Nursery & The One Room Challenge

I'm linking up to the Spring One Room Challenge 2018 with one of my best blogging friends Sam at Away She Went Blog. She always inspires me to do the things so, here we go. What better reason, right?

We've decided to turn our second bedroom from a guest room/office into a nursery for the baby when it gets here. We luckily have a great landlord who lets us customize our space and, since we're staying for sure another year, we figure we may as well make baby comfy in the meantime. Right now, it is a hot filthy mess. Luckily we've got a few months left to get it all together.

Full disclosure: The following photos may trigger you into organizing your entire house. If this mood strikes you please let me know in the comments below and you can use that passion on this room! just kidding of course... but... here is a picture of the room as it is currently:

Critter Art

*I used to have a picture of this while I was in progress... now I can't find it... sorry!*

 This is my furbaby art! The whole project only cost me about $8.00 to create, and that was all just buying the canvases in a three pack at Michael's. I decided that since I don't have any children I could make some cool silhouette art, like I've seen on Pinterest to honor my precious babyfurries.

I'm pretty good at free hand drawing just from seeing something, like the animals moving around the house. But you can google search black and white images of cats and dogs and find some good silhouettes. At that point you could then cut them out and trace them and just fill in the space with black paint. They would also look really cool on a color. I just can't commit to more than black and white (maybe why I'm single? haha).

The living/dining area currently. They'll be changed to a different location once the whole redo action starts happening but they look pretty good right now I think! 

Does anyone else do tribute art to their animals? 

Happy Friday!! It's Spring Break for us next week and I start my second job working at Lowe's (uhmmm can you say... diy discount?!)  but I am sure I will be starting to make some headway on the walls and painting. Bye peach beach walls!

Linked to: I Should Be Mopping the Floor Savvy Southern Style House of Hepworths  Liz Marie Blog 

Miss Fix-It

Sometimes around my house things start to fall apart. Or fall down. Or break. Or they fall apart, fall down, and break things on the way. For example my sweet and wonderful built in jewelry display in my master bathroom. Remember how it looked when I first did it last year? It was so pretty! The tension rod was wonderful and well... tense. Now, however. I walked into my bathroom to see it looking like this:

The tension rod had fallen down and two of my pictures had practically jumped off the top shelf. Curse. Broke one of my cute vintage apothecary bottles on the way down.

Obviously the weight of the necklaces was to much for the small tension rod that I was employing to do the job. So I decided to break out the hookums.

I decided to use just three, one on each side and one in the center. I could still use the tension rod so I didn't need to add in a whole bunch of these.

Sebastian is the construction manager around here. He is obviously super excited to hear that there is more house stuff happening.

I took my trusty little Ryobi drill and did the first hole and cranked the hook in... easy peasy. Why didn't I do this before?

I then added the next two hooks using the same method. I will advise if you decided to do one of these built ins they are totally awesome, but make sure you paint everything BEFORE installing it. My ex that did this was too excited and I had to paint it in place. Hard stuff.

I then reset the tension rod with all the necklaces and worked on dispersing them evenly across the rod. Plus I organized them by style and popularity....

What? I like to pretend my closet and bathroom is my own vintage clothing/accessory/home goods boutique.  hehe.

I took two beer bottles and spray painted them with metallic spray paint to add some cool height (plus I won't care if they fall and break, gives me an excuse to buy more beer anyways) and I put my favorite bracelets on them for easy access.

Not too bad for a five minute quick fix! Plus I know that my jewelry is going to stay put now and not go jumping around or getting tangled up.

Vintaged!

I've been really enjoying decorating my entryway! It's sooo much better then it used to be! Are you ready?

Check it out!

And of course Lucy snuck into that picture. I am pretty sure that 90% of all my photos have that cat in them. Hmmm. Someone likes attention. Anyways. I found this mirror at Ross for $14.99 and it had the perfect vintage/wood flair that I needed to coordinate with that vanity table. I feel like it needs more art and decor around it but that could take me a little time to get just right.

We went shopping around the house for some pieces that would work really well on top. We found this sweet globe at a thrift store for $2.99, vintage looking lamp came from HomeGoods in Salt Lake City, little silver plate was a Goodwill find for .99 cents. Those old books are about 100 years old a piece. They actually came out of my Great Grandpa's house in Minnesota, something that I treasure.

I also received my new picture in the mail from Target.com! It was awesome! Apparently there is also a type of wine bottle that has the same emblem. I almost bought it! But I didn't... I'm sure it'll happen.

See how great that looks?

Gosh. I just love it!

