Half Bath Remodel

Another project in the bag! We re-did our downstairs half bathroom. It was a fun project mostly because it was so small. So it went by quickly and it was easy to do. We were also able to try some new things we have been itching to do.


Then nice thing about this bathroom before is that it was very plain, so there wasn't much prep work. I started by ripping off the baseboard and casing. I then had to have Jeremy's assistance taking down the mirror. It was literally glued on to the wall! With like cement (exaggeration) or something because that sucker was on there tight! Next, was filling all the holes.

I decided to paint it the same color grey we have in the sitting room and family room, just so it all flows. First we added in the new base and case. We then had some left over wallpaper from our bedroom (blog post coming soon) and decided to use it on one wall of the bathroom. We got it from Amazon, click here if you want to see the exact one. It's super easy to put up! 

Next I had Jeremy make me these shelves and I am in love with them! I love the farmhousey/industrial look they give. If that's even a real thing. I got most of my decorations from Hobby Lobby using their ongoing 40% off coupon. I can't remember where I got the Selenite towers. Either Etsy or Amazon (my bread and butter.)

Probably the most expensive thing was the new light fixture. But I love it so much! I've never even thought about replacing light fixtures until recently. In fact, I don't even notice them for the most part unless they are unique. I did have to buy the Edison light bulbs separately. The one downer about this light fixture is it's not super bright. Of course it's bright enough to see what you are doing but when it comes to cleaning this bathroom I always feel like I can't see as well because it's quite a bit dimmer than the previous light fixture. 

I replaced the oval mirror with this little rectangle guy. I'm not sure it's my favorite and it's super cheap, but it will do for now. Also, check me out in my awesome robe! It's also really hard to photograph this tiny bathroom, I did my best! Haha!

We are getting closer to being done with our master bedroom and I can't wait to show you guys! 

Baby Tippetts Nursery!

Well, we set off on another project! This time it was conquering the baby's room. Let me tell you, I had a hard time deciding on a "theme." I feel like I got sucked in way too far to Pinterest and I was actually stressing that the baby's room wouldn't be "cute enough." You know, like those nursery's you see where they build a freaking castle crib or something like that. Uh, reality check, baby won't even care! Haha! Anyway, I went back and forth between the idea of forest creatures or planes, trains, and automobiles. As you can see, the forest creatures won out.

I wanted this room to be neutral enough that I could change out the decor easily and without having to change the wall color or anything like that. So I chose a grey and a white. Original, huh? They are both Valspar paint. The grey is Builder Block and the white is Soft Wool.

Well, on to the before and afters!

It was pretty easy to prep this room. We just had to get everything out of it, then patch a few holes. We then ripped off all the baseboard and casing around the doors.

The first thing we did was paint the walls. We are becoming pro painters by now.  Let me tell you, there are few things that are as good to my soul as a fresh coat of paint. We then went to add the new base and case to the room. Jeremy informed me this type of casing is in the style "Craftsmans." When we start out on projects, I find this makes the biggest difference in making our house feel a little bit more custom. I really like this grey. It has a slightly blue undertone which obvs works well with the room.

                           

Next we added a shiplap wall! This was definitely Jeremy's pride and joy. He was excited to get this up. I really wish I would have taken pictures of this process. After he was done shiplapping, we went back and painted it white. He wanted to spray it with his air compressor thing, but I had sudden nightmarish visions of white paint being sprayed on my freshly painted grey walls. So we ended up rolling it. (Thank goodness!)

Next came my adorable forest creature prints! I got them off Etsy for a total of $25 dollars I believe. It was just a digital download. I then ordered the blue frames off of Amazon. This saved me close to $50 dollars had I ordered them printed and framed. You should have seen the punched-in-the-gut face Jeremy gave me when I told him I wanted to hang these on his precious ship lap wall. I thought I was actually going to lose that battle. Turns out, the nail fits every so perfectly in the seams of the boards so when we remove them you won't even be able to see the holes! So up the forest animals went! 

