The Story Behind My Glasses

The Story Behind My Glasses

Growing up I always wanted glasses. For whatever reason,  I thought they were the coolest things ever. I would try and fake my eye exams in elementary school,  I would steal a pair of my dad's reading glasses and put them on when I got on the school bus... I was heck bent for several years on the idea of wearing glasses. (I was also the kid who desperately wanted braces until I had gotten them in fifth grade, and didn't get them off until 10th grade... then it wasn't such a novel idea anymore.) But all growing up, through elementary school, high school, and my first couple years of college I had 20/20 vision, so glasses weren't in the cards for me. 


Then, shortly after Derek and I were married, we were going to Portland for a friend's wedding, and during my portion of the night shift, Derek asked me why I was driving so slow and I blurted out, "I CAN'T SEE!". He immediately made me pull over, and didn't let me drive in the dark again for at least two years. 

Then after I had Jay, I realized my vision really wasn't what it used to be. I remember I couldn't see the numbers at church to know what hymn we were singing, and when I looked at the oven at home to see what time it was, I had no idea what the clock was saying. I went in to get my eyes checked and the doctor told me my left eye needed a prescription of -.25, which is incredibly small, but I wound up getting my first pair of glasses after that. 


That prescription was good for two years, and in that time I blew through four pairs of glasses because Jay was the worst when he was younger and was constantly ripping them off and throwing them places. That paired with the fact I would leave them places, and then sit on them... it was horrible having to adjust to being mindful of where they are all the time. 

After that, when we moved to GA last year, my last pair of glasses had broken, and my prescription had expired, so I went to a new eye doctor, and found out that my vision in my left eye had actually gotten 100% worse... meaning my prescription was a whopping -.50 at this point. I wore those glasses for another year until they broke just a few weeks ago. 



It was horrible timing because we just had a gas leak in our house, and a few other strings of bad luck, and it felt like we were spending money on everything. It felt like a little bit of heavenly intervention when I got an email from GlassesShop.com, asking me if I'd like a free pair of glasses in exchange for a review on my blog. I totally jumped at the chance, but then realized my prescription expired, so I was off to the doctor to get another one. This time, my vision in my left eye had gotten 100% worse again, and was now at -1.00 in my left, and -.25 in my right. I'm actually convinced that at this rate, I'm going to be blind in a few short years if this keeps going at it's current rate. 

Once I had my new prescription in hand, I was able to hop onto GlassesShop.com, and look for the frames that I wanted. My last several pairs of glasses have all been rectangular, so I wanted to try something new this time, and go for a cat-eye shape. I loved that I could upload a picture of myself onto their site, and then see what all the glasses looked like on me before I ordered them. I love when sites have this because it makes purchasing eyeglasses online significantly less terrifying. They also have prescription sunglasses on their site, which I'm strongly considering since I only have one pair of sunglasses, and they're not prescription, which means I blind my eyes every time I get in the car. 



I really love the shape of my new glasses, and love how something so simple, like new frames can totally change your entire look. If you're in need of some new frames, or are wanting to update your look GlassesShop.com is offering my readers 50% off any pair of glasses, or sunglasses, with free lenses by using the code GSHOT50 at checkout. Promo code excludes sale lenses, but this means you could get my exact glasses (hoboken cat-eye) for $18 total. Bargain people. Bargain. I always get the lowest grade glasses with no UV protection or special coatings, so if you want more protection on them, you'll pay a little bit more. Just make sure at check out, if you want the most basic options, click customize to remove all the options from your lenses. 

How to Make Your Own Large Picture Frame

How to Make Your Own Large Picture Frame

One thing I've learned since owning a home is that everything costs a lot more than you thought it would. As we've begun the decorating/remodeling process in our home, we've tried to do as much of it on our own as possible to save money. Luckily, Derek built log cabins in southeast Idaho after high school to help pay for his church service mission in France, so he's pretty handy and is able to fulfill most of the handy man tasks I ask of him.


