A Weekend in Texas

I got to check off a bucket list item a few weeks ago. For no particular reason, I've always wanted to visit Texas and Georgia. For whatever reason, those felt the most "Southern" to me and I really wanted to see what it was like in the South. We've been planning this trip to Texas since Fall. The whole trip was centered around a girls' weekend at the IF: Gathering. We planned to fly in a day early so we'd have time to drive from Dallas down to Waco for a bit before the conference started. My love of all things farmhouse and Fixer Upper made this a given while in TX. The weather ended up making it an extremely short visit (thanks for nothing Texas weather, the snow followed us down from Minnesota!) but I still felt at home. I could have spent hours in there gathering inspiration. Even though we are in the Baby Steps, we saved cash for me to take on our trip. I did find some sweet little things to add to our home and remember this trip by. Now we just have to go back and visit when the weather is warmer! And note to self: just because it's Texas does not mean 40 degrees will feel warm. Pack more than sandals and a light jacket next time or you'll be buying sneakers to save your feet again haha.

Visiting Magnolia was such a small part of our trip but it was the only time I lugged my "big girl" camera with me. I wish I had taken more pictures of the rest of my time with these sweet friends. I tried to soak it in and appreciate every moment away from my family before we headed back home. The whole weekend put me out of my comfort zone but in the very best way. It's easy to sink into a rut but sometimes its necessary to step out in faith and try something new. These ladies have become like family to me and I so enjoyed getting to experience all of these new things with them!

Entryway Refresh

This is one space that I have wanted to fill since we moved into the house in 2017. I wanted to put a bench there (this stems from not wanting people to wear shoes in the house) but my husband wanted to use a table. We went back and forth about what would be best there. We finally got the chance to fill this little nook and came to a good compromise.

Initially Mark hung the shelf and we planned to add another above it but the space just wasn't there. The studs in the walls line up pretty wonky as well so we had to off-center the whole thing. I would love to shiplap this little nook some day so maybe we will adjust the shelf height whenever we end up doing that. We snagged the table, chair, and baskets from Hobby Lobby. Then we were on the hunt for a lamp and a taller piece with good weight as base pieces. 

We tried a few of the lamps I refinished but none of them were quite right. The industrial lamp we found was at Hobby Lobby! We had the edison bulbs on hand and I love the final look. Then I was in search of a mirror or painting as a tall backdrop piece. Our living room has a large window so I loved adding a mirror here to reflect some more light around the room. The mirror came from Home Goods at an insanely good price! I spotted a large farm house photo at Hobby Lobby that I think would have been great in this spot too. 

I love making my own candles with essential oils but I'm always on the hunt for a pretty jar to reuse for mine. We lucked out and found this one at Home Goods along with the candlestick and scale. I ripped the cover off a few books to add some height in the space.

This small chair was a good compromise because it still gives guests a place to sit and take off their shoes without taking up the whole space. I didn't love the idea initially because I was dead set on a bench. However, after seeing the whole thing come together, I love the chair here! I would like to find a rug to add in the entryway to pull it all together but for now I'm ecstatic with the turn out. I can't wait to decorate this with seasonal pieces and use the "hidden" storage for practical use.

Do you have a table in your entryway? What's your favorite season to decorate it?

January Snapshot

One of the things I've really missed doing was my self-portrait project. I did a weekly self-portrait in 2017 and those are some of my favorite photos from that year. I took a break from them last year but wanted to start again, on a smaller scale, this year. I'm going to share a monthly self-portrait here for 2019. It's so interesting to me to see what parts of motherhood have changed in the last two years and what parts have stayed exactly the same.

I pulled out my camera to take a picture of the boys playing the other day and on a whim decided to snap a few self-portraits. The light was great and Jax wanted to snuggle so I didn't put any planning into these. I just clicked the timer and hoped they were in focus! The first one is a great shot for this part of life. We spend so much time reading books with one or both boys snuggled up in our laps. The second shot is something I never want to forget. Jax is really into smooching everything right now with a big ol' "muaaaaaaaaaah." Especially stuffed animals and puppets. He pulled this monkey up as I started the timer and I love that this is what we ended up with!

