i should be mopping the floor: 2012
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Friday's Freebie: 2013 Printable Calendar


I've been putting together calendars for myself for years...I love these at-a-glance ones that are easy to stick to the insides of cabinet doors, etc., for a quick reference. Hard to believe 2012 is already over! Here's wishing you a fabulous new year!

To download, please click on the image below:
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Top 12 of 2012

 

How is it already the end of December? What a fun and busy year it's been. 
The following are my top twelve posts from 2012...according to you! 
I used my Lijit.com stats to determine your faves. I still can't get over that this first one is such a "winner". But, I'm glad I'm not alone in my absurdities. 

I can't wait to show you all what we're busy working on right now! It will be one of my first 2013 posts...along with an amazing give away I have coming up in January. 
But for now...here's a look back:

{Hilarious...not only is this #1 of 2012...it's #1 of all-time, comment and visit wise. WEIRD.}



#3: Pallet heART Tutorial

#4 DIY Kitchen Countertops 

#5: DIY Crate Tutorial 

 
#7: No-Sew Faux Roman Shades 

#8: Our New "Wood" Floors 

#9: Hand-Painted Sign Tutorial 

#10 Pantry Overhaul 

#11: Painting Upholstered Furniture 


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Happy Holidays!

Warmest Holiday Wishes to You and Yours.
{Below is our holiday posting schedule.}



Magnolian Inspiration {or....how i'd like to diy my home into a fabulous boutique hotel}

{photo source}

By no means do I consider myself a well-traveled individual. But, I am a bit of a hotel-nut. My husband both speaks at and attends education conferences from time to time. Often times, I travel along...with a loaded Kindle, a blank agenda and my camera {and sometimes these two boys that keep calling me mom}. This has been a great opportunity to stay in some beautiful hotels that we normally wouldn't {helloooo, we're more of a Hampton-budget family...so being upgraded to an Omni or Hilton is pretty swanky for us}. 

But a couple of weeks ago, we got away on a non-business trip {and sans kids, too}. My husband planned 90% of the three-nighter. It was to celebrate our 10th anniversary, so he did it up in style! He's a keeper, y'all. When I asked which Hampton we would stay in, I got one heck of an eye-roll. He had some bigger and better plans. And I was a lucky girl.

He happened upon a FABULOUS boutique hotel, The Magnolia, through some search engine or another. He found a great package deal and we were off for a wonderful time in downtown Houston. BTW, if you're in the market for a nice getaway, I highly recommend staying in a downtown urban area where you can walk to both entertainment and restaurants...it's so fun. We only got our car out once the entire time. 
--

One thing I didn't expect {but was pleasantly surprised by} was the decor of the hotel...it was beautiful and completely INSPIRING to a DIYer like myself. 


The lobby's fireplace had me at hello.
Those padded walls would be FUN to replicate. And probably not too difficult either.
I've always said I should be locked up in a padded room somewhere...
this is the kind of padded room I meant, of course.

While the hotel was in all-out holiday decor mode, I'm pretty sure these beautiful pendants are up year round {at least, I think they are/should be}. I love how they mixed it all up. And I love how the light and colors bounce off that urban-feeling metal backdrop

This was a little side area in the lobby.
So many things to swoon over in such a small, but well-done space:
  • That textured/patterned wall treatment could easily be DIYed in a stencil. Loving the silver over teal.
  • LOVE the back-lit Texas wall-object {I sound like a moron...what do you call that?}. I'm about to have to place a call to my dad to come wire up a wall so I can do something like this. How fun and unexpected would this be in a home? 
  • Love the long, skinny bar-height table.
  • Metal baseboards...yes, please.
  • And that light fixture....
I adore the fixture so much. Love the length over the long bar. Love the mini-drum fixtures. Love their circle details. Gah. Gotta have one.

This was in the elevator area.
  • Loving the postion of the three large canvases over the couch.
  • The end tables are beautiful.
  • Don't get me started on those mirrored/acrylic lamps. My brain is already halfway to formulating how I will DIY my own.
  • Annnnd....the coffee table:
Where is that jigsaw of mine?
I can totally see a knock-off of this one ASAP.
I think some MDF, a nice glaze finish and a couple of days...and I'm there!

This little drum table is presh.
I could see doing this with cut up pieces of PVC pipe painted with the plastic-safe spray paint in a dark brown. Then attached together to form something similar.

Nothing like a good hotel-lobby Christmas tree...gorgeous.
Love the lime green.
I also love how every wall in this place is back-lit, up-lit and everything in-between.
I'm all over that.

Another pretty little tree.
Minimal ornaments. Maximum foliage and ribbon. Yes.

My husband was in LOVE with the textured elevator walls.
I took some super high res photos of this in hopes of blowing it up, printing and mod podging it to something for him. Tabletop? Tray? Something...

Just love the simple reclaimed wood on this console table.

The painted ceiling...swooning over the teal/blue.
And the symmetry of the drum shades kills me. In a good way.

Our room was just as beautiful as the common areas.

I've been trying to figure out a good DIY on this one, too.
Love the idea of "framing" a padded headboard.

I loved the height of the bedside tables. And the twisty iron legs were so cool!

I also love the wooden piece in the bathroom that the sink and countertop sat on. I can see how this one could be put together...just wondering if I could keep open shelving in the bathroom neat and tidy? And love the iron piece on the bottom that the piece is sitting on.

{photo source}

Overall, it was a wonderful trip in a fabulous place. I'm a boutique-hotel convert.
Everything about this place made me not want to go back home.
The place had so much design inspiration, too, as pictured above.
Hoping one day to implement some of these fantastic ideas into my own home...
in the DIY way!

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Santa Photo Display Tradition

 
A couple of weeks ago, I shared my Christmas Card Gallery Wall.
 It's one of my favorite decorating traditions around the holidays.
My other favorite holiday decorating tradition is our Santa Photo Display of my kiddos.

This is such an easy display. I use frames that are around my home and place the Santa photos in them for the holidays {since there's other Christmas-y items in those frames' spots during the holidays}.

It's so fun to look back over them. That one up there in the middle was eight years ago, when my oldest was just three months old...we had a precious Santa up in the Lubbock mall who was delighted to hold a baby! It was pretty precious.

Such sweet holiday memories!

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Friday's Freebie: Luke 2:8-14


One of my favorite passages of scripture...
and it brings tears to my eyes when read by Linus Van Pelt in the 
Charlie Brown Christmas movie.

This is designed to be framed in an 8x10 frame {prints on letter-sized paper, to be trimmed}.

To download, please click on the image below:
{kindly give a blog follow before downloading any of my free printables...please and thank you}





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