It’s the last day of June!!! Is that possible?!!!

I hope you are having a great summer. 

I know you guys have been as busy as me lately, and I cannot wait to see your BEST DIY project of June!

My best DIY project of June would have to be my sister’s laundry room makeover.  We started it four months ago, but we finally finished it in June.

Click on the picture to check it out if you missed it.

Now it’s your turn to show me your BEST DIY project of June!

Please remember to follow the party guidelines:

• Your project MUST be about DIY home decor or home improvement.

• Only ONE project per blogger, please.

• Your project needs to be from the month of June, 2012.

• Please enjoy visiting other great projects by other bloggers and leave some comment love. 

• Please link back to the party somewhere in your post.  (Only those with a link back to the party will be considered to be featured on my blog.)

Thanks for coming to my party!

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It’s summertime, Y’all!  And you know what that means in blogland?!!

It’s time for the One Project Closer “Before and After” series in support for Habitat for Humanity!

This is a great series to be a part of.  I have participated the past two years.  In 2010, I entered my back patio makeover in which we stained our concrete to look like tile.  You can read about it HERE.  I was so excited that our little makeover was one of the weekly winners!

In 2011, I entered my mudroom/laundry room project  and was chosen to be a weekly winner AGAIN!  Better yet, my project was chosen as the BEST OVERALL project for the summer!

Woohoo!!

It was such an honor to be the weekly winner twice, and the overall winner as well.  Each time I received a gift card to the home improvement store of my choice, which was super cool.

But the best part?

Each time I was the weekly winner, a $100 donation was made to Habitat for Humanity in my honor.

I LOVE Habitat for Humanity!!!  It is a great organization that does so much good for those in need. 

One Project Closer is a great site for all of us who love all things DIY!  Fred and Ethan (and their beautiful wives) are always working on a DIY project and love to share their knowledge with their readers.  You should check it out!

They came up with this great “Before and After” series as a way to raise awareness for Habitat for Humanity and support their mission to provide decent, safe and affordable places to live.

Here’s How it Works

If you’re not familiar with the series, here’s the basics: you submit pictures and a story from a home improvement project you worked (no contracted jobs) sometime over the past year.

Every week of the summer (June 20 – September 21), a winner is selected and their story is published online.

Each winner gets a $50 gift card to either Lowes, Home Depot, or Amazon, and One Project Closer makes a donation of $100 to Habitat for Humanity in their honor!

At the end of the Summer, the best submission, as voted on by readers, wins a bonus $150 gift card to one of the three stores above.

This year is different and even more AWESOME because they’ve asked 13 other sites (including Beneath My Heart!) to get involved, each hosting a week, picking that week’s winner, and featuring the Before and After article on their site.

Check out the line up:

Here’s How to Enter

To submit a before and after story, email OPC your submission to [email protected].

Your entry can be in the email itself or attached as a Word document.

Make sure to number pictures in order so it’s easy for them to reconstruct the story, and please attach the pictures as JPEGs even if you also embed them inside the Word document.

Keep in mind that good before and afters include interesting pictures (before, during, and after) and a descriptive story. Here are some great examples from last year.

Alternately, they are letting people enter via a new link party to show off great transformations. Select one of your best makeover projects to share, and don’t be surprised if Jocie pins her favorites to Pinterest.

So ladies, get those projects entered, and good luck!!!

I will be judging next week’s winner and will announce it next Saturday, July 7th!

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Happy Friday, ladies!  I hope you have had a wonderful week.

I am still coming down from my “Haven High.” 

I’ve spent some time on Pinterest this week trying to find inspiration for our master bedroom.

Can I make a confession? 

I’m nervous about decorating my room.

I am struggling with exactly what type of “look” I want in this room.  Plus, I have a VERY limited budget and a LOT of space to fill.  I need to use some of my existing furniture, but will need some new pieces too.  Honestly, it’s a little nerve-wrecking when you know that thousands of readers are following along.  You are the ones that encourage and support me, so I don’t want to let you down.

Do I sound like I’m whining?  Hope not.  Cause I’ve got the greatest “job” on earth.    I know we will make it all come together eventually.  I need to just focus on one thing at a time.

It’s all good!

So, here are a few “pins” that caught my eye this week…

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I love the headboard in this picture.  Although I will probably be using my black four poster bed in our room.  We do plan on putting a chandelier over the bed, but I haven’t decided what type yet.  I like the way they incorporated tans, grays, and whites in this room.  Don’t ya love that rug?

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This bathroom is so clean!  I think that’s why I like it so much.  Do you think I could ever have a bathroom this clean with four boys in my house?  Me either.

One thing I love about this picture is that beautiful old door.  I love the privacy glass and the gorgeous crystal knob.  Those little touches make me happy.  I also love that sink.  I am wanting one of those in our guest bath someday.

