Looking forward to all of the handmade love coming my way.
:)
Hope yours is a great one!
xoxo, Erin
Kole
05.10.13
Happy Mother’s Day!
New House
05.09.13
House update!
Oh my word. Sorry for the slow week on the blog everyone! Things are hopping at the new house and I have pretty much been living there lately. In fact, tonight I’ve been considering just taking a sleeping bag on up and breaking my new bedroom in a little early. The only thing holding me back is a vision of what my girls’ hair might look like for school if Kenny is left alone in charge of the morning routine. Scary. :) Here are a few pics of some recent progress with the finish work.
Getting ready to start the ceiling in the master bedroom.
Beams went up first!
And then the tongue and groove! Which I prefer to call planks. :) The whole ceiling will be painted white and the family room ceiling will be the same. They started that ceiling yesterday. Yea for progress!
Entry paneling is finished.
And everything is getting a lovely primer coat of crazy bright white. I’m still torn on what color to paint my front door and dutch door and I have to decide quick because the color determines the finish of my door hardware which we need to order soon. Leaning towards black. Or maybe a fun blue? Probably black. Maybe.
This is the wall to the left of the formal living room. That wall was closed in the beginning stages with our architect but I decided to open it up so that the hallway wouldn’t feel too long and dark. Then I added a recessed niche and had the carpenters add some 7 in. wide planks. A fun backdrop for a photo collage! I have this whole room already decorated in my head. :)
Recent pics with the primer.
Planks for the ceiling over the kitchen nook. Crown will go up soon to finish the look!
Doors have all been installed and primed.
And here is a picture of the kitchen from last week. (Decided not to put planks in between these beams).
Right now my kitchen is full of cabinets!
And they are all over the floor!
And they are going to be installed tomorrow!
Not that I’m excited or anything.
:)
xoxo, Erin
Ellie and Addison
05.06.13
Weekends like this one
I want to remember weekends like this one.
Rainy weather.
Slow mornings in pajamas.
Toys all over the place.
Kenny’s phone fairly silent (rare).
Kole marching around the house singing “hi ho hi ho.. it’s off to work we go…”
(we’re a little obsessed with the seven dwarfs at the moment)
Sunday drive through pretty neighborhoods with tree lined streets.
Naps for the boys.
All caught up on laundry (also rare).
Waffles for breakfast. And dinner.
Lots of cuddling on the couch.
Stories at bedtime.
I want to remember how happy we are right now.
Especially during weekends like this one.
xoxo, Erin
Addison
05.03.13
Favorites and Fashion
A few random pics today. I’m in a random sort of mood. :)
K. These are too cool. First of all, if you have a baby are you tossing GoGo Squeez snacks in your purse? These are all the rage around here and while I didn’t use them with any of my three (what rock was I living under?) I know I would have loved them. Healthy snacks for baby on the go! The only complaint is the not so baby friendly pouch cap. Pouch pops to the rescue! They simply attach to the top of the pouch cap. Wa-la! Now your baby can feed him/herself. In the car! On the go! Perfect for that transition period from bottle to solid food. I had to share them for all infant mom’s because my friends have raved about the pouch pops (babies love them) and I know I would have loved them too. Almost makes me want to have another baby to try them out. Almost. :)
Another favorite. Tried and true and I’ve shared this one before. I just bought a new MAC eye lash curler (my original one has gone missing – no doubt Kole has it stashed in a couch cushion somewhere…). One of my all time favorite beauty products! Makes my eye lashes so long.
This amazing necklace is from Banana Republic. One of the things Kenny gave me for my birthday. He picked it out himself. Well. With help from me that is. :) Isn’t it beautiful!?
I love it so much and I haven’t even worn it yet! Same with this other BP necklace my mom gave me a while ago. I need to figure out what to wear with them and just haven’t yet. So for now I just keep admiring them in this box on my dresser.
