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I like to ate ate ate apples and bananas

I like eat eat eat epples and benenes 

I like to ite ite ite ipples and bininis

I like to ote ote ote oplles and bononos

I like to ute ute ute upples and bununus

   Barney

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We got some new toys from a dear friend and Isaac has been loving them!!  We’ve been so blessed to have so many “hand-me-downs”.  Thanks to Reed’s for the latest goodies!!

Baby I’s Boudoir

It’s about time we share Baby Boy’s nursery!

As most of you know, we didn’t find out if we were having a boy or a girl when we were pregnant.  I had planned multiple different nurseries in my mind over the years.  And when it came time to plan the actual nursery our sweet baby would grow up in I went back to square one (aka blank pinterest board) with my thoughts. 

I didn’t want to go with an actual theme – I wanted sophisticated but fun.  Simple and classic.

I decided on a color scheme of slate, white and tan.  That way we could accent with some pink if we were having a girl or just keep it warm and neutral with a boy.  And a sweet baby boy is exactly what we were blessed with.  The wall color is Pashmina by Benjamin Moore and we love it!  It’s the perfect amount of cool and warm. 

The chair (which rocks and swivels) was a hand me down that we recovered in a white chenille – brave I know.  But I do love the crisp white against the warm pashmina wall.  I used the same company, Sugar Hill Upholstery, that re-upholstered the hounds tooth chair in the living room.  The pouf is from Target and is perfect spot to prop your feet up while rocking baby boy to sleep.

Love this wrapped canvas with a picture from our Two Little Monkey’s session.

   

Of course some friends hanging out:
Giraffe made by Grandmom and a rocker from Uncle John. 

I found the window treatments at IKEA (I think they’ve discontinued them) that I think are perfect for the space.  I love their drapes, nice and long!  For the artwork over the crib we used pages from an old book from Aunt Mark.  Sweet Walter the puppy and Lamby are hanging out in the crib.

         

I used the rug that originally was in the dining room at the old house.

 

Both the dressers are family pieces, one from Joe and the double dresser was my grandparents’.  It works perfectly as the changing table.  I love having all his clothes in arm’s reach.  The mirror over the dresser has been a hit as well.  He loves to check that super cute baby that is looking back at him!  Oh and don’t worry I attached the mirror multiple ways to the wall so there’s no chance its falling on my sweet baby boy!

   

I hung an IKEA light over the dresser instead of doing a table lamp so there’s no temptation to knock it off!  The basket for diapers came from The Container Store – it’s also been great for easy access.

For the crib again I just wanted simple…  no skirt… no bumper.  Just a cute sheet.  Of course the pillow and stuffed animals don’t stay when baby boy sleeping but Lamby does!

So far we’ve been enjoying his room.  He will play with his books or rocker and now he’s pulling up on his shelves or in his crib.  Such a big boy!

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Before you go to sleep
Say a little prayer
Every day in every way
It’s getting better and better
Beautiful, beautiful, boy
Beautiful, beautiful boy

                                      John Lennon

Itching for a project

I know there’s been little action of decorating on this ol’ blog for a while now.  Obviously we’ve been in baby mode for a while now.  But I am finally itching to get some decorating done around here.  We’ve been in the house almost a year now with very little modifying and if you know me at all it’s killing me.  You know its bad when Joe actually says “I think we need to do a house project soon.”  Blow me over with a feather!!  Thankfully the house was move in ready since we were 6 months preggers at the time, but its time to start making it feel like it’s our house!
So we’ve decided to start in the dining room.  This room was actually a playroom for the previous owner.  I think we need to add some architectural detail to dress it up and make it feel more like a dining room rather than just a rectangular box!  This is a shot from our walk through before the previous owners moved out.

And this is where we are today:

   

So really all we have done is add some drapes and move in our furniture.  That’s it.  And golly does it need some help!  Eek.  Seeing it in pictures makes it even more obvious.  Focus Katy, focus. 

GOOD NEWS!  I have a plan! 

I still love the drapes so those will be our inspiration. 

I want to add some architectural interest in the room so we plan on adding Board and Batten trim work along with some crown molding.  We will paint that white and add some yummy rich color above.  I am really loving BM – Templeton Gray. 

Here are some examples of nice crisp white B&B with deep color above.


Gorg!  Right?!?!  
The ceiling fan needs to go ASAP and I love this fixture from Young House Love via Shades of Light.  Simple with a fun industrial feel.  And the price you can’t beat!  $89 for the fixture and you can use YHL discount code and get 10% off.  Yes please.

The plan for the chairs are taking the vintage bamboo chairs from Joe’s mom and painting them.  I’ve talked about that for years now but we are going to make that happen!  They are similar to these and I’m thinking BM Castleton Mist would be perfect.

   

And for the floors…  my down the road goal is hardwoods.  This house was built on a slab so I’m working on the research of what our options are for hardwoods BUT in the mean time I’m dying to get rid of the berber carpet.  Wall to wall carpet does not say dining room to me.  So I’ve talked Joe into pulling up the carpet and painting the concrete for the time being and adding an area rug.  Something like this rug from World Market with some great texture would be perfect.

So that’s the plan…  Hoping to get the carpet up in the next week or so and get to work on the walls!  Here’s hoping that can happen with a little 8 1/2 month old crawling around! 

Do You YNAB?

