THANK you!

I won! I won the contest at Not just a housewife blog! I'm so excited to get my Home Depot gift card and redo my master bedroom and bath!

Thank you guys so much for voting for me. I really really appreciate all my readers that took the time to help me out. And the people who just plain liked the project who voted for it!

With my hubby leaving in less than a month for a 4 month deployment to Panama, I am stoked to have something to distract me and this gift card will help do just that! I am planning projects now to complete every week while he's gone and maybe time will fly by.

In other news, my 5 year old learned how to ride his bike without training wheels last Monday. So naturally, he asked us to build him a bike ramp on Tuesday. That triggered a sequence of events that ended with me designing new products for my etsy shop. Don't worry if you can't follow my train of thought. Therapists can't either ;) Hopefully I'll have it stocked up in a few weeks and introduce you to my new art and home decor!

As always, thanks for being the best readers in the world. I may be biased but you guys really are rad. Or boss. Tubular? Whatever kids are calling it these days. You guys are that.

Ikea hack and a winner

My husband was gone this week for Panama planning meetings. I can't believe he's deploying in a month. It seemed farther away before. Anyways, while he was gone some neighborhood cats decided that they were going to reproduce very loudly outside my bedroom window at 3 am. Laying in bed, wishing I had a rottweiler, thinking of everything I needed to do that day, I decided to repaint my Ikea bookcases.

Sorry for the crap picture, my nice camera is malfunctioning. 

My husband doesn't complain about much when it comes to how I decorate, but he does have one complaint. I hate the amount of books that we have and how they look on the shelves. He hates looking for books and doesn't want me to cover them or turn them around or anything that is visually appealing. So he won this fight.

I took off the backing and attached new plywood that I had cut into 4" pieces. Next time I think I'll do it myself because the guy at Home Depot made the cuts a little crookie. And my table saw cuts like butter. And then I painted it all Swiss Coffee. It is MUCH better than before...

Why did I wait so long to paint those suckers? Now all I need is to win a certain gift card and I can finish my master bedroom and bath ;) Go vote for me if you haven't already!

Also, Kim Skinner. You won my giveaway. Congrats, I'll get you the enamel bowl soon!

HELP! Vote for me!

I entered a contest for the best DIY of 2012 and the winner gets a $250 Home Depot gift card. The bunk beds I did made it in the top 10 and now I need your help! It's open for voting now and the winner gets the card! You can vote every day until the 29th and they'll announce the winner!

HERE is the link!

Here is a picture in case you haven't seen it.

This photo was taken by This Old House magazine. HERE is the link to my original bunk bed posting.

I have BIG plans for my $250 gift card. I plan to redecorate my master bedroom AND bath on only the $250. I'm super excited! Please vote for me! Again, you can vote EVERY day until the 29th. Please share, blog, facebook this so we can reach as many people this week as possible! Thanks in advance!

Dining room wall, Valentine mantle, and a giveaway

I was browsing pinterest yesterday and found a really fun painting project here. Jana wasn't the first one to do this project either, she was just the one that caught my eye. I decided to revamp my dining room wall with this same pattern on a larger scale.

I pulled the colors from the media wall and my kitchen to create this herringbone wall. It kind of looks black in this picture, but its actually navy. It has such a graphic punch and is one of the first things you see when walking around the corner from my front door. 

I also updated my mantle. Sorry I never took pictures of my Christmas mantle to show you. December just seemed to get away from me. I drew a picture on a paper of what I wanted this chalk board to look like and let my 7 year old help draw it. I love it that she's interested in art.

The rest of the mantle is really simple. I didn't want it very busy because of the herringbone. I reused some sheet music garland from Christmas in the giant mason jar and swiped the tulips from my guest bedroom.

I painted the baseboards on this wall so I can cross one of 15 walls of baseboards off my "to paint" list. Slow and steady.

And for the giveaway...

When I was in Alabama, I bought this white enamel bowl. I love the way it looks on my dining table with some fake hydrangeas. It also looks fantastic as a fruit bowl in the kitchen. Lucky for you, there were two of them and I bought the other one to give away to one of my readers!

All you have to do is make sure you're a follower and leave a comment for one entry. Facebook or blog for extra entries. Make sure there is an e-mail address or way to notify if you win! I'll let you know next week!

Fishie

Surprise! I'm still alive! I have been crazy busy (as I'm sure we all were) through the holidays. As soon as it started winding down, I went on a trip for a week to Alabama. I flew back to my old stomping grounds at Fort Rucker to visit my bestie. She recently purchased a home in Enterprise and didn't know quite where to start on her renovations. After many late nights, we came up with a plan for her that fit within her budget, and addressed every room in the house.

And I returned home to many happy surprises! After almost a week with the kids my husband kept the house from burning to the ground. I owe you 5 bucks Katie. On top of that, it was spotless. Oh how I love that man of mine. But the happiest surprise of all was this...

I had mentioned to my husband how I saw a pin (this usually never ends well for husbands) where they used a gumball machine as a fish bowl. Apparently, he took all 4 kids to get the machine, made them waterproof it, went to Petsmart and got the fish, and put it all together. What a  fun welcome home gift. My 3 year old named the fish Doctor Bacon.

I also changed up the bedding in my boys room in December. I bought the quilts from Urban Outfitters. They were clearing out the orange and mustard color and I scored 4 of them for less than $40 a piece. I made the pillows using the painted fabric method I talked about here.

The new fan is from a thrift store in Enterprise. I love the south. It's full of old brick buildings and ice cream shops and friendly people. Every time I go back there, I move retiring to the south a couple places up on my list of priorities.

I also brought home something I'm planning on giving away soon. I'm so excited to show you what it is!