Little House Updates

We've done a few little updates around the house lately and I thought I'd share them with you guys!

These are super small updates but made a big impact in our home.

The first has to do with recycling. I am a huge promoter of recycling and we generally have a completely filled outdoor recycling bin every week. We always have more recycling than trash, a fact I am very proud of, so why was our recycling bin so tiny?

This was our setup before, trash on the left, recycling on the right. Often the recycling was overflowing and we had to either empty or move it everytime we left the house because we were worried Sophie would get into it. 

In HomeGoods I was browsing the clearance section as I like to do and found a bunch of trash bins with lids for only $22! I picked one out that I liked and Tim carried it out of the store for me.

It would definitely look better if they matched, but I am thinking about getting a recycling sticker to put on the top so it will be easier for guests to know which is which.

Tim asked if it was silly that we had a bigger recycling than a trash but I said no because we have so much recycling every week! Also, trash is better taken out more frequently since food trash starts to smell.

Next up is our wedding guestbook!

We finally got it custom framed. You might remember I tried to stick it in a poster frame but unfortunately it was too thick and it wouldn't stay put. Now we have it in a custom frame from Michael's and it looks great!

To see a closer up version you can check it out here and here. It was made by a family friend, Kate, and you can find her at KaitlynsOccasions

The last is a really small update and just involved us getting a new toothbrush holder. Our old one was literally falling apart and I had cut my hand on it a couple of times. Eventually we want to redo the whole bathroom so I was trying to hold off, but for only a few dollars I bought a pretty marble one from HomeGoods and it makes me happy!

Any small (or big) changes going on in your home lately?

Hallway Wall Decor

Hey everyone! 

We finally have stuff up on the walls in our hallway! Slowly things are happening around here!!

I originally planned on doing a gallery wall, similar to the one we had in our apartment above the couch. You can see that gallery wall in this post. The reason I decided to not do that in this hallway is because I thought it would be too overwhelming. I don't like things to look cluttered and I thought the wall would look far too cluttered if it was filled with frames.

For this project I laid out exactly what I wanted and then coerced asked Tim to help me. I am very impatient when it comes to measuring and making sure everything is perfect where Tim is a perfectionist. He carefully measures and uses the level so I put him to work getting the three items up on the wall. 

Here he is hard at work! 

I love that it's super simple with only three pieces. I will change out the pictures in the future but for now I have a picture of Tim and I from Florida in 2016 and a picture of Sophie in the other frame from this Christmas.

The palette sign I believe is from Target and Tim picked this out for apartment when we first moved in there back in 2016! 

The glare makes it a little hard to see, but I'm just thankful we had some sunny, warm days this past weekend that I will take all the sunlight we can get!

I'm very pleased with how it came out and that's one thing I can check off my to do list!

New Etsy Wall Art by Hawkinscreations

Happy Monday again! This is the last full week before Christmas you guys! Can you believe it? We are celebrating "Christmas Eve" with my family next Sunday, less than a week away. It just seems like it crept up on us so quickly. 

Today I want to share a sign I ordered off Etsy because even though you wouldn't be able to get one before Christmas as a gift, I think it's absolutely adorable and you could order one for anyone for anytime of year! I think this would make a fantastic wedding gift, or a housewarming present or just a nice gift for yourself (which is what I did)

I've been wanting one of these signs for quite some time and am glad that I finally just ordered one. I ordered it from a really cute shop on Etsy too. Hawkinscreations has so many different signs to choose from and I chose the family name sign but there are a ton of options you can pick from.

Our third little family member checking out the new sign.

On Saturday I finally got it hung up in our kitchen. I'm not quite sure what else I'm going to put on this wall but I'm thinking of maybe adding some shelves? I'm not totally sure so if you have any ideas please share!

It does look a little lonely here but it's so nice to not just have a blank wall!

I want to know what you think I should do with this wall. It's in my kitchen and I'm thinking maybe a shelf on either side of the sign, slightly below and having seasonal decor there?

Have a great day everybody!

How To Make a Travel Pinboard

Today I'm sharing with you how I made our travel pinboard!

This is a fun DIY project I recently completed which has really completed our living room. There was one small wall I really felt was missing something and this is what it was! This was a very easy project to complete and can be very cost efficient if you don't splurge on a map like I did. I wanted mine to be a muted color and couldn't find a map I liked until I found one on Easy, but we'll get into that in a little bit.

