Furniture is here!!

Ok... well our furniture has been here for a week but I am behind in my blog. 

Here are some pics of our new couch for the Family Room!  I am so excited about it and we are LOVING having more places to sit ;) We love our new couch because it is very sturdy and is also a pull out sofa which will be useful in years to come.  Its also VERY comfortable for a nice nap  :)

Back wall still needs some artwork but its all coming together!

We love our "coffee table" in this room.  We are just using an ottoman but it so nice because it rolls out of the way when we are playing with Joe but comes back when were done.  Its also nice because we can place it right under the fan in the room so people don't hit their head on the low light.  We are looking forward to replacing the fan but... all in good time :) 

Feels like home :) 

Notice Joseph's piece of furniture... haha.  He sure does love his jumpy jig... or whatever its called

Ill post about the Living Room soon... I first need to post about a coffee table project we did for the LR and then ill post all of the new pics :) 

Bedding

I LOVE pottery barn bedding.  We just bought a king size bed and I am so excited... 

but I am even more excited about the bedding.  

We have three sets of bedding from pottery barn... maybe this is a little extreme but I just love it!  All of it is machine washable which is wonderful for a family on a budget... no dry cleaners for me :)  They have so many fun quilts and duvets.  Our first bedding we got from our wedding registry at pottery barn.  The second came when we needed a nice guest bedroom quilt.  And now with the king bed we just purchased our third set (and it was on sale!!).  

Its all actually pretty reasonably priced.  Lots of people think pottery barn is expensive but it really is the best quality for the lowest price.

I love the look of a Solid Quilt with a patterned duvet... So here is what we selected...

Camilla Duvet and Sham

Hanna Quilt and Sham

Ill post a pic when it all gets set up on our new bed which will arrive sometime this week!! 

Here is some other pottery barn bedding I love...

Sienna Duvet - this is what we have currently

Alisa Embroidered Duvet

Thats all I have for now... Enjoy your sunday!

Life is moving fast...

Its amazing to me how fast time flies.  I cannot believe Joseph is already 7 months old.  He is such a joy in our lives and I  treasure each moment with him.

I just came out from putting him down for a nap.  I just love laying with him before he falls asleep.  He loves to put his hands on my face and lean in so close and snuggle.  I love to pray out loud for him, for his daddy and for myself.  I thank God for him and for our family.

It's sad that I am often times scared to tell this to people because I will then be told what I am doing wrong... that I shouldn't lay with him, he won't learn to fall asleep on his own or some other opinion.  Its sad that I am scared to tell people Joseph sleeps with me for fear of being judged or scolded because Philip and I "need our own space".  Everyone has a different way of raising their family.  In my opinion, it really does not matter when you start feeding solids, when or where they go to sleep, if you give them a passy, or when and where you start them in school.  All that really matters is that you love them with your whole heart and do your very best as a parent to lead them to heaven.

Being new parents people always ask Philip and myself what is the hardest part.  We both agree that its the unasked opinions and unwanted advice people give as to what we need to do and how other people are doing it wrong.  Don't get me wrong I love advice.  I love watching my sister and her friends raise their families.  I love hearing friends family stories.  I also love getting advice when I need it and feeling reassured when I hear other families are going through the same problems as we are.

Philip and I have decided that we want to be a close nit family.  We only have a few precious years with Joseph while he is a young child.  I have heard from my parents, aunts and uncles to enjoy each minute with Joseph and our young family because these are the best years of our life.  I am trying to do just that as I know many other young families are doing.

Sweet moments

At the end of my life I want to have done everything in my power to ensure that I lead my family to heaven and will see them there one day.  It won't matter how I did it, what school they went to, where they slept, what sports they played, or what cool vacations we went on.  I want to have loved my family as much as I can love, given as much to my family as I can give and prayed for my family as much as I can pray... That is all that really matters in the end :)

What a big boy in his high chair playing with puzzles :)

My loves :)

Fabrics in the Family Room

We used to have a large sectional in our family room that many of my followers probably remember.  It was a wonderful couch but it was too soft for Philips back (he had back surgery about a year and a half ago).  We decided to find a firmer couch so that we could actually sit together during our movie nights instead of philip needing to sit in a supportive chair or our loveseat couch.  Anyway, my parents had another couch that they did not need and had it recovered for my birthday :)  The fabric we chose is brown because I like how it will hide spills as our children grow up.   It is also very sturdy.  I chose and Ikat pattern fabric for our window treatments and pillows.  Then I just picked out two other fabrics for pillows.  We have a love seat couch as I mentioned earlier that I was hoping matched all of these fabrics as well as a lazy boy rocker which was the perfect piece of furniture to have when joseph was born.  It all goes which is great for now.  I would love to one day recover the love seat but for now it will do :) 

Ikat fabric for pillows and window treatments

The brown is for the couch, Ikat is for window treatments, and the other
 two are for pillows.

