I'm baa-aack. And before we get into the main chunk of the post, Happy Cyber Monday! May the online shopping odds be ever in your favor. Today and tomorrow (the 26th and 27th), take 35% off anything in our Etsy shop with promo code CYBERMONDAY. That includes original paintings and prints. Woot! We had such […]
Yesterday, we made the trip north to be with our families for Thanksgiving and we are already diving into food and full-on relaxing. We have so much to be thankful for and we wouldn't want to be anywhere else today. Here's hoping you are with someone you love today, counting our blessings just like we […]
In a weird turn of events, the guest room got some attention after a year of sitting pretty. I wish I could say that the attention was due to the holidays coming up and guests staying at our place (we really love hosting our family and friends), but we'll be traveling for the holidays this […]
Last week, this happened: And I really didn't think I was ready for 18 inches of snow--but as it turns out, it wasn't so bad to bundle up and head out or drink cocoa and watch a Christmas classic, okay--Elf. And when the snow didn't stop after the first day, we thought, "This is it. […]
I guess you can only say, "This is the last box of diapers we're buying" so many times before you find yourself with no diapers and no excuses to postpone the inevitable any longer. It has been a trying couple of days, but potty training our girl, we are. And to save Greta from any […]
Back in September, we shared a photo of our new magnetic knife strip that we picked up at Ikea, and today I am back to tell you--it may not be the best choice. The left side of ours has lost most of its magnetism, so we're left with just using the far right and crossing […]
This post has been a long time coming. It was February, nine months ago (!), when we decided that we wanted/needed to completely renovate our family room. We installed new carpet, baseboards, built-ins, bought new furniture, installed recessed lighting and even a new window! This has really been the room of the year, and while […]
I have been doing several commissioned chalk drawings lately, and last night I found some time to commission myself to do a simple line drawing of our house on an unstretched canvas that I painted with chalkboard paint last week. First I primed the canvas with chalk and erased it lightly, leaving the surface with a […]
Before signing off for the weekend on Friday, I left you with the official inspiration picture (found here) for Greta's big-girl room. It's actually Gossip Girl's, Serena's room at Columbia and from the moment I laid eyes on (and fell in love with) it when Blair surprised her bff with the room--I've been putting together Greta's mood […]
First. I can't type another word without thanking you all for the sweet health-filled wishes. I am on the mend and yesterday, our anniversary, I was able to spend some real time up and out. We went shopping as a little family and had fun playing with Greta. Somehow I even found myself on a […]
Well, this week isn't going exactly as I planned. I had hopes of adding a lot more paintings to our shop and sneaking in a few more blog posts while we celebrate our anniversary this week, but I have been down for the count. My body is not reacting the best to my new medication […]
This week, we're celebrating our fourth anniversary!! Our actual anniversary is on Thursday, but Chris took most of this week off so we can celebrate. And by that I mean, hit up a lot of local restaurants and relax. We are saving the big celebratory trip for our 5 year anniversary next year (Hawaii? Hope […]
What a 24 hours it has been! Yesterday, after a month of multiple blood tests, and hitting our 2-year mark for infertility, I met with my doctor to go over all of my labs. The problem jumped off the paper and I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. It explains more than just our inability to give […]
You can also file this under Things that Make you go, "$@#$*!" Oh Greta, Greta, Greta. Last month she took a Sharpie to a wall, but that was cake (magic eraser + primer and paint for good measure) compared to this: Her latest art project, in which she put herself in time-out for and I […]
Really, these haystacks have nothing to do with Halloween. Except that I requested them for dinner last night--which we called "Devil's Night" growing up. Chris is the cook around here and night after night he whips up the most amazing meals. Last night, I had a hankering for something simple and comforting--Hawaiian haystacks. And he […]
This year, as our teeny blog grew to small blog status (parrttayyy!!!)--we've had to make some decisions about sponsors and giveaways and realized we're not on board with everything we thought we were when we started this blog. So, like everything else, we'll continue adjusting/tweaking and ironing things out over time--that's just how we do. […]
We had such a fabulous time at our costume party on Saturday and I'm back to share all of the deets, including our costumes. I won't make you wait a second more for those: Chris and I were Waldo and Carmen Sandiego and Greta-the-great was Mowgli from Jungle book. We had a hundred ideas of […]
It is pumpkin carving season (!!!) and over the last few weeks--but even more so in the past week--I have been seeing all of these beautifully carved, gilded, painted, shaved pumpkins on my favorite blogs or plastered on Pinterest. Spoiler alert--my pumpkin is no such beauty. Last weekend, we had some friends over for dinner […]
Our DIYed full-wall wainscoting is done, and on time! As Chris and I were talking about the entire project, we were so pleasantly surprised with how fast it went. We dedicated a couple hours to it on Monday and Tuesday night and then yesterday, I sanded and painted and it was done before Chris got […]
I am going to attempt to make this a quick post so I can try to get more of this paneling painted before Greta wakes up from her nap. It's always a race against nap time over here, I tell ya. Yesterday, we left you with our baseball-hall-of-fame-esque paneling. Last night we continued the quicky […]
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Welcome to our online community where we've posted home, DIY, style, renovations, and family since '09. Renovating our #cljmoderncottage in Idaho and headed for new adventures in Raleigh, NC. #cljfam #cljtransformations
