Happy Friday! This week has gone super great and while you read this I am probably getting my hair done…. cause my ends were in serious need of a trim. It has been too long since I had my last haircut and it’s time to get my hair in order for this New Year, plus my birthday is coming up and I need to look halfway decent. 

Just sayin’!

As you know a few weeks ago I shared my trip to the ER. 

I go into a lot more detail about it in this video. But basically I got a severe allergic reaction after we removed the carpet on the upstairs floors. It was bad and it took a serious toll on my entire health. 

Since then a lot my subscribers asked whether or not I was tested for allergies. 

Well I did, and I got the results to share…

As always, you can hit play to listen to the updates in the corresponding video below or keep reading below. 

By the way, have you had any allergy tests done? They do a number on your back! 

Literally and figuratively! 🤦🏻‍♀️

They tested me for errrrrthang!

And, I will admit I was a little anxious while in the room waiting for the tests to commence. It was so weird sitting there not-knowing what was going to come of all this, especially when I look over the kit with all the “allergens” just sitting on the counter near me (next to the Parents magazine).

I didn’t know how it would feel. 

Would it hurt? 

Would I break out in hives? 

Would I get sick again?

 

And then the nurse came in….

Dun, dun, duuuuuuuun! 

It was time. 

So they lay you face down on the table/bed and start to number your back. Once they are done, they begin to “scratch” your back with those little allergens. 

And here is what it looked like. 

Yep! Real sexy.

Each line represented a different class and each number was a different allergen. 

As you can see the 3rd from the left was all positive from top to bottom. 

I wanted to scratch the skin off my back soooo bad!!!! 😩

Luckily once the doctor came back in to evaluate, I was able to get some topical relief.

It immediately started feeling better once they applied the creme, but my back looked bad for the rest of the day and a lot of those little bumps stayed on my back for at least a week. 

The results….. 

I am allergic to ALL THE GRASSES! YAY! 

Which is why I am so miserable in the Spring.. looking forward to it. 🙄

But absolutely nothing else came up positive. 

Nothing on pet dander, both cats and dogs, dust mites, mold, latex, even something called a “Cockroach mix”  EW! Whatever that is! 🤢

Nada. 

The best thing the doctor could conclude was that it was a viral reaction to whatever was underneath the carpets. Apparently when we removed the carpet, the viral “stuff” was released and came into contact with me and my body did not like it at all. 

Of course, there is always the option of if being an idiopathic allergic response which is a more intellectual way of saying ” We don’t know what the heck happened!” 

But, most likely it was the pet urine/feces left behind by the previous owner’s pets. 

Of course back when all this was happening a lot of my viewers were concerned that there was mold in the house. There was an inspection on the house prior to buying it, but nothing was detected/reported. 

BUT…. 

(there always a but)

There’s more to this saga. 

After all this happened, the rest of the carpet on the main floor had to go. So my hubby and my dad removed the rest of the carpets in the house including the basement carpet and ceiling tiles. 

You can watch the entire process here.

It was the first time my husband took over my channel and filmed the entire video as I was not able to be present due to my allergic reaction. And of course I had to take the kids away with me so we stayed at my mom’s during this entire ordeal.

After all of that was removed from the home, we figured it was a good time to have the HVAC system ductwork cleaned out.

Dun, dun, duuuuuuuun! 

So we hired a company. They came out and did a full inspection of all ducts and removed the exterior panels of the HVAC units to look inside before they did anything, and what do you guess they found?

Our ducts were squeaky clean! 

But wait, there’s bad news too! 

They found M-O-L-D 😱

YEP! There happened to have been mold growing inside the HVAC units on the coils! Now before you ask, it was not “black mold” but mold nonetheless. 

We had to get it remediated ASAP! 

So we went ahead and had them start the sterilization process which consisted of them spraying a “safe” but strong cleansing foam all over the existing mold. 

Once that process was done, we went even further and had them install the PCO Air Purifier in each of the HVAC units as well. 

Basically UV Rays that KILL EVERYTHING. 

You can see a video of how this specific system actually works and what it gets rid of that might be in your air at home HERE. 

This hurt us…. well our wallets actually because it was expensive for just one unit – and we have 3…

THREE….

TRES! 

🤦🏻‍♀️

Well, there goes our flooring budget right out the window. 

However, I will say it had to be done.

No questions.

I didn’t want to continue breathing that stuff and I sure as heck didn’t want my kids breathing it in either! 

And let me tell you, that first night that we slept in the house with those purifiers installed, we noticed a change right away! And now my littlest who seemed to have a runny nose that we couldn’t get rid of since moving into this house, now does not have one! 

