Bedroom updates

Last year I finally talked my husband into upgrading to a king size bed and I wish we would have done it YEARS ago.  I knew I wanted a neutral upholstered headboard, so I started shopping around online and found one at Wayfair that I fell in love with.  The reviews raved that for the price, the quality was amazing, and they weren't wrong!

Upholstered Bed and Frame:  Wayfair  Similar: Wayfair (headboard only)

Here's what our poor room looked like before.  My husband's bed from childhood, the blah brown bedding.  The God awful brown and yellowish flower painting.  I was beyond ready to amp up the look of this room.

I love greek key, I love velvet, I love white! I LOVE how this room turned out.  It's so tranquil.  What's really funny is that my mom has a bizarre love affair with anything blue and white.  From clothing to accessories to home decor....to even clothing she buys for my child. He owns more navy shirts than any kid on the planet.  I kid her about it all the time so she was pretty shocked when I decided to go down the navy and white route with this reno.  

I love the lines of the bed.  Wayfair has a huge selection of upholstered headboards and beds, but I narrowed it down to this more contemporary shape without a nailhead trim or curved camelback shape.  It just seems to fit the space perfectly.  

I'll try to get a better picture of the full bed later, but I use a white quilt and a rolled duvet at the foot of the bed.

Agean Key Velvet Pillow: Wayfair; Blue Greek Key Lumbar: Marshalls (Elements by Erin Gates)
White Shams and Duvet: Hotel Collection from Home Goods
Velvet Euro Shams: Amazon

Blue ginger jar: TJMaxx

This room is still a work in progress, but I've been so happy with the bed and the bedding.  Who knew I would have such a love of navy and white?  Like most everything about me....I get it from my mama! 

Happy Tuesday! 

~Katie

Beckett's Star Wars Room

Beckett has never liked that his bedroom was on the bottom floor.  We moved his room downstairs from the third floor to the first floor when he was a toddler just because it seemed safer.  Unfortunately, the bottom floor is more isolated.  He felt that he was too far away and one day asked me if he could move is room to the top floor.  I gave him a deadline of a month.  If he could sleep upstairs in what my family calls "the princess room" (because it's so frilly and girly) for one whole month, I would agree to swap the rooms.  So, he found himself a calendar and a pen and marked off every day until a month had passed.  Then I had to break the bad news to my husband and my brother that they would be moving all the furniture in the guest room down 2 flights of stairs, and all the furniture from B's room, up 2 flights of stairs.  The 3 of us got a ton of exercise that Saturday and managed to move everything.  I only wished I'd done it sooner!  

Here is the tranquil, serene room that once was our guest room. 

Bed: Big Lots, but you can find it HERE; Mirrors: Kirklands; Bedding: Potterybarn Kids
Star Wars Artwork: Hobby Lobby;

Star Wars, Star Wars Everywhere 

These "Bs" were picked up at an assortment of places like Hobby Lobby,
Michael's, Ross, and Target 

Beckett loves his "B" Wall.  The lower black "B" is from his wall in his nursery and I just started accumulating them and thought a "B" gallery wall would be fun! He loves when I come home with a new one to add to the collection.  Plus...it's pretty fitting since we call him "B" most the time.  

Book ends: Target

Letterboard: Amazon

Desk Chair: Strobler Home Furnishings, Columbia, SC
Globe: Vintage; Desk: Vintage vanity
Stripe curtains: Amazon

Beckett kept asking for a desk.  His desk is actually an antique vanity I had inherited from my granparents.  It was already in the corner of the guest room, so with the removal of a few screws, it's now a desk that fit PERFECTLY in the space between the bed and the wall.  The globe was also from my grandparents house and I remember my Pa pointing out locations to us when I was little. 

Planet Mobile: Potterybarn Kids

Happy Monday!
May the force be with you,

~Katie

Letterboard Love

These letterboards have been a big thing for a while....I'm just joining the party late.  I bought one for Beckett's room, but thought it might be nice to have one for the kitchen so I could display some of my motivational quotes for myself.  

This 12x12" white felt and white frame letterboard came from Hobby Lobby, but you can get a similar 12x15" one here. 

~Katie

Lounge Area

This area at the top of the stairs has changed more times than I can count.  I've had plants, stools, tables of all sorts and accent chairs in this space.  The brown storage ottoman is one of two in our living room that hides toys (basically just a vessel for light sabers and every Nerf gun manufactured), so I decided to move it upstairs and I think it looks so much better in this little nook at the top of the stairs.  I originally bought the round wooden mirror to replace the mirror in Beckett's bathroom, but it was just too small.

