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Uncategorized
04.30.14

Progress Made

You guys.  I’ve made major progress on the house lately.  I have a “before” and “after” to show you that I’m really proud of.  It isn’t pretty.  It isn’t that fun.  And it certainly isn’t “pin” worthy.  :)  But because of the amount of TIME this baby took I’m sharing it anyway.   Are you ready?  
 {BEFORE}

{AFTER}
Oh my word.  I can breathe in here again!  Can’t even BEGIN to tell you how happy I am to have this extra room in better shape.  It was seriously giving me a headache every day.  Just knowing it was there.  Lurking.  A total disaster waiting for me behind closed doors.  This is an extra room over our garage that will someday be a theatre room.  Or something else fun if we change our minds.  But for now it is a landing spot for all of the extras.  And I’m happy to say that my extras are finally under control!  The door in the picture above is to our attic.  Another space that isn’t so pretty right now.  But I’ll save that for another day.  For now I just have to celebrate progress made.  
I NEVER want to move again.
:)  
New furniture that I’ve been waiting for came last week!  
Pictures that are a lot more fun are coming soon!
xoxo, Erin
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Uncategorized
04.28.14

Organizing Solutions (pinspiration!)

Happy Monday friends!  I thought I’d kick this week off right with some organizing eye candy.  I am on a ROLL with a few projects around my house and I’m hoping I can keep up the momentum this week! Tonight I spent some time searching my Pinterest boards for a bit more inspiration.  SO many fun ideas!  Here are a few of my recent organizing pins that I thought were smart solutions… 

Love this idea of simple, labeled buckets in the garage to hold kids’ outdoor toys.  We haven’t tackled the garage in our new house yet so I’m gathering all the inspiration I can before we do!  (Organizing your garage?  You can see many more ideas for garage organization here.)

LOVE this idea of having binders just to hold your kids’ artwork.  I’ve always integrated my girls’ art work in their Project Life albums, but having it all together in one binder would be an easy solution.  Plus I know my kids’ would love flipping through an album of their favorite masterpieces.  

Small jars of paint for each room in your house.  Perfect for touch ups!  I’m so excited to do this.

Are your wrapping supplies taking up more space than they should?  I thought this plastic drawer system was a clever way to corral everything.  In our previous house my son’s nursery doubled as my wrapping station.  I’ve also seen organized dressers that hold wrapping supplies.  Sometimes you have to get a little creative!  

I liked this picture because with all of the decorating I’m doing lately I’m drowning in receipts I need to save.  This is a fun idea to just keep them all in a clear jar.  The only not fun part is digging for the one you need when it’s time to return something!  Still..  it gives me a few ideas.
You all know I have a love affair with baskets.  Love the look of them for decorating.  Love the practicality of them for organizing.  What a smart idea to use a basket to organize files!  This way you can keep them out as part of your decor for easy access.  

And speaking of easy access.. love this idea!  A stylish tray you can fill with your remote and reading material and then easily slide under the couch .  

Hope a few of those ideas motivate you to organize this week!  They definitely inspire me.  For more organizing eye candy you can check out my Pinterest boards or these links to some of my past projects.  


Have a great week everyone!  

xoxo, Erin
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Home Decor
04.25.14

Mudroom Q & A

Here are the answers to your questions about my new mudroom!  Finally.  Something is complete around here.  :)

What are the dimensions of your mudroom?


What is the overall length of your lockers?


What is the size of your bench?
    

What color of stain did you use on your bench and locker seat?  What color of white did you use for your cabinets?  

Sorry I’m not going to be much help on this one!  For the bench and locker seat I gave a sample of my floor to my cabinet guy and he matched it as close as he could.  It ended up a bit lighter than the floor.  I’m not sure what the shade of white is either!  I picked it from a variety of cabinet samples (all of my cabinets throughout the house are that same white).  It was the brightest white I could find.  It’s almost identical to the same white I used for all of my trim and molding which is “Arothane White” 001 by Frazee.

Where did you get the light fixture?

This fixture is from Kichler.  It looks even better hanging lower as a pendant, but my ceiling in this room is 9 feet so we had to shorten it a bit for tall people who might come in.  Not for the crew who actually uses this room.  We are all the height of the hobbit door.  :)  I really like this fixture and have debated hanging three of them in my upstairs hallway since I still haven’t ordered lights for that hallway yet.  But one word of caution with these clear glass fixtures since I now have a whole house full of them.  They are stunning in person – but they show dust so you have to be prepared to clean them from time to time.  Worth it to me because I love them – maybe not so much to others.

 

Where did you get the fun nameplates on the lockers?

