Brindle's Nursery

I am finally uploading pictures of the house! The "Our Home" page is now updated. Gotta upload more of the kitchen, though.

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For Brindle's room, I decided to go with a sherberty orangey pinkish color. I painted the ceiling and walls in a couple of days and the rest of the room kind of came to me after that. I love turquoise so I added a little turquoise here and there.

The room is pretty crowded but it was necessary in order to have the twin bed in there that we got for her. I'd love to have more room but I like having the twin in there more, so it will do! There's enough floor space, so its okay. 

I wanted to go with a burlap-and-lace theme but it ended up a linen-and-lace theme because burlap is too hard to sew with (not that I sew...). I had a lot of help in this room implementing my ideas. Mama Brown sewed the amazing curtains, Aunt Rhnea made the gorgeous lace canopy, Mom had the linen bed and crib skirt made, Vaughn helped me paint and pick out the rocker, and Cole helped me sand and paint the furniture. I love how it turned out!

With my affinity for re-arranging furniture, though, who knows how long it will stay like this? (Seriously, though, these pictures are making me want to change it up a bit.)

Come visit her sometime!

Laundry Room - Finished

I've since come to realize that quick home renovation projects are not our strong suit... this laundry room update was started over a year ago. But it is finished! I can't even find, nor do I want to find, a "before" picture. So here are the "afters.

We installed cabinets and shelfs to provide storage and it has been awesome to have it. This room looks ten times bigger with wall to wall built ins.

Kanyon built this platform for us to put shoes under and a bar that was much prettier than the one we had before.

Well, there ya go! (I still hate doing laundry, though. Bummer.)

Backyard Plans

I have so much to share and no blog posts to show for it!

Kanyon and I are almost always working on something in our house. And the "Our Home" page on this blog is so behind. I'll make that a priority next week - a lot has changed! I've learned that it takes us a while to finish projects, though. I started chronicling the renovation of Kanyon's shop and our laundry room and Brindle's nursery and never posted finished pictures! Well that's because the nursery is the only thing out of those three actually finished. BUT Kanyon is finishing up the laundry room as we speak (....type? ... read?)!!! I'm so excited about how it is turning out, over a year later! Its inspiring me to finish out his shop, too, although I think he's finally got it through my head that its not going to be a "pretty" part of our home. Its his shop and thats it. There's just a couple cosmetic things left to do but those are always the parts that take the longest for me. I get lots of steam going to start a room and then towards the end, I lose it and it takes forever to get done!

We are also making plans to finally start work on our backyard. It is the only part of the "Our Home" page that is still accurate. Its just a blank slate. A big one that we get a little overwhelmed when we think about starting. But we feel a little more need now that we will have an 18 month old next summer. This summer, she won't be running around in it yet.

We plan on building a deck, trying again to grow grass (this drought has killed all of Kanyon's efforts), putting up a tree swing, and making a little fire pit area (got the fire pit, just need a couple chairs and a way to designate the spot). Future plans are to landscape some more, maybe have a garden (with my Aunt Rhnea's help... right, Aunt 'Nea?), have a play area for Brindle... Its such a big area that there could be so much done with it.

 This picture is old - Kanyon has replaced the roof, the trim, and the door of his shop.

..... And I gave up trying to spray paint those chairs. They're gone. Spray painting is not my strength.

The deck will extend from the back door (replacing that cement porch). We have a very nice grill that was a graduation gift to Kanyon from my parents that we want to have in view (we keep it in the outdoor closet seen in the top picture to keep it from the elements) and hopefully a dining area? The fire pit is going to be next to the tree. Something simple like this (I think I've already shared this picture on my blog...) with gravel.

This picture is an inspiration for me...

I love how the different areas are designated in the backyard and you don't have to have grass everywhere - especially since a yard is so hard to keep here. There also isn't a lot of flowers and plants to tend to. I love the look of flowers and color but have to be honest with myself that I kill everything I plant - simple is better. I just want to have a backyard that me and my family spend a lot of time in.

And THIS is my dream porch - how amazing is this!??

Maybe someday when we get really rich. ;)

Well, we are heading to Houston for the rest of the week! I am so excited to spend time at my parent's house. I get so anxious for them to see Brindle! She changes so much so quickly. Have a great week!

Pics and Vids

(How generation Y is that post title?)

There's nothing better than being a parent, I've decided. That look they give you first thing when they wake up in the morning or from a nap... that "I'm so happy to see you" look... nothing beats that.

So humor me while I shamelessly share tons of pictures of my current hobby - playing with Brindle.

One night I was trying on some Mary Kay samples and decided Brindle would look great in "Rockin Red" lip gloss, too. She obviously is a natural lip gloss model.

She loves being talked to and is an easy smiler!

When she gets excited she does what I call her excited squirms. She got so excited this time, I decided we were going to have to strap her into the bouncer from now on. She almost squirmed right out of it!

