Blog - at home with Ashley

How to buy Baby Moccasins for Cheap

Thanks for stopping by! My name is Ashley and this is my blog At Home with Ashley

So I know you are here to find out my top secret source for how to find baby moccasins for less than $5, but here are some things you should know first:

I believe in living on a budget (why I like to help you find cute stuff for cheap!). Here is my post about how I paid off $43,000 in debt
I am an expert decorator. Have you ever wanted to learn how to accessorize your home? I have a free ecourse that teaches you how
I also have a post on how to find other cute baby accessories on a budget

Alright, here is how to find baby moccasins on a budget:

Please note, affiliate links are used

When I had my baby I knew I wanted to get him baby moccasins. I loved the look and that they go with everything! But they cost $40 a pair- for baby shoes! Crazy! I decided to do some searching online and I am so excited to tell you that I found an awesome source! Are you ready for me to spill the beans?!

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How to Pick the Perfect White Paint Color

Hi Guys! I have been itching to actually do something big with my house and not just talk about it! Ha! My living room is the saddest, so I figured I would start there (check back next week and I will have another update- this room is my focus right now so plan on seeing some results! I have some big things in the works that I am SO excited about!). You can see I have starting working on my living room- that I did some coffee table styling and here I have decorated for Halloween. But the biggest problem in my living room is the paint. I think it is too dark and besides that, I did a crappy job of painting (I think I forgot to stir the paint or I used two cans with different finishes- oops) and the finish is splotchy in some places- you can kind of see it in this picture:

How to Pick the Perfect White Paint Color

So it was off to Pinterest to figure out exactly what I wanted. You have seen my living room mood board here and how my living room is looking now here. I knew from the mood board that I wanted white, but I have recently honed that in even farther when I came to the realization that I want my living room to look like a Paris apartment- lots of light, white walls, amazing trim, and wood floors (preferably in a herringbone pattern please and thank you).

But what white to get? I knew I wanted a bright, pure white so I went to Home Depot and got a million white paint swatches and then taped up my favorites to the wall. I stared at those for about a week.

note- this post includes affiliate links

I had some I liked, but wasn’t totally sold on any of them. Then, I got a book in the mail (don’t you love good mail days?!) Styled by Emily Henderson and it has a section in the back for paint color suggestions- mostly by Benjamin Moore.

So I went to the Benjamin Moore store and got paint chips of all of their whites. Based on the suggestions from the book, I was leaning towards Super White or Dove White by Benjamin Moore. Can you tell by now that this story is too long?! I was bored of researching and thinking and not doing anything about the terrible paint in my living room! Plus, it was Friday and I hate going to the store on Saturday (mostly because hauling around a baby makes everything take forever) and I wanted to get painting on Saturday. So I want to Home Depot and instead of buying a sample, I bought a gallon. Rebel without a cause! P.s. did you know that Home Depot has all of Benjamin Moore’s paint formulas in their computer? So you can save some money by getting it mixed at Home Depot. All they need is the number.

Here is a before image of the walls I painted (I need to paint my living room in chunks or it will be too overwhelming and definitely not project I can complete while my baby is napping):

Saturday morning, I put my baby down for a nap, threw some laundry in the washing machine and then raced to prep for painting as quickly as possible. I grabbed supplies and wiped down the wall and trim, I then started painting and cut out the wall first and then used the roller. The first coat took about 2 hours and 5 minutes to prep for and apply plus brush washing time. I got really excited- This paint color is working! I wanted to add more contrast and this was working! During my baby’s second nap I put up a second coat (this one took about an hour), but this time I was more concerned. It was still looking grey!

Here is a photo from the kitchen. You can see from this angle that “super white” is grey (or greyer) than my kitchen! And you can see in contrast to the white closet walls how grey they are!

It then got me to thinking- wouldn’t the color of the closet doors be perfect?! The color is delicate white by Olympic (from Lowes). Plus, I already know it works in my space! So for me, Delicate White (no longer available) is the perfect white for my space.

Here are my tips for finding your perfect paint color- PAINT A SWATCH on your walls! I hate to yell, but I am yelling at myself and the expensive $40 can of paint and three hours I wasted. Coulda, woulda, shoulda! Anyway, my point is you can’t read a description of a paint color and have it look perfect in your space- OR see it look perfect in another space. There are SO many variables like lighting in your region, where your windows, how much sun you get, your furnishings. Paint chips are just so tiny it is really hard to tell how they will be on a large space until you try it out. So try it out, trust me 🙂

Here are my tips for painting- I have painted SO much in my day. I have learned some tips to advoid mistakes (because I have made way too many)-

