PBK Transportation Art Knock Off!

I loved this Transportation Art from Pottery Barn Kids, but for $69.00 each, it is way out of my price range. So what to do? Create your own of course! PBK's were made on canvas, but I wanted to use something I already had on hand to cut the cost down, so I looked in my craft bin and found 3 wood plaques to use. I also grabbed some scraping paper and paint to create these

PBK Transportation Art

 

Transportation Art Knock Off

What do you think?

Not bad for my first PBK knock off!

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Welcome to Cilvilian Life

One year ago, our lives changed forever. One year ago, my husband finished his active duty in the Marine Corps. May 18th 2010, marked the end of our military life and the beginning of our transition into civilian life. For everyone who has lived the military lifestyle, you know how big of a transition it can be.

May 18, 2010, I remember driving off base and taking one last look in our rear view mirror at a view that we would never again see. Saying goodbye to our home, our friends, our job, and basically the life we lived for 4 years.

In those 4 years
we fell in love,

we got married,

 [Yes, we got married in Vegas. And we did it classy, torn jeans and all :)]

we moved across country to 29 Palms, CA,

and we built our little family.

 
Shane deployed 2 times

 [3/7 guys saying one more prayer before leaving]

Shane meet Ethan for the first time, March 25

It was a journey that brought us together and a chapter in our lives that we will always look back on.
The military life style was comfortable for us. There was comfort in living on base. There was a comfort in knowing that everyone you passed was either a Marine or related to one. There was comfort in know the city we live in and the fact that it wasn't a very big one. There was also comfort in knowing that my husband had a job, a steady income, and free health insurance.

 Leaving this behind was scary. But what was most scary was knowing that my husband could deploy and leave our family again if we didn't leave the miltary. This is ultimately the reason why we decided it was best to leave the military lifestyle behind and venture into the civilian life. To reach beyond our comfort zones and give up our job, our home, and basically our whole life in hopes that our future would be successful. This was a huge step.

In just one year, our lives have completely changed. The transition into the civilian life has been a rocky one. When we left the Marine Corps, we didn't have a job or home. We had no idea what was in store for our futures. My husband had a couple job interviews lined up in Colorado, but the day we left 29 Palms our future was an empty page, ready to be written on.

There are days where we wonder if we made the right decision to leave the military. There are also days where we question if moving to Colorado, away from family and friends, was the right step to take next. But for most days, we look back on our 4 year journey and we are grateful to be together and to spend the present focusing on building our futures.

Who's Got Style?

It's been a few years now that I've began to think about my personal style. Since blogging, I've put more and more thought into how I express myself through my style. Truth is, I don't think there is a style that represents who I am.

Sometimes my age really stands out. I look at myself and I think how ironic it is to be a twenty-three year old stay at home mom. My husband and I often joke about how we feel we were born in the wrong era lol. How we feel so much older than we are. When people think 23 they think parties, drinking, friends, college; they don't think mommy, crafter, housewife. Instead of drinking, I go on runs. Instead of gossiping to friends, I sing nursery rhymes. Instead of parties, I craft or edit pictures. My idea of a great Saturday night is sitting at home with my boys, drinking strawberry shakes, and watching a G rated movie. I rarely drink, my husband and I go on maybe 3 dates a year, Ethan is never with a sitter and that is how we like it.

This age discrepancy has really made it hard to develop my own style, whether it be clothing or decor. It's hard to dress like a mom and only fit into children's clothes. It hard to find a balance in decoration style between young and modern and antique and country.

Some people are born knowing exactly who they are and what they like. I always admire those people. But in reality, I do not know exactly who I am and I like a little of everything. It's hard to fit into one style, because I am partial to everything! I guess my solution is to not try and fit myself into one particular style, but to instead take a little bit of everything and make it one.

So my question is, do you have a personal style? What is your personal style and how do you use it to define who you are? Or how does your style represent who you are as a person?

I would love to have any feedback on this :)

Nighty, Nightstand Redo

Woo Hoo!! Glad to see blogger is back up and running! I have a  project I've been wanting to share! Well I have two projects :) First project is a night stand for Ethan's bedroom. His bedroom is coming along great. I can't wait to see it finished! Every time I finish a new project, it makes me happy,  
(see :) <-- = happy).

I bought this nightstand at Goodwill for just $14. When I saw it, I thought this is the prefect size for Ethan's bedroom! I didn't get a true before picture, sorry (blogger no, no!) Just picture this night stand with lots of water marks, scratches, and scrapes. Someone obviously didn't know how to use a coaster! But that's okay because I was able to sand it down and paint it so you can't even tell :)

 Two coats of primer, three coats of paint, two coats of Minwax Polycrylic with sanding in between each coat and this is what you get.

I chose a dark blue for this piece, the name is Azurite from the Martha Stweart collection (I just love all her paint color choices!) 

The color kinda reminds me of this color from pottery barn. I'm in love with dark blue at the moment. I even started a new project using the same color.

 

 FYI It's a little hard to see the true color in the pictures. The pictures are a little lighter than what the color is in real life. (I am also looking for new bedding to match)

These knobs are from Hobby Lobby. I just love them! They match perfect with the transportation/wheels theme we have going on.

I also decided to add a little peek-a-boo surprise, and I added this gray scrapbooking paper from the Little Boys and Their Toys scraping packet. 

There you have it! My 2nd furniture REdo! If you are interested here was my first furniture REdo.

On to my second project, this one was a little simpler.

 While shopping at Hobby Lobby, Ethan spotted these in the clearance isles.  He loved them, so I just had to buy them for only 2.99 each, it was a deal. Again, no before picture, but they were just white.

 I painted the train the same blue as the nightstand and i used two different greens mixed together for the words/ numbers. They were painted on with stencils. I couldn't help myself and I had to do the 22 train ;)

The car was painted brown with orange letters/numbers. 09 stands for the year Ethan was born :)

There you have it! Two more projects completed, more to come!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

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