Rustic Modern Fireplace Inspiration

Part of our living room remodel involves our fireplace. It's giant and I love that about it. I can't wait to use it this winter! Our house is all electric, so Matt jokes we will be using it to heat the house this winter ;) The owners of the house before us did a great job of bringing it from the 1970s to today, but with the remodel I have planned, I'm going to take it another direction. If you remember my living room inspiration picture, the fireplace had a solid surface surround. I loved it, how modern it felt, how seamlessly it flowed with the walls and found a few others for inspiration. 

//source//

//source//

What the fireplace looks like now

My design template 

After calling several places, I realized a) not just anyone feels comfortable doing a fireplace b) this is Texas and everyone was trying to get me to add a hearth. Seriously one guy said "if you don't have a hearth it just looks like a big opening on the wall, unless that is what you are looking for." YES! YES! That is exactly what I am looking for. And c) could I make the fireplace just as amazing without using a quarter of the budget to pay someone to do it? You know I hate paying people to do something we can do ourselves. If you don't know that about me, well now you do. So that led me to start thinking about how we could do the fireplace ourselves. I initially didn't want to do tile because I wanted a smooth surface, but had been toying around with the idea for a few weeks.  In the middle of the night a few days ago I woke up with an idea and things have gone from there. I am in love with hexagon tiles and are seriously considering using them. I had to draw it out myself to see if it would work. I did this on Saturday at 3 am. Thank you wrapping paper. This tile from merola tile gives me all the heart eyes, but I'm not sure the size will work. If I don't use it on the fireplace, I'm really considering putting it down in the kitchen. I've also been considering solid black for the fireplace. I've been searching for inspiration pictures, and have found a few to guide me.

//source//

//source//

//source//

  Still aren't 100% set on hexagon, but leaning that way! Would love to see any pictures if you have used hexagon tiles in your home. 

Early Stages of Living Room Remodel

I've blogged before, I believe, about us buying our dream house this past summer. We are ever so slowly putting our touch on things around here. Two things I've learned over the years of home remodeling is you need ample supply of time and funds. Just moving into a new house alone takes time, add in two kids, two careers, and everything in between means we have been low on time! Even though it's now the holiday season, we've actually slowed down a bit, so I am hopeful we can get some things done these last few months. Add in a job change with pto payout and I've got the beginnings of a project! 

We decided to tackle the living room first. It gets the most use and will be less costly than starting a kitchen remodel (which you know I'm already planning!)

I had a designer come in back in August I think just to give me some direction on where to start. I take pride in doing all of the designing part myself, but this time around I needed help! If you are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and looking for a designer, Sommer was great to work with. You can view her website here.

source

This is direction we are going. I love the the flow of the room, how hanging the shiplap vertically really accentuates the ceiling height, and how planking the ceiling adds texture and design on it's own. I can't wait to see it come to life. I've been pinning like crazy, you can follow me here, but I'm also going to be utilizing my blog more to share my inspiration plus document our journey from house to home! Hope you enjoy going through every detail with me!

Lifestyle Shoot 2016

A few weekends ago we had family pictures taken. I like to do them at least once a year, but would really love to do them several times a year. If you are a living, breathing, human raising children- you can understand how getting them done at all is like winning a marathon. Because lets be honest, it's a  freaking rat race getting everything ready for show time. It is like that for everyone, right?? Not just me?

About a month 2 weeks before our pictures were scheduled, I ordered outfits for the girls and myself. Matt being an engineer, has a plethora of shirts to choose from, have you ever seen them in anything other than a polo or button up? Lol!!  But every lady needs something new if they're being photographed. Do you remember that back in May we moved from our old house to our new one?? Yeah... So I had the clothes sent to our old address.  Not only was I cutting it close to having them even make it to the correct address on time, but by having them sent to the wrong address I was pretty much ensuring that they would never make it. They did, however. About 4 weeks later.

