A: We make 10 different Pinterest boards about 10 different possible color combinations/DIY ideas for our new house.

My latest Pinterest board is titled “Green, White and Black“.

I think this color combo could be overly simple and redundant in a large space (for my taste), but in 900 sq ft, it may be refreshing.

I’m not sure if you caught my last post on painting my couch green? Still haven’t got up the nerve to do it!

I might be saving that DIY for after we move in.

Until then, here’s my latest inspiration.

  BG&H

 BG&H

  Bright Bazaar

 House Beautiful

 BH&G

The Polished Pebble via The Lettered Cottage

I know this last one doesn’t have green….but I’m pretty in love with it!

 There are so many more beautiful pictures on the Pinterest board!

Hopefully we’ll sign tomorrow and I’ll get to show you some gross before pics by Thursday!

The post Going Green…..in decor that is. appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

Have you heard of the new Mombo?

The Mombo, is the new kind of nursing pillow. Remember the days where we all nursed with a semi-circular pillow? Well the Mombo, is the new, upgraded version!

As you can see above, the Mombo has a unique shape and a two-sided design called Firm2Soft with each side offering a different experience. The firm side offers support for mom and baby while nursing and the soft side is extra soft and comfy for lounging or tummy time.

The Mombo is covered in a super soft fabric, and has a variety of patterns and slipcovers to choose from for these nursing pillows. It also has a viberation feature to help sooth baby.

This is cutie-patootie Penny. She was sweet enough to try out the Mombo for me.

Penny loved being able to sit up in the Mombo and play with her toys, as you can see in the picture above.

Penny is a laid-back little gal, who loves her mom to hold her A LOT! Luckily, she liked laying in the Mombo! She has three sisters to help hold her, but it’s cute to watch her lounge in the Mombo or sit up and play with her toys.

Here is a picture of Penny’s mom, Daylann. Unfortunatly, the day I went over to take some final pictures, my camera lost it’s focusing ability, but you can see that Penny loves laying in her Mombo and looking around at what’s going on.

My friend Daylann is a mom of four, who has nursed all her kids. She is a strong believer in nursing and baby wearing and has tried many of the baby products out there.

She loved the Mombo. She felt it was nice for nursing, and felt it was even better for supporting the baby when she wanted to sit up, or play with toys. She felt it was top-of-the-line quality and very comfortable to use for her and Penny.

So the Mombo is a product to try for sure….just ask Penny!

To keep up on the latest on the Mombo, like Comfort & Harmony on Facebook, and follow Comfort & Harmony on Twitter  They have all sorts of great things on their FB page. I know you’ll enjoy it.

 You can see an assortment of mombo nursing pillows at Toys-R-Us, and while you’re there, check out the other Mombo products!

–Katie

The post Moms loves Mombo…and Pretty Penny does too! appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

Did you find any time to do some DIY?

I’ve tried a little painting on our old couch….am I brave enough? I guess I’m not brave enough yet, because I just keep looking at it and my “test painting spots”.

This week for me is lots of packing, but also starting to move into our new place and rip the nasty carpets out. I can’t wait!

I’ll be posting as we go, so stay tuned!

Jamie is the Monday Funday hostess this week, so I’ll let her take it away!

Welcome to Monday Funday!

Every Monday you can link up your crafts / DIY Ideas / recipes to not just one, but SIX awesome blogs:

C.R.A.F.T. // Lines Across // Uncommon Designs // That’s What Che Said // Creatively Living //

& our newest co-host:

An Extraordinary Day

Here’s the deal, we decided it would be FUN to add a 6th rotating hostess to the Monday Funday crew! That’s 6x the exposure! So, ONE crafty link party extravaganza will happen on SIX blogs. Plus, each week one of us will choose projects to feature on all six blogs.

We will also be sharing links throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can follow the Monday Funday party tweets at #MondayFundayParty !

This week’s features are being picked by Jamie over at C.R.A.F.T. and Really Awesome Costumes!

