Making Progress

Hello World. The Mommy in the Nook is back.

Since I last posted back in March we have been busy bees around our new abode. Since our baby girl was due in April we were trying to beat the clock and get things set up around here before our little missy arrived. Then we welcomed our sweet girl on April 19th and house updates changed over to adjusting to life with a toddler and a new infant. She is now 7 1/2 weeks old and I think we have arrived at our new "normal". She fits right in with us and we love her to pieces! We once again picked up on house progress and I wanted to share a few of them. Nothing is completely finished yet but it's much better than the empty house photos in my last post!

I have lots of projects in the works and a lot that are already completed that I will share soon. Hopefully I am back for good this time!

Also, since I personally like to know where things come from when browsing other blogs, I will caption the photos with as much source info as possible.

First up is a little B & A at the front entrance. After we moved in I popped this coat rack in the corner and we just recently added the frame to the wall. Besides needing a picture for the frame I really thought a punch of color would look great on the coat rack.

Coat Rack - TJ Maxx find
Picture frame - Ikea, Virserum collection

And blue was the color of choice! I used a metallic blue by Rustoleum. I can't remember the exact name of the shade. I will try and update the post later with it. Definitely much better, right? And a new picture of our family of four completed the look :)

Love!

Remember how our foyer looked before...

And here is our Progress. We added our bombe chest that we previously owned along with a lamp and a few accessories. I want to add something to that wall as well. 

Bombe chest - Alabama Furniture Market
Lamp - Marshall's
ceramic elephant - flea market

Next up is the dining room off of the foyer. Here is how it was when we moved in.

And our Progress. We removed the existing curtains and replaced with the ones we had in our old living room. We also sold our old dining room table so we bought a new one along with an antique buffet. We need chairs and I want to replace the light fixture. The mirror was one we already owned and it was a brown metal with a scroll-ish pattern around the edge. I painted it white and didn't get every crack and crevice so it gave me the distressed look I wanted. The "boat" as I call it, on the table was black and I spray painted it aqua blue. Once again I can't remember the color but I will update the post later with it. 

Curtains and rug - West Elm
Dining Table - IO Metro
Buffet - local antique shop
Lamp - HomeGoods

Up close shot of the table and buffet. The picture frame on the left holds a photo of my grandparents when they were on their honeymoon. I used to keep it on my yellow phone bench in our old house. The bench belonged to them and it's very special to me.

White ceramic owl - Z Gallerie

Our living room is still a work in progress and I have a few more touches to add before I show the whole room. But here's a peek at it!

The Before

And here is the Progress.

Our mantel. I'm so proud of it this because it has been bare until this past weekend. Yeah, almost four months of nekkedness. I had a few things sitting on it but we didn't add the mirror until Sunday. Yay for a decorated mantel!

Mirror & Aqua picture frame - Z Gallerie
Mirrored vase & antique gold picture frame - Marshall's
Birdcage - TJ Maxx
"M" - Hobby Lobby (originally gold but painted aqua)
navy vase - Old Time Pottery (originally rust colored but painted navy)

This is the long wall on the left of the before picture. We really needed something to ground the TV since we mounted it on the wall and this media cabinet was the perfect solution. The hubs desperately wants a bigger TV to balance out the huge cabinet. I see his point but I think it's going to have to wait for now :) I have to find a good solution to hide those cords and we still need to cut a hole in the back of the cabinet so we can fit the cord of the cable box in there and house it in one of the glass cabinets.

Media Cabinet - IO Metro
Picture frames - TJ Maxx & Marhall's
Vase - Hobby Lobby
Blue DVD boxes - Walmart
Aqua box - Z Gallerie

 This last picture is taken to the left of the media cabinet. We have an identical chair on the right of the cabinet as well along with a floor lamp. I love this little corner. We just need something to hang on the wall to complete the look.

Chair & black pattern pillow - Haverty's
Navy pillow cover - Etsy
Side table - Marshall's
Lamp & yellow basket - HomeGoods

That's all for the updates today. I have a few more tweaks in the kids rooms and I will share those soon along with a few more things we have done and plans for the rest of the house. Lots to do around here!

I'm back! And bringing some Christmas decor cheer

Hello to anyone still following along out there! Gosh it's been a while. Lot's going on over on my end. You know how they say when people stop bloggng for a while they are probably pregnant...and it's true for me! I am now 20 weeks along and due in April with a precious baby girl. We are thrilled! So since I was completely overcome with morning sickness (and it just recently began letting up) I haven't had much time or energy for projects. I should be able to get back on the bandwagon now and keep Mommy's Nook updated!

Today I'm sharing a little bit of my candy cane dining room Christmas decor. This was something new for this year and I'm loving how it turned out.

