decor

A Mardi Gras Birthday Party

May 5, 2019 by Jessica Leave a Comment

Hello there 🙂 I’m still here. STILL working on house projects on our new home in Virginia. It’s taking me a lot longer than I thought, which is typically how these type of projects go. But I have some things to share and I am ready to do so starting with this nod to Louisiana. I’m not one that feels every party needs some big fabulous decor and such, but I will get inspired at times and I do love adding special touches to someones special day. This past January (so long ago!) we hosted a get together for my mother in law. Now, we had lived in Louisiana for six years and my in-laws actually lived there for a while as well and they appreciate all the Louisiana things so I decided to throw her a Mardi Gras birthday party. It was a lot of fun to put together! My main goal was for it to be sophisticated and I felt I was able to do that using different shades of the typical purple, green, and gold.

I have a basket full of all kinds of different size balloons and I used them to create a balloon garland for one of the decor pieces. I strung in garland and ribbon to make it a little more festive too. I was really pleased with how it ended up turning out.

Of course I wanted to add some beads, but I was initially having a hard time finding Mardi Gras party things even though it was near that time. I should have had some foresight and had my LA friends ship me some stuff, but it all worked out. I found these beads at Hobby Lobby and loved the muted colors which went with what I was going for. I hung them from the chandelier which reminded me of how you would see these hanging from trees, light posts, etc. after all the parades. My kids would always have a large collection every year from all the parades they would have in Lake Charles, LA. I didn’t realize how family friendly a lot of these events were until we lived there, so I appreciate the new perspective on how that community really knows how to have a good time all together.

I baked a simple cake using this coconut bundt cake recipe from Five Boys Baker, which I have made a few times before. It’s really yummy. I added some Mardi Gras color flowers and a simple gold mask I found at Party City. It was simple but sweet.

Now, you can’t do Mardi Gras without some King Cake! I didn’t find any locally at the time and wasn’t convinced I could pull off making a legit one so I made these King Cake Bites using this recipe from Plain Chicken. They were easy to make and really yummy. As you can see on the bottom layer, I kind of messed up my cutting initially but quickly saw my wrong and fixed that lol.

But before we got to all that dessert we did eat some chicken and sausage gumbo. It took us a while to find a good comparable sausage to what we would use in LA, but a local butcher had some that worked. We went everywhere and were so glad to have found him! It’s such a good winter dish and my husband knows how to make it just the way I like it best.

We were thankful to be able to host this Mardi Gras birthday party and look forward to all the family events we now get to be a consistent part of now. (And yes, I totally found an image from Pinterest to do that chalkboard because I have no skills in that area hahahaha). So put on some zydeco music and “Laissez les bons temps rouler!” Let the good times roll……

PS: We didn’t do this, but I thought it would have been cute to do this Cajun Name game 🙂

Shark Trunk or Treat

November 9, 2018 by Jessica Leave a Comment

I have been so busy lately with our new house and am currently taking a break from removing old painted over wallpaper (say a prayer for me okay? lol) to share this themed Shark Trunk or Treat trunk I put together. Each grade at my children’s school was responsible to have one trunk decorated. I volunteered to do one this year and it was my very first time ever decorating for this type of event. A big thank you to my husband and some of the other moms who helped me set this all up! I couldn’t have done it without them. It was all a lot of fun and we have some great ideas for next year.

I tried to think of decor that wouldn’t take too long to set up and could be created in plenty of time before. A lot of what I used came from the Dollar Tree or was something that we or someone I knew already had so that made putting this together a lot more feasible.

I had a piece of plywood cut down to fit my van for a painted shark to go on. I cut out the mouth and decided against cutting out the teeth so no one would accidentally hurt themselves, so I just painted the area black around them to make it look like they were cut out. I placed one of those silver streamer curtains behind it and then we put a lot of the “treats” there so the kids could reach into the sharks mouth to get them.

I purchased multiple sizes of blue and white balloons from Party City to create a fun garland because I just love them and wanted to incorporate one some how. I made it the day before and it lasted very well and no balloons popped on the way there. The front arch was created with some 1/2″ pvc pipes attached to wood bases. I taped plastic blue table cloths together to drape over it and go over the trunk of the car. We taped the back edges over the car so wind wouldn’t blow it all over the place. I also had some random items to anchor down the sides.

