Over the last few weeks, I’ve been busy going through all of our old baby things. We’ve amassed a lot of stuff after having three kids, and most of it, we’re never going to use again. I’ve been donating and selling clothes, high chairs, bouncers, and baby monitors, and it’s been incredibly satisfying!

As I’ve been getting rid of things, I’ve caught the decluttering bug. In addition to all of our baby things, I got the urge to go through everything we don’t use or need anymore and get rid of even more stuff!

I’ve done declutter challenges in the past (especially before moving!), and I’ve found that it’s really helpful to have a list of things to go through before getting started. So I decided to make my own!

It turned out so well and has been so helpful, that I wanted to share it with you! My declutter challenge printable has six categories, each broken down into different locations or things to declutter, with two extra lines to add in anything else you may want to declutter around your home.

Some of the things on the list may take a day, and some may take three or four days, so I didn’t assign a time frame for this challenge. You can refresh your home on your own schedule. That might mean 30 days, that might mean a few months. Whatever is best for you!

Here’s what’s on the printable:

Declutter Challenge Printable

Your Things

This section includes bookshelves, clothes, accessories, shoes, jewelry, bags, and makeup.

Hobbies

Here you can go through your movies, games, art supplies, and craft supplies. This one might take me a while because I have a whole closet full of crafting things!

Kitchen

Look through your pantry, freezer, fridge, cabinets, and utensils. Get rid of things that are expired, that you never use, or that you may have multiples of (you don’t need three spatulas, mama).

Kid Things

The best and easiest category to go through! Toys, books, clothes, stuffed animals, baby clothes, and baby things. And yes, it’s okay to save a few sentimental pieces.

Closets

Look through your linen closet, coat closet, and any storage closets you may have.

Miscellaneous

I had to add a miscellaneous category because there were a few more areas I wanted to declutter that didn’t really fit into any of the other categories. They include office drawers and files, junk drawer, cleaning supplies, toiletries, and two blank spaces.

To download and print your free declutter challenge printable, just click below!

Download the Declutter Challenge Printable

You can even share this printable with your friends and see who can get rid of the most stuff!

I hope this printable can help anyone else who has caught the decluttering bug (or who just needs to refresh their home) get their things in order. There’s so much peace in having less stuff, and if my printable can help someone else achieve that, then I’ll be happy!

Happy decluttering, mamas!

The post Declutter Challenge Printable appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Before construction even started on our home, I knew that I wanted a homework room for the kids. And the main piece in the room had to be a triple desk.

Over the course of the months it took to build our house, I scoured the internet for a triple desk that would work in their homework room. There were tons of double desks, and even rooms where someone had just put three of the same desk together, but no true triple desks.

In the end, I realized that if I wanted a triple desk for my kids that would last for years, I would have to make it myself.

I’m not particularly handy, so I knew if I was going to build this massive desk I was dreaming of, it was going to have to be simple. Simple and minimalist.

The main requirement of my desk (besides being big enough for three kids) was that I wanted the top to be (or at least look like) dark wood. This eliminated a lot of options. Ikea had a long laminate countertop that looked like wood, but with all Ikeas closed for months, I grew impatient and turned to other alternatives.

Enter, the butcher block countertop.

Sturdy, solid, wooden, and GORGEOUS. Not to mention they’re available at most home improvement stores.

In the end, all I had to do to make a beautiful triple desk for the kids’ homework room was sand, stain, and seal the wood, and then screw on legs! Easy peasy!

If you want to make your own triple desk, first you need to choose what length you’re going to do. Butcher block countertops come in a variety of lengths. I used an 8′ countertop, but a 10′ countertop would also work well for a triple desk.

Note: butcher block countertops are SUPER heavy. I recommend bringing someone to the store with you when you get it.

You also want to choose a stain and a sealer. I used Varathane Premium Wood Stain in Black Cherry for my stain and Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane in Clear Gloss for my sealer.

First, I set up my workstation. I highly recommend putting a big giant tarp under where you’re sanding, staining, and sealing, because duh, you don’t want to stain your floor. In our garage, I laid out a tarp and then propped up the butcher block on some storage bins. Make sure you have them far enough under the two ends that you can stain the sides.

Next, gently sand the top and sides of your butcher block. I used a random piece of sandpaper left over from a previous project. Since butcher block is pretty smooth to begin with, you won’t have to do much work.

Note: sand with the grain, not against!

After you sand, use some kind of towel or rag to wipe off any excess sawdust you sanded off.

Now comes the fun part! Stain your wood! I did two coats of my Varathane stain and sanded lightly after each coat.

Note: make sure you shake/stir the jar well before you stain. It’s also important to wipe off any excess stain that hasn’t soaked in after brushing it on. And again, stain with the grain!

After you get your desired color of stain, seal that baby! I did two thin coats and sanded lightly after each coat.

Note: let your stain and your sealant sit for 24-48 hours IN BETWEEN COATS. I know it’s hard to wait that long when you’re excited and just wanted to get it done, but I learned the hard way that the stain starts to lift if you don’t wait long enough before starting your sealant.

The hard part is now over! Once your butcher block-turned desktop is stained and sealed, bring it inside to where you plan on keeping it. It’s hard to maneuver such a long piece of wood once it has legs on it, so I recommend assembling it where it’s going to reside.

Flip your desktop upside down and measure where you want your desk legs. My desk legs are hairpin legs from DIY Hairpin Legs and I LOVE them. They were a little pricier than just doing some straight Ikea Adil legs like I had initially planned, but I’m so glad I went with the hairpin legs.

