Project Post 28: Mudroom Wall

We moved into our house in February 2010, and I started brainstorming for this project shortly after that. After Pinterest launched and became widely used, I started finding lots of inspiration for this little project I wanted to tackle.

Here was my dilemma: our laundry room is also the walkway between the door to the garage (which is the door we use to enter the house 99% of the time; guests enter through the front door) and the rest of the house; meaning, it is a widely used, high-traffic area. It not only is a main source of traffic, but also used daily for laundry (I have a toddler, hel-lo), and up until a couple of weeks ago, it was the place we bathed my son every single day of his life (there's a huge tub-sink in there). I mentioned all of that to stress what a popular place this room is.



{Laundry room / walkway BEFORE}

You can see in the picture above that there is just a long blank wall on the left side of the room, and the doorway from the kitchen (there is a pocket door there, it stays open unless there is laundry going) and the door to the garage butt up against the wall so that there is no possible room to put a piece of furniture or any kind of organizational/functional anything there, without running into it every time you come or go. I really wanted a way to utilize this wall for storage or some kind of functional space. Our "landing strip" or "dumping post" for purses, diaper bags, and miscellaneous junk we bring in from the car was usually the kitchen table or island and it drove me insane. I wanted those things to have a "spot" out-of-site and not where we dine. The problem is now solved and it's beautiful!

Here is where my inspiration comes in. I saw a couple of these little projects in different posts on Young House Love, and the rest I found browsing Pinterest.

{Sources for 1, 2, 3}



 



{Sources for 4, 5}

I showed Tyler my inspiration pictures and he was on board and thought it was a good idea. After I pinched myself to make sure it wasn't a dream, I asked if we could do it that weekend and he said ok.......................(wait, WHAT?!) This was back in June and the reason it has taken me so long to share it, well, there is no good reason. It took me a good two months to get it painted and purchase a rug (yes, that's important) and take, upload, and edit some pictures.

We decided to go with bead board instead of doing the more craftsman-style option (which I do love) for 3 reasons:

1. There is really nothing about our house that is craftsman style

2. We couldn't just use 2x4s and paint the sheet rock because our walls are way over-textured (our painter called it a "Mexico house" and I absolutely agree - our drywall guys didn't listen)

3. Our cabinets throughout the house have a bead board panel so the bead board really works the best

 

The pictures will explain the rest:

 

{Before}

 

{Before}

 

 

 

{During Painting}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crock Pot Chicken and Noodles

I pinned this on Pinterest as a quick and easy weekday dinner, and that's exactly what it was. It was a great simple meal - good comfort food for cool weather. I made it for us one night, and the next two days my mom, brother, and I ate it for lunch until it was gone. We were getting ready for Levi's birthday party and my brother sent a text to ask if we needed fridge space -- offering to come eat the rest of the chicken and noodles. So, I guess it was good!

Ingredients:
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 Cup butter (sliced)
42 oz chicken broth
pepper, to taste
Egg noodles

Instructions:
Place breasts and butter in crock pot (I threw mine in partially frozen). Combine soup, broth, pepper and pour over chicken. Cook on low 8-9 hours. An hour before serving, shred the chicken and add uncooked egg noodles. I had a 24oz bag of noodles and added about 3/4 of the bag. Add less if you like it soupy and more if you like it really thick.

{I'm Blushing Over Here}

Friends, remember a few weeks ago when I shared with you about my new (estate sale) entertainment cabinet and the new hardware I won for it in a giveaway on House*Tweaking? Well I shared my before and afters with Dana (author of House*Tweaking) and she posted about it on her blog today (insert squeal here). I've followed her blog for quite a while and I am honored she decided to post about it! Go check it out and leave a comment if you want to:)

See her post HERE.

Caterpillar Hunting

I always thought being a mom to a girl would be really fun, but I never really knew what to expect about being a boy's mom. As it turns out, it's REALLY fun. :) And the real fun probably hasn't even started yet (a lot of the things we do he isn't old enough to be really into yet, but we do them any way).

We go to speech therapy every Tuesday in a town that is about 25 miles from where we live. We drive through "the bottom" to get there (it's a big short cut) and it's just a road through a bunch of soybean fields and farm land. Several weeks ago I started noticing these huge, furry caterpillars crossing the road as we drive through. I didn't know what they were at first, and I was a little nervous/intrigued/flabbergasted that they might be big spiders (I'm deathly afraid, but kind of like looking from a distance), so one day I just stopped and got out and looked, and they were just cute, huge, soybean-fed caterpillars. I've been meaning to bring Levi and his bug box down there one day and "catch" some, and yesterday was that day.

With the new addition of a lot of new, fun back yard toys, and now our new pet caterpillars, our back yard is like a little boy wonderland. It's fun being a boy-mom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Party Pictures

For Levi's 2nd birthday party we had originally planned on inviting several of his little friends (and their parents - our friends) and some family and letting the kids eat cake and play outside...but 3 of his friends already had plans (vacations, etc) to be out of town on the day of his party...so we just had a family gathering for his party. The structure of the party changed a little, but we still had a wonderful time of celebrating Levi. I did things a little simpler than at his first birthday party - we just had brisket sandwiches and some sweets as we got to mingle with family that we don't get to see super often. The party started at the kickoff of the OU game, so we had some extra entertainment as well. It was a great time!

On a side note, the memories are great, but they were captured....not so well. I wasn't paying much attention and my camera settings were way off and so all of the pictures are blurry and terrible. There's always next year ;) I'm posting this mainly for those who didn't get to make it to the party for whatever reasons (both of my grandma's weren't able to be there, and also two aunts - for different and unexpected reasons - WE MISSED YOU!) Anyway, they have been asking for pictures, so here are some. Look past the blur and you can kind of make things out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{Lesson learned: have the party earlier in the day!:) He was SO tired and about to fall asleep}

 

{Better once he realized it was cake}

 

 

 

 

I still didn't do a great job of getting a picture of everyone here. Again...there's always next year. I vow not to fail at pictures! It was a great party and I'm certain Levi had fun. We had it a week early and we are looking forward to celebrating with our little guy a little more intimately on his actual birthday this Friday.