I have always been a fan of checkered floor tile, but have never been willing to pay someone to redo our flooring. Then I discovered Chris Loves Julia FloorPops on Amazon! These are peel-and-stick tiles that look and feel like the real deal, and the colors and patterns are beautiful!

This is the original floor tile we had in our laundry room, the same tile that is in our bathrooms. It’s pretty, but also boring. Our laundry room is tiny, so there’s not a whole lot of room to make it “pop.”

Ignore my mess on the shelves and on top of washer/dryer, but here is a picture of the “during” process. These tiles were so easy to cut with a box cutter, and although it was a little more difficult to do the diamond pattern instead of plain old checkered pattern, it was worth it! The brown color matches the wood floor that meets the tiles from the hall, and the bold color and pattern makes this small laundry room much more exciting!

Again, ignore my mess on the shelves, but here is the finished product! No tools required other than a box cutter to cut the tiles to fit in corners and along baseboards. Every time I walk by my little laundry room now I’m so excited to look at the new floor! I think I’ll get a bright colored curtain for the little window next to add even more character! This project only took me a couple of hours, and I only needed three boxes of tiles to complete it, which ended up being only about $60. A small price to pay for such a transformation!

Well, technically the first day of Fall isn’t until September 23, but it’s been over 100 degrees here in Louisiana for what seems like forever, so we are celebrating cooler temps a little early!

When I think of Fall, I think of football, deer hunting, fall candles, sweaters, and of course pumpkins and mums everywhere!

Now I can’t keep a mum alive to save my life, so this year I went with something different for my front porch planters. Do not sleep on your local dollar stores, y’all! Most everything I decorated with this year came from Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Five Below!

These plastic stacking pumpkins are only $5 at Dollar Tree! And while they are cute as is…

…They are even cuter with a little spray paint!

I used some sticks laying around in my yard to keep them from blowing away from my planters after I’d spray painted them…

And the finished project is simple, cute, and won’t die in a week like mums would!

You can also find a variety of sizes and colors of fabric pumpkins at Dollar Tree for $3 each…

The smaller blue and white ones came from Amazon, but the larger ones are all from Dollar Tree.

I used the rest of the Dollar Tree fabric pumpkins I had as a “seat” for my skeleton, which was only $5 at Five Below! This little guy has been relocating all around the house the past couple of weeks, but finally settled by the fireplace ha ha!

I’ve also been seeing these cute little glass pumpkins filled with candy, and I happened to come across this plastic one at Dollar General for only $1!

Filled with candy corn and mixed in with other decorations, it’s perfect! And only $1!!!

Finally I used the rest of my little Amazon pumpkins to fill this candle holder I already had…

…and set out the rest of my yoga skellies in front. (They also came from Amazon a couple years ago.)

So don’t sleep on dollar stores when it comes to Fall decorating! You can find little treasures everywhere if you look hard enough!

Thanks y’all!

-Nikki

For Christmas this year, I gave my mother-in-law a “new” bathroom! Last year I remodeled her bedroom for Christmas, so it was only fitting that I continued the tradition this year!

Mimi’s bathroom is BIG, but was very plain before I got a hold of it. Lots of sterile white countertops and white floors, and nothing on the walls or windows. It just didn’t feel very inviting to her.

The first thing I did was add a rug to break up all the sterile looking tile, which softened the room and added a little color.

I also recovered her vanity bench with this blue and white striped fabric, which gave more texture and color than the beige fabric that was on it before.

Next I tackled the countertop. Before, she had what she needed on the countertop, but it was begging for some more color to contrast with the white.

A pretty tray, a patterned hand towel instead of the solid navy one, a candle, a new hand soap that matched better… All of these things were very inexpensive but made a big impact on the look of the bathroom.

I also got her some new sink faucets that are more modern than these that came with the house, but they are still waiting to be installed. Changing out these faucets and knobs will also make a huge difference!

Next came the bathtub area, which had a ton of potential, but seemed very empty…

For the bathtub area, I added a basket to hold her shampoo and soap bottles, layered a towel that matched the one by the sink over the navy one she already had hanging, hung a picture on the wall that matched the new color scheme, and added a valance made of the same material used to recover the bench. These small touches made the bathtub area look much more inviting.

So with just a few inexpensive touches which added more color and texture to the room, Mimi’s bathroom was transformed into the oasis she deserves! I can’t wait to see the new sink faucets and knobs when they get put in!

