Since we moved into this house almost two years ago I knew I wanted a specific functionality in the office upstairs.I had dreams of cabinets and counters or rainbow murals or so many others. What we ended up doing was even better and honestly way easier for us to manage do it ourselves!

Here is what the room looked like until we changed it - almost two full years and this functioned just fine until Andrew started working from home when the pandemic hit. He took over the desk where my computer is in these pictures, and then I moved to the smaller silver desk on the side wall. I was more than happy to give it up since we are so fortunate to still have this wonderful job throughout this pandemic. The dresser held my vinyl both adhesive and heat transfer plus the bottom drawer held all the sample shirts for my small business. I used the furniture we had to make the office functional and as I said, it was time for a change for both function and happiness!

First thing we needed to do was paint and put up the shelves I wanted. We used MDF board from Lowes and the brackets are from Amazon. Putting up the shelves was QUITE the feat! We got the brackets up on the wall, using the screws included with the brackets (see where this is going yet?) and as we tried to screw the board to the brackets, it came crashing down on our heads and ripped all but one bracket from the wall ouch! BUT we then went to the hardware store and got way better screws and then redid the brackets, and it worked! I pulled out all the trinkets I'd been saving in closets and boxes. My favorite things are the Disney ear hats I procured while working at Disneyland, my Holocrons from Batuu, the unicorn and rainbow lights! I love these shelves so much and Andrew has some things he's going to add to his side to make them a bit more HIM hahaha

We also added RGB lightstrips to the bottom of the shelves to light up the room with fun!!

The next place we needed to go was Ikea. We got Alex drawers (1 & 2) and Ekbacken countertops! The initial colors I was looking for weren't available, but according to the website (and the worker upstairs IN the Ikea) none of the office stuff was in stock in my store. We decided to check the bins downstairs regardless since we had driven so far (Our IKEA is about an hour away from our house so we don't go often). The plan was white drawers and wooden countertops for the desk and once we got downstairs we found white drawers of one of the types I wanted BUT not the others. Eventually we found that they had the drawers in both style in the same grey-turquoise color (which isn't even advertised online as an option!) and I was like - let's do this thing! The countertop we initially wanted was also out of stock BUT they had one that looked like white marble which would be perfect against the teal in the room so we grabbed it and I got excited! NOTE: the drawers are not the same size in any way, so if you decide you like this idea, measure everything for your space!!! The wider drawers are much shorter AND not as deep so be ready for that.

We got the drawers put together and after a quick online look at the hardware store for a platform type thing for the shorter wider drawers, we landed on pavers hahaha The original plan was wood but they couldn't cut what we wanted so Andrew found the pavers for .50 a piece and I was like "YEP! Let's get it done!" The drawers came with casters but since we already knew they were going to be short, we didn't want the wheels making our lives harder to find a way to raise them up. The rug is from Home Depot and I thought I had gotten the bigger size so oops - I'll be ordering it soon hahaha then this one will go somewhere else to light up a room!

Next was organizing everything that was already in the room and everything we had taken out. And we had to find homes for the furniture we were no longer using! The desk we decided to give to the girls as an official art station in their play room. This way they have a dedicated space and hopefully one place to keep all the craft crap to vs all over my house hahahaha The silver desk I had been using went to Rory and she was BEYOND thrilled that she now has a grown up desk, she's still not doing homework in her room (I don't think she's quite ready for that step yet) but she journals there and reads her books there when she wants to.

The closet was in desperate need of help. I had just been chucking stuff in there willy nilly, knowing I would "get to it later" and then forget immediately forget about it. So I emptied it, and emptied the dresser that held my sample shirts so I could have them all up and seen! It's going to make my business run so much smoother knowing what samples I have currently, and to actually SEE the colors! I added spacers between the sizes so I can find them easier too. This closet also holds all of my photography equipment and backdrops, our electrical cords/software boxes, gift wrapping supplies, extra backpacks, and my Disneyland backpack. It's a mish mosh of stuff but now I know where everything is!

I have a bit of a sticker problem and I just love them so much! I wanted to have them out and displayed so I could enjoy all the art that these stickers are! To me, they're like pins - little works of art people put lots of work into.

​Now for what you've all been waiting for - the grand reveal!

And there it is! Our shared office space and it works really well for both of us now. This office was first only for me when we moved in but with the pandemic, Andrew now gets to share it and have a dedicated space for when/if he continues working from home!