1. Lay down a drop cloth every where you are painting. Then when you drip (which you will), you can just be like “darn, guess I have to be more careful” and then slow down instead of “crap!!! I just ruined my floors!!!” and have to spend your time cleaning instead of painting.
2. Always have the drop cloth underneath your open can or paint tray. That way if it tips over again, you only get paint on a cloth. I invested in a drop cloth at Home Depot and it was so worth it. I was painting my bedroom when I was super pregnant and didn’t do this tip and spilled a full gallon of paint on my carpet. You can still see the stain.
3. Wear paint clothes- again, you will drip. It’s better to not be wearing clothes that you care about.
4. Wear a shower cap while you roll- I might be the messiest, but when I roll, I always used to get paint splatters in my hair. Not anymore! You might feel ugly for the 20 minutes it takes to roll, but not as ugly as having paint in your hair!
5. Have a very wet rag ready for spills- that way you are ready to clean them up right away
6. Buy a good angled 2″ brush- I just got this one for this project and it worked SO well! You can also buy it at Home Depot (the link is for Amazon). This is the BEST cutting in brush (see how to use it in the video below)
7. Wash out your brushes very well between every coat. I used to put my brushes in a plastic bag and then throw them in the fridge, but it ruined my brushes. It was good for being lazy, but washing them well (use dish soap to get off any dried paint) protects your investment so you can use your fancy brush for a long time.
8. Don’t use blue tape- this one might surprise you, but I used to use blue tape and was the messiest/sloppiest painter and then pull it off and spend one million years fixing all of the bleeds. Now I use Young House Love’s method of cutting in and then can see when I make a mistake and quickly fix it. Below is the video. I used to cover my outlets and light switches in tape, but I didn’t do that this time and didn’t have any problems.

I was really hoping to finish this post with a picture of the perfect white paint color on my walls, but it wasn’t meant to be. I headed to Lowes bright and early to get my paint mixed. There was one customer in the store and three employees standing around and no one would come to the paint desk. Finally, I got someone to mix my paint. I cruised the store with my baby pricing out some molding for the living room (!!) and a fan for my baby’s room (he still doesn’t have a light). I was back at the paint counter 20 minutes later. But my paint wasn’t there. The paint mixing store associate headed over and said he needed to clean the machine and it would be 20 more minutes. I was ticked! Why hadn’t he been cleaning it while I had been walking around? I figured it would take 20 minutes to clean the machine and then 5 minutes to mix my paint and then 5 more minutes to check out and get my baby loaded up in the car- waiting one hour for paint, no thanks! Plus my baby was getting cranky. So I left without any paint. I was SO disappointed! I hope I don’t sound like a drama queen. I get paint mixed all of the time for home and work projects and I am used to waiting in the store for my paint. It was just that the store was empty of customers and I felt like the time they asked me to wait wasn’t reasonable.

So the color of these white doors will be the color of my living room

In prepping for this blog post, I figured I could pull the paint out of my garage and paint a swatch from there so you could see how it will work. I opened the can and it was all dried up! Ha! I couldn’t help but feel like I can’t win with this whole paint thing. But I am an eternal optimist and can see the progress- I am getting there!

Last of all, I just learned that you can buy your paint online at Lowes and then pick it up mixed at the store. I am SO doing that next time.

Update- Here are the “afters” with Delicate Linen from Olympic on the walls:

Kitchen Mood Board

In September, I walked you through each of the rooms of my house and then posted about my plans for that room. I didn’t do that with the kitchen. Why? At that point we were 90% sure we were moving and it felt silly (and disingenuous) to post about a remodel we would never do. Our plans fell through, so I am back to focusing on our home! So here is my kitchen mood board and my plans/ dreams on what I would like/needs to change:

Cabinets- In the kitchen home tour, I talked about why the cabinets need to be redone. They are terrible up close and I would like to paint the uppers and the lowers white or go tuxedo with white up top and grey or mint below. I am dreading this project because I know it will be a TON of work. But less work than if they were wood, right?!
Back Splash- We have no black splash now and I would like to put up a white subway tile back splash. I would like to also tile the wall behind the garbage can. I just know it would look SO beautiful!!!
Counters- For a while I thought about doing a faux concrete counter, but my husband hates that idea. Instead I am thinking I will save up for a marble or white stone counter of some type. I definitely want it white or grey though. Honestly, anything would be better than the brownish laminate counters that are there now (though they do hide dirt rather efficiently…)
Floors- The floor and a light beige stone tile. Not the worst, but a bunch of them are cracking. I am guessing it’s because the floor isn’t level (fun). I think a marble or black and white tile would look amazing!
Lighting- When we were pricing out light fixtures for the nursery, we saw how affordable it would be to change out the light above the sink. We hate boob lights, so that would be fun to add some personality on a budget there!
Rug- I want a pink Persian rug SO bad for in the kitchen. Maybe we should just go to Morocco so we can bring back some rugs… A girl can dream!
Furniture- in the dining room, I would love a new dining table. The one we have is from the 50’s or 60’s (at least). I might just refinish the legs because it does seem a little silly to get a small table for this space when we are hoping to move in a bigger house in a few years.

So there are my plans! Hopefully this weekend, I will be painting the living room a fresh color and we can slowly upgrade this adorable little condo :). Thank you for reading! Check back next week when I do a recap of my first month of blogging.

If you are wondering where any of my photos from my mood board come from, they are all from my Kitchen Ideas board on Pinterest:

Follow At Home with Ashley’s board Kitchen Ideas on Pinterest.

