Girls Room - Part 3 ( Instagram Frames)

I have had the frames done for awhile now, but just now getting the chance to post the pics.

I have overwhelmed myself with projects this summer that I am getting a bit burned out.  I'm not sure how long it is going to take to get the picture gallery in Gabriel's room and the girls rooms?

For now here is how things look in the girls room.

This is Selah's bed with her frame above it.  These are some of my favorite Instagram pics that I have of her.

There are so many sides to her in these pictures.  She really does not like to have her picture taken so I have to be very strategic to get a good picture of her. I love this little girl.

Here is Eva bed with her pics.

This girl has no problem getting in front of the camera!

 Here they are together.  If your looking at getting smaller prints of your Instagram photos you can order them from Persnickety.  I like that they have a 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4.  I have a 3x3 size and it's perfect for these frames.

Thanks for stopping by!

Favorites

No post on house decorating or the kids today just some of my favorite things right now.

Here are a couple apps that my kids are loving.

Doc Mcstuffins - A friend told me about this show and I found an app that goes with it.  The kids love it.  I have also downloaded a couple episode on to the Ipad to watch in the car.

My dad got the kids glued on this game and have to say it can be pretty addicting.  Selah is especially good at this game.  She was giving me advise at one point and it worked!!

My friend Linda started a beauty channel on you tube that I have really enjoyed.  This is not an area that I am an expert in so I love checking out a couple of the channels online to get ideas on makeup application and products.  You can check her out HERE

I'm loving my back yard right now!  We had the rest of the sod put in a couple weeks ago and it is continuing to grow.  George will be mowing it for the first time this weekend and the kids will be able to play on it.  They are so excited!

I have really been into coffee lately.  For the last couple months I have had at least one cup a day.  This is one of my favorite Keurig coffee's.  I buy it at Costco an it is so good!

Last up for my favorites.....If you like westerns and have seen Hatfields and McCoys

 Then you will love Hell on Wheels.  One of my favorite shows right now!

The first two seasons are on Netflix and the 3rd season starts August 12th!

DVD Player For The Car

We use to have headrest DVD players for our van.  We had them maybe two years and they broke.  We have a trip planned to drive to California in a couple months and wanted to figure out what we were going to do.

I looked at buying new portable DVD players again but the way that our car is set up and where the kids are located in the van makes it difficult.

We needed to have something overhead that all would be able to see.  I had looked into having one professionally installed and found out that it could run anywhere from $600-$1000.  I really did not want to spend that much money for something that I did not want on all the time.  I knew that if it were up there they would ask all the time to have something being played.

I searched the internet and You Tube and came up with this idea.  

If you have a moon roof in your car then this will work, other wise you would have to buy a headrest holder.

I just took my Ipad with the case that I had and slid into the moonroof. 

It works great and they can hear the sound as well.  I was a little worried that they would not be able to hear but it is fine.  The only thing that is a little annoying is when you hit a bump in the road it causes the whole thing to swing.  It does stay put though and does not come out.

Here is another idea if you wanted to spend a little money for the adapter that sticks to the moonroof and will hold it in place without it swinging.  I thought about doing this but thought I would just go the free route for now.

I was so excited that I just saved myself a lot of money.  Problem solved!

Letters, Numbers & Colors

I bought these Orb Factory Mosaics for the kids last year for their birthday and am just now breaking them out for the kids to use.

VIA

The kids loved them and surprisingly did not get frustrated with doing them.  They are great for learning colors, numbers and letter as well has hand/eye coordination.

 And to keep the little one busy she played with toys and colored!

Year Of The Appliance

Based off of the gifts that you are suggested to give on your Anniversary these would have been the gifts to get last year.

George and I have been horrible about getting gifts for each other.  The first 4 years of our marriage we were busy paying off our debt.  We just decided that we would not buy gifts for each other until we got our debt paid off.  A little extreme and not for everyone but that's what we did and it worked for us.  It has only been in the last couple years that we started making it more of a priority of buying special gifts.  I would say we are making up for lost time!

I have always wanted a Kitchen Aid mixer.  This would have been a great wedding gift registry item, but they are so expensive and we had such a small wedding that there was no way that we would have ever gotten one of these.  Thanks to Costco, one of my favorite stores they decided to no longer sell these and they were getting rid of them.  They marked down the price and there was a $50 rebate as well, making this gift a must buy.

