The Most Random of Posts

I'm pretty sure this is going to be the most random post you've ever read in your entire life. But, if it helps you out, you'll thank me. Haha!

The other day, I had a painful case of hiccups and was dying to get rid of them. I hate getting the hiccups! I tried all the old tricks (ya know, drink water or hold your breath until you explode?) but nothing was working. So, I googled it, of course! One site mentioned that sticking your tongue out will get rid of the hiccups. I tried it and of all things, it worked! The next time I had hiccups, I couldn't remember what exactly I had done before, so I stuck the tip of my tongue to the roof of my mouth for about 10-15 seconds and that worked, too! I've had the hiccups multiple times since and I do the tongue on the roof of my mouth trick and they are instantly gone! Mind blown. So apparently I came up with my own way of curing hiccups. Ridiculous.

Anyway, we have some house projects in the pipe right now that I'll be posting about soon! But for now, enjoy a hiccup-free life. Haha! Told you this was random. ;)

Digging It #4

Time for another installment of things I'm diggin'. Oh yeah, Baby. :)

Speck iPhone CandyShell Case. When Hubby and I first entered the new age of smart phones last year, we bought cases from the cell phone store. Unfortunately, those cases only lasted a few months then broke all to smithereens. Such a waste of $25. After my case broke, I spotted this Speck case on clearance for $10 at Target and snagged it. I love love love it! I  have dropped my phone (even face down on asphalt!) many times and my phone has been totally fine. Love this case and it comes in so many cute colors! I did put one of those protective screen film things on it in addition to the case, to prevent screen scratches.

Chick-fil-a Ice Cream Cone. It is swelteringly hot here. Like the kind of heat that makes me wonder what the point of moving away from Florida was? But, nothing cools you down like an ice cream cone. And no one makes them better than Chick-fil-a! 

Dwellings By Devore's Cozy Coupe Makeover. I know, I know... I've already pinned this and posted it on facebook, but it's just way too cute! Find out how to do it here! 

Photo from Dwellingsbydevore.com

IHeart Organizing's Front Door. Jen over at IHeart Organizing recently painted her front door a beautiful shade of teal/blue/gray. I love it! 

Photo from Iheartorganizing.blogspot.com

Thirty One Organizing Bags. I got both of these bags for Christmas and LOVE them! The Large Utility Tote is great for just about anything from corralling my return pile in the car to using it as a beach bag! I love it! The Organizing Utility Tote is a great because it has multiple pockets on the outside of the bag. No more digging for your keys, sunglasses, phone, or Little One's cup! 

That's all for now! Happy almost weekend, everyone!

Color My Home

Ashley from Simply Designing asked me to guest post today for her Color My Home blog series. Check out my post here!

Playroom Progress: Gallery Wall

Just popping in really quick to show you our finished playroom gallery wall! It's been a slow process to get it hung just right and all the frames filled, but we can finally check it off the list!

 Confession time... I've seen a bajillion tutorials on how to hang a gallery wall using templates, etc, but didn't bother. I laid out the frames how I wanted, took a picture, and had Hubby wave his magic wand. This worked great except for the set of two side-by-side frames. He measured and leveled, but they still came out crooked. Turns out, the hooks on the back of the frame were in slightly different spots. Grrrr. I finally figured out if I put a flat thumbtack in the hook and taped it into place, I could get the frame up exactly where I wanted, then press in the tack. It left I nice little hole that I used as my guide to put in the nail. Next time, I'll save myself the patching and repainting and create a template!

I purchased the alphabet artwork at a craft show. The elephant art, fingerprint art, and paintings were done by Little One. The photos are matted with colorful scrapbook papers.

I love how it turned out and am so glad to be one step closer to finishing this room!

Southern Style Porch

I'm SO excited to have our front porch finished and checked off of our to-do list! I love, love, love the way it turned out! I don't really have any before pictures...but just picture a big empty porch! Our porch runs the full width of the house, with the front door in the middle. On one side of the porch, we put our freshly painted rocking chairs. On the other side, we decided to hang a porch swing!

My grandparents (Dad's side) had a swing on the back porch of their mountain cabin. I have great memories of swinging on the swing with them while chatting and watching the squirrels in the back yard and gazing at the mountains in the distance. When I saw our new house, I knew I wanted to put a swing on the porch, just like my grandparents used to have.