3 Kitchen Hacks that will make your life prettier and easier

When I blog I like to think of things that might be unique to me that I can share with you to make your life better. I have 3 kitchen hacks that will make your life prettier and easier, so let’s dive right in!

Why I use cloth napkins (and think you should too :))- when I was on my super tight budget, I was noticing that I was always buying paper napkins. I would put them out for every dinner and then throw them away every night. I thought “this is so expensive and wasteful!” So, I bought some cloth napkins. My husband thought they were weird at first (you know wiping your face on something, washing it, and then repeat), but he got over it and now we always have cloth napkins at our table. Here’s why I love them- they are economical, they are good for the environment, and they look pretty! I bought my napkins at Down East Home- they always have some and usually for a great deal! I have recently bought some cloth napkins from this seller on eBay (no longer available) for $2 a napkin in fun colors.

Why using a butter dish is the best thing that happened to me– I grew up eating margarine- easily spreadable, buy in a tub margarine. When I got married, I did some research on both of them and decided that for my family, butter was a better fit. Plus, butter is so, so delicious! I mean, you add a little butter to anything and it is ten times better! The problem was, it got so hard in the fridge, it’s a pain to use. I went to my grandparents for lunch one day, and they had their butter in a dish. I asked my grandma about it and she said, if you use it in a few days it won’t go rancid (more research here). She keeps her butter dish in her cupboard and pulls it out for meals. I happened to already own a small butter dish (it only holds half a stick) from Anthropologie and tried it out. I love it! I always is soft and ready to use. It’s convenient and in the 3-4 months that I have been trying this I have never had the butter go rancid. If you are nervous about using a butter dish, you could use a French-style butter crock* that keeps it soft, but also holds cold water so it is like it’s in the fridge.

My favorite chocolate chip recipe! Ever!-

So, I made chocolate chip cookies for national homemade cookie day, and they turned out so good! This is a recipe I have that me sister gave me that always turns out perfectly. I’ve tweaked a few things (listed below), but I seriously love this recipe because it is fast to make and is such a crowd pleaser (they get gobbled up wherever I take them). They are crazy soft in the middle with a little crunch on the outside. Warning, you’ll want to eat them all in one sitting (only me? Haha :)) So here is the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 Cup Crisco

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup White Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

2 Cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

2 Cups Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix Crisco, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until blended. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until blended. The dough will be stiff. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto un-greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes. Makes 3-4 dozen (depending on how big you make the cookies)

Other tips-

These cookies are THE BEST when the dough has been in the fridge. What I do is make the dough and then put in one dozen in the oven (because I have no self control). I then put the rest of the dough in the fridge in a tupperware and make cookies whenever I feel like it.
My oven cooks unevenly (so annoying!) so I cook them 4 minutes and the rotate the cookie sheet 180 degrees so that both sides are cooked evenly. I then cook them 4 minutes more and take the sheet out. You don’t want to over cook them so they don’t get hard
These are best eaten in a few days or they get hard. That’s why I usually make 1 dozen at a time.

Bon appetite! And let me know if you try any of these out!

*denotes affiliate link

How to make an Elephant Baby Mobile

When I was designing my baby’s nursery, I was looking for an elephant mobile, but couldn’t find any one that I liked. And believe me, I looked everywhere. Plus, mobiles can be so expensive- Etsy has some cute ones, but they are around $70-$100. When you’re buying strollers and diapers, who has the budget for a $100 mobile?! I didn’t. Finally I decided that I could just make what I wanted. It’s a little labor intensive, but very cute and so cheap! I had most of the supplies on hand, but even if you don’t, it’ll probably cost you less than $5! This is a super easy project that I promise you can do too!

Supplies:

Needle (if you don’t own one, this pack on Amazon is $2)
Thread (this is a really good variety pack for $1.75)
Felt (4 colors- 1 for the moon, clouds, elephant body, and elephant ears)
Baker’s Twine (for elephant tail)
Batting (to stuff the moon, clouds, and elephant)
Embroidery Hoop (to hang mobile)
Free Printable- (see below)

Process:

cut out the pattern

Download the pattern above. Cut out the pattern and then pin the pattern pieces to the felt and cut the pieces out of the felt. Hint, on the clouds and elephants, I cut out the pattern on the fold, so you don’t have to sew close that portion

embellish

Use your needle and black thread (use 3 pieces- you can also use embroidery thread here) and stitch the eyes on the elephant. Then, stitch on the ears to elephant. Lastly, tack on the elephant tail. To stitch on the elephant ears and for the next step, I used the blanket stitch. If you don’t know how to do this stitch, it is SO easy. Below is a YouTube video so you can learn it in less than a minute

Stuff each piece and stitch closed

This takes a little patience as you have to stitch it closed a little bit (again, use the blanket stitch), fill it with batting, stitch it a little more closed, fill with more batting, and keep going until you have a little stuffed piece

String together

Once you have all 6 pieces done, you can stitch them together. I used white string so it would disappear. I tied a knot, went through the bottom of the elephant, and then tied another knot so that the cloud or moon would stay a few inches above the elephant. I then used the access string and tied it to the embroidery hoop. I purposefully used three different lengths of string so the elephants were at different heights, which I thought would be cuter.

