About.com - January Recap

So,  I have good news and bad news. The good news -About.com isn't sick of me yet as my contract was just renewed - yay! The bad news - I only wrote 4 new articles in January - womp, womp. HOWEVER, I will say I really love these 4 topics and the pretty pictures that accompany them!

1. Statement Rugs in the Kitchen

Rugs are a great way to add warmth and interest to your kitchen. The sizes, colors and price points are endless, so regardless of your budget or space a rug can be an easy way to liven up your room.

2. Cows in the Kitchen

Yep, I wrote a whole article about integrating cow decor into your kitchen. Could there be a better topic? In all seriousness you  may be surprised at how pretty some of these spaces are. It appears the rest of the world has finally caught on to just how classy a cow can be. :)

3. Colorful Appliances in the Kitchen

Appliances can be a fun and unexpected way to add some color to your space. I especially love this orange smeg refrigerator....I want one!!

4. Leather Accents in the Kitchen

I'm a big fan of leather. Leather shoes, leather jacket, leather chair....and after a little investigating I found there are several ways you can bring leather, and the coolness that comes with it, into the kitchen as well!

And finally, I updated the 5 articles below, 4 of them mine! Some of you have asked why articles have to be updated, so I thought I would explain.... There are a few reasons an article might need to be updated, but more times than not about.com just wants to ensure the information in these articles is as up to date as possible. Because things change so quickly they want to make sure information that was written 6 months ago still applies today. In any case it gives you guys a chance to check out an article you may of missed in the past. 

Updated Articles:

1. 5 Easy Ways to Give the Standard Subway Tile Backsplash New Life

2. New Kitchen Must Haves

3. 6 Elegant Ways to Cheap Out On Countertops

4. Walk-in Pantry vs. Cabinetry Pantry

5. Cabinetry Construction Styles

The Story of Croix - Intro

Hi Friends, I have a little someone I want to introduce you to.....

Meet

Croix Glenn Shearer

Croix was born on Sunday, December 27th at 10:26 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 21 1/4" long. Much like my entire pregnancy my labor and delivery was drama free. No joy ride, mind you, but a pretty straight forward experience - thank God!

Photo by Zack Moye Photography

From the moment we found out my due date was December 22nd I prayed/hoped this baby would not be born on Christmas. I'm a freak about dates and birthdays and I really, really wanted our baby to have his own special day. As I mentioned in my Christmas House Tour post we hosted all Christmas festivities at our house this year. Over the course of 5 days we had up to 19 people in our house at any given time.

Christmas Eve...

Photo by Lori Foster

Christmas Day...

Photo by Lori Foster

It was so much fun and just the distraction/excuse my body needed to keep Croix inside for a few more days. The day after Christmas everyone left and Brent and I literally just relaxed all day. It was one of those perfect lazy Saturdays where you stay in your comfy clothes and lay on the couch watching shows. I left the house twice, once to get a mani/pedi and then for dinner at the Mexican Restaurant down the street. Once home from dinner we resumed our lazy day until around 10:00 p.m.  For days I had been experiencing a little cramping, but nothing too bad, that night I noticed the cramping was not just in my lower back, but was moving into my front as well. I'd never had a contraction before so I thought, hmhm.....maybe this is something and began timing the cramps when they came.  Around that time Brent came upstairs and I filled him in on my status, so he joined in on the timing as well. The cramps, or what I now know to be contractions were about 7 minutes apart and Brent suggested I go ahead and get a shower. He suggested this because I told him I was not going to be one of those people who rushes to the hospital prematurely, plus I wanted to try and look half way decent when I met my child so a shower was something I had always planned. What I did not plan was for this whole experience to happen at night. No, my ideal plan was to wake up around 6:00 a.m. take my shower and then head into the hospital around 8:00. I'm definitely more of a morning person and was not all about being up half the night having a baby. Welllllllll, we don't always get what we want do we? While I was in the shower the contractions got stronger, so much so that Brent had to help me dry my hair and that's when we were pretty sure this was it. We ended up heading to the hospital around midnight.

