Wouldn't you be more inspired to cook...

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...if you had a Recipe Box as beautiful as this?

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...or a pie dish as colorful as this?

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...or if you kept your eggs in this?

Affordable Father's Day (or any day) Fun

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I was at the bank the other day and noticed an advertisement for free Museum entrance for Bank of America card holders on the screen at the ATM Machine.  At home, I went online and sure enough, if you are a BoA card holder, you and your family can get free entrance into a bunch of Museums nationwide, the first weekend of every month.  I'm always looking for affordable activities to do with my family, so this is right up my ally!  Unfortunately there aren't any local museums that are part of this promotion, however if you want to see what locations are included in your area, you can find out here.

Some museums that are involved include:

The Detroit Science Center - MI

Garden State Discovery Museum - NJ

High Museum of Art - GA

Hopefully this program will be extended to more locations, I would love to take advantage of it!

Less really is more - Kid's Toys

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My daughter is only 9 months old but she has accumulated an insane amount of toys already.  Our playroom was starting to overwhelm me, and I think overwhel her too. It seemed as though she didn't really have interest in all the toys around her.  

Friday afternoon I decided to pack up a majority of the toys and put them in storage bins in her closet.  I then took out two open baskets and filled them with a few toys each.  I'm going to try this method for a while, interchanging the toys every few days to add some variety.  Hopefully paring them down will be less overwhelming for us all.  And as an added bonus, my house will look less like a Daycare Center!

New header in the works

Happy almost Friday! I'm working on creating a header for this blog, but in the meantime a quickly created one using this beautiful Schumacher Trellis Print, which can be found as fabric in this great "Pool" color.  Doesn't it make you think of summer?!

I Heart Craigslist

.. because of post titles like this, "VERY UGLY EASY CHAIR-WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE BUY THIS BOHEMITH", used to describe the chair below.

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Happy Friday Everyone!

Making my House my Home

I'll admit, I'm a little design obsessed, which has proven to be both a positive and negative.  My head is filled with creative and inspiring ideas on how to design and update living spaces.  However, with so much inspiration floating around, I often find myself paralyzed when it comes to actually biting the bullet and updating my current house. I always begin to wonder half-way through a project if I have made the right decision or have chosen the right color scheme. 

I'm really motivated this time to get the ball rolling and start making some updates to my house, which although purchased two years ago, still feels more like a house than my home.  I've decided to start the process by looking through all the images I have flagged over the past two years on my computer, and more recently, on Pintrest (what a GREAT organizational resource by the way!).  I think once I look through these images I will be able to better determine my style, and can go from there, which will hopefully make me second guess myself less!

So, to make what has become a long story short; to begin to make my house my family's home, I am going to 1) Define my style 2) Begin to update one room at a time in an attempt to not become overwhelmed 3) Do this all on an INSANELY small budget, as I am a full-time Nursing student, mom, and wife, who recently got laid off and had both our family cars die in the past six month! (How's that for reality haha).

I'm determined to create beautiful home and more importantly, a beautiful life, for my family and I to live in amidst all the chaos that is the real world.

Garage Sale Recap

The neighborhood garage sales were not that great this weekend; there seemed to be mostly junk.  However I did happen to score two glass pillar candle holders, almost identical to these Pottery Barn ones.

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The Pottery Barn versions run $29.95 for the Medium (the size of mine).  I picked up two for $0.50 each- not too bad!  I was also able to find a little shelf to go above the changing table which will house everyday used items.  Now that my daughter is mobile, its almost too dangerous to even lean over to dig through the changing table shelves without the fear of her throwing herself off the table!

Garage Sale Time

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I'm off to a few Neighborhood Garage Sales today. I'll be back to show you what I got; I'm hoping for some great "before" pieces for some before and after projects!

I Heart Craigslist

I browse Craigslist often, looking to find some great, affordable ways to help decorate my home. Today I decided to browse the "free" section, not planning on finding anything great; I was wrong!  Check out this slightly-kitchy, uniquely shaped chair I found; I think it would be great reupholstered in a fun pattern for a kids room, playroom, or den! I recently had a chair reupholstered for my daughters room, I'll be sure to post that soon.

I think I'm going to start posting reasons I heart Craigslist weekly; it will help keep me, and hopefully you, inspired!