I drew the shark silhouettes on some brown paper rolls from the Dollar Tree and cut them out. We taped them on top of the table cloths the day of to create the feeling of walking underneath a tank with sharks in it. I loved that part! The sun shining really made it stand out.

This trunk was actually one that I found in the attic of our new house. How timely right? It appears to be an old trunk used by someone in the military, but still could give off that treasure chest vibe. I had a bunch of shells from the summer to use and had paint cloths to mimic sand underneath. The clam shell was one my mom had already and it was perfect for this. It originally came from Home Goods.

For the treats we had some candy and lots of bags of gold fish to pass out. I also put together these little shark repellant bubbles for them. You can get a package of six from the dollar store so that’s a great deal! I used the labels from A Few Shortcuts, here, I just had to make them a lot smaller to fit on these.

My sweet miss E had a blast and so did miss J. They are still working through their bag of treats they got. I also took quick pics of all the other trunks so you can see how amazing everyone did! It totally blew my mind how fabulous it all was. There was even a snow blowing machine! Great memories were made for sure.

Modern Classroom Decor

September 27, 2017 by Jessica 1 Comment

Modern Classroom Decor | happy together
This summer I was hired by a friend to help her create modern classroom decor and it was a fun challenge. She was really drawn to Scandinavian and farmhouse design, so we did a mixture of that style inside her classroom. I also got to design her hallway bulletin board. I used my Cricut Explore to cut out all the shapes from card stock and the names from vinyl. The background is a fabric from Hobby Lobby and the trim is actually gold streamers. We like to think outside the box haha.

Modern Classroom Decor | happy together
To pull from the Scandinavian style, we used a lot of light raw wood. I edged out the white board with wood (inspired from this Fixer Upper classroom makeover) which was really easy to do. It’s a small thing, but makes an impact. It can always be stained or painted later very easily.

Modern Classroom Decor | happy together
We stuck with black and gold for metal accessories in the room. This industrial curtain rod is from Target (it’s this one but in black, they aren’t showing it right now) and the curtains were some I had from our old house. I always keep certain household decor items around because you never know when they might come in handy.

Modern Classroom Decor | happy together
I helped pick out the above accessories from a few places. The light and watering can are from Target, the letter board was from Amazon (but Hobby Lobby now carries them…hello 40% off coupon!), the plant stand is from Wayfair, and the plant is from Home Depot.

Modern Classroom Decor | happy together
My friend really wanted a modern pegboard as well, so I made two small ones out of 2’x4′ piece of plywood (it was either 3/4″ thick or 1″). I thought it would be hard to make them, but once I drew out a template, it took hardly no time to drill holes and cut down dowels to fit. We placed these where a bulletin board used to be. To add another place to write things, we simply stuck a 2’x4′ chalkboard board from Home Depot in the middle. One of her friends did a great job doing the lettering on it. As the year goes on, she will be able to switch things around and add items as needed. The side pendants were another item someone had gifted me and they fit here perfectly. They were from a light kit from Ikea. The metal brackets they hang on are from Lowes.

Modern Classroom Decor | happy together
The last bigger project I made was this cute little reading “house” simply made from 2″x2″‘s. I looked at a few similar tutorials online and tweaked it to fit what she needed. Most tutorials are for actual bed frames and we didn’t need all of that. I screwed all the pieces together so she can easily unscrew it all and remove it if she switches classrooms next year. The pillows and cushions are from Urban Outfitters.

Modern Classroom Decor | happy together
I helped her pick out this rug from Urban Outfitters (even though we really wanted the sold out plus sign one since she loves math), but she also has brought in other things that show her style and things that are purposeful to her teaching. It’s all very organized and so inviting!

