Nursery Inspiration

I think one of the things I am most excited about, other than meeting our little babe, is decorating the nursery! Currently we are renting a 2 bedroom home, our second bedroom is currently used as a guest/office/craft room. It has a futon, desk, lounge chair and storage cubby in it that will all have to go to make room for the babe. Since we are renting and most likely be buying a home shortly after the babe comes we will not be painting or doing anything major to the nursery, I will save going all out till we get into a long time home. 

It is a family tradition on my side to not find out the sex of the baby. Since we are sticking with tradition I am going to try to keep the nursery gender neutral, but will have to sneak in a little sparkle somewhere. Below is my inspiration for what I plan on the nursery colors and decor style being. 

1. I am going to make a paper tissue tassel mobile for over the crib

2. Love this dresser, will be on the look out for something similar at GW to redo

3. Gotta have a lil sparkle pillow

4. Love, love this Aztec Baby Bedding

5. The style of crib is my fav

6. Love the colors in this wall print

7. This lil tray would be perfect to keep baby stuff on

8. Ahhh I love this chandelier, may have to wait till new home for this one!

9. These wall decals are perfect solution to not painting

10. We are still deciding between a glider or rocker, but this rocker may be the winner 

Even though we will probably not really begin putting the nursery together for a couple months, since we still have to clear it all out, it is fun to have an idea of what it will look like and start some DIY projects! 

Look forward to sharing the process with you all! 

xo, Jess

Back In Action

Happy New Year! 

Ekkk, I can't believe I haven't done a post since Dec 1. Life has just gotten in the way, literally a little tiny life that is growing in my belly! That's right Jon and I are expecting!!!! And we couldn't be more excited or thrilled for this BABY, due July 15! 

The first trimester though has kicked my butt, pretty much being nauseous all day, everyday topped with total exhaustion so basically I have had an on-going hangover for the past month or so! Thankfully, I am already feeling much better and more alive as I ease into my second tri. 

I am just so excited to begin this journey of becoming a mom and share all these new experiences along the way with you all. Get ready for lots of fun posts on nursery DIY's and getting ready for this baby! Can't wait! 

xo, Jess

Thanksgiving Fun

Happy Monday All! It is always hard to get back into the swing of things after a long holiday weekend. We had just a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had my whole family together, which doesn't happen often, since my older brother, his wife and the cutest lil boy live in Wisconsin and my youngest brother is at Grad School in West Virginia. It was such a special Thanksgiving for us all to be together especially with a new baby in the family. 

The 4 days were full of food, laughs, fun and family. I couldn't of asked for a better time! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Now bring it on Christmas! 

xoxo, Jess

Easy DIY Wreath Makeover

Finally, the temps have changed and we have officially started Fall here in Phoenix, and it is heaven! I just love the cool, crisp days and snuggly nights. I really love this time of year especially with the holidays coming up it is really just my favorite of times. 

With the temperature change also comes my decor change, since it is no longer Halloween it was time to give the Skull Wreath a Fall Makeover! 

It was a pretty easy project. I took all the Halloween goodies off the wreath and spray painted it Ivory. I actually have a lot of decor odd's and ends hanging around so I just went trough my craft closet and pulled some stuff out that I have used to decorate in previous years. 

After I gathered the goods, I brought out the big guns AKA my hot glue gun and got my makeover on! I actually ended up leaving off a few of the gathered goods and went with all gold and found some old ornaments that worked perfect in place of the pine cones.

I was at first worried about the contrast between the yellow door and an all gold wreath, being since there really was none, but I actually ended up loving it. I think it is nice and subtle, but elegant at the same time. 

 Any fun Fall decorations you have done this season?

xo, Jess

DIY Backyard Pergola

My hubby loves to build things and be outdoors, so when he was driving by and saw a guy unloading a truck full of wood into a dumpster what did he do...he asked to have it, and the guy was super nice and actually ended up driving to our home(it was only a few blocks away) and unloading this truck full of wood for free. Let me just tell you, Jon was on Cloud 9 and ready to build. He decided that he was going to build a pergola(I kept calling it a Gazebo, but I guess that is not the correct term). At first I had my doubts because honestly all I saw was a big hodge-podge pile of wood, but Jon definitely proved my doubts wrong and whipped this thing together like he had done it a million times. I was quite impressed!  

                   

 

So, this is what the finished product at first looked like, though I was really proud of Jon, it wasn't the prettiest thing. I envisioned something more elegant and whimsical.

We both felt like it need some type of coverage, so we decided on putting up burlap curtains. Thank goodness we have a bulk discount fabric store right down the street from us and we picked up some white burlap for $0.99 a yard. We had to cut it ourselves, but really burlap is pretty forgiving and doesn't need to look perfect. Jon strung it up on a cord line and stapled it and then trimmed all the excess fabric hanging on the inside top and bottom.

I knew I wanted to create some type of chandelier hanging from the middle, but wanted to keep it earthy looking so I ended up using a wooden wreath that I got from Goodwill(first had to rip all the junk it had on it) wrapped it in a strand of the mini white lights and added a crystal garland I had gotten from Michaels. 

Then for some finishing touches I tied the curtains back with some fabric we had also picked up from the discount fabric store and added some candles to the front that have battery operated led lights so that we don't have to worry about the thing burning down. Placed the chairs and table we already owned and called it a success. 

We are looking forward to spending many days and nights in our homemade pergola. And to think this all started from a free pile of wood. I am so lucky to have a talented husband. I think we make a pretty good team! 

Did you do any fun projects this weekend?

xo, Jess

Weekend Getaways Are My Fave

This past weekend my hubby(Jon) and I had a little getaway, to Prescott AZ, which is about an hour and a half North of Phoenix. Prescott’s town tagline is Everybody’s Hometown….and let me tell you that is exactly how it felt. 

We stayed right downtown at the historic Hotel St. Michael (which I highly recommend if you are ever in the area) right across from the Courthouse Plaza, which was surrounded by a beautiful park with tree leaves transforming in all those fall colors I had been craving.

 

This town was so FRICKEN CUTE...I probably said that a trillion times!  There was a Fall Pumpkin Patch festival in the Courthouse Plaza the Saturday we were there. The park was full of lil families with parents and kiddos dressed in costume. 

Jon and I bought a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch and found a bench across from the historic post office and just enjoyed our surroundings and cool crisp air. 

Jon and I both fell in love with Prescott and it really was such a special weekend. We will definitely be making the trip again sooner than later! 

                   

 


Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well! 

xoxo, Jess

Fall Apple Cocktail

My maiden name is Redd and I have been wanting to try out an apple cocktail, so of course I had to use Redd's Apple Ale in this recipe. At first I was going to pair it with Fireball Whiskey, but that stuff is just too sweet for me. So, I decided to try to take matters into my own hands and create my own cinnamon infused liquor. Since I had never infused booze before, I stuck with something budget friendly, which actually the Scotch/Whiskey blend from Trader Joe's is pretty decent and a great deal. 

At first I poured about half the booze into a decanter and dropped in 3 cinnamon sticks and let it sit over night. Tried it the next day and there really wasn't much of a cinnamon-y flavor, so I added ALL the cinnamon sticks and let it sit for 2 more days. Welp, that did work...so well, that I had to add the rest of the booze to cut it a bit. 

Now that the cinnamon booze was ready all I had left to do was pour some of it(1 part) and the apple ale(3 parts) over some ice, stir and garnish with an apple if you choose. FYI...this cocktail is strong...it will warm you up quicker than that burning fire on a cool crisp day.

Enjoy! 

xo, Jess