Basement Inspiration

Some of you may remember that when I shared my goals for 2017 one of them was to complete some BIG house projects including finishing our basement and a big yard project.  We're currently in the middle of both and it's been going on in parts and pieces for almost a month now, including lots of trucks at my house on a daily basis and a lovely construction dumpster in front of the house.

I'm trying to be patient because these things take time, but there is still a lot to be done.  Today I thought I'd share my inspiration for the basement project and I hope to share yard inspiration soon and then updates for both along the way!

First though...a little background.  When we bought our home several years ago it was a 1966 ranch that we pretty much took down to the basement foundation and rebuilt.  We wanted to be in a certain school district and in a certain area, but finding a house we loved was tough so instead we took on a major project.  We loved the property.  It felt like we were in the middle of no where, but we are literally minutes away from everything.  There is a small creek running through the property, right beside the house, so we had to keep the existing foundation during the rebuild. If you walked in our front door you'd think everything was new and for the most part it is.

However, the basement still looks like 1966.  It's like a deep, dark dungeon that we didn't use except for storage.  And when I say storage, I mean all of the stuff we never needed, but held onto just because we had the space to store it.  Before we could get started on the basement we had to tackle cleaning it out.  We moved a bunch of shelves to the garage so I could store all of my holiday decorations and other things we were keeping.  The rest of it we either donated or tossed at the dump.  We had SO much stuff down there.  Teaching supplies I hadn't used in 10 years, old furniture, a pressure washer that had NEVER worked in the time we owned it...just so much stuff.

I'm lucky that the Mr. is really handy and he also is very knowledgeable about construction and design so he drew out our plans for the basement and with a little feedback from me he finalized the layout.

When we were first getting started I did what I always do when I have a home project to make decisions about.  I consult my favorite design source...Pinterest!  When we were building our house a few years ago I had so many people ask me if I had a designer to help me, but I didn't.  I always tell people who are building or remodeling to use my method. I pinned a bunch of things I liked or that caught my eye and then looked for a trend in what I had pinned.  For example, when we were picking out things for the kitchen I looked at my Kitchen Pinterest board and saw that I loved a certain type of cabinet, a certain style of tile back splash, a wooden counter top, etc.  I printed off pictures, took them with me to the design appointments with those vendors and tried to recreate what I saw in the pictures I had pinned.

For this basement project I'm basically doing the same thing.  We're planning to have a kitchen/bar area, a tv space, a workout room, bathroom and bedroom so I've been pinning things for those spaces.  Here's some of the trends that I've narrowed down in all of my pins that I just love and plan to incorporate in one way or another!

Shiplap 
I blame Chip and Joanna for my love of shiplap, but it adds such interesting detail and I just love the look of it.  I really love any unique paneling, woodwork, trim and shiplap falls into that category for me.  Anything besides just plain ole drywall gives me big heart eyes!

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Interesting Island 
While I'd love to do a fun color on the cabinets in the basement, I'm leaning towards an off-white like we have in our kitchen just because I feel like it is pretty classic and will last with the times.  However, we plan on having a very large island in the basement so I'm hoping to do something fun with it.  Maybe a different color or some interesting details on it?!  I really wanted an X on the end of our island in the kitchen, but it just didn't work out so I'm hoping to do that for the basement.  Love all of these details!

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Barn Doors 
Another thing I really wanted in our house that we couldn't work in anywhere were barn doors.  I'm literally obsessed and love them so much.  I think we have the perfect space for them in the basement so I can't wait!

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Neutral Tones 
One of the main reasons we ended up rebuilding our house instead of our original plan to renovate was the low ceiling heights in the original home.  Tall ceilings just make everything seem so much more open, but we won't have that option in the basement.  The ceilings are 1966 low so I'm going to be doing everything I can to trick the eye into thinking they are higher than they are.  One of the big things is to keep everything neutral.  I plan to paint the walls and ceilings the same light color, keep the furniture and accessories pretty neutral.

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These are obviously just some of the many ideas floating around in my head and there is no telling if we'll be able to do them all, but I'm really hopeful! I want this space to be inviting and comfortable for our family and our guests because I see it as the place where we will do a lot of entertaining.  I'm excited to share the progress with anyone who is interested in following along!

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Boy's Baseball Room {Inspiration}

It's safe to say my little guy is baseball obsessed.  He is into his second season of playing and his first game of the spring season was last weekend.  He played great and I was totally that proud mom yelling from the bleachers!  He had awesome hits, great fielding (for a 5 year old), and got the first game ball.

He asks everyday if he has baseball and if he doesn't have a game or a practice he wants me out in the driveway practicing with him. Because I see how much he loves it, I've pretty much become baseball obsessed myself, too.

A few months ago he mentioned that he wished he could have baseball stuff in his room so I made him a deal and told him we'd switch out the nautical decor for baseball stuff.  He was over the moon.  Then life happened and while the idea keeps hanging around in my head, I haven't actually done anything to keep good on my promise.

He's lived in a nautical room since hew as a baby.  I did a nautical nursery for him and then when we moved to our new house I changed things up a bit, but still kept the nautical theme since I already had tons of stuff.