hang

I put an eye-hook into the ceiling (I hammered in the end and then screwed in by hand the rest of the way). I then added three pieces of string to the top of the embroidery hoop so that it would hang level. Warning, this part is easier done with two people as it can be easy to tangle your elephants while you are trying to get it to hang level

Not too hard, right?! And you could use any shape and basically follow the same tutorial to make a custom mobile. Let me know if you have any questions. Your little one will love it! Thanks for visiting 🙂

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How I Paid off over $40,000 in Debt

how I paid off over $40,000 in debt

my story

In January of 2013, I decided I was SICK of being in debt. We were great with spending money, but not great at saving it up. I have decided to show you how we went from there to being debt free (besides our mortgage) and so much happier with more freedom and security. Even though this isn’t decor related, I am hoping my success in this realm will help you too. I was listening to the book Big Magic* this morning and the author, Elizabeth Gilbert really discourages creatives from going into debt because it restricts you. She says

Thanks to my upbringing, what I never had was debt, even when I was living on a shoestring, and I think that mattered. I think that made me feel free.”

I think it matters too. So here are the steps I took to getting out of debt, what I owed, and how you can do the same.

Where I started:

For my New Years resolution in 2013, I decided that I would get out of debt. Here is how much we owed then (listed lowest amount to highest, not counting our mortgage):

Plane Tickets $1,874.60
Medical Bills $1,887.86 (my husband was in an accident and had to have a major surgery)
ATV $2,171.11
Truck $4,748.09
Credit Cards $10,650.64
Student Loans $22,650.57
TOTAL: $43,982.87

Looking at that amount now, even though it’s all gone now, makes me SICK! We had minimum payments of $862 to just our debt. We weren’t making a ton of money and so it felt like every penny we made was going to debt. Not fun!

What I did to get out of Debt:

I got on the same page as my husband.

I was ready to go and SO excited about getting out of debt, but my husband, not as much. He was working a stressful job and making the most he ever had up to that point. He didn’t want to cut back drastically when he was working hard to earn money. We talked and talked (and really disagreed on the topic), but finally, what worked for us was a compromise- I asked him to try it for two months, if it didn’t work for our family, we would stop.

I got motivated.

First off, I sat down and wrote down the reasons why I wanted to get out of debt. This got me so fired up about the fact that I never wanted to be tied down by debt again, I was passionate to change my life!

I got a game plan.

If you want to get out of debt, you HAVE to get Dave Ramsey’s book The Total Money Makeover*. I went to the library and borrowed the book version and the audio version. More recently, I found a copy at the thrift store for $1. However you can get it, just do it (the link above takes you to a $5 used version on Amazon)! This book has absolutely changed my life, and it will change your’s too. The best part of the book is that it takes you through step by step directions of doable ways to get out of debt. (Side note, you could also get ” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Kindle unlimited for free for 30 days with this link to read on any of your devices. I’m giving you a million options because it is that special of a book for me)

I put $1000 in my savings account.

We lived without a savings account for so long, that it seemed crazy to have this much in the bank. In the past, we had always had a credit card tied to our checking account so if we over drafted, it just went on a credit card. You have no clue how much I am cringing writing that down, but that’s where we were (everyone has to start somewhere)! The $1000 emergency fund was a nice security blanket and the first change to not living off of credit cards

I paid for things in cash.

I got cash out of the bank every two weeks and put it in envelopes. $50 for a weeks worth of groceries. $80 a month for Christmas. $20 for dates/eating out (Dave Ramsey says to cut this category, but part of my compromise with my husband is that we would still have some fun). Paying cash really helped me stay on budget! If there wasn’t enough money in the envelope, I couldn’t get it. At the grocery store, I would keep a running amount on my grocery list of how much each item cost. If I went over my $50 allotment, I put the item away. I was hard core 🙂

I lived on a written budget.

To keep of my expenses, I made and Excel spreadsheet and listed out how much we made and the subtracted all of our bills. I then subtracted out budgeted items like groceries, dog food. I then subtracted out remaining balance to the debt payment for that month (at the beginning, it was $650 that would get paid to debt a month). After that, there wasn’t any money left. Every penny went to a bill, a budgeted item, or debt. At first I hated the budget, but I have come around to loving it. Why? Because it is freedom. It’s a plan so that you are in charge of your money and you tell it where to go. If I wanted to run a 5k, I would put it in the budget and then I didn’t have to worry about not having enough money for it. I was in charge! The other thing I love about a budget, is it helps you out for the next year. At first, I had lots of “surprise” bills- the car registration, tax bill, and 3 birthday presents were all due at once so I was scrambling to cover it. Now, I can look at last year’s budget for the same month and get a really good estimate on what the electric and gas bill will be and what annual bills will be due.

I cut back majorly.

This part was painful, but everywhere we could cut back, we did. We bought cheap toilet paper, we ate at home for most of our meals, we brought bagged lunches to work, we found the cheapest gas, we didn’t buy unnecessary clothes or makeup or anything really (sob!). Wherever we could, we spent less or nothing. We got creative and borrowed books and movies from the library. Our dates consisted of going to the park to throw the ball for the dogs. We didn’t go to a gym to work out, but ran outside. Pretty much, we became the cheapest people around (that’s why my house is in such a need for updates!).