And this outfit just killed me...

And for your viewing pleasure -- a couple of videos. I was going to upload a bath picture but decided you can never be too careful posting stuff on the internet. But its pretty darn cute so ask me to show it to you next time I see you!

And don't worry - I still pay attention to Kanyon! Haha. We have had so much fun together being her mommy and daddy. And look what that guy got me for Valentines... a new oven. YES. The one we've had worked okay but it baked unevenly and I know the temperature was off. This new one is swanky - ceramic cook top and convection oven. Tell him good job next time you see him.

Never mind that two days later, our water heater went out and he felt a little less enthusiastic about having to buy two major appliances in one week...

Hope you had a great Valentines with your loved ones!

Catch Up

I have been a bad blogger lately... lots to write about but not much energy to do it! I had my first baby shower last weekend and I have lots of pictures to show for it but first I think I need a random filling in post.

In recent news, I hit my third trimester this week! I'm a little confused on exactly how far along I am, though. My doctor says I'm 28 and a half but I thought I was in my 27th week. I'll glad take his word for it, though. I'd much rather be further along.

I think I experienced my first day of third trimester fatigue yesterday. I felt like I had been drugged all day and couldn't snap out of it. When I got home from work, I crashed on the couch and couldn't get up for church. Thank you, Mom, for making meals and putting them in the freezer for me because it would have been slim pickins otherwise. 

The nursery renovation has finally begun! We moved all the furniture out that we weren't using and put together all the furniture we were. My mom saved the crib and dresser/changing table that were mine and we are going to use it for Brindle. We also have a twin bed in there in case we ever need more sleeping room.  Other than those pieces, all we have left to get is the glider, which Kalith and Vaughn have generously told us they would buy for us!

We painted a couple weekends ago and we love how it turned out. I am not a big pink person for decorating so I went with a salmon-pink color. But not on the walls, on the ceiling! We painted the walls a tan. This is not a great picture, I know. But it was the best way for me to show how they look together with the white trim. The two doors are the closets.

There is still some updates that we are going to do like changing out the doorknobs (this actually finally got us to replace all our doorknobs with oil-rubbed-bronze matching knobs) and replacing the fan. I wish I could take a picture of the completely stupid placement of the fan in the room. I'll take a picture of its ridiculousness for you later.

As far as the "theme" of the room, I am going with a rustic country feminine theme... with lots of creams and white and turquoise to go with the salmon pink. I don't have anything nailed down yet but I'm going to use some burlap and lace and lots of fabric flowers.

Another change that's got me super happy is our new kitchen table!

You may also notice that those are new curtains that Vaughn and I made from a Pottery Barn king size duvet. I still need to figure out what to do with those chairs and I am leaving a space on the side for the high chair (that I got at the shower this weekend - yay!). The table is from World Market and has a beautiful hammered top. I'm also excited about the bench. I figured up we could seat 11 people plus Brindle in our kitchen with the bar! The table has a much bigger and impressive presence in our kitchen. I plan on painting the trim the same color the cabinets are so it won't be so stark white next to the yellow and have some sort of table setting out. When? I don't know. Hopefully soon. I really need to update my house tour page altogether.

Another also - I mentioned a while back that I started a Mary Kay business. I have really enjoyed it so far! It started out me wanting to support my friend Kellye who had started selling it by having her come do a facial on me and booking a party. After my facial, I was really loving how my face felt so much better. I had mentioned in a post a while back how I had started using Clinique's Turnaround Overnight and loved it. I was equally happy if not more with how Mary Kay felt and I really was not expecting that since I had been to a MK facial party and experienced it before. The only thing I can think of is that the first time I tried it, it was soon after I had moved to Welch and my skin hadn't freaked out from the dryness yet. I was open to talking to Kellye and her director about potentially selling it and after a few weeks of really doing my research on the company and earning potential, I decided yes, I would. And I'm really liking it. The company is great to work with (I didn't say for because you really are your own boss) and the products are so easy to sell because they are high quality and affordable. Anyway, just wanted to update everyone on that. If you're interested in looking at my website, its www.marykay.com/erikambrown. Not to mention, its really fun to wear "big girl" makeup instead of the drug store cheap stuff. Except now I get it at a discount about the same price as drug store. :)

What else, what else? As far as Kanyon's farming, people have been asking a lot how its going this summer. I'd say its better than last summer for sure. We still really need rain but we have gotten a little here and there and thats better than the nothing we got last year. Kanyon said he wanted to take me out and show me both his new land with better water and his land that he's had to compare, so when he does, I'll take pictures.

Alright, I'll be done for now.

Our new pet.

Zeb is not a huge fan of him, he keeps growling at him every time he passes by but I think he'll come around.