Two different friends gave me this scarf and earrings (also b-day gifts) but don’t they go well together?
I have loved wearing this combo.
And a fun yellow skirt for Spring I bought at Down East in Utah months ago.
I love the thick band at the top.
I just paired it with a white tank and my navy sweater and some wedges. Yellow and Navy is such a fun combo, don’t you think?
And one of my all time favorite accessories.
Hanging with Miss Addie after a recent and remarkable 1st grade performance.
Enjoy your weekend everyone!
xoxo, Erin
New House
05.02.13
We have stairs!
Real stairs! That we can walk up and down! And a railing to hold! It’s wonderful. I feel like Tom Hanks on The Money Pit. “We have stairs!” Classic.
Top trim wasn’t quite finished when I took most of these pictures.
Now the top trim is finished.
Several of you have asked me when the house will be done and we can move in.
“Two weeks!”
“Two weeks!”
Kidding. Still in Money Pit mode. :)
We are supposed to finish in July (one year from our start date) but since I know that there is no such thing as a house that is built on budget and on time I’m crossing my fingers for August.
Crossing my fingers… but not holding my breath.
xoxo, Erin
Organization
05.01.13
Organizing solutions (my way your way)
Hello hello friends! Â I’ve rounded up some serious organizing eye candy for you today. Â Woot woot! Â (You know I mean business when I break out with a “woot woot!”) Â I have been so inspired lately with fun organizing solutions that are similar to methods I already have in place so of course I had to share them all with you! Â Enjoy!
You’ve all seen my craft space several times. Â It has been so nice to have a set cupboard for the kids to keep all of their art supplies. Â But if a cupboard is nice…
how fabulous would a whole armoire be? Â I love that most used toys can be stored low for little hands, art work is displayed on the doors, and at the end of the day everything can be closed up and hidden. Â Genius!
I also love the idea of keeping an “art tray” nearby stocked full of pencils, scissors, markers, etc. so that supplies are always within reach.
I’ve shared how I store my jewelry. Â Necklaces hang on hooks on the wall and everything else is crammed into a small jewelry box (so excited to revamp this system after we move!).
Here are a few other fun ideas…
Use simple mini hooks to hold necklaces.
Or try multiple jewelry stands! Â I love that everything is out on display here. Â I think I’d wear my jewelry more if I could see it all!
I’ve always kept my nail polish in this simple divider.
But what a fun idea to use an old spice rack? Â Or a new one. Â :)
I love seeing creative organizing solutions.
A simple book from Hallmark has helped me keep track of birthdays and organize my cards.
But how cool is Jen’s solution for organizing cards? Â Categorizing just makes me smile! Â This way you can stock up on cards and always have one ready to go if you are short on time.
It’s like having your own mini Hallmark right at your fingertips! Â :)
In the past I have used a simple trash can to corral wrapping paper. Â This was especially handy for me during the holidays when I set up my Christmas wrap station.
But how simple and fabulous is this solution?
Cup hooks holding dowels make smart wrapping paper storage!
Labeled Ziploc bags for kids’ clothes each day of the week has been a lifesaver for helping us plan and lay out weekly outfits. Â Mornings have run much smoother since we implemented this little system!
But if I had the room…
I LOVE this solution too! Â Hooks on the closet door with a simple paper label for each day of the week. Â You could also add the hooks on a blank wall in your child’s room. Â So smart!
In my linen closet I store cleaning supplies in labeled bins.
But I think next time I organize cleaning supplies these lined wire baskets with labels are calling my name. Â So stylish! Â About as stylish as toilet paper and cleaning supplies can look if you ask me. Â :)
And you’ve all seen our makeshift mudroom on a wall in our garage. Â It has worked well for us, but I love the following solution even more…
All you need for this is a shelf with some hooks and a hallway! Â A perfect place for kids to drop off shoes and backpacks. Â And a happy place for the family calendar to live as well!
YEA! Â So many fun organizing solutions.