When I got some engineer size prints in the mail last week, I knew I wanted to get frames to go around them, and then almost peed my pants when I found out frames that size would cost hundreds of dollars. Considering we had three large prints to frame, coughing out upwards of a thousand dollars wasn't exactly an option. Would I buy frames for a really expensive piece of art? Yes. For digital prints that I bought off Etsy? Absolutely not. 

I then had the idea to just make the frames myself, and after a quick google search, I realized they weren't hard at all. The tutorial that I based my project off of can be found here, but I decided to simplify our frames even more by not putting them under glass, and decided to just tape my picture to the back of the frame. 

I will say that the wood we bought from Home Depot was not the greatest quality of wood out there, but each 8' board was only $1.25. Definitely dig around to find the straightest pieces in the batch that they have. Some of ours had split parts, or parts that looked pretty roughed up, but we spray painted them anyway, and loved the "rustic" look that it gave. 

Supplies: 
supplies make one 4'x3' frame
(2) 1"x 3" x 8' KD Premium boards from Home Depot
(1) 4 Pack 2 1/2" Flat Corner Braces
Sawtooth Hangers (for hanging if needed)
Wood Glue
Miter Box w/ Saw
Spray Paint



Directions:
Measure your boards out for the length and width that you need. We were doing 4'x3' frames, and so we needed two pieces of wood to complete one frame. Once you have your measurements marked, place your wood into the miter box, and at a 45° angle, and cut your wood on the marks.



Once you've made all your cuts, lay them out on the ground to make sure they fit together, and that you don't need to correct or fix anything. When your boards are where you want them, wood glue all the seams together, and then screw your flat corner brackets into place. We didn't pre-drill holes for the screws that hold the brackets in place, and did not personally have any splitting on all three frames.



Once all your corner brackets are screwed in place, then spray paint your frame to the color of your choice, and let dry for the allotted time that it states on your paint can.


Once your frames are painted and dried, tape your picture to the back of the frame. If you're going to be hanging this on a wall, be sure to add the sawtooth hanger after the paint dries, or if it's just sitting on your mantle, stick it up there, and be done!


Have you ever made your own picture frames before? Do you love large engineer size prints? I have a feeling these are going to be staples in my house all year long. 

7 Things That Have Made Special Needs Parenting Easier

7 Things That Have Made Special Needs Parenting Easier

We've been on our journey of being "parents-of-a-child-with-special-needs" for over two years now. The first year didn't seem that much different than raising any other child, but for months 13-24, we definitely started to feel the stretch. The first year was so easy because raising a baby is raising a baby. For us, Em was never on feeding tubes, or oxygen, so aside from the fact we did physical therapy weekly, there really wasn't anything different. 



After that first year though, Em got bigger, her physical disabilities started to become more noticeable for strangers, and the fact that she's so big (tall), started to make it a little draining and taxing when we had or wanted to do things. All that paired with the fact that it felt like she was never sleeping meant that we were practically avoiding the outside world as much as possible. However, after living like a hermit for a solid 10 months, I realized it wasn't fair to her, Jay, or our entire family to avoid doing fun adventures, or going to fun activities just because things would be more difficult. So today I'm going to share with you a few things that have made all of this just a little bit easier for us over the last few months. 


A Portable Sleeping Tent: Because Em is so tall, she fully outgrew being able to sleep in a pack n play at about 20 months. This meant that if we traveled anywhere, we didn't really have a place for her to sleep because beds aren't safe for her, and she would just roll all over the floor all night and never sleep if we tried that, so we needed something that could confine her a little more. We've been loving our PeaPod Plus tent that we got from Sear's in May. I love that it's super compact, so when we're not using it, it folds up into a small disc, but that the actual tent is 52'' in length meaning that it should be long enough for Em for a few more years. It's significantly less bulky than a pack n play, and there is a padded mat on it that makes it just as comfortable. 