This is Kanyon's mule deer that he shot here in Welch last November in the last few hours of mule deer season. He's very proud of it (I am, too!) and our friends who are taxidermists insisted that we had to mount him because of his size. He's got such a pretty face, too.

The living room has gone through so many changes lately, I really need to get some pictures up soon!

Updates

I took these early last week with the intentions to post it then! Woops. It was a busier week than I've had in a while so I guess I can say there is a reason this time!

I really can't even recall if I've shown what our porch looks like in a while. So if I already have, just make me think I haven't.

I do know that I took a picture of this bench when I first painted it though. But here's the whole view. I still really love driving up to this view!

Kanyon won't be too happy that I posted this before he was able to mow again. We had a lot of rain last week and they grew like crazy! Not complaining though, that rain was so needed.

In fact, I trimmed our Dusty Millers (the grey plants) to all be the same height and then the rain came and they exploded! Guess I'll have to do that again. I definitely don't claim to have a green thumb or to know anything about keeping flowers and plants alive! I'm usually surprised if they survive.

Another change that I've been yet to document is a buffet that I bought from my friend Kelly a while back. I love it. It really fills out the space better than the buffet I had there before. I changed up some of the decor, too.

I bought another shelf to match the one I had on that wall above the table to add some more height to that wall. I took down the small gallery wall I had going on around the clock because we are having one of Kanyon's deer mounted and that wall will change soon anyway.

And last, the flowers that Kanyon surprised me with for Mother-to-be's Day!

Laundry Room Progress

We're not done yet but it is already looking so much better!

A little over a week ago, it still looked like this...

I had started it a whole two weeks before but when my grandmother passed away, it got put on hold for a little. So just the edges of the room had been painted.

The weekend before last, I finished painting the whole room. And then last weekend, I painted all of the cabinets and came home yesterday to them installed by Kanyon! I got to work immediately putting all of our stuff back into the laundry room and out of the back bedroom, which looked like this with all of our laundry stuff in it.  

And now, we have this!

Woohoo! There's still work to be done obviously. The countertop needs to be installed and shelves built between the cabinets. There will also be another built in countertop and clothing rack on the right wall but we're not positive how that will look yet. Oh and hardware.

But I'm happy we got the bulk of it done!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Its been about two weeks since my last blog post. Since I assume only family and friends read this blog, most of you probably know why but if not - I was in Oklahoma all last week. My grandmother passed away on Monday at about 6:45 pm. About 30 minutes after Kanyon and I threw clothes in our bags and jumped in the car to try and make it to Oklahoma before that happened. But that's okay - I'm so happy that she is with God now.

I have lots of pictures and memories from last week to share - but not today. I'm still trying to catch up from missing almost a week of work and the exhaustion from last week hit me yesterday. It took me about an hour and a half to grocery shop last night. It should have taken me fifteen. I was a zombie walking down the aisles. 

We got home on Friday night. The next morning, I had scheduled before my grandmother died to run in a 5K with my friend Lauren. I still wanted to do it so Lauren drove from Midland on Friday night and we drove to Lubbock Saturday morning. The temperature was 19 degrees with a wind chill of 5 degrees. Crazy? Yes. We were. But we did it! I'm really glad we did.

Sunday, we had a few inches of snow coming down most of the day so we spent the day inside, me cleaning and Kanyon working on leather. He made a gorgeous belt for our friend Andrew using the hide we bought for the pillows he is making me :) He said he would get them done this week! So excited!

So about the quality of these pictures... Kanyon told me that he was taking them to Andrew that night so I had to take a picture right then. After dark. So I already knew I wasn't going to like not having natural light. And then it was in a rush. So I didn't know until after he'd taken the belt that the camera focused on the antlers instead of the belt. Awesome. But here ya go.

I love the white buckstitch!

So, an update on the laundry room.

I started on two Saturdays ago. Then we had to rush to Oklahoma. Then we got home and I was in Lubbock all Saturday and then it dawned on me that I was hosting a 31 Gifts party at my house on Thursday and the house needed cleaned. So. It hasn't been touched since two Saturdays ago and currently looks like this.

Two coats of cutting in done. Just waiting for the walls, which should go much quicker.

Where did all our laundry room stuff go, you ask?

In here. Can't wait to get this all in cabinets and organized!

Oh and also, Kanyon finally put up the window on the wall in the guest bedroom. Disregard the laundry sorting piles, will you? Actually it looks kind of puny in the picture. It has a much bigger presence in person.

Okay, thats all I got for you today but I do want to tell you Happy Valentine's Day! Kanyon has spoiled me so far and he says I have more gifts on the way ;) 

My friend Katy created some super cute print-outs for date nights and shared them on her blog today. Go check them out!