The name plates are from Pottery Barn.  I was so happy when I found them because I had been looking for some sort of label for the lockers for months and couldn’t find anything that was big enough.  Then I was flipping through a PB magazine and saw these on some of their lockers.  I raced to my computer and found them on-line.  They were inexpensive and the exact color of my hardware.  That was a happy day.  :)

Where is your locker hardware from?

Locker hardware is from Restoration Hardware (Aubrey Pull) .

 

I used this same hardware in my laundry rooms and in the girls’ bathroom – just a different finish.  Chrome for those rooms…

and Oil Rubbed Bronze for the mudroom.

Where did you get the amazing hooks?  

You may recognize the hooks also from my girls’ bathroom – just a different finish.
I really liked this style of hardware so I used it quite a bit throughout my house.
We are using these hooks to hang coats and backpacks…
and bathroom towels.  :)

Where is your door hardware from (dutch door/garage door)?

Most of the doors throughout my house have white porcelain knobs on black plates.  I love this look.

I decided to mix it up for this door off of the garage because I knew I’d often have my hands full and you can’t open a knob with your elbow when you’re trying to balance four sacks of groceries, your purse, and your four year olds muddy shoes.  A handle works much better for that.  :)

All of my outdoor hardware is a nickel finish because the doors are black.  Silver for the black dutch door…
And black for the indoor white dutch door.
All of my door hardware is from EMTEK.


Where did you purchase the cute picnic style baskets?

Those are also from Pottery Barn!  Like I mentioned before, I tried several different sizes and styles of baskets from other stores above my lockers.  These were not what I originally had in mind, but they looked the best and were the perfect width for my cubbies.  These are the Day Trip Lidded Large Basket and are truly made for picnics!  I tried one in the space and loved it so I waited for Pottery Barn’s baskets to go 20% off (they do that from time to time) and then snatched up five of them.  When you love to organize you stay on top of basket sales.  :)

What do you use the baskets at the top for?

Well.  Now I’m hoping to go on a picnic or two with them!  :)  I had always planned to use them for our winter accessories (hats, gloves, scarves) that we only pull out two or three times a year for a trip to ski or to visit family in colder climates.  But currently I have all of our winter/ski gear together in a bin in our attic space.  I don’t know if it makes since to separate the accessories from the snow coats and pants?  So right now there is nothing in the baskets!  But I’m sure that won’t last long.  I’ll let you know what I end up storing in that space.  I still have A LOT of stuff in our extra room upstairs that needs to be purged and organized.  I will most likely be in this house a year before everything has a home.  I’m too busy typing blog posts to get completely unpacked.  ;)

What is the grey paint color called?

The grey paint in our mudroom is the same grey we used in the main living areas in our house – “Seattle” by Frazee.

What color are your hardwood floors?  

Our hardwood floors are a custom color.  I wrote a post all about our floors here.


I love the lanterns hanging outside.  Where did you get them?  

I can’t find my info. on these lights!  I have it somewhere!  I’m going to look this weekend and as soon as I find it I’ll update this post and add it.  Check back!


Did you choose pot lights or can lights?  Where did you get them?  

Aside from pendants and hanging fixtures we have can lights throughout our house.  We chose them all with our electrician.  Sorry that’s not much help!

Do you have additional basement and/or attic storage?  I’m on the east coast where everyone has basements, but I’ve heard that in CA many houses don’t.  

Yes – we have an upstairs attic and also a fun hidden storage space above our garage that has a secret ladder.  :)  I’m sure I’ll share our attic space with you once it’s all organized.  It’s a mess so don’t hold your breath on that one.  ;)  And you are right about California homes not having basements!  I’m from Utah and everyone there has a basement so it was strange to me too when we moved to CA that nobody has one.  There are several reasons why.  Not needed with our mild climate (in colder areas home builders dig a deeper foundation below the frost line), earthquake, water and soil concerns, property here is so expensive and it is usually cheaper to build up than down with our soil, etc. etc. etc.  It’s very rare to find a house with a basement around here!

I’ve always imagined a mudroom and laundry room combined.  Is there any benefit to having separate mud and laundry rooms?  

I think having a combined mudroom/laundry room is a great idea!  I think it really just has to do with how much space you have to work with.  I wanted pull out bins in my laundry room for dirty clothes  and a counter to fold clothes on.  We had the space to work with so that meant two separate rooms for us, but I think combining the two spaces would function great too.

I’ve actually seen a few rooms that function as a laundry room, mudroom, AND craft room.  I think you’d have to be pretty organized to make that work or that room would constantly look like a bomb went off.  :)

Could you share a picture of how there are two under the stairs storage units?  And how you chose to break it up rather than just have one door that lead to the whole staircase?  

Yes!  I will absolutely share our storage spaces under the stairs.  But that is a post all its own for another day.  :)

I hope this helped some of you!  I’m so ready for the weekend.  Crossing my fingers I can find time to finish a few of my half started projects around here!  Happy Friday everyone!