Artwork on the walls from the AMAZINGLY talented artist Christian Wizyakuza

Let's be honest: how many of us discovered so many things in our homes that needed attention once we were forced to sit still with it all???

My poor sweet husband has had to listen to me gripe about how much I hate the wall color in our home since the day we saw it and decided to buy it, and to be fair, I still do and someday we'll be able to have the entire house repainted but for now.....

We were fortunate enough to collaborate with PhotoWall for this Master Bedroom Glow up! It wasn't a complete renovation but we did quite a lot to make this into a more serene, grown up space!

Here's our oh-so-glamourous before shot of our bedroom! We were in desperate need y'all!

Now I'll be real honest, I've never worked with wallpaper before. Like the closest I've ever gotten to wallpaper is when we made a paper mache chocolate waterfall for the jr high play in 7th grade! Hahaha so to say we were noobs is a complete understatement but we were willing to try it out!

When I finally picked out the print I wanted, I knew I needed to change up the walls in our room too because this contractor beige nasty color is just that - nasty. So I used the handy dandy Home Depot ProjectColor App to find the perfect shade of white to match the wallpaper (also did you know there's a million shades of white??? WHY?!) I ran to Home Depot, wearing my mask made by a sweet lady in my neighborhood so I could stay as safe as possible while being out, and grabbed a sample of Winter Morn from Glidden! It has a slight purple hue when you open the container but it's a gorgeous white once it's on the walls!

​When we got the product it was even more gorgeous in person than online! I was so excited to finally make an accent wall in our room. As we got started we discovered that they had given us quite a bit extra on the bottom of each panel (which could absolutely be my fault when entering measurements, lezzzzbe real) so we tried to move it up a bit to keep the excess a bit less but that was our first mistake hahaha

About halfway through we realized we had made an even bigger mistake so we just kinda made it work hahaha I won't tell you the mistake for fear of making ourselves look fools (again) but I will say that once we were finished we realized how we should have started and begun the process. Aaaaaaand we also realized that that was what the instructions were telling us the entire time but we were just too impatient/inexperienced to understand that hahaha OOOPS! *facepalm*

Overall, we discovered we are not handy enough to handle wallpaper on another surface hahaha the product we received is incredible, amazing quality, and for people that have done wallpaper before it's probably easy but for us that have never done anything like this it was a bit over our heads hahahaha

After getting this gorgeous wallpaper up on the wall, I knew we needed something else to make it even better and more of a grown up room - enter Wayfair with a killer sale!!

We've been without a headboard since we moved into this house because it got broken in the truck - it's always at least one thing right?? When I found this one on Wayfair I was so excited! It's the perfect simple style with just a hint of glam ya know?? We've been wanting wall lamps for a long time, even before we moved into this house. I knew the general idea of what I was looking for but couldn't ever find the right one until these beauties showed up on my search! And on a serious sale too to boot! I was so happy to add them to my cart!

One of the only things I actually liked in our room before was the vinyl on the wall with the words from our wedding song. So I knew I needed something to be able to have them back up again. My sweet friend and her husband actually built me this 24 X 36 sign and then I painted it and used vinyl from Expressions Vinyl to complete it!

My heart has been so happy these past couple days with a beautiful new master bedroom! I have PhotoWall to thank for this amazing transformation! And as a thank you, they're also giving me a discount code for all of you lovely people!

Use code: ourhappilyeverafter2021 at checkout for 25% off your treasure for your walls!

They have so many amazing prints, it took me almost 3 weeks to finally narrow it down and then an extra one to make sure this was the one! 

Thanks PhotoWall for the opportunity and the amazing wallpaper makeover!

We've been plugging along here unpacking the house, and celebrating birthdays!
 
For those asking, here is a "house tour" 

I have most of the fun stuff from the house on my Amazon favorites page so it's easy to find!
 
Summer is always a crazy time for us!  Andrew and Rory have birthdays 4 days apart so it's always a bit nuts for that one week hahaha
This year we just had friends over, went out to eat and enjoyed our amazing new house.
 
We had our friends stay with us for a few days while they transitioned to a new house and we LOVED having them here and having the house filled with people. We will miss them terribly though and I'm only completely heartbroken that they're leaving us!
 
Nevertheless it's been a crazy summer, and school starts in like 2 weeks! WHAT?!
I'm ready for life to calm down just a smidge hahaha

You may have noticed it's been pretty quiet around these parts for awhile. Occasional movie reviews but nothing consistent. Well there's a good reason for that lack of commitment:

We MOVED!
 
