our homeschool room

this room has evolved a lot over the last year. it began as a craft room/play room at the beginning, but now is where we do a lot of our homeschooling too.  the room is filled with lots of books that i had from my teaching days, plenty of art supplies and some vintage classroom furniture.

i have a thing for old school furniture and items.  the table and chairs were my first purchase off of craigslist.  we needed this.  everything in the room existed before we began homeschooling, but i needed a place were we could all sit and work on things.  i was tired of sitting on the floor!

the vintage map was a birthday gift from my friend, Mandy, which is one of my most favorite gifts ever!  it's my favorite item in the room!  the bins below the map is where all of our art supplies are tucked away.

we have lots of puzzles and games we play with!

the vintage desk is a find i found at the flea market, my friends were selling it.  i think it called my name when i saw it..."melissa, you need to buy me!" i did.

i love my large bulletin board! i almost need a bigger one!  the whiteboard is filled with the new grammar we are learning each week, which is apart of our classical conversations program.

goodbye summer, hello fall

September always marks the changing of seasons for me...
the leaves begin to change colors
there's a chill in the air in the evenings
and i'm usually scrambling to find a cozy sweater to wrap around me.

we just began our cool-down here.  it has been so hot up until a couple of days ago.  the other day, i was craving to get crafty and decided to make a new wreath for the front door.

i didn't want your typical fall wreath, probably because bright orange is my least favorite color. i decided to go more subtle, plus i couldn't pass up the burlap flowers when i saw them! i ended up not using the pine cones either.

it was simple, fun and makes me happy seeing it when i walk through the front door.

a beautiful mess

a couple of months ago, i was in Anthropologie. i rarely ever buy things from there because it is so overpriced, but i love to go in there for inspiration. however, i did leave with this beautiful tea towel.
i knew right away that i would not be using it as a towel, because who in their right mind buys a towel for $28. CRAZY! however, i knew that it was going to be artwork for my house.
i sewed a casing and used a dowel and ribbon to hang it on the wall.  i love it's vintage look!

i was reminded of my little towel-turned-wall art, yesterday morning at our MOPS meeting.  it's going to be our theme for next year...a beautiful mess!

sharing at...
tatertotsandjello

one day

on wednesday our kitchen looked like this...lots of demo.  and one day later, it looked like this.
 
the countertops were installed.  i know it might not seem that exciting to you, but i was thrilled!
 
we also started putting up the bead board on the backs of the walls. my new sink is one of my favorite additions.   i really wanted an apron-front sink, but it was out of my price range, but i'm very happy with my big sink.  it is so deep...i feel like i could bathe the kids in it! lots more work to be done...but i'm so blessed and happy to be to done with the demo and painting the cabinets.

working in the kitchen

here is the kitchen as it stands so far.

 the bottom cabinets have been painted gray. we still have to paint the doors and drawer fronts.

the upper cabinets were painted white, but you can see from the picture above, most of them are not painted because they are the ones that are being removed.

we picked out our stone. we went with silestone and it will be one big slab, no grout...hallelujah!

we picked out the pulls for the doors/drawers and corbels for the shelves.

and we ordered our sink.

lots of works to come, but i can't wait to see the finished product!

hello february!

i have a confession to make... my name is melissa and i'm addicted to my chalkboard.

i could doodle for hours.  i often doodle ideas on paper and then draw them on one of my chalkboards.

i have 3 chalkboards in my house...see, i told you i have a problem.

there is just something so relaxing to me about drawing.  i learned how to draw scrolls and banners in 5th grade and i still like making them.  thanks to my art teacher, i still have some of those art skills i was taught!

i still can't believe it's february!  it seems like this month is going to fly by.   what about you?

hello December

i've decided that it would be fun to do this for the month of December...

and here is my pic for today...

if you came over, you would see it hanging on the dining room wall.

i just love boxwood wreaths, more so than evergreen wreaths.

it's just simple and pretty...two things i love.

a new coat rack

my man has been busy making us a coat rack for our family room.

i wanted a place to hang some of our coats in our family room. i also wanted a place to display some of my favorite pictures and some artwork.

i'm very thankful that i have such a handy guy and one who doesn't mind helping me with home projects!

our little guy's room

i've been working on our little guy's room for awhile now. i still have a few things i want to do with it, but it is almost complete.

the room has gone from linen white walls to bright white and one grey wall.

i wanted to decorate his room with something that wasn't typical for a boy's room. although, he would probably have loved a room all decked out in cars, trains, etc. i wanted something that was more unique for him.

the bed frame i bought online from Target. it was white and i painted it red.

i found fabric that had bicycles and wheels on it and created a chevron design for the quilt. my amazing mom made my vision come to life by making the quilt.

i gathered some posters, pictures and made the "ride" string art for a simple gallery wall. i used old hangers to hang the pictures from.

i collected a bunch of old bicycle wheels from my sister, and used them as wall art. my wonderful husband hung them for me. i'm always asking him for help with unusual tasks and he never complains or tries to talk me out of my crazy ideas...thank you!

the wheels will be used to hang pictures or other important things from.

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tatertotsandjello
toomuchtime

painting & redecorating

at the beginning of August, i painted most of the basement and laundry room. our basement is primarily our arts & crafts room. there are still some toys in the room, but it is mostly for us to work on projects, homework and just be creative in. it's probably my favorite place in the house. it's where i can be creative.

since, it is the basement, i lightened up the walls with a bright white paint and have one accent wall that is robin's egg blue.

 i wanted lots of wall space for displaying artwork that would allow me to change it up frequently. i found the shelves at Ikea.

all of my walls are still in progress. i have a lot more things to hang and make.  do you think there is a job for a professional wall art hanger?  call me crazy, but i love coming up with different ways to hang wall art and pictures!

this is my favorite wall so far.  i made the sun painting out of an old pallet and painted on the sun.
also, i cover an old frame mat with vintage fabric and then hung it using some fishing line and a vintage hanger to be my frame for the butterfly artwork.    the picture of me is from when i did the Color Run.  i'm hoping to add one of my little lady and i after we do the Color Me Rad 5K race in September.

i always have art supplies out and ready for my kids to use.

lastly, here is the laundry room. we hung shelves over the washer and dryer and added some storage cabinets too.

the only thing i purchased for this project was the paint. everything else i already had down in the basement, but it all got rearranged!  the last thing i want to do is have an electrician install more lights in my basement.  as you can tell from the no-so-great pictures, the lighting needs to improve.  and i still have to paint the guest bedroom that is in the basement too.  blah...blah...blah.  can you tell i'm tired of painting?

string art sign

did you ever do string art in elementary school?  it was one of my favorites.

i think my aunt JoAnn was the first one to introduce it to me. she was an artist and i loved spending time at her house! she passed away a couple of years ago and i miss her so much! she was like a second mom to me and our families are still very close.

as i was coming up with ideas for my little guy's room, i wanted to bring back string art. first, my man cut up some old pallets and nailed them together.

second, i printed out the word "ride" and used it as my template for where i would put the nails.

third, i hammered in the nails.

lastly, i used white crochet thread and wound it around the nails.

i hung it in my little guy's room and will show you what i put with it real soon.

linking up with...
 tatertotsandjello