*affiliate links used

xoxo, Erin
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Uncategorized
04.24.14

Half way there…

THANK YOU for all of the sweet comments on my blog and Facebook about my new mudroom everyone!  Loved hearing from so many of you and I’m thrilled you like the space!  Just popping in to let you know I’m working on answers to your questions.  But I keep getting sidetracked.  With the usual happy distraction — my kids.  :)  And a few other things.  Like my playroom closet that is half way organized, my stair pictures that are half way edited, my bathroom rugs that are half way selected/ordered (so over standing on towels!), my 50 million forms that are half way filled out for K’s therapy/preschool, a house that is half way cleaned,  thank you notes that are half way delivered, and summer camps that are half way signed up for.  So far I am doing a fabulous job at starting everything and finishing nothing. 
So what did I do about it today?  
Ran to Staples and bought Martha Stewart page dividers of course!  

Now I have an updated Time Management Binder that is half way completed.
But it sure is going to keep me organized once it’s done.  
At least half way.   
:)  
xoxo, Erin
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Home Decor
04.22.14

My new organized mudroom!

SO excited to share my new mudroom with you today!  This is such a beloved space for me that I can’t believe we’ve been in the new house six months and I haven’t posted pictures of it yet!  Must be because of the post traumatic stress from moving my family of five.  ;)  I took way too many pics so I’m warning you that this post is a novel.  You might want to grab a snack.  I’d suggest pretzels.  Or yogurt.  Or both.  That’s what I’m snacking on right now.  Ok!  Enough rambling.  Time to talk mudroom.  Most of you know that in our previous house my garage worked as my mudroom… 

And it worked great.  But I always had dreams of a real mudroom.  With lockers and drawers and hooks.  A place for our family to dump all of the shoes, jackets, and backpacks that wasn’t next to the garden tools.  :)  So after much planning and thought this is what I came up with:

Ta-da!  Lockers and drawers!  With hooks inside!  I have to pinch myself every time I’m in this room.  Which is a lot!  The door on the right is off of our garage.  It’s the door we are in and out of the most every day.  I decided to go with closed lockers and drawers vs. having everything open because I have issues with visual clutter.  I wanted to be able to close the cabinet doors and have this space always look clean even if it wasn’t.  Like magic.  :)
There are five lockers so that each of us can have our own.  Soon after we moved in I bought these fun nameplates for each person in our family (from Pottery Barn).   Love the rustic look of them!

 

Then I found these fun baskets from Pottery Barn to put in the top cubbies.  I initially had a hard time finding baskets that were wide enough to fit the space so when I landed on these I was thrilled.  They have a lid like a picnic basket and not only were they the size I needed, but the black hardware on them worked well with the hardware I chose for this room.  I wasn’t originally planning on dark brown woven baskets, but they also coordinated well with the wood floors and the bench.  Finally some keepers!

When we were designing this space I told my architect to extend the drawers a bit so that I could add a small mini bench above them just in case my kids ever wanted to stand up on it to get to the top of the lockers.  Then I had it stained figuring white would show marks from the kids standing on it.  Guess what?  My kids don’t stand on it.  Sometimes I over think things.  :)  But I like the way it breaks up all of the white regardless and I love the deeper drawers.

To the left of the wall of lockers is our downstairs laundry room.  My kids come in the garage door, unload their things in the mudroom, and then head to the laundry room to wash their hands and unload anything that needs to be washed.  Half of Kole’s wardrobe most days.  :)
A lot of you have had questions about my floor plan so this pic shows where the laundry room and powder bathroom are located (both close to the mudroom).  If you keep walking past the powder bathroom you come to our stairs and main living spaces (kitchen/family room).

Here is a view of my mudroom from the other side of the room.  On the other side of the door I added additional locker style cabinets to the ceiling with drawers below them for extra storage.  (Extra storage!  It’s so strange to have extra storage.  Wonderful strange.)  :)  Then I had a small bench made for the space under the window.

This little bench was fun to design.  It’s a nice place to sit to take off shoes or to set things on.
Remember this work in progress picture?  :)

Here it is finished!  You also might remember an older post when I talked about my decision to add the dutch door back into the plans.  So glad I did!  It was in the plans in the beginning, then I took it out of the mudroom and added another window and a longer bench.  But I couldn’t stop thinking about my dutch door (I have loved them for so long) so back in the plans it went.

I decided to paint it black.  We have three doors that are visible from the front of our house (front door and two side doors off the porch) and they are all painted black to match our shutters.

A view of the porch with my hanging lanterns.  I love to leave the top half of this door open to let in our coastal breeze.  Someday I might be courageous enough to paint all of the doors and shutters a fun bright color, but for now I love the classic contrast the black makes with our grey paint.