By the time I got into my room for them to check me, I was dilated 5 cm and the contractions were really strong. Life was pretty tough UNTIL my favorite person, the anesthesiologist, came in and gave me my epidural. It's so funny, typically I freak out over getting my finger pricked, but I have literally never been so happy to have someone shove a needle into my spine. Relief came almost immediately, it was awesome. After that, the nurses let Brent and me sleep for awhile, and around 8:00 a.m. they checked me and I was at 10 cm, but I had a slight fever so they had to give me some antibiotics before I could deliver. By 9:30 I was ready to go and by 10:26 Croix was born! The moment was especially exciting because we had no idea if we were having a boy or a girl until the moment he entered the world! The doctors and nurses were all super excited that we didn't know, so there was such a fun energy when the doctor said, "What is it Dad?" and Brent announced...."IT'S A BOY!!" It was so surreal and cool.

Meanwhile our families were in the waiting room anxiously awaiting the news. Brent and I had bought foam light sticks in both blue and pink as a fun way to announce the gender at the hospital. After Croix was born, the nurses were nice enough to let our whole crew come back into the delivery room for the big introduction. Each person got a light stick as they entered the room and on the count of three turned them on to see if they lit up blue or pink. For the past 9 months everyone had their opinions and guesses as to what the baby was, so it was so fun to watch them find out once and for all and as you can see they were all very excited!

**P.S. the God awful fluorescents in the hospital room make the light sticks look pink or purple, but I swear...we had a boy...they were blue!

Life since that day has never been the same. Croix is a good baby and even though it's only been a little over 5 weeks, I feel like he has changed and grown so much! Being responsible for a tiny human who depends on you 100% is a lot of work and it has definitely been a transition, but he is so stinkin' cute and we love him so much. I think we will let him stay...:)

Photo by Zack Moye Photography

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Luke and Croix became fast friends. 

Unless otherwise noted all photography is my own. 

Living Room Updates

I HAVE SOME HOUSE PROGRESS TO SHOW YOU!!! 

I can't believe I'm able to even write those words as it seems like progress has been slooooooow around here lately. I guess this fact shouldn't come as such a shock to me seeing as how we welcomed a new tiny member to our family not even a month ago, but you know, I had big plans for my maternity leave. In addition to loving on my new baby I planned to tackle tons of house projects, do a lot of writing for my About.com Kitchens page, catch up on my DVR, finish my thank you notes and maybe bank a completed post or two for the ol' blog. BIG PLANS, y'all. In my mind it was going to be my time to get my life organized and get ahead of the ball for once, but alas we plan and in this case I think God must of been doing great big belly laughs up there as pretty much none of the above has happened. Apparently newborns are pretty needy...who knew? :)

Somewhere along the way we have made some progress on the house front. We have kind of bounced around and tackled random things here and there in various rooms, but at this point we have made the most progress in the living room. 

We began scheming for this room before we even moved in, not because we were playing favorites but because we knew the living room furniture we had would not work scale wise in this gigantic room. Here is a shot of the house from the real estate listing to jog your memory:

The overall scale of just about every room in our new house is much bigger than that of our old house. So, the plan from the beginning has been to incorporate as many of our existing pieces as possible and then integrate new pieces along the way. We both knew this would mean some rooms may be empty for awhile while we figure out/save up for what we want, but we were OK with that. The living room was moved up to the top of the priority list as we knew this would be a space we would utilize often, especially because we were hosting Christmas at our house + I would be home with a baby right after the new year. 

The first item on our list was a couch because no living room is complete without a nice comfy place to sit and relax. At first we were thinking of orienting the room with two couches facing each other. However, after we measured and played with the layout we quickly realized the best solution for this space was a sectional. The sectional gives us the most seating capacity, plus it sets the perimeters for the actual living area of the living room. The sectional we chose is 10' x 10', so it's big, but it fits the room nicely and really helped make the room feel less giant and more cozy. 

Speaking of cozy we also added a giant LoveSac to the mix. This giant bean bag is SO comfortable and soft (the name of the cover is Eskimo Fur). It's super versatile in that it can be moved around the space easily, plus it can comfortably sit two people, but over the holidays it was holding as many as 4 at a time!     

The space is full of can lights in addition to the ceiling fan, so we decided to switch out the can lights directly over the built-ins on either side of the fireplace for some fun pendant lights. We found these wooden geometric pendant lights in Chattanooga and couldn't wait to get them hung after the holidays. 

In order for the pendant lights to hang from the existing can light spot in the ceiling we had to buy these converter kits from Home Depot. 

With the kit the light fixture switch was pretty easy and the new look makes me soooooooooo happy. 

