Creatively Living Blog

It’s 4am. Really? Why am I up? Probably because for the first time in a year I went to bed at 9pm.

Remind me not to try to get more sleep, because frankly, it leads to less sleep.

So, in these wee morning hours, I’ll reveal my latest love….

colored couches!

…and if you follow me on Facebook, you’ll know I’ve considered painting my couch a color.

I sort of want to keep you all in suspense though, because I’m sure most of you will think I’m crazy,

and I might be.  I swore I would never paint fabric on furniture again, but alas, I am cheap, and paint is so much cheaper than fabric.

So, enjoy the tufted, velvet goodness in these pictures.

If I do choose to paint the couch, it will obviously not be velvet (I might add a couple tufted buttons), but it will be a bold color!

My Cakies

Hindsvik on Etsy

 Apt Therapy

 Vintage Revivals

A Beautiful Mess

 A Beautiful Mess

 Bright Bazaar

Well, since I really can’t keep my own secrets, the picture above it what I want to try. Not the pink…just painting the couch green. The current upholstery is straight out of the 80′s, so I really only have some paint $ to loose right?

…and time, but who counts that?

Hey everyone,

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there and I hope you’re all having a great weekend!

We are still in the middle of packing, yard selling, showing the house etc… but we are supposed to start moving things up the end of this week!

Thanks for stopping by Monday Funday. We love seeing all of your creativity and hope that you are inspired by all of the creatively that is linked up!

I shared my featured DIY round-up earlier this week, so be sure to check that out!

Welcome to Monday Funday!

Every Monday you can link up your crafts / DIY Ideas / recipes to not just one, but Five SIX awesome blogs:

C.R.A.F.T. // Lines Across // Uncommon Designs // That’s What Che Said // Creatively Living //

& our newest co-host:

Finding Home

That’s right, SIX instead of 5 blogs! Here’s the deal, we decided it would be FUN to add a 6th rotating hostess to the Monday Funday crew! That’s 6x the exposure! So, ONE crafty link party extravaganza will happen on SIX blogs. Plus, each week one of us will choose projects to feature on all six blogs.

We will also be sharing links throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can follow the Monday Funday party tweets at #MondayFundayParty !

This week’s features are being picked by our guest co-host, Laura of Finding Home

Well it sure has been fun co-hosting with this lovely and fun group of ladies – it is hard to imagine it has already been 6 weeks! Thank you so much ladies for including me!

This week, my co-hosts have been so gracious to ask me to share a few things about me and my blog.

My blog is all about the journey we are all on to making our homes a reflection of ourselves and our families – and what we find along the way. I share decorating ideas, projects and stories of our lives here in the Hudson Valley of NY.

Our home is traditional in style, with a whole of vintage touches and just a little hit of modern elements.

We have a farmhouse style kitchen that truly is the heart of our home..

I am always decorating a mantel..

Or working on a project…

I would love if you stopped by at findinghomeonline.com

or you can find me here!

Grab a FEATURED button if you were featured here this week or in the past:

If you don’t already, follow us all on Twitterfollow:

@thecraftblogfollow // @linesacrossfollow // @uncommondesignsfollow // @chesayscherylfollow //@katiegoldsworthfollow //@LPatFindingHomefollow

We always tweet our favorite features from the party with the hashtag #mondayfundaypartyfollow. Use#mondayfundaypartyfollow and we will retweet you! And now it’s par-tay time!

A Few Things to Remember:

• Please link to a specific post on your blog.
• We’d love for you to pin the features, but please click through to the tutorial and pin from the original source!
• By linking up to to Monday Funday you are giving the 6 blogs, listed above, the right to feature one of your photos on all of our SM outlets and blogs.
• Click on lots of links and leave some comment love on posts you adore! That puts the FUN in Monday Funday!

Hey everyone!

Well, since my life is chuck-full of cleaning and house showings, and current projects are on the back-burner,

I thought I would do a round-up of my fave DIY posts that were linked up from the Monday Funday party.

So enjoy the creativity that follows…

1. The Happy Housie’s “spring-i-fied” living room.

2. How to make a Countertop out of Wood Flooring by Domestic Imperfection.

3. Playroom Makeover by Love Grows Wild

4. How to Install a Stone Patio by Design, Dining and Diapers.

5. Dinning Room Reveal by Remodelando la Casa

6. Industrial Pulley Cord Light by Charming Zebra

7. Faux Subway Tile by Sweet Parrish Place

8. DIY Hanging Planter by Northstory

9. Design Dreams by Anne’s Bathroom Renovation.

10. Vintage Family Photo Gallery by La Maison Jolie

11. Creative Raisins’ Dresser Remake

I hope you’re all having a great week…..I’m off to show the house again for the 17th time (reality, not sarcasm)!

