Little Girl's Room Reveal- Geometric Design

I remember when we found out that we were going to have a daughter, and visions of a beautiful nursery flooded my head. Floral wallpaper. Floral wreaths. Wooden script names. Soft tones. I had it all pinned on Pinterest, and was planning this big grand reveal. Then the instagram world vs reality sets in, and I knew that what I wanted to do wouldn’t be financially possible with all that we had going on. We don’t tap from a bottomless well of money, and whatever work that needed to be done in that room, we were going to have to do ourselves, because paying a contractor or designer was not in the budget.

So we waited. And waited. And waited. And then I bought some curtains because that tone of yellow just made me happy and from there I decided to design this room. I found this adorable wallpaper from ColoRay Decor and it was off to the races. Triangles make me happy, and these colors fit perfectly in our colorful home aesthetic.

Slowly but surely, we made small purchases here and there until this sweet room was complete. Repurposed an old dresser & nightstand, gave them a fresh coat of white spray paint. Some custom artwork created by me to go on the main wall, and boom! I’ll give links to all the other artwork, and please feel free to comment if you have any questions about anything else!! Enjoy!

List of links:

Wallpaper -ColoRay Designs

Bedframe -Ikea

Twin Quilt -Target

Shag Rug -Rugs.com

Clothes Hamper- Crate & Kids

Curtains -Target

Floral prints -Lulu Ink Designs

Other Print -Handwritten Hope

My Go-To Margarita Mix

Ryan and I are not big drinkers, but we do enjoy an occasional adult beverage to end the evening after the kids go to bed. And a margarita is my drink of choice, as long as it has good tequila.

I have a very sensitive stomach, so all those store bought margarita mixes that contain preservatives, massive amounts of sugar and ingredients I can’t pronounce would make me feel so miserable. So instead of giving up on finding the perfect margarita, I decided to make my own. Tastes and preferences are all different, so the perfect margarita for me, may not be your ideal… but I’m always happy to share what I love!

www.jordannemarie.com/blog

Fresh Margarita Mix

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Author: Jordanne Marie

Prep time: 5 MCook time: Total time: 5 M

Ingredients:

Margarita Mix

• 12 Lemons
• 6-8 Limes
• Granulated Sugar
• Purified Water

Margarita

• Ice
• Triple Sec
• Good Tequila
• Salt (if desired)
• Club Soda (if desired)

Instructions:

Making The Mix

1. Roll To soften the Lemons & Limes before your slice.
2. Cut the fruit in half.
3. Using a Lemon press, squeeze the juice from all the fruit into a large measuring bowl. 
4. Measure how much juice you've yielded, and double that with purified water. 
5. Strain the juice to remove all the extra pulp and seeds.
6. Depending on how sweet you like your mix, (I prefer mine on that Tart side), add granulated sugar to and wisk it together until the sugar dissolves. 
7. Pour into a glass jar, cover it & put it in the fridge for later. (can last about a week in the fridge)

Assembling the Margarita

1. This can be controversial, depending on how you prefer  your margarita. This is just how I like to make them (easy and using as few tools as possible). 
2. In a glass, (salt the rim if you like... I don't) add ice.
3. Add about a shot of tequila.
4. Add a splash of triple sec.
5. Add the Margarita Mix. 
6. Maybe add a splash of club soda.
7. Stir. Sip. Enjoy. 
8. (You can also make this in a shaker, if you're making multiple servings. I just make one after the kids go to bed, and don't want the extra dishes to clean)
9. Drink responsibly. 

www.jordannemarie.com/blog/2020/8/28/my-go-to-margarita-mix

Fresh Margarita, Margarita

Margarita Mix

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The [Never-Ending] Kitchen Reno

Listing Photo of the Kitchen

We moved to this house in June of 2013, after walking through many “GUT-JOBS” we settled on this house, knowing that the kitchen was newly updated and only needed a little work to make it feel like home. Other than a new coat of paint, updating the countertops, and installing a backsplash, I was so happy with the size and layout of this kitchen. Two months into living here, we donned our n95 masks and went to work (ironically it was on our 1 year wedding anniversary).

A project that I thought would only take a week or two, ended up turning into a MAJOR project. Much like the story of “If you Give a mouse a cookie”. If you tell Ryan you want to paint the walls, he is going to tell you he needs to paint the ceiling first. If we paint the ceiling, we need to add new recessed lighting, and if we add new recessed lighting, we need to cut a MAJOR hole in the ceiling to run said wires. If you have the ceiling open, you may just need to fix the bath tub drain, and while you have that open in the living room, we should also add recessed lighting in the kitchen. My seemingly “simple cosmetic update” of painting over the ugly yellow wall color became a much more intense job.