You can follow Jamie lots of ways, if you’d like:

Twitter // Facebook // Pinterest // Instagram // BlogLovin // Google +

3. Fabric pulls on furniture

6. A command center on kitchen doors

8. Twig wreath

9. DIY herb garden

10. Tray makeover

Grab a FEATURED button if you were featured here this week or in the past:

<center><a href=”http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/” target=”_blank”><img style=”border:0 ;” alt=”Monday Funday C.R.A.F.T.” width=”150″ height=”150″ src=”http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h435/thatswhatchesaid/MondayFundayFeature.png” /> </a></center>

A Few Things to Remember:

• Please link to a specific post on your blog.
• We’d love for you to pin the features, but please click through to the tutorial and pin from the original source!
• By linking up to to Monday Funday you are giving the 6 blogs, listed above, the right to feature one of your photos on all of our SM outlets and blogs.
• Click on lots of links and leave some comment love on posts you adore! That puts the FUN in Monday Funday!

<center><a href=”http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/” target=”_blank”><img style=”border:0 ;” alt=”Monday Funday C.R.A.F.T.” width=”150″ height=”150″ src=”http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h435/thatswhatchesaid/MondayFunday.png” /> </a></center>

The post Monday Funday #18! appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

Whether it’s snowing or sunny where you are, I bet a trip to Brasil sounds pretty great!

Well, you and three friends could win the trip of a lifetime!

By playing the CB2 and Novogratz Brasil Sweepstakes, you could win a trip to Brasil that includes you and three friends flying to Trancoso Brasil, and staying in the vacation home of CB2 collaborators Bob and Courtney Novogratz for a week!  10 other lucky winners will receive CB2 giftcards worth $100 and a personally signed copy of the book, “Home by Novogratz”.

You can also enter on the CB2 and Novogratz Collection site. The sweepstakes runs from May 2nd to June 3rd.

So let’s talk about the CB2′s Novogratz collection.

I personally love this collection. It’s a punch of great color, with modern pieces that are sophisticated yet fun.  Their pieces show what is hot in design right now with colors are perfect for this time of year!

Here are a few of my faves:

This Dupla Credenza

…they have that lamp available too. I need two of them for my new place!

Speaking of lamps…

This Luli Lamp is one of the best table lamps I’ve seen in awhile!

I’m also loving this Breaker Chair. Fun right?!

You can follow the CB2 social media channels for more updates on the Brasil trip of a lifetime through the CB2 Facebook page, Twitter and Pinterest.

FYI….their Pinterest board has some fantastic ideas!

–Katie

The post Do you want a trip to Brasil? Enter the #CB2NovogratzBrasilSweepstakes! appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

Remind me not to try to get more sleep, because frankly, it leads to less sleep.

So, in these wee morning hours, I’ll reveal my latest love….

colored couches!

…and if you follow me on Facebook, you’ll know I’ve considered painting my couch a color.

I sort of want to keep you all in suspense though, because I’m sure most of you will think I’m crazy,

and I might be.  I swore I would never paint fabric on furniture again, but alas, I am cheap, and paint is so much cheaper than fabric.

So, enjoy the tufted, velvet goodness in these pictures.

If I do choose to paint the couch, it will obviously not be velvet (I might add a couple tufted buttons), but it will be a bold color!

My Cakies

Hindsvik on Etsy

 Apt Therapy

A Beautiful Mess

 A Beautiful Mess

  Bright Bazaar

Well, since I really can’t keep my own secrets, the picture above it what I want to try. Not the pink…just painting the couch green. The current upholstery is straight out of the 80′s, so I really only have some paint $ to loose right?

…and time, but who counts that?

 
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The post Colored Couches…..I’m smitten with you. appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there and I hope you’re all having a great weekend!

We are still in the middle of packing, yard selling, showing the house etc… but we are supposed to start moving things up the end of this week!

Thanks for stopping by Monday Funday. We love seeing all of your creativity and hope that you are inspired by all of the creatively that is linked up!

I shared my featured DIY round-up earlier this week, so be sure to check that out!

