Christmas Miracle

Merry Christmas everyone!

This year's Christmas is not like any other Christmas that I have ever had. This year I'm really focusing on Gods grace, miracles and mercy: Grace that He gives us, when we don't deserve it. Miracles that He still performs even amongst the weakest believers, like me. And the kind of Mercy that He had for all of us, when He rewarded His sinless son by killing Him on the cross, so that we can have life.

This year has been so incredibly challenging for my family in every single way. I'm not going into any details because it is too much, but I will always remember the closeness that  have experienced with the Holy God in those hardest moments. 

This year our miracle is Annette Lydia and we are blessed  to get to spend this Christmas as a family of four. God didn't bless us with this miracle because we are good, but simply because He sees past our sin, our weakness and pitifulness, He sees the true "us" who are desperate for Him. 

This story is about us, what God has planned for you is different and may be more challenging, maybe because you are stronger. 

I share this not because I want pity, but because I want you to praise God for where He has you right now, no matter what situation you're in. Don't wait to praise Him when things get tough, praise him for the easy and the hard because everything He does is for His glory. Let Him use you to bring glory to Him. 

with Love,

Kitchen Hutch Decor

Hey guys, I haven't posted in a while here because we have so much going on right now. Also, I didn't do much summer decor this year.

I did however update our kitchen hutch a few weeks back, but just could not find the time to take pictures. So here it finally is.

I started by taking everything out and then separated all the dishes into 2 sections (one section was what I wanted to keep in the hutch and the other section was to put away)

I had an idea of what I wanted to do with the decor, but mainly I just went with the stuff that I already have. I did end up buying a salad bowl from World Market (it was just too cute not to buy)

White Kitchen

Happy Thursday! It's finally spring here in our beautiful North Carolina. With this warm weather, everything feels so light and fresh. 

Finally I'm posting a blog about our kitchen. 

We were fortunate to have my dad make us our custom kitchen. I designed this kitchen when I was still in college and was just married. Our old kitchen was one of those typical stock kitchens that you find in lots of homes. It wasn't bad, we just wanted something new and light. 

Our house is located on wooded lot. Yes, its beautiful, but it also makes our house a bit shady sometimes and don't we all love that natural light in our home? So, a white kitchen was the perfect choice. We picked black countertops because our appliance are black and this way it goes well together. 

Oh, and that last picture is a bonus!!! Our little Annette Lydia is 4 weeks old today:)

Elegant Nursery for Baby A

This nursery has been such an amazing and also challenging project for me, but I loved every second of picking out all the decor pieces for our little girl's room.

When we first found out that we will be having a girl, we decided to keep her and Eli in the same room so that we can keep our office, but the more we talked about it the more we were convinced that it would be a really bad idea. Our toddler is a very sensitive sleeper and getting him to sleep was always a challenge. On that note (yay) we decided to keep the nursery and move Eli to the room across the hall. So, I started planning...

First, I looked on Pinterest for hours and hours and hours for ideas and inspirations. It was so overwhelming, so I finally sat down and wrote down what I wanted (style, colors, art, etc.) Then I remeasured the room (I knew the dimensions from when I was planning Eli's nursery) and I started sketching. I pretty much used a whole notebook on drawing different layouts, writing down notes and drawing different elevation views for her room. Even thou we were keeping our crib and changing table, I wanted to redo the floor plan and all the decor.



Style: I chose to go with the simple elegant style. I know all these tribal patterns are popular right now and all the pastel or black and white colors are trendy and did I mention pretty? But, I still wanted something elegant and timeless. (like her name: Hint) In my head, I picture her as my little princess so It was a no brainer to make her room sparkle! Another reason why I chose elegant was because when she will transition from her crib to bed, I want to keep the same theme, maybe switch out some decor pieces and add some new things like wallpaper!! I talked about it in one of my previous posts. I just love those floral wallpaper designs for girls room. So stinkin cute!! Oh and did I mention that I already have one in mind? Why, yes I do!


Colors: At first I was considering to do all white nursery but the more I looked at baby things the more pink I wanted to buy. So, I settled on a light/pale pink and white/cream colors and for a little princess touch, add just a hint of gold.


DIY: I am so thankful for spray paint!!! Did I say that I love spray paint? Because I think I've used like 10 bottles, kidding not 10 but maybe close to it. 

Project 1: Floral Art: I wanted to paint something personal for her. So, I painted and painted and nothing was good enough. When I finally painted something that I liked and I showed it to my husband, he said "thats it?" I was a little disappointed, but still went with them and after I hung them above the crib, and when he saw them then, he said that they actually look really good (oh man...) I also decided to go with some animal pieces that my sister in law made (did I mention she's an amazing artist? Well, she is!!!) And last but not least, I painted a few 4x6 watercolor art pieces that just added that final finished touch to the room.

