I just stocked up the etsy shop - lots of pretty new spring colors! 

Living Room Refresh

So it's not *totally* there yet, but it's veeery close. 

I'll show you what we've done so far on the living room project.

Here is the before...

And this is where we are now!

The only 2 things we would like to do is swap out the (very abused and scratched up) coffee table for a large comfy square ottoman. Still looking for a deal...

And replace the carpet.  I'm SOOO wanting to rip it out and refinish the hardwoods that are under it, but we're a little nervous about what we might find under there - it may be too far gone. It will probably be a while before we get to that part of the project!

I sold my old living room suit on craigslist (Good ole Craig!) and then we found this neutral sectional here at a local furniture shop. I recovered all of the hideous throw pillows that came with the sofa in fun bright colors. (The floral one on the left was from Hobby Lobby.)

So much brighter! I really like the cottage/coastal feel. 

The white curtain panels I made from plain white flat sheets from Walmart ($4.88 apiece!), and the yellow ottoman was a clearance purchase from Target - well worth the $24 I paid for it!

The mantel looks all bright and springy, too. Love those free printables!

I got this sweet little recliner for Christmas last year, as well as the cable knit throw. It's cozy!

We also moved Weston's nursery rocker to the living room - it matches the sofa perfectly! 

The yellow chevron throw was a gift from my sis in law - I call it my happy blanket! It's so cheery. 

So that's it - our living room refresh, on a shoestring budget! It's much more family friendly and casual now - the gang hangs out in here all the time. And now we have more seating for our church get-togethers that we have here, so everybody's happy!

I'm linking up with Chari's Finished Object Friday! Ok, so it's not exactly Friday. Lets' just say I've been very busy  =)

Spring Touches

Yay for SPRING!! My favorite time of year! We've had some beautiful warm sunshiney days lately, and it's like taking a happy pill. Love it! 

And yep, I've already brought out the flip flops :)

 Here's a peak at some springiness in the old parsonage...

The bedroom mantel pretty much stays the same all year, I just added a few little spring things.

 I love pops of yellow in the bedroom, too!

 And you can't decorate for spring without TULIPS! Love 'em love 'em. 

 This was our table centerpiece for Easter. Quick and easy.

But wait.......

there's more!

I've got lots of spring goodies in the living room, and I'm working on a post right now to show you the living room makeover so far. Stay tuned, I'll have it up in a jif!

Happy Spring!!

New Goodies in the Shop!

I just listed some new goodies in my Etsy Shop! I made one of these bags for myself, and I liked it so much I decided to make some more to share :) I love this bag - it's a great size, and it's just so cute =)  I think I'll be making some more colors to list this week.

Fun Times!

I just love it when God sends a kindred spirit my way :) Heather Dickinson and I met through our blogs some time ago, but we never thought we would actually get to meet sometime, especially since they live in South America!

  I'm so happy it worked out that they could come see us while they were here in the states. We'd never met them before in our lives, but we just chatted away like we'd known them forever. (I feel like I have known them forever, just from reading their blog!) 

Can you believe we got a pic with everybody looking at the camera??

 I usually can't do that with just my 3 boys ;)

(You'll have to excuse Weston's casual attire - he threw up all over his cute little church outfit. He seems to be feeling better now though, in case you were wondering...) 

Poor Dave was smitten. It took little Mary about 5 minutes to have him wrapped completely and hopelessly around her little finger. You know it's bad when he'd rather hold a sleeping baby than go through the lunch line! He thinks he needs a little girl. I'm not so sure - she'd be too spoiled rotten! :)

All the littles had a great time together. It just ended too soon! We decided we need a longer visit sometime, so the kids can play while Heather and I do some thrift shopping and crafting! 

Thank you, Dickinsons, for coming to our neck of the woods - you've been a Blessing to us, and you're welcome here at the old parsonage anytime! 

Share some Etsy love!

