Grove Collaborative and Mrs Meyers Product Review

It’s a cold rainy morning here in Rhode Island and it is making me long for warmer weather! We hit over 60 degrees yesterday and now I’m dying for spring! One thing I love to do when we get a warm spring day is to open all the windows and clean everything in my house! Nothing beats the smell of fresh air and a clean home. Speaking of clean homes, I wanted to share with you my first experience buying from Grove Collaborative and give you an honest review! 

I saw a lot of ads about Grove Collaborative on Facebook and have been wanting to try more natural cleaning products in my home. I went on their website and they had a great deal for first time buyers to get lots of product for an excellent price, so I decided to give it a shot! Upon signing up I was able to get 5 FREE items as well as a free 60 day VIP membership trial which includes free shipping on every order. Free shipping is always a win in my book! I can never bring myself to pay for shipping. Now the offers and deals they have are always changing so you may not recieve the same free items I did. They also may advertise a differnt deal on their website but just try googling Grove Collaborative deals and they usually have others to choose from! That is how i found the best deal for me. I was able to recieve

•1 free Mrs Meyers Dishsoap

•1 free Mrs Meyers Multi-Surface Cleaner

•1 Free Mrs Meyers Hand Soap

•1 free Grove Collaborative Bamboo Prep Board

•1 free 3-pack of Walnut Scouring Pads

 

Above is a list of everything I ordered, I got all those items for $21.00, so that works out to $2.10 each! You can’t get a price that good anywhere else! I will say to be careful after you sign up with Grove for the 60 day VIP membership. After you make your first purchase it will automatically ship things to your home every month unless you cancel the monthly delivery. They will also pick random things to send you, not just a repeat of your previous order. Some people may like having a monthly delivery but I personally cancelled all automatic deliveries and will just order again when I am ready. Just do what works for you! If you want to keep automatic delivery you can add and subtract things from your order before they ship it out, you can also adjust the frequency of the auto-shipments.

 

After having all of my Mrs Meyers products for a few weeks now, I can tell you I LOVE THEM! It  was hard for me to choose the scents online because you never actually know what they will smell like in person. I purposely chose a variety of scents so that if, for some reason I didn’t like one, at least I’m not stuck with tons of that same scent. The scents I chose were:

•Basil

•Lavender

•Rosemary

•Radish

•Geranium

I will say there is one scent that I hate…Geranium. Which is a little disappointing because I ordered the handsoap AND lotion in that scent. My friend, I used to work in a greenhouse and spent so many hours planting, watering, and dead-heading hundreds of geraniums and let me just say, that scent does NOT smell like geraniums. It smells like overly potent bug spray…not the good kind either. Now if you like the smell of bug spray then you will absolutely love this scent, but if your like me…DON’T buy it.

 

Geranium was the only scent I disliked. It’s funny I was so afraid to try the Radish scent because, again, I used to work on a farm and I really didn’t think I wanted to smell like a radish after washing my hands. I only gave it a try because another blogger said it smelled wonderful, and boy was she right. It smells so gloriously fresh, that’s the only way I know how to describe it. I will definitely be purchasing Radish again and look forward to trying it in different Mrs Meyers products (I only have it in the handsoap).

The other scents Basil, Lavender and Rosemary are all wonderful too and I will definitely be purchasing those again as well. They all smell like what they are supposed to!

With these supplies being all natural I was slightly concerned about their effectiveness but that was all for naught. The dish soap and multi-surface cleaner do a fantastic job of getting stuck on foods and grime off and they smell phenomenal too. The fragrance in Mrs Meyers items makes them so worth it, as well as being natural. I love that I can wipe down my daughter’s highchair tray with the multi-surface cleaner and not have to worry about putting her food on it right after, because I don’t have to worry about all the chemicals. It feels so good having a clean, good smelling home and knowing it’s safe for my family!

So all in all, I had a very good experience with Grove and they have SO many other products besides Mrs Meyers and I would definitely order from them again and can’t wait to try new things! I hope this information was helpful to you and that you will give them a try! Have a wonderful day.

 

DIY Farmhouse Chalkboard Calendar

Hello again, I am SO excited to finally be doing a DIY post! I have been needing a calendar for a while now, but I wanted something that I wouldn’t mind having on display in my home. I was also looking for something that went with the farmhouse style. I found this beauty for sale on Etsy, BUT with a $108 (regularly $180) price tag, I totally couldn’t justify buying it. Instead, Nate and I made one for $25! I am absolutely loving the results. We already had a couple things on hand so the price may vary but for around $20-$30 it is totally worth making your own! Before starting this project, please read through the list of tools and materials as well as all the directions!

