Out With the Old, In With the New

Another update we made to the house was replacing the light fixture in our dining area.  The old light was a big box fluorescent thing, and it was U.G.L.Y.  We still have an identical one in our kitchen. {hopefully it will be replaced sooner than later}

 I found this little beauty at D.I. for a whopping $4!! 

Granted it was missing one of the glass shades, AND it was a very shiny bronze color--YuCk.  But a couple of coats of Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint, some new fabric lamp shades from Lowe's, and we have a darling "new" light that I absolutely A.D.O.R.E.!!

The old light wasn't placed over our table, so I just hung the end of the chain on a hook which was over a couple of feet.  Now we have a nice soft glow during our meals instead of the harsh light from the fluorescent. 

Another "issue" that I had to overcome was the lamp shades.  The metal piece inside the shade that hooks onto the light bulb was upside down for the way that I needed them to be :( 

BUT...after a few moments of despair, {Light. Bulb.} I figured out that I could just open the wire with pliers and slide it over the light bulb.

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Updates

We have been renting our cute little house for 2 1/2 years now, and we have made a T.O.N. of changes in that time.  Our "landlords" are awesome, and let us do pretty much whatever we want to the house.  Sometimes I forget that it isn't actually OUR house! 

When we first moved in, there was wall paper in E.V.E.R.Y. room.  It took us no time at all to start ridding the house of wall paper, and I am happy to say that the only room that has wall paper still in it is the laundry room. (But I have big plans to change that this year!) 

In the livingroom we have a fireplace, but when we moved in, it had an outdated wood burning stove thing, that was so not my style.  Also the brick around the fireplace goes all the way up to the ceiling (which I love) but there wasn't a mantel, so it was impossible to really decorate in any way.  But...last fall we got a different fireplace insert(for $40 off of ksl...Oh yeah!) and a mantel(also off of ksl for $30...Woohoo!!)
Now we have a great focal point in our living room that I absolutely Love!

SIDE NOTE: one of my goals for this year is to be better at taking "before" pictures! This is the best that I got.

And the After!

L.O.V.E.

Have a happy Tuesday!

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A New Look

So you can probably tell, but I'm working on a new look for Mariah's Creations!  It is a work in progress, but hopefully in then next little bit, I will be able to figure out how to get the look I really want!  I L.O.V.E. turquoise, and want a light but still fun look. Pretty much I want it to be like a breath of fresh air!!!!  We will see if I can get there!

Question.....How do you add a picture or graphics to the blog title in the header?  Anyone know? 

Family Pictures

Hello!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Ours was great!  We decided that it was about time for an updated family picture, so on Saturday my fabulous sister, Heidi, came out and set up a little "photo shoot" in our dining area!  With three kiddos it can be "fun" to try and get a good picture, but after LOTS of attempts, some bribing, a little wrestling, and begging we finally did get one that was satifactory! 

Don't you just L.O.V.E. my daughter's cheesy grin!!

Is anyone else crazy enough to do family pictures on your own?  It definitely can be a bit stressful, but we always manage to get at least one good shot!  Plus, we save money on hiring a photographer!!  So its a win win!  What do you think?  I would love to hear any tips you might have!

More Bench Photos

As I was going through my pictures looking for the bathroom ones, I found my original "after" pics of the porch bench!  I couldn't find them when I wrote about it, so I just hurried and snapped one, but it didn't turn out very good!  So here are a few more for your viewing pleasure! :)

I had a cute little helper with the painting!

Love the little pop of red with the turquoise!

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Our Biggest Project of 2011

Other than bringing this little cutie into the world in October,

our biggest project of 2011 was our bathroom redo.  It just started out with us ripping out the wallpaper so that we could paint.  I decided to have my hubby take the mirror down so that I didn't have to paint around it.  What we found behind the mirror was a hole in the wall where a medicine cabinet had once been.  That wouldn't be too hard to fix, but inside the whole we could see that there was quite a bit of mold between the walls. :( YUCK.  So what was just going to be a new paint color, turned into a complete remodel of the bathroom.  This is the best before picture that I could find, it is from before we even put in the shower!

BUT, I do have some in the process pictures!

What a big mess!  We ended up tearing all of the drywall off of two walls, bleached and primed the studs and then put up new drywall.  We also took out the hall "closet" that took up a big chunk of the bathroom, and built new hall storage cabinets at the end of the hall in unused space!  A much better solution in my opinion!

Cosmetically we made a lot of changes as well.  We put in a new vanity, a new light fixture, a new mirror, new paint, (of course!) and new flooring.

Here are the first "after" photos:

I found this A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. fabric and knew that it would be perfect for a shower curtain.  And with it a new color scheme for the bathroom was born!  I love the contrast of the black and green.

And now we have a beautiful bathroom! 

Have a fabulous day!

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Discovering Picnik

Wow, I don't know if I've been in a cave or what, but I'm just barely discovering the amazing possibilities for my pictures with picnik.com!  I signed up for their free account, and played around with editing one of my pictures of the play kitchen.  I may have went a little overboard, but I was just messing around! Here is what I came up with!

I am so excited to start editing my pictures so that they look better!  I also need to learn a lot about my camera so that I can improve the quality of my photos!  But it will eventually come, little by little as I learn new tricks!