Pinspiration

If you haven't discovered Pinterest yet, you should. It's maybe the best thing ever. I've spent many hours perusing the oodles of ideas posted for home decor, clothing, event planning, holidays, crafts, food, makeup and weddings. I'll pin and repin. It's a real problem on slow days at work. Anywho, my home decor "board" on Pinterest showcases all of the things we should (and wish we could) do to the house.

The laundry room (if you can call it that) in our house has already been redone once by us, but only to make the makeshift add-on to the house that they called a laundry room not feel so drab. Inspiration for when we move the laundry room to our downstairs full bath.

Not for the bathroom, but for the chocolate wood floors. One day, well have all the original floors exposed and stained this color.

Two shower curtains. Brilliant. And easy.

I'm obsessed with subway tile in kitchens. This gray subway tile is even better.

Would love to do this with our front window. And for much needed storage.

And this would be awesome. Built in dog kennel, blended in with the design of the kitchen (where we have plenty of room for it).

If only our bedroom could look like this. Adding a fireplace? No problem, right?

Etsy @ Home | Entertaining

My birthday is quickly creeping up on me (it's next Monday), and to celebrate, Aaron and I are having a Sunday Funday Birthday Brunch-day. All of our friends will come over, they will each bring a brunch dish to share, and we will provide bottomless mimosas. It's cheap, easy, requires little planning, and luckily, most of our friends live within a few blocks. Plus, the Broncos game will be on (Go Tebow!) and everyone can meet Dex. But I do enjoy being a good hostess and decorating for the occasion, so here are a few things to liven up the shindig.

Funky coasters, because water spots on our wood furniture is not fun (but these are). {here}

Cute tags and paper straws + drinks out of mason jars. {here}

Cheerful and cheeky paper napkins. {here}

A date stamped serving plate for cupcakes or cookies. With my birthday as the date, of course! {here}

A tiny, monogrammed necklace to wear with my party outfit. It's my birthday after all, so a treat for myself seems perfectly OK! {here}

And of course, I will be baking something to share. I'm thinking of this brie and sausage breakfast casserole. Yum.

Holiday Home Improvement Weekend

Hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving! Aaron and I had a very relaxing two days in Pueblo, and returned home on Friday morning (after a quick pit stop at my mom's house in the Denver suburbs for our traditional holiday cinnamon rolls) and the relaxation was over.


For some reason, we always decide to embark upon our major home projects on holiday weekends. We redid the laundry room over Memorial Day and landscaped the backyard over Fourth of July. Apparently holidays equal home improvement, and this weekend was no exception. We decided to get moving on our master bedroom so we could finally stop sleeping on a mattress on the floor of our office. We're basically ripping off all the trim, re-texturing and painting. So we can get new trim put in. I know, what a shame to get rid of the original trim, but it's in horrible condition! And the previous owner ripped out some and replaced it with something cheap. That's why we're ripping everything out. For consistency.


There is still a lot to do, but here's a peak at what we got accomplished. I must say, I'm pretty proud of us for getting something done. Otherwise I'm sure we would have spent the weekend stuffing our faces with Thanksgiving leftovers.

This is why we need to get the bedroom done. Our guest bedroom is now storage unit central.

Kennel up! Home improvement is not for puppies.

Getting ready... The old, rotten trim is ripped off, leaving a lovely 10.5" gap.

This is what we need to fill.

Ripping more trim off. This is the mismatched 3.5" trim. It will be so nice to have everything consistent.

The window trim came off too. It was in bad shape.

We found an old window weight in the frame, most likely the original from the house.

Starting to pile on the joint compound. We also sanded and scraped. But that was much too messy for pictures. I was busy with the Shop Vac at that point.

We did manage to find time to get the Christmas tree up too :)

Aaron and I will be working a bit more this week to get the room in painting condition. I'll keep sharing as we keep making progress.

Take a Walk

Happy day before Thanksgiving! Aaron and I were both lucky enough to have the da off work. So before heading down to Pueblo to see Aaron's family, we indulged in a blue sky, 65 degree Colorado day and took Dex on a long walk through the neighborhood. We're lucky enough to be in walking distance of tons of great Uptown destinations, and a long walk prior to tomorrow's big feast was probably a good idea.

So we tried to walk to a new coffee be down the street (The Tree Haus), but it didn't open until 10 a.m. What kind of coffee shop doesn't open until 10 a.m.??? So we settled for the local Dazbog. We walked along 17th St., the main corridor of Uptown, and noticed a lovely, restored brick condo building. And stared longingly at Steuben's, one of our all time favorite restaurants. I'm craving their mac and cheese right now, in fact. After strolling by a few boutique stores, which were also closed (boo), and avoiding the pre-holiday food lines at Marczyk Fine Foods, we wandered back home to pack up the car and head south for a few days.

