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Friday, January 30, 2015

Tastes change. In ice cream AND in paint colors.

Isn't it funny how our tastes change over time?   I mean, butter pecan ice cream used to remind me of my Grama, because she loooooooves some butter pecan.  But now?  It's my ice cream of choice. Maybe that means I'm getting old?  Oh well. 

 Anyway .... let's talk paint.  One thing we noticed while getting our old house ready to sell, was just how different the color palette is from our new house.


When we moved into our first home, we knew that we would repaint every single wall.  And we would do so rather quickly.  We had a nice double income, no kids, and oodles of time to make it our own!


That house was built in 1930 and had beautiful, original wood trim throughout.  The colors we chose were deep, rich, and cozy.  They looked gorgeous against the wood trim and I just LOVED choosing a new color for each room, often choosing several colors.  


When I compare these colors to everything that I've put into our current home so far (and those that I'm planning on using!), I can't help but notice how insanely different they are!  The thing I really, really love about our current home is how much light shines in through the giant windows.  The house is newer, open concept, the trim is all white, and I just cannot bear the thought of putting a dark, cozy color on the walls.  I want light, bright, neutral colors - grays, greiges, blues, aquas, and whites.


While the difference in trim colors and the age of the home definitely make a difference in color choices, I think a lot of it has to do with a simple change in tastes and design style.


I love the airy quality that these paint colors bring to an already light and bright home.  And yet, I try really hard to make sure that the colors still bring a cozy quality.  Sherwin-Williams Silverplate was perfect for achieving this in the Living Room/Dining Room.  


Even interior rooms with no natural light feel fresh and homey with the right colors.  I love the color of our half bathroom (Pantone Illusion Blue) for that very reason.  


The family room gets the most light of any in the house, and also has the tallest ceiling, so I wanted something airy, yet cozy.  Sherwin-Williams Aqua-Sphere (tinted at 50%) was exactly what I was going for.  Since this photo was taken, we installed new flooring, have a new rug, and changed up the look of the fireplace.  And we rearranged the furniture.  Maybe I'll try to rid the room of toys and clothes today so that I can take a new photo.


The point?  It's so much fun to compare colors.  Admittedly, I'm a color person, but I think it's so interesting that the style, size, etc of a home can affect the colors you choose.  And beyond that, tastes and preferences change throughout the years!  Funny how a coat of paint can change to feel of it all.

Have you rolled any paint onto the walls in your home lately?



Old House

Shoreline Haze - Valspar - 6008-1B
Drumskin - Valspar - 7003-10
Ginger Spice - Valspar - retired color
Smooth Pebble - Valspar - retired color
Filoli Ballroom - Valspar - 5005-4A
Green Peppercorn - Valspar - 5005-4B
Enchanted Navy - Valspar - 4010-8
Gravity - Valspar - 4005-1B
Fired Earth - Valspar - 6011-1
LaFonda Geranium Red - Valspar - 1010-4
Boysenberry - Valspar Signature - CI129


Faint Maple - Valspar - 2008-9C

New House

Silverplate - Sherwin Williams - 7649
Aqua-Sphere (tinted @ 50%) - Sherwin Williams - 7613
Tinsmith - Sherwin Williams - 7657
Pantone Illusion Blue - Valspar - PN8010
Blue Coal - Valspar - 4011-3
Crucible - Valspar - 4006-2B
Watery - Sherwin Williams - 6478
Lattice - Sherwin Williams - 7654
Naval - Sherwin Williams - 6244

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Taking photos with 3 wiggly little boys.

I haven't updated much on my little studs lately, I mean, other than the super overdue birthday party posts, so I thought I'd take a minute to throw some photos at you.  Because I gave birth to the 3 cutest creates on earth and it would be unfair to deprive you of their cuteness ;)

I have about a million candid photos of the boys just doing their thing in life, with disheveled hair, dirty faces, and whatever clothes they've chosen for themselves that day.  So occasionally, I get in the mood to try to capture a photo of 3 clean, well-dressed little boys with smiles on their faces and eyes on the camera.  This is, of course, no easy task, so I now know that I have to go into this task with a plan!


Every time I get my kids into semi-matching clothes and attempt to get some cute photos of them, I know that it's going to be a .... challenge.  


Before even getting them dressed, I decide on a location and try to get my camera settings all set.  Because once they are dressed and plopped where I want them, I will have approximately 5 minutes to jump around, tell crazy jokes, and bribe them into letting me get just one decent photo.  


While I fine-tune my settings again, I tell them to make silly faces.  Which always works.  


Then we move on to hugs and snuggles.  I usually try to get a nice, sharp shot of their feet too, because I have a thing for kiddo feet.  Not adult feet.  Gross.  But my kids' feet are flippin' adorable.  


Then I switch my focus to their faces to try to catch hugs and happy faces.  Of course, it inevitably develops into silliness and wrestles.  Because BOYS.  


When I ask for smiles?  I get really, really forced ones.  And usually some funny faces, lack of looking at the camera, and deliberate eye closing.  


So I try to just tell jokes, and use lots of potty humor.  Because again, BOYS.  