The good news is, since his quilt, curtains, walls, etc. are all blue and red I can easily switch out the "boat stuff" as he calls it for the "cool baseball stuff" he wants.

Last week when I was browsing Goodwill for a project I'm working on (more on that next week), I came across this cute baseball print!  It just needs a new frame, but it was less than $4 so I was so excited to find it.  Y'all know I love a good deal!  I'm also heading to one of my favorite kid consignment sales tomorrow so I'm hoping to find a few things there.

Last night I spent some time searching the internet and I found that Pottery Barn Kids has some adorable baseball stuff right now.

I'm loving this baseball pin-board and trying to find a way to justify buying it for his room. It's a little pricey, but OH SO CUTE!

This metal MLB sign is just calling for me. I LOVE mixing antique looking things into our home and I this metal sign has me swooning.  Thinking this would look super cute hanging over his bed or as part of a gallery wall! 

I've already decided I'm ordering these little baseball knobs.  They come two to a set and they are on major sale right now so I'm going to switch them out for the knobs on his current dresser. 

He had a cute little sailboat lamp in his room that needs to be replaced and I loved this wooden lamp shaped like a bat and the cute baseball shade.

He saw this one as I was searching for stuff last night though and loved the stacked baseball lamp, so we may end up with this one instead, which is still super cute.  

I've been using just a plain navy quilt that I bought at Target a few years ago with the sailboat pillow shams. I'm going to switch those out for the navy shams that came with his quilt and just plan to get some cute throw pillows like this one to add to his bed.

I also scrolled through Pinterest and found tons of cute ideas.  Boo-Boo actually loved looking with me and would comment on just about everything he saw. He got really excited when I kept pinning stuff because he asked if that meant it was the list of what we were getting.  Then when he saw me pinning baseball mom stuff he started making gagging noises and told me he did not want those things in his room.  You can see all my fun baseball pins HERE.  His very favorites were this baseball wall and the baseball diamond painted in the yard.  I might just have to do that this summer.

I'll continue to share what I find and will certainly post about the final outcome of his baseball room in a few weeks!

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Pinterest Fail!

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Ours was super busy so it flew by, but we managed to squeeze in lots of fun, too.

Often times Jen and I share a lot of perfect Pinterest worthy projects with y'all.  That is just part of our blogging life, but I'm here to tell you that it doesn't always go as planned.  You've probably seen those "Pinterest Fail" pictures floating around where they show the inspiration and then then actual product?

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They always make me laugh and I always crack up at the funny fails.  Well, this weekend I had my very own Pinterest fail.  I just want to keep it real and let y'all know not everything we create ends up making to to Pinterest.

Some of you might remember that last week I shared about our obsession with the Olympics.  After checking out some other really great pins for Olympic themed crafts, games and desserts I decided to we needed to create a little Olympic dessert to enjoy while watching and cheering for Team USA.

I saw this cute cake making the Olympic rings out of M&M's and thought it would be the perfect thing for the kids to help me with.

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I really am a perfectionist and it's hard for me to just sit back and let others take control of things. Even a simple little dessert decorating project like this, but that is exactly what I did.

Instead of making cake to decorate I used these giant pre-made Rice Krispy treats.  Have y'all seen these?

It's huge so I cut it in half and gave each of the girls and their friends who were over spending the night one of the pieces.  I used store bought frosting and had them spread it on.  Then they sorted the M&M's by colors.

Next came the actual decorating.  We talked about the rings and I showed them my picture for inspiration and then let them just have at it.  It took serious restraint for me to not step in.  I wanted to correct their circles, neatly place the M&M's on the frosting so that the "M" wasn't showing and make sure that everything was evenly spaced.  But I didn't.  I just let them do it and they were SO proud of the results.

The older two actually tried to interlock their rings and I was impressed with their attempt.

Does it look Pinterest perfect?  No!  But they all had the best time and loved every second of it.  So even if it might not look as pretty as I had pictured it in my head, it was still a success in my book!

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Olympics Obsessed

Is anyone else as Olympics obsessed as we are?  I have been looking forward to these Olympic games all summer long and my only wish is that the kids weren't in school yet so that they could watch more than they have been able to.

My love for the Olympics goes WAY back.  When the Centennial Olympic Games were held in Atlanta in 1996 I had auditioned to be a performer in the Opening Ceremonies and was selected!  It was a really cool experience, but as a 15 year old at the time, I wish I had known just how amazing the experience was.  We had months of all day practices leading up to the big event and I made some great friends along the way.  My parents surprised me and ended up buying tickets to the Opening Ceremonies so they could be there to watch.  I'm sure I have pictures somewhere, but none that I could get my hands non easily.  I did find this image though...I'm one of those people down on the field in black forming the Olympic rings.  

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During those same Olympics games my parents took each of my brothers and I to several different events and it was really cool to be able to attend such amazing athletic events in our hometown.  I guess that is where my  love for the Olympics came from.

I kept up all of my 4th of July decorations from this summer so that we could show our USA pride going into the Olympics.  That's one thing I love about the Olympics.  It doesn't matter what the sport is or if I've ever had any interest in it before, if Team USA is competing, I'm watching and cheering them on!

