My Simple Valentine's Day Decor

I finished putting up my Valentine's decorations this week-I used a lot of simple whites and tans with just a hint of pinks and purples and my favorite aquas and yellows too. I admit I never used to decorate for Valentine's Day, rebelling against the whole marketing scheme to get us all to overspend, but it has become special to our whole family ever since we adopted our middle son almost two years ago on Feb. 14th! So, from now on it is "happy gotcha day" here at our house and I plan on overdoing it for my sweeties with chocolate and treats and sweets (oh, my!)  

I made the XOXO pennant as a photo prop for a wedding my husband photographed this summer thought it would be nice for love day too, so I draped it over my chicken wire frame. I painted the backing of an old frame with chalkboard paint and wrote the "be mine" message to hang next to my pennant. 

I still love these felt and lace heart dangles hanging in my windows. I made last year using starch and Mod Podge-it was an experiment that turned out nicely.

The paper hearts that hang on my key hooks were made from watercolor art my kids made, and then I cut out the shapes and used a hole punch to hang them. The chalkboard "LOVE" message was made by painting the backs of the frames with chalkboard paint, so I can change out the messages whenever I want to=the interchangeable chalkboard frame. 

The subtle "LOVE" garland that hangs on my fireplace was made from cut out circles from the translucent plastic from milk jugs. I then drew my design with a permanent white marker.

Looking forward to our big love day celebration and wishing you a happy Valentine's Day too! Next, I'll be sharing some reveal pictures of my kitchen and bathroom projects. Hope you stop by again to see what I'm up to and check out the rest of my tutorials! 

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Paper Hearts and Burlap Valentine's Wreath

 

Love day is right around the corner...time to pack away Christmas decorations and put up some pretty hearts. You might have seen this same wreath last month when I posted about my  Christmas Burlap and Pom Pom Wreath: I had cut long strips of a burlap coffee bag and followed this tutorial:

I liked the ruffled burlap base of this wreath so much I wanted to keep it up all year, removing and adding embellishments with the different seasons and holidays. So, in the spirit of repurposing, that's just what I did.

Here's how I transformed this Christmas Wreath into a Valentine's Wreath:

First, I removed the yarn and pom poms, and stored them away for another crafty day.

Then, I cut out simple white paper hearts out of watercolor paper, folding down the middle.

I used a hole punch to make a hole at the top of each heart.
Then, I wrapped craft wire through the hole and around the base of the wreath.This will make it easier to remove the hearts when I'm ready to decorate for spring.

My V day wreath was done-simple and pretty white, five hearts for the five people in our family.

The rest of my Valentines decorating is a lot like this wreath-simple, natural, lots of whites and tans. I will be posting a few pictures soon along with more kitchen progress...

 I hope you'll come by again to take a peek!

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A New Year: The Fun We Had and Sneak Peek Kitchen Remodel

 

Happy 2013! I thought it would be fun to share a few pictures from our Christmas and New Year's adventures. It was for the most part a really relaxing and fun holiday season filled with blessings and God's goodness. Above is our short, fat tree with presents packed underneath, ready to get ripped open by three sets of tiny hands.

 

Here they go! My older two sons were so excited on Christmas morning. Their favorite toys were Rescue Bots. I loved how cute they were in their footie p.j's running around the house.

Here's our youngest child-it was baby boy's first Christmas! Back in February, I wrote a post about our Unexpected Gift-this perfectly sweet, little newborn that arrived into our lives and I can't believe is about to turn one! And we are very, very close to adopting him-just another month or two before he's our forever child! I am so thankful that we made room in our home and hearts for this little blessing. He is truly a joy and I'm so glad I'll get to be his forever mom.

On Christmas morning, I made these amazing strawberry and whipped cream filled crepes, with a light dusting of powdered sugar. Of course, they were devoured by all and gave us the energy to go on a nice walk through the woods at our favorite metropark.

Our boys loved exploring the woods and suspension bridge on our walk while baby boy was content on daddy's backpack.

I was really happy we got snow for Christmas! Right up until Christmas, we had warm temperatures and not a hint of snow. Here's our house and yard in the winter wonderland that finally came:

On New Year's Eve, we went to an event at our zoo for kids called "Noon Year's Eve". The ball goes up at noon and everyone cheers and drinks apple juice while the confetti flies everywhere. It was cute to see the excitement on my boys' faces and that they got to have some fun because there was no way I was letting them stay up until midnight. I actually wasn't even able to stay up that late myself...

I don't really do "New Year's Resolutions" but if I did, getting organized would be on there.( I'm proud to say I did work hard on getting rid of some clutter in my crafting space)It seems like e
very January I usually get the itch to do some kind of remodeling or repainting project. No surprise, right?
So, what we're working on now is a very inexpensive project to create open shelving in our kitchen. All I had to buy was a $13 can of special primer that goes on over laminate. I am so glad I discovered this stuff-it is so easy to work with and I was able to paint right over it in the color I wanted.  
I'll go ahead and show you a sneak peak of what we're working on:

First, we removed these plain laminate cupboard doors...

Then, after a light sanding, I primed the edges with the amazing Zinnser BIN primer. The stuff goes on so smooth over the shiny laminate, dries really fast and actually doesn't have as strong of an odor as the can says. Still, I cracked a window and had a fan going so I would still have brain cells left over. In the morning, I painted the primed edges a soft gray I had saved from my living room called Sharkey Gray.

 I'm still not done finding where to put everything so it looks nice and organized, but I love this arrangement so much better. It visually opens up my narrow galley kitchen and shows off pretty colors and baskets and is a lot easier to just grab a plate or cup. I love my organized spice rack that sits conveniently above my stove too. I'm glad we chose this cheaper option instead of paying for all new cupboards.

We do plan on hiring a contractor at some point to open up the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, install concrete countertops and move the sink over so more of a back window can be seen. Until then, we will try doing what we can to transform the rest of the plain laminate into something that blends with the more traditional style of the rest of the house. We shall see what we can come up with on the cheap...

Thanks for visiting ReMadeSimple! I can't wait to share my adoption pictures with you as well as kitchen progress, my final bathroom redo from last fall and some furniture projects I worked on last summer. I hope you'll come back for more!

 

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