Spring Into Easter!

Spring is one of my favorite times of year!  I love seeing the birds hopping around my yard, the little buds that start to bloom, longer days of sunlight and the fresh colors that seem to start popping out all over (we're supposed to get a nor'easter today, but we won't think about that right now!).  How can you not be cheerful!  Spring just screams "new life"!  

Spring is also the time of year that we celebrate Easter--the sacrifice of love that God gave us through His son, Jesus Christ, through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.  While I don't love the commercialization of this holiday, I do love the time spent with family and the traditions that bring us together.  My family has always had the tradition of dying Easter eggs, and this year, my husband and I along with my parents, had the privilege of sharing it with our foster munchkins.  While I cannot share any pictures of the kiddos enjoying the experience, I can show you the results, and they are terrific!

We always start by making the "dye"--a concoction of boiling water, food coloring and apple cider vinegar.  We made yellow, green, blue, red and purple dye for our eggs.

 

Once the dye is made, you can either jump right in and start dipping your eggs or get creative with a crayon.  We also like to combine colors to make them richer and more eye popping.  None of that shrink wrap stuff for us!

 

 

The wax from a crayon will not let the dye penetrate and can make some really cool effects on your eggs.  Here's a few of my favorites!

 

 

I also like what the dye does to the paper towels, so I took a picture.  Isn't it pretty!  I call it Easter egg tie dye!

 

 





Altogether, we created 18 Easter eggs, while having a wonderful family night of fun.  Here's our finished product!  Didn't they turn out splendiferously!

 

 

 

This is one "Blessed Nest" that is now full of eggs!  Yep, I went there!  Wishing you all a "happy Easter, happy spring, happy, happy everything!"

 

Blessings,

 

Megan

 



 

 

The New Shelves Reveal

As promised in my post from yesterday, here is the reveal of my new bathroom storage shelves!  I started having second thoughts at the end of my post yesterday, but I'm so glad that I followed through with my spur of the moment project!

Here's the before pic of the tall white shelf that has been removed and given a new home in a spare bedroom for now...

 

And here's the after pic!  It's so much more spacious now and I am planning to start searching for the perfect chair, stool or table to put in the corner for some additional counter/storage space.  Shucks, I guess I'll just have to go shopping--after all, yard sale season is right around the corner!

 

 

Here's the before pic of where the new shelves are now residing...

 

 

And now, drum roll please...here's the after pic of the new shelves!  I'm so pleased with how they turned out and I'm sure that I will rearrange them again and again before I'm totally satisfied with the "pretty" part.  For now, they will provide a lot of needed storage and function. 

 

 

 

I wish that I could give you a better idea of how they look over the toilet, but, like I said, my downstairs bathroom is teeny tiny and I was fortunate to get these shots!  My munchkins were laughing at me all scrunched up in the corner taking pictures of the toilet nook!  Maybe they were right...  It is pretty funny from their perspective!

 

Blessings,

 

Megan



 





Oops, I Did It Again!

As I mentioned in a previous post, the "spring bug" is alive and well and currently residing at my house!  I started a spring cleaning regime today that got halted when I saw how open and spacious my downstairs bathroom looked once I pulled everything out of it to wipe down the walls.  On a whim, I said to my husband, "wouldn't it be great if we could leave the tall shelf out of the bathroom all the time?  But where would we put everything?"  The wheels in my head started spinning... distraction strikes again!

My downstairs bathroom is teeny tiny and lacks storage of any kind.  Our solution when we first moved in was an extremely narrow, tall shelf from IKEA.  Here's how it's looked for the past several years. 

It has been great and would still work just fine, but I had such good luck with my last shelving project, that we decided to try shelves over the toilet so that we could open up this space a bit.

After a quick trip to Home Depot for more shelves and brackets, we are ready to let the shelving begin.  Here's a before picture of where we are planning to install the shelves.  It's a little nook above where the toilet sits. 

 

 

After we took down the picture and little shelf, my (very understanding and tolerant) husband started getting the wall ready for the brackets (isn't he cute)!

 

I have to admit that I'm a bit nervous about how it's all going to turn out, but there's no turning back at this point!  You'll have to tune in tomorrow for the reveal!

Blessings,

Megan



Fringe Benefits...Crafting Fun with Friends!

Stacey and I had the privilege of joining some fabulous new friends for a day of crafting fun today!  I knew that our project would be a bag/tote of some sort and I jokingly mentioned to Stacey that perhaps it would be this bag DIY that I've been drooling over since I saw it in a magazine a few months ago. 

I can't remember which magazine I saw it in, but after some research, I found out that it originated from the blog Under the Sycamore.  Check out the link for a full tutorial on how to create this simply sweet tote!  Now back to my story...

