My Favorite Bloggers, Now in Podcast Form

Hey guys! If you haven't heard by now: Young House Love has a Podcast. And that's literally what said podcast is called.

My favorite home bloggers, John and Sherry, are at it again. And you know I endorse every new endeavor and product they come out with. They are partly what inspired me to start a home blog of my own! So when I found out about their new Podcast yesterday, I was immediately listening and subscribing. These two are the most fun and entertaining people.

Screenshot from here

I listened to the first episodes, and they are awesome! I laughed out loud, and learned some pretty interesting home-related facts, at that. I invite you all to check it out here. (It's free, and you can also find it and listen on the Podcast app if you have an iPhone - it comes pre-installed on most. Don't worry, I didn't know that app existed until now either.)

I'm now a first-time Podcast listener. :) Looking forward to hearing more of John and Sherry's entertaining banter and mad interviewing skillz in the future. 

Lovable Livable Amazingness

Who has two thumbs and just got her new YHL book in the mail? This girl! It officially hit store shelves on Tuesday. I'm all for my favorite (former) bloggers John and Sherry Petersik coming out with new books, and as long as they do, I will continue buying them! Lovable Livable Home is the couple's second home decorating book that they've written. I leafed through all of the pages already, and let me tell you, there is eye candy galore in this book! And so many great ideas. Can't wait to read through the whole thing.

I even made Trent take a picture of me with it. I'm a super nerd, I know. 

Oh how I miss John, Sherry, Clara, Teddy, and Burger. Love that cute little family. Young House Love had a big hand in inspiring me to start a blog of my own. And did you know I met them on their first book tour back in 2012? I was a little excited to say the least! 

I'm a little disappointed that I can't make it out for the second tour. Nonetheless, my week is now officially made. You, too, can get it here on Amazon, if you like. Happy reading and happy home decorating! :)

Two Years of Blogging

Today marks two years that I've been blogging regularly here on my little blogspace of the world. Just recently, I shared my favorite posts from this past year. And last year I shared 2013's posts here. It is crazy to me that I've posted a total of 376 blog posts since I've started! And I hope to post hundreds more.

Of course I actually started this blog in 2010, when the reality and excitement of moving into this house began to set in. I wanted to share my thoughts about moving in and share all of the renovations that we were so ready and excited to take on. But I was still in school and was busy with that, work, and everything else, so I didn't blog much! Only two to three times a year, in fact. But two years ago, I made it my goal to post about all of the renovation projects, the DIY projects, crafts, decor ideas, and all of the other random thoughts I have along the way! And I am so glad I did.

I have really come to enjoy blogging as a way to get all my thoughts "on paper", or on the web I suppose! Whether people read it or not is not my main goal, though of course I love hearing from people when they do. I think I just enjoy coming up with post ideas, and being creative. And although the focus of my blog is our home and decor, it definitely strays sometimes to crafts, recipes, wedding planning, travel, and just random life events, which is perfectly fine to me. I love the flexibility I have with this blog being my own little piece of the web. Life happens all the time and there's always something new going on, so why not share those moments?

I've been a fan of a lot of home blogs since I was in college, Young House Love being my first and favorite blog I followed. It was definitely a huge inspiration, and I was sad and a little disappointed to see them stop blogging this year, along with several other blogs recently, I've heard. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon, though. I have a lot more to blog about in the years ahead.

Not only have I been able to document all of the little and big changes with our house, but in the past year, I've gotten engaged, my little sister got married, I've gotten to travel to several new places, and I've been able to blog all about it here. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Popular Pinterest Pins

Like that alliteration in the title there? Say that 3 times fast.

If you're an active Pinterest user like I am, you might see those emails come in all the time that say, "so-and-so repinned your pin...", and then it shows the image that they repinned of yours? Everyday when I am going through my emails I see these pop up and just kind of glance them over and don't pay much attention to them. The other day I got to thinking that many of these notification emails that I get have the same pinned images over and over. Popular pins tend to get more and more popular the more they're repinned. I don't know how it happens, but there are some pins that just get a ton more repins than others.

