Oh my, I do believe it is JULY!

July is here and I'm holding on to summer tooth and nail!  I decided it has been way too long since I did a Pinterest post.  So in honor of all things wonderfully July I'm doing the first of three this month.

Of course with the holiday weekend right around the corner I'm focusing today's on Independence Day!  To me the colors of summer are red, white, and blue.  Nothing screams freedom as much as summer does for me so it is fitting to high light our flag.

Crafts




How cute and how simple is this?  It is just mason jars, died rice, and tea lights.  This would be so cute on the deck or on your picnic table this weekend!  Pin it here!



I think my 7 year old would love this.  A simple craft with paint and pom poms.  I would do this on canvas and keep it up year round! Here's the pin.



Every Tuesday when I get the recycling out to the driveway I think:  Oh man these cans, I should make something!  Is this not adorable?  Recycling and cuteness...sign me up.  Pin it now!

Snacks



This is one of my most favorite treats to make.  Its messy and fun and very delicious.  I love this take for the 4th! Click here to get the pin.



Here's one for the adults (but you can make a kid friendly version too).  I love sangria (thanks Mexico) but we can add in some red, white, and blue and say salude to America! Here's the pin.



Start your holiday weekend off right with this festive breakfast idea!  I would probably devour the whole loaf....just being real!

Outfits


Is this not fun?  Of course this girl would sport flip flops but the flats are pretty cute too!  Pin it!



Yes, indeed, I fell in love with this top when I saw it.  If it isn't 100 degrees where you are then go ahead and sport those skinny jeans....I'd have it with shorts or a skirt!



This is just kinda precious to me.  I am an anchor lover!  Oh and let's be honest....we're going to be in the water so get your swimsuit out!

Printables



I love free printables because they are simple ways to decorate for holidays and seasons.  They also are great ways to change up rooms.  Who remembers Lee Greenwood singing this song?  It is a great anthem to our country.



Yes, it is home from the big, fat cities to the tiny little specks (like I live in)...may it forever have blessings of grace.  Here's the pin for this one!




I LOVE this printable!!!!


Kids



How fun would this scavenger hunt be for the fourth!!!



Word searches....don't you remember how fun they were in school when you were a kid?  Get out the high lighter and go to town!



If you don't have corn hole boars then this would be super fun and super cheap!  You could get good plates at the Dollar Tree to use.

I hope these pins inspired you to become a little more festive this week!  Thank you for coming by & happy 4th!

Ideas: Paint 2

The time is drawing near that I will pick up the roller and get to work!

Here's what we're narrowing it down to:

Living Room Two:



And the color in a room


Number 2

  Benajmin Moore's October Mist  the computer doesn't do it justice

And here it is in a room -

Why the change?  The furniture in that room....its a weird color.

The Master Suite

Denim from Valspar 

or

Azlea Leaf by Olympic 

The third option is

Aqua Smoke by Olympic 

As seen in this room:  

Stay tuned for next week's post when you see what we go with!

Feel free to share your thoughts as well!

Check out all these pins today:

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Ideas: Paint

For those of you who have been married over 2 years, do you find that sometimes you learn something about your spouse that you never imagined?

Yeah me too.

We're working on figuring out paint colors for a few rooms in our home.  Of course we're not close to painting yet but we are trying to decide what colors to use this go around.

I've always tried to use subdued neutrals (i.e. grey fetish is apparent) and I was picking neutrals up until a week ago.  Why not go bold?  That kept rushing through my brain.  Then I thought well the spouse isn't going to like this.  When I say lets paint he thinks white is great.  (Of course he always comes around.)

I was in total shock when we were at Lowe's checking out paint chips and he picked colors like this:


We've always looked at colors like this:


It was time and is time to break our mold and go all out.  Why not add some color and have a different edge to our home than before.  It is the perfect time to up the game right?

Here are some ideas I've fallen in love with:

For the living room:



Yes it is Christmas but put that aside for a moment....those are warm bohemian tones and I love them.



My husband liked this blue and I'm getting cozy to it too now.

For the master:



This is a beachy and fun color for the master which allows me to utilize my lovely greys too!



These colors are also intriguing to me for the bedroom.  They also give me that retro flair I always love.



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Ideas: Closet Space

When you live in an old house you get used to certain things.  For one:  hallways are often non- existent and closets are totally out of the question.  Prior to the 1950's the idea of closets just made no sense.  Every inch of space in the house was needed and it wasn't needed for storage.

Haven't we strayed from that ideology?

Could you imagine if the moms and pops of the 1930s could come back for a day and see the ahhhh-mazing sized closets that houses have to offer now?

Our house was originally finished sometime around 1939.  In our home there are three bedrooms and each those bedrooms offer a tiny closet.  Literally folks, you open a door and there's a floor to ceiling three foot area to hang some clothes.  (When the kids were babies it was perfect now...yeah not so much and forget adult clothes!)

When you don't have dressers and drawers that can pose a problem.

Since we had to eliminate some walls and we are replacing the flooring.. we are taking advantage of some dead space and turning it in to a closet.  It will be the largest closet the house has to offer and it will more than likely end up being a catch all.  Eeeek!