Bigger Hotel Rooms: This last year we've kissed goodbye the idea that we can all sleep in one room together and have it work out. We have officially moved into the realm of two bedroom suites which seems so unnecessary, but because Em has such a hard time falling asleep, and she's often pretty noisy until she falls asleep, it's nice that we can stick her in her own room, and then Jay can sleep on the pull out couch, and Derek and I can have a room to ourselves, where we hopefully can't hear anything that our kids are doing. To me, it's worth the extra money while traveling to be able to get a good nights sleep and not hate everyone during the day when we're trying to go places and do things. Plus, we just reserved a room for $149/night at a Marriot for when we're in NC in a couple weeks, which is almost what you'd pay for a normal room in some places... so... worth it. 


A Good Stroller: When Em was born we bought the Baby Trend Sit and Stand Stroller on Amazon and it was horrible for us. I know a lot of people love their sit and stands, but I'm pretty small, and not incredibly strong, and it was so large and bulky to push that it was really straining my wrists every time I used it. I wound up giving that one away, and used a $20 umbrella stroller from Target for about a year. Then finally when we went to Florida this year, I wanted to get a stroller that could convert from a single, to a double, in case Jay wanted to ride, and then when Jay no longer wanted to be in a stroller, I could have it as just a single for Em. I found a 10 month old Phil and Teds double stroller on craigslist for $300, which is more than half off the original price, and jumped on the deal. It's been one of the best parenting purchases I've ever made, and and I love that it will work for us for years and years to come. Em is in our stroller 90% of the time when we go places, so it was really important to get one that would last, and that would function for our needs. 

Babysitters: You have to tell yourself that you're not the only person who is capable of taking care of your child. When we lived in NC and Em was a newborn, we left her with young women from church all the time because they were all obsessed with her, and enjoyed watching her. When we moved to Georgia and didn't know anyone, it was hard to feel comfortable leaving her with other people because she was so limited in her mobility, and I thought that the sitters would accidentally hurt her, or try and have her sit and she would fall over... but then this summer I just got over myself and started ditching her with every babysitter I possibly could, and you know what? She was fine every time. She would cry for five minutes, get over it, and then happily play until whoever was watching her put her down for a nap, or put her in bed. After going from zero dates in an entire year, to more than 10 in the last three months, I can say Derek and I like each other ten times more than we did during our non-dating period. I realized in some cases, some kids may have more needs, like oxygen, or a feeding tube, but I really can't stress how important it is to train/teach at least 2-3 other people how to care for your child so that you can have a break. 

Get a Gym Membership: This kind of goes in the same vain as the babysitter, but we recently got a gym membership at the YMCA, which means I can drop my kids off at the daycare for up to two hours (though I never go more than one hour) each day, and get a well needed break from my kids. Not that I don't love them, but being the primary care taker, and having no other family around... it can feel daunting at times. I love that my kids will happily go do something fun for themselves while I work out and have a peaceful shower when I'm done. Also, if you can't afford a Y membership, look into their financial assistance program like we did. We wound up getting our membership fees waved due to Derek's income and the high amount of medical bills that we pay for Em. 


Have a Friend Who Really Gets It: All your friends with typical children are great, and they're supportive, and loving, and we need those friends too, but having a friend who is going through the same things as you on a daily basis is invaluable. We met a family when we moved to our new house who has a son with autism, and they've literally been through pretty much every single thing that we've been through with Em. I've loved being able to bounce thoughts and ideas off of her, especially since her son is older than Em, so she likely has all the good answers for things before I get to that next phase in our lives. 


A Sensory Blanket: I've talked about how much I love our sensory blanket in this post here. But it really has been life changing for us, and if you're on the fence about making one, all I really have to say is just do it! You're 4 hours of moderate labor away from the most joyful nights sleep you've ever had in your child's life. 

Fall Mantle Decor 2016

Fall Mantle Decor 2016

One of the things I was most excited about for our new house was having a fireplace. After not having one in the six other homes we've lived in, I was super excited to finally have a place to hang Christmas stockings, and a place to swap out decor on a seasonal basis. It's definitely been a process finding pieces that work for our home, and finding things that we're still going to like five years from now, and not just for this season. 


