W & J

Wednesday, April 18

Striped Curtains {DIY}

One of the projects that really got me smiling in our updated eating area was the striped curtains. I'd fallen for stripes when they began to pop up all over the place. I wanted some of my own somewhere in the house. But anything worth buying was out of our price range. I went so far as to pin some other ways of getting stripes: painting, buying fabric and making it from scratch or using some other material. Well, I ended up going with the third option, but only after finding the best resource off one of my favorite blogs. I saw this post mentioning how Ashley from Under the Sycamore turned this duvet from Target into curtains. Perfect! I thought. I could totally do that!

Off to Target to purchase this...then time for some quick math on the back...

Since the curtains had to cover our sliding glass door, the width of the duvet was perfect. I didn't have to mess with the measurements. The duvet's back made for a perfect lining. So I just cut the duvet in half, turned it inside out, and hemmed those two sides. By doing it that way, I had clean lines on both sides of each panel.

I made the button end the top. The first stripe was gray. I folded that over to make a loop to slide the pole through. That took the length up by 6 inches, making it the perfect height for our door. I sewed on the front side of the curtain, along the line where the white stripe met the gray to get it as straight as possible.

Before...

After...

I truly LOVING these $35 curtains. I may or may not spend extra time downstairs during the day just to be near them. Or invite more people over than necessary just for them to see them. Wanna come by and visit?? ;)

Things I learned along the way...

...having a large space/table was super helpful. I used my mom's huge island to cut and pin...

...I'm still not a very straight-line kinda of sew-er-- W was the one who recommended sewing against the line where the two colors meet...

..the iron was my BEST friend with this project...

Tuesday, April 17

Stay Awhile {Dining Area Re-do}

Our eating area has gotten a big fat face-lift these last few weeks and I'm so excited to share the updates. I really didn't intent to update this space, although I constantly see it since we spend so much time downstairs. I think it must have all started when I added our up-cycled chalkboard-- from there, things just kinda morphed into lighter and brighter.

So here's a peek of what it looked like before {that is after two large, dark, flower prints were replaced with the chalkboard}...

And here it is today...

We've had {and still have} many gatherings so I've kept the two leaves in our table. I've updated the curtains, added a paper circle garland to the chalkboard {more on those later}, and hung a custom banner {courtesy of my talented new friend, Heather, from CMHandmade}. I also still have some spring loot hanging around on the cabinet, including the faux blossoms I made`with tissue paper.

Our jasmine bush is currently in bloom. It smells oh-so-yummy in our backyard. E has been helping me bring in some of its flowers to fill a jar with. It's seriously the only plant we haven't killed yet and is so massive right now. We're getting ready for veggie garden attempt #3. Third times the charm, right?!

I would love to exchange the chandelier for something more simple and re-cover the chairs. Upholstery definitely terrifies me, or at least the tops of the chairs. But maybe there's a pinterest pin for that? ;)

I wanted to eventually update this space, but figured it'd be while. So, things just happened without much forethought. Ideas and resources that I'd been looking for just seemed to pop up at the right time so I jumped on them. It really is a fun place to eat, craft, and entertain now. Hopefully, folks will be encouraged to stay for awhile.

Monday, April 16

Easter Weekend {a wee bit late}

Our Easter weekend was FULL. We met with our Life Group on Saturday night and got the boys to bed late. Then we had church, naps and our Easter feast at my parents. Needless to say, that Monday was pretty much a crank fest although I was surprisingly productive. Don't know how that happened.

I didn't get any family pictures on Sunday which I'm totally bummed about. But the boys were already going off less sleep and I had to wake E from his nap to get to my parents' in time. I'll just say that they looked incredibly cute in their matching green ties.

I did, however, get some pictures of our table. I volunteered to set the table this year. I stuck with yellow, blue, white and gray. A fun little perk to not hosting the dinner...having the time for the fluff stuff. :)

For the favors, I put caramel-filled Cadbury eggs atop felt nests with the plastic grass. I put them inside strawberry baskets and put a name tag {that I cut with the cricut} and tied with twine.

The food was amazing. I made sure to stuff my face with it. Most, if not all, the recipes came from pinterest this year. It did not disappoint. The dessert was a Peep cake that my mom made.

Our family is definitely "out of shape" when it comes to busy weekends. But we enjoyed the time with family as we celebrated Christ and his sacrifice of atonement.

Friday, April 6

Unofficial Birthday Wishlist

William and my birthdays are both next month. And my mom has a gift. A gift of giving. She has impeccable taste and you can tell she really enjoys it. But there is a caveat: she really likes to surprise you. In fact, she's been known to not get you something if she knows you may be thinking she's getting that for you. That would be why I'm labeling this my unofficial wishlist. I'm figuring she wouldn't get anything from it anyway. ;)

{no particular order}

New to Ikea this spring. I can think of a dozen and one great uses for this beauty. I'm loving this color and the mint green option. So cute yet so functional!!!

Yes, I already have a "s" but it's by far my favorite mug! I go to great lengths {uh, like washing it by hand} to use it multiple times a week. I could totally see a "j' being added to my monogram collection.

I've seen these necklaces from allora handmade before, but not until recently did I get excited about them. I could really use a deep red, lemon, mustard, or pacific one to add a pop of color to my mommy uniform.

A store credit to Shabby Apple. I've been eyeing these dresses and skirts for quite some time. Great quality with a vintage feel. They definitely aren't cheap so you shouldn't buy one if you're thinking about getting pregnant any time soon...which kinda happened the last time I was looking at buying one. ;) And they just came out with their "color block" collection--so many fun bright colors!

Some crafting supplies: a roll of kraft paper, liquid chalk, chalkboard contact paper...things that have been lying around in my amazon cart, waiting to be purchased.

And I'll end on a really really high {as in expensive} bag. I've had my eye on the Marc Jacobs' Petal to the Metal line since it came out last fall. This sure is the perfect gray bag. Makes me drool.

Anyway, back to reality. Got to make dessert for our first Life Group meeting and finish prepping for Easter! Huzza!

Happy Friday, y'all!

Thursday, April 5

Easter Eggs

We dyed eggs yesterday! It was our very first time together and I definitely had to brush up on my dying skills. Because it's seriously been like, what, 18 years or something?! Nothing a few helpful texts couldn't solve. :)

Instead of boiling the eggs, I baked them. 25 minutes at 325 degrees. Worked effortlessly.

Ezra was definitely not born with the gift of gentleness. This fact presented a bit of a challenge when dropping the eggs into the jars. I tried really really hard to let him do much of the leg-work but did some intervening from time to time.

We did exactly a dozen; two of each beautiful color.

There was one casualty that just couldn't be ignored or put back with the others for the matter. I think he planned that.

Tuesday, April 3

Family Dinner

One of my favorite moments over the weekend was our family dinner outside. It had been really gray, chilly, and rainy so I felt like we really needed to take advantage of the sliver of sun and warm. This led to an impromptu picnic on our front grass. I threw a blanket down and brought out our chili dogs out.

This will definitely be a summer tradition!

Monday, April 2

A Day With Erin & Bella

The boys and I made a trek out to my favorite city to visit with Erin and her beauty, Bella.

We decided to head to the Academy of Science, only to find out upon arrival that it was just closing for Michelle Obama and some fundraiser. Such a great excuse to come back!