I went with a clear glass fixture for this space (similar to a lot of my other lights).

 

The little white door (which I lovingly call my hobbit door) is a small closet.  We had so much room under our stairs that I made two little walk in spaces out of them for storage.  I keep our luggage in this one off of the mudroom.

Ok.  Are you ready to see what’s happening inside of the lockers?

Are the heavens opening and angels singing!?  :)  Oh the joy of organization and having a place for all things!  A few close ups…

I love actually having a place for my purse other than the kitchen counter.  My locker holds often worn jackets and I usually have my gym bag hanging along with them but it was getting washed when I took this picture.

My kids backpacks are usually heavy with books so I just have the kids set them on the cabinet bottom vs. hanging them.  Or they unload their books on the bottom and then hang the backpack.  Lately I’ve been emptying their lunch boxes and keeping them on the shelf on top.  I also thought this shelf could hold a tray for school work.

Remember this work in progress picture?  I added a plug outlet just above each shelf.

 

This way when the kids are older and have cell phones they can also use these shelves as a charging station.  So many options!  Optionality.  One of my favorite words.  :)

Ad’s scarf makes me laugh because it’s never really cold enough here to need a heavy scarf, but she wears it anyway because it’s “sparkly and fashionable.”  :)

My little buddy’s locker.

 

Kenny doesn’t use his locker so it’s currently holding our rain gear.
Although I think he needs to join the party and toss his briefcase in there with the frog boots.  :)
Bottom drawers pull out to hold our most often worn shoes.
These are my go-to’s most of the time.  Along with flip flops which are in the garage.

I did a massive shoe clean-out when we moved in so this is all my girls have right now.  I love that everything fits in their drawers so we don’t have to keep any shoes in their closets.  Easy access!

Kole is great to take off his shoes each day after pre-school and toss them in the drawer.  Kenny’s drawer is currently holding the balls he and Kole play with each morning before school while the girls in the house finish getting ready.

 

I have some ideas for how I’m going to use the extra storage cabinets, but haven’t organized everything yet.

Each cabinet holds adjustable shelves.

 

The drawers below them are really deep so they hold my most often worn boots.
Another favorite about this room is my door stop!  Such a simple thing, but it sure comes in handy each day as we are carrying things in and out of the house.
So that wraps up the tour of my mudroom!  Aside from providing ample storage and organization for our busy family this room also serves as a great place for hide and seek.
You can’t ask for much more than that.
:)
**Have a question about this space?  I answered them all here.
*affiliate links used
xoxo, Erin
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Uncategorized
04.18.14

Easter traditions and basket ideas

So Easter is this weekend!  I know you all know this.  I’m just reminding myself since I am NOT prepared this year.  The week has gotten away from me (I’m still on island time dreaming of tropical drinks in the hot tub) so tomorrow I will be scrambling.  Want to meet in the Easter section of Target anyone?  What?  You’ve already been there?  And picked all the best stuff?  Man.  I so remember the days when I had Easter planned and prepared a month in advance.  Three kids later and I now find myself planning our weekend the day before!  I sat down today and made a list of a few ideas for the kids’ Easter baskets.  Then I decided I should share my list with you too.  I also included some things I’ve done in the past when I’ve had a baby.  Because this will be my first year in ten that I haven’t had one age three or under.  (sniff)  So here are a few Easter basket ideas followed by a few of our annual Easter traditions.  You know.  Just in case there is anyone else scrambling at the last minute like me.  Anyone?  Someone?  
-EASTER BASKET IDEAS-


{For babies}

eggs full of cheerios or Gerber puffs
mini board books
onesies
bibs
spoons
sippy cup/bottle
binkie
stacking cups
blocks
teething toys

{For kids 3 and up}

chocolate bunny/candy
fishy crackers
crayons/colored pencils/water colors
stickers
flash cards
new socks
bubbles
jump rope
gift card
slinky
bracelet/earrings
hair bow/headband
chapstick/lip gloss
DVD/CD
books
sidewalk chalk
playdough
letters/shapes/number sponges for bath time
bath toys
eggs holding small toys (legos, dinosaurs, polly pockets)
eggs holding coins
beach/sand toys
puzzles/games/cards
small stuffed animals

My girls always get a new Easter dress…
or new pajamas.  We all get the most excited about new pajamas.  :)
A few other past traditions…

I pretty much always decorate with Easter candy.  Mostly because it is my all time favorite candy.  Chicks Ducks and Bunnies don’t last long around here.

We have an Easter tin that I always pull out.  

Because my girls love to have snacks in it like they did when they were little.  

 And we always eat the tin snacks with toothpicks.  

Because toothpicks make everything more fun.
My kids still love to dye Easter Eggs.  
And they still remember our Easter trips to the flower fields.  