I don't really love the idea of Halloween decorations because the holiday is so short lived. I'd rather buy decorations for just the fall, and then be able to use them throughout the entire season, instead of having to swap them out for a couple weeks when everyone is in the Halloween buzz. As much as I love having my home decorated, the less I actually have to do it, the better. 



The main focal point of this mantle was our new engineer size print that we recently got in the mail. I was wasting time on Etsy a couple weeks ago and found a digital download for the picture and decided it would be perfect for right above our fireplace. I bought the file, and then had it printed, and then Derek built the frame for me out of super cheap wood from Home Depot (tutorial coming tomorrow!). 


After the picture was up, I ran around my house trying to find all our fall decor from last year, which I realized was basically non-existent. We had these white milk bottles, and orange flower arrangements that we had in our last house, and figured they would work just as well here. I had to make a run to a couple stores for the rest of the items though. 

I lucked out last Friday when I went to Michael's and found out that their entire store was basically 50% off, and I had a mobile coupon for 25% off my entire purchase (including sale items), so I was able to get the rest of my decor for super cheap. The two large pumpkins were $8,25 each after the sale and coupons, and the large wooden garland (which I happen to think is super cute and woodsy), was less than $10. I bought a bag of plastic mini pumpkins from Target for $4, and the candle was left over from last year... and then my fireplace was complete. It's not very often I look at something in my own home and think, "Well that's dreamy..." But when I finished putting this together over the weekend, those were my exact thoughts. 

For more fall decor inspiration, be sure to check out last year's post on how we decorated our dining room table!

30 Minute Dinner Rolls

30 Minute Dinner Rolls

I've had this idea for the last few months where I should start going a throw back Thursday post each week on my blog. The idea would be I take a post that I wrote five years ago, that has a terrible picture, and recreate it, and make it better, and then republish it here on the blog. There are lots of recipes that I've posted here, that we really do eat all the time, but the pictures look so awful that no one ever looks at those posts. I've also been wanting to make a small cookbook/recipe binder for my kitchen that has all our favorite recipes in one spot, with a picture of it included, and I feel like this would be an awesome way to get the new and improved pictures taken. 

I've apparently posted this twice on the blog already. Once in 2011, and then a hilariously "improved" addition in 2012. This time though, round three in 2016, I've got the recipe down, and the picture to go with it. 


Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 tbsp warm water
2 tbsp active dry yeast
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3 1/2 cups flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the water, yeast, oil, and sugar together, and let proof for 15 minutes. Add in the flour and knead until dough forms a smooth ball. Divide the dough into 12 equal balls. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray, and place one dough ball into each cavity. Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes, and then bake in the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown. 

The Power of Small Changes

The Power of Small Changes

In March I read Gretchen Ruben's book, Better Than Before. I talked at length in my review about how impactful it's been for me, and how much my life really has improved since then. A lot of the book talks about small changes that you can make in your everyday life that will ultimately better you in the long run. 



After reading the book I evaluated a couple ares of my life. One of them being how much sugar I was eating on a daily basis. Not that I was eating a dozen donuts everyday, but around 4pm when my kids would start driving me crazy, I would shove down a handful of chocolate chips to make it through until Derek came home from work. As you can imagine, one handful turns into another, and then another, and then all of a sudden, you've eaten half the bag in one sitting. 

Once I evaluated that situation, I mentally told myself, "I will no longer eat chocolate chips". You want to know what happened? I was really awesome at not eating them for three weeks, and then one day I caved, and had some before Derek got home, and I didn't even like them plain anymore. I've now gone six months without having a chocolate chip snack and I've saved myself thousands of calories and grams of fat. This doesn't mean I deprive myself of all sweets (I have had nine donuts this week thanks to Krispy Kreme's talk like a pirate day), but since we don't buy cookies and ice cream at the store, whatever treats we have, I usually make, which means they're once in a while, and a lot more intentional. 