Sure enough...this (above) was one of our inspiration pics and I started getting a little giddy with excitement.  Our hostess, Melissa, had all kinds of fabric, paint and pom pom fringe laid out for us to start creating.  Of course she also had paint brushes, spray adhesive, canvas totes, sewing notions and other tools to work with.  Now, I absolutely love the bag pictured above, but the creative juices started flowing and I ended up creating my own version...

I fell in love with this beautiful yellow floral Waverly fabric that actually started out as a napkin.  The coral fabric was also from the napkin so I used it as an accent for my bag.

I created a ruffle and added some pom-pom fringe...

 

 

Of course, I couldn't forget the painted doily stencil (since that's what caught my eye in the first place) so I held my paper doily down and used white craft paint to achieve the desired effect.

 

Then I made a fun pinwheel ruffle to set it off...and added some more pom-pom fringe...and a cute vintage button (I added the button when I got home)...

 

 

And here is my finished product!  I am so pleased with how it turned out and I can't wait to start using it.  I always have so many things to carry to and from church (music, kiddo papers, Bible, etc...) so I think that I will start using it for that purpose.

 

 

Matter of fact, I had so much fun creating this bag that you just might see a few of these popping up for sale from the "Nest"!

 

Many thanks to Melissa, our wonderful hostess!  We had a blast meeting new friends, creating our beautiful bags and eating "Funeral Sandwiches" (check out the link for the recipe).  These things are so good that I would lick the floor to get the last drop--not kidding!  My only regret is that I did not get any pictures during the day, but there's always a next time!

 

 

Blessings,

 

Megan



 

 

 

 

 

 



Disorganized Organization

I think that the "spring bug" has struck me in such a way that I'm finding myself in the middle of several organization projects today.  You know how it can be....  a little like a wildfire.  You start in one room and as you're putting something away in another room, you realize that this drawer, etc... needs to be cleaned out too, and then, "Whoa Nelly,"  you've started a project in every room in your house.  I finally decided to take a break from what I'm referring to as my "disorganized organization" so that I can share it with you!

Before I start telling you about what I've been doing inside...here's what it's doing outside!

 

 

I do love a good overhaul of all the stuff our family seems to accumulate.  The "spring bug" actually struck yesterday (I think the oncoming snowstorm had something to do with it)!  My husband had the day off and we decided to make it a project day. 

The first thing on my list (minus the bedroom redo that I'm still in the middle of) was my mud room.  This room has become an everything room, including laundry, storage, craft supplies for me and the munchkins, filed papers, keeper of the chest freezer, dog kennel, kitty litter box and much more.  It has also been my nightmare because everything that does not have a home usually ends up there.  Our home was built in the early 1900's and lacks storage space to the extreme, so, after a trip to our local Home Depot, we created some shelving to help with "the stuff."

I originally thought that we'd just buy some brackets and a nice long board that we could cut to size and paint.  This was going to take several hours of letting paint dry, etc...  My husband suggested that we check out the pre-fab shelves in the back and I nearly fell over with relief when I found a wall full of white shelves at varying lengths and a selection of white brackets.  We happily left the store with three shelves, six brackets and some screws to attach it all.  Best of all, we spent less than $40 altogether and had a gift card to boot!  At home, it only took us about an hour to get it all up--what a difference it has made!

Once I got it all organized, I did have to fight the impulse to run out and buy all matching binders and baskets for the shelves.  That would have cost quite a bit of money and even though it would be really pretty, I needed the function more than the aesthetic today.  I used bins, baskets and binders that I already had on hand and am quite pleased that I now have a functional storage space for all of my craft items, filed papers, kid crafts and more!  I can always get the "prettifying" stuff later on, now that it's all organized!  Please note that I already had the tall white shelf on the left.

Here are some "Before's" of my other organization projects from today...

The junk drawer makeover--we all have one or more of these!

 

 

The chalkboard nook de-clutter!

 

 

Here's all the stuff, ready to sort on my dining room table.

 

 

BEWARE!!!!

Once you start going through your junk drawer, you tend to find things that you forgot about....

 

Like this pair of whatchamathingers that are apparently very important to my husband--I let him keep them, but I'm sure that they will find their way back to the drawer again :)

 

 

...and then there are some things that you don't even know what they are or where they came from.  "Hello garbage can!"

 

 

Now that I've finally gotten that out of my system....  Here are the "After's"...

 

 

It's still a junk drawer, but now it's a much more organized and efficient junk drawer.  My absolute must haves for a junk drawer include:  Scotch tape, packing tape, duct tape, scissors, matches, a candle lighter, a flashlight, pens, pencils, sharpies, safety pins and a pet hair remover roller.  I'm always grabbing for one of these items and love that they are all within quick reach.  I also find that the best location for my junk drawer is in the kitchen.

 

I know that my chalkboard nook really wasn't that bad....

 

 

...but it looks so much better now that all the piled up stuff has been removed and put away.

 

As I mentioned before, I was in the middle of several projects all at once--I'd like to say it's because I'm a super productive person who has the incredible ability to multi-task, but no...  it's really because I kept getting distracted.   Here's one of my "distraction" projects that started because of the junk drawer overhaul.

