Feathering Our Nest {Kitchen Inspiration}

The house is coming along and we are almost to the fun part of designing the inside of our home. Our kitchen is an open airy space connecting to our Great Room and our patio and the room we know we will be in a lot. We have 2 pretty different ideas of designing it...

Kevin's Ideas--warm wood tones, pendant lighting, and a warm beige tone on the walls--inspired by a picture in Consumer Reports

Amy's Idea's--white cabinets, dark wood floors, gray paint, and bright fabric(orange or turquoise at this point) Inspired by this Pin

Building Our Nest {update 1}

So we are building a house!! We have been "starting" this process for awehile.  We bought our lot after many trips to look at land and measuring land and looking at loans and closed in February.  Since then we have been finalizing plans and finalizing loans and signing our names a BAJILLION times.  Here is our floor plan. Very open and hopefully very bright. I know it is not the best rendering but its what I have got.  And here are some pictures of the developments so far. 

And now onto the BILLIONS of decisions to be made...

Messy House Guilt

So I think someone has been spying on my house...

My issue of Working Mother arrived and all I can see around me is mess.  Our house is clean but it is messy and cluttered.  A 2 bedroom apartment and a toddler do not mix well.  Play involves as many toys as possible in a short period of time.  We are working on having her help us pick up but most nights it doesn't happen.  And then by the weekend, I am nuts about it.  Most nights I would rather spend the few moments I am awake enough at the end of my days actually talking with my husband or reading a book or emailing a friend instead of picking up.  But the mess leaves me unsettled, it leaves me anxious about people coming over and seeing it, and sometimes it makes me feel like a bad mom and wife.  The article didn't tell me anything new or offer me tips I haven't thought of.  But it did make me think about how and what we judge others on...

scrapping the cousins

Favorite Reads (so far...)

I realize I haven't been around in awhile. Winter is tough for me, I think I have SAD(Seasonal Affective Disorder), the darkness, the short days, the seemingly overwhelming need for comfort food in large quantities. And now I seem to be turning a corner as spring is in the air. One thing I have been doing is reading. I have read 32 books so far this year (putting me 7 ahead for my goal of reading 100 this year). My favorites so far...

Amy's bookshelf: 2012-favorites




More of Amy's books »

1. Two Kisses for Maddy: Even though I "knew" history I really wanted to read this book. Yes, I cried and thanked God that it wasn't my story. It made me grateful for what I have and reminded me of the all encompassing love that babies inspire.

2. A Discovery of Witches: An interesting tale of witches, vampires, daemons--history, science, and magic. It took awhile to get into but I devoured the last half.

3. 11-22-63: I have never finished a Steven king book before, too scary for me to even start most. My book club picked this and I anxiously awaited my turn to come up at the library after reading a preview chapter. It was very good! I liked all the what ifs and the idea of time travel and consequences and love . A captivating read, don't let the number of pages scare you.

4. Tempest: This was in the hot young adult books in an article I read so I requested it from the library. I liked it. I liked the main character and I normally prefer books with a female narrator since it captures more emotion adn feelings normally. But this guy is inspiring--he freely talks about love and loyalty and proves it throughout the story. Turns out he is a time jumper who gets stuck in the past when something happens to his girlfriend. While there he discovers what he is and how he might be...moreThis was in the hot young adult books in an article I read so I requested it from the library. I liked it. I liked the main character and I normally prefer books with a female narrator since it captures more emotion adn feelings normally. But this guy is inspiring--he freely talks about love and loyalty and proves it throughout the story. Turns out he is a time jumper who gets stuck in the past when something happens to his girlfriend. While there he discovers what he is and how he might be able to fix things. The ending is a little sad and leaves you wanting more...

5. The Fault in our Stars: I really enjoyed this book even though it's ultimately sad, it is a book about young adults with cancer. But it is also about love, hope, family, and real life. The two main characters are easy to connect to and understand and their relationship is real. I even liked the ending that is not really an ending because it is true to the character. Suppossedly they are making this into a movie, I kind of hope not it is the kind of story that best lives in a book. If they do I hope they are very true to the book

6. Joy for Beginners: I loved her other book, School of Essential Ingredients. And I loved this one, a story of 6 women friends who make a pact to do something that scares them to celebrate life. The story's descriptions of love, marriage, friendship, and motherhood ring true. Each chapter tells you enough of the story to know the women (and cry with them a little) and leave you wanting more of their story.

7. Pandemonium(Delerium #2): Great 2nd book in a trilogy. At first I was having a hard time getting into it because it kept jumping back and forth between what happened to Lena after she escaped into the wilds and then the now when she is in NY as part of the resistance. Not sure how I feel about Julian and that "love" story and the ending blew me away, I didn't see it coming until the last 2 pages. Now I can't wait to see what happens in number 3. Ms. Oliver can you please write faster!

scrapping up a storm!

A long weekend meant lots of time to scrap--I finished 8 pages. I finally dug into the Holiday Class I was taking from Tiffany Tillman and fleshed out an idea for recording the words Elle knows.

I scrapped our fabulous family pictures from Lynette, using 2 templates from Tiffany's Holiday class and the Oh Joy kit by Paislee Press for the class. I loved being able to use some of the funny shots that we didn't frame but still definitely tell the story of that photo shoot!

I scrapped some of our holiday traditions--the visit to Santa(with the picture by Casey Dittmer) and our Christmas card for this year. Again templates from the class and the Oh Joy kit by Creashen that we got for the class.

Some more of our holiday traditions--Christmas morning--with both sets of Grandparents--even in the same outfit!!

And finally catching up with her 18 month page, again a template by Tiffany and a kit by Misty Cato called Skip with Me (part of a DigiFiles release). I wanted to make an alphabet page and record her words so far and then hopefully add to it every 6 months or so..

I love scrapping with templates, there is no way I could have gotten all this done without locking myself in a room for hours which is impossible with a toddler. My scrapping was broken up with meals, blocks, baby play, naps, snacks, mini temper tantrums, and all that jazz!

Pinterest to Reality {Spice Rack Bookshelves}

ohhdeedoh via pinterest

Reality:

we love them! I had my sister buy me 6 and we only hung 2 due to our space and we also found that in order to pull books out you have to have a significant amount of space between them and she isn't that tall yet. And they are like 4 bucks a piece!
because this is a frequent sight at our house--now she can find books easily and her favorites are in easy access. And yes my 18 month old still fits in her Bumpo chair and loves to sit in it.

And when we build our dream house and have a family room like this

source

part of the walls will be our book display using these shelves!