autumn bunting

Maren and I did a little sewing this week while Max was sleeping. She is so good at sitting on my lap and patiently feeding the fabric into the machine. I never used to sew while the kids were awake, but having Lizzy at school makes things so much less crazy during the day. I swear that girl was made for kindergarten. Anyway. I had a bunch of autumn-y fabrics that I got from a friend of a friend years ago, and I love the way they add a dose of fall to the house. We picked up some mini pumpkins and corn from the farmer's market, laid down some burlap, added a black cat, et voila! Insta-autumn.

so basically...

my parents are the raddest ever.

over + out.

choosing minty paint

Since we bought this house, I've become a huge believer in paint samples.

Lots of them.

lots. of. them.

So many that the guy at the hardware store laughs when you walk in the door. Ah-gain.

Picking a minty color isn't anywhere near as trying as gray was, but I'm still glad I laid down the $20 to figure out which color I really love most {'cause, it turns out, the color I would have bought if I hadn't done any samples turned out to be my very least favorite of them all, ahem cremedemint}.

The colors are all a little wonky with the lighting when I took that picture, but you get it. Peridot has just the right balance of whu-bam and ahhh. Figuring out the right color makes me feel much more motivated to get in the bathroom and patch up the walls so I can paint!

{sea glass by glidden. marina bay + creme de mint by benjamin moore. peridot, spring stream, + herbal mist by behr. see my bathroom inspiration gallery here.}

cement gray + my dad rocks the house

My dad rocks, friends.  r o c k s.

Not only did he fly across the country solely to paint my house,

not only did he babysit at least 3 times,

not only did he take us to dinner and buy us {me} Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Therapy, shoo me upstairs for a nap every day for a week, do the dishes, take the girls to the park, go half blind by painting the china cabinets semi-gloss YELLOW {no really, Benjamin Moore Yellow. just yellow}, manage the disaster of our very first Unauthorized Sibling Haircut without losing his mind {more on that later, too}... 

he's just so rad. So totally rad.

And I love him.

Thanks, Dad. Mwah.

The walls are Cement Gray with Dove White trim, both Benjamin Moore. I went through a laughable number of gray paint samples. Stonington. Abalone. Dolphin Fin. Ashes. Porpoise. Barren Plain. I was torn about spending so much on paint (Ben is not cheap), but it covers so well, which we really needed on these walls. I would have ended up spending just as much on extra paint for a second coat if I'd picked a lesser quality paint. Cement Gray is so lovely. Not too brown, not too blue, no funky pink overtones, just calm and cool and lovely. I'm so excited to get curtains and artwork up.

little happinesses.

:: popcorn :: requested often by all. with butter. lots of.

:: very orange :: fabric arrived this week for dining room curtains

:: singing :: happy birthday with the girls to my mom on the phone (60!)

:: sunshine :: making more and more frequent appearances

:: board games :: these little ones are taking a sudden shine to

:: park deliciousness :: went twice today for bike riding, mud slinging, and pretend gardening

:: vintage hankies :: making curtains soon, inspiration here

:: olive leaf :: soap. completely unexpectedly luxuriously delicious.

:: sunshine :: did i already say that?

bathroom remodel inspiration: mint, gray, sunshine, + glass

We're saving our pennies for a major kitchen overhaul, so in the mean time I am going to give our bathroom {we only have 1!} a little facelift. A little paint, a nice picture or two, and some little finishing touches are gonna go a long way. I'm pretty smitten with this color palette, but I'm curious -- do you have any pet color palettes lately?

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I can't wait to get started -- my dad is coming for a visit + to help with this + a bunch of other projects in a couple of weeks. Eek!

little things

We've been in this house for 3 months now, and despite zillions of pins on the home dec front 

(and that's not even the room-specific pins!), 

I keep resisting any/all decorating urges, usually along these lines:

it's just going to get drywall dust all over it.

we're painting this wall soon anyway.

but this wallpaper is coming out eventually.

ENOUGH ALREADY.

Yesterday I finally did what I should have done the day we moved in -- put up a few buntings, propped up a few favorite Katie Daisies, dug out the globe, and said ahhh.

The little things really do make a difference. Now if we can just get those baseboards in...

drywall vs. decor

We decided to do all our drywall ourselves, and we're glad we did. I think. 

But it really is a pain in the butt.

Drywall or no drywall, I am undeterred.

Hence the V-Day banner, adapted from the ever-lovely Danielle and her recent DIY post.

{how did I forget how awesome glue guns are??}

It ain't pretty (the drywall, that is), but it's prettier than nothin'.

low-tech diy valentine's day garlands

pinking shears + pink and red felt + candy-striped yarn

and

sparkly pom poms + sparkly eyelash yarn.

best constructed while freaking out over downton abbey.

layer over paint samples and bare drywall for best effects.

{my man says the sparkly one reminds him of dr. seuss.}

yes to yellow

I always admire furniture makeovers on other blogs, but rarely work up the chutzpah to do any of my own. But then last weekend, I found this little pretty at a garage sale and immediately thought -- yellow!

Because I have to tell you the truth -- my decorating skills -- they stink. 

And whenever I get an idea as revolutionary as a yellow chair, well, just you watch out.

 I put on a couple of coats (BHG Dandy Lion, eggshell finish) and was just going to leave it at that, but then I remembered this spraypaint + lace tutorial from A Beautiful Mess a few weeks back. I love the extra little sass it gives the seat. If you try it, make sure your lace is ironed flat and taped to the furniture as snugly as possible. See those blurry spots in the pattern? That's where the lace wasn't snuggly enough with the chair.

Oh well! I love it anyway.

Any other fantastic furniture makeover ideas out there we need to hear about?

{ps. I changed my header again. I want to eat it.}

{pps. today I am doing GI Jane day where all us wives pretend we're infantrymen. hmm.}

my life would suck without you

I came across this print on Etsy last week and totally freaked. This is exactly the kind of thing R and I would say to each other.

I put it above our bed (with a nail! and a hammer! see, I really can do it), which space has been in need of some TLC. Behind the print is just a super-starched piece of fabric. Easy peasy fast!

making laundry happy

Do you guys know about the Fly Lady? I sucked at and despised and dreaded cleaning my house until I started the Fly Lady's cleaning regimen three weeks back. And seriously, no irony here -- I'm finding now that I love cleaning -- look forward to it, even, which still weirds me out a little.

Anyway, one of the cleaning missions this past week was to put a family picture in the laundry room. When it came down to it, I couldn't pick just one picture but also didn't want to monkey around with frames and nails and stuff (shudder. totally man's work in this house. anybody else, or am I the only unempowered non hammer-wielding woman around here?).

So, with the view of making it a quick project without any fuss or hauling out the sewing machine or anything, I grabbed some bias tape scraps, knotted them together, and clipped on the pictures along with some of my Grammie's hankies. Ta-daa!

Laundry room = happy place. Except that the laundry room is also the one room in the house that we still haven't unpacked. All in good time, all in good time. Anybody else have a fun happy place decorating idea to share? I'm really happy that I don't suck at cleaning anymore, but not sucking at decorating... let's just say that won't be such an easy fix.