hello?

We haven't done a single thing to the house in a while. Mainly because we're waiting until the big purchase of our BEDROOM FURNITURE at the end of the month!!!

So until then, thanks for keeping up with us, and hopefully we'll have something fun to post soon!

big blank wall.

We have a few walls that are big and blank. And I don't want to just stick a big picture or mirror on it. Any ideas for filling it up?

I like the idea of a photo wall like this...

paint color.

So I had a thought today. What if we painted our master bedroom a rich, chocolate brown? We have white/khaki bedding, and we could add crown molding and some white curtains to lighten it up... These are some inspirations...





I think our room is big enough with enough windows to not make it too claustrophobic.
Although, I'm second guessing myself and thinking it may be too dark and cave-like.
Thoughts???

more fall on the mantel.

the fall porch.

I just want to say that I love having a house with a porch. Remember this post from last year where I was lamenting the fact that our little apartment didn't have a porch and those with porches shouldn't take it for granted??? Well I just want y'all to know that I DON'T take it for granted.

I am so happy to have a porch.

diy project.

I have a new project. I'm going to make a thingmabob to hold all of my earrings. I saw one at a store today, and I asked if they sold them there but they said no. They said that it would be super easy to make one though if I just bought a cheap frame from Hobby Lobby and then some mesh from Lowes.

I may even use an old window and have it turn out something like this:

We'll see! I'll let you know how it turns out!

options.

So I took off the option to click "not my fav". Apparently I get offended when someone doesn't really care for my new guest bedroom, and I only like to see good things. Yes, that makes me one sided but this is my blog so there. Ha. :)

update!

Well, besides decorating for fall (which I posted about on our other blog), we really haven't done anything new to the house. Hence the lack of posting. We got Ryan's ginormous TV, but that's about it.

We are on the verge of buying our bedroom furniture though!!!!! I went to JCP today to talk to them about ordering it, and I found out that if I order from the store, they'll deliver AND ASSEMBLE the furniture for just $100 extra. Which is TOTALLY worth it to me since there's like 8 pieces of heavy wooden furniture we'd need. But, I found out that "Associate Day" is in November, and I'd get 20% off the whole set as opposed to my usual 10%, and that would save us hundreds of dollars. So, we're going to wait until Associate Day to make that purchase I think.

I'm really wanting to paint a room though. Maybe our bedroom? We will see. :)

reading nook.

Our bedroom is huge. This was one of our must-haves when we were looking because our apartment's bedroom was TINY. Now we have enough room for our king-size bed, bedroom furniture and an area for a reading nook. (The lady who owned the house before us had a full-size couch in there...so I know we have enough room for a corner nook.)

So I've been searching for "reading nook" inspirations because I've found that if I have a picture to go off of, then I know what styles/colors look good together. Here's what I've found so far.

I like the general color hues of this room... I'd need a more comfortable chair though.

soooo cozy. i like the patterned chair & ottoman.

something about this photo just pulls me in. so fresh & light.soothing color combo.i like the cozy feel of this too.I definitely think I'm leaning more towards the chaise lounge or oversized chair idea. I'd need a way for me to prop my feet up and curl up. Can't really do that in a lot of the chairs above.

love this chaise.

this is a fun chair too.
love this jcp chair too.
Can't wait to have our bedroom finished!!!

more on the guest room decor...

I've added a few more decorative accents to the shelf in the guest bedroom. I had most of these things still in boxes because I didn't have a place for them. I like it...seems a bit country though!!!





We are totally "that couple" who has pictures of us two EVERYWHERE. Well, we don't have kids yet, so this is how it's going to be! :)

DIY: mirror refinishing project

A couple weeks ago my mom called me and asked if I would want one of her old mirrors... She said if I didn't want it, she'd just give it to someone. So I said heck yea!

Nice big mirror huh? Wasn't crazy about the gold finish, but Mom saved the day!