Hey everyone!

Thanks for coming by Monday Funday! I’m excited to see what you’ve all been up to!

Sorry I’m late! I have showed my house three times today and forgot to push publish!

I started packing this week and it’s been pretty crazy around here.  How did I acquire all of this stuff?  Why can’t I seem to get rid of more of it?  Have ya’ll had these sorts of problems before?

Well I’m looking forward to seeing all of your creativity! I’ll let Trish and Bonnie show you their picks for features…

Welcome to Monday Funday!

Every Monday you can link up your crafts / DIY Ideas / recipes to not just one, but Five SIX awesome blogs:

C.R.A.F.T. // Lines Across // Uncommon Designs // That’s What Che Said // Creatively Living //

& our newest co-host:

Finding Home

That’s right, SIX instead of 5 blogs! Here’s the deal, we decided it would be FUN to add a 6th rotating hostess to the Monday Funday crew! That’s 6x the exposure! So, ONE crafty link party extravaganza will happen on SIX blogs. Plus, each week one of us will choose projects to feature on all six blogs.

We will also be sharing links throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can follow the Monday Funday party tweets at #MondayFundayParty !

Now you guys were amazing last week! We are always blown always by your incredible talent and this week was no exception. Here are some of our favorite DIY projects and recipes….

Fabric Backed Bookshelves by The Blissful Bee Blog

Rope Curtain Tie Backs by Cottage in the Oaks

Vintage Painted Mason Jars by Live, Laugh, Rowe

Barnwood Coffee Table by Picked and Painted

Washi Tape Plant Markers by Ann-Kay Home

Swimsuit Cake Topper by the Crafty Blog Stalker

Springtime Ripple Stitch Blanket by Happy in Red

Skinny Fruit Dip by My Mommy Style

Spinach Artichoke Turkey Melt by Home Made Modern

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever by Whistile and Ivy

Grab a FEATURED button if you were featured here this week or in the past:

follow

If you don’t already, follow us all on Twitterfollow:

@thecraftblogfollow // @linesacrossfollow // @uncommondesignsfollow // @chesayscherylfollow //@katiegoldsworthfollow //@LPatFindingHomefollow

We always tweet our favorite features from the party with the hashtag #mondayfundaypartyfollow. Use#mondayfundaypartyfollow and we will retweet you! And now it’s par-tay time!

A Few Things to Remember:

• Please link to a specific post on your blog.
• We’d love for you to pin the features, but please click through to the tutorial and pin from the original source!
• By linking up to to Monday Funday you are giving the 6 blogs, listed above, the right to feature one of your photos on all of our SM outlets and blogs.
• Click on lots of links and leave some comment love on posts you adore! That puts the FUN in Monday Funday!

The other day at church, our pastor had a service on “No-Regret Living”. It was a good message. Don’t look back and regret how you parented, don’t look back and regret what you did financially, don’t look back and regret that you never took risks etc…

I thought to myself, these are all good reminders for me,…. except for the “risk” part, because you see, John (my husband) and I don’t seem to have much fear of taking “risks”.  I’m sure our parents would say that we jump on board for risks frequently. Risks of driving ourselves crazy with what we have taken on!

For starters, we have 5 children. Wouldn’t trade that for the world, but that is above most people’s comfort level.  We have decided to home-school the older three (this is a semester to semester decision, and I usually have a slight break down every semester swearing to never do it again), but again, more than most people would decide to take on.

John himself is a no-fear sort of guy. He was an infantry officer for 10 years (before feeling lead to be a chaplain). He jumped out of planes with guns for a living!

All this to say…we have no problem being a little NUTS!

So, my prayer when making big decisions is usually this:

Dear God, you made us how we are for a reason. Now please open and close doors and save us from ourselves if need be!

It’s funny, but true, and COUNTLESS times God has done just that,…saved us from ourselves. Saved us from getting into stupid situations that would have required hours and hours of work and money for a time and place that just wasn’t meant to have our hours of work and money!

