it's been busy around here...

we have been very busy around our house the last few days.

as usual, Dylan has been busy watching Toy Story and crawling around like a mad man and walking around every piece of furniture he can get his hands on and drinking out of his sippy-cup and waving to whoever waves at him and babbling like crazy and getting an even more teeth in his already-full mouth of chompers.

Brett has been busy studying for the GMAT and he is starting a course tonight that will help him up his score so he can take it and register for the U's Master's program of Accounting. he has been such a busy guy working his little tail off at work, getting up at 5:30 everyday so he can have Friday's off to be with us and to do yard work to keep our yard looking great. he is the hardest working guy i know. i am so grateful for him and his work ethic and his drive to get things done. because i feel like i have none.

and as for me, i finally have been getting on decorating our home. room by room, instead of just talking and dreaming about it, i've been starting to decorate. the problem has been decorating on the cheap. when you have a limited budget, decorating seems to get pushed to the back-burner, at least for us. but we saved up a little and i did some DIY-ing and our front room is FINALLY finished!!! i am so excited to show you all. we just put the finishing touches in it last night and it felt like Christmas having it finally done and exactly the way i have pictured it in my head.

first, i'll show you what i redid, then show you the full room so you can see the difference.

i got this mirror on KSL even before we were house-hunting because i knew i love mirrors around my house. it's gold with a brown edge. that didn't go with my color scheme for the front room at all so i spray-painted it (hence the tape in the picture) to a light nickel color.

then, i went to Hobby Lobby in search of a couple of really large vases to put on either side of our entry buffet, but every single vase that i was looking at was around $70 a piece. since we aren't rich people, i decided to make the vases i wanted myself. i found a couple of these beauties on the same isle for less than half the price of the ones that were already painted, and since i had a $25 gift-card to the store and a 40% off coupon i got two of them for $12. amazing!! i went to a different store and bought some spray-paint in the color i wanted, and started transforming them.

i don't know why i haven't used spray-paint earlier. it's so easy and fun to redo things and so easy with spray-paint.

so after lots of coats on both the vases and the mirrors, this is how they and the front room turned out...

 and the wall collage that i have dreamed of having ever since i was introduced to Pinterest. after Brett showed me how to use a hammer and a nail and how to hang them, i hung each one of these photos and signs by myself. and i free handed this collage. i set it up on the floor before, but it looked completely different than how it turned out, but i just love it! it was so much fun doing it myself and getting the satisfaction of doing it myself.

so there you have it. i just love it. i have been sitting in this room all morning and just love the feeling of having it just the way i want it.

the living room is next...i have a few things to hang and we are having some furniture made for that room as i type and i am so excited for when it's done :) and i am repainting since i am over the red wall already. ha! go figure. i will post photo's as soon as it's done :)