We scheduled our pictures on a Sunday evening, in our backyard. It's my absolute favorite part of this home, and I wanted pictures of the girls being themselves- nothing really posed, just two wild ladies outside playing with their chickens! Jeanine, our photographer specializes in lifestyle photography, which is exactly what I wanted. She must be half unicorn or something, because the girls love her and she is able to capture my heart on film! If you are in the Dallas Fort Worth area and need a photographer, let me know- she's amazing!

So the Sunday of our pictures, after going to church, I had a few hours left to find something for us three to wear. Yes, you read that right. The DAY of our pictures, I was running around town trying to find something for us to wear. Praise the Lord for Nordstrom and Gap. Wren's dress. Elle's dress. I knew they'd both love them, and get a lot of wear out of them this fall.

Miss Jeanine was here for about 30 minutes, which let me tell you is about all a toddler and a preschooler can handle. It was just the right amount of time- don't think you have to have an hour or more. I believe less is more when capturing kids, young ones especially!

A few tips I have for getting your pictures taken with littles:

Have outfits picked out in advance! Having a backup outfit isn't a bad idea either.

Don't schedule the shoot during nap time, bedtime, or any other time your kids are normally cranky.

Give your kids (and yourself) a snack before the pictures- make sure they aren't wearing the clothes for the pictures while eating!

Have a drink. Haha! I'm serious. I hate getting pictures of myself, so I had just a little glass of sparkletini before we were about to start ;)

Here are a few of my favorites! Hope you enjoy!

Stuffed mushrooms

This is seriously the easiest appetizer you can make. And if you like mushrooms and goat cheese, the tastiest too!

Over Labor Day weekend I decided it had been too long since I've made these and thought the girls might like them. I knew Matt wouldn't touch them, so I only made a small batch!

It only takes three ingredients. A small package of mushrooms- I used baby portabellos, but you could use something else such as button, small package of goat cheese- this time I bought garlic and herb flavored (you could probably also use cream cheese), and bread crumbs a little less than 1/2 cup. 

While you are preparing your mushrooms, heat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash your mushrooms and dry them. 

Break the stems off (I saved mine for our compost pile)

In a bowl combine the bread crumbs with the cheese. I find it easier to mix with my hands. 

Pinch a little off the mixture off and stuff inside the mushroom cap. Place them on a baking sheet, I greased mine with olive oil. Put on the middle rack of your 400 degree oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. 

My girls loved the way the cheese mixture tasted, weren't too sure about the mushroom!

Labor Day 2016

 I live for extended weekends. An extra morning at home with my girls and Matt are some of my most cherished gifts. This was the first weekend in a while where we had nothing planned, no commitments, just the four of us hanging out! 

Saturday I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Matt putting his tape measure to work in Elle's room. He's been so busy with work and studying for his pe that the crown moulding we bought in June has just been sitting in our garage. With the free weekend he was able to hang it up in Elle's room and ours. It still needs painted, but I'm always so surprised at how well it brings a room together. Can't wait to blog her room reveal. 

To say I had nothing planned is slightly false, I had all intentions of potty training Wren this weekend. She screamed every time I sat her on the potty chair, and was battling a cold so I decided waiting a few weeks wouldn't be the worst idea. 

The girls and I did lots of playing outside, clearing out our garden and picking asparagus seeds, swimming, and just loving being together. 

Elle took my breath away a few times this week with how quickly she is growing.  She told me she didn't need a cup with a lid and that she could get her own water... And then she went and got her own drink. I just couldn't believe it. This baby, she's really growing up, right before my very eyes. I love that she still needs me to hold her when she's upset and that she's confident to try new things. 

I made some stuffed mushrooms yesterday to eat while we watched some zootopia, the girls loved the cheese part but weren't too fond of the mushroom. 

Other than grocery shopping and laundry, this was one of my favorite weekends yet. Did you enjoy an extra day with your loves??

