10 Inspiring Shared Bedroom Ideas for Boys

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!

I've been thinking about moving the boys into a shared bedroom for quite sometime now. Lately, Griffin would just assume to be in Parker's room all the time....including at night, when it is time for bed. And to be completely honest, I could really put Griffin's room to great use as an office/craft room for me & my husband.

Right now, my craft stuff is all spread out in different areas of our home.  I would LOVE to have everything in one place, where things could be organized & tidy. I would also love to have a space where I sit & blog without interruptions. My husband also occasionally works from home & would love to have a space where he could do the same.

When I first starting thinking about making this transition, I knew that it would be a project I would want to tackle during the summer months. I'd like for the boys to get used to sleeping in a room together before school starts back up in the fall and more than likely, it will probably be a project that will take me most of the summer to complete anyway.  I mean let's be honest.....I haven't even finished my master bedroom yet & I've been working on it for several months now! I'm sure most of you have probably forgotten about that room all together by now.....perhaps I need to do a post to bring you all up to date on the master?!

Until then, here are some shared bedroom ideas for boys that are inspiring me.....

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Things I love about each of these spaces:

1. Two Twin Beds- I don't know what it is about two little beds sitting side by side, but it makes my heart happy! I can't wait to see my boys' beds sitting side by side! (Yes, I am a total weirdo!) My mom was out of town doing some shopping yesterday & actually found two matching headboards for me to use in the boys' room at Goodwill! They are super cute! I'll be sharing them in a separate post soon! 

2. Shared Nightstand- I would love to find a small dresser like you see in these photos above for the boys to use as a nightstand. I love how the dresser separates the two spaces & also brings color, personality, & functionality to the space. I especially love the green dresser you see in the last photo. The paint detail is so cute!

3. Photos/Monograms- Most of the spaces you see here have some way of identifying one space from the other. I love the idea of using monograms and/or photos of the kids to do that. I really love the idea of the monogram pillows that you see on the beds in the first photo that I shared.

What do you think about these inspiration photos?! Which room is your favorite?

Do any of your children share a room? What tips do you have for creating a shared space?

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Sweet & Creamy Grape Salad

Hey Y'all!!

First of all, I apologize I've been so hit & miss with the blog lately! The weather has been so nice here & I've been busy with several outdoor projects! If you follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram, you got a sneak peek of what we were working on this past weekend! It's been a project I've been wanting to accomplish for some time now, and I am so stinkin' excited about it!! I can't wait to share with you guys!

I did want to drop in today & share with you another easy (and delicious) recipe! This grape salad would be perfect for all of those backyard summer barbecues you'll be attending this summer! It's super quick to throw together, it's refreshing, & I promise it will be a crowd pleaser!

Ingredients:

1 package cream cheese (softened)
1 8 oz. sour cream
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 large bunches of red grapes
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
Combine cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, brown sugar, & vanilla in a large bowl. Use mixer to blend ingredients until smooth. Add in grapes & pecans, mix thoroughly.

Enjoy! 

As always, thanks so much for stopping by to visit me today!

To keep up with day to day happenings, be sure to follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram. 

Don't Miss Out - DIY projects, home decorating, crafts & more by checking out my subscribe page

Linking up here...
Tutorials & Tips at Home Stories A to Z
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage
Hookin' Up with House of Hepworths
Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush
I'm Lovin' It at Tidy Mom
Weekend Wrap-Up Party at Tatertots & Jello

"Inspire Me Please" Weekend Blog Hop #11

Happy Thursday Y'all!!

Thank you for joining us for another week "Inspire Me Please" Weekend Blog Hop! Last week was our largest party to date! We had 270 projects linked up!! Thanks to everyone who joined in!!

Browsing through the links of last week's party, I was making me HUNGRY! There were so many delicious looking recipes that were linked up!!

Here are the recipes that caught my eye & are now on my list of things of make! :)

Farmer's Market Pasta Salad via Inspired Healthy Organized

Slow Cooked Spicy Potatoes via At the Corner of Happy & Harried

Buffalo Chicken Wraps via Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom

Toasted Coconut Pudding Pie via Mostly Homemade Mom

Avocado & Black Bean Chicken Salad via Domestic Bliss Squared

Cheddar Parmesan Bread via Mostly Homemade Mom

Individual 7 Layer Dips via This is Happiness

Thanks so much to everyone who linked up!!

Feel free to grab a button if your project was featured! 

Remember to visit your other co-hosts to check out EVEN MORE fabulous features!

