22 months later... ONE finished room!

We moved into our dream house 22 months ago. And in those 22 months, I've been completely and totally overwhelmed on how to decorate it, and where to start. I'm one of those people that won't just throw stuff up on the walls for the sake of having it there - I have to love it. Which makes my husband nuts. So I had us completely unpacked within a month, but just no decor, or very little. So....I decided to start with a bathroom. It's the bathroom for our guest bedroom and is hardly ever used, but I felt like it was a great starting place for me for a few reasons: first, it was a completely blank slate. It didn't even have a shower curtain yet. Second, since it's for the guest room, it doesn't have to fit the color scheme of two little boy rooms, the master bedroom, etc. No pressure.

So about 6 months ago I bought this great shower curtain at Target completely on a whim. I just loved the color (kind of a seafoam green/blue) and the fun waffle texture. This was my splurge at about $28. I hung it, and there it sat for 6 months. :) When I finally had a plan, I came back. We didn't make huge changes, but the few we made I think made a good impact.




I needed a towel rack. I love our antique bronze doorknobs and handles in our home, but I realized quickly a matching towel rack was expensive. And boring. And then I came across this fun idea to build your own on one of my favorite blogs - House of Smiths. She used molding to create super cute boxes and filled them with Vinyl (which she sells in her super cute shop). LOVE IT! But, in my world, I don't make and sell vinyl, and I was trying to do this on the cheap (remember this is room #1 - the list of rooms to decorate is loooong). I love beadboard, and had the great idea to fill the blank space with that instead. Enlist one handy husband, and VOILA! A shabby, home-made towel rack for about $30!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I tried to stick to 3 colors - the Seafoam green/blue from the shower curtain, Chocolate Brown, and White. All my towels were bought on clearance at Target for about $7 a set. (a bargain in my book) I wanted a more custom look to my towels, so I added some grosgrain ribbon to the white ones (another great idea from House of Smiths - see her post here)

For the pictures above the towels, I reused old frames. I hated the plain white mats, so instead I used fun fabric and mounted the pictures straight on to really make them pop. (Cost = nothing! Scraps of fabric and repurposed frames)

For the decor on the counter - this is always were I struggle, however I love how this turned out. I used extra hand towels, a fun new Hurricane vase I received at a Church Christmas Gathering a few weeks back, and reused a wooden box we received a gift in. I filled the vase with Cinnamon sticks (clearance at Target - $5). The candle sticks are CHEAP. Yes, they are super cute and look really fancy, and they are actually wood, but cheap. Also a gift. Add fun oversized layered candles from Z-Gallerie about 10 years ago, and there you have it! I also added a rug and I think I bought it on sale - about $13. It's not a bathroom rug - for some reason those are way more expensive, but it is the braided chenille, so just as soft. I've just realized it's in none of the pictures! Oh well, you'll just have to trust me, it's cute.

I had really hoped to use more sewing in this room, but it just wasn't necessary! Oh well, I'm sure there's plenty in my future for the rest of the house. ;)

A Feature!

In the Spring, I joined the EtsyKids team, and it's been a ton of fun! Recently, I've participated in the EKTT (EtsyKids Treasury Team) and have really enjoyed making treasuries featuring some of my talented teammates. One of my treasuries, "A Slice of Pumpkin Pie," has been featured on the EKTT blog! What fun! Come on by and take a look at some of the other great features on this blog here!

Vote, Vote, Vote!

I love entering contests. Not sure what it is about it because I never win, but I enjoy the competition of it I guess. :) This month I entered the design challenge with the Etsy Kids team I'm a part of. If you have a second, stop by and check out the great items out there by some very talented Etsy sellers... The theme this month is "dainty damask," and everything is just cute, cute! :)

Vote here! And here's the entry for Leyton Smiles - damask is one of my current fav styles - I only wish I had a little girl to use it on! :)

A Sneak Peek!

Several new items coming to Leyton Smiles this week, including several new fabrics and several old favorites! A new item each day this week... Here's a preview of today's item - HELLO Alexander Henry! (stay tuned)! :)

A Big Boy room (and Hello Again!)

Wow - has it really been almost 3 months since I posted?!? Goodness, maybe I'm worse at this blogging thing than I thought... ;) Things have been busy, busy around here! School ending, beginning of Summer, lots and lots of fun with the kiddos, and a few projects around the house! Whew! I'm worn out and it's just barely July!

One big project that's eating ALL my extra time is my oldest son's room. We moved into a new house about a year ago. And since then, I've never been happy with his room. I love the room itself, but the furniture just didn't look the same in this room - it was just too small, too plain, and just overall not right. And since I'm always on the hunt for a good project (because I like running around crazy apparently), I decided we had our work cut out for us! We are really doing a full on redo of the room... Painting (because he wants BLUE), new bedding (of which I'm too cheap to buy all of, so I'm making a good chunk of it), curtains, new built-ins, and even a new bed! Well, really, the bed isn't new. It's actually a wonderful antique that I've inherited and had restored several years back. I LOVE this bed, and I think it's going to be great in this room! So here's some of the before pics... When it's done, I'll post the after shots. Note - I totally forgot to take pics before we put the new bed in there. So that's the new bed, but most everything else is either being changed in some fashion, painted, or removed from the room entirely! Loosely, he's chosen a shark/ocean theme. Nothing on the bedding, but I'll tie it in with a few fun accents! Stay tuned - we've promised to have it finished before school starts - which is Aug 12th around here, so I better get moving!

Tuesday Happys!

Would you look at that! I'm actually posting Tuesday Happys on a Tuesday? Get out of town.


Hope everyone's week is off to a sunny start! I'm looking forward to adding a few new items to the shop this week as I'm almost caught up on giveway items. If you didn't win one this time, no worries - I'll be participating in a few more soon! I just need a little break to work on a few new items for my shop. As much as I love giveaways (it's always nice to hear feedback), it tends to eat up my time and I don't get to make as many fun, creative things for Leyton Smiles as I'd like!


Also, keep your eyes out for another post later this week... I've had a few people ask me to share my story behind starting Leyton Smiles (it's nothing earth-shattering, so don't get your hopes up). :) Happy Tuesday everyone!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!

Sorry for the major delay in posts! Life just happens and time gets away from me. In the last two weeks, both my kiddos have had a nasty virus that seemed to hang around for days, and my youngest turned 2, so we had a big bash to celebrate! I've still been completing custom orders, but haven't had a ton of time to just sit down and come up with fun items on my own. Anyway, back to regularly scheduled programming... HAPPYS! Can you find the theme? :)