Face to Face With the Enemy

It happened last night. I knew it would, I've been living in fear of this day for- well, years.

I was giving baby Wren a bath ( I can still call her a baby because if I don't, I just might do something crazy) I opened up the cabinet to get a washcloth out and felt the lightest touch of something brush across my foot. I told myself before looking down that it was one of the girls tiny little hair elastics. In my heart of hearts though, I knew it wasn't. I knew exactly what it was. I braced myself for what I was about to see and looked down towards my feet. There it was, all 2 inches of it. A baby nighttime gecko. Scurrying around looking for someplace dark to hide.

Many of you don't know me, but many of you do. Those of you that do most likely won't believe me when I tell you I didn't scream, I didn't run, I didn't hyperventilate. I stood toe to disgusting toe with that thing and calmly asked my three year old if she would come and catch it!! She did, and it was business as usual ha!

She might not look so brave here with her little tear because I won't let her drive her new car around, but this lady is a force to be reckoned with and I'm glad she's on my team <3

P.S. I use to be deathly afraid of lizards, like debilitating afraid. Once I realized they lived outside on our new patio, I never went out there again after dark. When we bought our new house, the place was covered in lizards and geckos. I knew I had to do something to change my feelings about them because I didn't want to transfer my irrational fear over to the girls and I was tired of being afraid of them. I honestly asked God to let me see his love for them and to not be afraid of them, and it worked! I don't love them, still don't like them- but I can tolerate them!

Weekend of Birthdays

We celebrated my August ladies this weekend. Before we had either one of them, I was so set on having a September or an October baby. Both girls were due in September, and both were born in August- rascals!!

I love throwing a party and this was the first one we've had since we moved. I was excited to have family and friends over to see the new place and shower the girls with love at the same time! So excited in fact, I decided to help Matt mow the morning of. A favor I'm sure he'd like to soon forget. Although the jury is still out on whether or not me getting stuck on the steps leading down to the pool area is what broke the deck off of the riding mower or not. Seriously- that happened. 

We knew the party would be outdoors and I was so excited to do a woodland, flowery theme. Until Elle kept saying she wanted a penguin party, for like 6 months y'all. How could I crush her little penguin spirit? Wren isn't at the age where she would have requested something different so off to Pinterest I went to find some penguin inspiration. Was tough, most things were basically hello kitty for fowl- are penguins considered fowl? I decided to go with mostly black and white and a penguin piñata and cake. 

I wish I would have gotten more pictures, but I haven't mastered the art of hosting while setting up Instagram worthy shots, and being a mama yet- maybe next year ;) 

The party was a blast and I learned that our yard is meant to be partied in! We moved our table off the back patio into the yard overlooking the pool, had food set up in the gazebo, and had the best August, Texas weather you could ask for!

Everyone was so generous in their gift giving, these girls will be set for way past Christmas. As each year passes by and I throw another party, I realize more and more how less is more. The girls don't care what the theme was, they care that they are loved by family and friends. 

We are blessed by each and every person that came out to celebrate! I'm thinking Halloween might be too far away for another party!

DIY Ruler Growth Chart

Back when I was still pregnant with Wren, I talked Matt into making a huge ruler we could measure the girls on as they grew. Right before she turned one, we finally finished it. We're awesome like that.

It actually was fairly simple to make once we realized we could buy vinyl stickers for the numbers and lines. You can find them here.

Supplies

• 1 board 6ft tall (width doesn't matter but ours is 1/2")
• Stain for the board. I used minwax. Don't go too dark or your markings won't show. 
• Vinyl numbers and lines. You could also draw them by hand if you're talented like that!
• Drywall screws for hanging the board. 

Making the ruler is actually pretty easy. Stain the wood before you put your numbers and marks on. You'll have to measure out where to put the numbers and marks, that takes a little time, but isn't difficult. Do make sure you measure correctly, we didn't start our ruler on 0, so we have to make sure we hang about 6" off of the floor. I recommend using drywall screws and finding the studs in the wall to screw this into. 