Liz Marie Blog

House of Rose

Blissfully Ever After

Just a few rules before we get started this party started....

1. Anything is welcome, as long as it's something YOU have created. (diy, home decor, crafts, recipes, cleaning tips, sewing projects, room makeover, etc.)

2. Keep the content fresh. Please do not link up the same projects week after week or they will be deleted. Also, please do not link up giveaway posts.

3. Please include a text link back to the blog where you linked up (Link to the specific blog post, not the blog home page. ) ONLY THOSE WHO LINK BACK WILL BE FEATURED. 

4. Party Hop!! Please visit a few links & leave them some comment love!!

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We would love to see this party GROW more & more each week, so PLEASE share with your friends!! Tweet, Pin, Facebook & even Instagram your projects, and the party, using the hashtag: #inspiremeplease.

Spring Porch Makeover + $75 Kirkland's Giveaway

Disclosure:I received compensation for my Mommy Makeover blog post. Kirkland's partnered with several bloggers like me to raise brand awareness in the month of May. All purchases and content are on my own accord and reflect my personal opinion and style. Kirkland's blogger outreach policies abide by the WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations. For official Kirkland's giveaway rules, visit http://www.kirklands.com/content.jsp?pageName=blogger_rules-03.

Hey Friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

Today, I thought I would share the items that mom & I purchased last week on our little "Mom & Me" shopping date to Kirkland's! I did a full recap of our date HERE in case you missed it! The shopping trip was part of the "Mommy Makeover" campaign that Kirkland's has going on this month. We were so happy to be participating in the campaign & my mom was thrilled to be getting spoiled this Mother's Day!

Mom & I had such a great time browsing through Kirkland's & found SO MANY items that we wanted to take home, but for this trip, my mom was wanting to focus on items that she could use to freshen up her front porch & give it a little makeover for spring/summer.

Here is a look at mom's porch "Before".....

Not too bad.....but not too great either. The space was looking a little bare and wasn't giving the first impression that she wanted for her guests. But, after a quick trip to Kirkland's (and shopping the house a bit), the space looks completely different now.....

Ahhh! Much better!

I don't know about you, but I'm loving this fresh new look! I'm really diggin' the mixture of whites & creams combined with the blue & green accent pieces. It's soft, it's calm, it's beautiful! 

The blue linen pillows were added to the white rocking chairs to bring just a touch of color to the space.

We created a couple of vignettes on each side of the door using items that we purchased from Kirkland's, as well as items that mom already had on hand.

This olive metal planter came from Kirkland's as well as the floral arrangements inside of it. We purchased three of these 10 inch arrangements to fill the planter.

Here is a look at the vignette on the opposite side of the door. This one is also a combination of Kirkland's purchases and things we found shopping the house!

I love this adorable hanging chalkboard that we bought. The scalloped edges & the floral cut-outs are just too cute! It hangs perfectly on the rocking chair and is such a great way to write little messages for her guests!

The metal lantern was also a Kirkland's find. We loved the color of it & it tied in perfectly with the other blue/green items we had. It holds three tealight candles, which will create a soft & pretty glow at nighttime.

The hydrangea basket on the front door was another purchase that we made on the day of our shopping trip. I love the way it looks hanging on my mom's front door! The perfect touch of spring! :)

And just because I always love a good "before & after", let's take a look back at where we started once again.....

And what it looks like today.....

LOVE!! :)

Have you spruced up your front porch for spring/summer?!

If not, would you like to?

Would you like to spoil your mom with a little shopping trip to Kirkland's?

How about a $75 gift card to Kirkland's to get you started?! 

That's right! Kirkland's is going to provide a $75 gift card to one lucky reader!! Follow the Rafflecopter prompts below for your chance to enter!! Just log-in with your Facebook account! GOOD LUCK!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway will end on Friday, 05/17/2013 at 7:00pm CST. 
The winner will have 10 days to claim his/her prize. If he or she doesn't respond, a new winner will be drawn. 

As always, thanks so much for visiting me today!!

To keep up with day to day happenings, be sure to follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram. 

Don't Miss Out - DIY projects, home decorating, crafts & more by checking out my subscribe page

Linking up here...
Tutorials & Tips at Home Stories A to Z
Outdoor Decorating Party via Our Fifth House
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage
Hookin' Up with House of Hepworths
Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush
I'm Lovin' It at Tidy Mom
Weekend Wrap-Up Party at Tatertots & Jello

What I Did on My Bloggy Vacation...iPhone Photo Dump

Hey Y'all!