TJ Maxx Haul

I had to make a run to TJ Maxx today for some new notepads. I needed to grab my niece's birthday gift too! I used to always grab notepads from the Target dollar spot but I haven't really found many there in the last year. I remembered that TJ Maxx always has an assortment of notebooks for a pretty good price. I packed up a "picnic lunch" for the boys and we headed out over lunch time. Risky with two littles to go just before naps but it worked out in my favor this time! 

Maverick got to pick out a book for her and he chose this sweet farm animal book. I found this adorable Carter's outfit too! I was looking for a picture frame too but never did find those.

I snagged this 6 pack of Moleskin journals for $14.99. I wanted to find a few for lettering on and these are HUGE! Maybe it's something I'll offer in my Facebook shop if they turn out well. I paid about half that much for a 3 pack of journals half the size a few weeks ago so I think this was a good deal!

I love these "lay flat" type of notebooks for journaling. I use one every day my prayer journal and another for gratitude and miscellaneous journaling. Loved these Rae Dunn ones! I'm almost through my current prayer journal so I needed to pick up a few to have on hand.

I grabbed these two large notepads for general use. I love having a flat notepad instead of a spiral notebook. I use these for meal planning, grocery lists, packing lists, taking notes when I do online classes, anything where I need a lot of space to write. My last one disappeared and I've been needing to replace it for weeks!

I grabbed a small wallet to take along when I got to Texas in a few weeks since I'm only bringing a smaller crossbody purse and my regular wallet is too big to fit. The one thing I was disappointed in was not finding any smaller notepads. I wanted to stock up on a few that I saw the last time I was there but their supply was mostly notebooks this time. I know TJ Maxx and similar stores can be hit or miss depending on supply so I can't fault them for that. I'll have to check back in a week or two and see if they have any on hand then.

Can't wait to get working on those new journals! Would you buy a hand lettered notebook for journaling or do you prefer something without lettering on the front?

China Cabinet Makeover

I've always loved the way a hutch looks! I searched everywhere I could think of to find an affordable one that was in good, solid shape. Everything I found was in rough shape or very expensive. I knew I wanted to redo a hutch and put in the work so I didn't mind cosmetic issues as long as it was solid. Mark found a handful on Facebook marketplace that he sent to me but this one caught my eye, especially for only $50! It was stained a pretty dark brown but it wouldn't have worked with the rest of the furniture in our house. Once we got it to our house I realized how splotchy the stain was so I set out to find my supplies.

I chose Rustoleum Chalked in linen white to help brighten up our dining room. I also used a sander deglosser product to remove the top coat from the original stain. Most of the hutch took two coats of the chalk paint but a few places needed a third coat to be fully covered. Once the chalk paint dried for a few hours I used a sanding block to distress the hutch as much as I could muster. That was quite the workout honestly, I made a few passes to get the look I wanted. I added one layer of Rustoleum Chalked matte clear and it was done! The hutch had wooden knobs and handles but I chose to replace them with metal ones from Hobby Lobby. I love the pop of brown that they add!

 Overall it took me about three days to finish. The entire thing was much easier than I anticipated! It was relatively easy to refinish and took very little supplies, just a few cans of paint and a paint brush. We've always had this giant bare space in our dining room that needed a big piece of furniture to fill. I think this piece is exactly what we needed! I tossed a few pieces of decor up there so it wasn't bare but I cant wait to learn how to style it. I think it will be especially fun to decorate over the holidays!

Have you ever used chalk paint to refinish a piece of furniture? How did it work out?

Five on Friday

I've always loved the "Five on Friday" posts that have been floating around the blog world for as long as I can remember. They are definitely something I want to do on a regular basis around here! This week I decided to focus on Amazon finds since I've recently been on an Amazon Prime-ing spree. Anyone else like that? Go weeks or months without using it and then when you start again it feels like a Prime box is showing up on your doorstep daily!

First up is this carry-on bag that I bought for our trip to Florida. I didn't have any bags that were the appropriate size for carry-on that fit under the seat but was big enough to hold all the stuff we needed. I read the reviews which seemed a bit iffy but figured I could always run to Target if this bag didn't work out. I love this bag! It had plenty of space for what I needed, was easy to zip up one handed, and the quality was good. It did have a bit of a funky smell so I threw some Purification oil on a cotton ball inside the bag for a few hours. Good as new! If you're in need of a weekender bag or a carry-on, I highly recommend this one.

