Spring Clippings = Free Statement Decor

Of course, I love Myquillyn Smith's advice (The Nester!) to bring branches and free bouquets from your yard inside your home.  Her most recent Instagram posts have some beautiful photos showing what she brought indoors.  And her statement about azaleas {here} had me laughing!  Their blooms sure are gorgeous, but as she said... "It's their one week to shine before they go back to looking like shriveled burnt bushes in my yard." Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this :)

Have any favorite branches or spring flowers in your own yard? (or a kind neighbor?!) Take a photo and share with us! Comment below with a link to your Instagram photo or blog post.

A little Holiday Spirit in your Home

Bring the Holiday Spirit into Your Cleaning Routine with Mrs. Meyer’s + Grove Collaborative

How do you bring the holiday spirit into your cleaning routine? Patrick usually turns up Frank Sinatra Christmas music and we get the kids excited to join in the cleaning! Growing up, my mom always swapped out candles and soap in all the bathrooms for fall and christmas scents, so I love buying special soaps and cleaning supplies for the holidays. Knowing we have amazing scented cleaners and new tools actually makes us look forward to cleaning!

This year, Grove Collaborative treated us to a new Mrs. Meyer’s Holiday Set — and they want to send one to you for free, too! The set includes a Mrs. Meyer’s dish soap, Mrs. Meyer’s hand soap, Mrs. Meyer’s multi-surface spray and the Grove Collaborative Bubble Up.

My kids have been fighting over who gets to use this Bubble Up to help with the dishes! It’s fun to pump the dispenser and make lots of bubbles, and the brush is easy to hold when you’re really scrubbing those dishes after dinner.

I have been using the Mrs. Meyer's multi-surface spray for awhile now... with 3 kids and a golden retriever, let's just say we make plenty of messes! I love that it gets everything clean and smells amazing!

Patrick, JR & Vera agree that these Mrs. Meyer’s Peppermint soaps smell good enough to eat!  It's amazing how certain scents can bring up so many sweet memories from the past. The soaps also come in Orange Clove.  I can’t wait to grab a few bottles for our bathroom and laundry with my next Grove shipment.

If you’re not familiar with Grove Collaborative, it’s a subscription service that makes creating a healthy, beautiful home effortless and affordable. I can choose my favorite products from brands like Mrs. Meyer’s, Seventh Generation, and Method, and Grove delivers them (carbon offset) right to my doorstep, on my schedule. I even receive a text before my shipment!

Here’s what I’ve discovered after using Grove: When my kids get to help choose the products and scents we use, they’re much more willing to help clean! They get so excited when they see our mailman, Charlie, walking up the driveway with a box. It’s like Christmas for them (and me!).  JR usually wants to open the box and smell everything and Vera wants to line each item up.

When you sign up for Grove Collaborative using this link, you’ll get the Mrs. Meyer’s Holiday set for free + free shipping. If you’re already a customer Click Here, you’ll get 50% off of the brand new and amazing Grove Collaborative Bubble Up. Don’t forget to sign up for the free VIP trial, too. Not only is the free shipping amazing, you’ll get perks like free gifts, price matching, and personal customer service.

Grove only has a limited number of sets available and the offer ends November 21, so grab yours now! Here’s how it works:

1. Sign up for Grove Collaborative [Click Here for your Free Gift]. You’ll receive the Mrs. Meyer’s offer for free when you sign up! If you’re already a customer, you’ll receive the Grove Collaborative Bubble Up for 50% off.

2. Answer 4 quick questions about your home that Grove Collaborative will then use to customize your first basket -- this takes under 30 seconds!

3. Once you’ve answered the questions, you can finalize your basket of products to suit your household needs by adding or removing items. Check a few things off your shopping list and add them to your order!

4. To receive this offer, your order needs to be a minimum of $20. Choose the combination of products and scents you love and receive them in your first box.

5. You made it! Click Finish & Pay and place your order. 
 

Best invention!

I recently found this new product on the Grove website...

It is the cutest retractable lint roller!  Why am I just now finding this? 

When you have a golden retriever, you kinda know your lint rollers :)

but mine always get stuck to stuff in the junk drawer or I keep the dirty paper on it

so it doesn't stick to everything & that's pretty gross.

So I now have a "flint" at home by the couch and in my car... and I sent one to Patrick's office too.

Thought I would share this find with you!

{here} at Grove

Whirlwind Summer 2016

 The summer started with sweet friends and strawberry picking...

We fell in love with a home in Evansville and decided to list our house to see if it would sell. 

It sold in 3 days after 3 offers!

 We started the packing process in between trips, park dates and summer fun!

 These kiddos kept growing up and Bauer continued to be his chill, happy self :)

We celebrated Father's Day with the most patient, faithful & goofy dad.

 and even got to see Dado, my dad and brother Sam on stage together at Southeast!