We had no idea and felt terrible, but we are so happy she is better now. 

Well, that’s all of the things I was dealing with over the holidays last year. 

And why there hasn’t been much done in our Fixer Upper yet. 

Good news is I am doing better (everyone is) and hopefully we can get some projects rolling soon. 

That’s it for now and I will see you next time, until then… adios! 

What to Expect in 2020… For video scroll to end of post 

Happy New Year friends! I am so ready to start this New Year and I have a lot of things planned for my site and channel. Last year was kinda crazy, my growth on YouTube was steady and I made some great videos that did really well. Because of this my website hurt a bit, honestly. I wasn’t posting as often and wasn’t really enjoying it much since I wasn’t experiencing the same growth on it as my channel. 

RELATED: My Top 10 Videos of 2019 

However, toward the end of the year one of my previous Christmas posts went viral and the surge of new traffic nearly broke my internet space – I jumped on it quick and was able to do something about it before my site shut down due to the incoming traffic. And as a result it gave me a sense of hope that this was still worth pursuing. 

I have been doing this for many years now and it can get frustrating when you put a ton of work in with little results. But alas. I was able to end 2019 with a little bit of hope. 

So for today I will be sharing my plans for this year and what you can expect. Everything mentioned here will be done both on my channel and blog. 

First, off I am happy to announce that my Look for Less monthly challenge will come back.

Because of my move, I had to stop this for a while, but it is coming back this month and I am excited about my co-hosts and all of the things I plan on sharing with you all.

If you aren’t familiar with the Look for Less Challenge, it is where I invite YouTubers as well as those at home to recreate a home decor piece from a higher end store and recreate it for less. My co-hosts are all YouTubers, but I will share my projects here on my blog. 

Next, I plan on posting 3 times a week. 

Yes 3 times! I know, it’s totally ambitious, but I am hoping that having a set schedule will be better for me and you. It will allow consistency and time management on my part, and it will bring more content to you. 

Posts will include home decor and DIY tutorials like I have been, but I also hope to share a weekly recap video/post with you all. As you know, we just moved and there is A LOT to do with our Fixer Upper.

These posts will keep things up to date as to the happenings (and not happenings) each week. 

You should expect posts on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays each week. 

Fingers crossed! 🤞🏼

Another item that has been on my mind is to have my own online shop! 

Yep! 

Every time I say I have an announcement on my Youtube channel a lot of people think it’s my own line of products and boy do I wish it were true! 

Of course,  I have always thought I am “too small” for anyone to buy anything from, and often doubt any success in anything I might sell. But this is the year that I crush those doubts and just DO IT! 

…with Rob as my cheerleader, of course. 

 

So stay tuned for more information on that very soon! 

The next item is more recipes!

I practically never post them on here, but the ones I have posted do pretty good (and the flan has gotten great reviews), so I will be adding more of those this year. 

And, no, I am NOT the best cook, but I do try and I have a few things up my sleep. 

Have you tried my sugar cookies? They are amazeballs! 

Next on the agenda are more sewing tutorials! 

This is probably the one I am most excited about. I truly love sewing! It’s so calming to me. And while everything I know has been 90% self-taught, I just love the idea of adding unique touches throughout your home, just by simply sewing your own items. 

Even if it’s just a simple basket liner…. 

Or a cute farmhouse tablecloth….

 

Finally I just want to mention that since my last health scare I haven’t really been the same and I need to take drastic measures into getting healthy again. I won’t be posting a ton about this, but I will be including updates as to how I am doing throughout the next few months. 

There is just so much to do here on our Fixer Upper and frankly I need to get healthy in order to do everything I need and want to accomplish. 

What to Expect in 2020 (video)

 

Well, I think that is everything! 

I hope you all had a wonderful start to the New Year and I will see you back here on Monday! 

Hey friends! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! It was so nice to spend time with my family and my parents and give thanks to all the blessings we have had this year.

On Thanksgiving, I actually wore the shirt you see above and I kept getting a ton of compliments on it – lucky for you I documented the whole thing! 

Plus, it’s nice to get away from all of the home renovations we have been doing lately and do something crafty! 

It’s no-sew and super easy to make, plus it was less than $10! 

Here is what you need:

*Some of the links below are affiliate links, see full disclosure here.*

• Iron-on fabric sheets (I got mine at Wal-Mart in the fabric section where they carry the seasonal items) If you can’t find them there, the closest ones online are these.
• Raglan Shirt (I got this one) from Michael’s and used my 40% coupon.
• Iron
• Thin Fabric
• Scissors
• Christmas Tree Template
• Cardboard or a Piece of Scrap Wood

I decided to go with the black and gray raglan. 

