Birthday Weekend Rewind

Well, it happened. I officially entered my last year as a twenty something - and now have only one year to complete everything I ever wanted to do before I turned thirty! Ha! That sure spiraled out of control quickly!  My birthday was nearly a month ago now, but low and behold I'm just now getting around to blogging about it!

The good news is, hubby honored my request for a Great American Company birthday cake and it was delicious after the boys serenaded me with my birthday song. The bad news is, hubby honored my request for a Great American Company birthday cake, and it is still delicious as I continue to eat it for every meal three days later.  Surely when I go to the doctor Friday she is going to slap me on the wrist and tell me to ease up on the cookies because my third trimester weight gain is bound to be out of control. 

We kicked off the celebration Friday night with said Cookie Cake. And Bennett did this adorable little thing with his hand while he was singing "happy birthday to youuuuuu" that I have on video and will forever cherish. And Shane had taken him to the mall earlier in the week to pick out mommy's birthday present and he shared this photo with me. Oh my goodness. I can't even take it. 

Saturday morning we loaded up the car and headed to a little town about 45 minutes outside of Nashville. There's an awesome waterfall we were dying to check out + some fun outdoorsy adventures!

After we got all hot and sweaty we headed to the cute little down and found a *GASP* old train station museum that little Bennett could have probably stayed at for hours.

And of course, we HAD to get Ice Cream!

Then Sunday, we headed out to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens to check out the Harvest Festival. The grounds were so pretty and we ended up buying a membership so we can continue going all the year long. Super excited about this!

They had fun scarecrows created by people all over town.

And gorgeous scenery from every angle.

Bennett even stayed in the stroller for more than 5 minutes - which is basically a birthday miracle.

The treehouse :)

Bennett's fort!

And the trains. Oh. Em. Gee. The trains. Bennett could have stayed here for HOURS. And honestly, I could have too.

Is there anything better than peacefulness and Bennett snuggles?! No, there is not.

Fancy Fireplace Reno Reveal

Drum roll please. It's here! It's here! It's finally here!  We've got a brand new fireplace facade and I'm over the moon to show you about it! Before you dig in - make sure to catch up on the post of what we were working with and why we HAD to change it :) hehe, only kidding. I'm just mentally unstable when it comes to being content with my home and apparently really like taking on new projects.

Anyways, without further ado - here is the latest time-lapse completion via pictures! Enjoy!

Fireplace Renovation Begins!

After the TV and mantle decor had come down, we began taping up the other rooms to try to keep the dust at bay. 

Don't worry Mom and Caroline, I didn't get on the ladder. Shane did it all (ahem). 

And we moved back all of the furniture and made sure to cover all of it up too!

And our contractors started plotting. 

And then, we knocked that old tile OFF! 

Out with the old!  

Out! 

Reframe + Build a Hearth!

Do a little dusting + Clean it up! 

1. Hang Mantle

2. Prep with some chicken wire looking material

3. Add cement or something

4. Play puzzle pieces with stone veneer

Continue to play puzzle pieces. Swoon a little. 

Add that grout, buddy!

Smile + Giggle. 

You're almost there. 

Play tug of war with your doggy while you wait for the concrete to dry ;)

Hang your TV ... admire. 

Plot what color you want to stain your mantle ...

(this obviously isn't complete yet, but I couldn't wait any longer to share with ya'll!)

And then keep smiling because this before and after was SO worth it. It feels like a brand new space! Can't wait to make many o'memories with my family around this fireplace. Thanks to my mommy for helping me see it through, to my husband for dealing with my crazy antics, and our Construction team for bringing our vision to life! 

So, we still need to pick a color selection to stain the mantle, I need to "Katie-fy" it with some fun trinkets and decor and we'll be in business. But, for now I'll be cozied up catching up on all my guilty pleasures TV shows until baby moon decides to join us! Feel free to come and join me! 

Transformation Tuesday: Fireplace

Guys. I don't know if I've mentioned before that I think I may be crazy. Home projects are fun. But home projects 8 months pregnant that leave your house dirtier than a toddler with an infinite bag of chips and flour with zero adult super vision are really not that fun. What. The. Heck. Was. I. THINKING?!

