Oh Poop

That’s what I think when I look back on the main bathroom of our first house.   

Don’t let me fool you now.  This is “after”.  Yeah, I know your eyes just got a tad wider and your jaw fell a tad closer to the floor.
   

It’s bad.  I know it.  Brown and orange with wood trim????!!!  Is it fitting or ironic or did I just take it too far?  Either way, maybe if I let you in on my thought process you’ll understand a tad more and renege on your sudden desire to turn me into the interior design police.

Once upon a time I went on a Parade of Homes.  You know, those shows where you go around from gorgeous home to gorgeous home, soaking in all the pretty and grand and letting your inspiration mug overflow with ideas for your dream home.  And on that little tour de homes, I laid foot in a beautiful powder room that the designer(s) of that particular home painted a deep dark brown and it looked incredible.  I hadn’t seen a room that dark before and so it was not only mesmerizing but someday I had to copy.

Enter our bathroom.  Not the bathroom that was the best slate for my dark bathroom must-have but what did I know?  Nothing, obviously.  When we moved into our first home, that bathroom was an awful shade of peach and had to go.  (Ha…it’s funny thinking back on how awful I thought the peach was, because it was, but how I covered it with an equally awful color…fool me once, fool myself twice…)  So Cabin Plank (Valspar) went up on the walls.  Wish as I did to want to paint all of the trim and vanity white, I didn’t.  All of the trim in the entire house was solid wood and stained the same as that in the bathroom.  And it wasn’t cheap wood trim either.  So, painting it, when we knew that the house wasn’t our forever home, we ruled out because we thought we’d get more money for our investment with the wood the way it was vs. painting over it.  (We ended up making bank off that house so I don’t know in the long run if it would’ve been better or worse to paint but c’est la vie.)

To add a tad bit o’ color, I grabbed some dollar store daises and planted them in some dollar store vases and picked up some matching orange hand towels from Walmart.  The cabinet over the toilet we purchased at Target and the white shower curtain was a wedding registry gift (Target).  Those two white things were my sole two attempts to put some white in the room and were probably my unconscious trade for not painting the trim white.  I added some white frames that I filled with sepia-filtered pictures of our honeymoon (which just added more brown…dumb idea.)  The gold fixtures were already there along with the creamy white tile floor.  The toilet was a bisque color as was the shower/bath combo.  The room didn’t exactly scream “A Parade of Homes home was my inspiration!!”  But, it was an ultra-cheap transition from where it began, ringing in at around $35.

If I could go back and if I had to keep the wood unpainted, I think I’d go with a creamy white on the walls, add some bold fabric in the form of a roman shade over the window, swap out the over-the-toilet cabinet with a couple of large frames stacked on top of each other, and nix the flowers and orange anything.  Maybe this no good, very bad, two minute, photo-shopping job will help visualize it:

[If you squint, it might help it to look a little better…or better yet, chug a large glass of vino.]

So, there you have it.  One of the worst decorating decisions I’ve made.  What about yours?  Spill it.  :)

Sebastian: 10 Months

Is it possible that a boy child can be more affectionate/sensitive/cuddly than (two) girl children?  In this house, yep.  So far anyway.  Soaking that right up we are.  


Happy 10 months kid.  :)

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And, in case you’re interested, here are the girls at 10 months.

Moccs

**Just a quick reminder!  There’s a Luce Leather giveaway happening on our Instagram page that ends tonight at 8pm!  Nicole of Luce Leather has generously offered to give away a Magnificat cover that she made herself!  It’s so beautiful!  If you don’t read or don’t have a Magnificat, enter anyway!  Christmas is coming and if you win, it’d make a great gift!**

And speaking of leather…

Baby moccasins are the hot new thing!  Haven’t you heard/seen?  I have to admit, I wasn’t fond of them at first but I think they’ve rubbed off on me after seeing them alllll over Instagram.  But, when it comes to baby shoes, I have a pretty tight wallet.  My kids (maybe most kids?) are in a new shoe size every 4-6 months so hand-me-downs, clearance, and thrift stores are where we shoe shop.  Leather moccs can run anywhere from $45 to $60+ a pair and faux leather ones can be found on Etsy for $15+.  Our budget right now told me “no, you can’t buy any baby moccs” so I took matters into my own hands and made some!  Look!