Completely NOT in the plans for the year when we made goals, NOT in even our minds really but here we are hahaha

I've said here before that the house we were in was not our forever house. It was the perfect starter home and we loved it dearly. We started to feel the nudge sometime in the end of March. First week of April we just decided to look around at some houses nearby to see what was even on the market. On a whim we saw this house (I had hated the pictures of it online) and we fell in love with it. And that's when the madness started hahaha

Within a week we had our house up on the market. Guys I've never worked so hard for so long on something (other than growing babies) and we had multiple offers come in which was great. We also knew that we couldn't afford this new house without selling ours first. Basically take the equity and roll it over into our down payment. So we took a cash offer that seemed to give us the most wiggle room in a new budget to work.

After the inspection period, these buyers got difficult. They now wanted pictures of the EMPTY house 3 days before close, lowered their price to "help them with upgrades to the property", and a few other things that I've honestly blocked from memory.

We could have backed out and put it back up and seen what would happen. We could have done that, but Andrew and I both felt prompted to just keep going. We didn't want to lose THIS house. It had been on the market for about 50 days when we saw it, and we were the only offer on it but it was contingent upon the sale of our house. And if we had put ours back up and waited, this house would probably be out of reach because they were waiting for a certain period of time before they  would open this house for more financing options.

And so, we plugged on. The week leading up to Memorial Day was moving week. We had to pack the truck on Wednesday so we could take pictures of the empty house for them to wire the money on Friday so we could simultaneously close on the new one same day.

Guys, THIS WAS SO STRESSFUL!

We had plans to pack the truck and leave room for the mattresses so we could sleep one more night there and then be out by Thursday. Well our water had other ideas and we were kinda forced out Wednesday night. THANK GOODNESS for amazing ward members and neighbors who allowed us to crash at their house and helped us with this move. We lived out of our car for most of Thursday, stayed the night with some friends, and most of the day on Friday while we waited for the green light to move into the new house.

Oh and did I mention this was also Rory's last week of school???? My poor girl didn't get a proper last week of school and quite frankly I felt really bad that her teacher didn't get the same amount of gifts or attention that her kinder teachers did last year. All because of this move hahahaha

But as I sit here in my new office and type this, I am BEYOND grateful.
We know for a fact that the Lord's hand was in this.
We've felt His promptings and love and peace while in the midst of chaos.
We're both so grateful to everyone that helped us in any way with this new adventure.

My saddest part of this move however was leaving my sweet girls. My Young Women have been in my life for the 5 1/2 years we lived in that house. I grew up with them as their teacher and I have loved them as though they were my own (and still do don't you worry girls!).

They surprised me on our last week at church with signed posters, a Sodalicious gift card (it's like they know me), treats and lots of tears and hugs. They're my "babies" and I am sad that I won't be there every week to see them anymore. Lucky for us, we only moved like 5 minutes away so they are still stuck with me as a friend and ally!

So there ya have it! Now you know why it's been kinda silent on here for awhile  and it may continue to be so while I unpack and get everything settled away. So bare with me while I try to work some pixie magic on this house and make it into our true forever home!

I've been on the search for MONTHS for something to hold all of my vinyl and such for my business
and let me tell you, IT'S HARD TO FIND THE PERFECT THING! If I had no budget to worry about, I have plenty of wishlists I could share but let's share the reality shall we? ;)
 
Then I found it! My sweet friend was cleaning out her garage and had an IKEA dresser (similar here) that she had made super cute and just didn't need anymore. I quickly volunteered as tribute for it! When I saw it in person I was so happy and knew it would be perfect!

I got it home and put it in the space I had cleared for it (the room is super funky in layout, weird walls and let's not even talk about the horrid colors in here - they were from the previous owners and we didn't have money to have them paint before so there ya go!) and I quickly put everything in the drawers.

Guys, I HAVE A FLOOR AGAIN! (And yes, I've been folding in the Kon Mari style WAY before this year folks hahaha) 
 
Owning your own small business is no joke y'all. It takes a lot of time and effort but is also so much fun!

I also got myself the Cricut EasyPress 2!! I bought the 12 X 10 press and the 20 X 16 mat that they suggest for it. I haven't been this happy in a long time! It's so easy to use and will save me TONS of time and backache!  If you want to see a full tutorial for how to use it, stay tuned! There will be a post soon!

