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It’s free printable wednesday. FullSizeRender-3

In addition to a little something from me to you that you can print at home and hang on your wall (if you so choose).  You get to hear a story about my life.   Or you can just print it and not read any of it.  Thats cool too. I do not consider myself an artist.

I have many friends who are.  I would allow it to be said that I am a creative person.  In the way, that I like to create things.  I’m realizing more and more that everyone who is creative, goes through highs and lows.  And the lows are like, über, intense.  Like…”what am I even doing with this? why do i make things? no one even likes it.  i should just quit.” One of my favorite artists and a little lady who I really admire, just posted something to this nature and I thought to myself.  Holy crap.  If I had that much talent I would NEVER think that about me.  But, that’s not true.

It’s the creatives curse.  To feel the lows and appreciate the highs and to make something out of it.  Any opportunity to get crafty right?  We feel things, we build things, we tear those things down, and build atop the rubble again, in the hopes of being better for it. It’s hard in this time.  With all of the great ways we have to share the work that we do, we also have a lot of ways to see how people are (quite literally) millions of “followers” ahead of us.  Which, the people who are there, probably started in this very same place YEARS ago…yes…years.  And I’m positive that even the most famous of bloggers/diy-ers…cough cough…A Beautiful Mess…cough cough.  Still have moments where they doubt, or worry, or feel uninspired.  Knowing this is, actually, sort of encouraging.

That we aren’t alone in our doubt, yet everyone keeps going…right? To that we say to each other.  Go Get Em!  We can do this, and even if no one likes what we do (which is probably not true) we get to make things with our hands.  We get to create something, anything.  Lets find out what we can do!

//click HERE for your free printable, or click the photo.

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I feel lame even sharing about this, because it is like, stupid simple.  But sometimes its about the little things.  Right?

I have like a billion rolls of half used washi tape just laying around the house.  Okay…not a billion…I sorta wish…but I have a lot.  I get bored with our furniture a lot and our kitchen table was just feeling sort of bleh one day.  So I snagged some orange stripy tape, and some mint patterned tape and just taped it right onto the table.

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It’s totally temporary and think of the possibilities!  I also love that if something gets on it you can just pull it off and throw it away.  You can totally do more than just stripes too.  I think this could get pretty fun near the Holidays.  Such an easy and quick way to spruce up your table real quick!

Also it should be noted that I set the table and added fruit to our bowl before I took these photos.  Lets be real.  I have a nearly two year old who is coloring, play doh-ing, and pasta-ing on this table on the daily.  Thus the need to be able to just pull it off and toss it! As I look at Penny and think “this is why we don’t have nice things!”.

What other things are you using washi tape for, around the house?  Or…is it just me…

I think I have decided to make Wednesdays, free printable day!  It helps me stay in a groove of creating and it’s a fun little treat for whoever reads this mess.

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In honor of a quick trip home this evening I thought it was fitting to make a little simple print.  Even though we’ve made a pretty great home for us in our new town, there is nothing like being back where you grew up with the friends you’ve had for a life time.

It’s going to be so great visiting, but it is right smack in the middle of one of the busiest weeks I’ve had in a loooooooong time.  I’ve been helping with a womens conference at our new church.  Worship team rehearsals, planning meetings, and so many paintings.  It’s so great to be productive again, but man…I am POOPED!  I’m excited to share how things went and also to add a TON of new things to the shop after this weekend!

If you would like to download this print for your own use you can click right HERE!  Or click the photo! Again, let me know if there are any issues and I’ll work to adjust things for you.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Sidenote:  Sorry for all of the “!!!” I’m just really excited about tonights happenings : ).  I’ll share about it all this week!