Once I decided I wanted to do this project I took a trip to our local A.C. Moore.

I picked up a 24x36 poster frame that had a small piece of plastic as a cover on the front of it. I simply pulled the plastic off (despite the warnings not to) and was left with a simple black frame.  I ended up getting a 50% off deal on this frame and only paid $15 for it.

I also bought a roll of cork for just over $9 and used my hot glue gun to glue attach it to the backing of the frame.  I did try to flatten out the roll ahead of time but was slightly impatient and ended up gluing it before it was completely flat.

Once I was done gluing onto the cardboard backing I laid it all out on the floor and weighed down the edges while I went to bed. 

The next morning I was up bright and early to get to the post office to pick up my map! I checked on my new cork board and glued down the edges that were still a little loose but felt it had flattened out quite nicely.

I did spend some time just trimming the edges with scissors so the cork fit correctly on the cardboard. It had been a little over when I first glued everything down so I made sure everything looked even before the next step.

I had bought mod podge and a small brush (under $7 combined) in order to attach the poster to the cork and had heard that it was a bit difficult to get posters to stick to cork so I knew I was in for a challenge.

I used some random items to help flatten out the map for a bit and quickly got impatient and wanted to get started! The map itself was something I found on Etsy and was a bit pricer then I initially planned. I fell in love with the gray and loved that you could customize the title. If you are looking to purchase one you can find them here.

I chose "Our Travels" as our title since that is what I plan to keep track of on this map.

Now I've already mentioned my impatience twice in this post welllll I think it made my end result a little crinkly. Anddd if you look real close you can tell that in the mod podge there's a little dirt (which why did I think it was a good idea to do this project on a carpet?) however I love it. It's not perfect but neither are we and I think the crinkles give it a real life map quality.

I spent some time sticking my pins in the map before Tim got home from work. I purchased a container of map pins from Walmart and we discussed ahead of time what colors we would use. Tim's favorite color is green so any place he has visited on his own will have a green pin. My favorite color is blue so any place I visit on my own will be marked with a blue pin. We have decided on red pins for any place we have gone or will go together. As we have kids in the future we will add new pin colors to show where we go as a family.

Now for some details!

I loved sticking all my blue pins in Europe and remembering my trips to Spain, England and France.

Tim and I have been on a few adventures so far together including: our trip to New Jersey, our Disney World vacation, a trip to Vermont, visiting the Bronx Zoo, visiting my parents in Florida, and various trips around RI, CT and MA.

I traveled quite a bit growing up but we went to Disney World pretty much every other year and repeated quite a few locations more then once. I did visit Puerto Rico a few times and we took a Disney cruise to Nassau Bahamas and Castaway Cay but I still have dreams of visiting most of the Caribbean! Tim has been on a couple cruises through the Bahamas so his pins definitely dominate in that section of the map. Most of our pins remain on the east coast while only three of mine made their way to the west. I have visited Los Angeles, Anaheim and Laguna Beach in California but since I ran out of blue pins I have one representing Laguna Beach. I have also been to Las Vegas Nevada and Tijuana in Mexico but there is so much to explore on that coast!

We have dreams of visiting more states and countries in the future and now this map will inspire us and keep track as we make those dreams come true!

This entire project was done for $85 and more then half of that was on the map which you can definitely get for cheaper if you aren't picky about what your map looks like!

How do you keep track of your travels? Where do you dream of traveling to? Any future travel plans? Please share I'd love to hear!

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

We've been living in our apartment for almost a year and a half and our walls are still so bare! The only place I've truly made an effort to decorate the white walls is our living room and quite honestly the only real amount of wall decorating that has been impressive is our gallery wall. Which according to a quick search on my blog I haven't even shared in completion. *Facepalm*

I knew I wanted mirrors to be part of the wall decor in our "middle room" which is the name for our weird office/extra kitchen storage room/makeup and jewelry storage that is meant to be a dining room but isn't quite big enough. That room is a bit of a hodgepodge and honestly I don't know how to fix it at this point. However, I figured some mirrors might reflect a little bit of light and make everything look a little nicer.

