Blog - at home with Ashley

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.

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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 ;)!
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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!

Master Bedroom- Home Tour

Welcome to my master bedroom! I have a video below that walks you though the space. In it, I mention that this room is dark and cave like, but unlike the rest of my house, I think it works. It’s cozy and perfect for sleeping. There are a lot of things I want to change in the rest of my house, but for now I think the bedrooms are ok. So let’s start the tour, should we? When you walk in, to the left is my vanity where I get ready every morning. It has all of my jewelry storage which includes an old stand from Pottery Barn teen (no longer available) and a home made bulletin board that I just painted mint and then added push pins as a tangle-free way to hang my necklaces. It was so easy and inexpensive to make and effective! Since I don’t think I will do a whole post on what I would like to change in here, one thing is that I would like to reupholster the vanity stool. I am sick of that old fabric. I have always thought a velvet would be nice.

I love pattern and this bedroom has a big focal wall! The wallpaper is fun but starting to feel a little dated for me. Our bedroom is long! The newest addition to it is the Elton Settee from West Elm. It is so perfect for putting on your shoes or watching a movie or as a step into bed for my littlest dog 😉

We have a fan in the room which isn’t the prettiest, but we use it all of the time in the summer. Maybe I’ll paint the blades white to get it to disappear a bit.

This is a terrible picture of the view out my window. It is of a vineyard! In the middle of a city! I love it.

A little gallery wall behind our wall, mostly of travel collections. And here is our biggest DIY to date- our new closet! In the picture above, where the door is used to be was a sink. It was so strange, but kind of nice since we only have one bathroom (it was my sink… I might miss it now and then- haha). Anyway, Preston (my hubs) used to use the closet in the nursery, but when we had the baby we decided to tear out the sink and extend the master closet. My side stayed the same in dimensions and Preston got the section where the sink used to be. We re-did my side so it is more functional. It is so hard to photograph, but it is large and amazing and so efficient. We love it!

So many shoes- and that’s not even all of them! (Boots are on the bottom left under my dresses. On the right side under the shirts is a shelf for my flats).

Here is a video of the space so you can better understand the layout:

And that is the master bedroom! We only have the kitchen to tour and then we can move on to some DIY posts (what to do first- new runner for the stairs? Paint and wallpaper the entry? Light for the baby’s room?)- so exciting!

Resources-

Bed- Drexel Heritage Postobello Style- Byron Bed (no longer available)

Nightstands- Drexel Heritage Postobello Style- Gina Night Stand (no longer available)

Lamps- Drexel Heritage Postobello Style- Pewter Nonogram Lamp (no longer available)

Dresser- Drexel Heritage Postobello Style- Monaco Dresser (no longer available)

Settee- Down East Home via West Elm

Vanity and Vanity Mirror- JC Penny (no longer available)

Vanity Stool- Target Shabby Chic (no longer available)

Paint- Martha Stewart Shale MSL276 (walls) (the paint chip is no longer available, but Home Depot can still mix it with Glidden paint)

Olympic Black Magic D58-6(trim)

Bathroom Home Tour

Today is a very glamorous day in our home tour- the bathroom! First of all, we will walk down the hall. To the left are some art of my husband’s favorite bands. I am sick of these, so we’ll see how long they will last.

To the right, is my Instagram board. I made it with a thrifted frame and then I print my Instagram photos at Walmart and just tape them up. I update it every few months. I love it- especially now that it is getting covered with baby pictures.

Alright, let’s hop into the bathroom. It’s small and humble and the only restroom in our condo. When you walk in, to the left is a towel rack and this adorable print. I painted the walls grey and then stenciled* over them with a metallic spray paint. It was a gruesome project- so tedious! And it’s not perfect. So that’s just a warning to anyone who wants to stencil.

Next, we have the vanity. It was painted brown when we moved in and was so ugly! I really need to find the original pictures- you would appreciate these “progress” photos even more. To the left of the vanity are two ledges with framed photos from our trip to Italy. It also holds a clock and q-tips. I love this little area- lots of personality!

In this corner of the room, we have an Anthropologie shower curtain (it’s no longer available, sorry!) which was too short so I added some grey fabric to the bottom. I actually love that detail.

And here we have the world’s ugliest floors! I hate them. Can I change them yet? I am dying to learn how to tile so I can demo these asap. I am a little scared to replace them since this is our only restroom. Hopefully this is a one day project.

