The Spare Bedroom Project: Part 1

Yikes...I know it looks really bad but this is our "toss all storage room."  We need to turn it into our spare bedroom for when we have visitors so we got to rearranging and organizing!  I couldn't help but look at all of the things that were actually in the room since our move from California.

 Box from Marshall's...

 Convenient for carrying all of my paint and some crafting needs.

 Badger baby booties which were part of a deployment promise that Ryan and I made to each other. I kept one and he took one to Afghanistan to remind him not to take too many risks because I wanted him safe at home to start a family.

 What Ryan carried in his baby booty while deployed.

 When I joined my sorority, we were given "Bigs" which are kind of like mentors.  Our Big reveal was a scavenger hunt with clues throughout the house and I saved mine from my Big.

 Each of her clues were so cute and creative!

 One of deployment mementos from when Ryan was in Afghanistan.

 A stuffed animal box filled with memories!

Bucky Badger (so maybe Becky...) in a wedding dress is from my sorority sister and childhood friend Jenny.  She is one of the sweetest people I could have ever met and she made me this Build-a-Bear and a scrapbook before Ryan and I got married.  The Marine bear was when Ryan was stationed at Camp Pendleton and was part of a photoshoot that I did for Ryan before he went on his second deployment.  One of my friends did a photoshoot when her partner was deployed and she used this popular bear in her pictures.  It turned out so fricken cute, that I wanted one immediately. I look so young but remember, I was 21 :P

You can read a little more about that experience in my post, I Got Married at 21 When Everyone Else Was Getting Chocolate Wasted or A Picture A Day While You're Away- Otherwise Known as How I Survived Deployment.

 I picked this up at Michael's (on sale!!) and it's the Wedding Edition of the Smash Books Collection.

 If you've never used or heard of a Smash Book, it's a way to keep mementos in a very casual scrapbooking fashion.  You're provided with a glue pen and you can buy additional accessories.  It's meant for pictures, ticket stubs, concert bracelets, etc. 

 I picked it up because I want to use it to plan our wedding vow renewal because we never had a big ceremony with our family and friends.  Although I love love love Pinterest, I really liked the idea of having a tangible account of some of the ideas that we like and maybe even inspired by Pinterest.

 Then I came across my Catholic Teen Bible which traveled with me to conferences, to college, and went to so many worship services.  I have a thing for Bibles and I just really like picking up different editions.  People have suggested so many different Bible studies and I really want to start up on one again.

 Of course it wouldn't be a cleaning fest without coming across Christmas decor :)

 I have a huge collection of books on our first floor but I even have an additional tub of books upstairs, many of them being absolute favorites of mine :)

 Holly was clearly very busy helping me ;)

 And here is my gratitude journal which I referred to in my post, Practically Imperfect in Every Way or My Flaws Through the Use of GIFs.

I think this is the perfect way to end this post because we can't wait to put this room together.  We are blessed with extra space in our home to welcome family and friends as guests and we can't wait!

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