As far as the Vitamix goes...... it's the thing to have right now!  A few of my friends have them and swear by them.  Our other cheap blender was dying so we knew we were going to have to buy something.  Costco sells the Ninja which we thought about getting, but I liked the idea of being able to make soup in the blender too.  Thanks again to the Costco rewards check and extra money that I got back from a Visa rewards we did not have to pay very much out of pocket on this baby.

So, for the two items together we probably paid less then what it would have cost for just one!!

We have had these a couple weeks now and so far I have been using the Vitamix at least once a day if not more!

Thanks honey for the wonderful gifts! Just so you know he is enjoying them just as much as I am.  :) 

Changing Things Up!

Since January,  George and I have been looking at houses.   We were feeling the need to move closer to our family in Tigard and to find a home in a better area.  We really were looking to find a home with an extra bedroom as well as a home that had a bigger lot!

The market has really changed in the last 6 months and has definitely heated up since we began to look.    We found three homes that we really liked and were in our price range.  One house we went and looked at three times and in the end did not have the big backyard that we were looking for.  The other house we put an offer in and it got beat out by a all cash offer. The last house we put and offer on ended up getting 4 offers on it with it only being on the market for two days.  They ended up excepting another offer.  We thought it was just not meant to be.  The Realtor called George a week later and said that they offer fell through and they would like to except ours.   We were excited!  It was an older house that we knew was going to have some issues to contend with so we were prepared that this may not work.  We had the inspection and for the most part went well considering that the house was built in 1925.  We had to get several bids on the repairs and there was just too much to be done that we were not comfortable taking it on at this time!

We both felt like God was telling us to wait!  So, for now we plan to stay in the home that we are in until God tells us otherwise.  There is such a peace when you walk in Gods plan and not your own!  

Since we decided to stay, we have decided to make a few changes to the house.  The first thing that I started with was the living room!  The couches in the living room were great and still in good condition, but I thought I should try to sell them before I can't get very much money for them. 

Here are some pictures before the change:

While I loved our living room, I was just ready for a change.  My goal was to not have to spend to much to replace what we had sold.  I sold the sectional, the rug, the recliner, and a few other things and it helped pay for the new stuff.

So what did I decide to go with??

Here are a few photos that were my inspiration:

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I was really looking for something lighter and brighter.  Our house does not have a lot of window and the living room can get pretty dark during the Winter months.  I was also looking to add some color to the room instead of the browns and reds.

So before I post actual pictures.....I am going to WARN people that I know this might be totally CRAZY with kids, but after viewing several blogs many of them swore by these couches!

Via

I know....crazy right.  The reason that I decided to go with these were because they were bright and I loved the look as well as the price.  The best part about these slip covered couches are the fact that you can pull the slip cover off and wash it and get "most" stains out.    This could be a horrible experience gone wrong, but I love the way it looks and they are comfortable.  I figure if I am wrong, not a lot of money was lost.  Oh, and the slip covers are only $50 to replace.

Here is the end result:

There were a couple of things that I splurged on and this rug from West Elm was one of them.  I did get it on sale so I was pretty happy with that!  I love this rug!

These wood crates were from Joann's that I aged with Vinegar and steel wool.  I will do another post on how I did it.  Getting them all screwed into the wall and level was the most difficult part.

I love this vase from Anthropologie, the other one is from Goodwill!

The owl is from the $1 section at target.  I added some kids books in the accent colors that I have as well as a vase that I got from Marshalls. 

The plate I got from Crate and Barrel and the egg holder is like the one from Anthropologie, but I don't think they sell it anymore.  I ended up getting this one at Marshalls for $5.00.

I looked and looked for pillows and this was the most difficult thing to pick out.  I was driving my sister crazy with all my choices.  When it came down to it, I did not want to spend a lot of money on pillows. The teal and brown pillows are from Pier One. The teal or what they call Spruce was half off and the brown pillows I was able to use a 25% off coupon.  The orange pillows are from Target and I took the pillow insert out and put a down insert in from Ikea.

This is one of my favorite pillows from Restoration Hardware, that was on sale too. 

The throw I got from Target as well.

One thing that I have learned from Blogs and my sister is to always group pillows in odd numbers.

Here is the whole room view.  I also changed out my curtains to a white curtain from Ikea as well.  I probably should have added some color in the curtains, but for now I like it.

So, there you have it!  I love the change and so does George!  I will let you how how thing go with the white couches! ;)