The kids have loved watching the Olympics this past week and can't get enough either.  We've been recording it a lot and watching when they have some down time from school.  Blondie loves soccer and swimming, Little Mama loves gymnastics and synchronized diving and Boo-Boo pretty much loves it all.  He was so cute because today when we were in CVS he got really excited when he saw the magazines at check-out featuring a lot of the athletes that he recognized.

I have been so tired this week because I keep staying up way too late watching.  It's a nice way to relax and unwind from a busy day though! This is me...hanging out on the couch, wine in hand, watching Olympics and cheering for Team USA!  I also love hearing all of the stories behind the athletes and their training.  Their training and dedication to their sports is so amazing and inspiring!

Yesterday a fried of mine share some really cute chalk drawings she had done of her kids that were Olympic themed that were very similar to these I'd seen on Pinterest.

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That got me thinking about all of the really cute ideas that are floating around on the Internet.  I spent a little time last night and pinned lots of fun and super cute ideas.  You can check them out HERE.  How cute (and simple) are these cookies?!

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Now I have some fun ideas up my sleeves for the kids.  Can't wait to get their help to make some fun treats to enjoy during our watching this weekend!

I would love to know what you all are doing to enjoy these Olympic games?  Are you watching as much as we are?  What are your favorite events?

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Back to School Favorites

Many of us have already started back to school, and over the next few weeks more and more parents will be feverishly gathering school supplies and students will be taking that first step up onto the school bus.

Going back to school takes preparation. Everyone wants everything to run smoothly to get a great start to the new school year and set the tone for the remainder of those 180 days.

We will be talking a lot about back to school over the next few weeks, and have some fun things to tell you about about and in the works.

Carrie Beth kicked off the fun by sharing her super cute teacher's gift earlier this week. This teacher's survival kit is an inexpensive and easy way to kick off the school year right and show your new teacher just how much you appreciate them.

Then we had a fun Pinterest party with some of our favorite bloggers and created a Back-to-School board to help get you prepped for everything school related. From trendy school supplies, to super cute first day of school outfits, to easy lunch box ideas, with almost 500 pins this board has it all!

With so many great ideas it is so hard to choose a favorite, but we have narrowed it down to our eight favorite back to school pins.

BACK TO SCHOOL FAVORITE PINS

1. Quick Breakfast Recipes for Busy Days by Savvy Sassy Moms

We love this pin. Getting up on those early back to school mornings is already tough and most often a huge race against the clock. These easy breakfast ideas make mornings just a little easier. 

2. First Day of School Shirt by beachtownbaby on Etsy

The first day of school outfit is always fun to pick out. From preschool to senior year in high school it is usually the outfit commemorated most by parents. We found tons of adorable options, but fell in love with this trendy and fun unisex baseball style tee. 

3. First Day of School Signs

A huge trend in recent years for the first day of school is to create or print a fun sign to label the year, teacher, etc., and take a photo of your child holding it. There are free printable covering everything from chalkboard signs to crayon drawn signs available online, but our absolute favorite was this creative First Day of School dry erase board option from Personalization Mall. So stinking cute! 

4. Lunchbox Printables

Speaking of printables, we also found tons of adorable little notes to print and place in your little ones lunch box. What a fun surprise for them to find, and such an easy way to brighten your child's day and remind them you are thinking of them even when you aren't right next to them. These fruit and vegetable themed ones are perfect for non-readers. We also thought these were adorable, as well as these fun jokes. 

5. Back to School Sneakers DIY by Lovely Indeed

You know we love us some theme wear. Back to school isn't just for the children - teachers, volunteers, school administrators, and parents can get in on the first day of fun too. We absolutely swooned over this fun Pencil Sneaker DIY. Seriously, how cute are those?!?

6. Cool Lunch Boxes

Aside from picking out their backpacks, children get super excited to express their personality with their lunch box. We love these lunch boxes from Pottery Barn Kids. We both have purchased these for our children, and have adored them. From super heroes to sports themed to their favorite color the  options are endless. We also loved that you can usually personalize inexpensively (and sometimes free). One less thing to label! Based on reviews and amount of pins we saw, you guys love them too! Also, don't forget to check out this great list of reusable lunch box items to help make packing that lunch box each day an easy and environmentally safe task. 

7. Creative Lunch Box Ideas

Not many things are more frustrating to a parent than packing their child's lunch box each day. Navigating your child's eating preferences, mastering the grocery shopping list, and offering a variety so that your child doesn't hit lunch box burnout becomes a school year challenge. This fun list of non-sandwich lunch box ideas gave us some fabulous inspiration. We also loved this list of 10 creative lunch box ideas. 

8. Back to School Dinner by howdoesshe

What a fabulous way to end that first day of school, or wrap up the first complete week. This back to school dinner is not only cute, but a special way to celebrate and kick off everyone's school year right. 

It was tough to narrow the list down to just these pins! Definitely check out the Back to School board, and use it as a resource for inspiration throughout the year! We can't wait to share some more back to school fun with you over the next few weeks and look forward to you guys sharing your thoughts with us. 

Here's to a great new school year!

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