A Very {Spartan} Green Christmas

Our Christmas tree normally consists of lots of red, green and silver. This year I wanted to change it up a bit, but work with what I had.  An idea popped into my head that involved lots of green and white.... any ideas?!?

a Michigan State Spartan themed tree of course!

We have a Spartan flag flying proud outside along with a Spartan head rock in our garden. We watch every football game and basketball game when possible, so I thought it would be fun to bring some Spartan spirit to our tree. All the tree needed was green and white lights and some green and white (silver) ornaments. Sounds pretty easy, right?

We started at the bottom of the tree and worked our way up. We alternated green and white light strands all the way to the top. Then we hung our green and silver ornaments all over the tree. Oh, and there is a random red ornament hanging on the left, I had to add my ISU ornament :)

It was looking very pretty... but was missing something. I went up to my office and looked what crafting supplies I had around. Felt, perfect. I printed out a Spartan 'S' and a Spartan head. I cut them out, traced them on some felt and then mounted them on circles using felt to look more like ornaments.  I super glued these circles on to tag board so they were a little more sturdy. Then all I needed to do was poke hooks through the top and hang them on the tree.

What a difference it makes.

Go Green! Go White! Happy Holidays!

xo, Erin

Inexpensive Curb Appeal

I am always looking for quick, cheap ways to add curb appeal to our house. A few things we have done since moving in are painting the shutters (twice), painting the porch rungs, adding a brick garden wall, planting flowers (seasonal), adding a porch swing, changing out the exterior lights, obvious things such as mulching and pruning bushes and getting a lawn service to green up our lawn. This is our sad-blah-looking house on move in day:

We thought about buying a new insulated garage door, but struggled dropping the money on something that wasn't necessarily 'broken'. I love the sweet charm of carriage style doors, I especially like the unique paneling some of them have.

I also found a garage door similar in size and color to our current one. It's amazing the difference a few brackets can make.

Enter: Home Depot. We were wandering around, which we normally do there about once a week, and I stumbled upon these.

{ buy them here }

Online they are $22.98, but our store had them marked down to $12.98! My thought process went something like this:

Hey Greg, check out what I just found

Wow, that's cool do you think they will look good?

I don't know, but it's worth a shot, right?

... we discussed briefly and started to walk away, when I hurried back and snatched them up

Who wouldn't want to try and make carriage doors for a mere $13.  Greg spent Sunday measuring where we wanted to place them and drilling some holes. It took a little longer than expected due to the awkward silver handle we had in the center of the garage door. Greg had to remove that, add some metal, paint it the same color as the door and BAM! I love it!

What do you think? Are there other ways you have added curb appeal to your house?

xo, Erin

Laundry Room Then & Now

The laundry room is finished, or should I say {almost} finished. The only thing left to do is add wall art to one lonely, blank wall. You will see it in the pictures below. Other than that, I am so happy with the results. The tile floor is gorgeous and the new wall color really makes the room feel bigger.

First, let me refresh your memory on what it looked like about a month ago. Don't mind the mess and the awful pictures. This was with my old camera and the lens had dust on it, whoops!

After tiling the floor, painting the walls and adding board & batten.. things are definitely looking different. Did I mention I love my new camera? I just couldn't stop taking pictures!

view from the kitchen into the laundry room

to the left.. just needs wall art

L.O.V.E. the floor

looking straight in from the kitchen

to the right, to the garage.
more floor love and the bench we use to put shoes on

our board & batten project with a shelf on top

hooks from Home Depot for $.79 -- added more room for coats and such

our welcome sign

I love my new and improved laundry room. Total was about $150 for all the updates. I'd say it was money well spent.

xo, Erin

High Five for the Holidays

This week has been busy both at work and home. After being gone for 5 days, I had to play catch up on laundry and do my grocery shopping after work. That makes for a long day after going to the gym and doing things around the house {the laundry room is finished! pictures next week}. Good thing I am now allowed to play Christmas music, that makes everything better :)

I missed the link-up last week because the blog was the last thing on my mind after late night Black Friday shopping. A few things below were some favorites from Thanksgiving break as well.

1. My first holiday cup of the season, Skinny Peppermint Mocha for the win

2. I took a trip over break to the Gap Clearance store. Everything you see below totaled $50 and I have already worn 6 of the 9 items. Love a good deal!

3. Christmas decorating around the house began over break last week. I love my new table runner that I picked up at Home Goods for only $12, and ornaments in a glass bowl make me happy

4. This was a picture we grabbed during our trip to Michigan. We were stuck in traffic and Murph can't get enough wind in his face. Love that boy.

5. We picked out our Christmas tree! Decorating this weekend, pictures next week

Looking forward to my last weekend 'off' from class and spending time at home. Christmas tree decorating, lights outside, craft projects and cookie baking are just a few things on my list {all while listening to the Christmas station on Pandora of course}.

xo, Erin

Christmas Tree Hunting

Sorry for the delay, we can now get on with the show...

Abi getting a ride on the tree cart

Eli getting a lift from Uncle Todd

I liked the skinny trees

Darren, Sarah, Abi, Eli and Evalynn picked this tree

Helping dad dig

Concentrating extra hard with her tongue out :)

Somehow the 3-year old ended up with the saw...

Jen & Todd's tree

Break time fixing hats {it was freezing}

Amy & Kevin's tree, Eli cracks me up

 

Time to cut and hold

Where did Abi go?

Hide and seek in the trees

Greg helping cut his parent's tree down

Our tree adventure took place at Home Depot tonight. Took about five minutes of standing a few up, shaking them down and wiggling branches. We are very happy with our choice and it already smells like Christmas tree in the family room :) Decorating will happen this weekend.

xo, Erin