DIY Hairpin Legs had super fast shipping, hairpin legs in all colors, and you can even get different heights. The legs on my triple desk are white, 27″ tall, two rod legs. They also have triple rod, if that’s more your style. (And no this isn’t sponsored, I just genuinely love the hairpin legs I got).

First, screw your four corner legs on. Mine were just about a half inch away from the edge. Line them all up and screw them on!

Now you need to screw on your middle legs. I did two pairs of legs in the middle for stability, because the desktop is pretty heavy. You might be able to get away with only two in the middle and just center them, but that’s obviously not what I did.

If your triple desk is an 8′ one like mine, I’ve made it easy for you and already done the measurements for your middle legs. Eight feet is 96 inches, so each desk section should be 32 inches (96÷3=32). I centered each set of legs at 32″, about 1/4″ from the edge of the desk. Then I screwed them on, too!

Now you can grab a buddy and flip your desk over! This part absolutely has to be done with two people. You can’t just tip it up because you’ll bend your hairpin legs. Trust me.

Voila! You’re done! A beautiful, custom, DIY triple desk, made just by you!

I love our triple desk. My older two kids did some of their distance learning there, and they’ve all enjoyed doing arts and crafts at the table. It’s exactly what I wanted and I’m so glad I decided to go the DIY route!

The post DIY Triple Desk Tutorial appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Today I am super excited to share Little R’s nursery reveal with you guys! It took a long time to get it together because while I knew a few things I wanted to include, I never really had a “vision” like I did with Little J or Little A. But I am happy with how it turned out, and I did a lot of DIY projects to make it special for our new little man. There’s not a ton of decor, but we like things more minimalist around here! I might add more to it later, but this is good for now 🙂

You may remember that last year I got the cutest felt balls from Hello Maypole. I picked a bright, rainbow pack because I wanted to use them in the kids’ playroom when we moved into our new house. They were going to be my inspiration for all of the decor, and I was super excited to put it all together when we moved. Then we found out we were going to have a baby, and I had to change my plans! I still decided to keep the felt balls in the nursery though, and when I was picking out fabric for Little R’s quilt I tried to find fabric that had some of the colors of my felt balls. But the inspiration for the nursery was no longer 100% my beautiful felt balls.

Anyway, I got the fabric for the quilt from Jo-Ann (I searched online but couldn’t find any I loved, so I got lucky when we went to the store!). It is the nicest and fanciest quilt I’ve ever made, and I am really proud of it. I used this tutorial from Diary of a Quilter. I also sewed the crib sheet using this tutorial from How Does She (crib sheets are mega easy). And I sewed the changing pad cover using this tutorial from View From the Fridge. The curtains are just blue blackout curtains (which light colored blackout curtains don’t do much, but I didn’t want something super dark to start him off with) from Target that I sewed some extra fabric onto. The grey and white weave baskets are from Target, too. I also made the mobile using my felt balls and this tutorial from Interiors by Sarah Langtry. The big giant felted word thing (not sure what to call it) I just made by printing letters in a font I liked, cutting them out of felt, and then gluing them onto a white posterboard. The shelves are from IKEA and I used the felt balls again to make the little garlands. The bear print is from We Lived Happily Ever After, the alphabet print is also from We Lived Happily Ever After the feather print is from Oh So Lovely, and the “Wild and Free” print is also from Oh So Lovely. They were all free downloads, so that was legit. I got the Families are Forever print from Aimee Ferre as a bonus when I got my Living Christ print for my office. You’ll also notice there’s an empty frame, and I am currently waiting on a print from our amazing session with Stephanie Hansen Photography, and the R monogram I just cut freehand. The moccasins are from Freshly Picked.

As far as furniture goes, the recliner is the same one we got from Homemakers four years ago when Little J was born. The Graco crib is also the same one we got four years ago when Little J was born. And the dresser is from who knows where but I’ve had it since I was a super little girl and it’s still in great condition. It could probably be cleaned and repainted, but who has time for that.

Also, one of my favorite parts about the whole nursery is that my husband installed a dimmer switch for me so that I can dim the lights to very low for nighttime feedings and changings. This was a tip my husband’s aunt gave me four years ago and I’ve always wanted to do it and now that we have our own house, we did! Yay!

Okay, now on to the pictures!

So that’s Little R’s nursery! Like I said, I am very happy with the way it turned out! I may add more to it as he gets bigger, but for now, it’s perfect!

The post Little R’s Nursery Reveal appeared first on Life With My Littles.

I received free product in exchange for this post.

Okay, first of all I have to apologize. I have been promising you guys a home tour as soon as we moved into our house back in May. And I really did intend to get it up sooner, but we still have areas that are completely decorated and aren’t totally how I want them to be yet. But I decided that it’s just time that I go for it and show you what we’ve got, because if I keep putting it off it may never happen. And I can just update this post with pictures as we finish decorating each room.

This is the first house we’ve ever lived in (up until now, we’ve lived in five apartments), and it’s so exciting that we can customize our home basically any way we want now. I’ve had a lot of fun putting things in that are special to us and that really make me happy. I decided early on that if I didn’t love something, I wasn’t going to use it in our decor, and I am really happy with the things we have right now.

Also, I am not a professional home stager/photographer. Yes, I cleaned my house a little for you guys, but don’t be too critical if you see crumbs in the kitchen or toys on the floor. Real life, right there. And I want to mention that even though I’m not an interior design blogger, I love looking at home tours on my favorite blogs so I wanted to contribute mine.

