Photo Friday: Picking Up Where I Left Off

It's been awhile. As in over a year since I posted regularly. I think I'm ready to come back, maybe. I'm ready for something, an outlet if you will. So I'll start here and see how it goes.

I can think of no better way to start back than to introduce Owen; our super cute, super happy, 7 month old (as of today) little boy. We couldn't be more in love with him.

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend, and who knows maybe I'll even be back next week.

A Bright Red Bird House

There has been a lot of house talk lately and Audrey has obviously caught on. Last week she came to me and asked if girls can build things too. Of course the answer was a resounding yes. One question led to another and within the hour we were helping her build a birdhouse.

 The next day she painted it.

And worked under the philosophy that the more paint on her brush the better.

Here is the finished project. When I told her I wanted to take her picture with her birdhouse she was very excited, but was also very particular about how she wanted to set it up. Which explains the need for the chair and umbrella.

Now we are just hoping the birds like it as much as we do. 

House Progress

I thought I would share a few new pictures of the house progress. It's been awhile and things have changed so much in the last couple of months.

The kitchen, dining and living room areas might just be my favorite spot in the house (although I could easily say that about just about any part of the house!) It is one big open room and I couldn't be more thrilled about it.

Here it is looking into the kitchen.

Along the right wall where the windows are in the kitchen will all be open shelving. The stained cabinetry sitting right in the middle of the room are actually bathroom vanities that are just waiting to be installed.

And here it is looking the other direction into the living room.

This is a wall of bookshelves and a wood stove will go right in the middle. On the other side of the room are two sets of french doors and an entertainment cabinet. For some reason I don't seem to have any recent picture of that side of the room.

The other big progress that happened last week is the installation of the tile in the bathrooms upstairs. The pictures aren't great, but I am so happy with how they turned out.

This is the kids' bathroom upstairs.

And this is the shower in our master bathroom.

We are getting close to finishing and so anxious to move in. We've started picking out some new furniture and Bryce has been building a few new things too. I can't wait to share them all.

Our Farmhouse Kitchen

Of all the rooms in our new house I am probably most excited for the kitchen. Ever since I moved out of my parents' house after high school I have lived in rentals. Some of the kitchens in the various houses were okay, but none were great. Most of them have been small and not super functional. So being able to design a kitchen from scratch is a bit of dream.

We really want the kitchen, and the rest of the house, to have a bit of a farmhouse feel. So we've tried to incorporate elements that lend to that style while still being new and very functional. As we've been making some of the final design decisions for the kitchen over the past couple of weeks I've put everything together in a design board to see how it would all look. 

Here's what I've come up with...

1. 48" Wolf range top and stainless steel appliances // 2. Wall color: Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue (HC-147) // 3. Shaker style inset cabinetry // 4. Twist Swivel Stools from World Market // 5. Open shelving with corbels  // 6. Countertops: Glacier White Granite // 7. White subway tile backsplash // 8. and 11. White painted perimeter cabinets, Benjamin Moore Stratton Blue (HC-142) for the island // 9. Stained red oak floors // 10. White farmhouse sink with chrome faucet

I wish I could show you a picture of the kitchen space, but a few weeks ago I inadvertently upgraded the iPhoto on our hard drive, which is where I keep ALL of our pictures. This little mistake means I can no longer open any pictures using our computer because our operating system is too old. Bummer. Good news is that my error was just enough of a push for us to decide it was time to order a new computer. I can't wait until it shows up, hopefully sometime later this week. 

Nonetheless, I am so anxious to see it all come together. Obviously we still have more decisions to make like the lighting and window treatments and hardware, but we are getting close. The house is being textured today and will be painted later this week. Cabinetry is scheduled to be installed next week, eek!

Published!

A few weeks ago I received an email with the subject line marked as "**Urgent: WSJ Opportunity". I couldn't figure out what WSJ stood for and normally wouldn't even open something like that, but for some reason I did that day. 

After I opened the email I had one of those hit yourself on the forehead, "duh!" moments. 

The email happened to be from a lady who works for the company which markets Ball Mason Jars. And the Wall Street Journal happened to be doing a feature on Ball Mason Jars.  

Why I was getting an email about all of this? 

Well a couple of years ago I did a guest post for another blog featuring a craft using a mason jar. Apparently the marketing group for Ball had found the post, liked the craft, and asked if it would be ok to feature my photo in the story. I know, crazy, right? 

It was not one of my better photos and in hindsight I thought the whole craft a bit silly so I didn't even share it here. It took me several hours and a very legitimate sounding follow-up email to believe that it wasn't some scam. 

Sure enough it wasn't. My photo (and Audrey) ended up being part of the feature on Ball Mason Jars in the December 19th printed edition of The Wall Street Journal. You can see the online version of the article here.