Resurrection Easter Eggs

This resurrection easter egg countdown has been done and posted about all over the internet. This is just my version combining some of those I found. I chose the events I wanted to touch on most, but there are tons of options out there! We made these for Activity Days and the girls can go home and teach them to their families.

These are the little items included in 11 of the 12 eggs, the 12th egg is empty to represent Christ's resurrection and the empty tomb.

We numbered each egg and included a printed quote and scripture along with the item in each egg.

Then we put them in a cute bag and tied it up with a resurrection picture card.

These make great gifts for family, friends and neighbors! Below is a free printable of the files I made and printed. Again, they are a compilation of others across the internet, so I take no credit for this idea!

JPEG / PDF

JPEG / PDF

Kitchen BEFORE Photos

When moving from Texas to Utah, my husband and I had a quick trip out to Utah to try and find a home. We saw a ton of homes in the course of 2 days. I had seen pictures of this house online and although there were a few things I didn't like from the pictures, I kept coming back to it. When we saw it in person, it was actually the backyard that sold us. Just walking out on the back deck and looking around, I knew it was the one. The imperfections on the inside were less important because we'd be getting such a dreamy yard. 

The space in the house was more than adequate, but some of the styles and decisions were less than desirable to us. We knew the first areas we wanted to tackle and change were the floors and kitchen. Here are the before pictures of the space featured on the home's sale listing.

Here are a few pictures of details I took during our showing:

 That pantry pictured above was small and hard to access the top shelf. We planned to tear the whole thing out and make this entire wall a built in cabinet pantry to better maximize storage space.

The cabinets weren't terrible, they just weren't our style and little details like the hinges made them feel dated.

The sink and faucet were actually really nice. The sink was a heavy cast iron sink, too bad it was almond colored. The faucet was a nice Delta faucet that I would have kept had it matched the new colors.

The granite was newer to the house but didn't fit our new design plans so it too would go.

And our favorite part the scalloped floating trim piece and the off centered light fixture... that also hung right at eye level preventing view to the backyard:

I made an inspiration board of all the elements I wanted to be added to the new kitchen. It's nice for me to see everything in one space to make sure I like it all together.

Sources: (Some of these do contain affiliate links)

Kitchen source (L to R): Kitchen 1, Kitchen 2, Kitchen 3, Island corbel (can't find the original source), Pantry.

Faucet, Bowl pendants, Glass globe light, Lantern chandelier, Sink, Cabinet pull, Cabinet knob.

I can't wait to show the DURING and AFTER photos. It was a major process, but so worth the end results!

Boy's Shared Room

Since we are moving, I wanted to post about the boy's rooms before packing everything up. Okay, so a little background. We have four bedrooms, a playroom, and theater room upstairs. Basically it's the kids level of the house. One of the bedrooms was for our daughter, the other three originally for our three boys. It worked out perfect. The end boy room was the NURSERY {Check out that post HERE!}

 I had so much fun putting that nursery together. 

Here is the middle brother's old room before we rearranged. His room was simple and doubled as the guest room since he had a big bed. {See the new, no cost guest room HERE} I used clipboards to display a bunch of puppy prints, because he was puppy obsessed.

I made the whale out of plywood that I cut with a jigsaw. 

Across a jack-and-jill was big brother's room (which I am struggling to find pictures of... I'll update if I find some!)

As the boys all got older, and my baby less of a baby, some rearranging needed to happen. 

The two older boys wanted to share a room, so they moved in together, and baby moved into middle brother's old room. Now all three of them were closer, just a jack-and-jill bathroom away. Rearranging worked better logistically, but it also meant I needed to do some decor coordination amongst the newly combined roommates. 

At first they had beds arranged like so:

That lasted a couple of days, then we moved to bunk beds.

The bedding still didn't match, but we made it work until I got around to a whole room revamp. After some inspiration searching and mood board planning, I came up with something classic yet fun.

All of the bedding was found at Target. The quilts were on clearance for under $10 each because they are twin XL for a post back-to-college sale!

Wall mounted task lights and painted spice racks all from IKEA are perfect for bedtime reading.

These bunk beds have a cool history- my uncles had them as children, then they got handed down and my sisters and I used them when we were kids, and now my kids use them! I love that they've been used by three generations and are still look great!

This clip board is simply that, I painted a 1x6 in a shade darker than the walls and attached large dog clips to display artwork. 

I built the bench and shelves from supplies found at Home Depot. I used a Kreg Jig to attach the two boards together on the bench, then used metal piping to create the legs. The shelves were so easy to make and are pretty self explanatory.

I love how the room turned out!

This post contains affiliate links below, which means I receive compensation if you make a purchase using this link. I was not provided free product, and my opinion is my own, but I only recommend products I have used and LOVE, and hope you will too!

Halloween

With our home being on the market during October, I didn't want to go all out with my Halloween decor. I thought spider webs and bats might scare off potential buyers. Instead, I kept our decor very simple and pretty.

We did however, have fun with our Halloween costumes! I normally like to try and coordinate the whole family, but the kids wanted different things, so I just let them be what they wanted to be.

The boys wanted to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This costume was super easy to create. I bought green pj tops and pants from Primary.com. These can double as actual pajamas after Halloween- win-win! I made felt ninja masks, and made turtle shells out of large roasting pans spray painted green.

{This post contains affiliate links below, which means I receive compensation if you make a purchase using this link. I was not provided free product, and my opinion is my own, but I only recommend products I have used and LOVE, and hope you will too!}

I also sprayed their hair green with THIS.

Raphael:

Michelangelo:

Leonardo:

My daughter wanted to be something creepy. We settled on a ghost and came up with my favorite costume to date! I made a cape out of several layers of tulle (I basically followed this TUTORIAL from Martha Stewart for the cape,) She wore it over a white old fashioned night gown I made as well. I painted her face to make her look dead and she was thrilled!

**Keep scrolling for the best part!!**

And apparently even ghosts like a little donut challenge!

When nightfall came, this ghost was back to her spooking duties:

How'd we get her to glow? I used THESE LED battery operated lights that we wrapped around under her tulle cape. She was the hit of all our Halloween festivities!

As for the grown-ups, we dressed up as Sheriff Longmire and a local native. If you haven't watched the show, you need to!

Getting one of our kids to take our picture was easier said than done.

It was a successful Halloween season! The best part was that we had a showing for our home on Halloween nigh, and they ended up making us an offer and buying! Maybe those simple flowers and pumpkin sealed the deal ;)

Tufted Upholstered Headboard

We've been married over 10 years, and have never bought or owned a headboard! I finally decided to just make one. Why I waited this long, I'll never know! It only took three days of nap time working to finish, and under $100 to make, but what a difference it makes to our room!

I build the frame using plywood, 1x6 and 1x4 boards.

I then used two layers of egg crate padding, batting, and finally the upholstery fabric. I stapled it to the back of the frame, making box folds at the corners.

When that was done I tufted it with buttons I covered with the upholstery fabric.

I love how it turned out and what a simple impact it has on the room.