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Favorite Things
11.14.14

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday everyone!  Popping in to share just a few favorites before the weekend!  My girls and I did a little Christmas shopping together and these fun furry friends just HAD to come home with us.  I let my kids pick out a new ornament for our tree each year and my girls fell in love with these little woodland “friends” from Crate and Barrel.  They do NOT go with my Christmas tree decor at all.  Actually, nothing coordinates on my tree.  It’s always just one big mish mash of past ornaments my kids have made and picked out along with red and silver ball ornaments.  So come to think of it, the deer, raccoon, and porcupine will fit in just fine.  :)

Continue reading “Friday Favorites”

xoxo, Erin
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Organization
11.12.14

Organized Wrapping Supplies

My house is so quiet right now!  Always such a strange feeling after my kids have been home with me for a couple of days (they were out of school for Vetrans Day).   While I loved having them home – I think my happiest moments are when my kids are all home with me and we have no schedule we have to follow – it does feel nice this morning to have a few hours of peace to get something done.  Like post these pictures that I have been dying to share with all of you!

Continue reading “Organized Wrapping Supplies”

xoxo, Erin
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Home Decor
11.06.14

Take a tour of my new office!

So excited to share my new office with you all today!  I kept waiting to take pictures of this space thinking I’d share it when the room was actually decorated and the cupboards were more organized, but neither has happened yet and I got tired of waiting for myself to finish everything.  :)  Plus I’m planning to take you all along as I decorate and organize this room so I might as well show you what the space looks like in it’s current condition!  Quick warning: this post is a LONG one.  So like I always say before overloading you with pictures – this might be a good time to grab a snack.  Pretzels and cheese anyone?  :) Continue reading “Take a tour of my new office!”

xoxo, Erin
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Thanksgiving
11.03.14

Gratitude thoughts

Why not?  Why can’t every day be the best day of the year?  I found this quote months ago and every day since it has been on my mind.  Every day is filled with ups and downs and every day I have a choice.  I can dwell on the things that go wrong and cause stress, OR I can choose to find joy in the little things – the blessings that are right in front of me.  Things like:

comfy pajamas
a phone call from mom
kisses from my little boy
an extra hour in the day
popcorn
anticipation for the holidays
reading a book I can’t put down
my pumpkin spice candle
a funny conversation with a friend
hearing my girls say “sure!” when asked to help out
the sound of the dishwasher humming in a clean house
a quiet evening with my husband
a new day tomorrow

Why can’t every day be the best day of the year?
In my heart I believe that most days really can.
Happy November friends.
:)
p.s.  We are adding to our gratitude journals this month!  You can read all about them here.
xoxo, Erin
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Halloween
11.01.14

Happy Halloween!

Twenty minutes to midnight so I’m popping in quick to say Happy Halloween!  My Eskimo girls and Abominable Snow Monster tore it up tonight.  It was magic for them which made it magic for me.  A day full of non stop partying – delicious food, perfect weather, and time spent with wonderful friends.  So grateful for another fun Halloween with these four.
Also so grateful that the time has finally come to sleep it all off.
Praying my little Snow Monster sleeps in tomorrow.
At least until 7:00.
That would be success at our house.
:)
Happy Halloween everyone!
xoxo, Erin
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Uncategorized
10.30.14

Everyday pics (insta round-up)

You guys.  I love Instagram.  Love it so much.  Blogging used to be more of an on-line journal for me.  A peek into our every day.  But now that my blogging time is so limited (partly due to two girls who are getting older and staying up too late!) I’m not able to share as much as I wish I could.  Instagram has been such a fun way to quickly pop in with friends and blog readers and share a peek of what’s going on around our house.  I decided towards the end of each month I’ll do a quick Instagram round-up on the blog so that those of you who aren’t on Instagram can see what we’re up too also.  I like everyone to be invited to the party.  :)  And if you aren’t on Instagram – join!  I hesitated for so long thinking it would be one more social media thing sucking up my time but it really isn’t!  It’s so fast and easy.  I can quickly see what my friends are up to while I’m waiting in the school pick-up or grocery store line and post something in one minute while my kids are getting their shoes on.  Ahh — modern technology!  So here are a few pics from October – complete with hashtags.  Because they’re fun.  :) 
Saturday thoughts
#pillowloveatnordstroms
#pickingupagiftandgotdistracted

