Morning life.

One of my favorite part of our home is how the sun shines in the mornings. Our living room just glows. Yesterday morning, the girls and I were doing our normal routine. coffee. play. exersaucer time. checkin email. driving in the purple van. playing beauty shop. having a tea party. I grabbed my camera and thought I needed to capture this moment. 

Someday I am going to miss this.

Someday I am going to want to have pandora Hillsong kids radio on.

Someday I am going to miss my daughter wearing a summer dress in the winter.

Someday I am going to miss sitting under a table riding in a pur-po van waving to our neighbors.

Someday I am going to miss the sister cuddles and giggles. 

Someday I am going to miss the clutter of my living space with too many plastic toys.

Kiyah loves this thing. It is the grand central hub for her entertainment. Sister is teething. She cut two teeth around the new year and I am impatiently waiting for round two to hit the Cass casa. I have had about a 5 days of sleepless nights and an abnormal dependent baby girl. 

 If you notice random items on the floor, they are everywhere. Zi is an organizing, pile making, sortin machine.

To think that one month ago, Kiyah just looked at the toys on this thing. Now she is a master! 

Z sister love. 

Kiyah is all cuddles. She is hilarious. Her new thing is giving me hugs all the time. She just crashes into my chest. It is my FAVORITE! She is such a ham. 

She was squawking here! 

Zion always is laying on her and giving her big hugs! saying, "hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi" over and over. Occasionally, she switches it up and says, "kiyah kiyah kiyah kiyah". It is the BEST. Kiyah loves her Zi.

Now, we have arrived to the Tala Hair Studio. Zion is obsessed with beauty shop. She is a natural. My newest employee:) She is laying back in the salon chair here getting her hair washed. I shampooed her hair for her. 

"Mom, wanna pay hair shop. I need a blanket to cover me up. I get Haiwr on it."

"Mom, wash it."

"Mom, gotta do this."

"Mom, buckle this."

Post blow dry! Isn't she a beauty?

Mudroom // Before and After

Over the weekend, I decided to get going on our mudroom. It has been a hot mess since we moved in and driving me CRAZY. We have lived in our house for over 2 years now and I am getting so sick of the the beige walls in every room. They are painted, "flat" and show every knick and scratch. I decided to go to Sherwin-Williams for paint. They have HGTV paint colors that I adore. I used them in our basement and dining room already. Here are some before pictures of the disaster zone. 

This room is our catch all. The white door is our garage door. The mudroom is the perfect size for having a central hub for our coats/bags/shoes etc. We are going to have to be creative with how we use the little wall space for organizing considering we have 4 doors and a closet door in this room. The doors go to the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room and garage.

As you can see, I struggle with organizing in this room. We definitely need some shelving and hooks on the walls to eliminate the floor clutter.

View looking into kitchen.

Closet and garage door view. I decided to go with Silver mist by HGTV for the mudroom color. I love it.  It is the perfect mix of gray/silver/blue. It is relaxing and has a brightness to it that I was look for. Here are the after pictures.

Doesn't it look great? Ignore the smoke alarm......we have to get a new one. This one is not working properly.

I rehung the shelf that I got at TJMaxx to the right of the kitchen doorway. I love this shelf. It holds our keys/gum/letters and other odds and ends. I love that it has numbers on it.

Here is the angle from the corner by the closet.

Looking into the kitchen. I want to put some shelving/hooks to the left on the doorway. 

Looking at the garage door. I got the mirror a decade ago at TJMaxx and the knob hook is from there too. We use it for my purse and Zion's backpack. I got the basket on the floor at TJMaxx too. The shoe mat is from Lowe's and the rug is a cheapie from Target.

I want to paint or mod podge the mirror something. I am not feeling the black leather anymore. Any ideas for me?

The backpack is PotteryBarnKids from Grandma and Grandpa. Isn't it so cute?

Here is a snapshot looking into the mudroom from the kitchen. I was really excited to finally hang up the growth chart that Andy surprised us with last Christmas (2011). He wrote out the scripture, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew^[a] you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5 

He painted vines on it and we paint a feather every time we measure the girls. Zion is a red color and Zakiyah will be a navy I think. The wood spilt a touch when we drilled it in so I have to touch it up. But I love having it. It is so unique and has a lot of meaning to me. I love homemade gifts. So now, I have to get a new light.  I must get something more fun. I will be shopping clearance to find one.

H54F.....my life in pictures.

H54F--high five for friday. This is my first week of linking up with Lauren at  frommygreydesk for my weekly top 5 in pictures! Fun, right? Enjoy!

I have a secret! We painted our mudroom! I will share the details this week! Stay tuned.

Zion is turning 3 this month! Can you believe it? We found this beauty at Goodwill and are super excited about it! She is in love with Strawberry Shortcake! I am having a blast organizing her party. I will make sure to share all the deets with ya soon!

