Your Makeup Favorites

Thanks to all of you who weighed in with makeup advice after I posted this sorry cry for help! :) I loved reading your comments on here and on facebook! As promised, I'm sharing the list of all the favorite foundations and concealers so everyone can benefit!

1. Benefit Erase Paste

2. Bare Minerals Foundation

3. Bare Minerals Well Rested

4. Benefit Fake Up Concealer

5. Revlon Colorstay

6. Make Up Forever HD Invisible Cover Concealer

7. Make Up Forever Full Cover Concealer

8. Skyn Iceland Icelandic Relief Eye Pen

9. Avon Anew Retroactive Repair Eye Serum 

Want to know what I ended up purchasing?

For concealer, I decided to try Bare Minerals Well Rested, but accidentally picked up Bare Minerals Stroke of Light Concealer instead. It is really good, though! It does not completely get rid of my under eye circles, but it greatly reduces them and looks natural. It stays on extremely well and doesn't settle into creases.

As far as foundation, I really like Bare Minerals and loved this pressed set that came in a compact, zippered case. It seemed so easy and low maintenence and I liked that it came with all the makeup components I would need to get started. However, it was expensive, so it took a couple months to work into the budget. While we were saving for it, I read this post by Kate at The Small Things where she reviewed Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation. (Side note- If you're into hair and makeup, you have to read her blog! Love it!) She said that she was a Bare Minerals user for years, but that the Tarte Amazonian Clay Airbrush Foundation blew Bare Minerals out of the water. I decided to try it and really, really like it! It can be sheer, or you can build it up for more coverage and it stays on all day long! I'm really happy with it and shocked at how well this powder stays put!

I also bought the Tarte Airbrush Finish Foundation Brush and it is the most amazing brush I've ever used! It is crazy soft and very dense! I highly recommend it regardless of what powder foundation you use! It is well worth the money! 

Thank you all SO much for your advice! I'm getting less sleep than ever these days, but at least I don't have to look so sleep deprived anymore! ;)

Image Credits: Ulta, Amazon, Sephora, Skyn Iceland

Living Room Makeover: Pillows + End Table

Lately, I've been on the hunt for some colorful pillows for the living room. I found these at World Market and love the style and how the dark colored buttons tie into the dark wood in the furniture. They are very close to the color of our chair and ottoman, but just a tad too green, so I had them by the back door to return. Boo. 

Image Credit: World Market

Next, I found these gorgeous pillows from West Elm. I loved them and decided to splurge on them with my birthday money gifted to me by some of my sweet family. When I got them home, I realized they were too blue. I loved them way too much to take them back and thought the ivory in the pattern really tied them into the couch. But, the blue was bugging me.

Image Credit: West Elm

Then, as I passed by our entry table, I noticed our vase that faded from green to blue and it hit me. COMBINE the World Market and West Elm pillows! So, I did, and I LOVE it! When the pillows are together, the colors mesh and flow really well with the chair and ottoman.  I bought the smaller version of the vase for the end table in the living room. Check it out! I couldn't find the vases online, but they're from Target. 

Can you spot our new lamp? It matches our washed wood floor lamp. Both the lamp and shade are from Target. I've been eyeing the picture frame for months and finally found it for 50% off! Yay for waiting for a sale! Also from Target, of course. 

We finally replaced our old, beat up end table we bought off Craigslist for $10 six years ago. It did not go at all and was too short. The new one is a much better height and matches the TV stand!

Still lots to do, but it's starting to come together! The rug is ordered and the paint is picked! I'll update you soon!

Linking up to Migonis Home Summer Celebration!

The Art of Simplicity

In a world of Pinterest, glossy magazines, and blogs galore, it's easy to feel like every project you do should be perfect and "pin worthy". However, sometimes the simplest projects are the ones that bring the biggest smiles.