I mentioned after our big reveal of the mudroom that we had the fireplace to tackle. And then I told you last Wednesday that it was underway. So, I'm here today to show you what was ... and hopefully before the week ends I'll catch you up on what is!

After scouring the real estate market in Nashville, TN we learned lots of things, but one big one in particular: There is no perfect home unless you build. And even then, there are still probably things you wish you'd done differently. We also know that hubs and I aren't what anyone would call "Lifers" in a home and will probably live in several more across the span of our lifetime (more on that here). But that doesn't stop our little brains from dreaming up big plans and making changes and renovations the current home we live in to make it more conducive to our style. What can we say? We like renovations. And we'll probably never stop doing them.

Our first home was a COMPLETE disaster to start with - and this blog didn't really exist during that phase of life. But let me just tell you - the work we did on that little number -- SHOOOOWEEEEE. I'm talking when we bought the place you could stand outside of the house and looks inside the crawl space (from the outside) and see through to the other side due to wood rot and termite damage. Not to mention INSIDE the house was a wall completely dedicated to a mural of under the sea. We learned a lot of lessons at 6600 Tottenham Road and we shared so many memories from our engagement to our wedding day! It will always hold a special place in our heart.

And next came 1617 Grey Owl Court ... another Oh EM Gee project looking back on it. Complete paint job top to bottom to change the entire color of the trim work in the house, finishing a basement, new floors throughout, a complete kitchen renovation and more. But again, the memories. Our first home we bought together to bringing home our first bouncing baby boy!

And now, our home in Nashville. We are already making so many memories and changes to house too! But, the MOMENT we moved in I knew if we did nothing else, the fireplace had to go. It's just not our style. The contractor did a fine job with the materials he obviously had leftover (the tile from our master bath) and decided to use that as the fireplace back splash and while some may love this ... I did not. It was almost reason enough to not sign the closing papers. Ha!

So, thanks to nesting + pregnancy + the persistence of my mother helping me to hunt down contractors and stone companies here in Nashville - this week the project will finally be complete. And now I simply have to clean up all the dust! (Maybe this will being the onset of early labor?!? hehe)

Because I'm such a great blogger - I realized only after-the-fact that the contractors had completely ripped off the old tile that I never took a before picture! Seriously Katie?!! GET IT TOGETHER!

Thankfully however, there is this great thing that was invented several years ago called the Internet that allowed me hunt down some photos from when the house was on the market last year to share with ya'll. I found these on some realtor website, so unfortunately they're super grainy and you can't see our personal room decor and such for the before and after - but it'll help us get the full effect when we do the big reveal!

WHEW! *wipes brow* Crisis averted!

I'll be putting the final piece of the post together this week to show you the true before and after - I can't wait to see the finished project myself! Yayyy!

Okay kids - I'm off to pick up the little mister from school and hear all about Show and Tell today! They're learning about the color Blue - so he wore a fun blue football sweatshirt Sissy got him to school and packed Chase and his blue Paw Patrol care that PaPaw bought for him to show at Show and Tell circle today :)

Pumpkins make it cute

In my mind I had blogged about the wreaths I made when we moved into our new house, but after searching my old posts I can't seem to find where I ever did? So either I'm crazy (which is highly probable) or my blog is currently failing me. Either way - I updated those wreaths and wanted to share!

Since I'm such a great blogger and document things so well (HA! obviously that is not the case) I did snap a picture before I de-spring/summered (that's a thing right?) the wreaths.

Here is what they looked like before.

I bought the twig wreaths from Michael's in the spring - on sale - and just bought a mix and match of some fun colors and sprigs of color and arranged them until they were pretty enough for me.

Then I just removed all of those add ons - and boxed them up in case I want to use them again next spring/summer.  The ribbons were still in pretty good shape - so I just left them on there. It's simply wired burlap ribbon that I tied in a simple bow.

Then, I purchased a hodge podge of more -on sale- items from JoAnn's, Michael's and Hobby Lobby and arranged them on the wreaths until I felt they were adorned enough with fall lovelies to pretty up the entry way! 

I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out - and am excited to finish the entry way with the rest of the fall supplies. Penny gave me the idea of adding a cornstalk behind a bench we added, and obviously I'll get some pumpkins, probably some mums and other fun items.

I'll share more as I finish. 

Have I mentioned before that I love fall and everything it embodies?! Because I do. I just love love love love love it!