Hope this post made you as happy as it made me.
:)
xoxo, Erin
home decor 2
04.29.13
Spring Mantel
Sharing a few pics of my mantel at this very moment. Â And I know it’s pretty similar to past Spring mantels I’ve already shared. Â But while I was decorating it I realized that it was the last time I’d decorate this mantel in this house so I’m sharing pictures anyway. Â :)
The only new addition to the mantel is the plate. Â It has been with me a while. Â It was $2.99 at Home Goods and for that price and with those colors it just sort of hopped in my cart.
 A simple Spring mantel.  That I thought was done and done.
 Until Ad brought home this ever so interesting clay fish she made in school.
And with that pose and with those colors, he just sort of hopped on up.
Free for all mantel. Â Wonder what will find its way up there next?
:)
xoxo, Erin
Uncategorized
04.25.13
iphone dump
A favorite hang out.
Life with sisters.
Ever so patiently waiting his turn.
So happy I caught this moment at the park.
Girls being especially quite upstairs always = fun surprises for mom.
Turtles taking a soak.
Open House in Ad’s class. Made me miss teaching 1st grade!
And 4th. And 5th.
Swim lessons with El.
Working hard to get ready for a swim test she has to pass next month before she can take her favorite lifeguard summer camp at the beach. El is such a good swimmer – WAY better than her mom
although that’s not saying much. Nose plugs anyone? :)
Lessons are on her early out day at school so Kenny comes home for lunch to stay with (napping) Kole and Ad while I take her.
What do I do during El’s swim lesson? Nothing! Highlight of my week!
Although it’s officially time to lose the jeans and boots and let my white legs see some sun!
Girls were in charge of Kole’s birthday cupcakes for our little family party.
Mmmmmmm.
Sprinkles anyone?
The birthday boy didn’t mind much.
He enjoyed them so much in fact that we had to sing and let him blow out the candle oh..
about 18 times.
The men in my life. Kole is holding his remote control. He uses it to make the “diggers” move.
:)
xoxo, Erin
Uncategorized
04.24.13
Master Bedroom (just a peek)
K – this really has nothing to do with my post, but I have to say that lately I have been having such a hard time staying on top of things around the house. And by “lately” I mean the past few years. :) Ever since child number three came along it feels like housework is such an uphill battle. Kenny came home tonight and I said “Ahhh! I can’t wait to move! The new house is going to be so… clean!” Kenny was like “um… I don’t know why you think it’s going to be any easier to keep clean than this house…” But he doesn’t get it. He doesn’t know that the new house is going to be different. It’s going to be this magical place. A magical place where dishes wash themselves, laundry will cease to exist, and floors will stay perfectly vacuumed and polished. Everything will have a place where it happily resides and clutter and chaos will be no more. While I’m at – daydreaming away – it will also be a place where delicious, well-balanced home cooked meals appear each evening right around dinner time…
I have a dream! Similar to yours? :)
Moving on now.
Sharing a few progress pics of the master bedroom today.
These were taken a couple of months ago just after drywall.
The door to this room is down the hall a bit. Right before the french doors that open to the back porch.
Here is that same space now. Primed and almost ready to paint!
This is the wall our bed will face.
That same wall today.
And a sketch of what that wall will look like when it’s finished.
A bird’s eye view of the room.
I’m excited about this space!
Even though deep down I’m well aware that the bed won’t make itself.
:)
xoxo, Erin
Uncategorized
04.22.13
Weekend Organizing (and other nonsense)
I hope you all had a restful weekend friends! Sharing a quick re-cap of what went down around here.
Friday afternoon we loaded up the car and then I kissed three people good-bye.
Well. More than three if you count the “friends” who were along for the ride. :) Kenny took the girls camping (they go once a month with a group of dads and daughters) so it was just my little boyfriend and I left at home (the only boyfriend Kenny is cool with).
