Be Our Guest - Setting up a guest bedroom

When my sister told me that her and her husband were planning on coming to visit (there's always an open invitation for any of my family or friend's to come visit!) I was excited to transform our room into a guest bedroom for their stay.

Something to note: we live in a two-bedroom apartment.

Housing guests is always a little bit of a challenge, but I try to make all parties comfortable. I wanted to make this visit as comfortable as possible because my sister is expecting her first child. If there's one rule I follow, it's that pregnant ladies get treated like royalty.

It started when I was pregnant with my first child; I was blown away at how much nicer people were to me: offering chairs and beds, making sure I always had water, carrying things for me, and overall, being concerned for me - asking how I'm feeling, etc. After experiencing all that kindness, I felt a duty (gladly accepted) to do the same for other expecting women.

And so (segue back into the main point here) I set out to make my sister's stay as luxurious as it could be - bar staying in a two bedroom apartment with four other people, two of whom, are less than three.

We had a great time during their visit, and after one night of sleep my sister said, "I woke up and I was so comfortable I didn't want to move." Success!! :)

I could have sworn I'd read a post from Clean Mama (a great blog that I follow - go follow her, too!) about prepping a guest bedroom, but when I searched for the post I couldn't find it anywhere. Therefore, I had to make it up as I went, trying to dig through the recesses of my brain to remember some of her tips.

1. The Bed
This is where I started. I made sure to wash the sheets the day they came so that they smelled fresh and hadn't been slept in. I also changed out our 'shammed' pillows for some normal matching pillow cases in the event that they forgot their pillows (my sister is not the type to forget pillows. She brought six and still used the ones I provided). I also pulled in the pillows from the front room for throw pillows. I added a throw blanket on the end for added warmth if needed. As a tiny extra touch, I exchanged my wedding photo for this print I found at LollyJane.com.




2. The Nightstands
Because I wanted to make this a luxurious stay, I set out some foot cream (for my brother-in-law to use on my sisters cute pregnant feet) and some men's lotion. Alarm clock, bowl for pocket contents, tissues, remote to the fan, lamp and some reading material.



On the other side I simply set out my extra set of scriptures, a lamp, and a massage roller.






3. The Bathroom
Luckily I keep the majority of my 'get-ready' supplies in either baskets or drawers, so my counter is generally pretty cleared and I simply moved them to the other bathroom.




Hey There!

I moved our toothbrushes and pill reminders out and added a few touches. Bath salts (in a cleaned out spaghetti jar with some paper letters taped to it), a shower cap (from our last stay at the Little America), new disposable razors, face mask, and Indulgent Eye Gel (love me some Mary Kay!).






Have you ever been a guest somewhere and you need something desperately but were too embarrassed to ask? So there you were, trying to open, sift through, and close every drawer and cupboard in the powder room as silently as possible, praying your host didn't hear you snooping around.

Something I'm always secretly hunting for when I am a guest is Q-Tips. Seriously, do most people keep these guys in a hidden closet I don't have access to?? To save my guests from having to peer into every drawer in the bathroom, I made sure cotton balls and Q-Tips were in the open and ready to use.






And lastly, towels. Because we don't have a linen closet, I always keep my towels rolled and in a basket in the bathroom. Lucky for me, I didn't have to do anything to ensure that my guests had direct access to a towel. I'm pleased to say we had no occurrences of our guests standing wet and nude in the shower hollering for a towel.







4. The Suitcase Stand & Wall Decor
At the end of my list comes this little tidbit. I'll be honest, prior to reading Clean Mama's post, I had no clue what these little do-dad's were for in hotels. They always sat idling in the closet waiting for me to discover their use. Now that I know, I've become more cognizant of keeping my suitcase elevated so that I don't have to sit on the floor to access it. We don't have a suitcase rack, so we used this little beauty we had lying around instead: 

Aren't we so fancy? 
I didn't want my sister to be subjected to my bridals so I covered them up with these beautiful printables from Elise Creates and [I don't know where!!! I tried for 1.5 hours to refind it online and I can't!!]