I reduced my bills where I could.

We cut internet and cable entirely! I called our phone provider and got a better rate. I went from paying for insurance monthly to switching companies and paying every 6 months to save a ton of money. We did our best to turn off lights to save on our electricity bills. It was painful to sit on the phone and ask for better rates (and I was told no a lot), but it saved us some money!

Every Extra Penny went to Debt.

When we saved money on the prior two steps, the extra went to debt

I paid off our bills smallest amount to the largest amount.

This is a signature Dave Ramsey move (and can be controversial). We ignored the interest rate and just paid off the debts off lowest to highest so that we had some small wins at the beginning. The debt we weren’t concentrating on, we just paid the minimum. Believe me, if I would have tried to pay off that massive student loan right away, we would still be in debt. This worked for us! I also love this method because it gives you a game plan so you can focus on one thing at a time.

I used the “Snowball” Method

After we paid off our first debt, the plane tickets, I used all of that money and put it towards the next debt (the medical bills). This method worked like a snowball and helped me gain momentum. So the minimum payment was $25 on the plane tickets and we were paying $650 extra to that debt each month, once the plane tickets were paid off, we added $675 to the medical bills, which had a minimum payment of $84 a month. As you can see, with each debt we wiped out, our amount of money we had to pay off the next debt grew so that we could wipe out the next debt faster.

I kept motivated.

I did three things to keep motivated. First of all, I made a chart for the fridge of the debt we were working on so we could see the progress (I share my chart as a free download here). I paid the debt sometimes weekly so the extra money wasn’t sitting in our account tempting us. We had a paper on the fridge that we colored in as we paid off the debt so we could literally see all of our efforts were paying off (if you want a free printable of my debt thermometer, click here). Next, I blogged on my personal blog monthly where we were. Only my mom reads that blog, but it was enough to feel accountable and celebrate the small wins. Lastly, I listened to Dave Ramsey’s podcast everyday to help remember why we were doing what we were doing.

I got creative.

Every time we needed to buy something, we thought do we really need this? If the answer was yes, we thought of different ways we could get it. Thrift store? Craigslist? Can we get by with borrowing it once? One time, our vacuum broke. Going without a vacuum is not really an option with two dogs who shed. We brainstormed, but couldn’t think of anything. Then one day my husband came home with a Dyson vacuum! His best friend was getting a new vacuum and so he gave us his old one. There were a few parts that weren’t working, so we replaced those for about $50. That vacuum is the best vacuum we have ever had! If we would have had to buy if new, it would have been almost $400!!! So get creative and think twice before you run to the store.

I opened up multiple savings accounts.

My credit union is awesome and lets you have as many savings accounts as you want. I opened up extra saving accounts so that I could put specific savings in a safe spot. For example, I have a savings account called “insurance.” Each month I put in $80 so that when the 6 month bill comes due, I’m not scrambling for the money. I also have one for Christmas now (which works better than using cash since I buy a lot of my Christmas gifts online). Having the separate accounts was helpful to ear mark it and see what was saved for what instead of just seeing a ton of money in your account and wanting to spend it.

I brought in extra money.

My husband worked extra and mowed my mom’s lawn. I sold clothes on eBay. The extra money was super helpful to accelerate our debt pay offs.

I did it little by little.

I know this list is long, but I did it little by little. The quote above “Little by little, a little becomes a lot” was my motto through this whole thing. If I saved $5 grocery shopping it could be thrown towards debt. Sure, that seems like nothing when you have $44,000 in debt, but little by little, that extra $5 here and there really adds up! I didn’t cut my bills down all at once either, but monthly I would call one company and see what we could cut. Start where you are and get a little better every day.

The Benefits of Being out of Debt: [Read more…]

How to find inexpensive, beautiful wallpaper

How to find inexpensive, beautiful wallpaper

In the late 90’s my family moved into a new house. My parents were cool enough to let us help make redecorating decisions. We started with my little sister’s room. She wanted wallpaper baddddd- so we headed off to the local wallpaper store and bought a daisy border and forest green striped wallpaper to go under the border. I still remember the transformation (it was the most beautiful room to me) and have loved wallpaper ever since.

I love uing wallpaper in my house! I think that it makes a big statement that can majorly add to the ambience and the “look” of your room. I am all about a big pattern and wallpaper gives that to you. The first room I wallpapered was my master bedroom. Next I wallpapered my stairs (an epic DIY failure, but not the wallpaper’s fault). Most recently, I wallpapered my baby’s nursery. In all of the instances, I was looking for a specific look for an affordable price tag. Since the nursery was my most recent wallpaper experience, I’ll use that as an example of how to find wallpaper that you love for cheap/ on a budget.

