DIY Wall Gallery

If you've kept up with us, you know we recently moved into our first house. Still a rental, but it's a house and probably 4 times larger than our last apartment. Which means... LOTS of wall space.

I have been trying to spend some creative time coming up with ways to cover these walls, in a way that we love but that is... to be honest.. dirt cheap.

Going out and buying designer art just isn't gonna happen for this one salary family.

So, I got creative.

I started collecting lots of picture frames, from yard sales and family. 

I probably paid a total of $5 for all of these frames.

I laid them all out on my patio and rearranged them around until I liked what I saw.

Then I went to Lowe's and picked up some of their Sample Paint.

I wish some had told me about this years ago. 

It's $2.98 for 8 oz. 

That's plenty for craft projects and perfect because you get to pick the exact shade.

I've been going nuts with it.

I used Sauna, Evergreen and Humboldt Earth from Valspar.

I painted them all different colors, keeping the like colored frames away from one another.

I then decided I wanted more than just pictures in this. 

I had been holding onto these 4 burlap canvases that I had for like a year.

I got them at Micheal's when they had them on sale for like $.25.

I then Googled "Good Four Letter Words" because I was that stumped about which word to choose.

"Home, Love, Live, Pray.. etc." 

I decided since it was by the door "Live" was a great reminder word to get out there and well.. "Live".

So I painted them on. No real strategy to that.

I also had that old key that was given to me, it had daisies on it originally but I decided to paint over it and hang it up here since I am always loosing keys. 

I also had two types of cloth I was given from a family member as well, I thought they would do well on this wall. They had some of the colors from the color scheme, but not all, so it was perfect from keeping it looking to "matchy matchy."

Then I threw it all on the wall, rearranging some as I went to make it work better.

The Photography in the frames is mine. It's pictures I've taken over the past three years that I always wanted to frame, finally I am. :)

Lyz

Tobyn's First Halloween

Mr. T- Rex :)

My sweet baby..

I love my guys!

Look at that that Terribly Adorable T- Rex :)

He was too cute for words. 

We dressed him up and took him to our town square Trunk or Treat.

We debated on 'Trunk or Treating' then we realized how stupid we felt, because it was obvious we would be the ones eating the candy.

So we just walked around proudly with our little dino man.

I'm curious...does anybody else Trick or Treat with a little baby? 

Do people give you the candy or funny faces?

Lyz

my perfect pumkin

We are horrible parents.

We put our child in a pumpkin.

But you know what?

He loved it!

He was perfectly happy in there.

I swear I could eat up his perfect little self.

Lyz

thank you beautiful weather!

It is my absolute favorite time of the year!

I'm a chilly, falling leaves, sweaters and boots kind of girl!

All of this beautiful weather has inspired me to paint some landscape pictures, ones that I saw over on The Rooster and The Hen blog.

This is just a sneak peak of what the finished product will be, once the bedroom is done.

 I have so much wall to cover in our new house. It's unreal. I better get to painting.....

Lyz

3 months of joy... free house cleaning printable.

My baby is getting so big.

I enjoy waking up every morning to his big smile.

He is such a morning boy. :)

I'm working on my cleaning skills, as far as keeping up with and taking care of a whole house.

It's a lot different than an apartment.

I try to keep it clean and have it clean for when Jonathan gets home, because he deserves that, but I'm not perfect.

I tell you what, Pinterest has been such a lifesavor. I am also learning and improving to cook. Pinterest is my go-to for everything.

Here is a link to a free printable that has really helped me out with getting my cleaning and housekeeping under control:

Weekly Cleaning Free Printable Calendar

Also here is the link to my Organization Pinterest board, follow if you'd like ;)
Pinterest Organization Board

Lyz

getting to know this "mommy" person that I am.

It's been a while since I've blogged. I've been getting my bearings on being a mom. 

If that ever happens? 

I had some rough spots at first. 

Engorgement issues, 

small case of Mastitis, twice. 

Really yucky baby blues.

But really, other than that, this whole mommy thing I think I can do.

Tobyn is such a perfect baby.