And finally the rug is the newest addition. I love that the rug has interest with the antelope pattern but with soft and understated colors. We were thiiis close to pulling the trigger on the Stark Antilocarpa rug when I randomly came across this rug from Ballards. It looks almost identical and was a fraction of the cost. WOO!!  This side of the room still has a ways to go as we need window treatments, art, styling a coffee table, etc, etc... In addition there is a large area of "dead space" behind the couch that we have to figure out, but overall we feel good about the general direction of the room and I for one am happy with progress, even if it does come slowly and in small doses!

About.com - December Recap

Well hello January. Hi 2016! Sorry it has been a minute since I posted, but things have been pretty busy around here. Two days after Christmas, Baby Shearer made HIS big debut (introductory post coming soon!) so needless to say our world as we knew it has been turned completely upside down. Who knew a 7lb 10oz little person could have such an affect? ;) It has taken a second to figure out our new routine, but I'm slowly but surely trying to find my new normal, and I thought a little recap on my December About.com articles was a good place to start.

1. Two-toned Kitchen Cabinets

I really like the two-toned kitchen cabinet concept. It's fresh and happy and makes a statement without being too radical or in your face. 

2. Put a Wreath On It

Just talking here about how a simple wreath (or 3) can add instant holiday cheer in and around your kitchen. This article might be a little late seeing as how most of us already have our holiday decor packed up and back in the attic ,but if this concept is one you want to incorporate into your home in the coming years, go out and get a great deal on some wreaths at the after Christmas sales still going on now. 

3. Chalkboard Integration in the Kitchen

I LOVE the idea of a chalkboard in the kitchen. Remember the little chalkboard project Brent and I did to our pantry door at our old house? After we finally got it figured out we really enjoyed having the chalkboard in our space.

4. Simply Pretty - Christmas Edition

There was so much pretty on Pinterest over the holidays I decided to dedicate an entire post to pretty pictures and cool ideas to incorporate into your kitchen or your home around the holidays. Again, I know this is a little late here on December 13th, but maybe stash a few of these thoughts away in your memory bank for next season.

And last but not least, my updated articles are below. 

I hope 2016 is treating you well so far!  

UPDATED ARTICLES:
1. Plants: A Cheap & Easy Way to Add Pizazz to Your Kitchen
2. Red, White & Blue in the Kitchen
3. Making a Place for Pets in Your Kitchen
4. Highs & Lows of Dish Storage
5. Lucite in the Kitchen

Holiday House Tour 2015

Merry Christmas Week everyone!!

I am so excited I actually have a house decorated for Christmas to show you this year! With us moving in the middle of October and my due date quickly approaching (tomorrow!!) I honestly didn't know what we would be able to pull off in the holiday decor department this year. BUT thankfully, my mom is half Christmas Elf slash the Christmas decorating Queen (she typically has 8 trees of her own!) and swooped in to town to help us get our Christmas life together.

This is our third married Christmas and as you all know we decorated our house last year and the year before, so we really tried to use a lot of the decor we already had and then added to it as necessary.

Front view:

From the side:

I really love the  magnolia + the green & red on the wreaths... isn't it so southern and festive?

The formal living room:

We have the prettiest bay window just begging for a tree, so we bought a pretty flocked tree for this space and I love it. Snowy branches, red balls and a fuzzy skirt.....so happy. 

The foyer:

Brenta the horse head is holding down the fort alone in here right now, but I love how even the back sides of the wreaths bring a little Christmas cheer to this space.

The den:

And one more shot of the outside at night....

Christmas is going to be very interesting this year. I will have either just had the baby or be waiting for the baby to come at any minute, so needless to say we can't travel. Instead, Christmas is going to be AT OUR HOUSE! That's right,  our house is command central for Christmas, which is just SO exciting!! Now in all reality our entire family may be spending Christmas at the hospital as December 25th is a full moon. The first full moon on Christmas since like Jesus I'm pretty sure....lucky us...oyyy ;)

All photos are my own. 

Nursery Reveal

It is absolutely blowing my mind that Brent and I are weeks, days or maybe even hours away from welcoming our baby into the world. OUR BABY.....what?!? It is so crazy and exciting! Luckily some time over the past 5 weeks, since moving into our new house, we got the baby's room put together and I am so excited to show it to you today.