I then made a Valence for the Family Room with the Ikat Fabric.  

I used some scrap fabric to line the back of the Valence.  

Here it is hanging in our house :)

   

I have only made one pillow with our new fabrics.  I am waiting on the couch to come in to see how I want to arrange the furniture before I make any more.  

There you have it... all of my ideas for our Family Room.  Check back soon to see pics of the space once our couch arrives and see how it all looks together! 

Hope your having a wonderful day!

Fabrics

Our house is a little bare right now.  Most of our furniture is being reupholstered and I am so excited about getting it back soon! It was so much fun picking out that fabrics for everything.  I am going to label the two rooms Living Room and Family Room.  

The Living Room

Our furniture for the Living room came from my Grandparents.  We have had it in storage and it was still the same floral pattern they originally put on it.  There is a three seater sofa and two chairs with two matching ottomans.  The living room is technically called the "Formal Living Room" but I think that both rooms will end up being "play rooms" so I don't want to make one room formal when it will soon be covered in toys.  I chose fabrics that are fun and playful but can also look more formal when the room is clean.  This room is carpeted and is rather large.  I first found this bird fabric that I decided I wanted to design the room around.  It has so many colors in it and feels playful.  We are having pillows made out of it and I am also going to make three window treatments out of it for the three windows in the Living and Dining Room.  

From this I looked all around for fabrics to re-upholster the couch and two chairs with two ottomans.  I found a beautiful stripe fabrics for the couch.  Then I found a pattern with circles for the two chairs.  There was not enough for both chairs and ottomans :(  But the solution to this problem made me even more excited! I then found a beige fabric that matches the beige in the circle fabric.  I am having the actual chairs recovered in the beige fabrics and the cushions on the chairs as well as the ottoman are going to be in the circle fabric.  

Here are all of the fabrics together :) 

Family Room fabrics coming soon... Joseph needs his momma now :)

Im seeing stripes :)

I was so excited about our Foyer when we bought our house.  I have been itching for about the past 5 years or so to paint horizontal stripes in a foyer and NOW I finally can! I like the way horizontal stripes make a room feel wider.  They definitely cannot be used in just any room in a house but I love them when it works!  To make it easy on myself I kept the color of the wall the same because I like the color it was painted before.  I chose a lighter color of the current wall paint for the highlight stripe. 

Foyer Before

I taped the wall first, each stripe is 11" wide

Sorry... I forgot to take pics before I started painting... I was just too excited!!

I places a piece of tape in the center of the places I was NOT supposed to paint

The back wall

Drum Roll Please...

The finished product!! Beautiful! 

Looking the other way...

Bookshelves

One thing Philip and I loved about this house was the built-in TV/bookshelves in the Family Room.  We love that its right by the fire place so we can face the TV and the fire place at the same time.  We also love that the TV does not have to go over the fireplace and so this allows us to put a painting over the fireplace :)  I am still not sure what painting we are going to put but we have one just sitting there for now.  Here are the bookshelves before.  

I decided to paint behind the bookshelves to really make them stand out.  I painted them a color that matches the new fabric we are putting in the Family Room.  First I removed the shelves I could and then taped around the boarder of the built-ins. 

I told you Joseph was helping me redecorate the house :)  

All done!!

Now here it is filled with out favorite things :)

We also painted the two bedrooms that were blue an yellow.  We painted them a neutral cream because they will be a guest room and Joseph's room.  Here is what they look like with a fresh coat of paint!

On the Move...

The Martins have been on the move... literally...

The past few months have been wild!  We moved from Ohio to Alabama.  Philip started his new job teaching religion at McGill Toolen Catholic High School.  Joseph is almost crawling.  We bought a house and are are now all moved in :)  Life is moving fast and we are trying to enjoy EVERY moment!

While philip is at work I am busying myself redecorating our new house, with Joseph's help of course!  It is a three bedroom two bath home in a wonderful family neighborhood.  Here are pictures of our house before we moved in.  I will post pictures as we go along finishing the house.  We are still waiting on furniture for some of the rooms... always a work in progress :)

Foyer

Other side of foyer

Walking into the living room and dining room beyond

looking back from the dining to the living room and foyer

Walking from dining room into kitchen

Kitchen looking into Family Room

Looking back at Kitchen and Laundry through the door on right

Eat in kitchen area

Laundry area

Back in family room

Family room, kitchen, eat in area

Hallway

Hall bath (the peach bathroom)

First bedroom

Second bedroom

Master bedroom

Master Bath (the blue bathroom)

Stay tuned for pics of my the first project in the Family Room!