 I'm slightly bias, but he only cries when he has a reason to.

And he lets us sleep a pretty fair amount.

I think we were blessed super huge on this one.

We recently moved from the town we lived in, where Jonathan and I met, where it all began. 

That was hard, but we moved into a house, so no worrying about keeping up neighbors in an apartment with a crying baby. Super awesome. 

We are close to family, his family.

 Even farther from mine now, which is difficult.

  Going to see them is a huge ordeal and very stressful. Tobyn is NOT a "ride the baby around in the car to get him to stop crying" kind of baby. He hates the car. 

Trying to think about my future, my families future.

 I want to go back to school, I know I need to do it now. Or so I'm told I will never go back. I'm seeing what I can do. 

   My issue I'm having right now, as far as mommy business, is balancing being a mom and being myself. I'm still trying to understand that I, myself, am a mom now. 

They are not two people, but one that have to coincide with one another. 

It's like I sometimes have an issue taking off the mommy hat and putting on the Lyndsey hat when needed or necessary. I'm trying not to loose myself entirely.  

Did anyone else have this issue? What helped you?

Lyz

one month already?

When did this happen?? He's growing leaps and bounds!

looks so much like his daddy, I wonder if he's mine ;)

sent from heaven.

the best day of our lives.

 Sweetest day of my life. 

No words could truly come close to describing it. 

But I will try my hardest.

I was scheduled for an induction at 5 am the morning of June 20th.

I didn't want to be induced but he was getting to be quite a big boy, they were worried I wouldn't be able to get him out.

We got there and they got me hooked up to the IV, after 3 attempts of finding my vein and blowing out all 3.

They started up the pitocin and we waited, and waited and waited. 

 I was told I should rest (Jonathan and I both had about 1 1/2 hours of sleep, we both agreed it was like Christmas Eve night on steroids) but of course, I couldn't sleep a wink.

At 11:30 am the doctor came in. I hadn't had any discomfort so far at all.

He broke my water, and kaboom.The contractions came flooding in. So the next 2 hours or so are a complete blur to me. Pain does that I guess. I ended up getting the epidural, they had to hold me down just to give it to me. I actually made Jonathan throw out his back from holding me down, sorry baby :(

  Once it kicked in I was able to relax a little, but after about an hour the epi wore off quite a bit and I was miserable again. It had only been an hour since I was at about 5 cm, so I was very discouraged at this point. I didn't want to do this anymore. Then my midwife came in, check me and said the best words I've ever heard, "You are a 9, we can start pushing." What!? YES!! I all the sudden had a new wind, our sweet, perfect boy was going to be here soon! I couldn't even believe it. Well, I won't get into too many of the details of the actual birth, but lets say it is by far the hardest thing I've ever done. I reached a point of "I CAN NOT do this." But Jonathan, my mother, my sister Tiffany and Jonathan's mother Tonya then all became my strength. I was so surrounded by love and they each brought some sort of strength to the table to get me through.

  At 4:32 pm Tobyn Iver Hobby was born.There were some complications and he had fluid in his lungs when he came out, he was put onto my chest and I was so overwhelmed, overjoyed and exhausted. But then they took him right away. I didn't know what was happening. They had him on my left and were suctioning out his mouth, over and over and over. I was petrified. I kept looking to Jonathan for reassurance, he was so strong. The kept saying he was fine, they just didn't like how his breathing was sounding and they were going to take him to the NICU for a little while. While it could have been so much worse, that's nothing anyone wants to hear about their baby. 

They took him away, I got all cleaned and stitched up and ate the best cheeseburger of my life.

They decided within the first hour of him in there that he was perfectly healthy. That was at about 5:30. 

We didn't get him in our room until 11pm that night though! We thought we were going to DIE. 

But oh, when he finally got there... That moment of him being handed to us, our sweet son, and getting to hold him without anyone taking him away was absolutely priceless.

  I slept maybe an hour that night. I didn't want to waste any time not just looking at him, and holding his super tiny body. I will never forget the love that quickly grew and multiplied just in that one night. Its unreal.

Lyz