House Tour: Master Bedroom

The last stop on our house tour is our master bedroom. It feels weird to call it a master bedroom because our bedroom is only a little bigger than the guest bedroom. This room is still a work in progress but we are getting there. I recently made the headboard (tutorial to come!) and am in love with it! We started a frame collage on one of the walls but it seems a little small so I would like to add to it. We need to find a chair to put in the corner by the window. I have a side table I would like to make to put by the chair but we need to find the chair first. I am also looking for a nightstand. We just stuck our old side table from the living room beside the bed until we find one. I have a paint treatment I would like to do to one so I am trying to find a inexpensive nightstand at Goodwill that I could paint. There is a lot of meaningful and personal "artwork" in our room that makes me smile when I look at it. I will share details about it in another post soon. For now, here are the pictures....

House Tour: Bathrooms

For day 3 of house tour week, we will show you the bathrooms. The 2 bedrooms in our apartment each have a bathroom attached to them.

First we will start with the guest bathroom. This is our black and white (my favorite color combo!) bathroom. We had everything to decorate this bathroom already from our first apartment. I love everything in this bathroom and didn't want to redecorate. I bought the bath letters from Hobby Lobby and painted them black. I also made the art on the computer and framed it. Here are the pictures.....

Now, on to our bathroom. I made the painting for our first apartment's dining room. There wasn't really anywhere else to put it in this apartment so we used it as the starting point to decorate the bathroom. We received all the towels as wedding gifts and bought the shower curtain, rug and toothbrush holder with wedding gift cards. It all came together pretty well.

House Tour: Guest Bedroom

Today we go to the guest bedroom on our house tour. We love having a second bedroom. It makes it much easier to have guests. Lee's hobby is biking and he is a big fan of Lance Armstrong. This room kind of has a bike theme. I got Lee the Lance picture one year for this birthday. He found the giant frame at Goodwill and painted it black. (For only $10, much cheaper than having it professionally framed!) There are a few other subtle bike related things in the room but nothing overboard. There is a desk in that room that we saved from the trash and painted. This room is also called Lee's study room. I will wait to show you the desk area until we get the shelves put up so stay tuned for that! Here are the pictures....

House Tour: Living Room/Kitchen

Welcome to House Tour Week! I thought it was probably about time I should you around our apartment. Today we will start with the kitchen/living room. When you walk into our apartment you come into the kitchen. Our kitchen and living room are one giant room. We set the couch up so it kind of divides the two spaces a little bit. And now for the pictures....

Kitchen

Living Room

(Please excuse the treadmil in the corner. We are trying to get back into shape!)
(Anyone else watch The Real Housewives of Orange County? Love it!!)

Fashion Friday: Ruffle Scarf

Sweater: Target

Shirt: Kohls

Scarf: Target ($4!)

Jeans: Sliver

Shoes: Payless

How-To Make Twine Trees and Moss Balls

These were both very simple projects. We will start with the twine trees. Here is what you will need for this project....

Styrofoam cones

Twine

Hot Glue Gun

All you have to do is place the hot glue on the cone and wrap the twine around the cone. Make sure to keep the twine close together as you move up the cone.

Here is what you will need to make the moss balls....

Styrofoam balls

Moss

Hot Glue Gun

Simply spread the hot glue on the styrofoam ball and cover with moss.

Winter Decorating

We are back with part 2 of our winter decor. The first post showed our new winter pillows my mom made.

We added a few more winter touches to the living room. First, the bookshelf....

I bought these wood log looking candles on clearance at Target.

I made these twine trees to add to the rustic winter vibe of the bookshelf.

These pine cones were also on clearance at Target and Lee whipped up a few moss balls for me to add among the pine cones.

Now the side table...

I bought this glass dish at the Dollar Tree and filled it with our wine corks. The texture and the color of the corks fit in with the rustic winter vibe the living room has. The color of the candle matches the next item...the window seat.

My mom made this flannel quilt for Lee. It fits in perfectly folded on top of our tv stand turned window seat. So that is our rustic winter living room decor. Have any of you added any winter touches to your home?

