House Tour: Laundry Room

SO after 13 months of living in our home I finally have the first room 100% complete! It feels great! Too bad it is quite possibly the least exciting room... the laundry room. I am on a tight budget to decorate this place so I had to try to work with what I had. I went to Homerama Louisville 2013 and was so excited to see my VERY FAVORITE home store in Louisville listed as one of the designers. The store is Tassles, and they decorated an entire house in Homerama which you can see here. They really can do NO wrong in my eye. I always love their bold color choices, bold patterns and how they pull everything together perfectly with the most southern charm. You should check their facebook page out. They are pricey but stunning. I fell in love with the coral/tangerine color that they had in their kitchen so I called and got the paint color and used it in my laundry room. It was Benjamin Moore color and while I can't for the life of me remember the name, I am on the hunt to find it! I have lots of coral in my living room which is more of a pinky coral and this laundry room is a very orange coral but I love it! Here is a break down and transformation of the space as well as a source list..


Here is the beautiful orange paint color I fell in love with in Louisville... 

Here is our Laundry room before...

I tried a few swatches that were all FAILS...

And after...

Our laundry room is pretty much a passthrough to our garage. Its just a little larger than a closet. The door you are looking at (above) leads to our garage and the doorway I am standing in taking the photo leads to a small hallway where our master bedroom and half bath are located that leads into our family room. You have just enough room to open the doors on either end and that is it, but I am SO thankful for this wonderful space.

 Taken from the entry to our master bedroom with our gray half bath next door. 

Above: View from our garage.

The door to the right is a coat closet and the door straight ahead is our bedroom. If you walk down the little hallway to the left you would walk right into our living room. 

Sources:
Paint color: Ben Moore >>>>????? I will post asap

Washer and Dryer: VERY GENEROUS house warming gift from my sweet parents. They are these GE (my dad works for G.E.)

Door knob: Replaced old brass with Oil Rubbed Bronze from Lowes.

Baskets above shelf. HomeGoods

Clock: BB&B wedding gift from 2008

Church print over dryer: One Luke's best friends and college room mate hired a photographer to take a shot of the place we got engaged (and old church in Mount Adams that overlooked Cincinnati) and he had it custom framed as our wedding gift. (yes he is that awesome and thoughtful)

Rabbit Topiary: A momentum taken from my late brother in law and my sister in law's home in Louisville. VERY special to me. I had always loved it and it always reminds me of fond times in their home. Orginally Jacobson's. Do ya'll remember that store? 

Black Chalkboard shelf: Target from 2008, a wedding gift

I love that you're my sister block: Given to my by my sister in law, Ash.

Kentucky tag: Again, a care package from my gorgeous sister.

Hardware on cabinets: Originally no hardware present, so I bought these knobs at Hobby Lobby.

Chandelier: Ballard Designs. Purchased at the outlet store when I lived 15 mins away in Cincinnati. There was originally a HIDEOUS cheap looking "ball" light that we replaced this with.

Burlap shades: Ballard Designs.

Hopefully I will be posting more complete rooms in the near future. 

Puppy Party: The twins turn 2.

We had a wonderful time celebrating the twins turning two with some of our wonderful Texas friends. We threw the party at church and I was so busy getting ready for the party I didn't take lots of detail shots. My sweet friend Mindy was amazing for picking up my camera and taking shots while I was hosting but I had my 50mm fixed lens on my camera (NOT good for a party) with all my other lenses at home, and with the poor lighting, I didn't get very many good shots but I will post what I have! 
We had two slide shows going on two giant tv's in the room, one of various puppies and the other of our precious twin's most recent year of life. We had pin the tale on the puppy, a puppy piñata, a puppy photo booth and a spread of yummy "puppy treats." I ordered a cake and it turned out NOTHING like I asked, the monogram on top was pitiful and I think the cake was air brushed. That was a diappointment but everything else went great!  It was low key and fun but can I just say, I am glad I only have to do that once a year? It take lots and lots of time and thought and preparation but my sweet little two year olds are worth it! Thanks to all our loved ones that came to celebrate. We love each of you and are thankful that you each pour truth into the lives of Jack Henry and Hadley and help them grow closer to Christ. 

