A Different Egg Hunt & Easter Decor

Easter is quickly approaching this year! For some reason I was thinking it was in April, but it's actually in about two weeks! So I had to get my specialty holiday fun rear in gear and get this house "springified!

Today I was working on a basket liner (scroll down for the rest on that) and I came up with this great Eastery way to have fun and encourage my husband! Hide your Easter eggs like you always do -- but change it up a little bit. Instead of putting candy in every egg, I am going to put something that I love the most about Sam in each egg written on pretty scrapbook paper. Of course I will still get some candy, but I think he will like the sweet notes even better than the sweet treats!

To help get us in the Spring and Easter spirit (besides the beautiful sunshine!!!) I switched the pine cones out of the giant apothecary jars and replaced the with eggs (that match our painting! It really pops with those bright colors beside it!)

AND I made this super cute basket liner for the basket on our table! 

Sarah sent me a link to one on Etsy and asked if I could make them so I experimented with this tiny basket for our table. I am going to make a bigger version for my parents and then make my sweet nephews one, too! The boy's (how fun is THAT to say!) will have their names on them though instead of 'Hoppy Easter' :)

Super excited about Spring, and of course, Easter. I think we might color some real eggs, too! 

Sewing Room: Closet Redo

Our Guest Room has actually become the "sewing room/Vanessa's office" with this work transition.

My "office" was actually in the closet with a table and kept the room pretty clean and clutter free, but now that I will be working in my "office" a lot more, I didn't feel like sitting in a closet all day, so I moved it out on to the empty wall where the ironing board usually lives (you can see the very edge of my workspace on the left):

Yes, that is an Elphaba doll next to my sewing machine :) And no, I haven't made curtains for this room yet. That's on the to-do list.

So after I moved my office out of the closet that left a huge gapping hole to pile junk into. I then made an even bigger mess and re-organized the chest of drawers, under bed storage, and sewing cabinet, and made my ultimate cute craft closet. The shelving unit was on sale at Target (Thank you, Lord!) and the wire baskets came form there too -- they hold scraps and trim. I also have a light on the ceiling and a small stacked bubble lamp and a bulletin board in there. A lot of the "decor" is from my office and will go to my new job.

I am suuuper thrilled with the results and very thankful for the extra (and organized!) storage space. The covered boxes keep patterns, yarn, and extra blanks together, and I am in love with the cubbies with the fabric folded and facing out. The small shelf in the corner is great to store things in the back I don't use a lot (like books I can't part with) and the outer corners are great for things I use often like the camera and iron.

I think what I love most about this closet is that it reminds me of my closet I grew up with when my family lived in Athens, Tennessee. I had the mac daddy of all walk in closets and had "cubbies" that fit laundry baskets. My Mom and Dad are geniuses and it was the coolest closet EVER. I think this new craft closet is a much smaller (and more organized) version and it reminds of being a kid, and inspires me to create as an adult, and I love it. 

Mirror, Mirror

The half bathroom in our house is my bathroom -- meaning it's where I get ready and keep my curlers, make up, nail polish, all the junk that goes along with being a girl so that Sam can keep the full bath clean. We have been told that separate bathrooms save marriages and after living with someone now, I can see why they would say that (especially if one person is tidier than the other who is always in a rush and leaves things out).

So the half bath has been through some transformations (I will eventually dig out the old pictures of when it was colonial blue when Sam bought the house), but the most recent transformation was inexpensive (yay!) and made a BIG difference (bigger yay!).

It was a new mirror. The bathroom is tricky because the wall the mirror is one is only 22" wide because it's kinda in an alcove. So it's really hard to find mirrors to fit that space that are "pretty". Lowe's had some that were just a few inches wider but we didn't want to break the frame off, and they were $100+ so that was out of the question. We like the look for less. The original white mirror looked great when there was a white pedestal sink under it, but after Sam put in the vanity, I decided I was going to paint it, or try to find one that matched the vanity.

Yesterday I was at Hobby Lobby with my friend helping her pick out baby blanket materials and it was POURING. So we decided to kill time in HL before getting lunch. We wandered over to the mirrors and there it was. A beautifully framed, oval mirror, in black with brown brushed look, right next to those glorious 50% off signs. I looked at the measurements and it was 21" wide. A miracle, for sure. So I bought it. for $35. Yes people, Hobby Lobby is amazing.

