video of our old place

i am working on some posts about our progress on the house. for some reason, it's taking more effort than i anticipated to get my thoughts in order with that one. 

i thought you might enjoy a tour of our old place. i took this video right before we moved. i thought it would be fun to show our lil' kiddies one day. 

we made many a memory in that place. i loved it. 

not gonna lie, though, kinda nice having a kitchen where the fridge doesn't hit the other cabinets when you open it, and your hineys don't touch when you and the hubs try and walk by each other:)

hope someone else is loving this place as much as we did.

hand painted herringbone wall

Well, I'm getting a little(okay totally) out of order with the house. We have been making so many structural changes, that I decided it was time to do something fun. Don't get me wrong, the unseen things have tons of value...but I was sooo ready to do something light-hearted and fun.

A while back I did this hand painted chevron nursery. I loved the way it turned out and filed it away for our house. I saw this tutorial and this tutorial on herringbone, and loved them as well.

I combined all of these ideas and came up with a game plan for our dining room. I knew that I wanted to do the herringbone pattern, as opposed to chevron, and I knew I wanted to incorporate three distinct colors. I settled on navy, gray and white(the base color throughout our house).

Here we go...

before

 during

A quilting ruler is my major time saver whenever painting any stripe pattern. Mine is 24" long and 8" wide. I can see through it to make sure I get my lines perfect, and it is large enough that I can gain a lot of ground in one movement. I also use chalk to make my marks on the wall...almost always(mom says never say never or always). It wipes off with a damp cloth and never bleeds through to paint(unless you use a crazy color and then try to paint white on top of it).

 ( i feel like i should defend my appearance in these photos...my excuse is vacation:))

 after

(or should be say, for now:))

 the pink blinds were making jeff nutty, so i replaced them with these sheers. i am going to hang some yellow panels that have a large organic pattern on them in ivory. just have to save my pennies for them! the yellow panels will hang on a double curtain rod in front of the sheers. i think they will add some great visual weight to the room. we will also get a new table, new light fixture, chairs, rug...but this is a start.

(next time you see this piano, it will be yellow!)

I was a little nervous halfway through that I'd gone too bold, but in the end, we love it. It is fun and bold, but breaks up all of the white in our place.

Colors

base color: Sherwin Williams Alabaster

navy: Benjamin Moore Old Navy

gray: Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray

Happy New Year!!

merry christmas

merry christmas to you and yours. 

marriage has taught me much about Christ's love. Christ loves us at our worst, we don't have to fancy our self up to go to him(quite the opposite in fact), and He is consistent.

thankful to celebrate the birth of Christ today and every day.

merry christmas!!

We're In!

it's true. we are in our new place. i can't wait to show you around! my family has been eager to see our progress. so here ya go, familia. let's start with the beginning...


and can we have a quick chat before we start? will you do a little dance with me? i am, clearly, not a pro blogger...these pictures will jump all over the place, but if you follow along, i'll explain where we are along the way. 


brace yourself for some before photos...

 okay, this room is our living room, or family room...where we will spend most of our time. notice the sliding glass doors and outdoor patio to the left...that is now part of the kitchen.

 this is a view from our kitchen looking into the dining room and front room. there is no longer a door here, and some walls are missing, too.

 this is the front room that connects to the dining room in the previous picture. and yes, we are keeping those drapes:)

 this is a view from the family room looking into the entry way. we kept that vintage red brick, and i'm so glad we did. i think it adds charm, and breaks up all of the(now dark stained) wood.

 this is another view from the family room looking into the front room. this will be helpful later, that entry wall opening has changed.

 this is a view from the front door looking in. see that back patio with the sliding glass doors again? think kitchen!

 this is a view from the entry way down the hall. all of the bedrooms and bathrooms are down here.

 this is a view from the front room to the entry. you'll appreciate it more when you see the new openings.

that is a cute little nephew head, who currently hearts flash lights. those two walls are gone.


afters and some fun projects coming sooooon.

Promise

i promise, i will be back. and i have TONS to share. no clue where anything is...my winter clothes, really anything. didn't think about that one when we packed up. we will have internet one day, and you will love all the rooms i've been working in. kiddies galore and some fab furniture!

every post should have a pic, so here is mine. my aunt says that i won't ever have a baby that looks more like me than my hanky p. for those of you who don't know, hanky p (otherwise known as hanky, hanky pank, or hank) is one of my three beloved nephews.

hanky left, linde right

also, hanky is a gentleman and does wear pants. he was at his check-up...hence no pantalones.

what do you think?

he also only eats cheese and bread. no resemblance there.

notice the womble nose, it makes a v shape. always. from nostril to nostril there is a little "v." it is their little stamp that makes no one doubt michael is their daddy.

anywhoo, there is an update. more to come. two weeks and we are in. then, updates galore.

I haven't forgotten you...

dear bloggies,

i have not forgotten you. i am in the process of moving, and renovating, and living in more than one place. things are a little nutty. i cannot wait to update you with recent projects and pictures from our place. i might even have to start doing a weekly update of projects from our casa. we will see.

what is a post without a picture?

owen and i feel the same about in and out. don't you love the lil stickers on his shirt?

ps owen, so ready to start slumber parties with you now that we live less than 5 minutes apart. love you, bubba!

little known facts

i am on vacation. it.is.heavenly. in honor of being away from work, here are some random facts about me, in my life away from work. 
here we go:

i make my bed every day

(and this guy makes it when i don't)

i sleep on the side of the bed that is closest to the door ( i need to be able see the robbers when they come after us...)

my toes are so short they barely touch the ground, and are always painted(i do need to clarify that they do leave toe prints in the sand:))

i have really vivid dreams (i think it is because i imagine stuff that isn't real for people every day. for example, i walk in a home office and see a baby's room totally painted, furnished and complete...for a baby that hasn't been born yet)

i am a picky eater. jeff asked me what foods i didn't like when we were dating. i told him i should probably just tell him the foods i do like (grilled cheese is my favorite food)

i don't drink coffee or tea and rarely drink soft drinks. abbe says its weird to see me drink anything brown.

somehow, the conversation came up with my college roomies about shower routine. as in, they have one. they all do the same thing in the shower every morning. what? do you have a shower routine? 

hope you are enjoying your week and that you snuck in a vacation this summer. i am so glad to be on ours!