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Entryway Update: Before and After

May 22, 2019 by Jessica 2 Comments

These past few months have been full of home projects and at times it has been a little overwhelming. I am no stranger to all of this, so I knew it would take time, but that still doesn’t mean I wish it could go faster (and easier!) at times. Looking back over these entryway update photos helps me realize I really have done a lot and it will all get there before I know it.

This is what our entryway looked like before we moved in. Not horrible, but very plain and really lived in. All the trim and doors were beat up and needed repainting (still need to repaint the doors though hahaha), there were remnants from wallpaper still from a previous removal attempt, and all the outlets/switches were almond colored and really dirty. The previous owner had put in new light fixtures, but they still felt kind of outdated and dark.

As you can see above, I started in the dining room and worked my way to the entryway. I scraped off wallpaper goo, replaced light switches, and then added faux board and batten wainscoting using 1×4’s. I had really wanted to add some wallpaper, but my husband was not on board with that at all so I stuck with paint. The blue color is Valspar Northern Sky (5001-3B) and I used Behr Ultra Pure White on the trim. It works out for now because there would have been so many interesting cuts to make if I did install wallpaper. But, I would love to try it one day. You know, the stick and peel wallpaper that can come back off easily.

I took a while to decide upon a light fixture. At first I was determined to find a vintage style with crystals, but then I decided upon a flush mount style and came upon this pretty light. It is sold on a few different sites, so I looked around and found the best price on Wayfair at the time. This can change, so always look around and find the best deal when buying light fixtures. I love love love the shadows that it casts when the light is on. I feel that adds to the character of this little area even more.

It’s nice to have the first room people see pretty much done. My last two items for here are to paint the doors, like I said before, and then at some point we are getting the floors redone. They are wood and have just taken a lot of abuse over the years and it’s time they got some love too.

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 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 Modern Classroom Decor | happy together 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 Modern Classroom Decor | happy together Modern Classroom Decor | happy together Modern Classroom Decor | happy together 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 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

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Old Door Bench

May 2, 2017 by Jessica Leave a Comment

Old Door Bench DIY | happy together
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.

Old Door Bench DIY | happy together
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.

Old Door Bench DIY | happy together Old Door Bench DIY | happy together Old Door Bench DIY | happy together
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

Old Door Bench DIY | happy together Old Door Bench DIY | happy together Old Door Bench DIY | happy together Old Door Bench DIY | happy together Old Door Bench DIY | happy together Save

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photo(125) Welcome to my blog Happy Together. My name is Jessica Fediw and this is where I share my adventures in life, crafting, and more. Thanks for stopping by!

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Easter and Spring Break are now behind us, but it Easter and Spring Break are now behind us, but it was such a good time! For this past Easter I really wanted to make egg aprons for miss E and my other young nieces and nephew that are here. I looked at a bunch of pictures and just kind of figured it out myself, but I made four aprons that can hold up to 10 eggs. Thankfully I had enough fabric already to make them 🙌 It won’t be too long until my youngest will be too old for some of this, so I am trying to squeeze it all in before that happens 💛
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