I’ve been waiting FOREVER to be able to share this post with you. I have had it written for some time, but wanted to hold off for just a bit.  Now that he’s is almost here, it’s finally time to show you Rogan’s Rock Star nursery!  This is by far my very favorite room in the house.  It has been a labor of love and I’m thrilled to be able to show you the final product.

Let just say my inspiration came from Calvin when he was jamming on all his musical instruments he got for Christmas. I wanted a room that was fun and buzzing with a beat! I wanted something that would be able to grow with Rogan as he got older. Music lead me to create a Rock Star Nursery. Music for most is a universal language. It inspires common human feelings and bridges gaps between cultures that spoken languages cannot. It also creates creativity and sparks imagination.

I started gathering up my ideas on Pinterest and created this Pinboard for the nursery so I could see the theme in action.   I was very happy with the final results.

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February Goals went really well. Although February flew on by, I felt right on track with the goals I set for the month: take a prenatal vitamin, join and stick to most of the two fitness challenges I signed up for,  and include more days off during the week.

I have yet to stop exercising while pregnant and still continue to keep it going. So I

will still base my goals on and around fitness.

Want to join in with making your own

goals? Here is a quick and easy way to start. I did all the hard work for you.

March Goals

1. Start to clean up the junk and clutter. Bringing a new baby into this world makes me go on a cleaning frenzy.  Also have a toddler who grew 4 inches in a week, allowing him to reach everything in site, is not working out so well with our junk pile clutter.  You won’t find us on a episode of hoarders, but we could stand a little clutter clean up. The clutter clean up I want to tackle this month are: find space for the medicine that sits on the microwave, organize and move the medicine cabinet items up one shelf, and make sure everything in the 4th bedroom is accessible and vacuumed (this is where we store many items we don’t use).

2. Baby Prep -Finish Rogan’s room by the end of the month and have it ready to go before April rolls around.  He will be here before I know it! SO far I think I have everything I need to finish the room. I need to hang things on the wall once I figure out permanent  placement of furniture.  I also need to order supplies for my breast pump, rewash my 24 stash of cloth diapers and re-size a few, and weed out the 100 onsies that we just don’t need.

3. Continue to exercise 2-3 days a week.  Usually I am very prompt about going 3 days a week, but decided it was best to do no less than 1. So far, I can still do 2 days a week and if I make it 3 days a week, lets consider it a bonus.

4. Better eaters! My husband and I decided it was time to eat better, once again. This is no news for us. We go on months and weeks where we feel our diet needs to change. So we get better, fall off, and get better. We notice our toddler likes only certain foods and we are not branching out for him to try to better what we put in our months.  Leading by example is very important in development.  So far, I am adding milled flax to ANYTHING I can put it in. I mean it, when I say anything. As much as the hubby wants to eat healthy, he still sticks his nose up on some of the ideas I have. So I usually don’t tell him or I hide it well enough he doesn’t notice it.

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As we eagerly wait the arrival of our son Rogan, his room is no where finished.

We recently cleared the room out, except one huge roll top desk. My mother has gladly taken our donation of the desk, so it will be gone soon (I’ll see you this weekend). It really is a beauty, but we have no where to put it. It simply has to go.

Once this desk is out of the way, I can’t wait to put all the pieces together. Rogan is going to have a Rock Star themed Nursery.  Here are some of the fabulous ideas I found on Pinterest. I ordered a musical rug, the guitar hanger/hooks, and musical note stick wall decals.  I have yet put anything in it’s place, let alone go through the mounds of newborn clothing.

I simply need to get a jump on this before he arrives. We all certainly know that I won’t have time to fuss over this room once he is here. And I am feeling a tad bit anxious about  putting it all together. Good thing the room is already painted a wonderful blue color because I am not about to paint another room at 8 months pregnant like last time (why did my husband ever think that was okay).

I did however manage to get a one DIY project started. I am making piano curtains for Rogan’s room, as I couldn’t find any to purchase and I really didn’t want to break out the sewing machine and create curtains. I did my sewing for Calvin’s curtains and I have to say I just don’t have time for it. So instead I created my own idea. More details post/ tutorial on how to paint piano curtains to come (because no one has ever done this before, or at least I can’t find it). So here is a sneak peak:

I have to say that I am in my glory doing a DIY project and painting. It really has calmed my sole the last couple of days.

I also have one other DIY project that involves his name and the letters of it. Let’s hope I can get around to that.

There are some cute ideas out there on pinterest. I would like to print a few of the ROCK ON, Rock star ones prints. Maybe I can find one at the craft store. Happy Tuesday.

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I am so excited to share with you some awesome home office organizing products from Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery and it’s partner Red Sky PR.

Their products have help me get back to organizing my home  and office spaces. Being organized has done wonder for my routine. Things have a place and I spend less time looking for things.

These products are great for both kids and moms as they help everyone keep on track and organized.Check out what they sent me.

I was trilled when I saw all the great things they sent.