Step 1– Find out how much wallpaper you need. Measure your space- lately I’ve only wallpapered a statement wall so this part is actually really easy (you can do it!)- measure the width and height of the wall. If there are any windows or doors, you will subtract that square footage. I always use a website to plug the measurements in (source no longer available) and then it will tell you how many rolls you need. I like figuring out how many rolls I need first so I can use that number to plan my budget. For me, I found out that I needed two double rolls for the nursery. Wallpaper is strange- it is sold in double rolls, but sometimes listed as single rolls for sale, but you can only buy them in double rolls. Keep that in mind as you are looking for wallpaper and pricing so you don’t see a price for a single roll, but have to buy as a double roll. I needed 2 double rolls for my nursery wall (and spoiler alert, it was barely enough wallpaper with the repeat).

Follow At Home with Ashley’s board Baby on Pinterest.

Step 2– Find your inspiration! I get on Pinterest and search away. For this room I searched things like “baby room wallpaper” “grey baby room” “safari baby room” “safari wallpaper” and pinned whatever I loved. Above is my actual Pinterest board so you can get a visual and sources on what I pinned. I loved a wood planked wall, but it was both too expensive and too labor intensive for my life at the time. I considered grass cloth, but it wasn’t a big enough look for what I wanted, though I do love some texture. When I found the safari wallpaper options, I got really excited- this was the perfect fit!!

Step 3– Do deeper research into the wallpaper you find. I’ve clicked through Pinterest and found wallpaper for $500 a double roll- ouch! And I needed two- um, not exactly budget friendly. Or you might find links to designer wallpaper options where you have to have a resale license to purchase to even see the price- so these probably aren’t accessible (plus, I pretty much guarantee that they’re expensive). Here are the three wallpapers I found for the nursery that I loved in the baby room examples-

-Rifle Paper Co. Wallpaper $140 for a double roll (left) (no longer available)

-Anthropologie Wallpaper $88 for a double roll (top right) (no longer available)

-Amazon Wallpaper (National Geographic brand) $39.90 for a double roll (bottom right)(no longer available)

Step 4– Choose your choice. For me, the Rifle Paper Co. one was too expensive, plus I wanted black and white to go with the already painted grey walls (the design was beige). So that one was out. I really loved the whimsy of the Anthropologie wallpaper, but I personally felt like it was too feminine for a boy’s room, so I nixed that one. I loved the Amazon National Geographic wallpaper! The color was perfect and so was the price! I loved that it was by National Geographic so that the animals are realistic. Plus, I’ve read that babies first see in black and white and having strong black and white graphics helps them develop their sight. I ordered two rolls and spent a little over $100 for the wall- such a good deal (it was a little more expensive when I bought it then)! I could have bought samples, but with the positive reviews and my time crunch, I just bit the bullet. But I was pleasantly surprised!

Here are some other tips for finding inexpensive wallpaper–

– Once you find the wallpaper you love, look on other sites to try and find a cheaper price. Try www.amazon.com and www.steveswallpaperandblinds.com to find a better deal. Or just Google the wallpaper maker and name of the book and see what pops up. I have more sources for SUPER inexpensive wallpaper here.

– You can also go to a local wallpaper company in your area to see what they have. I go to Wallpaper Warehouse (the location in West Valley or Sandy if you’re in UT) because they have tons of samples. Sometimes they have good deals and you can buy the rolls they have in store without paying for shipping. Or you can look through lots of books at once and have them order in the wallpaper you love. Or just write down the name of the book and the style and page number so you can find in online later (although, I haven’t done that because I’d rather purchase from the company I am viewing books from). A bonus of going to the location, is you can touch the wallpaper or check out a wallpaper book to bring home and see the options in the room you are wallpapering.

–Emily Henderson has a great roundup of wallpapers. Some are expensive, but it is a great source!

I recently used these tips for finding wallpaper for a work project. It worked like a charm! I ended up buying the Hourglass Trellis wallpaper from Amazon*. Above is a screen shot of my board since my project got buried, but here is a link to the board.

*Denotes Affiliate link

The Best Way to Organize your Baby’s Closet

So, I’m an organized person. When I was little, I loved the trill of having everything in its place and would play by organizing my toys and eat my treats by color- super normal behaviors like that. Organizing still makes me happy!

I got around to adding some great organizational elements to my baby closet today and it was so invigorating to me. When I was pregnant and had had a few baby showers and was trying to put away all of the stuff, I felt so lost! What do you hang up? What do you keep in the dresser? How do you organize everything?

I searched and searched Pinterest, but only found just ok articles. Now that baby Don is 6 months old, I feel like I have really good solutions that could help other confused mom’s with too much stuff (umm, that’s all mom’s right?!). So here’s what worked for me (aka the best way to organize your baby’s closet):