 

MATERIALS:

•(1) 1X3X8ft Pine board
•(1) 1X8X6ft Pine board
•(1) 1/8” 2X4 tempered Hardboard

 

Screws
•#6X3/4”
•#6x 1 3/4″
•Picture hangers
•Black Chalkboard paint
•White acrylic paint
•White transfer Paper
•Wood stain

Sand paper 150 grit

Sanding disks for orbital sander (If you choose to use one)

 

TOOLS NEEDED:

Circular saw

Chop saw *Optional, my husband and I did not use one but it may have been easier if we had.

Drill and Drill bits

Kreg Jig *Optional. We didn’t use one and made our own pocket holes but this would have been much easier.

Measuring tape

Jig saw

Clamps

Hammer

Orbital sander *Again, this is optional. We used one and it made it go nice and quick but you could definitely sand everything by hand.

Foam paint brush (For chalkboard) like this one

Liner brushes like these (You can get these at Walmart or any craft store.)

Tape

Computer and printer

 

CUT LIST:

(2) 1×3 @ 29″  (sides)

(1) 1×3 @ 19″  (bottom)

(1) 1×8 @ 19″  (top arch)

(1) Tempered Hardboard 1/8″ thick @ 24×29″

 

Now that we have all that out of the way lets get started!

STEP 1:

After making all of your cuts, take the two 29″side pieces and the 19″ Bottom piece and fit them together making sure everything is square and nothing is crooked. Make two pocket holes on each side piece about 1″ apart. Be sure that your pockets holes are not too close to the edges. You can now screw each side piece into the bottom as shown. You could definitely make your arch first and then screw everything together afterwards but this is how we did it.

STEP 2:

Now that your sides are screwed into the bottom piece you can start working on the top arch. Unfortunately I do not have a pattern that you can follow for this. I happened to have a large enough bowl that i was able to use as a guide for my arch. No matter what you use, make sure that the thinnest part of the arch is 3″ which will match the width of your side pieces. We started by measuring down 3″ in the center of our 19″ top piece and placed the bowl on that mark and traced around the bowl.

STEP 3:

Once your arch is drawn it is time to start cutting. Find a secure work surface and clamp your wood so that the curved line (or at least some of it) is hanging over the edge. Make sure the piece is secure and won’t move around while you are cutting it. Begin cutting along the curved line, stopping to adjust the wood if needed.

STEP 4:

After you finish cutting your arch may be a little choppy or rough, that is okay. You will want to sand the inside of the arch by hand (we used 150 grit) until it is completely smooth. You can now move onto the rest of the piece.

STEP 5:

Now that your arch piece is sanded, make two pocket holes on the top of each side piece, like you did for the bottom.

Screw the sides into the arch piece. You may find that the bottom of the arch pieces slightly stick out or move. If this is the case, you will need to make one more pocket hole on each side like we did. Be very careful not to crack the wood. If you don’t want to add a third pocket hole, you could instead use wood glue and clamps for a safer option.

STEP 6:

After your entire frame is screwed together, give the whole thing a final sanding. Make sure it is free of dust and stain the frame with a color of your choice. We used Early American by Minwax. Apply as many coats as desired following the instructions of whatever stain you choose.

STEP 7:

While your frame is drying start painting the smooth side of your 24X29″ hardboard. In the video you may notice I was using a paint brush but I ended up switching to a foam brush. The paint brush left a lot of brush strokes and the foam did a much better job of smoothing the paint. I applied two coats, waiting an hour between each coat but be sure to follow the instructions on whichever chalkboard paint you choose.

STEP 8:

After everything was dry we placed the frame over top of our newly painted chalkboard and traced all the way around the inside frame. We did this because I wanted to be able to work on the chalkboard without the frame in the way but I wanted to make sure everything would be centered.

 

STEP 9:

For the actual calendar portion of this project I did a 12″X12″ and a 4″X12″ “notes” section. To evenly place these I did a 1″ space on all sides. (sides meaning the traced line where the frame will be) I used a ruler and measured 1″ in multiple places, marking each spot as I went. After you have a few dots you can place your ruler on the dots to draw a straight 12″ line. Repeat this for the other three sides of your square. After the 12X12 box is done, (don’t worry about the grids yet) measure 1″ away from the outside of your calendar box and make your 4X12 “note” box using the same technique.