I pin a variety of things that catch my eye. From home decor ideas, to recipes, to fashion ideas, and fitness articles. Lately I've also been pinning a ton of wedding ideas, and vacation ideas (honeymoon coming up, woot!) I thought today that I would share just a few pins from my Pinterest that seem to get repinned a lot (i.e. my most popular pins). Since I don't have a Pinterest business account, I don't technically have a way to view my analytics (Pinterest just recently came out with that feature for businesses - read more here). But these links are just a few that I've noticed seem to be pretty popular. And I love them too!

1. Remote control storage idea from Yellow Brick Home

This one is funny to me, but this pin of mine gets pinned over and over! This was one of my first pins EVER. I pinned it because I thought it was such a clever and cute way to store remotes. And guess what - I actually used it for inspiration for my own cigar box-remote storage. And alluded to this pin in the post. How crazy is that.

2. Pom-pom dish towel DIY from Bower Power

I love Katie Bower and her blog and have been reading it for years. And I love this cute hand towel idea. I have never attempted it myself, mainly because I don't own a sewing machine, or sew, for that matter. But I have dreams that one day I might....

3. DIY Play kitchen from Young House Love

I have noticed that lately this is getting lots of repins. The moment I read this post I was in love with this project that John and Sherry at YHL so bravely took on for their daughter, Clara. Oh, how I miss the Petersik family! I was a loyal YHL reader and even met them on their book tour. These two are so creative, and I love this play kitchen that they put together. It reminded me of the one I got on Christmas morning when I was a young tot. Too fun!

4. Beginning photography tips from Katie Bower

Another pin-worthy post from Ms. Bower Power. I don't own a DSLR camera...yet. I pinned this for the day that I finally break down and spend the money to get one. I've been pining over the Canon Rebel for years now. Katie is an amazing photographer and has gotten better and better even since this post was written, in my opinion! These tips are great and I can't wait to use them someday.

5. My repurposed wine bottles

I kinda hate doing it, but I pin most of my DIY projects. Surprisingly, my post about my painted wine bottles and mason jars is one of the most repinned projects from my blog. Pretty cool, and such an easy project. It's even in my Popular Posts section over on my sidebar. It's probably one of my favorites, too.

So that's my short little list for ya. Who else is still obsessed with Pinterest? It's really taken off in the last few years, and I don't think it will go away any time soon. It's become the go-to search engine for some things for me, especially for recipes and wedding stuff. Anywho, that was fun! Have a good Thursday, everyone!

Latest Frame Arrangement Update

As of a few days ago, our living room frame arrangement looked like this:

Then this past week, I picked up one of John and Sherry's adorable Bee hooks at the only and only Target (And posted about these hooks here and here). When I was getting it out of the box, I noticed this cute description of why they chose to make a bee-shaped hook. Love these guys:

Anyhoo, bees don't necessarily have any special meaning for us, but I thought it was so cute, that even though I don't need any hooks at the moment, I decided to get it to support my favorite bloggers, and thought it would be a cute addition to the frame wall.

So here is the newest arrangement going on in the living room. And I know, I know...who puts a hook in the middle of the living room? How random. But, we already have hooks for our coats and keys, and I DIY'ed a necklace holder with plenty of hooks for those..so it will be on display in the living room for us to enjoy. And if anyone has any ideas as to what could possibly hang from said hook...I'm all ears.

Just the adorable-ness of it is good enough for me.

One idea I have is to hang a few skeleton keys from some string...maybe 3 - one for me, one for Trent and one for Saleen...

It's always a work in progress, so who knows!

Newest Target Finds

Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend! I thought I would pop in again on this AMAZING, SUNNY Saturday to share two of my newest Target finds. It is a store I frequent, you know. I will go there not really needing anything, but leave as if I had needed way too much. These two items were necessities, though. :)

Here are my favorite items I picked up this week:

We all know my love for the Petersiks, so it was no surprise I picked up one of their hooks! Especially since I blogged about getting one as soon as I heard they were releasing their own line of them at Target. I decided to go with the bee one, 'cause it's just so darn cute. I can't wait to hang it. I'm thinking the living room needs a hook, but I have no idea what I would hang there....hmm...I will keep you posted!

