One of my goals for 2013 was to sell my wrought iron furniture that I have owned foreverrrr!   As you can see from the photo above that isn’t going to happen this year. In the beginning of every year we put aside a certain amount of money for outside landscaping and projects and we reached our budget way before I even thought about my plans for our front parch.

The wrought iron is going to be around another year and so is a lot of other things.  Last year our backyard was decorated with a green color scheme.  This year my husband said no more green in the back but I wasn’t ready to get rid of some of the items I’d been using like the Pottery Barn outdoor pillows you see on the iron glider and my fan back chair.

I’d previously posted about the makeover I did on my fan back chair this year but I had to remove the cushion I made because it didn’t end up matching. (Hopefully I will use it next year when I hope there will be money in the budget to re do the front porch.

The console table came from the back patio. I was too lazy to re-paint it black so I decided to use it up front this year. The chalkboard is from the kitchen. I never really liked it in the kitchen and again I’m not ready to get rid of it so it’ll sit here this summer. The lanterns are also from the backyard.  The sun bleached them out quite a bit so I just gave them a few coats of black spray paint for metal to make them look new again.

I may spray this small wrought iron table like Janell of House of Fifty did a few weeks back but as of now it’s on the bottom of a very long outside to do list.  The chandelier was on my coffee table in the back patio last year.  The tray is one of a million I have sitting on my storage shelf I shop when I want to change things up.

This indoor table above was used on my back porch last year. It got a little scuffed up from the weather but I just gave it 2 light coats of the left over paint from last year. The owls plates were also on the coffee table. The candle holder is actually a recent purchase I bought a few months ago from Ikea. It’s another item that I had stashed away without a particular place for.

The monogrammed door hanger is from Southern Proper Monograms. I bought it for myself last Christmas. I wanted to hang something besides a wreath on my front door. I love it with a capital L!  (Oh and if you look closely you might be able to spot our dog Lilly in the side window!!)

Is this the front porch of my dreams…ummm no but it is a front porch I can definitely live with…at least for another year! Don’t be afraid to mix things up and switch things around, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is and how nicely it will work out for you!

I think his seven month photo explains my sweet baby more than I could ever explain his personality to you. He’s super happy and curious and a bit of a stinker and 100% boy.

This month like all the ones before have gone incredibly fast but as the months go on things are getting a bit easier. Sleep is the biggest plus this month and it seems that Cooper has fallen into a really good sleep pattern where he takes 3 naps per day and goes to bed around 8:30 and wakes up usually once to be nursed and will go right back to sleep.

He’s a bit more mobile this month and gets around by doing a series of rolling over to get where he wants. He is also the master at sitting up. We’ve retired the bumbo seat and he’s sitting in his high chair now at dinner time.

He is fascinated with cell phones, remote controls or anything any of us may be holding. He drinks water from a sippy cup during lunch and dinner time and is starting to get pretty good at it.

Speaking of lunch and dinner he’s tried a wide variety of foods but I think his favorite may be prunes but really there hasn’t been anything he’s hated and is eating more and more each day and I plan on adding breakfast into the routine this month.

He finally got his first tooth this month (bottom one) and it’s brought great relief for the time being. Another thing he loves to do is give big kisses I mean suck on your face and give mommy a hicky on her chin kind of kisses!

At his 6 months check up he was a whopping 17 pounds and he is wearing 6-12 month clothes. He is in the 64th% for his age. He took his immunization like a trooper and didn’t even cry a single tear.

The kid has us all wrapped around his little finger and knows it and has mastered the fake cry to a perfection. I’m so looking forward to many walks to the park and swinging him on the swings which we’ve started to do!

I can’t wait to spend time with him and Sloan this summer!!

This isn’t the most spectacular post but when you work as hard as we have over the last few weekends I have to post about it, even if it’s only for my husband and my enjoyment!

The main problem when you move into a new home is the landscaping or shall I rephrase that to the lack of landscaping.  As you know we’ve slowly been working for the last 3 years on projects outside to make the space look more inviting.

The simplest way to make your yard look put together in my opinion is mulch and mulch we did!

The front of house before…

See the orange line?  That’s krylon quik-mark inverted spray paint used to mark what you need to dig up and you can also get an idea of how things are going to look before you start digging and laying down the landscaping paper and mulch.  This spray paint is my husband’s best friend.  The spray is nice because you can tip the can completely upside down.

The front of the house after…

Here is the side of the house where left over rock and broken garden hoses came to die last year.

And after…

This is the front of the house near our garage before…

I had big plans for that tree stump but I gave up because we don’t have a chain saw to level it off and as much as I trust my husband I’m not quite sure if it’s a chain saw owning kind of trust.  So the tree stump got moved and replaced with fresh mulch.

As much as this wasn’t an oh my God before and after project it does show you that just a small thing like adding black mulch and cleaning up the outside of your house makes a huge difference to make  it much more inviting.

