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Decorating 101: Space Planning (and more on Jill’s surprise makeover!)

Creating a symmetrical layout

I’m excited to show you guys Jill’s flash-mob surprise makeover results! But I thought we’d start with a little chat about how we handled her room layout. Let me just forewarn you that the furniture, rugs and finishes in these little layout sketches are all horrible and not at all representative of the design for […]

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Jill’s surprise makeover: the plan

Transitional living room design plan

Two hours of pushing with no medications, not so much as a tylenol: that’s how my firstborn came into the world. He looked like a grumpy old man with pointy elf ears, and dang if I didn’t want another one almost immediately after. I forgot the puking-with-every-contraction part of labor, and felt myself romanced and […]

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Rock the House-iversary: Tips for first-time homebuyers

Thanks to Dave Ramsey’s ELP program for sponsoring this post! Six years! That’s how long we’ve left our master bathroom unfinished. I mean, that’s how long ago we bought our house. (Here’s our house story and what it looked like when we bought.) We were such babies then! What did we even know about anything? […]

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New rug: in which I call a truce with Andy’s feet

Soft jute chenille rug

When my daughter turns 30 and is allowed to begin dating, I’ll tell her to marry a man just like her daddy, except she needs to test his feet. She needs to make the man she loves walk on a jute rug and see if he can do it without crying. It’s just that I […]

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Garage Door Drama!

Garage doors after

These are important life lessons we learned while installing garage doors for the first time: Always check the weather first. But don’t believe anything it says. Because it will rain the second you get all your stuff out into the driveway. Installing garage doors is a very DIY-able project. Or, it can be a snowballing […]

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Raise the roof!

You can say what you want, but there is nothing more delicious in this entire world than silky, bouncy toddler pigtails. It’s just that I’m completely powerless against them. WHY DIDN’T ANYONE WARN ME ABOUT THIS?! The cuteness drains me. If I was a real blogger, I’d have a good transition here so you felt […]

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Top ten power tools for the do-it-yourselfer

When Andy and I were first married and living in a TEENSY little rental house with a burnt-orange kitchen and a burnt-orange fireplace and a burnt-orange bathroom – yes it was as beautiful as it sounds! – Andy started teaching himself woodworking. That’s where this little table came from. It was his first-ever attempt at […]

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How to budget + answers to money questions

Thanks to Dave Ramsey’s ELP program for sponsoring this post! The first month after we paid off our mortgage, Andy and I each got to choose a splurge. It was also my 30th birthday, so I asked for a splurgey turquoise leather handbag that I love so much we affectionately dubbed it “The Precious.” (As […]

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Easy wire word art

Easy DIY wire word art

Well hello there. Meet my little wire word art. You kinda already met the concept, in Erin’s nursery: When I showed you the wire words over Erin’s crib in the room reveal, I got a lot of questions about how she did it. SO EASY, you guys. The little “hello” took us about five minutes. […]

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How to make a DIY Faux Fur Rug (!)

This is genius! How to make a faux fur rug!

I like to think I am a girl of moderate intelligence. You know, the kind of girl who can follow a recipe and end up with food that’s moderately edible. Turns out I’m the opposite kind of girl. I don’t know what’s going on, guys, but it’s been one pinterest-recipe-fail after another lately. I’d totally […]

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Reveal: Anselm’s Itty-Bitty-Budget Super-Personal Moody Neutral Nursery

Accessories for a boys nursery

At church last weekend I got to hold this squishy little man, breathe in all his newborn baby-ness and watch his sporadic pacifier smiles. I think there might’ve been a sermon, too? I don’t know? I will hold all the babies and stare at their faces. So hard. That’s my friend Erin’s baby boy, Anselm, […]

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How to build custom closet shelves

DIY closet shelving tutorial!

I’m sorry for taking so long to share the tutorial of how we built the custom shelves in my closet! The honest truth is that when we were building these, I thought intensive construction tutorials would just not be your thang, so I didn’t take awesome photos at the time. But I obviously have no […]

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Anselm’s Reading Nook

Just don’t even try to out-nerd my childhood, guys. I’ll win the nerdiest-childhood-competition every time. I’m sorry, it’s just not even a fair fight. I wore headgear to school. That junk builds character, y’all. I read Reader’s Digest in elementary school, and I wore mismatched socks on purpose. (It’s a little fuzzy to me whether […]

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Raised vegetable garden so easy a 4-year-old can do it!

Filling a vegetable garden bed

Thanks to Miracle-Gro for sponsoring this post! My black thumb has been well-documented and established… …So when I see friends growing their own organic vegetable gardens, I just sigh wistfully and go fork over $400 for a head of organic lettuce at the grocery store. I mentioned to my mom that I wanted my 4-year-old […]

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25 best places to shop for home decor fabric online

Waverly April in Paris Sugarplum

“How can I get my very own Andy?” That’s the question I probably get the most often. I’m trying to figure out a way to clone, bottle and share him, but in the meantime I can only apologize for snatching him up unfairly and share a bunch of awkward photos of him to help you […]

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