Here is a video of the hallway and bathroom so you can better understand the layout:

Sources:

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

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

Stencil: Cutting Edge via Amazon* (I just used a metallic silver spray paint to paint the stencil. Sorry, I don’t have the specific name)

Shower Curtain- Anthropologie (no longer available). This one is similar

Floors- Terrible tile. I don’t know the source- they were here when we moved in

Mirror- Lowes (no longer available)

Black Ledges- Michael’s (no longer available). This one is similar

Clock- Urban Outfitters (no longer available)

Click Click Click Print- Sycamore Street Press Etsy (no longer available).

Towels- Down East Home via Pottery Barn

*denotes affiliate link

Nursery Home Tour

Nursery Tour- safari/ elephant themed. Mint, grey, white, black athomewithashley.com

Nursery Home tour with athomewithashley.com

Today’s tour takes us to the nursery. This is my favorite room in the house right now, so I’m really excited to share it with you! Oh and so is baby Don. He’s usually napping while I do my blogging, but since I was focusing on his room, he got to be awake to join in on the action. One of my favorite parts of the nursery is the wallpaper. It’s where the design for the whole room started. I wanted to do a safari/elephant themed room and when I found this wallpaper, I knew it was the one. (If you want tips on finding wallpaper on a budget, read here)

Years ago, I bought the Jenny Lind crib off of Utah’s local Craigslist (ksl.com) for $35 and refinished it the mint color. I figured it would work for a boy or a girl and I am glad I hoarded it! Babies are expensive so it was nice to have one less thing to buy. I love that it adds a subtle pop of color.

I wanted to hang items on this wall, but the light switch is in the worst spot! So I figured a gallery wall would help with that. I love that it adds personality without taking up valuable square footage in this tiny room. Probably the only thing I would change in this room is I am thinking about adding some chalk paint to the nursery doors. Something like this. Oh and speaking of changes (I almost forgot this one), I should bring up that I need to install a light. We bought a cheap fan for the room and loved it, but it caught on fire one night (!!!) and we still haven’t replaced it. Confession- we use a flashlight for middle of the night feedings/diaper changes. These closet doors lead to his closet on the left (here is a tutorial on the best way to organize a baby’s closet) and the remains of our office on the right.

This room used to be our office. The only thing that survived from that is this map*. Isn’t it perfect for a safari nursery?! Here’s the tutorial so you can make your own 🙂

For the nursery, we bought two big pieces of furniture. The dresser (no longer available) and the rocker. The dresser might be too big, but I love the functionality of the top. The rocker is my most used piece of furniture. I love that it is comfortable and pretty. The ticking on the fabric is so classic and works with the room. The only problem is that the fabric is such a light color. My baby has had a few blowouts on that chair (sorry, so gross) and it was not fun to clean up.

This little reading corner is another favorite of mine. I love collecting books for us to read together. And how perfect is that giraffe head?!

When I first found out I was expecting (but before I knew the sex), I bought this ABC embroidery sampler and embroidered it. It might be a little girly, but it is so sentimental that I don’t really care. The painted elephant is from a humanitarian trip I took to Guatemala and the “Oh the places you’ll go” quote is from a day by day calendar (with the date cut off).

One of the things I was most excited about when I found out I was pregnant was that I got to finally decorate a nursery!!! I had dreamed about this moment for years! I immediately knew I wanted it grey and mint and with elephants. When I saw this elephant rocker I was obsessed with it. Haha, it was a totally unpractical purchase, but I figure he will love it when he is older.

I recently made this mobile and here is a tutorial so you can make your own too. Mobiles are so expensive and I found it hard to find one that I loved. The materials for this is less than $5! I wanted a marquee light for his room, but couldn’t find one that was affordable. So I got a cardboard D from Joanns and spray painted it black. I actually love that it is cardboard because it is super light (even though I don’t think it would fall off since I used command strips to secure it).

My grandma made Don the elephant quilt. We went to pick out the fabric together. It is so special to me and I know that my baby will love it as he grows up (the back is minky, so how could he not?!)

Behind the door is a growth measuring chart. Growing up, my grandma would mark our measurements against the wall. I loved seeing how much I had grown! The problem with doing it on the wall is that if you move, you can’t take it with you. So I made this ruler and mark Don’s growth every six months. I followed this tutorial to make it.