I also moved the piano bench that was originally in the dining room over into the living room. The ottoman was just too big for that spot and the bench works much better. And of course Lucy was in the picture. Pretty sure I was watching HGTV. hehe.

PS! I'm headed to Denver/Fort Collins this weekend to visit my really good friend Kendall! and IKEA!

New Look and Outdoor Walls

As you can see I've been making some updates and changes to my blog trying to get it all prettied up for the summer. I've neglected it for the last couple months and it needs some love! So just hang with me while I get it all situated! And if you have any suggestions feel free to email me at thismessybusiness@gmail.com or comment.

 But moving onward to home related things. I've been tossing around some ideas for sprucing up my front porch space.

Here's what it currently looks like:

That one lone star is the only wall decoration that I have up. And it's been there since the first summer I've owned the house. I'm trying to think of some other ways to decorate that big ole blank wall.

I've seen some really cool "urban gardens:"

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I really like this one because it seems really natural. Also looks like I could make that out of free wood pallets. Free. Love that.

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I've seen these little guys all over the place and the more I see them the more I like them. I think they would be fun in the concrete area where we keep the grill. They'd be up and out of the way but would add some interest and greenery. Perhaps I could do my own version with one big pot and then several little ones around it? Hmmm. 

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This may be a better solution! I could find some wall scones from the thrift store or something that are supposed to be used for candles and instead find a way to use them for some cheap clay pots that have been spray painted. That way I'm not drilling any major holes into the exterior walls and I can paint them any color and change them around. I think I like this idea better. 

What do you think? What have you seen that is a great, easy, and preferably low maintenance outdoor wall goodness?

Summer Lovin. My Favorites.

I won't lie, I haven't had time to do anything at all exciting in terms of DIY this week. I've been overwhelmed with finals, teaching, projects, and assignments. I must confess I will be relieved when the semester is over and I never have to do a group presentation again. They are definitely my least favorite thing.

But anyways! I thought that I would share my favorite summer products! Just for fun. As a redhead summer is one of my least favorite seasons. I feel as though the sun is seeking out my poor white flesh and that I smell like coconut sunscreen for three solid months. The last couple summers I've tried to find the perfect mix of products. 

Let's call it: "Summer Survival of a Classy Redhead Tool Kit"

or something like that.

First and foremost to understand about redheads is we generally don't tan.

At all.

Whatsoever.

Period.

So I love sunscreen! But hate the smell. Here's some of my favorites:

 I've found this great Cetaphil facial moisturizer that contains SPF 50. Doesn't block your pores, doesn't smell nasty. Awesome. And Neutrogena SPF 100+ is my absolute favorite sunscreen. Especially for my neck and chest. It's light and doesn't have the consistency of glue, which is refreshing if you've ever tried to rub on anything over 60 proof.

Since I can't get a tan I love this Mario Bedescu lotion. It adds some fun shimmer and hydration plus it makes my legs look less shockingly white when I very occasionally wear shorts.

Makeup is also a hard one for redheads. Here's a few of my favorite makeup hits:

I worked at Ulta, the beauty store, for quite awhile and have since developed a fondness for high end makeup. I figure I'm single so I can buy the good stuff. Plus I have always struggled with acne so spending the extra cash on quality is totally worth it to me. BareMinerals Original foundation in "Fair" is my staple item. I love it. It matches my skin tone without making me look ghastly or masked and it keeps me from breaking out a whole lot.

BareMinerals Faux Tan (shiney metallic lid) is also a favorite because it allows me to add a controlled bronzed look without actually having to go into the sun. Total win if you ask me.

Pink nail polish in "Butterflies" by Orly, some volumizing mascara, and fabulous chap stick complete my easy redhead summer needs.



Luckily I do have some house related things to show you!

I've purchased some awesome flower pots! They're from Ross and ranged from $2.99 for the little one to $5.99 for the big ones. Cheap. Even more awesome.

Now just to plant some things in them and try to get them to grow. That will be the challenge. Oh and that's the table from my "Summer to-do list" that I need to put another coat of paint on. Yay.

What is your favorite summer product?



*all products were reviewed by me independently. cuz I'm like that. independent, I mean.

Glamorous Glamorous!

Seeing as I am working hard on my March Madness Before and After project I figured I should show you my favorite part of the whole cosmetic face lift that I did in the bathroom! 

Remember the traditional, classy, though remarkable boring shower curtain that previously existed? 

Well of course Pinterest has this lovely way of reminding you that what you have... isn't the best that you could have. My roommate found this gorgeous set up:

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So amazingly gorgeous right??? Who would have thought a shower could look more like a luxurious window? And I don't mean like the weird draw back ones that you see in old homes that haven't been updated in the last 30 or 40 years.