And I couldn't resist picking up a couple of these jars below, which were from the dollar spot and were only a buck each. I think they'll make perfect little vacation jars after we come back from Texas this year.

Can't you just see them filled with sand from the beach? Kind of like my Lake Geneva jar, or our East Coast vacation jar of yester-year. All this talk about vacations makes me excited for our Texas trip this year... Is it May yet?

Oh, No They Didn't!

But yes, they did! My favorite bloggers, John and Sherry from Young House Love are now coming out with a product line available at TARGET! I was so excited when I found out that I had to share. The line includes a bunch of cute hooks for around your home, all for less than $15. It's available now online, and in stores March 31!

I have to say, I was not looking for any hooks, but now I feel like I seriously need one of these:

I love the octopus and the bee, both in white. This will be a tough decision! I'm off to the Target website, pronto! First their Shades of Light line, now Target. So proud of my favorite blog couple. Not to mention, they are also in the process of writing their second book, building a show home for Habitat for Humanity, and have bun #2 in the oven. Sherry and John = amazing.

You can view the whole line on the Target website here, and read the deets here on their blog. Is there anything these two can't do?!

P.S. - I had to share this article that someone posted on the YHL site - It is absolutely true, and hilarious!

Book Review: Young House Love

Time to share my first "book review" from My Reading List today! Aren't you excited?? (Sidenote: My books arrived from Amazon so I have some more reading material - woot!) While we were on our way to Trent's family's near Columbus, Ohio for the weekend (about an 8 hour drive from our house in Western Illinois), I had time to read John and Sherry Petersik's awesome book titled, "Young House Love - 243 ways to paint, craft, update, and show your home some love." See more about their book here.

Since they are my favorite bloggers of all time (I even got to meet them on their book tour), I of course loved the book. There are 243 different ideas for home-related DIY projects to take on, and it's written in the same style as their blog, enthusiastic and sweet just like John and Sherry are. I had preordered the book on Amazon and received it back in November when it was released, and I had since paged through its pretty pages and read bits and pieces but never really sat down and took in all of the projects individually, thinking about those I wanted to take on, or those that I had already conquered.

Now that I had the time to go through the whole book, I was able to bookmark the projects that stood out most to me and the little tidbits I loved. Although the book is full of thoughtful and amazing tips just like their blog is, one of my favorite parts was what they wrote in the Introduction on page 11 under "How to use this book." They said the following:

"This book doesn't include a lot of don'ts. It's more like a do anthem. Rules are limiting, and we find that in making a house a home there shouldn't be too many of those since it's a very personal experience and it's going to be a different journey ... for each person."

I love that. If there's one thing I've learned from John and Sherry's DIY adventures it's that it's important to make your home "your own," and to do whatever makes you happy. I'm starting to learn that after living in our house for a little over two years now. I think I'm decorating less and less according to the "design rules" you read in text books and more with my personal preference lately! It's evident in the bright colorful artwork I'm beginning to hang on my walls, and my little ceramic owl figurines I've started to collect. Nothing makes you happier than walking into every room and seeing the things you love displayed.

Another important lesson to be learned from these two is that it takes time to make your house into a home that you really love. I can say that that's definitely true! Although I would LOVE for our house to be complete and a house that we love every bit of right at this moment -  it just ain't gonna happen. It takes lots of time and patience. And work. It doesn't happen overnight. So we've just learned to do things one step at a time and have patience..and enjoy the ride along the way.

Honestly, John and Sherry are so inspiring with all that they've accomplished and this book is just one other way they are able to put all of their hard work, knowledge and talent into something that inspires and encourages others to try and do the same. I've learned so much from them so far following their blog for a few years now. It's crazy to think that I'm 25 now, the same age they were when they started all this..it gives me hope for what I can still accomplish!