Girls party!  Fun afternoon having the girls from my girls’ classes over to swim.  Kids had a blast.  Kenny and I are comatose on the couch.
#wheredoestheenergycomefrom
#kolewaslivingitupwithallthosegirls
Sitting down to eat my favorite lunch.  Salad with fruit followed by purple skittles.
#wouldn’twanttobetoohealthy

Puttering in my pantry
#imsurethereareotherthingsishouldbedoingrightnow
Sporting my Fall bags… at the swimming pool.
#fallinsandiego
#swimlessonsallyear 

After school snack is ready to go!  We ate so badly on our trip.  Jeans are tight today so I’m whipping us back in shape.  If I have this ready when my kids walk in the door and are STARVING I have a much higher success rate getting them to eat their veggies.
#tricksofthetrade
#ilovesugarsnappeas
#butiloveskittlesmore
Unfortunately I’m sporting a not so cute accessory this Fall.  :(
#plantarfasciitis
#stuckwiththisbootfor4weeks

Popping in later with a post but for now I just wanted to say happy Monday to all my friends.  Grateful to have all of you in my life!

#freshflowersmakemehappy
#sodoallofyou

Whole family got flu shots today.  Then this little guy got 4 more.  Holding my kids while they get shots never gets easier for me.  Keeping him home from pre-school.  5 shots deserves a day off!  And lots of ice cream.

#hardtoseemylittlebuddysad

 Halloween picture banner is up!  Fun to see past Halloween pics and reminisce.  Happy October!

#finallyfeelslikefall

Our after school routine.  Shoes off in the mudroom.  Then El feeds the turtles while this little one spills EVERYTHING about her day.  And then some more.
#shetalksandtalksandtalks
#iloveraisinggirls

Ellie just presented me with her Sunday to-do list.  Complete with pictures and a box for the check mark.  I gotta say… this just warms my heart.

#appledoesn’tfalltoofar
#myworkhereisdone

Enjoying an unexpected child free stroll through Target.  Such a luxury!
#lovingthesesnowflakeplates
#thisstoreissodangerous
And that’s a wrap for October!  Aside from all of the Halloween fun that will be shared today and tomorrow.  (You can follow my instagram feed at erin_sunnysideup)
Happy Halloween everyone!  Have a safe one!  
And save some skittles for me.
:)

xoxo, Erin
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Organization
10.29.14

Organized art supplies (a new solution!)

Talking organized art supplies today!  I know.  We’ve talked about organized art supplies before.  That’s because I have a thing for art/school supplies.  And for keeping them organized.  :)  Just before school let out last June I got our art supplies under control with this fun wooden bottle caddy.

It worked great for a few months, but I realized my kids were reaching for the markers, colored pencils, pencils and crayons the most often.  Our crayons were in a different container in a drawer and it didn’t make sense to have them separated from everything else.  I knew once school started and the kids were living in the craft room I needed a better solution.
These are the things that keep me up at night.  ;)
So this is what I came up with!  I found this cool wooden tray at Tai Pan in Utah over the summer and bought it thinking I’d use it on my dining room table.  But then I came home and decided to try putting pots inside of it to hold our most often used art supplies.
Perfect solution!  I still use the other wooden organizer to hold scissors and brushes and supplies we don’t use as much, but the pencils, crayons, markers and colored pencils that we use over and over every day are right out on the table – easy to reach.  I might paint the black pots another color – or switch them out at some point, but for now (until I figure out the direction I’m going with decor in this room) the black works great.  I almost borrowed the wooden trey to put some pumpkins and fall accessories in it for the living room, but I knew we’d miss it too much in the craft room.  The kids use this every single day.  Problem solved!  Whew.  Now I can sleep.
:)
When I took these pictures I snapped a few of the craft room so I can finally show you one of my favorite rooms in the house!  It’s empty and not decorated yet, but coming soon anyway.  Is everyone having a fun Halloween week?  It’s always a busy one!  I’m holding off on Christmas decor but am having a hard time restraining myself.  I promised my husband I’d wait until Halloween is over but then all bets are off and I’m turning this place into a winter wonderland!
Just minus the winter.
xoxo, Erin
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Halloween
10.27.14

Easy Halloween Treat

Tonight was movie night with the kids which included our all time favorite Halloween treat.  One night when the girls were little I grabbed a few snacks I had on hand in our pantry and tossed them together and ta-da!  Just like that our family’s favorite Easy Halloween Treat was born.
What makes it a “Halloween” treat?  It’s in a jack-o-lantern bowl of course.