ENTRYWAY

I’ll start with the entryway because I’ve never had one before and it has been fun making it ours. Our rug is from Target and the pattern was something I knew I wanted even before we were looking for a house. I love it and have the same one in the kitchen. We also have a little sign above the front door that my husband got me for Christmas a few years ago. He’s good at gifts 🙂

I wanted the perfect entry table, and I couldn’t find one anywhere that wasn’t wildly expensive. So I decided to BUILD ONE MYSELF. Yeah. Crazy, I know. So I built a table using a modified version of these plans from Rogue Engineer. I loved the one they built, but since this was the first thing I’ve ever built and I’ve never used a saw before, I didn’t trust myself making it that fancy. And I painted it the same color as our dresser I redid (see below). I used Behr Indigo Ink and mixed it with BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder because it is amazing and makes painting furniture super easy.

The painting hanging on the wall was painted by my grandma in the 70s. It was in my grandparents’ house until my grandpa died in 2010 and then I got it. My grandma painted a lot and this was the one I wanted after my grandpa passed. The frame was super dusty and dirty so I cleaned it and it looks so much better now.

The decor on the table is again, something I love. The globe is from Target and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted it. The little J block is from Hobby Lobby or Michael’s (I can’t remember and I’m blaming it on pregnancy). The dinosaur is like a cardboard one from Target that you are supposed to decorate, but I like it how it is. And I love dinosaurs and thought it was a cute addition.

The two books basically describe my husband and I perfectly. The first is The Return of the King (my husband LOVES Lord of the Rings, so I had to incorporate it somehow), and the second is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (because Harry Potter is life). The lantern and candle inside are super special too, because they are from POTTERY BARN. Yeah, I know. My husband got me a gift card using our credit card points and I got to go pick out some special decorations for our new home. So I chose this gold lantern and a candle that smells super good but probably won’t ever get burned. Worth it.

OFFICE

The office is our little front room of the house that is right off the entryway. We’ve never had an office before either, so it’s really nice having a designated area for me to work and for my husband to do anything he needs to do. My husband and I both have a desk, there’s a nice big window, and we finally have a real bookshelf (as opposed to those lame, super cheap bookcases from Walmart, which, by the way, we have had many). Our bookshelf is from IKEA and on top we have my husband’s undergrad and medical school diplomas. Of course the bookshelf houses my Harry Potter series and lots of other books and journals. We also have a little closet on the side where I keep my sewing and crafting things. And we have a little file cabinet with our printer on top.

My husband’s desk is actually my desk from when I was growing up, and it is super heavy and over 20 years old.

Above his desk we hung a picture of his dad who passed away 2 1/2 years ago from his LDS mission, and our little Father’s Day gift from this year (tutorial here). We want to frame his diplomas and hang them here eventually. That or get a map of Middle Earth and the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness.

On my side of the room, I have a cheap little IKEA table as my desk.

My favorite part of the room is my wall! Besides our little Shutterfly calendar that I made for Christmas last year, I have three gorgeous prints. The first is a custom calligraphy my friend Lexie made for me (check out her floral design Insta here). The second is a gorgeous floral watercolor by Natalie Malan, and the third is a beautiful print of “The Living Christ” by Aimee Ferre. I hung them in frames I spray painted gold, and I am so happy with how they turned out. Eventually I’ll probably add more to this wall, but it’s perfect for now.

HALL

In the hallway by the garage I hung up our keys on this little key hook from Target. I had one that I made 6 years ago that we were using before, but I hated it and always wanted to replace it so I just bought a new one.

Then on the other wall in the hall I hung up our artwork display I made last year (tutorial here).

We like to draw and do little crafts and I love this little board with clips as a way to hang and display them in our home. Plus, my kids love seeing their artwork hanging up in a visible place.

KITCHEN

When you come out of the hall you get to our big master area. It has the kitchen and dining area and living area, with small halls off the side for other rooms. The kitchen is seriously everything I’ve ever dreamed of. As someone who has always lived in small apartments with very limited counter and shelf space, it’s a dream.

The cabinets are dark, we have stainless steel appliances, we have an island with a breakfast bar, a PANTRY (like a real, giant pantry!), and a refrigerator that has an ice and water dispenser and is way bigger than any dumb apartment fridge.

I haven’t done much to decorate it because it’s basically perfect as it is, but I did get a fruit basket from Target, a cute soap dispenser from Kirkland, and we laid a rug down like the one that’s in the entryway. Also, those are pumpkin cream cheese muffins. Yeah.

Our breakfast bar has four chairs from IKEA and we eat basically every meal there. They are perfect.

We also have a little nook in the wall on the side of the kitchen that was the first thing I decorated. As soon as we knew we were going to buy our house (probably even before then) I started dreaming up what I wanted to do with it. The whole inspiration was a tiny boxwood wreath from the house we were staying in in Minnesota in January. I found the exact same one at Target and stored it under my bed months before we even moved in.

I hung the wreath on a frame I got from Michael’s that I turned into a chalkboard using chalkboard spray paint on the glass. I love it so much!

I also hung up my favorite picture of the kids from last year’s family pictures, a J that my sister got me several years ago, a clock we’ve had ever since we got married, and a FAMILY sign my husband got me for Christmas one year.

On the little ledge part I added some more boxwood decor from Target, a little basket, a lantern, and a wooden sphere thing. I can’t remember exactly where I got each thing, but it was either Target, Hobby Lobby, or Michael’s.

DINING

This dining table was my birthday gift a few years ago, and I love it so much. Up until then we were just using a small little round table that had been in my family since I was little, and four mismatched stools around it. It was not ideal when we had people over for dinner. But this table from Homemakers is like a dream. I love the color, I love the farmhouse style, I love the bench, and I love that it’s big enough for our whole family and more.