2 year check up

We had a great 2 year appointment yesterday. Babies are perfectly healthy and right on track with all of their developmental milestones. Jack Henry speaks above his age level in word counts and Hadley surpasses it, big time. My big headed- tiny bodied, Jack Henry went up 14 percentage points for height! YAY! There is hope for my sweet boy :) The doctor said not to think anything about his small height right now because it means nothing for the future. I have heard lots of people say that whatever height they are at their 2 year check up, double that, and that will be their adult height. I asked her if that was true and she said it wasn't. Thank goodness or my boy would be SHORT. I am praying for big growth spurts in his future. Maybe he will be like daddy and grow 1 foot in 1 year in middle school :) We are happy however God made them, and we are so thankful they are healthy! They had one shot and did great. Here are their 2 year stats...

Hadley

Height: 33.75 in (58th)

Weight: 29.5 lb (82nd)

Head circumference: 50.7 (99th!!!)

Jack Henry 

Height: 33 in (22nd)

Weight: 28.2 lb (53rd)

Head circumference: 51.7 (98th)

 

He gives rest to the weary...

Hello friends.
I am sorry for my lack of posting these days. I have come to realize there are certain seasons of my life that are more blog-able and certain seasons that just aren't. I created this blog in hopes of a baby and God swept me off my feet when he blessed be twice over. Ya'll have been beyond precious in sharing in my joy and journey to their birth. In addition to my pregnancy, this has been a place for overwhelming large amounts of baby pictures as well as some recipes and home decor when I can manage.

Our house is coming along but oh so slowly. If I had a bigger budget I could move faster but I realize staying at home with my sweet peas might slow down my house projects but is SO VERY worth it. Isn't it amazing that we can never be content in our material world? While I am tackling projects left and right, I still don't have one room 100% complete. As soon as rooms becoming complete I will take you on a little house tour :)

My prayer for this blog from the start was to be a place of encouragement. The Lord has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams through ya'll's relations in this blog. I have had countless readers all over the world who struggle with infertility reach out to me on here and my greatest joy has been to be able to relate to women who are hurting in this area. 

I always want to be transparent with ya'll so that God can use me to relate to you in any way. You read about my battle with PCOS and my miscarriage and now I just have to be honest with you that trying for baby number three is beginning to become emotionally difficult. With out going into too much detail about trying for baby three (that is a whole lot of info, enough for a post in itself on a different day) we have been not preventing pregnancy since a year ago today. It was the day after the twins first birthday that we decided we would "just see what would happen" and it has been since January of 2014 that we have been trying with medical help. I am currently in the process of round 4 this year in hopes of another baby. Again, I will give details of our journey later, details that are actually encouraging, but today I just feel weary.

I feel weary that it has already taken longer this time around than it did the first time around. I feel so encouraged that I am able to carry a full term pregnancy but for some reason I thought it would be easier once I was able to already have a pregnancy under my belt. Friends, it so hard when you struggle with infertility. There are so many things that I feel right now that make me feel guilty. Things that only someone who struggle with this could understand. If I said them all out loud it would just sound like a selfish pity party. 

I could go on and on about the goodness of God to me, through this. He has blessed me unimaginably, and I would not change one thing about my road to conceiving the twins. That is why, why it is hard to see now, I know that once I finally do become pregnant again, I will appreciate all the Lord has revealed to me through this specific journey. 

But today, my heart is overwhelmed. It is sad. And it is longing for the desires the Lord has placed on my heart, to have more children. I am sad that I have PCOS and sad that I have to take meds and try so so hard to achieve something that to some women is so very easy. But what gives me joy than anything is to know that He is enough. He is enough. If all that I have is hope in Christ, its all I need. If I look at what I already have on top of all that, my mind is simply blown with His goodness. 

When my heart is overwhelmed like it is today, I can come to Him for rest. And that friends, is a beautiful thing. Jesus, I CAN'T do this on my own. Lord, I need your help. Settle and quiet my heart and let me rest in you.

I know many of you are going through trials WAY more than this. There is so much on my heart with what is going on over in the middle east and I know this post could seem trivial
to some of you in comparison, so my hope is that I did not offend. I am thankful for a God who hears our cries no matter how big or small. 

How many of you sweet friends have days when you need to just rest in Him? Sweet sisters who are reading this right now, and are longing for a sweet baby, He can give you rest.

I'm sure I will wake up tomorrow, sunny and ready to tackle this baby making journey but for now, I need rest.

I'm sorry for my quietness here on the blog. Just know I am sorting a lot in my heart right now and I will be back it again soon!

Love you friends and thanks for hearing me out :)

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28