Living Room Gallery Wall

So after two years of living in our house, I have finally finished our gallery wall.  I wouldn't say it has definitely been a work in progress because that would be a lie.  We attempted to hang stuff once and after needing to patch some nail holes and not being able to find the correct paint color (the wall was painted before we moved in) we put things on hold.

Last August we decided to try again by changing the color of the wall.  We went to our local Ace and picked out a wonderful yellow and my dream living room was starting to come to life.  We hung a few items, but it wasn't until last Friday that my mom and I finally finished the gallery wall.

Most of the wall is permanent except for the items in the picture frames, two.  The large black picture frame with our family photo in it and the white picture frame with Caleb's photo in it are going to be changing each year.  I decided that I wanted a space to update our pictures and as much as I love canvases, you can't keep redoing them each year without being wasteful.  I plan on printing out our newest family photo each year and we will get a picture of each boy to do the same with so that our momentous events are on canvases and the ever changing life we live will be in the 2, soon to be 3, frames hanging on the wall.

There are two items missing, a frame for Baby E and a canvas that I am creating.  Both of those will be up within the next month, but until then, it is complete and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

Items: (Left to Right)
Wooden Number 4: Michael's spray painted black - $7.99
Baby E Maternity Canvas: Sam's Club photo, Hobby Lobby Canvas - $11.50
Picture Frame of Caleb: Michael's painted white, Sam's Club Photo - $12.97
Plate Holder: Gifted from mom, spray painted black
California Print: Gifted Frame, Sam's Club photo - $0.13
Caleb Canvas: Gifted from JC Penny
Wooden H Monogram: Michael's painted white - $2.99
Black Shelf: Wedding Gift
Caleb Maternity Canvas: Sam's Club photo, Hobby Lobby Canvas - $11.50
Mirror: Gifted and painted white
Family Photo: Michael's Frame painted black, Sam's Club photo - $24.96
Heart String Art: Won from Sometimes Sweet Studio
Plate Holder: Gifted from mom, spray painted black
"Count Your Blessings" Print: Gifted Frame, Sam's Club photo - $0.13
Wedding Day Canvas: Sam's Club photo, Hobby Lobby Canvas - $11.50
Trio Tree Canvas: Target (had for years and can't remember the price)
Missing: 
Baby E frame and photo - $12.97
Wedding Canvas - $1.50

Total Gallery Wall Price:
$98.14!

Pricing Disclosure:

We already had all of the paint, mod podge and 

paint brushes so I didn't include those prices into this project.

I also didn't include the cost of painting the wall from

 grey to yellow because we were going to paint it either way.

I was able to keep this gallery wall under $100 because of coupons and DIY.  I bought all the frames on clearance and painted them to the colors I wanted instead of finding frames the colors I wanted and potentially spending more money.  I printed the pictures all at once saving myself multiple trips to the store and depending on where you buy your prints from it could be cheaper the more you order at one time.  I created all of the canvases, except for the one of Caleb, myself to lower the cost of each to $11.50 instead of $30+ using my DIY Canvas technique.

Creating a happy space in your home doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg, but you will have to put the time in to save the money where you can.  I am so happy with how this project turned out and I can't wait until Baby E is here so that we can add his picture up on the wall as well.

5 Things...And It's Friday!

Linking up with Karli and Amy.

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So today I have 5 things to share, some exciting!

1.  Jaclyn Hill
Can we just talk about how much I am loving her channel???  I just recently discovered it and to say I have become obsessed might be an understatement.  There was a time in my life, not so many moons ago, that you wouldn't catch me without makeup.  Slowly that went away and now we are all lucky if I wear mascara once a week.  I want to get back into it, not too fast, but definitely start stepping up my makeup game again.  I think Jaclyn is hilarious and really beautiful.  Her makeup tutorials are easy to follow along with and the "extras" at the end are hilarious!  If you haven't seen her yet, check it out, NOW!

