Monday, September 30, 2013

Transformation Monday

Okay you guys. This is the story of what a difference a year makes. I don't think you're even ready for this.

So this is what my home decor "style" was in 2012 (I am gagging as I type the word "style", because the pictures you are about to see would not fall under the category of style. Please forgive me).







Y'all. Horrific doesn't even sum it up.

Anyhow, I don't know what it was, but I had this huge shift in what I liked as far as interior design (thank GOODNESS). So here's a little glimpse of a few DIY projects that we tackled over the weekend to enhance our little home. I apologize for the phone pictures, but I am planning on taking better pictures this week so you can see it all! :)

Remember the first picture with the awkward rectangles? Well we painted over it, then taped it.... 


Then we spray painted the canvas, pulled the tape off, and voila! We also got new lamps. 


Remember the picture of (half of) the laundry room? With the black little hanging thingie with the blue baskets? Well Deej decided to sand it down today, and spray painted it, and now it's hanging in our guest bathroom (aren't those plants ADORABLE? Ikea, y'all).


Lastly, we needed something to make our bedroom more special, so we bought this sunburst mirror, and we painted our initials together! It was so much fun. 



So there's my transformation (and again, I'm sorry for the poor quality of my iPhone pics). I'm telling you- I will never go back to what I was doing last year. Promise. ;)

xoxo
L



Thursday, September 26, 2013

Home Sweet Home: Fall Edition

Fall has finally arrived at the Casa de Magness and I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am! I love to see the color of the leaves change, feel the cold air coming in, and most of all, wear my boots. There's just something about this time of the year....

My current, most proud moment has been our house. We recently painted our door a Whythe Blue (all the credit goes to my darling husband and creative mother-in-law) and it turned out to be fabulous! Last week we added an earthy-toned pot, some beautiful plants, and a couple of pumpkins on our front porch to make everything seem more 'homey'. We are loving every bit of it!

Here's a few pictures of our pride and joy!



Happy Fall and Happy Blogging!

xoxo,
A

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Vacay House

A couple of weekends ago, my family and I went to Galveston for a long weekend on the beach. It was a much needed getaway, and the house we stayed in was absolutely beautiful. Here are a few pictures of my favorite things about the house.










Breathtaking, isn't it?

xoxo
L


Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Little Ramblings

These are the observations that I have had over the past few days.

1. Nail Polish, Lipstick, and perfume instantly make me feel better about myself.

2. I am pretty sure that I am going to have to start cutting out processed foods. I feel yucky 95% of the time. This might be a new topic that I start blogging about. Prepare yoselves.

3. The Divergent book series is absolutely AMAZING. I just finished reading the first book, and I am flipping out because I want to read all of the other ones. If you have not read them yet, change that. NOW.

4. I like the Salted Caramel Mochas from Starbucks more than the Pumpkin Spice Lattes. I know. Just crucify me already.

5. This might be my new favorite fall outfit. When it gets cooler, I'll add my cream cardigan to layer. And maybe my herringbone vest.



 

Just prepare yourselves- these kind of posts will be frequent around here.

Have a wonderful, sunshiney Tuesday!

xoxo
L


Sunday, September 15, 2013

Weekend Shenanigans

As a teacher, I look forward to the weekends like kids look forward to Christmas.
My weekends are so special to me because I get to spend some quality time with this good looking man:

(Man Crush Monday (and every other day) photo of my handsome husband at our wedding!)

This past Saturday we finally hung some things in our bedroom so we wouldn't have such bare walls. (Huge pet peeve of mine)

(Bedroom suit: Paula Deen, Bedding: Pottery Barn & Dillard's)

My husband's aunt gave us these art pieces right before we got married. They were black and we loved them, but we wanted to somehow tie them in with our color scheme in our house. So my talented, creative, and crafty mother-in-law took them and brought them to life by painting them! I love how it looks in our bedroom!