We haven’t missed a year at our annual neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt.  
 Kids run wild and moms enjoy a minute to chat.  

It’s friend and family bonding at its best.  
Growing up we always went on a picnic every Easter weekend.  
That’s another tradition I’d like to start with my crew.  
Sunday is a special day at church remembering our Savior and all we have to be grateful for.  
There now.  I’m suddenly feeling excited for Easter!  
And I’ll feel even more excited after a last minute Target run.  :)
Would love to hear some of your Easter traditions!  What does your family do to celebrate?  

Hope it’s a happy one.
:)

xoxo, Erin
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Organization
04.15.14

Organized kitchen drawers and fridge

Well.  As promised I’m posting and not a stitch of laundry was done today.  :)  But I did manage to unpack everything and get groceries (with all three kids in tow – hyper from traveling all of yesterday and this morning and functioning on about 5 hours of sleep).  That was an adventure.  That I don’t want to repeat anytime soon.  But I’m still calling today a success!  Kauai pics are still sitting on my camera card so for now I am sharing a few more kitchen drawers I tackled before our trip.

One thing I’ve really been focusing on this year is helping my kids to be more independent.  I tend to be a bit of a control freak around the house (bet that’s news to you) and I’m working on not being as big of a control freak around the house.  Sounds simple, right?  So I organized a separate kitchen drawer that just holds the “kid” plates/bowls/cups, etc.

Now my three little soon to be chefs can easily access everything non-breakable and they can whip up snacks and get drinks all on their own.  And if the drawer doesn’t stay quite as organized as the picture above, I’ll be ok with that too.
(If I keep saying it, I will eventually mean it.  Baby steps.)

I also organized all of our Glad containers together.  I put some of the smaller containers/lids in a glass bread pan.  Because I’m not the bread making type and it needed to feel useful.  

I love using the Glad containers to hold leftovers and our cut up fruits/veggies for the week.  I mentioned when I showed my fridge in our previous house that I wash and cut our fruits/veggies soon after I get groceries.  I’m more likely to reach for something healthy if it’s already washed and ready to eat.  So are the kids.  

Not that everything in my fridge is healthy.  But it does stay organized.  :)  
I want to find some containers to separate a few things in this drawer, but other than that, I’ll just do my usual – try to keep similar things grouped together and wipe the shelves down each time I buy groceries. I’ve found that if I spend 5 minutes cleaning out old things and wiping off the shelves each time I put new groceries in the fridge it keeps everything clean.  That way I don’t have to do a massive fridge clean out that would take much longer than 5 minutes.  
 The new kitchen is about half way organized at this point!  On its way to being finished.  

Wish I could say the same for my laundry.

:)  
xoxo, Erin
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Uncategorized
04.14.14

I’m back

Hi friends!  I missed you all last week!  
I was busy.  Kayaking down rivers with captivating river guides.
  
Oh.  And my family was there too.  ;)
My girls were out of school last week for spring break and we spent the week in Kauai.  Such a great vacation!  Such a brutal re-entry.  I have a lot to post!  And a lot of bags to unpack and laundry to wash.  I will make sure to prioritize.  Post first, laundry later.   Talk soon.  

:)
xoxo, Erin
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Uncategorized
04.08.14

Recent pics

Hi friends!  Popping in with a few recent pics.  Very random.  A little bit of everything and nothing. :) 

Fun spring plate I spotted at Pier One.  Love this time of year with all of the fun Springness popping up everywhere!  (Is Springness a word?  If not it should be.)

Small gifts I put together for the Young Women in our church.  We give them bracelets on their birthday.

I feel like my circle punches are my most used craft item.  Ever.  I use them for everything.  From Valentine’s Day cards to school projects to my kids’  albums.  They come in so handy.  

Pretty purple tulips.  A late b-day gift from a friend.  

A blurry pic I snapped with my phone of Ad’s last book report (timeline) on Ramona Quimby Age 8.  Don’t you just love Ramona Quimby Age 8?  One of my all time favorite children’s books.  Although I have about 3,422 all time favorite children’s books.  Right now Kenny is reading my girls Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry.  Another one that is near and dear to me.  Reminds me of reading to my fourth and fifth graders every day after lunch.

Speaking of my Ad – a quick pic of her after I spent some time in her classroom last week.  Oh to be in 2nd grade again!  Such a sweet age.

Finally DONE with paint touch up work in the house.  And pretty much everything else that had to be finished.  So many people told me the building wouldn’t end after you move in and they were sure right about that.  But now we are done.  Such a happy feeling.  :)

Cute hand towels and a bath mat I picked up at World Market.  I had a coupon and scored all of this for under 20 bucks!  I’m going to try them in my girls’ bathroom.