We were able to hang this up in our old house right before the girls turned 3 and 1. I like to measure them every 6 months. I use a fine tip sharpie to write down their name and age next to their mark. They get so excited when we measure them!

This is a very easy, though slightly time consuming DIY that anyone could do!

Selling our house in a weekend

Last fall our neighbors put their house on the market. We were shocked when we saw what they were asking, but it got the momentum going for us. We knew we wanted to move before the girls started school and had been financially preparing for a few years. In October we spoke with a realtor and decided March was a good time to list. We learned a lot along the way, but I think these steps were crucial in getting our house to sell quick and over our asking price. 

1. Hire a realtor. The first step we took when we decided to sell was to contact a realtor. We got recommendations for family and friends and went with someone we knew would be a good fit for us. I know many people hate to pay the realtor fee, but I can't imagine doing everything our realtor did for us on my own. Worth every penny!

2. Purge!! We knew we would list in March, so in January and February we started putting everything we could live without in storage. I suggest not doing this all in one day. My husband and I both work full time, so we did most of this a little at a time and over a few weekends. Side note- after having moved into our second home, I'm wishing I would have gotten rid of a lot more than I did. I'm still purging things I should have months ago!

 This is one load of things we put in storage before listing. 

3. Depersonalize. This should be a no brainer, but I've seen so many homes filled with things that appealed to the current owner only. It's so hard to visualize yourself in someone else's home. I put most of our family photos away except a few quirky ones that I felt added character to the room. 

4. Landscape. By that I mean, water the grass, mow the yard, weed the yard. You don't have to spend much, actually you'll spend more in elbow grease than in money! We were listing in the spring so we planted petunias along the front flower bed for a pop of color. Two flower pots with coordinating flowers on each side of the front door and voilà!

5. Clean clean clean. This is another extremely affordable task that has huge payoff. I waited until a few days before we had pictures taken to go Martha crazy. We cleaned everything. From top to bottom you name it, I scrubbed it. My husband even pressure washed our patio and patio furniture. We did pay professionals to shampoo the carpets, but everything else we did ourselves. 

6. Stage. This was my absolute favorite part of selling our home (aside from signing on the dotted line that is!) even though we'd been in our house for 6 years, getting it buyer ready was fun! I took a lot of the girl's toys over to my in-laws, I was surprised at how well they adjusted to having less to play with. I wanted our home to look like children lived there, but not lol! This step was also something that didn't cost anything. I used things I already had, moving them around from place to place. We have a neutral gray home so almost all of my pieces worked anywhere. 

7. Repairs. People don't want to walk into a house and see things that they would have to start working on from the get go. We had a few minor things to repair and did touch up painting before we listed. 

8. Professional pictures. Have you been looking at houses online and wonder why some pictures look like they were taken on a phone and others look amazing? That's because the amazing ones were taken by a professional. They are trained to open blinds just right, dim the lights just so, and shoot from the best angle. This was a courtesy done by our realtor (tip #1- get realtor!) The pictures made all the difference in the world. When we proofed them, I couldn't believe it was our own home. 

9. Timing. Timing, as usual, is everything. We waited to list in March since spring is such a strong buying season. What our realtor also did was put us on the market on a Thursday with the hopes of the weekend being busy. We actually had an offer on Thursday but decided to wait through the weekend with hopes of creating multiple offers. 

10. Price right. This is another reason to use a realtor. She scoured through comps and came up with a price that she thought would peak interest. We didn't want to price too low, but we didn't want to price too high. Again, we were hoping for multiple offers. 

After all of the hard work on our end and the guidance from our realtor, we had 6 offers to choose from on Saturday- all well over our asking price!!

