Snow Daze

Today marked Alec's first official snow day! He knows the word 'snow' but had only ever experienced it from the window. This afternoon, we bundled him up, (Next year, we're going to have to invest in some appropriate snow pants and gloves) and trekked out into the backyard. Kiel introduced him to snowballs and sledding, ya know, typical boy stuff. And he and I took a scenic stroll along the line of woods behind our home. Alec was a total skeptic… he didn't have any desire to roll around in that powdery white stuff (And to be honest, neither did I. It's frigid out there!) Either way, it was a fun moment that I am sure to remember and cherish. I so look forward to all of his 'firsts'. It's so amazing to experience life all over again through my little one's eyes. Parenting has it's challenges, but I wouldn't trade any of it for world. 

Snapshots: Our Holiday at Home

The hustle bustle of the holiday season has come to a close and although it saddens me to take down all the Christmas decor, I am sort of excited for the next few slow winter months. Kiel and I hosted back to back holiday parties, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We both have rather large families, so both days we served a full-course sit-down dinner to twenty-some people. Part of me wonders what the heck I was thinking, but fortunately, despite a few minor outbursts on my end, things turned out pretty darn lovely. It was such a cool experience to host Christmas in our new home with everyone we love by our sides. Alec had an absolute ball, and being that we were in our own home, things were much easier for us, especially bedtime (No lugging around bulky pack'n'plays and late-night carseat transfers). And not to mention, our home is baby proof approved so we didn't have to worry about Alec getting into every little thing (Sixteen months is a very adventurous age!). So, despite the chaos, the pros heavily outweighed the cons, and I think we'll just get wild and do it all again next holiday season.

Because of my nursing career, I unfortunately have to work a few holidays a year. I was very grateful to have off Christmas this year, but was super sad to miss smooching my boys at midnight when the ball dropped on New Year's Eve. Kiel and I did manage to FaceTime one another as the countdown dropped to one. We gave each other a cheesy air kiss and said our "I love you's" so not all of NYE was completely lost. Cheers to a wonderful holiday season and to an exciting new year.

Snapshots: holiday home edition

 This is how we do Christmas at our home...

Kiel took a few pictures of the outdoor decor the other night. Alec is enamored with all the christmas lights. Lots of "wow's" paired with big bright eyes and smiles. It really is the cutest thing.

Our tree WAS stunning, but lesson learned… maybe don't buy a tree the first weekend of December… or maybe water your tree every now and again. Because our beauty of a Christmas tree is wilting away and will most likely not be making it to New Year's.

Alec inherited his papa's old table and chairs. They are just his size and he loves them so. My brave little climber is making me nervous though. I can't take my eyes off him for one second.

Lots of eucalyptus and berry arrangements to spruce up the table for Christmas Eve supper. And lots of booze to make the holiday extra joyful.

The table is set. It is my year to host and the total head count is twenty five. Here's hoping we can pull this off so they let me host again in the future.

Ten pounds of potatoes for Christmas dinner. It's a true labor of love, yet I couldn't be happier to do it. The holiday just wouldn't be the same without Grandmom's make-ahead baked mashers.

Did you know that fake poinsettias are not just a decoration… they are also the perfect toy for a sixteen month old babe. Al has been carting this thing around for days and tears flow when I force him to part with his little flower. 

Time is flying by and this crazy month of December feels like a complete whirlwind. How is it Christmas already? I am thrilled, yet sort of depressed to think that all this will all be here and gone so quickly. I don't know about you, but the Christmas season is my absolute favorite time of the year. I, for one, love gift giving. I truly love it. I love decorating my home and baking cookies. I LOVE spending quality time with family and close friends. I love watching Christmas movies and crying at Apple's amazing collection of holiday commercials. And this year has been especially great because I get to experience all the joys of Christmas through my child's eyes. There really is nothing cooler than that. 

Geometric Shelving: For The Master

In my attempt to spruce up the master, I have been on the search for some DIY shelving ideas. I found a few via Pinterest that I am hoping Kiel will like and be willing to work on for us. (The man loves a good project, so let's put those carpentry skills to work!) For our master, I particularly love the honeycomb shelves on the top right, painted white, of course. I have the perfect spot already picked out.

I also love the two units on the bottom row, and they can both be found on Etsy, via The 807, for a super reasonable price.

Brotherhood.

The Fox and the Hound… " but in my heart's the memory and there you'll always be."

Watching this budding friendship develop over the past year has been seriously adorable. Initially, Oliver wanted nothing to do with our little bundle of joy. In fact, I think he truly resented Alec for stealing his thunder. Around six months, Alec really started paying attention to the pup. He would stare at him and laugh hysterically. Screams and squeals of excitement whenever Ollie entered or exited the room. Oliver remained aloof until just recently. It took Alec a bit of time to realize that tugging on the dog's hair was not a nice way to play. After much encouragement to be gentle, he seems to have finally figured it out and surprisingly Ollie has been somewhat receptive. Over the last month or two, these two little guys have really started to become the best of friends. They share toys and play fetch. It's truly sweet to watch them interact. The pup has even become a part of bed/nap time… patiently laying at the foot of the rocker as we lull our boy to sleep. Ollie is really basking in all the attention Alec gives him and I can see a solid bond developing between these two.

I just really love that little fluff of a dog. He is a huge part of our family and I couldn't imagine life without him.