STEP 10:

For the calendar grids you will want 7 boxes across. Using a ruler mark dots just under the 1.75″ mark.

STEP 11:

To paint on the lettering, I downloaded a free font I found online. You could use a font that is already on your computer but I personally didn’t like any of those options. Dafont.com has some beautiful script fonts! I have used this website many times and never had an issue with viruses. You can choose your own font if you like, but here is the one I used for our last name. Once you pick your font click download. After it is finished downloading open it up and click “unzip” you can then install it onto your computer.

I cannot remember what I used for the other font but you can repeat the same steps as with the first font.

 

STEP :12

After choosing your fonts, open up Microsoft Word or Wordpad on your computer. Your new fonts should be somewhere in the drop-down menu of “fonts”. If you can’t find them try typing the name of the font in the search bar of your font menu. For our name “The Farrelly Family” I used size 72. Depending on the length of your last name you may have to type it on separate lines. I used size 72 for “Month” and for everything else I used size 48. Print out your work and make sure you are happy with the size. If you have a short last name you may prefer to go larger.

STEP 13:

Cut out your newly printed words into neat, straight strips. Tape everything down with a small piece of tape at the top of each word. Make sure you can still lift your “words” to slide the transfer paper underneath. Make sure that everything is centered and straight before tracing on the letters. Working from top to bottom, slide your transfer paper under the first word and begin tracing each letter. Be careful not to shift your words while tracing. If you make a mistake or find that something looks crooked, just wipe it off with a damp cloth and try again. I had to do this a few times!

STEP 14:

After you have everything transferred onto your chalkboard to your liking you can begin painting. You won’t need very much paint so I suggest starting with about the size of a quarter. You need to add just a tiny bit of water, just enough so the paint flows smoothly in a nice thin, smooth line on your paint brush. Test out your paint consistency on a different surface before starting on your chalkboard. You don’t want it thick but you also don’t want it too runny. You should be able to easily paint thin lines and curves. Once your paint is the right consistency you can start painting over your traced on letters from top to bottom. You may want to experiment with what size liner brush you use. At first I went with a shorter bristled one, thinking it would be easier. I found the the ones with the long bristles were easier for me to work with. Continue carefully painting over each letter, every so often you will need to dip your brush in water and then paint to keep up the same consistency.

 

STEP 15:

Once you have finished all the letters you can either paint over your grid lines with the liner brush, or you may find it easier to use a paint pen. I just painted over the lines free hand, it was very difficult to keep nice straight lines so you may prefer the pen. You will probably have to do the calendar in blocks, letting them dry in between so you don’t accidentally smudge wet paint. Acrylic paint only takes about 5 minutes to dry, especially when it is watered down. When you finish the calendar portion, move on to the “notes” section.

STEP 16:

Almost there! Now that all the hard parts are out of the way you can screw the hardboard into the frame! Make sure you line everything up with your pre-traced line on the front of the board before screwing anything in place. When everything is lined up flip the board over, being careful not to shift anything. You will then need to pre-drill small holes for each screw. We did three screws on each side and just one on the top and bottom.

 

STEP 17:

After everything is screwed into place you can carefully nail on your picture hangers making sure that they are both level. Now your calendar is ready to hang!

STEP 18:

Admire your beautiful farmhouse calendar!

I hope you enjoyed this DIY as much as I did! If you have any questions, or if you tried this DIY please leave a comment/photo below! Don’t forget to follow me on social media and subscribe to my blog for upcoming posts!

How We Bought A House On A Low Income


Hello again! My husband Nate and I just put a video up on my  YouTube channel about how to buy a house at 18 years old. For the sake of it being our first video we wanted to keep the content fairly short. However for my blog post I would like to elaborate a little more on some of the key points.

 

As stated in the video, Nate and I met when I was 14 years old and got married just two days after my 18th birthday. Although we closed on our home a few days after my 19th birthday, I like to say we still bought a house when I was 18. We got approved for our mortgage in February (my birthday is in June) and we started the mortgage process by the beginning of April. Although all the technicalities happened just after age 19, we still got everything set into place at age 18.

 

So now that I have that out of the way, I am going to dive in and break everything down!

First and foremost, if you want to get a mortgage you need to:

  • Establish Credit

I got my first credit card about a month after we got married (Nate had a credit card for a couple years). I know many of my readers probably already have credit cards, if that’s you don’t skip this point because you may find some of the information helpful!  I was actually denied for the first card I applied for because I didn’t have previous credit! If this is you, don’t give up! The second time I applied I was approved.