Another issue we were having was with laundry. All our clothes are upstairs, but the laundry room and ironing things are down two flights of stairs in the basement. It was such a hassle to bring a wrinkled shirt downstairs to iron that Derek and I were starting to avoid wearing half of our clothes because it was so inconvenient to go and iron them. Then I had the genius idea to bring the ironing board and iron into the master closet, and now all of our clothes are happily being worn again.

One lifesaving hack was when I was desperate to stop losing all my hair ties all over the house. I stuck a little three inch makeup bag in the drawer of my bathroom, and now when I take my hair tie out, it goes on my wrist until I make my way to the bathroom again, and then it promptly goes back into the little bag tucked neatly away in my drawer. I haven't bought a new pack of hair ties in over a year now, and I still have most, if not all from the last pack. 

When we bought our house, we were so busy and go, go, go, for so long that we fell out of the habit of doing PT at home with Em everyday, that paired with the fact that she doesn't use her legs very much resulted in her developing really tight hamstrings. We were given stretches to do with her each day on top of our other at home PT stuff and it felt like one more thing we "had to do". Then I decided that I would just do her stretches every time I changed her diaper, and now she's getting them done (and screaming her face off), three-four times per day. 

As a blogger I get emails all day long. Emails about potential sponsored posts, from advertisers, other blogging friends, and then there is church, doctor appointments, spam, neighbors... it all adds up over the course of the day. I'm usually pretty good about sifting through and deleting the junk as it comes in, but then I'll hoard 10 or so e-mails that require action in my inbox for weeks at a time thinking, "I'll get to it when I have time". After living like this for a year, I finally made the decision to not go to bed each night until my inbox is back to zero, and it's been amazing. All my emails that need response, only really take two minutes each at the most, so 10 minutes before bed, or throughout the day as they come in, I deal with them, and then I don't have that added stress for the next week and a half. 

Something else that's been mind-blowingly (yes, making new words here), life changing is Janssen's One Minute Rule. Which basically means, if you can get a chore or task done in one minute from the second you think about it, to just buckle down and do it. So if I'm downstairs cleaning and remember I have laundry that needs to go in the dryer? Do it now instead of waiting until 10 at night before bed. If the kids are eating breakfast and I'm not doing anything? Unload the dishwasher. I've actually been blown away by how many more things I get done by doing the one minute rule. Once I start doing one thing, I think, "well I might as well take out the trash... and now I should pick up the toys... and wow, now I can see the carpet,  I should vacuum too...", basically, our house has never been cleaner because once I get going, I can't stop.

I hope this was helpful for you to see some of the areas in my life that  I've switched up a little bit to make my life easier. What are some things you're doing to improve your life, and make your days smoother? Let me know in the comments below!

Pre-Reno Kitchen Tour & Remodling Your Kitchen for Cheap!

Pre-Reno Kitchen Tour & Remodling Your Kitchen for Cheap!

When we first purchased this home, we really loved everything about it except for two rooms, Jay's bedroom, and our kitchen. The only thing we didn't love about Jay's bedroom was the paint color, and one gallon of paint from Home Depot easily solved that problem. With the kitchen though, there were a laundry list of issues. Nothing was a total deal breaker obviously, but it's an older kitchen, and we we're exited about the prospect of being able to flip it, put a lot of positive equity into it, and hopefully pay off a large portion of our student loans when it comes time to sell. 




The first thing I want to change are the cabinets. Along with everyone else in the world right now, I really want white cabinets. I was playing with the idea of painting them white myself, but the hinges are on the outside, and I really want cabinets with European hinges, and a few of the base cabinets are in pretty rough shape, and so ultimately Derek and I decided that we want to just replace them all with new ones. 

When our home buying journey first started several years ago in North Carolina, Derek and I were looking into buying a home that was basically perfect minus the part that the entire kitchen had been gutted out during the previous owner's foreclosure process. Before Derek and I thought about putting an offer in on the house, we went to Home Depot to see how much it would be to put an entire kitchen in, and they quoted us $20,000 without appliances, for the cheap cabinets that we didn't even like. Needless to say, we didn't buy that house, and that hefty price tag has always been in the back of our minds since that experience. 


