I’ve mentioned in previous posts that our backyard is a work in progress.  It’s a pretty big yard and in order to get it to look the way we ultimately want it to look  it has to be done in (many) stages.  I think it’s important for you all to know I’m no different than anyone else, there is no endless budget and there are always concessions to be made.  This year it was not being able to afford new outdoor furniture.

This is what the back patio looked like last year.

Don’t get me wrong I was happy with it and it was my style at the time but I don’t think it was totally my husband’s style and my style is also changing (yea shocker!)

Also the furniture doesn’t seem to be standing the test of time and started to look like this by the end of last year.

No matter how much I oiled it, it just wasn’t aging well.  Replacing it wasn’t in the budget so my obvious choice would have to do.  PAINT!

I’m going to hold off on showing you the other half for another post but there are lots of photos of the table to share!

First off the paint I used was Behr Premium Plus Ultra from Lowes which is an outdoor satin primer/paint in one and seriously no joke this paint was the best.  I don’t have a lot of time these days and I swear to you I only had to put one coat on the furniture with just a few touch ups, that seriously never happens!

The colors I used were Spice and Broadway by Behr.

To set the table I didn’t buy a thing, it was all things I had around the house already.  The dishes are from the Dollar Store…yep.  We keep them in our bar area in the basement.

The bottle of port was a gift from a friend that I turned into a working lantern by just buying a wick and small hurricane.   The white lantern is from ZGallerie that was originally bright white and I sprayed it off white.

I love using flowers from the yard and individual ones near each place setting are even better!

I also love flowers that don’t look arranged, the sloppier the better!  The napkins are paper left over from Sloan’s birthday party.  (Told you I spent no money.)

We broke in the new look last weekend and it was a hit!  I’m hoping to spend a lot more time out here this summer!

This weekend was a super busy one, we celebrated Sloan’s birthday and mine, Father’s Day and this little babe turned 8 months old!

Cooper is having so much fun this summer!  He’s been swimming in his own little pool last week (loved it)!  He’s soooo close to crawling but still manages to get to where he needs to go by rolling.  I think next month will be the month my life gets busy chasing him down!

He is curious about everything, I mean everything!  He wants to touch and hold and destroy everything and that includes putting it in his mouth and trying to eat it.  He’s eating 3 meals a day now and has started to eat real food like mushed up peas and watermelon and wheat toast.  The boy likes to eat!

(One – Three Months)

He’s talking to us alot more but when he’s around new people he gets super quiet.  He readily goes to them but doesn’t show too much emotion about it and occasionally will look at me as to say, is this person ok mom?  Smiles are sometimes hard to get when new people meet him for the first time but snuggles are easily given.

(Four – Five Months)

He’s wearing  6 – 9 month old clothes but is happiest only in his diaper.  He’s outgrown his bassinet I used in the kitchen but we’ve added a jumper that is attached to the door,  which he loves being in.  He’s sleeping through the night and taking 2 good naps, but we did have a few rough nights this month because I think he’s getting his top 2 teeth.

(Six – Seven Months)

Now that Sloan is done with school for the summer, the two of them have become pretty much joined at Sloan’s hip!  She’s been a big help and I love that she enjoys spending so much time with him.

I cannot wait to see what this next month brings!  I love this little pumpkin so much!!!

]]> http://housetoyourhome.com/2013/06/17/eight-months/feed/ 2 http://housetoyourhome.com/2013/06/14/happy-birthday-sloan/ http://housetoyourhome.com/2013/06/14/happy-birthday-sloan/#comments Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:30:15 +0000 House to your Home http://housetoyourhome.com/?p=9211 Continue reading …]]>

I wanted to wish my favorite girl in the world an early Happy Birthday.  Her actual birthday is tomorrow. (We share a birthday!) I tell her every year that she is and always will be my very best birthday present ever!  I also give her a hard time and tell her everyone forgot to wish me a Happy Birthday on the day that she was born!

After being an only child for so long she’s turned out to be the very best big sister to Cooper.  I love seeing them together and I love how excited he gets when she walks into the room.

I’m so proud of the person she is becoming.  The girl is seriously one of the funniest people I know.  She finished her freshmen year in high school recently and I’m so blown away at how great she did, she surpassed my expectations!  She worked super hard and got grades I never came close to getting when I was her age.  She was class secretary and made a lot of new friends that I happen to really like, I mean how great is that!

She made the freshmen volleyball team and even got to play a few games for varsity towards the end of the year.  The girl loves the game so much, I don’t think she’s ever once complained about going to practice, in fact between high school and club she has a few weeks off and she misses not playing,  It’s awesome to see your kid be so passionate about something!

She also cheered for basketball season and had a blast, she’s been cheering for 3 years now and she’s happiest when she’s performing in the front row of course!

I feel so lucky that I am her mom and have enjoyed every single moment and every single milestone.  I hope she has a terrific 15th birthday and that the next year will be even better than the last!

I love you pussycat!!!   xo Momma <3

It honestly doesn’t get any simpler than this quick and easy project.  I did it while Cooper was napping along with about 100 other things.

I got the outdoor pillow from Garden Ridge for $7.99.

The 3 inch embroidered  “J” monogram cost about $1.40 after my 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby.

I just followed the instructions which is basically to iron the letter onto the fabric (use a thin towel for over the top) and about 2 minutes later it was done.

Here’s how it looks outside.

