All in Household
For quite a long time, we have wanted to spend some time updating our bedroom and bathroom. But we have just spent time focusing on other parts of our house. So we decided to finally make the time and update it back in May after Brad being there 10 years and I being there 5.
Father’s Day this year was pretty low key. We have had (and continue to have) a LOT going on, so we definitely used this day as an excuse to relax as much as possible (including mommy and Melody, ha!).
As I have mentioned before, we always do a very low key Valentine’s Day. We never buy each other crazy expensive gifts or go to fancy restaurants. We always cook in (usually lasagna), and we have even been known to set a limit of $5 for gifts, ha!
After our kitchen renovation this spring/summer, we have been in need of new barstools. We had to get rid of our old ones because now we have a counter height bar, and those were too tall. We have been using counter height barstools from our bathroom, but we only have two and they are uncomfortable. Melody has really been wanting to eat at the bar with us, so we have been having to us a dining room chair which isn’t ideal.
So Black Friday 2018 cost me a lot of money to me & my big ideas! I found two planners and lots of accessories to go along with my planners. I already told you about my 2018 planner and how it worked for me. Now I want to share all of the planners and accessories I bought during that sale, and I want to share with you my experience with my new planner for 2019. I wanted to spend a few weeks working with it to see how it was going to work best for me.
My birthday this year was super special. Brad always outdoes himself every year. I honestly am not sure how he will top this year!
I know, I know, it is 2019! But I wanted to share with you the planner I used in 2018. I am using the same brand of planners for 2019, but I am trying out a different style. I want to use it a few weeks before I tell you all about it so I know how it works for me! So let me share with you my 2018 planner and how it evolved over the year!
This is Melody’s first year in dance. And since Christmas is during the dance year, I wanted to do a small gift for her teachers. She has one teacher and two assistants. For Christmas, I decided to get them all the same gift. One of the assistants is a boy, so I had to keep that in mind when deciding on a gift to give. I also wanted something that representing dance in some way. This made things really difficult. But I fell back to a super easy gift of chocolate. Chocolate works for all genders and most people like it. So I knew I wanted to do something like that. I had found some cute ideas with mason jars that made the jar look like a reindeer. Well that was a bit too much work for me. So instead, I played off the idea of mason jars, and I decided to decorate them with vinyl using my Silhouette Cameo. See how I did it below (oh, and this could easily be done without a Silhouette!).
I was really hoping Santa pictures this year would go off without a tear. Melody’s first year doing Santa pictures with my aunt went about as perfectly as it could. They were gorgeous! Last year we were unable to do pictures with my aunt, so we went to see a mall Santa. She was terrified! She was going through a phase were she was scared of most men and elderly people. Her fear as minimized a lot, but she still has general stranger danger. But we have really talked up Santa and shown her pictures to help with this year’s pictures with my aunt.
Since Melody was born, Brad and I have been attempting to go to the Galaxy of Lights Walking Nights at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. The first year the crowd was insane and we couldn’t get in. The second year, we had things going on and couldn’t make it. This year, they allowed us to buy tickets before we went. So we picked a day a few weeks in advance and bought the tickets in advance to save time. It was originally required, but a few days before the event, they did state they would allow people to buy at the gate.
While my dad was visiting to help us install our laundry room cabinets, he also helped us install a new front porch light. Unfortunately I don’t have a great before picture of our previous light. It wasn’t very visible anyhow. It was a flush light fixture that wasn’t very appealing at all. We have talked about getting a new light fixture for outside for quite a while. Then when buying some paint at Lowe’s we found this one on clearance. It matches our current fixtures perfectly (although we hope to eventually replace those too).
So about 6 months ago, we started a kitchen renovation/restoration project. We sold most of our cabinets that we removed from our kitchen at a yard sale, but we did keep two sets of cabinets to repaint and put in our laundry room. We finally finished this project a few weeks ago, and below are the final results.
I thought after two years, it was time to do a post about what Melody’s nursery looks likes now. It has changed quite a bit.
For a while, Brad and I have talked about wanting to get granite countertops in our kitchen. Then in the last year, we have discussed changing our cabinets. We really wanted a vintage white. So we approached different companies looking at the best route to take in our renovation. We looked into someone painting the cabinets, but it was literally going to cost close to the same amount. We ultimately found a local company that could replace our cabinets and countertops within our budget.
While at dinner one night, I got ranch dressing on one of my favorite shirts. I went about removing it using ordinary stain removers, but that' didn’t work. So I researched some other ways and improvised. See what worked for me below.
While looking through the dollar section of Target one afternoon, I ran across some different charts for children. I found one that was for chores. It was only $3, and it had a spot for 5 chores and came with a handful of magnets and a marker. I had been wanting to come up with some sort of chore/responsibility chart, and this was perfect for what I wanted to do.
A few weeks ago, Brad sent me a text while a work warning me about his encounter with their printer at work. Apparently he couldn't get something to print, he messed with the toner, and boom! He had toner all over his fairly new work pants. He has very few pairs of work pants, and these were his most favorite since they were the newest. So I had a few hours to investigate a solution!
So I tend to host/cohost a lot of parties. I absolutely love to party plan. And something that goes along with most parties are invitations. I address all invitations by hand. I have considered using my Silhouette Cameo pen to address some, but I feel like it would take quite awhile to do.
You may recall a year ago that we remodeled Melody's bathroom. We wanted what was the guest bathroom to feel more like something she would enjoy. Because we were on a time crunch with her birthday party, we didn't do anything to the cabinet work. We left it the cherry it was before. Well I have always hated that. I felt like it didn't really work with everything else in that bathroom. So about two months ago I finally got the initiative to redo the cabinets. I knew this was a small enough project that I should be able to complete it myself. Check it out below.