All I can say is that thank goodness for beautiful Colorado weather that allows us to enjoy our awesome neighborhood year-round. That's what I'm thankful for. How many places do you still get seasons AND 65 degree days at the end of November???

P.S. I'm posting this from an iPad, since I left my computer safe and sound at home. So many apologies for poor spelling and disorganized pictures, but you get the idea...

Etsy @ Home | Paper Picks

Have you noticed that as you get older, you need more and more cards? Being in our late-20s, Aaron and I have numerous friends buying houses, getting married, having babies, etc. All of this requires a thoughtful card. Not to mention the politeness instilled by my mother to always send thank you notes and holiday greetings. Etsy to the rescue for the cutest stationary possible.

For my good friends tying the knot this weekend. {here}

And for those who just got engaged. {here}

For the first of our friends to be pregnant. I have no idea if it's a boy or girl, but shhhh, I'm secretly hoping it's a girl. {here}

A thank you note for my awesome boss who has let me leave work repeatedly to tend to puppy Dexter. I'll treat her to coffee, of course. {here}

Holding on to this until our other friends buy a house. Crossing my fingers its across the street from us. {here}

To send to my best friend, seems like I never get to see her enough. That's why I want her to move across the street. {here}

A cute, retro holiday card. {here}

And thank you notes for all the kind birthday gifts I'm about to receive! Maybe someone will gift me a trip to Paris... {here}

It's (Slowly) Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Thanksgiving?? Who cares. I'm supposed to be waiting until this coming weekend to decorate for Christmas, but I just can't help myself. I had to start. A few merry items have been popping up around our house, and I fully intend to keep adding more.

Mint M&Ms in our Christmas candy bowl. I guarantee they will be gone by tomorrow.

Mason Jars + Epson Salt + LED Tea Lights = Holiday Home Lighting. We have very few electrical outlets, and none outside, so I'm planning on making about 20 more of these to place in all of our windows. Thank goodness we have generous window ledges.

Courtesy of Pinterest, I got all the supplies for the cheapest gift tags ever. Just paint samples in shades of green and a few brown for the tree stumps. A little spool of cute ribbon and random buttons complete the list. I used all those little extra buttons they pin with shirts, I knew it was good to be a pack rat.

Things to Do, Places to Go

It's no secret Aaron and I both love living in Denver. Our house is purposefully close to Downtown, Uptown, City Park and loads of other great places in the city. We're pretty good about trying new restaurants and never eating at the same place, finding fun activities around town and meeting up with friends. Fitting for a Friday, here are the next to dos on our "fun list."

A trip to Denver's brand new H&M store. For Christmas presents. And cheap button-downs for Aaron. But let's not kid ourselves, for "Jill" presents too.

Coohills, a new restaurant in LoDo, just opened around the corner from my office. Serving farm fresh, local food.

A new, meat and cheese shop in the always-trendy LoHi neighborhood. Exactly what we've been hoping for ever since visiting the Italian Market in Philadelphia.

My all-time fave musical, showing at the Buell Theatre this December. We'll grab drinks here before.

Itching for a staycation that's not ski-related. Thinking of Durango, for its foodie culture and breweries galore!

The Little Things

Ooops, I'm a day behind in posting. Having a puppy is keeping us BUSY. Puppies are definitely a lot of work, but more than that, Aaron and I are both a little neurotic (it's why we get along so well). So we have been agonizing over the health and happiness of little Dexter. After a trip to the vet this morning, we're learning to let go a little bit.


On top of being worry warts, we've both had nutty weeks at work and didn't get nearly enough done around the house. But with the Broncos game on, a glass of wine and some take out from Pho-natic (if you haven't tried pho, you should), I am finally in relaxation mode. These little things didn't hurt my mood either. :)

My November Birchbox came today!! It's usually quite nicely packaged, but I tore it open in a fit of excitement before remembering to take a picture.

The contents of my Birchbox. (If you have never heard of Birchbox, it's amazing. $10 a month and you get a surprise box of beauty goodies 12 times a year. This is clearly for me, Aaron thinks it's ridiculous.)

My new InStyle is here! And a Toms catalogue. I want these.

Freshly painted sparkly pink nails, courtesy of my Birchbox. Oh, and I wouldn't mind those silver snowflake Toms either.

Etsy @ Home | Puppy Picks

Dexter is already getting spoiled in tons of toys, lots of treats and even more cuddling. So of course he needs even more things. Wouldn't want him to feel neglected, would we? That's my cue to turn to Etsy for all our (mostly unnecessary) puppy needs.

Mod food/water bowls. {here}

For the living room corner, a sleek little puppy sleeping spot. {here}

Hello my name is Dexter. {here}

You know we HAVE to get Dex a Christmas stocking. {here}

To keep the little guy warm! (Aaron insists on a camo jacket to toughen Dex up.) {here}