BOTB 7.25.14

Hello friends! The renovation craziness continues this week, we’ve been driving all over this town in search of carpet and window installation quotes. One thing there is no shortage of in this town is shopping, oh my Las Vegas I love you for your abundance of selections… the trick is to narrow down what we’re…

House Progress + Flooring Decisions

It’s a busy week for us with our Las Vegas renovation project, we’re in Official Demo Mode and much is changing! The good kind of change… We decided to hire two handyman helpers that came highly recommended to assist us this week to speed up the demo process. We have high pitched ceilings in three…

Counter vs. Bar Height

Today is another peek into the home we’re remodeling with a design dilemma we will be tackling soon, this one is the debate between counter and bar height for the kitchen peninsula. This ledge is more of a stuff collector than practical dining surface, a dinner plate doesn’t even fit but I imagine it was…

Budget Statement Light Fixtures

I’ve been spending a lot of time focused on pendant lighting lately, the best kind, the statement kind. But this girl is on a budget and so the fixtures I seek must accommodate my wallet’s limitations. Great overhead lighting is the jewelry in a room, it can be silver, gold, bronze, textured, or colorful, but…

Kauai Favorites

After sharing the beach cottage vacation rental last week, several of you asked about favorite stops on our visit. Our travel there in May was our fourth visit in the past thirteen years to this particular island of Hawaii and on each trip we’ve had some really great experiences so I thought I’d share them…

BOTB 5.28.14

Midweek hellos! I’m still trying to get caught up from vacation and get back into business mode, it’s tough! Today’s post is a belated ‘Best of the Blogosphere’ roundup of DIY projects that Amanda and I collected as we always do, kick off your summer with these inspirational ideas!   Panel plain doors with molding to…

Kauai Beach Cottage

Aloha all! Today I wanted to share pictures of the most charming little beach cottage we rented during our vacation last week. We’ve stayed at so many over the years but this one has been the favorite so far. I loved so many of the design elements incorporated into this plantation style cottage just steps…

Staycation Inspiration

Hello hello! We’re still off on our island vacation this week, visiting enchanting places that make you sigh and dream and wish you could stay forever. But we all know that’s not a reality (at least in the here and now) so it’s essential to create special nooks, corners, or places of bliss indoors and…

BOTB 4.25.14

Weekend hellos! I’ve been busy in a good way, spring cleaning and purging this week, getting rid of the things that aren’t beautiful or useful and hauling them off in bags and boxes to the Goodwill. I envision a home where every room has less stuff and surfaces that are clear; it’s a challenging task…

Day Trip: St. Helena

We had such an amazing time in St. Helena with our inlaws last weekend we went again on Saturday to dine and shop! The spring weather has been spectacular with gorgeous blue skies so we couldn’t resist. I always take my camera along to capture the sights … St. Helena is a little town nestled…

Mixing it Up with Melamine

This last few days of sunshine have me excited for warmer weather and for casual spring and summer table settings indoors and out. I’ve never been the matchy matchy type when it comes to dinnerware, I like to mix patterns from several sources old and new, it feels far more collected and original that way.…

Spring in the Living Room

It rained all day Saturday and the kids’ games were canceled so we stayed in our pajamas for much of the day. Rainy days inspire indoor creativity so I decided to paint some new artwork for the living room. My 10 year old daughter loves to paint too so we spread out newspaper on the…

Built-In Banquette, Part One

I was having coffee with our pastor’s wife a few months ago in their home, we were talking about all of of her plans for fixing up the house on a very limited budget. (Out of respect for their privacy I can’t share her name but let’s just call her “Carrie”.) She shared that the…

Get Some Green

This post is sponsored by H&R Block’s Emerald Card. Raise your hand if you’re completely over winter and ready for all things spring? Count me among you! With St. Patrick’s Day arriving next week and tiny little buds appearing on the trees outside my home, I cannot help but get excited the season and the…