Red White and Blue

Do you ever find yourself living by a motto during times of life that might be difficult, hectic, depressing, etc? Lately I have found myself pondering our life situations, and continually found myself saying "Just Be Happy". No matter how hard or how busy things got, we truly have so much to Be Happy about. Since I have been out of School for the Summer, I have been surrounding myself with the things that make me especially Happy. Time with family, splashing at the pool, and my favorite Decorating.

When we first bought our house, it was our plan to be here for 5-6 years. Well we just passed our 5 year mark and are realizing that we will be here for longer than planned....Life, Right?!

Anyway, for that reason I really have been wanting to change up a few things and really put our stamp on this house and make it what I have wanted all along. Because we have an open floor plan, we just have the living/family room and in case you didn't know, one year olds have a LOT of toys. I was running out of ideas and places to store the things that get used on a daily basis. I decided to make a trip to our local HomeGoods in Salt Lake and found the perfect tufted storage bench, along with many, many other things. I should probably add that to the list of stores I should be banned from. Everything else just kind of fell into place. 

After finding my ottoman, I hit up Hobby Lobby and found these fun accessories, to liven up our space a bit. I spray painted a couple of existing items I had, and added in my 4th of July decor and presto. I am loving the Anthropologie inspired metal "W". It's a great piece that you can see right from the front door. 

I was growing tired of my old 4th of July wreath I had made when we first moved in. I wanted something smaller and simpler. That's my life right now, trying to simplify everything. Kids require you to do that sometimes. I hit my keyboard running, searching Pinterest for Ideas and found this felt project. Extremely time consuming, but easy and, OH SO PERFECT on my front door. 

 I still love my Americana Bunting that I made a few years back. All the Fabrics I found at Hobby Lobby. Sewed them into double sided rectangular pieces, they gathered them into the bunting and sewed them onto a a long piece of fabric to hang them from. 

I seriously get so many compliments on it. 

Again simplicity is key for me. Simple patriotic scrapbook paper, cut into triangles with pinking shears (I didn't even measure the triangles to make sure they were the same size, I just eyeballed them), then I ran them through my sewing machine to stitch them together. 

If you haven't taken advantage of the free patriotic printable I posted, you can download it here. 

I love the 4th of July. So many things in my life have happened in July, got engaged, got married, blessed Maggie, got my gallbladder out. It really is a tie between this and Christmas for my favorite Holiday. 

So I hope you enjoyed a little tour of my Red, White and Blue decor. I am so excited for upcoming posts, so keep checking back and PLEASE FOLLOW ME if you aren't already. Followers mean giveaways and giveaways mean free stuff for you! 

Happy Weekend, I hope you are all enjoying your Summer. 

XO: Kelli

This is not a HomeGoods or Hobby Lobby sponsored post. All opinions expressed are my own. 

Strawberry Days

One of my Favorite things about Summer in Utah is all of the City Festivals that happen, EVERY week. This weekend we celebrated Strawberry Days in our neighboring town of Pleasant Grove. Really though, who was the genius who decided to celebrate Strawberries?! It's tradition to end our evening with a little Strawberries n' cream for dessert and a walk through the carnival and craft fair. Maggie experienced the Carousel for the first time, and could not figure out if she loved it or hated it. She spent the entire ride doing this freaked out giggle. We had to go back a second day so Daddy could come and see her in action. By her second and third time around she had the hang of things and was blowing kisses to everyone....and then she came home and threw up ALL OVER THE FAMILY ROOM. Maybe the Carousel two days in a row after having a stomach bug all week wasn't such a good idea. 

I just had to document, not only my first selfie, but my little, tiny, post pardom, broken bangs/antlers have finally grown out enough that they can be flat ironed in with the rest of my bangs....Huzzah. It only took OVER A FREAKING YEAR to no longer look as though my antennae were trying to phone E.T. home. The things our bodies do for these little ones! (ignore the unmade bed). 

These guys are just as much our children as Maggie is, if not more since they have been with us for five times longer than Maggie has. They had their annual teeth cleanings on Saturday, literally took till 10:00pm for their anesthesia to completely wear off. They spend the afternoon walking into walls and barstools, tripping on stairs and being completely lazy. Maggie loved that they were too out of it to run away when she tried to "Snuggle them" - AKA- tried to shove her doll bottle up their noses.  

Sunday usually means lazy afternoons since we have church at 9:00am. We decided to try out our new mason jar mugs we found at Walmart with some green smoothie. For whatever reason she did not want to pick it up, so she sat on the kitchen floor and drank the entire cup. After every sip she would look up and go "mmmmmm", and then go back for more. I love her in all of her mismatched pajama glory. 

I have been getting the house all geared up for the 4th of July, and doing some minor accessory redecorating in the great room. Stay tuned for a little tour of my Patriotic decor, and my red, white and blue felt wreath. 

Until then, Here is a little sneak peak of my new decor.