I've had the iron side table for a while, which came from Ross.  The velvet pillow is Elements by Erin Gates.  I'm obsessed over her line of pillows, rugs, lamps and candles.  The pillows are luxurious, down filled and absolutely beautiful!  You can find them at Wayfair.com and sometimes at Marshalls and Home Goods.  

I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll switch up this space, but for now it's a fresh look I can be content with for a while.  

~Katie

Real Life

I'm sitting in Beckett's room while he watches Home Alone for the 125th time since Christmas....it's March 14th.  His room is a disaster.  I have a list a mile long of things I need to be doing right now, but he's getting to an age where he likes to hang out in his room or play video games.  So....I take what I can get.  At least while he's in hysterics while Kevin McAlister throws paint buckets at robbers heads, I can laugh along with him between paragraphs.

Why am I telling you this?  Part of the reason is that on the 13 Acres Instagram page I posted pics of his room that I labored over for days, after taking each picture, fluffed pillows a little more and straightened a crooked letter on the B wall.  I'm telling you this because I look at the pictures I labored over, stressed over, edited and obsessed over and then have the stupidity to compare them to other Instagram and blog pics of beautiful interiors.  But then I remember....I'm not a photographer, I'm not an interior designer.  I'm a full time working mom who likes trying to make my home a beautiful reflection of the things that we like and enjoy.  I'm not a business, I'm not a brand.  I have loads and loads of laundry to catch up on and I absolutely hate trying to decide what to put in a lunchbox every week night that usually turns into a rotation of PB&J, ham sandwich, or chicken nuggets.  What I guess I'm trying to say is that I'm not relaunching the blog and Instagram page to grow followers or likes.  I'm doing it because I've missed the creative outlet it brought.  I guess that by painting you a picture of what a disaster his room is and how much I hate laundry and lunchbox planning, we are all human.  We all tend to compare ourselves to others, but never stop to think about how much of what we see is authentic or what it's like behind the scenes.  

My photography skills are a little rusty and I'm definitely out of practice with writing a blog post, but I'm going to keep on.  I'm not going to promise consistent blog posts and Instagram updates on the house, but if you're here and you're reading this, I'm ecstatic that you took the time to get this far into my rambling.  Those of you who commented on the Instagram post that you're excited I'm back made my.damn.day!!  

I've tried to come up with reasons why I stopped blogging and I trailed off for many reasons.  After a while, I realized I was blogging about a multitude of things that I really wasn't passionate about.  I think that was one of the biggest reasons I stopped.  I was getting on my own damn nerves.  I had spent hours of my life crafting things for birthday parties and wedding showers and trying to get the perfect pictures to blog about and pin.  Then I realized, Beckett really only vaguely remembered any of the parties so why on earth was I doing all this?  I can't even begin to explain my elation when he asked to have his 5th (and 6th) birthday parties at a local trampoline park where you basically show up, jump, eat cake and go home.  SOLD!  Last year he just wanted a play date at our house with one other friend.  Even better.  

Another reason I ran out of steam was the incredible feeling that I had to keep up. Through the years I watched blogs evolve, Instagram accounts improve, and basically just said, screw this.  I know comparison is the thief of joy, but I couldn't help but wonder why I was spending all my time doing this if it wasn't as perfect as I thought I could get it.  It became work and when it became work and took time away from my family, I was done with it.    

So why am I relaunching this?  Because for some strange reason I feel compelled to.  It's almost like a calling.  A shift.  A feeling like I need to RE-start somewhere.

So, for my first blog post in more than 3 years, I'm going to give you a glimpse of what his room actually looks like.  Unmade bed and ALL.  

Here's a little fun fact:  This is what the backside of Beckett's coverlet looks like in the Star Wars room.  I never got around to finding a coverlet to replace the one from his firetruck room, so I just flipped it over.  It's kind of a little reminder that things don't always have to look perfect.  I know that underneath, there is plenty that is far from perfect and I'm ok with that.

I love beautiful interiors, I love finding new things for the house that enhance what I've put together for this space that I've loved decorating since the minute we moved in the first piece of furniture.  I love trying to get the most beautiful images that I can for the blog or Instagram, but just know I'm probably swatting a 7 year old to get out of my shot and I've shoved paperwork into a drawer, or behind the sofa is a pile of laundry.  

I’m so excited to share all the updates and changes I’ve made to our space!  I’ll be updating our House Tour and Sources list with links to items that can be found online.  

It’s good to be back...and a little unnerving to hit the publish button again,...so here goes nothing! 🤞🏼

~Katie

Magical Memories

Yesterday, we returned from taking Beckett to Walt Disney World for the first time.  I have to admit, I've been waiting on this for a long, long time!  So have my brother and my mom.  As kids, we went NUMEROUS times (I'm thinking about 10 years in a row!!)  We beat down the interstate from Columbia to Orlando so many times, we became pretty skilled in which rides we wanted to ride first, which restaurants we wanted reservations, and we even went so far as booking the same resort all but 2 of the times we went.  