Plus it includes candy corns.  Candy corns, like a jack-o-lantern bowl, signal Halloween.  Additional items include: popcorn, pretzels, fishy crackers, and m&m’s.

It’s funny to me that this simple combination is such a hit with my kids.  Part of the reason is because they only get this treat a couple of times in October which adds to the magic and makes it seem extra special.  Some squeals may have been heard down the street when I whipped this up tonight.  Took me a whole 5 minutes.

 No cooking involved + squealing excited kids?  My kind of treat.
Thought you might want to whip it up this week at your house too.
You can tell your kids I said “you’re welcome.”
And Happy Halloween.
:)
xoxo, Erin
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Halloween
10.23.14

Easy Halloween Picture Banner

I’ve always loved displaying pictures of my kids during the holidays as part of my decorating.  So many fun memories are made each year!  I love to have them out for our family to look at often.

In my previous house I made this aqua frame for my family room so that I could easily switch out seasonal pictures.

But the frame wasn’t working in our new family room so I decided to just hang the pictures across my fireplace mantel.

It turned out cute and was SO easy to do.  It took a whole 15 minutes and my kids love it!  I already had a lot of these past Halloween pictures so I just developed a few more recent pics to add to the banner.  (All of the pics are 5×7)

 I used thick burlap from the craft store and just folded it in half.
 I moved a picture so you can see what the burlap looks like underneath.

I was trying to figure out how to attach it without damaging my mantel or the paint so I wrapped the burlap up on each end of the mantel…

and then just pulled each end underneath the lanterns (the right end was much longer than the other to reach the opposite side).  I did this at first just to see if the burlap would work and how it would look, but it held everything so well I just left it like this.  No need to come up with a fancy attachment and make things harder than they need to be!  Especially for something seasonal that I will take back down soon.

 Then I just used clothespins to attach the pictures.

*sidenote:  I did a little happy dance when I went to find my clothespins!  No searching because they were organized so nicely with all of my school/craft supplies in a labeled bin in my office.

Made me want to ditch the mantel decorating and start organizing another office cupboard!  But that’s my problem.  I start too many things and then don’t finish anything.  So on that note — back to the topic at hand.  :)

 The clothespins and burlap worked great.  Like I said, so easy.
My kids love the banner and having our favorite Halloween books out.  Makes it really feel like October.  They come over to this spot every day to look at the pictures and read a book or two.  I especially love walking in the room and seeing one of my girls reading to Kole.  So sweet.

Looking back at these pictures makes me realize once again how quickly my kids are growing up.  It’s a good reminder to me to slow down and enjoy this fun time of year with them.

Happy October friends.
:)
xoxo, Erin
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Home Decor
10.21.14

Our new staircase

This weekend as I was putting away the kids’ new Halloween costumes (they’ve been running around in them all week so excited for Halloween) I suddenly flashed back to this week last October.  Around this time one year ago we moved into our new house.  I truly can’t believe we have been in the house a year!  I still feel like we just moved in.  I use that excuse all the time when people come over to explain away the state of my home.  Ignore the mess and the empty rooms!  We just moved in.  A year ago!  Ha!  Might have to come up with a new excuse.  :)  I decided in honor of our one year house anniversary I should finally show you our stairs!  (If interested you can see the beginning stages of these stairs here.)
I don’t know why I have such a fascination with stairs but I do.  I had almost every detail of this staircase already designed in my head before we even met our architect (Coastal/Craftsman with a modern twist!).  First of all – that runner!  Chosen by some of you!  I love it.  So thank you to all of you who voiced your opinion in this trendy vs. safe post and helped me make this decision.  I’m so glad I listened to all of you!  (And to my husband who likes to remind me that he chose that runner too – I just didn’t really listen to him until all of you agreed.)  :)  I love this view of the stair runner because it ties in so nicely with the mudroom baskets you can see down the hall.  Not really planned but I’ll take it!
I wanted to do something unique that I hadn’t seen before so we came up with this fun detail on the side of the stairs.  I worried that it might be too busy, but everything else is so clean and simple that I think it works.  I’m excited to dress these stairs up for the holidays!
Simple inset panels that match the molding throughout the house.  My favorite look.  :)
This is a view of the hallway with the formal dining room on the left.

You come to the stairs  quickly after entering the house through the garage.  Mudroom, laundry room, and powder bathroom are on the left.

Then my office (dutch door you can see on the right).  The main living areas (kitchen and family room) are across from the stairs.
I decided to stain the top of the molding to match the treads and railing.
Sorry.  Just realizing now I took way too many pictures of the stairs.
One of every view from every angle apparently.
Obviously they take me to a happy place.  Mostly happy that they are actually finished and we can enjoy them.  When you’re building it feels like you’ll never reach that point!

