Humblebrag: I've been pinned!

(to start this off the Hacker told me I had to have the phrase "humblebrag" in the title.  apparently, its a tech term.  I'm not sure.  but there you go my love.)

So you have to understand where I'm coming from.  I thought only friends and family members read this thing. Maybe a couple of others from when I leave a comment on another's blog.  But I wandered over to the referrer section of my web page, and Pinterest was a referrer!

I have never pinned my own house, so it was weird to see my hallway, living room, patio and the nursery on people's board.  I know this is silly, and in the big scheme of things not such a big deal, but I was excited!  So, I thought I'd share with you my excitement.  

So hello to everyone out there...Thanks for reading and pinning!  Sending love your way.

That's all for now.  I'll post something of more worth later this week.

Happy Tuesday, 

Kristin

Copycat Feature: Thanksgiving Branch

It's been a while since my last copycat project.

I had seen this project a year ago on Kelle Hampton's blog Enjoying the Small Things.  (have you been to her blog? No? You should.  Beautiful pictures, beautiful words.)

Isn't it lovely?  I thought so.  So, I put Michael on a mission: "Find me a branch, so we can do this, please." Well, my man delivered!  He brought home three branches for me to choose from, and after two nights (one for hanging the branch, and the second for me to make the leaves) we had our copycat version:

 Not to bad, right?  I mean, I think I need to add a couple more rows of leaves, and next year I'll defiantly make my leaves smaller.  I mixed felt and scrapbook paper.  We have a sharpie on the table underneath the branch so whenever we're feeling thankful, we can jot it down on one of the leaves. 

I love the colors of fall.  They're rich and warm.  They're comforting and spicy.  And they're popping up all over my house!

I also made a wreath using a cheap foam wreath I found in the dollar section at Target, twine, and some felt flowers:

 The rest of the yellow bungalow has splashes of fall around it from Thanksgiving pasts.  Including the entryway:

 and the mantel.  

I just have to share a common weirdness that my husband and I share:  As I'm typing this, Michael is working like a madman in the kitchen.  He gets on these kicks of cleaning and organizing.  We both do, but I guess tonight is his turn.  Early tonight, I informed him that I was taking a shower to "wash off my Monday", and he offered to do the dishes because he's nice like that.  When I came back out, he showed me how he organized our tupperware drawer, and is throwing away lids that don't match to anything else.  I applauded his hard work, but it was clear he wasn't even close to being done.  So I let him and his techi podcast be, while I finish this post.  I think right now he is gutting and completely reorganizing our pantry.  It's weird, but I get it.  We both have that quirk.  That, "I don't know why but I have to completely finish this non urgent project right now!" quirk.  Michael can tell when I'm in it, too.  He usually smiles, and lets me be.  We're imperfectly perfect for each other.  

The warm wind known to us locals as Santa Anas have been picking up lately.  Milo's intrigued.

(look at that hair!  I refuse to cut it, you can't make me!)

I wish I could show you his "ooohhh" face.  It's purty darn cute.  He's becoming a little parrot.  And true to form, Michael and I are have become the cheesy parents that tell their kids "Say...bye bye!,"  "Say....stars!,"  "Say, Mommy/Daddy/baby!"  It's ridiculous.  And there's no end in sight.

Fun Kid Spaces & Milo's Mood Bard

I was going to write about our weekend and life today, pictures included.  However my iPhoto isn't working very well.  

So instead, I'll share what I've been working on for Milo's room.  I occasionally look at Laybabylay.com for really cool mood boards.  

This is one of my favorites:

It's nerdy chic.  

I also want to show you some of my favorite kids rooms.

Lainey's Room by Kelle Hampton from Enjoying the Small Things:

Aren't you in love?  So much personality and spice!

Up next, is this shared boy's and girl's room.  So fun and colorful.

Pioneer Woman's girls room by the dynamic duo by Robert and Cortney Novogratz.