On the wall between our kitchen and living space, I hung up some baskets from Hobby Lobby and our growth chart I made (tutorial here). I made one two years ago that got accidentally thrown away when we moved from Iowa to Idaho. I had to remake it last year, but it doesn’t have the marks from when Little J was really little. I was upset at first, but I’m over it now. And I love the way these look on the wall together.

LIVING SPACE

First of all, I want to talk about the rug. I had this pattern and these colors in my mind for months. I searched and searched for a big rug that would provide some soft cushion on our tile and finally, we found this one from Rugs USA. I love the way it looks and how soft it is, but it does looks threads a TON and I feel like I am always picking them up, which is annoying. But I am very happy with it despite that.

Our big sofa and recliner are from Homemakers and were actually the first furniture purchase we ever made after getting married. The green sofa by the window is a hand-me-down from my parents. We are actually hoping to get a new sectional soon and we’ll put the recliner in the baby’s room before he’s born, but until then, this is what we have. And I want to eventually hang up some curtains on this big window, but I’m not sure what I want for them yet.

On the wall above the sofa I have some of our family pictures from last year hung up. I don’t think this wall is quite finished yet, and it actually was different last month, so we’ll see what happens there.

Now, my favorite place in the house (I think I said that already, but oh well!). I was on the hunt for a big dresser to redo for our TV stand, and while we were in Iowa from my husband’s graduation from medical school my friend Marianne actually texted me a picture of this old, beat up, cream dresser that someone was selling for $10 at a garage sale. I immediately asked her to get it for me and being the amazing, kind person she is, she and her husband loaded it in their truck and put it in our garage. When I got home, I cleaned it and wiped out the inside (it smelled like your grandparents’ house) and started searching for a color to paint it. I settled on Behr Indigo Ink and mixed it with BB Frosch Chalk Paint powder (yes, same as the entry table). I did it all during my first trimester which sounds amazing but was really because my husband was not happy about it taking up his garage space. Anyway, it turned out GORGEOUS and I am very proud of it. If you could be in love with a piece of furniture, I’d be in love with this dresser. The handles are all the original ones, just cleaned with vinegar. I thought about painting them but decided I liked the kind of worn, vintage look they gave it. (And I know this first picture is mega blurry, so I’m sorry!)

We bought a new TV in June for Father’s Day, which was exciting because we’ve been using my husband’s TV that he had before we even met. We mounted it and then I hung up a few things that I love. The “hello” sign is from Hobby Lobby, the arrow print is from Home Decor Drawing on Etsy, we have a very outdated family photo from Little J’s second birthday, a photo from one of my favorite days when we were in Idaho last year when we got square ice cream at the Rainey Creek Country Store in Swan Valley, a beautiful watercolor of the Idaho Falls Temple where my husband and I were married from Temple Minded on Etsy, a little heart waterfall design I made using a heart punch and pictures my kids drew using blue markers and crayons, and then a little quote from The Office that I designed and printed at Office Max. Like I said, I only wanted to decorate my home with things I love, and this gallery wall is a good testament to that.

KIDS ROOM

Okay, so this is so much a work-in-progress. This room, along with the baby’s room, the hall closet, and the kids bathroom are all rooms I have future plans for. But since things cost money, I am doing them one at a time. Eventually we’ll move more of their toys in here and out of the baby’s room, but now it’s pretty empty. Here’s what I have so far. First, the bunk bed. We actually weren’t planning on getting one for the kids for a while, but Little A transitioned out of her crib so easily that we just figured we’d set it up. And it worked out way better than I could’ve imagined. They both wait until I come into their room to get out of bed, and Little J never climbs down the ladder by himself (and Little A has never tried to climb up it). The actual bunk bed is from IKEA and it’s perfect for them. Not super tall, but sturdy and simple. Little J of course has Lightning McQueen sheets and Little A has Sofia the First sheets.

The only other real decorations I have in their room are these Cars signs from Hobby Lobby that were above Little J’s bed before, and this polaroid poster I made with pictures of Little J and Little A from the time Little A was born until a few months ago. They are all shots from my Instagram account, and I printed them using Square Snaps. The frame is from Michaels. I love the way it looks in their room and I love that it shows a bunch of super fun memories. They love looking at it too, which I think is super cute.

Their closet I am actually pretty proud of, so I’ll share a quick shot of that. Let me give you some background and tell you that originally, this room was their playroom and then the room that is going to be the baby’s room that’s our temporary playroom was their room. So I had the closet all set up for their toys at first. But when we found out baby #3 was on the way, we had to make some changes. So I moved all their clothes in here (thank you IKEA bins), and had to do some reorganizing. It turned out good and I think even though there’s tons of stuff in here, it looks organized!

KIDS’ BATHROOM

Again, a work-in-progress. It sort of has all of the bathroom things that we used in our old bathroom so it’s not really cute and doesn’t even really have a theme. So we’ll see what I decide to do here.

PLAYROOM/NURSERY

So this room is going to eventually be the nursery for baby boy, but until then, it’s a makeshift playroom for the kids. Little A’s decorations that were in her nursery are still on the wall, and the only real thing I have that is going to stay is the felt ball garland. The felt balls are from Hello Maypole and they are the Sprinkles on Top colors. I love them so much and they are going to be the inspiration for little man’s room. I’m going to focus on the aqua, green, and yellow colors, but I also want to have the other colors in little places of his room, too. I’ll of course update this part with pictures as I get things up, but for now, I apologize this is a lame room. The kids toys will eventually be moved to the big blank wall of nothing in their room, so that will help make their room look less boring.