I was planning on building a giant bulletin board or frames to display the kids' artwork over the desk in the playroom. But, as you may have read, our lives have been upside down this year between having a baby and losing Jeremy's dad. We are weary and just trying to keep our heads above water. I decided instead of building a fancy artwork display, to simply string up a piece of bakers twine to hang Little One's creations. I gave him some clothespins to paint, then used them to hang his artwork. Simple. Free. Love.

Little Man has already filled all the vacant spots. He's so proud!

Sometimes the simplest projects are the perfect touches that make your house comfortable and feel like home.

Living Room Makeover: Furniture Edition

Update: The sectional ended up being defective, so we had to exchange it. Click here to see our fabulous new sectional!

Sorry for another extended absence! Jeremy's mom was here for the past two weeks. It was really nice to have her here! I really wanted to do things for her and make her feel loved. Instead, she did that for me. Mom's have a way of doing that, right? Seriously, though, she played with Little Man and fed Little Girly while I got cooking and cleaning done. She helped me with the kids while we were running errands, helped me pick paint colors (more on that later!), helped me fold laundry, played with the kids, read Little Man approximately 1,472 books, and got totally addicted to Parks and Rec with Jeremy and I. Haha! I'm glad we had the time together!

The day she arrived, we moved our living room furniture to the garage and made her sit on the floor. That's some good hospitality, right? Ha! But, it was necessary to make room for our new living room furniture! I feel like there should be some kind of celebratory confetti or choirs singing right when I type the words "new living room furniture"!

Our green couches were finally evicted. We bought the sofa for our tiny 1 bedroom apartment the week after we got married, then two years later when we bought our first house, we bought the matching love seat. It was pretty miraculous that Rooms to Go still had the same couches two years later! We really loved those couches! They were overstuffed and super comfy. We hadn't even considered replacing them until we moved into our current house.

When we moved into our current home, we quickly realized the couches just didn't fit well in the living room. They were too big and bulky for the living room and left a big, awkward corner between the sofa and love seat. Below is the best picture I could find of the corner. That's a full sized end table and a floor lamp back there and there's still about a foot of space around the end table.

We've been brainstorming for the past two years about what would be a better fit for this living room. Smaller sofa + love seat? Sofa + Chair? Sectional? We had our eye on this type sectional, but because both sides were equal lengths, it would not have been large enough for the long wall. Plus, sectionals are super, super expensive!

Image Credit: Pottery Barn

Fast forward to this spring, the carefully planned and budgeted time when new living room furniture was saved for and on the top of the priority list. We had pretty much given up on affording a sectional, so were just looking for a generic couch and love seat. We stopped by Haverty's to look at a chair I had been drooling over and right in the doorway was the Amalfi sectional! It came in the exact configuration we were looking for and was actually affordable! We were super excited!

I was tired of dark colored couches and was looking for something neutral and light. We went with the "oyster" color pictured. It's a nice, basic neutral!

Image Credit: Haverty's

We loved the configuration shown above, but it was too big for our living room. Sad! We did the 2pc sectional. 

Now, back to the chair that brought us to Haverty's in the first place. I saw the Melody accent chair online last year fell for it hard. If I had to show one thing to describe my decorating taste, it would be this chair. Blue is, hands down, my favorite color to use to decorate and I love the classic lines of the chair. It is just as beautiful in person as it is online and is very comfy. I love, love, love it!

Image Credit: Haverty's

The chair was definitely a splurge. But, considering we keep our furniture for years and years and will get lots of use out of it, we decided it was worth the price tag. We are very frugal and try to DIY as much as possible to cut costs, but sometimes it's worth it to save your pennies for the perfect piece! Here's the chair in our living room!

The chair is the perfect size for the empty space in front of the windows. It's so light and cheery! I'm loving the new lighter, calming color scheme!

We were going to get a couple Melody throw pillows for the sectional to bring the pattern over to the couch. However, the pillows were $119 PER PILLOW. I actually laughed out loud when they told me the price. No way could I justify that, so we decided to go with the Melody ottoman instead and forgo the pricey Melody pillows.