And for girly tweens, I love this room.  Very cool:

I just notice that all the rooms I shared are girl rooms.  I don't know what that says about me, since I have two boys in the house, but that's a topic for a different post, I guess.

Moving on, 'cause that almost took a weird path, I created  my own mood board for Milo's room.  I wanted something that would require little change in years to come.  As much as I love decorating, I know me.  And I have difficulty finishing a decorating project.  So I wanted something that can easily evolve as Milo gets older. 

And without further ado, here is our Little Man's board: 

1.  I found these really cool prints at Typographic Verses by Jonathon Ogden that I think would work great in his room.  Check out all of his prints here.

2.  I love what people have done with this ikea mirror.  My favorite DIY and inspiration is this one.

3. I love the idea of the ruler growth chart.  This one inspired me to make my own.  This was one of the easiest DIY projects, and I'm almost done with it. 

4.  Simple Navy Sheets.

5. This shelving unit gives so much storage, it's crazy. 

6. CB2 brought back this rug, and I'm toatlly crushing on it.  Although this one is cool too, by Robert and Cortney Novogratz. 

7. Fun table lamp.

8. I'm still all about chalkboard still.  We painted another wall in his room.  If you can't commit to a whole wall, I love this, too.

9. These letters are rediculous!  But so is the price.  So I'm making something like this instead.

10. Sitting chair for Daddy and Milo nightime reading.

11. Cute vintage camera toy. 

12. I'd rather have a swinging chair like this, but the price makes me consider the ikea version.

 I'm almost ready to show it off.  So get ready.  

Hopefully my photo program will be up an running tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Hope you had a good Monday, 

Kristin

The table saga: the final chapter

This post is ridiculously overdue.  But it needs to be said that Michael finished our table.

It's big (double wide, also known as a gathering table) Which is exactly what I wanted.

Remember those spaces between the boards? 

He cut small pieces of wood, and hammered them into the spaces.  Creating a "That's exactly what I meant to do all along" look.

I love the details of it...

The sanded/distressed edges were fun to make.

We did not add polyurethane on the table yet.  We might one day.  Instead we went for a wax finish in cherry.  

Yes it gets bumped, scratched, and water stained.  But, the idea of just sanding those problem areas down and restaining and waxing doesn't seem that daunting to us.  Less daunting then a cracked or bubbles urethane surface at least.

So there you have it.  The final chapter of our table.  It perfect for parties, holidays, and even family dinners.  

Thank you Michael for my table.  I love it.

Plans from Anna White

Table Saga I

I'll leave you with a shot of Milo during his first time at Disneyland this past weekend.

That's the best I can do.  Playhouse Disney was a hit!

love, 

Kristin

chandy in the living room?

I was just going through some of my previous pins of living rooms with high ceilings like ours, when I start to see a pattern:

Chandelier 

ceiling fan

chandelier: sidenote: this house belongs to the couple from TLC's "The Little Couple." Never seen it, just thought that was interesting.

'nother ceiling fan

'nother chandelier

are we missing something? 

(besides the window coverings, built-ins, planked ceiling, and artwork.)  

Would a neat looking chandelier or pendant light work in this room?  

Or Will it take away from the high ceiling?  

Thoughts?

love, Kristin

The Table Saga

Michael made a table.  

It's double wide to fit two chairs at the end.  He got motivated after I showed it the amazing Ana White site.

After tweaking it a bit with Marc the Arc, he was ready to get started.

It went something like this:

Good right?  He did such a good job.  But here's where things went a little hairy.  

The wood dried, and shrunk and he was left with gaps.  Big gaps.

Always. Dry Out. The Wood.

But he still was motivated.  So he stained this beautiful table, gaps and all.

Sooo pretty, right. I love it!  

But this bad boy need a little bruisin'.  We've always wanted a distressed table.  

So I beat it, scraped it, and sanded it. (I was told to "look up" and caught in the most flattering expression.  I declare Sabotage!!!)

