home sweet home

We signed a year lease for our townhome. Sometimes I'm terribly sad that we'll have to leave this house in a year and sometimes I am counting down those 365 (now about 300) days.  Here are a few reasons why:

+ Basement/Playroom- it took a little getting used to but we love having all the toys downstairs.  The door to the basement is right next to the kitchen so the girls can play down there while I'm cooking dinner (theoretically- they have yet to figure this out and leave me alone for a few minutes to get an actual meal on the table.)  The basement is also the coolest (temperature-wise, and possibly in the figurative sense too) place in the house so Bryan escapes down there quite often as well.

+ China Cabinet- we never saw the house in person before moving, but we did see lots of pictures and when I saw this built-in China Cabinet I knew it had to be ours.

+ Wood floors, crown molding, tile, granite counters, ceiling fans in every bedroom- I love the beautiful features in this home.  Granted, the floors come at a price.  They are old and crrrreaky.  There's absolutely no sneaking around at night, you can hear every single step.  (Consequently we are planning on moving back here when the girls are between the ages of 14 and 18.)

+ Only one bathroom (well, there is a second bathroom, but it doesn't have a shower, is in the basement, and is kind of scary- I personally choose to avoid it though Jilly thinks it's awesome.)  For the most part this isn't a huge deal, but when we have visitors (and we better have lots because Baltimore is a cool place!) it will be pretty tight.  On the bright side, that's only one bathroom I have to clean.

(this is the normal bathroom; and yes, that's a black toilet...not odd at all)

+ Each door has a different trick to get it to close completely.  And, even with knowing the trick, you are not assured success.  Mattie's door is the worst, and there's nothing more frustrating than getting her peacefully in bed then having to try 15 times to get the stinking door closed.

+ We have a park at the end of our street.  Let me repeat: at the end of our street.  This is HUGE for us.  I can't even describe how wonderful it is to be able to walk down for a few minutes of swinging and sliding any time we want.

Mattie's Nursery

Mattie's room is my very favorite in the house.  It seldom gets very messy, and it just feels like a happy, peaceful place to me.  Mattie actually just started sleeping in her own room this week so I thought I would share it.  (On a side note, when do you move your baby into his/her own room?  Jilly was 2 months, but we waited til Mattie was almost 4 months.)

When I was at Lowe's buying paint for Mattie's room the cashier asked if I was painting the baby's room.  Joking, I said, "yes, how did you know? (I was quite pregnant at the time.)  He said, "well, you're obviously pregnant and buying baby blue paint."  Little did he know the baby blue paint was for my baby girl's room.  

The bottom shelf of the changing table broke not because of the vastness of our pink blanket collection, but now they all fit so I suppose it was meant to be.  Also, we have changed a diaper here exactly never; I just much prefer to change diapers on a blanket on the floor.

My friend Sara Beth made this lovely quilt for Jilly who then passed it down to Mattie girl.  

Mattie's Nana made this quilt and it fits the room perfectly

I think she likes it!

big girl room

Sometimes I feel like this baby is forcing Jilly to grow up too fast.  But then every time I introduce something new she takes it like a champ.  Sleeping in a big bed? she sleeps better than she ever did in her crib.  Potty training?  this girl was totally potty trained and accident-free by day 3.  She puts her shoes on by herself (never on the right feet, but that doesn't really matter right?), sits at the table like a big girl, and helps with her few little chores. So I guess she really is becoming a big girl and not my baby anymore.

I've had a lot of fun making Jilly a big girl room.  It's not terribly different from her old room, but for some reason to me it seems like a dramatic change.  And, I love that this room screams Jilly.  It's pink as can be and full of her favorite things- dresses, books, blankies, and babies.  Bryan says the room glows pink, and I admit that it kind of does.  But, she'll only be two once, and I'm so glad that she has a fun bedroom that she loves.

left wall- bow holders, armoire, US map, rain gutter bookshelves, free ABC print that I cannot find anymore- bummer

under the window- baskets for dolls, dress-up, and stuffed animals (one night I'm going to sneak in and throw away half the animals in that basket.)

 My friend Megan made a similar heart garland for Valentine's Day.  I was sitting on the bed reading books with Jilly one night and suddenly realized she needed a heart garland for her headboard so I got to work.  Jilly and I have many a battle over the hearts- I think they should be evenly spread apart and she likes to squish them all together on one side.  Drives me bonkers (do I sound like a control freak or what?!)

Clearly big girl beds were made for jumping

Closeup of wall art-  Jillian Kate print made for us by a friend (find her work here), Idea for the LOVE print from here (took me about 10 minutes to make with my cricut and scrap paper), You are my Sunshine printable, and I am in desperate need of finding something square to put underneath the picture of Christ with the children- any ideas?

 

tent, closet. door

it's the most wonderful time of the year

The best part about putting Valentines decorations up this year (and you better believe we've had these decorations up for weeks by now) was Jilly following behind me saying, "Oh petty, I wike it Mommy."  Love that girl.

Most of my decorations are pretty similar from last year, but I did add a few.

 I made one of these little pouches for each of us, and once I finished them all I realized I'll have to make another one next year!  I'm going to print these notes for us to give each other throughout the next couple weeks.

Powder room, and as a bonus me and baby at 24.5 weeks

My sewing table- this printable is from my cousin's etsy shop and I love it a lot.  It will not be disappearing after Feb 14th.

We're Back!