• no-iron Clothing Labels
• kitchen labels that are removable
• 2013 Planning Calendar
• Removable Weekly wipe off planner
• Dry erase decals
• Hanging File organizer
• A notepad
• Stack and Fit Accessories

I immediately went to work on tackling the clutter. It’s a beast!

I cleaned up the counter clutter by hanging  the Large Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Pocket folder . It made a huge difference and I actually regained counter space. It is a durable folder that you can either adhere or push pin into. I enjoyed this product and knew exactly where it’s new home was going to be.

I also used the Kitchen Label to mark my 2011-2012 receipts. I was a little worried about putting the sticker on the folder, as I reuse it every year. The awesome part about these stickers are they removable with no residue.  You can also put theses on spice jars, containers, baby bottles, leftovers or to organizer your open food in the freezer.  They are dishwasher and freezer safe. BONUS!

The Stack and fit accessory came in hand in cleaning up the crazy, unorganized space on the desk. It’s not my favorite as I would like it to be vertical standing not horizontal. It takes up a bit more room than I want. But it still helps me look organized.

Check out the before- Don’t judge!

You won’t be disappointed in the other products either. As I personally didn’t use them, I have a real attraction to them for organizing. The 2013 planning calendar is anyone best friend. You can write down your month activities and to-do’s in this 2013 planner. I love planners and this one is top of the line. The dry erase decals I could see my family use when we need to jot down messages for one another.  Same with he weekly dry erase planner. We all know life is busy and these tools would come in handy to help re-organize our lives.  Stay tuned for a giveaway on the products that I didn’t review, but love.  Thank you Red Sky Public Relations for offering such wonderful products to my readers and I. I am trilled to work with you and give these products an A+ in home and office organizing.

These words are my own. No one told me to write a favorable review on this product or company. This was my own  honest, experience.  I was compensated in an exchange for a review of this product. Not paid. If you have a product that you would like me to review please have a look at my guidelines.

The post Get Organzied with Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery appeared first on Domestically Seasoned.

I came across this wonderful tool on how to manage home organization without going crazy. An unorganized home  puts stress on us already busy parents and we really could do with out more stress.

Creating a list can help manage stress and our organization. We all need a go to place to write a list, to keep track of things to buy and things to do. Being organized starts with writing ideas or items down so we can keep track of them and cross them off the list.

I am excited to be giving away, to two different readers, a magnetic to-do & to- buy notepad to hand on the refrigerator to help get you started on organizing (or to keep going).

This notepad is fantastic because it also separates into two lists, making it handy to bring to the store with you.

_____________________________________________________

Get organized- Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Today’s Prompt: Favorite room in your house-Submitted by Carrie @ Frugal Foodie Mama

When we moved into our house in August of 2009 we were so darn happy. We finally bought the perfect house after looking  for just about a year.  Its was worth the wait. The house we bought was not the type of house that didn’t need. It needs work! Structurally it is great. Just a few minor problems.

The background of the house: The previous owners were stationed in Hawaii on a Navy base.They rented out the house to pay for the mortgage.When renting to folks problems arise. They rented to anyone and everyone. The problem being renters just don’t care. They didn’t mow the law, then didn’t fix the ant problem, or the leak in the tub, the water or the nasty carpet. The family room was the most disgusting in the way of cleanliness. It had pinkish carpet that was full of pet dander, sand, and  dirt. You couldn’t  sit on it and wear shoes when walking on it was a must if you didn’t want your white socks to turn black.

This was the first room to get a new makeover.

Notice the pink carpet of the floor?

So we (just the hubby really) ripped up the carpet and took down the walls as quickly as we could. Also I failed to mention it had wood paneling. YUCK So we thought we would be able to use the sheet-rock that the wood paneling was glued to. Nope wrong. They builders never primed the walls, so large amounts of sheet-rock came off when we took the paneling down.

Also notice the board that sits right underneath the door? Yeah Well the door leaked and rotted the wood. Oh and then the annoying carpenter ants decided to munch and crunch on it. So this was their QUICK fix to help sell the house. We didn’t find all this out till we ripped up the carpet.

So we took down the sheet-rock. What did we find….

Structure damage to the frame of the door. Great! The ants messed that up good. So that needed to be replaced.

Much better. We had to rest the door, take out more damaged floor board, and we added new, warmer insulation to the wall.

More insulation to the other walls. We (hubby) added some TV/cable/internet outlets to each wall. And before you know it, it was ready for sheet-rock to be hung. Yeah I don’t have pictures of that, nor do I have pictures of my dad and hubby Spacklled the ceiling or walls. So there it sat for another year with un- primed sheet-rock, no carpet and no curtains. It was our working room for  a while. UNTIL………………we found out that a baby was coming. So we waited until the last minute to do ANYTHING to the room. I was 8 mounts preggo on a ladder painting the walls. Yup, don’t have pictures of that either.

Okay I lied. I found one pic with walls!

Now for the sorta final look for the den. Yup, nothing is ever finished around here.

