Hi Everyone, sorry for my lack of posts this this week & last! I've been sick, its now the third time for me so far this year, and Avery's been sick too. No fun at all! I'm finally getting back in the swing of things and brainstorming projects I want to tackle around our house. I mentioned a few months back, I was thinking about creating a gallery wall for Avery's room. I recently started buying frames for his gallery wall, and started looking though my Pinterest boards for inspiration.

I adore the the gallery wall believe, its all about creativity and framing the little artists masterpieces. I also love how the colorful artwork speaks for itself and the frames fade into the background. 

(Image via Pinterest)

This gallery wall has some major impact ceiling to floor, I'm typically not a huge fan of floor to ceiling gallery walls, but in here it just works. 

(Image via Pinterest)

By far this is one of my favorite kids room with a simple and well placed gallery wall above the bookcases. I pretty much love everything about this little boys space: the use of pattern and color, all those organized books and toys! Just love!

(Image via Pinterest)

This is such a cute and fun gallery wall above the bed! It just makes you smile and its so full of personality.

(Image via Pinterest)

Gallery walls can get expensive, frames add up and so does the artwork to fill up those frames.  I created a small gallery wall in Avery's nursery before the fire, and I'm hoping to create a new one that's geared toward his personality with art he likes and makes him smile along with framing his own masterpieces. I'm a big believer in framing kids artwork and having a room that reflects the child's personality. This weekend, I plan to start working on the layout for his gallery wall and getting those frames up, even if some are empty! Sometimes half the battle in projects in the first push to get things started. I'll be sure and share the progress, next week. 

Etsy Valentine Cards for Kids

We recently transitioned Avery from a home childcare setting into preschool. Yup, my baby is a full fledged preschool going toddler. Feels like I just yesterday I announced we were expecting! So far the transition has been so easy and he loves it! I love that his has lots of new little friends to play with and learn from. His preschool is celebrating Valentine's day and of course I want him to pass out darling cards. Here are a few darling Valentine's Day cards from Etsy perfect for your little one(s) to pass out, and you can print all these at home or at your local print shop. 

via Etsy seller Amanda Brown Designs

via Etsy seller Prints for Events 

via Etsy seller Your Pretty Party

via Etsy Seller Pink Owl Party Design

For my little guy, I fell in love with the Fox Valentine & Dinosaur from Olivia June Designs. What's a mom to do? Order both of course! 

Image via Etsy seller Olivia June Designs 

I'm stopping in at local Staples tonight and getting cards printed out. I have just enough time to mail his grandparents cards too. If your still in need of Valentine Cards stop by Etsy and take a look around there are so many cute affordable printable ones to choose from. And nope I'm not getting paid to share these adorable cards, just spreading the love since its almost Valentine's Day. 

I Still Have a Crush on Roku

Years later I still have a crush on our Roku Player and we've been 100% cable free for 2 years. We made the decision to cut the cable cord in 2012 after realizing we only watched a handful of TV channels we were paying for and added up the yearly cost of cable. Bottom line for our house it didn't make sense to keep paying for a service we weren't using, our Roku player had replaced or need for cable. I go more in depth in our decision to cut the cable cord in this post, followed up an anniversary post (see I love the Roku!) For those of you out there who haven't heard of the Roku its a streaming deceive for playing various channels (Netflix, Pandora, Hulu & more I'll get to the more in a few) by using your WiFi. Once you connect the device to your homes Wifi your able to subscribe to the channels I mentioned above and more, some channels you pay a small month service while other channels are free, you only pay for the content you want to watch. Hasani's dad purchased our first Roku player for him (B-Day present) way back in 2010 and we've been hooked every since. 

Current Setup 

Last year we added another Roku player to our household, we currently have a Roku HD & Roku player, one resides in our living room and the other our master bedroom. Roku has become so popular the past few years that you can buy one at your local Target or Best Buy and of course online at Amazon.com 

The Roku are super and small and can hide behind your flat screen TV. Here's a snapshot of our bedroom, can you spot the Roku? It's actually hiddern behind our TV. I keep the remote on top of the TV when its not in use it goes missing a lot lol. But don't worry there's a Roku App for that! Yup if you loose your remote you can use your app to change the channels, genius :) I recently ordered TotalMount Roku mounting kit from Amazon, because both or living room and master bedroom TVs are hanging from the wall and I want to make sure they were securely held in place. Plus majority of the reviews were very positive. 

We recently added a flat panel antenna behind our living room TV so we now are able to catch local TV (the news, abc, cbs & fox etc) 

We recently added a flat panel RCA Antenna behind our living room TV so we now are able to catch local TV (the news, abc, cbs & fox etc) It's kind of nice, I'll be able to watch the news in the morning and watch a few shows during the weekday if we choose to, however the Roku has replaced my need to watch live TV. Below is what are new RCA Antenna looks like, it only took a few minutes to install and find free TV channels. 

