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:

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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!

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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

 Vintage Revivals

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.

I hope you’re all having a fantastic weekend! This past three weeks have been crazy! The hubs has been away at work, and the 5 kiddos and I have cleaned the house and started to show it as a rental. It’s going really well, but has been totally wild!

I’m going to make this short and sweet, because I have another showing in a hour. Thanks so much for coming to Monday Funday! We love seeing what you’ve been up to. You are incredibly talented and I’m so inspired by you each week!

Welcome to Monday Funday!

Every Monday you can link up your crafts / DIY Ideas / recipes to not just one, but < del >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 !

It’s my week this week to pick features! Can I just say that you are all pure awesomesauce in my book! Oh-my-goodness are you all talented! I am so inspired by you all and I know I can say that we all are so excited that you join us week after week! I’m sending you all high fives and knuckle bumps! Oh who am I kidding…I’m sending you all hugs! I am a hugger! On to the features I had the honor of putting together! Some super fabulous desserts that you will NOT want to miss!

 

It’s my first week back from SNAP and I am feeling a bit Bananas so how about some banana desserts?

Banana Pudding Mason Jars from The Wandmaker’s Mother

Banana Cream Pie from A Lil Clareification

Banana Nut Bread from Hickory Trail Blog

Peanut Butter Banana Wonton Bites from Lemon Tree Dwelling

Reese’s Banana Bread Monkey Cake Pops from Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons

Now let’s move onto some Strawberry Desserts! Y-U-M! One of my favorites!

Strawberry Cheesecake Bars from A Pumpkin & A Princess

Strawberries and Cream Crunch Parfaits from Steak-N-Potatoes Kinda Gurl

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream from Chocolate, Chocolate and More

Strawberry Bread with Lemon Honey Butter from I Should be Mopping the Floor

Strawberry Shortcake Mason Jars from The Wandmaker’s Mother

Strawberries & Cream Trifle from Silver Boxes

Strawberry Cake from Todd & Lindsey

Lemon is such a fresh dessert flavor…here are some awesome ones to try!

Lemon Fluff Freezer Cookies from Shaken Together

Lemon – Raspberry Phyllo Tarts from Lemon Tree Dwelling

Mini Lemon Dream Pies from the Taylor House

Mini Lemon Cheesecakes from Chocolate, Chocolate and More

Brownie & Ice Cream Tower from Dieters Downfall

Oreo Trifle from My Snippets of Inspiration

Skinny Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip from All About the Details

S’mores Shake from Craft Quickies

Triple Chocolate Vanilla Trifle from Just a Girl and Her Blog

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

<center><a href=”http://www.thatswhatchesaid.net/” target=”_blank”><img style=”border:0 ;” alt=”Monday Funday with TWCS” width=”150″ height=”150″ src=”http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h435/thatswhatchesaid/MondayFundayFeature.png” /> </a></center>

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

@thecraftblog // @linesacross // @uncommondesigns // @chesayscheryl // @katiegoldsworth //@LPatFindingHome

We always tweet our favorite features from the party with the hashtag #mondayfundayparty. Use#mondayfundayparty 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!

<center><a href=”http://www.thatswhatchesaid.net/” target=”_blank”><img style=”border:0 ;” alt=”Monday Funday with TWCS” width=”150″ height=”150″ src=”http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/h435/thatswhatchesaid/MondayFunday.png” /> </a></center>

The post Monday Funday #14! appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.

Have you heard of Eucalyptus Mulch before? It’s an eco-friendly and beautiful choice for mulch that’s grown in Florida.  Scotts Florida Select Natural Eucalyptus Mulch is a wonderful alternative for your lawn because it’s extremely sustainable! I love what people are finding out about sustainable gardening. It’s the way to go for so many reasons! Scotts Florida Select Natural Eucalyptus Mulch is also considered a renewable resource becuase it grows four times as fast as Cyprus. Areas where it is used also require 30% less water!

Eucyluptus Mulch is also 100% natural. It’s guaranteed free from any demolition, pallets, construction or other waste material.

It is also effective by preventing weeds naturally and keeping soil moisture and temperature in control by blocking sunlight.

Scotts Florida Select Natural Eucalyptus Mulch is easy to use! Simple spread it out, leaving it around three inches thick after seeds have germinated and have started to come up. Make sure to keep it a few inches from house foundations, tree trunks or other wood structures.

For all of us that don’t live in Florida Scotts Nature Scapes mulch is a great alternative for your gardening this spring!

It comes in three colors; Classic Black, Sierra Red, and Deep Forest Brown. They come in a variety of textures and there is no waste wood.

This spring, I need to spruce my yard up since we’re getting the house ready to rent out.

This was what our yard looked like last summer. See all those side beds?! They look really great with the Sierra Red bark. It’s a color I probably wouldn’t have chosen, but my landscaping friend told me to try it, and I’ll never go back to another color now!  (This picture is before I used the Sierra Red)

Here is a picture of the other side bed and the small flower beds that all will need some mulch!

…and I might sprinkle a little in here too! I’ll try anything to help keep some moisture in these garden boxes! They are in direct sunlight and dry out quickly!

Here is my gardening supplies list: Weed and Feed (dandelions are currently running the place!), a new pair of gardening gloves, a new hose (since our old one was run over), some garden starts, and Scotts Nature Scapes mulch and I’ll be ready to go!

–Katie

The post Scotts Florida Select Mulch — beautiful and eco-friendly appeared first on Creatively Living Blog.