Next is my pride and joy, my homemade mobile! Guys, did you know that buying pre-made mobile cost upwards of $60 dollars? Yeah pretty crazy. So again I turned to my on-again off-again friend Etsy and found a pattern for this sucker. Turns out you actually don't really need a pattern. You could create one easily yourself. Lesson learned. I made this mobile out of felt, cross-stitch thread, and stuffing. Gus and I also foraged for good sticks to hang the animals from. Also, how do you like my MaCGyver-ed hanger from the ceiling? That's a command hook and the sticky part of the command hook. It hasn't fallen yet, so I'm sure it's safe and secure...Anyway, this ended up costing about $30. 

I got this print on sale during Christmas. I love it! I think it works perfectly in this little space. It also has a lot of blue! So win-win.

Did you know Walmart sells rugs from Overstock? Yeah, me either. I got this rug from Walmart online, which was being distributed by Overstock. Go big corporations! I love the pattern and the texture of the rug. I think it fits in perfectly. 

I then got this bumper set and changing table from a neighbor that was selling them. $30 bucks yo! I LOVE the bumper pads. Especially because they have this mesh lining that goes around the crib bars, which calms my over-anxious, first time mom heart. The navy is super great too. The changing table use to be wood colored. Like actual wood. I guess it is still actual wood but now painted white. Don't zoom in on that baby because my paint job is less than superb. 

This cute glider was a gift from my older brother. Shout out to Trevor! I love this thing. Sometimes I just come in this room and sit in the rocker for awhile and absorb the quiet. I think of the times when there will be a precious little babe in the room to take care of. I think it's mentally prepping me. It's extremely comfortable as well. I do want to add two book shelves above the rocker on that wall. All in due time. 

Well I believe that's it folks! Lil Pipsqueak is a mere 5 weeks away (fingers crossed, if I don't go over.) People always ask me if I'm nervous. I don't think I am. I'm definitely more excited. I've had a fairly easy pregnancy and I'm grateful everyday for that. I am running out of room in my belly for the little guy, and he really great at aiming at the same spot of my rib cage over and over, but it's alright with me!

Thanks for reading guys! 

Grandma Barton

Things I will always remember about my grandma

• She taught me how to sew. 
• Eggy french toast. 5 seconds on each side and it was ready to go. 
• Handing out lifesaver creamies to all the neighborhood kids and I. She would roll down her window, and the kids would line up. I'm pretty sure the candy was at least a year old.
• Her fuzzy steering wheel cover. 
• Her letting me drive her car when I was about 13. 
• Coming over to her house after elementary school to help her "organize", clean, or vacuum up her crumb collecting car. 
• Sleep overs watching Shirley Temple. 
• Notes taped to our front door. 
• Her asking me to paint her toenails. 
• Me gagging at the state of her toenails. 
• Her taking my brothers and I every Saturday to the Great Steak to get breakfast. This is where I fell in love with biscuits and gravy. We also go hot chocolate each time. 
• Her mortifying me, picking me up from my 7th grade drama class, her head bobbing in the window. 
• Telling me I looked like a "movie star" with my new haircut. 
• Pot roast that had been roasting for several days. 
• Her ambition to make any container a Tupperware. 
• Post it notes galore. All over her house and car reminding her of things. 
• Her playing card games with us as a family. My dad turning to her and animatedly saying "wild!" It scared the bejeezes out of her. 
• I remember her telling me that lipstick could also be used as "rouge" when necessary. 
• The orangey tone of her lipstick. 
• Her animal print shirts and dresses. 
• Her reddish hair color and pouffy hair style. 
• The way she would mover her hand up and down when she was saying something important. 
• Her paying half the money for my guitar. 
• The way her perfume smelled perfectly of old lady. 
• Use jumping on her mini trampoline. 
• Most importantly, I will remember her love. She loved us dearly. 

I love you Grandma! I am so happy you are free from your dementia. I can't wait to see you again. 

DIY Envelope Pillow

Hey howdy hey!

So now that our main construction is done for our two rooms downstairs, I have decided it is time to decorate. Which is a double edged sword. Pinterest makes it look so easy, real life makes it way harder. I'm new to the whole decorating stuff, so I'm sure I'm going to change my mind many times. I did find a place to start, recovering my throw pillows on the sectional. The old ones didn't match whatsoever. I have made quite a few envelope pillow covers. I learned out to do it from this tutorial on youtube...