The sillies continue of course, but eventually, hopefully, if the planets align and all is right in the world, I'll tell the perfect joke about poop or boogers or something and I'll get some really, awesome, genuine smiles.  


And then the 5 minute window of opportunity closes.  But it doesn't matter because while the final product is adorable, the photos of the process are priceless!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Brennan's Construction Birthday Party!


After writing about the boys' birthday parties this year, I realized that I never shared Brennan's Construction party from last year!  And I cannot just let it go, because that was a really, REALLY fun party to put together.  


We had just moved from Florida to Michigan and were living with Brian's parents' while we searched for a new home of our own.  So I had plenty of time to put together a really fun party for our little 4 year old!
 

Decorations were a blast to put together.  We used black paper lanterns as "wrecking balls" and coils of orange raffia as " extension cords".  Since the boys have lots of construction trucks, we had lots available to decorate the table!


The menu included all kinds of snacks.  Friends, I had SO.MUCH.FUN coming up with all of these names.  Some were from things I had seen on Pinterest, others I came up with on my own.  Here's the rundown:

Construction Cones = Candy Corn
Pebbles = Reese Pieces
Gravel = Puppy Chow
Lumber = Vanilla Wafer Cookies
Spackle & Drywall = Hummus & Pita Chips
Nuts & Bolts = Chex Mix
Beams & Concrete = Carrots & Dip
Bricks & Mortar = Crackers & Cheeseball
Landscaping = Broccoli Salad
Debris = Chicken Salad
Wrecking Balls = Rolls
Rocks & Stones = Homemade Chicken Nuggets


We served lemonade at the "Cooling Station", had a Dumping station for gifts, and put out all of Brennan's construction books for his friends to read while at the party.


The cake was by far my favorite part!  I picked up a pack of construction vehicles to decorate the "construction site".   The giant crack in the center of the cake was a happy accident.  Brennan thought that it was awesome, so I rolled with it!


This big guy loved his construction party.  We had hardhats for the kids and Brennan had a blast handing one out to each of his friends.  And of course his brothers had a blast too, because what 2-year-old boy wouldn't?


Daddy even dressed up in his hardhat and toolbelt, like a "real construction guy" according to Brennan.  That just elevated Daddy right past superhero status in his mind!  It was definitely a day full of great memories for our little family!


Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Brennan turned FIVE! {an Invention Contraption Party}



Continuing on the birthday party train, let's recap Brennan's 5th Birthday!  Brennan requested an "Invention Contraption" party.  Yeah, that one stumped me.  I also wanted to keep it really simple.  


So the plan?  Sheetcake with Mousetrap on the top, build-your-own dessert cars, and a table full of scraps of things for the kids to build their own Inventions & Contraptions.  I found a Mousetrap game at a thrift store for super cheap, bleached the pieces, ran them through the dishwasher, and set it up on a big giant sheetcake.  Brennan was THRILLED.  


I would love to show you the cute little dessert contraption bar that my Mom put together for the kids to build things ... but this party was apparently so laid back that I forgot to take photos of anything but cake and gift opening.  Oops.  Also, the giant table full of fun scrap things for the kids to build their own inventions?  Forgot to photograph those too.  


But honestly, we enjoyed this party so much.  The relaxed atmosphere was just the perfect way to celebrate our first baby turning FIVE.  I can hardly believe it.  How did that happen?  


This boy.  He has the most amazing spirit.  His heart is huge, his laugh is infectious, and his imagination never stops.  This sweet boy, the one who made me a Mommy, makes me so proud to call him mine!


Monday, January 26, 2015

The Brothers turned 3! {a Firefighter Rescue Party}


So, yes, Beckett & Kiernan turned 3.  And, yes, it was back in September.  But someone was asking me about it the other day and I realized that I never posted pictures of either of our birthday parties this year!  


The boys are big into firefighters lately.  Pretty standard for a 3 year old boy, if you ask me!  I wanted to keep it pretty simple this year, but still fun for the boys, so I focused my efforts on desserts.  Kiernan REALLLLLLY wanted a "real" firetruck cake.  So I did my best to create one for him.  Brian & I laughed through the entire process because the cake just did not want to stand up and the icing did not want to stay on the cake.  Is it the prettiest thing ever?  Hell no.  But the boys loved it so I'm calling it a win.  


The cupcakes were red velvet and delicious.  I lumped a few different colors of icing in a bag and got nice and sloppy with a cake tip to try to get a bit of a flame effect.  Again, not all that pretty, but the boys sure loved it.  


And to round out the dessert table?  More chocolate.  I ordered some police/fire/ambulance chocolate molds from Amazon and whipped up a batch of colorful chocolates and some dark chocolate ones for those of us who prefer our chocolate to be as dark brown as possible.  


The day was simple and sweet.  Surrounded by our closest friends and family, we celebrated our babies taking one more step toward becoming big boys.  It's just so hard to believe that they have only been in our lives for 3 short years.


They really love each other fiercely ... so fiercely, in fact, that hugs often usually almost always result in wrestling matches.  We tried to make sure that this hug was an exception to that rule.  Wrestling matches are really better left until after candles are blown out.   
 

