Home Office Details

Thank you so much for the sweet comments on my home office reveal last week. 

Today I am going to share with you all the details and where you can purchase most things. I'll also be giving the approximate cost of the things I purchased specifically for this makeover.

Paint Color: Tin Man by Pratt & Lambert... $30

Desk: Target, Threshold Basic Desk... $90

Chair: Meijer... $20

Ladder Shelves: built ourselves, similar to Ana White's Leaning Bookshevles building plan... $50

Grey Storage Bins: TJ Maxx... $30

Ceramics: TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods... $40

Frames: TJ Maxx/Marshalls... $15

Clock: Target, spray painted to match the room

Glass Canisters: Target

Mason Jars: Meijer

Washi Tape: Dollar Tree

Lantern: Ikea... $4

Wall Collage Frames: Ikea (check out the full details here)... $25

Cabinet: previously owned (check out the stenciled makeover here)

Pillows: Marshalls... $20

Antique Sewing Cabinet: Gift from Adam's Grandma, but the transformation cost... $30 (check out the transformation here)

Fabric Covered Bulletin Board: (check out the details here) Fabric from Hobby Lobby... $5

Grand Total: $359

That's right! A whole room makeover for only $350. Now it's your turn!

If I've missed something and you are just dying to know where I got it, let me know and I'd be happy to share. 

Home Office Reveal

Today I am finally revealing my home office, and I am so excited to be showing it off. I think this room goes down in history as my favorite room makeover yet! 

If you've been following along for a while, you may have noticed that I have never showed you what my office looks like. Mostly because it usually looked something like this...

Kidding... sort of. This picture is from when we first moved in and had just gotten married. It was always the dumping grounds for all our junk. While I'm happy to say it didn't look like this for too long, it always was kind of our catch-all room. 

Now that you've taken a look at the room, you may have noticed that this room has been in the making for a while. I've been showing you bits and pieces little by little (stenciled cabinet, sewing machine, bulletin board, wall collage). Well, now I'm finally showing you the finished almost finished product.

 We painted the room right after Christmas and purchased the desk shortly after. Adam built me these wonderful ladder shelves and I absolutely love them. The look is exactly what I was going for. I love how clean and white everything is! 

I wanted the shelves to be something functional, yet stylish and I really think I pulled it off. With the help of some mason jars, glass canisters from target, and these grey storage bins I found at TJ Maxx, I am able to store a lot of things I need that are not necessarily pretty. 

Alright, alright. Enough chatter. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Wall Collage

 Stenciled Cabinet

Antique Sewing Cabinet Transformation

Fabric Covered Bulletin Board

While this is the big reveal, there are still quite a few things I want to do in this room. First things first I really want to find a chair to stick in the corner. I also want to make some curtains and have big dreams of turning the closet into a craft area. A girl can dream right?

What are some essentials for your home office?

Which room in your home is your favorite?

Happy Hump Day!

Garden Update: 2014

After our vacation, it seems as though everything in our garden is really starting to grow. We have vegetables popping up everywhere, and I'm definitely not complaining! I thought I'd share a little garden update with you today.

As you can see, things sure have changed since my last garden post. Everything is doing great! We have tomato plants over 4 feet tall, a green pepper that's already 3 inches long, and baby cucumbers that are just starting to grow. I am also loving have a constant source of FRESH cilantro and parsley to add into my recipes. It's hard to tell what the onion is doing since it's buried in the ground, but so far everything looks good! The only thing that really didn't do well this year was our lettuce. When we got back from vacation it appeared to be all rotted (disgusting!), so we pulled it. 

How are your gardens coming along?

Happy Men Tell All Monday Friends!

It's Mexican night at our house, so I'll be enjoying a margarita or two while I wait to see Chris and Marcus one more time.

Lemon Sugar Scrub

This stuff is seriously my jam right now! Anything with lemon in the title is an automatic win in my book, but this sugar scrub really is fabulous. I've been seeing it pop up all over Pinterest in the past year or so, but never really understood what all the hype was about. That is, until my best friend made me some candy cane sugar scrub for Christmas. I was instantly hooked! It made my skin feel so soft and smooth, like a baby's bottom. Sometimes, I even get really crazy and just soak in the bath tub with it, ahh so relaxing. I've talked it up so much, even my husband uses it now.

So when Spring rolled around it was no surprise that I needed to make some lemon scented scrub.  With the lemon scent, I've reached a whole new level of obsessed. 

This sugar scrub is very easy to make.

INGREDIENTS:

one lemon, 3 cups sugar, 1/4 cup coconut oil

1. Zest the entire lemon, then cut in half and squeeze out the lemon juice. 

2. Heat coconut oil in microwave for about 30 seconds

3. Combine sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and coconut oil into a large bowl.

4. Mix well and enjoy!

The original recipe called for 2 1/2 cups of sugar, but I try to get more bang for my buck, so I use 3 cups. I can usually fill about 2 shorter mason jars with one "batch".

Have you used sugar scrub before?

What other scents do you recommend? 

(I may need to start branching out a little)

Happy Friday Friends!

Officially a Runner!

I think it is finally safe to say, I am officially a runner! 

Almost all my life, I have tried very, very hard to like running. I joined the high school track team my junior year and have struggled with running ever since. I joined for multiple reasons: first of all, it was one of the only high school sports teams I could join without having to try out (I was never very athletic), to get out of gym class (once again... I was never very athletic), to get some new sweats and t-shirts, and the best reason of all, all my friends were doing it. My days on the track team were very unsuccessful, and I can honestly say I never did actually RUN in a track meet. Because I wasn't used to running, my whole body ached. I limped around school for the entire season. I could hardly walk, let alone run. Needless to say, my experience on the track team (or lack thereof) pretty much scarred me for life. 

UNTIL, my junior year of college when I had a roommate that was crazy about running. She would hop on the treadmill at the gym and go 7-8 miles no problem. Her enthusiasm for running got me thinking that I could do it, too. But once again, running was such a struggle for me. I would run two miles and feel like death afterward. I would be sore for days. I tried sooo hard, but just never got the hang of it. Since then, I have been running on and off. I get really into it for about a month, and then I just... QUIT. 

My motto has kind of always been "I try really hard to be a runner."

Well, today I can finally admit that I AM A RUNNER!
For months now, I have been running my little heart out. I found two running plans that I thought would be easy enough to follow: 6 Weeks to Your First 5K and when I finished that, Spark Your Way to a 10K. Honestly, I am shocked that I have kept up with running for so long. I found that having a specific plan to follow has really helped to keep me motivated. Of course it was a struggle at first, but lots of ice in the beginning really helped me get past that 2 mile mark. I can now run 6 MILES... without stopping. 1 mile was alright, 2 miles was hard, 3 miles was even harder, but 4 miles, 5 miles, and 6 miles were not too bad to progress to.

Now if I don't get my scheduled run in, I miss it. But let's not get crazy, I still have those days where I just really don't.want.to.do.it. I focus on how good it will feel at the end, and that's what keeps me going.

Are you a runner, or do you try to be a runner?
What keeps you motivated to complete your workouts?

P.S. Since I am almost done with this running program, I plan to continue running 3-4 days per week. BUT, I am also looking for other workouts to do on the days I don't run. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!