LAUNDRY ROOM

First of all, I have a laundry room!! Not a laundry closet, not a laundry/bathroom hybrid, an actual room devoted to laundry. It’s amazing. My of course favorite thing about this room are my washer and dryer. We got our very first washer and dryer last year from Dan’s sweet grandparents, but when we were loading them onto the truck one started falling apart and we realized that the other wasn’t going to work in our laundry room because it was electric or gas or something. So we gave them to some friends and began the search for a new washer and dryer. We originally had planned on getting cheap ones that were floor models, but then we found these amazing beauties for a very good price and my husband let me get them because he is super nice and basically the best ever. Anyway, they have been a delight since the first wash. This little towel shelf thing is from IKEA and we use it for towels and sheets because we don’t have a linen closet anywhere in our house. Which is weird, but whatever. This fits great between the washer and dryer and works for us.

The only other thing in this room was a simple shelf above the washer and dryer, and I think eventually I want to put in some cabinets or something, but for now, I am using some little racks to give me some more storage and make it look less cluttered. I also have our cleaning things like brooms and vacuum and stuff in here, as well as our iron and ironing board hanging on the back of the door to save space.

MASTER BEDROOM

This space is pretty much done, with the exception of our dresser that doesn’t match and the giant TV we never use. I’m not sure what we’re going to do with that, but for now, it’s cool just chillin’ there.

I’ll talk about our bed first. My husband got me a new comforter set last year for Christmas, and I love it. It’s a lot lighter than what we had before and the colors are peaceful and cool and kind of remind me of the beach. We’ve had our bed/headboard ever since we got married, and unless we eventually upgrade to a king bed (which who knows), we’ll probably stick with it because I like it.

On the sides of our bed are windows with some sheer white curtains and little nightstands from IKEA. We’ve never had nightstands before, so this is a big deal to me!

My big project in here has been the wall decor. On one side we have a gallery wall, and on the other we have some picture ledges. The gallery wall has some wedding photos, some prints I designed, one of our engagement pictures with “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” overlayed on it that we got as a wedding gift from my husband’s aunt, an anniversary print my husband got me for our 5-year anniversary, a big wooden & from Michael’s, and map cutouts from the four states we’ve lived in together.

On the other wall are our picture ledges from IKEA filled with prints I found on Pinterest, made myself, and got from Etsy.

On the top ledge, from left to right, we have a Texas print (I can’t remember where I found this), a LOTR quote I designed, an “I love you” print, a vintage Yellowstone travel poster from The World Travelers, and a little “hooray” print.

On the lower ledge, from left to right, we have an arrow print, a picture of my husband and I from our family pictures last fall, a “Home is wherever I’m with you” print, an Idaho print from Armada Supply Co (they have all 50 states and come in lots of beautiful colors), and an “All of me loves all of you” print.

MASTER BATH AND CLOSET

Now if you’re amazingly still with me, we come to the last part of our home tour, the master bath and closet.

I love our bathroom and closet because our bathroom is off of our bedroom, and the toilet has its own separate little door so my husband and I can both be in there and still have privacy. I want to put some floating shelves in here eventually.

Then we have a tub and shower that are separate (what!?) and I got a little Pottery Barn candle and bath salts (decoration ONLY!) to put by the tub.

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Then we have our closet. First of all, compared to most girls, I have like no clothes. My husband actually has more clothes than me. But our closet is huge and amazing, and we both have our own sides. Here’s his (complete with a sneaky little girl hiding).

And here’s mine. We used some IKEA bins in our closet for storage, and then we also have an IKEA shoe rack on the floor for my shoes (the rest of our shoes are on an identical rack in the garage). And seriously, I don’t have a lot of clothes. These are my maternity shirts, workout tops, short-sleeve tops, and long-sleeve tops, and sweaters. It’s not hard to get dressed in the morning.

So there you have it! That’s our home! We love it and are thrilled to be living in our very own house. We’ve made it our own and will continue to do so probably until we move in four or five years. It’s the perfect little house for our family, and we love being able to have a garage and a backyard. If anyone reading this is dreaming of living in a house instead of an apartment, I promise it will happen one day. It took us six years after getting married to finally be able to buy a house, but it was worth the wait 🙂

The post Home Tour appeared first on Life With My Littles.

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One of the most difficult things for me is decorating my home. I’m good at lots of things, but home decor is not my strong suit. It doesn’t help that I’ve got two destructive toddlers and we’ve been renting our whole married life. Don’t get me wrong, I like our apartment. But I do sometimes wish that I could personalize our home a little more.

Now that our kids share a bedroom, our third bedroom is used as their playroom. It has been amazing, but I haven’t really figured out how to decorate it in a toddler/renter-friendly way. I don’t want to hang a bunch of frames because I don’t really want to punch a bunch of holes in the wall. And I don’t want to do anything too fancy because duh, toddlers don’t even care. But I care, and I wanted to come up with something that was cute, but also spoke to the fun and wildness of the playroom.

I grabbed some Washi Tape and got to work!

First I scoured Pinterest for some cute printables that I could use in the playroom. I found seven that I loved, so I printed them out in different sizes.

Then I printed my favorite picture of the littles from our family photo session we did in October. Those two just make me melt.

After trimming off the edges of the printables, I tried to find the best arrangement. I am a fan of gallery walls that are random and sort of scattered, so I just made it up. But you could easily do rows or a circle or something.

Then I grabbed my Scotch® Expressions Tapes and got to work! I just used the tapes as frames for the photos! It was so easy, and it turned out exactly how I imagined it in my head.