Welcome to Monday Funday!

Every Monday you can link up your crafts / DIY Ideas / recipes to not just one, but Five SIX awesome blogs:

C.R.A.F.T. // Lines Across // Uncommon Designs // That’s What Che Said // Creatively Living //

& our newest co-host:

Finding Home

That’s right, SIX instead of 5 blogs! Here’s the deal, we decided it would be FUN to add a 6th rotating hostess to the Monday Funday crew! That’s 6x the exposure! So, ONE crafty link party extravaganza will happen on SIX blogs. Plus, each week one of us will choose projects to feature on all six blogs.

We will also be sharing links throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can follow the Monday Funday party tweets at #MondayFundayParty !

This week’s features are being picked by our guest co-host, Laura of Finding Home

Well it sure has been fun co-hosting with this lovely and fun group of ladies – it is hard to imagine it has already been 6 weeks! Thank you so much ladies for including me!

This week, my co-hosts have been so gracious to ask me to share a few things about me and my blog.

My blog is all about the journey we are all on to making our homes a reflection of ourselves and our families – and what we find along the way. I share decorating ideas, projects and stories of our lives here in the Hudson Valley of NY.

Our home is traditional in style, with a whole of vintage touches and just a little hit of modern elements.

We have a farmhouse style kitchen that truly is the heart of our home..

I am always decorating a mantel..

Or working on a project…

I would love if you stopped by at findinghomeonline.com

or you can find me here!

Grab a FEATURED button if you were featured here this week or in the past:

If you don’t already, follow us all on Twitterfollow:

@thecraftblogfollow // @linesacrossfollow // @uncommondesignsfollow // @chesayscherylfollow //@katiegoldsworthfollow //@LPatFindingHomefollow

We always tweet our favorite features from the party with the hashtag #mondayfundaypartyfollow. Use#mondayfundaypartyfollow and we will retweet you! And now it’s par-tay time!

A Few Things to Remember:

• Please link to a specific post on your blog.
• We’d love for you to pin the features, but please click through to the tutorial and pin from the original source!
• By linking up to to Monday Funday you are giving the 6 blogs, listed above, the right to feature one of your photos on all of our SM outlets and blogs.
• Click on lots of links and leave some comment love on posts you adore! That puts the FUN in Monday Funday!

The post Monday Funday #17! appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

Well, since my life is chuck-full of cleaning and house showings, and current projects are on the back-burner,

I thought I would do a round-up of my fave DIY posts that were linked up from the Monday Funday party.

So enjoy the creativity that follows…

1. The Happy Housie’s “spring-i-fied” living room.

2. How to make a Countertop out of Wood Flooring by Domestic Imperfection.

3. Playroom Makeover by Love Grows Wild

4. How to Install a Stone Patio by Design, Dining and Diapers.

5. Dinning Room Reveal by Remodelando la Casa

6. Industrial Pulley Cord Light by Charming Zebra

7. Faux Subway Tile by Sweet Parrish Place

8. DIY Hanging Planter by Northstory

9. Design Dreams by Anne’s Bathroom Renovation.

10. Vintage Family Photo Gallery by La Maison Jolie

11. Creative Raisins’ Dresser Remake

I hope you’re all having a great week…..I’m off to show the house again for the 17th time (reality, not sarcasm)!

The post DIY Round-up from Monday Funday! appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

Flood® Wood Care staining products are designed to restore, protect, and beautify natural wood and other surfaces. Because of their product’s superior adhesion and penetration, you can use Flood products on a number of different exterior wood surfaces, such as fencing, siding, decks and furniture.

Right now, Flood is running a Flood Better Backyard Sweepstakes, for a chance to win a $1,500 gift card, or one of 12 $10 gift cards given away daily! All you need to do to enter the sweepstakes, is like Flood Wood Care on Facebook, and share the sweepstakes for more entries!

You can also follow Flood on Twitter for great tips about staining and how to make the most of your outdoor living space.

The sweepstakes ends on 5/17/2013, so go and sign up now!

