Happy First Day Of Summer!!!

It's summer!  Summer makes me want to lay in a hammock, drink yummy fruit smoothies, look at the clouds, run around barefoot in pretty sundresses and work around our house.  Yes!  We have a lot of projects in mind and summer seems like the perfect season for that!  Mornings are warmer, the days are longer and evenings are peaceful.  We've built a picnic table (I will blog about it soon, promise!) where we have dinners daily.  Now we are working on a shed... that will take half of our summer!  I will enjoy every minute of it.  I love being outside as much as possible, soaking in the sun rays.  Maybe I won't have so much time to lay in a hammock... Okay who am I kidding, I don't even HAVE  hammock (yet) but even if I did, I couldn't really picture myself laying on it so much... I like to stay busy and productive!  Although I did take a break yesterday and took the kiddos (my two nephews and a niece) to a pool and we had the best of time!  They were swimming, I was tanning.  I get off subject WAY too easily... I was hear to wish you all a HAPPY HAPPY first day of summer!  What are your plans?  I would love to hear them!  

xo, m.

Make Your Own: Chalkboard Wall Calendar

I have been wanting a chalkboard SOMEWHERE in our house for the longest time ever.  I thought about covering a whole wall with chalkboard paint, I thought about buying a chalkboard, and then I stumbled upon this! I have immediate fallen in love with chalkboard wall calendar and I thought we could make it, too! 

My loving husband did all the taping.  I will admit it took a little longer than we expected.  A lot of measuring was involved.  Then all I did was applied four coats of Valspar chalkboard paint that I've bought from Lowe's.  After a day of drying I covered the whole calendar with chalk and it erased well with a damp paper towel.  The fun part was the decorating and personalizing my calendar! :)  

The only thing I wish I did differently, was paint the whole wall first and THEN do the calendar.  I had to repaint the wall and it took me a while to go around the calendar... Oops! But now I have a fresh wall with a fresh piece of art! ;) I love it! Are you into chalkboard as much as I am?! 

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to stop by Jen Loves Ken to get more inspiration for home decor projects! :) I am off to work on a shed! (WHAT?) :)  Yup,  last Saturday we started working on it and I can't wait to share our progress with you! Happy Friday! xox, m.

Rustic Coasters

I've talked about how much I love rustic home decor.  What I love more than rustic is handmade.  My husband and I've combined our love for rustic and handmade and started to decorate our home. It's kind of the theme around our whole house.  My hubby build a beautiful coffee table from old pallets for me and it is one of my favorite pieces in our home.  Little by little we've been adding more handcrafted items to our home. Like this ladder shelf  along with this necklace holder. After living in our house for a little over a year, we learned that our favorite furniture is handmade.  Our favorite thing to do in our "free time" is design, build and create!  We are loving every minute of it!  When I look around our house, the items that we've worked hard on make me smile big. They bring back memories of the time my husband and I spent bonding, while working on a certain project together.  We have so much fun doing this! I would choose working on projects together over many other things!  I really do feel like it's a great way for us to spend our time.
Anyway, this blog post is about coasters... somehow I got carried away talking about my husband and our love for working together...  It's hard for me to write a blog post and not to mention my husband, if you haven't picked up on that little detail yet.  He is simply the greatest, he is my life.  (Oh, and he helps with almost all of my DIY projects...) :-}

I blogged about my camping trip in the beginning of June, if you haven't read it yet, check it out!  Camping is SO.MUCH.FUN! While we were camping, we picked up a few tree logs... For coasters! I've been seeing coasters made out of tree stumps ALL over the internet.  Of course being a fan of rustic home decor, I really wanted to add some to our home.  They were really easy to make.  Says me, because I didn't even make them... :( My husband used a saw to cut them out and all I did was smooth them out with a sander. I've been using them a lot, hot tea lover I am! We made a ton, these will make great gifts! I hope next time you're in the woods, you will find yourself a fun little project as well! If you already have wooden coasters, (I feel like everyone has them) please share the link in the comments below, I would love to see! :) Thank you for stopping by! I'm off to drink some tea! Happy Wednesday! M.