One hint I will give you to make it easier to hang the photos. I used a small piece of Scotch® Create Double Sided Tape on the backs so that I wouldn’t have to hold the photos in place while I taped the edges.

One of my favorite things about this super simple DIY is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. If your lines aren’t straight or the edges look ripped, that’s totally fine! That’s how it should be! It’s more fun that way.

Just tape all around the edges of your photos, and voila! You’ve got a cute gallery wall!

Thanks to Scotch® Expressions Tapes, I now have versatile, functional, and fun decorations in my kids’ playroom! It’s simply inspired, wouldn’t you say?

And because I know you’re dying to know where I found all these cute printables, here are the links so you can download them for free yourself!

US Map | Wonderful | Small & Simple |Raindrops | Globe | Alphabet | Dream Big

Now go make your own crafty DIY project with Scotch® Expressions Tapes and tell me all about it!

The post Renter-Friendly Gallery Wall appeared first on Life With My Littles.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

In the last few months, our toddler has gotten very into coloring. Any time he sees the Mister’s desk he asks if he can color. The result is that we have a lot of colorful toddler art at our house. Usually our fridge is covered with scribbled pictures, but since our daughter has started crawling, she has been tearing them down! So I needed to come up with a new solution, and fast. I’ve seen a few cute art displays floating around Pinterest, and I decided to combine a few and make my own! And guess what? This easy way to display your child’s artwork is the result!

To make this simple project, you will need a  4 1/2′ board, some stain in the color of your choice, some size 3 bulldog clips, wood/craft glue, and Command™ Picture Hanging Strips (the medium/large package).

First you want to stain your wood. Do it outside and let the stain dry at least 24 hours.

I painted three coats of stain onto my board, and I love the way it turned out!

Next you will want to bring your board inside and decide where you want your clips. Lay your board down, grab a ruler, four pieces of paper, and your four clips. Clip your paper onto your clips and lay them out so they aren’t touching.

Measure so your clips are evenly spaced, and then remove your paper. You can mark your wood where you want them, but if you have a lighter stain you might not want to. My clips were 11 1/2″ apart.

Now grab your glue and place a small amount on the back of your clip.

Stick your clip down exactly where you want it, and hold for at least 30 seconds before letting go. Repeat with the rest of the clips.

Now the main challenge of the project was to figure out how to hang it. Last year I made a wooden growth chart ruler and used sawtooth hangers, but it was pretty wobbly and I didn’t want to do that for this project since I knew I would be changing out the pictures frequently. And then it hit me. Command™ Picture Hanging Strips! They hold on strongly and remove cleanly, which is exactly what you want when you are hanging a big project like this.

The large Command™ Picture Hanging Strips are perfect because they can hold up to 4 pounds per set of strips. Just to be safe, I used four sets of strips on my board, evenly spaced.

Follow the instructions on the back of the package to attach the strips to the wood and to the wall. Now guess what? You are done! And your project is all hung up and ready to hold your child’s art!

I was so surprised at how quickly this project came together. And I love that it lays flat on the wall with the Command™ Picture Hanging Strips. It looks great and my son loves pointing out to me that he has his own little display!

I guess it’s time to get out the paper and crayons!

The post Easy Way to Display Your Child’s Artwork appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Before I even started looking at nursery ideas, I knew I wanted to use Glitz by Michael Miller Fabrics as my inspiration. If you follow me on Pinterest, you will know that is the very first thing I pinned to her nursery inspiration board. And it proved to be wonderful, because I absolutely love everything about her nursery. And since my husband is in medical school and we didn’t have a lot of money to spend on decorating her room, a lot of what I did was simple DIY! So now I want to share her gold, mint, and pink nursery with you, along with where I found each project and where you can buy the few things we did!

Little A’s crib is the same white Graco crib we used in Little J’s room when he had it (he conveniently decided to learn how to climb out of it one week before Little A was born, so we had to transfer him to an actual bed).

I sewed her quilt out of the Glitz collection, and her crib sheet is also from that collection. I didn’t use a tutorial for the quilt, but the crib sheet tutorial I used was from MADE.

It is gold, white, mint, and two different shades of pink. Absolutely perfect.

I used the scraps from the quilt and some white ribbon I had to make this adorable fabric banner. It was really easy and you can learn how to do it here. I think it adds the perfect simple touch above her crib.

The tissue paper pom-poms were really easy, too. I recommend getting the paper for these from a party store, because you can get a big jumbo pack for the same price as the small packs at the grocery store. I hung them up with thread and push-pins. You can get the tutorial for these here.

I love how this wall turned out!

On the other side of the room, I have my super comfy rocking chair, her gallery wall, and the dresser/changing table.

The gallery wall is my second favorite thing about her room (besides her bedding). I made all but one of the pictures, and got all but one of the frames at goodwill. Super easy to just paint or spray paint them the color you want.

The shelf I found at my parents’ house, and I’m sure you could find one at goodwill. Little J picked out the bear and gave it to Little A at the hospital, it’s the perfect place for our baby monitor, and we have adorable Olliblocks that my friend Shalie made for her daughters and then gave to me.

I also framed my favorite newborn picture of Little A, put a small piece of scrap fabric in a tiny frame, and then made some simple toilet paper roll flowers. I just left them the brown color.

The pink frame has heart cut-outs of words from the dictionary that I want Little A to be. You can find the tutorial for that here. The “You are so loved” print is the only one I bought. I found it on Etsy from Sweet Peony Press. You can’t really tell in the picture, but it is gold and sparkly-looking.