Moving forward, after we bought this house, Derek and I learned about cabinet refacing, which means you take the hinges and doors off the cabinet boxes that you currently have, then put large veneer stickers over your existing cabinet boxes to make them the color you want, and then they give you brand new doors for all your cabinet boxes and drawers. Derek and I, thinking this had to be SO MUCH CHEAPER than getting an entire new kitchen, had Home Depot come out again to give us another quote and told us $15,000 JUST FOR DOORS, the cabinet box veneers, tile backslash, and new counter tops. Remember, this is to fix old cabinets that were already roughed up. 

We politely told them no thank you, and never talked to them again. At this point though, I was feeling so discouraged. I knew there had to be a way to get the kitchen of my dreams, without having to look into selling various non-necessity organs. I remembered that Ikea did kitchens, and so after doing lots of research, talking to my neighbors who have Ikea kitchens, and learning that the quality of an Ikea kitchen far surpasses the quality of most other items you can find at Ikea, I went onto their site and spent an entire night laying out the floor plan for a new kitchen and the cost was astounding. I learned that night that Derek and I could gut out the cabinets that we have now, and build and install all new ones for a little over $3,000. That was such a game changer, and made me think we actually might be able to afford to remodel our house. 


I didn't stop with Ikea though. Since they're a well known, large store, I figured that price had to be inflated a little bit, and so I took to google and typed in "discount cabinets" and found... cabinets.com, so creative with the name, I know. Anyways,  I measured all the cabinets in my house, and then picked them out on their site, and boom, even lower than Ikea, for $2,100... and after reading reviews, their still highly rated, and highly recommended. All of a sudden, something someone told us would cost $20,000 years ago, was seeming more and more possible for us by the minute. 

Then I recently learned that through a little finagling, you can use credit cards to actually get new kitchen and home items at stores like Home Depot and Lowes for free! Yes, FREE. Know those credit card offers that you get in the mail that you always throw away? Stop throwing them away. Most often they have offers on them like "spend $1,000 in the first three months and you'll get 25,000-50,000 bonus points!" if it has no annual fee for the first year, those are the ones that you want to grab. Between groceries and gas, we spend that $1,000 every three months anyways, so we can charge that to the cards, and then redeem those bonus points for Home Depot or Lowes gift cards and then all of a sudden we have a free $250-$500 (every 10,000 points equals a $100 gift card), to spend at one of those stores for new laminate floors, paint, appliances, whatever, it's there. Cancel the credit cards though as soon as you pay them off, it might ding your credit a couple points, but if you already own your home, and you pay all your other bills on time anyways, it's really not the biggest deal, especially for Derek and I who already have high credit. 



I was looking at Home Depot's website last night, and noticed that they sell cabinets that you can install yourself at home on their website too. Just playing around I decided to add in all the cabinets that I needed into my cart, all the appliances, flooring, knobs, and drawer pulls, and my cart came to a whopping $4,500... after paint and new counter-tops which I didn't do online, but mentally adding in about another $2,000 all of a sudden we have a completely new kitchen for $6,500... and if I keep playing the new credit card game, and hoarding those gift cards? We could potentially get it all done for free, or close to it.  So if you need us for the next year, we'll be hoarding new credit card offers, and working through this kitchen and dining room area a little at a time. 

5 Ingredient Pumpkin Ice Cream (+ VIDEO!)

5 Ingredient Pumpkin Ice Cream (+ VIDEO!)

The fun thing about being in my 5th year of blogging is to see how my skills with photography and blogging in general have improved over the years. I made this pumpkin pie ice cream a few years back, and I laugh at that picture now, but when I took it... I thought it was amazing. 