It's pretty easy to say that Disney is very special to us.  When my parents divorced when I was in middle school, my mom scrimped and saved on a teacher's salary (a single parent teacher's salary) to take us just about every year.  She did her best to keep life as normal as she could for my brother and I. As turbulent as things might have been at home, we always had an escape to look forward to.  Some think we are a little corny and maybe even a little childish for loving Disney World so much....but I couldn't wait to see the look on my little boy's face when he experienced a place that holds so much magic for my family!  

While skimming through Pinterest this morning, I came across this C.S. Lewis quote and immediately thought about our trip so I took my favorite shot from our weekend and made a graphic. My sweet, smart, imaginative little boy, on top of my baby brother's shoulders....taking it all in! Complete with his Darth Vader helmet mouse ears!!  

Vacation pictures coming soon.....head on over to my Instagram feed for more.  

XO,

Upstairs Updates

If you didn't know already, Beckett's room has now been moved.......downstairs and has already changed themes!  I never even got a chance to post pictures of his firetruck room before it transitioned to the Star Wars theme that I'm in the midst of decorating now!   More about that later..... We thought it would be best to have him on a ground floor as opposed to the top floor, so we've turned his nursery into a small sitting room.  

Most everything you see here was recycled and at some point had a home somewhere else in the house.  The print and pillows were my friend Danielle's.

 A $12.99 lampshade from Tuesday Morning helped update the white shade with ribbon that we 

used in Beckett's room. 

Fantastic little side table from Ross for only $29!  Can't beat that! 

I'm still in the progress of finishing up this room, so you'll only get to see one corner for now! 

To see this space when it was a nursery, click HERE 

XO, 

Back at it

Yeah, I know.  No posts since LAST YEAR people!  I admit, there just aren't enough hours in a day to update and edit and publish.  After Christmas comes tax season, then spring festivities and then summer and the weekends are full of catching up and mini trips and vacations.
I forget how much I enjoy it though, so I'm going to TRY to get some pics edited, uploaded and maybe even just do one big HUGE blog post and photo dump summarizing the last YEAR!

I guess I've been thinking more about it because my blogger friend Angie came to visit in June. Just when I think, boo to the blog, it takes too much time, I'm sharing too much, blah, blah....I remember blogging helped me cross paths with someone who I talk to or text everyday and who (even though we never even laid eyes on one another until this summer) is one of my closet and dearest friends!  So, SO SO weird, I know.  But, it happened.  I think our husbands get it now that they've seen us together.  We finish each others sentences and actually meeting her in person, I love her even more....AND her sweet family!!  Alice, Wiley and Robin have stolen my heart and I can't wait for them to make a return trip!

Just looking through pictures and previous posts had me a little misty eyed  full blown crying at seeing how much my little boy has grown!  I realize now how badly I've fallen behind in recording his development.  The posts about his halarious little one liners have now turned into full blown stories.  His imagination is enormous....but his vocabulary is what baffles me the most!  A year and a half ago, I hardly ever left the house without my enormous camera.  One that I spent endless hours reading tips and taking classes on photography learning how to use.  That camera is collecting dust!! DUST!!! Not cool.

I'll be back!  I have a years worth of posts to catch up on, but I'm coming back!

Chalkboard Inspired Wrapping

I've seen this idea all over the place this year.  Chalkboard typography and printables are all the rage (and have been for a while), but I haven't been brave enough to paint a wall or a large surface in my home with chalkboard paint just yet.   I love the idea for Christmas wrapping.  All you need is some matte black wrapping paper (I ordered mine from Amazon), some white paint pens, and finally some inspiration for pictures, quotes an song lyrics.  You don't even need name tags because you can write the recipient's name right on the paper!!

Here are the ones I created for my family:  

I will say, it is a biiiiit time consuming, so I chose 4 family members that had gifts that could be wrapped in flat boxes.  My other gifts are wrapped in black and white houndstooth with black ribbon to match the black and white theme!

Merry Christmas and Happy Weekend all!

XO, 

Tidings from Target

After the news of the security breach this morning, I freaked a little.  Of all the places!!  I was pretty disappointed in my favorite retailer.....nevertheless, I'm still going to plug them in this post since I've checked my account and SO FAR I've seen nothing out of the ordinary.