The swing is from Porchswings.com. We were going to order one from Lowe's or Home Depot (they both have a white swing for around $100), but they had a 300lb weight capacity...for a two-seater swing. I don't know about you, but that is completely unrealistic that a husband and wife's combined weight would only be 300lbs! Maybe they intended for an adult and child to sit on the swing? I don't know, but it just wasn't going to work for us.

I did some searching online and the only swings I could find were around $450-$600 for a larger weight capacity. Um, no. We didn't budget for that much moolah and we're way too cheap to pay that much anyway. After a little more searching, I found this swing that could hold our entire family's weight, plus some. It was listed at $159 with free shipping, but they had a special promotion going when I ordered, so I got it for $129 shipped! Score! It's a very well made, quality swing! Very happy with it!

My hubby and his dad hung it up while his parents were in town visiting. Way to make 'em work while on vacation right? Haha :) The instructions just say to drill a pilot hole into the rafters and then screw in the hardware to the ceiling. Of course, I wanted the swing hung diagonally, so it was a bit more difficult for them. Sorry guys! I'll get hubby on here to write a tutorial on how they hung it if anyone needs the info!

Here's our finished porch! The cushions are from Pier 1, I made the wreath, the flowers and pots are from Home Depot, and the rug is from Target. We've been enjoying the porch so much, especially now that the flowers are blooming out front. So pretty!

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick and East Coast Creative!

Rocker Refresh

Sorry for my extended absence...my hubby just graduated with his PhD (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and we've had family in town. SO very proud of him! He's amazing! :)

Our poor front porch has been sorely neglected since we bought our house a year ago. We threw our wooden rockers on one side and that was all the lovin' the porch received until this month when "front porch" popped up next on our prioritized to-do list.

Let me back up for a minute, though... As a housewarming present for our first house, Hubby's parents surprised us with a pair of wooden rocking chairs. Our front porch had wooden flooring, so the wood tones in the rockers looked great out there. Unfortunately, the front porch got full sun until late afternoon time, so the rockers baked under the harsh light for the three years we owned that house. By the time we moved, nearly all of the varnish had worn off and they were looking a bit rough. :(

Here's our rockers on our new front porch looking pretty tired and worn out. Mad props to Hubby for taking these before pictures of the rockers! He knew I'd want a before shot, so took several for me to choose from before attacking the chairs with his sander. He's a keeper! :)

Our new front porch has concrete flooring, so we decided to go with white furniture instead of wood tones this time. We love our rockers, so instead of buying new ones (can you say cha-ching?) we decided to give them new life with a fresh coat of white paint.

Blurry phone pic, but I wanted you to see just how THIN each coat went on! 

Jeremy sanded the chairs down with his sander, then they were ready to paint. I had recently read that using a foam brush as opposed to a traditional paint brush would yield smother results, so we decided to give it a try. I'm happy to report that the foam brush strokes were way smoother, but was much less happy about how extremely thin each coat went on. Guess how many coats of paint it took? 1 coat primer + 3 coats of paint + 1 coat polyurethane--and they really could have used a fourth coat of paint. I was too tired for that. Now let me translate that into days... We could only do one side of the chair at a time, then wait for that coat to dry and flip it to do the underside. So for every coat of paint, it took us 2 days. That's 10 days of painting, people. We usually only work on projects late at night or on the weekends, so it took us a month to finish these bad boys. I was thinking it was going to be a short and simple weekend project. Let's all laugh at me now. ;)

Anywho, after much doubt that they would ever turn out looking ok, they're done and I'm loving the white!

Check out the cute little chair we bought for our little man! So sweet!

Next up, I'll show you what we did with the other side of the porch!

Digging It #3

Some Friday randomness for you! Things I'm loving lately!

My friend Heather recently started an Etsy shop called What is Perfect. I am in love with these yarn wrapped letters! Tell me this is not just the cutest thing?! That little raccoon kills me!

Lately Hubby and I have been ADDICTED to this game! Hubby is a strategy gaming guy and I'm an I-don't-want-to-think-too-hard gamer. Dominion is a perfect blend for us! Actually just played it with friends tonight! So fun!

I LOVE the work of Lindsay Hopkins! Her Etsy shop is called Pen and Paint and everything is so colorful with crisp, clean lines! I've ordered two things from her and love them both! She really goes the extra mile as a shop owner..fast shipping, adorable packaging, coupon for next purchase, etc. Love! This was the first piece I bought and I absolutely love it!