Life on Purpose

Need Help with Decorating or Organizing?

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I love the process of decorating, the brainstorming, figuring out how to accomplish it, shopping (home or stores), executing it and enjoying it. I know there are some out there think this is a frivolous activity, not worthwhile, etc., but I disagree. This is a creative outlet, a form of art for me. I also like to take care of the home I've been blessed with. I am happier when my home is in order and a relaxing place to be. And I love beauty and since I'm a SAHM this is where I spend the most time and I want it to be beautiful.

While I love decorating my home and sharing the process here for everyone to see, it's started to not be enough. I've been spending some time lately helping my mom decorate her home. After 30+ years with children at home and most of her furniture and pictures and decorations worn or out of date, she needed help. I've had the time and an eye for decorating (I am by no means on par with the professionals!), so we've been shopping and brainstorming as she's had money (no kids at home = $$)
I 've really enjoyed the process with her. I'll suggest ideas and we go from there, seeing what she's drawn to and talking about the where or how.

Decorating and organizing are things I'm passionate about and they go hand in hand. But I love to focus on bargain decorating and organizing. I don't spend thousands of dollars working on my home, I look for inexpensive ways to get what I want: painting, hand-me-downs, Craigslist, Goodwill, shopping my own home, garage sales and saving up for bigger items.

So, all of that said, I'd like to offer my help to anyone out there. I want to help others that have no idea where to start or need someone to throw out ideas. I want to share inexpensive ideas that I've used to make my home what I want it to be, beautiful, comfortable, relaxing and just our style.
This offer is FREE!

If you would like my help with decorating a room or organizing a space, please email me at: marixawillis@gmaiil.com and send some pictures of your space and some info.

As I get some emails, I'll share ideas here and, with consent, share spaces.

If you have questions about specific problems feel free to comment or email and I'll work on answering those questions to help.

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Bathroom Redo

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Here's the finished product.

I've tried, since moving into this house, to make this bathroom a pretty room. But I've failed miserably for years! It had 1980's 8x8" white tiles on the floor. And can I just say that white tile floors in a bathroom, especially with a little boy, was a bad idea.
Here's some before pics.

The cabinet had been painted white when we moved in and the countertop is some type of stone in white. So the room was way too white in a bad way. After painting it a few times it just wasn't working. So I came up with a plan and begged my sweet hubby to work on it with me.

First up was replacing the floor. We used a wood looking vinyl tile. That sounds kind of ugly but it's not at all. We have it in the kitchen, dinning room and hall and I love it! It's easy to install, looks like wood, is easy to clean, soft underfoot and inexpensive. So we carried it into the bathroom. It instantly warmed the space up. I am not a tile floor fan, so this made it feel comfortable.

Next I painted the walls. Well actually, David demoed the floor and then I painted and then he installed the floor. I picked a soft blue from Lowes called: Dockside Blue
Ok so next after that.
I love the look of trim work, a good classic look. So we installed breadboard around the room. It's small so it didn't take much, but made a HUGE impact! Which I loved immediately.

The cabinet, counter and faucet/sink all stayed the same. However I did repaint the original mirror frame. I don't love the frame but I'm not ready to make a new one yet, so I sprayed it with oil rubbed bronze, ORB. On the towel wall I kept the towel hooks, but got new towels, and new frames (Walmart) and sprayed those ORB as well.

The art in them I found at NY Public Library, which has digital copies of tons of art and prints. I just printed them out on some white card stock and framed them. I love the soft colors, and water scenes.

The shower curtain is the same one I've had for many years and still loved. But at the currant height it was making the room feel squatty. So I decided to raise the bar as high as I could and I found some fabric that I sewed to the bottom of my curtain.

I LOVE the way it looks! It makes the room feel bigger and adds some pattern.

Since this is the bathroom David uses to get ready in, the stuff on the counter is all for him. The basket on the right holds his colognes, deodorant and shaving cream. The box on the left is a goodwill find. I sprayed it with ORB and put a piece of felt on the bottom to hold his watches and other misc jewelry.

This room was such a huge payoff. It looks and feels like a whole new room and we love how it turned out!

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Master Bedroom Finished!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I left off with freshly painted walls. And I've since done what feels like a million things to get it finished.

I'm just going to take you around the room and explain what I did.
-Vanity wall-

I recovered the vanity bench.
I spray painted the handles on the vanity drawers. I didn't care for the brassy dark original handles and the pulls aren't a standard size so I either needed to do a special order (=$$$) or spray paint. I'm not in love with how they turned out but I can live with it until I want to pay for new ones.
I painted the jewelry box the same color as the dresser (more on that in a minute).

I painted/stained the small table. I've seen this look on blogs and pinterest and really loved it and wanted to try it out. The table top was in great shape but the color was a bit too orangy/red. I sanded the top until all the old finish was gone. Then I taped off/bagged the top and sprayed the base white and then stained the top. When it was dry I waxed the top to protect it. I LOVE IT!
I added ribbon on the inside of the lampshade to cover the unfinished edges and give it a little something. It's very subtle but I like it.
I sewed a new pillow cover. I went through a few fabrics trying to find the right amount of pattern but one that wasn't overwhelming in the soft atmosphere I'd created. I think this one is just right.

-Dresser Wall-

This dresser has been a pain in the butt since we've had it. It's a family piece but I don't like the shape of it and those bottom drawers a a royal pain to paint. Add to that I repainted it only a year ago and I hated it and was dreading another repaint. (I've painted this dresser 5 times total in 12 years....) Up till the week before I was going to paint it, I wanted it a dark teal color but I saw a paint chip in this green and knew it was the one. I knew it would play off the wall color beautifully and I'm actually in love with this dresser! And the glass knobs from Hobby Lobby are perfect! I've painted furniture for many years but never the correct way. This time I was determined to do it right. Sanded most of the last color off, patched, primed, painted coat 1 & 2, waxed for protection and not rushing through steps. I allowed adequate cure time and it made all the difference! I also used Sherwin Williams paint which was recommend and I was very pleased with it.
This is the tutorial I followed on how to paint furniture.

The pearly vase I got at Target after looking at it every time I went in, and convincing my mom to buy it as well! I love it!
The wood tray I found at Goodwill. I have no idea what it really is but this is how I'm using it!
The blue bowl I found at TJ Maxx.
I added ribbon trim to the plant cover.
After seeing the dresser dressed up, I nixxed the electronic cover. I got a smaller, cream colored clock and arranged everything so it looked better. I absolutely LOVE looking at this area when I'm in bed.

-Bed Wall-

I painted the nightstands at the same time I did the dresser (it was a long week....). And I'm very pleased with how they turned out as well!

This one is mine, I have a basket of oils and a container of granola (for before bed!)

The lamps are the same but I covered the shades and added ribbon trim. If you look too close they look a bit questionable and at night when they are one the original design on the shades shines through but I don't care. Until I'm ready to track down and pay for new shades these will do just fine!
I made new pillow shams with this fabric that drove the color pallet.
I made a newish bed skirt. I took my old one and cut the brown fabric off (after measuring it for the new). Then sewed on new panels using a Walmart twin sheet (the same as the liner fabric on my curtains).
The green throw pillow is one I already had around the house. I was having a hard time finding a fabric/pillow that I liked and looked good so this is taking the spot for now.

-art wall-

These pics are hard to photograph, so sorry for the glares and weird angles. This is what's on the wall on the window wall. The big pic was taken almost 2 years ago but it's a great one. The other is a wedding photo that I turned black and white. The small frame on top is a Wordle that I created using words that are meaningful to us, printed on some blue card stock. The frame on the right is lyrics from a song David wrote me for our 10th anniversary.

Before and Afters

Amazing how much brighter, more life is in this room now!

I am SO happy with how the room evolved and I love it! This time, I took my time and tackled one thing at a time and then evaluated it adjusting things as I went. I LOVE it! It's soft, relaxing, light, beautiful and comfortable. It's a HUGE change from where I started. And David loves it too!

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Trey's Play Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:20:00 +0000

So, last Christmas I was reading Young House Love, on of my blogs, and they had made their daughter a play kitchen for Christmas. I loved how theirs turned out and told David that it would be great to do for Trey for his birthday. I pinned it and then in May we started talking about it again.

Trey LOVES to help Daddy in the kitchen and often wants to play with his tools, bowls and utensils. He had a few things but given his love for "cookin stuff" we really loved the idea of making him his own kitchen.

Now I realize we could have gone to Toys R Us and picked up the only non-girly plastic kitchen and he would have loved it just the same but I wouldn't have. I have a serious dislike for plastic toys. I wanted this kitchen to last through many children and be durable and well, look good.