If you can't wait any longer because you just love all things crafty, I DID do a small tutorial on my Instagram Stories and saved it in my highlights on my profile!

​Alrighty guys! I'm back from my trip to Disneyland which was AWESOME! Had so much fun with my mom ;) Post to come soon about that!

I wanted to post about the house this time ;) Hope you don't mind heehee

So here it is in all it's splendor:

It's a perfect 3 bed, 2 bath house and we couldn't be happier to be out of apartment life finally!!

I ended up doing a little decorating last night:

​So this nook is in my hallway and I LOVE it! I however, have no idea what to put here permanently, so for now, it's housing our stockings made by Andrew's Aunt Heidi ;)

And there you have it guys! I'll take more pictures as it comes together more haha

Ok so moving was WAY easier this year than last year! Even though I wasn't able to do much, baby was difficult and I had fevers all through the day  (it got comical after awhile). Andrew wouldn't let me do a whole lot so that I didn't get worse or strain the baby, he was very sweet ;) We also had so many people helping us it was amazing! My mom and brother came, my sister-in-law came, my visiting teacher came (yeah I know shocked right!?),  and our friend Laurie came and she borught a new friend for us to meet too  (yay for more people that know us in the ward!)

What was even greater for us that I was forever grateful was Laurie and her husband Adam (and son Hyrum) brought us some homemade chili and cornbread cuz they figured we hadn't eaten yet and they were right, I hadn't even noticed what time it was! After they left, I cried from sheer gratitude of friends and family that know our needs before I even do!

Ok now the part you've all been waiting for, the pictures ;) See I remembered! I didn't take pictures of the people since I looked gross and didn't want to embarrass anyone ;)

Ok so we moved from this:

Little itty bitty now that we have THIS:

Ok let me explain the random door running into the toliet picture:
So the apartment is a 2 bed 1 3/4 bath. As in 1 toliet and 2 shower/tubs. When they first built the apartment there was a wall separating the toliet from both showers, then they put in a door so you could get to the john from either shower, then they finally decided to just take out the wall and so that door to the other shower totally hits you if you happen to leave it open......super awkward and I felt like I was being stalked by a door hahahahaha

So who loves the tree?? I do I do I do!! My in-laws gave it to us, (thanks Mom and Dad Mills!) friend Laurie set it up, and my brother put the lights on and decorated it! Also don't you love the little elf on the lamp?? I do! That was also my brother's idea (he's really good at that kinda thing)

Ok now I will end my novel! Have a happy wekend! Can you believe it's December!?!??! Yay for anniversary and Christmas month!

Our lease is up in a month, so we've been lookig to see if we should stay in our complex, or possibly move somewhere else.

Then last night, while Andrew was at work, he met a realtor couple, and so we thought we'd at least LOOK to see about the possibility of a house. It's pretty much probably not gonna happen, but it helps looking so we know what to expect when we are able to be home buyers.

Or if by some miracle we can afford a small little piece of heaven then the angels will be singing their praises ;)

Wish us luck as we try to figure out what to do as our lease is coming up and if you have any ideas, I would lve you all the more for them! ;)

Ok so those of you following on Twitter know that I've been buying things to help re-organize our little apartment ;)

So I wanted to help you see how much better it really is now hahahahaha

Bedroom Closet:

Linen Closet:

and the kitchen:

And I also bought side tables for the both of us for the bedroom:

And before you think I'm a terrible person making Andrew use a comforter with flowery junk on it, see it up close and see what's so special about it ;)

That's right friends, this comforter is from the Disneyland Hotel ;) I got this from Company D when they re-did the hotel! For $8! ;)

Just a little home lovin ;)

Anything new and exciting at your house??

Yeah so we live in an apartment so we can't really remodel, but we can redecorate! So we did ;) Andrew came home one day and said, "I wanna move things around. It doesn't feel like us yet." So last night after my family left, we took things off the walls and started over ;)

Here's the end result:

This wall used to have all the Disney/Broadway frames

Moved the Disney lithographs around

The Wall-E pictures are in a kind of alcove that was empty before

The pictures are in the order in which I saw the shows ;) (I haven't seen RENT yet but it's on the list)

We put the leaf in the table to we could use more of it when people come over

Our movie collection (we need nother bookshelf cuz we're running out of room)

I just HAD to share with you guys cuz I'm super excited about it! It feels much more homey, and like us ;) Andrew has also promised that I can get more frames to put ALL my Disney lithographs up around the apartment ;)