Inspire Me Monday- 10 Classic Spring Wreaths

After being trapped inside for most of last week, I'm starting to look forward to spring. Bring on warmer temperatures, flowers, and more sunshine! I'm itching to add some color to my front door, so I rounded up 10 spring wreaths for inspiration. I may just have to pull my coral and ivory wreath out of the attic and hang it up, despite the snow in the weather forecast this week! ;) Happy Monday!

Click the pictures below for the source!

This is, hands down, my favorite Easter wreath! Just remove the bunny and boom, it's an anytime wreath!

 Can't go wrong with a boxwood wreath. Just sayin'.

This wreath would transition well from spring through summer. 

 I love that the next three are fresh, but neutral.

This floral letter wreath is so fun and vibrant!

 Tulips are one of my favorite parts of spring!

I made this wreath two years ago and it's still going strong! I may add a monogram or bow to it this year, just to change it up. We'll see!

Five on Friday

Five things I'm loving from this week:

1.) This article. Yes! 

2.) Jen over at I Heart Organizing is renovating her kitchen and the progress is FABULOUS! The ceiling beams and planking?! Be still my heart! Here's her latest progress post.

Image Credit: I Heart Organizing    Please pin from original source, not here.

3.) Do you watch The Bachelor? I haven't caught a season in a while, but I most definitely keep up with it via Sheaffer at Pinterest Told Me To. Her recaps are hysterical! Here's the latest recap. You're welcome. Ha! Sheaffer has fabulous style, too! I love all of her clothing ideas!

This screen shot Sheaffer captured kills me! 

4.) Snow Days--This should really be a love/hate thing. I love the snow and the kids have really enjoyed it. But, after a couple days at home, this mama is majorly stir crazy! I see a trip to Target and Krispy Kreme in the very near future. ;)

5.) This video pretty much sums up our current phase of life right now. Hahaha! But, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade it for the world! It's killing me how fast my kids are growing. Didn't I just bring Little Girlie home from the hospital yesterday?! But, if you ever stop by unannounced and my house looks like a tornado went through, this video sums up the reason why. Ha!

Happy Weekend, Everyone!

A Tweaked Layout and a New Gallery Wall

As I mentioned last week, I just finished a gallery wall in our dining room. This has been coming on for about a year. Yes, you read that correctly...a year. Life, I tell ya. We should win some kind of slowest home decorator award or something. ;)

Last year, on a whim, we rotated our dining room table to give us more space in the walkways. It really helped, but I had to scoot the teal cabinet down to accommodate the new layout. Of course, that made the painting on the wall feel off centered from the cabinet, but centering the painting above the cabinet in the new location made the painting feel off centered on the wall. Ugg. If you give a mouse a cookie...

Here's an old picture to give you an idea of the previous layout. 

I love the painting that was in our dining room. Growing up, I traveled with my grandparents a lot. When I was 14, we went on a cruise together. My grandma is a painter and loved looking at the different art shops on the islands. We found the watercolor print in St.Thomas and Grandpa had it framed for Grandma. It hung in our hallway at home for years, then a couple years ago, Grandma gifted it to me. I really cherish that painting and all of the memories attached to it! I am sad that it doesn't work in our dining room anymore, but love its new location at the top of our stairs.

I was pretty stumped about what to do in the dining room, though. Jeremy really liked the new layout. It's not my favorite, but it's his one request for the room. He doesn't care about the paint color, artwork, linens, curtains, nada. He only requested that we keep the table in the new spot, so I felt like the poor guy should get what he wanted! I stared at the empty spot on the wall for months trying to decide what to put up.

I finally decided that a gallery wall was the way to go because it could stretch from the edge of the window to the corner, allowing the artwork to be centered on the wall while also allowing the teal cabinet to look natural although it wasn't centered under the artwork.

We picked up most of the frames at Ikea and Target. I loathe the Ikea frames. I like the shape, but the mats were off white, so I ended up having to spray paint them white to match the frame and not look dingy. And don't even get me started on the horrible hardware that comes with the smaller frames! The one positive aspect about the Ikea frames, though, is that they are dirt cheap. But, you get what you pay for. :/

I had a bunch of pictures and artwork picked out for the frames, but when I hung them all up, they didn't jive well together. I ended up switching out the pictures and artwork to things that had a similar base color pallet or complimentary colors. It really helped give the whole gallery a cohesive look!

If you missed the how-to for the Truly Madly Deeply painting, you can check it out here!

I'm really happy with how the dining room is coming together! The wall paint is getting old and starting to look dingy, so we will be painting it a similar color this year. We would still love to put up wainscoting and replace the lighting fixture, but those projects probably won't be making the 2015 priority list. One day, though! It's all a process! 

Linking up to The Turquoise Home, The Thrify Home, Savvy Southern Style, Tatertots and Jello, Shabby Nest, Reasons to Skip the Housework, Made from Pinterest, Pieced Pastimes, Little House of Four, Carrie This Home, Dwelling in Happiness, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Naptime Creations, Sand and Sisal, Home Stories A-Z, The DIY Dreamer, and Snap!

Inspire Me Monday

Got a bad case of the Mondays? Yeah, me too. ;) I thought it'd be fun to start a new series called Inspire Me Monday where I feature an inspirational project or space to get our gears going for the week. Sound fun?