Here's how it turned out.

We followed the tutorial (linked above) and went to our local Habitat for Humanity Resale Store and I found this cabinet. This was the only one that had enough space to work, wasn't too big and didn't cost me too much.

You can see the scale here and we flipped the thing over, because it made more sense to us.
We used scraps of stuff we had on hand: plywood, 2x4's, wood knobs, hook, paint and trim. We bought: lots of screws the correct length, plexi glass, a trivet turned stove top, wire racks and other misc hardware.

I also used a pencil/pen holder I had that wasn't being used and sprayed it blue to use as a utensil holder and I had an old wood cutting board that was my grandmother's. I just sanded it down and oiled it to make it look better. The hook on the side was an old brass one I had that got sprayed red along with the knobs that my friend gave me from an old project of hers.

So that's what we did and if you want the full run down on how to make one yourself, check out their tutorial.

To outfit this kitchen we visited our local Dollar Tree to get him real cooking supplies: brownie pan, pie pan, muffin pan, measuring cups and utensils. The skillet and small pot with lid came from our Chinese grocery store which carries restaurant supplies, so they are real, sturdy and they were inexpensive. The timer was from Ikea.

The dishes were mine as a child and still work great even if strawberries aren't quite in style with 4 year old boys! They will work for now and I love watching him play with something I played with. The food and birthday cake were a birthday present. They are wood pieces and has real food similar to what we eat. I noticed that other plastic sets of food included tons of junk food like boxed meals, donuts and other things we don't eat. So I like that he's playing with things we eat.

Here's how it looks in his room.

I still need to get something on that wall! I'll get to it eventually!

I'm showing this again to show that I made some new curtains for the window. It used to have some blinds and a sort of valance. I loved the fabric that was on the valance but the room needed a change. I am starting to hate blinds and I was noticing that this room gets a LOT of morning light. So we needed some curtains that blocked that. Taking the blinds out let in more light, which I love during the day, and I can see the yard better.

So there's Trey's 4th birthday gift from us. We had a blast creating it especially when it came to all the details. It's not perfect but we're ok with that and he LOVES it which is what really matters!

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Recipe: Healthy Garden Tomato Pasta

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 20:54:00 +0000

This recipe is mine adapted from something out of a Giada cookbook. She doesn't even name it, just suggests things to put in for a light pasta. So here's what I came up with.

Garden Tomato Pasta

This is a super easy pasta, so incrediably flavorful and healthy! Oh and cheap too! I've been eating this about twice a week lately because it's so good and I LOVE pasta! When I say recipe I use that word loosly, it's more of a guideline. I've been making this just for myself (for lunch or when David is at school) so this is for one serving. Just put in how much you'd like of each ingredient.

I say garden tomato because all the tomatoes and basil are from my backyard! I just go out and pick whatever is ripe and cut some basil. We are growing red, yellow, purple and white cherry/grape tomatoes and they make this meal look so pretty and lots of different tomato flavors.

Ingredients:
pasta (angel hair is my favorite)
butter (I mean REAL butter, you need it for the flavor the real stuff provides & it's better for you)
shredded parmasan cheese
pepper
salt
fresh basil (dried would probably be just fine but the fresh helps make it feel more fresh)
tomatoes

Directions
put the water on to boil, when it's ready throw in your pasta and salt the water.
While the pasta is cooking, chop your basil and cut the tomatoes in half. I throw everything into my bowl that I'm eating out of.
Cut up about a tablespoon of butter and throw it in.
When the pasta is done put it in your bowl, stir to melt the butter and coat the pasta, add pepper and parm.
ENJOY!
You could add some spinach to this as well, or any other garden fresh veggies if you wanted more than tomatoes. Tomatoes are probably my favorite food so I put them in everything. And can I just say that tomatoes right from the vine is like a little bit of heaven!

Ok, so make this then come back and tell me about it!
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Painting the Master Bedroom

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:01:00 +0000

After having painted swatches up for a few weeks, I finally got our bedroom painted! Yeah! This isn't going to be a wordy post, because frankly talking about how I painted a wall is boring and a million other bloggers have discussed in detail how to do it properly.

I was very nervous about the color, it's a bolder color than I usually am drawn to but I LOVE it! Our bedroom gets a lot of light, it's a decent size and I was only painting the top 2/3 of the walls so I figured it could handle the darker, bolder color. After living with it a few days/nights I know I made the right decision.

I know I wouldn't like this color if I didn't have (and plan to have) a lot of white in the room as a contrast and to add the lightness back into the room. After painting the room, I knew I couldn't put up the existing curtains back up (or rod). I wasn't planning on making any decisions on the curtains until the color was on the wall and I could make a better decision.

I decided pretty quickly that I wanted white curtains and I already knew which rod I wanted (the same as in my dinning and living rooms). I headed to wal-mart and picked up 2 of each white and grey twin sized flat sheets. The quick version is I measured how long I wanted them, cut the excess off the bottom of the sheets, sewed a white and a grey sheet together on 3 sides (not the cuff part which I wanted open at the bottom), flipped them inside out, then top stitched the edges with some grey thread. Done! I bought some clips and hung them up.

I lined the white with grey to give them more volume, to help keep the light out and it brings in some more color so the white isn't so plain. I like that when they are open I can see some of the grey peeking around the edge, it looks great with the walls. I'll take better pis of them later, they haven't even been ironed yet, so I'll get there soon!

Ok, so that's 2 more things checked off the bedroom list. Here's a rundown of what's left to do.

*Paint dresser and change knobs
*Paint nightstands (probably a grey)
*Change lampshades somehow (I really want white with colored trim, we'll see what happens)
*Sew bed skirt (have the fabric, just need to do it)
*Sew pillow shams
*Sew throw pillow covers
*Recover fabric on vanity bench
*Paint/Stain small table
*Hang art on left side of bed
*Repaint jewelry box
*Paint vanity handles
*Install window trim
*Maybes: change out the blinds for some sheers
frame the print by the chair

I think that's it but we'll see. I know it seems like a ton to do, but most of the projects are small.
Oh, and here's a quick before and after for you.

The room feels so much fresher and more modern and not boring. And FYI, the bottom wall color hasn't changed. Isn't it amazing what some paint can do?!

So, what do you think about the color? Do you like bold colors or neutral?

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New Skirts

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Back in January I bought a lot of fabric to make some clothes with. This last month I've finally been able to spend some time making some skirts. I'd found 2 tutorials on some of my sewing blogs and was excited to make them. They both offered me a chance to try something new in sewing.

One of my goals this year is to make more clothes. I spent last year making curtains, pillow covers, quilts and purses so I really want to learn more about making clothes. Skirts are definitely the easiest thing to make and with summers being so hot and my desire to have comfy clothes they are my first choice.

So the first one I made is called a Shirred Pocket Skirt. It's roomy, comfy and looked cute and simple enough to make. I've never made anything with pockets and never done shirring before but they were pretty easy. She explains how to sew the elastic thread but my sewing machine (Brother) seems to be very different when it comes to using it. I had to do some YouTube searches and google searches before I finally found something that explained how to use elastic thread on a Brother machine. If anyone is interested let me know in the comments and I'll track the info down again.

So, I've made 3 so far. Although the first one I made I measured myself wrong and ended up making it way too big and due to the design I couldn't alter it without starting completely over, so I sent it to Goodwill. But the other 2 I can wear!

On this purple one, I wanted to try bias tape for the first time and grey just seemed the natural choice for me. I love how it turned out! Here's a close up of the shirring and pocket detail.

Here's the other. My favorite!

I fell in love with this fabric and when I figured out how to make this skirt, I knew I had to make one using this fabric. I used a grey/blue thread, that I thought looks great with the green, it gives it a bit of contrast. And I while cutting pocket pieces I didn't cut enough and ended up not having enough fabric so I had to improvise. I found some white fabric scraps and it's on the inside of the pockets. It actually turned out looking pretty good, thank goodness!
Here's a close up of the shirring and pocket detail.

The other skirt is a short maxi skirt. In the original tutorial she made the skirt long, but I want these for summer and when it's 100 degrees outside I want a short, cool skirt. Although I think I'd like to make a couple long ones eventually to wear in the fall or spring.

This skirt used knit fabric and while I've started a knit dress I hadn't finished it yet, so I've never finished anything using knit fabric. I was excited to sew with knit because it's super comfy and I like how it drapes. Her tutorial was so easy, and once I figured out my own pattern I could make one in less than an hour.