2.  Baby Weight
So you might remember, a couple months 6 months back, AHHH, I was quite large and in charge with my baby belly.  Since Snuggle Muffin has joined our family I have talked about wanting to lose all of my baby weight, plus some, before we expand our family once again.  We don't want our kids too far apart, so the challenge has been on.  I wrote about it here and when I came back to work, 3 months ago, I still had 5 pounds to lose.  I couldn't lose those pesky little 5 pounds to save my life.  BUT as of this week, I not only lost those 5 pounds, but an additional ONE!  That's right, I now, officially, weigh less than I did when I got pregnant 1.5 years ago!  YAHOOOOOOOO!

3.  Boycotting
Caleb has been on a food boycotting session for the past 3 days and it is getting to me.  He is hungry and crabby but doesn't want the food I'm giving him.  They aren't new foods, nor are they foods that he doesn't normally love.  Babies are confusing, still, after 6 months, and just when I think I'm starting to figure it all out - well as much as I can.  Caleb, please start eating everything again!

4.  Gift Cards
I am a hoarder, we all know this.  Well yesterday I was going through my purse, randomly, and found a ton of gift cards that I still have.  When I was on maternity leave I tried to use all of my gift cards as much as possible, but somehow I didn't.  So yesterday I found some really good ones and I got a couple new pairs of shoes and we went out to dinner!  Both with gift cards and spending very little of our own money!  Yes please! :)

5.  #HughesMove2014
I haven't done a house update in a long time and that is mostly because we haven't been doing anything really major around the house, but this last weekend we started ripping out more shrubbery that we dislike and we are going to start working on the house more again.  The weather is getting absolutely gorgeous (83 degrees yesterday) and we are loving it!  We love our home and can't wait to continue to make it more our style.

Hughes Home - Interior Edition

Hello lovelies.

I know that I have been somewhat absent lately, but life is busy and seems to be flying by.  My job apparently wants me to actually work while they are paying me so blogging has taken a backseat during this time.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I told you all about the things we want to do to our backyard?  Well I thought that it would be fun to make a list of the interior projects we would also like to accomplish.  Some of these we have already completed - I will act as if I wrote this a while ago - and some are longer-term goals for around the house.

Shall we begin?

HUGHES HOME - INTERIOR EDITION

• Paint Nursery  Completed by my wonderful Father-In-Law before we moved in
• Paint hallway  Completed by my wonderful Father-In-Law last week while we were at work
• Buy a new couch  Completed!  We bought a new couch the day we moved in.  A little crazy?  Yes, but we love it and couldn't be happier
• Replace kitchen counter tops - This is a long time goal.  This will be completed within the next 5 years.
• Buy knobs/pulls for all kitchen cabinets/drawers - Needs to happen sooner than later.  I cannot stand cabinets without pulls/knobs
• Buy a new TV for our bedroom  Completed.  We went to the BX and bought one last week and had Comcast already come out and set us up.  Now to just get our old tube TV off our floor and into the garage for the hubs
• Organize the garage
• New kitchen sink - Another long time goal.  Will most likely happen with the counter tops.
• Clean hard water spots off of master shower doors - the previous owners never cleaned them and it is obviously 10 years of built up hard water stains on the doors.  It drives me crazy, but it will be handled.
• Decorate master bathroom
• Decorate guest bathroom
• Organize the office-mancave-craft room
• Hang all of our pictures around the house
• Get canvases made - or make them myself - for the walls
• Buy a screen door for back slider - Will be happening very soon!  I need a back screen door.
• Buy a screen door for front door - I don't understand how houses don't come with screen doors?  I need to get a breeze going through my house without letting every bug in with it.
• Replace the gold doors on the fireplace - they are outdated and I would love newer modern doors one day

We have quite the list - which I love - and can't wait to tackle.  Nothing needs to be done right now in order for us to live, but it is a nice starting point of what we want done inside.

Do you have any tips for new homeowners and completing tasks around the house?

Hughes Home - Yard Edition

So we are all moved in and now the unpacking and organizing begins.

I have lists of things that I want to do around the house but nothing that needs to be done right away.

I figured I should make, my favorite, a list to help me keep track of what I want done.

I bring you...

