Seven on Saturday with Ellie from Vanilla Bean

Welcome to another Seven on Saturday!! Today I am honored to have Ellie from Vanilla Bean, one of my fast growing favorite blogs!! 

Seriously, you have to go check her out and while you are there, follow her :)!

1. In a couple of sentences, tell us about yourself.

Hi!  My name is Ellie, and I live in So. Cal. with my hubby and 2 girls, ages 5 and 8.  I work full time as an adoption social worker for a foster family agency.  Me and hubby got married 10 years ago, just before I started graduate school. . . . we had our first baby during finals week of my first year in grad school! Eeek! And our second followed a couple years later. We bought our first home exactly 2 years ago, completely gutted it down to studs and concrete slab, and have been slowly putting it back together!

No joke, this was my kitchen for about three months!

2. How did you get into blogging?

I've always followed blogs for inspiration.  When I look around the house I get completely overwhelmed with how much still needs to be done, and it freezes my creativity!  I love to get ideas from magazines or other crafty/decor blogs and see what I can come up with, but with my own spin and on our tight buget.  A lot of my friends were telling me just to do a blog of my own so I could share my own ideas and catalogue our work on the house, but I always put it off thinking that because I work so much, I'd never get it done or be able to keep it up.  One week in particular, it was really pressing on me, and when everyone went to bed, I just put it all together, and haven't looked back!  I usually post everyday, even if it's something little about the kids, or something cute I saw on someone else's blogs, and two months ago, I even went so far as to open my own Etsy store so that I could participate in Sew Mama Sew's giveaway!  What fun that was!  The whole family got into it!

3. What is your blog about in a nutshell?

Our blog is basically about our home, our kids, our remodeling projects around the house, ......just basically our home life and what we have going on over here!  I love to do crafty projects and show tutorials, but I try to not make the blog just about that.  Honestly, there's no way that working 40 + hours a week, having 2 kids and a hubby, plus 2 incredibly naughty puppies, and more than 3,000 sq. ft. of house to rebuild, that I would possibly have time to do a tutorial project every night, take pics, and then post it!

4. What are your favorite materials/ ingredients/ tools to work with?

I love to repurpose anything I can find cheap!  I love to take things that really don't belong and make it work in a different setting.  Most of the stuff I want is way overpriced for our budget, so I love to use reclaimed fabrics and scraps,  finding random objects and creating a way to make them useful and beautiful again!  Anything I can spray praint, mod podge, or hot glue is my BFF!

5. Where do you find your inspiration?

Obviously a lot of my inspiration comes from other great bloggers I follow or are linked to.  But mostly, when I just see an object, my wheels start spinning and pretty soon the question of ". . . hmmm. . . .I wonder what I could use this for?" gets answered in a crafty idea that just pops in my head!  I also love to keep a huge supply of (honestly) junk, scraps, random craft supplies, so that when I find something, I usually have the supplies to put something together when the mood strikes!

6. What are a couple of your favorite blogs?

I think the first two blogs I started following were Whatever and Lil Blue Boo. . . .  they're probably lots of peoples faves.  You get to know peoples families and see what all they have going on, and they're sort of like long distance friends that you never meet, but you love to hear about!  I really have a lot that I follow, but some of the ones I frequent a lot are Tatertots and Jello, Delicate Construction!!, The Idea Room, The Home Stories of A2Z, Be Different Act Normal and Decor Chic. . . lets see. . . should I keep going?  Cause I could!

7. What are a couple of your favorite projects?

One of my new favorite projects is my Beach Cottage Shell Mirror. . . simply because I lusted over the one at the beach house for so long and I can't believe it took me three years to figure out that I could make it myself!  

I also loved doing the fabric treasure boxes and "best day ever" hanging for the girls.  Mostly I loved it because they were so very excited about it, and couldn't wait to work on it!  I LOVE crafting with the kids and seeing how their little wheels turn!

Thanks to Michelle for having me over to visit again!  You gotta love it over here!  Thanks to everyone else for taking a few minutes to read about us.  Hope to see y'all soon!