Everything that you can hang up, do. Pajamas, onesies, t-shirts, jackets- just hang it up (this doesn’t include pants though)
Organize the clothes by size and then by color of the rainbow. So the top row of clothes are all size 3-6 months (I actually need to change his clothes over- sob, why do they grow so fast!?!). Another thing I want to mention when I am talking about sizing (that was confusing to me) is that Carters brand of clothes just puts one number on their clothes. So if it says “3” it means 0-3 months, NOT 3-6 months. Don’t make the same mistake I did and miss out on a whole section of your baby’s closet because they grew out of them.
Use size dividers. When I was pregnant I bought these size dividers* and used this printable to cover them and then I hand wrote in the different sizes (here’s a link to girl/pink dividers). This was so helpful when I didn’t have a ton of clothes and there were lots of sizes on one rod! You will especially like this when you have newborn and size 0-3 next to each other (since you probably won’t have a ton of newborn clothes and want to use them while they still are so tiny). Another option is to buy pre-made ones. I just found these ones from Amazon* if you don’t want to go the DIY route (they’re only $7).
Ditch the free hangers and buy uniform kid hangers*. At first, I tried to use the exact hangers that I was gifted with the clothes that came on them. So if it came in a onesie/pant set I would keep those all hung up on one hanger. The problem is it is exhausting to try and remember what hanger goes with what clothes after they are washed. Plus, lots of pants go with lots of outfits so you are limiting your options. Plus those hangers are ugly and add visual clutter to the closet. So buy a bunch of hangers- you will by far need the most when you have a brand new baby since they haven’t grown out of all of their clothes. The link above is from Amazon, but you can also get them from Target or Walmart.
Fold the bottoms- pants/shorts/skirts. Below the top row of hung up clothes, I have three bins- to the right are the current size of pants. In the middle are the next size up (I like to keep the next size up handy since, depending on how your baby grows, you may need bottoms or tops early) and to the left are hats (a boy mom’s best accessory).
Use plastic bins* for your bottoms (pants and/or skirts)- My link is for Amazon, but they are cheaper at Walmart, the Dollar store, or Home Depot (they differ a bit at each store, so if you get addicted to buying these like I have, try to be consistent where you buy them from so they are interchangeable through your house). These $1 plastic bins are one of my best organizational secret. I use them all over my house. They are cheap and pretty enough, plus they are so great for organizing! I fill them and then use a pretty label (these are from Michael’s– the Martha Stewart line and my favorite! I have used them for years. They peel off easily, stay put very well, and are beautiful) and write what is in the bin.
Double label your bins- what I mean by this is I always have 3 bins worth of clothes out. At first you will have newborn, 0-3 months, and 3-6 months. On the back of the newborn bin, add a label for 6-9 months. On the back of the 0-3 month bin, add a label for 9-12 months. On the back of the 3-6 month bin, add a label for 12-18 bins. That way as they grow and you take the too small clothes out of the closet (I store mine in a diaper box in the garage), you just turn the bin around and it works for the next size that you will need.
Have “donate” and “too small” bins at the bottom of the closet. So when your baby grows out of something you can just throw it in. If you love it and will use it again, put it in the too small bin. If you hate it, put it in the donate bin and take it to a thrift or consignment store.
Have a keepsake box-At the bottom of the folded blankets I have a bin with my keepsakes. So when you are going through your too small of baby clothes and find something that is so special to you and your baby that you just want to cry about it being too small, you put it in the keepsake box. I have my baby’s going home from the hospital outfit, a little bear hat my mom crocheted him, and tiny moccasins that he wore all of the time when he was a squishy newborn in that bin.
On the rest of the shelves keep folded blankets and toys. I know that I am lucky with this closet and the shelves, so even if you don’t have this set-up I hope it is helpful. At the top of the closet is his next size up of car seat (not pretty enough for a picture).

I hope this was helpful! What did you do that worked in your baby’s closet? Anything else I should do? Soon I will post about dresser organizing so that I can show you where his shoes, socks, burp clothes, and diapers all go. Super exciting ;)!
This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

*denotes affiliate link

Kitchen- Home Tour

Hi guys! Are you ready to check out my kitchen? Well, let’s start here:

When you walk into our home you go up the stairs, turn right, and then you are in the kitchen:

Ta da! Here is our dining table that my parents gave us and I grew up using. It is old but fits perfect in this little space. We have two chairs at the table since it’s usually our little family eating together, but we can fit 6 chairs squished together here if we want.

To the left of the table is a closet that holds kitchen storage and our washing machine and dryer.

Turn right and you have my teeny, tiny galley kitchen. It’s pretty cute. I hate the laminate counter tops and the tile. This house was a bit of a flip when we moved in- the previous owners were desperate to sell so they did some quick fixes. One of the quick fixes was they painted the cabinets and wallpapered the doors with a paintable wallpaper so it looks like beadboard. It is a cute idea and looked great at first, but does NOT wear well. You nick the wallpaper even with your fingernail and there is a huge dent. And don’t even think about keeping your puppy who likes to bite things in the kitchen when you are gone a few hours (not that I know anything about that)…

That was the negatives, but there are things I love! Like this valence that I made. It was the easiest project ever- especially with using the clips to hold up the fabric. I embroidered these two dog portraits and they make me smile whenever I look at them. I’ll have to do a “how I taught myself how to embroider” post because it’s a pretty easy DIY project.

To the left of the sink is this cute little vignette. Isn’t Julia Child a genius?!

I’m sad that this is a terrible photo because I have the cutest collection of white ceramics above my fridge! One day I will have a proper hutch to house them all in.

And… we’ve circled back around to the dining room. The chandelier is from Z Gallery. I used to be a wedding planner and got a very generous tip from a bride. I used it to buy this chandelier and it always reminds me of that sweet girl.

