DIY Kitchen Reno Plan

We've decided to make a big change in our old farmhouse. We're swapping the kitchen and dining room! The current dining room is much bigger than the kitchen, and with baby #6 on the way we're feeling more crowded than ever in our smaller kitchen. Will we get it done before the baby comes in December? No idea! 

DIY Camper Van Full Video Tour (Family of 7!)

Have you even wondered exactly how we fit seven people into our camper van? What our camping trips actually look like? What my voice sounds like and how fast I can talk? Well today is your lucky day!

When we went to visit Marengo Caves last summer, I put together a quick video tour of the whole set-up in action. So wonder no more. I'll show you where everyone sleeps, where we eat, our rainy-day plan, what we do with car seats, and so much more.

 

Enjoy the tour and let me know if you have any questions!

 

 Are you more impressed by how many people we fit in there or how fast I talk when I'm filming?

 Camping at Magnus Beach Park near Petoskey, MI

Want to turn your own van into a camper? Here are the tutorials for all everything we made:

• Removable Queen(ish) Bunkbed Frame
• Backdoor Storage Shelf
• Insulated Window Shades
• Magnetic Window and Door Screens
• Packing and Organizing our Camper Van
• If we post any other tutorials (or favorite campgrounds) they will show up here!
  

Those posts are full of information and photos, but here are a couple angles I don't think I've ever shared before:

Magnetic screens moved to the back doors (we can also only open one door and put up a single screen like the first photo in this post).

We couldn't do it without that handy screen tent that acts as our outdoor kitchen!

Georgia for scale. Plenty of room to sit up (the ceiling is lowest right at the back door but it's several inches higher above the bed).

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I peeked in the side door to see if this guy was awake yet and found him tucked up in our bed watching everyone make breakfast out the window.

Random and super zoomed-in/low quality photo my husband took of us, but we me the nicest couple by Marengo Caves who had converted this little cargo trailer into the sweetest little camper. They gave me a tour and tons of tips and I'm dying to give it a try. Is this the next step after a camper van??

Where should we camp next??

Printable Bookplate Stickers

Hey guys, I had an idea for the boys stockings that I'm super excited about and I wanted to go ahead and share it now in case you want to make a set for your kids as well! 

I was looking at the Read Aloud Revival gift guide for book-lovers and one of their ideas was bookplate stickers. I loved the idea of the boys being able to mark the books they get each year, but I did not love the ones linked in the gift guide. So, I headed to Etsy to see what else I could find. I came across some custom book stamps that looked amazing.... but $30 per stamp was over my stocking budget. I also looked at custom bookplate stickers that ran around $8-10 for a set of 12. They were cute, but it was still more than I wanted to pay, especially since the bigger boys already need more than 12 stickers. 

But then I suddenly realized... I can print my own stickers!

 

A set of 120 printable Avery labels was under $10. Now I'm looking at 30 labels per kid for under $2.50 each! Those are stocking-stuffer prices, folks. And I had a ton of fun designing a unique set for each of the boys that I think they will love. 

 

I made a PDF of each design that you can download below for free and print on your home printer (you'll just need these Avery labels). You can write in the names before you gift them, or leave that up to the kids (it would be so sweet to have their handwriting saved in their books). If you're feeling a little more tech-y, I also have a jpg version so you can upload it into a program like canva to type in the names before you print. Make sure your printer is set to print full-scale so the stickers will line up correctly. Click on the links below to download the printable sheet for each design:

SHIP PDF - SHIP JPG

ARROW PDF - ARROW JPG

CASTLE PDF - CASTLE JPG

BOOK PDF - BOOK JPG

SWORD PDF - SWORD JPG

LEAF PDF - LEAF JPG

Happy stuffing! (Ok, probably could have done a little better there. But it's almost Christmas, guys!)

 

What are you putting in stockings this year?

 

DIY Modern Farmhouse Christmas Stockings

New year, new stockings... again.... How often is it normal to get replace your stockings? Growing up we had the same stockings my whole life (my parents still use them!) and I feel like that's the normal thing to do. It's all part of the nostalgia of Christmas, right? But here I am replacing my stockings for the... fifth time? I've started from scratch every time we added a baby (since we needed to add a new stocking) but almost every time I breathed a sigh of relief that I could finally ditch stockings I didn't love and try again. Here's what I've tried so far (you can read the full saga in this post):

1. Failed Sweater Stockings
2. DIY Flannel Stockings - I ended up hating these. I was on a tight ($0) budget and made them out of leftover flannel from other projects that didn't match my Christmas style. I won't totally knock this idea though - I think a cute plaid set would feel wonderfully cozy!
   
3. Cheap Hobby Lobby Stockings
4. $5 Christmas Stocking Hack - I actually really liked these ones! And I honestly don't have a good reason why I didn't just make a seventh one to match for our newest addition - it was just so much red when so many of them were up there together, and! So this time I'm trying something that feels a little more organic - like a collection we can add to over time.
   

And now I'd like to introduce you to my newest stocking love: mix-and-match modern farmhouse stockings!