The Heydeman Christmas Vacation

 We started our vacation by going to Nipomo, to spend Christmas at my sisters house. My family always seems to have a few Christmas' going on so we did a pre Christmas with my mom and then spent Christmas day with my dad.

 Greg and I got Troy his first Cabelas purchase... an ATV.

 can you stand that cute little face!

 

 

 Walking on the Avila pier.

 

  We got to go to the Avila barn to feed animals and buy some treats ... love this place!

Heather, Troy and I got to see the Monarch butterflies an the Pismo Dunes. So cool!



 It's crazy how it looks like leaves, but it's really clumps of butterflies.

 I love these two! It was hard for auntie to say good bye, but I'll see this cutie again for his First Birthday this weekend!

 

We spent New Years in Monterey with Greg's family- sorry I don't have more pictures! It's funny how you have your phone out a lot more when there is an adorable almost 1 year old crawling around! We can safely say that we were successful in getting the guys to play multiple games of the Ellen's Heads Up game though...it only took some cocktails. ;)

 



 

Happy 2014 ! I know we are hoping for a less stressful year , staying positive and thankful for what we  have are our goals!

I'm Dreaming of a white ... ceiling!

 

 Two weeks before Christmas we got 4 inches of snow in Redding... the cool part is it actually stuck around for a few days. We had fun in it and so did Bails!

 

Around the same time , I started a good inside activity... painting our ceiling white. The beams in our house are 70's beams- dark stained and our room had white washed cedar plank. It took us about a week and 4 coats (yes my back and shoulders were killing me), but we love how it turned out. It cleans up and modernizes the room and makes a big change for about $100 spent!

 

 Just a note if you have wood with knots you are painting you have to get a special paint to prime them or else they will show through even after 2 coats ;)

 

 

After we smooth our bedroom walls (we don't like their stucco texture) I'm going to paint them a steel blue  an this weekend I'm working on some wall art. Thanks to my sister who gave us a rug, my feet are enjoying the warmth.

DIY: Wall Art & Rope Mirror

My Mother in Law found this mirror at the Goodwill and asked if I wanted it (she always spots the good finds). Of course I said yes liking the size and shape, but I wasn't feeling the brass color.

 

I planned on using it in the TV room that will eventually have pretty new gray couches, so I spray painted it gray.

 

P.S. Goop off works great if you get some paint on a mirror ;)

I have been seeing rope mirrors on pinterest so I thought I would give it a try.

 



I went to Hope Depot and in the rope isle they will cut a piece to size- I think I got 5 yards and it was like 60 cents a yard. I tied the ends into a figure 8 knot ( easy diagrams on the internet).

 



 

I hot glued the rope on both sides. I will just use the rope as a faux hang and really hang it on the back- not sure how well the hot glue would hold.

 

I knew I wanted to create a focus wall behind the couch, so I bought some neat frames at Target and started working on some craft elements.

 

I downloaded a free template and made an embroidery ring (first ever attempt- so if you can't tell it's supposed to look like the rings of a tree).

 I painted a cardboard H gray and distressed it and how cool is it that Michaels sells burlap covered canvases - I just made a stencil on my silhouette and painted it gray. The print on the left says Life Happens I had to get it because it reminds me of my Papa and his saying ... which means pretty much the same thing, but you can't really post on your wall lol.

DIY: Mason Jar Light Fixtures

This was one of my first DIY projects for the house. I started it awhile a go and was waiting to post until they were on the wall...but, that wall is still in need of being finished so I thought I would go for it lol.

 

 

 

 

We had these two wall sconces on the wall where we took off our wood paneling in the living room. Greg and I had discussed taking the lighting out all together until I came across a pinterest post (of course) on mason jar sconces.  I saw some I loved at pottery barn, but even with my savored wedding gift cards I couldn't see spending $100 a piece on them!

 

For our sconces we had a white piece on the inside that screwed the glass shade into the light bulb holder. All I did was cut a whole in two mason jar lids big enough that the white piece would fit snuggly into it. I cut the hole by hammering a screw driver in the middle and then using sharp scissors. I then gorilla glued the white piece to the lid (it worked, but I forgot that gorilla glue foams up so it's a good thing the metal part covers it). 

 

 I spray painted all of the pieces with a stainless steel look alike spray paint and walah !

I can't wait to see them lit up with some old fashioned Edison bulbs inside.

Our New Home

Well since getting our keys on October 29th Greg and I have been busy busy busy with our new home. Owning a home is a blessing and also one of the most stressful things you can do lol. Nothing tests a brand new marriage like buying a fixer upper that's for sure ;)... remind me never to get married and buy a house a few months apart ever again lol. We are so excited for the potential our home has... I already hosted my first wine and pj party with the girls from work (after I kicked Greg out to go hunting) and I can't wait for more memories to be made in this house. Like I mentioned it is a fixer upper in some areas so parts we will be living with for now... but the wood paneling was on my can't live with list.

 We were so thankful for having the Heydeman crew drive up to help us move... and rip down that paneling :)

 here is the before and after... we are still waiting on getting the wall textured so we can paint, but oh how the room is already brightened... don't you love the beamed ceiling? we have it in our master too.

 

 First order of business has been working on the outside. We have 7/10 of an acre which I love, but it was a tad overgrown so we have been raking, taking down trees, pruning, raking, ripping out old plants, raking lol... can you tell what my least favorite was.

 Gregs buddy let us borrow his horse trailer and greg took 5 loads to the dump and I bagged over 18 bags of leaves/crap... which that number has probably doubled lol.

 

Now our yards are looking pretty good ! We are now at a manageable state, we had to cut down some of our fruit trees because they were bad, but we still have grapes, apples, pomegranate, olive and some nut tree. In spring we want to start an orange tree and maybe lemons and cherries. 

 

I painted our den/t.v room. It was a metallic teal/grey... so I wanted to bring my favorite color mint into the mix.

 

 befores

 

 

after! So much brighter. since this picture Greg and his buddy put a light fixture and fan in the ceiling (this room was missing a light for some reason)!

 ... I'm going to post soon about some crafts I have started , one being a focus wall for the wall behind the couch. We already have our new couches picked out (I have been dreaming about new couches for SO long), but unfortunately our garage door broke the first week we were here so our couches will have to wait for a bit :( , but picture a dark grey set and eventually a fun patterned grey rug ...

 My first craft project for the house was printing vinyl lettering for our new mailbox... our old one was just placed into a bush of ivy lol our mail women already thanked us for fixing it ;)

 We have nice big windows...maybe one day we will be able to afford window coverings lol

 Cleaned up side yard.

 how cool is it when your house has enough land that you can have a control burn of leaves ;)

 that fence was another project we have done Greg and his dad and brother built it and then Greg and I stained it.

 Big Greg helped me with my shelves next to the eventual breakfast nook... so excited to display my cake plates and rolling pin collection!

 

 

Bails found a dead mouse in the pool already... I'm ready for it to be summer already!

 

Oh, remind me never to buy a house around report card/conference week too ;) Here's a picture of some of my kiddos I had to show off their cute smiles and turkey hats...they have been keeping me busy too.

 

 

I think we have finally caught our breaths... next task finishing up some electrical and texturing the walls in the family room so I can paint and then maybe starting to put things on the walls? lol

 

ps. our guest room is all ready so feel free to come visit and stay as long as you would like !!! Bails is a good snuggler ;)