While it is important to HAVE credit, you also don’t want to have LOTS of cards because the bank will look at that as potential debt. Higher credit limits are not your friend!

For myself, I used my credit card to buy groceries, gas and other necessities and made sure to always pay it off right away! You DO NOT need to take out a huge loan in order to prove to the bank that you have good credit. I would never advise getting a car loan or other form of debt to “establish credit”. Depending on your income, and whether or not you still owe on those loans, may even prevent you from getting a mortgage because the bank looks at your debt to income ratio.

  • Have A Steady Income

When applying for a mortgage the bank wants to see that you have kept the same job for at least two years. This was true for both Nate and I, but they still could not count Nate’s income. Since, Nate was in full time Nursing school, he could only work Per-Diem as a CNA.

The bank would not count his income, because technically his work was not guaranteed. They only considered my income when pre-approving us for a mortgage, and at the time I only made minimum wage.

  • Have A Savings 

This is extremely important if you don’t make a lot of money! When Nate told me that he set up a meeting with the Bank I thought he was crazy. I remember I was completely embarrassed going that day because I thought for sure they would laugh at us. I already knew they would not count Nate’s income because we had already done some research on what they want to see. I thought for sure we were wasting our time but I am so glad I just trusted my husband and went!

The reason the bank was okay with my minimum wage is because they saw that, while we made very little (even including Nate’s income) we also were able to save $20,000 in the 8 months we had been married. How we were able to do so is for a whole different post!

I would like to add, many people buying their home choose to go with a First Time Home Buyers program. Using this program you usually don’t have to put any down payment, and that may be what works best for you! For Nate and I, we chose not to do First Time Home Buyers but instead went with a traditional mortgage. The reason we chose to do traditional is because we had money we could put down and the interest rates for FTHB are much higher! We did have to pay PMI (private mortgage insurance) because we only wanted to put a 10% down payment. For us that was still a better option than paying the interest rates for FTHB, which were 2-3% higher for us vs. a traditional mortgage.

  • Don’t Have Debt!

Now I know this kind of goes a long with what I said above in my first point, but I think I should add to it. Though it is very important if you want to get a mortgage, it is also just as important for daily life! Nate and I do not believe in credit cards. We did get them in order to build our credit in order to get a mortgage, but they were simply used as a tool. Now that we have our home we absolutely never use them. Never.

Remember that it is 100% okay not to have a new car or the newest technology! I think so many people forget that you can get amazing deals by buying second hand whether it’s a car, a phone, a computer, and even furniture! When we first got married it was tempting to just get everything new, but patience is so worth it. Even to this day my husband and I always check Craigslist or eBay before going out and purchasing something for full price. There have been times where it is a better deal to just buy new, but most of the time it’s not.

The bank will be very pleased to see that you don’t owe any monthly debts. I also want to remind you that they do not consider what your paying for rent as debt, as this expense goes away when you purchase your new home.

I don’t want to make this post too long so I will finish with this. So many people (like myself) don’t even try to get a mortgage because they think they won’t get approved. Had my husband listened to me, we never would have gone to the bank and we never would have had this home! So all I can say is TRY. For us it was only about $100 more to OWN something of our own (this includes mortgage, property tax, and insurance)! For many people, switching to a mortgage is less than their monthly rent payment. So even if you have doubts that you will get approved-just try. I would advise that you at least have something in your savings first though. Even if they deny you a loan, they can give you very helpful information on what you can do in order to qualify.

 

I hope this post wasn’t TOO long and I hope you find the information helpful! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask! Leave them in a comment below or contact me through email!

Fireplace Makeover

 

Happy Tuesday! I cannot believe it’s been a whole year since my husband and I totally updated our fireplace. I know it’s been a while, but we did not have a blog at the time and the transformation is too good not to share. Thankfully I have before, during and after pictures for you! To this day I am in LOVE with how it turned out.

 

When we first moved in I had no idea how we were going to make that hideous thing look good. It was a complete eyesore. The previous owners had painted it an awful black with an almond colored cement mantle, yuck! The fireplace is the first thing you see when you open our front door. Considering it is also the focal point of my living room, I wanted it to be beautiful!

 

I originally wanted to reface it with white washed brick and replace the mantle completely but that just wasn’t in our budget. After getting some inspiration from Pinterest I showed my husband what I liked.  I honestly had no idea how we could turn something I hated so much into something I would be happy to have as the center of my home.