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So, I like this picture above because of the bed.  I am trying to come up with ways to create extra storage in my boys’ rooms.  I think I have mentioned that before.  This type of be would be perfect for storing clothes or toys underneath.  And I know Cy could make me one of those!  There is something very cozy about that type of bed.  I love the color palette too.

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Okay…Yum?!!!

I love anything with peanut butter and chocolate, so this pin definitely caught my eye.  I’m really wanting to make these.

REMINDER…

Tomorrow night, I will be hosting my “Best DIY Projects of June” linky party!

I hope to see you there!

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Well, I am so thrilled to finally have air conditioning.  Our air has been out since Memorial Day weekend, and with temps getting up to 100 degrees this weekend, it couldn’t have been fixed at a better time.

Not only did I sleep soundly in the cool air last night, but I also got to sleep in our master bedroom.  Granted, we only have the box springs and mattress in our room, but there is something very fun and exciting about it.  {The air compressor adds a special touch, don’t ya think?}

We are slowly making progress toward having our addition complete, but at least we are making progress!  Amen?!

Well, the boys and I headed out to the Habitat ReStore in Lexington to try and find an old door for our master bathroom.

See that second doorway back there?  It needs a small door.

That’s our private toilet room.  Woohoo!!  I love me a private toilet.   I need a door for that area, and I would love for it to be old with a lot of character.

If we don’t find one, we might make one. I kind of like this type of door.

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Except my doors wouldn’t be chalkboard doors.  They would probably look more like barn doors.

I’m not sure if we have enough room to make them sliding doors, but we’ll see. 

The boys and I didn’t find anything at the Habitat Store, but we had a great time.  We ate lunch at McDonald’s, and I got to work on my computer while the boys played in the indoor playground.

Check out this pic!

Yep!  All my boys were in there.  They were squeezed in there like sardines.  Cracked me up. 

On a different note…

Do you remember that great little store I share with you last summer?  It’s called House by JSD, and they are located in Lexington.

This store is filled with so much beautiful goodness that it makes my heart stop!

It’s filled with things that are definitely my decorating style.

Well, they have applied for a grant to help their business, and they need our votes to win.  Do you mind jumping over there and voting for them?  I know they would appreciate it and so would I. 

Here’s what you need to do to vote:

Visit missionsmallbusiness.com, and on the lower right, click login and support.  You vote through Facebook (it’s so they know real people are voting and not spambots). 

After validating on Facebook, search for HOUSE BY JSD, Lexington, Ky on the bottom of the following page, and click vote!  You can vote for multiple businesses!  As many as you want actually!

Thank you!!!

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Wow!  Ladies, I am still recovering from Haven 2012.

It was very surreal to watch a dream come true this past weekend.  For several years, many of us have been wanting to put together a blog conference just for Home/DIY bloggers.  A year ago, Rhoda took the lead and created our planning team.  For a year now, we have dreamed, planned, skyped, networked, emailed, phone-called, brainstormed, and more to put together Haven 2012.

Kate, Sarah, Beth, Rhoda, Me, Chris, and Marian

I love these ladies so much!  Kristi, our blog designer, and Kristin, our event planner, are missing from this photo.  We could not have done this even without them!

To see it come together before our eyes this weekend was beyond words!  We all felt like proud little mamas.  :)

Check out all of the swag bags lined up and waiting to be handed out.

We had so many amazing sponsors that helped us fill our swag bags with all kinds of goodies.

Wednesday, the planning team hung out to put together some of the decorations.

We all worked together to get the registration table, swag, and décor in order for the big event!

We were laughing at how many of these paper balls/lanterns that we had to put together.

Rhoda was buried in a sea of them…

It took all of us working together to put this event on.

Wednesday night we had a “meet and greet” party sponsored by Frog Tape and Oreck to start things off.

Then on Thursday morning, our keynote speakers, John and Sherry from Young House Love, inspired us all and made us laugh a lot.  They were amazing!!!

They have such a wonderful blog. and it was great to hear their “blog story” of how it all began.  They were so endearing to listen to.  Two words I would use to describe them are “genuine” and “hilarious.”

I was able to snag a picture with them after they spoke.  This picture cracks me up because it looks like John and I are a couple with our cute little baby and that Sherry is taking a picture with us!  Ha!

There were many great sessions throughout the day on Thursday, and that night we had another mixer sponsored by Rustoleum.  It was so great to see all of these amazing attendees just chatting it up and making new friendships.

Friday was full of more great sessions that I loved being a part of.  Kevin and Layla (from The Lettered Cottage),  and Josh did an AMAZING job in their photography class!  I learned so much!

