Decorating Progress

Decorating the new house is taking much longer than I would like, however I have made some progress.  Right now, I am working on coming up with a whole house color/fabric scheme and pulling everything together.  Here is what I have come up with:

I have been busy making pillows, recovering an ottoman, rearranging furniture, making some new wall art, and shopping for accessories.  Hopefully I will be back soon with some finished rooms to share.  For now here is a sneak peek:

Chalkboard Play Table

I finally got around to painting the top of our IKEA Lack coffee table with chalkboard paint for the girls' playroom/arts and crafts room.  Harper loves it!

And here are some of her drawings:

(spider)

(rainbow)

(self portrait)

The girls have spent many hours drawing and writing on their new chalkboard table!

Field Day 2013

Hannah and Hope had field day at school last week.

Both girls did great and had a fun time!  They both liked the balloon toss best.

Moving In

Back from my blogging break with some updates on our new house because so many people that have followed along as we renovated the house have been asking.  Sorry to leave anyone hanging!  Well...we have moved in and have been living here about a month.  The biggest project that has been completed is the kitchen.

I'll try to take some more detailed pics of the kitchen soon.

As far as decorating the rest of the house goes...not a lot has happened, but I am working on it.  Here are how things look right now (and I have to apologize in advance because all of the windows/lighting in the room makes it hard to get good pictures).

Main Level Living Room:

Main Level Dining Room:

Basement Family Room:

Basement Bathroom:

Basement Mudroom:

Basement Playroom/Arts and Crafts Room:

Hannah and Hope's Room:

Harper's Room:

Master Bedroom:

And there you have it...for now anyway.  I still have A LOT to do!  I finally contacted Kirsten from 6th Street Design School to help me with decorating and she is not currently taking on any new clients.  I am so bummed!  Anyway, my plan is to finish up all of my decorating projects in the next couple months and then post the final before and afters.  In the meantime, I may be popping in here and there to post about my design dilemmas/thoughts for each space as well as to document all of the little things happening in our lives.  We really are enjoying our new house and I hope to share more it sometime soon. 

Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago, on April 17th, 2003, our first baby girl was born.  

This was before we had a digital camera or took pictures on our phones so I don't have any hospital or baby pics to upload.  Anyway...that baby girl is 10 years old today!

Happy Birthday Hannah!

We love you!

Blogging Break

So here's the deal. Something's got to give. We moved into our new house over the weekend and to say that are lives are in chaos is an understatement. I have been saying all along that one of my goals in moving into our new house is to simplify. For me this means taking a break from blogging...writing this blog and reading blogs as well. Let me tell you why.  First, my kids need me. I spend so much time on the computer and my kids definitely notice. Second, reading decorating blogs keeps me in a state of comparing myself to others and not ever being content with how things are.  Sure, I love to decorate, but when I read blogs I am never satisfied with how my home currently looks. This means I am constantly working on new projects which in turn means less time with my family. So....my plan is to just enjoy my new house, to make it a comfortable place for my family, to spend less time obsessing over decorating, and to focus on what is most important to me...my family!

Goodbye for a while little blog!

Four Months

We have owned our new house for 4 months now and Phase One of our renovation is complete.  Our IKEA kitchen cabinets have been delivered and I have been busy assembling them.  They will be installed next week.  We plan to move in once the installation is complete, however we will not have our countertops until a couple of weeks after that.  Without the countertops we also will not have a working kitchen sink or cooktop stove, but we will make do.

I have been moving in things here and there and doing a little decorating.  Here are a few sneak peeks:

(fabric to recover an ottoman)

The girls have been busy organizing their arts and crafts supplies since they will have their own work spaces in our new house.

Since we have lived in a basement apartment for the last year and we are also downsizing we have really simplified and pared down our things.  It is amazing how much stuff we had before that we can really live without.  My goal for the new house is to use what we already have as much as possible.  I plan to keep my decor neutral and add pops of color and pattern throughout.  I want our home to be simple, functional, organized, relaxed, comfortable, and filled with things that we love and that are meaningful to us.   We are super excited to be officially moving in, in the next couple of weeks!