In case you aren’t keeping track, it’s 16 days until Halloween, 37 days until Thanksgiving, and 71 days until Christmas. And because I live that crazy blogger life, I’ll be breaking out the Christmas decor in a week or so. But before that happens, I figure I should show you our Halloween decorations. I’ve teamed up with some great bloggers… View Post
Guys! I haven’t shown you our deck and pergola since the big reveal. You’re in luck because I sorta decorated it for fall, so I’m going to show you how it looks with our new seating area furniture. In case you missed it, here’s how the deck looked right after it was completed in August. I spent in an insane… View Post
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Schlage . The opinions and text are all mine. How to Install an Interior Door Knob Step One: Remove the entire old door knob. To loosen and remove the latch, thread a screwdriver through and pull toward yourself. Step Two: Install that new latch. Making sure the bevel faces… View Post
Recently, I asked you guys on Facebook and Instagram to send questions you had for me. So before I fly off to NYC early tomorrow morning for BHG Stylemaker, I wanted to answer those for you. Is the house finally done? Mostly. See below. Did they finish the master bathroom? It took 3 months, but the actual master bathroom shower… View Post
Yesterday I shared how I style my curly hair and the products I use. Today I’m answering all the questions I’ve gotten about my hair. What do you wash and condition with? How often? I’ve used Paul Mitchell Extra Body shampoo and conditioner for around 15 years. I typically wash my hair twice a week. What does your hair look… View Post
Guys, I finally came through– I’m sharing how to style curly hair. Well, my curly hair, specifically. This is probably the most requested topic I’ve had in my 8 years of blogging. It’s not that I’ve been trying to keep this a top secret operation. I just know I look awkward AF when I’m doing my hair (the things we… View Post
I came up with that very punny title of this post all by myself. That’s right, we’re talking about our loft today. And in case you don’t know where that is in our house, it’s the open space to the right when you get to the top of our stairs. It’s not a room that we needed, but it came… View Post
Last month, we were invited up to the newly opened Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee, Illinois north of Chicago. If you’re unfamiliar, there are 18 Great Wolf Lodges in the US. They’re family resorts with indoor waterparks and other fun activities for families. It was a bit of a hike for us from Indianapolis (5 hours) but the boys did… View Post
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
