K, so I recently found myself with just a little bit of time alone (which is kind of hard to come by these days!) The Hubs and the two older boys were gone, and the baby was asleep. I realized I had had enough of sitting in my room or on the couch recovering. I wanted to make something! Nothing too big, nothing too crazy – I just wanted to create.

So I looked through my Pinterest boards and found a couple of cute ideas for a quick and easy craft I could make before my precious babe woke up and needed to eat. I decided to make some sweet kisses lipstick art.

Here are the supplies I grabbed from around the house:

 *A picture frame

*A piece of printer paper

*Lipsticks

*A mirror

I began by applying the lightest lip colors first and just started kissing the paper. (I’ve had lots of kissing practice lately – our little baby must be getting sick of me kissing his face!) Next, I added kisses from the darker lipsticks and filled in the gaps. The whole paper was covered in kisses in less than 15 minutes.

Afterward, I added the picture to the frame and put it in my bathroom where I get ready in the morning.

Cute, fast, and a craft I could do while the baby was asleep! Now I’m ready for a nap.

With Mama

With Daddy

Meeting his brothers

One week old

He is our “smallest” baby at 9 lbs 1 oz. My delivery was fast and not too painful, which was a nice break from the previous two. We are feeling so blessed to have this sweet boy in our family.

But before I show you the new one, here’s what I was using before. This has been my nightstand for the last million years. It is a family piece that I found in my grandparents’ garage. I kept it “as is” for years because of the shabby chic look that was so in, and then I just kept waiting for inspiration to strike a makeover. Yeah, that never happened.

Now I’ve moved on, and the nightstand has a new home in my niece Gracie’s room. My sister already has some cute ideas for it, too. Add that to the fact that the nightstand was too small and short for my bed, and I am happy to see it go.

So when it came time to replacing the nightstand, I found some great inspiration from the following two pictures:

Our Fifth House

Romantic Homes

I love the idea of a desk as a nightstand, and the fact that I had just the one in the other room didn’t hurt either! Remember this?

The Hubs no longer needed it since I built his new desk last year. So this one was just waiting it’s turn for it’s next life in the Free Stylin’ house. I love seeing a picture of something similar to a piece I already own! Both the desk and chair just needed a couple of coats of paint, and they would be perfect for my side of the bed.

Even my cute J got in on DIY the action.

Instagram

I chose Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee (mixed for me at Lowe’s). The color is just right – white, but not blinding white. It’s subtle and calm.

Here’s my “new” nightstand and chair:

I love the size – it is the perfect height, and it is so much wider than my little nightstand from before. The chair is great for some extra seating. If I want to work from my computer here, I can. If I need to put baby things on here soon, there is lots of space.

There is a little tray for my phone, too. I wanted to share a little tip: I used a binder clip and clipped it to the edge of the tray. My phone charger is threaded through the loop so it doesn’t fall out and get lost. Now I can just plug in my phone without having to crawl under the desk to find the charger.

A little bowl collects the jewelry I might forget to take off before I get into bed. And, you may notice that The Hubs and I are both using our Pottery Barn inspired lamps on our nightstands. The silver brings some more glam to the room, while the burlap adds texture. I really love the look.

Here are a few more “desk-as-a-nightstand” inspiration pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Ballard Designs

Source

HGTV

Source

Source

Source

Source

Do you happen to have a desk you aren’t using right now that could have a new life as a nightstand? I highly recommend it!

Next up for the room are pictures that will hang above the nightstands, as well as something to go over the bed. Curtains are also in the works. Plus a few more DIY projects.

But first: a baby!!

Yep! We check in to the hospital tonight  - I’m being induced tomorrow. Wow! I can’t believe it’s already time. Crossing my fingers for a good delivery and healthy baby. I’ll be sure to post a few pics, so check back soon!

K, so I’m excited to report a few more updates in the master bedroom! Things are really coming along (which is great because this little baby will be here ANY day now!!!). It feels good to have a comfortable and pretty place to bring him home to.

Today’s topic: nightstands. The Hubs and I each desperately needed new tables on either side of our bed. Ours weren’t working out so well because they were short, tiny, and needed new paint. The last one I could do. But changing the height and size meant we needed to ditch the ones we have for the right ones….nightstands that would actually work for us.

This was his:

The Hubs had to lean over pretty far to get anything from his nightstand, and he’d practically fall out of the bed in the process. I’ve mentioned we’ve been working with Autumn on our room makeover, and she was able to help us figure out exactly what size nightstands would work for us. We actually measured. With a measuring tape. It was awesome.