I am so thankful for all the plugs I've had for my little etsy shop, and all the lovely ladies (and a few guys!) that have actually bought things from me and supported my business :)  So...I'd love to pay it forward and put in a plug for some other etsy shops! 

These gals do AMAZING work. You really owe it to yourself to check 'em out!

My bloggy friend, Jenny, makes fantastic handmade cards - I have some of them myself, and they are simply breathtaking. You can visit her shop at... 

Handmade by Jenn

 I just love this one...

 And this one is so sweet for Easter!

She also makes hand painted signs that are super cute!

Another shop I love is 

Created by Trish

She also makes handmade cards that are just awesome.

See what I mean?? This is beautiful. Who wouldn't love to get a card like that?!

This one is precious.

Good grief, these girls have some serious photography skills, too. Love their photos!

Pay these shops a visit, and give 'em some love. I promise - you'll love the eye candy!

Here's Your Sign...

I've been into making signs lately. Once I discovered how easy it is, I got kinda sorta addicted. Besides, it's a fantastic way to use up old frames or cabinet doors. 

I had seen a similar "Cottage" sign on Pinterest (where else???) and fell in love with it. I knew it would be perfect for the top of this armoire in the living room. That's always one of the hardest places for me to decorate - for some reason it always stumps me. So I'm super happy to have that little problem solved!

The next one was made from an old mirror that was discarded when we redecorated the church bathrooms. Yep, I painted right over the glass. I love the saying, and the song. 

(Thanks, Jenny, for the inspiration!)

The little chalkboard sits in the kitchen...

I'm still waiting for applicants.

I've already shown this one in another post, but it's a sign, so I'll stick it in here again! It's a great reminder to be content with what we have.  

 I'll share the "how-to's" with ya. This is the easiest way I've found anyway.

Chalkboards:

1. Print your quote on paper making sure to get your font size as big as you need.

2. Rub the back of the paper with chalk.

3. Position it on your chalkboard, and trace the letters with a pen or something sharp.

4. Remove the paper, and go over the faint chalk lines with a chalk marker.

Works like a charm!

Painted Signs:

1. Print your quote on paper.

2. Lay some graphite paper over your sign, place printed quote on top.

3. Trace the quote with a pen.

4. Remove paper and graphite and go over the faint lines with paint. For the "God Is Faithful" sign, I used a black sharpie and it worked GREAT. 

That's it! A super easy, and fun winter project. 

Linking up with Chari's Finished Object Friday!

A Very "Pinteresting" Valentine's Day!

Well, I didn't do much as far as Valentine's decor this year. Ok, make that I didn't do squat as far as Valentine's Day decor this year. But we made up for it with goodies!

There were so many different yummy ideas on pinterest I couldn't decide which ones to try. I went with the strawberry cake mix cookies from this pin, and let me just tell you - that recipe is a KEEPER! I had to hurry up and bag up the ones for the school kiddos because they were going fast. We made them last night and there's not so much as a crumb left for today, Valentine's Day. *sigh *...

(*disclaimer* This post is full of  pathetic Iphone pics, I know they're terrible...)

We made some of them just for the boys' teachers...

I found that idea on pinterest too, but couldn't seem to find a ready made printable for the tag in a Valentine's Day version...so I just put one together myself real quick in photoshop. It's not fantastic, but it works. The guys wrote little notes to their teachers on the back.

The boys have been "selling" candy bars for the school fundraiser, and I'm pretty sure their daddy and I are their best customers. Something HAD to be done. (They really are that good.) So I found a candy bar wrapper printable on pinterest here,  fancied them all up, and handed them out at church as Valentine's gifts. Whew! Got rid of those wicked things. Now I owe the fundraiser envelope quite a few pennies...

 The boys were thrilled with their lego star wars Valentine's cards, complete with glow stick light sabers. 

Here is the link to that pin.

Which begs the question...

What in this world did we do before Pinterest???

 And I still have a whole board full of ideas to try next year :)

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all! I hope it's SWEET!