Come and knock on my door

Literally, we have no doorbell.

After four years of living in our house, we finally ditched the 1960's door for a new one. Let's take a look at the evolution of our front door.

 When we moved in there was actually a storm door covering this white one, 

complete with mismatched hardware. We quickly ditched the storm door. 

We painted the door red and got some matching hardware. The red goes well with the cream color our house is painted. This door was cute, charming and original to the house. But, it wasn't very secure-hello half windows. And it didn't get us much privacy-you can see all the way down the hallway, not to mention if I was sitting on the couch breastfeeding anybody could walk right up and see. Also, on the horizon we will be painting the house a more modern gray and knew the door would have to go.

Shazam! A bright-as-can-be yellow will go great with the dark gray later to be painted on the house. And, sexy new hardware. Now I need a nice new mailbox to go with it and we are set.

The state of my backyard

 I have been staring at this mess of a project for a week now. That means one week of chain saws, wood chippers, Cleo scared under the deck 24/7 and me about to pull my hair out. Someone send help!

Everything is fun to a toddler

 

{ Raking leaves with Uncle Jon.}

The most amazing real life kitchen makeover

I have something to share that will knock your socks off. Really. So my brother and sister in law have this really cute house that has so much charm that was built in 1916. Original tile and range were some of the quirky aspects of the original kitchen. But when the distance from the counter to the bottom of the upper cabinets is barely enough room for modern day appliances, it's sort of hard to deal with. Also, no dishwasher. Also, they have two kids. Time for a more functional space.

Most people can't live with yellow forever.

I don't think they ever complained about storage....but if you notice,
most people can't reach the cabinets above the fridge
and here there is another ROW above those!!

Enter: Cindy. My amazing sister in law who has an eye for all things stylish but has never designed a kitchen before. How do we think she did?

OH HI, beautiful pendants, open shelving, crisp white counters
and creamy gray cabinets.

Look at that, white uppers and gray lowers! I love a good design risk. And the new floor! Beauts! While I am sad to see the vintage range go, this one makes much more sense in the new space.

I love a good farmhouse sink. The best thing about this remodel is that everything is fresh and updated without feeling cold and modern, which is important when the house was built in 1916. It has to match the rest of the house. Also, the cabinets are from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot! Well done, sis.

Bees!

So, the honeybee is kind of going extinct and its very important to plant lots of flowers that naturally attract bees. So, like a good homeowner, I do this. I have lots of colorful flowers, a full garden and lots of lavender. So why was I so shocked when I saw the above on our shed?! And inside my tepee pole was another honeycomb nugget. I felt like a horrible environmentalist when we knocked em both down. But what were we supposed to do??? If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears. Maybe a proper bee hive is in order....

*Um, apparently those are wasps. Thanks Jon.

Weekend Scenes + What I Wore

Dum dum dum!! Last weekend before Christmas. Everything is going well other than the super depressing weather forecast of rain for the next 10 days. Ugh, we don't live in the Pacific Northwest for a reason!

Headed out to SF early Saturday morning to meet with a potential florist for the wedding. Apparently the bouquet I want does not consist of high end florals-woo hoo!

Savory morning bun from an Oakland bakery. Ham + Gruyère + Croissant = I need Tracy Anderson Method DVDs for Christmas.

Helping friends celebrate their newly purchased home. Drinking champagne while laying on (new) carpet with friends =somuchfun.

All dressed and ready for Jon's work Christmas dinner party. Conservative dress plus mint green tights and hot pink lipstick was the recipe for the evening. 

Clean Slate

The dreaded "Before" shot. Let's see, what in this picture did we want to change? 

Oh, just everything. For starters that pool and juniper were not included in our dream backyard.

Some art by Jon. Awwww.

Even with this awesome addition, we still prepared to say goodbye to the pool.

Rawr!! says the Bobcat. All that cement was busted up and thrown in the hole! 

And then we got all fresh new dirt from someone nearby who was putting in a pool.

All gone! And with all those tall weeds there, you'd never known a pool was there. 

And also by the sight of the weeds, you can see that we didn't do anything for a loooong time.

So, Jon chain sawed down the juniper, took two truckloads to the dump, 

rented a stump grinder and busted those 5 bad boys outta there! 

While taking this picture the air smelled like I was at a Christmas tree farm.

And there is our beautiful clean slate. Ahhh. I can breathe now!
We will shortly be putting in some redwood trees along the fence
(read: privacy + shade) and in the back corner I am going to build
a large teepee where beans and Nasturtians can climb their way up.

You'd think with this idea I had a bun in the oven, but no.
I used to intern on an organic farm and give tours to children and part of that
included reading to them in the vine covered teepee.
I always vowed I would have the same little getaway in my yard one day.

Home is where the heart is

I can easily say this doormat sums up my feelings about my home.

Rounding the corner, pulling into the driveway...ahhhh.

$24, here.

Merry Christmas

Us vs. Them

Maisy

chemistryexplained

My crusade with the ants went from picture A to picture B. My soapbox-environmental-studies-studying college version would be spouting all sorts of things at me at this point, but I can't live with these ants!!!
I need to hire a professional company to spray the perimeter and maybe even the inside of my house. Day 1-3 was Method tub cleaner, vinegar and cayenne pepper. The ants laughed at me. Day 4-5 I got those baits and put them around the kitchen. After about 3 hours, the number decreased. Day 6-7 we used RAID. Man, they seem to hate that stuff. But more and more still come back morning after morning. They say hello to me as I make my morning coffee or step into the shower. And last night they went after poor lil Cleo's food! Well, today is Day 8 with ants and I'm about to contradict my college self. Wish me luck.