I first got the inspiration for this particular color scheme from the napkins. I had about two yards of this red and white striped fabric that I used at my son's birthday party. I thought it would make perfect little napkins so I whipped up 6 of them. Just measured and cut the same size as my other napkins and hemmed the four sides. Very easy.

Then I started searching for more candy cane/peppermint items to tie in. I found two 4 inch styrofoam balls at my local Dollar Tree and simply hot glued peppermints on them to make the peppermint balls. Side note: I have never seen this size styrofoam ball at the dollar store before and they only had these two. I was pumped since they were $1 each and are usually about $5 in craft stores. It took almost an entire bag of peppermints to make one ball if anyone wants to make one themselves. And it takes about 30 minutes. Quick, easy and cheap. Love it!

I had the faux poinsettias on hand already and just stuck them down in my pitcher to finish off the table. I can't ever have a real poinsettia since they are toxic and my cat enjoys nibbling on plants. Oh well!

And here is the mantle with it's own peppermint spin.

I found the three candlesticks at the thrift store and spray painted two of them white and one red and then stuck some little ornaments on top. 

This adorable printable was free! Found it on Pinterest here. 

I piled some ornaments in the bird cage, stuck a few in a vase filled with sand, another under a small cloche and called it a day. I love grouping ornaments together in unusual places. They can go anywhere! I found the candy canes at the Dollar Tree as well and just grouped them together in a mason jar on the books. The two giant candy canes in the white vase were also found there.

There you have some fun and festive decor that would look great in any room. Happy decorating everyone! And Merry Christmas!

Linking up to Layla's Christmas table decor party!

Spring Mantels

Ahh, spring is in there air...or it was anyway. It rained pretty much all last week and the temp was freezing in the 40's and 50's. We were spoiled by those warm sunny days over the last few weeks. What a tease. Oh well. That's Alabama weather for ya. We did end up with a beautiful sunny weekend but alas, rain is back in the forecast tomorrow...

Despite the craziness in the weather, I'm completely in spring mode around here and finally finished up my spring mantel in the dining room. It's the one mantel I have that I really enjoy changing and decorating. The living room mantel is dominated by the Direct TV box and DVD player...except of course for my newly updated frame and candlestick :) And I have one small decorative area on the other side of that mantel sporting some fresh spring decor. I'll show you that too. But honestly now, why must those cable boxes be so large? You would think they could make them a little smaller...I'm dealing with the same issue in our bedroom. Ah, but I digress.

On to the mantel.

Before I show you the dining room mantel, here's that shot of the living room mantel mentioned above. It wanted to show it's poof of spring too :) And in case you are wondering, we have a doubled sided fireplace, one side in the living room and the other in the dining, thus the two mantels.

I picked up the little Blossom planter at Michael's on sale for about $4.00. The moss I had on hand and I dropped in a few moss stones from the Dollar Tree - heck yeah! They have a whole section of floral stuff so I stocked up on some goodies. Then I put a few faux hydrangeas in a mason jar, all on hand. And poof! a little spritz of spring.

And for a little reminder on the other side.

Now for the Dining Room side.

Here's a Before picture with my winter scheme.

And now for the spring! I totally love my trio of empty frames so they will probably be around a little while. I may move them elsewhere eventually but I just love how they look here. I spray painted the two blue frames (both from the thrift store) with some textured blue spray paint I got on clearance at Michael's. The brown frame I bought on clearance at Michael's for $5.00. I painted these before my blog debut so no process pics. Sorry!

The glass vase was bought on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $4.00 and the yellow stems were $1.99 and then half off. So all three for $3.00. 

The little green planter box was purchased at Michael's for about $5.00. I bought small twiggy wreaths at Hobby Lobby for the "nest" for like $2.00 and I also bought the eggs there. It was a pack full of like 8 eggs and I believe they were about $2.00 for the pack. I added more of those moss stones underneath the nest to give it some lift.

I bought the glass pitcher a few months ago at a thrift store for $4.00 and I love this piece! I sat it on top of an old hymnal that I picked up at the same thrift store for a buck or two. The other book is a Jesus Freak book that we already owned. It has awesome frayed edges. Love my Jesus! And that little birdie there I picked up at Hobby Lobby when they first started putting out spring stuff. He was about $4.00 because none of the spring decor was on sale yet. I went back about a week ago and they have no more birds! Sad. I wanted another one.

My biggest splurge was the birdcage. I have always wanted one of these and I fell in LOVE with this one when I stumbled on to it at TJ Maxx. He was $16.99 which is still a good price for such a pretty piece. 

One more look at the whole view.

Thanks for stopping by - hope you enjoyed my little taste of spring!

Partying Here!