Do you notice that maybe I painted my outdoor furniture?  Well I did and hopefully I’ll finish all of it by the end of the summer to give you the full reveal!  That’s right always keeping you coming back!!

I wish painting an entire back yard of furniture was as easy as my pillow!

Sorry I’ve been gone a few days, I’ve been super busy with my daughter finishing up school, my husband traveling and my baby boy teething.

(Don’t let the cuteness fool you…teething is no fun!)

I haven’t been sitting around eating chocolates (I wish) though, I’ve been working on making my blog better and doing a lot of research into how I can go about doing that.  Once I’m done and hopefully successful I promise to share with you how I went about doing it.

As I’ve mentioned before House to your Home has been changed to Laurie Jones Home, you can still get to my blog with the old url but now you can also get here through lauriejones.com.

I’m excited about this next step with the blog and sharing with you all small and easy tips on how you can make your house the best it can be one small step at a time!

Cooper isn’t crawling although he is able to maneuver around pretty great with a series of his awesome rolls but before he starts walking I decided I needed to get rid of my coffee table in our living room.

Honestly, I kept having nightmares about Cooper hitting his head on the corner of that marble.

I went with the typical new parent choice, a “leather” ottoman from Target’s Threshold collection, there’s lot of cushion for head diving and it can be easily wiped off in case of sticky fingers.

I love how there is a shelf on the bottom for books.

(Group like items together, I didn’t even realize I had multiple keys until recently, I love when that happens!)

Now I know the tray isn’t going to last for a long time on the coffee table but it’s easily removable.

You might notice I have 2 leather pieces in the living room,  the coffee table and the chair and it’s bugging me so the chair is being moved to another room.  I’m replacing it with a wing back chair I bought forever ago at the Salvation Army for $40.00 I just need to find some new fabric to have it reupholstered.

Other than the new coffee table and putting plugs in the outlets I don’t plan on really doing too much more to baby proof the room, I guess I’m old school and believe my house shouldn’t have to change dramatically just because there is a baby in the house.  What about you do you baby proof?

If you follow me on instagram you already know that my daughter, Sloan and I went to the Indie Arts & Vintage Marketplace in Indianapolis.  We had alot of fun, lots of great booths and even better food trucks!

Sloan was all about the clothes and of course I was all about the home stuff.

(Sorta mad at myself for passing this coffee cup holder up but for $95.00 I just couldn’t pull the trigger!)

(I’m a fan of all things rusted and have loved cobalt blue since my first house almost 20 years ago!)

I don’t think you can ever make a mistake if your inner voice is screaming to you to purchase something for your home.  I fight that voice all the time, I’ll even visit things I love sometimes many times before pulling the trigger and buying it or worse having it swiped up by someone else.

I visited this table three times before I bought it and here’s the thing it was only $20.00, less than what I paid for our lunch!  Seriously what is wrong with me?

I’m so happy I bought it and I love it in my living room!

This is our first full week of summer vacation so I’m hoping to schedule some fun this week!!

I gotta admit I’m not a fan of gnomes, would probably never buy one in a million years but this little man was also an ugly Christmas present given to my daughter as a joke just like the owl.

The gnome got the same coat of gold spray paint as the owl.  As you can see from the photo I used Rustoleum’s Ultra Cover 2x.

He’s hidden in the flowers in my front yard and last night I saw that some of the kids from my neighbor had found the gold gnome and were laughing and pointing at it.  Mission accomplished!!

Sometimes things for your home should just be fun!

Hope you all have a great weekend!  If you want to see what I’m up to please follow me on instagram at laurie_jones_home, I’m planning on doing something fun!

Our back porch is pretty small, I want to say approximately 9×9 and it’s also laid out a little awkward making furniture arrangement pretty tough.

Number 1 on my list was a rocking chair so I could rock my baby in the morning and the evening.  We got the rocking chair and cushion at Garden Ridge.  The pillow is from Target and the throw is from Restoration Hardware that I bought years ago when they still sold things with color!  The garden stool was a steal that I bought a few years ago for $30.00 from Big Lots.  I have yet to find a stool anywhere near this price!  The rug is from Home Depot.  I love it and it gives a great little punch of color to the space and ties everything together.

I originally bought the silver falls for the boxwoods I bought for the front porch.  One of them ended up on my back porch.

The zinc planter was on my front porch last year.  I bought it from Crate and Barrel.  The owl was from Pier 1 and I’ve had him for years.

The wrought iron table is the table that refuses to go away but I did manage to buy new chairs and a new sunbrella umbrella to match the rug.  The pillows are from Walmart.

As you can see the back porch was done on a budget and were mainly items I already owned.  This small space is quickly becoming my favorite place!

My daughter and her godfather have a Christmas tradition to try and out do the other one with the ugliest gift.  This year my daughter received this ugly ceramic owl with scary creepy eyes!

Never one to throw away any sort of ceramic animal, I did the easiest and most predictable thing I could think of.  I sprayed it with spray paint.  Gold spray paint.  He’s tiny and I think he might be for out in the garden but he ended up looking fabulous in my daughter’s room on her new side table.

Sloan loves that she can show her godfather that her owl was anything but ugly because that means she wins!  Crazy how a teenager likes to win right?

Like I always say interior design doesn’t have to be a huge project it can be as easy as getting out a can of spray paint you already own and giving something you have laying around a new look!  I promise the little things have a way of adding up!!