As always you can see the video tutorial on my Youtube channel… or at the end of this post.

I pulled the sheets out of the pack and I went online and searched “Christmas Tree Silhouette”. I selected a pattern that I liked printed them in 3 sizes ranging from 5.25 inches in height and 4.25 inches. 

I then took my pattern and began tracing them on the back of the fabric sheets. 

RELATED: DIY Dollar Tree Christmas Trees

Then I cut them out..

Easy peasy! 

When I was done cutting I took my T-shirt, placed it on the table and put a scrap wood board that I had inside of it. This is just to protect the back of the shirt. 

I placed the trees the way I wanted them on the shirt. I ended up choosing the pattern below. 

By the way, I didn’t even use half of those iron-on sheets. 

I see more projects in the future! 

Next, I took a thin piece of fabric and began to iron them on. I started with the first 3 in the center and then did the outer ones. 

You will need to set your iron to “cotton” for this. 

Once I was done with the front, I flipped it inside out and did the inside. And then one more time on the front… 

And that’s it! 

Instant Instagram Model…. 

LOL! I’m kidding! I felt totally awkward doing this.

So when your family asks you where you got your shirt from at your next holiday event you can say… “It’s an original” 😜 

BOOM.

I hope you enjoyed this super easy DIY! Don’t forget to PIN it and share it with your friends….

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This is a sponsored post and some links below are affiliate links, for full disclosure, please go here. 

So now that the floors are painted and cured, we are off to furnishing. 

I had shared the furnishings I was adding to the sunroom in my vision board below, but I had totally forgotten about the TV console. 

 

 

Yes,  I know you’re confused. Why would anyone want a TV in a sunroom?!

Well, since we will be ripping out floors and doing a TON of work to the rest of our fixer upper, we need a place to actually “live” while all the construction is going on and since this is the only room that closes off completely to the rest of the house, this will be our living room for now. 

Which got me thinking about another issue. 

Our previous TV console was large and heavy. This posed a concern for me, because our sunroom is kinda built like a deck (there is no house structure underneath… it’s open). I was worried that bringing our console over would create too much weight on the floors. 

So it was time to find a solution. 

And luckily I was able to partner with Casagear who had the perfect solution for our space! Which by the way ships FREE to the mainland U.S.

Heck yeah! 

We came across the Industrial Style Mango Wood and Metal Tv Stand By The Urban Port and I fell in love. 

🛍Stick to the end for sale information and a discount code! 🛍

It came promptly and well packaged. 

And when we took it out we were even more relieved that it was 90% assembled! 

Unlike other stores where you have to assemble every.single.thing… ahem, you know what I’m talkin’ ’bout. 😉

 

This piece is solid mango wood and the finish is stunning (it’s almost as tall as me too, LOL!)

The feet are a mini hairpin style in a metal finish. 

Seriously the perfect blend between rustic and industrial. 

Each leg comes labelled to match it’s side which was rather nice actually. 

And super easy to attach. 

I would have done it, but someone had to hold the camera. 😜

Oh and speaking of, you can always check out the video to see how everything came along on my Youtube channel (or at the end of this post). 

And that was literally all there was to it! 

I love how the wood pops against the white walls, grey floors and it even complements the dark black TV. 

The doors open from the bottom and are super sturdy. And the magnets are really strong so my kiddos don’t even bother opening and slamming them shut… #momwin

Cause you know… kids… 

There is ample storage space too. 

We haven’t gotten all our movies unpacked yet, but we definitely got the Christmas ones out! 😉

 

The finish is super sleek and I am extremely happy that it’s not overly bulky or heavy which was my biggest concern. 

 

Of course, the only thing we needed to do to it was add little felt pads underneath each leg to protect the newly painted floors. 

Other than that it was perfect! 

Plus it went perfectly on the wall I wanted it to go, it was meant to be…

Of course, now I need to decorate the space but I am taking it one step at a time…

So if you are looking for some new furniture for your space definitely check out Casagear and The Urban Port line. 

Right now Casagear is having their Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and you can get an additional 5% off their holiday sale prices by using Coupon Code YAMI05 (this deal lasts from today until January 31, 2020!)

 

They have great prices and lots of rustic pieces for those who love that farmhouse style as well so definitely check them out this holiday season. 

I hope you all are great and I will see you soon…

You will find me on my couch watching Christmas movies in the meantime… 

*Some of the links below are affiliate links, for more information go to full disclosure*

Hello friends! I hope you all are doing well. Time is flying and with that more projects are getting done. The next step in our sunroom transformation was going to be the old tile floors. 

