A Gift for a Little Boy

My stinkin' cute nephew, Aiden, loves Legos. What boy doesn't! I can remember my brother's tub of Legos that were scattered amongst the living room floor from wee hours in the morning til late at night. My brother was an addict, and now his son is following in his steps. For Christmas I wanted to make something special for him. A Lego table came to mind. 

My brother with Aiden. It makes me sad that I don't have an updated picture of him.

Pre-made wooden Lego tables sell for over one hundred dollars but you and I both know that was not going to happen. Being resourceful, I bought a small side table from Target for about $15. Fortunately, we have a Lego store at our local mall. (It's quite awesome if you are male and between the ages of 3-12.) I picked up a Lego plate for the base of my table. I also picked up some heavy duty adhesive spray (that I used here) to glue the plate onto the table. In about 5 minutes I had a functional gift. Score! Yes, I think he's liking it.

In addition, painted yellow lines could be added to the edge for a road or added pockets to the side of the table for storage, or a basket underneath for all the Lego pieces.


I saw this on Pinterest via Pink and Green Mama Blog that I thought would be a good addition for an older boy. For printing, visit Lego site. 

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Furniture Sets

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Due to my increased amount of reading and redefining my own style in the last year or two, I've come to notice something quite common. 


Sets of furniture. Bedroom sets. Living room sets. Dining room sets. 


I know these are the easiest for decorating and often most affordable choices but they don't have much character. More importantly, no YOU! 


I once read a design rule that you shouldn't have three pieces of the same brown in any room (enter furniture sets). Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, and Value City Furniture are trying to sell furniture, not make a house a home. Next time you see a set of furniture, look for a corresponding piece that is not in the set (even if it's for pretend) to put a room together. Train your eye.

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The bedrooms above incorporate different textures, colors, and types of woods.Think outside the box. 

Cookie cutter, steer clear.

Meal Train: Scheduling Meals

Meal Train. Have you heard of it? 


I hope I haven't been the only one in the dark. I just learned about the meal planning website as I was arranging meals to be taken to a friend who's giving birth any day now. It was simple to sign up. Enter your friends info. Have them edited the dates and types of food they want. You can then email to friends or post on Facebook. Wa-la!


Be a good friend and provide this service to your friends who are soon to be moms or those struggling with family illness. Thought it was too good not to share.


Check out Mealtrain here.

Entrepreneur at Heart

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Remember when I shared with you that I would love to be a party planner? (Here's some crazy talk if you missed it.)  Personal, intimate, and fun parties that is. Here's my newest idea. Humor me please....


I would love to create reasonable party plans for people to buy online. I would provide a stylin' mood board of items that the buyer can go and purchase locally. It takes the planning out for the customer but provides a unique and special party. As in the vocabulary of my second grade students, the buyers would think, "easy peasy"!


A while ago I was inspired by these guys.

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And with these party blogs that I wrote about here, boy oh boy, inspiration galore!


If anyone wants this service free of charge let me know. I need a portfolio right? ;)

Say Goodbye

I was ready to take down my Christmas card pictures but really didn't want to. My solution? Cut off the Christmas clutter. (I couldn't salvage all of them. Boo-hoo.) Now I have a bunch of good looking people on my refrigerator! 

A before shot would have been good. You get the point.

Here's some other Pinterest ideas (late in coming) to savor the Christmas cards a little while longer.

A few metal rings and a whole punch. Enjoy on the coffee table.

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Practice names or use as a prayer journal for little ones..

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That's all I got friends. Did you try something new this year with your Christmas cards?

What We Want

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Yesterday I shared the baby steps we've taken in the last week in home buying. It's quite exciting that the time is actually here. Visions are becoming realities. Very cool if you ask me.

Every time we're with friends and family they always ask one question. "What are you looking for in a house?"


We haven't completely nailed down our priority list but this is what we're thinking as of now.

• 3+ bedrooms
• 2+ bath
• mature trees
• shorter commutes to work
• spacious kitchen, not updated (I've seen too many poorly updated kitchens.)
• no major remodeling...not in the cards this time 
• garage...I'm over scraping my car. Plus I need one for my inherited refrigerator.
• school district

Our price point puts us at two different styles of houses. In my school district, we could afford a ranch style home with lots of character and mature trees. Going north towards Carmel, we could buy a bigger, newer house and still have the trees. Hmmm... What will it be...

Things that we're not so cool with...

• vinyl siding, builder-boring
• weird layouts

Whoa... we are adults. 


Side note: I've enjoyed hearing advice and encouragement from my readers. Much appreciated! 

Home Buying Update

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After the new year I shared our home buying goals for this year. It's the end of February and we're moving along. Slowly that is.


Our goals are changing. We've been crazy about paying off our student loans so that we could be debt free when we purchase a home. We've decided to not completely wipe it out due to wanting a bigger down payment/money to work with in making our future house a home. But don't think we've given up on paying off our debt. We made our final payment on my Anderson loans a couple of months ago. One down, one to go!

• We just got pre-approved for a mortgage last week. HOLLAR! If you know me and this process, you know this is a really really big deal. The Mr. completed a form online. The bank called. We were pre-approved! Simple as that. If only the whole process will be this easy. Here's to wishful thinking.
• The Mr. made my heart skip a beat when he sent an email to a recommended Realtor for us to chat. Score!
• I've planted a seed in my dad's ear, custom kitchen........here's to double wishful thinking.
• More importantly, we've been praying for what's next. Whatever that may be.

All in all, baby steps make me happy. Very happy.