HUGHES HOME - YARD EDITION
Back Yard:

• Rip out peach tree
• Rip out yellow flowers in 2 planters
• Plant 2 fruitless plum trees
• Build a large planter along back fence
• Plant flowers in large planter
• Fix sprinkler issue
• Get a patio furniture set

Front Yard:

• Rip out 2 trees in planters
• Rip out tulip tree
• Weed 2 planters
• Rip out big ugly bush in planter
• Rip out nasty flowers
• Plant 1 fruitless plum tree
• Plant bulb garden around new tree
• Plant flowers in 2 planter boxes
• Get a swing or bench for front porch
• Figure out where our American Flag will go - we are thinking some concrete with a big pole in our front planter.  We love America!

This is obviously a starter list and nothing is high priority at this point except for ripping the trees out.  We don't want shallow rooted trees in our yards so the sooner we get them out, the sooner we can get trees we actually like in the ground and start providing nice shade for us.

I cannot wait to get our yards looking amazing.  The yard was a huge thing to my dad growing up and my mom is a die hard an avid gardener, so I feel as though it is in my blood to love it too.

I can't wait to keep you all updated on the progress and make sure that you follow along on IG with #HughesMove2014

Things To Change When Moving

Earlier this week we announced that we bought our first home!  We couldn't be more excited and ready for this next step in our lives.

I have moved A LOT in my short quarter-of-a-century life and it never gets easier - at least for me.

I am the girl who has boxes and tubs of junk stuff that I "will go through and decide what to do with it"

My mother hated that part of moving with me and now my husband does as well.

So instead of dwelling on the fact that I am completely borderline hoarder status, I thought I would share a fun little list of all the things you need to make sure you change when you move to a new place.

These little tips are easy things that look great on a "TO-DO list"

[1]  Change utilities
       - I put each one as a separate to-do ::since you have to call each one separately::
       - Cable/Internet
       - Water/Sewer/Garbage
       - Gas
       - Electric

[2]  Change banking information
       - Make sure that you change all of your debit and credit cards to your new billing address.  It will make online shopping so much easier :)
       - I would include any investment accounts you have in this category as well.  401Ks or IRAs.  Make sure you update your address with these companies as you will need the correct information for tax season.

[3]  Change your address with DMV
       - We have not done this yet, but it is still on the list of things to do.  Currently both of our driver's licenses have each of our parents' addresses on them because we didn't want to change anything until we bought a house.

[4]  Change cell phone bill
      - Our cell phone bill is still under my maiden name so along with our address change, I will hopefully be updating that little piece of information as well. :)

[5]  Change information at work
       - My work has a lovely online system that is super easy to change any personal information on.  I need to make sure that my husband does the same since he puts everything to his parents' house.

[6]  Change address on pet information
       - Our handsome Hanky-Poo is chipped so we need to go onto the website and update our address so that if he ever wanted to give me a heart attack and run away went on an unaccompanied adventure they would know where we live.

[7]  Change mailing address
       - They make this really easy now.  You can do it online and it only costs $1!  Super convenient!

[8]  Change insurance information
       - Now this doesn't mean to change the insurance that you currently have sillies!  This means, make sure that they have your new address.  I will need to update my health, vision and dental.

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I know that they seem pretty basic, but in all the hustle and bustle of moving, even the littlest things might slip your memory.

I hope these will help someone and just remember to always make a list and watch those check marks take over the page!  It is so rewarding!

I've Been Keeping A Secret!

So do you remember the great Hughes Housing Disaster from a couple months back?

Well things kind of got rolling again right after I posted that, literally.

That same day, Wednesday, March 12th, Ryan had a working interview at a job that he had been hoping for for weeks.  Ryan got offered that job on Friday, March 14th and we got the house hunting started again.

We found a house that we wanted to look at a week later and put an offer in.  Since then we have been keeping it pretty quiet because I didn't want to jink us again.

As of last Tuesday, we are officially home owners!!!!!!

To say we are thrilled in an understatement.

I truly believe that everything happens for a reason and losing out on the first house was really a blessing in disguise.

We are now in the town and school district that we love and can't wait to bring Baby H home to our first home as a family :)

Thank you for all of your encouragement and support during the previous devastation!  We did it!