A Blog Makeover and My First E-design!

The list of to-dos and responsibilities never get shorter, but I always have this little blog on my mind.  It's my creative space.  And although it's far from perfect and not near as wonderful as some that I drool over, I'm proud of it and excited to see it grow.  A new year means a fresh new look and name.  I've "renovated" the whole thing so take a look around!  I finally added an "About Me" page, and a whole lot more.  I even have a collective space for all my projects(which would be a whole whopping 2 of them right now. Ha.)  Breathe, Rachel.  More projects are coming.


Something else that I have started and am super excited about is e-design... That's what I call it anyway.  As much as I aspire to be a designer, and know all their fancy slang... Let's face it.  I know as much as Pinterest(i.e. my Google) can teach me.  So here it is.  My first "e-design", mood board, whatever you want to call the thing.. Check it out.


The story behind this space:
November 29, 2016 will forever be a day my small town cherishes the remarkable life of Megan Zipperer.  A wife, and mother of 3, at the age of 25 who passed due to Cervical Cancer.  She fought so hard for months and her faithfulness in God through this time swept the nation and touched so many lives.  Megan was such an inspiration because of her spirit through fighting cancer.  I did not know the family personally and had only met Megan once while at the hair salon.  We became friends on Facebook shortly after and I followed her journey all the way, even now as it continues to live on through her family.  Long story short- at one point the family was going to move into a new home.  So her precious daughter Sutton was the inspiration for my first e-design.  She is a spitting image of Megan,  it's crazy.  I have not met her, but from what I can see, her personality is all her mama too.  She even models.  Just precious.  From what I gathered through following her, Megan was a closet mom and one of the things she sold or maybe was just really into was Matilda Jane.  The teepee and pillow sham in the design are both by MJ.  I also incorporated some hints of teal.  Teal is the color supporting cervical cancer. and the color Megan wore quite often.  My favorite part of this room is the hand painted wall art which you can shop for by going to the link below.  I pray that this scripture is spoken over Sutton as she grows up without her mama. I had so much fun designing this with a sweet little girl in mind.  You can read Megan's full story here.

This started as a hobby a couple months ago as I was planning out what I wanted to do in our home office(maybe I'll share that one soon).  I could literally sit for hours and plan a room.  Looking through all these lovely sites and piecing together a room, piece by meaningful piece.

So, e-design.  My new way of being creative.  My "play time."  Maybe one day I'll be designing one for a client.  A girl can dream right?  Until then, I'll just design away and occasionally share what I come up with.  Thanks so much for taking time to keep up with this lovely little blog.

Until next time,

Rachel

A Fixer Upper Inspired Master Reno

     Ever had one of those projects that's supposed to be finished in one weekend.. and then it turns into a 2 month project?  Maybe it's just me, being a procrastinator, not having the adequate skills(i.e. hanging closet doors), and living 2 hours away from the project.  Well that was THIS project.  It may have taken me 2 months to finally complete this reno, but it was all worth it in the end.

     If you're a crazy HGTV'er like me, you know of the show Fixer Upper.  Nothing is more important on a Tuesday night than my couch and that show!! I love watching them restore such aged and lifeless homes into beautiful spaces, it's so inspiring!  Not to mention the incredibly sweet and godly marriage/lifestyle they model through their lives and show.  So, on to this little project of mine.  After the last project I completed for my parents(see their foyer makeover here), they trusted me enough to take another project.  So humbling and exciting for me!  Their master bedroom was long overdue for a makeover.  I'm calling this one A Fixer Upper Inspired Renovation.  A few of the things you'll notice in the room were inspired by Joanna's beautiful creativity on Fixer Upper.  It never hurts to have some inspiration!

Disclaimer:  I am very aware of the awfully wrinkled curtains and pillows but I was also too impatient to wait another week for these pictures.  It's all a learning process and I'm now the owner a fancy, little, handheld steamer.

A Cozy Christmas Entry Way

One day... I will post more often on this poor, neglected blog.  Life has been so busy since being married in May and taking on my first teaching job in August.  {I love my sweet first grade kiddos}  Today i'm sharing my latest home project.  Jamie and I are currently renting, and would love to have a house of our own to fix up one day.  I quickly run out of spots to decorate in our little 2 bedroom condo.  So in the meantime... when I get the itch to re-do/decorate, I'll just go to mom's house ;).  While I was visiting one weekend, I got the idea to totally remodel her foyer(I have never done this before people)....and it happened!  Many of you may not know, but I secretly dream of being a designer, an interior decorator,  Joanna Gaines twin(Ha), etc... love decorating and re-doing things/bringing a home back to life.

Anyways.. Mom was eager for me to take on this project and fully trusted me.  I have to admit, I was surprised!  Although I dream of doing this one day, I have NEVER taken on a project this big.  Over my Thanksgiving break from school, I spent 4 days working on the room(1 of which involved some Black Friday shopping of course).  The house was built in 1977 and has been remodeled quite a bit, but still has a few rooms that could use some love.  The foyer started out with brown wood paneling on the walls, and was pretty rough in a few spots.  I'm 90% sure I will have shiplap all over my home one day, so of course I loved the looked of the paneling.  Shiplap looks somewhat like paneling but runs horizontal on the wall... This paneling was close enough and ended up beautiful in the end.  I wanted to paint it all white and give it a fresh, clean look.  Mom loved the idea, so it happened(yay).  Here are a few pictures of the room before the project began.  The door is fairly new and only needed a few paint touch ups.

My before pictures are not wonderful but they will do.  If you can imagine it, there were 4 large, outdated cabinets right inside the door to the left, you can tell where the tile is a lighter color.  Mom had them ripped out a few days before I came.  I had a nice little helper with me too!