A Day In Des Moines

Hello everyone! Today I’m in Des Moines with Better Homes and Gardens as part of the BHG Style Showcase event with a group of DIY, home, and food bloggers. I’ve always wanted to tour the magazine’s headquarters and get a peek behind the scenes at their photography and styling studios and test gardens, so it’s…

Weekend Reading

Hey all! I’m so excited, tonight my guy and I are headed downtown to see Journey and Steve Miller Band rock at Mandalay Bay, it’s going to be so much fun! At last an opportunity to change out of paint and dust covered clothing…. New flooring and fixtures are getting installed next week at the…

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…

Weekend Reading

Hello friends! This is the summer of back and forth and here we go again back to the desert to work on the fixer house. More popcorn ceilings to eliminate and walls to paint. Also new flooring going in once we demo the existing, I’ll have more to share next week. Our daughter is playing…

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 3.28.14

Ugh, you guys I’ve spent the past 48 hours fighting off another cyber attack to the site, this is never fun. So many of you wrote to me, thank you for your concern. Long story short, there are sophisticated evil hackers out there, and it takes A LOT of work to defend yourself. Thanks so…

Kitchen Countertop Options: Pros + Cons

We’ve been doing a lot of research lately on countertops since the fixer we’re buying has 25 year old Formica tops in the kitchen which will need replaced – more details on the house coming soon! Seven years ago when we were choosing countertops for our own kitchen I exhausted myself researching all the choices…

How to Mismatch Nightstands

A local friend is sprucing up her bedroom and the husband and wife have no nightstands. They’re going back and forth on a pair of nightstands for the bed, he wants storage for his reading material, she wants something pretty and leggy and I was sharing with them that it’s possible to have different bedside…

Weekend Reading

It’s time to get cozy by the fire y’all – that is after all the shopping and wrapping is done! Our big party is tomorrow so we’re in full celebration mode right now, but I wanted to pop in and share a few favorite reads from the week.   Quiz: can you name these 10…

Outdoor Photography: What I’ve Learned

Hey everyone! I’m back from a quick trip to visit with family and I was asked to take some pictures of the event which took place in late afternoon and just before the sun set. My cousins were asking me about my “fancy camera” and how I learned to use it. Their questions reminded me…

BOTB 10.25.13

Hello and welcome to the weekend! I’m leaving on a jet plane today, off to see my parents and attend a family event, it will be fun to reconnect with aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven’t seen in years. Today it’s time for yet another round of Best of the Blogosphere, enjoy these projects and…

Autumn Party Highlights

Welcome back to another week everyone, hope you all had a relaxing weekend! I had my hands full with projects involving black paint from a front door at the shelter house to a set of two small chests, both given a makeover with primer and paint.  I’ll share them soon, but in the meantime, I’d…

Best of September + Weekend Reading

I have really enjoyed this week so much, between the fall sprucing and the beautiful weather, it’s been lovely hanging around the house. This weekend is shaping up to be both relaxing and busy in a good way, we’re wrapping up the soccer season, working on the shelter home that’s recently been painted, I’ll be…

Happy Rooms

Hello friends. We had a lovely dinner on Saturday and I finished painting and tiling the other half of the hall bathroom. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow. Today I wanted to share some inspiration I’ve collected for a few weeks: images gathered from family homes that pop out at me because they just feel warm…