The only bad thing about a month-long vacation is that it eventually ends.  Chaos is the best way to describe life right now as we unpack, re-stock our fridge, do laundry, and catch up with the real world. In addition to this my phone broke a week ago and I haven't been able to get a new one yet, so I am feeling completely stranded.  There will be vacation re-cap and lots of pictures coming as soon as I get my life in order.  Until then I'll leave you with this picture of my Jilly girl on the drive home.  She wore pigtails the previous day and since we woke up and got straight in the car I didn't bother doing her hair- thus she sported a lion look for the first few hours of our drive.

ten things

There are many things about our home that I'm not crazy about (ask Bryan, he could give you a whole list of my complaints) but I'm trying to be better about focusing on the good.  So, here are 10 things I love about my home:

1. The stripes!  I know I've posted about them a million times already, but oh, those stripes, they make me so happy.

2.  Light- because we have lots of big windows our home is almost always bright and sunny.

3.  I love the color we chose for our family room walls.  Sometimes it looks like a solid gray, sometimes it's blue-ish, and sometimes it's so light that the color is imperceptible.  (it's Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray)

4. Two closets in the master bedroom.  I can't even begin to tell you how beneficial this is for our marriage.

5.  These lovely flowers in our "front yard" always make me happy

6.  These baskets are perhaps the best purchases I've ever made.  There's one basket for books, one for stuffed animals, and one for miscellaneous toys.  Cleaning is so quick and easy; even Jilly can figure out where things go.  Jilly's room is the most organized room in the house and I love it.

7.  There is a skylight in Jilly's bathroom.  I love it for the bright light it provides and the lovely noise rain makes when hitting it.  There was a skylight in my bathroom growing up and I always loved to listen to the rain in there as well.

8.  These jars are functional and I love the way they look on my kitchen counter.  My aunt gave us the M jar when we got married and we've slowly added the rest.

9.  When we moved in we got new carpet everywhere (except in the kitchen and bathrooms.)  This was a very stressful purchase that involved testing about a million carpet samples.  But it was all worth it because I absolutely love what we chose.  There is nothing better than walking on fresh, new, fluffy carpet.

10.  This bathroom is Bryan's true masterpiece (besides Jilly of course.)

What do you love about your home?

Under the Sea

Our powder room/laundry room was next up for a makeover.  Our realtor gave us these hand towels as a housewarming gift (she also gave us $50 in restaurant giftcards, soap dishes, a candle, pajamas and a book for Jilly, and a huge teddy bear that Jillian LOVES- do all realtors do this or were we just spoiled?!)  Anyway, the towels were kind of the inspiration for this room.  Also, that ugly linoleum floor was inspirational in that it looks like sand (maybe? can you see it?)  So we went with a beach theme, which kind of seems more Under the Sea* to me because I feel like I'm under the water when I'm in there and surrounded by the teal walls.  What this all boils down to is I now really really love this room- ugly floor and all.  

The pictures in the brown frame are all from our beach trips this summer and above the toilet is a starfish print we got four years ago on clearance with our very last Bed Bath and Beyond giftcard from our wedding.  One of my very favorite parts of our house is our Harry Potter cupboard under the stairs- right now it houses old baby items but I wouldn't hesitate to make it a bedroom if need's be.  Our washer and dryer are behind the closet doors on the right.

*it's a little known fact that thanks to 6th grade chorus I know every lyric of the song "Under the Sea."  And though the chorus is very simplistic, the verses are extremely difficult.  Case in point- "The newt play the flute, the carp play the harp, the plaice play the bass and they soundin' sharp, the bass play the brass, the chub play the tub, the fluke is the duke of soul, (yeah)" 

Home Tour: Valentine's Edition

In case you've been living under a rock you're aware of how much I love Valentine's Day.  And so I have decked the halls in honor of my favorite day.

powder room/laundry room, printable found here

What??  You've never seen a Valentine's Tree before?

I feel like I've cut out thousands of hearts in the past week- I made 5 of these garlands!  

Idea stolen from here

 family room shelves- printable found here

kitchen side counter

I found these and thought they looked easy enough to make, just lots of circle cutting and glue gunning.  I think I'll get some conversation hearts to fill up the bottom of the vase

entertainment center- I cut these letters out of a cardboard box, painted them with glitter paint then glued them to paper I already had and put them into frames without the glass

eating area

this is the inside of that vase, I made the kissing balls last year

Before and After

When we moved in the master bathroom was a real eyesore.  As our realtor put it, "It looks like someone showered in here incessantly yet never cleaned at all."  Gross.  But Super Bryan came to the rescue.

The Before- doesn't it make you cringe?!?!

The before floor (I promise, no other room in our house looked like this at all, somehow this just was the neglected child)

I'm 95% sure Bryan's favorite part of the project was gutting the old junk.  He had a big smile on his face as he hammered away.

In action

Bry got sick of doing all the work himself so we hired a slave... or we just convinced our friend Tommy that since his wife was out of town the best use of his time would be helping with our bathroom

Hello New Shower!!!  The glass doors are fantastic because while I'm showering I can watch Jilly unroll the entire roll of toilet paper onto the floor.

Tile up close- we used antique white 4x6 tile and grey un-sanded grout with a blue/grey decorative strip

My only part in the process (besides lots of moral support and encouragement and a few "will my bedroom ever stop being a workspace?"s ) was painting the walls.  First blue was way too bright, but I'm loving this darker blue.

(Jilly modeling our shower and her new Valentines jammies)

Bryan's brother proposed that we have a breaking in the shower party and invite everyone we know to come shower with us.  Regretfully, we are not going to use this excellent idea.  But, I promise if you come visit us we'll let you take a solo shower in our new bathroom!