I can now make one start to finish in about 15 minutes. They are really easy! This would be great for a beginner sewer (hopefully you read that in the right context) as well because it doesn't deal with any zippers. Then you can jazz it up by adding ties, or ruffles.

Anyway, I started these pillows last night and just cruised through them. Here are the before.

Oh hey finger. 

As you can see, the long pillows already look worn. Even though I keep telling Jeremy to PLEASE not lay on them while he watches TV....

And here are the after

I tried to make sure I kept it simple (K.I.S.S). I'm usually one to through ruffles, fabric flowers, etc, on everything. Then I get too overwhelmed and end up disliking it. I tried to choose big print patterns and little print patterns to balance out all the miss matched fabrics. Who knows, I may end up not liking it. But for now I do.



The only thing I'm a little "eh" about right now is the grey pillows on the brown couch. It looks better if you look at it standing from the kitchen, because you can see the brown of the palette wall. I would prefer a dark grey sectional. But, you can't have your cake and eat it too (is that saying even applicable right now?)

I was able to cover 7 pillows for about $30. Not bad if I say so myself! Now off to the next project, that will more than likely involve succulents...

DIY Picture Frames

So, I am someone who loves deals. I get it from my mom. I will not buy clothes unless they are on sale or I have a coupon. I find coupons for almost everything in fact. Hence, these picture frames. I actually got this idea from a Relief Society activity I went to in the fall. It was all about re-purposing items and making things yourself.  There was a lady there in charge of one of the stations who was a spray painting queen. She would go and find really cheap things, spray paint them and BAM! They looked terrific. 

I really wanted some unique frames. Problem, unique frames are expensive. Now your idea of expensive and my idea may be different, but that's ok. So I found myself at the lovely DI again. I went to go look for some frames. In my head I kept telling myself too look for shapes or patterns that really interested me. Don't worry about the color. Imagine the finished product. You get the idea. So I was able to find two frames that I liked. They came to a grand total of $1.25! Wow what a deal! 

I then went to Wal-Mart and picked up some spray paint. I got this spray paint that has a pebbily effect. That's the best way I can describe it.  Anyway, these are the frames before....

The frame on the left looks almost the same in the after picture. I think that's due to the lighting. It really is a different color now. 

The frame on the right ended up being sealed on the back. Apparently that piece of artwork was meant to stay in that sucker. Well, nothing a knife can't fix...

Wa-la!

After the surgery, I took out the artwork that was in there and chucked it. I was then ready to paint. I will throw in a picture of the spray paint I used when I get a picture of it. It did take two coats. I would have primed them too, but I can't find my primer anywhere! Gah! 

Anyway, here are the finished results!

This is the one that was originally on the right. (Am I too obsessed with my dog?)

This was the frame on the left. (They one that didn't require surgery)

Anyway, I think they turned out great! They are just the right amount of fancy. I also saved money. Double bonus. 

Thanks for reading my blog. I appreciate it! 

Family Room Remodel

Can I just say, eeeeEEEEeeeeeEEEee!!! That is me squealing like a little school girl because of how excited I am about this! We have finally finished our remodel on our family room. This was quite the project. We did everything ourselves, from the painting, to the baseboard, to the pallet walls, and Jeremy built the mantel (I'll go into more detail on that one.) It has been a fun and stressful process. Stressful mainly because it was driving me crazy to have my house so out of order and messy.

Here is the before picture. The room started out a medium brown color. Notice the fireplace, all plain. The dividing wall just a plain white. Also, I took these photos during Christmas, hence the decor....

Then, after!!!

Oh my goodness you guys, I am in love with it! It feels so much cozier and homey. So so nice! I still need to find decorations for my mantel and the TV stand. I also think we will end up moving that blanket chest (which Jer also made) upstairs and getting something that matches a bit better to replace it. I am also going to recover the throw pillows (which I'll probably blog about.)

I would also like to brag about my husband for a second. I had found a mantel that I loved on Pinterest. Jeremy said to send him the picture and he would make it. Umm yeah, look at the photos below.

This is the Pinterest photo I sent him.

And this is his recreation! 

Can you say perfection? I am so lucky to have a husband that knows how to build things, and build them well! The remodel definitely wouldn't have been possible without him. He spent so much time to make it look just how I wanted it. Love him. 

