Pegged

When we first looked at our new house, one of the neatest details in my opinion was the double pegboard in the master closet. I could see so many ways to use it ... only one problem. I had no idea where you'd buy hooks or pegs in order to utilize the board. Luckily, my friend Katie blogged about her own pegboard about the same time I was about to give up on my own. 

Several packs of hooks later, we've got a nice little addition to our closet. Scott finally has a place for his ties, (In the old house, they spent their days draped over the drying rack in the office.) and I have a place for some of my scarves (How sad is it that this is just some of my scarves?).

I'm not an organized person, so it takes something that is just as easy or easier than throwing my stuff in a giant pile for me to keep things neat and orderly, and this pegboard is just that!

Blinded

We've been in our house a little over a month now, and our windows have been bare for that entire time. No curtains, no blinds — nothing keeping me from feeling like someone is staring at me while I brush my teeth or like I'm a zoo exhibit for passersby on the street.

At first I was genuinely scared to be in the bathroom at night if Scott wasn't there, too, because obviously any rational adult would think a man's face would appear in the window — a window that is probably 10 feet off the ground from the outside. It caused me to cut my two-minute toothbrushing short on many occasions.

To remedy fears plus deal with the whole "showering without being the neighborhood flasher" problem, we put up this temporary blind we got at Lowe's. Not the prettiest, but it gets the job done ... and by job I mean it helps me brush my teeth at night.

To keep our guests happy and not feeling like they're sleeping in a glass box at the MOMA, we added some "custom window coverings" of our own devising.

Yep, brown packing paper is the new burlap. You're about to see it sweeping Pinterest.

As for the other windows, they remained uncovered, even the one on my side of the bed that angles east and serves as nature's alarm clock every morning. It makes me feel like a face-melting Nazi from "Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark" at about 5:45 a.m.

Now that we've gotten used to the openness, it's become rather nice. I get to see God's handiwork firsthand. I mean, the sun rises every day! That's amazing all by itself. With the thunderstorms we've had lately, I've gotten to go to bed and watch flashes of lightning streak across the sky and marvel again at the Lord's magnificent power. We've seen a momma and baby deer eating in our yard and enough birds darting about to feel like I'm a Disney princess going through her morning routine through the aid of woodland creatures.

Yesterday, we finally had blinds — proper blinds — installed in the bedrooms and master bathroom and closet (yeah, we've literally had nowhere to change without feeling like a self-conscious, middle school girl in gym class). I'm glad for the privacy in some places, but I'm also glad we decided not to cover every window so that we can enjoy the view we've grown to enjoy (and no longer feel like we're the view).

No more temporary blind! No more fear of my own reflection!

No more midnight terror when the paper comes untaped and crashes down from the window!

My greatest blinds joy, though, is the view from my bed. It's like a snooze button for nature's alarm clock. It did make it much more difficult to wake up this morning without the sun burning my corneas. 

Slowly, but surely, we're making progress!

Day one

We finally moved into our new house over the weekend. It was no small feat, moving a week sooner than we expected, but (BIG) thanks to the in-laws, we got everything accomplished.

Sunday was our first full day in the house, so I thought it would be fun to document what it looked like then. (Translation: Young House Love did it, and I wanted to, too.) The house is a new construction, so there's not a lot that needs fixing or updating, but I think it will be neat to look back and compare how we make it feel like home once we're settled in and everything is in it's place.

^^^From the outside^^^

^^^Kitchen, when entering from the garage^^^ 

^^^Kitchen, looking from the living room^^^

^^^One more of the kitchen^^^

 ^^^Living room^^^

 ^^^Dining room and front door from the living room^^^

 ^^^Master bedroom^^^

^^^Closet^^^

 ^^^Office^^^

 ^^^Guest room^^^

 ^^^Guest/Preston's bathroom^^^

^^^Preston's room^^^

^^^And one of Pres, who wanted to make sure he was moved, too.^^^

I failed to get a picture of the garage, which is where the true chaos was with the majority of the boxes and things that had yet to be placed in there. This week, we've slowly been bringing in boxes, emptying their contents, and taking the boxes back out to the garage. The house is finally starting to take shape, feeling more like home every day. I promise more (and better/cleaner) pictures once everything is in place.

