Feelin' Fall

I'm falling behind (pun intended) with the Autumn link-up parties this week!  So, I'm gonna catch up with one fell swoop. Better get started...

Last Thursday was the Door Decor Party over @ Rhoda's...

 

Whaddya think? Fashionably late? Better late than never? :)

Tuesday was the Fall Craft Party over @ Kate's. I have to admit that I sort of don't have anything prepared for this party...I mean, not really. BUT...I did make this wreath the other day...which was sort of crafty so I'm gonna link this baby up...

 

I didn't pay even one cent to re-do this wreath...just blood, sweat and a NASTY blister on my right hand ring finger from literally plunging my finger into some HOT glue. K, haven't had pain like that since I had my last child and honestly, I am not sure even THAT was as painful as this. Anyway, back to the wreath...I stripped down my spring wreath which basically was just a bunch of forsythia branches stuck into it...added the berry twigs which I had on hand...hot glued the straw and glitter pumpkins (didn't realize until afterwards that there are 5 pumpkins - one for each person in our family - awwwww)...and then found an E in some craft stuff that I decided to cut down and turn into an F (for our last name). OH and I ripped some leaves off of some fall garland to act as a backdrop. Hung it from some jute string on our back door. Easy Peasy. The fact that this project was FREE was a total bonus. Love re-style. :)

Okay so that brings me to TODAY! Yay! Love getting all caught up. :)

Today's fall decor party is Outdoor Decor over @ Sarah's...
This year, I opted not to spend an arm and a leg on fall decor so I used things that I already had on hand. Since fall is my FAV time of year to decorate for, I didn't have to fight too hard to find things to work with.

 

 

That great little red desk was given to me by one of my mom's friends a few years ago. It's been sitting in my garage all this time...what a waste. So happy to have finally found a home for it. I think that it's super cute...great original color and I love that it carries our homeschool vibe outdoors. :)
The shutter was made by me the other day. I have 6 of those things...if you remember, I highjacked them from my neighbors trash last year. :) I don't believe this will be it's finally resting place, but I am enjoying it for now. I spray painted it a metallic antique bronze color because that is what I had on hand and wrote the WE DO quote on it (courtesy of Pinterest) with chalkboard markers. Though hung too high (which I plan on fixing), I think that it's a fun little "extra" in our little fall vignette. :)
We are SO loving our new hang out spot...especially in the evenings...when the fall air is at it's finest. Chilly...but cozy in our special spot. The white lights and candles add warmth and beauty...a special reminder of why I love this time of year so much!

So friends, thank you for checking out our fall decor this year! I have so enjoyed this opportunity to link up with some other fabulous bloggers and see what they've got cookin' up over at their places. I definitely have gathered lots of great ideas for NEXT YEAR. :)

 

Happy Fall Ya'll!
XO

Our School Room Reveal (Warning: LONG Post!)

So...I'm home by myself this afternoon with no husband, no kids and no car so what's a girl to do (besides the million and one things I SHOULD be doing?)?

I'm thinkin' that it's about time for our SCHOOL ROOM REVEAL, don't you?!

Anyone have a drum? If so, please do a little roll for me... ;)

I'm honestly not too sure about how to do this so please bear with me...

I'm thinking the best way will be to show you Before and After pics as we go along...from the front of the room to the back of the room and around again explaining all the little details that really just MAKE this room.

So, let's start with the view from the outside of the room...

Here is what it looked like BEFORE:

[Yes, I am well aware that the armoire is entirely too big for this space but when we were refinancing and the appraiser came out, we were trying to show the room as an "optional third bedroom" like the realtors fooled us into thinking.]

Here it is AFTER: 

Sorry for the terrible lighting in some of these pics - I may have had my camera on the wrong setting...hopefully you can still get the gist! 

BEFORE:

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(The frame)

 

AFTER:

SOME FUN LITTLE DETAILS:

Meet Magellen (because her residence is beside our globe), our new hamster AKA "class pet"

Okay...can I first tell you that this job was not easy. Since this is my "baby" or my "pet project" as my husband so lovingly (eh hem, sarcasm) called it, it was my job from start to finish.

Thankfully, I still wound up with a lot of help towards the end but the beginning was rough. I pulled up the carpet by myself with kids in tow on a lousy August afternoon...I believe I pulled up approximately 1 million 5 hundred and 46 staples. Not to mention approximately 247,987 nails all around the tack strips. Whoever put the carpet down did NOT want it pulled up.

Happy happy...joy...not so much.

Once I pulled it up, it was DEPRESSING. I thought the carpet was bad...but the floor beneath it was...dark...dull...and spattered with paint from a very VERY BAD painter who plain didn't give a darn about the beautiful hard wood floors the original owner so lovingly installed.

Bob the Builder struck again.

Yes, we could have had them refinished but did we? Nope. We painted them.

Have I ever painted floors before? Nope! Has my husband? Nope!

We winged it...the floor won.

