Prayer Wall

I am excited to share our new prayer wall!  (You can see our old one here)

Having a prayer wall is a great way to put Christmas cards and save the dates to good use.  We display them year round and go in and pray for our friends and family.  If you want to be added to the wall send us a Xmas card this year! :) Ps this was so easy. Hung one board to put pictures on that we already had.  Painted one piece of scrap wood and tied string to it.   _________ What do you do to remember to pray for your friends and family?  What do you do with your Christmas cards?  Would love to hear your thoughts! BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'

My Workspace and WYWW No. 13

 


<center>
<a href="http://www.ourlifeonabudget.com" target="_blank"><img alt="ourlifeonabudget" src="http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u488/Stasia08s/wish2_zpse9742e19.jpg"/></a></center>

Make sure to link up and read a few posts! :)

___________

I have been a little MIA this week… not responding to emails, comments, etc.  Exciting things are happening- all to be shared soon my friends.  But I can tell you that when it comes to the amount of stuff I have had to get done this week has been tough!

One thing I have discovered about myself… I love having a workspace. It helps me all the time, but especially during weeks like this. A place to work that is separate from the craziness of life. I also know (from experience) that space is usually a precious commodity and having a work space can be hard to float.  In the Pinterest world we live in today, we think everything has to be elaborate.
What I have found is a small nook, a table, a chair and my things.  It works.  I can stay organized.  I can get away and get stuff done while BD naps.

Yes, Yes, I often play the office while I am getting work done. :)

And just to be totally honest, this is my view if I look to the left… all of our stuff in boxes from the move.  I know, you are just dying to pin that ;)

So what about you?  Do you like having a workspace?  Is your's beautifully pin worthy, or like mine?

__________

Now it is time to link up again!

 


<center>
<a href="http://www.ourlifeonabudget.com" target="_blank"><img alt="ourlifeonabudget" src="http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u488/Stasia08s/wish2_zpse9742e19.jpg"/></a></center>

Link-up details. It's too easy not to join in:

*share a recent post of your choosing (link-up at very bottom of this post)

*include the WYWW button and/or a visible link-back to this post

*check out the hostesses' blogs and follow along: Stasia, Leslie, Nikki, and Melissa
*check out a few posts and share the love

   

    An InLinkz Link-up      

If you came to our apartment...

If you came to our apartment chances are you would see…  a lot of toys on the floor.   a pile of laundry on the couch or some *clean* cloth diapers folded not he coffee table.   a "hidden" mess behind the couch.  a pile to be put away in front of the bedroom door (we don't go in if BD is sleeping… too risky). dishes in the sink (we have no dishwasher to hide them in). a whole bunch of clothes hang drying. a cluttered bathroom counter. a bed that is not made. I used to hide all of this.  Wanted people buy the lie that the house is always perfect. but I have realized our house is not a mess… it is just lived in. That it is more important to spend time investing in your husband. And also investing in people, doing life with people and bring people into our home, than spending time making sure it is perfect every time someone comes over.  

Anybody else with a lived in house out there :)???

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Really our home has looked like Christmas since before Thanksgiving... I am just finally getting around to posting some pictures.
Tree

Our main tree :)
Fun Tree and Prayer Wall

This is the tree for all our sentimental ornaments... Hopefully we will need a bigger tree as the years progress :). The prayer wall is where we post all our Christmas cards so we can pray for friends throughout the year.
"Fireplace "

Coffee Table

Table

Felt Advent Calendar

Couches

Love our simple Chistmas :)

Nursery reveal...

We kind of had a weird decision when it came to the nursery.  As many of your readers know, Andrew is graduating in May and is currently looking for a job.  Right now we have entertained the idea of moving every where from Portland to Georgia to staying in New Orleans.  The crazy thing is even if we stay in New Orleans we will have to move because we currently live in family housing on campus. So Bailey will probably come sometime in March, and we will move sometime between May and August.  At absolute most, she will be here 5 months and at least less than 2! So why waste the time to set up the nursery?  Doesn't the baby stay in your room at first anyways?  So true, but as we began to receive baby stuff, we needed a place to put it.  And we figure eventually need all the nursery stuff, why not just set it up now.  We will just eventually move it to a new location.  And  it has been such a sweet place to prepare and pray for Bailey Drew! Plus... once we showed people our inspiration for the nursery...