She brought some supplies for refinishing the mirror and making it look like silver. So we got to work. And by "we" I mean Mom did all the work while I took pictures :)

Here's Mom rubbing the silver rub-on stuff on the mirror...

Starting to look more silver...

There's the crafty mom, herself.

The finished product!!! There's still some gold peeking through which is what I wanted :)

Looks perfect in the guest bedroom!

For those of you wondering what product we used, it's a little tube called "Rub-n-Buff" and we used the Silver Leaf color. A little goes a LONG way. That whole mirror took up barely anything from the tube.
There ya go! :)

the finished guest bedroom.

Remember what it used to look like?

Well, take a look at this little beauty.

I absolutely LOVE the way this duvet set (from Target) turned out!

I got the lamp shade for $6 at Ross, and the base for about $20 at Target.
Also, those flowers are picked from our yard. How domestic! :)

I'll post pictures later of the mirror my mom and I refinished and then hung in this room.
It looks perfect in there! Everything is really coming together! :)

help the mccradys: volume 4.

I need help.

I was one click away from purchasing this bedding set from Target. I really love the damask print with a hint of stripes, and I especially like the rich turquoise color because it obviously goes well with dark wooden furniture (and we have a lot of that). And its fresh, clean, cool and pretty.

On a whim, I decided to google the name of this bedding and see if anyone had posted another picture of it. Here is what the actual color is. While it is still very pretty, I just don't like it the same. It almost looks tropical now. Do y'all think this would still look good with our dark brown furniture? Could I style it so that it wouldn't look like you're spending the night in a Hawaiian hotel? Help?

our sad bedroom.

exhibit a:

notice the icky bamboo panels, the blank walls, lack of bed frame or matching nightstand.

and here we have more icky bamboo panels, a full-length mirror on a box, mismatched dressers, and a way-too-small tv that looks miniscule when sitting on the bed.

and here's a close-up of how i wait for weeks before hanging clean clothes up.

ryan's "night stand". or other people call it a stool.

my nightstand and fan on a stool. we are classy!

just keeping it real! can't wait for matching furniture!

wish list top 10.

We haven't done much to the house that's blogworthy, but we DO have a mighty-fine list of things to do and things on our wish list.

1. Blinds and drapes for the living room & dining room. I hate, repeat HATE, these bamboo panels. (I know they're expensive...I write them for a living!!!) But it's just the farthest thing from our taste. I can't wait to get them off of our windows and have nice blinds and some pretty curtains on either sides of these big windows.

boooo bamboo panels!

2. Bedroom furniture. I have resisted taking pictures of our bedroom because it is SUCH a sad room at the moment. We don't even have our nice comforter set on because it's been so hot. So basically our room has blank walls, mismatched dressers and night stands, just our bed without a frame, white sheets and down comforter, and that's about it. So sad! I'm really wanting furniture to make it feel more like home AND so I'll know where to hang pictures! I'd also like a sitting area (since our room is big enough) so I'll have a place to read my books and my Bible.

maybe this chaise for the sitting area?
can't you see a cozy little table & floor lamp for reading?

3. Guest bedroom furniture. I'd really like an upholstered headboard like this:

4. Umbrella for the patio. I built the patio table all by myself, so now all we need is a coordinating umbrella. Like this one?
5. Note: This is on RYAN'S wishlist... not my own. Just to clarify. He wants a bigger TV for our living room so that we can move the 40" one to our bedroom. I say we have a lot higher priorities at the moment.
6. Dining room table that seats more than 4. We haven't used this table once since we've been in the house. Most of our guests eat in the breakfast nook since it holds 6 people. I'd really like at least a 6-seater for our dining room furniture. And of course a matching buffet/hutch wouldn't hurt either.
7. Paint. I don't know what room to paint yet, but I know that I'm already bored of the off-white walls in every room. Maybe we could paint a guest room? Or our room/bathroom? We will see.