Modern Classroom Decor | happy together
All of the kids who were around while we were putting it all together just loved her room! They all said it was their favorite and they didn’t want to leave it 🙂 I think a big part of that is her though, as she is so loving and kind to all the children she is around. I learned a lot from this experience and yet again, it gives me more understanding of a different career. It was a lot of work putting a classroom together from scratch and then to add all the lesson planning and everything else a teacher has to do is a lot. Thank you teachers for all the thought and preparation you do for teaching our kiddos. We will never even know the full extent of it, but us parents are so grateful. It makes a world of difference to us all. -jess

Save

Old Door Bench

May 2, 2017 by Jessica Leave a Comment

The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, and I’m loving our front porch right now. Last fall we worked really hard to put in a flower bed and I felt like our porch needed a little more. In an effort to reduce some clutter in our garage, I followed an old door bench diy I found here. Isn’t her bench so lovely? The door I used wasn’t quite as thick so I had to reinforce mine some.

Adding extra wood made my bench not look quite right though. The beautiful chippy paint and the brand new wood just weren’t really working for me. You can see pictures below of how it looked originally. So I painted mine black even though I will miss the original color.

I also wanted to show you a little something I did to keep the pillow in place. It gets really windy where we live and I knew it would want to fly away, so i threaded a piece of fishing line through the back and tied it in place! You can’t see it at all unless you are up close. Oh, and this was an old outdoor pillow I covered with a kitchen towel from Hobby Lobby. I’m excited to watch the plants continue to grow and bloom this spring. -jess

Save

A DIY Board and Batten Wall

April 24, 2017 by Jessica Leave a Comment

One of my favorite diy’s I have done in my home has got to be this DIY board and batten wall. I did it all on my own and it was a lot easier than I thought it might be. I love how it makes the room feel more open and allows the chandelier to really stand out. I first looked and looked at all the board and batten type tutorials there were online to see how I would tackle mine.

After doing all of my research, I decided that I wanted to leave the crown molding and baseboards on and that I wanted to cover up the wall since it is textured. I looked online at Lowes and decided to go with the tempered hardboard panel (found here) to cover up the wall. For only $8 for each 4’x8′ panel, and the fact that it’s very thin, make it a no brainer. It is a bit flimsy and I found it a difficult to cut, but a jig saw ended up working the best for cutting it. I also looked at different widths of wood to decide what size I wanted. I chose to go with the 4″ width (which is actually 3.5″ wide). And to save some money, they have these wood pieces called firring strips that are 1″x4″x8′ for less than $2 each! (PS….they have firring strips in a few other widths too). The only thing with them is that they are very rough. You save some money, but you have to do a bit of sanding and you have to usually look through the pile to find good straight pieces.

Here is a before picture of my dining room. It was the perfect spot to add a feature wall! First, I wiped down the wall to make sure there were no spider webs and dust.

Then I figured out how I wanted to put the hard board on. I made sure to make it as even as possible because my goal was to make sure the seams were all covered by wood strips for a seamless look. I used a jig saw to cut holes for electrical sockets and used these spacers on the outlets to make them stay in place well (MAKE SURE to TURN OFF electricity before messing with any type of electrical outlet etc.). Then I used liquid nails on the back of the panel and nailed it in place using finishing nails in my nail gun.

I had to trim down the side of one panel to make it fit. I didn’t make the best cut, but I knew it was small enough to be covered. I also had to cut two panel pieces to fit the top. Again, I tried to line up seams to make it easier for covering. At this point, I figured out the design. I know……. maybe something to do first, but I just wanted to do it after I saw where the seams where. So I started with designing the seams being covered and went from there. I began with putting straight pieces on the bottom above the baseboard and the top below the crown molding.

I added some wood glue to the back of all the wood pieces before nailing in place with nail gun.

After the top and bottom, I started on the left and worked my way over with all the vertical pieces. The width of the wall and the width of the wood didn’t allow for exact distance in-between each one, so the two outer ones are the same and then the middle ones are the same. Fortunately, you can’t even tell the difference when looking at it. Then I cut all the horizontal pieces and put them in place. I used some wood filler to cover up some gaps in-between the wood and then caulked every single edge…. the edges by the wall and inside each box. After the caulk dried I used Sherwin Williams in Creamy to paint with. This is the color of the trim so it blends in nicely.

I plan to do a half wall version of this in our laundry room next. And, maybe down our hallway too! lol I would highly recommend this type of project if you want to add some charm to your walls. -jess