A lot of the plants we planted in the yard are blooming!  It feels like we are seeing some of our yard for the first time.  Having a back yard has changed my life.  We are always outside.  We were outside a lot before too but it always involved me taking the kids’ to a specific place outside like the park or the beach.  Now they can run free and wild!  While I do dishes.  :)
Cooking chicken for a salad.  

I made this grilled chicken salad I pinned on my food/recipe board on Pinterest and it was seriously so good!  Try it if you get the chance!

Speaking of cooking – my mom wanted to get me new pans for Christmas this year because mine are trashed.  But I told her not to.  Because I like them trashed.  :)  I like to cut chicken in them (gasp!) and put them in the dishwasher (gasp!) and generally not worry about keeping them nice.  So my mom came up with another fun idea for Christmas.  

She gave me and my sister and my sister-in-law gift cards to Victoria Secret and said we were all going shopping together and then to lunch and it’s a new Christmas tradition.  SO much fun!  I bought these pajamas and have lived in them in the evenings ever since!  This pic is awful because I snapped it quick at night to text and thank my mom.  But I wanted to tell you about that gift idea because I thought it was so clever and fun.  Now we all have something to look forward to after Christmas each year – a little shopping/lunch girl get together.  It was so funny because our husbands saw Victoria Secret gift cards and got excited.  Then we all came home with pj’s like these.  
Probably not what they had in mind.  :)  
Some of you have asked me how I am keeping my new house clean.  
I train them young.  
:)
xoxo, Erin
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Home Decor
04.03.14

New chair!

You guys.  I’m in love.  The chair I ordered for the family room finally arrived!
It’s the Thatcher Upholstered Wingback Chair from Pottery Barn.  And it had me at hello.
And at good-bye.  And at everything in-between.

I was torn about what to put in this corner of the room but when I first spotted this chair, I knew.  Suddenly everything was clear.  I can honestly say it is my most favorite piece of furniture I’ve bought for the house this far.

Those stripes!  Those nailheads!
It’s too much.  I can’t take it.
;)

A few shots of it in the room.  You can choose from lots of fabric choices for this chair.  Easy decision for me because I have always loved stripes.  And I know even though this chair has stripes, it’s white and grey and technically another neutral item.  But here’s the thing with my thus far “neutral” purchases.  I know me.  This room will never really be decorated.  None of my rooms will.  I get tired of things quickly and like to switch them up.  So I wanted all of my larger, more expensive purchases to be neutral.  Then I can mix up the less expensive accessories with the seasons.  Picture this room with blues/greens/yellows in the spring, pops of red at Christmas, and warm colors in the fall.  Options are endless!  Even with my striped chair.  Did I mention I adore the stripes on this chair!?

This is a pic I snapped of it at the store with my phone the day I fell in love.  It looks good with this grey blanket and beige pillow, but I am going to look for a pillow with a little more personality.

Right now you’re wondering “how many pictures did she take of this chair?”
A lot.  :)
At some point I need to re-style my shelves and I really need to find something for above my mantel.
But for now I’m just happy to gaze at my chair.
 The rest of the fam approves of it too.  I kept trying to take pics of the chair to share with all of you but these two thought it was so comfortable they didn’t want to get off of it.
Can you hear me as I’m snapping this picture?  KOLE NO!!  STOP RIGHT THERE!!
I flew with lightning speed, scooped him up, and grabbed a tissue before that hand left his face.
My beautiful chair was saved!
Life with kids.
Sometimes we break things in a little too quickly around here.
:)
(affiliate links used)
xoxo, Erin
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Parenting
03.31.14

Dear Kole,

Buddy!  You turned four today.  FOUR!  I don’t know if I can write your letter this year.  Your daddy moved you into a “big boy” car seat last weekend without warning me first and I cried for 20 minutes.  I wasn’t ready for that.  And your dad will never pull something like that without warning again.  :)  I will do my best but if I become a basket case you may have to take over and write your own birthday letter like you did when you turned one.  Birthdays definitely bring out the sentimental sap in your mommy.  Besides, after that letter I think we can both agree that you are the better writer.   
You are at such a fun, adorable stage right now Kole.  I wish I could bottle you up at this age forever. And you have such a charming little personality.  Your preschool teachers always tell me that you make them all melt.  You are so polite.  “Polite defiance” comes to mind.  I’ll say “Kole – time to put away your dinosaurs”  and you answer “No thanks mommy.  I’m good playing with my dinosaurs.”  You always remind me of your daddy when you do this.  His favorite response when I ask him to do something is a polite “I’m not mad you asked.”  I can’t ever be too upset at you because I know where all of your tricks come from.  :)
You love Saturdays.  You love to wake up and watch TV in bed with mom and dad and then play play play with your sisters all day.  Every day you ask me how many more days until Saturday.  Yesterday you woke up and came running into our room and said “is it Saturday!? AND is it my birthday!?”  Unmatched excitement over the thought of both happening simultaneously.  :)

You are obsessed with Dinosaurs at the moment so a dinosaur party was the obvious way to go.  You were so adorable with your little preschool buddies.  Greeting each one and telling them “Hi! Thanks for coming to my birthday!  Do you want to come inside my Elmo jumpy!?” 