If your bathroom is missing something, I hope these easy ideas inspire you to create a bathroom “oasis” of your own!

Thanks y’all!

-Nikki

When my daughter moved out to go to college, her bedroom was an empty reminder that she was grown and independent, a sad thing to accept as a mother. Passing by her empty room every day got depressing, knowing that she would never be a little kid again.

As a home health nurse, I work from home a lot, doing my patient charting on my computer in the evenings when I get home. I would typically do this at my kitchen counter, which was distracting with my son watching tv or my husband talking on the phone. I needed my own quiet space to work and concentrate, so I decided to turn my daughter’s bedroom into my home office.

Pretty much the only thing left in her room was a rug, so I had a blank slate. What I didn’t have was a ton of money to spend. I knew I needed a desk, a chair, and storage, so I started with some shelving. Built-in shelving is expensive, and bookcases are expensive, so I decided to buy several of the white shoe shelves that go in a closet and just line them up together on the back wall to give the look of being custom shelving. I ended up getting five of them, and at around $20 each, that was only $100 for an entire wall of shelving.

I love to read, and had books stored all over my house in cabinets, on my nightstand, under the bed… Now I have a spot for all my books. I had my printer stored in a cabinet in the living room, and I had to get it out every time I needed to print something, and now it is on my new shelves ready to use whenever I need it.

Next I needed a desk and chair. I needed something cheap, but also something I was excited to sit down at to do my work. And thanks to amazon for the win! I found this small, rustic desk on their website for less than $100, and this cream colored velvet rolling desk chair for less than $60. The desk has two small drawers, perfect for storing desk supplies and the power cord for my laptop, and the chair is feminine and comfy.

Now that I had a work space, I still needed the room to function for guests or for when my daughter decided she wanted to spend a night or two at home. There was no room for a bed anymore with the office furniture, so I had to think outside the box. I went with a black futon from WalMart. It’s a Serta brand, so it’s good quality and surprisingly comfy, but still doesn’t take up a lot of space when it’s folded up as a sitting area.

The futon was only $100, and I had all these throw pillows lying around in closets that I put on it to add some color and texture.

And even though this is supposed to be my work space, now that there is a sitting area in front of my desk, my husband and son wander in every now and then to sit down and hang out with me while I’m trying to work! But of course I don’t mind the company every now and then ha ha!

There is also plenty of room to fold the futon out into a bed for when we have guests.

So now not only do I have a quiet, pretty, comfortable space to work at home, but I don’t feel so sad passing by an empty room every day! And I was able to turn the room into an office AND a guest room for less than $400!

Thanks y’all!

-Nikki

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 pounds ground meat (I used 1 pound ground beef and 1 pound ground sausage)
• chopped celery, about 3 stalks
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• a few mushrooms, chopped (I used baby portabella)
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• Italian breadcrumbs (I used Panko since they are crispier)
• chopped parsley
• 8-ounce block mozzarella cheese
• 2 eggs
• salt and pepper
• extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While oven is heating, sauté onion and celery in 2 tbs olive oil until tender. Add in garlic and mushrooms, then sauté another minute or two. Season with salt and pepper AFTER the mushrooms have started to cook, because salt will make the mushrooms rubbery if you salt them too early. Remove pan from heat and let cool a few minutes.

This is a great way to sneak in a few veggies, because they sort of disappear into the meatloaf and your kids won’t know they are in there! You could also sneak in some carrots, eggplant, etc.

In a large mixing bowl, combine raw ground meat, cooked veggie mixture, eggs, parsley, 2 cups breadcrumbs, 6 ounces of the cheese cut into cubes, and salt and pepper. Shape into a loaf about 12″x5″ and place in greased baking dish. (I put mine on a roasting rack inside the dish so the fat could drain off while cooking.)

In a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, the remaining 2 ounces of mozzarella shredded up, a little parsley, and 1 tbs olive oil. Arrange this mixture on top of meatloaf to make the crispy, cheesy topping, then bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or until meat is cooked all the way through.

When you take the meatloaf out of the oven, the topping will be browned and crispy like this…

…and the cubed mozzarella will be oozing out of the meatloaf.

You should have gooey cheese in every slice, and it is SO GOOD! Much better than regular meatloaf! And your kids won’t even notice the veggies snuck in!

I hope your family enjoys this Italian twist on boring meatloaf as much as mine does!

Thanks y’all!

– Nikki