 Vera's curls kept growing, giggles louder & personality even bigger!

Her birthday flowers bloomed right around her 3rd birthday!

 We went blueberry picking in Owensboro with friends 

while Vera had special time with grandparents.

Patrick and I celebrated our 8th anniversary with a little Louisville getaway to the Seelbach.

 The kids got their final swings in at our old home...

 and enjoyed summer sports camp at the Y! 

JR- Baseball & Vera- Gymnastics :)

Then we drove over to Kiawah Island for a big Garcia family vacation over July 4th!

So much fun & joy with all of the cousins- we had so much to celebrate! 

Lots of swimming, laughing & yummy food & a special day trip to Charleston

I could have spent all day looking at the beautiful southern architecture- 

but it was humid and HOT, so the morning was enough ;)

Then we had two days to unpack, wash and repack before flying out to California.  

The house was already packed and ready to move, so why not travel from coast to coast ;)

We attended the NACC and my dad planned an amazing week as president-

remarkable sessions and lots of memories made in Anaheim!

Knotts Berry Farm rides, Vera throwing up in the hotel hallway, Bauer smiling the entire flight, afternoon naps in the hotel, kids in the front row of For King & Country concert,  Downtown Disney (remote control cars & princesses!) In & Out Burger at midnight, airport exhaustion and laughing way too much with friends from around the country!

We flew home late Sunday night and closed on our new home the next morning!! 

Thankfully we had some time to move over and get settled before handing off the keys to our old house. That was one LONG exhausting week, but after lots of hard work and help from friends, we were moved in and out of boxes pretty quick.  I love decorating and organizing everything out of the boxes in a new fresh place- so this was the fun part for me!     

 We broke in the house with several parties and lots of friends, even from Texas & California!
So many sweet memories already made- feels like home!

This summer sure has been one for the books!
We might have eaten popsicles for breakfast (in bed!)

Hung artwork quickly on walls with thumbtacks...

 

 found random treasures in the garage & had tons of help from my mom decorating!

Patrick was confused with why I brought an old mailbox inside ;)

oh and we bought a kitten (still can't believe we did that?!)

but what a sweet sweet summer it was.
My heart is so grateful. I love this little family of mine!

Half Bath- Downstairs Bathroom Renovation on a Budget

 

When we first moved into our house almost three years ago, this downstairs bathroom was painted a yellow gold (over wallpaper) and the sink base was a dark wood with brass fixtures.

One of my first projects after we moved in was to paint the cabinet base a coral color and add new knobs to the cabinet doors.  It was super easy to paint other than the fact I was 9 months pregnant :)  It stayed that way for awhile until we had leftover paint from our dining room and decided to use it in the bathroom.  

The current color is Comfort Gray from Benjamin Moore.  It's amazing how the paint color can look so different from one room to the next, but I love the subtle mint gray blue in both the bathroom and dining room!  

Once the walls were painted, the coral cabinet base had to go!  I found a sample paint can in our garage that was a deep blue- kind of like a navy with a hint of gray.  Unfortunately I have no idea what the name is, but I had just enough to paint the cabinet and a little antique shelf that I use as a toilet paper holder.

Fast forward to a couple months ago when we had a Lowe's gift card and the toilet wasn't working too well :)  We picked out a simple American Standard white toilet and I noticed a countertop in the clearance section (70% off the exact style I had been eyeing for awhile!!) as we were leaving... great news for me- bad news for Patrick!  Now he had to install a new toilet and a new countertop and faucet haha!  

He installed the new white toilet really fast- thanks to youtube videos.   The old counter popped right off the cabinet base, so once the faucet was unattached it all came apart pretty easily.  The new counter included the sink and we found a cheaper faucet to fit.  I was so glad we found the counter on sale because once he installed the white toilet, the cream outdated sink sure stood out!  I love the speckle and sparkle in the new sink countertop- even prettier in person.

Here is a look at the after...

Leftover Pure White Chalk Paint on the Bronze mirror

Leftover Comfort Gray Benjamin Moore on the walls

New Faucet (waited until it was on sale) {here}

New Toilet {similar here}

New Towel Bar from Target

New Counter & Sink- I can't find it online but this sample is similar {here}

Cabinet Knobs from Hobby Lobby

And I spray painted the floor vent (it was dirty tan) to a white that matched the trim.

 This was probably our cheapest renovation with the biggest results!  Keeping the cabinet base, flooring, lighting & only buying clearance or sale items from Lowe's (plus a gift card) saved us a ton of money.  And the fact that Patrick installed it himself and did a great job!  It's amazing how changing from cream to white can make such an incredible difference. 

Veggie Fruit & Flower Blooms- Summer Garden

 

And this little gardener loves to help!

...covered in mud, yogurt and drinking the last sip of my coffee :)