Channel Subscriptions

We currently pay for three subscriptions channels: Netflix $7.99 per month (plus we have the 1 at a time DVD subscription) Hulu $ 7.99 per month and I recently opted to try Amazon Prime, with this subscription you pay the year amount in advance which works out to be $6.58 per month. Plus your able to get free 2 day shipping on almost all Amazon orders!! I love ordering something on Tuesday and know it be arriving on Thursday, it makes me a happy girl. 

In the past year so many regular cable channels have added a channels on Roku: PBS, AMC & Lifetime just to name a few (all free!) I love watching British movies and TV shows and recently discovered Acorn its $4.99 per month and I'm using its free trial period right now to see if I want to pay for the substitution. Roku recently added RedBox on Roku where you can also subscribe for a monthly fee and get so many rentals per month at the Redbox for free. When we want to watch a movie that's not available on a Roku channel, we typically rent a movie from Amazon (they offer 24 hour digital movie rentals) the rentals range from $1.99 - $4.99 the higher price rentals are in HD

What We Watch

Hasani and I have discovered so many amazing TV shows thanks to Roku! Just to name a few of the shows I discovered thanks to Roku: Scandal (discovered Season 1 on Netflix was hooked and started watching Season 2 on Hulu) Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, The Good Wife (seasons 1-4 are on Hulu & Amazon Prime) and many more.  

Seriously one of our favorite things Hasani and I love doing together is picking a new TV show to watch and binge watch! I love being able to enjoy an entire television series over the course of a few weeks lol. I'm also loving that Netflix is producing their own television series with big name stars like House of Cards and the hit I still haven't watched Orange is the New Black. One show we can't get enough of is Walking Dead (season 1-3 is on Netflix) We currently watch Walking Dead Mondays on Amazon it cost us a $1.99 per episode but its so worth it. Gotta have my weekly zombie fix. As you can tell I'm all over the map when it comes to me TV watching, I like English Aristocrats, Zombie Killers and a Chemistry teacher with a bad habit lol.

(image via fanpop)

One of the best changes to Roku in the past year is the addition of the PBS channel, last year I'd have to wait a few days to watch the latest episode of Downton Abbey online and their streaming to forever like forever. I'm now able to watch Downton the same night it airs on Roku. With the PBS channel I've discovered some amazing British TV shows, which you all must must check out. 

PBS Must See TV 

Downton Abbey 
Watch series 1-3 on Netflix or Amazon Prime 

Call the Midwife
Watch Series 1-2 on Netflix

Last Tango in Halifax
Watch online on PBS

If your looking for new to you TV shows  hope you'll check out the three I mentioned above. Of of the cool things about switching the old dusty cable box for the Roku and sharing the change with our family and friends and all you and we love it is hearing back from some of them who have also made the change and cut the cable cord! Most recently my sister made the switch a few months ago and is happily cable free, and she was one of those people who had like every channel imaginable lol. I love paying for content which actually want to watch verses paying for content we don't. I can honestly say I don' miss cable at all, but it is fun visiting a friends house and flipping though their channels just to see whats on lol.

 Now for the fun part hearing your thoughts about television now, how do yo watch TV in your home? Could you ever give up cable? Have you recently switched to a Roku player or another streaming device? Also what shows should I check out or channels on Roku? 

Would love to hear your thoughts! 

Eat-In Style for Six

One of the things I love about my home now is being able to fit more than four for dinner in our 1950's eat in kitchen. We now can officially seat six in our dining room, which huge for our modest 1956 rancher huge! During the rebuilding of our home we decided to widen the doorway between our living room and dining and kitchen. This change really opened up our home and has made the adjoining rooms all feel larger. I think natural light from our large living room window, front door, dining room window and kitchen and laundry room all make everything feel bigger (love that!) 

Before I share the recent change, here's a reminder of what are space looked like a few months after moving back in our home, click here to see what our dining room looked like before the fire (if your new to my blog, our home was damaged in a house fire in July 2012, we spent half of 2013 rebuilding our home)

One of my girlfriends was kind enough to let us borrow her dining room table that wasn't being used in ours until, I found 'the table.' Anyways back to finally being able to seat six! When I was looking for a vintage dining room table for our dining room, I knew I want it to be either round or oval with pretty pedestal legs. I passed on many tables holding out for just the right one, I found the right one stalked it and eventually bought it via Craigslist (some of the best money spend to date!) Read more about our crazy table adventure here. I fell in love with the Klismos dining airs from West Elm and bought four on clearance. I decided to only buy four, because I was hoping to add a banquette in our dining room. Well that day has arrived, I've been literally in love with the Hayden Banquette from World Market for like years, I mentioned it here & here. After stopping in World Market on Sunday just to poke around Hasani and I decided to finally pull the trigger and bring it home for a steal (but I'll get to the steal part in a few) 

Over the past several months since moving back into our home, our dining room has evolved so much! I hung a curtain and rod high and wide and sewed back tab drapes (click here for the How To) Refinished our dining room table and hung a gallery wall full of black and white family photos. 