This week, I'm featuring these adorable confetti curtains from Remodlholic. I was planning to do these for our playroom, but ended up finding ready made curtains, so won't be making these after all. I have to admit, I'm a little sad, because these look easy and I love that you can customize the colors to match your space!

Image Credit: Remodelaholic.com

The curtains are made by simply painting circles on plain, white Ikea curtain panels. Isn't that such a genius idea? Curtains are SO expensive, so I loved this budget friendly idea! Find the full tutorial here!

Happy Monday!

Truly Madly Deeply

Recently, I've been working on finishing up a gallery wall in our dining room. I had artwork already picked out, but once I hung it up, it just didn't excite me. The colors looked too washed out and light. I wanted to add a punch of color. Unfortunately, I didn't have any more money to spend on artwork.

I was browsing around the internet and saw a colorful, abstract piece on Minted.com that I was immediately drawn to. It was done by just making simple brush strokes in various colors. It was a lightbulb moment for me and I knew I could use that method to create my own painting. 

I really wanted my painting to say "Truly Madly Deepy". That song has been Jeremy and I's "song", if you will. For years, we will randomly put that song on and dance to it. It's so sweet!

Want to know what's even sweeter, though? Jeremy, who has never taken a single piano lessen in his life or learned to read music, worked for weeks to learn how to play that song on the piano for me. I had no clue he was even working on it! The piano is in his office above our detached garage, so he was going to work 30 minutes early and staying 30 minutes late every single day for an entire month to practice the song. He watched videos of people playing the song, downloaded the music, studied chords, and came up with his own piano version of the song. 

When it was perfected, he surprised me by bringing me over to the office and playing and singing it to me. I totally cried. It really blows me away. What gets me is how much time he invested in it for me, how much sleep he gave up on, how bad his wrists hurt from the carpal tunnel, and how he even had to endure me complain one day that he had to work such long hours at his new job. I can't get over it!

Jeremy often sees me at my worst and still chooses to lavish his love and thoughtfulness on me. It was such a sweet picture of how God sees my every flaw and still freely pours grace on me through His Son. It's nothing that I do. It's all grace. Needless to say, this painting has an extra special meaning to me. ;) 

Ready for the how to? I simply cut out a paper oval and laid it in the center of my paper, taping it down with washi/painters tape, to leave a white spot for my writing. Then, using various shades of blue and turquoise watercolors (I used these inexpensive ones from Target that I had on hand), I made brush strokes in a circular pattern around the paper. I just kept layering on more colors until I liked how it looked. Then, I added the lettering to the middle. I simply sketched the lettering out with a pencil, then when I was satisfied with my writing, I went over it with a blue marker. But, you could also create the lettering on the computer and have it printed on cardstock, then do the painting part. Whatever floats your boat! Easy, right?!

It's far from perfect (I stink at lettering!), but I like the way it turned out and how it looks in the gallery wall. I'll share the gallery wall with you next week!

Linking up with The Turquoise Home, The Thrifty Home, Tatertots and Jello, Shabby Nest, and Savvy Southern Style!

Unexpected Style Find

Note: This is NOT a sponsored post. Lowe's has no idea who I am! 

I ran into Lowe's this morning to grab a couple things and was immediately pulled over to their patio displays. There are so many cute products out right now! I was pleasantly surprised at their selection and style!

I wish I had thought to take pictures in the store. But, I went online and rounded up a few pictures of my favorite things they had out today. Of course, I picked all blue and green items (Ha!), but there was a nice selection of other colors, too.

Image Sources: Lowes.com

A lot of the items could be used indoors and were reasonably priced. Note to self... don't forget to check out Lowe's for home decorating supplies!

Living Room Makeover: Couch Redo

OH MY WORD, FRIENDS! I know I'm totally internet shouting, but have you heard that the Patriots won the Super Bowl? Because if not, let me tell you, WE WON!!!!! I'm really, REALLY, really excited! Can you tell? ;) And, gotta love that Brady gave Butler his MVP truck!

Image Credit: Cnbc.com

Ok, moving on (Just know I'm still thinking about our big win. Ha!) to discuss our living room couch saga. Remember way back in May when I showed you our new sectional? Perfect fit? Yes. Perfect couch? No...

After only a month, we noticed that the fabric was piling in a couple spots. We kept an eye on it, and before long, the fabric was piling all over the place. It was really strange! It started as a really soft microfiber and ended up rough and bumpy. I've never seen or heard of microfiber doing that before.

We went back to Haverty's and they let us exchange the couch. I'll spare you all the details, but our exchange didn't go as planned and last fall we ended up starting from scratch. Our sales associate was super helpful and kind through the entire process. The manager profusely apologized for our troubles and gave us a significant discount toward whatever replacement couch we wanted.

Haverty's had just come out with the Corey sectional and we loved it! It is a higher quality, slightly larger version of the Amalfi couch we originally purchased. I love that it's the same style, just better fabric and more stuffed. It's super comfy! We decided to go with the Corey sectional in the Pearl color. Because of the discount, we got it for the same sale price we had paid for the Amalfi. Yay!

It was delivered last week and so far it is wonderful! There is such a marked difference in the quality! We are incredibly thankful that Haverty's worked with us so well and really strived to correct the problem. We love the new sectional and think it's going to work out wonderfully!

(The colors are weird in this picture because it's from my phone, but it's the only way I could get the entire couch into the picture. I really need a wide angle lens!)