I made 4 but the first one (which always seems the case) was too small and I didn't cut the fabric correctly. My tip with knit fabric is to look at which way it stretches. For these skirts I wanted the stretch to be horizontal not vertical.

This one is made with a good weight grey.

This pink knit has sparkles in it! It's the same weight as the grey but not quite as soft as the grey. While I do love the comfort of the skirt and having a color, I'm kind of stumped about what color shirt to wear with it, which explains the white. So if any one has any suggestions please share!

Here's an idea of what the waistband looks like. It's like a yoga pant waistband.

This is a tencel blue knit and it feels like butter! It's the softest of the bunch and super light, which is also why it's see-through! This one will either be an at home only skirt or I'll have to add another layer to it. And this grey tank needs to be hemmed, I have a short torso.

Please excuse the paleness of my skin, I'm hoping to get some sun soon....
I made both skirts using my serger and sewing machine, but they can be made using just a sewing machine. The serger just gives a more professional finish and helps with stretch. I really liked using the serger on the skirts it was really easy.

These are the most comfortable skirts I've ever worn and I LOVE them! I can't wait for more warm weather to wear these skirts more! I can't wait to make more, but I need some more fabric!

All the knit fabric I bought from Fabric.com
The purple flower cotton fabric I bought at Wal-mart
The green cotton fabric I bought at FabricWorm.com

I don't remember the brands or names of the fabric, sorry!

So what do you think? And any ideas on what color top to wear with the pink one?
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Front Porch Spruce Up Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Our home has a covered walkway up to the porch which is also entirely covered. While I love our big porch it's kind of dark, especially with a dark door. We repainted our house last spring to a greyish-blue (although it looks more blue in the pics) and the porch area needed a spruce up.

I like everything here but I wasn't liking the colors. I want all the colors to coordinate with the house color and be a more cohesive.
Here's a before pic of the whole porch.

The bench I've had for many years and is still in good shape but the finish wasn't. The table is a little metal table I got about 4 years ago and I like it the way it is (just needs to be cleaned up). I got the star about the same time as the table and it's a great red. The blue bottles are beer bottles that I love the color of.

The pillows are outside pillows and were red. I covered them with some left over outdoor fabric I had in my stash. They are kind of plain but I was thinking about stenciling them with some type of design, but I don't know what. Any suggestions?

So that's what I started with. Now here's what I did.

Painted the bench. I wanted to spray paint the bench because it would be SO much easier and faster to get it covered. It took 3 cans to get this sucker covered (not including the back which won't be seen). But I LOVE it! It's fresh and pretty and modernized.

The table I decided to keep as is and just clean it up. It's a light weight metal (tin?) and the color works well with all the blues. And the bottles will stay for a while.

Next I sprayed the star. The star has some great designs on it and I worried that once I painted it the designs wouldn't show.

You can kind of see the design in this pic. But after painting it I could still see the design.

The last thing I did was take an old plastic planter and spray it too. It came with our house and I've only used it a couple of times. It was a hunter green color and was faded, so it wasn't very pretty and not my style.

I also wanted to put it next to the walkway right by the porch and have a shade plant in it.This is how it turned out.

I'm not sure if the planter will stay where it is, depending on how the plant does where it is. But I like how the thing turned out. (the brown smudges are dirt)

Ok here's the finished pics.

Yes, Trey likes to "chalk" here!

Next episode I'll share about the front door.

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My New Vacuum: Eureka!

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we realized that we needed a new vacuum. I would have to empty the canister after each room because the filters would get so clogged. It sounds like we didn't vacuum much but it was a couple of times a week and it was clogged more than was necessary.

We would wash the filters out and it never felt like it was getting everything. And I was getting so frustrated with having to empty the canister so often. So we finally broke down and picked up a new one.

I'd love to say that I did research on vacuums and put a lot of thought into it but I didn't. We wanted to get one for about $100 so I headed to Lowe's first and found 2 in my price range to pick from. I can't remember the other one but this Eureka! looked very user friendly. So I got it and took it hone to test it out.

I immediately LOVED it! Not only did it feel like it was pulling up what my other one had been missing but it was fluffing the carpet. Our living room has fairly new carpet (4years) but in the bedrooms it's probably around 10yrs old.

When I vacuumed with the Eureka! in the bedrooms it was amazing! The carpet in the bedrooms had always been matted down with our other vacuum but the Eureka! fluffed it up so nice. Like dig our toes in nice. We were sold!

I in no way was paid or perked to write this post and I haven't tried a lot of other brands. But I wanted to share my experience with a vacuum that exceeded my expectations. This vacuum was $89.99 without tax at Lowe's.

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Make up Brush Roll up

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I'd been wanting to make a make up brush holder for a while and after reading some other tutorials I decided I could have a go on my own.

I grabbed all my brushes and anything else I wanted to be in the roll up and layed them out to get a rough idea of my measurements. I found 2 fabrics in my stash that I liked together and cut 2 pieces of the outside fabric and 1 of the inside (the other outside piece of fabric is the pocket). I cut them all the same size. The pocket piece I folded in half lengthwise so it would create a pocket when sewn to the inside fabric.

Oh, I also used a piece of quilting batting (felt would work too) to lay my pieces like this: batting, inside piece (face up), pocket piece (face up). Then I started laying out my brushes under the pocket to figure out how big to make each pocket. I tried to lay the brushes out like this: big, small, medium, big small, medium. I marked my lines and then sewed them. I went all the way to the top with my lines (instead of stopping at the pocket) just to give a little bit more interest. I also used a contrasting thread for interest as well.

After the pockets were sewn, I sewed my elastic hair band on by running about 15 stitches over it. (the hair band is to use to hold the roll up closed) Next I layed the outside piece on top of the pocket and pinned. I ran a stitch all the way around the piece leaving a 2-3inch opening (not where the band is).

Turn the piece right side out, I ironed all the edges flat and made sure they lined up. Then run a stitch all the way around (making sure to secure the hole). And you are done!

I love it! It's so pretty and so easy to use and my brushes stay cleaner this way.

Have you ever made a make up brush roll up? Are you going to now?

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Small Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I've been working on a bunch of small projects lately, so I thought I'd share them all together.

Basket
This basket used to be in our kitchen/dinning room on the bar. We put our fresh produce in it, until one day I noticed that it was contributing to our kitchen feeling cluttered and made it hard to see David while he cooked as I sat in the dinning room. So, I found another basket around the house that has a low profile and we really liked how it looked.

I had an idea to use it in the hall bathroom on the back of the toilet, but I wanted it to look a bit like aged metal instead of a color. So, I sprayed it with black first but I allowed a bit of the turquoise to peek through. Then I lightly sprayed it with silver to give kind of a galvanized metal look. It's not an exact match but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Right now it's holding extra toilet paper in the hall bathroom but once I redo the bathroom that may change. (I've already moved it to the master bathroom)

Faux Mercury Glass
Right before Christmas I saw on Pinterest how to spray paint glass to resemble mercury glass. So I sprayed some glass candle stick holders and while it's not exact, I do like how they turned out. I found another glass candle holder in my stash and decided to paint it too.

You could look around Pinterest or google it but basically you spray your clear glass item with water then while still wet you spray paint the object with Krylon's Looking Glass. I could only find mine at Wal-mart for about $8 and it's a small can.

I do love how they turned out.

So, those are my small projects lately.
Have you ever used the Looking Glass spray paint before and if so what did you paint?

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Hanging Light & a Large Print

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've shown our master bedroom and I've made some changes lately. So, I'm here to show a couple.

Large print
I had a framed family picture by the chair and while I love the pic it was just too bland in this spot. I found a beautiful photograph on Pinterest and I loved the colors and I love nature pictures.

Anyway, about a couple of months ago I read somewhere that you could send your pics to Staples and they could make large prints for about $8. So, I checked into it and sure enough they do! I decided to do a 12x18 size print mounted which came to a whopping $13!

You just upload your photo to Staples.com (you want to print an oversized print) and pick which size you want and any add ons, like mounting or laminating and that's it! The base price is $8 for the smallest size and then it goes up from there. It takes about a day to get it printed and then you pick it up at the store (I think they have shipping options as well).

I love my print but I wanted to share some tips. First, make sure your pic can be enlarged to the size you want. This is always something I forget to consider when I enlarge pics. Mine did come out pixelated but it's only noticeable up close and due to the actual pic it works with it. So it doesn't bother me but I want others to know just in case you are like me and forget those things.

Second, the mounting is foam board. I knew that I didn't want to frame my print and wanted it to look like it was on a canvas. So, I ordered the mounting not knowing exactly what that would be. The foam works for me and I used some Velcro strips to hang it on the wall. And speaking of Velcro strips, they were mostly a bust for me. I guess they don't like my textured walls because the adhesive never sticks to my walls. So, we got all redneck around here and I used a nail poked through the Velcro strip that's supposed to stick to the wall, then hung the print.