Every year on their birthday, Beckett & Kiernan each get their own "cake", candle, and birthday song.  When they were babies, we attended a birthday party for my friend's twin boys, and at the party we sang to each boy separately.  I loved the thought that even though they share a birthday, they each deserve their own song!  


We sang for Beckett, then we sang for Kiernan, and then Brennan serenaded them with his "May the Dear Lord bless you" version of the birthday song.  Beckett liked it.  Kiernan was ready to finally get to examine the firetruck cake.    


After lots and lots of cake was consumed, we tucked away into the living/dining room to open gifts.  We are so, so incredibly blessed to have such thoughtful people in our lives.  While a party with all of these wonderful people celebrating them would have been enough for our boys, they certainly enjoyed opening gifts.  


All in all, it was a sweet, calm day to celebrate 2 sweet, not-so-calm little boys, while surrounded by those we love the most.  We really couldn't ask for anything more!


Except for Rescue Bots.  Apparently we can always ask for more Rescue Bots because we can never have enough.  This is a lesson that I am still learning.  The hard way! 




Thursday, January 15, 2015

Let's talk about ... Kitchens!

Since working on the old house and vowing to make our current house feel more like "home", I've been on what feels like a project overload.  Even though I haven't actually done any projects.  Figure that one out.

It's just that I have so many ideas swimming around in my head of what I want to do with this house to make it work better for us, look better to us, and just feel better to us.  But friends, I don't even have the Christmas decorations down yet, so I have no business starting a project until that happens.  And until my dining room table is no longer covered in piles of clean laundry.  (Does that happen to anyone else?  It's just so big and clear and close to the boys during the day.  The perfect spot to fold laundry.

Anyway, I thought that while I tackle those things, I can at least dream about what I'd like to do with the house.  My kitchen is definitely on that list.  It's not as high on the list as I'd like it to be, because what I'd like to do is going to involve knocking out walls, which requires time.  And money.  We don't have much of either of those things these days.  So instead, I'll dream and plan so that when the time comes, I know EXACTLY what I want.

After Pinning a few things to my "Kitchen" board the other day, I decided that it might be worth sorting through a few Pins to think about what I actually like in each picture.  Care to join me on my little journey through my board?

PERFECT.
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I'm a sucker for stone work, so that column is making me drool.  Also, I love the use of space above the cabinets.  Wasted space above cabinets drives me nuts!

Narrow island
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This shows a relatively narrow island, which may be the direction in which we go for our home.  The kitchen is fairly narrow as it stands, and depending on which walls we knock down, we may need to go with a narrow island.  I also love a good bookshelf on an island end.  I think it cozies the place up a bit.  

A gallery of kitchen diner designs | Period Living
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I just love this space.  It feels open and airy, yet cozy and inviting.  Banquettes scream coziness to me too.  Also?  I love the concept of a cupboard that comes straight to the counter.  It could play the roll of an appliance garage, or simply to house dishes.  Regardless, it leaves counter space while maximizing storage space.  

Cottage Style Kitchen
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The butcher block counter is beautiful, although I'm not sure it would be right for our family.  The shelves on the side of the island and the cabinets up to the ceiling earn bonus points :)  The extra oven in the island also intrigues me.  Maybe a convection/microwave combo?  Either way, it's a way to squeeze in an extra oven if you lack the wall space for double ovens.  

Home Decor | BloomCoco
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Another great option for a long, narrow space.  It doesn't feel cramped!  In our last kitchen, the refrigerator and wall ovens were next to each other and I really loved it.  The set up just felt natural.  

Wood-Look Ceramic Tile: Tile in Disguise in Beautiful Kitchen Flooring Ideas from HGTV
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The decorative panels on the back of the island are super, super cute.  The black/gray window and door are really visually interesting as well.  

drawers under sink
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Drawers.  Drawers are essential.  I really prefer them over cabinets.  The are just all around easier.  That's all I have to say about that.  

My Sweet Savannah: ~our fall home tour~{with BHG}
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Lights on the cabinets surrounding the sink bring so much charm and warmth.  I also love a good barn-ish light.

White Wednesday | So Much Better With Age
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Hello, beautiful.  Stone wall!  Pendants!  Open, airy, yet cozy.  

Fantastic kitchen
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Look at that wall of cabinets!  Beautiful and smart use of space. 

House of Turquoise: Renae Keller Interior Design
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I feel like a broken record ... cabinets to the ceiling.  Again, great use of a relatively narrow space.  

U-Shaped Layout - 5 Most Popular Kitchen Layouts on HGTV love the windows! Very open and the cab type finish above it!
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This is the motherload.  Cabinets to the ceiling.  Lots and lots of cabinets.  

Floor-to-Ceiling Storage
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A narrow space, and yet that wall of cabinets makes up for it.  

Create an Open Floor Plan
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This sweet kitchen has so many of my favorite things crammed into it.  And if you've made it this far, you can probably pick them out yourself, so I'll spare you the list.  

The nice thing about needing to wait to remodel a kitchen?  You have the time to research and plan and make the right decisions for what will work for your family!