Laundry Room Plans

For my Christmas and birthday present this year, I asked Kanyon if we could spruce up the laundry room. It is an 8x8 room that we haven't really done anything with except to buy a cheap shelving unit from Walmart and stick in there. The walls are white with no paint. I realize that's the case with most people's laundry room but it drives me crazy! Probably because most of the time it ends up looking like this... (and when I say this, I mean stuff thrown on the shelves and on the floor... I don't even know what's in that white trash bag?).

The dirt that piles up and stuff thrown everywhere makes me never want to go in this room. Especially when I see pictures of beautiful laundry rooms on Pinterest like these.

How much better would it be to fold clothes in that second laundry room?? I might actually get it done quicker...

But more than wanting it to be prettier, I just want it to be more functional and have more storage. Originally we liked the idea of putting a counter in the middle of the washer and dryer but then decided we wanted them next to each other. I have a top loading washer and the buttons for the dryer are on top so we couldn't put a counter on top of them either.

Thankfully the measurements of the room work out perfectly for stock cabinets to fill in that back wall nicely. So we went to Lowe's last weekend and bought a 36 in deep and 36 in tall (the same height as the W&D) counter with two doors and drawers to put on the left of the W&D. So it will be counter top cabinets, washer, then dryer wall to wall on the back wall. 

We also bought two wall cabinets to put on the wall above. We will have them like that top picture, both on the sides with shelving between them. Except I will probably add another shelf. We were excited that stock cabinets worked out so well because they are so cheap! We got them unfinished so we I can paint them how I want. I'm thinking I want to try something cool?

We have a fridge in there in the left corner and the hampers and hanging rail are on the right. We haven't nailed down exactly how we want to put those yet. The fridge can't move but I'm hoping to build another counter top above the hampers.

So the next step is painting in there. I'm hoping I can get that done this weekend. I can't wait to get it done!!

P.S. Kanyon bought a new truck yesterday! YAY!

The Other Room

The former office is now just another bedroom since I switched the furniture with the other bedroom. So to keep it from being a storage room, we pulled out a trundle bed that we had in storage and stuck it in there. It was a little crazy-town in there for a while because December itself was crazy-town and we ended up throwing all the gift-wrapping stuff, the dresser and buffet we bought from friends, and my brother-in-law in there for most of that month... He stayed with us while the whole family was in town and spread out at his parent's house, along with Amy who lives with Kanyon's sister Jada. But she got the big bed guest bedroom. Girl's just get that privelege.

So once December was over and done with, the wrapping stuff got put away and the furniture got moved around. Its now a clean and organized room that doesn't give me hives. (Disorganization does that to me.)

The aforementioned dresser we bought from my friend Lauren stayed in that room and we got an old sketch from Kanyon's mom that Kanyon hung in his college house. 

So since I'm still not wanting to paint in there since we want to make it a nursery someday, I'm trying to use what we already have in there for the time being. I'm happy with how this corner turned out. This is the view that you get walking down the hallway. Those antlers on top are two of Kanyon's bucks, one of them was his first every when he was little.

*I know that that cord from the lamp showing like that is a decor faux pas. But I don't much care, thank ya.

I also pulled out on of my Granny's quilts for the bed. I love this particular one and would love to work it into a room someday.

And yup, that corner is all I'm going to show you because the rest of the room is just a dresser, a desk, and a trunk. But its organized, and thats all that matters! For a while.

Guest Bedroom

Well, I finally took pictures and edited them of my guest bedroom. It was my favorite room of the house for a little while before I took down and rearranged all the decor in the living room! Hopefully it won't take me months to show those, too...

Of course, the reason I've been postponing showing this room is because there are two things that still need to be done. And still aren't. But oh well.

How about a before (with bad lighting and editing that made the green reeeally lime):

And here it is now:

(That window on the floor leaning against the wall is going to be on the wall above the bed landscape style ... its one of the things keeping the room from being finished... ahem Kanyon.)

The fabric was given to me by Mom when we first got married. She couldn't find a use for it and I figured I might. So Vaughn made me a couple of shams and that small pillow. We have plans to replace that brown throw at the end of the bed with a throw made out of this fabric. And I used the excess to make this valance.

You can't really see in the pictures but up close you can see the nail head trim on the ends.

Our "office" has now been moved to this room. It really only consists of a desk and file cabinet, which is in the closet.

Since I switched the furniture between the office (now just another bedroom) and this guest bedroom, all the walnut stained furniture is in the other bedroom.

I really love how this room turned out. It is much more the vision I had for it when I painted this room this color. And when I say "I painted" I mean I picked out the color because Mama Brown painted it for us! (How awesome is that?)

I also cleaned out both the closet in this bedroom and the other one. When we moved in, a lot got thrown in there. I donated or relocated a lot of stuff and now they are nice and organized. Organizing closets is so fun to me! (No, thats not a joke.)

I'm about to update the Our Home page to reflect all the changes. I'll be updating that page a little over the next few months (hopefully!) with some changes we have planned.