My first build...

I'd love to say that things at That Village House have just been SOOO busy that I haven't had time to blog. Really, I've just had a lack of motivation! That changed the other day when I re-stumbled upon Ana White's website. This lady is amazing and if I'm ever in Alaska I will have to find her and give her a great big hug for being so generous with her talent.

Soon we will be putting our two girls in one room and our son will have his own. This creates a problem when it comes to beds. Our matching beds are more "boyish" and our single bed is more "girlish"... see the issue here? SO, I showed by hubby the plans on Ana's website for the Farmhouse Twin bed and convinced him that we could do it! To my surprise he said, "sure, let's start tomorrow". So, Saturday afternoon we gathered all our materials (which included a new/used Mitre saw he's been wanting) and got to work. Our goal was to finish the headboard... check!
Later that weekend, we got to work on the footboard.

I'm so excited! I am so proud of us. I can't believe we actually BUILT A BED!! Of course it's not perfect. And I'm still not technically finished. I will need to go back and fill in all the nail and screw holes, sand, prime and paint it. Then we will decide whether to use a bed frame or build the rails like Ana's plan shows.

The wood material cost us just under $50. We had to buy some nails, screws, wood filler, and glue so that brought our total to around $80. Those things will be used for the next project (which I've already got brewing in my mind!!).

Headboard

The footboard

And so you can sort of see how it will be layed out (and the nastiness that is my garage!!)


We hope you had a blessed Easter.
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!" Luke 24:5b,6a

Linked Here:
The DIY Show Off
Making the World Cuter
C.R.A.F.T.

Accessory Challenge

Are you tired of your accessories??

Instead of buying new ones, just try moving them to new locations around your house.

This was my coffee table yesterday, covered with just about every accessory I own. I cleared end tables, bookcases and my fireplace with the intent to not put anything back in it's same location. It's harder than you think!

I learned a few things in the process...

1. Mix colors & textures to add interest.

2. Use varying heights, even if you have to build things up.

3. Keep things fresh by keeping up with the holidays.

4. Fight the urge to make things symmetrical.

5. And place your favorite things in places that you see the most.

Are your accessories gathering dust? Move them around.

What can it hurt??

Embracing Blue

Hi everyone!! It's so great to be back!!

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers over our newest little one, Davis. He's sweet & perfect and keeps me busy, hence my lack of blogging!

Perhaps he's the reason I'm finally embracing the lighter side of decorating. Reds and yellows and greens have always been easy for me to decorate with, but throw in cool colors and I'm lost and confused. I see beautiful blues in Pottery Barn magazines and love them, but inevitably think that I could never pull it off.

Note: If you struggle with this as much as I do, check out this post from the Nester. She has some great tips!

So I started small.

I picked up this shutter at Round Top last week and was determined NOT to paint it red or green. The rug in the powder bath has plenty of colors to choose from, so I went with Sea Breeze Blue, a color (spray paint, of course!) that I found at Walmart. It's a beautiful color, but I have to admit, I was cringing while painting it. "What was I thinking?"...

But I actually think I like it! Take that back, I LOVE it! It's such a little thing, I know, but I think I'm finally embracing blue! Per Lindsay's suggestion, I hug this boxwood wreath on it, just too soften it up a bit. Plus, with it being green, I'm not completely abandoning my comfort zone. Baby steps, ya know?!

What about you??

Do you struggle with mixing up colors? Patterns? etc?...

Easter at my house

Wow... what bad bloggers we've been. Tiffany has a cute, adorable excuse in the package of a healthy baby boy. Me on the other hand can only claim laziness or lack of inspiration. I have a few things that need to be blogged about... but WOW when I get out of a habit it makes it real hard to jump back in. So, I figured I'd start VERY easy today and show you what Easter is looking like in our house this year.

I found this cute topiary to stick under a cloche dome which has found its home on the mantle.

