Be Different

I know, I know.. posting more than once today but you'll get over it.

It's been such a good day for me today!! I thought I'd leave you all with this little reminder!

It's my newest printable.. I think I'll put it in Maila's room...

I'm Grateful...

...today for snow. Believe it or not, it was a blessing today. We went to bed last night with ZERO snow on the ground and woke up with a couple inches.. how does Chicago do that??!

My sweet hubby took Maxi out and they played in the snow for 2 hours! Holy! It was a long time for them to spend outside in the frigid weather, but it paid off in the end. After coming inside, they took a 3 hour nap together. Talk about father/son bonding. It was such a wonderful day. I love seeing things that put a smile on my Maxi's face.

I'm also grateful for warm coats, hot showers, warm boots, and my hot husband.

Life is Good.

Good Inspiration

I have an amazing family on both sides. But today... I stumbled across something that I don't know how I didn't know it was there??? It is magnificent!! Such a good thing to do and if she doesn't mind.. I hope it's something I can start to do!

This girl...

...is a genius. Seriously people. This world is so focused on what people want and a "gimme gimme" attitude that it was SO refreshing when I came across her "Be Grateful" blog.

Genius people. One of the best ideas ever. I'm going to steal it start doing it too...

click here if you want to know why this is such an awesome idea

Her whole family is adorable so how could she not be grateful??

I have a million things to be grateful for every day. I just can't stop gushing over what a great idea it is to document them so you remember.

Genius. Genius.

Thanks for the good idea!!!!!

I'm grateful for YOU!

Easiest Floor Lamp update EVER!!

I live in Illinois. Which means no ceiling lights ANYWHERE!! Hence, the reason that we had to buy 50 lamps when we moved here... well maybe not 50, but we had to get a lot. Unfortunately, if I wanted a new lamp...the only one in my price range is this...

$5.00 from Target or Walmart. Awesome. It's actually a pretty good price. Obviously. $5.00 for a lamp?? Who could beat that?? Only one problem. It's pretty UGLY.

Oh, it gets the job done, but why can't we get the job done in style??

Introducing, the EASIEST lamp update ever!!!!!

You need a $5.00 Lamp with an ugly plastic bowl for a shade, a new pretty lampshade and your hands.

EASY.

Take off your nasty, sorry excuse for a lampshade and replace with a pretty one! Couldn't be simpler.

I used this shade from IKEA - click on picture - (they basically have the cheapest lampshades ever!!)

Here's what it looks like from inside the lampshade...

Make sure you get a lampshade that has the metal parts that go down (that's not the technical way to say it but you can see what I mean from the above picture... I hope...)

If you want to be super fancy you can spray paint your lamp bases... I'm going to do that, just haven't decided what color yet... for now, they can be silver...

That's it! Super easy!! Easy way to make your $5 lamp look like $50!!

One more time:
BEFORE:

AFTER:

It doesn't even look like the same lamp! Looks like it cost me WAY more than it did!! So pretty. So easy.

Your turn!!

Printable Rampage!!

I went on a printable making rampage...I keep seeing all these gorgeous printables that say all these wonderful things and I thought I'd give it a shot... I've made a few lately... This "Home Sweet Home" is new for my family room! I printed it as a 16x20 and put it in an IKEA frame so it looks AWESOME! It's big and makes a statement... Home should be sweet after all, right??

8x10 or 16x20 Print

 Also... remember this post?? Well I picked a winner!! Most of the answers I got were #2 and #5... so I combined them! I LOVE LOVE love it!! What do you think??

 

It looks adorable in their room! I love it!

I also made this printable for my sweet friend and her new baby... you can read her amazing story here...

 This one is for my bedroom... my mom saw one like this and pointed it out to me and I fell in love! 

Max is a boys boy and loves anything cars, trains, trucks, planes... so I made him this little lovely for his room...

I made this one for Maila... but I'm not sure I'm crazy about it... It couldn't get it to look quite right... but I don't know why...

See, I told you a printable rampage! I've gone CRAZY!!! 

If you pin, or save one of these images to use yourself... please leave me a comment and let me know which one so I know which ones are worth something to someone :)

If you want me to design one for you... leave a comment or email me :)

P.S. Our couch got here!! I LOVE it!! But you'll see a more detailed post on that later... just enjoy this sneek with a precious girly and a gorgeous couch!!

 

New Couch! Woo!

2nd phase of decorating my family room was to buy a new couch! Woo!!!! I had LOTS and LOTS of ideas of what I wanted... I knew I wanted a gray couch, and I wanted it to be pretty. The hubs wanted it to be comfy. So we spent lots and lots of hours going from furniture store to furniture store searching, and sitting, and comparing...

In the end, this beauty won us over...

 

She's smaller than our previous sectional.. in fact, she's not a sectional at all. Just an oversized sofa with a chaise. An AWESOME chaise. It's like 4 feet wide. Talk about cozy. It even comes with those adorable gray and green pillows- which are basically perfect.

We bought it from Ashley Furniture. It was kind of pricey, but we got a "manager's special" for buying it this weekend, and that saved us a couple hundred dollars. Add in the money we made from selling our couch and my green rug and an end table, and she didn't end up costing us a ton of money. Woo!!!

We even had enough left over to buy these two lovelies to add to our room...

$20.00 coffee table from Ikea - I've got plans for this baby :)

I was going to buy a coffee table from Goodwill or something and just refinish it, but I figured for $20.00, I could just get a new one that matched all our other furniture in the room. The hubs agreed. Which is all I need.

$20.00 Rug from Ikea - She's 6'x4' - pretty big for such a small price tag...

 I can't wait for our couch to be delivered on TUESDAY!! Holy fast!! It will look so pretty in here!!

Stay tuned for a new tutorial coming this way... how to make a $5 lamp look like a $50 lamp!!


Exciting things!!

Family Room

oooo!!! I've been BIZ-AY!! Lots and LOTS of ideas are just running rampant through my mind!! I've been spending all this time working on my family room ... well planning it. After all, good designs that stay in budget require planning! LOTS of planning!!

But Phase 1 is complete!!! Get rid of the HUGE, OVERSIZED, UGLY tan sectional! It sold last night! Woo!!

Look how huge that is in this room?? It basically takes up the whole space. So glad it's gone!!

Now the hubs and I get to couch shop, which I happen to think is SO fun! Seriously!! Our next couch will be much more appropriately sized...and pretty. It will be pretty. Check here for what I'm thinking couch wise...

For now... let your mind be completely confused by this sneek at my next project....

Well... it's really not a sneek...but what would I need all the wall measurements for??? Hmm....


Ponder that.
Check back soon!