Project 2: Mirror and Birdies: I love mirrors, those vintage gold mirrors... so dreamy, but so pricey. I picked out a mirror at hobby lobby (I love that store) and I waited for it to go on 50% off to buy it. I knew that it would be a little to small, but it was the best price I could find and I was not planning on paying a fortune for it. So, my plan I was to make diy candle sconces and hang on both sides to make the mirror look visually wider. As I was looking for materials, I  ditched the sconces idea because it was to much work for my pregnant self and went with plan B. I bought round wood pieces like I would off for the sconces but instead of sconces, I picked out these beautiful birdie hooks at Hobby Lobby and spray painted them off white color and added them to the wood, which I spray painted gold. Done!

Project 3: Sparkle Sign: I bought a wooden frame at Hobby Lobby and painted it gold and then whipped out my calligraphy skills (jk) and wrote a sweet little saying for our baby girl. 

Project 4: Wainscoting Wall: There is a whole post on it that I wrote previously.

Project 5: Hat boxes: I bought round gift boxes at Hobby Lobby and some really cute wrapping paper at Target and wrapped them in it to add that last elegant touch to the nursery. (Im not going to lie, it was a challenge to wrap paper on a round box because of all the cuts) maybe I'll do a tutorial on it if anyone is interested.

Project 6: Crib Skirt: I wanted a ruffled crib skirt and the one that I found was super expensive. So I  bought a way cheaper one at Target and added tulle to the bottom of it to make it a little longer and fluffy and thats it! 


Inspirational Board: With having too much media, it is so easy to start mixing styles or changing them and staying with one is always challenging so I honestly did not pin a lot and completely stopped looking for ideas. I knew what I wanted and I started looking for the right pieces to create an inspirational board. It is very important to always look back at what you chose because you chose it for a reason. I believe inspirational boards are a big key to start of any design project. It is a general view of what you want.


So here is the nursery for our baby girl, ENJOY!

Inspirational Board

Specifications:

1. Gold Arrow: Target

2. White Pillow: Home Goods

3. Venetian Chandelier: Overstock

4. Mirror: Hobby Lobby

5. Curtains: H&M

6. Glider: Delta Children: Wayfair

7. Pouf: Land of Nod

8. Storage Box: Target

9. Changing Table: Custom Made

10. Knobs: Hobby Lobby

11. Side Table: Joss & Main

12. Giraffe: RH baby & child

13. Knit Doll: Land of Nod

14. Wool Rug: Overstock

15. Crib: Custom Made

16. Fitted Crib Sheet & Changing Cover: Land of Nod

17. Quilt: Pottery Barn Kids

Not on the list:

Frames: Custom Made

Birdie Hooks: Hobby Lobby

Swaddle Blanket: Little Unicorn

Crib Skirt: Target

Vase: Michaels

Journals: H&M

Blanket: Pottery Barn Kids

Linen Basket: Home Goods

Shelves: Hobby Lobby

Gold Horse: Hobby Lobby

Animal Art: Jen Yakimenko

Saying Goodbye to our Office

This is the room that Eli will be moving into, currently known as our office. As you can see, I took photos to late and the only pictures I have, are of our furniture (for craigslist) because our office is just now waiting for this furniture to be sold and that we can start assembling Eli's bed here.

I really love our office furniture, I designed it myself when I was 18 or 19 years old and I still lived with my parents. I had an office (I know, I was spoiled) and I designed these bookshelves and this desk for my dad to build so I can do my college work. When I got married, this was actually the only furniture I took with me (since we both have so many books!!!!) It is contemporary style home office which fit our current home style. 

 This is a contemporary set with shaker style doors. The stain finish is actually not as dark as shown on pictures above, it is actually this pretty grayish brown stain color.

I think this is the closest finish to the original

Accent Wall in the Nursery

Hello friends... I know I've been talking a lot about this nursery, but things have been a little slow around here and we have some reasons for that. I promise that it'll be finished within the next few weeks so it is getting close.

This week has been so interesting, we have managed to get the wainscoted wall up and it will be painted tomorrow!

So, I honestly have never been a fan of just painted accent walls. I do however like to see different ways people do accent their walls (and not all walls look good accented, so don't do that in every room of your house)

This is a Board and Batten Wainscoting and here is why we chose to do it:
A. The nursery is actually a pretty decent size room, 12' x 12'  to be exact and it has a long wall with no doors or windows on it (a perfect "accent" wall)
B. The crib is placed where the 12 foot wall is and there is nothing else really going on besides that, so it needed something extra to not look so plain.
C. I've been really wanting to do wallpaper in her room, but I know that the husband will not approve of that because his logic is "you'll get bored with it in a year or two and I'll have to tear it down" and he is kind of right hehe. He's a wise man! But, with doing wainscoting, when we transition her to big girl bed I can maybe still add wallpaper just above the wainscoted wall and it'll only be like a tiny little piece of wallpaper and not the whole room and maybe husband will approve:) I love thinking ahead, I'm a BIG planner.




If you do want a DIY tutorial on how to do wainscoting, let me know!!!