Succulents + Vintage Tin Cans

You might remember when I shared my DIY ladder shelf and also how I've obsessed about my vintage tin cans.  I'm in love with vintage things. I was giddy when I stumbled upon some vintage cans while treasure hunting at our local Goodwill. 

My tin cans started out with Marigolds.  I loved it, but I had to water them almost daily and to admit, I am not so good with keeping indoor plants alive.  I decided to move them outside and fill the tin cans with succulents!  Best decision ever!  (I wanted to plant succulents in them from the start, but it was flower season and I couldn't pass up on colorful flowers!) I added some rocks to my succulents from Lowe's to cover up the soil.  My ladder couldn't look any prettier, in my opinion! ;) 

Happy Tuesday! M.

Paint The Front Door

My husband and I love to take walks around neighborhoods and look at the different houses and yards people have.  Front doors say a lot about a person's personality. Front door is the first impression you receive about the homeowner and the house. Today, I want to share a few tips and tricks on how I painted our front door.

Some of these tips will probably be very obvious and others might be more helpful, I have learned a lot while painting our door.

1. Pick out a color that speaks YOU. My husband suggested red, since he knows I love red. I have a lot of things that are red in/around our house already and also I've seen a ton of red front doors. I wanted something different, yet a color that I love. I picked out mint! Mint is a lovely color, it's right there with red for me.  The type of paint that we used was exterior satin enamel.

2. You want to pick a nice day. Duh. You don't want rain and you don't want it to be super cold. The door will have to stay open the whole time you're painting and after while it's drying.

3. You want to use a brush. The effect is so much prettier than a roller. 

4. You want to tape up everything you don't want paint on. Another obvious, but so important!!! My husband was kind to prep everything for me. He also laid out plastic for my work surface. You could use cardboard or big trash bags. Whatever you have handy. I also suggest keeping paper towels with a little bit of water near by, just in case! ;) Also, if you want to hang something on the doors to keep the flies and bugs away, you may. I didn't, because I didn't want to block out the light.

5. A friend of ours, an experienced painter, suggested to add two teaspoons of water to our paint so it will be a little thinner and easier to apply. Now I don't know if that works for all the paint out there, but it worked for us and it was helpful. 

6. Start painting!!! :) After you're done, make sure to let the paint dry before you start peeling the tape off. Very important step! We let our doors dry for about 3 hours before my husband started to take the tape off. The doors stayed open all day. We didn't want to risk closing them while the paint might not be dry all the way.

Before

After

It's a subtle change but we love it and it makes us happy! By now, you should be in the mood to change up your front door! :)  Thank you for letting me share a few tips with you! 

Happy Tuesday! M. 

Featured On Roadkill Rescue!

Woo hoo!  We had another feature on Roadkill Rescue. Oksana's barn-inspired table  was featured! We are so excited!  If you haven't done so yet, check out Roadkill Rescue! :) This blog is one of our daily reads!
Oh and happy, happy Monday! xox m+o!

Camping Trip

Hi hi hi, friends!  It has been awhile!  We were out of town for a little bit on a camping trip with NO phone service! (Nor internet service, duh)  We had the best of time eating grilled foodie, making s'mores, and had plenty of quality time with our friends.  I love to disconnect and enjoy the outdoors.  I am a nature's fan!  It's so good to be outside and breathe the fresh air and just run around like crazy.  We did some hiking, a little bit of biking and played soccer! We had a (BIG) crowd with us! ;)  I didn't want to go back to real life.  I hope you had an amazing week!
I can't chat for too long today as it is Saturday and we have a wedding to go to! :)
Here are a few snippets of our camping trip via iPhone.  (I only used my phone for pictures, nothing else while camping!)

Here are my DIY shiny red shoes with ABM App  --> my most favorite app! :) 

My "little" brother being a circus bear on a trike!  

(I was on a lookout for a real bear the whole time, but unfortunately we didn't come across one...)

In the bright afternoon light I took a ton of pictures of our shadows! It was fun!

