Family Portraits on the Wall! (at last)

When we went to Asheville this summer for the Shaw flooring competition...(please go vote there are only a few more days!  THANKS!) We also had my great friend Destinee take family pictures for us.  She is a fabulous photographer, and it has been fun to watch her business take off!  I thought I would share some of the pictures with you, and how I framed and displayed the first few pictures!

Anyway, I recently got an invitation from Kristen to share a way that I display my family pictures... And since I just got these new pictures from Destinee I thought "Seize the day" , well it wasn't quite that dramatic, more like.. "Crap I've gotta get this done before the post is due...!"

I wanted three large images in my entry, but I couldn't find the frames that just said "BUY ME".  And I went to about 5 different places.  Well, because I couldn't find anything I loved, I decided to change the plan for now, and just bought some $5 dollar Wal-world frames... that way if it didn't turn out great, then oh well.  But, I am really happy with how it turned out.

Where did I hang them?  I have this little "hall"  between our master bedroom and the guest half bath, on our main floor.  We used to have a bunch of family pictures there, but since we installed our wainscoting (and had Lydia)  I have yet to hang anything on the walls.  So, I thought I would put the pictures here.

I started with a quick coat of spray paint (Rustoleum's Lagoon in Satin -  I love this, I painted a table this color months ago and have yet to show you it... ya know, for a blogger, I am REALLY bad at blogging!) for the frames which were black to begin.

I thought it might be fun to ignore the wainscoting when I hung them, so here is the before and after. I had to hang the middle picture on a 2x4 block so that it hung flat!  I need to take pictures so you can see!

And because I like the little pink specter walking through this next image, I have to share it.  This is what always happens when trying to take pictures (and you should have seen all the sheets and pillow cases that she pulled out of the cabinet while I was doing this... and technically is still there 2 days later!  Whoops!)

Please check out her great blog line up:

What do you think? 

 If you like it please consider pinning it 

or sharing via facebook or twitter!  THANKS!

Remodelaholic is written by Cassity and Justin. Cassity has a degree in interior design and Justin is a landscape architect, so we adore everything that makes up a HOME! We love to share home remodeling ideas and projects we’re working on. From huge kitchen renovation ideas to small bathroom remodels, there isn’t anything we won’t try to tackle (at least once!). We are in the midst of our third whole home renovation, (check out house 1 and house 2 as well, so there should be a lot more inspiration coming your way. We hope that you will stop by often for home design inspiration, tutorials, interior design tips, delicious recipes and what going on in our family life.

Read more...

The Rain Dance! & Weekly Wisdom 2

We have been stuck for almost 40 days in a record breaking heat wave... 40 days with 100+ degree temperatures (closer to 110) and no rain to speak of... until yesterday.  Our grass is almost dead, our zucchini croaked and our shrubs and trees have been suffering.  But no more, yesterday the clouds came and stayed! And it rained this morning as well.  I have never been so thankful for rain!

When it started raining, Justin and Etta went out to play.  I was holding Lydia, and didn't think she would appreciate getting soaking wet, as much as her two year older sister!  But here are some fun pictures along with so other fun rain inspiration!

(and because I can't show pictures of the big sister without some of the little one, here is Lydia!)

And since rain has been on my mind I thought I would show you some great rainy-day inspiration!

Source

 So many other cute things on this post! Source

 source

  I totally agree! Source

You can buy this one on Etsy here

 Source

You seriously need to go check out this blog!  I love the idea!  Source

Love this!  Source

I love that double full rainbow!  Amazing shot! Source

What and adorable mobile!  And it looks totally easy to make!  Source

Rain paint color!  I love this! Source

This is just such a happy image, yet another great art piece!

Source

I love this as art.  I totally want to get a print and frame this!

