Hoopalicious

My decorating style has definitely changed since Jesse and I first got married. 

I used to decorate in brown, black, beige, off-white; not a lot of colour (besides those pillows and the fake grass). 

 Through the years though, I have been trying to experiment more and more with colour. 

 (Yes, I did a little moving of furniture. Things never stay the same for long in our house.) 

Lately, I have been really loving the look of embroidery hoop art. It's an easy way to put a pop of colour on the wall with beautiful fabric. The best part of it is, that if I get tired of the fabrics in the hoops, I can just start scouring around for different patterns! 

I usually find my fabric at the thrift store. And I don't stick to the material section either - I break out to the bedsheets and pillowcases. 

You can find some very beautiful patterns if you are patient and take the time to look! Of course, if you buy bedding or material from any thrift store, wash it. You don't know what kind of cooties are on the material. (I sure did use the word 'cooties'.)

I buy all my hoops from the thrift store as well. The two lacy hoops are leftover from my sister's wedding last weekend. 

This is a art feature that is a work in progress. As I keep finding new hoops, I can add coordinating fabric and expand the collection. 

I'm currently sitting on my couch, staring up to the wall and loving the patterns and colours that are in the hoops. Very light and bright! 

How about you? How do you add splashes of colour to your home? 

Happy weekend! 

The Bathroom Reveal

I really wanted to come up with something witty for the title of this post but everything I came up with was crap! Haha!

Ok, stupid jokes aside, I'm excited for this post today because it has been a long time coming. Two and a half years in fact. When we first bought the house, one of the things on my "con list" was the bathroom, and the kitchen, and the small master bedroom. But today we are just dealing with the bathroom. What was wrong with it, you might ask, and my answer is everything. Let me show you a picture so that you know that I'm not just exaggerating:

I took the picture after I started working which is why it is majorly dirty!

So now that you've seen enough pictures of my previous bathroom to know that I'm not a complete drama queen, (what's up with the purple mirror and wood toilet seat?!) I'll show you the work I've done over the last couple of days/nights. 

My brother and I took all the trim off the walls, which sounds easier than it was simply because we had to move the massive washer and dryer. I also took the purple mirror and the light fixture off the wall. I was originally thinking that I would get a new frame for the mirror but the way they positioned the light fixture box (I'm sure there's a technical term for it) was very strange and a little more work than I wanted to do this week.

I sprayed both the mirror and all the trim with both primer and white trim paint. If you don't want trim paint, high-gloss paint is basically the same thing. The paint colour is a sea foam green with a little more blue in it that I had mixed up for me at Lowes.

I still have a few things on my list:

• replace the toilet seat with a regular white one
• new ceiling light fixture since the previous owners actually took ours
• new countertop
• new tile floor to replace the linoleum
• new hardware for the vanity
• use gel stain on the vanity to turn it espresso

The total cost of the project so far is $32 for the paint (I already had the white trim paint on hand). It's amazing to see what a little bit of paint can do!

So what do you think? Do you have any projects in your home that you're working on? We'd love to hear about them!

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Oatmeal In A Mug

If you have spent any time on Pinterest, you have seen (and probably have made) mug brownies, mug cakes, and mug cookies. I have seen them all and made them all. What better way to get a taste of something sweet, without the hassle of pulling out the big mixer and making the kitchen a mess (although it's dangerous being able to just make something sweet so easily...dangerous for my hips). 

Then I saw it: oatmeal baked in a mug. Whaaat? I've never been a huge fan of oatmeal. While growing up, we ate it every.single.morning. Oatmeal and I are not friends. For some reason though, this appealed to me. Probably because it was made in a mug. I don't know. 

The original recipe calls for a handful of blueberries, but I threw in raspberries instead. 

It was actually very tasty! Easy to mix together while I'm getting Gavin's breakfast together and I didn't have any aversions to it...nothing like what usually happens when oatmeal hits my lips. 

If you want an easy, healthy breakfast - even something that you can take on the go - try this oatmeal recipe. 

{You can find the recipe here} 

Here's to oatmeal in mugs! (Who knew!?)

 

The Mayhem is Over

Life is getting back to normal around here. We had a hectic last couple of weeks trying to finish all the last minute details for our little sister's wedding. We hope you enjoyed getting some glimpses of our wedding's and some of the little details that went into them. If you didn't get to catch those posts, you can see them here.

Since I haven't really done any of my own DIY projects, I thought I would give you some of the pictures from last week. We don't have a lot of pictures from the wedding yet, but I'm sure you'll get to see them soon!

Our fifth anniversary was on Friday. This was the only picture that we got of ourselves that day!

Waiting for the wedding to start

The first kiss as husband and wife!

Seth and Bella posing at the reception. 

Our attempt at getting a shot of the cousins. They were not impressed!

The best photo we got of our family that day

Sisters!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! As we head back into somewhat "normal" life, we have a lot of projects that we are going to be starting soon. One of my projects involves ripping off trim, repainting, and cabinetry. Can you guess??

Do you have any good projects that you've started lately? We'd love to hear from you!