Hanging Light

A few months ago I decided that I wanted a better light situation by the chair. I had a small table lamp but the whole corner looked short and had no height. And the lamp was lacking. I wanted a floor lamp that would sit behind the chair and come up over it. Then I started pricing floor lamps. Right now $100+ for a lamp just isn't going to happen. So I started looking for other options and came across a tutorial for a hanging lamp. So I gathered my supplies and made one.

Here's the tutorial to make your own hanging lamp.

Just a few tips.
Be aware of where the crossbars on the lamp shade you choose. I bought a brown fabric shade from Target that had the crossbars in the middle of the shade and when I put the light bulb in, it poked out from under the shade. And I didn't like it, so I took the shade back and got a plain white one from Wal-mart with crossbars at the top.

Because I bought a white one, I wanted it to have a bit more to it, so I covered it with some simple quilting cotton in a charcoal grey. I really love the light, but I'm going to tell you to do as I say not as I did. I used some fabric glue to attach the fabric to the shade, which worked great. However I only glued the edges and where the fabric meets, I didn't adhere the body of the fabric to the shade. So, now I'm seeing some bubbles in the fabric. It's not extremely obvious but if I look at it closer it's noticeable. For now, it's not bothering me enough to redo it, but probably sometime down the road. And I also didn't pay attention to how it was finished on the inside of the shade, not remembering that it would be seen when hung. I'll fix that soon.

The other thing to consider is how the cord comes down your wall. This is how we cover cords in our house. And if you may have noticed in my pics that you can see the screws on the cover, that's because I haven't painted them yet because I'm going to be repainting the room soon.

So there are 2 bigish changes to our bedroom and we love them! David loves to sit in the chair at night and read and he loves the light over the chair. I love the print with the colors and personality. I'm anxious to add in some other colors to the room as well. I still have many more changes to make in here with the biggest one being a new color on the walls.

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Organizing DVD's Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Ok, so I'm finally getting around to sharing the second part of how we are now organizing our DVD's. Here's Part 1.

So, when I left off, I was able to get them all into one drawer in the dresser but they weren't organized past that. After brainstorming a lot of ideas, we decided to go with photo boxes. The DVD sleeves fit just right within photo boxes that I picked up from Hobby Lobby (on sale of course).

I picked up 6 boxes because that's all that I could get into the drawer. I removed the lids, and just popped the sleeves in the boxes according to category. Our categories are: Man/Action, Family/Kid, Learning (LeapFrog, Curious George), Inspirational, Romance/Comedy, Classics and Christmas (all our seasons or boxed sets stay in their original packaging).

I then needed to make some labeled dividers. I used some large scrap pieces of cardstock cut to size, making sure they stuck up high enough to see the label. Then I used my Dymo labeler to make the labels and then I used packing tape to "laminate" the paper. It's nothing fancy but it works.

I still can't believe I can get ALL of our DVD's in this one drawer with room to spare! The back middle box is pretty much empty ( I still need a few more sleeves for those last 6 DVD's ).

I have to say after using these sleeves for about a month, that I totally LOVE them! They are easy to use and easy to flip through to search. And of course hardly take up any room! LOVE them!!! And check out how thin they are.

So, that's the official how we organize our DVD's. How do you organize your DVD's?

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Healthy Waffle Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:02:00 +0000

Sorry I've been MIA lately, we've been hit by the flu and I haven't even touched my computer in days. I haven't had the flu since I was a kid so I'm having a harder time dealing with it. Thankfully David and Trey haven't been hit nearly as hard as I have been. I'm still not up to speed but at least I feel human again! Anyway on to the post.

I mentioned last week about starting to share some of our family recipes that we consider healthy. This recipe is fairly new for us maybe 2 months but we loved it immediately! For me waffles had always been bland which is probably why we smother them in syrup. But when I went off HFCS that meant no syrup for waffles and french toast. I'd never had real maple syrup before and was unsure if I'd like it. I finally broke down and bought some, yes it's more expensive but my health is worth it. I found I don't need as much maple syrup as I used to use of the HFCS syrups.

Then David found this recipe for waffles and they had so much flavor to them and knowing they had good stuff in them was even better! Without further ado, my sweet husband David.

I absolutely love breakfast food. However, I have a problem: I don’t like the feeling you get after you eat most of it. Eggs, sausage, bacon, French toast, pancakes, pizza, waffles, etc. They all taste great, but they are so heavy and most are full of stuff that just make you feel gross. Honestly, it really bums me out. Or, it did until I found some healthier versions of my favorite meals. Today’s example? Waffles.

I have always made waffles out of Bisquick. That is what I had seen done all my life and so I followed suit. All you needed was a couple cups of the miracle mix, some milk, eggs, and veggie oil, and viola…subpar waffles. I had an epiphany a couple of months ago. Bisquick is not something I need in my kitchen because it is made up of stuff that I already have in the pantry; flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Nothing against Bisquick, but if I already have the stuff in the pantry, why do I need to go buy this box with the same stuff? Why do I need to follow their waffle recipe? What other good stuff could go in my waffles? It was time to chuck the Bisquick and find out.

Enter the new favorite in the Willis household: Whole Grain Waffles via the Food Network. Not only does it taste amazing, it does not leave you feeling like a grease ball blob when you have finished eating. It is filled with all kinds of good stuff: rolled oats, wheat germ, raw milk, unsalted butter, and more.

The trick to these waffles is mixing the wet and dry ingredients separately at first. Then you fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones. If it is a little lumpy when you are done mixing it is ok. Then pour about half a cup of batter into your preheated waffle iron. Three minutes later pull it off the waffle iron, top it off with 100% maple syrup and you have a serious winner on your hands.

This waffle recipe has changed the way I think about some foods. Why is there a stigma about healthy ingredients? (Maybe it is just a stigma with us guys, you ladies seem to get it right more often than we do.) When you hear the words wheat germ what comes to mind? All I used to hear was the word germ. A few years ago had you suggested that I put rolled oats in my waffles I would have thought you were crazy. But, now that I have gone over to the good side I can not imagine going back. Both the rolled oats and wheat germ are full of things that are good for my body and they can be prepared in a way that tastes awesome. I call that a win win.

Side note: Wheat Germ is full of Omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, vitamin E, protein and fiber to name a few.

If you make these, please let us know what you think.

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Healthy Eating Our Way

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:54:00 +0000

I've received some inquiries about the food we eat so I thought I'd let David (my hubby) start sharing about it. I know healthy is a relative term, so we'll be sharing about foods that we deem healthy for our family.

For most of my life I thought I knew what good food was. I didn't know how to cook it, but I was convinced I could spot it when I saw it. Turns out I was wrong. I had no idea what good food was. What I thought tasted good was processed, full of junk, and generally unhealthy. Needless to say, I am glad I have seen the light.

For the past few years I have been doing the majority of the cooking in our house. I would say 95% or more. It is not that Marixa can't cook. Quite the contrary. She can cook quite well. However, I really enjoy the process. It is not where her creative desire lies. So, I come home from work everyday and I fire up the kitchen.

I really enjoy the process of cooking from scratch. The smell of onion and garlic sauteing in olive oil is one of the primary smells around our house. The food tastes so much better when I cook with fresh ingredients. I love it. I do use some can goods from time to time, but no where near as often as I used to. Canned tomatoes and beans are on my high usage list. Most everything else comes fresh.

Cooking fresh meals became even more important last year. I hope you have read Marixa's previous posts on giving up sugar and also her post on high fructose corn syrup. As she stated in those posts, she gave up sugar for lent last year. I have full faith in my wife's willpower. When she says she is going to do something, I can take it to the bank. But, giving up chocolate and sweets for 40 days? I knew that was going take some willpower. She was up to the task and more. Not only did she give up the sugar, she started challenging me to really examine what I was putting into our food.

Now, as I said before, I was cooking some good stuff. Most of it was very fresh and good, but she challenged me to put more nutritious good stuff into it. I admit, I grumbled for a bit. Sometimes it is hard when you feel you are doing good, but are told you could do so much better. That is what I needed though. Why be content with good when you can have awesome? Little by little our produce bill has gone up every week when we go grocery shopping. It has been worth it.

I am still a work in progress, but I am on board with living and eating healthy. I do not succeed 100% of the time in eating and cooking healthy, but we are happier and heather than we once were. I call that a definite step in the right direction.

Stay tuned for more guest posts by David with recipes.