I’ve been wanting to put some family photos up for a while now, but I wanted to do something a little different.  I’ve done the whole gallery wall thing, and the GIANT statement piece thing, and I wanted something new. Theres a little wall space above our record player and my original thought was to get some square frames and do a little 9 photo sort of dealio.  Then, on one of my many trips to Target with the Penster, I stumbled upon these super cute binder clips.  I wanted them and needed a reason to have them,  this sorta got my brain going.  So I bought them, because…Target. IMG_1997 I’m a little bit of a craft binger.  When I have an idea, it needs to be done now.  Preferably with no extra trips to the store and no well planned out methods.  Which makes me a bit of a corner cutter.  Some times it works, some times it doesnt, but in this case it turned out pretty well. I had one left over 1x from our pallet deck project.  So I harrassed brett to cut it down into 3 even pieces because I’m annoying and I don’t quite trust myself yet with unsupervised power tool usage yet (soon.).  I like the natural wood, but it doesnt really go with anything in our house.  Plus I’m trying to suddely switch to everything black, white, and metalic (because pinterest told me to).  I had no sort of stain, so I just grabbed some black acrylic paint and water.  I watered the paint down pretty well, and then just layered it on until I was happy with it.  This was way better than just painting it completely black, because i got to keep the woodgrain in there as well.  It sorta got me thinking what else in my house I could “stain” but thats a whole different set of posts… IMG_2002IMG_1644 After letting the paint dry for a while.  I got out 9 binder clips and hot glued them to the boards.  I just eye balled it and put them where I thought they looked good.  In hind sight, I wish I would have set them further apart,  I didnt take in account the spacing for 8×8 photos. In order to get these guys up on the wall I took a tiny drill bit and put holes on either side of the wood and then nailed right through it.  These are definitely light weight enough for that to work.  If you use sturdier wood you may have to us an anchor and screws, but for this type of project my impatient unplanned ways worked just fine. Then I found 9 of my favorite photos and had them printed in 8×8 from Walgreens. Usually I would have just gone through postal pix or any other app from my phone, but the problem with that is some of my photos are super edited and because of “low quality” they wont print them for you.  Which is great that these companies want you to have great quality photos, but honestly, I do not give a rip if my photos are slightly grainy.  You do you, I’ll do me. In the end, I’m so happy with how it turned out.  I love that we can trade photos in and out of it as well.  Anything that can be changed up every now and then is a-okay with me. IMG_2001 This project cost me about $30 and that was mainly the cost of the photos.  I had everything else on hand.  If I include the cost of what I had laying around it would be about $35, so it’s super affordable and super quick to make. I have some other home projects lined up that I’m SUPER excited about!  I can’t wait to share!  What are some of your favorite ways to display family photos?

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You guys!

Is it just me or did it feel like it should’ve been friday, 2 days ago!  This week is just taking its sweet time.  I blame it partly on a couple of exciting things coming up in the next couple months.  Like ladies nights, and get aways, and visits from friends!  But alas, those seem far far away and here we are…stuck in the every day muck!  YUCK!

In honor of me feeling sorta bleh, I thought I’d treat ya’ll to a free little printable.  If you’d like.  I spent some time messing around and doodling during Penny’s nap today.  Some of the favorite things in our house are the items that are personal to our family.  “I love your stinky face”, may seem like a weird thing to say…and well..i’m weird.  This expression comes out of my mouth quite often…wether its Brett or Penny that it’s directed to…it’s definitely my way of showing great love to them.  And no…their faces are not stinky.

This will most likely be up on our mantel (when we get a sweet new faux fireplace from my mom!).  But, for now…whoever wants it can take it.

You can download the printable…HERE!

Happy Wednesday friends…Even though the week is ONLY half over, that means we ONLY have half more till the weekend.

See how I tried to make it sound better than it is.  It was worth a shot!

P.S.  It should be noted that I have NEVER done this before.  This should print out on regular 81/2×11 paper.  If you have any sort of issues with it let me know and I’ll try and fix it.  Thanks for your patience as I figure these little things out for the first time : )

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One question I get a lot (which i didnt expect) is “what’s the theme for your nursery?”

i usually respond with some awkward answer like..ummm colors?  but i guess that’s pretty true.  i’ve never really been a fan of things that are baby.  like full on nurserys that are decked out in winnie the pooh (i love winnie the pooh, i just dont want a ton of winnie the pooh stuff in my house).  to each their own.  if you love themes…theme it up.  get real theme-y with yo bad self.  its just not me.