Thanks for taking a peek at our camping trip! Gotta run...  xox, m. 

P.S. Have a blessed weekend!  

DIY: Shiny Red Shoes

I recently thrifted a comfortable pair of leather sandals. Immediately when I tried them on and they fit, I knew I wanted to give them a fun little face lift. They had some years of wear on them, for certain, but they were also super cute! I love DIY projects that involve shoes! Growing up, along with million other dreams, I had a dream of becoming a shoe designer. Buying a pair of shoes and making them my own is sort of like being a shoe designer. No? Let's pretend it is. Let me live my dreams!

So here is what I did. For this little make over I used a thin paint brush and red acrylic paint along with a little bit of water. I diluted a little bit of paint with the same amount of water and started to paint my sandals. I didn't tape around the shoes, so I painted carefully not to get the sides. When an accident occurred, I just wiped the paint off with a damp paper towel. No biggie! Also, I used a big trash bag for my work surface! After the first round of paint diluted in water, I gave about three coats of just paint on the shoes with no drying in between! Then after they dried, I gave two more coats!

When hubs saw the shoes, his exact words were "Wow they are hot! I am so proud of you."  Nothing makes me happier than making my husby proud! ;) It is the most rewarding feeling ever! Yes, this project is no big deal, easy peasy, but in my husband's eyes I'm the world's best shoe designer. Heehee. 

I'll cut myself some slack and let you all know that I put in my best effort and worked on these babies for a couple of days! There! 

Oh and I even water-proofed them with triple thick glaze after I made sure the paint was dry, because you just never know when lets-jump-in-a-puddle-moment would come! ;)

The glaze made them shiny. Shiny shoes bring back memories of me being five years old. I don't remember this but my mom told me a story of a time when her friend took me shopping for a pair of shoes and we came back home after a long day of searching, empty handed!  Apparently my five old self was not satisfied with any of the choices.  Today when I am not satisfied with a shoe 100% I turn it into a project! ;) So these shiny red shoes cost me $4! I thrifted them for $3 and the paint was just a buck.  I had triple thick glaze left over from sandals makeover project. I had so much fun creating these cheerful sandals.  I will be wearing them a lot this summer!  Red is my favorite color and anything that's comfortable is always a win in my book! ;)  What is your favorite DIY project?  Thank you for reading!  Happy weekend!  xo, m.

Lots of Green!

It has been awhile since I've done a garden update.  Well here it is, folks!  It's all green and beautiful!  Loving every second of gardening!  I love taking peeks at my garden each morning, afternoon and evening!  This evening I just got done watering my plants! 

Cannot wait till these little guys will be ready :)

 Plenty of radishes!  Yumm!  Spring salad anyone? 

This will be a sugar snap pea... soon!

My tomatoes that I've planted around May 10th, froze over night on May 13th.  Why is there frost in May? Why? We were in DC that day and didn't have a chance to cover them... :( So sad!  I do have the best dad in the whole wide world though, and he planted new ones for me!  Surprise!  We were away celebrating our anniversary and I thought as soon as we get back I will buy new plants and wait until June to plant them! But my daddy beat me to it, we came home to beautiful tomato plants standing strong.  Ahhh... the stories of gardening.  Hopefully no more frost, but more of this...

How is your garden doing this spring?? :) Thanks for stopping by! xo, m.

"Young And Beautiful"

I have the sweetest husband on earth. No doubt. I've been wanting to watch The Great Gatsby ever since I heard it's coming out. I love the 1920s. I've read the book and knew this movie will be just magical. Knowing that Leonardo DiCaprio will be starring in it was just the silver lining! :) Anyway, my hubby took me to watch it!!! I was so excited! I thought I'd be going with my girlfriends to see it, but he suggested we go see it together! I love my girlfriends, but this was amazing news to me!!! We went to see the 9:40 show on our anniversary!!! My heart was happy! We typically don't go out to watch movies, so this was special! (Don't worry, we have date nights often, but they don't involve a movie theater, more like ice cream and park... and exploring... and ice cream... and adventures... and road trips.) Did I say ice cream twice?! ;) Sometimes it's smoothies!