I've been loving making all different kinds of ice creams over the last couple years, and all of them start with the same base of heavy whipping cream, and sweetened condensed milk, and then you add more ingredients from there depending on what flavor you're going for. This one just needed some pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, a little vanilla, and it was complete! 


Ingredients: 
1 cup heavy whipping cream
14oz sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla

Directions: 
In a mixing bowl, whip the heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks. Add in the sweetened condensed milk, and continue mixing until it is well blended. Add in your other ingredients, and gently fold them together until well combined. Pour the mixture into a bread pan, and freeze in the freezer for four hours, or overnight before serving!

Home Tour: The School Room

Home Tour: The School Room

When we were looking at homes to buy, we really only wanted a four bedroom home. We of course would purchase a three bedroom when it came down to it, but I knew I was going to be homeschooling Jay this year, and so it would have been ideal to have a fourth room to facilitate that, and for another child, or different things as our needs changed over the years. 


I remember driving down to look at this house for the first time and being a little sad that it only had three bedrooms. After seeing pictures online, I told Derek, "I hope this house has a magical extra room that just wasn't on the listing." Then we got there, and low and behold, an extra magical room was there indeed. 

Our home is a split level and so there are three living areas. The very upstairs has three bedrooms and two full baths. The main floor has our living room, dining room converted to playroom, and then our kitchen with the large eating area that now houses our large dining room table. The downstairs area has the laundry room, the access to our garage, and this bonus room that also has a half bath. Because there is no closet,  it's not technically a bedroom, but if we have a third child, I'll have no qualms about making a child live down here if sharing rooms isn't an option. Once I saw this room on the initial walk through, I instantly knew this was the place. We put in an offer that night, and had offer accepted the next morning. 


When school started for us on August 1st this room was really not put together at all. We had stolen a small bookshelf out of Jay's room to hold our books, we had a smaller black bookshelf from our old house holding all our craft supplies, and we had our calendar on the wall, and that was it. Luckily,  I had a birthday a few weeks in, and all I wanted to do with my birthday money from family was to make the rest of this room complete. I really pride myself on being able to transform rooms with a small budget, and still make a big impact. Everything in this room cost well under $150!

I had purchased the white bookshelf at Ikea for $25... and it's easily the best cheap tall bookshelf we've purchased in the last five years... and believe me, there have been many cheap bookshelves in our marriage. I also know that someone is going to question whether or not I have it properly anchored to the wall so my children don't die, and the answer is yes. 

When I was at The Home Depot getting paint and other things for Jay's bedroom, I saw these storage containers and knew they would be perfect for all of our craft supplies. Four of them came together in a pack for $3.98, so I got two packs, and they've been great for storing things just how I need them, and we even have two empty ones for future supplies and other items. 

Unrelated to the room tour, but I love seeing all our school books together on the shelf like this. If you want a further look into all the books we're using this year, check out my post about this year's curriculum. 

This bulletin board right here is what swiftly ended my Target Boycott. I was firmly on board with never shopping there ever again because I was prideful and cared about where I peed and what not, but my arm was twisted, they had the $10 bulletin board, and I'll put price over principle any day... and now we've been to Target a million times since then. The white bulletin board was from this necklace project a few years back, and the small red table and chairs were $15 at Ikea. 

I purchased the big calendar at the Target Dollar Spot for $3, and then I printed the weather and days of the week printables off here for the white bulletin board. The caterpillar number line was a printout from our Confession of a Homeschooler's K4 curriculum, and it's successfully taught Jay how to properly say the number thirteen, which we're all grateful for. 

This is the first time that I've had my own desk space in our entire marriage. We had a desk when we lived in Utah, but it was so small that you couldn't really work from it, and so it just became an extra place where we tossed things. I picked this up at Ikea for $25 and I love it. There isn't a drawer, which is one small drawback, but I have so much storage on the bookshelf, that I haven't really found myself missing it. The chair was a fabulous find at Target for $30 and it really made all my chair dreams come through. I love the fun pop of color, and how it gives a little modern vibe. This chair is going to be in all future Flamm homes. I love it.