We decided to do our own version... using the existing curtain rod we pulled it all the way up to the ceiling and took some inexpensive 98" curtains from IKEA for 12.99. Love IKEA.

I used two separate shower curtain liners for each panel. I have learned from my roommates (after they used it a few times) that longer liners are needed. I'll be ordering those off of Amazon.com soon if I can't find any at Bed, Bath & Beyond soon. I used the original hooks that were still really cute for the inside so that it was also glamorous and bejeweled a little bit inside of the shower. 

It makes the ceiling seem sooo much higher then it used too! I just love it!

And here's a final shot of the new shower curtain set up! It looks so pretty. Luckily it's three girls that are living at my house which allows for the more feminine type of decor. But it makes the small space seem so much bigger.

And your view from the doorway...

Pretty crafty right? I am madly in love. I may or may not have sat in there just admiring my creativity.

My total investment on the new set up was only $12.99. The price of the curtains from IKEA. Pretty great right?

Linked Up To: House of Hepworths Making the World Cuter Savvy Southern Style  Shine Your Light Blog

Welcome!

I've decided fairly recently that the wall art in the living room needs new life. Translation: I'm totally bored with it. So! I've been scouring blogs and magazines for some new ideas on decorations. I found a great idea where one lady made a print of her address and last name and put it in her mudroom.

Sadly I have no mudroom, double sadly there are three different last names in our casa. 

So I decided to DIY my own version!

First stop was Michael's for 2 frames at 50% off, two sheets of cool looking scrapbook paper and large sticker letters. (If you have a cricut or silhoutte it would have been easier to cut out the text then to use stickers but they were on clearance and it was basically a first try.)

I fit the paper into the frame and used the stickers to form the first framed image:

And since the idea of just doing one last name didn't really work out I just decided to put "Welcome to Our Home."

And then I hung them up together! I do really like the idea! I think I may try to kidnap my Mom's CriCut in order to make the text a little better because it's not quite as clean as I would prefer for it too look but it's not too bad either!

Here's a little bit further back view:

Total invest: $12.00


Even though I am not 100% on the letters themselves it really personalizes the space and that's what I like. What do you think?

Accessorize Me Cap'n

I love accessories. Probably my most favorite thing when it comes to any decorating-ness. I just love it. So when I order things off Etsy and then come home and find these lovely things in my mailbox....

I get super excited!

Check out the over the sink wall space area (yeah I know the light isn't centered, that's just how it is) it was so blank! It was crying out for color!

So I gave it what it needs! And it looks fantastic! It's a vinyl wall decal that I ordered and it looks great! It wasn't too hard to put on but definitely recommend following the directions closely. Obviously Lucy was very excited by the new decal as well. 

(Ignore the bad paint on top, I still have to trim out the wall paper) So I've had these three little vases for as long as I can remember. I bought them at Pier 1 roughly close to forever ago. And they always looked great! But they started to just blend into the wall paper completely. White on white...

Here's a little bit farther out.... My pink teapot actually works so much better in the kitchen now then it did before the redo!

So I found these three tiny mini-Moroccan looking lanterns at Hobby Lobby! I love the greens and blues, and of course... white.

They look super cute! Plus they match the new kitchen even better. I love new accessories! It's awesome!

What is your favorite kind of accessory to use? Are a vase addict like I am?

Some New Digs

I've been meaning to show you all some of the great new things that I've gotten lately for the house! All of which were on sale and all of which are pretty dang fabulous. I think.

Check out my $15.00 sheep skin rug (fake of course) from the old Hobby Lobby, plus I had a coupon! Total score! The cats also love it...

I think it adds some more character to my living room. I'm slowly trying to update some things in there because I've grown wayyy bored with the current set up.

I spoiled myself a little and bought a new rug for my bedroom! It looks so much better then the gray IKEA rug did and it really lightens up the space. Before it was a total gray over load with the couch and the walls and the rug being gray. It's a natural handwoven Jute rug that I got in a 5'8" at Ross for $50.00

PS: Good trick for keeping your boots from getting floppy and bent, roll up one of the billion Victoria's Secret magazines that you get in the mail and stick it inside of each boot. Works marvels!

I also finally got this garden stool I've been eyeballing FOREVER at Ross. He was a little bit of a splurge at $30.00 but he looks great! Plus adds an additional place for someone to put their drink. Which is super handy.

Oh! And I found this great Alabaster ceiling light at Goodwill for $5.99! It looks so awesome! I haven't decided what to do with it because it's super heavy but! It was one of those things I just couldn't leave at the thrift store. Right now it lives in my bathtub.

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