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Clara’s room remix with Oh Joy for Lorena Canals rugs

August 24, 2018 Leave a Comment CASA, LIFE

This post is sponsored by Oh Joy and Lorena Canals but as always all opinions are 100% my own.

Clara just began third grade and she is so happy with the few new changes I made to her room.

Lorena Canals reached out to me again at just the right time too. We have their beloved Berber beige rug in our living room and we just love it! Recently, they came out with a new line by Oh Joy and Clara fell in love with the Happy Daisies print in gray.

Clara is our eldest Flower and we thought this was a perfect fit for her and her space. Lying almost in the center of her room, she happily plays with her toys and her sisters.

Besides playing she has discovered handstands and cartwheels and this beautiful rug offers her a safe place to practice and land! Another awesome thing about Lorena Canals rugs is they are machine washable. I literally never have to worry about dirt, allergens, or other mishaps because I can always give it a quick wash!

Another favorite addition we made to Clara’s room is a desk. She really wanted her own space to create and do homework and we felt this was a perfect time. I bought myself this same desk and love it because it doesn’t take up a lot of space and its super affordable too! Literally costs under $50!

Shopping for her desk chair was such a blast. I really thought we were going to find one at TJMaxx because there were some good contenders. But, alas, we found the perfect one at Walmart! I am such a fan of their ship to store option too! Her chair was under $50 on Rollback, winner, winner, chicken, dinner!

A few other changes were made and maybe we will make a few more in the future but really loving how this remix turned out! What do you think?

xx, Nicole

Family room remix with Lorena Canals rugs

February 16, 2018 Leave a Comment CASA

Our family room is literally where we live as a family!

You can find us huddled in the morning drinking coffee, snuggling limb to limb or just watching late night TV after the girls go to bed.

This is our first home and it’s going on thirteen years!! Can you believe that? I mean this is probably our third time changing furniture and almost everything including paint and flooring.

So, what did we do? Yep, we changed things up again!

We recently updated our main living space with a new, custom, couch, new art and to anchor it all, a beautiful Lorena Canals rug. When I first saw their Bereber beige I knew it was perfect for us and our space.

Besides how beautiful it is and versatile, can you believe it is machine washable too? Yes, you heard that right. You can pick it up and wash it in your wash machine! It literally is genius and perfect in every way! Everything is made all natural and regular cleaning cuts down on dirt and allergens.

If you are new here, well hello. We have three little girls and I am convinced they are just as messy as little boys! I love that we can live and be messy and with a quick wash all is right with the world once again! Everyone needs a rug like this in their life.

The couch is a local, family run Leather furniture store and it was worth the eight weeks it took them to make for us. For a family of five, it is the perfect perch for all of us! Our walls are a greige (combination of beige and gray) I am keeping our palette very neutral with brown, gray and even black and white. Kevin and I both agree Holland needs to be a little older before we add a coffee table. This one is so pretty from Article and it fits our comfortable style too. Here’s hoping we can add this in soon.

Isn’t she cute? She just started walking three weeks after her first birthday. She is all about playing right here where her little tush meets soft landing!

What do you think of our space? You can shop our look below.

This post is sponsored by Lorena Canals rugs, as always all opinions expressed are 100% my own!

Thanks for stopping by.

xx, Nicole

A new gallery wall idea with Parabo Press

October 27, 2017 Leave a Comment CASA

Do you love photos and seeing them displayed in your home?

I do and my favorite way to display them is by creating a gallery wall.

I have teamed up with a great print house, Parabo Press to demonstrate a new way to display your favorite photos. First, let me give you a quick back-story about our previous gallery wall. Last year around this time we repainted our home and of course, in so doing this we had to remove everything on the walls. Our very first gallery wall consisted of different frames and cute signs and I really loved it. But it did not allow for an easy way to update photos.