This morning Sam got wire on his way home from work, and hung it for me after breakfast. Check out the transformation (sorry, iPhone pics):



I feel like the pictures don't really do it justice -- it just looks so finished, fancy, and elegant now! It's amazing what a difference a matching (and inexpensive) mirror can make!

And what happened to the old mirror? It found a new home in the dressing room! :)

So blessed to find such a great bargain when I wasn't really looking for it! :)

New Front Door

Since Sam and I had been dating, he had always talked about getting a new front door on the house. He originally was going to buy one from a friend, then once we got married, we get serious about it.

We knew we wanted glass in it, possible storm door, wood color, and pretty. Anything was better than the 1950's door we had though.

We quickly axed the storm door idea because our front door has to swing to the right due to the fact that when you walk in it, you will walk straight into the chimney wall. So the storm door would swing left to lay against the house. And that would be ridiculous. I could see myself being lat for work and getting stuck between the two doors...

I had a door with cut glass in the home I grew up in and LOVED it. Sam thought they were pretty, but not private. We kept looking (and I kept praying we would find one we both liked) and we settled on 3/4 glass with craftsman class.

We went to Lowe's to order it, they sent a guy to measure our door, and he told us we were going to have to replace all of the fluted trim that is around the door and that our opening was a weird size AND That it was going to cost us A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY TO GET SAID DOOR and we didn't love the color. Um, no thanks.

We were referred to a wonderful, Christian-owned company, called Aluma in Chattanooga. We went and picked out a fiberglass door, with the SAME glass, with woodgrain, for 1/4 of what Lowe's was going to charge.

We waited three weeks, picked up the door and got help drilling the holes for the handle and deadbolt that we got at Lowe's with some of our wedding gift cards (thank you!!).

We then bought a gel stain and polyurethane top coat to stain the fiberglass door with wood grain "pattern". It seriously looks just like a real wood door but is more energy efficient. It took two coats of stain to get it the deep brown color we liked, and two coats of gloss, just like a wood door. This took patience and I couldn't wait to get that thing hung!

Then Sam had a friend come help him hang it. And I came home from work to find this beautiful "after"!!!




We LOVE it. The door itself, the hardware is gorgeous and the glass is, too. The only completely clear parts of the glass are the three little squares that are high up. The other parts of the door are "blurry" and you can't hardly make out shapes in them unless it's really dark outside and super bright inside -- but you can't see details. It's perfect.

Next up on the front porch? Bright cushions for those cute rocking chairs you see in the reflection of the new door.

Hallway Wedding Gallery

We got a lot of great wedding gifts (thank you!) and one that I couldn't wait to use was a wall art framing kit from Bed, Bath and Beyond, and a personalized frame with out wedding date on it. We knew we wanted a "gallery" of photos form the wedding in the hallway, so as soon as we got the hi-res copies of the pictures we put them in the frames.

Because we actually laid out the gallery in the floor and hung it about a month ago. :)

> The gallery frame set was from my coworker and work momma, Tina

> The personalized frame in the middle was from George and Patti Cromie (my adopted grandparents) and has a shot from the church balcony after Dad and I reached the alter

> The top photo that spells GUIN was a gift to Sam from his sis, Sarah, way before I came along -- but it fit in perfectly with this! (thanks Sarah!)

> The faith, love and family iron words were from my house and are special to me.

> The architectural elements on each side of the Guin are from Hobby Lobby and cost $3 each -- we needed something to fill up the space with the words. It looked empty and now it doesn't!

> The pictures are some of our favorites:

Top row, L to R - Sam and I right after we walked up the aisle, Sam and I on the firetruck, church shot, Sam and I leaving in the Super Bird, Sam and I acting goofy during pictures

Left of family is me by the stained glass, and right of family is Sam by the stained glass "looking over" to me :)

And the bottom is our WHOLE family and one of my absolute favorite pictures. My parents, grandparents and Sam's parents, grandmothers, brother, and sister, brother-in-law and nephew.

What I really love about this wall is that you see it as soon as you walk in our front door.