I can't keep this little clothed these days. #pottytrainingprobs

And that's a wrap. I had such a nice time hosting my sister and her husband, but you know what? They couldn't have cared less about all my preparations! I'm not saying I'm bitter about it. I'm just saying, as a guest, they had pretty low expectations. It wasn't until I asked if they liked the quote above the bed that they even noticed it! My sister didn't need all the extras and I didn't need to go out of my way to make it so complicated, but I enjoyed doing it! I am discovering that I am a little over-the-top and, for the most part, I like it!

What are some things that you like to prepare for as a host?
And better yet, what are some of your best/worst experiences as the guest? I would love to hear your stories and suggestions!

Harry Potter Inspired Halloween Decor

I really enjoy decorating for most holidays, but I don't have a lot of decor. This year I wanted to discover new ways to use items I already had around my home to create a fun Halloween atmosphere in our home.

I am not really into spooky. I don't like scary movies and I don't like old and/or dirty things. I know that's weird, but it just gives me the heeby-jeebies. I could never live in an old Victorian home. I would feel so terrified every day of my life.

Regardless, I still really enjoy Halloween. I love to come up with fun coordinating costumes for my family (more on that in another post or two) and I love to have pumpkins and happy haunts around the home. I had a few things that I DIM'd from Halloweens-past and did end up buying 4 things from Target that I felt like really added to the look.

The foundation of this look came from a 'trunk' of Harry Potter books that were my Christmas present in 2012. I used the trunk as the centerpiece and built upon it to create the finished product.

I used a Harry Potter tie that I picked up Sophomore of college at a Halloween store, a wand my dad made me for my birthday that same year, some perfume/cologne bottles that weren't conspicuously perfume/cologne, some cork-top glass containers I picked up in the Target Dollar Spot, a mason jar with 'quills', some tea lights I picked up around Valentine's Day at the Dollar Tree, a glass container to hold some fake fall foilage (purchased at Walmart for a Relief Society activity Sophomore of college), and a snitch (more on that later as well).

It's not Harry Potter without some Polyjuice Potion! I simply added some food coloring to water to create a deep green color.

Some Felix Felicis for good luck!

I searched the internet for a free Hogwarts Acceptance Letter and found a link (with instructions on how to download the font and everything) here.

Amortentia (let's pretend I have better handwriting mmkay?) and Veritaserum for some 'Love' and truth.

And this is where I get desperate! I knew I wanted a snitch and had some (terrible smelling) gold paint from Target I wanted to use but wasn't sure what to do. That's when I spotted my oldest's bouncy ball sitting there for the taking. I wrapped it in masking tape then created wings with the masking tape and taped them on. Then I painted the whole thing with the gold paint and allowed it to dry before setting it on the tie (which my husband actually wears to church. He gets lots of praise from the young men).

This bat banner was a DIM that I did back in 2013 with a girl from work. We tore pages out of an old book  (titled, funny enough, On Death and Dying), cut triangles out of the bottoms, cut out several black bats from one she'd printed off of google, glued them to the pages, glued on orange buttons from Joann's, and then hot glued them to orange baker's twine. She also had a black stamp pad we brushed lightly against each page to give it an aged effect. I've been able to fold this up nicely enough after each use that this is my third year using it!

I purchased these Halloween lights from the Smith's Seasonal/Promotional section that same year (2013) on sale. This year I strung them under our bar on top of our bookshelves and then 'hid them' under some spider webs I bought at Walmart in 2012. I'm actually attempting to use the webs to look like smoke bubbling out of a cauldron. Is it working? Or should I try something else?

I made these in 2013 by painting them with acrylic paints and Mod Podging scrapbook paper on top.

The candy corn was made the same was as the pumpkins in 2014, the ghost was a gift from my Mother in Law, and the Chicken Wire Pumpkin and real mini pumpkins were purchased at Target this year.

Tea lights inside the cauldron.



The final look.

I was happy to discover that I was able to create this look for just over $6! I had everything but the 4 things I picked up at Target, and several of the items weren't even Halloween decor!

I really enjoyed putting this together and am proud of my ingenuity. What do you guys think? I'd love to hear your feedback!

What are your favorite Halloween traditions, and what's your favorite way to decorate for Halloween?