People started giving us the cutest yellow and gray pictures, and the such.  We found great deals on everything else... God just provided so we did not spend a lot!  

So here it is... a nursery minus a crib which is waiting for us in a box in Georgia (little weird I know!)

A little overview of the space... looks a little shadowy here, but you get the idea. The glider was a great find on craigslist... ironically the people we bought it from are Georgia graduates living here in NOLA.

The "I love yellow" frame was a sweet birthday gift, the tree canvas has the thumb prints from all those who attended showers, and a friend gave me the frame with the yellow matting (picture needs changing :))

I made the little "B" frame from stuff we already had, the "You are my sunshine" frame was gift, and the tissue pom pom is from our gender reveal.

The initials were a shower gift, we moved the lamp from another room, bought the shelf, and did the canvas ourselves with a verse we are praying over Bailey.
The picture frame was a Christmas gift from my little brother, the show is from MUSES :), and the yarn "B" is left over from the gender reveal... B was for boy, but now it is for Bailey :)

And the dresser changing table.  It is higher so it works perfect for Andrew and I.  We found it on super clearance at Babies'R'Us!

 It should work... nothing over the top... but just a sweet room that hopefully can grow with sweet Bailey Drew!

our "new" apartment...

I say "new" because we actually moved here October... and this is the first chance I have to document! I have to admit that I was not excited to move here.  Being the frugal person I am I was not looking forward to higher rent... but I have to admit... it has been worth it! I feel like we live in a mansion... that sounds silly but it is true... there is more than one room!  And having our own laundry room... I think only appriciate this because I have been using coin laundry for the last 2 years!  These are nothing special... but they are home :)  

Anyways... here are some pictures!!!

 

Kitchen

 

Living Room

 

Master Bedroom

 

Master Bath

 

Nursery

 

Second Bath

 

Laundry

Silly to include this... but we never had a hallway before:) 

Hallway

   

Repurposed dresser!!!

Dresser… converted to a entertainment center!

I am always excited and amazed to see how God provides!  Our Walmart entertainment has been falling apart.  Seriously you pulled out the drawer.. and stuff was falling out of the bottom of it.  Honestly it was a mess even when we bought it four years ago, but we kept it anyways.

So I had this vision of finding a cheap dresser, painting it some fun color, and turning it into our entertainment center.  We have been looking for a cheap dresser and God provided.  A friend of ours gave us their old dresser for FREE...  Like I said God is amazing how he just provides!  

Here is the finished product... my camera decided not to work tonight so I had to use a not so good pic from my phone.

It was this bright royal blue before... I think I am going to paint the extra drawer and use it as a shelf in the nursery!:)

Now we are on the search for another dresser, a little longer, for Bailey's changing table/dresser.  I already have the paint color.  I am willing to wait for free or cheap... let me know if you've seen one!

Organizing our "office"...

Okay... so we don't really have an office so we have had to improvise with this little shelf behind our couch.  It is slightly visible in our "great room" so we really should keep it clean and organized.  Here is the problem: get a piece of paperwork we say, "oh, we will file it later."  One piece of paperwork turns into a pile and kaboom... our before picture.

First I just sifted through it... and used my typical piles
trash
goes here
goes somewhere else.

Then I thought it might work to create a file that just simply says "to be filed" that is easily assessable.  So even if I don't file right away... everything should have its place!

So glad this is organized... it makes me feel like I can start the school year... kind of :)

What have you been organizing???

Organizing our living room storage...

I have already been all about some deep cleaning... pantry, fridge, and bathroom storage...

and now for our living room storage!

One of the best decisions that we made when we moved into our little apartment is we bought some storage crates to put under our coffee table. When you have a small place you have to get creative, and this was how we managed all of our individual school work without it sitting out all of the time.

Sometimes our crates get a little disorganized, and we need to revisit them to reinstate them to their full usefulness in our lives.

We have six crates that fit under our coffee table, and each has its own purpose (my school, Andrew's school, school supplies, etc.).  I go through one crate at a time sorting it into three piles:

1. What stays in that crate.

2.  What goes somewhere else .

3. What gets thrown away.

I organize each crate then go back to the "What goes somewhere else" pile and put it all away.  I having these organized help us to keep our whole apartment better organized.

What space have you organized lately???