My friend Jesse came over on Monday last week after bedtime and we chatted, drank wine, and sewed our littlest tots a pair of moccs.  She made hers out of the leather skirt I wore with The Traveling Scarf (that she got at Goodwill for $1!) and I made mine out of a leather vest (that I found at Goodwill for $4).  I forgot to take a picture of the vest before, but here’s what was/is left of it:I still have almost the entire back of the vest left so if anyone has any ideas on what to make out of it, toss ‘em my way!

Here are the moccs we made that night almost finished:

We used this pattern and this tutorial, combined with this tutorial, and a lot of our own tweaking.  I didn’t take pictures to write a tutorial but I’m planning on making some more as Seb grows and maybe even some moccs for the girls and when I do, I’ll make sure to document every step.  It was surprisingly simple even though the thought of making baby shoes is totally intimidating.  If I didn’t have Jesse by my side, holding my hand the whole way, my moccs might not have turned out as good but thankfully I did and the next pair will be even easier to whip up.

I’m still trying to convince Anthony that they’re cute though!  He thinks they look a tad too girly.

Maybe it’s the fringe?  I might have to trim it to win his admiration. 

While the moccs turned out great (despite their potential girly-ness), I learned that next time I need to use a thicker leather.  The leather I used was super soft which would be great for a crib shoe version; not for a mover and shaker.  I took Sebastian out to the front porch to crawl around the day after I made them and just from dragging his feet across the concrete, they scuffed up pretty easily.  See the roughed up top?

Jesse made a second pair using an old leather purse she cut up and they seem more durable.  Aren’t they so cute?  I am in love with the scallops vs. fringe for girls!  

Here’s hoping I’ll have some time to make some more soon so stay tuned!  If you’re not interested in sewing your own, check out these mocc makers:
>>Freshly Picked
Susan was on Shark Tank with her moccs, got a deal, and now they’re arguably the most popular moccs on the market but run on the higher-priced end.  You can find them all over the blogging world and there’s always a giveaway somewhere so keep your eyes peeled!
>>The Coral Pear
Amanda’s leather moccs are slightly less expensive and oh-so-cute!
>>The Striped Arrow
Courtney makes faux leather moccs that are really affordable and has some good sales that you’ll find out about if you follow her on Instagram!
>>Gracious May
You can find the cutest, fringed moccasin boots at Gracious May.  Their prices are up around those of Freshly Picked though but once you see the boots, it’s mighty tempting to splurge.
>>KaBoogie
Audrey makes moccs and mocc boots out of reclaimed leather and they’re a lot cheaper than similar moccs and so stylish!  They’re also styled a little differently than other moccs out there which I appreciate!


Are there any moccasin shops you’ve come across that you love?  Or have you found a great pattern and made your own?  Please share!

Luce Leather Giveaway

Hey all!!!  Happy Monday!  It’s been a great one over here so far.  Let’s see, Anthony had an early morning meeting this morning (he can usually hang around until after breakfast) so I was on my own when the kids woke up and wake up they did – both girls had wet the bed which is rare these days and Sebastian was in a wonderful mood after a fun night of not wanting to sleep.  So, I caved for the sake of rejuvenation slash keeping all my marbles and perched the girls in front of the “ABC show” on YouTube (you see, if they learn something I don’t feel the pang of guilt quite as much).  ;)  Seb is sleeping now and I swear someone set a bomb off in our house at 3am because it was immaculate when we went to sleep last night (hmmm, my nose is growing for some reason…) but I’ll deal with that later (maybe) because I want to make sure you know about the Luce Leather giveaway happening on our Instagram page!

