Category: decorate

we were in austin for a wedding this past weekend, where we caught up with great friends, danced our tails off, and i got reaquainted with my “y’all”.  on saturday, i met up with the wedding party on saturday while they were taking photos at the hotel saint cecilia.  whoa.  i was instantly taken and pretty much wanted to steal everything in sight – from the cement tile on the patio to the classic black and white poolside furniture to every last piece in the bungalow.  the grounds were unbeliveable, the pool was perfect, and i wanted to move into that bungalow.  it was just the right amount of modern, organic, kooky, sleek and worldly, and felt totally ‘warm’.  i took lots of mental notes and left feeling quite inspired.

{all photos are mine except where otherwise noted}

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i’ve mentioned before that, while we love this new house, it is pretty much a box ‘o beige.  i mean every single wall in the house (except bedrooms) is beige.  it’s kind of amazing…in not-my-favorite way.  we will slowly be making changes, and now that i’m no longer pregnant, we’re back in project mode.  a quick one that we tackled a few weeks ago was in our basement.  you might know that i have a love for chalkboard paint, so we went and slathered a pretty big wall with it.  it was highly motivated by the ncaa tournament so jared could put the bracket on it.  it’s both hilarious and awesome.  otherwise, we are doodling away down there and i think we’re having more fun than beckett is.

when i mentioned last week that we had another big project brewing, i wasn’t kidding – we’re moving!  this has been the craziest, most whirlwind of a thing, and we weren’t even planning on it.  bonkers, right?  so, here’s the story.  my dear sweet husband is what you might call a real estate stalker, and he looks online on a nearly daily basis.  he’ll send me a few links weekly, but nothing was really enough for us to make a move.  then one day he sent me a link to a house that stopped us in our tracks.  we went to an open house that sunday, made a second visit wednesday, and our house was on the market the following week.  we knew that our current house wasn’t our ‘forever home’ and that we probably wanted to get planted somewhere more long-term before beckett started school, so we really just sped up our timeline a bit.

so, our house went on the market on a thursday morning, and we had a request for a showing within a few hours.  over the next 3 days, our house was shown 6 times, and sunday morning, we had an amazing offer on the table.  really, we thought this stuff only happened in the movies – certainly not to us – certainly not in this market.  in the middle of this, we made an offer on the other house.  the stars seemed to be aligning.  the sunday that we got the offer on our house, we spent the entire day negotiating back and forth on both houses and probably spoke to our agent 20 different times.  coincidentally, it was our wedding anniversary – we were sweaty and dirty from getting the house show-ready, tired and stressed out – cute!  we came to terms on both houses by the next day and breathed a little sigh of relief.  just recently, we got through the inspections and appraisals and breathed a much bigger sigh of relief.  we haven’t signed anything yet, so the move isn’t set in stone, but if all goes according to plan, we’ll be moving in about three weeks.  whew!  are you still reading?

so all this has me thinking about projects to tackle, new rooms to make our own, and how we can do it (well, some of it) before we welcome #2 in late january.  the house is quite updated, but the finishings aren’t necessarily the things we would have chosen.  right now, things are beige, beige, beige, and as you might know, that is so not us.  we’re really excited to get our stuff inside and see how things are looking and then to start making a project punch list.  i’ll be sure to keep you updated along the way, and thanks for your patience as my posts may continue to be sparse for a while.

we are in various stages of packing at the moment, and my once pretty dining room now looks like a moving van threw up in it.

hi friends.  back today with a few party tricks.  these are not rocket science, just a few things i’ve picked up along the way from parties i’ve been to, pictures i’ve seen, and of course, pinterest.

• decorate up – hang balloons, paper lanterns, tissue paper poufs, etc from the ceiling – it’s a much unused space that can make a big impact

{this was taken pre-food.  we did feed our guests…a lot.}

• label the food so your guests know what they’re eating without having to ask

• stick with a color scheme – everything will feel like it belongs and your party will have a flow.  ours started with the napkin below –  navy, light turquoise, and green, and i tried to keep everything pretty close so it would all work together.

• serve a signature drink in a large dispenser.  this works especially great for a large group.  everyone can help themselves, and you’re not stuck mixing drinks.  we served peach sangria (on the right), and it was a huge hit.

• personalize it – if your party is in honor of someone, pay a little homage to them.  for instance, we put up emmett’s monogram and photograph on our mantle.

do you have any fun party tricks?  i’d love to try them out for my next shindig, so please leave your ideas!

hi friends.  are you still checking in?  thank you if you still are!  i’ve been so bad at doing any updates lately, so i appreciate if you’re still willing to stick with me here.  i hope to kick it back into high gear, and i thank you for your patience.  now, back to business!

i have been having a major moment with modern art.  first and foremost, i love the look.  secondly, i love that, at first glance, it looks simple, but when you break it down, it’s quite complex – many layers, many colors.  i also think that it’s pretty versatile.  it can really modernize a traditional home, or take a modern home to the next level.  i’ve shown you some diy art here, but my (very simplistic!) work will never hold a candle to these pieces (all pulled from my pinterest art board).

{my very favorite right now}