Preston's room

When it came time to decorate Preston's room, we knew before we knew the gender that our son's room would have a "dapper gentleman" theme. We liked the idea of keeping it sort of preppy and boyish without being over the top cartoony.

With his arrival only days away, Scott and I finally finished up our slow assembling of Preston's room so that we'd have it checked off our list. We're very happy with the results!

Here is the view of his room from the doorway. His room is also the guest room, so we have a queen-sized bed sharing the space. We fiddled with a few different configurations, but after moving the bed several times, we decided where it was originally worked best.

I really love his crib. When we were ordering it, it was in our shopping cart and saw the same looking one suggested to buy. After clicking on it, I realized it was a four-inch shorter version, perfect for petite moms. We quickly made the swap, and I'm glad we did. Scott's brainchild was the banner in the corner, which I really like.

In the back corner are all of Preston's books, toys in canvas boxes and Boppy. Scott also came up with framing the little dog pictures, which are actually stationery cards. I think they're my favorite. There's nothing cuter than dogs in clothes.

I was so happy to learn that there was coordinating queen-sized bedding to match Preston's crib bedding. Let's just hope he likes plaid when he's 14, because that's what he's getting. The shelf over the bed is for pictures of Preston to be added later on, and I painted the canvas on it now. The teddy bear was Scott's when he was a kid.

To the left of the doorway when you walk in is his changing table/dresser. We have a "Rules to being a gentleman" print that will go over it once we get it framed and a navy pennant with his name on it. The wonderful thing about the dresser is that the changing table comes off, so it can be used past the diaper stage.

And in case you were wondering, here's what the room looked like before! It was a catch-all for shipping boxes and Scott's sweaters, apparently, and had very little furniture. It's a crazy transformation.

Now all we need is our precious boy to make it complete!

Nursery canvas DIY

"When I grow up" canvas with Preston's Winnie the Pooh, Sleep Sheep and little bison. 

Slowly but surely, Preston's nursery is coming together. All the furniture is in place, and we're in the process of gathering those little knick-knacks that add a personal touch. To go with our dapper gentleman theme, we have gathered prints of hats, little dogs, and have a pennant on the way with his name on it, but last night I decided to do a little art project that, while it didn't directly go with the theme, is still a cute addition to his room.

Upon completion last night

I had seen a similar canvas on Pinterest a few months back and loved the sweet sentiment. Obviously I'm quite keen on Preston's dad, so why wouldn't I want two of them? (Ask me that when Scott is in super intense Type-A mode, and my answer might be different.) So, I bought a 9x12 canvas at Hancock along with the blue paint (I already had white paint) and some thin paint brushes and went to work.

I printed the sentence off the computer and cut out the letter with an Exact-o knife to make a stencil for the canvas. After I had painted the canvas blue, and it was dry, I traced the letters onto the canvas and painted them in. The whole project cost me $9 and took me about three hours. The best part was that I was also doing my homework, listening to the book I need to have read by Thursday night on my iPod. (Even better than that, I got the book for free from the library instead of $10 from iTunes!) I felt incredibly productive when it was all said and done.

I love that, with the canvas, it can sit on his bookshelf or be hung on the wall. I don't know where it will finally end up, but I'm loving how it came out.

Lean, mean cleaning machine

In March, I wrote this post about my "grown-up chore chart" and how I hoped it would help keep me organized and my house clean. Well, that chart crashed and burned — and I've yet to clean up that mess, too. I realized it'd gotten bad when the dust bunnies were packing up to move somewhere cleaner.

Some how I've completely lost all semblance of control when it comes to keeping my house clean. I blame our weekends away, but it's really more because of this ...