If you are getting ready to sell I hope these tips give you a starting point! Good luck and get to cleaning ;)

Professional pictures taken by shoot2sell

DIY Cooling Spray

If you are lucky enough to live in the Pacific Norwest, then this post isn't for you ;) Although, I do remember living up there without air-conditioning and it getting into the 90s a time or two, so maybe this is for you too!

It has been warm this summer and August in Texas never has any cool tricks up her sleeve. What she has are long, hot days- followed by more long and hot days. If you've read some of my previous posts, or have been following me on instagram, you'll know that I've started using essential oils. I love that they are 100% natural, chemical free, and smell amazing (most of them!) I love DIY home, beauty, and health! This DIY is super easy and makes a great gift! The first bottle I made I actually made for my mom! She is retired, loves working outside, and doesn't know when to stop. In this heat it is so important to stay hydrated and cool. This cooling spray is by no means a substitute for proper hydration and sun protection, but is a great addition to them!

What you'll need:
2-4oz spray bottle. You can get them here.
Distilled Water
Peppermint Oil- I use Young Living Essential Oils

Directions:
Add 15-20 drops of peppermint oil to bottle and then add in distilled water. Shake well before each use.

I like to spray on the back of my neck and wrists. Avoid contact with your eyes and it is also not recommended to use on children. You'll smell good, you'll cool down, and peppermint deters some insects!

I also heard keeping this in the refrigerator so it's cool when you use it is great too!

Designing A Kitchen Around Wood Cabinets

We've been in our new house for almost 3 months now. Sometimes I think the house looks like we moved in yesterday! We bought the house for the yard. I was actually hoping for a house that needed a total renovation, but we were lucky enough to find an amazing yard and a pretty great house. Nothing in the house needs repaired and all of the changes I have planned are just cosmetic. The house has many high end finishes, just not in my style- travertine, solid cherry cabinets, tan granite...

The most expensive project will be the kitchen. It's your typical Texas kitchen- granite, tan, and big. It's a great size, has a huge pantry, and has amazing cherry cabinets. The cabinets are so nice in fact, that my husband won't let me paint them... When did he turn into an old man?? Unfortunately for me, I don't really fancy natural cabinets. I'd been dreaming of gray or blue since putting our house on the market, but he has made it pretty clear that we aren't painting them. 

What's a girl to do? I've been searching high and low for inspiration on how to utilize them without painting them. Let me tell you, finding inspiration for non-painted cabinets is hard, y'all. Of all places I found inspiration from was my watch. I love the soft texture of the leather band and color paired with the cold, hard, dark of the face.

I'm thinking we will most likely change out the cabinet doors, have to utilize some open shelving- which I love, but I'm not sure I can keep organized manage, most likely white subway tile for a backsplash, and I'm really loving the look of a soapstone countertop. I'm also leaning towards a darker floor, but still searching for inspiration. 

I've rounded up a few kitchens with wood stained cabinets to let me know all hope isn't lost for a kitchen I love!

source

I can't get enough of this one. I think it's the right amount of rustic (not western) and elegant. Add in industrial barn light and I've got all heart eyes for this space! I can't get enough of the open shelves. My main concerns are how sippy cups would look up there! I think a lot of natural light will be key in making wood stained cabinets work.

source

More open shelving... I'd like to be able to see the rest of the kitchen. I'm loving the backsplash with the countertops.

source

This kitchen isn't all stained cabinets and typically I wouldn't be a fan of mixing the two, but I think the white cabinets on the top help to balance the dark lower ones. Although if I could talk Matt into painting the top, you better believe I'd be shooting for painting them all! The before and after of this kitchen is great!

source

I don't like the openness under the kitchen sink, but I like the look of the cabinets.

source

Wood cabinets, but it still looks bright and airy.

source

source

A fixer upper favorite. I am loving the concrete countertops. The cabinetry below is from the same house.

source

I had to throw this picture in there. If by some crazy chance I do get to paint them, this is exactly what I'm going for! Would love to see more ideas of kitchens without painted cabinets, do you have any??