Source

Source

Remodelaholic is written by Cassity and Justin. Cassity has a degree in interior design and Justin is a landscape architect, so we adore everything that makes up a HOME! We love to share home remodeling ideas and projects we’re working on. From huge kitchen renovation ideas to small bathroom remodels, there isn’t anything we won’t try to tackle (at least once!). We are in the midst of our third whole home renovation, (check out house 1 and house 2 as well, so there should be a lot more inspiration coming your way. We hope that you will stop by often for home design inspiration, tutorials, interior design tips, delicious recipes and what going on in our family life.

Read more...

The (fingers crossed) Terrific Twos!

Okay, I said I was going to do it... and here I am, trying it out!

A little bit about us today.  Our oldest daughter Etta turned two on Friday.  It is making me all teary-eyed as I type... because 2 years ago, marked the end of 8 years of infertility, and I couldn't be more thankful to God for giving me these children, even when they are hard.  I think as a mother I have a lot to learn.  And I am excited to learn it, I just hope that my daughters will do okay while I am doing the learning.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETTA!

(Yes, I still need to paint the outside of my door... but at least I painted the red orange trim to white!)

Etta's new thing is shutting her eyes on purpose when we go to take a picture... She is wearing my favorite boots I got online for under ten bucks by the way!

Anyway, enough of the mushy stuff.

What did we do for our two year old's birthday?  Nothing planned specifically... and bad mother that I am I haven't had a party (I know, I know, I am a blogger who doesn't throw over the top parties?  Who do I think I am!?!)... but I might have a few of her friends over in the next few weeks, nothing special, but something.

Our Fort Worth Zoo passes expired in May, but we decided to wait until the hot summer is over to renew.  And in the mean time we got a family pass to the Fort Worth Children's Museum.  (our friend Jenn from San Antonio was in town over the 4th and we got it then, as an early birthday gift for Etta, AND lets be honest, for Daddy too- because I think he might just still be a 5 year old at heart!)

(this is our new stroller that we bought for our trip, I LOVE it, it's so versatile.  

I bought it on Walmart's online site)

We had so much fun running, and I do mean RUNNING around all over the place.   (see that little blur, that is what she was like all over the place!)

What was Lydia doing?  Good BABY!

On the way out they have a fountain, so we had to have a quick second there.

After the museum we went home for a quick lunch and nap.  Then (here is another bad parent tip, for free) we went to Walmart and did our birthday present shopping with our daughters in tow- (we did this on her first birthday too).  But boy did we have fun, she doesn't really take ownership of everything yet.  She just likes to run from isle to isle and try out the scooters and pick up the toys, so we just follow her.

We wrapped up the trip to Walmart and stopped off a Dunkin Donuts(for the ..uh.. birthday cakes?) and Little Caesars (and now my diet is shot!).

And, in case you are wondering, no she didn't get two whole donuts.   But I started out by giving her a regular donut and when she saw the chocolate one I was eating, she immediately gave me back her first so she could have the other half of the chocolate one I was eating!

Next opening her presents.  I feel like we went a little overboard, but in my defense we bought a whole bunch of play kitchen items in November- (from Ikea, if you are looking, check them out!), to give to her at Christmas, but she wasn't quite old enough at the time to know what to do with them.  So, we saved them and gave them to her now- because she is pretending to cook and eat now... (CUTEST THING EVER!)

(and my family room just got 300% messier... in about 2 seconds flat!)

Also, we got her a play vacuum, because she is always trying to help me vacuum (I should soak this up while I can, I am sure it will only be about 6 months before she doesn't want to anymore- ever again)!, but we can only move the real thing about 2 inches when she is "helping".   Now she has her own and loves it, and I wish it really worked, because I would have the cleanest floors in the country.

(she is loving the glow in the dark stickers on her ceiling at bedtime!  

And I am really excited to try out the solar paper with her)

For the rest of the night we just pulled all the toys out and let her play until bed time (and shot about 15 minutes of video of Etta eating and playing with her new fake food!)

(And the other exciting news, Lydia is getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth.. so who knows how soon she will crawl she is only just over 5 months old so this is fast for us!)

What did you all do this weekend?

Read more...