This was our first home project together, and now after 8 years of being married, I’ve come to learn that nothing is ever just a “Simple update”. Please don’t mistake this as complaining, because I’m incredibly grateful for the skill and handiwork of my husband.

All that to say, we have lived in a constant state of ‘manageable’ renovation since we moved here. Life is busy, children are blessings. Four months into the lighting project update, I found out I was pregnant, which made life a little hectic, but also lit a fire for Ryan to get this house in a more “liveable” state.

In 2016, {3 years after we bought our house} we were in a good financial situation to afford new quartz countertops, and the tile backsplash I had been dreaming about. I felt like we were finally “making it” because the kitchen would be perfect! The color of the cabinets wasn’t my first choice, but the new backsplash and countertops made it feel so much more our style.

I started to nit-pick and asked Ryan if “one day, can we replace the ugly cork floors?” because they started to feel out of place with the fancy new countertops. But we knew that this was another project we would need to save for, and after just having Verona, we needed to take it easy in that department.

Flash forward to Memorial Day 2018: we had a terrible storm and we were without power for a while, and had to connect our refrigerator to the neighbors generator. When we pushed it back in, we were unaware that the hose for the ice maker was punctured and started leaking water. Three weeks later, we realized that the floor in front of the fridge was damp and started to bow. We pulled out the fridge and about died when we saw the extent of the damage.

Thank God for insurance. August 6, 2018. Contractors came to pull out the flooring, and we were met with some pretty devastating news. Mold & Asbestos. We were quarantined from our house, displaced until it was contained. They told us it was going to be a complete kitchen gut. I cried. Many times. All of the contents in the kitchen were packed up in boxes and hauled away. The lower cabinets were ripped out. The flooring was ripped out. It was all gone, so we started to dream about what our kitchen could look like. After a few back and forth calls, we realized that only a few cabinets would be replaced, but we couldn’t find the exact match to our existing cabinets, which resulted in new paint and door/drawer faces.

We had to create a new “makeshift" kitchen in our dining room, using a hot plate to cook dinners and we washed our dishes in the bathtub upstairs. It was not an ideal situation, but we made it work. In order to save some money, and make a few updates to our walls, flooring etc, Ryan agreed to do most of the work himself, which seemed like a good idea, until I found out I was pregnant with Vivienne. Can we just talk about the irony of how big renovations & pregnancy seem to go hand in hand in this house. As I was busy growing a human, I was a little useless when it came to all the other work that needed to be done in the kitchen.

When you’re in the middle of it, it felt like the renovation was never ending, and to be honest, our kitchen still has some work to be done. Trim. Broken tiles. Side paneling. Grout. But from the photos, you can barely tell, and looking back, I’m so grateful to have the kitchen I have today. It’s one of my favorite things about our house.

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Moral of the story: real life doesn’t look like a home renovation show. You can’t always wrap everything in a pretty bow, say here is where we started and in 3 short months, this is where we are with our perfect completed kitchen. Patience. Trust the journey. Sometimes the end result turns out better than you could have ever imagined.

Dear Jonathan... {Year 6}

To the little boy, who made me a mama. Thank you. Never in a million years did I think I would know THIS MUCH about Dinosaurs and other prehistoric (marine & winged) reptiles, but you have made learning right along side you so much fun. Seeing your face light up because I show the same amount of interest in it as you do, makes it all so worth it.

I love you. I love the way you love me. I love how much you’ve taught me about myself in these past 6 years. You cheer me on when I work out, you always thank me for making you food and tell me its good, and when I have a bad mommy day, you’re always quick to forgive me.

August 2016

You have the sweetest soul. Your excitement for life is my favorite thing ever, because you’ve never met a thing or a person you didn’t like, and I love that about you. (except for spiders, like me, you really hate spiders)

Watching you grow up and turn into this little boy I see before me has been the best 6 years of my life. I never imagined being as strong of a person as I am today… if you told me 5 years ago that one day I would be able to get 3 kids ready, out the door and in carseats in 5 min flat, I’d think you were crazy! But here we are.

You got some of my favorite qualities from me and your dad and it has been so fun seeing them come out. I adore being creative with you, drawing, coloring, painting, and then also watching you and your dad geek out over all the technical stuff that you enjoy, building designs, working with your hands, etc. You are one cool kid, and we tell you that every day.

You are the sweetest big brother. You are so kind and loving and a little rough sometimes with them, but I know it’s because you love them THAT MUCH, that sometimes you just can’t control the cute aggression that you feel. (I get that way too)

Also. Your freckles. They are my favorite. And your cute Jonny laugh that you’ve done since you were little. I love you my bright eyed little boy. Thank you for all the love and grace you’ve shown me these past 6 years as I navigate being a mom. I can’t wait to see what this next year holds for you as you begin Kindergarten!

Love forever,

Your imperfect mama