Why am I talking about The Great Gatsby today? Well, you see, the song by Lana Del Rey "Young And Beautiful" is on repeat in my head all.day.long!!! My husband and I both LOVE Lana's voice and her music.  When we sat in the theatre holding hands and our full attention on the movie and heard Lana singing we both were smitten! (I expected great music in this film, but didn't know whose music it would be!) We grinned at each other and did a little hand squeeze from excitement. Are we dorky or what?! 

The whole movie was magical and the music was AMAZEBALLS! Both hubby and I LOVED this movie and couldn't stop talking about it for the next couple of days! ;) 

After the movie we left for our trip to Wilmington. We loved spending our 3 year anniversary at our home with a home cooked meal. One of our favorite things to do is having a homemade dinner together! So we decided we will leave town after our anniversary is over. Best decision ever! :) 

If you haven't watched the movie yet, go see it, you will love it! And listen to Lana more often if you haven't been doing so yet! ;)

I have to leave you all with the lyrics... Just 'cause. 

Btw, the song is still in my head!! (I don't mind it one bit!) :) 

"Young And Beautiful"

I've seen the world

Done it all

Had my cake now

Diamonds, brilliant

In Bel Air now

Hot summer nights, mid July

When you and I were forever wild

The crazy days, city lights

The way you'd play with me like a child

Will you still love me

When I'm no longer young and beautiful?

Will you still love me

When I got nothing but my aching soul?

I know you will, I know you will

I know that you will

Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?

I've seen the world, lit it up

As my stage now

Channeling angels in a new age now

Hot summer days, rock n roll

The way you play for me at your show

And all the ways I got to know

Your pretty face and electric soul

Will you still love me

When I'm no longer young and beautiful?

Will you still love me

When I got nothing but my aching soul?

I know you will, I know you will

I know that you will

Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?

Dear lord, when I get to heaven

Please let me bring my man

When he comes tell me that you'll let him in

Father tell me if you can

All that grace, all that body

All that face makes me wanna party

He's my sun, he makes me shine like diamonds

And will you still love me

When I'm no longer young and beautiful?

Will you still love me

When I got nothing but my aching soul?

I know you will, I know you will

I know that you will

Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?

Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?

Will you still love me when I'm not young and beautiful?

So what movie have you seen lately that you just LOVE?! What kind of music do you love to listen to? I would love to hear from you! Thank you for stopping by! Have a lovely day! Hugs, M. 

Our Anniversary Trip (Part Dos)

My love and I have safely returned back home from our amazing little trip. We had the best time! Much needed quality time, it's so good for our marriage! We did a lot of walking, exploring downtown, ate delicious food (too much food!) soaked up vitamin D at the beach, laughed and dreamed.  Oh and ate ice cream! Kilwin's ice cream to be exact. SO good! 

I am so thankful for my best friend, my soul mate, my (way) better half! No matter where we are and what we do, as long as we are together - I am the happiest! How was your weekend?! I hope it was just as fun! Happy Tuesday! Love, m. 

P.S. Fun time with O tonight! So looking forward to it! I get to meet her new fuzzy friend! Eeek!!! 

Obsessed with ABM App + Vacationing

If you are an Instagram lover like myself, I am sure you've seen/heard/bought/used A Beautiful Mess app already. It's a new photo editing app and I am in love with it. I've been reading Elsie's and Emma's blog for quite some time now, and was so excited to learn about the app! It's amazing and I can't stop using it! I think I will never upload another photo to Instagram without using ABM app... It's addicting! 

My hubby and I are away on a little vacation celebrating our three year anniversary and I'm popping in to share a few of the fun shots I've snapped so far! 

We drove about six hours to get to Wilmington, NC. Our first time visiting this town and we are loving it!  Relaxing on the beach, exploring the historic downtown and eating scrumptious food! It's so good to get away for a little bit. I hope you all are having an amazing Friday! I'll be back to post more pictures later! Happy weekend, friends!!! xo.m.