Home Sweet Home - Part 5

Today I will be finishing up my Home Sweet Home tour...of the inside, anyway. It has been fun, as we celebrate 6 years in this home, to see the before and after pictures and has helped me appreciate my home and fall in love with it all over again.

There is still a lot of work to do - the more blogs I read, the more ideas I get!

We'll start with the main bathroom. I don't have any before shots of this room, but it was COVERED in hideous floral, brocade wallpaper - you'll see a shot of the wallpaper below in the master bath redo. Since it was wallpapered...no texture. Ugh! I ended up doing a faux finish to help hide all the imperfections in the wall...I love me some faux painting!

(soon, I am going to try a faux board and batten treatment in here and distress the cabinets)

(oooh, look at that filthy towel - I think those are going in the rag bin when I get home!)

Now, onto the master bath. Let me just preface this with...this was the LAST room I did in the house because I was so SICK and TIRED of taking down wallpaper! I also did not do a whole lot to this room because we are eventually going to gut it and start over...so I didn't want to spend a lot of money.

But, as you can see, it was time to do something...

(I think someone got bored while sitting on the potty...hehe)

Wow! What a difference some paint makes!!!

I forgot how incredibly ugly this bathroom was!

Since we are in the master bathroom, which is obviously connected to the master bedroom, I'm going to show that too. Again, no before, but picture lots of ugly, matching (to the bathroom) wallpaper. I am getting ready to redo this room...time for something different!

Any ideas out there for how to cover up the brass on the closet doors? I *HATE* it, but can't seem to come up with an expensive solution...I'd love to hear your ideas!

And, that, folks...is the end of the inside of my house. It's not very big, it's not very glamorous, but it is HOME and we love it.

Tomorrow...the backyard - my most favorite room ev-ah!

~alicia

Luck 'o the Irish

I don't know about you, but I feel like the time between October and ... well, all the time...I am constantly redecorating and decorating for a holiday. I don't even remember what my

"regular" decor is anymore! LOL

So here are some shots of my St. Patrick's Day decor and gifties that I made.

~May your troubles be less

And your blessings more.

And nothing but happiness

Come through your door~

I don't know why this picture won't upload correctly - I've done it three times! Anyway, just a small little frame I paid $1 for at Michael's...added a sticker and a little bling, of course!

St. Patty's Day is full of fun, easy gifts to give to others...these ideas came from The Crafting Chicks (thecraftingchicks.com) and from another blog that I now cannot find (yikes, sorry! - this is why I should have pinned these to my Pinterest board!)

Unfortunately the above gift bag arrived at its destination is TERRIBLE shape...damn UPS!

I found this frame at Hobby Lobby (where else) and used the letters from our Scrabble game...ssshh, don't tell Handsome!

And the clips I made for my little girly nieces...so cute and simple to do (and of course, bling)! I found the tutorial at tencowchick.com. She does a great job giving step-by-step instructions.

I picked up some buckets at Target ($1 each), filled them with some "gold" candy.

I added a small frame I got at Michael's for $1 with a "bling shamrock" sticker in the middle. Simple!

Decorations, a little bit difficult for this holiday, there just isn't a lot out there.

I was determined to try to use what I had...

This printable (so cute) came from Be Different Act Normal (bedifferentactnormal.com)...

it was FREE.

And this cute Subway Printable came from the creative ladies over at Eighteen25 (eighteen25.blogspot.com). Let me just say...there is a wealth of talent, ideas and creativity in the blog world!

And, since I am posting this late...it is now time to switch all this out and get ready for Spring and Easter.

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!

~alicia

Home Sweet Home - Part 4

Well, I missed yesterday - was super busy and didn't get a chance to get this post finished...so I apologize (not that anyone is reading this anyway!).

We are are getting ready to go on vacation - kiddos are on Spring Break this week, so the grown-ups are using that as an excuse to get out of Dodge! So, I am going to show you before and afters of the kids' bedrooms today.

When we first took all these pictures, we had 4 kids living at home...sadly, now we are down to 2, so we've done some rearranging and changed things up so the girls could each have their own rooms.

Let's start off with some pictures of my beautiful children - DLo, Pretty Girl, TLo and Princess. Oh how I love them!

DLo and TLo

Pretty Girl and Princess

How do you decide who's room to "makeover" first when you have four kids? Easy peasy! I told the kids we were going to have a contest and whoever could keep their room clean for 2 weeks straight would be the first to have their room done. Of course, I kind of knew beforehand who would win this challenge and since his room had obnoxious flower wallpaper and a coordinating border, it seemed only fair. TLo won the contest. His from went from this:

and 6 long days later, this:

Next up was DLo's room...he is my California boy and wanted a surfer theme

(for a couple years anyway and then he moved into the other room).

We turned the above white room into this...

And then, because little girls grow up into young women, and they need their own space, and boys grow into young men and move out, we changed the surf room, into a "peace"-ful room for Pretty Girl. The goal being to not spend a lot of money and try to use what we had

(for now, anyway).

Again, a picture of the lovely lady that now occupies this room - isn't she just beautiful?! Not only is she gorgeous, she is one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I know; she has a great sense of humor and style AND is a straight A student!

Last, but not least, is our little Princess' room...the flip flop room (although I've been put on notice that she wants a Paris themed room). The girls shared this room for a few years and now I am ready to get rid of the bunk beds...Handsome, however, is not going along with this plan.

What awesomeness can I say about Princess? She is the baby of our family and, therefore, the most tenderhearted and sweet - she cares about everyone's feelings and is very sensitive. She is a beauty with her blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles...and she is left-handed.

DLo calls her our "recessive" child. LOL

She is a TERRIFIC reader (like her momma) and loves to read; she learned to read at age 3. She is not really into sports, but is super competitive and QUITE the swimmer. She once said she wanted to be a mermaid when she "grows up." She was on the City swim team last year and did great!

That's it for today...the bulk of the house - just a couple of rooms left! Thanks for stopping in.

~alicia