So I have a new obsession.  It’s budgeting.  Yep.  You read that right.  And it’s not just budgeting.  It’s specifically YNABing.  Lean in close here people.  This.is.good.stuff.  Yes I may be a little weird but I get super exciting about this!
So…  let me tell you what’s different about YNAB.  WAIT… I haven’t told you what YNAB stands for:  You Need A Budget – get it YNAB.  Ok. Whew. Now that we’ve got that out of the way let me spill the deats on what’s different about YNAB. 

There are 4 simple rules with YNAB:
1.  Give every dollar a job
2.  Save for a rainy day
3.  Roll with the Punches
4.  Live on last month’s income

Sounds so simple, right!?!?!  Why don’t we all live this way?  But is so simple it’s revolutionary!  You only budget money you actually have. 

RULE # 1
Give every $ a job.
This means you assign the money that sits in your account a specific category.  You don’t assign money you don’t have.  Only what you actually have.  This may sound simple but it can be confusing.  If you haven’t gotten to Rule # 4 you have to think about what the money in your account has to cover until the next time you get more money.  For example you don’t budget all the grocery money for the month unless you actually have that money in your account. 
RULE # 2
Save for a rainy day
You budget $ for things that come up here and there.  For example your car taxes, car repairs, money for Christmas gifts, etc.  You can have as many categories as you would like.  You customize the program to match your needs.  You also assign your savings $s as well.  This I love.  I used to always feel guilty using our savings for something.  But now I have a specific line item for things we are saving for.  For example we needed a riding lawn mower for the new house (lots more grass here than the old place), so we created a line item for lawn mower and when we found a good deal on one we had actually saved up more than we needed.  So I was able to feel like I accomplished saving up for it and not guilty for using “savings” to buy something. 
RULE # 3
Roll with the punches
Some months your going to spend more on gas than you normally do.  So you’re going to have to re-assign some $ to make up for the over spending in your “Fuel” category.  This may mean you can only assign $25 to clothing this month instead of your normal $50.  You just have to find the money in a different category.  You could pull it from one of your savings categories as well.  Bottom line you just have to find the money and re-assign it.  If you don’t have the money to find…  then there’s a problem.  You just have spend less on eating out or eat “beans and rice” for the rest of the month.
RULE #4
Live on last months income
This is a goal to work towards.  The hope is we all have money sitting in our savings account ready to go but that’s not always the case.  This rule is especially helpful for those that live on an income that varies month to month.  This way you’re never spending more than what you’re bringing in.
Just 4 simple rules…  to financial freedom.  Me love!
Here’s an example of what the software looks like:

this is a sample from YNAB.com not my personal account

You enter your transactions.  Yes YOU enter your transactions.  You can have it auto download but the concept is you are more aware of your spending if you enter the transactions yourself.  You can set up recurring transactions for your mortgage, utilities and bills. 

There are also some really cool reports that YNAB will generate for you to tell you about your spending.

There is also an app that allows you to enter transactions on the go right from your phone.  It links to your YNAB so you and your mate can enter transactions from different devices that will all come together on your YNAB software.
I know this is a weird topic for me to blog about but its one of those things I am excited about and want more people to realize the benefit of knowing what your $$ is doing!  I am amazed when I ask someone how much they spend at the grocery store each month and they have NO idea.  Or how much they spend on restaurants, again no idea. 
It’s been interesting to me to see where we spend money, especially in categories I didn’t think we would.  My “Gift” category gets hit much more often than I would have thought and I’ve had to adjust how much monthly I put in that category.  I think it will be very interesting with Christmas to track how much we spend and then be able to budget a monthly amount next year so there’s no surprises at the end of the year.
Now…  I don’t work for YNAB so I’m sure I’ve not done the best job of explaining it.  They have lots of video tutorials and live classes to sign up for to learn more.  Just hop over to their website.
You can try the software out for 34 days to see if you love it as much as I do.  (Be aware your 34 days start from download date not from installation date.)  After the introductory period, there is a cost for the software: $60.  If you use this link you save $6 (and FULL DISCLOSURE) I get $6 referral fee. 

http://ynab.refr.cc/7RNWQ42

If you decide to try it out I would love to hear your thoughts.  Maybe you already use a budget system like Quicken??  Do tell!

***YNAB has no idea who I am… other than I purchased their software.    They have not perked me to write this post but they do offer a referral program for anyone that has purchased their product.  I’m not writing this post for the $6 referral fee, I’m writing it because You Need A Budget just like we needed one! Images from YNAB.com ***

8 months

Isaac is 8 months old now!

Our baby boy is beginning to look more and more less like a baby.  He is getting so big!  Most days we are greeted in the morning to him standing up in his crib.  We’ve just pulled out a new toy from some friends – a play table.  And he LOVES it!  It’s so fun to watch him pull himself up and play with all of the different functions.

Isaac is on the move!  There’s less and less snuggling and more and more playing.  He wants to be down on the floor crawling or even better you helping him walk. 

I look at these pictures and my heart just swells.  Such a sweet happy boy.  So much LOVE!

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A little fun in the sun!  Mama and her baby boy!

Clowning around

Last weekend we had a group of our close friends over for a "Going Away" Party.  We have an awesome group of peeps and have so much fun together!

I set up a photo booth concept in the back den and used my newest contraption.  And I LOVE it.  Best $10 spent in a while!

Nichole shared some fun props for the photo booth.  I'm so glad we have these photos to remember our times together.

So much fun!