Weekend Recap: Brad Paisley

Friday night we went to the Brad Paisley concert with two of our good friends. We had a great time! The highlight of the night for me was Brad performing "Then". A friend of Lee's sang this song during our wedding ceremony so it's a special song for us. Here are a few pictures from the night.....

Fashion Friday: Lace Vest

Shirt: Target

Vest: Younkers

Jeans: Buckle

Necklace: Old Navy

Shoes: Payless

Wall Flowers

My awesome hubby bought me these 3 pretty wall vases (from CB2) for Christmas. I found these branches to go in them at Michaels and we hung them in our bedroom.

They look so simple and pretty, I love them!

No Ikea

I was planning on doing a post today about Ikea. We were supposed to go to Ikea last Thursday on our way home from Chicago. Here are the pictures of the reasons why we didn't make it there....



Is it Spring yet?!?!

Duke Game

We had a great time at the Duke/Iowa State game last Wednesday night. Duke won 86-65. Lee was in heaven when Coach K walked on the court. Here are a few pictures from the game....

Lee and I in front of the Michael Jordan Statue

Coach K shaking Greg McDermott's (ISU coach) hand before the game

Fashion Friday: Green Ruffles

Welcome to the first Fashion Friday! I love to shop and I love clothes so I thought I should add some fashion related posts to the blog. My mom and godmother are to blame for my love of shopping. They started me at a very young age. I was not one of those babies screaming in the stroller, I loved every minute. I love getting new clothes but I am always on the lookout for a good bargin (if you know my father then you know why!). You won't see me wearing expensive clothes from fancy designers. There are plenty of stores with cute fashionable clothes that won't break the bank. Hope you enjoy these weekly posts and that they give you some inspiration.

Green Ruffle Shirt: Target

Black Cardigan: Target

Black Dress Pants: Kohls

Shoes: Younkers

Pillow Talk

My mom loves to sew. (Don’t even ask how many quilts I have that she has made me over the years!) After getting some inspiration from a Pottery Barn catalog, I asked her to make me some winter pillows for the couch. Here is the Pottery Barn picture…..

I went to the fabric store and bought a couple yards of burlap and brown corduroy. I just showed my mom the picture and she whipped them up.

They turned out pretty good huh? I love them and they look very similar to the expensive Pottery Barn pillows. Thanks mom!

Here are the brown corduroy pillows she made mixed in. She just made simple covers for the pillows we already had.

Finally, I added a pillow I recently purchased on sale (only $5!) at Pier 1. I love how they all look together!

So this is the start of our winter décor. We are working on a few craft projects so stay tuned for part 2 of our winter decorating….

Livin' the Dream

Lee has loved Duke basketball since he was little. Tonight we are going to Chicago to watch the Duke Blue Devils play Iowa State University. Coach K, Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer, the Cameron Crazies....Lee will be in heaven! We will leave you with a recipe for a game time snack....Go Dukies!

Spinach Dip

1 package frozen spinach (thaw & drain before using)
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 8oz package cream cheese
2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack or Mozzerella cheese
Splash of milk
Garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the first five ingredients in a baking dish, with the spinach on the bottom. Cover. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, stir to combine ingredients and distribute cream cheese. Add splash of milk, garlic, salt and pepper and stir until well blended. Bake for an additional 15 minutes uncovered. Serve warm with tortilla chips, pita chips, or crackers.

2009: A Year in Pictures

January

James and Elisabet's Wedding

February

Valentine's Day meal Lee made...yummy!

March

Lee's surprise 25th birthday party

April

Easter at the farm

May

My younger brother graduated from college

I also bought my first car in May but I don't have a picture of that

June

Chris and Megan's Wedding


Keith Urban/Taylor Swift Concert




Gavin DeGraw Concert

Wedding Shower #1

July

RAGBRAI

August

Wedding Shower #2

My Bachelorette Party

September

Our Wedding!

Mexican Honeymoon!

October

Jill and Derek's Wedding

Amanda and Tyler's Wedding

November

Green Bay Packers Game

December

Our first married Christmas