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Master Bedroom Makeover #532

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:25:00 +0000

OK, so it's not really #532 of my master bedroom makeover, but it feels like it sometimes! Yes, I am once again wanting to work on our bedroom. It seems that the past several times I've worked on our bedroom it just hasn't quite been what I want. But I hadn't really spent a lot of time coming up with a plan.

So it's not wonder I look at our room and I don't really care for it. It feels very bland and boring. I noticed when I worked on Trey's room that I had a plan but I also let it flow. I ended up with a few different patterned fabrics and I loved the look and feel of it. So that's my goal for the master bedroom.

I've been pinning bedrooms on Pinterest that I liked and then spent some time looking over them to see what I loved about them. It definitely helped me narrow down some ideas, like the colors I wanted in there and the feeling I was after.

Next I went pulling paint swatches at a few different places. I usually buy my paint at either Lowe's or Home Depot but I didn't find a great selection of shades in the colors I wanted, so I went to Sherwin Williams to pull swatches and will just have Lowe's color match it.

I also went looking at Fabric.com for some fabrics and then ordered some swatches so that I could look at them in the bedroom with the paint swatches. This is a pic of what I ended up with.

As of right now:
I want to repaint the walls, nightstands, dresser and refinish the small side table.

I want some new art in a couple of spots. One being a large photograph and the other a gallery wall.

I want to switch curtain panels with the living room.

I want to make new pillow shams, new throw pillow covers and recover my vanity bench.

I want to make a new bed skirt.

So, that's my plan to make this room feel more pulled together, have a bit of personality and life while keeping true to who we are and how we live. I want a fresh, soothing space with modern/classic elements, on a budget!

I won't be finishing this project for a few months, but I'll be spending lots of time working on my plan and working on small projects. I'm hoping to do a few new things with this project including: wall paint mixed at 75-50% strength, chalk paint (not chalkboard paint) and a 2 toned half wood half painted piece. But we'll see how this evolves along the way.

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Organizing DVD's Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:54:00 +0000

For those of you that don't know David (my husband) in person, he is a movie fan. He loves movies and before we had Trey we'd regularly go see them in the theaters. But he also loves to collect DVDs. Now for those that don't know me in real life, I hate collections. It goes against my organized, clutter free ideas. So as you can imagine this has been a source of some tension. And they are outgrowing their space.

One of the reasons I bought the dresser for the living room was to have concealed storage for all those DVDs. Trey was beginning to crawl and pull movies down off the shelves that they were housed on. So having drawers that he couldn't open, and would hide all those DVDs but keep them accessible was a perfect solution. That is until we started running out of room. Oh and we also have 2 small cabinets on either side of the fireplace and one was full of movies as well as the full dresser.

So, when I read a blog post a few months ago about how one woman organized her 200+ DVDs, I fell in love with it. I brought it up to David and he liked it. The system is basically thin plastic sleeves that hold 2 DVDs and the cover paper(s).

So, we spent a couple of hours pulling out every DVD and counting them. Since a lot of movies have an extra disc, I couldn't just count the cases. Oh, would you like to know how many we have? Well not counting boxed sets and TV show seasons which would stay as is, a whopping 460! That was about 100 more than I anticipated!

Here's a pic of most of the movies. Not shown are the Christmas, Workout, boxed sets, TV series seasons.

I ordered the sleeves through Amazon, I did hear that Target sells them but I didn't have any luck finding them there. The brand is Atlantic and they are called Movie Sleeves. Each box has 25 sleeves in them and each sleeve holds 2 DVDs so that's 50 DVDs for one box.

When I got them in I was so excited to get started so the next day I planned to get them all switched over that morning. By 5pm that night I still wasn't finished! I sat on the floor in the living room from 9-5 switching the DVDs. Trey and I watched movies all day to pass the time and we only do that when we're sick. And I had miscounted and still needed 2 more boxes.

Ok, so let me show you what 280 DVD cases looks like on our couch (some cases were the cardboard cases, some were 2 to a case that's why the number is different)

And here's a pic of all the little inserts in all those cases.

If you look at the pic above with all of the DVDs on the floor, the stack in the foreground is all of our Man/Action movies. And once they are converted to sleeves this is the stack.

And if that's not awe inspiring enough, check this out.

That's 21 cases, with 21 DVDs in sleeves with cover papers, taking up the space of 3 cases. Um, YES please! So far we are loving this!

So this is where I have to leave you with this wonderful makeover. I need to work on my sleeve storage next so I'll share that when I get it done. We will most likely being storing them in one of the drawers in the dresser with some additional organizing to make it user friendly.

Ok I need to know, how many DVDs do you have? Does anyone have more than us? How do you store your DVDs?

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Sugar Free a Year Later

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:18:00 +0000

Ok, so I'm not 100% sugar free and it's not quite a year later. But I did want to talk about my journey a bit more.

It was March 2011 when I decided to cut sugar for Lent. (you can read about how I started and ended) For months prior I'd been so addicted that I was eating something sweet after lunch and dinner every day and it was hurting me. I'd get severe headaches and my body would just ache in as little as 15-30min after eating the sugar. I knew I had to make a change, I was scared of getting diabetes because of my sugar intake. So I cut it.

After Lent was over (Easter) I allowed myself to have some sugar in moderation. However I didn't allow myself ANY High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) because this was the biggest offender on my body. I did notice that powdered sugar and regular white sugar also were problems. At this point I'm able to eat brown sugar, organic raw sugar and honey in moderation without causing pain.

As mentioned in my end of journey post, we had to change some of the things we were eating that had HFCS in it that I never realized. Things like soup, bread, jelly/jam, cereal. David has started making soups from scratch, which was a wonderful bonus because they are 100 times better for us and tasting than Cambell's soups or anyone else. I found another whole wheat bread without HFCS and I eat Kashi cereal now which has small amounts of organic sugar. And lastly my jelly/jam, we've made some homemade using honey as a sweetener instead of sugar and it tastes great without being too sweet.

I also don't partake in eating sweets like I did before. I used to not be able to turn down any sweet. Now I rarely eat one. Sometimes David will make something like cookies and I'll have one and then no more (and then he takes the rest to work).

How does Sugar Affect Us?
For me, the most noticeable affects of too much sugar is physical pain. But if that's not the case for you then you may not think it's "that bad" for you. But it's damaging to our bodies. Here's a blurb from Keeper of the Home's blog:

It compromises the immune system

It feeds opportunistic bacteria (ie. the bad guys) in our gut. This leads to symptoms like tiredness and lethargy, mental fog, increased sugar cravings, impaired digestion and more.

It weakens teeth and causes cavities

It makes our skin break out

It messes with our blood sugar balance, creating vicious cycles of highs and lows throughout the day

It depletes our vitamin and mineral stores, and impedes the absorption of nutrients from the food we eat

It contributes to an overly acidic state in the body (which in turn contributes to disease)

It throws off insulin levels which can create/contribute to hormone imbalance

It is addictive and the more that we eat it, the more that we want it

Did you catch all of that? It actually keeps your body from taking advantage of all that good food you do eat! And it keeps your body from fighting off illnesses like it should be able to, it weakens your body. I had never known that before and to me that was big stuff! I wasn't doing me any good to eat my fruits and veggies and other good foods if I was continually adding sugar to my body.

I think a lot of times we think that if we eat more good than bad that the good will outweigh the bad. But I don't think that's the case.

Yes I've "gone off the deep end" with my attitude toward sugar but I've experienced how much of a change it can make to my health. I have one body and I'm determined to make good decisions to make it the best I can. I probably have a million other things I could do to make it better, but it's a process.

For me this was a life changing decision and one I don't regret. It lead me to make other changes in my eating and health for the better. I drink raw milk, eat more raw, eat real butter and we cook from scratch 95% of the time.

The last year has been huge in terms of health changes. I know that even just 3 years ago, we wouldn't have believed we'd be doing what we're doing now. But I love the results and I love knowing that we are taking care of our bodies.

I challenge you to make changes as well, you won't regret it!

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Clothes Deals at Goodwill

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:46:00 +0000

If you've been reading long you know that I love Goodwill. I've bought so many great things at great prices there over the years. And clothes have been no exception.

A few weeks ago David and I were in the mood to go looking around Goodwill. We weren't after anything in particular but just like to look around. I like the housewares, furniture and clothes. David likes the books, electronics and clothes. Trey likes the toys!

So, we head in and I'm drawn to the clothes. I really love the way my local Goodwill's organize the clothes, it works with the way I think. They put all the women's sleeveless shirts together and then by color. Then the women's short-sleeve tops together by color and so on. So I can easily just look for the kind of top/bottom I want and then look at the colors I'm interested in. I love it.