 

 

I have all these pesky cords, chargers, etc... that you have to keep for cameras, printers, TV hookups, etc...  I just never know where to put them and then I have no idea what their intended use is.  I pulled them all out of their hiding spots, put them each in a labeled baggie (I had to ask my husband several times "what is this cord for?"...) and gave them a new home in a bin labeled as such!

 

Today, my other distractions included making an organized meal plan for the month and prepping food for the next several day's worth of meals, filing and shredding paperwork that had started to pile up, folding and putting away laundry and writing this post (yes, this was a distraction too).  It's been a wonderfully disorganized day of organization--which led to getting more things accomplished than I had originally planned.  Now it's time to sit back with a cup 'o Joe, enjoy my organized surroundings and turn into a couch pumpkin!



 

Blessings!

 

Megan 

 

 

 

 



A Little Topsy and A Lot of Turvy

While Stacey and I were at a women's retreat in Sandy Cove, MD with our church (almost two years ago), we had some free time to go into the town and look around.  Of course, we headed straight for all of the glorious "antique and picker's find" shops and oh, did we find some goodies!  The reason I'm telling you this is because it's the background story for an inspiration piece that I just could not afford to buy, but never wanted to forget... 

This adorable little stool was worn and weathered and oh so pretty.  I just knew that some day I would be painting something in it's honor, so I snapped a picture and went on my way.  I have to say, this picture really doesn't do it justice.

Here I am, two years later, finally completing my vision!  I refer to them as Topsy Turvy and I think you'll agree that they're worn, weathered and wonderful!

Meet Topsy Turvy!

Topsy & Turvy

Topsy - Red Top & Bottom and White Seat

 

Topsy

Topsy

 

Turvy - White Top & Bottom and Red Seat

Turvy



Turvy

 

These girls have had endless coats of red and white paint, lots of distressing (and I mean lots) and a coat of Annie Sloan's Soft Wax to finish them off.  They were created to look like they were forgotten in a barn for years and years--we hope that they will find a new home in your nest! 

 

Buy them together as a pair for $40 or

buy them separately for $25 each! 

 

Facebook or e-mail us if you are interested! 

 

 

Blessings!

 

Megan

 

 

 

The Long Overdue Bedroom Redo, Part 1

I started scouting Pintrest and various DIY blogs at the end of 2012 for some bedroom redo inspiration and I have to say that this has been one of the longest redo's ever.  It's still not done, but by golly, at least it's started!  I've decided to do this post in 2 or 3 parts because it's been quite the process and it's still not over!  Everything is finally starting to come together and I'm really glad that I took my time finding the perfect pieces (I've been a little bit finicky, fickle & cheap on this journey).  My inspiration for this project started with an unattainable (because it was way too expensive) comforter set. 



Inspiration pic of the Sardinia Comforter set by Echo that I would not spend $200 on!  No, this is not my new room!

Even though I did not like the price tag, I loved the bright colors and cheerful "airy" quality that this set exuded.  Thus, my bedroom redo mission has been to make my room look like those gorgeous pictures you see in magazines that seem to suggest that spring is eternally outside your window. 

Today, I began my morning by putting the finishing touches on my "new to me" his and her
nightstands.  I had given them each several coats of "Antique White" by Glidden a few days ago, so all I needed to do was give them each a coat of Annie Sloan's Soft Wax (love this stuff) and put the hardware back on.

 



 

Viola!  I've decided to call them "Romantic Romeo & Juliet" since they are going in my

master bedroom.

 

 

Why yes, I did wax them on top of my dining room table!

 

You would think that my favorite thing about these nightstands is their curvy legs and pretty hardware, but no--I'm in love with the cut glass tops for these beauties! I see no more cup rings on my husband's nightstand in my future!  

 

After I finished with the nightstands and put them in my room, I dug out my doily collection (yes, I did say doily collection) and picked out a few pretties to be ironed and starched for my recreated space. 

 

 

I was the blessed recipient of a large quantity of doilies from my Grammie when she moved from her house to an apartment.  There is some serious history and craftsmanship involved with each one of these beautiful pieces.  Most of them have been handmade by my Grammie, great grandmother, friend of great grandmother, etc...  I'm so glad that I am able to continue their story in my new room.  

 

I can't wait for you to see how everything is coming together, however, I still have a few things to find and paint so you'll have to be patient for now.  In the meantime, I'll give you a few hints about what else is in store.

 

 

 

I painted this wooden pedestal dish in "Antique White" by Glidden, lightly distressed and finished with Annie Sloan's
Soft Wax.  Don't ya just love this too!

I also have a surprising pop of color on the horizon to give accent to my whites and greens.  It involves a feathered friend!  Can you guess what it is?  Bet ya can't!

 

 

Wishing you blessings,

 

Megan