So we added ceramic tile around the sliding glass door. We felt that it would be a great landing point for a pair of shoes. Oh and my many, many plants. Hubby did a great job! It took a while to pick out tile. It had to be the right color. Oh and notice our carpet! Yup we got wall to wall carpet.

This is our up to date photo.

This is by far my favorite room in the house to sit in down and relax in.

Check out more of my house click here.

The post Making over the family room appeared first on Domestically Seasoned.

A while back I decided that I wanted to redo Calvin’s room.  I put a lot of effort into making his room before he was born. I had a wonderful time crafting away for it. Then as Calvin aged, a whole whopping 1 1/2 years old, I thought his room was way to baby-ish for him. This is where the idea came in to redo his room.

I wanted something he could grown into. Nothing to baby-ish, but something that reflected his personality: exploitative, fun, all over the place, yearning for knowledge.

I will not totally give away the whole room yet, or the theme (because I want to leave a cliff hanger) but I will show you a few things I have up my sleeve.

I’m working on his quilt for his toddler bed which is a map of the United States. Those cute orange and yellow curtains are hand made by me. I wanted something different and i didn’t want to spend a lot of money either. I found king size pillow cases and transformed them into the curtains.

I still have some other things to make. Plus I pinned a whole bunch of ideas on pinterest.

What do you think so far? Any ideas on the theme?

The post The things I make appeared first on Domestically Seasoned.

Do you have a wall that needs a little something! But not sure what? That is almost ALL the walls in my house. We are broke, and have blank walls. Not a great combo.

So I did what any DIY’er would do……..and I stalked PINTEREST for an idea.

(ifyouneedaninviteemailmeyouraddyatdomesticallyseaoned@gmail.com)

Here is what I wanted the wall to look like.

Source: marthastewart.com via Domestically on Pinterest

So I gathered up all the picture frame I have in my house and got busy spray painting them black. It was quick and easy and a perfect solution for my blank wall.

Blank wall

My idea would work perfect for this wall in our Den.

Measured once

I measured out my space and hung up painters tape. Then I rearranged all my photos on the floor BEFORE I hung them up.

Progress

The complete look

 NOT TO SHABBY. Martha Has nothing on me!

Source: marthastewart.com via Domestically on Pinterest

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About 2 1/2 years ago we bought our very first house. We didn’t have much. But what we have is very loved.  Take for instance: used furniture, hand me down bed sheets, homemade rugs. These things have got us through and with out them we would have nothing.

One special item that was given to us was our kitchen table.  My mother-in law gave us the table. It had 4 chairs and it worked. It did its job by allowing us a place to gather and eat our meals. We are thankful for this place because this is where we gather as a family to sit and talk about our week and life. Our table was not pretty. It is not the one I would dream about for my house.  Frankly, I tossed a table cloth over it and moved on. It did its job and it did it well.

I talk like this table has a life and it’s a person.  I talk about it this way because to me it has seen life and it has been around for a few generations. It has seen many fine meals and listened to many conversations. Our table is very old. It is Calvin’s Great Grandparents table.  Can you imagine how food and meals were back then on this gorgeous table?  I can, and they look and sound like ours are now.  I couldn’t be happier for this.

As part of my “2012 Goals” was to care and put some love into this table. I think it deserves it from all those meals and conversations it has witnessed. Plus, I was so sick of looking at how ugly this table has become. I wanted to put life back into this table for all the giving it has done in the past. Check out my Dining room makeover from last year.

Table Before

Table after

Oh so Shinny

I will admit, I was down right scared that I would mess it up. But seriously, from where it was to now, there was no going back. I absolutely love it and ready to tackle more used furniture project. I still need to finish the chairs, but those can wait.

The post Like new appeared first on Domestically Seasoned.

If  you live in my neck of the woods, Don’t forget to check out My Golden Leaf on Maple Shade Farm in Selkirk. She has the cuties Christmas decor and Holiday gifts. She also ships anything to you. So go check out the Facebook page and have a peek at all the beautiful items she has in stock.

My Golden Leaf has some special events planned to assist you in DEstressing your holiday shopping and finishing your list with special gifts. 

Filled mugs make great gifts for so many on your list.

Friday – December 2  6pm-10pm – “Ladies Night Out!”

Join us for some bubbly, appeteasers, and 10% off your entire purchase of special and unique gifts. There will be a “wish box” and door prizes hourly on the half hours starting at 630.

Saturday – December 3  10am-2pm – “Men’s Mall!”

Join us for a “brew” and 10% off your shopping experience.

Men – come check out the “wish box” and see if you other half left a wish for a gift.

 

Please NOTE: Other hours for the month will be by chance or appointment. Many celebrations going on and baking to do. She will put the OPEN sign at the end of the driveway if she is around.

My Favorite Holiday Tradition

Hope to see you at one or all…please feel free to pass these events on to others. If I don’t get to see you…Have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Thank you all for making my first few months so enjoyable…I’ve enjoyed meeting you, and look forward to more meetings in the future.

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