So, after months of a large blank wall and trying to decide on a new idea, I came up with a way to display beautiful photos and an easier way to change them out too. Parabo Press has many different options to choose from and I really love their oak poster rails because they are beautiful and much easier to swap out photos or artwork. You can choose from several different sizes ranging from 12” all the way up to 48” too.

Instead of a traditional family gallery wall, I decided to just display our three girls. Our front entry wall is about 84” wide so I chose three 16X20” poster rails and they fit very nice on our wall.

Poster rails C/O: Parabo Press

The poster rails are magnetic and this is what will hold your photo or poster straight and in place. I don’t know about you but I pride myself in trying to do projects like this alone (without bugging the hubs) and for the most part, I was able to. I’m going to walk you through how I measured and positioned these along with a couple simple tips too!

STEP 1. Measure the width of your wall. This will also help you decide on the size of your gallery too. Like, how many frames or rails and the size of them.

STEP 2. Once you know the width of your wall, divide and conquer. In our case, our wall is 84” wide. The height is up to you. 72” H from the floor is a pretty good place to start in my opinion.

84” W ÷ 2 = 42” (this marks your center point on the wall)

Each poster rail is 16” W and half of 16 is 8 so I placed the measuring tape at this midpoint on the 42” mark or center point on the wall.

STEP 3. Using the measurements above make light dash marks with a pencil marking where the middle poster rail will go.

STEP 4. Grab painters tape or in my case, pumpkin washi tape and cut 16” and line up with your pencil marks. Using tape is magic because if you measure wrong you will see it and you can just try, try, again!

To find my other two measurements, I divided 42” by 2. Measuring from the outer edge of the wall to 21” on both sides will space them correctly. Repeat steps 3 through 4. Then, it is always nice to double check your math so I took out my measuring tape and measured each space in between to make sure my spacing was right. If you are satisfied with the ole eyeballing method, that works too! There is 12” on both sides and 6” between photos and they center nicely behind our entry table.

Now that your measurements are correct and your tape is up, you are ready to hang your work. So I did all the above myself but I did need the hubs help to hang. If you have drywall like we do, hanging pictures can be a real challenge. Because we have zero confidence in the strength of our drywall we almost always use 3m velcro command strips. We attached a strip to the center of each top rail for reinforcement. This also helps to keep your photos straight over time too. I’m really happy with the results, what do you think? If you love it, use code OCT25 at checkout for 25% off your order!

xx, Nicole

Holland’s nursery room home tour

July 28, 2017 Leave a Comment CASA

I was a bit hesitant to share Holland’s nursery with you all because A. it still feels incomplete and B. I am having a hard time photographing her room! Something about a tight space and a mostly dark hallway, ugh.

I’m not really sure what exactly feels incomplete but if I were to guess, it’s the walls. I keep going back and forth with it. On one hand, I like the simplicity of the room but on the other, I still want something! All of my ideas seem to range anywhere from adding a ledge for more books to a place to hang and display all of her headbands. The headband idea I really like so most likely I will run out to Hobby Lobby sometime soon!

Do you ever do this? Second, guess yourself and take forever to design a space like me? Well, if not, I just made you feel better about yourself, ha! Oh boy, I’m both tired (seriously ready for school to start) and feeling a bit ornery as I write this. I’m gonna blame it on PMS and being on a no sugar diet for 7 days! Totally words for another post I know, but have to keep it real!

One of the things I love most about Holland’s nursery is it was Clara’s nursery originally. We chose to keep the wall color the same along with the vinyl quote but everything else is different about the space. The carpet was originally brown now it is a pretty gray. Most of the furniture is new too.

I am so glad I scooped up this Land of Nod bookshelf/toy storage during one of their big sales and I love, love, this rocking chair. Can you believe I found it for $40? Most Bentwood rockers go for $150 upwards to $300 and I found this one in perfect condition! I am not as in love with the dresser but I do like the story behind it. Long story short, I bought from Etsy and it was a terrible purchase! Nothing my dad couldn’t fix though, thank goodness! This was originally in Luci’s nursery too. The drawers are a perfect size for baby clothes and things. To give it an update I spray painted the hardware gold to match the other gold accents in the room.