Well after a while of looking at jeans and other random stuff, I walked the skirt rack and 2 caught my eye. They had great colors and patterns. One was marked my size the other a little bigger. We were getting ready to check out when I noticed them so I didn't try them on. I figured if they were too small or didn't look right I'd just use the fabric for something else. So we bought them.

Then the next weekend we had the itch to go back to Goodwill, only this time a different one. I went straight for the clothes and started pulling tops in colors I liked/looked good on me. Of course I grabbed more than I thought I'd get because after trying stuff on you usually weed through the pile. I took 7 tops in and all of them I liked/fit! And they were all very comfy. I was surprised that they all worked. This isn't always the case but you embrace it when it happens. So we bought them.

So, I had 2 skirts, 4 tank/sleeveless and 3 t-shirt tops. After trying everything on, I needed to alter both skirts, the pink tank, teal tank and teal shirt. I felt pretty confident in taking on these alterations since they were pretty basic. Skirt #1 was too long. Skirt #2 was too wide. Both the teal tank & teal shirt were too long and the pink tank was too wide.

With the help of my new serger I altered all my new clothes to my liking. I was SO excited that I was able to do all of this all by myself. And with a little help from the manual! I'd tried shortening some tops last year just using my sewing machine but I wasn't happy with the results. They were mostly knits with some stretch and when I hemmed them they puckered or the stitch would break. I know you can use a zig-zag stitch to help with stretch but I didn't like the look. This is one reason I asked for a serger for Christmas. I love that I was able to take at least 2 items that were sized too big for me and make them my size.

This thing worked beautifully! I'm VERY happy with my results and I'm now working on making some skirts and dresses using my serger. I'm enjoying learning how to make clothes.

Oh, and in case you are wondering most of these items are name brand pieces.
Pink tank- Jones New York
Green tank- Mossimo (Target)
Turq. tank- Old Navy
Teal tank- Ann Taylor
Pink tee- Gap
Teal tee- Apt 9 (Kohls)
Purple tee- Eddie Bauer
Skirts were brands I've never heard of.

Oh, and I got all of this for about $35. I LOVE GOODWILL!

In case you aren't familiar with Goodwill here's some tips.
Don't expect to find great deals every time. Some times you score big sometimes there's nothing good. Items are donated so the supply is constantly changing and that's what makes it so fun! Although I've seen many items with their original price tags on them, often from the original store that just needed to get rid of the items. So they are in great shape for fractions of the price.

Be open to finding diamonds in the rough. You have to search and look and try things on. I don't only buy clothes, I find decorative items for my home and sometimes furniture too. Be willing to look. Clothes can be altered, items can be painted or cleaned up, furniture can be refinished, fixed, altered and painted.

Give yourself time to look. If you are in a hurry you won't find as much.

The Oklahoma Goodwill's offer a discount card for each calendar year. It's about $5 for card and every time you use it they take 10% off your order. And around here that's more than sales tax. If you shop there often it's worth it to get the discount card.

So there's my story of my latest score from Goodwill.

If you shop Goodwill or thrift stores tell me what you get. Any awesome deals? Please share!

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Trey's Room Reveal!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:34:00 +0000

Ok, I'm laughing a little at the title, the exclamation marks make it seem like a really huge, big deal. So, here's the room.

So, I talked last time about all the furniture moving that happened right after Christmas. I was finally able to work on and finish the details of Trey's room. This was a lot of fun! I spent a few weeks working out the details of what I wanted it to look like and what I needed to make it happen. This is going to be a long post with lots of pics but I wanted to show you everything. So, here we go!

Pictures/Art
In Trey's room before I'd had a small gallery wall of frames. While I liked the idea the black frames weren't going to work for what I wanted. I wanted light and bright, big surprise! I found my tastes moving more toward light colors, white and simple decor.

So, I spent about a week painting all the old frames and some others I'd picked up at Goodwill (another big surprise!). I had to prime them and then paint them. I could have knocked it out a lot faster by spray painting them but I had all the paint, so I went for free and time consuming.

After the frames were dry I started looking for stuff to put in them. I didn't want just pics like I had last time, I wanted a few pics, some art and whatever I liked. I found a blog that has free printable's that I loved! I loved that they were kid oriented but with softer colors and fun designs. I also knew I wanted to include his hand and foot prints done when he was a month old and his 3yr old hand print (I do a hand print every year around his birthday). Here's what I ended up with.

Starting on the top left: I made this on the computer, it's all Trey's birth stats. This was cut on my new Cameo machine, it's just a star that I really liked. Trey's hand and foot prints from a month old. This is a free printable from this site (they have a girl version too). This frame has been recycled many times, I didn't have anything good to put in the small mat openings so I just cut out his name with the Cameo.
Bottom Row: This pic is over a year old but I love it, the mat was a Christmas gift from my parents. It's a wood cutout, that I painted white. This is a free printable from the blog I mentioned above. His 3year old hand print, which I'll just change out every year. The blue is another design cut from my Cameo. And lastly is a family pic when Trey was about 4mo. old and still a favorite.

All frames were Goodwill finds except for the 2 holding his hand and foot prints, those were some old ones we already had. I love how this wall turned out! I like that I'll be able to add to it as I want/need by going up and side to side. I know it's a bit symmetrical but that's just who I am. The different frames offers that bit of character, while all being the same color keeps the unity.

Shelves/Decor

Like I mentioned in the last post, this dresser was moved to this spot to make room for the bed. The wall originally had a recliner and 2 black shelves. I'd seen several blogs with these great white modern wall shelves. They were from Ikea, so I thought I could order them online (the nearest store is 4hours away) but for some reason they don't sell them online only in store. And it wasn't worth the trip for $40.
BUT, I did find these at Target and they are very similar to what I liked at Ikea and for less money. I got 2 for $22! I put one on each side of the window for balance and to keep things simple. On the left side of the window I originally had one shelf.

The frames on each shelf are from Walmart, which I love! And they were already white so no painting! The printable's are from the blog mentioned above. I love how they look in the frames!

On the right side of the window with the dresser I have Trey's dinosaur piggy bank that David picked up for him a couple of years ago. The frame is Goodwill, painted, with a printable in it. She had numbers 1-10, so I picked 3 since he's 3. I'll print out a 4 for his birthday just to keep things fresh.

On the shelf is a ceramic turtle with moving head, tail, legs. My youngest sister got it on a mission trip (can't remember from where). The helicopter is from Hobby Lobby already painted. I just liked the colors and I love aircraft. The drum is from another sister on returning from Uganda on a mission trip.

On the left side of the window. The figurine was a baby shower gift, because I loved it! One of my sisters took a pottery class and made this for Trey. Below it is a tile that all 3 of my sisters went in together to get as a shower gift. It's heavy and I finally got it hung up. I used 2 plate hangers from Hobby Lobby and spray painted the tips with oil rubbed bronze. I don't care for the brass look. Anyway, I love the tile and it looks great under the shelf.

Under the shelf/tile is a rocking horse from David's parents.

Chair
If you read the last post you would have seen the before pics of this chair. I bought this old dinning room chair from a thrift store or Goodwill (can't remember) about 8-10 years ago. I loved the wood and so I just recovered it. Well for a few years it's been in the shed as I didn't have room for it anywhere. After taking the recliner out I figured I needed a chair in here.

So, I decided to paint and recover it. Unfortunately it wasn't as cheap as I was hoping but it was still cheaper than buying another chair. It took 3 cans of white spray paint to get it covered! And the first can was a paint/primer. Ugh!

When the chair was finally done and dry, I started pulling fabrics that I already had on hand to see what looked best in the room. I ended up liking this one the best. Oh and it was a pillow sham I'd found at Goodwill (shocked aren't you?!) several months ago. It was Target brand, so no wonder I liked it!

I am really pleased with how it turned out, even with some imperfections.

I thought it could use a pillow on it to make it just a bit more comfy, so I swiped this off of our bed. I thought about recovering it but I didn't like anything else with the seat fabric so I kept it as is.

Bed
As I mentioned in the last post, the bed was a hand-me-down from my parents, which was probably mine from high school. It's not a style I'd go out and pay for but for free it works just fine. We didn't have any bedding so I've been working on getting some at a discount price. I picked up the sheets and mattress pad at Target then got stuck on the comforter.

I have a dislike for themed kids rooms. I don't do characters. So finding a comforter for his bed that didn't have characters for a cheap price was hard. I finally landed on a plain white fake down comforter from Target for $25, which was a good price for any comforter in a twin size.