I hope you've had a great week!

I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things after taking some time off. Normally, since it's Friday, I would post a "Happily Ever Before & After" feature here on the blog, but since I decided to unplug for the last couple weeks, I haven't been able to come up with any rooms to feature! So, I thought I would switch things up a bit & just share some photos from my little bloggy vacation instead.

I had mentioned a couple weeks ago that we were going to take a little trip north to visit some family, including my little sis....that is how my break started. This was a picture I snapped in the car of the boys & I while we were still sitting in the driveway waiting to take off. I wanted to remember how happy & excited we were to be getting away for a few days, because I knew the look on our my face would be much different after a 5 hour car ride in the backseat with these two!

Overall the car ride their went pretty well. The boys were pretty content watching their movies & eating snacks, but the car ride home was a different story!

Our reason for making the trip north was to attend a wedding reception for my husband's college friend.  My sister offered to keep the boys overnight for us, so it was just the hubby & I all dressed up for a night on the town. I decided to break out my coral striped dress for the occasion! I was so happy to have another reason to wear it! You can read more about the dress HERE.

We had such a great night out! It was fun catching up with old friends & dancing all evening. It was especially nice being able to sleep in the next morning....thank you Aunt Cortney for keeping the boys!! YOU ROCK!

This was a photo that my sister sent me that next morning.....

Eating donuts & drinking orange juice from coffee mugs....looks like a great morning to me! I think it's safe to say that these two had a great time with their Aunt!

The next day, the weather was absolutely beautiful & we decided to take advantage with a family trip to the zoo!

We went to the Niabi Zoo near Moline, IL. It is such a nice zoo & the perfect size for little kids. We were able to get through the entire thing in about 2 hours & still got to see so much! Probably one of the favorite parts for the boys was being able to feed the ducks.

We also got to go through a petting zoo & feed goats as well. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that because I was having to help Griffin quite a bit. He wasn't too keen on the idea at first, but once I gave him the push he needed, he did great! He thought the goats were hilarious!

I did manage to snap a shot of one of the swans near the duck pond. She was busy guarding her eggs. Do you see the size of those things?! CRAZY!

We made our way through the zoo visiting the zebras, giraffes, and monkeys too.

The kids had fun posing as monkeys, checking their wing span & riding the train that went around the entire zoo. 

The next day, we made the trip home. We left in the morning, which looking back I think was a mistake. The boys had so much energy and were confined to their carseats. I would have much rather let them burn some of that energy in the morning by taking them to the park or something similar, and then traveled home in the afternoon with the hopes of them taking a nap. They were both so hyper & so LOUD the entire way home that I was feeling a bit like this......

Ready to pull out my hair and in desperate need of some Excedrin! Note to self....no more morning traveling! 

The next day I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather we were having in Southern Illinois & do some work outside. So, I made a trip to our local greenhouse to pick up flowers.....

This place is a little bit of heaven on earth. Seriously, if I could move in I would. :) Every square inch covered in beautiful flowers.

I picked up some impatiens, vincas, and a gorgeous hanging basket full of wave petunias....all in different shades of pink! :) I did a TON of work sprucing up the side of our house which I will be sharing in a separate post, probably next week! 

I also managed to squeeze in some reading during my time off.  I took the advice of my friend Jaime and picked up the 1st book of the Delirium triology back in December.....yeah 5 months ago! I had read a little bit of the book, but hadn't really had time to dig into it. So I took advantage of my time off the computer & finally finished the first book of the trilogy. 

I also picked up the 2nd book just a couple days ago & I'm already really enjoying it! If you are looking for a new series to start, and you liked the Hunger Games trilogy, then I really think you would enjoy these books too! 

So, that's a recap of my break! Even though we didn't anything too exciting, it was still a great week! There is just something refreshing that comes when we unplug ourselves from the computer every now & then and just live life! Refreshing to take time to appreciate the little things that occur on a daily basis that we sometimes miss when we are consumed with the online world, ya know? 

Don't forget that the "Inspire Me Please" Weekend Blog Hop is going on NOW! Be sure to stop by & link up your projects!! CLICK HERE. 

Thanks so much for visiting me today!! Have a great Friday & a wonderful weekend!

Got anything exciting planned?!

Linking up here....
InstaFriday at Life Rearranged

To keep up with day to day happenings, be sure to follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram. 

Don't Miss Out - DIY projects, home decorating, crafts & more by checking out my subscribe page