You love to jump Kole.  Our trampoline is your best friend so we knew a jumpy was the only way to go for your party.  Even though it was a dinosaur party, you picked out Elmo for your jumpy.  You beat to your own drum and we have learned to roll with it.  This day was all about you.  :)   You were basically in your jumpy from the minute it arrived at our house (10:00 am) until I dragged you out of it for bedtime around 7:00 pm.  Your dad and I are thinking the Elmo jumpy needs to become a permanent fixture in our yard.  :)

 Although you did emerge to play Ellie’s rendition of pin the tail on the dinosaur.  

And of course to blow the candles out on your dinosaur cake.  
Then it was back in the jumpy.  You cried when your friends left.  It was so tender.  You didn’t want them to leave and not jump with you anymore.  So mom and dad took turns jumping with you.  Until we could jump no more and then we recruited your sisters to fill in.  Your sisters love you so much Kole.  
You have come a long way from the days of just being one of their dolls.  :)
You are now old enough to officially complete the three musketeers.  Always up to mischief.  Always full of endless energy.  Always providing comic relief to your parents.  And most importantly – always together.  Sometimes I look out the kitchen window at you three playing together in the yard and in an instant I am so full of gratitude I feel like my heart might burst into a million pieces.  It’s the same way I feel when I pick you up at preschool.  You see my face and your little eyes just light up and you come running.  How unbelievably lucky I am to get to be your mom.  
Your favorite foods right now are noodles and yogurt and your favorite TV show is Dino Dan.  You live for weekends and you love to wear shorts.  You get so mad when it’s cold outside and I make you wear pants.  I’m always grateful that we live in a place with nice weather so that I don’t have to fight that battle too often.  :)  You are such a good sleeper Kole.  You always have been.  You tell me good night and I love you mommy and then you go right to bed without any problem.  You love books.  You ask me to read to you at least 20 times a day.  All too often we drop whatever is going on and sit on the floor somewhere in the house to read about Dinosaurs or to see what Little Critter is up to.  You are a great story teller Kole.  You love to make up stories – especially ones about big scary monsters.  You are a happy little boy but you definitely have your moments of unhappiness.  Sometimes you get mad and tell me “mom I am SO frustrated!  That makes me a boring!”  (Which means you are bored and not happy with whatever we are doing at the moment.)  
Luckily you never stay “a boring” for long because you always have three girls instantly working overtime to cheer you up.  Your own personal cheerleading team.  :)  You’ve also got your daddy who you adore and can’t get enough of.  You ask all day “when will daddy be home from work?”  You also constantly ask “is it time to go to the zoo with my daddy today?”  One of your all time favorite outings.    
Your speech has come so far in the last year Kole.  You are speaking in full sentences and are almost completely caught up to your peers.  At your last meeting with all of your preschool teachers they told me that you have achieved every one of your goals and last year’s thirty pages of goals is down to two for next year.  We have all worked so hard to get here.  I left the meeting and got in my car and cried.  I cried because I was overwhelmed with happiness and relief and most of all just so proud of you.  You are such a smart little boy Kole.  You learn so quickly and you try so hard.  I never doubted your ability to shine for a second.  
You have my heart Kole.  You have had it wrapped around your little finger from the second we met.  Sometimes your daddy gets slightly frustrated with me because you can do no wrong in my book.  I can’t help it.  You are my little boyfriend who all of a sudden isn’t so little anymore.  Even though you turned four today, you will always be my baby.  You will always have your mom’s heart wrapped around your little finger.  
But I do know that you are such a “big boy” now and so proud of it.  And we are all proud of you little buddy.  We love you to pieces and I can’t imagine our family without you in it.  Things would definitely be “a boring.”  :)  You make me smile every single day.  I can’t thank you enough for all of the smiles.  And for all of the kisses and hugs and cuddles and conversations.  I can’t thank you enough for all of the happiness you bring me by being sweet, perfect you.
Happy 4th birthday Kole!  Love you forever. 
Love, mom

xoxo, Erin
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Home Decor
03.26.14

Family Room Decor Update!

Time for another update on how my family room is coming along!  Sometimes it feels like it isn’t coming along.  This room has been harder for me to decorate than I thought it would be!  Finding a rug has not been easy.