The gold “A” on the burlap was really easy, too. I just got some sparkly gold paper and burlap and then using my Cricut, I cut out a script “A” and then put it in the frame. The frame is the only one I got from Michael’s, but I actually got it for free because it was a BOGO deal and I bought the same frame for a wedding gift for my sister.

On the other side, I have two prints that I designed myself. The “Let them be little” print is based off of one by Hello Maypole. I designed the “I am a child of God” print using some flower clip art I had. The rose one is actually just some Martha Stewart stickers I found at TJ Maxx. I found them on Etsy if you want to buy them. I just put them on white cardstock and then in a frame. So easy.

The rocking chair/recliner is SUPER COMFY and easily the most expensive item in the room. We got it with our couch as a set before Little J was born. I highly recommend getting a recliner over a rocker because it is way comfier and having cushy arms on the chair helps a lot. It’s from Homemakers if you are curious.

The changing table is actually a dresser that I have had since I was 3. It is just white with three drawers, and I have started wanting to upcycle it, but who knows if that will happen. I just put our changing pad on top, and a light next to it (because our apartments don’t have ceiling lights in the bedrooms…). Her changing pad cover is a pinky minky one. The light is a cheap $10 one from Walmart.

So that is Little A’s gold, pink, and mint nursery! It is absolutely perfect for her, and I am glad I got to share it with you!!

Here’s a list of everything so you can DIY, too!

Graco Stanton Crib
Glitz by Michael Miller
Crib Sheet Tutorial by MADE
Fabric Scrap Banner by I Heart Naptime
Tissue Paper Flowers by Two Twenty One
Fairy Tales Olliblocks
Toilet Paper Roll Flowers
Heart-Punched Dictionary Wall Art by Life With My Littles
“You are so loved” Print by Sweet Peony Press
Martha Stewart Pink Rose Stickers

The post Little A’s Gold, Mint, & Pink Nursery Reveal appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Last month we moved into a three bedroom apartment, which meant that I got to decorate a whole room for baby girl! Hooray! So I set to work trying to find ideas for the perfect room for her.

Last year, I found the cutest little art project. It included punching out words from a book using a heart-punch. I knew I wanted to take this and make it even better for our baby girl. I decided to take a dictionary and punch out words that I wanted her to grow up to be. For example, I punched out “virtuous,” “gentle,” “patient,” and other words like that. It came out so beautifully and I absolutely love it! And I want everyone to be able to make their own personalized dictionary art, so I made a tutorial!

To make this, you will only need a few things. And they aren’t even expensive!

A 5/8″ heart craft punch
A dictionary (mine was a small one so the words were small and I could fit it into a small frame, and I found it at Goodwill!)
A piece of scrapbook paper for the background (not pictured)
A ruler, a pencil, and scissors (not pictured)
Glue (not pictured)
A frame (not pictured)

Next, pick what words you want for your hearts. Then tear those pages out so you can punch them in the next step. Depending on what size of frame you choose, you may need more words. I did a 4×6″ frame, and I had 15 hearts. So pick wisely!

Next, punch out your words. Using the bottom of the punch, line up your words so you can center the word in the middle of the heart. Then punch!

Now, cut out your background from the scrapbook paper. My frame was 4×6″, so I obviously cut my paper to 4×6″. This is where the ruler, pencil, and scissors come in.

Now you need to line up your hearts so you know how you want to glue them down. Not hard.

Now glue down your hearts!

Put your paper in your frame and you are done! You now have a beautiful work of art for a nursery or girl’s room!

And here it is on the wall in baby girl’s room! Yes, I know two of the frames don’t have the pictures in them yet, but one is going to have her first initial (not sure on that yet) and the other is going to be an actual picture of her (obviously can’t get that yet). But I’ll update you all later with an actual nursery reveal!

Here’s a close up.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope yours is just as perfect for your little one’s room!

The post Easy Heart-Punched Dictionary Art appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Something that I never had in my home growing up was a place where we measured the growth of my sister and me. We lived in the same house from the time I was 5-18, so you would think that we would have been smart enough to mark it every now and then. But alas, we were not. So when our son was born I knew that I wanted to document his growth. The only problem is that since the Mister is in medical school, we will be moving around for the next few years. So after searching Pinterest for an answer, I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

I love love love the idea of making your own growth chart, especially one that looks like a giant ruler! I think it’s super cute and is a great way to mark how tall your kids are when you know you won’t be in the same house for their whole childhood. Plus, it is way cheaper to make your own and it really is not that hard. You only need a few things to make it and it’s also way cooler to tell someone you made the awesome growth ruler hanging in your home than that you bought it.

First, you need to get all of your materials together. You will need:

• Board
• Wood stain
• Paintbrush
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Stencil
• Black paint
• Sawtooth hangers

After you have everything you need, you will need to stain your board. The easiest way to do this is to place both ends on two chairs in an open and well-ventilated area. For me, this was in our garage with the door wide open (because pregnancy and staining boards do not mix well). It was nice to have it elevated because then I could get the edges while I did the top and I didn’t have to worry about it getting all over the floor.

The stain I used was a small little 8 oz. Minwax stain in the Golden Oak color. It was only like $3 and it gave my board the perfect look with just one coat.

I stained one side and one edge at a time, and let the board dry completely in between. Depending on where you do your staining, it may take a while. In Iowa, it is humid so I let my board dry 24 hours before I flipped it over for the next side.

Once it was dry, I brought it inside to get ready to paint the lines and numbers. And Little J couldn’t resist getting involved in the pictures!