Here is a video so you can better understand the layout:

Nursery sources

Wallpaper- Amazon* (no longer available)

Changing Table- Down East Home (via Pottery Barn Kids). For those of you who have never been to a Down East Home- they get Pottery Barn returns and sell them at a discount. Because of this you can get great deals, but there is never a guarantee that you will be able to find the same item twice. So that’s why I’ve provided the source from Pottery Barn if you want the exact same item.

Rocking Chair- Down East Home(via Pottery Barn Kids)

Elephant Rocker- Down East Home (via Pottery Barn Kids)

Grey Striped Drapes- Wayfair

Ledges for Books- Ikea

Sconce- Ikea

Giraffe Head- Down East Home

ABC Sampler- Pine Needles at Gardner Village

Printable Closet Dividers- Here (free printable and tutorial!)

Be Brave Little One Printable- Here (free printable!)

Mint Arrow Pillow Cover- Etsy

White Art Ledges- Target (no longer available)

Mini Globe- Target (no longer available)

Mint picture frames- Vintage Fern

Crib Skirt- Down East Home (via Pottery Barn Kids)

ABC Blocks- Amazon* (no longer available)

World Map- Amazon*

Diaper Genie- Amazon*(no longer available)

Changing Pad- Amazon*

Changing Pad Cover- Target (no longer available)

Elephant Hook- Anthropologie

Sound Machine- Amazon*

Cardboard D- Joanns

Growth Ruler- DIY from this tutorial

*denotes an affiliate link

Living Room House Tour

Let’s continue on the tour of my house! Today we have the living room house tour

This room features a strange layout- fun (below is a video so you can more easily understand the area).

There is a huge walkway from the top of the stairs to the kitchen and then a more cramped sitting area. We’ve tried a few different layouts and I have floor planned options, but this is the one that works best.

It’s a little frustrating that this condo has this area of wasted space since we could really use the space is other areas of our home (what I wouldn’t give for a second bathroom).

When we first bought the condo it was bad- so much green and beige, but it’s not great now. The issue, I think, is that everything is so heavy. The walls are dark, the furniture is dark, the carpet is dark- it needs lightened up! The huge TV is also not cute, but it’s not changing; my husband loves it too much.

The living room has so much potential! I just haven’t really tackled it yet- just done a few bandaids. I think this could become a great “after.” A big issue with this space is also the flooring- the carpet is not great in our house. When we moved in (6 years ago) it was old. Now, with two dogs, it’s really old and somewhat gross. I would love to put in hard wood floors, but I still haven’t decided if that is the best idea with dogs and a soon to be crawling baby. Plus, we’d have to get a rug and rug pad for by the sofa- I love that idea, but it does make the whole project super expensive.

Here are the last issues (I didn’t realize there were so many until I listed them out. I feel like a Debbie downer! But wait until tomorrow; I have some really fun ideas!)-

The sofa is worn (its 8 years old). There are a few holes in the fabric and the down in the cushions doesn’t hold its shape very well. One day, I’d love to replace it
The wall art (the 9 squares) are dated- I need to replace or update them. I made these out of canvas when we were first married. I covered them all in paintable wallpaper* and then they were painted 2 colors of grey and black. I updated them when we moved here with fabric, but I’m sick of that now. Even though I am over these, they sure have been versatile! Maybe I’ll come up with one more way to update and use them again
The coffee table is not baby safe- the sharp edges scare me when my baby starts pulling himself up on furniture (luckily, that hasn’t started yet). I really want to change it out for an ottoman

Here are some pictures of the deck-

The deck needs some love with the planters and the outdoor chairs could use recovering.

And lastly, here are the resources-

Paint- Olympic Dover Grey D58-4 (-50% off formula) (walls)

Olympic Black Magic D58-6 (baseboards)

Furniture- all of the furniture (besides the dining chairs) were purchased from Drexel Heritage. It looks like the items from the Postebello Collections are no longer available from Drexel, but the links are here:

Media Console- Postebello Collection Gramercy Console (no longer available)

Coffee Table- Postebello Collection Enrico Cocktail Table (no longer available)

Side Table- Postebello Collection Franco Table (no longer available)

Club Chair- Postebello Collection Classique Chair (no longer available)

Sofa- Drexel Heritage Holloway Sofa (no longer available)

Console Table- Vera Bradley console by Drexel Heritage- no longer available

Side Chairs (dining chairs)- Queen Anne Chairs Pottery Barn– no longer available

Ukulele- Amazon*

Record Player- Amazon*

NYC Skyline Poster- Amazon*

Shabby Chic Coffee Table Book- Amazon*

Dorthy Draper Coffee Table Book- Amazon*