedroom.

   The abstracts on either side of the bed will be changed out for some vintage chinoiserie prints and the headboard still needs nailhead trim.

Mr. Brown nightstand has since been painted this color (Rustoleum Gloss smoke gray)

image via Little Green Notebook

I also swapped out the hardware for these that I had left over

Source: katiewaddell.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

Opposite the bed we have this situation............told you this room was small!

The above mirror has been swapped out for this painting.............


These fabrics are also in the mix.....David Hicks large scale print will be curtains, ochre floral (much prettier in person!) is a long bolster and gray ikat is a small pillow.

Originally I was planning on a pale pink for the walls..........like these.

Source: sadieandstella.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: blog.alicelanehome.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: keepitchic.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

But lately I've been wondering should I go dark(er) instead?

Source: housebeautiful.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: design-crisis.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: papercitymag.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Katie on Pinterest

The last two photos are close to where I'd be going if I chose something darker...an inky green charcoal gray.


If I did something darker on the walls I'd paint the trim (and the closet doors) the same color like the bedroom (by AB Chao) above. The dresser would be painted either the same as the nightstand (Rustoleum smoke gray) or high gloss white or black.

If I decide to go with the light pink the dresser will definitely be painted high gloss black.

So what do you think, light or dark or neither or both or any other combo of the two????