We don't know if we are having a boy or a girl, so our main goal for this space was to create a bright, colorful and happy room suitable for any child, or grown up for that matter. The red crib was our jumping off point and from there we really just layered on the happy. 

Brent free-handed the wording on the wall with a pencil and then went back and painted it; he has skills coming out his ears, I swear. And those hot air balloons...we made them! Can't wait to show you our DIY tutorial on those soon. 

The room gets great natural light, making the mornings some of the prettiest times to be in this space. We kept the curtains super simple so as not to fight some of the other louder pieces in the room. 

One of my favorite spots in the room is the bookshelf. We bought those fun brackets and shelves at IKEA and loaded them up with all of the books we received at our showers. The stuffed animals you see were center pieces on the tables at our first shower and look so cute sprinkled amongst the books. 

Over on the other side of the room... 

We kept things simple on this wall with the changing table and glider, both of which we customized. We added those aqua feet to the changing table which not only give it some pizazz, but it made the piece higher overall which we hear is a plus for taller people to change diapers with ease. Hey, just trying to make any and everyone who might be willing to help me change diapers' life a little easier. I'm a giver like that..;) My Grandmother & PapaJack gave us the glider as a baby gift and we were able to pick the fabric and piping. I love how the lime green piping pops off the cream fabric. OH, and the icing on the cake? It is THE most comfortable chair I have ever sat in, which is probably very much ideal seeing as how I will likely be utilizing it a lot. I hear babies like to be held and fed and rocked, all of which I can do from this big, beast of a chair. 

And because it is Christmas, we set up the cutest nativity scene on the side table. This was a gift from my Aunt Kathy and we were so excited to add a little Christmas cheer to our born-around-but-hopefully-not-on-Christmas baby's room! 

Well, there you have it. Baby Shearer's nursery. WE HAVE A NURSERY! WE ARE HAVING A BABY!! Somebody pinch me.....

All photos are my own.

About.com - November Recap

It's December 1st and do you know what that means? It's the baby's BIRTHDAY month!! I'm officially due on December 22nd but the doctor will only let me be 7 days late meaning between now and December 29th it's ON! December is going to be a fun month on the blog too! We are thiiiiis close to being ready to reveal the nursery AND we will be decorating our new house for Christmas for the first time. But before we get into all of that let's dig into my About.com kitchen articles from November.

Up first:

1. Don't be your own Road Block to a Great Kitchen

It's a good thing we are supposed to keep these articles around 600 words because I could of written a novel on this subject. In a nutshell I wrote up a few guidelines to ensure that if you do decide to spend your hard earned money on a kitchens designer that you don't go and get in your own way. It may seem ridiculous, but it happens all the time and it's such a shame. Especially if I'm the designer in that blue car and you are that giant fuzzy buffalo prancing across the road. 

2. Why an Ice Maker in the Kitchen?

To me ice is a game changer. You know how water is all good for you and everything? Well, I'm 100% on board with drinking water as long as it is ice cold. I do not like lukewarm water. NO! Most kitchens do have some form of ice maker built into the refrigerator but this article is talking about whether or not having a second ice source like an under counter ice maker is a good idea or simply overkill. And if it is a decent idea, in what instances would you even use it? Read on to hear my thoughts. 

3. Is a Second Sink in the Kitchen Ideal?

2nd sinks, like under counter ice makers can seem like an unnecessary luxury, but in this article I talk about several different scenarios where a 2nd sink doesn't just make sense, it's almost a must! *Fun fact, this topic was a request from a reader, if you have any specific kitchen topics you would like me to cover seriously let me know, I listen!!* 

4. Metal Accents in the Kitchen

I truly believe the prettiest spaces are those that are layered with various textures and finishes. Metal is great option to layer into your space and this article talks about several different ways you can do it. Notice the simple, yet powerful brass accent on the side of the backsplash above? SO GOOD!

5. 3 Navy Paint Options for your Kitchen Cabinets

I am such a sucker for blue, especially navy blue. I rarely meet a navy piece (clothes, shoes, cabinets, accessories) I don't like. In this article I'm dishing on my current top 3 navy picks in the paint department. 

UPDATED ARTICLES:

1. Is White Marble the Worst Idea Ever?
2. How to Select the Best Remodeler for Your Kitchen
3. Touch Faucet Love
4. Why Quartz?
5. Spotlight on Style: Shaker

To read more of my kitchen articles click here to go straight to my About.com Kitchens page.