Keep Calm...

Well, here it is...my $10 "art" piece, I love it. The 8x10 Keep Calm and Wash On is a classic throw back to a 1939 WWII poster and oh so fun. I picked up this frame at Bed Bath and Beyond on clearance for $14.99, regularly $25. Two more inexpensive and under $20 etsy art purchases on their way soon. I can't wait for them to arrive!


Find any cool inexpensive art lately?

Swinging from the Trees

Well, if you know my husband and his family, you probably have heard how much he loved swings growing up. Well, that's not entirely true...let me rephrase that, how much he loved swings as an almost grown up. Johns parents had park grade swings in their backyard for the kids and John would spend HOURS as a child and teen swinging on them, listening to his walkman. Well, Johns parents thought it would be fitting to get Jack his very own park grade swing for Christmas.

John might have been more excited about putting it up than Jack was....until John realized that he wouldn't fit into a basket swing.

Jack approves! I think there will be hours and hours of dada pushing Jack on the swing.

Now that's love, right there.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Backsplash Options

I LOVE my kitchen but I cannot help but notice how unfinished it looks without window treatments and a back splash...all in due time and money of course. Here are some of my favorite ideas for back splashes. We have to stick with something that will go with our granite, but I also wanted to tie in some of the subtle gray in the counters as well. That way it'll mesh better with our living area too.

I love the classic feel and clean lines of rectangular glass tiles. Another fun idea we're tossing around is tiling all the way up to the ceiling in the window sink area. I've seen this done before and I feel like it looks very nice. I also really like basic cream subway tile, but I'm wondering if we should be a bit more bold.

Here's what tiling to the ceiling looks like around a window. What do you think?

Kitchen Window Treatments

Deciding what kind of window treatments to go with when it comes to our two kitchen windows looks like it's coming to an end. I have narrowed it down to Top Down Bottom Up shades (above). I love that there are three looks: bottom up, top down and the combo. I also like that they are cordless, so they're kid friendly, will hide our neighbors fence/house yet let in ample light and they're energy insulating. The only issue, white or cream? I am leaning toward white for both windows to keep it bright and crisp as well as to tie in with the living room crown molding...otherwise we are moving the kitchen totally away from whites (like, none) and I don't want the spaces to have two completely different feels- earthy vs crisp and clean.

The only downfall with white is that there is nothing else white going on in the kitchen...weird? Not too sure. I want to keep them basic in color because I think we might go for a busier back splash and there's a lot of color going on in the living area anyway.

Here are the two windows in question. What kind of window treatments do you love?

Timmmmberrrr!

What a wonderful weekend filled with home improvement. Saturday morning hit, and it was operation more curb appeal via tree removal...."Wha. wha, what?" you ask, tree removal? I know, it sounds terrible taking out perfectly good trees, however these were huge redwoods that were too big for their spaces, one of which had to be removed so I could create a garden plot. Here are some before, during and after shots: Here is our main back yard area, right outside the living room, the day we bought the house.

A much less jungle looking back yard area today, still MUCH more to be done but an undeniable improvement.

Here is the soon-to-be garden plot area, before.

The garden area coming along.

Front yard before.

Our new and improved front yard, sans GIANT redwood, trimmed up tree (still awaiting Jack's swing), removed rose bushes from along the front of the house and we removed the planter boxes under the windows....good bye cats and hearts!

Front of house before.

Along the front of the house, today.

Right now we are looking forward to painting the exterior of the house. We have some colors in mind, thinking a gray green, and are narrowing it down. What do you think the perfect color would be? And, what would a front yard post be without a photo of Jack and John enjoying playing outside? Have a great week!