A whole weekend to ourselves! Hmmmm… what to do…. what to do….
I know! I’ll make a list! Nothing like a good to-do list and time to actually tackle it. Not a long list, but each to-do was a major time sucker. Plus I did still have my little man to tend to who is known to be a bit of a to-do list sabotager. :) But despite his best efforts, I managed to cross off most of my list (and a few things not listed!) which has left me starting the week both tired and happy. There was also a lot of train assembling, pillow fort building, and Peppa Pig watching that went on but I didn’t take a ton of pictures. Time was of the essence! Here are a few I did snap…
Quick fridge clean out. I’m wishing I would have taken a “before” because it was so bad. Not a lot of upkeep lately on my part and my organized spaces were falling fast. After a good 45 minutes we were back in business.
And desperately in need of groceries!
Quick pantry tidying.
I went to put something away in the craft cupboard and gasped at what was staring back at me.
Ten minutes and we were back in business in this space.
I cleaned out the closet under my stairs. Again. It’s our major catch all for anything that doesn’t have a home. I didn’t take pics of the before and after, but here is how I’m storing a few things in that closet…
Because we are short on space I always store suitcases inside of suitcases and bags inside of other bags.
Summer essentials I keep in a bucket for easy access (I added sunscreen after I took this picture). This is next to our beach bags so if we are heading to the beach or pool I can have us ready in no time. Well. Not no time. It still takes us some time. Nothing happens at light speed with three children. But now we can be ready in less time! And less is more if you ask me. But you didn’t ask me so I’ll stop rambling now. At least about this picture.
When I cleaned out our van (our van requires a major clean out before I can even take it to the car wash!) I realized that our front console was a mess. I emptied it only to find three umbrellas. THREE! And it doesn’t even rain here that much. Funny. So I rounded up all of our umbrellas that were living in random places throughout the car and the house and grouped them together in this green bucket I had on hand. Now when it does rain we will be ready in no time! Well. Not no time. But less time.
You get the picture. :)
Our bougainvillea vine over the garage is looking stunning as always but I have to say that while this vine and I were once in love, we have now become mortal enemies. I decided this as I swept out my garage for the 3,267th time this year. I also decided that I can’t plant one over the garage in my new house like I thought I would. Bummer! As beautiful as it is, it is just way too high maintenance. These lovely little pink flowers blow off and end up everywhere. I will have to find a better spot for one in the new place.
There are a couple of things left to accomplish whenever I find a minute. Girls’ bathroom cupboards are in need of some tweaking and as you can see on my list – I didn’t organize blog posts for the week. Nothing new there. Oh well! I’m a better fly by the seat of my pants kind of blogger anyway. :)
In between organizing spurts both days my little buddy and I went to the park. I got a run in and he got some swing/slide/sand time. Win win! We both enjoyed the fresh air.
He also “helped” me prepare meals. The two of us had a fabulous time together but after two full days of “where my Ellie go?” “where my Addie go?” “where my daddy go?” we were both ready to see our campers again.
Just not so ready for the laundry they brought with them.
:)
xoxo, Erin
Uncategorized
04.17.13
A bit of Fall in the Spring
Hello friends. :) It’s Spring. I know. But I’m about to share Fall pictures with y’all anyway. (I don’t usually say “y’all.” Ok – when I lived in Virginia I said “y’all” attempting to blend in better. I had so much fun saying to my 4th graders “y’all listen up now!” Ha! K. Why am I talking about this? I’m tired and clearly need to keep this post short.) Anyway! Back to the pictures. My cute friend Josie took these of our family last November during our Christmas card photo shoot in my mom’s backyard. We played in the leaves in between posed shots to loosen up a bit!
This one is funny to me. Kenny and I look like the tin man from The Wizard of Oz.
Oil can please!
These pictures are messy and random. And kind of my favorites.
That’s it for now. Y’all have a great day.
