House Updates!

We've tweaked a couple of things here and there in our house lately, and I thought it would be fun to share the changes with you guys!

Painting stripes on walls kept showing up all over Pinterest, then my Facebook and Instagram feed, and several blogs I follow. I caught the bug and I reeeeally wanted some stripes somewhere. I decided on my small wall in my hallway, because 1) I honestly didn't know if I'd be awful at painting stripes, and 2) if I got tired of it, it's a small wall to paint back over! In the hustle and bustle right before we were leaving for our week long trip to Lake Havasu last month, I decided that would be the *perfect* time to complete a project on my to-do list. I'm crazy. But really, my sis was in town visiting, so I knew I'd have help keeping the littles away from drying paint.

I repainted the wall the same color it was, Restoration Hardware's Linen, and then measured and taped off the stripes. I picked up a sample can from Home Depot of Behr's Cottage White for the stripes. It's a nice creamy off-white, which works. I didn't want it to be the same white as the door and trim and molding, so its yellowish base works really well to pop the Linen paint.

This was a fun and easy project completed in a day. The only suggestion I have is to use the green Frog's Tape...it worked really well to keep clean, straight lines!

This makes me smile big...we finally replaced our old faucet with this new one! Our old one had this little spout thing that if you pulled on it, it would spray the water. That broke off months after we moved in. Then sometime last year our faucet started screeching super loud every time we turned it on. (Like I *really* need something else screeching in this house, hahaha). Finally, in the last few months our old faucet started to leak. Broken sprayer & screeching I can deal with...but leak equals money! No bueno. Time for a new one. Thanks to my hot & handy hubby, this one was picked out and installed an an hour later!

Over the weekend, we put in ceiling fans in the three bedrooms (just not our master bedroom)!! I say "we" put in the fans, but by that I mean my cousin-in-law Chris came over and spent an ENTIRE day (thanks a million, Chris!!!) crawling up into our attic to install the electrical. Our house didn't have much overhead lighting when we moved in, so we had to put in the recessed lighting and fans in the family room and kitchen eating area. The bedrooms have desperately needed fans and lights. We didn't go with anything fancy, just some decent 52" basic Hampton Bay fans on sale at Home Depot. We love them for the bedrooms...super functional.

We opted for these fancy remote control switches that hug the wall nice and close. So cool!

Also over this past weekend I tackled another project I've been wanting to get done for a while. This shelf was handcrafted by my grandpa years and years ago when we was building cabinets in his shop. My mom added the hooks in the middle and hung it on the wall coming off of the garage, and it was perfect for purses, hooks, jackets, you name it. It ended up in our garage last summer when she no longer needed it because there are just certain things that are hard to part with (anything handmade by Poppi would be one of those things). I've been wanting some hooks (because I'm obsessed with hooks) to hang my camera bag, and little things like ladybug and butterfly wings leftover from parties. Don't you all have those lying around?

After a little paint to make it look new again, and a little sandpaper to make it look old again, I have myself the perfect hook accessory WITH a shelf on top for what else - pictures and wall art, of course! Those pictures won't be staying (at least not in those frames). They were just in Jake's closet and the colors in them worked well (look how much he's grown! Middle picture was from his newborn session with Ty Bebe Photography and picture on right was from his 6 month session with Gloria Plunkett Photography. When you're done checking them out, make sure to check out MY photography website, Harley Jay Photography. HA!) 

Last week I ran across these lyrics on Pinterest from The Beatles song "We Can Work It Out" (all time favorite band. Didn't know that? Now you do). But the link didn't take me to anyone selling the sorta wall art thing I saw. So I decided to make my own. So perfect for a playroom. And my kids.

Would you like that 8x10 file to print on your own printer? Leave me some blog love in the form of a comment on this post below, and I'll email it to you!