As most of you know, we are moving to a new city for my husband’s job. I’ve known this move was a very real possibility for awhile now, and therefore I began stalking the MLS in any decently close-to-his-work neighborhood awhile back.  When I first started looking,  there was a house listed that I was intrigued by, due to it’s fantastic location and really low price! I called the listing agent and he informed me that it was an estate sale and that they were selling all five of their properties together. I dismissed the idea of ever getting one and told him that if they decided to sell them individually, to give me a call.

Time went on, and for awhile the job up north seemed to be on hold,  we were even offered a great job where we live now, but felt that God was telling us to move to the city up north, and to take a job at a small church there. So my hunt for a house began again. To my surprise the five houses had fallen out of their first escrow and were on the market again.

Now these houses are in a great area and directly across from a very popular park, and they were listed at such a low price that I just kept thinking that there must be some major structural problems with them (at least the really low priced one that I was interested in).

So once again, we asked if they would sell one, or maybe two of them together, but we heard no answer from the selling party. We also started to find out more information from our Realtor that had been through the houses. We found that although the houses were 107 years old, and had been used as rentals for a long time, there was nothing majorly wrong with 4 out of the 5.

So, I prayed my prayer, and told our Realtor to send in an offer for the two lowest priced houses. I figured they would say no, but to my surprise they said yes!

Now keep in mind, we had not even seen the inside of these! One of the bottom tenants was nice enough to let us in, but we lived over two hours south and the seller’s Realtor couldn’t get us in very easily when we were in the area.

Time went on, things seemed to be working out. Loan approvals, inspections (that were far better than I expected), tenant contracts, etc…  and I just kept praying, “God, do what you want. If you don’t want us here, have it not work out.”  But…it kept working out.

So here we are, …two weeks away from closing. One month into escrow (long escrow huh?), and I’m finally feeling secure enough to tell you all about it, and show you a picture.

I know, it’s a crazy bad MLS picture…with a car I blurred out to protect the current tenants privacy.

Bad picture or not though….you get the idea. It’s very old. It’s incredibly small for our family. They unfortunately have taken a lot of the original character out through the years…but it has three porches, some of it’s original charm, and the location is great!

I had planned on including other pics, but I’m worried since we don’t own the houses yet. They are very particular about us not disturbing the tenants, so I’ll keep it at this.

I am EXCITED to get in there and start ripping carpets out!

Until then, I’ll probably be posting some round-up posts on my renovation hopes. I started the massive packing process yesterday and I instantly felt like I needed to go take a nap!

That is very unlike me, but it’s obvious I feel pretty overwhelmed by the entire process!

I used to really like moving, but we have been in this house for almost six years, and we now have five kids. It’s a whole different ball game!

I’ll be keeping you all informed! Send me good packing (and parting with things) prayers, thoughts, luck!

Hey everyone!

I hope you’re all having a fantastic weekend! This past three weeks have been crazy! The hubs has been away at work, and the 5 kiddos and I have cleaned the house and started to show it as a rental. It’s going really well, but has been totally wild!

I’m going to make this short and sweet, because I have another showing in a hour. Thanks so much for coming to Monday Funday! We love seeing what you’ve been up to. You are incredibly talented and I’m so inspired by you each week!

Welcome to Monday Funday!

Every Monday you can link up your crafts / DIY Ideas / recipes to not just one, but < del >FIVE SIX awesome blogs:

C.R.A.F.T. // Lines Across // Uncommon Designs // That’s What Che Said // Creatively Living //

& our newest co-host:

Finding Home

That’s right, SIX instead of 5 blogs! Here’s the deal, we decided it would be FUN to add a 6th rotating hostess to the Monday Funday crew! That’s 6x the exposure! So, ONE crafty link party extravaganza will happen on SIX blogs. Plus, each week one of us will choose projects to feature on all six blogs.

We will also be sharing links throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can follow the Monday Funday party tweets at #MondayFundayParty !

It’s my week this week to pick features! Can I just say that you are all pure awesomesauce in my book! Oh-my-goodness are you all talented! I am so inspired by you all and I know I can say that we all are so excited that you join us week after week! I’m sending you all high fives and knuckle bumps! Oh who am I kidding…I’m sending you all hugs! I am a hugger! On to the features I had the honor of putting together! Some super fabulous desserts that you will NOT want to miss!

 

It’s my first week back from SNAP and I am feeling a bit Bananas so how about some banana desserts?

