Changing and Rearranging

We have been making big changes in our main living area of the house and now I am finally getting around to sharing some photos of our updates. I think it's really interesting to see how our needs have changed and how the space has developed over time. The first thing I wanted to show off are the awesome built in stairs that Eric made for under our staircase!

This is a project we have been wanting to do since we moved in. The previous space under the stairs was inaccessible and basically unusable and a waste of space.  We had some bookshelves stuck back there but we really couldn't get to them and they didn't give us as much storage as we wanted.  The new built in shelves are very wide and very deep and allow for plenty of storage for our games and extra kitchen goods.

The top section of the shelves will one day be a reading nook for Echo but for now it's a place to hide the cat food so Echo can't eat it (babies love to eat cat food, don't ask me why). 

In order to be able to access the shelves we had to do a little furniture rearrangement and this is the new setup. It is a much cozier arrangement and allows for better conversation and a better spot to sit by the fire since the furniture is closer together now. We even found a nice little nook for Echo's easel and her little rocking chair.

The area by the front window has changed too since we swapped out the round table that was in this corner with the rectangular table that used to be in the dining room. Eric is now using this corner as his work desk for when he works from home. It's great because he has a lovely view out in to the front yard and plenty of light. He also sold his IMac and works exclusively on his new Chrome Book and his Ipad so he doesn't need much room. We almost never use the loft now because we have pretty much stopped watching tv altogether and Echo hates being confined in the small space up there, preferring to have free reign of the whole house. The consequence of this is that we are using our "formal" living room a lot more now and not really spending much time in the the loft. Plans for how to revise the loft space to make it more usable are in the works though.

We got a cool new firewood holder so we can have dry wood inside and it fits nicely with the new furniture arrangement (it needs to be filled up more though!). The house is starting to feel like a greenhouse because I had to move so many plants inside to save them from the freezing weather but it makes everything feel a little fresher and greener so that's nice.

Here is a picture of the new dining room arrangement. I actually think the round table fits better in this space. Unfortunately this area wasn't very clean for this photo, oh well.

I also felt the need to change out the art on the dining room wall so I got a huge poster sized print of one of my photographs and framed it for this wall. I'm loving the updated look. The glass in the frame is a little too reflective though and messes with the photograph, I'm working on a solution to this. I'm moving the art that used to be on this wall up in to the loft where I'm making a gallery wall.

Here is an aerial view of the new downstairs space. Sometimes I think it really helps perk up your spirits to rearrange and redecorate a space. I think this is just what we needed and we are appreciating our house in a whole new way now.

Fire Circle Update

Last Weekend we finally got around to clearing our fire circle (which tends to get totally overgrown in the Summer) and we added some much needed improvements! This year Eric put down weed stopper gardening fabric and gravel around the pit, giving it a much more finished look and hopefully cutting down on the amount of clearing we have to do next year. Here are some pictures of the updated look.

Eric working on spreading gravel

Echo supervises the work

Finished and our first fire of the year!

After these pictures were taken we added more gravel and border bricks. It is already a much more pleasant place to hang out. We have plans to put in benches and fix the death trap of a staircase that leads down to the back yard at some point but that might have to wait until next year. In the mean time it's nice to have the back yard transformed in to a more usable space.

Exposed Pantry

Finally! A house post again! I bet you thought we'd never have another of those, it's been a while. This whole baby thing has kind of distracted us from working on the house but in our defense she is really cute and it's hard not to spend a lot of time staring at her :-)

We used to have this really awful, deep dark pantry to the left of the fridge. Seriously, it was horrible. You could never find anything in there and we had to keep a flashlight close by to even have a chance of seeing what was inside. So in the spirit of taking out all our cabinets and replacing them with shelves we (ok, mostly Eric) put in an awesome exposed pantry so that we can actually see what we have.

Eric removing the old pantry

ugly, empty space

painted and supports added

Finished!

Finished!

Eric used pine for the shelves and red oak for the vertical beams, the shelves are very solid and fit tons of stuff!

