Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas!

      I want to wish my followers a very Merry Christmas, I hope that you and your families are blessed this year. Christmas is a time for giving, family and friends so try to always remember that despite the way retailers have commercialized the true meaning of this holiday. This is mine and Scott's first Christmas as a married couple and I am so blessed to have him. Our house is finally finished, but we have yet to get the go ahead from the bank to move in, so we will be spending Christmas at my mom and stepdads house. 
      I'm a little disappointed we won't be spending our first Christmas in our new home, but oh well, there is always next year. I apologize for the lack of posts and visual stimuli in the meantime due to the fact that my mom lives in the Stone Age without Internet. 
     Again I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year, I love you all!



Monday, December 23, 2013

Healthy Living and Clean Eating for the New Year

Let me apologize and say that I'm sorry there's no pictures to entertain you visually, there's no power in the great land of lower Michigan so my post comes to you from my lovely IPhone! I was given the opportunity to post on Codi's blog, The Art of Balance (http://www.artofbalanceblog.com). She is a fellow Michigander, and in the little time I got to work with her I have learned she is a very positive and enlightened person! Catch the First three tips at her Blog, but here are my three remaining tips to help you prepare for a new year, and new you with healthy living and clean eating! 



  1. 4)  CHEATING: It is okay to cheat. No I’m not talking about going out to the club and grinding on that guy with the hot accent and praying your boyfriend doesn’t find out. I’m talking about no more than once a week you can have a little cheat day. Don’t go all out and order a large pizza with the works or eat a whole pie by yourself, but if there is something you used to love but it isn’t considered clean eating you can work that in every so often. It’s not going to ruin all your progress and it will keep you from dropping the lifestyle all together. 
    5)  FIND A WORKOUT THAT WORKS FOR YOU: Any workout is better than no workout. You have to figure out what is right for you and there are a variety of options these days. Gym membership, Jillian Micheals workout DVDs, Yoga class, your boyfriends XBOX Kinect, buy an elliptical off craigslist, Pinterest workouts. They all will work toward the greater good, find what works for you. I do 20 mins of cardio on my elliptical and change it up with Jillian Micheals or XBOX about 4 times a week. 
    6)  PINTEREST: Pinterest is the God of clean eating. Okay not really, but the recipes you can find to cut the preservatives out of your diet are amazing. I make homemade crescent roll dough for snacks like apple pie roll ups (sliced apple, cinnamon, wrapped up and baked). I also make homemade taco seasoning (because store bought is FULL of sodium). Use pinterest to your advantage, you can still eat clean and have it taste good! You just need to cut out that middleman that adds things just to save a buck on producing it.

I hope these tips help you get started on the road to a healthier YOU.  Honestly, clean eating feeds your soul more than anything else, because you feel better overall knowing that you are doing this not only for you, but your family as well. 

I want to personally thank Codi again on the behalf of Dear Marleigh for the opportunity to do this guest post. I have a very creative soul and want to spread whatever small amount of knowledge that may be beneficial to others, so I hope you keep returning (;

Merry Christmas! 


Saturday, December 7, 2013

Cleaning Calendar

Its saturday, and what am I doing? Blogging. Yeah I'm an old lady in a 24 year old body, what of it? (; We all know what a pain it is to clean your whole house in one day, so I want to share with you the cleaning calendar I made to help spread it out over time instead of doing it in one lump sum. I printed this as a 8x10 and put it in a 11x14 mat frame. I can use a dry erase marker to mark off what I have already done that day, so it's cute and efficient! I know I have disabled right clicking on my page, i'm very sorry for that but I had someone take my picture at one point and pretended to be me, and thats always a scary thing. If you would like a copy of this either email me at shayleigh19@gmail.com or click on the picture, this will take you to my photo bucket account to get it (: 



P.S. If there is something you would like me to change (colors, wording) I would be more than happy to do that, just drop me a line!


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

My Vision for Our Home

I have yet to do a Decor post because as you know, we are waiting to move into the fabulous 4 bedroom/2 Bath farmhouse we purchased about 2 months ago. It has been a very long journey to get to this point. We found the house this spring, after convincing my then fiancĂ© to check it out as I had been looking at it for a couple of months online after we decided we were going to buy a house. The house was not in pretty shape, a foreclosure, the previous owners did a number to it when then found out they were losing the house. They literally took a sledgehammer to the lovely tile flooring in the kitchen, and most of the house was add-ons that were not properly built. We have dumped over $35,000 into the house since purchasing it, and NONE of that is cosmetic, just structure. Here is some of my vision to turn our house into a home.

Flooring:
Basically all of the flooring needs to be replaced, I'm huge on having consistent flooring through most of a house so we decided on the new looks like wood, 25 year warranty vinyl flooring (see above for the color I choose). That is going in the kitchen, laundry room, both hallways, both bathrooms and two of the bedrooms. I'm devastated that we have to put carpet in the living room due to that room being built without an insulated foundation, so I will choose a carpet that works in the final two bedrooms and my bonus craft room. 


Kitchen:


Currently, the cabinets and countertops make me want to scream, and we cannot afford a new kitchen so my mom and I are going to take on the project next spring with Giani Granite countertop and cabinet paint. I'm going to do this color on the countertop, a dark brown for the lower cabinets and a creme color for the uppers (an idea sparked from HGTV). I am dying for a apron front sink, i don't care if some sites say they are so last year, it will bring in the perfect touch of vintage farmhouse that I love. We are ripping out the current panty to create space for the oversized fridge therefore my coat closet will become my panty. I have a small obsession with vintage 1920's Blue Mason Jars (and i just bought a TON of them for our wedding this past September) so I will be storing my food in those and containers from The Container Store. I intend to make an 8ft farmhouse table and two benches for the dining room (See tutorial here). To make up for taking my coat closet for the panty, there is a small space I will make a makeshift mudroom with a coat rack, mail slots, vinyl calendar and key holder on the wall. I just emailed a guy about this


church pew on craigslist. I'm in love! Just imagine baskets underneath for shoes, and maybe a new paint job!
 
Here is a picture of my beloved china hutch, my mother in law found a FULL SET of vintage china in their attic when they moved last winter and gave it to us, I'm so stoked because it matches perfectly! 


Living room:
So I went to Ikea and a Detroit Tigers baseball game as my bachlorette party, and this is what I found. This is the inspiration   for my living room, I love how clean and natural it looks! I have a few awesome pillows I got from TJ Maxx that will add some color to the room but still keep it soft. We also will be adding a electric wood burning stove in the living room because of those heating problems in that room and for a nice vintage looking touch. I almost forgot, there is an antique library card catalog that I have requested Scott to get me for Christmas, think of all the organizing possibilities! 


Bathrooms:
Both bathrooms in my house are a nightmare so I really need to get in there and process what I can salvage and what needs to be replaced. I know the master bathroom will eventually have double sinks (the white porcelain bowl kind) and the oversized claw foot tub my hubby got me for valentines day (I love practical gifts). I have no idea what direction I am going with the main floor bath yet.

Bedrooms:
My bedroom ideas are going to be a surprise, I have to leave some form of mystery to keep people coming back right? hahha!


I cannot wait to get into our house and start making my visions, reality. I honestly have had insomnia the last 4 nights because I have been up dreaming of all the stuff I am going to do to it, & I hope you keep coming back for more!