Another favorite of mine is her crib. All three of my babies have slept in it and this holds such a special place in my heart. However, when it belonged to Clara and Luci it was white. After two babies things tend to get beat up so I asked a good friend to paint it for me. I am so happy with the results too. If you are looking for a beautiful gray I would highly suggest Benjamin Moore paint. Their colors are so rich and beautiful.

Every time I step into Holland’s nursery it is my favorite room in the house! I am reminded of all the memories of our first, precious, baby, girl and now I’m enjoying our last and third precious baby girl at the same time!

xx, Nicole

Already onto Spring cleaning

February 18, 2016 2 Comments CASA

Oh man its like I got back from vacation and some how got a wild hair to start Spring cleaning! I mean its not even Spring yet, but like I have been saying it sure feels like it. I’m still praying this isn’t the end of our Winter. My girls were even asking to play in their little pool yesterday.

So there was a time a long, long time ago when I kinda enjoyed cleaning and now 2.5 kids later…I have two girls under the age of 6, but for some reason I like saying 2.5 it sounds better to me lol. Now cleaning is nothing but dread pure dread these days. I am big on making lists and sticking to schedules heck I have even linked a few of my favorites in a previous post. I guess what I am trying to say is it’s hard no matter what when you are a Mom.

Honestly even though it seems to be getting harder to balance life let alone cleaning I made a list first thing this morning and stuck to it.. well for the most part I did. My biggest item was vacuuming the entire house and mopping the tiled areas. So this is where I veered off my list…I started to Spring clean!

Yep this is me doing a major “Spring clean” under my girls beds, bear with me its not easy taking a pic and trying to vacuum and why is it there is always one sock under the bed? Anyways my sweet, youngest daughter is our little pack rat. She loves to bring random items back to her bed. You know what I found under here? Two stickers, One sock, a toy tomato and a tiny lego! Then my little one comes in and she says, “Mom you have a lot of vacuums…little ones and big ones” she is so observant and yes she’s right I do. I get so excited about good cleaning machines!

It took me so long to decide on which vacuums would work best for me, I found that it’s always good to read some reviews first, so that is what I did and I couldn’t be happier with the products I chose.

Here are my two favorites for regular house cleaning + Spring cleaning… my newest member is a Dyson for all the heavy duty funky stuff and a Eureka for all the gross things I find in small places!

PS. I also have this handy guy for the minivan because don’t even get me started about what this Momma finds in here and I don’t even let my kids eat in the van and yet I still find crumbs…still trying to figure this one out! This Black & Decker works great for those pesky crumbs and dirt! So easy too it just plugs right into the van so good to take anywhere.

This weekend I plan on MORE Spring cleaning by taking out my Bissel to shampoo the carpets if I can get another big wind of energy. Have you started to Spring clean? What are your tips and tricks to the madness? I would love to hear from you.

XO, NICOLE

Mom’s favorite Christmas toys!

January 12, 2016 Leave a Comment CASA

Ok so this happened and guess what I made this mess on accident when I was trying to organize the girls legos. Ya I know I totally got mad and just when I think my oldest, Clara is going to walk away and say, ha ha Mom she kneels down to help me. Oh I love her sweet, little heart so much. I am so relieved you can’t see how dirty my floor is just a beautiful mosaic of legos! “Beauty in the chaos” and blogging is definitely pointing that out to me at the right times. Ok so legos are messy, they are tiny little land mines and I was so grateful that my Mother-in-Law bought us this Swoop bag for Christmas to hold and store our collection and it is also a play mat! So as to avoid what you see here! Wink!

Luci is an up and coming Master builder she loves to make little towers and group things by color!

