Paid it all

photo credit

It is so easy, like Christmas time, to be so worried about the daily hustle and bustle this time of year and forget what this weekend is really about. Easter is not about the candy, baskets, bunnies or brunch; it's about Jesus and what he did for you and me. Dying on the cross, he paid our sins and three days later overcame death by rising from the dead. 

Hope you have a Happy Easter this weekend and remember what He did for YOU. 

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. 

Kitchen Update, Part 1 - Tile Backsplash

When we first moved into the house, we did a few updates right off the bat - the first being was to add a  tile backsplash to the kitchen. Just so we are absolutely clear, Todd nor I did the tile backsplash. We are just not DIYers when it comes to certain things.... tile being one of them. That's ok... we are alright with having an expert doing it. I'm sure there would be more satisfaction if we did it ourselves but we picked the tile out... so I guess we can be happy with that. There will be lots of phases of this kitchen, it won't be finished for a long time, but here is the first step: 

The before pictures of the kitchen, before we did anything to it: 

And here is the kitchen with the tile backsplash...

Some exciting news...

We are excited to announce.... 

 Thing 2 due October 1, 2013!

Chevron Wall

I loved all the awesome chevron walls I saw on pinterest and knew I wanted to have a chevron wall in my house. Originally, I was going to do a chevron wall instead of the chalkboard wall in the eat-in kitchen area, but felt it may be too busy. There was this blank, boring wall in the entryway area that was calling for something special. Since it sticks out a bit more than other walls, I thought a chevron wall would make it more of a feature wall. 

My first step was to do some research and read up on how to do a great chevron pattern on a wall. Next, I painted the wall white. 

Then, I collected some supplies to help me with the measuring of the lines and patterns. I grabbed a ruler, level, painters tape, measuring tape, laser level, two colors of crayons, some paper and a pencil and a calculator. I measured the wall out and figured out how I should divide the wall up for the grid. I could not tell you what those measurements were and this was probably my least favorite part... I just hate math! Every wall is different and based on how far you want the stripes spaced out would depend how you would measure it and grid it out. 

After I had my measurements figured out, I used a green crayon to draw the lines, making a grid using the help of the laser level. I used crayons instead of pencil so that the lines would be easy to erase with a magic eraser. 

 Next, after the grids were in place, I used the ruler to draw with a purple crayon, a zig zag design by making diagonal lines from the opposite corners of the grids. 

After the chevron pattern was all drawn on the wall, I wrote which stripes would be black and which would be white. I then did the big task of taping. I taped the outside lines of the marked black stripes, getting the wall ready to paint. 

I painted the stripes and then removed the tape. This was the results. After living with the wall for a few days, I realized I didn't like it. Ahh! So much work to not like the results. Some how it reminded me of Charlie Brown's shirt. 

I still badly wanted a chevron wall, so I taped the wall exactly like I had it before - outside the black lines. I decided to use the light gray paint, Revere Pewter, that I was using through the hallway instead of the black. 

I LOVED the results. It was softer and not so in your face. I had a few places I needed to touch up when the tape came off, but the crayon easily cleaned off the wall. 

 

The fabulous chevron wall! 

Organized Jewelry Shelf

Since we moved in, I have been keeping my jewelry in the closet in my bathroom. I dedicated a special shelf for all my jewelry to be housed.... 

But unfortunately, all the jewelry looked like this... a pile of necklaces that took me an hour to untangle.  The earrings were in their own box and weren't too disorganized, as well as all the bracelets in their own box as well. 

When I took a trip to Ikea, I bought some Bygel organizational pieces to clean up this mess... I got the bar, basket and hooks. 

And here it is, looking all pretty and organized! I hung the bar on the back wall of the closet and used a different hook for every necklace. Now they are easy to find and keep separate from each other. I mounted the basket on the left side of the wall to make the bracelets easy to look through. I kept the earrings the way they were and put all my perfumes and sprays on a charger to make it look more pretty. 

 This is now the most organized corner of my house. 

Iowish

I know, I know, super corny... like corned beef and cabbage. OK. I'll stop. 

I saw this phrase on someone's Facebook and thought it was cute. I am all German and have absolutely no Irish in me... nor is there any in Todd (as far as he knows...) or Brecken, but I was born and raised Iowan! Anyway, Happy St. Patty's Day! 

Alphabet Magnets

This is the easiest craft tutorial you'll ever see...maybe it's almost too easy... I don't think I would even call it a craft. 

We had an over-crowded frog bath caddy and the foam alphabet letters were not fitting anymore. Brecken is really in to learning letters right now so I thought it would be great to let him play with them more instead of keeping them in the bathroom. My idea? Add magnets so that he could use them on the  kitchen magnet/chalk wall, even though the foam letters had many chew marks.

I picked up a roll of craft magnets at Hobby Lobby for $4.99. 

 The magnets were self-adhesive and I cut strips from the magnet roll and placed multiple magnets on each letter and number. For some reason, magnets wouldn't stick to a few of the letters so I got out my glue gun. 

Worked like a charm! The magnets all stuck to the wall... and Brecken LOVES his new alphabet magnets! 

Someday, when Brecken is older, I could write the letters on the chalkboard and he could match the magnets to them. Too advanced for him now, but soon it could be another learning tool!

And all the magnets fit in a little basket, along with a little box of chalks. 

And that, my friends, is probably the easiest craft you'll ever make. 

Meet Bauer

On Saturday, we got to meet our sweet new puppy, Bauer. Actually, we got to pick our puppy out from four different sweet dogs and man, was that hard! We will get to pick up Bauer next Saturday and my hubby could not be more excited! Our new puppy is a Goldichon, so a Golden Retriever and Bichon Frise mix, and will grow to about 40 - 45 lbs.

About two years ago, we were a two-dog family with our two fur babies, Brandi and Bella. Brandi, a energetic chocolate lab, passed away about two years ago due to cancer. Brandi was Todd's dog and he was devastated to loose his companion. Bella, a crazy American Eskimo/Maltese/Yorkie mix, was a surprise birthday gift to me a four years ago from Todd. After finding that Bella wasn't the best fit with Brecken, she became my mom's dog. So this past summer, we became a no dog family. We've missed that sweet furry friend running around our house... but maybe not the extra work that comes with it. But we could not be more excited to bring home a new puppy for Brecken.



We made a family day out of picking out our dog and hanging out in the twin cities. To ensure we got there at our specific time, we left way early and had an hour to burn in a tiny town. So what did we do? We stopped at McDonald's for a parfait. Brecken really enjoyed it. Next up, we spent time figuring out which dog would be ours. Then we got some lunch with my brother-in-law's girlfriend, heading next to pick a couple things up at Ikea. We then went to the mall to get some dinner with some friends. While waiting to meet up with them, we walked Brecken through Nickelodeon Universe. He enjoyed it a little too much and threw a major toddler tantrum when we tried to leave. All in all, it was a fun little family day and also so awesome to meet Bauer!