New Things for the NEW YEAR at Delighted Momma

It's 2000 freaking 16!  A new year means a new start and since almost half of last year was consumed with our renovation, I am so ready to let out some of this major pent up creativity and share my new outlook for my blog and what is to become of Delighted Momma.

So lets kick off 2016 with a recap of what I have been up to...

We started off last year with the crazy idea of buying a horse barn and transforming it into our dream home.  Well, fast forward 6 1/2 months later and we are DONE! We freaking did it. We barely did it, but we did it.  My original plan was to share every step of the way, but I soon realized that was nearly impossible since Ian and I were so heavily involved in the renovation all my extra time was devoted to that.  BUT lots of posts will be coming up with after reveals very soon.

With the new year I am ready to bring my blog back to more of its original roots, and basically think and worry less about each and every post and just have fun with this space again.  I plan on getting back to sharing more tidbits about my life and the journey of being a momma, fun beauty tips and trends, healthy recipes, DIYs, and whatever else I am feeling inspired by at the moment.  My blogging style has always been a tad bit ADD, but that works for me :)

Thank you for reading and I look forward to getting back to regular sharing here soon!

Things That Make Me Say Yeay

Max and Ronin decorating a giant gingerbread man.  I actually purchased this by mistake and thought I was going to open a box with a bunch of tiny gingerbread men, but instead it was just this guy.  It ended up being just as fun for them since all they really care about in the end is eating the actual cookie.

A grass happy face in the side of a hill :)

Newly installed brass lighting in our master bathroom.  Love these so much!

A pretty funny autocorrect from Ian, haha!

Our ugly/awesome sweaters for the Christmas party we are going to tomorrow night. Can't wait to get all festive and have some fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!

EASY DIY Wood Headboard

We are getting super close to being done with our renovation!  That means that very soon the boys will each have their own bathroom (thank God for that) and bedrooms. Ronin has completely outgrown his toddler bed and is more than ready to be in a twin bed.  Since the decorating vibe in our new home will have more of a rustic/eclectic vibe, I wanted to branch out of my DIY comfort zone and build something myself.  I was originally inspired by this tutorial but wanted to make my life easier with less steps so I put my own spin on it and I'm not gonna lie, I surprised myself when I was done.  I actually built something I liked! ;)

My original plan for Ronin's headboard was to use the old barn siding that I had saved from  demolition. BUT after putting it together it weighed about 200 pounds (not even joking) and I decided that the goal here was not to DIY how to knock out your child while they are sleeping so I saved that wood for another project and moved on to something that was much lighter...fence picket wood!  You can find fence picket wood at Home Depot for around $2 a pop and its super light weight.  Plus, they can cut it right there for you to any length you want, which saves you some fingers and time.

So here is how I built this super duper easy bed frame...

What you will need:

• 5 pieces of wood fencing (I had each piece cut to 46" for a twin sized headboard. So if you are making a larger headboard adjust the lengths accordingly) 

• 2 -- 1" x 4"s each cut to be 60" long

• A bunch of 1.5" wood screws

• Drill 

• 150 grit sand paper 

• Danish Oil in Natural 

Here is how to make it:

Lay your pre cut pieces of wood on the ground in the order that you want.

Place the 1" x 4"s evenly on each side of your headboard like shown above.  Using the drill, screw your legs into the fence wood from the top to the bottom.  I wanted a little extra support, so I also drilled in a few scrap pieces in the middle. 

Once your headboard is fully secured with the legs, turn it over and give it a good sand with 150 grit sand paper.  Wipe off all the dust after you are done sanding and evenly apply a coat of Danish Oil.  Make sure to apply oil in the direction of the natural wood grain.  You could also use a dark wood stain, but since I loved the raw natural color I decided to just brighten it up a bit with the oil.

Next, stand your headboard up and you're done!  My plan is to secure the headboard to a metal frame using bolts. You could also just secure it to the wall if you don't plan on moving it. 

Barn Tour! (Video)

Okay... lets try this barn tour thing again!  The first video I shot was pretty horrible and I took it down not long after posting it, so round two here ya go!  The upstairs is still a work in progress so I will share that part when it is more finished.

The plan with this video was to film it when it was nice and quiet and clean, BUT since we have people at our house doing different things until the sun goes down, this is as good as it's gonna get for now.  Filming is definitely not one of my strong points as you are about to witness ;)

No More Excuses + Making Some Personal Changes

I'm sitting here trying to figure out a clever way to start this post, but instead of white picket fencing things I am just going to lay it all out there.  So here goes...