He told me he had a plan but I have to address admit…I was pretty skeptical.

We decided to paint the brick white. I have to say that I was nervous it would come out bad but we had nothing to lose so I decided to go for it. After washing it down really well and about 5 coats of paint I was starting to see the diamond in the rough!

For the insert I chose a flat black high heat resistant spray paint by Rustoleum. Painting it proved to be quite a task! I could not remove the insert so I had to work around the newly painted fire place and the floors. I taped newspaper with painters tape onto any exposed brick, the glass inserts and the surrounding floors.

 

My only regret was doing this project in February when I could not open doors and windows for ventilation! Being 7 months pregnant at the time I did wear a respirator but had to leave the house for hours until the strong odor faded. Never again! I remember sitting in my car in the driveway having nowhere to go but not wanting to breathe in the fumes. Those are memories I do not miss!

Now onto my favorite part of the project, the mantle! Because our existing mantle was made of cement we had to figure out how to attach a faux wood beam to the fireplace. My husband started by getting 1 inch pine boards from Home Depot.

 

My poor husband I think I made him show me every single piece before choosing which ones I wanted. I wanted the ones with the best pattern and grain and I made sure I found them. I have such a patient husband! He was able to work his magic using some wood glue, clamps and finish nails. I was thrilled with the result! I felt like I had a Pinterest worthy fireplace in my very own living room!

If you enjoyed this post I encourage you to read my living room before and after post here. Thank you for reading and Keep checking back for more updates on The Little Bit of Laurel Blog!

Farmhouse Bungalow – Living Room Before and After

Good morning everyone! So if you read my “about” page you already saw that my husband and I purchased our first home just over a year and a half ago. I was only 19 years old when we closed on our home and my husband was 20. With my husband in full-time Nursing school money was something we had to consider when fixing up our home. We certainly did not want to have any debt while remodeling but also wanted our home to look updated and fresh! As you can see in the photos, we had A LOT of work to do!  

 

Our living room before                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I think some family members thought we were absolutely crazy to purchase our home in it’s current state, but Nate and I saw past all the dingy carpets, wood paneling and totally weird kitchen layout! We looked at so many homes during our house hunt and none of them “felt right”. I am a firm believer when house hunting that it HAS to feel right. I wanted to see past all the problems in other homes we looked at such as location or super uneven floors but they just never felt right. I could not picture staying there for the next 5-10 years and starting a family there. Before we found our current home we had entirely given up on looking. Nothing was in our budget and everything that was, had something majorly wrong with it!

Our living room after

I remember driving nearby to what would be our future home and telling my husband ” There is a really cute little bungalow for sale near here but its way out of our budget, I wish the price would drop.” About a month or so later our realtor sent us that same home saying the price had dropped over $20,000! I was thrilled! My husband and I were so sure it would be the one. We brought along my dad who is a Contractor so he could tell us his opinion. We did not want to risk this house selling before we got a chance to even look at it! After my dad told us that everything in the house was structurally sound we made an offer that same night. Unfortunately the sellers declined our offer. After praying about it for a few days and upping our downpayment, we bought it at asking price. I am so thankful we took that leap of faith because this house has been perfect for us!

 

 

 

I would like to break down how my husband and I were able to buy our home at such a young age, how we were able to put a down-payment and maintain a savings account while he was in full time school. I will also talk about how we fixed up our home completely in cash, but that is for a future blog post! I just want to say it IS doable! Neither my husband nor I made a lot of money, I worked a 40 hour a week minimum wage job and my husband worked about 1 to 2 days a week per diem as a CNA.

I definitely do not say this to brag but just to encourage my readers that you CAN do it! It IS possible and you do NOT have to have unnecessary debt! That is all for my post today but I will leave a couple more before and afters of our living room down below. Thanks for reading the Little Bit of Laurel blog!

 

   

 

About

Thank you for joining me here on Little Bit of Laurel. My name is…you guessed it, Laurel. I am a Christian wife and stay at home momma of a sweet nine month old baby girl and am thirteen weeks pregnant with our second (we do not know the gender yet).
My husband Nate and I purchased our first home almost two years ago, just a couple days after I turned 19! You will be seeing lots of posts about how we were able to purchase a home at a young age and how we were able to fix it up debt free! It has certainly been a journey and there is more I would like to do to our home…but we have come a long way!
This is a lifestyle blog so I will be posting about lots of different topics.
The main topics will be: owning a home, home decorating, pregnancy, motherhood, DIY posts and just sharing my daily life with you!