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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

DIY Baby Rocker!!!


If I were looking at 10 chairs there is no doubt in my mind I would fall in love with the most expensive one.  Every. Single. Time.  Definitely not one of my best traits...  When I started planning Little Man's Room I knew I wanted an upholstered chair but I had two problems; price and size.  I had a budget in mind for the nursery and most of the chairs I wanted were more than the ENTIRE budget!!!  Heck to the no.  Our house was build in the 1960's so the guestrooms are pretty tiny which doesn't work with all the massive {and beautiful} rockers I wanted.  

Way before I was pregnant I saw {this tutorial} from Heather Jansen's blog.  She swore it was an easy DIY and lasted through multiple babies so I was all for it.  The first challenge was finding the chair on sale.  Originally the chair is $229 but I wanted it for less than that.  I stalked the as-is section of Ikea for a month, but it wasn't until my good friend Jill came in town that I found one.  She is my go to decorator friend.  :)  The chair was only $125!!!


The slipcover is removable and washable so I had no issue buying the floor model.  Also while Jill was in town we went on a LITTLE hike {Manitou Springs Incline} and I thought I was already showing...


Such a rookie and so delusional...

First things first, Tall Tan Man and I prepped the chair.  This was not a super easy task because they legs were molly-bolted into the base.  Thankfully I am married to a strong and beefy man and he took care of that issue.  :)  I removed the bottom piece of fabric. 


Next we cut a 3/4 in piece of plywood to fit the bottom of the chair.  I screwed this into the left and right sides of the base of the chair.   



Up next was finding the center of the base of the chair to put the rocking mechanism on.   Just use a ruler and little math :)
 


We bought {this rocker mechanism} from Amazon after my original idea blew up in my face.  Just FYI I ended up moving the rocker more towards the front to get a better rock!




 We had this chair sitting in storage just waiting to go to Goodwill when I thought "I'll just remove the rocking mechanism."  If I was a welder then I might of been able to use the base... Let me just say I got a blood blister and now I can't figure out how to put the chair back together to send it to Goodwill... 


This chair turned out to be such an easy DIY minus the hours I spent trying to use the other chair.  The only real downside to this chair its size.  I know I wanted a smaller chair for the room and I fit fine in the chair... but Tall Tan Man {all 6 foot 6 of him} does not fit great :( Our pouf is from Land of Nod and I love it!  I have a navy pillow I want to get monogrammed to put on the chair but we still don't have a name...

Ryder... Mack... Easton...

...

I hope y'all have a wonderful New Years Eve!

{Leslie}

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas!


 
Hi y'all, I just wanted to stop in and say Merry Christmas!  This is the picture from our Christmas card this year.  If you usually get a card from us and have not received it yet... don't worry... it is on its way... #shippingwasdelayed   Tall Tan Man and I did a little photo shoot in Dallas with the one and only, Charles Ray {aka my Daddy not to be confused with Ray Charles}.  He might not be a professional photographer but he sure can make us laugh!
 
 
I really thought this year's card would have us with a dog, but God had another plan. :) Every year I am reminded that God works in ways I do not always expect.  I am so thankful for Jesus and all the peace and love that came from his birth.
 


 
Next year's card will have the most adorable baby ever on it!!!  Here was Tall Tan Man's choice for our card picture:


If only my hair wasn't messed up... haha Well, I hope y'all have a very Merry Christmas!

{Leslie}

p.s.  Read this if you need to feel better about yourself... I spelled our name wrong on our Christmas cards this year.  Yep, OUR NAME!  Nothing scissors couldn't fix, but still.  Pregnancy brain or stupidity?  I am not quiet sure....

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Our {almost finished} Nursery

I cannot believe my due date is a month from this Saturday.  I feel like it has totally snuck up on me! Our nursery is about 90% finished... Well, we don't have a crib so maybe I should say about 70% done.  :)


This is the view from our room into the nursery {no baseboards in the bedrooms yet...}.


The crib is going right there once it comes in stock at Ikea!  I might of cried when I saw that is was not going to be in stock until January 21st.  Nothing like cutting things a little close.  :(  For above the crib I found this:


I originally wanted his name above the crib, but we still haven't picked a name.   No big deal, right?! The wooden arrow pallet is a Hobby Lobby clearance find.  I like the baby blue but it blends in too much with the wall so I am thinking it will be painted a distressed white.  Alright, onto the almost finished parts of the nursery.



All the artwork is from Hobby Lobby.