The gaps need to be filled with skinny pieces of wood.  It's also ready to be sanded again, and stained again.  But instead it sits.  We have lost our motivation to finish this beast.  

We have Easter, Mother's Day, and little boy's first birthday coming up here quick.  So let's hear it.  

Give us a boost.  My thoughts are: if I put it out there into the bloggispher, then we've gotta finish it right? 

I'll let you know.  

The saga continues...

p.s. Thanks so much for your comments and kind words from our previous post.  We're healing, and doing very well.

Office Update #2

For our first office update click here.

However, I realized I never posted pictures of our office space after we painted.  

We added a West Elm daybed we had in the nursery, before it was a nursery.  It was one of those hold-your-breath-and-see-if-it-fits moments.  And it did! Just barely, but it did.

We also added two white shelves from Ikea and their cardboard storage containers (I may convince the hacker to upgrade to nice fabric ones later on, but for now these get the job done),  a free desk, a chair from Staples (on discount) and viola.  

Our new monochromatic office!  

I can't believe it used to look like this before:

Removing that giant office furniture has added so much room.  Even with the bed, the room doesn't feel cramped.  It's nice to have the extra seating, and when we have company, they don't have to sleep on the couch.  

We've been asked if we really do use the magazine holders and boxes for all of our filing and office storage.  Yes, we do.  I actually think its an easier system than a filling cabinet. 

Having the bulky office system just shrunk the already small room.  

Since taking the pictures above, we've also added accessories to the shelves a bit.  My favorite part of the room?  The e-Card the Hacker sent me the day we started dating.  I printed it out and framed it.

So that's our office as we know it.  There are a couple more plans we have in this room: 

Add curtains, just like the rest of the yellow bungalow.  I think this is where we may have fun with some color.

Add a barn door to cover the archway for guests that might acutally sleep on the bed.  

Add a jumbo sized map to the opposite wall of the desk.  Not sure what kind of map yet.  Maybe a decal.  

But so far, we're happy with it. The monochromatic look feels fresh, which is what we wanted in such a small space.

Well, I have three dogs going crazy through my house right now, better go!  (More on that tomorrow.)

Happy Thursday everyone!

xo, 

Kristin

Nursery Update

I am finally updating you on the nursery.  It's not yet complete but it's on its way.

Here is the room with two cribs in it, and the art not yet hung.

And here it is with only one crib.  With our little guy's health, we can't have another placement, so we took the crib out to increase our space for a while.  

(please pardon the christmas decor, leave it to me to wait until I put up some decorations to take pictures.)

Here is what the room looked when we bought it:

Here is the transition stage just after the wood was installed, just not painted.

And here is what it looks like now:

(If you notice, the Hacker has 3/4 of the crown moulding done.)

I made some of my own prints to hang in the room.  

 I was inspired by all of the paintchip mobiles I had seen over on pinterest, and decided to make my own. 

My dear friend jen made a cute yellow pillow to add to the rocking chair that she already gave us. 

Since then, I've decorated it for Christmas.  I added little treasures from our own Christmas childhoods to the bookshelves.  I made my own version of the christmas tree I found from one of my favorite blogs, enjoying the small things.

These are the normal decorations I have on the shelves.

A converse piggy bank, an owl from Indonesia a friend gave me, and some lincoln log toys.

I made the l.o.v.e. letters by covering them in yellow, black, and gray stripped fabric.

So that's the room.  It isn't nearly completed.   However, as I look through our house, nothing really is.  There are some valid rea$on$ for that.  
But for now, it is a happy place that our little guy can live in.  He can sleep under the colorful dots dancing above his head, he can gaze at the yellow stripes on the ceiling, he can cuddle with us as we rock him in our chair.

It's our happy place for now.

xoxo,

Kristin

Office Updated #1

When making the third bedroom into the nursery, we inadvertently had to update the office as well.  There was a daybed that needed a home, and the office seemed like the "perfect, for now" solution.

