Happy Tuesday!  I was so excited to be asked by the VERY talented Heather at The Heathered Nest to share more about myself and my blog with the blogosphere!  You see, for weeks now, people have been touring through blogland, and today I am one of the stops on the tour :)  Heather passed on the invitation to me, and I have passed it on to three more talented bloggers, who I will introduce you to at the end of the post.  The whole purpose is for you to get to know me a little bit better and to meet other amazing bloggers that you may not already know!

Without further adieu, let's get this tour started!

If you have been hanging out with me for a while, you may have noticed that I have never shared photos of the outside of our house.  Well, here is your FIRST peek at the exterior of our contemporary home.  And here is me with my amazing husband and my sweet twin girls this past Easter.

Our home was built in 1986 and is CONTEMPORARY.  Unfortunately, the former owners apparently wanted a traditional house, so they desperately tried to make our contemporary home into a traditional home, by decorating it in a traditional fashion.  Tsk, tsk.  Shame on them.  Don't get me wrong, I love lots of traditional decor {and have adopted that style in our past traditional homes}, but I am a big believer that your interior decor should reflect the architecture of your home.  In other words, contemporary architecture needs contemporary decor.  If you want a traditional house, you should probably buy one.  Just sayin.

So, we have been working our butts off in between working full-time and raising our sweet girls to bring the contemporary back into our contemporary home.  We have been at it for 18 months so far, and here's a bit of what we have accomplished.

We have updated our kitchen, for less than $700!

We totally transformed our laundry room for only $71!

We have also completely transformed our family room, including creating our own DIY concrete fireplace for only $100!

And I can't leave out how we have created our girls an awesome playroom!

We also had fun transforming a boring, beige room into our girls “big girl” room for their 3rd birthday.

Phew! I am tired just looking back at all of those projects!  We still have LOTS to do, don't worry.  We won't run out of DIY goodness any time soon.  That leads me to the first question I am supposed to answer…

What am I working on?

Ha, ha!  The list is ENDLESS.  But, I am primarily focused on finishing our powder room makeover right now.  I am also starting to work on plans for a home office/craft room that I am SUPER excited about.  I also have some smaller art projects and crafts in the works.  AND, we finally purchased new seating for our family room, and I can't wait to share that with you soon.  Let's just say I am NEVER out of things to do and my list is constantly growing.

Here's a peek of what we have accomplished in the powder room so far.  I am sooooo in love with the reclaimed wood mirror with concrete inlay that we recently made.

How does my work differ from others in my genre?

Ummmm…  Holy cow!  That's a difficult question.  I guess I would have to say that my work has more of a contemporary flare that many of the amazingly talented DIY bloggers out there.  Again, that's motivated by the architecture of our home.  I think that helps distinguish my work from others {at least, I hope it does!}

Why do I write/create what I do?

Finally, an easy question!  I DIY and craft because it makes me HAPPY.  Like, over the moon happy.  It feels like what I was born to do.  Fish were meant to swim.  I was meant to DIY and create.  Yes, all of my projects keep me busy, but I find DIYing and crafting completely and utterly relaxing and fulfilling {except when a project goes wrong, which is maddening}.  So instead of stressing me out, DIYing actually helps relax me.

And I write about it because I also love to write!  Plus, somewhere along the way, I realized that people out there {like you fabulous people reading this} actually enjoy learning about my projects and that some of you would even tackle them yourselves.  NOTHING gets me more exciting that receiving an email from a reader with photos of their own projects attached; projects that were inspired by something I did and wrote about.  It's so fun and awesome to inspire other people to do what I love so much!

Creating is such a nice balance to my career as a lawyer.  Practicing law is very cerebral and intellectually taxing.  When I create, my mind quiets itself.  Sounds weird, but I don't know how else to explain it!

And I have to say, blogging has opened my eyes to how much TALENT there is out there.  I had no idea how much inspiration I would find from so many bloggers, who I have also enjoyed developing a friendship with.  It's so nice to interact with people that share my passion for DIY!

How does my writing/creative process work?

LOL!  I bet you are waiting for a response demonstrating my organization and propensity to plan ahead.  Well, prepare to be disappointed.  My process goes something like this.  1) Decide what DIY to tackle over the weekend, 2) remember to take photos as we do it, 3) write about it when I have time.  That's it.  Pretty boring, huh?  My “process” is dictated by the projects on our list and the limited number of hours we have to accomplish them and then write about them.  Sad, but true.  The good news is that it works for us!

Now, my process of brainstorming projects and original ideas is different.  That takes place in my head, sometimes over the course of years {i.e., I have been redesigning our master bathroom in my head since before we moved in, but we won't get to that project for several more years}.  Other times, I will see a photo of the cover of a magazine while I am at the grocery store with the girls that will get my creative juices flowing and I will be so excited about an idea, that I start on it within the week.  I have to confess that I have even DREAMED up projects in my sleep.  That's the sign of a true DIYer.  If you can't turn off your ideas when you sleep, you've got it bad.

Alright, you have to be bored by now, so I am going to introduce you to the bloggers who will be on the tour next week.  You will LOVE THEM!!!

First up is Erica from Dwell Beautiful.  Erica and her husband Nate recently bought a house for them and their two kitties!  Follow Erica as she showcases updates to their home as well as current design trends, craft tutorials, and home owner advice.  Like me, Erica focuses on budget-friendly projects!  One of my favorite projects by Erica is this adorable EAT kitchen sign.  Erica also features “get the look for less” posts that are AWESOME.  I love this post about how to get the look of a Crate and Barrel living room for MUCH less than the original!   She is super talented.  Check her blog out ASAP!

Next up is Leigh Anne from Houseologie.  Leigh Ann thrives on making an ugly room beautiful and the process in between.  And, like me, she juggles her DIYing with her family life–she is married with 3 kids.  More proof that you can beautify your home even if you are crazy busy with life!  Join Leigh Anne journey to DIY her home to greatness.  I guarantee you will be inspired.  You will not believe some of the original ideas she has shared already.  For example, a gold studded plank wall and painted swiss cross curtains.  AMAZING.  Go drool over her other projects when you have a chance!

Last, but certainly not least, is Stacy from Any Girl Can Do It.  Don't you just LOVE the name of her blog?  And her tagline is even better–“Living life to the fullest one DIY project at a time.”  I can totally relate to that!  The coolest thing about Stacy's blog is that she features the work of young girls.  Right now, she has a middle school student that contributes to her blog.  How amazing is that?!  Stacy is full of creative ideas.  I love her citrus stamped kitchen towels and her industrial style dining room is GORGEOUS!  Head over to check out her work!

That's it folks.  Thanks so much for taking the time to learn a little bit more about me.  I hope I didn't bore you to tears :)

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