Here's a little DIY I did from the Dollar aisle.  A-Z packs of metallic chipboard letters were $1/ea.  I also grabbed a spool of metallic bakers twine.  With two packs of letters and a spool of twine (and some hot glue) I was able to create the following:  (along with and extra "joy" garland on the shell tree I mentioned yesterday).

Picture frames were on sale in late November.
I was a little excited about my chalkboard inspired wrapping (post coming soon),
so I practiced with some white paint pens and black construction paper.
Temporary festive artwork for the bar until I get the perfect picture printed for the new frame. 

I've been on the hunt for a nice boxwood wreath for a while.  If you've ever checked out boxwood wreath prices, you know they can get pretty expensive.   

This Smith & Hawken preserved boxwood retailed for $39, but with a Cartwheel discount and a $10 online coupon, I ended up paying around $24. 

 How festive are these 3D paper snowflakes?

The large snowflake was $8 and a pack of 2 smaller flakes were also $8.

They are packaged flat and close magnetically, so they can be reused and easily packed away. 

More to come soon!  

XO, 

All That Glitters Is Gold

Here's a peek at the dining room Christmas decorations this year.  

I'm loving finding new ways to dress up these basic square plates every few months.

I already had everything I needed:  Black napkins, some burlap wired ribbon and some gold ornaments. 

Done.  

Happy Thursday! 

XO, 

Starfish Kitchen Tree

Every year I try to add a few things to my Christmas decor.  Here's a small addition that was quick and easy. A small table top tree that I made shell ornaments from that I had on hand....some hot glue and ribbon turned my vase filler shells into ornaments!

The "JOY" garland was a DIY from the Target dollar aisle.  

(Metallic letters hot glued to metallic bakers twine)

The burlap skirt is remnants from my Halloween banner DIY.  

Previous Years: 

2012

2011

2009

Merry Christmas!!  

Hopefully I can get some more decorations posted soon! 

Happy Wednesday. 

XO, 

Sound The Alarm! Mr. B is 3!!

Beckett turned 3 in November and what better theme to go along with his obsession with firetrucks?  A fire-themed party, of course!!  It was a bit of a no-brainer this year.  

This year I did a great thing.  I handed off my camera to my cousin and let her snap away.  I got to enjoy the party without trying to make sure I got the perfect shots and she got a chance to practice her photog skills. Ashlyn, you're hired again next year! 

 

Click on the links below for past parties: 

Beckett's Birthday Weekend 

Beckett's Big Birthday Bash

My Aunt did his cake again this year!
I think so far, this one is my favorite.

The night before the party, my mom helped her decorate it.
And to think.....I can barely boil water and I have cooking talent in my family that can do this.
How did I not get this gene?

Since we sent out quite a few invitations this year compared to years' prior, we wanted to make sure we had plenty of cake on hand.  Here's the second cake she made! 

I always fret last minute that I haven't done enough decorating.  I don't know why, I just DO! 
I had some red, yellow and orange construction paper lying around, so the lamps got a quick update 

I was trying to come up with ways to DIY some sort of fake flames.  I kept imagining a fan, some crepe paper and a light.  Sometimes, Amazon can do it cheaper.  

The faux fire is a Halloween cauldron sitting atop a Hobby Lobby red plastic bucket (that can be recycled to hold the gazillion tiny toys he got for his birthday). 

(adhesive letters from the Hob Lob as well.) 

Foyer candy table 

Twizzlers:  'Fireman's Rope'
Tootsie Rolls:  'Stop, drop and roll"
Red and yellow sixlets and red gumballs.

"I fell into a burning ring of fire......"
Beckett's wreath from his first birthday, some yellow streamers (covering the foam base) and
yellow, red and orange tissue paper.
That song will be stuck in my head for the REST of the day.  

 

More fires to put out at the bar.  

Kids tables on the back porch.

They each got a fire hat along with a firetruck coloring page.  

Overflow seating on the downstairs porch.

Let the party begin!!
Beckett and his buddy Maggie.
How cute are they???

Daycare buddies Georgia Nell and Caroline

Caroline and Ethan making some masterpieces! 

Time for CAKE! 

He was so funny when they sat the cake in front of him.  I think he was expecting a cake with a firetruck on it, not a cake that looked like an actual firetruck.  He couldn't believe it was a cake!

Colorful flame candles.....that wouldn't light!
DOH! 

I think B likes his ice cream!

Beckett's buddy Ethan.  They were best buds at daycare last year!

Hagen came dressed for the occassion!
Love the 'Chief" shirt! 

Time for presents!

More firetrucks!!!

Now, outside for some yard fun!

 

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate my little fireman's big birthday!! 

He had tons of fun and got loads of great gifts. 

Again, we are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. 

 

Happy Tuesday!

XO,