Here’s Kevin talking to some ladies about their cameras.

Here’s sweet Layla talking to some ladies about their cameras as well.

Now, here are a TON of pictures that I took with some of my favorite ladies.

Renee from Living, Laughing, and Loving and Christina from The Frugal Homemaker

Tonya from Love of Family and Home

Kristin from Favorite Paint Colors

Melissa from 320 Sycamore

A highlight for me was meeting Tonya from Women Do Everything.  What an amazing life story she has.  So Inspiring!

Susie from Susie Harris blog

I was thrilled to finally meet Susan from Between Naps on the Porch.  She was one of the blogs that my mom followed, and she told me I should go read her blog.  It was a very special moment for me because I could hear my mom saying, “Traci?  You got to meet Susan?!!”  Yes, Mom.  I did.

 Susan from Living Rich on Less

Check out this group of amazingness…

Front row:  Sandra (Sawdust and Paperscraps), Roeshel (DIY Showoff), Brittany (Pretty Handy Girl)

Middle row (sitting):  Chris (Just a Girl), Myra (My Blessed Life), Marian (Miss Mustard Seed), Stacy (Not Just a Housewife), Wendy (The Shabby Nest), Me.

Back row (standing):  Gina (Shabby Creek Cottage), Beckie (Infarrantly Creative), Beth (Home Stories A2Z), Rhoda (Southern Hospitality), Sarah (Thrifty Décor Chick), Kate (Centsational Girl)

Sandra from Sawdust and Paper Scraps

Roeshel from DIY Showoff

Myra from My Blessed Life and Marian from Miss Mustard Seed

Brittany from Pretty Handy Girl

Wendy from the Shabby Nest and Stacy from Not Just a Housewife

Tauni from SNAP!

Beckie from Organizing Made Fun and Allison from House of Hepworths

It was such a great conference!  And there was a huge sigh of relief when it was over.

Not because it was over, but because it went so well.

Let’s just say we were super tired and feeling a little “loopy.”

We are looking forward to Haven 2013!!!

Hope to see you there!

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Hi, Y’all!

I hope you have had a great week!

I am having so much fun at Haven, and I cannot wait to show you some pics.

But for now, here are some of my favorite pictures from Pinterest.

I fell in love with this blue dresser!

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Isn’t it amazing?!

This was one of my favorite pins because I am thinking about arranging Adam and Eli’s beds like these.  I love the extra storage beneath the beds.

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I absolutely love this pin!  I’m really loving the color green in décor right now.  And look at that chandelier!

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If you want to follow me on Pinterest, click on the button below.

Have a blessed day!!!

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Hey Friends!

I am having a blast here at the Haven Conference!  Wish you ALL were here!

While I am away, I asked my sis, Cyndi,  to guest post for me.  She has a fabulous blog called Walking in Grace and Beauty where she talks about beauty, fashion, and Jesus.

Yes, you heard me right!  Those three things can go together.  :)  She knows where true beauty comes from and that matters most.  I love my sister’s blog, and  I cannot tell you how many wonderful beauty and fashion tips I have gotten from her.

Like today’s post.  I absolutely love this tip about how to have gorgeous eyelashes!

 Take it away, Cyndi!

Good morning ladies! I know most of the time over here on my sister’s blog you ladies talk about DIY on your home. But, today we’re going to talk about some DIY for our eyelashes.

A few weeks ago I read about how to have gorgeous eyelashes and I wanted to share it with you all because it really works. All you need is an eyelash curler, a blow dryer and mascara. I use volume mascara because my eyelashes are very short.

Here’s what you do to have gorgeous eyelashes:

• With your blow dryer on low heat, blow air on the curler (especially on the rubber part) for no more than 5 seconds. Touch the metal. If it’s hot, let it cool for a few seconds. You don’t want to burn your eyelid.

• Open the curler, clamp lashes near the roots. Hold for 10-30 seconds. Never curl lashes after you apply mascara — as the mascara dries, lashes can stick to the curler & be torn from the roots.

Just because I want you to see how great this works, I’ve taken pictures (close-up pictures) of my eye. Oh how I wanted to airbrush these pictures!!

These are my eyelashes before curling or using mascara. Not too pretty.

My eyelashes after using the warm eyelash curler. Better.

These are my eyelashes after using the eyelash curler and mascara. Much better!

Okay, I may not have gorgeous eyelashes, but they look much better after using the warm eyelash curler. I’m hooked!

Thanks Sis for letting me hop over here and share some beauty tips with your sweet readers. I love to share about fashion and beauty on my blog, Walking in Grace and Beauty. Sometimes I even share some things I’ve done to my home. :-) You can follow me on my Facebook page, here. I’d love for you to stop by! Have a blessed day!

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