The first step is to mark your board where you want each line. It would probably be easiest to do this all at once, but of course I didn’t do that. I started by marking the 1′ lines, then lines every 6″, then lines every inch. And a tip for this: depending on how tall you want your board to be, you may want to have your board hanging at a different position than mine. My board ended up being hung between 2.5′ and 7.5′. Chances are our kids won’t be that tall, but I wanted the board to be high enough so it wouldn’t be messed with by littles, and I also wanted it to be taller than 6.5′ because the Mister and I are both tall. Basically, if you want your board to be from 2-7′ or from 1-6′, your first foot mark needs to be a foot in from the end. If you want your board to be from 1.5-6.5′ or from 2.5-7.5′ like mine, then your first food mark needs to be six inches in from the end. And if you are still confused, draw it out on a piece of paper and it will make more sense. So again, for my board, I did the first foot mark 6 inches in. Each line is 2.5″ long as well.

If you will notice in the above picture, I made another mark 1/4″ away from my first foot mark. This is because you want the lines once they are painted to be thicker than the rest. I quickly realized that you don’t want to center the lines over the foot mark because if you do that, the foot marks will actually be a little less than the height they are supposed to be when hung up. So as you make your lines, you will want to paint your lines a little bit above the measured marks instead of below. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

As you measure the rest of your foot marks, use your ruler and measure them 1 foot away from the first line you marked. If you do it from the second line, your ruler will not be accurate and there will be more than 1′ between your lines. Again, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! See below. And I made the lines darker so you can see where they are. The lines on the right of those dark lines are the ones you will need when painting that are 1/4″ in from the first.

Okay so I hope that makes sense. Mark your foot marks all the way to the end of your board when you can’t make any more marks. Next, you will want to do the inch marks. On my board, I made the six inch marks a little bit shorter than my foot marks and a little bit longer than my one inch marks. The six inch marks are also a little bit thinner than my foot marks, and the one inch marks are the thinnest of them all (if that doesn’t make sense, look at the finished pictures of the board and it will). In the below picture, you will see the painted foot marks (you don’t have to paint yours yet) and the marks I made every inch in between.

So now you have all of your marks on your board and you can begin painting! Yay! Just use a THIN paintbrush and black paint. If you don’t use a thin brush, you will regret it. Trust me, I have messed up fatty ugly marks on the back of my board because I messed up and didn’t use a thin brush.

Once you have all your lines painted, it is time to break out your stencil and get those numbers on your board. My board hangs at 2.5″, so my first foot mark is at 3 and my last one is at 7. If you are starting at an even foot, you will only have three numbers to add on. Lay your stencil on your board and paint over it. Slowly peel the stencil back and you will have a beautiful number.

Paint all of your numbers and you are done! Yay! You now have a beautiful handmade growth ruler to hang in your home and chart your littles’ growth. To hang up your growth ruler, you can use sawtooth hangers. I just nailed two into the back top and it was good to go!

And there you have it! A beautiful, homemade growth ruler that can travel with you from home to home. And even if you aren’t planning on moving when your kids are young, it’s still a cute way to display your family’s growth!

The post DIY Growth Chart Ruler appeared first on Life With My Littles.

For Father’s Day this year, I wanted to make the Mister something special. In January, my father-in-law passed away unexpectedly, so we have been dealing with the grief and healing that came with his death for the past few months. Something my husband inherited from him were his old scriptures and missionary tag from his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He loved to talk about his mission among the Navajo people, and he especially loved the red rocks of the American Southwest. To make this Father’s Day special and as a tribute to the Mister’s father, I decided to make him a way to display his father’s missionary tag.

This was a really easy project that has a lot of special meaning for our family, as it would for any father who has served a mission, I’m sure. I love that by displaying the tag with the picture of my father-in-law, we will have something in our home that our children can ask about both their grandpa and his mission.

It wasn’t an expensive project either, which made it even better! Here is what you need:

• a 12×12″ shadow box
• an 8×10″ picture from their mission
• a missionary tag
• a 12×12″ white piece of cardstock
• a small piece of white cardstock
• glue

I got my shadow box from Jo-Ann (on sale for $12.49), and then I printed my picture at Costco for $1.52. The two pieces of cardstock were 69 cents each, so total, this project cost me just barely over $15.

First, you will want to trim down your 8×10″ picture to an 8×8″ picture. I used my friend’s paper cutter because I didn’t trust myself to trim the picture in a straight line.

I just cut an inch off the top and bottom so that the main part of the picture was still there.

Next, you will want to cut a little piece of white cardstock to cover the back of your missionary tag. If you have a tag with a pin, you can just pin it through the paper exactly where you want it, but my father-in-law’s tag was one for a pocket. I cut my paper so it would fit over the back and then give me a little room to glue the edges down. I think it was about 3 1/3″ x 2 1/2″, but you will want to measure yours before you cut it.

Then, with your picture centered (but not glued) on your 12×12″ paper, you will want to figure out where you want your missionary tag. Then put a tiny amount of glue down on the bottom and side edges of the small white paper and glue it down where you want your tag.

Press firmly, and before the glue is completely dry (but not immediately), slide the missionary tag into the pocket. You want a snug fit so it won’t move around.

Next, glue down your picture so that it is centered on the page. I discovered that it was very helpful to put a heavy book down over the picture while it was drying so it didn’t bubble up and all the edges got glued down flat.

Once your picture is dry, put it in your shadow box and admire!

Good job! Now you have a lovely way to display a mission photo along with your missionary tag, and a great symbol of your husband/father/brother’s mission that will be a great talking point to help teach your children!

If you want to learn more about an LDS mission and why our young men, young women, and senior couples leave their families to teach about what we believe, click here.

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