Since moving into our temporary living space within our renovation, I've gained almost 10 pounds.  And to be honest, I'm feeling pretty unhappy with myself right now, and ya know I'm allowed to feel that way. I'm 5'4" so for my body this feels like a lot of weight.  I can be honest with myself and acknowledge that I have been drinking way more wine at night than I probably should, wearing gym clothes more often then I actually go to the gym, and I have not been handling stress in the right way at all.

Since I refussseeeeee to buy bigger jeans and make more excuses (and room) for my expanding butt, starting right now I am making some changes.

Here is how I plan to get myself back on track:

• Get back into running daily.  I love running and have almost given it up completely since moving.  And when I do go to the gym I need to turn off my phone to avoid distractions and just focus on myself for that one hour. That has definitely been one of my biggest problems.  I have the hardest time turning everything off. But people, instagram, e-mails, texts and googling for things for our house can all wait.

• Swap out wine on weeknights with yummy decaf tea.  I'm not saying no wine at all, I just need to get back to enjoying a glass here and there and not every single night. 

• Track my progress on Lose It!  My husband uses this app and he loves it. Not sure how I feel about counting and tracking every little single thing that I eat, but I am going to give it a shot. Has anyone else used this app? Did you like it? I would love hear. 

• Realize it's okay to put myself first sometimes when it comes to my mental and physical health. My husband is more than understanding and I just need to talk to him more.  I know he would completely understand if I told him I just need to go outside (away from the chaos) to clear my head and get some exercise. 

And that is the extent of my personal goals at this very moment. The reason I've decided to share this is because in some way it makes me feel more accountable for the things I do.  I need to work on myself and I am sure we can all relate to feeling like that at one point or another.  I will share an update with you next week on how things are going.

So here's to a healthy and positive new day! 

My Fall To-Do List + A Little Input From All of My Boys

shirt/jeans/shoes

Fall is here! Well not here here since it's still like 100 plus degrees in California, but regardless I am going to pretend like the weather is in the low 60s and put us all in plaid and get as festive as possible while we sweat our butts off because I friggin love all things fall.

For this year's fall to-do list I got all three of my boys input. So everyone has a little say this time around :)

1.  Take the boys apple picking and then bake something yummy like this with some of our pickings. Ian said he refuses to do this since he can just buy apples at Trader Joes hahah so his loss... the boys are excited ;)

2. Go on a scary movie date. Little fact about me...The last scary movie that I attempted to watch in a movie theater was Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I walked out 30 minutes in because I almost peed my pants I was so scared.  And that was back in high school!  So ya...it's been awhile. But I am ready to conquer my fear and squeeze the crap out of Ian's hand while we watch something horrifying.

3.  Have a star spotting, backyard tent campout where we eat popcorn and tell stories. -- This was 100% Max's idea and I love it.

4.  Watch a legit pig race. Well, √ we actually did this last weekend and it was literally the best thing ever!  The pigs all ran as fast as they could around this little track and it was so much fun to bet on which one we thought would win. Highlight of our pumpkin patch experience by far!

5.  Go to a pro football game with Ian.

6. Go to Oktoberfest with friends!

7. Make tons of trips to the Farmer's Market to pick up in season fruits and veggies

8. Make Paleo candy apples with the boys.

9. Make a trip to this giant corn maze and visit as many pumpkin patches as we can with jumpy slides. -- All Ronin :)

10. Go to an outdoor concert with my babe. The type where we bring a blanket, can just totally chill, and hopefully cuddle if the weather permits.

Our Real Life Fixer Upper: Picture Update!

Whewwww!! We have been beyond busy with all things house related, and so much has been happening in the last couple of weeks.  As of currently... half of the second floor has been removed, the downstairs is all framed, the reclaimed barn wood ceiling is up and painted white, and the exposed beams have been wrapped sanded stained and sealed (still need to finish bottom half obviously).  I am so thankful for the main crew that has been here daily working their asses off to get this project completed!

So here are a few pictures of what the interior of our barn (soon to be home) currently looks like...

So what do you guys think? I feel like we went from nothing going on to everything happening at once!

Also, if you want to see more day to day happenings of our barn conversion you can follow me along on Instagram.