I stalked my local craigslist site (ksl.com) for this high chair for months! Finding a Jenny Lind high chair with the tray is kind of hard. Finally I searched for “wooden high chair” and found this for $30! I refinished it and added the cushion. I love this little piece!

And…. Since I know you want to hear my ~~awkward~~ sweet voice taking you on a tour of my kitchen, here ya go!

Resources (if it’s not listed, it’s not available- so sorry!):

Dining Chairs: Pottery Barn (no longer available)

Drapes: Wayfair

Chandelier: Z Gallerie Venezia Chandelier

Paint: Olympic Thin Ice D58-1 (walls) (no longer available)

Olympic Black Magic D58-6 (trim) (no longer available)

Organizing your Closet so it stays Organized

Something has gotten into me recently. I now hate chaos and mess. Not that I enjoyed them before, more that I put up with the small messes and clutter life inevitably creates. So today I woke up from a nap and started reading my book*. Here’s what it said “There’s a great line from the poet Anais Nin that reads: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” This is how it was for me… My journey started with my decision to make some serious changes.” I leapt out of bed remembering that I was determined to live a more beautiful life, and thus it was time to… clean out my closet!

Don’t laugh. Maybe it’s not world changing, but now that I have this little baby; I just have this uncontrollable urge to live a beautiful, gorgeous life- down to every detail. I don’t want to spend forever in the morning picking out something to wear. I don’t want to wear 5 outfits on repeat because my clothes are everywhere and I am too tired in the morning to hunt for them that actually work for me in this time in my life (this has never been truer than being up with a baby 3 times in a night- he is now sleeping much better, but the zombie feelings I had was legit). So I did it! I have also been reading “The life changing magic of tidying up”* and I have loved it! This is totally a must read and only $10 from Amazon. I used some of her principles and some of my own tried and true organizing tricks. The first one is to pull everything from one category onto the ground.

I have this beautiful closet that my husband built me and it fits a lot of stuff! But just because it fits everything, doesn’t mean I should keep the old nasty clothes I have been holding on to. Today I worked on my tops. The empty closet:

Besides my closet, I also store off season tops under my bed in storage bins. In the book, it really pushes you to not store off season clothes somewhere else because you will get too lazy and never change all of it over (guilty- there were still shorts in there even though it is August). And like I mentioned above, I want to spend my time with my family, not moving one season of clothes over. Something else to consider? Storing clothes in the bins under my bed makes the clothes stink! I am pretty relieved that I no longer have clothes hiding under there feeling lost and forgotten. Side bar, I did all of the organizing in one gloriously long nap my son took. Hallelujah! I took all of those off-season clothes out of the bins and dumped them on the floor too.

I then went through every single item and did three things. 1. I asked if this item sparked joy (mock me, but it totally works) 2. I looked for damage- if it was just a string I clipped it off. If it was yellow armpits or major pilling, it was toast (TMI, gross, sorry!). 3. I made sure all of the hangers were facing the same way so as I flip through my closet I am looking at the front of the garment, not the back.

If each piece of clothing didn’t pass part one and two of the test, they went in the donate or sell pile. If they did, I fixed the hanger and put it in the keep pile. When I had gone through every top, I had gotten rid of 25 pieces of clothes!!!

My donate pile was huge and I enjoyed shoving it in the garage (now to get myself to Savers… I am so not perfect!) I put all of the clothes in the closet and organized them. In the book, she recommends hanging your heaviest items in the back of your closet so that it is physiologically lighter to walk into your closet (this also works since it is still 90 degree weather in Utah). So sweaters went in back and everything else went in front arranged in rainbow order. To finish off my project, I put the same spacing between each hanger because I am a freak and that is beautiful to me. Ha!

So now I have this beautiful closet and I can’t wait to conquer the rest of the closet. Oh, and life! Because if you can organize your closet, you can do anything! (here’s a selfie of my on the floor organizing- I live the glamorous life)

So how is it going? You know, now that I only have clothes I love? Pretty dang good! I went in to pick out clothes to wear for work tomorrow and it is quicker since I only have stuff that I love and fit and work in there. I’ve heard of lots of bloggers doing a Capsule project- I never read much about it, but maybe that is what I have done? A week before I did tops, I did my dresses. I had an obscene amount of dresses. The good news is that most of them were Anthropologie dresses that somewhat held value. I put a bunch of them up on eBay and have made $300 so far! The money will go towards paying off our last student loan so now I have only clothes I wear and money to achieve my dreams. Win win! Last side bar, but having a baby and having my body and life change so much in so little time probably were huge triggers to cleaning out my closet. I’ve had clothes I haven’t worn since I was pregnant and clothes I can’t wear now that I am breastfeeding. If I don’t really love them is there really a point to holding on to them until I can wear them again? Odds are they will be sad and tired by the time I can wear them (p.s. to listen to the BEST podcast episode about this, I strongly recommend this one…link to The Longest Shortest Time “The New You…It’ll Do”). Even if I wasn’t at this huge transition point, I still think only having what you love is life changing, but it was definitely fulfilling for me!