Originally the floor was supposed to be green and white striped. I thought it'd be beautiful. Well...the people who work at Lowe's...or one in particular...is not so smart. But it's my fault for trusting him anyway. He told me EXTERIOR paint would work for my project. I believed him.

Exterior paint on top of a floor that was not sanded, was coated in wax and previous paint is not a good combo.

Remember the Tinkerbell nail polish from back in the day that you could basically just peel off your nails? Yeah, it was kinda like that. Only we weren't so lucky as to be able to peel it clean off.

So, that mess resulted in setting us back a week and pure hell in scraping off all of the paint we put on. PLUS THEN we hand to sand the all the other mess off so that we could paint the floor with the correct paint (floor and deck enamel - DUH stupid Lowe's paint guy!).

The floor and deck enamel people really need to expand their color chart - cause this girl likes color...and usually not ones that are "typical". Stripes were out of the question according to my husband. He was not about to go through the whole mess again and then have to tape off stripes on top of it. I cut the poor guy a break. ;)

Since the whole green and white strip deal was off, I decided on a completely different route with the blue. Honestly, I think that it works better than the green/white combo anyway. Phew! :)

That was the floor...the walls...well, they had their own share of problems. Have you ever tried to paint over real wood paneling and brick? SUCKS UP PAINT LIKE A SPONGE! I bought one gallon of wall paint. I must have been smoking crack. We wound up downing 3 gallons. I honestly did cry at one point and I wanted to stop.

So thankful that we didn't. My husband seriously came up BIG TIME.

Sweetie, you will NEVER know how much this job meant to me...thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart for helping me with the painting! You know it's NOT my forte!!! Also, thank you so much for sending me little love notes via paint can. It's those little things that make me wanna walk down that aisle 7 years ago all over again.

I also want to thank my husband for staying up with me literally ALL NIGHT LONG the night before school started to hang up all of my wall art etc.

Next time...definitely "Memorabilia". ;)

Since I'm thanking people, I also want to thank my sister, Julie. She never has to do what she does but she does so willingly...just because she loves me. She spent a whole afternoon scraping paint off the floor with me...k, seriously, it's not even her house. That is love right there. She was also my shopping buddy when I scouted out my many Ikea finds...didn't even buy anything for herself! Girl, seriously...don't know many who are better than you. I appreciate your heart so  much. You've always had so much of it. I admire you. You are a gift to me and I love you. 

Mom, thank you for stopping by to help as well...if you didn't stop by that day, I'd probably still be sanding that stupid table! (and it'd probably be a chair by now) ;) Thanks for making the Ikea run with me...yet again. The table and chairs couldn't be more perfect. :) Also, thank you for the compliment you paid me when talking to that lady today at the yard sale - those words coming out of your mouth...well, you just don't know how much they mean to me. Your encouragement is everything. I love you.

Dad, you're awesome. I love how you and I work together. I get an idea...crazy as it might be...and you know EXACTLY what I want...you ALWAYS EXCEED MY EXPECTATIONS. The bookshelf is PERFECT. I love having a piece of you in this room. I say we go into business together, huh?! With my design skills and your superior handiwork, we could make furniture for the STARS! ;) I love you, Dad. Also, thank you for the globe. Wish we could travel it together...you would LOVE it out West.

Nic, Nat and No, there is NO ONE ON EARTH that I'd rather "do up a room" for than you guys. You are MY WORLD. I love all three of you like you could NEVER believe. I'll never be able to tell you how much but I promise to try to live my life so that it shows you as much as I can. This is just one step. Teaching you at home. Putting myself into you and your heart and minds. I promise to teach you to the best of my ability. I'm so happy that you love your school room. I don't think that I will ever forget the first time you saw it. Your faces lit up like a Christmas tree! That made Mommy so so happy. :) I cannot wait to spend more time in here together ! So far so good, huh?! This last week has been the best since I've been your mom...I'm not even kidding...we're so blessed. ILYF!

Finally, I want to thank the Lord for putting this journey on my heart. All I can say is "Never Say Never". I never would have thought that I'd be here in this moment blogging about my SCHOOL room but here I am. And guess what?! I love it! When you open your heart, mind and soul to what the Lord has for you, you never really know what you're gonna get but you can be sure, it's gonna be an adventure! I'm so grateful for this opportunity and can't wait to see what He has in store for us going forward. :)

Some people told me in the beginning of this journey that "we could have just used the kitchen table" or "the couch" but for me, I knew that would not have been motivating or inspiring. I am a very visual person when it comes to home environments and I literally cannot function well in a place that I don't feel good in. We are all wired differently! I also REALLY wanted the kids to have a "school" environment. I didn't want them to feel like they were missing out on the whole school experience (even though technically they kind of are). It means a lot to me knowing that we have a place to go when school starts each day...a place that is pretty, functional, organized and fun.

So, that's our school room! Hope you like it as much as we do!

If you have any questions about anything you see here...any of our accessories etc, please feel free to leave me a comment! :)