I heart juicing! It is so good. I have grown to LOVE it. I have been trying to juice at least once a day! This one is cucumber/carrot/celery/apple/ginger/lemon/kale/spinach juice. I try to make enough for 20-24 ounces! YUM.

 My lil' ladies. So CUTE! Zion picked out their outfit here. She wanted to match! Kiyah is full of hugs/smiles/giggles lately! Love 'em...

Have you joined the new craze? VINE app for the iphone. FREE! I love it. It is similar to instagram but it is videos. People are sooooo creative on there. I am liking it a lot. Come join the club, yo. 

Curtains in the Kitch

I recently got some curtains from my friend that she didn't want anymore. I, of course, gladly took them! I love re-gifting and blessing others with things we just don't want/need anymore.  I first mentioned these curtains here. But the length was just a little too short for me. The curtains are 84" in height, which is the standard size most places sell. But I like my window treatments to drag a bit on the floor. Here are some pictures of before I tweaked them. 

I went to Target and picked up some cheap curtain hooks. They sell them in two sizes and I opted for the bigger ones. It was such a easy fix and upgrade. I think it looks a lot better. It definitely makes it look more casual, but I like that style more anyways.

 Here is it with the curtains closed. I like how it drags a touch. I think the weight of the material is perfect for the Minnesota winter months. It adds the warmth to my kitchen that I was looking for.

Now I just want to PAINT these walls! The beige is driving me N-U-T-S!  I hope to paint the walls in the next weeks. Any ideas of colors I should do? I am thinking a celery/butter/pale yellow color. Nothing too crazy. I want bright and cheerful.

mantel love

As many of you know, I love decorating my mantel. I switch it up all the time. I love how it changes the palette and feel of the living room. I tend to stick with the holiday theme. I don't have a picture of all my mantel themes but here are a few highlights from the 2012 year. enjoy....

 This is from Valentines day last year. I made the felt garland and kept my mirror garland from Crate&Barrel up from Christmas for Valentines. I actually kept a lot of my reds up from the Christmas season. Zion and I made the hand "heart" together and I put it in a West Elm frame. I got the "CELEBRATE" flag banner at a boutique in Red Wing. We hung the celebrate up for a week for Andy/Zion's birthday. (2/19) 

Here is a close up of Zion's hand art. 

For spring, I kept it easy. I just gathered random pieces from my house. 

Moroccan Candle holder/ Moroccan pottery piece/ blue birdies are from TJ Maxx. The red flower vase is from Anthro. The mirror and green grass are Target. I think the clock is from Hobby Lobby or TJ Maxx.

 I love the 4th of July! It is so fun. I think the whole red,white and blue concept is so fun. My blue vases are from a antique store in Duluth. I grabbed wooden blocks from Zion's collection and wrote out, "happy 4th". Isn't it cute?

For fall I put up some gourds and such. I painted a canvas that I am still loving. Isn't it beautiful? I love Fall colors. They are my favorite!!!! They fit my personality. 

 Christmas is always a fun holiday to decorate. I had Andy drill a hole in our beloved rock for me to hang wreaths/art. It took some convincing, but it adds so much. 

Do you like to decorate a mantel or shelf? Do you have a favorite season to decorate for? 

valentines love

I have an obsession with holiday/seasonal decor. I am not one of those people to go overboard through the whole house but I love to add colors to pair with the season. Having a mantel--is my love. It is a great focal point. I love that it can showcase a collection/theme of what I have for the season. Today I started decorating for love day. I love V day. Why? Andy and Zion's birthday is on Feb. 19 so I like that it goes along with it. I love teaching my girls what is to love. How to love? Who to love? God's love. I love red. It is my favorite color. I love hearts. They make me happy. Here is my mantel love. I am going to post later on my past year of mantels to show you my obsession :)

Yesterday, I started a painting. Andy and I had stretched this canvas a few years back for our old house. It has been sitting in storage since we moved in. So I painted over it with cream acrylic paint and let it dry before going for it. I used all acrylic paint. I mod podged some paper doilies on there too. I wrote random words/phrases from I Corinthians 13. MY FAV. It is a reminder for me in how I choose to live.

The feather/mirror/heart wreath are Target. The clock is TJ MAXX. The C is Restoration Hardware. THe birdie is Hobby Lobby, spray painted by me with red. The Candle sticks are a wedding gift from Marshall Fields. The 3 books are from my Great Grandma Edna. They are very special to me. I made the felt garland last v day at a art night! I used felt/embroidery floss/and yarn. I duct taped the wreath to the mirror back.

 I am planning on doing some fun V day theme craft, "pro-jecks" with Zion too. While I painted yesterday, She made this painting. I just gave her 4 colors and let her go to town. I then took stamps and put the word "love" on it in 5 places. I had pink leather ribbon and taped it on to hang the masterpiece. That Z is so proud. LOVE.

Are you doing anything fun for the holiday? Do you have any traditions you would like to share? Loves.