Spring is in the Air.

The boys are definitely loving this spring/summer weather as much as we are. We are all enjoying it now before it's 120 degrees out.

Chico enjoying a beautiful St. Patrick's Day....

Hank being handsome...

Ace watching the stray cat....

Hank loves strutting up and down the new stone walkway.....

He loves posing for the camera just as much....

Now he's had enough...

Jr. just prefers to eat....

And just be handsome without having to sell it too hard.....

Bedroom Makeover Update.

We've been slowly working towards transforming our bedroom and I'm pretty happy with the results so far. We still have a few outstanding items that we need to accomplish, but check out what's happened so far.

BEFORE:

AND AFTER:

We put new paint on the walls, went for some major drama with the drapes, got new bedding, new wall art, and bought new nightstands and lamps.

The sign above the bed was a small craft project. The center sign was used in our wedding and served as the inspiration for the color pallette of the room. I wanted to pull in more of the light blues that were already on the sign and make the sign itself a larger piece. To do that, I bought a distressed light blue frame from The Depot and had Ryan cut a piece of wood backing, which we wrapped in leftover burlap fabric from the wedding and then centered the sign in the middle of the frame. I also added the horseshoe from my bouquet to the bottom corner. I like how it turned out, but I do want to find something to go on both sides of it. I'm thinking some vintage lantern lights or some rustic, reclaimed window shutters.

We really wanted to find some older nightstands to refinish, but it was beginning to look like we would never find anything to work with, so we decided on these from Garden Ridge. I bought the wicker baskets and added those to the bottom for a little charm and storage. The lamps are from Target.

Another one of our outstanding items is to replace the mirror with the brown frame with a much taller one. I'd like to find one with a barnwood frame, but I'd settle for just brown and really tall.

I ended up getting our new duvet cover from Target. It's from their Shabby Chic line and was a compromise from the Restoration Hardware Linen duvet cover that I wanted that sold for $400 or something crazy like that. I bought this one for $70 and it's pretty awesome for being a Linen blend. It gets softer with every wash and is super comfy.

Pretty big difference, huh? I still want dark hardwood floors and a sliding barn door going into the bathroom (and a chandelier instead of a ceiling fan if my husband will agree to it) but I think it's pretty great the way it is right now and a hell of a lot better than what it was a couple of months ago!

The Yard.

We've spent the first three months of this year on the hustle. We've used some serious tunnel vision and have been 100% dedicated to completing our tasks. I am so happy to say that we are finally done with the yard!

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago, so you dont get the effect of having the leaves on the trees like you would now, but I was too lazy to reshoot.

We have grass! Thanks to Ryan our backyard is lush right now. We added pine straw around the trees, and moved our stone walkway. The previous owners had initially put it in, but it didnt seem to make sense in its previous location. I love it running from the deck to the goat house....

I repainted the white trim on the goat house, added a window frame from The Depot at Gibson Mill that I got for $15, and bought a window planter from Walmart. Say what you want about Walmart, but when you are running a project on a budget, you can get a very similar product for much cheaper. Know where to spend your money! I filled the planter with an old fake plant that I had in my apartment and it worked perfectly. We got the bistro table and chairs from Ryan's mom and stepdad. They werent using them anymore and were more than happy to give them to us. We bought a few cans of black spray paint to take them from green to black and voila!

GREEN GRASS!!!!!

The new and improved back deck!! We put lattice around the existing structure and then water sealed and stained everything, added mulch and lighting, and bought a gazebo from Lowe's for $500. The gazebo was definitely our big ticket item, but it was well worth it. We needed shade and ambiance and the gazebo achieves both.

We also added planters for the front of the deck and I will be planting annuals in those next weekend.

Gazebo Chandelier.....

Our pretty trees in bloom....

We had a couple of shrubs in the front yard that had died so we needed to replace those. While we were doing that, we decided to extend the beds to the side of the house and added lighting and new mulch.

The end!!