My side table has a springy topiary and two ceramic rabbits that I dug out of my mom's attic.

My piano has anothe cloche, greenery and a rocking horse rabbit (again dug out of my mom's attic). Thankful for some FREE decor!

Inside the dome is this egg covered with little flowers.

The table has a little hint at Easter too... these little eggs coordinate well with my candle stick and I've set them on a rarely used tray from Southern Living.

Well, it isn't much...but it's at least got me back into the blogging game.

Master Bath Reveal

Remember when I showed you the destruction which was my master bathroom? Well I'm glad to say ... It's FINISHED!

This was the final piece of the interior renovation we needed to do to our 1960s ranch style home. Let's take a trip down memory lane...
THE BEFORE

Tile overload... shower, floor, wall, countertop. Whew... it was a lot.



DEMOLITION


We raised the height of the shower about a foot by taking the coffer down. Beadboard was installed to cover the area that had been tiled. Rather than having the wall re-sheetrocked and textured we opted for the beadboard... which I LOVE and would have everywhere if that wouldn't be an overload. :)

We chose to use an inexpensive unfinished wood sink base from Lowes which we painted to match all the new beadboard and trim.

We also used an inexpensive prefab counter top from Lowes (for $44). I used my jig-saw to cut the hole for the sink.

New hardware

New plumbing fixtures

Clean clean clean

New mirror & lighting

New shower door (that actually closes!)

Colors Used:
Olympic Smoky Slate
Olympic Cake Batter

Lindsay

Linked here:

Between Naps on the Porch

Valentines Advent for Kids

As the mom of three kids ages 4 1/2 and 3 I always have had good intentions of making holidays fun and kid friendly. In the past I have always failed miserably! This year I am making it happen (at least for Valentine's Day!).

I decided to do an Advent type calendar of activities from February 1-February 14. The hardest part (at least until follow-through) was coming up with a list of preschool friendly ideas. After doing that, I made up cards with each activity listed. You can get these cards here. They are based on Index Card templates. I trimmed them, inked the edges with permanent marker and mounted them with Elmer's glue on red cardstock. You could add ribbon to make them cuter.




Here's the plan: I bought this cute basket on sale from Hobby Lobby and will fill it with the materials to make/do the day's activity. Every morning the basket will be displayed for the kids to find and read what we will be doing! I will work the activities around our calendar so that the ones that take the longest will be done on days the kids drive me crazy don't have preschool.

They'll look a little something like this:

On this day I'll feed the kids a lunch similar to this, heart shaped jello (made in heart shaped ice cube trays), and heart shaped valentine cakes.







Other ideas are:
Reading 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Making heart wreath (out of construction paper)
Making valentine paper chains
Making Oreo truffles
Scavenger hunt
Valentine Bingo

Hopefully this goes well and I can update about how it's going through the month of February. What do you do with your kids to have fun with the holiday?


Linked here:
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Between U & Me
Fireflies and Jellybeans
Life as Lori
Simply Designing

Link Party #1

We've yet to come up with a fancy name for our Link Parties... so for today it's just called Link Party #1! (Any suggestions for a cute name are welcome!)

As I mentioned last weekend I just ordered a Silhouette SD! I am super excited to get my hands on it and see what it can do. I have never even tried it out but I've seen so many cute things online that people have made. That's where this link party comes in.



Link up your Silhouette projects (Cricut, Cuttlebug, etc. are fine too!). This is just for projects you've made using one of the above (or similar) machines.

Simple rules:
1. Please become a follower of That Village House - we like new friends.
2. Link back to your specific post - not just your main blog.
3. Visit others and comment - it's nice to be nice.
4. Link back to this post on your blog so that others can join in on the fun - we all like to be recognized, right? You can grab a button or a text hyperlink is just fine.

Remember... this link party is ONLY for your Silhouette projects (or the like). Soon we'll start link parties for ALL your crafting, cooking and decorating glories!