I've gotten so behind that the house is a monumental task, and I can't leave my poor couch all alone without me. I know in a few months idea of what being tired is will drastically change — between the baby, work, school, and the house — so I want to find a successful method before then.

So where do I turn, but to Pinterest. I found this cleaning chart designating each day a job. And while I turned my nose up at the idea of cleaning every day, I'm willing to give it a try and see if it is as terrible as I think it is. If it works, then I'll have a clean house and a happy husband.

I'm going to start this next week and then I'll report back and let you know how it goes. If it doesn't, then we're going to Plan B, which is buying this sign and calling it a day.

His and hers: Coffee table books

On our coffee table, Scott and I have each picked out a coffee table book to add to the pile of magazines and other knick knacks that are drawn to that space during the week.

Scott's addition to the table is Jimmy Fallon's Thank You Notes. Each Friday on his show, Jimmy "catches up with his correspondence" and writes thank you notes to various things, and this book is a collection of those. Such recipients include the Dog Snuggie ("Thank you, Dog Snuggie, for allowing us to embarrass animals in a way I never imagined possible. You did it. Thanks for that."), slow walking families ("Thank you, slow walking family in front of me on the sidewalk. No, please, take your time. And definitely spread out, too, so you create a barricade of idiots. I am so thankful that you forced me to walk in the street and risk getting hit by a car in order to pass you so I could resume walking at a normal human pace."), and preseason football ("Thank you, preseason football, for having all the excitement, commercials, and time-outs of the regular season, but with none of it mattering. I appreciate it. Thank you."). 

My contribution is Boo: The Life of the World's Cutest Dog. In this book, Boo dresses up, plays hide and seek, and eats chips and salsa with his friend, Buddy. Boo and I have a lot in common. We each have adorable faces placed on disproportionately large heads. What's not to love, right? And while Scott and I aren't dog people (a terrible thing to announce to the world, I know), this book brings all the joys of dogs (their adorableness) without the hassle of them (the eating, pooping, yipping, etc.). 

Your turn! What's on your coffee table? 

House in progress: New living room seating

Since Scott's graduation, we've kind of toned down on the house a bit. I guess when the threat of your whole family coming to see your house is looming, you have a little more of a fire underneath you to get things done. The office is still not up to picture-taking standards, and the guest bedroom is serving as a catch all for anything we don't want to deal with at the moment. We have, however, made an unexpected change.

Wednesday night, Scott and I were sitting down to eat dinner at the dinner table in the living room. (One of my goals when we moved into this house was to eat dinner at the table and not on the couch. We've improved to eating there about 60 percent of the time, but sometimes the couch and TV wins.) When Scott went to pop up the footrest on his recliner, it was accompanied by a terrible metallic screech. He closed it back with another screech and a clang. When he looked underneath the chair, a large metal piece and several screws and springs were there to greet him. His man chair was dead.

Friday night we went to a local furniture store to see what they had to offer. There was football to be watched the next day, and you can't watch football without a man chair. Scott found quite a few that fit the bill but landed on one in particular. He then began to convince me that we really needed the leather couch that went with it.

Scott's always been down on our couch. He says the color is too rusty, the shape too modern, the vibe too 70s and what have you. But I've always loved that couch. He's got his man chair, and I have my couch. It's my napping companion and is the cushiest couch you'll ever sit on.

But Scott won the couch battle after he had me sit on the one in the store. It was quite comfy and not quite the cold leather I was anticipating.

The pair were dropped off just in time for kick off on Saturday.

Here's the living room before:

This picture was taken once we got everything set up after moving in. I failed to get a proper before shot before the new stuff came. The chair got hauled off, and the couch is now in the office to give me a proper grad school reading space other than the bed. I'll probably fail asleep reading there, too, though.