8. Garage organization. Right now our 2-car garage only holds my car and a bunch of junk. We'll need to organize it once the weather cools off so we can fit both of our cars in there...It'll be especially important when it gets into the freezing months so that Ryan's care won't ice over.
9. New hardware and fixtures. Everything is brass. So we may just get a new doorknob every month until our house is updated!
10. An area rug. Not sure if it would go in the dining room or the living room, but that "great room" definitely needs some color on the floor.And there our current wish list. It keeps growing and growing!

bedrooms

here's what i like about these bedrooms from house beautiful.

interesting headboard & fresh color palette with crisp white linens

clean lines, soothing color choice, cool headboard

cozy & fresh at the same time

the green, white & blue together...super fresh.

natural light & light yellow. yum.

whitewashed. feels like a cottage.

love the headboard. *and our bamboo panels would work apparently.

not feeling the pink; but i love the canopy.

really like the green.

and this is probably how we'll end up decorating it...
our whole house is basically exactly like this.
cozy, warm, lamps, candles, wrought iron...

which one is your favorite?

all in a day's work.

ah, homeownership.

yes please.

I would like to go on a vacation to wherever this little bench is.

i'm calling it right now.

If we don't use this happy little hot tub at least 10 times during our first year, then I want to get rid of it and put our patio furniture under the arbor instead.

Because I'd really like to hang little lanterns or candles for festive parties. :)

Can't you just picture it?

I am slightly excited about climbing in on one of those (few) really cold nights this winter.

How cozy & romantic :)
There will definitely be twinkle lights regardless...you can bet on that.

light & airy guest bedroom.

We may be having someone stay with us in a few weeks(!!!)...but there's a tiny problem. Our guest bedroom currently looks like this:
Yep, there's not a thing in there besides that shelf. My full-size mattress & box springs from college are at my dad's house, so once we move that to our house at least she'll have a place to sleep. :) But I'd really like to make it as inviting and comfortable as possible (not just a mattress on the floor).

This is a really exciting time because we can totally decide how we want to decorate each room. Part of me wants to have the guest bedroom be very light & airy... with whites and blues and all light colors with a padded headboard and sheer curtains. The other side is thinking more cozy, warm with lamps, quilts, etc.

But for now, here are my light & airy inspirations:
I may post my cozy/warm guest bedroom inspirations later. Until then, would YOU want to sleep in these rooms??

new feature

I've added a new feature! See what it is right below this post!

dear hobby lobby,

It is August. Early August.

So why...oh why...do you insist on tempting me with your fall decor goodness?
It's hard enough being in a new house and wanting to buy EVERYTHING IN SIGHT to decorate with...and I'm doing really good with the "not buying anything we don't need" thing...
but then I see these pumpkins...
and I smell the spicy candles...
and I get sucked in...I can barely resist!!!
I almost bought THIS and carried it out with me.
No! It's August! I can't buy autumn stuff until at LEAST end of September!
Come on!!

patio table & chairs

Well we tackled the patio chairs yesterday...Definitely took all day, and a few bad words, too. But here are the chairs and their half-price cushions :)
The box from Garden Ridge said this was supposed to be $299.99. Let me remind you we got it for $99. After putting this all together, I'm glad we paid the discounted price! We'll hopefully do the table this week. My fingers are hurting from that darn Allen wrench. Yikes.

pictures around the house...

the vines on our arbor are blooming!

and so are the beautiful flowers by the fountain...

i bought some little fake apples at target for $1...
they add a little more color.

and some pears for $1, too.
they add that green color i was needing without buying fake plants :)

scoutie's enjoying the window.
i can't STAND those bamboo panels any longer!

the living room view from the dining room.
not a huge fan of the fan but it's expensive and very level...ah well.

the guest bathroom so far. my dream is to paint the cabinets white and add some pretty new hardware but we'll save that battle for later.

and there was your little mini tour! :)