Banana Pudding Mason Jars from The Wandmaker’s Mother

Banana Cream Pie from A Lil Clareification

Banana Nut Bread from Hickory Trail Blog

Peanut Butter Banana Wonton Bites from Lemon Tree Dwelling

Reese’s Banana Bread Monkey Cake Pops from Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons

Now let’s move onto some Strawberry Desserts! Y-U-M! One of my favorites!

Strawberry Cheesecake Bars from A Pumpkin & A Princess

Strawberries and Cream Crunch Parfaits from Steak-N-Potatoes Kinda Gurl

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream from Chocolate, Chocolate and More

Strawberry Bread with Lemon Honey Butter from I Should be Mopping the Floor

Strawberry Shortcake Mason Jars from The Wandmaker’s Mother

Strawberries & Cream Trifle from Silver Boxes

Strawberry Cake from Todd & Lindsey

Lemon is such a fresh dessert flavor…here are some awesome ones to try!

Lemon Fluff Freezer Cookies from Shaken Together

Lemon – Raspberry Phyllo Tarts from Lemon Tree Dwelling

Mini Lemon Dream Pies from the Taylor House

Mini Lemon Cheesecakes from Chocolate, Chocolate and More

Brownie & Ice Cream Tower from Dieters Downfall

Oreo Trifle from My Snippets of Inspiration

Skinny Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip from All About the Details

S’mores Shake from Craft Quickies

Triple Chocolate Vanilla Trifle from Just a Girl and Her Blog

Grab a FEATURED button if you were featured here this week or in the past:

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If you don’t already, follow us all on Twitter:

@thecraftblog // @linesacross // @uncommondesigns // @chesayscheryl // @katiegoldsworth //@LPatFindingHome

We always tweet our favorite features from the party with the hashtag #mondayfundayparty. Use#mondayfundayparty and we will retweet you! And now it’s par-tay time!

A Few Things to Remember:

• Please link to a specific post on your blog.
• We’d love for you to pin the features, but please click through to the tutorial and pin from the original source!
• By linking up to to Monday Funday you are giving the 6 blogs, listed above, the right to feature one of your photos on all of our SM outlets and blogs.
• Click on lots of links and leave some comment love on posts you adore! That puts the FUN in Monday Funday!

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Hey everyone!

Well the last 3 weeks have been crazy! The hubs has been gone doing army work out of state (I’m picking him up tomorrow THANK GOODNESS!).  Then there is this escrow process we are in…so paperwork and gathering paperwork is a frequent task, and then I felt I needed to clean this place and get it ready to show as a rental (which resulted in 8 showings in the past few days!). OMGosh is all I can say. Don’t do these things with 5 little kids! It was insane! Ok enough whining!…

….on to my new spring pillows!

So here’s the deal. We’ve had this house finished since last August, and I figured I would work on projects to sell and for others while I waited for a new house….what I realized  is that I don’t really love doing projects to sell. Projects for friends are fine, especially if I’m working on them with a friend, but projects to sell bore me, and then they sit there unfinished forever, or I have to do two of the same project (Heaven forbid!)  I realized that I really only like putting a room together……who would have thought! (sarcasm)

So…..I have not done many projects lately, except for friends. I’ll post on that a bit later.  I didn’t want to put any more money into decor for this house, since we’ll be moving in less than a month, so I tried to be very particular about how much time and money I spent on spring decor.

So most of what you’ve seen so far for spring decor has been made from what I already had around, or maybe from a yardsale find or dollar section item, but there was something I knew I had to spend a little on….material for new spring PILLOWS!

I needed something to make me love my living space again,

and some bright, fun material in a graphic print was just the thing!

I’m loving all the big print graphics people are using. I don’t live in an area with a ton of material choices, and I’m over chevron, so I was happy when I found this fun print.

I already had the green material, and the black and white pillow was from my living room reveal, but I needed some material that said “modern” to give my living room some new life!

Now I was ready to spend a little on material, but not much, so I used material that I had purchased a couple years ago to cover piping and for the back of the pillow. This way I only had to purchase around a yard or less of new material.  I sewed the pillow covers as envelope covers, but I think I’ll add three buttons where the material meets in the back so that they can be reversible.

I kept to greens and yellows this year for spring. I’ll show you this little nest project next.

So there ya have it. This will keep me happy until the next place. New spring pillows are always a treat when you love to decorate.

Hope you’re all doing good!