Armed with $15 in Kohls cash I headed to my favorite store!

These mirrors work perfectly with the laid-back, beachy theme I have going on in our living room.

This set of three mirrors is originally $59.99 but was on sale for $23.99. After my $15 Kohls cash I only had to pay $9.62! I love getting a good deal almost as much as I love decorating :)

Before hanging up the actual mirrors I took paper and made them the same shape and size as the mirrors and then placed them on the wall. I actually used my drill to put screws into the paper while it was hanging on the wall so I could make sure I wouldn't make a mistake when drilling holes into the wall. (A tip I picked up at Young House Love)

I have to say I think they turned out pretty well.

They now hang above my blue table which houses overflow kitchen supplies. On top of the console table we have a popcorn machine, a toaster oven, and a coffee maker- so more overflow kitchen supplies.

They seem to take some room up on this huge wall while still allowing for other items to be hung in the future if I decide to do that.

I am thrilled with how this quick, easy project turned out and makes this room look a little more put together.

I know we won't be in this apartment forever so it makes it hard to do anything that costs money to upgrade. We also aren't allowed to paint or do anything that permanently changes the apartment so there's not too much we can really do around here. At least I'm limited to things that we can take with us when we go!

What do you have on your walls? Are they all decorated or do you take your time decorating?

Our Updated Gallery Wall

One of my favorite editions to our apartment is our gallery wall. We started one with just five pictures and are slowly adding to the wall to create a place to showcase our adventures together. My main issue when adding to the wall is I don't want it to only be pictures of the two of us. I think it would just make us look pretty lame! 

On Saturday I grabbed my electric screwdriver and started hanging three new pictures on our wall. It started off with me screwing into my pinky finger...but ended with all three successfully on the wall.

Since I'm a little OCD I knew that even if everything isn't even, it all needs to be in the same type of frame. My OCD cannot handle gallery walls where everything is different. Consistency is key for me.

Here's what I added on Saturday...

The top picture is a photo I took on Charlestown Beach at the Breachway. During the early days of our relationship Tim used to drive me home from dates and ask if I was ready to go home...I would say no because I wasn't ready for the date to be over and we would end up down at the beach late at night just talking in the car. So sweet right? So although that particular picture wasn't taken while we were together it is certainly a place that reminds me of our relationship.

Below I have a picture from Buttonwoods Sunflower Field from last summer. We went and saw all the sunflowers in bloom last summer and it's a cute picture of us from that day. I also have a picture of the side of Tim's head and Tom Brady. This was the only picture Tim requested be put on our wall because it was the closest we've ever been to Tom Brady. Last summer we went to a Patriots practice and Tom came around signing and taking pictures after practice ended. Although he didn't interact with us at all it was super exciting and Tim loves that picture.

As for what was already on the wall....We have a picture of the two of us on Easter in Florida when we visited my parents. The top picture is of Tim and Emma at the park over the summer. There is a picture of us kayaking on Wood River this summer and n the bottom is a picture of Emma and I on the day of her baptism. Finally, on the end is a picture of us at Harry Potter world in Florida.

I just love being able to look at all of these memories and know there are so many more for us to create! There are many other pictures that could be featured here as well and I had a really hard time picking what would place up here but I know that the wall will change and grow with time.

I plan on continuing our gallery wall here at our apartment and again in the future when we own a home. I tend to favor actual photos to paintings or anything along those lines. Photos are more real to me, where a painting just doesn't feel as right on my walls.

So. That's what our gallery wall looks like so far, I'll keep you updated as we add/change anything!
What's on your walls?!

The Frames Are Filled!

For months the walls of my new bedroom have been empty... it was pretty depressing! Then one day I  decided to hang up some frames- but I hadn't filled them with pictures yet....even more depressing!

I finally placed an order for photo prints from Shutterfly and when I received them in the mail I managed to get my frames filled!

This three picture frame I decided to fill with photos of the beach.

Although the lighting in this photo is pretty bad you can see how serene this frame and pictures are. I love this!

I have two frames on my big wall, one is a bigger frame with a photo from my trip to France.

I love this picture!

My final frame holds four pictures which are filled with friends and family! I love having pictures of my loved ones around. It's nice to have reminders of good times!

What is on your bedroom walls?