I shared an image of grey cement tiles on my vision board but let’s face it, we have no time for that right now and we are trying to keep things as inexpensive as possible. 

And even though the tiles were old, they were in good shape. 

And if you have been with me for a while now, you know that I have painted floors before… to be exact my laundry room floor in my previous home.   I posted a complete how to on that post. 

RELATED: All My Tips and Tricks to Getting the Perfect Stenciled Cement Tile Look

So we actually partnered with Rust-Oleum for the transformation of our floors on my Youtube channel since we felt that an actual demonstration of us using the product would be best, but I wanted to share some information here as well. I will include the video in the end of this post for your reference since everything is in full detail there. 

Rust-Oleum has a great new product called RockSolid Home and it is meant to be used in the painting of indoor flooring. This item is found is most Home Depot’s nationwide and will be available in all of them soon. 

It’s a 2 step process with a base coat and a sealer….

That’s it…

No primer..

Say what?! 

True. 

The most important step is prepping the floors (like literally scrubbing and wiping the heck out of them to make sure they are clean). Rust-Oleum recommends Krud Kutter for this. 

Then it was off to painting… 

 

I started with the edges and woah! This paint actually said it takes one coat and I didn’t want to believe it, but that’s ALL you need! 

I mean look at that coverage! 

*Be sure to use a facemask, this stuff is pretty strong*

 

After I did the boarders, the hubby did the rolling…

 

Be sure to work your way out of a room if you do this… 😉

 

It only needs 6 hours to dry, but we left it alone all night. 

 

Okay this is ONE coat people! 😱

This is the color French Gray by the way…

*Quick note, if you use the white as the base color, you will need 2 coats*

 

Of course, you can leave the floors like this and add the top coat on. The best part about it is that you only need one coat of that too and you apply it the same way as the base coat. 

But of course, I had to go “all out” and stencil some tiles too…

 

I used the Santa Rose Tile Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. For this I used another base coat in their white color. Once that dried overnight, we sealed the floors and gave it 72 hours to cure before adding any furniture. 

We couldn’t be happier! 

I am so glad this is done… what do you think of the floors? 

Eeeeek! We love this stuff and I still have quite a bit left over… wondering what I will use it for next! 

 If you need more details about how to apply this don’t forget to check the video above. 

Now it’s off to furnishing…. 

Hello friends!

I am sure this title may have come as a shock to you since I just shared my entire house tour with you.

You can watch those tours, here, here and here.

Well, the truth is that this has been on our minds since almost a year ago… yes, that LONG.

I just never mentioned anything because we didn’t know if and when it would even be a possibility. We actually loved the area we lived in and we didn’t move out of it, luckily. We were ready for a change though… a completely different lifestyle. We just didn’t know exactly what that lifestyle was until we started considering other places to live.

And boy did we look…. We saw so many places even before we were ready to put our house up for sale. We didn’t want to make a hasty decision and then find ourselves in this situation a couple more years down the road.

One thing we were certain of… our house was too big (is that even a thing?).

Yes, I said it. TOO BIG. 

We found ourselves only using half of the 5,120 square feet of home that we lived in and frankly in our eyes that was just unnecessary. We did however, want a bigger yard. MUCH bigger.

I longed for a garden (even though I have a black thumb) and a place where I can have the kids playing outside where I would not have to worry about them getting hit by a speedy neighbor… yep, we had those. 🙄

We also wanted a different lifestyle, a little more traditional, a little more authentic.

And let’s face it, you can add as much farmhouse decor and design into a suburban house and it just won’t actually be a farmhouse people!

A few months ago I shared the image below on my Instagram. This picture is of a well to a 2.5 acre property we absolutely fell in love with.

 

Of course, the price was out of our range and the property went under “pending sale” shortly after we saw it.

We were bummed. 

Then it fell through…. and then it was back under “pending sale” again.

This time we were devastated. 

Life was over as we knew it (because by this time our house was up for sale and we couldn’t go back!).

However, we put our faith in God and HE always comes through for us.

I can happily say that we are now owners of that property and our well looks like this now…

 

It’s like the perfect space to capture all the seasons right?

Don’t worry, it’s kid safe. 

Of course we go into a lot more detail as to what we had to go through to find and buy this home in my “Where Have I Been” video on my Youtube channel (linked below) that you are welcome to watch.

There were so.many.hurdles…..

 

 

But I am glad to say we are here and we are happy.

Even though we only had 4 days to move.