I knew I wanted a duvet cover even before finding a comforter. I picked up 2 flat sheets from Walmart for $6ea, one in navy and one polka dots in navy, teal and blue on a white background. Then I layed the navy one on the floor, then added the comforter, then the polka dot to see how it fit. Thankfully I didn't have to cut anything and just sewed the 2 sheets together on 3 sides leaving it open where the cuffs are on the sheets. I didn't add a closure but I might do buttons in the future.

You can see all 3 layers in this pic.

I also needed a bed skirt because I was using all that wonderful space under the bed for storage and want it covered. So, I picked up another $6 sheet from Walmart. I measured the 2 sides I needed covered and then cut the sheet to give me 2 panels. I hemmed all the edges up, then sewed some Velcro to the panels. 5 pieces for the long one and 4 for the short one. Then I held the panels up to the bed to figure out where the Velcro mate needed to go on the bed and hot glued it in place. This worked great, because the pieces will come off easily if I peel it off, but if I pull the skirt off they stay in place.

I was very happy with this set up because I didn't use a bunch of fabric under the mattress as a normal bed skirt has, and I can easily pull a panel off the bed to wash as needed. LOVE it!

Yes, the wall over the bed is empty. I have something I want to do there but I haven't worked it all out yet, so that will come later. The suspense!

All in all I am very happy with the way the room turned out. It makes me very happy to go in there and look around. I think that covers everything, this post is really long so if I forgot something or you want more info on something ask me in the comments. I'll leave you with a few more parting shots around the room.

That basket holds all his small toys. They were in an ottoman but they are easier to see and play with in this open basket (it's from Home Goods).

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Furniture Moving in Trey's Room

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:19:00 +0000

So, I mentioned in my Office to Playroom posts that we moved a lot of furniture around and Trey's room was hit as well.

We started with moving out the recliner and the toy box which went to the playroom. We were left with his dresser and the changing table. I like using the dresser for Trey's clothes, it just works better for me. I found that I wouldn't hang his clothes up and they'd just stack and then get wrinkled. So, all his clothes are now in the dresser. And so far it's working great.

Obviously we aren't using the changing table right now except to store some baby stuff. But I love it and it will be used more in the future. I do think I want to repaint it in a brighter fun color but probably not for a while. That thing weighs a ton, so I'd have to do it in place and it's not a priority right now.

Anyway, so those 2 pieces stayed. My parents have recently done some furniture moving around as well and they gave us a twin bed for Trey. We haven't been in any hurry to get him his own bed but I didn't want to turn it down since we would eventually need it.

Right now and since he was born he's slept right between David and I. We never intended to have him sleep with us but in the hospital I couldn't bear to have him sleep in that clear box, so he slept with me in my bed. Then when we got home it just seemed natural to keep doing it. We all love our arrangement, although I do see it coming to a close in the near future. But this is what has worked for us.

Ok, back to the room. The changing table is the only thing that didn't move because as I said it weighs a ton! And I liked it where it was. The dresser moved to where the recliner was and with the toy box and dresser moved we had a nice big spot for the bed. I also moved an old stool that was David's dad's next to the bed to act as a nightstand.

Here's some before moving furniture pics. This is moving around the room.

Ok, now for the messy in progress pics.

Like I said these are messy and not even good quality pics, sorry about that. As well as moving all the furniture I took almost everything off the walls.

The black shelves needed to go. I am so past black and the shape didn't fit with what I want this room to look like. I want a bit more of a modern look, granted the dresser and shape of the bed don't reflect that but I use what I have on big stuff. Basically all dark decor is going or getting changed. And I'm moving the stuff around on the walls. But that's for my next post.

I also need more bedding in here but I'm working on that slowly, especially since we aren't in a hurry. I'll be making a bed skirt and duvet cover, but need to find the duvet/comforter! I also added an old chair to his room and it needs a makeover as well.

I also really cleaned out his closet. We are very lucky that our home has large closets, small bedrooms but large closets. Up to this point I've stored all Trey's old clothes in tubs in his closet and it's worked and we've had room to do so. But I was going to need to move some with his 4T clothes needing to be store. So when we got the bed I was able to move almost all of the tubs under the bed.

I also went back through all those tubs to make sure I was only keeping stuff I liked, cause some lids weren't closing. Anyway, after the tubs were moved there was a ton of extra space in the closet.
Here's some before and afters.

Love a newly organized space! I'm now able to use some of this space to store my decor stuff. I also have a bin to put Trey's next size/season clothes in.

So really this post is just to say, I've made changes and I have more to come! Hopefully next week I'll show the walls, some bedding, the chair and some small things that I'm working on right now.

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Mountain Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:52:00 +0000

So, about a week before Christmas we were the happy new owners of a beautiful new mountain painting. If you remember I had our beach painting painted by my sweet friend Chelsea. We loved it so much that I asked her if she'd do another one for us, this time of a mountain scape.

I love beach scenes and David loves mountain ones. I was in need of something on one of the walls in our kitchen. It's awkward, because there is a lot of wall space but you couldn't put too much there without it feeling super crowded. I've tried a few things there over the years but nothing was working. So I asked Chelsea if she'd work her magic for us again and do a mountain scene for David.

She finished it right before Christmas and it looks awesome! David LOVES it and it works perfectly in its new spot. It's right across from the chalkboard.

In the pics it looks small on that wall, but in person it doesn't look small. So what do you think? Did Chelsea do an awesome job?!

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Office to Playroom Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:53:00 +0000

Well, for the first time ever I can say I'm done with a room! I have no more lingering things to do to the playroom, done, finished! WOO-HOO! Can you tell I'm excited?!

I just have a 3 little things to show you.

First is the cord cover for the t.v. I know that you've seen how we cover cords around here, but in this room it was more than just to look better. Since this is where children will hang out and Trey's table is next to the cord that comes down from the t.v. it needed to be inaccessible. I'm not worried about the plug but the cord being yanked on. And of course it just looks so much better and cleaner with the cord covered and not moving all over the place. I spent some time wrapping all the cords together behind the t.v. so they don't hang and so I can't see them (cords drive me crazy!).

All that said, I painted it and David screwed it in. OK, I lied, I do still need to paint the screws so they blend in but after that, I'm done! What do you think? Much better, huh?!

Second was making a quick pillow cover for the pillow I had on the chair. I just used some left over fabric from the toy box makeover, which I LOVE. It took me all of 30min to whip this baby up and I love the color it adds to the plain chair.

Third I wanted to make some new curtains for the room. I saw a tutorial on another blog about using 2 twin flat sheets to make striped curtains. She used Walmart sheets ($6ea for me) and cut them up into strips then sewed them into stripes. I loved them and the idea and the price. You can't beat $12 for some curtains.

So I went to Walmart and picked up a white and a blue. I did my measuring, then my cutting then my sewing (duh, right?). Then hung them up and they were OK. I was short about a whole stripe, they turned out a bit crooked and the colors together felt a bit like Dr. Seuss.

But for me, when I get to the end of a project and I don't love it, I usually say "screw it" and accept it. So, guess what I did? Yep, I'm accepting it. The short thing isn't a huge deal because in this room the end of the curtains isn't seen very much, only one is even seen and it's in the corner. And I'm considering using some clips to hang them from which would drop them down a few more inches. The crooked thing I was able to adjust most of it when I sewed the tube for the curtain rod. And the colors, while it wasn't what I had envisioned, the colors fit in with the room and they make the room feel a bit lighter compared to the old curtains.

So, while they aren't bad, they are better than what I had and they work. So until I find something or want to make something better, they are it baby! Hey, you can't get it right every time. And for these I'm OK with that. So, I'm done and ready to move on to other projects.

Here's Part 1
Here's Part 2

Next up I'll show what I've been working on in Trey's room. I'm excited and it's been a big change!

Has anyone ever tried to make striped curtains? If so how'd you do it? Did yours turn out crooked too?

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Office to Playroom Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Ok, so I already shared about how and why we are making this change. Now it's time for details and pics!

I'll start with my desk and make my way around the room. As soon as you walk through the door you see my desk set up and my wall shelf. The wall shelf that David built me a few years ago for when I was scrap booking. I wanted it to hold my ribbon collection and the clips were to hold finished scrapbook pages. I designed it and David built it. I no longer use the clips for pages, so I just hang pretty paper from the clips as extra art. I do still love the shelf and kept it the same. I did add my button jar and a hurricane vase filled with twine, wire and an old thread spool.

