Women's paint party

Saturday night I was so excited to attend a women's paint party at church.  We had one about a year ago and it was a blast so I was looking forward to this one.  We had a great turnout about 30 women in all and Marybeth did a great job teaching and guiding all of us "non-artists!"

Me and my buddy Destin....

Some of my small group ladies...

Lots of color!

Of course we started with a blank canvas.  Here is the progression of my masterpiece...

I added one of my favorite verses!

Here is everyone's finished products...so neat to see them all together!

Great fellowship with all the ladies and we got to bring home our masterpieces!  Fun times!

Living room changes

I did make changes to the den also during the renovations.  I did paint a couple of weeks ago as you already knew but I tried to make some changes to coordinate with the adjacent kitchen so that the two rooms blended well. 

Just like the cornice board, I used the same fabric and made some curtains for the den.  The truth behind these cute curtains...I did NOT use a needle/thread or a sewing machine.  I followed this Pinterest tutorial but instead of sewing, I used fabric hot glue!  So easy and seem durable enough to fall apart but easy to change up if I wanted to also!  And I lined them with $5 twin sheets from Walmart!

These pics above the couch...$1 foam board from Dollar Tree!  I just cut them to size I wanted, painted them (same color as kitchen), had pics printed at Sams for $7 and put them on using spray adhesive.

I spraypainted the tray (the spray paint I already had picked out before picking out paint color)...super easy and bought cheap pillows from Target to put on couch that matched.

I originally painted this monogrammed name board black but then changed the color when re-doing the room.

I added splashes of red in the room just for a change....

Not too many changes but it does look better coordinating with the kitchen.

Paint colors

By request, here are some of the paint colors seen in the previous renovation posts...

I painted the same color in my kitchen and bedroom.  I had a vision of this color in my bedroom and had even bought a spray paint color to match it to but hadn't found the actual paint color yet.  I had several that were close but hadn't found a match yet.  I went to my friend Matt and Megan's house a couple of weeks ago and her kitchen was painted this color so I asked her for it.  She gave me the color name and I knew it was a perfect match to what I had in mind!  Thanks Megan B!

It is Lowe's Valspar paint Lake Country 5003-5C

My sunroom has 2 similar colors both Walmart's mid-grade paint by Better Homes and Garden.

The lighter color is "Artist's white clay" and the other paint can doesn't have a name on it.  It was on the same paint card just a few shades darker.  

Again, Artist's white clay from Better Homes and Gardens (Walmart)

Darker color in the sunroom stripes (don't know name of it) pooh!

Hope this helps!

MIA and Chaos

I am not, even though it may appear that way.  I know it isn't like me to be gone for a week on the 'ole blog, but I have been beyond busy (pressure I put on myself).

But before I explain, I had to post this more precious than words photo....

Seriously, be still my heart.

Ok so back to my reality right now...I am on a home renovation kick.  Our house needed it and I finally gave in.  Since last Friday I have painted our sunroom, entryway, den, kitchen, and Jay's office.  Also, I have decided to take on something I have wanted to do since we moved into this house 6 years ago...refinishing my kitchen cabinets.  Of course later I will have before and after pics but want to save those for that time.  I am currently on day 4 of a 10-14 day project and it is monotonous and time consuming but hopefully the finished product will be worth it! So I have spent very little time on the internet and my spare time is spent on my cabinets or with my family.

The other day when we were painting Jay's office, we let the kids write on the wall before I painted.  Karis wrote the sweetest thing on the wall.  You can't see it very good but I had to take a pic of it anyway.  It reads,

"I love my family so much I code squees them so hard they codend breth"

Translation: "I love my family so much I could squeeze them so hard they couldn't breathe! haha :)

Currently we are living in a world of chaos and kitchen cabinets....

The chaos is absolutely killin' me and the organization freak in me is having convulsions.  But we will get through this and will be so glad to see the final product!!!

Our weekend

One of the pieces of advice my matron of honor Amber gave me before Jay and I got married was to buy and use neutral decorations in my home that way you can change it up as much as you want.  Decorations are easy to change and furniture not so much.  So that is what I did.  Most of the decorations in my home are browns and cremes so I have loved having colors on my walls.  I change paint often because it is one of the cheapest ways (maybe not the easiest but I like to paint) to change up a room.  

However, I have recently come to the conclusion I have TOO many colors in my house and most of them don't go together anymore (due to changing things up one room at a time).  So I am trying to change up the colors and neutralize the colors I don't like so much anymore.

Exhibit A

I love the stripes and wanted to keep them but this green color was a color I picked out 6 years ago when we moved in and I am tired of it.  So Friday afternoon/night I painted this room and went more neutral.

 I haven't taken a pic of the final product but here you can see the difference.  The middle strip was old paint and the others are the newer paint.

Friday night Karis ended up spending the night with Mari-Morgan and Brayden spent the night with Ethan/Eli.  No it was not planned but us but worked out in our favor.  So Lucy and I got to go on  a date with our favorite guy, daddy.  We went to Outback and Lucy was such a sweetheart.  We loved having that special time with her!

Saturday morning I ended up painting our entry way too because it was that same green color I am tired of.    I had a REALLY cute helper.  :)

We had one of our favorite breakfasts waffles and sausage.  And of course Lucy had to have her purse with her at all times (her FAV thing these days).

Saturday afternoon while Lucy was napping I decided to paint my den too.  I have hopes/plans to do some more painting/remodeling too but my house is suffering so I must do some catch up first!

Sunday after church we met up with our friends Matt and Megan (and Gideon and Charlotte who is still in the oven) to eat lunch and see their new house.  We love them and were so glad to get to spend time with them!  

Paint Party

My friend Mary Beth is artist extraordinaire!  She is so gifted with painting, is very creative and you can always depend on her to come up with cool, out of the box ideas.  Tonight she had a paint party to teach us non-creative folks how to paint a masterpiece.  I was a little worried at how mine would turn out because I am so NOT an artist.  Really...I can't even draw a stick person!

MB, our teacher

The girls Karis with Mari-Morgan and Ellie having their own little art lesson.

Monica and Paige 

Me and Robbie

I took pictures of my painting with each step so you can see how easy she made it seem.

Here is the front row...they are the troublemakers haha!

Jennifer and her mom

Mine and Amber's table

My finished product....my masterpiece!

This isn't all of them, but some of the masterpieces up next to each other so you can see the variety.  It was so neat to see how we all were painting the same thing and each person'e personality came out in their painting!

This was the art teacher's...the one we were all striving to copy!

And here's mine....hers is definitely pro and mine is not so much haha.

And Karis' masterpiece...

Mary Beth is using her skills to help us and proceeds go to her upcoming mission trip!  We were happy to contribute and it was a blast!  Hope we do it again soon!