I was surprised at how many of the projects in the book we've already taken on in the two years we've lived in our house. It made me feel pretty proud, I'm not gonna lie. :) Just take a look at this list I made of the projects in the book I've tackled to date (before the book came out, that is - some of which I've already mentioned on my blog, others which I may have to write a post about!):

#38: DIY Backsplash. We installed a beadboard backsplash in our kitchen during Phase 1 of our kitchen reno project back in 2011.

#44: Paint your kitchen cabinets. We also did this in Phase 1 of our kitchen makeover, which you can see here.
#54: Reupholster a dining chair. I painted our old kitchen chairs, then we reupholstered them with some foam and some fabric. See the before and after in our kitchen post.
#70: Line your drawers with patterned paper. I haven't blogged about this, but a year or so ago I fixed up the inside of an old dresser given to us by Trent's sister by just cutting some wrapping paper to size and using double stick tape to attach it to the inside of the drawers. and Voila - instant drawer liners!

#94: Add storage ottomans. I love me some storage ottomans. So far we have two and right now they are both in the bedroom. I would love to add more. They're great for a little stylish storage!

#117: Master a few framing arrangements. So far I've added some frame arrangements to the living room and bedroom. See how I did them here!

#139: Start a collection. I've definitely already done this with my Owls and my Plates! Another great way to personalize your home and turn it into a place you love!
#172: Get something special for your home by getting away from it. Love this one. We picked up some shells and a starfish from our East coast vacation last summer (see post about it here) and by displaying it in our home, it adds a nice touch of sentimental value to the space!
#232: Hang new house numbers. This is one of the quick updates we did in the front of the house to spruce it up a little. (See post mentioning this update it here) Amazing at what such an easy and quick update can do to improve the look of your home!
\#237: Upgrade exterior lights. We updated our front porch light - see this post for details. We love it soo much more than that ugly eyesore that was there before!

See why I was surprised to find we had tackled so many of those projects? There's ten right there checked off my list :) 
Here are some projects in the book that I still want to take on:
#1: Faux wallpaper the back of your bookcase. I would love to do this to my bookshelves - I love that it's such an easy solution to spruce them up a little!
#34: Hang textured wallpaper for a tin-ceiling effect. Trent and I both want to do this in our hallway!
#51: Make etched-glass containers for your counter. I've been wanting to do this with our glass cookie jar.
#61: Make an upholstered headboard. It would be fun to take this on in my sisters new apartment. Maybe I could even do it for my own bed someday, even though we have a wooden headboard already!
#104: Deal with bookcase clutter. I want to do this with my bookcases. They're a little crazy at the moment! Would love to make them look nice and appealing to the eye.
#197: Ceramicize something. Totally going to do this to my horse bookend! It actually may already be in progress... ;)

So, to summarize this very long and detailed post, I pretty much loved this book! One book checked off my reading list :) 7 more to go! See the whole list here.

 

Young House Love's Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge!

Woo! So excited to finally be able to take part in one of these :) 

I've always been jealous of all those bloggers getting to join in on those "link party" things and start to think..'Maybe I should start blogging again..' Well, now I can finally participate! Woot -

So I knew I HAD to do this challenge that Young House Love created, inspired by this awesomely catchy song - "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Here's the music video if you have no idea what song I'm talking about:

Uh, yeah..all week long I've been singing, "I'm gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket...." It's so totally one of those songs that gets stuck in your head all day!

Anyway, The rules for the challenge were as follows:

1.) Go to a thrift shop with, as the song says, "$20 in your pocket."

2.) Spend your $20 however you want. But you can't go OVER $20.

3.) Find one or more items referenced in the song and take a picture. For example, it can include: a keyboard, a knee board, shoes with velcro, a brown leather jacket, moccasins, a big a$$ coat...etc. (You know, the usual.)

So, on Saturday we decided to check out the Salvation Army. Which is always interesting. Here's me in all my squintiness and my 20 buckeroos:

Step ONE - DONE!