My desk was shoved down to the corner, and I had to rearrange some things on my desk to fit everything I needed: my wood drawer unit, my sewing machine, my lazy susan, my laptop and my new serger. I put my OTT-Lite on top of my wood drawer unit so it's up high to give me light in that corner and free up valuable desk top space. I painted that white frame, it used to be black. Above my desk I had made a magnetic board a few years ago. Ok, my dad made it. I just bought some stock molding, a piece of plywood and a piece of sheet metal. It had been painted black but I was doing away with black. I found a sample size of paint in my stash and just used that. It had to be rehung since moving the desk and the red Simple sign above it was moved too. David found it at a craft fair a couple years ago and gave it to me for Christmas.

Next to my desk on the left and beside the door, is my white cabinet. It now holds my printer and a new lamp from Lowe's. I walked by this lamp and fell in love. When I needed a new lamp for this spot I knew exactly which lamp I wanted! I was using an extra lamp that was too big for this spot. After doing some lamp rearranging in the living room I was able to get rid of a base and shade that I didn't love and free up space in here for one I did.

The cabinet holds sewing patterns in the drawer. Some computer components and 2 white boxes in the cubby and in the base I have our office supplies. I still need to get some drawer pulls that fit in better but these work for now.

My favorite part is the shelves above the cabinet. I needed a good place to put my new Silhouette Cameo, so I had David cut some left over plywood from our headboard and I painted them white. If you look close you can see the rough surface, but I already had the wood and didn't want to buy more. We just bought the brackets which cost about $8 for both shelves. I don't keep the Cameo plugged in, so when I need to use it I take it down and put it on my desk and plug it in. I couldn't keep it on the desk so this is the next best thing. It works great for me.

The second shelf is just for cute/pretty/fun stuff. I just used a bunch of stuff I already had and made it work. And I really like how it looks. The box is one I've had since high school a free gift for graduating from a local furniture store. The Believe sign was unfinished originally from Hobby Lobby at Christmas time a few years ago. I'd painted it for Christmas but it wasn't working anymore, so I sprayed it pink with some paint I already had. The crystal light house came from my grandmother after she passed away. I love glass/sparkly stuff, so I got it!

The frame on the left I picked up at Goodwill and took out the glass which had some decorative stuff on it. I found this free printable on Pinterest which was so cute and I used some more in Trey's room which I'll show another time. The frame next to it was one I had in T's room and liked it as is, along with the pic of him and his best girl holding hands 2 summers ago. The other white frame was one that I had on T's wall gallery. It was a Goodwill find and I'd painted it black. I just repainted it white and used my new Cameo to cut a star out of teal card stock matted on some white paper.

Behind my desk chair that is actually an extra dinning room chair, is the recliner from T's room. With all the furniture moving around we we're going to have room for it in T's room and I knew if we wanted to make this room somewhere all of us could hang out in we needed a comfy chair. And yes, it's big and the room is small, but we used what we had and it's working. I'm going to recover the pillow and I'm making some new curtains too. These curtains were originally for the living room and when I found better ones in there, these came to live in here. We have weird 70's arched windows in here and the blinds don't cover that part. So if we were in here at night with the lights on, the neighborhood knew about it. I'll post about the curtains and pillow cover when I get them done.

Now for the workhorse of the room. The shelves. We installed the top shelf last spring to hold David's books. Since rearranging stuff it has taken on many more books. Those are all of David's that he wants accessible (the rest are in boxes in storage, the man loves books!). Since that was working so well I thought it would be great to add more shelves. So, we bought some boards cut to fit the wall, I painted them white and David installed them with some brackets I sprayed silver (they were a dull grey).

I couldn't wait to get these babies installed in the room. I knew I wanted them to hold baskets and games. I bought the fabric baskets at Target in fun colors. I made labels using my Cameo and writing the contents in coordinating ink to the basket. I like that they look cohesive. On the middle shelf: beads & jewelry stuff, craft kits, white boxes hold paint chips and paperback novels of mine, craft supplies, Christmas stuff and my Epic 6. Bottom shelf: craft paints, blank canvases, all my paper/stickers, lettering & stencils, Trey's new games, our Apple TV (totally awesome BTW), Wii, and video games/components.

A lot of the stuff in the baskets is left over from my scrap booking days but are good for other crafty projects, so I kept them. I can purge a lot of stuff, but getting rid of craft stuff is harder for me. I absolutely LOVE these shelves! I like that they will be flexible for whatever stage we're in or decide to do in this room. I can easily make a new label and switch out the contents of the baskets.

Bellow the shelves are T's toy box, his toy vacuum, his cooking stuff and his blocks.

On the last wall is the t.v., with T's table and chairs below. Then I rehung David's comic books and the dry erase board over the white cubes. The drawers on the left hold all T's colored pencils, deco scissors, stickers, colors, coloring books and paper. I made some picture labels in MS Word from their clip art, to help him and other kiddos know where things are and where they need to go back. And he has a drawer on the right that holds his balloons that daddy blows up for him. Ignore the cords from the t.v., I'll be covering them soon.

The books are all mine to the right of his drawers, and I have a drawer for my vinyl, the other drawer is empty. On top of the cubes is a photo box that holds some beginner books for T and a drawer unit with vowels and words. Trey LOVES letters!

The baskets hold all of T's puzzles. He had some puzzles before Christmas but ended up with many more after. The boxes that they came in took up too much room and they were getting torn and falling apart. So, I ditched all the boxes and each puzzle went into a zippy bag. I made a copy of the pic of the puzzle and put that in the baggy. This is working beautifully! They take up a fraction of the space they used to, nothing is torn, the bags are easy for T to open and close by himself and they all fit into these baskets. He even had a couple of puzzles that came with a wooden board that wasn't necessary, so the board went as well. I separated them by picture puzzles on the bottom and letter, number, shape puzzles, matching games on top.

This is what we started with.

Our goal for the room was to make it a place that all of us could enjoy at the same time. I could play at my desk, Trey could play with his toys, puzzles, games or coloring stuff and David would watch a movie or play with his iPad. We have accomplished this and we are in love with this room! It's a fun, creative place to be.

Here's a last look around the room.

Thanks for reading this long post! Comments make me Happy!

Office to a Playroom Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Marixa) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:38:00 +0000

So, the week before Christmas David and I are heading out of town to visit with his grandmother. It takes about an hour and a half to get there, which we don't mind because it gives us a long stretch of mostly uninterupted time to talk.

So, I started the conversation expressing my desire to have a space that I can have my desk and Trey's toys together. While working on all those Christmas presents, I spent a lot of time at my desk sewing away. And Trey wanted to be with me, so he hung out in the office with me but didn't have much to play with and there wasn't much room. So he mostly just layed around and half-heartedly colored.

I didn't know what we could do about it but I brought up the subject with David to see what he thought. And to my surprise he suggested getting rid of his desk in the office to make room for Trey's stuff. So a plan was hatched. We spent the rest of the trip there and back hashing out details and coming up with ideas. And we wanted to acomplish it the week after Christmas, while David was still home on holiday vacation.

So, the day after Christmas we got started. I started pulling down Christmas decorations and packing them up, while David started cleaning out the garage. You see we had to do a room by room shuffle. We had to take Christmas boxes out of the garage, and Trey's new bed (more on that in another post) to make room for the desk. And we had to move the desk out of the office to make room for the toys, and had to move out the toys from Trey's room to make room for the bed. Clear as mud?

By the end of the day, all major pieces had been moved into place. And then it took me the rest of the week to get all the little things organized and put away. Poor David was ready to go back to work just to rest! I'm totally LOVING the end result of the playroom formerly known as the office.

First some before pics.

Due to Christmas I'd received some new toys to create with and Trey had new stuff as well. So I had to get super creative with my storage and not spend very much. I think when all is said and done we'll have spent a little over $100. And it was worth every penny!

After removing David's desk (to the garage for now), we moved his filing cabinet and other misc stuff to the closet for now (to be cleaned and organized at another time). That freed up half the room. Then I moved some white cubes, that were beside my desk, to the other side and stacked them 2 up, 2 side. This let me move my desk all the way to the corner. The white cabinet moved to the left side of my desk by the door.

We brought in Trey's toy box, boxes of blocks, cooking stuff, and all his puzzles and games. He had a small table with 2 chairs that was perfect in there. And the recliner that was in Trey's room was moved to the playroom as well. Here's an in process pic.

I will be making some new curtains to help lighten the room and fit in color wise with the rest of the stuff in the room. I'm also working on a pillow cover for the pillow on the recliner.

So that's all the big stuff moved. I'll share in Part 2 the organization, and finished details.
Here's a small teaser.

It's a finished area, except I'll be trading out the red basket for another navy one soon.

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