I am just so happy to have a space that feels like us. Now, onto the next project! 

The Guster.

Gus, Gus-Gus, Gustav, Stav, The Guster Pup, Pup pup, Pupperton, Pupperoo, and Pupperoni are just a FEW of the names I call my furry friend. If you can't tell by my Instagram (@nicholie13) of my Fbook, I'm a little obsessed with this pup.

Gus-Gus came into our lives at the end of June 2015. Weighing a mere 2 lbs. He was the CUTEST most Pinterest worthy pup I have ever seen. Now from childhood I've always wanted a dog. Always. My first dog (well I claim her to be my dog) was actually my neighbors. They would let their sweet mini Schnauzer roam the neighborhood and soon Shatzy and I were the best of friends. She would follow me every where. I would even call Brenda and ask her if Shatz could sleep over. Unfortunately and quite devastatingly, she ended up being hit by a car. This led to me as a little girl being extremely sad. Although this led to me getting my first unshared dog, Maggie. She was also a mini Schnauzer. My grandma and grandpa Lesser helped paid for her. It was the best thing ever! I got her when I was in 5th grade and she ended up passing away when I was 19. I loved that dog.

Fast forward to a now married Nichole. I would beg Jeremy all the time for a dog. Although living in a condo did not constitute idea dog-owning conditions. I made Jeremy promise that when we bought a house, we could get a dog. He said we could and also gave me all these rules about having one (most of which have now been broken, and not by me.) Just to our luck, the house we bought had a dog door. The conditions could not be more perfect!

It was during summer when I had ample time to kill (teacher probs/benefits) that I happened upon some KSL adds for cockapoos. I fell in love with these curly lil pups. We wanted a small dog that didn't shed. I also wanted one that didn't bark all the time (Schnauzer probs.) So these little cockapoos seemed to fit the bill. I came across an ad that had three puppies in the picture. I was sold. But I was also nervous. I knew how big of a responsibility taking on a puppy was. The potty training, the regular training, the chewing, vet bills, and all that comes with the cute puppy. I remember calling Jeremy and testing the waters to see what he thought about getting a dog. Then I told him I might get one THAT day. He seemed a little apprehensive.

I then called my littlest brother Bridger. I told him that I was seriously considering getting a puppy. Of course he was all for it. I told him that I wanted him to come with me (all the way to Ogden) to get the puppy. I barely got the words out, before I heard a resounding "YES!" I told him not to tell anyone what we were doing, and off we went!

The whole drive up, I was still nervous. Mainly because of the responsibility. We met the lady that was selling the puppies at a Maverick. They were in a pink basket. We took our time holding each puppy. One was really wild and energetic, and one looked like he was dazed and confused. We decided to take the third one that seemed to be a nice balance between the two. And BAM, we now have a dog. The name Gus actually does NOT come from the fat mouse of Cinderella. I remember growing up, my dad would always talk about his dog Gus he had as a kid, and what a good dog he was. So wa-la! Gus number 2 was born!

Gus was so tiny when we first got him. I was a little nervous he was part Chihuahua (his breeder was Hispanic... Joke, joke!) But luckily he is now a nice 20 lbs.  I'm not going to lie, he was pretty hard to potty train. I think it took us a solid 5 months to get him completely potty trained. But he also does cool tricks like sit, down, roll-over, beg, and shake. Ok, not that cool of tricks, but I'm pretty proud of him.

Oh and guess who loves him almost as much as I do? Jeremy. Mmmmm-hmmm! I would tell him "I told ya so," but... you know ;)

The Guster really is such a great dog. He loves everyone. I'm not even exaggerating. I take him to the dog park and all his does is lap hop from person to person. He doesn't bark at people (hallelujah!), he snuggles, he is always game to play, and he has the best personality. Don't get me wrong, there are days I want to banish him to the backyard because he has escaped his gated off area and chewed up a billion papers. But, I wouldn't go back to not having a dog. They are just the best. Also, you will probably see more posts of The Guster in the future. You have been warned. Enjoy the photos!

Dogs look like their owners right? #curlyhair

Favorite sleeping position

At my parents home.

The very first few hours of ownership!

FYI this was on National Dog Day

Love this pup.