Family Room Inspiration

I love the calming effect of neutrals, but I don't like beige or tan. They make me feel like I am in a dungeon for some reason. For the family room, I have decided that the color scheme will be cream, white, brown and blue. Currently in our family room we have brown leather hand me down couches, coffee table and end table via my parents. We also have a cheapo TV stand, 3 cream picture frames and a blue mirror I painted. We certainly are on a budget, but I have had a fun time on Pintrest coming up with inspiration for the room!

The Space I am Working With

Room Inspiration

Source

Source

Shutters on the windows, but in white.

Source

Source

The color of the walls: Sherwin Williams- Rain.

Source

Love these window treatments

Source

Source

For the TV

Source

I am debating between curtains and shutters. I want white curtains because I love the clean, but carefree feeling white curtains give a room. I am not sure if they would be a disaster with little kid hands. Maybe white shutters would do the trick, however they are more expensive. I love this lady's home. She seems to make white work. What do you think?

Read more about our Home Owner Adventures:

Part 1: Deciding What we Want

Part 2: A Contract on a House

Twitterature: Books for the Newborn Stage

I went on a quest to find good books to read while I was nursing my sweet baby for countless hours day and night. The books needed to fit certain criteria. I wanted them to be easy reads. The books couldn't be too sad for my emotional post baby days. I needed to be able to put them down easily in the middle of the night. But I wanted to look forward to reading them. My kindle made these books even more accessible because I didn't need to worry about having two hands free (one the hold the book and one to flip the page).

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain
Discussed the differences between introverts and extroverts and how our world is created for extroverts. A fun read for me, especially since I fall right in the middle of the spectrum. #LivedUpToExpectations

Left Neglected, Lisa Genova
Story of a stressed out, workaholic mother who learns to appreciate the simple things in life after she suffers tramatic brain injury post car accident. Perfect for the OT in me. #ALittleTooEmotionalPostBaby #awesomeread

Why is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, Mindy Kaling
Filled with hilarious stories from the writer of The Office's childhood. Perfect light hearted read for after having a baby.

God I Have Issues: 50 Ways to Pray No Matter How You Feel, Mark Thibodeaux S. J.
This book gives you concrete ways to pray based on your emotions. Perfect for the emotional postpartum days. #GreatReference

How Do You Tuck in a Superhero?, Rachel Balducci
Filled with the humor that comes from raising 5 boys. It reads like a blog and is very easy to put down and pick right back up in spurts.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexader McCall Smith
The tale of a lady detective who lives in Africa. The book is broken up into snippets of cases, which make it easy to read when you have just small chunks of time.

Click back over to Modern Mrs. Darcy for more Twitterature!

Peach and Mango Green Smoothie

My sweet little son was born on October 1st and is now 6 weeks old. It is no surprise that I have found myself low on energy these days. Right after my baby was born my mom brought over "Green Machine" Naked Juice. I loved it! It is filled with greens and veggies. Best of all I couldn't taste them because of all the fruits and fruit juices.

I have been so lethargic that I found myself trying to find something to naturally give me more energy, especially since my body doesn't do well with caffeine. After doing a little "research" I stumbled on the idea of green smoothies. Essentially they are the homemade version of "Green Machine" Naked Juice. They are filled with greens, fruit and juice. I have made a few of them and even my 4 year old doesn't notice the handful of spinach she is eating! Only time will tell if they help my energy levels. Maybe my baby will start sleeping by then!

Here is a recipe that I came up with that is pretty tasty:

It makes about 34 oz.

• 1/4 cup of grape juice
• 2 peaches with natural juices (I used 4 halves that were canned)
• 2 bananas
• a large handful of spinach leaves chopped
• 1 mango cut into small pieces 
• 4 ice cubes
• 2 large spoonfuls of vanilla yogurt 

First blend the spinach with the juice. Then add the other ingredients in a little at a time. It turns out to be a brownish color and kind of gross looking (reason I didn't take a picture!). But it tastes yummy! 

I hope you give it a try! Let me know what you think. 

Home Owner Adventures Part 2: A Contract on a House

We finally have a contract on a house and it is exactly what we were looking for! The process was so much more tedious than I anticipated. WE. SAW. A. LOT. OF. HOUSES. I mean, a lot! We visited houses that had floors peeling up, mold in the utility room, 3 bedrooms when the house was advertised at 4 and houses that had backyards that were non existent. Homes around here also were flying off the market! We toured a home that had been on the market for 2 days. As we were leaving the house the listing agent arrived declared that the house had just been sold!

We made an offer on 2 houses.

House #1:

• It was about $8,000 over budget
• 2400 square feet
• 2 story, 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths with a large playroom (basements don't exist around here)
• Large backyard
• Real wood floors along with some stained carpet
• It also had an air conditioned bonus room attached to the garage 
• It was located right off of a busy road
• Zoned to good schools

House # 2:

• The listed price was the top of our budget (but still within budget)
• 2100 square feet
• 1 story, 4 bedrooms and 2 baths with a decent sized room to use as a playroom
• Nice laminate wood, tile and carpet floors throughout the house
• Acceptable sized backyard, but large grassy space in front of the house and park nearby
• Good neighborhood with kids playing everywhere on the day we went to tour it
• Zoned to good schools
• The seller is an older lady who kept the house in perfect condition (it seriously looks like a model home)

The offer on the first house didn't go through. They wanted more money, which would have made it close to $10,000 over budget. We just couldn't do it, so we didn't. The appraisal on the 2nd house came in $10,000 lower then we offered. I was afraid we were going to lose the house, but the seller agreed to lower the price by $10,000. So now we are $10,000 under our budget! Much nicer payments. If all goes well, it seems we will be closing on house #2 on December 9th! 

Without further ado: 

The Family Room

The Kitchen and Breakfast Area

Formal Living Area (we will turn it into a playroom)

Formal Dining Area (we will turn it into a study)

Master Bedroom

The Backyard Patio

I love the layout, the size and the crown molding. I don't mind the cream colored walls. Cannot stand the counter tops! I am so excited to put our furniture in this house and make it our own. Stay tuned for my decorating inspiration.

Read More Home Owner Adventures: 

Part 1: Deciding What We Want