I already had a nightstand in mind for my side of the bed (I’ll show you in my next post because I LOVE it!!!!), so we only needed to purchase one for The Hubs. But you know me, I didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg on this piece because I am cheap resourceful like that. Luckily Autumn was on my wavelength and helped me find lots of options that worked in our price range.

Here are a few affordable options I looked at:

This two-shelf book case from Target runs about $72. I like the dual purpose of a nightstand and bookshelf, so I seriously considered buying one in white.

Target

One of the most popular pieces of furniture to makeover (it seems) is the Ikea Rast three drawer chest. At 34.99 it’s a great deal, and you can totally tailor it to your taste, color, and style.

Ikea

I love using this metallic table from World Market next to the bed because it is so glamorous! Although not online, you can find it in stores.

Sarah M. Dorsey Designs 

How’s this for super inexpensive? I really like the idea of using a floating shelf for a nightstand, especially in a small space. Shelves and brackets can easily be purchased at Ikea for a couple of dollars (like the ones in my hall closet) or at a home improvement store.

Anyone know the source for this one? I can’t seem to find it anywhere!

In the end, we bought an Expedit four cube shelf from Ikea for $39.99. The baskets were about $17 a piece, and they add texture, and storage, to the space.

The height is perfect, and The Hubs doesn’t fall out of bed trying to reach for his phone or glasses.

What did I take from this nightstand lesson? A few things: I kept thinking our nightstands were working for us because we weren’t spending any money on them (we got both of them for free). But, they DON’T have to be expensive. They CAN be affordable. Nightstands don’t need to be “matchy-matchy” either, but they do need to be the right size!

If you already have nightstands that work for you, but they need a little makeover, a coat of paint, or just changing out the knobs on the drawer, can give you a whole new look, too. I used this idea for my side of the bed. I’ll show you which piece of furniture we already owned got a little makeover and now has a new purpose as my nightstand in my next post.

Have a great day friends!

 (This is my most recent post for Or so she says…)

Hey there! Today I want to share with you one of my favorite things from my kitchen:

My Recipe Binder

Back when I was a newlywed, I didn’t really have a lot of recipes. I had a few family favorites written down in a little book my grandma made me, but that was about it. I love to cook, but let’s just say I “perfected” the three or four meals I knew how to make. Even though I wanted to cook well, I needed more ideas and recipes.

I could have gone out and bought a bunch of cookbooks, but I’m kind of picky. I’m a visual person, so unless the cookbook had a picture with every recipe, I stayed away from it. I don’t like trying a new recipe if I haven’t seen what it looks like yet. (Anyone else like that? Please say yes!)

Around this same time I had a pretty good collection of magazines that I just couldn’t seem to part with. They were starting to take over, and it was time to purge. I decided to go through each one and pull out any pictures or ideas or articles I wanted to keep (this was BP – Before Pinterest). There were a ton of recipes, too, so I began pulling out those as well.

Over the course of a few years I had quite the recipe collection (with pictures!!), so my next step was to protect them with plastic sheet protectors. I bought a large box of them at an office supply store and started arranging the pages to form a book.

The thing I really like about this part was that I arranged my recipes the way I like looking up what I want to cook: by main ingredient or what the dish actually is. So if I want to make a chicken dish, I look up chicken – not main dishes. If we want to eat pie, I go to the pie section – not desserts. This is easier for me because I can choose what I am cooking according to what ingredients I have. That’s what so great about making a recipe binder for yourself – you can tailor it to how YOU want it to be. It’s like making your own cookbook without having to buy one from Barnes and Noble. So, my cookbook is alphabetized and arranged according to what I would look for in the glossary of other cookbooks.

Once all of the recipes were in a protective sheet, I added them to a binder. Another cool thing about making your own cookbook: you get to decide the cover! I chose this one because it is vintage…ahem…I’ve had it since I was a teenager and really really love it!

When it’s time to cook something, I just pull the recipe out of the binder and put it on my recipe stand. Once the dish is complete, I can wipe the page off and put it back in the binder.

When creating your own recipe binder, it really is all about how you would like a cookbook to be if you could create your own. Some people need dividers or tabs. Some people want handwritten recipes. (There are a ton of cute recipe card printables online.) Maybe you only like recipes with pictures like me. Anyway you look at it, it is YOUR personal binder, and you can make it any way you like it!

Once you create one, you have a very personalized cookbook with all of your favorite recipes. This collection will take time and will evolve with you. But it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to create your own recipe binder using recipes you find online, in magazines, or passed down from family members.