Ignore all the crazy paint samples going on, the rug that's about to be switched out, the beat up end table, the off centered pictures, and the curtains that need to be hung higher! The living room is a work in progress!

We love how well the sectional fits in our living room! No more awkward corner!

Our bedroom furniture is from Haverty's circa 2010 and has held up beautifully and is great quality. We're hoping the new living room furniture holds up just as well! 

We still have lots to do in the living room. On the agenda... new rug, new curtains (sneak peek at those in the above picture!), end tables, accessories, and wall paint. I'll keep you updated!

Linking up to Creativity Unleashed!

Put a Ring on It

My mom made curtains for Little Girl's room and I love them so much, I put a ring on them. 20 rings, to be exact. Ha! ;) Backing up for a minute, though...

Little Girl's room has a wall of windows. Remember this picture from right after we finished the board and batten? The room is nice and sunny with all the windows, but we knew we'd need a solution to make it darker for nap time.

The existing roller shades were old, warped, and broken, so we tossed those. We were thinking of doing blackout Roman shades, but they were crazy expensive. We liked these curtains, but would need three panels. But, what do you do with 3 panels? When pulled back, there would be two panels on one side and only one panel on the other. My OCD can't handle that. ;) Four panels would have been way too much fabric. And we haven't even discussed the outrageous cost yet. What to do, what to do? 

Image Credit: Pottery Barn

You know my money saving self had to come up with a cheaper solution! I really wanted curtains, but the panels would need to be over 65" wide each to be able to get away with only two panels. I looked at fabric to make curtains with, but even the upholstery fabric was not wide enough to make panels in the width we needed. Sigh. 

Then, I found this duvet at Pottery Barn Teen and it was the exact shade of pink in Little Girl's quilt. It was printed on both sides and the twin was 68" wide and 90'' long. I called up my mom and begged asked her if she'd be up to sewing curtains out of the duvet fabric. Side note: It always helps to start the conversation with, "Mom, have I ever mentioned how much I love you?!" Hahahaha! She is an amazing seamstress and was up for the challenge. 

Image Credit: Pottery Barn

I purchased the duvet and had it shipped to her and she got to work taking the seams out of the duvet, leaving two giant pieces of fabric that were wide enough for the curtain panels. 

One more problem, though... 90" wasn't long enough to get the curtains to the floor. Whomp whomp. After a brainstorming session, we came up with the idea to sew white ruffles at the bottom to lengthen the curtains. She picked up two flat, white sheets at Walmart for $8 a piece to use for the ruffle material. She also purchased some inexpensive blackout material at the fabric store. It didn't come in extra wide, so she had to piece it together. But, since the blackout material is on the back, no one is the wiser...except you now. Oops. ;)

After approximately 11 billion hours and 57 sewing machine needles, she finished the curtains and mailed them to me. I was SO excited to hang them up and am absolutely ecstatic about how they turned out! Thank you, Mom, for all your hard work on the curtains! You're awesome!

She originally sewed the curtains to have a top pocket for the curtain rods. There was a curtain rod already up in Little Girl's room that the previous owner had left, but it had been painted and the paint was flaking off. We repainted them, but the paint still did not want to stick to the rod. In addition to the paint problem, the curtain panels are very heavy and kept sticking to the curtain rod, making them impossible to open without standing on a step stool. Boo.

We finally broke down and replaced the curtain rod with a brushed silver rod and attached curtain clips to make opening and closing the curtains much easier. Works like a charm! We also installed matching tie backs to keep the curtains back and the sunlight pouring in when the windows are open. Love!

Want to know the cost breakdown? It cost me a little over $100 total for the duvet, sheets, and blackout material that Mom used to make the curtains. It would have cost $210 for three of the Pottery Barn curtains in this fabric or over $500 for Pottery Barn blackout Roman shades!

Whew that was long! Thanks for sticking around for our window covering saga! 

White Washed Wood in the Living Room

We've made a couple changes in the living room that we're really enjoying. I love black picture frames with white mats. I'm a sucker for the contrast of them! However, we have several black frames around the living room and entry way and I was afraid of it getting too matchy matchy in here.