Here's our dining room now that we added a banquette...can I just how much I'm in love with this view, the way it looks 'meant to be.' 

The banquette is a really nice size, and fortunately fits perfectly in our petite eat in kitchen (thank goodness!) I was nervous it would be too big or stick out too far since its nice and deep. When its not 'in use' we have the table pushed back a tab so its looks tucked in just like chairs are tucked in under a table. 

Now for the total steal part of this story, on Sunday the banquette was on sale for $279.00 regularly $449.00. The store we visited only had two in stock and one was promised to another customer who put it 'on hold.' After talking to the store manager and checking the shipping status to find out when they'd get more inventory, she offered to sale the floor model banquette to us for $ 239.99 plus taken an additional 15% for using our World Market Explorer card (words just like a Safeway club card, enter your phone number and bam instant savings!) We paid $ 203.99 for this beauty. Here's a snapshot of our receipt. I double and triple checked we could return the banquette at any time during their normal return period if we changed our minds, they said no problemo :) 

I can't wait to have friends over and all gather round of table and sit on the banquette and socialize. Its amazing to see how truly transformed our dining room feels now that we added the banquette, such a good feeling.

What do you think of our new addition to our eat in kitchen? 

DIY Laundry Room Countertop

I recently painted our laundry room door a pretty shade of aqua Behr Bali Blue to be exact, and mentioned we were in the process of making our little laundry room more efficient. Our laundry room is just off our dining room and kitchen, our laundry room isn't original to our house it used to be located in the garage. Oh how I loathed doing our laundry in the garage, it felt like a dark cave. I haven't really talked much about our laundry room / mudroom on the blog so here our some more deets on this hardworking space. During the rebuilding phase of our house we decided to add an indoor laundry / mudroom addition to our home, best decision ever. I'm beyond thrilled to have a dedicated area inside our home to for laundry that's bright airy and a nice size for our petite home. 

The back wall in our small space is dedicated to our laundry area, we opted on front loading washing machine and dyer to maximize space. I really wanted to carry hardwood floors into this space, but I needed to be practical since our washing and dryer and mudroom are in the this space we went with faux wood look tile. Another good decision! The tiles are long planks and laid the same direction as our wood floors to help create a cohesive look with our flooring. We opted to go with dark drown grout. I love how easy the tile is to keep clean and how nice it looks! Here's a reminder of our home laundry room space looked like prior to moving back into our home.

We bought our washing machine and dryer from Sears during the Memorial Day holiday sale, at first we planned on buying and entry level set, but thanks to the savings we were able to buy an upgraded Kenmore with a few more bells and whistles plus we saved some extra cash thanks to local rebates offered though SMUD and PG&E. We've had our washer and dyer for about 7 months and love them! 

Ever since our appliances were delivered, we've been wanting to add a counter top above them, for folding clothes etc. We decided to DIY a wood counter top for laundry room. I love how much warmth wood brings into space and it seemed like the perfect easy affordable solution for a counter top. We went to Home Depot and purchased Red Oak Plywood. The plywood was perfectly smooth and had pretty grains that we thought would look pretty once stained. 

We had Home Depot cut the Red Oak plywood based on the measurements for the counter top. Using 1x2 boards we made a ledge along the back wall and sides to hold the counter up, so the counter top doesn't rest on top of the washer & dryer. In the picture blow you can see the wood ledge. 

The sides of the Red Oak plywood are unfinished, we used a 1/2 piece of trim to make the the counter appear thicker. We countersunk a the nails and covered the nail holes with wood filler. I fell in love with our new counter before the stain even went on, I love how much space it provided. 

I wanted to cut down on all the staining steps, so I decided to try Minwax Polyshades in the color Mission Oak with a satin finish. I applied three coats of staining to achieve the dark rich stain I was wanting. The stain goes on really runny, so I just took mine time applying each coat. I love the the rich color counter top turned out. 

It's exciting to see the laundry room / mudroom start to take shape. So far adding a little storage bench (that I plan on recovering) and painting the inside of the door a fun color along with our DIY wood counter top have really given our space so much more purpose. 

Next on our list for this space is to add cabinet storage, shelving and possibly a back splash. I'm still tossing around ideas: subway tile, colorful wall paper or stencil? Once the bench has been recovered in more 'me fabric' and I add more storage for 'mudroom essentials.' So happy with decided to tackle our laundry room counter on a whim.

*Update: We chose not to nail our new counter top in place, so its floating above the washer and dryer, we figured if we ever needed to make any repairs it would make it easier by being able to remove the counter top * 

What do you think of our DIY Wood Counter top? Have you started any laundry room updates to your home recently?