Making Our (new) House A Home

Happy 2014!

I've missed my blog friends! 

I'm ready to get back to blogging and reading!

 Man, it's been a while! Holidays are so busy...especially when you live 10 hours away. Thank goodness we don't have anymore holidays away. In fact, we only have 3 weeks left in Ohio. I can't wrap my head around it.

I'm a little late, but I'm sharing my goal for the year. Yes, goal. 

I just have one:

to make our house a home

I didn't do a very good job of that in this house. 

I never felt like we were home. 

I never felt like it was relaxing.

I never felt like it was inviting.

I never felt like it was cozy.

That's about to change people!  

I want to come home and feel relaxed. 

I want to go to bed in a peaceful bedroom.

I want to cook in a kitchen I love.

I want to feel at home.

And that's going to happen!

Here are a few pictures of our current home house from the MLS...

 Don't you love the curtain rods with no curtains? And the mancave sofa?

 A dining room table is so functional without any chairs:)

 We started renovating our kitchen 2 days before we found out that we were moving. Perfect timing huh? The glass cabinets are original. I'll have to find a before picture and do a post with sources.

You can see a before picture of this wall here. I'm loving the exposed brick!

The sort of finished deck...it's too cold to finish it now!

Well, that's the first floor of our house.

Here's to making our new house a home!

Florence, SC Newborn Photographer

When we were home for Christmas, I was able to snap a

few shots of Miss Liza and her big sister Alaina. 

Here are a few of my favorites...

to view more, click here

I can't wait to see them again in a few weeks!

That's A Wrap!

Can you believe that Christmas is only 18 days away???

 FREAKIN' CRAZY Y'ALL

I have so much left to do...I've ordered most of the presents. I've wrapped none of them. It's hard transporting them 10 hours away and have them still look pretty ya know?

Speaking of wrapping, do you wrap all of your gifts alike? 

I usually do... but I have no clue what I'm going to do this year.

Last year I bought a giant roll of craft paper and made chalkboard gift tags.

I have SO many ideas of what I want to do... 

 So simple but easy. I'm thinking a few tree clippings would

 look great instead of the leaves.

I love this photo idea! So easy to do...

especially with Instagram these days!

Stamping the names..what a great option! And I'm sure that these would still look pretty after our ten hour trip back to SC

Washi tape? BRILLIANT!! 
Could you mess this up? I think not. 
Bonus: you can get washi tape for $1.89 here! 

In a perfect world, I would make these tart pan ornaments. But lets be real, ain't nobody got time for that when they're in the process of moving. Maybe next year. I think they would be so pretty tied with velvet ribbon.

So, how do you wrap? Do you match your presents?

SWW

Happy Wednesday! I'm linking up over at Life After I "Dew" today for 

SO WHAT WEDNESDAY!!

Come over and join us and to see what others are saying SO WHAT to today!

• if my hands are still covered in paint (I promise I've showered)...I just don't want to scrub it off every single night just to do it again the next day
• if I'm in the middle of a kitchen renovation and we're MOVING
• I guess it's a good incentive to finish
• This will be the first Thanksgiving that we aren't "home"
• It will also be the first and last holiday that we've celebrated in Ohio
• We're in a wedding this weekend and I still havnen't picked out my jewelry 
• or decided on shoes!!

Deja Vu...We're Moving!

Yep, you read that right. We're moving...AGAIN!

Just as I was getting used to living in Ohio, we're 

moving back to South Carolina. I absolutely hated Ohio when we first moved here. HATED it-and that's probably an understatement. I had always lived in South Carolina, it was home. It was all I knew.

Now that we're moving, I'm sort of sad about leaving. We're leaving so many great friends, awesome neighbors, our first house, sweet babies we won't be able to watch grow, and a great city that we've grown to love.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to move back to the land of sweet tea, fried chicken, collard greens and pearls. Oh, and I won't miss the South Carolina version of a white Christmas:) 

So this explains why I've been MIA...house projects have stopped and packing has begun. Wish us luck on this new chapter and stick around for our move:)

Weekend Work

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend? Did you enjoy DLS? I LOST 4 hours of sleep...FOUR HOURS people! Eric went duck hunting way too early and I couldn't fall back asleep after he left. boo.

We had a crazy productive weekend. Wanna see?

Sorry if you're an

Fabric samples for a client came in...

 

We started demo on our kitchen...the contractor is coming 

tomorrow to start drywall and to knock out the left part of the wall!

It was a lot easier than I thought it would be... it was plaster and it was SO messy. I'm so glad they don't use it anymore. 

And that brick? I can't wait to finish cleaning it up. We're going to leave it exposed. See that circle on the brick (we think there used to be an old wood burnig store there) Eric said, "We should put a starburst mirror to cover it up. It would look sort of rustic." I guess I taught him well:)

I'll be back tomorrow with a design plan! 

xoxo

Black, White and Orange...

Happy Halloween!

 

Today I have some great rooms to share with you...

All BLACK, WHITE and ORANGE!!

 

So tell me, what do you think about BLACK,WHITE and ORANGE rooms?