I LOVE our curtains.  One word, tablecloth.  A couple months ago I was looking through the fall clearance section at Target and found 3 of these tablecloths.  I could not believe they were only $13!!!  This was way cheaper than all the ones I had been looking at on Etsy.  The only problem was I needed four panels.  I thought to myself no big deal, if this Target has three another Target will have at least one... 9 Targets later I found another one.   If only there was video of me finding the last one... I am pretty sure I held my arms up in celebration, holding the tablecloth of course, for a good minute.  I am sure everyone thought it was just crazy pregnancy hormones... haha

We DIYed our rocker and I will be posting about that next week.  It was a super easy DIY that fits perfect in our tiny room.  :)


Our dresser is from Ikea and I love it!  It is large and has plenty of space to be used as a changing table.  I will probably steal it from Little Man when he no longer needs a changing table. 


So what do you think 70% or 90% done???  I definitely have some more work to do in the next month... I might end up painting the red table oil rubbed bronze and doing something different with the peg board because I don't love it.  I am a little crazy these days so you'll just have to wait to see {I cried for 5 minutes tonight when I kicked the coffee table, not normal}!  Let me know if you want any other sources.  :)

Merry almost Christmas!

{Leslie}

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Christmas Card Display!



I am back again! Woooo, I am a blogging machine :) We just "finished" two more rooms in our house and I am in need for some more wall décor.  I am hoping to show you the two rooms soon, I just have a couple things I want to finish before I do. :)  I had been swooning over {this} Christmas card display by Lolly Jane and I knew it would be perfect in our front room.  I love this project so much because I had almost all the supplies and I could do it with almost no help from Tall Tan Man.  I need him to put my shoes on these days so it was nice being independent! :)

Supplies:

2 - 48" 1x2s
2 - 30" 1x2s
Stain - Dark Walnut
Corner L brackets
Screw Driver
Chicken wire {I used another type because we already had it}
Staples & Staple Gun
Wreath {Optional, but totally a game changer if you ask me}
Ribbon {target dollar spot}
Mini Clothes Pins

*You can really cut these to whatever size you want.  I saw someone make one of these square and it was so CUTE!

Directions:

1.  Stain the cut boards (Thank you Tall Tan Man for helping with this, our son's brain development also thanks you).

2.  Attach the L brackets with your screw driver.


3.  Use your staple gun to attach the chicken wire to the back of your frame. Make sure you pull this as tight as you can.  You do not want saggy wire!

4.  Attach your wreath with whatever ribbon you choose.

5.  Hang up your frame.  Stand back and admire your beautiful new Christmas card display!


I only had to buy one 1X2, a boxwood wreath, and ribbon for this project.  I could of made this project for under $5 if I would have been okay with a traditional Christmas wreath and the ribbon I already had.  Not to shabby!


Christmas cards make me happy!  We are a little behind the ball this year, because I just ordered ours today... Why yes, I would love to pay a million dollars to expedite our delivery.  :)

It is finals week y'all, my work here is done!
{Leslie}

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

I painted our door!

Hello! Two posts in one week, who am I?!  I recently decided I could no longer handle our ugly faux wood door...  With it being winter I could only paint the inside of the door and the outside will have to wait until spring.  I could not decide between navy and black, and as you can see I went with an almost black navy! I promise it is navy, but it is kind of hard to tell in the picture :)

Just so you remember what it looked like before...
 
 
I used Rich Navy by Glidden with 1 oz of black added.  I actually painted the door once with just Rich Navy and it was waaaay too royal blue.  The sweet older gentlemen at the Home Depot asked me about 5 times if I was sure about adding that much black... He said "is going to be almost black" and I said "PERFECT!"

 
 
Alright y'all it is "dead week" at school and we are reviewing like crazy.  I kind of love that I am not teaching anything new.  I think my brain needs a little break.  When did thinking become so challenging?! 
 
See y'all soon.
 
{Leslie}
 

Friday, December 4, 2015

Baby Shower + Hostess Gift Idea

 
 
Hi y'all!  It is DECEMBER! I had my 32 week appointment yesterday {everything was great} and I scheduled my 36...38... & 40!??!?! week appointments!  How is that possible?!  I sorta feel like I have been pregnant my whole life AND our Little Man is coming sooner than I am ready.  
 
Deep breaths... 
 
A couple weekends ago I flew to Oklahoma for a baby shower and of course, a football game {BOOMER SOONER}.  My sweet friends did such a wonderful job and made me feel so loved.  One of my friends is a super talented photographer in OKC, you should check out her page {Meghann Jaline Photographie}!!!  Thank you for the pics Meg!!!
 

 



 

 

These are my sweet friends that pulled everything together.  I am so thankful for each one of these ladies!  It really doesn't seem like it was that long ago we were having Grey's watch parties and keeping the McAlister's in Norman busy.  When I was trying to think of a hostess gift idea I was stumped and not really seeing anything I loved on Pinterest...Then I got an email from World Market saying their pancake mixes were on sale {ding!}.  Everything except the dish towel, which is from Sur la Table, is from World Market.     

 




If the last two pictures do not look quite as good as the rest it is because I took them...with my iphone... 

I hope y'all have a fantastic weekend!  

{Leslie}


 
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