Lets train

A few months ago, you may remember THIS post.

It included some outfits that I wore from my closet that I had recreated from my Pinterest Boards.

My post was a little preview for my guest post on her blog.

As a refresher, here are some of the outfits that I re-created from my own closet:

Each and every single one of these outfits was re-created from clothing that I ALREADY had!!!
I just needed the Inspiration from Pinterest to create these outfits.... I was "Pin-spired"
After I originally posted that in November, I  have gotten a lot of emails from YOU saying that you loved shopping your own closet using your Pinterest Boards, etc.
Well, that gave me an idea! So, I shared my idea with 2 of my blog buddies,
Sheaffer of Pinterest Told Me To and Shay of Mix & Match Family
(You may recognize Shay....yes, her brother is Sean the Bachelor)
Since this past Fall, I have become good blog friends with both of them, we are like the 3 amigas now.
Too bad for me they live in Texas (lucky for them they are friends outside of blogging)
But, we have fun group texting & sending each other Christmas cards.
Anyways, I told them about my little idea last Fall and they were excited to collaborate & join forces with me!

Which leads me to a fun announcement.....a new monthly linky party is coming your way!
Here's the Deal-io.
Use Pinterest to inspire your outfits
(Hence the name Pin-Spired)
See if you can re-create them.
Take pics of your outfit.
Every 1st of the month, we will have a linky party for you to link up your outfits from the past month.
You can link up 1 outfit or 30 outfits, however many you did.....Totally up to you!!!
(My goal is going to be 1 outfit a week...keeping it simple....since my word of the year is simplify)

On the 1st of each month, the linky party will appear on my blog, Sheaffer's Blog & Shay's Blog
Doesn't matter who you link to, it will show up on all of them!
Then, go check out the other links and get Pinspired with even more outfits that people created!
It's going to be FUN!

Like I mentioned in my Resolutions post, my word for the year is simplify & I have some 2013 Resolutions which include being better about our budget, trying not to buy stuff that I really don't need & sticking to the "less is more" mantra.

I am excited to make better use of clothes I already have in my closet and wear them in new combinations that I would have never put together.
I can get in a clothing rut sometimes & wear the same things over and over and over again.
Can't wait to get Pinspired and mix things up a bit with my wardrobe!

The first linky party will be Friday, February 1st.
So, that gives you exactly 3 weeks to get Pinspired!



<img src="http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n191/mlarson17/pinspiredmel_zpsdf4a5059.png"/>

You can grab a button here, or on my side bar!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE looking at other peoples houses.
I love going to Open Houses, I love looking at houses on the internet.
It's not just because I am nosey (well, maybe a little bit!) I just really love seeing how other people live & how other people decorate. I love how everyone's styles are so different & unique.
I have blogged about most of our house before, but today I am updating some of the rooms ...plus our Living Room/Dining Room Before & After that I have yet to post!

 Let's start with the kitchen, since this is where I spend most of my time!

Here is our Kitchen/Family Room:

 Opposite View:
 Kitchen Table & Eating Area:
The photo above was taken last summer.
We are actually in the middle of construction right now....we had to get a new french door because the one that the previous owner installed 10 years ago was installed incorrectly, it was leaking & causing dry rot.
This picture was taken today....Construction Zone!!!

I got a smaller French Door & had it moved over 18 inches so that next time we update our kitchen, I will have 2 more feet to put in counters & cabinets (we don't have a lot of counter space or storage in our kitchen)

We also had to get a new kitchen window as well, since it was also leaking (I got rid of the garden style window & just put in a flat picture frame window)
It was also leaking & causing dry rot.
We are hoping to have the trim work & painting completed this week!
Fingers crossed.
Family Room:
Another view of Family Room:
If you want to see Before & Afters of the Kitchen/Family Room from when we first moved in, check them out HERE

Here is our Master Bedroom:

You can see the Before & Afters from our Master Bedroom Re-do HERE 

Kate's Room:

 She got this new comforter for her birthday in January.

This is the 3rd time we have given her room a facelift.
You can see the Before & Afters and more pics of Kate's room HERE
 Claire's Room:

Claire wants a new comforter for her birthday, since Kate had this one for her first big girl bed and Claire has had it for 4 years. She says it's too "babyish"
  You can see more of Claire's Room and some Before & Afters HERE

Luke's Room:
The other side of the room:
We will probably get rid of his crib later this summer & put him in a big boy bed. Sigh.
You can see more of Luke's Room HERE

 Here is a BEFORE of our Living Room/Dining Room:
Our house was built in the 1970's when conversation pits were all the rage.
 The conversation pit was right in the middle of the living room & dining room. Totally awkward & waste of space. For the first 4 years we lived here, I just put all the kids toys in the pit, so it was like their playroom.

Even more awkward, this is where our fire place was & it was wall of painted white brick:

 Last Fall, I had saved up a lot of my Rodan + Fields earnings and we got rid of it of the pit!
 The pit was about a foot lower than the rest of the living room/dining room, such a weird design. I don't know what builders were thinking in the 1970's
Then Kevin took out all the horrible railings that surrounded the pit: 
 Then our contractor  built up the floor to the same level as the rest of the room:
And added dry wall around the old fireplace:
 The next phase was adding a new fireplace, we went with a gas insert

The next phase was ripping out part of the wall so that we could add a French Door to the backyard. We have a lot of parties, so we wanted more access to the backyard to keep good flow going through the house (Our door had to be ordered & it took about a month to get in)
 Framing up for the new door:
New door in:

Then, we had to add more flooring so that it continued on with the original living room & dining room floor:

Of course, the original flooring had been discontinued, so we re-used the boards that were in the pit AND we took out the hard wood floor in our bedroom (and put in carpet) and used some of those floor boards for the new area:

 Kevin did all the flooring himself and he did an amazing job! Eventually, we want to re-do all of our floors with a dark hardwood, but since the majority of our house is hardwood, we are going to wait, because that is going to be a huge project!
Here is the final reveal:

I also moved the direction of our dining room table:
Got a new rug for the living room & some new throw pillows:
 This room is SO much more user friendly now!!
 This project was started the last weekend in August & was completed the day before Thanksgiving! It was a labor of love.

Another view:

And, our side yard where the garden is:
These pics were taken 2 years ago, that is why our grass is so green. Now, our grass is DEAD since we are on water restrictions because of the major California drought we are in right now :(
   You can see more Before & Afters from our Backyard HERE

Hope you enjoyed our house tour!
We have lived here for 5 years and have done TONS of work on our house, but we like doing house projects :)
Be sure & check out the Before & Afters to see what it looked like when we first moved in.
If you want to see our old house, HERE is that home tour :)

As you can see from these pics, I am VERY simple (and kind of boring) with my decor.
I don't like clutter, so I try and keep things light & simple!
Thanks for coming along on the tour & I can't wait to go check out your houses!

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And, don't forget to enter my $250 Nordstrom Gift Card Giveaway {HERE}
Giveaway ends on Friday!