And here is the living room after:

Both ends of the couch recline, so Scott and I can easily both be comfortable on the couch, with him sitting on the end with his feet up and my head in his lap laying the other way. And as for the couch's nap-ability? It passed my battery of tests on Saturday and Sunday, so it gets my stamp of approval. Now to find some throw pillows that pass the nap test.

Rocky Top Tennessee

Since Tuesday's post was rather Arkansas-centric, I thought I'd keep my parents happy and not neglect my home of 22 years, Tennessee. It's hard because to me both Tennessee and Arkansas are my home. I know that there's no better way to celebrate "good ol' Rocky Top" than with a collection of some of my favorite Volunteer state pieces. Maybe I can convince Scott that we need one of these at home.

A simple gray canvas print of home.

 Tennessee's state motto.

I love this Tennessee necklace with the cut-out heart.

 This would be nice in a frame in the office at home.

 Well-known Nashville districts. 

I love seeing all the Tennessee points of interest on this pillow.

If you're like me and call two states "home," how do you celebrate both?

Sources: canvas, motto, necklace, print, sign and pillow.

House in progress: Easy wall decor

Vintage Arkansas football game program cards framed for our office

Filling the walls in our home has been the most difficult part of decorating. You can always put up pictures, which we've done, but I don't want the house to turn into the Scott and Jennifer shrine. How vain is it to have pictures of yourself all through your house?

One easy remedy we've discovered is framing cards or postcards. While in Fayetteville we found a set of cards with vintage football program covers on them. For a few bucks we got quite a few prints to hang in our office. We got matted frames from Target and — ta da! — all done. It was a very easy and inexpensive DIY project.

With Scott's graduation quickly approaching and several guests coming into town, we decided it was time to find something to hang in the bathroom and complete the room. We'd searched high and low for something to hang in the guest bathroom (I even requested your help here) but kept coming up empty handed. So, it was time to create our own art again. We bought this set of 100 postcards of classic Penguin book covers from Anthropologie and another Target frame.

Sifting through 100 titles was pretty fun. We edited them down to ones with funny titles, works we actually liked, and those which worked with our color scheme. In the end, the winner was Shakespeare's As You Like It because it matched and liked the illustration. Plus we thought it was a funny thing to have in the bathroom because you can be using the bathroom "as you like it" or some bathroom humor like that.  

House in progress: Front yard flowerbeds

Scott and I had been in our house for a few months when we decided we'd do something very homeowner-y and spend our Saturday working in the flowerbeds. We pulled up seven or eight monkey grass plants, gave the bigger bushes a much needed haircut, planted new shrubs, and spread fresh mulch. It was hard work. My whole body hurt and produced this weird substance called "sweat," which means I've done this other thing called "work" — both of which are extremely rare.

Since then, each spring we've done some outdoor lawn project because we have a strange obsession with the garden section of Lowe's. When we went on Saturday, we went only to buy more mulch and a leaf blower. We left with about 250 rocks as well.

We'd toyed with the idea of a rock border around our flowerbeds, even having a local landscaping company give us an estimate, but it seemed quiet pricey for rocks and labor. However, we found some nice looking paver stones (which are really supposed to be used for a walkway) and thought they would make a lovely border. Plus they were much cheaper than what we'd discussed before.

After about three hours and one more return trip to Lowe's for more stones, our flowerbeds had a nice facelift. It's a subtle change, but I really think it freshens the front up a bit.

(And, yes, that is a concrete razorback. We're those people.)

House in progress: Living room wall

I came home from girls night last night to this lovely surprise. As you may remember, Scott and I won a free photo shoot with our friend Cassie last summer, and we'd still yet to frame and hang those pictures. We're pretty bad when it comes to that. Is there anything more Valentine's appropriate than a whole wall dedicated to your relationship? I think not.

Scott did step back this morning and say, "So, do you think it's a little self-absorbed?" 

I think it looks less "US! ON THE WALL!" from a distance. Ignore the yarn on the couch.

Next, we tackle the office. We've got a lot of bookshelves to fill.