I loved this modern light fixture and knew early on that I wanted to use it somewhere in the house so I was thrilled when I realized it fit perfectly over our stair landing.

I think it works with all of the clean lines in the molding.  And I love how pretty it is at night!  It really lights up the staircase.

It also ties in nicely with the black and white striped rug in the upstairs laundry room.  The only thing in the upstairs laundry room!  Other than hampers full of dirty clothes of course.

I’m planning on bringing more black in the upstairs hallway at some point next year when I get around to finishing the upstairs.  I’ve made a lot of progress in the girls’ rooms!  But at the rate I’m going I’ll have pictures ready to share with all of you around 2016.
You’ll have to cut me some slack because after all,
we did just move in.
:)
xoxo, Erin
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Home Decor
10.17.14

Fiddle Leaf Fig Fail

Fiddle Leaf Fig trees.  They have been all the rage in design for a while now.
Popping up on blogs and in home decor magazines right and left.
They seem to look amazing and just ‘work’ in any style of room.
Adding personality..
and life to every space they fill.
I am a fan.
So a few weeks ago when I was at Home Depot picking up some plants for my kitchen and happened to stumble upon this beauty it was love at first sight.  Such a gorgeous plant!  So healthy and green and just … cool.  I paused for only a minute – unsure if I could actually keep it alive – but once I was told Home Depot has a one year warranty/return policy on all plants I knew we were in business.  This beauty was coming home with me.

I raced home so excited about my new plant.  I set it in the only basket I could find knowing I’d have to figure out a better pot/basket for my plant later.  I placed it in the family room corner I had planned for it, stepped back, and waited to hear angels sing!
But the angels didn’t sing.

Instead they just sort of squawked.  My fiddle leaf was way too big for the space covering half of my bookshelf.  I moved it around in the corner and just couldn’t make it work.  No matter how I placed it, it just didn’t look right.

 So I tried it on the other side of the room behind the chair.
Which looked AWFUL.
Angels had left the building at this point.
Then my husband walked in and said “what’s with the ugly 80’s plant!?”
WHAT!?  That isn’t just a plant!  I told him.  It’s THE Fiddle Leaf Fig!  And they are all the rage.
Just apparently not in our house.
I moved the plant to a few different rooms and still wasn’t feeling it.
The magic was lost and I could tell it wasn’t meant to be.
 So I took it back to Home Depot.
 And bought another $2.00 fern for the kitchen.  

 

They might not be popping up right and left in the design world, but they suit me just fine.
Plus the angels (and my husband) seem to agree.
:)
xoxo, Erin
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Home Decor
10.15.14

Modern Decor (my sister’s house)

I’m back!  Still haven’t unpacked.  Does anyone else struggle with this?  I tend to not unpack very quickly after a trip.  I keep living out of my suitcase until days later.. holding on to the vacation not wanting it to end. Apparently blogging trumps laundry AND unpacking.  :)
Sharing a few pics of my sister’s beautiful home today!  Thought I’d start with her gorgeous back yard…
I love this yard.  So many beautiful trees!  And large enough for kids to run around and play.
On one side she has a sand pile covered by trees and vines that make it shady in the summer.  Our little boys spent hours here last weekend.
She gathered some branches from her yard and put them in this owl for simple Halloween decor on her back porch.  Her kids made and hung the bats.

Car has always loved more of a modern style.  She and her husband have completely renovated this house.  I wish I had before pictures!  They have done such an amazing job.  I love visiting and checking out their latest project/addition.

I wanted to get more of the center of this room but all you could see out of her big beautiful window was our huge 15 passenger van.  Ha!  :)

Isn’t it all so stylish!?   I didn’t have time to get all of the pictures I wanted to so I’m just sharing a few shots I quickly took before I walked out the door.

This is part of her kids’ playroom.  Isn’t the wallpaper fun!?

They recently re-did their kitchen and are working on their master bedroom – plus her kids’ rooms are  adorable!  I wish I would have had time to take more pictures.  We were too busy laughing and eating.  ;)  I’ll have to take more next time I’m there.  She does such a beautiful job decorating everything and even though her style is a bit more modern than mine, I go into her house and just LOVE it all.

Thanks for letting us take a peek inside your beautiful home Car!  
Love it and love you.  
xoxo, Erin
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