I’m not sure if we’ll add plants this year you’ll soon read about all the other projects we’ve worked on outside and I think we’ve reached our outdoor quota both financially and labor wise.  What fun is a yard if all you do is work in it right?

I hope you’ll take away that doing a little at a time is better then doing nothing because you can’t do it all at once.

One of the reasons I decided to work on Sloan’s room (again) is because the girl has a serious case of I’ve can’t throw anything out and her side tables without drawers weren’t cutting it.

I looked around at some of my thrift stores but couldn’t come up with 2 reasonably priced side tables so the next step was of course Ikea.

The Ikea rast is an obvious choice it’s cheap ($34.99) and there’s a million options.  If you’d like to see like a million ways you can customize the rast just click here.

The obvious before…

The makeover was super easy and pretty quick.  I decided Sloan needed a little natural wood and not so much painted furniture in her room so I decided to stain the sides with Cabot wood stain in dark walnut from Lowe’s and I painted the drawers with some paint I had in my stash.  Unfortunately I don’t remember the color but here’s a photo of the lid.  It’s a Martha Stewart paint sample.  It’s basically purple/plum color.

I also trimmed the drawers with gold rub n buff that I picked up at Hobby Lobby where I also picked out the green knobs that I paid $1.49 for because go figure they were 50% off.

The after…

If you look closely you might be able to see a sneak peek of her new bed too!

I’m hoping the weather stays nice we’re planning on putting out the outdoor furniture!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Now that the weather is finally getting nice we’ve been busy getting our yard ready for summer.  This past weekend I went to my local hardware store in Indianapolis that is quickly becoming one of my favorite go to gardening stores.  It’s called Sullivan Hardware, not only do they have the normal hardware stuff but like I said their gardening items are amazing and what I like best is their friendly customer service.  Don’t get me wrong I love Home Depot and Lowes but there is something to be said about the small town feel of the local hardware store!  (Not a sponsored post just my honest opinion.)

I picked up a few things while I was there, what caught my eye first were some potted flowers I ended up putting on my front porch.

Did you notice the container is made of moss!  Get this HGTV Home not only has a new home line out but they also have a beautiful plant collection!  If you go to their site you can find where they sell in your local area.  It’s worth checking out the flowers I saw by them were to die for.  (Not a sponsored post, just passing on the information!)

I also ended up buying some boxwoods for the front porch and decided just to go with the boxwood and not add anything to the planter.

I did do a few other things to the porch but I’m going to wait until the final reveal to show it off. (Sorry!)

In the backyard the main grunt work has been completed meaning the digging, the grading, the gravel, pea gravel and black mulch.  (You know the work I let Drew take care of!)

Here’s a better photo of the bocce ball court!  Pretty big isn’t it!?

I cannot wait to get back to the nursery to start picking out landscaping and then the fun part adding outdoor furniture and decorating! Let’s just hope Indianapolis doesn’t go from a super long winter to a scorching hot summer!

Last year our back patio looked like this…

This year my husband is looking for a change after doing some major work in the yard.  The bocce ball court is finished and the mulch and rock have been laid down into place and the next project left is to landscape the mulched areas and my favorite part of course is to decorate the space.

Here’s the thing my husband usually doesn’t have much of an opinion when it comes to decorating the house (except I can’t take the ceiling fan down in the master bedroom).  So when he said no more beige or neutral colors in the back yard it made me think of the old HGTV show Designing for the Sexes.  Anyone else remember that show?

Anyways at first he insisted that we had to have a pattern on the main cushions on our furniture and I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea.  It just seems like outdoor patterns never come back year to year so if something happened to one cushion you’d have to replace all of them.  Anyways, we went to Garden Ridge to look at cushions and I decided to take some photos of some of our choices.

The first one is Drew’s choice with the patterns.  As you can see there is no green like last year but he met me in the middle and chose some neutral colors with the red.

I hated it and after seeing the photo he decided he didn’t like it the way he thought he would  and that I was RIGHT that a neutral cushion was the way to go.

The second one is my choice with the neutral subtle patterns and the beige cushion.  Drew hated it.  I decided after seeing the photo I still liked it!  (Come on you didn’t think I was going to say he was right did you?)  My husband wanted it to pop a bit more so onto the next one.

The third choice is us meeting in the middle.  A little of him and a little of me.

And I will admit I like the third choice the best too!

Who knew this whole compromising thing actually works!!  Does your husband or boyfriend get a say in the decorating, does he even care?  I’d love to know!!

I’ll share more of the back patio plans this week and how these patterns will work into our plan!

We’re making progress on the bocce ball court and are hoping that if the rain holds off we can get the majority of it finished this weekend.