I really like the look of white washed wood and wanted that to be a secondary look in the room. It's light enough to still be airy, is a bit rustic and has some character to it, and has a slight coastal vibe. Our overhead light was not bright enough, so we needed to add a lamp to the room. I fell hard for this Threshold floor lamp at Target. I actually scored it for 15% off on a Cartwheel deal. Yay! We put it in the corner between the couch and love seat and it adds the perfect amount of light.

Image Credit: Target    The color is way off in Target's photo!

Side Note: A table lamp would look more natural here, but we are gearing up to change out the furniture and were thinking ahead to what would go best with the new furniture.

A couple months later, I picked up this frame on clearance at Target to tie the white washed wood into the fireplace decor.

Most recently, I finally found a solution to the empty space above the TV. It has been bugging me since we moved in two years ago, but I just hadn't found the perfect thing to go there. I was browsing the Target frame aisle and spotted this frame and knew it was the perfect thing for above the TV! I love it! It's the perfect size and adds another touch of washed wood.

Image Credit: Target

I'm loving natural touch the bits of white washed wood bring! The living room is as done as it's going to get until we purchase a new couch set. Can't wait for that! I'm so ready for a lighter color pallet!

Now to fill that collage frame with pictures... ;)

Hooked

Let's take a field trip to the never been seen on the blog before kids bathroom, ok? I've honestly been kind of lost trying to decorate it, so it's pretty bare. The walls were white with sage green trim when we moved in. I haven't been able to decide on a color for the walls, so they've stayed white for the past two years. Oh indecisiveness! :)

I love the shower curtain and hooks we found at Target a couple years ago. The colors are my favorite and it's just fresh and cheery looking. We found the shower caddy at The Container Store to hold all of the bath toys. Works perfectly!

For some reason, greens never show true to life on my blog. They always look darker! 

The sink area is kind of a hot mess, though. I've been hemming and hawing over what to do in here for the past two years and am finally starting to get my gears moving. The towel rack was pretty much useless because it was hung so high Little One couldn't reach the towel without it falling down. It has been bugging me! I decided that a hook would be much more useful and kid friendly for hanging hand towels, so we took the towel rack down.

We have a subtle sea life theme going on in here, so I was hoping I could find decorative hooks to match the theme. Then it hit me! I remembered seeing Young House Love's post about their upcoming Target line and thought they had an octopus hook. The line had just hit the stores a few days prior and a quick Target search confirmed that they had the most adorable octopus hook ever!

Image Credit: Target

Jeremy and I agreed that they were the perfect solution and I headed to Target to get the hooks. Jeremy even smiled and said, "Those are cute!" when I showed them to him. That's a huge compliment, John and Sherry! :)

We hung them up and absolutely love them! We decided to hang them closer to edge of the counter instead of centered on the wall so that the kids could reach the towels easier. Sometimes, practicality comes before aesthetics. But, I have a plan for artwork that will make everything look more balanced!

To make the towel hook solution even more kid friendly, I took their hand towels and stitched on a little ribbon loop to make it easy to hang up and to keep the towels on the hooks even when little ones are pulling on them.

For the loop, I looped a 2-3" ribbon strip, then folded the end under to protect from fraying, and sewed the ends down. Then, I sewed it onto the middle of the towel. It only took me about 5-10 minutes to hand sew, but if you are a sewer, this would probably take 30 seconds on a sewing machine! I am absolutely terrible at sewing (remember this post?!), so I stuck with a simple needle and thread. :)

If your towel is solid colored or entirely patterned, you could sew the ribbon strip straight onto the middle of the side seam, too. I couldn't do this method, though, because my towels had a design at the bottom that would look funny hung sideways.

Now to decide on a paint color for the walls... I actually like the white in here, I'm just not a huge fan of the green trim. I'm also not a fan of how the white walls make the yellowed counters so obvious. Still stewing on a wall color, but I'm thinking something super light. Maybe grey? We'll see...