HOME TOUR

We sold our first home 2 weeks ago! It was very exciting! It was also a little sad since it was our first home. We put a lot of work into it and it's where we brought our sweet baby girl home, but there are greater things ahead for our lil fam. Hopefully by the beach this time! LOL! Ah, military life... where will they send us next? Once Chad completes his training in Texas, we will know. 

I sold our home myself in a month and for asking price! I learned a TON and I will DEFINITELY do it again. I thought I'd list a few tips... I watched the market in my area for about 6 months before I listed our home. I was very confident in our asking price. The house actually appraised for $4k above asking/selling price so I was right on the money. 

A couple more things: We listed with For Sale By Owner, Realtor.com, Zillow, and Military By Owner. Zillow is the #1 place to list! It's free to list and most of the people/realtors who looked at our home found it on there. Military By Owner is great if you live in a military town. You'll get lots of people on there! For Sale By Owner was helpful as far as giving info on how to sell your home but I only received a couple of inquiries from that site. 

Realtor.com was a pain because I had to have Home Listing Monster list it on there (it was included in my For Sale By Owner package). I had to email them the HUD in order to have my listing taken down and if I didn't do it within 48 hours of closing I could be fined. They aren't bad, it was just sort of a pain and I really didn't get many inquiries from them. 

I had professional photos taken of our sweet yellow home by Skylar Wyatt Photography (she's our fave!). We put lots of work into the home and I blogged about most of it. Now onto the next fixer upper!

In honor of selling our home, here is a final walk-through:
(Click on a photo for slideshow and better viewing)

Foyer

Playroom

Living Room

Dining Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Nursery

Guest Bath

Guest Bed #1

Guest Bed #2

FROG

Backyard

XOXO, 

K

Adulting Is Fun

To celebrate turning 25, I decided to host a wine tasting party. I invited some of my closest friends and family and asked each of them to bring a bottle.

It was a blind tasting so upon arrival, I bagged everyone's bottle of wine and put a number on it. I set all of them onto the table into sections, one for whites and one for reds. Everyone grabbed a glass and a scorecard and began tasting.

We had a total of 12 bottles of wine. Some of my guests are avid winos and some aren't. It was interesting to see the crowd favorites. The experienced ones gravitated towards the reds, while the newbies liked the sweet whites. Those who weren't winos before the party are definitely winos now! LOL!

Our winners were: 1) Apothic White 2) Chateau Ste Michelle Sweet Riesling 3) Insurrection Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon. The winner won a small prize which consisted of a wine tumbler, some chocolate, and a wine stopper.

As for the decorations, I set up the tasting table in my dining room. I lined the table with a chalkboard runner and wrote the wine tasting instructions on it. I love the look the chalkboard runner gives and it's so fun to write on. I purchased chalkboard stickers for the wine glasses so everyone could put their name on their glass. For the scorecards, I found these on Pinterest.

I covered my kitchen table in delicious treats. On the tray we had: gouda, honey goat cheese, herb goat cheese, crackers, mixed nuts, dried apricots, olives, prosciutto, sliced salami, and hard spicy salami. We also had brie, grapes with white cheddar, bread, and oil&vinegar. One of my friends brought a smoked gouda dip from Kroger that was outstanding! For our sweets we had: red velvet cupcakes and dark chocolate fondue with strawberries, pineapple, and angel food cake.

I set up a lounge area on our patio. I used my new pink sofa, with a funky old rug, and a few white chairs. My FIL brought his gas fire pit and an outdoor heater to keep us warm and cozy. Added some funky fur pillows and some string lights for the final touches. I sadly did not get any pictures. :(

Everyone had a wonderful time. One of my friends asked if we could do wine night every week. LOL! Sadly, this was probably our last party at this home since we are selling soon.

It was a perfect chill night with all of my favorite people. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my birthday!

Cheers!

-Kaley

The Winners

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Frumpy to Funky

My friends and I have started an Instagram for moms called Slaying Mom Life. We were having photos taken of us for our page and needed a cool prop. I purchased an old couch from a thrift store for $40. I wanted to make it cool and funky so I started searching for ways to change the color without having to have it reupholstered.

Pinterest gave me lots of options but ultimately I decided to Rit Dye it. I came across this post and sort of followed her suggestions.

Here's how I transformed my sofa:

• I vacuumed the sofa.
• Poured 2 cap fulls of Petal Pink Rit Dye into 2 cups of hot water.
• I used a paint brush to paint the dye on.
• First, I painted a small test spot on the back of the cushion.
• Decided that was too light so I changed it to 4 cap fulls into 2 cups hot water.
• Painted the whole couch.
• I did 3 coats. I used one and half bottles of Rit Dye.
• Spray painted the legs gold.
• Once dry, I used scotch guard to protect the color.

We used the sofa for our photos and it turned out amazing! I also used it on my porch for a seating area at my birthday party. I absolutely love how it turned out! I've gotten
so many compliments on it.

Now contemplating whether I want to sell or keep it...

XX,
Kaley

Video Tutorial:

Before

After

Mommy & Mini Fall Fashions

Hello October!! To be honest, I hate fall! I hate the cold!! I much prefer the hot lazy days of Summer. Even though I hate the crisp cool air of Fall, the one thing that gets me excited for it each year is Fall fashion. As soon as the temp hit 68, I couldn't wait for my daughter and I to wear our new clothes. We got dressed up and walked around downtown with Daddy. My wonderful instagram husband snapped a few shots of us. ;)

XX

Mommy:
Top & jeans - American Eagle 

Booties - Charlotte Russe
Watch - Michael Kors

Mini:
Dress - Old Navy 

Fur vest & kitten boots - Carters

Bathroom Makeover

We are selling our house. Our dreams have changed. The plan was that Chad would get out of the Navy, start a new job, and we'd have 4 kids and live here for a long time. Now, he's staying in the Navy, we are only having 2 kids (hopefully, infertility sucks), and I could never live anywhere for longer than 3 years (military brat problems).

We will be listing in January but we had some realtors come look at our home to give us their thoughts. They all said that our home was beautiful and they loved my decorating but they both suggested that we fix up the master ensuite. It's the only room left in the house that we hadn't updated. So we got to work...

When we moved in, the bathroom was light blue (as shown in the before photos). We installed tile floors and we painted the bathroom a dark gray. We were going for a sexy Restoration Hardware look but it looked terrible! It was so dark, it felt like a dungeon. I don't know what I was thinking. 

For my new design, I knew I wanted a light and clean look, something that went well with the Master Bedroom. We changed the color of the bathroom to match the bedroom. We replaced the vanity top, and my husband made the mirror frame and matching shelves. 

To frame our mirror, we glued the mirror to the wall with Liquid Nails (any construction adhesive will do). We were going to use white trim for the frame but decided on 1x4 unfinished pine boards since it was cheaper. We stained the wood and cut it to fit the mirror. Then we assembled the frame in the garage with wood glue and heavy duty staples (1/2 inch staples). Once it was dry, we glued it to the mirror with Liquid Nails and also brad nailed the top corners to the wall. My husband did an amazing job!

We are going to enjoy our new bathroom as much as possible before we move. It was a fun project and we're very pleased with the outcome! It's so fresh and clean. Hopefully the new owners will love it as much as we do!

Paint - Cool Slate OL184
Wood Stain - Minwax Dark Walnut

Bathroom Tile - Home Depot 

Shower Curtain - countrydoor.com

Double Sink Vanity Top - Home Emporium (only $129!!)
Faucets - Home Emporium (only $40 each!!)

Rugs - Target 

XX