Our deck with pergola is finished! And it took a whopping 3.25 days for three guys to build it. I detailed in this post exactly what we were looking for in a deck. I even asked you guys to weigh in on the size of the pergola. And for the record, 70% of you voted for the larger pergola. I… View Post
Now that Emmett is five months old, I feel confident sharing my baby essentials. This list is a little different from the list I compiled for Owen because they’re brothers, not clones. So what worked with one baby, didn’t work for the other when it came to certain things. For example, Emmett never really cared for the Rock N Play,… View Post
This post is sponsored by Walmart and SheKnows Media. As always, opinions are 100% my own. I grew up in a small town in northern Indiana. My parents still live there, and when they were visiting us recently we were talking about what keeps small towns alive. The common denominator was jobs, which is one of the reasons why I… View Post
Yay! It’s Amazon Prime Day! I’m going to share my favorite finds here. I’ll try my best to update often so keep checking back throughout the day! When I add new stuff, I’ll put it at the top of the post so you don’t have to keep scrolling. I’ll add upcoming sales at the bottom of the post with the… View Post
It’s that time of yearrrrr– the infamous NSale! I’ve never done a post with my favorite picks, but some people on Instagram said they wanted me to share so here I am. If you’re tired of having the NSale jammed down your throat, feel free to go ahead and skip this post. I get it. Come back when I shove… View Post
One of the reasons why we built was because of this lot. I love that it faces north, and it’s on the lake with nice views of a wooded area. And while there are houses on the other side of the lake, we don’t feel like we’re all up in each others’ businesses. The plan has always been to add… View Post
This post is sponsored by KRAFT and SheKnows Media. As always, opinions are 100% my own. We’ve been trying to get Owen to expand his palate lately. So today I’m sharing some strategies we’re implementing to encourage him to try new foods, as well as some meal ideas. One way I’ve been trying to get him to broaden his horizons… View Post
I’ve been getting sporadic messages from people throughout the past few months asking “Where’s Jack?” or “How’s Jack handling having a new baby in the house?” In case you’re new around here, Jack is our black, puggle mix that we rescued when he was a few months old back in 2008. He celebrated his 10th birthday in early January of… View Post
We’ve lived here a year, and I don’t think I’ve officially shared our kitchen on the blog. There’s no motivation like agreeing to join a gaggle of talented bloggers who are sharing summer touches they made to spaces to get your kitchen clean and take photos of it. So make sure you check out everyone participating in the Seasonal Simplicity… View Post
Since Emmett is 3 months now, I should probably stop hardcore riding this maternity leave train. So today is our last installment of the Preggo/Mom Series. I know you’re very sad. My very talented and funny friend Kelly from The Lilypad Cottage is sharing her experiences and insights. Kelly lives on a lake in western Michigan with her husband and… View Post
I’m not a meat and cheese expert, but that doesn’t mean I can’t throw together a decent charcuterie board. So today I’m sure how I make a charcuterie board, which is a great summertime appetizer. And in case you don’t know how to pronounce ‘charcuterie’ (no shame, I had to Google it the first time I ever saw the word),… View Post
I finally pulled the trigger on playroom window treatments. I asked you back in this post which you think would be better– 2″ faux wood blinds or top down bottom up cellular shades. 53% of you said top down bottom up cellular shades. Here’s how the playroom looked before. I ended up going with these top down bottom up cellular shades in… View Post
This post is sponsored by Walmart and SheKnows Media. As always, opinions are 100% my own. Now that we have two kids, we’re having to pack our diaper bag a little differently these days. So I thought I’d share everything we take on the go. As a mom who almost always has her hands full, I’m big proponent of the… View Post
This post is sponsored by Walmart and SheKnows Media. As always, opinions are 100% my own. Putting together a baby shower gift basket can be difficult, especially when you don’t have a registry to go off of. So when I’m putting together a baby gift, I like to stick to more practical items, with a couple fun/cute things thrown in…. View Post
Let me start out by saying I’m not a botanist or a gardening expert. I’m just sharing the steps I took to transplant my peonies from our old house to our new house. If you’ve been around a while, you know my peonies are like my babies. And I’m not some basic chick who recently became peony obsessed. I’ve loved… View Post
This post is sponsored by Walmart and SheKnows Media. As always, opinions are 100% my own. Since becoming a mom of two, my time is even more restricted. One area where I’ve had to carve out some time is dinner prep. Gone are the days where I had 45 minutes to prepare dinner because Owen is at the age where… View Post
I get emails and messages about my galactocele (milk cyst) from time to time, so I decided it was best for me to dedicate a post to direct to people toward instead of emailing them a novel. So if you don’t care at all about this topic, I don’t blame you for skipping this post. Carry on, and have a great… View Post
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Schlage . The opinions and text are all mine. I love the entryway area of our house– the board and batten, the craftsman-style doors, the French doors and transom, the flooring. But with this house being a production home, we were limited on lots of our design details. One… View Post
So I can enjoy some time with Emmett and get acclimated to life with a newborn and a toddler, I asked some of my blog buddies to play along and answer some hard-hitting questions about pregnancy and motherhood. I did the same thing after I had Owen, if you want to check out those. My fashionable, jewel tone-loving, fellow night owl friend Haneen from… View Post
I’ve been trying to work on the playroom lately. Which probably isn’t the best idea because the builder still needs to complete work in the playroom. Since adding the new I-beam and removing the incorrectly placed I-beam, the floor has settled some, and now there’s a large gap between the baseboards and the flooring and there are floor pops where… View Post
