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!)

My New Favorite Cookies

I have a HUGE sweet tooth. I've been eating all things peppermint since Christmas to satisfy my sweet tooth, but was looking to switch it up recently. Jeremy loves and usually requests my traditional chocolate chip cookies, but when I went to bake this weekend, he suggested I do a chocolate based chocolate chip cookie. Ya know, just for fun. ;)

I found this recipe on Pioneer Woman and had to give it a try. With 2 1/2 sticks of butter and 3 1/2 cups of chocolate chips, how could you go wrong?! Trust me, they did not disappoint! They are rich and decadent and absolutely perfect fresh out of the oven. 

I made the recipe as directed, except I used 1 cup white chocolate chips and 2 1/2 cups of milk chocolate chips since that's what I had on hand and I prefer milk chocolate over semi-sweet. I used Ghirardelli chips and they are amazing! I baked mine on my stoneware and my Air Bake pans because I love how soft they turn out on those pans, so mine took about 13 minutes to bake instead of the suggested 9-11 minutes.

The cookies are soft and chewy and are so rich and chocolaty! Hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

Click HERE for the recipe for Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Ledge Love

Hope you are all back into the swing of things now that we are well into January! We are adjusting to Jeremy's new job. There has been some travel, but man is it nice to get to sleep a little longer in the mornings and see him for lunch when he works from home! It makes every day feel like a holiday!

We have continued cranking out projects over the past couple months, so I'll try to catch you up on those in the next few posts. I immensely needed the project blogging hiatus to slow down and de-stress after our crazy year. Honestly, it was either take a break or hang it up all together. Thankfully, the break did the trick and I've been itching to get back on here and share our projects again. :) Thanks for your support and for coming right back and reading, even after the break! You guys are the best! 

Ready for an easy, inexpensive project? Check out the new ledge Jeremy made me! He's the best!

Ever since we moved into this house, I've been stumped about what to hang on the short wall above the couch. I've tried several things, but nothing has filled the space well. I had pretty much given up when a friend posted a picture of her new shelf and decor that she hung above her couch. This just so happened to be the same friend who has the Melody chair as well and has amazing taste! As soon as I saw her picture, I knew it would be the perfect thing for our living room. I wanted something that I could easily change and felt relaxed and cozy. The ledge did that perfectly. Thankfully, she didn't mind if I straight up copied her, so that's exactly what I did. :) Thanks, Alison!!!!

She got her shelf at Ikea for a great price. If Ikea wasn't three hours away, we totally would have gotten one from Ikea, too, but we weren't making a trip that way any time soon. Jeremy had enough wood left over from Little Girl's board and batten project, so we decided to just build the shelf ourselves. Bonus, it was free that way!

It was a super fast and easy project. You can find plans here on Ana White to build a ledge shelf. We don't have a Kreg Jig, so Jeremy screwed the back piece straight into the shelf, then nailed the front piece in with his nail gun. He gave the ends a good sanding to make them nice and smooth. I filled the nail holes with wood filler and sanded it down smooth, then primed and painted the shelf. To hang the shelf, Jeremy screwed and anchored it straight into the wall. I painted the screws to disguise them, but you could also get screw covers if you wanted. 

I put up some frames I had on hand already. I love that white scrolling frame and the clock!

We are getting so close to finishing the living room! I'm loving the direction it has taken. It is so relaxing and peaceful...well, at least when the toys aren't all over the floor and the clean laundry isn't in a pile on the couch. Ha!

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick, Pieced Pastimes, Carrie This Home, Little House of Four, Skip to My Lou, Tabler Party of Two, Dwelling in Happiness, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Naptime Creations, Sand and Sisal, Home Stories A-Z, The DIY Dreamer, and Reasons to Skip the Housework!

Why to Organize and Decorate

A few months ago, I was discussing my blog plans with a friend and she mentioned it would be interesting to see some of the reasons why I make the decorating/design choices that I make. It is a great thought and I've been percolating on it ever since and will try to incorporate those answers in future blog posts.

A lot of my choices are for practical reasons like storage and durability. But, the more I stewed, the more I realized just how much I decorate for a general "feel" in my home. I'm not sure if everyone is this way, but my mood is very influenced by my surroundings. Clutter makes me feel anxious, but a clean house makes me feel calm. Soothing colors help me feel peaceful and relaxed. I love and appreciate lots of different decorating styles and enjoy them in other people's homes. In my home, though, I need calming colors, organized spaces, and simplistic decor choices, otherwise I feel chaotic and anxious...writes the woman staring at a pile of laundry and toys everywhere. Oh! Oh! Guess my mood! Haha! ;)

Anyway, I saw this article floating around this morning and thought Nailed It! This is SO true for me. Check it out!

Image Credit: House Logic

Is your mood influenced by your surroundings, too? What decorating style helps you improve your mood?