Picture Frame Re-Purposing with a Great Helper

When we were projecting for Kinley's Big Girl room, I decided to repurpose some picture frames that we had around the house.

I had this fabulous yellow and white striped frame that I got at Canton one time. I love the yellow and white stripes but, I thought that horizontal yellows stripes would not look great against the vertical pink stripes so, we painted it white. Kinley was a great help. She loves when I have painting projects.

We left the yellow middle trim and then I sanded it down to distress it a little. I love how it turned out in her wall collage.

We did pretty much the same thing to this overly pink frame. I loved the pink sparkly and structural center but there was just too much pink! This one is on her dresser.

Our last frame project I did for Ty's room. I bought these graphic prints from The Little Rice on Etsy a couple weeks ago. They are super simple and I wish I had just made them myself because it is just a black clip art image printed on dictionary paper. But, I don't really have an aged dictionary in great shape just hanging around...so, I am happy with the purchases!

I decided I wanted to hang them in Ty's room but since everything in there is white and brown so far I thought I needed a pop of color. So, I went to Hobby Lobby and got some custom mats cut in a chocolate brown. Then I bought some standard, boring frames and decided to spray paint them. I primed them with a spray primer first and then sprayed them with Krylon Satin Pistachio.

I think the finished product turned out great and I can't wait to hang them in his room!

Kinley's Big Girl Room

I am super excited to finally have Kinley's big girl room done! It has been many weeks of thinking/organizing/project-ing to finally feel finished with her room. She has been sleeping in her big girl bed for about a month now and it truly has been a breeze and totally life-changing for her. She LOVES her bed. My goal was to make her room feel that way for her too and I think I did it. She loves it and wants to show it to everyone. It is so cute. It really feels like a big girl room and not a baby room anymore and it is a little sad but I loved working on it and am thrilled she likes the finished project.

To start off...I did not want to have to re-paint Kinley's room because she has these fabulous striped walls {that I did not do...they were already here when we moved in} and I just love them. Here is an old grainy scanned pic of me preggo with Kinley in her nursery for a little before pic. {on a side note that feels like yesterday and I can't believe I am about to do that again}.

So, my goal was to keep the nursery walls and "big girl" it up a little. Here's the after...

My inspiration came when I finally found this bedspread online at Target. I fell in love with it. I had been dying for a new color {not pink} and a new fun pattern {not striped}. I felt like this one hit the mark.

This is pretty much what Kinley thinks of her bed. It is a BIG big-girl bed. We had a queen in our guest room {soon to be Ty's room} so we just used that instead of storing it and buying a twin or toddler bed. She loves it...lots of relaxing, good sleeping and jumping up and down.

I hung her initials over the bed that we had over her crib.

A few weeks ago Ben and I bought and put together this chest from ikea. I love it. It is huge and holds almost all Kinley's clothes. We put the entire thing together in one evening and my favorite thing is the yellow striped lined drawers. No one sees it, but so cute!

The mirror is one I bought at Marshalls a couple years ago for our guest room. I was excited to use it again. The chandelier is one we got before Kinley was born for her nursery from Pottery Barn Kids. At Ben's insistence we moved it from the corner it was previously in so that it wouldn't be over her bed. I am glad we did because I like that you can see it right when you walk in the room.

A necessity in our rooms is blackout curtains. My first sewing project ever was to sew some material onto pre-made blackout curtains for Kinley's nursery. It was so fun to learn to sew with Jen but they ended up about ten inches too short and I have hated them ever since. I found this fabulous fabric at Joanns for 40% off and made some adjustments to my previous curtains. I made the length correct, added a 4" hem, exchanged the rod and clips and viola....new blackout curtains that I love!

The wall collage was the last thing I did. A huge thanks to katie grant who helped me for hours to decide how i should organize all this into one collage. What I was missing was a great center focal point for the wall and I found a fantastic mirror at Marshalls that just hit the spot. I love the color and shape and I just knew I wanted a wall collage centered around it.

I hung this canvas that I painted in college over the mirror. I painted this scripture from Psalm 139 when I was going through a huge self-image and eating disorder struggle. I always want Kinley to remember that she is beautiful because God made her that way and that He alone is the maker of all beautiful things.

Everything else that makes up the collage I just had around my house in different places. The painted K my friend Lauryn transformed for Kinley's K is for Kinley 1st Birthday Party. The crosses are some I got when she was born. The princess crown frame I got in college from my sweet roomie/bestie Lindsay Barry. The boxes I bought at a vintage store in Lansing, MI when we lived there for baseball. I love that it is a hodge-podge of things I have collected over time.

Overall, I think the room turned out great. I hope Kinley feels comfortable and safe in this room and knows how loved she is. She is our big girl now and is so soon to be a big sister. I know she will be amazing.

Joyner Cousin Lake Weekend

I am just so, so thankful as I write this for my entire family. I know how incredibly blessed I am to absolutely LOVE all my extended family on all sides. We spend so much time with cousins and siblings on all sides of Ben and I's family. They are truly, amazing people that I do not just consider family but, great friends also. We all WANT to spend time together as much as possible and always think the more, the merrier. This past weekend was just one small example of what that looks like.

We decided we wanted to have a cousin dinner on the Joyner side before summer ended and Bryan went back to school and Matt left for training in New York...and before baby Ty came. We had settled last week on doing it Friday night at my house and then Ben threw out the idea to make a weekend out of it and go to the lake house. Even though it was so last minute, within just a few hours I had heard back from EVERYONE that they had cleared their schedules and were totally in for the whole weekend. We REALLY missed Bart and Olivia and wished that they lived closer and could just hop on out for the weekend with us too. We thought about them often but, are so proud of all they are doing in Boston. We can't wait to see them again soon!

Friday night we got there in time to launch the boats and jet skis to be ready for us Saturday morning. We ate a late dinner and grilled out hamburgers and brats. Scott and Ben were the chef and sous-chef for the weekend. Don't ask me who was who. Ben was the grill master and Scott made breakfast and his infamous homemade guacamole.

Friday night was also filled with playing cornhole or just hanging out and spending lots of good time together.

Saturday was lake day. We had a delicious big breakfast and got out on the lake in the morning for lots of fun.

We jet skiied...

We tubed...

We just hung out on the water..

Aren't these boys just ADorable!? I mean it, ADorable.

I guess because we are all Aggies (except Ben...and not YET Brooke) we just throw up Gig Em without even thinking...because it was definitely the go-to symbol for the day in pictures.

During the afternoon, we ate, napped, relaxed and played some games.

Then, during that fabulous evening time when the sun is starting to go down and the water is like glass and it is not SO blazing hot..we went back out on the water. Lots of people wanted to wake board and EVERYONE got up! It was so much fun. Katie and Brooke were especially exciting. Brooke had never tried to wakeboard and, like a pro, got up on her very first try! Katie had tried before but had not ever gotten up. This picture is hilarious of her face and Scott excited on the boat and Amy and Bryan on the jet ski in the background.

Look at all these athletes!

The sun going down at the end of the day on the lake was just so much fun. It was beautiful!

Sunday was just a pretty lazy day and a day of loading back up the boats and jet skis and cleaning the house. We just hung out together, slept late, ate donuts and a light lunch and finally headed back. We had such a good time all together this weekend. Matt even said " Do you ever think about how lucky we are to have our family? To love them all so much and all the in-laws and everything?" I said...all the time. I am so, so thankful.