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, but always like to browse thrift stores for some things for the house. And I ended up getting these two lovely items:

1. A small table lamp that I plan on using in the eventual guest room upstairs.

2. This funky black vase that I just thought was really modern and cool looking!

I'm not sure where I am going to put the vase yet..right now it's just kind of sitting in the living room. But I hope to find a nice little place for it someday :)

I'm really pleased with the two items I got. And I was soo thinking it was going to be under $20. But,  alas, observe:

See the total? Yep, I went 40 cents over!!! :( Stupid tax. I was all ready to hand her over my twenty dollar bill. Oh well! Then it turned out the lamp was missing the pull chain, so we had to pick one up from Lowe's, spending another $5.00 or so. Trent got it fixed though, and it works wonderfully now!

Pitfalls aside though, we did have a pretty good time at the thrift store..

Yep, a BIG A$$ Coat!! Haha. What a weirdo...  :)

Meeting the Bloggers from Young House Love

I know this is a little late, but I've been wanting to write a post about this for a while. On November 10, 2012, I accomplished one of my life goals:

I met John and Sherry from the blog Young House Love!!

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you know that this blog is pretty much the best home related, diy blog EVER! Not only have I religiously followed it for probably over three years now (since I lived at college), but I make it a part of my day to read it every day. They've seriously inspired me as we've been working on making our house "ours." I just love those two!

Anyway, they released a book last fall, which I preordered of course, and they have been on their book tour since then. Here's that lovely book:

I KNEW we had to make a weekend trip to Chicago to meet them....so we did! :) Chicago is about 3 hours away from us, so it's not too bad of a drive, and it was a fun little weekend trip.

The book signing was at West Elm in Chicago (Love that store), and we got there plenty early, so we got to wait inside, unlike many of the unlucky people who had to wait in the rain outside. (Seriously, the line wrapped around the whole store I think, and was there for several hours.)

It actually didn't feel like we were waiting in line too long. We got to sit comfortably in the store, and they fed us cookies ;).

The cookies were ok, (Side note: I think that dot in the middle of the house is supposed to be a heart - fail.) but I ate the heart cookie and it turned my mouth red! Teeth and all. So I was freaking out for a little while and going to the bathroom secretly trying to get the red food coloring to fade! I mean, I couldn't meet my idols with a red mouth. Luckily, it faded in time. Sigh of relief.

The best surprise was when we found out that John and Sherry were going to do a short little presentation before the signings - at the table right in front of us! It was literally like 5 feet away from us. I was so nervous, thinking about what I was going to do and say when they were around and trying to psych myself into acting normal. It was seriously like meeting my favorite celebrity.

It was so cool when John and Sherry finally came out! The whole time I was pretty much standing in awe watching them. They took turns briefly explaining a few of the book projects. 

Then they said they couldn't wait to meet us all and headed over to the book signing table!

I had brought my book that I preordered from Amazon, and I bought another book at the signing for my sister as a Christmas present. So I got those both signed. And, because Sherry is an avid ceramic animal lover (and I have become one too), I brought this little guy too just to make Sherry excited:

It's my ceramic dog that I got from Target. I just love him. He's so regal. :)

When it was our turn to meet John and Sherry, I tried my best not to act nervous, but I don't think I succeeded. I forgot to introduce myself, and John asked if my name was Haley or Whitney, because one of the books said my sister's name and one said mine. Fail. I just kind of set everything up on the table and was like "Hiiiii....I brought my dogggg." haha. Luckily, Sherry was super nice and was like, "Oh I love signing those!!" I think that's what she was saying in the picture. :)

She even explained that the brand Threshold, who made the dog, is now what the Target Home Brand is called, which I didn't know. Just a little tidbit!

It all happened so fast, it's hard to remember it all (It was like a blur. haha). But we did get this picture with them, which looks like we are super tiny and they're normal size due to the person kneeling on the ground while taking the picture. Darn! (And we look like total dorks) All in all though, it was one of my favorite experiences yet! They really were super nice. But we already knew that from their blog :)

While we were in Chi-town, we had a chance to do a little shopping on Michigan Ave....

Eat at Harry Caray's.....

And see some of the sights - including going up in the John Hancock building, which neither of us had done before. Very cool!

It was a great weekend!! :)