My latest ideabook is up over at Houzz. My theme this month is Contemporary Coastal and I’m featuring several home accessories for the modern beach house. A few of the items we already own and the rest are on our wish list. Go check it out!

Here are some of my other recent Houzz ideabooks:

Guest Picks: Hang On!  - The humble hook gets reinvented in 19 quirky and creative ways.
Guest Picks: Crafting with Kids – 20 ideas for creating a kid-friendly craft area that’s primed for play.

Timid Whale print by Don Carney available here.

“And I’m spent…”

Our kids are good little motivators. Ezra asks everyday if it’s time to go on our walk yet and Memphis brings us our Perfect PUSHUP set throughout the day. They both enjoy walking on the treadmill, too, though I think it’s losing it’s “shiny” so to speak. I only let them walk at a level 1 which is a 60 minute mile snail pace. They get bored within a few minutes and hop off, but it’s still cute when they tell me it’s time to exercise.

P.S. Brad saw the title of this post and thought I was going to be talking about a bra. Sorry to disappoint, honey.

Daddy was asked to change the diaper. To his credit, it isn’t easy to change a toddler’s diaper. Speaking of things being askew, have you ever googled the word? Pretty clever. Google has a sense of humor.

Have a breezy weekend!

When I was pregnant with Memphis my mom offered to chip in another $100 towards my dream rocker. This meant we would have to come up with an additional $895 on our end. Ha! After my success with selling my Ikea Pello chairs. I decided to try and sell my Lillberg and use that money towards it. That didn’t happen. I listed it a couple times and got a few nibbles, but no bites. Apparently in this area you have to ask next to nothing. I asked something like $30-40 for the pair of Pello chairs and had people beating down my door to get ahold of them. $75 for this one and no takers.

Oh, well. Now I’m actually really glad it didn’t sell. I just don’t think I could part with my newly made-over chair.

Here is my before:

Boring. Zzzzz……

And here is my after:

Hubba hubba! Come to mama! “You are hairy! Like animal!” (Austin Powers, anyone? Anyone?)

As you can imagine I spent hours slaving away on this makeover.

Not really. I just pulled out my Greek flokati. Shake. Toss. Tuck. Voila! I also turned the back cushion on its side to give more head support, but it looks great left down as well. It still isn’t good for rocking babies to sleep, but it makes for one super cute and comfy lounge chair to curl up in with a good book.

We said goodbye to my mom and brother early Sunday morning (the reason for my bed head). Family visits are always too short. Church service was great and it was an all around beautiful day. We had a little Easter egg hunt in the back yard for the boys that afternoon and enjoyed a little too much sugar afterward. Good times. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well.

$20 if you can spot the panty liners.

It took days to unpack all the boxes.

This is the humongous living room. It’s so nice to have our furniture back.

This mess is the boys’ room. At this moment it’s actually much worse than this picture shows. We put together the crib, but there is a knee-high pile of clothes and toys that covers most of the floor.

This mess is part of the master. The little area where that chair is will be the home office. It will be nice to use the 3rd bedroom for it’s intended purpose… a bedroom. Does a sleeping puppy in the picture help the room look less terrible? No?

How about a baby and a puppy? You can’t beat that. That’s like cuteness overload. It totally takes the focus off the piles of junk that surround them. Still no? Fine then. Be that way.

This room scares me. Ezra, too. It’s the 3rd bedroom that we will pretend is a guest bedroom, but in reality is a storage room. Ezra went in to look for a toy and we didn’t see him again for days.

Nothing like moving to make you feel like you belong on an episode of Hoarders. Did you ever spot those panty liners? No? Here they are:

Now I can’t give you the $20 because I had to tell you where to look. Sorry, Charlie.

I have 24 hours to tidy before my mom and brother come to visit. Wish me luck!

We moved down to the island a couple of weeks ago and I’m finally coming up for air. I can totally see why moving ranks 3rd on the list of most stressful life events! I’m betting the people they polled moved by themselves with no help from family or friends all while trying to rangle two overly excited little kids and one hopped up great dane. I had to strap Memphis to my back in a baby carrier and lift heavy furniture. That’s right. I’m superwoman.

We ran out of time on the truck rental so we still have quite a bit of stuff left to get from the storage unit – my treadmill included. That thing is a beast and I cry just thinking about attempting to lift it. Luckily, my little brother is coming to visit this weekend. He thinks he’s in for a relaxing weekend at the beach. Little does he know. Mwahaha!

My latest ideabook is up over at Houzz. My theme this month is faux bois (pronounced “foe bwah”), a French term meaning “fake wood.” It’s a trend I really like and I’m happy to report it’s still “growing” (haha) strong. My favorite faux bois accessories are items like #1 which feature grain patterns that are at once both simplified and exaggerated. They remind me of topographic maps. So, if you “wood” (my cheesiness can’t be stopped!), go check it out.

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Well, what do ya know, we were nominated for a Homie award yesterday! (Which is terribly nice of you. Thanks!) I think we’re a little late to the game as voting ends tomorrow, but that’s okay. To vote you will need to register with Apartment Therapy if you haven’t already. So, if you don’t mind, head on over and vote for us!

Here’s the link:
The Homies 2012

Thanks!

Here is a unique (and cheap) idea for a gallery wall: electrical tape! The tape binds more easily to bumpy walls and allows renters to avoid putting holes in the drywall. It makes quite an impact with black and white photos.

Via Hanna