It has freed up so much counter space for us and it's amazing how we can actually see what we have now! It also gives us a nice way to display all the pretty little food canisters we have been collecting. It feels good to be making some progress on the kitchen remodel. Since we spend so much time cooking it's important to have this space be very functional even though it is small. We still have lots of things we want to do in here but this is a huge step in the right direction!

Christmas is Coming

I'm trying to focus on my upcoming Thanksgiving dinner hosting but Christmas projects are already starting to edge their way in. I already made my Thanksgiving shopping list and did a little pre-shopping for dry goods and things that would keep until the big day so my Thanksgiving prep is going well, maybe that's why I am already jumping ahead to Christmas. I am pretty much always ridiculously excited about the Christmas holidays but this year I seem to be getting started on my Christmas festivities even earlier than usual. My shopping is already 99% finished and have already given a lot of thought to decorations. Part of my excitement is from the fact that this house will be so awesome to decorate for Christmas, it is so cabin like, it'll be perfect! My first Christmas craft this year is a pine cone wreath. We have so many pine cones in our yard that I am planning to use them heavily in our holiday decorating. To start my wreath I got a cheap grapevine wreath from Michael's. Then I used floral wire to tie the pinecones to the base wreath. Finally I used a hot glue gun to add smaller pine cones and a little bit of sparkle by using some gold spray painted pine cones and a few gold glitter balls. Lastly I added the bow and ribbon to hang it from. I'm very pleased with how it came out, I feel like you would pay big bucks for a wreath like this at the store and it cost me next to nothing. Here are some pictures of the process and finished product.

in progress

in progress

almost done!

ta da!

Tree Table DIY

Finally I get to post about my tree table! I got the idea from this post on Design Sponge and have been in love with the thought of it ever since. I have always loved this kind of natural wood furniture but it will cost you a pretty penny if you buy it from a store (see this example from Amazon). There is no reason you can't make this yourself, it's actually super easy (if I can do it so can you!). I started by selecting the perfect log, this was not too difficult because if there's one thing we have a lot of in this neighborhood it's trees. Lucky for me my parents had recently had a tree cut down and had a whole stack of beautiful logs in their back yard from which they let me take my pick. A word of caution about starting this project, these logs are heavy!! Be careful trying to move something like this, you can kill your back. Fortunately I have a big burly husband who carries my heavy things for me and he picked it up like it was a rag doll and hauled it back to our house for me. After I had it in the garage I knocked all the bark off of it and sanded it smooth. I didn't go overboard on the sanding because I personally like having some texture to the wood but you can sand it as much or as little as you like. After the sanding I cleaned off all the dust and coated it with several layers of polyurethane. Here are some pictures of the finished product.

this is replacing our $7 Ikea end table :-)

I love that you can see the insect paths on this thing.

The stump was not quite level so I used some of these to help it stand a little straighter. 

So that's what I've been working on this week. I must say I am pretty darn proud of it. It has really inspired me to take on some of my other DIY projects that I have been putting off forever.

Bargain Hunting

One of the great things about living in this neighborhood is that it has killer yard sales! Eric found all these wooden bowls at a sale this weekend, he paid $3 for the whole set! They totally fit with our rustic, woodsy style and has inspired us to try to make it out to yard sales more often.

Tree House Style

I once dated this guy who in hindsight was all wrong for me. Sounds familiar huh? At least most people I know have dated someone who turned out to be a huge mistake. I should have been tipped off by his reaction when I confessed that I had a secret dream of living in a tree house. To me there is nothing quite as magical as a house nestled high up among the trees. It makes me think of childhood and Peter Pan and Swiss Family Robinson. Anyway, when I told this guy that I wanted to one day live in a tree house he immediately started rattling off reasons why tree houses weren't practical and how they would never make a good place to live in real life. I should have run right then and there but sadly it took me another year to come to my senses. I knew Eric was a keeper when I told him the same dream, years later. When I told Eric I wanted to live in a tree house one day his eyes lit up and I could tell that he shared my dream.