To end our weekend, we had the grand opening of our new sanctuary at our church this morning!

(Heritage Church)
(Worship)

The building is AMAZING and the music/service was incredible. Christ is doing big things and I'm so fired up about it!

Dinner has been served, tummy's are full, football is on, and my pumpkin spice candle is burning. Life cannot be any better at this moment.

Cheers and happy blogging!

xoxo
A

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

You Don't Know Jacques

Okay guys, Fall is upon us (even though the 100 degree weather may not agree) and it's time to break out all the cute nail polishes!

Below are my 'go to' fall colors that I can't seem to ever get away from.

(Left: OPI You Don't Know Jacques; Right: OPI Ataupe The Space Needle)

By the way, where in the world does OPI get their polish names from?! So dang catchy....

While waiting on my husband to get home for dinner, I decided to paint my nails the color 'You Don't Know Jacques'. I've been so spoiled to getting gel nails done at the salon that I almost forgot how to paint my own (hence the nail polish on my fingers). 

(Don't judge, but please do notice my blinging ring!)

Ahhh.....now at least my fingers are ready for fall clothes, cold weather, the smell of pumpkin, and warm Starbucks drinks!


xoxo,
A

Review: Revlon Lip Butter

So last year, I was on my way to a job interview, and I looked at myself in the rearview mirror of my car (no worries folks- I was at a traffic light. Safety first). I realized that I looked like death because I didn't have a lip color. So I proceeded to go to the nearest drug store, and I bought a lipstick that looked a lot like Clinique's Black Honey. It was Revlon's Lip Butter in Fig Jam. While it had a little too much of a brown tint to it, the texture of the lipstick was perfect. I knew that I needed to buy more colors. Well, I finally did it.





I L-O-V-E the color (Raspberry Pie). The texture is amazing. My lips stay moisturized forever. My teeth look super white. Literally, my only complaint is that the tube is a bit difficult to open the first few times that you use it, but that goes away pretty soon. I officially want to buy every other color of this lip butter. I think my husband won't approve of this new addiction. ;)

xoxo
L


Sunday, September 8, 2013

A Year of Many Firsts

Today is the day I get to mark one of my goals off of my bucket list!
(Doing my happy dance as we speak.)

I don't know about you but my list of 'things to do before I die' is growing by the minute. I decided to break down my bucket list into goals I want to meet in a year. (Genius, I know.)

So here I am, patting myself on the back for being able to scratch off my very first goal of the year: Blogging! If it weren't for Leslyn, I wouldn't know where to start. She had a brilliant idea of team blogging to make it much more interesting. (See blog below for the full story.) 

Here are some of my hearts desires for the year:

  • Read the entire Bible in a year
  • Start a blog. (Checking this thing off!)
  • Run a marathon.
  • Learn how to cook. (Really, really well)
  • Choose to be happy. (Even on the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days)
  • Make a difference in my students lives.
  • Become a coupon-er. 

I can't wait to dig in and start writing about passions of mine. My prayer is it inspires you all to begin writing. As a teacher, I can only tell you how important writing is in our lives. Adult, teen, kid....we all need it; it gives us a chance to breath, relax, and just have fun. I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!


Happy blogging and cheers to a year of many firsts!

xoxo
A

The Freckled Blog: The Story

We are two best friends who have a ton of things in common. We are both Jesus lovers, our husbands are best friends, we are teachers, we love fashion, DIY-ing, Justin Timberlake (but really, who doesn't?), and the list goes on and on. In August, we came up with the brilliant idea to have a blog together. It was the perfect idea, and we instantly thought of a ton of topics to post. The one thing we couldn't figure out? The name.

On a fateful evening at TCBY, Amanda's husband came up with our name- The Freckled Blog. We fell in love with the name. The name made perfect sense- after all, freckles are yet another thing we have in common.

So this is the beginning of a journey- let's see where The Freckled Blog takes us. 

xoxo
A & L