Well, you may have read my post on the house we are in escrow on. It happens to have 3 decks! Two in the front and one in the back.

Yes, this is a pretty poor photo, and I blurred the car out to keep the current renters as anonymous as possible, but this is it! Our HUGE next project……and part of the project is that 107 yr old porch there in the front!

I think I’m going to sand the front lower porch and stain it. This project would be perfect for Flood stain.

You can learn a lot from the Staining Made Simple website! There are projects, great ideas, even videos on how to stain.

Now I know this is nothing like the porch I will be working on, but I wanted to show you how nice the color of this porch is. This is the color I’ll be hoping to achieve with my front porch project!

Do you have any staining projects that you’re currently working on, or high hopes of working on soon? If so, check out the Staining Made Simple guide by Flood® Wood Care and consider entering the Flood Better Backyard Sweepstakes to make your yard incredible this summer!

–Katie

Legal this and that I must include:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY for the sweepstakes. Legal residence of the 50 United States of America and (D.C.) 18 yrs and older. Ends 5/17/2013. To enter and for official rules, including odds, and prize descriptions visit www.facebook.com/flood. Void in Puerto Rico and where restricted or prohibited. This sweepstakes is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Facebook. You understand that you are providing your info to Sponsor and not to Facebook. 

The post Flood Wood Care — staining made simple appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

Thanks for coming by Monday Funday! I’m excited to see what you’ve all been up to!

Sorry I’m late! I have showed my house three times today and forgot to push publish!

I started packing this week and it’s been pretty crazy around here.  How did I acquire all of this stuff?  Why can’t I seem to get rid of more of it?  Have ya’ll had these sorts of problems before?

Well I’m looking forward to seeing all of your creativity! I’ll let Trish and Bonnie show you their picks for features…

Welcome to Monday Funday!

Every Monday you can link up your crafts / DIY Ideas / recipes to not just one, but Five SIX awesome blogs:

C.R.A.F.T. // Lines Across // Uncommon Designs // That’s What Che Said // Creatively Living //

& our newest co-host:

Finding Home

That’s right, SIX instead of 5 blogs! Here’s the deal, we decided it would be FUN to add a 6th rotating hostess to the Monday Funday crew! That’s 6x the exposure! So, ONE crafty link party extravaganza will happen on SIX blogs. Plus, each week one of us will choose projects to feature on all six blogs.

We will also be sharing links throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can follow the Monday Funday party tweets at #MondayFundayParty !

Now you guys were amazing last week! We are always blown always by your incredible talent and this week was no exception. Here are some of our favorite DIY projects and recipes….

Fabric Backed Bookshelves by The Blissful Bee Blog

Rope Curtain Tie Backs by Cottage in the Oaks

Vintage Painted Mason Jars by Live, Laugh, Rowe

Barnwood Coffee Table by Picked and Painted

Washi Tape Plant Markers by Ann-Kay Home

Swimsuit Cake Topper by the Crafty Blog Stalker

Springtime Ripple Stitch Blanket by Happy in Red

Skinny Fruit Dip by My Mommy Style

Spinach Artichoke Turkey Melt by Home Made Modern

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever by Whistile and Ivy

Grab a FEATURED button if you were featured here this week or in the past:

follow

If you don’t already, follow us all on Twitterfollow:

@thecraftblogfollow // @linesacrossfollow // @uncommondesignsfollow // @chesayscherylfollow //@katiegoldsworthfollow //@LPatFindingHomefollow

We always tweet our favorite features from the party with the hashtag #mondayfundaypartyfollow. Use#mondayfundaypartyfollow and we will retweet you! And now it’s par-tay time!

A Few Things to Remember:

• Please link to a specific post on your blog.
• We’d love for you to pin the features, but please click through to the tutorial and pin from the original source!
• By linking up to to Monday Funday you are giving the 6 blogs, listed above, the right to feature one of your photos on all of our SM outlets and blogs.
• Click on lots of links and leave some comment love on posts you adore! That puts the FUN in Monday Funday!

