Ba-Buy Brown Thumb

With the help of my lovely friend Gayle, our yard is being transformed. Unfortunately, I am Brown-Thumb-Betty and have no gardening skills whatsoever. At work I help save lives. And now at home I am helping to keep these guys alive...

Our sad little corner

before Gayle worked her magic

Some new friends to compliment our

beautiful ivy growing up the fence :)

Presenting our deck, hanging basket,

lime tree, marigolds and more!

Trist and I enjoying the fruits of our labor.

After all, He did help by trying to eat

the Jasmine ivy I pulled from the garden.

Thanks Gayle for a lovely house warming present! I appreciate your efforts in teaching me to have a green thumb. And I am taking so much pride in our new yard (and watering frequently, don't worry).

How you like them handles?

"Well, I'm gonna paint my front door red and change my name to Elizabeth Arden"... so in spirit of channeling my favorite movie Steel Magnolias, I created some curb appeal. I am not a huge fan of the color red, but I do love our red door. And while the door was already painted red when we moved in, I wanted to make some further changes. I used the advice of these great folks to refinish the front door hardware and ordered vinyl numbers from Etsy to replace the ones on the side of our house.

Here's before (numbers on the side

of the house and ignore the fact that I already

removed the old hardware from the front door)

Another Before shot

My weapons of choice

The old brass hardware

(I pierced the hardware through an old box

and it made the painting way easier. Plus, put

a housekey in the knob to keep it from getting

clogged with paint junk)

Loving the dark hardware against the red door

Our new address

*Disclaimer (Our door was cleaned and the surface

was probably too slick for the vinyl numbers.

I plan on trying to apply another vinyl set or

just painting the address

on the door to make the address last longer.

**Putting the locks back together was a task in itself.

Matt and I felt pretty clueless.

When I was taking the hardware off at the beginning,

it quickly came apart...

so I wasn't sure what pieces went where.

Ta-DAAAAA!

Home sweet Home

It's hard to believe we have already been in our home for 2 months. And thanks to Pinterest our house is really starting to feel like a home. We have really been trying to take our time decorating and allowing ourselves to get a feel for the space. Plus, we are no millionaires and decorating can be an expensive endeavor. Here's what we got so far...

Finished painting the guest bath and...

Ta-Daaaaaa!

Entry way.

We are still trying to decide on

window treatments.

I modeled the guest bedroom based off the color

scheme of this...

Thanks Pinterest!

I fell in love with this Nate Berkus lamp

So I made 2 for the master for less than the

price of 1 Nate B design!

The original kitchen

Updated with an above range micro and new

knobs for the cabinets. It's getting there!

Owning a home has been such an incredible experience so far and we feel so blessed for this space! Decorating is fun and all, but we truly want God to use us and this space for his glory.