I store this awesome Swoop bag in our “treasure chest” a.k.a our coffee table like this…notice this mornings line up of Littlest Pet shops!

We still have Duplos that we still haven’t outgrown so I am keeping them separate in their own bin for now.

Clara has been asking and begging for an American Girl doll and after much consideration and talking to other Mom’s I’m really glad I made the hard decision to wait until she’s at least 7 because here’s the reality folk’s! The reality is that my two little girls are well little and on most days this is how I find their toys lol! One night I ran to Walmart to pickup oh I don’t even remember, but I can tell you it wasn’t to spend over 40 minutes in the toy aisle! I was so relieved when another Mom stopped to do the same thing! I literally pulled out every doll off the shelf they had because I knew it was Clara’s wish to have a doll with her skin tone, slightly tan and her brown, curly hair. I have to tell you I had a blast that night and so glad I got these dolls. Luci’s was a pretty good match as well lighter skin tone and lighter almost blonde hair!

Here’s a better look kinda gave doll photography a shot since its kinda a thing now. They are called My life dolls and like I said before they are Walmart brand. They were each under $30 a piece and if their hair goes crazy or they loose a limb, let’s hope not… I’m not going to freak out as if they were almost $200 A.G. dolls!

I kinda well ok I totally do my research and I found out that along with Walmart’s brand, Target and even Toy’s R US carry similar brand dolls and the clothing and accessories are all compatible with each other because they are all 18″. So to break it all down: Walmart has My life dolls, Target is Our Generation and Toys R US are called Journey dolls.

Master shower + bath renovation

January 12, 2016 Leave a Comment CASA

So we finally remodeled our Master shower after talking about it for a long time, like 5 years long time! We are the original homeowners of our home and moved in over 10 years ago. We paid no attention to our plain “builder special” of a shower then. We were young and just happy to be homeowners. Those were simpler times and it is so nice to reflect back when we both started with several small apartments and no furniture! See I have a smart hubby he always wanted to wait until we had our own space to buy furniture and I hated every minute of waiting, but it was worth it and he was right wink!

I should have taken a true before picture, but I was so excited to see it go I forgot! This is the only before construction pic I have. You can see where the existing shower and tub used to be and it was bye, bye, Felicia!

The shower material is a porcelain “faux marble” from Home Depot.

Kohler rain shower head with an extra wand!

The floor matches the ceiling and is marble tile also from Home Depot. I was so nervous about the ceiling, but trusted our builder’s idea to tile it and so glad we did!

Ok, so I spent the most time with our niches because the “builder special” I was telling you about well let’s just say could barely fit a bar of soap! I literally measured all of our products we regularly use and they custom built them! Our gorgeous monogram towel hooks are from Anthropologie. Mine not pictured here is gold because ‘N’ wasn’t available at the time I purchased, but I have to say I love that they are different. Check it out here.

Awesome space right?

So along with our “builder special” shower once was an equally awkward tub that we hardly used. We decided to replace with an awesome jetted tub big enough for the two of us or these two cuties to enjoy. So many bubbles!

Currently my favorite bath salts I got them from Trader Joe’s last year and I am rationing every last granule!

Laundry piles literally…time saver

January 5, 2016 Leave a Comment CASA

Oh my does laundry pile or what and we are just a fam of 4! I actually have a load of wet laundry still waiting for me to put in the dryer yikes! I will spare you all the details of our laundry drama and tell about this handy dandy tip I learned well past owning this piece of equipment! See that button that reads ‘delay wash’ well when I feel things are piling higher than I would like I put a load in, add my detergent as usual and ht this button… mine maxes out 7 hours. Then the idea is when I get up in the morning all I have to do is add my garments to the drier. I don’t know about you, but this helps me to save time and money. We are enrolled in a 9am to 9pm energy efficiency program so I try to get most washing and drying done within this window and this tip totally helps with that and my sanity! Happy washing if there is such a thing 🙂

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XO, NICOLE

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