This year, we took our kids to the land of Dolly Parton, aka the Tennessee Smokies, for our recent Spring Break. It was a jam-packed week of family fun, food, and there was even a dusting of snow! There’s SOOOO much to do in this area of Tennessee – you’ve got Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park all right there. So we thought we’d hit the highlights and share our 7 favorite things that we did there. Why 7? Well, it’s smack dab in the middle of the numbers 9 to 5…

We traveled with another family, so we had 4 adults and 6 kids with us, ranging from ages 11 to 20. So all of these activities are tween and teen approved! We can’t speak specifically to younger kids like toddlers, but I think you’ll see that most of what we’ve listed below would be fun for the whole family.

Continue reading Our 7 Favorite Things To Do In Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg at Young House Love.

I’ve shared a lot of real-time renovation updates on Instagram Stories, but here’s a quick catch-up blog post for anyone thirsty for the longer format (we know we’ll love having these posts to look back on). We’re about 7 weeks into our biggest renovation in over 5 years, and the house pretty much looks as chaotic as expected. Who remembers our mantra from 2012: “the middle makes no sense“? Over the past month and a half, walls have been busted open, ceilings have been torn out, and entirely new rooms have been framed. So… lots of progress, but lots of dust… and a lot more to do. Did I mention it’s dusty?

The easiest way to catch up is to watch the video below, where you can hear me yapping about every space, what has been done, and what’s next on the agenda.

Continue reading A Mid-Renovation Update (And Video Tour!) at Young House Love.

Planning a family spring break trip can be challenging - especially if you're looking for somewhere warm, unique, and not overrun with other spring breakers. But ever since we moved full-time to the unofficial spring break capital of the United States (aka: Florida's Emerald Coast), we've become well-practiced in finding unique spring break destinations. So here are 8 places that we have loved visiting for family vacations.

Continue reading Spring Break Destinations for Families at Young House Love.

Succulents are some of the easiest houseplants to propagate because there are several ways to do it. Today we'll show how one succulent can be turned into many (even a dozen or more!). So whether you're looking to grow your own collection or gift some plants to friends, this is a fun and easy process to try!

Continue reading How To Propagate Succulents at Young House Love.

I can't give you 100 one-syllable girl names without a list for boys too! And, well, I did marry one of the most popular monosyllabic names of all time: John. Short boy names have been popular for centuries. Think Gods (Zeus), Gospels (Mark, Luke), Founding Fathers (George, James, Ben), all the way to modern TV characters (Ross, Zack, Bart). They can feel strong, timeless, charming, unique, or all of the above. So today I'm sharing 100 of my favorites.

Continue reading 100 One Syllable Boy Names at Young House Love.

I'm back with more baby names because, well, I love everything about them! One-syllable girl names are gaining popularity in recent years, especially as longer names like Olivia, Charlotte, and Isabella become oversaturated. In fact, only 1 single-syllable girl name broke into the latest Top 50 list from the Social Security Administration (#40: Grace). So choosing a one-syllable name is a great way to find something unique, while still meeting your taste for classic or modern, sweet or strong, etc. Plus they make great middle names.

Continue reading 100 One Syllable Girl Names at Young House Love.

When I hyper-focus on a task, I'm known to go ALL IN. And that's exactly how I approached the giant job of digitizing all of our old photo albums. We crowdsourced suggestions, took some deep dives into message boards, and Googled the heck out of it. From there, I narrowed our options to 5 photo digitization methods that we tested for quality, price, and speed. There was one clear winner for us, but also lots of other good ways to go about it (even free ones!), depending on your personal priorities. So I'm going to lay out everything we tried, and why we had a clear favorite.

Continue reading The Best Way To Digitize Old Photos at Young House Love.

Last fall, I got to eat, walk, and gasp my way through Florence, Italy (including a day trip to Venice) with three friends. Literally, it was the stuff of dreams. I already shared how I packed light for this trip, but today I'm recapping everything we did, saw, and ate. So if you're considering a trip to Florence (and/or Venice), here are my thoughts on what was extremely enjoyable to see/eat/do... and a few things we'd actually skip if we were to do it all over again!

Continue reading My Girls Trip To Italy at Young House Love.