the wall above penny’s crib will most likely change several times before penny’s arrival, but the idea is in motion.  the hot air balloon print is actually from an amazing little calendar that my friend faiths mom gave me for christmas.  every color in it is perfect and its a nice reference to pull from when i add things in the room.

there are SO many projects that need to be done.  like finding a dresser to refurbish for the changing table, getting the shelves up above said dresser (thanks dad!), framing prints, finishing this blanket (only one more chunky stripe to go : ) ), and im sure ill think of many more projects by the time she gets here.

its all so exciting, overwhelming, fun and stressful all at the same time!

This weekend was full.  It was totally fun, but oh so full, and i find myself pretty exhausted from it all today.  The heat isn’t helping much (geez California with your 100 degree weather…takeachillpill).

We were lucky to spend some mothers day time with my mom yesterday and she and her boyfriend blessed us with a crib for our little lady!  We were so excited and let me tell you, standing in that ikea in front of a crib with my hands resting on the side of it was the most surreal feeling ever.  When did we become old enough to have a baby?  When did we go from “yeah maybe in 5 years…” to “hey maybe we could do this now?”.  Its so amazing and wonderful and terrifying and incredibly ridiculous all at the same time.  I’m so glad that I get to do this with Brett and when we talk about our little girl and the dreams and plans we have for our family I feel so lucky.  And when we talk about how scared out of our minds we are and how we have literally no idea what we are doing, I feel even more lucky that I’m not in this alone and that my husband is just as clueless and scared and excited as I am.  That may not make sense, but its oddly comforting.

Anywho…in the midst of hanging out with some of my favorite people this weekend I actually got enough energy to get our spare room in order for some baby craftin.  I really wish I had a before photo so that you all could be impressed with how much I did.  Our spare room was FULL of boxes, some empty and some full of random crap, from our move (no worries…i did not lift things…there was a lot of scooting, pushing and sweet maneuvering skills…but no lifting).  Our friend Eric came over and helped put up our curtains and my friend Faith and I hung out and made some pom garland for above the crib.  I did all this stuff before Brett came home from work so I could surprise him with all the good work i did : ).  Then he surprised me today by building the crib while I’m at work (we like to surprise each other with things).

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It’s definitely coming together and also has a long way to go, but I’m already in love with the direction its taking.  I’m on the hunt for a dresser to refurbish for the changing table, we have some shelves we’re going to hang above that, and im scouring all etsy sites for cute little prints to hang up.  I cant wait till that little white book shelf is full of books to read to our little Penny and it will be awesome to see her snuggled up to mine and bretts childhood stuffed animals (fuzzy the blue bear and bubba the dolphin).

I cant wait to meet this little girl that is just gonna rock mine and bretts world.  Shes already so awesome.

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This weekend we FINALLY got some of our shelves up in our new place!  I haven’t really been all that excited about our new apartment.  We moved from a place that we actually loved a lot to a new place that has some major perks.  Cheaper rent, smaller commute, and right next door to some of our favorite people.

I think a big reason why I’ve had a hard time adjusting is because we moved during the height of my first trimester tired-no-motivation phase.  A lot of things are still in boxes which is something I have a super hard time with.  I am a super crazy unpacking organizing machine…so having no interest in putting our house together for the first 3 months was a bit of a downer.  Ever since we got these shelves up though, I’m falling a little bit in love with our cozy space.

One of my favorite things so far has been this little coffee station.  Our new place has a teeeeny tiiiiny kitchen with no counter space at all.  So adding this one little shelf in our dining area for all of my caffeinating equipment was a super nice way to get some clutter out of the way.  There are still a couple touches that I’m going to add, hopefully next weekend.  But the more we do the more I enjoy where we live and the more I can picture our little family making sweet memories here.

Side note:  Decorating when you know you are going to have a little one running around getting in everything is a whole different vibe than the kid-less decorating.  I’m super conscious of the height of everything and making sure nothing valuable or unsafe is close to the ground…look at me…thinkinlikeamom…weird.

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