We tried this aqua rug from Z Gallerie.  I really like the rug, but didn’t love it in this space.  A few things about it didn’t work.  For one it was a Dhurrie rug (like we now have in our formal dining room) which means it’s a flat weave and not that comfortable (realized this after I ordered it!).  Fine for the formal dining room under a table, but not what I wanted for our family room.  I wanted something more comfortable.  I was also worried about wear and tear.  This is the room where we all hang out and this rug will get the most traffic/spills/dirt, etc.  I also didn’t love the rug with the coffee table.  Maybe it’s just me but something about it just looked off??  Another concern for me was that it would be too much pattern (especially too much trellis pattern!) competing with other patterns that are coming soon.  So back to the store it went!
This rug was another option I was considering.  I ordered a smaller size to just see how it fit in the space before I ordered the big one (a tip to save money on shipping both ways).  Much softer, but I didn’t love the shade of blue.  So back to the store it went!  A lot of things have been going back to the store around here lately.  Trial and error!

 

Because the blue patterns weren’t working for me I went to Restoration and Pottery Barn and pulled some neutral patterns that might work.

So for a while my family room floor was a lovely hodge-podge of rugs.
Reminded me of a patch work quilt.
While the great rug debate was going on some fun mail showed up at my house.
Remember this console table to the right of the fireplace?

 

My baskets arrived!  I ordered these fun baskets to put on the bottom shelf.  I have loved these for a long time and knew while we were building I would find a place for them somewhere in my house! (Baskets are from Restoration Hardware – shock I know.  Sort of love that place.)
I tried out my yellow lamp on the console (I’ve had this lamp for years) and I love the look of a lamp in that spot, but I don’t love the yellow or the light shade in this space (the shade doesn’t pop enough against the white) so I found a new lamp for that spot that I’ll share soon.  The rest of the table top will be fun to accessorize!  Although with what I don’t know yet.  Aside from loving the look of the baskets, I also wanted them to hold our blankets.  We all love to curl up under blankets when we watch TV and I needed a place to hide them all.

Although a certain someone keeps taking the blankets out of the baskets…
and piling them up in a corner of the couch.  He loves them all out in a big pile!  Drives me nuts.
Probably wouldn’t drive me nuts if our blankets were pretty blankets that worked well with the decor.  But my husband’s beloved Charger blanket?  Not so much.  :)
Back to the rug…

Because I was worried about the room being too busy once other patterns are introduced I decided to try a more neutral rug in this space.  This is Pottery Barn’s chunky wool and jute rug.  While it isn’t what I originally pictured for this room, I think it looks really good.  It’s a combination of the color of my couch and my table.  Plus it’s SO soft.  It doesn’t look like it would be, but it really is!  Nice and thick and comfortable.  It will hide everything my kids dish out.  (* Post Update!  You can see how this space is decorated now here and read more about my rug in this post.  It’s my favorite and I now have it in two rooms!)

I was going to put a jute rug similar to this in my dining nook under the table, but if I keep this in the family room I think I’ll add a colored/patterned rug in the nook instead.

Even though I really like the rug in this space and it meets all the criteria of everything I was looking for, it feels so bland to me right now!  Because it is bland.

 

I’m trying to be patient waiting for some pattern and color.  :)
I tried putting my glass bottles above the TV but I’m not sure if I like them there?
I’m going to re-do the shelves at some point.  The vintage books are staying, but I’m moving everything else around.  Nothing is safe in my house for long.  :)
Here’s a peek of things to come for this room…
The grey/cream fabric on the left is what I chose for my drapes.  I’m really nervous about them.
I love the fabric, but I know drapes will completely change the look of the room so I hope I like the change!  It’s always hard to picture something like that for me and custom drapes aren’t something I can return.  (We had to order custom because the doors/transoms are so tall.)  I don’t do well without knowing I have the option to return.  :)

Here are my pillow fabrics.  (I crossed out the one on the far right because we were considering that for a rug for a while – ordered a sample and didn’t like the look of it at all).

 Here are the pillows/drapes together.
To be honest, I originally pictured brighter colors in this space, but everything really colorful I’ve tried just hasn’t looked right.  For whatever reason more neutral/soft colors look better in this room to me so I am playing with brighter colors in other rooms.  I do love the pillow fabrics and I’m excited to have pillows on the couch!  One more thing for Kole to pile up and move around.  On second thought… maybe I’m ok without pillows for a while…

In my last family room post I mentioned finally deciding what to do with the left corner of the room.
I ordered a chair!  And I love it and it comes on Thursday.  So I will share it soon!

I’m anxious to see how this rug works with the drapes and pillows and chair.
Then I will decide if it’s for sure a keeper.  But so far so good.

Whew!  That was a long post.  With decor posts this long, don’t be surprised if I change my mind on furniture/accessory selections by the time I’m done typing.

:)

{*You can see how my family room is decorated today and all sources HERE}

xoxo, Erin
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