House tour: master bedroom.

Our bedroom started out with lots of brown…

Ha! Such a sad brown mess!

This room really hasn’t received much attention so far. Other than some much needed color with “totally teal” paint, changing chargers into mirrors, and sewing some Mr. & Mrs. pillows, that’s about all I did. All the furniture are hand-me-downs, curtains from Ikea, light was a DIY flop, and the comforter was on clearance at Meijer. Someday I may try to put a little more love into this room, but for now it’s just fine for Eugene & me.

Stay tuned on this one, it may just get a boost sometime in the near future. :)

House tour: kitchen & dining area.

I’ve done a lot of posts lately about my kitchen update, so this part of the “virtual tour” might be a bit redundant. {You can see the first post – the living room – here.}

Let’s take in the awesome before shots…

This duck head with the red eyes freaked me out so much…even worse than the rusted sink!

And now for the after shots with all the updates we’ve made including: removing cabinets for new appliances, enlarging the doorway, buying stainless steel appliances, painting cabinets, leaving some cabinets as open shelving, painting & stenciling the floor, cutting/sealing/installing Ikea butcher block countertops, buying low-divide undermount sink, creating a glass mosaic backsplash, sewing some curtains, and putting up a vintage plate wall. {Whew!} That all brings us to what our kitchen and dining area looks like now…

I love this sink. It’s so easy to wash big pans and cookie sheets. Love it.

{We still have to figure out the best way to fill in the missing floor boards from when we opened doorway. We’ll probably get new floors for the kitchen someday and carry it a bit into the doorway.}

And two comparison shots to conclude…

Lots of hard work went into this space & I’m really please with the end result. :)

House tour: living room.

It’s been a while since I showed you house stuff…well, other than our recent kitchen remodel. When I had the house clean for the little one’s Cute as a Button birthday party {which is rare; Cleaning is not my gift!}, I took pictures of the house because I’ve done some small updates here & there without taking the time to blog them.

I think I’ll take a few days to do a virtual house tour and show you what our rooms look like now – starting with the living room. Here is what our living room looked like when we first moved in, blood red…

We painted the sparkly ceiling white…

…and the walls winter wheat.

Added some hand-me-down, thrifted furniture to tide us over until we found something affordable and worth the purchase…

And completed quite a few more projects & purchases to get the room to today – ta da!

You can read details about my gallery wall here.

I explained how I made the DIY tissue paper flower & hanging glass nob vases here.

I made this colorful pom pom & button garland for the little one’s birthday party, and I just can’t bring myself to take it down. :)

And my painted $1 thrift store coffee table here.

I don’t think I shared this, but I painted all the wooden trim in the living room white one day a while back. I love how it turned out. The whole space seems cleaner and newer!

Remember my $10 Craigslist dresser find? Oh yeah.

I’d still like to refinish the floors darker one day. I’d also like to add some bold or more colorful throw pillows and refinish the fireplace area. Someday, but for now I’m perfectly content with the space. I love how far it’s come!

I especially like how much lighter and happier the room is now. :)

Heidi’s senior pictures.

When I first met my sister-in-law, she was eight-years-old. Eight. And now, somehow, I’m taking her senior pictures. Crazy, I tell you!

The weather was a little cloudy for awhile, but we lucked out with some seriously stunning golden sunshine towards the end of the session. Spending an hour and a half outside, walking through a park with my two awesome sisters & my mother-in-law: wondrous thing.

Look how GORGeous this girl woman is!

I had to do a dirty-feet photo since I took the same on for her sister’s senior pictures…

I love this girl. She’s sensitive, silly, caring, smart, and confident. It’s been a pure blessing to watch her grow into such a beautiful woman over the years.