Way back before we had bought the yellow bungalow, the Hacker told me he wanted an office that was monochromatic.  Only grays, whites, and blacks. I am now a reformed traditionalist, who proudly embraces the unique.  (Hello, I have stripped walls!)  But back then I was a traditionalist who cringed at this idea.  However, because I love my geek, and realized he'd spend more time in there than I would, I scurried online to find some inspiration of gray and white offices.

I was impressed with what I found, and have had them saved on my computer waiting for the day to use them as inspiration.

roomzaar.com

Centsational Girl

The first step was painting.  We had decided on a dark gray that was just too dark for this small room.  I don't have any pictures of it, but here it is in comparison with the lighter grey that we ended up using.  

It's less blue, and more of the grey we were looking for.  

Once painted, the next project was to fix our light fixture.  It was doing nothing for the room.  In fact, once people saw the room painted, their first question always seemed to be "Are you changing the light?"  

Yes, yes we were. 

This is where compromise comes into play.  

I had always wanted to duplicate the beauty that lights up our bedroom.

I thought it would look just as lovely in the office.  And it would add a touch of elegance.  The Hacker didn't like the $200+ price tag.  Also, after further research, it turns out West Elm stopped carrying the Long Capiz Pendant. 

After spending hours and hours shopping for the right light, it came down to these two:

Either Ikea's Maskros or a DIY project using a yoga ball, glue, and some string.   

Well, the Hacker was the deciding vote, and Ikea won out.  Only $89 later, we were the proud owner of this daring pendant light.

Installing it was a breeze compared to our last ceiling light.  All the extended arms clicked into place to make this weird orbed looking thing.

 Once we got all 166 flowers onto the light, it was complete.

 It's big, I mean BIG. But it does lighten the place up. 

My one concern about it is that it is off center.  The hole where the last owners added the light fixture isn't centered in the room.  The Hacker isn't motivated at all to adjust it.  So, for now, this is how it will be.  

Every night little fireworks dance on our wall.  It's quite nice.  

But for now we have off colored walls, which you can tell if you scroll up and look at the paint color change from picture to picture. The Hacker says it is the light bulb, hates it, and wants to switch it to an LED light bulb. 

However, when I look at these pictures, I can't tell if it is the light bulb, or my supreme lack in photography skills. I'm pretty sure the latter, but I'll play along with my hubby for now. 

So what do you think?

Do you like the changes so far?  We've already added the daybed, shelving, and a new desk.  I'll share that with you next week.  

Do you think the DIY light would have been better?  I admit, I still have my doubts.

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend,

Kristin

Garage Framing the Ceiling

It's been a while since I've posted on our garage.  You can read about our garage project here, here, here, and here.  If you remember, we wanted to have it done by May.  Obviously the project has taken a backseat to the kid's room this summer. 

Our friend Marc the Arc drew an inspiration sketch that we fell in love with.  

Since we have friends that will install the drywall for us, we (and when I say we that is a very loose term, in actually it means the Hacker, while I cheer him on) had to frame the ceiling first.  

Because he built the frame on the ground, he hoisted it up with straps.  A genius idea. 

However, once it was up, it was evident that it was too low.

So the Hacker and Marc raised the frame and built a diagonal elbow for the air condition arm. 

And now we're one step closer to getting this garage done.

 

The Hacker just has to add some framing to the other parts of the roof, that wont be dropped. Then it will be time to complete the drywall and finish the ceiling in the garage.

Do you see it somehow coming together?  (and yes, the garage has gotten messy again.)

And now some inspiration for the laundry room.

via Pinterest from sn128w.snt128.mail.live.com

This probably wont work in the garage, but I would love to be able to add this element, somehow.

via Pinterest from House Beautiful

And here's the inspiration board that I made a while back. 

Thanks for reading.

Now I have to go fold laundry.

love, 

Kristin