If you don’t know what bocce ball is you can read about it here.  My husband is a big game player, doesn’t matter what game it is he’s in, me not so much but I will admit I really like bocce ball.  It’s super easy and you can drink wine while you play!

Here’s what the scoreboard looked like a few weeks ago.

Here’s what it looks like now…

Unfortunately for you I’m the greatest DIY’er explainer but I did break down the materials used to put together the scoreboard.

I will also add that instead of staining the piece my husband decided to paint it with deck paint.  The balls are attached with hooks and eyelets and they are super easy to move when a point is scored.  This project is really my husbands baby so if you have any questions please feel free to comment and I will do my best to answer them!

Here’s hoping the weather stays nice this weekend!  I’m ready for some outdoor cocktails
bocce ball playing!!

If you’re looking for some outdoor inspiration I have a ton of beautiful images and ideas on my outdoor idea board on pinterest.

Happy Weekend!!!

xo L

A husband out of town, a teenage with a busy schedule, a 6 months old baby boy and severe allergies that turn into bronchitis does not make for a productive week.

I did happen to score this bed at the Goodwill last week ($19.99) and am slowly working on getting it painted.  If you follow me on instagram you might be able to guess the color.

Seriously I must be crazy but I’ve been redecorating Sloan’s room again!!  Drew and I recently got a new mattress and she asked if she could have one of our twin beds.  We we’re using 2 twins pushed together (our old home couldn’t fit anything bigger up the staircase.)  She wanted a twin bed because it’s more like a couch and she wanted a place that looked more like an apartment!  (Doesn’t every 14 year old?)  The good thing about this project is its a time to get rid alot of her stuff.  (Serious hoarder!)

I’m sorry I don’t have any pretty photos to show you today but I thought I’d finally take the time and update my link page with some new blog reading.  Here’s a list of the new ones I’m adding, please take the time to take a look and don’t forget to say hello!!

Third Floor Design Studio

Life in Grace

A Little Glass Box

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Design Manifest

Sarah M. Dorsey Designs

Aphro Chic

Teal and Lime

Little Black Door

Hooked on Houses

Abbey Goes Design Scouting

House Envy

My Best Friend Craig

Calling it Home

Yep just think if I did a little less reading I might get a little more done around the house!  But seriously I’m a big believer of reading as much as I can even if it’s not my style there’s always something to learn from others and there’s always so much to appreciate!

Happy Reading!!

Sometimes life makes it a little hard for me to stay organized and like most people  I don’t have alot of time to devote to keeping things organized so for me the easier my system is the easier it is for me to maintain it.

I had every intention of organizing my linen closet for the past year but just haven’t had time to get to it until recently.  Here’s proof…

As you can see I “sorta” started to organize but then I gave up.  The Container Store opened in my city a few months ago and I’d been buying these storage boxes for the closet but never really got around to do anything with them.  Some of them hadn’t even been put together yet!

This week I finally decided to tackle this project so the first thing I did was take everything out of the closet.

After enjoying the empty space for 5 minutes I got to work going through the boxes I had put things in.  I also made a few piles, garage sale, donate and throw away.  Why I hold onto some of the things I do I’ll never understand!

I also decided to not spend anymore money on the closet (for now) and just use what I’d already bought.

Now I’ll tell you a few things about me.  I don’t know how to fold a fitted sheet and really  don’t care if I ever learn how to fold one.  If you want to know how to fold one you can learn how to do that here.   I also don’t tend to get too colorful or cute in my organization projects, practical seems to work for me.  For some reason I can’t pull off cute but Jen from IHeart Organizing is the queen of cute and the mega star of organizing if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t read her blog then I highly recommend it!

So my linen closet is basically off white and practical and my sheets are not folded they are put into their own individual box and covered up with a lid so inside the box might not look perfect but when I open up my closet it looks nice and neat!

I even took a little time to label all the boxes so everyone in my family knows where things go!

They are a few projects I’d still like to do in the closet like have a better system for my wrapping paper and install a prettier light fixture but I can totally live with the final result, especially since it didn’t cost me any more money!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!! xo

A week or so ago I mentioned I bought these planters for my front porch.

My plans were to plant some boxwoods in them yesterday but my allergies got the best of me and I ended up spending the majority of the day in bed.  Of course I’m probably like most girls when I say laying in bed made me rethink my original plan.

I’m still planning on doing boxwoods in the planters.   I love them and they are super easy.  I have some inside my house too (they’re fake though and the only type of fake plant I like.)

There’s a few on my fireplace…

and there’s one in my dining room…

Anyways at first I was only going to plant boxwoods in the planter like this…

(Laara Copley)

But now I’m thinking of maybe adding something else to the planter.  I like the ivy in this…

I also thought maybe the planters could use a little height with flowers like these in front of Liz Caan’s storefront.

Any bets I do decide and do something entirely different then any of these the moment I walk into the nursery to pick something out???