Now Eric and I have our very own house nestled in the trees. While technically speaking it isn't a tree house, it has a lot the same elements that I love about them. The rustic wood, the shaded yard and the fact that we are surrounded by trees on all sides. When I wake up and hear the cacophony of birds outside my window each morning I feel like I am in some kind of super swanky tree house resort. I love feeling like my home is a place of rest and relaxation, I feel like I'm on vacation when I get to spend a day at home. 


Here are some gorgeous tree house pictures to help you feel inspired, I know they inspire me :-)

And lastly a few pictures of our little "tree house"

Spring Break Splurges

I have been on Spring break this week (one of the great things about being a teacher) and I did what I typically do on Spring break, shop! In my college years I would always spend Spring break shopping for clothes and while I admit that I still did a little of that most of my shopping was centered around the house this year. I went a little crazy for plants this year and bought quite a few. Here are some pictures of the new plantings around the house.

My new hanging basket, and Angel Wing Begonia

Regular old Begonia

Mint, Lemon Balm and two Red Bell Pepper plants

More pepper plants and some succulents I got for the sides of my strawberry pot

I also scored some sweet home decor items over my break. I have been looking to add some more metal to our living space to offset the warmth of all the wood. Here are two pieces I am pretty excited about.

I had been searching for some metal letter for a while and had my eye on some at Anthropologie that were just a bit more than I wanted to spend. Over break I spotted these at Urban Outfitters for 2 for $12! I love the way they look on our mantel.

Eric's parents came up this weekend and his mom brought us this awesome metal card catalog. Call me crazy but I am totally in love with industrial metal storage units, I was pretty excited about this one.

We are using it as an end table but also discovered that it is the perfect size to hold our DVD collection, it's a win win!

I'll be back to work tomorrow so new posts may be slow to come but they will be here eventually :-)

Wedding Style

It's Spring time and oh my goodness love is in there air! It seems like everyone I know is getting married or engaged lately. I guess we are just getting to that age where people are starting to want to "settle down". In honor of all you engaged girls out there and light of the fact that mine and Eric's 5 month anniversary was this week (love you baby!) I wanted to do a  wedding post and talk a bit about how wedding's reflect your personal style as a couple. I spent about a year planning our wedding (with a lot of help from my mom and a little from Eric) and it turned out so beautifully and just the way I wanted it to be. Now that my wedding is over (and believe me I wouldn't want to go through all that stress and planning again) I have really enjoyed talking to friends about their weddings, I love to see the whole thing develop over time and eventually come to fruition.


I really love weddings, I loved mine and I love going to other people's. It makes me happy to see people in love and I love to see how the couple's style and creativity comes through in their choices of decor, food and clothing for their wedding day. There are so many different ways you can approach a wedding that it can be overwhelming but we knew that we wanted ours to be warm, rustic, simple and inviting. Let me tell you it's amazing how quickly a "simple" wedding can get complicated but in the end it's about prioritizing and deciding what is really important to you. I think we succeeded in keeping things fairly low key (as far as weddings go) and we definitely reflected our rustic modern style in our wedding. Here are some pictures form our big day, I feel like it really shows bit about who we are as a couple.

** All photographs by the fabulous Raven Shutley

*love*

The dress, I searched long and hard for this one. Well, not that long and hard, it was probably the third one I tried on. I went with something simple from the department store. My main criteria was that it had to be something I could dance in easily.

My fabulously mismatched bridal party. Everyone had different clothes but all in the same color scheme and the matching yellow accent pieces really tied everything together.

our wedding sign (which can still be seen in our front yard) was purchased on etsy

Delicious cupcakes from the Atlanta Cupcake Factory featuring seasonal Fall flavors.

We decorated our venue with Christmas lights and hundreds of handmade paper butterflies (made by me, my mom and bridesmaids). The bright white decorations helped add some magic to the natural wood in the venue.

Our flowers were a mixture of Sunflowers, Viking Pom Flowers, Wheat stalks and berries. We kept it rustic and Fall-ish

We left the venue with the pathway lit up by luminaries and sparklers