I just ordered this cookbook by Rachel Hollis today! I love to try new cookbooks but I get discouraged when they're full of stuff we don't normally keep on hand or they take hours to make. I had honestly never heard of Rachel until recently when everyone started talking about her book Girl, Wash Your Face. I started reading that book while on vacation and found out she also has cookbooks. This one intrigued me and the reviews were good so I decided to try it out. I'll share some of the recipes I try on Instagram once it gets here!

I collect blankets. Not really intentionally, I'm just always really cold so I'm drawn to blankets when I'm out shopping. I have one throw blanket hung up on the ladder in our living room but it's more of a Fall color scheme so I'm on the hunt for a more neutral one. I thought this was super pretty (the fringe is always a plus) and the price is great! It's going on my shopping list for sure. I never really thought to check Amazon for blankets but I'd bet I'll be scouting out other options on there in the near future.

All of the bedrooms in our house are mostly finished. I'm not quite done finding all the little pieces of decor I want but I've almost got it. One thing I've been wanting is some kind of storage for our pillows and blankets that we pull off the bed before we sleep. Currently they just get tossed on the floor in a pile on my side of the bed. I'd love to have a trunk at the foot of the bed for these but our bedroom is just not big enough for that. I think a basket like this would be good for the size of our room. It would look nice next to the mirror and rocking chair we already have in there. I'm going to checkout Goodwill to see if I can thrift a big wicker basket otherwise this one is what I'll probably end up buying.

Throw pillows are the bane of my husband's existence. Okay, that's a bit dramatic but he hates throw pillows because he doesn't understand having a pillow that's just for looks. I on the other hand LOVE throw pillows. Would buy a million of them to switch out frequently if they weren't so freaking expensive. A lot of the ones we own are fairly old and really starting to look crappy. Most of them are stuffed with some kind of polyester filler that doesn't fluff very well. They're smooshed beyond repair at this point. I have found a ton of great throw pillow covers lately so I need to slowly replace our old pillows with these pillow inserts so I can just buy new covers to swap out. Hopefully since these are feather-filled they will fluff better!

Do you have an Amazon Prime membership? What have you purchased lately through Amazon? I believe Prime day is coming up soon so I'll be checking things out to see if I find any good deals to pass along!

Master Bath Plans

Our first major renovation in our house is going to be the master bath. It's one of two bathrooms and the only full bath in the house. So far we've only slapped some paint on the walls and added a few small pieces of decor. We actually planned to do this bathroom right away last Fall but having a newborn changed that plan pretty quickly!

I wanted to do the whole bathroom in one shot, collecting everything we needed beforehand. Since we are doing the renovation ourselves and we have no other shower/tub, I think it will be better if we go piece-by-piece as we have time. We are replacing the floor but haven't decided which route we want to go yet. I'm most excited about ripping out the wall paneling to replace it with shiplap! We originally painted the walls a cool gray but because the original paint color was blue, they ended up looking very blue-gray. We plan to use the same gray paint we used in most of the house to warm it up a bit. I'm also going to paint the trim white.

We are keeping the vanity. I plan to update it by painting the base and doors white, then replacing all the knobs and handles with something more up-to-date. My husband is going to replace the sink countertop area with a new wooden countertop. We've found a few above counter sinks that we like but are still debating if that's a good choice with small kids who may overflow the sink easily. The medicine cabinet mirror is coming down as it's too large for the space and dates the room. I want to find a large mirror that's a similar size to replace it. We will have to find some sort of light fixtures to hang above the mirror since our current lighting is attached to the medicine cabinet. We plan to put some kind of shelving above the toilet to give us back some of the storage we will be losing under the mirror.

The bathtub-shower area is actually pretty nice so we aren't doing much in there. I would like to swap the faucet and shower pipe area to match the sink faucet but I'm unsure if that's something we can do ourselves. Behind the door is a towlel hook and long set of linen closets. The area is quite confined so I may remove the doors from the closets to see if that opens up the space some. I also plan to remove the current shower hook in place of a few more, some at a lower height for the kids. We also have an issue with dirty laundry piling up behind the door so I'm scouring stores for an appropriately shaped laundry basket to hide away back there.

I can't wait start this project and find all the new decor! Would you rather I share about my decor shopping trips, my inspiration, or the actual renovations themselves?