I took to Pinterest to find some ideas for this new (and exciting) addition to the new master bedroom.  Here are some ideas I found and kind of liked!




I love this fabulous way of storing....lets just hide it though okay?!


 

I'm thinking we could really rock this!  I love the organization!




How awesome this is!  It reminds me of something in a kid's store...hmmm?

To see this and other great ideas I found on Pinterest:
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Ideas: Master Suite

I'm looking forward to having a master bedroom suite.  Due to some damage we had to tear out a wall and the whole lower half of the house is being re-floored.  This is allowing some nice changes to our downstairs bedroom which will allow us to have a master!  The wall will be replaced with a door sitting at a new location, the wall will stretch farther which will allow an old entry way to be modified into a walk in closet and the other part of that walk in closet will have the bathroom for the master bedroom.

So...I've been looking at ideas.





I like paint, floor, bedding, and the fact this is quite similar to the lay out we will have!



I know that in my house white will not work.  Let's face it my husband is a grease monkey and I have two kids!!!  I do like this old piece of French Provencal.  The fresh paint and dark pulls look great!  We will need a good set of storage drawers and a vanity so this fits the bill!



I love this color.  I actually love this color mixed with green and grey.  That's why I picked out a quilt for our bed prior to our house issue and its still in the package and its this color mixed with grey!  Of course this set is too gorgeous!



I did think this was a cute idea.



This is a must.  I feel like we all want a full length mirror and we all need one too.  I hate trying to figure out what shoes to wear and no being able to review myself past the hip.



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Ideas: A Little Lady's Room

A couple rooms we may be able to work on prior to any on the main level are the ones upstairs.  Many people had no clue we had a half story in our home.  Indeed, we do!

Prior to the events of September, our room along with our son's were upstairs.  We had decided that one day both kids would be upstairs (harder to sneak out when their older....hehehe).  With all that we have went through thus far we decided why not go ahead and make the upstairs the children's domain.

Our son's room will basically go unchanged.  It is our daughter who will be getting a brand new room.  Hey, she deserves it!  She's had the same room (yes same nursery decor!) for seven years!

A few things you should know about our Diva...

1.  She's totally girly.  We're talking pink is her favorite color, she loves all things shiny and glittered!

2.  Currently, she has a fascination with all things French.

3.  She wants to be a teacher (God bless her heart).

4.  She tries to be older than she is. (God bless us).

So here are my ideas for her room.  Of course she'll be giving in put too!







Follow Amanda's board Diva's Room on Pinterest.

Ideas: Living Room

Man, this is deja vou.

I swear I was just down this road and now...here we go again.  Eventually, we'll get to move back in our home and when that day comes I want to be ready.  But before we move in and after the workers are finished I will have to paint and design and all that fun and head ache inducing stuff.  I'm starting a new weekly post about ideas.  Share yours, give me your feedback, this can be fun.

Pinterest is a great site.  I think we all know that by now.  If you haven't signed onto the Pinterest bandwagon then c'mon and get with it.  The first go around I did a lot of research via the popular website and this time I plan to do it again. 

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Last year we painted our living room a gorgeous shade of silvery blue.  I loved it....seriously.  This year we are having to have new flooring installed.  I haven't really picked out the flooring we'll have so I'm looking at the offerings.

We are doing laminate this time around.  The house had its original heart pine floors when we moved in and we kept that.  Unfortunately, the little disaster ruined flooring so we're looking for durability and longevity and cost effectiveness for our flooring.

A stigma was attached to laminate for a long time.  Over the years the flooring material mechanical brainiacs have made laminate quite the product for flooring ventures.  We feel confidant using laminate for our newly reconstructed house!

I have a few requirements for our home.  

Our flooring needs to be dark but not so dark it closes us in.  When you start choosing colors for floors, walls, and ceilings it is so important to take into account the size of the room.  Small rooms are going to be even smaller once you use too many dark color options.  

*Also when you look at an empty you you can easily be persuaded a room is big.  Once you put a couple pieces of furniture in you will see your room shrink.  Once you add dark colors you're looking at a closet!  It is all about balance!*

How do you like this?  It seems as though this is a very popular flooring.  I do like it.  It has classic elements.  It also has a good color texture to hide imperfections that happen when you have heavy traffic, kids, and animals.

I love gray.  This finish is up my alley.  I like the smokey color and that its not an overdone floor.  I guess being different is just part of my whole self hehe.  This finish is about as light as I would want to go with the floor.  I also feel gray is a fabulous neutral and plays well with most if not all colors giving me loads of room to play with wall colors and fabrics.

Classic.  That is all I can say about this floor.  I bet some of you saw this and thought, "hey that's my floor" or "so and so has that floor".....exactly!  Its beautiful.

 

A little more gray option here.  I like this since its more of a mix of brown and gray.

This is my nostalgia choice.  This floor is the closest to what we ripped out a couple weeks ago.  I love this antique feeling this flooring gives off.  It is also extremely versatile.  

Choices choices.

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What is your flooring like?  What do you like?  I love to hear from you!

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