Rachel at Accessorize and Organize

Oh Rachel, how I love her. She is a fantastic DIY'er, maker of all things, mother of 2 kids (one in particular that I hijacked a name from), incredible wife, insane runner, minivan driving woman who knows how to run a family and make everyone jealous on the outside looking in! She basically ROCKS! I peruse her site everyday and if you haven't checked it out before, go now and look at Rachel and Marlene’s blog, Accessorize and Organize. They are fantastic and you'll be inspired to think you can build beautiful diamond jewelry or make a farmhouse table all within clicks.

She's started a baby board on Pinterest for our little girl that's about a month away from making her grand apperance and I'm so thankful for all the awesome ideas.  Thanks Rachel! What would I do without you and your 7 am texts?

xoxoxo

Katie

Designing a GIRL Nursery!

Yes pretty pumped to be designing a girl nursery after having 2 boys. I'm looking for great design ideas so feel free to push any my way! I'm stuck on a punch pink and grey color palette and this rug could be what I design the room around.
Where can I find this rug?!

Isn't it oh so fab?!
Where can I get one?!

Worst Blogger EVER. That's me!

Who’s the worst blogger in the land? I AM!!!

Okay so here’s my pity party:  I’ve got a 2.5 year old, a 1 year old and am about to have baby #3 in the next 6-8 weeks. My job has changed at work so I’m spinning out of control most days then I’ve got my other jobs when home, so running a household, working and being prego have kept this mama in the blog free zone. Needless to say, my life has had little time for blogging. I’m missing it greatly and have done so many projects in the past few months but by 11 PM when the house is clean again, toys put away, kitchen back to normal and laundry ½ way done, I’m ready for bed! Slacker. Shame on me!

I’ll be putting some new posts in and my apologies to our great readers for having zero good stuff to see in the past few months.

Much love and hugs! See you soon!

Katie

Updating a Condo!

My husband and I went to Texas last weekend to update a condo we own with another family (yes, we have a condo in Texas but live in Atlanta… long story.) Our partners went out and furnished the condo several years ago with things they had in their house and they bought a bunch of new stuff as well. Thank the lord above they furnished it so we could rent it for the past two years. My husband and I have never been to the condo and thought we were well overdue to make a trip. We got there, assessed what could be updated, made a list and then went to town!

My husband is NOT a shopper. Like not at all. He’s in and out of a store in 5 if there’s an occasion that needs a gift, and that’s about the extent of it. Christmas shopping is done in one day in about an hour and I cover the rest. It’s comical. Well, last weekend we spent 2.5 hours in IKEA alone! He was a trooper and so patient! He picked out so many things we used for the condo and needless to say, I was impressed with his shopping skills and good eye! 

We hit IKEA, Marshalls, Homegoods, Ross, Target and a few other local spots to try and find all the stuff we needed.

Our starting point was the living room. It has to include a dining area and also not get in the way of the sliding door to the patio. The original setup just didn’t flow well and it felt very dark and uncomfortable. And the brown wing back chair... It needed to burn in the nearest fire, and fast. Notice brown lamp shade and couch cushions. Say goodbye.

We flip floped the room and started to pile up our salvation army pile... the couch moved to the opposite wall, as did the dining room table.

I loved this wooden carved plaque that used to hang above the couch but just felt it needed to lighten up the space instead of darken it.
HELLOOOO spray paint!

After buying a new leather chair, side tables and pillows from IKEA follwed by new lamp shades and the two wooden plaques sprayed blue, we've got a new living room! SO much more inviting and comfy!!

The dining table fit nicely against the opposite wall and we just rearranged the chairs so two are on the outside. This was a good space saver.

New TV and TV stand cleaned things up a good bit too.

We relocated the TV, recovered the bar stools with IKEA fabric and simplifed the kitchen:

 

On to the master bedroom! Before...

We moved bed to other wall, added a flat screen and changed all the bedding:

Master Bath after photo since I forgot to take the before. It went from hunter green to navy, white and red. Love this bathroom!

Guest Bedroom is a very small, odd shaped room so putting a full or queen bed in there would prevent you from opening the door. This room was setup originally as best as possible but we found that most people renting had kids.
Before there was a pull out futon sofa, and old computer table and TV.

We donated the futon couch, computer and desk and went with bunk beds and a bean bag corner.

Alll in all, we had such a fun time with this weekend project and we really love the outcome! And IKEA, I heart you!

One last comparision!

Hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping by!

Katie

Wedding Sign

Okay seriously? Is there still a blog out there calling for a crafty mama? Has a mama jumped ship the last few months? Okay, okay… I know I’ve been a horrific blogger lately. This has been a crazy year… with a full time job, 2.5 year old and a 10 month old, life has kept this family very busy. In the midst of all our wonderful chaos, we found out a little surprise was on the way! Baby #3 has kept mama a little under the weather so my nights have been spent retiring to bed early instead of furiously blogging and surfing for fun ideas online!

In an attempt to get back in the saddle, I’m posting a wedding sign I did for a friend of mine last month. She got married outside and wanted a sign pointing towards the reception and wedding. She has such a fun little spark of personality and she loves bold colors. She picked a few colors from the feathers of a peacock and that’s what we used for the sign.

Started with three pieces of evenly cut MDF board... I got the board already painted white to help out with the task of painting. Smart move.

The Bride gave me a picture of a peacock that had the most beautiful colors. We picked a beautiful bold blue and an apple green color and color matched them as best I could at Home Depot. A quart was the perfect size.

Also, having a great roller is key to a smooth coat of paint.

I used my wonderful Silhouette SD machine to cut vinyl in several fonts. Reason #422 why I love my Silhouette. I used white and black vinyl and although it was time consuming, the finished product turned out great.

Here's the first round

Decided to add their wedding date and add another peacock feather on the bottom green board just to balance everything. I nailed it to a 6 foot stake with a pointed end so that they could easily put it in the ground. One mistake I did make was putting the nails in the fron of the MDF board. Should have done this on the backside, but after a little paint, it wasn't as noticeable.

Such a fun project to do and wish I'd thought of it for my wedding!

 Hope you enjoy!

Katie