:)
xoxo, Erin
New House
04.16.13
Staying organized during a build/re-model
Hello friends! I have had a similar question pop up a few times so I thought I’d take a minute to answer it today. Some of you have e-mailed me asking for suggestions on how to stay organized during a build or home re-model. Well. Let me tell you. This has been my toughest organizing challenge EVER! It is unbelievable the amount of STUFF you have to keep track of when you build a house. I’m sure going through a major re-model is the same. I constantly have books, receipts, sketches, and samples all over my house. Until just last week we had a bathtub sitting in our garage. :) It can be a bit overwhelming keeping it all under control! I’ve shared most of these ideas before, but I thought a post with everything in one place might help. So! Here are a few things I’ve done that have helped me stay organized throughout this process…
1) Corral your “inspiration.” A process like this begins with looking at LOTS and LOTS of inspiration photos. Pinterest is the best way to organize your inspiration pictures on-line. If you’re getting ready to build or re-model and don’t have a Pinterest account I would highly recommend getting one! My architect was amazed at how many photos I had on my computer showing him exactly what I wanted. It made both of our jobs a lot easier! My Pinterest boards started out fairly organized (exterior of homes, bathroom, kitchens, etc.) but as the building process became more time consuming I just started dumping all of my pictures onto one happy board titled “Creating my House” which you can see here. :)
Before I started this process magazines were piling high on every surface!
I bought this magazine holder from Ballards to keep them all in one place. I wanted them in a central location that was easy to get to since I was referring to certain pictures so often. Another alternative is to just buy a big basket to hold all of your magazines.
What to do with all of the pages you are tearing out of magazines? I went to my happy place (Martha Stewart supply section of Staples) and picked up a binder and a large accordion file.
Then I sorted all of my inspiration pics into piles…
labeled each room…
and filed away!
2) Use binders and notebooks to organize your sketches and notes.
I bought tabs and organized all of my cabinet and built-in sketches by room.
Then I labeled a spot in my time management notepad “new house” so that I have a place to jot down notes and to-do’s as they pop up.
3) Use file folders/boxes to hold important papers that are house related.
We don’t have drawers in our current house for files so I just bought a simple crate to organize random house related papers.
Pick up some file folders. Fun colors are a must.
Then organize away! I initially started this file box for papers for the kids but lately have added several folders for new house forms as well.
4) Have a set location to hold all of your house related items.
I have our house and landscaping plans in big baskets hidden behind the living room couch. Find a location that is easily accessible because you will be pulling these out ten times a day!
Next to our plans I have everything else house related. Files, binder for sketches, plans, paint swatches, etc. Oh. And throw in some diapers and wipes for good measure. :)
As far as larger samples go, a closet or specific place to house them all would be lovely. We don’t have room for them. Or for much of anything which is why we are building. :)
For months I had samples all over my living room floor.
Now that I’ve picked out all of our tile and counter tops I’ve moved most of our samples to the garage.
A few other things that might help:
5) Keep a bag in your car with a tape measure, a notepad and pen, and a pair of shoes that you don’t care about for hanging out at the job site. Every time I visit our new house I have these things handy!
6) organize e-mail folders in your inbox for specific house related e-mails.
I have separate folders titled:
– cabinets (all of our cabinet sketches and e-mails regarding cabinets)
– design sketches (all of our random design sketches)
– yard (every e-mail about landscaping that I need to save)
– finish work (e-mails on finish work)
– inspiration pictures (e-mails including pictures I’ve sent)
– finances (e-mails pertaining to finances) — although I don’t have much in this folder. Unfortunately I can’t give you a lot of advice on how to organize the finance component of building because that is Kenny’s job. He has spreadsheets galore going on to keep track of it all. While I love the design aspect of this project, the finances are one area I am more than happy to turn over to him!
Like I said before, this beast has been a hard one to stay on top of. :) I hope a few of the things that have helped me stay organized throughout this process helps some of you as well!
xoxo, Erin