Home Tour: Living Room

OUR FORMAL LIVING ROOM connects directly to the family room. The previous owners of this home had the walk-through between the two spaces blocked off by a sectional couch. I opted to keep the space open and re-formatted the layout so that the two rooms would flow nicely together. Now, while hosting guests, it can sometimes feel like one big great room where everyone is included in the party. My goal for this room, overall, was to create a space that was a bit more formal/contemporary than the family room, but still cozy enough for us to spend together as a family. Kiel and Alec spend a lot of time at the piano together and all the natural light has made the sofa a perfect spot for me to catch up on some reading during Alec's afternoon nap.

Because of our small budget, we tried to transition as much of our old furniture into this space as we could. We hung our ivory linen drapes from Pottery Barn, and our sectional floor lamp stands behind our brown leather arm chair. We purchased the Crosby Sofa from West Elm. We opted for the pebble weave material in a deep blue shade that I absolutely fell in love with in the store. We also purchased an ivory wool area rug to add a bit of texture to the space.

When I first envisioned this room, I knew I wanted to incorporate music somehow.  Just as we moved in, a free piano sort of fell into our laps, which really sealed the deal for me. The piano couldn't have fit more perfectly into the space. We did our best to bring it into the 21st century by re-upholstering the seat with the a basic ivory fabric from Jo-ann's. Above the piano, we hung an old sheet music map canvas print that I found online for a great price. We have our Crosley record player displayed on our old shelving unit from our previous home (similar here). Above the record player, we created a gallery wall of framed black and white family photos and two different art pieces, one of which Kiel made from old pallet wood. Many of the frames displayed are from Homegoods or the Threshold line at Target. 

There are still a few tweaks, here and there, that I would like to make, but overall this is probably the most 'complete' space in our home. I hope to eventually replace the tree in the corner with a live plant, but nothing I have found thus far has been quite large enough to fill the space completely. I would also like to eventually purchase a coffee table for this room (I've go my eye on this one), but for four hundred bucks, I think we will remain as is. Overall, I really love this room. Being that we were limited to a small budget, I think we did a pretty decent job. (For the record, I realize that I am by no means a talented 'interior decorator', but I do enjoy it so I thought I'd share. Any suggestions welcome!

The kitchen and dining room still need quite of bit of updating before I am willing to share. Over the fall and winter months, we are hoping to focus on these two areas of the house. We would really like to replace the kitchen cabinets, but the budget is limiting us a bit…so it is looking more like a fresh coat of paint and some new hardware. If we decide to go all out, we may try and create some open shelving and possibly a subway tile backsplash. Kiel is also planning on building a farmhouse table for the dining room. We've got big plans, here's hoping we can deliver. Stay tuned, our outdoor space will be up sometime soon!

Home Tour: Family Room

I fully recognize that the quality of these photos isn't stellar, but I did my very best. The lighting was super tricky. I am working on finding some before shots of the same space so that I can truly display all the changes and hard work we put into this home over the last four months. 

Trying to furnish and decorate a house on a small budget can be super challenging. Since Alec was born, I cut back my hours at work pretty drastically, so Kiel and I really had to sit down and focus hard on our finances. Fortunately, Homegoods and Target have been super good to me lately and, not to mention, the fact that my husband has suddenly turned into this incredibly creative handyman. He did a number of awesome things in this room. He ripped out some old built-ins next to the fireplace. He hand-made and stained two wooden pallet shelves. He painted our old coffee table a nice shade of blue and it works really well in the room now. 

We did need to purchase quite of few new items to fit this space; such as the henry sectional in heather grey. We opted for a marled microfiber fabric because of it's durability and of course, we sprayed on a thick coat of scotch guard. I found these patterned curtains  to frame the walk-out slider. The white shelving unit and television stand are both from IKEA. I replaced the hardware on the media stand with something a bit more unique. Much of the shelving and mantle decor comes from Homegoods and Target. The framed print  is from Society 6, a creative online shop full of interesting prints and designs. I also purchased this one for the formal living room. All of the greenery in this room are live plants or flowers. I change them out often, so there may be some inconsistency in the photos above.

Our family room is where we spend most of our time. You can't see it here, but we normally have our pop'n'play set up in one of the corners of the room. We fill it with a couple of Alec's favorite toys and it is a perfect little spot to put my boy while I cook dinner or clean. I hope to eventually change out the fireplace doors for a more updated look (the brass is killin me). I will probably try and go with something basic like this one I found at Home Depot. I am also hoping to replace our area rug with something a little larger and maybe a bit more plush like this one. 

More Home Tour posts to come later this week! Stop by to check out our formal living room and our outdoor space! 

  

Reflection

On our daily morning walk today, I stumbled upon this here leaf. Maybe it's totally crazy, but this little leaf spoke to me. As I stared at the ground, I became overcome with joy. I reflected upon this past weekend and was reminded of how amazing, emotional, super fun, and a bit exhausting it all was. We celebrated Alec's first birthday at our new home and the preparation took a lot out of Kiel and I.. and my Mom, and my Dad and so on. Our little village of family and friends shuffled in and out all day yesterday, and Alec truly had the time of his life. He was surrounded by so much love and the constant smile on his face was a true reflection of his understanding. Although time consuming and somewhat stressful to host a large party, it at least encouraged us to get our butts in gear to get our house in tip-top shape. Not every inch of our home is perfect, and I assume there will always be work to do, but I am really pleased with how most of it all turned out. Later this week, I plan on posting a Home Tour of a few somewhat 'finished' areas of our home. I will apologize ahead of time for the photography though, still trying to perfect my skills. Lighting is a tough one! I am also hopeful that we get the edited pics from our family photo shoot soon so I can share a few with you all! Anyway, thanks for swinging by and be sure to check in later this week.