The post Monday Funday #16! appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

I thought to myself, these are all good reminders for me,…. except for the “risk” part, because you see, John (my husband) and I don’t seem to have much fear of taking “risks”.  I’m sure our parents would say that we jump on board for risks frequently. Risks of driving ourselves crazy with what we have taken on!

For starters, we have 5 children. Wouldn’t trade that for the world, but that is above most people’s comfort level.  We have decided to home-school the older three (this is a semester to semester decision, and I usually have a slight break down every semester swearing to never do it again), but again, more than most people would decide to take on.

John himself is a no-fear sort of guy. He was an infantry officer for 10 years (before feeling lead to be a chaplain). He jumped out of planes with guns for a living!

All this to say…we have no problem being a little NUTS!

So, my prayer when making big decisions is usually this:

Dear God, you made us how we are for a reason. Now please open and close doors and save us from ourselves if need be!

It’s funny, but true, and COUNTLESS times God has done just that,…saved us from ourselves. Saved us from getting into stupid situations that would have required hours and hours of work and money for a time and place that just wasn’t meant to have our hours of work and money!

As most of you know, we are moving to a new city for my husband’s job. I’ve known this move was a very real possibility for awhile now, and therefore I began stalking the MLS in any decently close-to-his-work neighborhood awhile back.  When I first started looking,  there was a house listed that I was intrigued by, due to it’s fantastic location and really low price! I called the listing agent and he informed me that it was an estate sale and that they were selling all five of their properties together. I dismissed the idea of ever getting one and told him that if they decided to sell them individually, to give me a call.

Time went on, and for awhile the job up north seemed to be on hold,  we were even offered a great job where we live now, but felt that God was telling us to move to the city up north, and to take a job at a small church there. So my hunt for a house began again. To my surprise the five houses had fallen out of their first escrow and were on the market again.

Now these houses are in a great area and directly across from a very popular park, and they were listed at such a low price that I just kept thinking that there must be some major structural problems with them (at least the really low priced one that I was interested in).

So once again, we asked if they would sell one, or maybe two of them together, but we heard no answer from the selling party. We also started to find out more information from our Realtor that had been through the houses. We found that although the houses were 107 years old, and had been used as rentals for a long time, there was nothing majorly wrong with 4 out of the 5.

So, I prayed my prayer, and told our Realtor to send in an offer for the two lowest priced houses. I figured they would say no, but to my surprise they said yes!

Now keep in mind, we had not even seen the inside of these! One of the bottom tenants was nice enough to let us in, but we lived over two hours south and the seller’s Realtor couldn’t get us in very easily when we were in the area.

Time went on, things seemed to be working out. Loan approvals, inspections (that were far better than I expected), tenant contracts, etc…  and I just kept praying, “God, do what you want. If you don’t want us here, have it not work out.”  But…it kept working out.

So here we are, …two weeks away from closing. One month into escrow (long escrow huh?), and I’m finally feeling secure enough to tell you all about it, and show you a picture.

I know, it’s a crazy bad MLS picture…with a car I blurred out to protect the current tenants privacy.

Bad picture or not though….you get the idea. It’s very old. It’s incredibly small for our family. They unfortunately have taken a lot of the original character out through the years…but it has three porches, some of it’s original charm, and the location is great!

I had planned on including other pics, but I’m worried since we don’t own the houses yet. They are very particular about us not disturbing the tenants, so I’ll keep it at this.

I am EXCITED to get in there and start ripping carpets out!

Until then, I’ll probably be posting some round-up posts on my renovation hopes. I started the massive packing process yesterday and I instantly felt like I needed to go take a nap!

That is very unlike me, but it’s obvious I feel pretty overwhelmed by the entire process!

I used to really like moving, but we have been in this house for almost six years, and we now have five kids. It’s a whole different ball game!

I’ll be keeping you all informed! Send me good packing (and parting with things) prayers, thoughts, luck!

The post Here they are….my new houses (well, one at least)! appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.