Nicole is generously giving away this Magnificat cover to one lucky follower!  Skip over there for the details!  The giveaway will end Wednesday at 8pm (CST) so hurry quick! 

After you enter, make sure to check out Luce Leather’s page.  Read about Nicole, her story, and how she’s taken her incredible talent in working with leather to the business level and also where she got the name “Luce”.  And then, browse in awe at all of the beautiful leather things she’s made – from rosary pouches, to bible covers, to checkbook covers, and her upcoming purse and clutch collection!  It’s all so beautiful! 

And last but not least, use code ‘BEANINLOVE11’ to get 10% off any ready-made products at $50 or more and $25 off any custom order until 11/29/2014!  

How’s that for a happy Monday?  Brightened mine, that’s fo sho!  :) 

Wee Scarves

So I might have an infinity scarf addiction – proof, proof, and more proof.  But I can’t help myself, especially when it comes to dressing the girls, so when an opportunity presented itself, I bit down…and made a graphic:

Here’s the story.  I have this tee from back in my dancing days.  It has my name heat-pressed onto the back except that recently I washed it (for the 395757th time) and all of the white of the letters came off in the wash.  So weird. 
Not a huge deal but since I was/am going through a closet purge and have 49579 other t-shirts, I thought maybe it was time to bid farewell to this one.  So I went through the whole “what could I do with it?” before I actually tossed it to the donate pile and it hit me – the fall-ish cranberry color, the size, the soft cotton – they were all perfect ingredients for a couple of little infinity scarves of the no-sew, five-minutes-to done-variety for a couple of twins I know.

Here’s how I made them.  First, I cut off the bottom of the tee under the armpits.
 

And then I flipped it over to see that some of the logo on the front was still visible, so I cut off a tad more.
 
(Ten points if you know what a “clogger” is!)

Then, since I needed two scarves for two tiny ladies, I folded that bottom piece in half length-wise and cut along the fold. 
 

Next, I cut a bunch of shallow strips all the way up the unfolded/cut side of each half of fabric.  My cuts measured about an inch.


When I unfolded each piece, it looked like this:
 
(Sorry about the infiltrating sunlight!)

Last, I tied each strip to the one opposite it…
 
(Side note:  I ended up cutting off the bottom hem of the t-shirt because the strips cut there were too hard to tie since they were thicker.)

Since I didn’t have that much fabric to work with, I cut the strips pretty short to get as much scarf circumference as I could.  So, to aid in tying, I pulled on each one a bit to stretch it out before tying it to it’s counterpart.
 
[Unintentional light leak!  Cool!]

Until, after I had tied all of the strips together, I had myself, or the girls, two little infinity scarves.


We test drove them last weekend on a trip out to see Daddy who was working at a retreat out in the Southern countryside.
[DIY jean vest tutorial here.]

I like the extra detail the ties provide.  :)
 

For an adult scarf, all you’d really have to do is cut the tee off under the arms and stick your head in, like so:
…unless you’re working with a huge tee or you want to combine a couple of tees!  For the tots though, I prefer a more fitted, smaller scarf so depending on the size of the tee, a little snipping and tying might be necessary.

More photo spam from our little country excursion:

Heart eyes and more heart eyes.

 
They had a blast picking up acorns and tossing them into the water.  Like they-didn’t-want-to-do-anything-else blast.  And then C found a huge, gross ‘shroom to toss in and we had to ruin her fun’gi…ha!

She’s so cute though, no?
  

Anyway, go out and find yourself some cute patterned tees and cut your way to an infinity scarf or seven to keep your neck warm this winter.  I found this tee at Target on clearance for $2.10 a couple of months ago…
 
[via this gram]
…and am punching myself that I didn’t grab more to make scarves…something out of!  Whatever…no regrets.

You know what they say on Fridays – TGI…oh wait, I’m a mom.  ;)

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P.S.  Be sure and stop by Monday because there will be details on a fun giveaway over on our Instagram home!