I also shared our move and saying our final goodbye to our last house. In addition, the sellers of the house we purchased left us something that we could have totally lived WITHOUT in our new home. It’s actually pretty gross. 😱

You can get all of those details (including the grossness) in the video below as well.

Oh and we have already hit the ground running with renovations cause this is a true fixer upper so I will be back very soon with more!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are enjoying the last day of September (can you believe it?!) Tomorrow is October 1st and I haven’t even started on my children’s Halloween costumes. 🤦🏻‍♀️ #Momoftheyear is looking a little bleak right now…

Anyways, I thought I would share a complete home tour with you all! I thought it would be fun to invite you to my home and walk you throughout it as if you were an actual guest.

From walking around the exterior to going in the front door and sharing the interior of our home in a more “real” experience.

So below are the first two of 4 videos that I will be sharing with you.

The first is the complete exterior video… from what the house looks like on the outside to our serious lack of landscaping!  LOL!

 

 

And then the following video is the complete tour of our first floor.

I figured I would break it up in a series so that the video wouldn’t be super long and completely bore you to death, plus I thought it would be fun to have “episodes” like you would on TV.

So grab a coffee, sit back and relax while you walk throughout and see all of the work we have done as well as get a sneak peak of my sweet little family throughout.

My hubby makes several cameos and he just loves the camera. 🙄

This video will also take you through the kitchen reveal I just shared so you can see the actual layout of the kitchen and not just images, so I thought that was kinda fun….

 

If you have any questions regarding anything you see, just let me know in the comments below.

As always you can check out more videos on my Youtube channel if you haven’t already and I will see you next time!

 

Happy long weekend friends!!!

Did this week seem brutal to you? Gosh, it was for me! Long days and nights and now that I am one of the room moms (happy to be so!) for one of my kids, I feel like I actually have a social life and I am “doing things” like with other human beings… moms to be exact.

It’s fun and there are some amazing women in the group, but this has brought a whole ‘nother level of responsibility over here. LOL!

Things have been kinda quiet here and I feel like I am always apologizing (sorry!… there I go again) however, I have a really REALLY big thing I am working on in the background and I hope to have an announcement VERY soon for you all. I feel like I just keep getting pushed away from my site for some reason…but….

I do know one thing… HE has a plan.

And HE has shown me this week… so much! God is great and he has helped me and my family so much during these past couple of weeks. I cannot wait to share what I have in store…. that will totally rock my world and even my website… more to come, promise!

But now that this week is over….

Bring on the football… and beer…. I mean, football!!!! 

No really, let’s bring on some fall decor shall we? I am ready for sweater weather and hay rides and pumpkins and trick or treating and everything that comes with Fall.

I just collaborated with 6 other amazing women on Youtube in a “Fall Into Inspiration” video series and we all decorated something different in our homes to give our audience some great Fall decor ideas to kick off the season this year… we have a playlist of all of the videos we made and I will link to it here if you wish to check it out.

I chose the tablescape. I had so much fun creating mine last year, it was only fitting to share another one.

I knew I wanted a table cloth and I found out that Walmart actually sells pre-cut/packaged pieces of fabric in 2 yard lengths and I found this beautiful plaid one with light touches of a peachy pink throughout… 2 yards was the perfect size for my table (it kinda reminds me of something Cher would wear from Clueless, no?)

Anyways, I LOVE how it looks.

I knew I wanted a light color scheme (not necessarily neutral) this year, so I grabbed some of my previous Dollar Store pumpkins as well as a some end of season clearance ones and painted them in muted orange, sage and white colors.

I also needed some height in the center, but my galvanized metal tiered was too bulky and rustic for the look I was looking for. So I just grabbed a cake stand and placed a DIY mini stand from Dollar Tree on top and viola! Instant “tiered tray”.

I used simple white plates, napkins from Target and I made those raffia napkin rings from Dollar Tree items as well. You can see the tutorial here.

You know what else I made?

Those amazing chargers! Yep, did you think they were really galvanized? Well, I hope you did. But, nope!

I totally painted them that way and I will share the step by step process here soon. You can always get a head start and check the video tutorial already though.?

I think these chargers are one of my favorite DIYs yet!

These glasses and candles are also from Dollar Tree.

I really do love how simple and inexpensive can still be elegant. Don’t you?

 

I added pops of greenery and peach florals throughout and the pumpkin on top of the centerpiece is from Michaels.

If you want to see how I pulled everything together you can watch me decorate this table setting on my channel below!

 

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Let me know what you think of this tablescape! I think it’s the perfect combination of rustic and feminine. I will see you back here soon!