Is there anything better on this earth than climbing into a freshly made bed with crisp, clean white sheets? I actually get giddy thinking about it; I always have the best sleep on that first night that clean sheets go on and they’re tucked neatly around me. As fall weather rolls in I always love making the bed with the new season in mind – adding on an extra blanket, giving our duvet cover a wash, and laying out some pretty throws for extra warmth at the foot of the bed. read more

I find that at the end of each season (ugh yes, it’s the end of summer, SIGH), I get into a bit of a dinnertime rut. I lean on a handful of go-to recipes each season – in the summer, lots of grilling – and they can feel a bit tired after several weeks in the rotation. As I sat down to do my weekly plan this week I was itching for some inspiration and dug into my cookbook collection in our kitchen. As I flipped through a few of my go-to cookbooks, I thought I’d start a list of the favorites I use for dinner ideas again and again. This list has several dinner-idea classics, a few that I use in specific situations (like when I’m looking to eat healthier) and a few that are totally new to me that I’ve been using for recent inspiration. I hope they spark some dinnertime creativity in you too!
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Around the time that Jane was born, we noticed how much trash we were creating as a family (bags of diapers will do that!), and we started to make an effort to do more to reduce our impact on the environment. We started buying our dairy products from a local farm that reuses their glass containers, my husband built us a big recycling center in our back hall, and we even started composting our food scraps.  These things are a just start, I know there is a lot more we can do, but our small changes were such easy swaps to be more eco-friendly. I thought that Earth Day would be a great chance to share a few of the items I use to be bit more conscious of my impact on the environment.  read more

This is by far one of my favorite room makeovers we’ve done at our house so far (which says a lot, since we removed a kitchenette from our master bedroom last year!), and I’m so excited to share these before and after images today! Our living room was ripe for a makeover with plush wall to wall mauve carpeting, tons of dark wood paneling, an outdated fireplace, and even a faux-wall that blocked off the staircase to our second floor. I’m happy to report though, that after quite a bit of elbow grease, it has finally lived up to its potential.  read more

Last week my mom came to visit for a few days, and I took her up on some free-babysitting to tackle a house project that has been hanging over my head for ages: cleaning out my pantry and prop closet! One of the big selling points of our house when we still in the house-hunting phase, was a super long walk-in closet that sits off the kitchen in our entryway. read more

I sent a text message to my mom and sister this weekend, along with the picture below, to confirm with them that I am indeed a crazy person. Only a crazy person would feel this much joy over a newly organized closet. I spent some time over the long weekend turning an empty closet in our guest bedroom into a linen closet. The space was empty because when we first moved into our house, we actually used this guest bedroom as our master bedroom, and the closet held my husband’s clothes. Once we completed a renovation in our new master bedroom (which included turning an old in-law kitchen into a wall of closets!), we moved all of our clothes from various spaces throughout the house into our his and hers closets. That left this space empty and perfect for some much needed storage! read more

I recently got a few questions about my favorite kitchen products that I use when cooking and developing recipes for the site. A few years ago I wrote a giant post with all of my favorite cooking tools, and decided that it was probably time for an update! Quite a few of the tools from the first post are still on the list, like my beloved OXO 9” Tongs. There are plenty of new additions too; I finally found the perfect Everyday Pan after years of searching and I sing the praises of the current “it” kitchen tool: an Instant Pot. This list has all of my essentials and is fairly comprehensive of the items I use daily. The most important thing to note is that most of these things aren’t very fancy, and you’ll only notice one or two specialty items. I believe in a lean, simple kitchen with a few quality tools that keep me inspired and my recipes accessible. Take a look at my favorites: read more

I’ve been sharing some updates here as we finish up our guest bedroom over the past few weeks, and thought I’d let my followers in all of the redecorating fun with a giveaway! I’m always on the hunt for amazing, affordable and eye-catching artwork (and bonus points if it’s large scale enough to finish a whole wall!) so I was delighted to find out that Chasing Paper was launching a brand new print shop. I was lucky enough to preview the shop and get this holy-cow-awesome oversized peace sign print for the room. Another really fun lifestyle brand that I’ve recently been introduced to is Meridian, and I used one of their gorgeous accent pillows to add just a little pop of texture and color to the room. The pillows are made out of vintage kilim textiles, which makes their designs totally unique. If you head over to my instagram page tonight, I’m partnering with both brands to giveaway a framed print of your choice from Chasing Paper and a similar vintage ikat pillow from Meridian. Click on over there to enter to win, and good luck! read more

I just peeked at the calendar and realized we’re coming up on our two-year anniversary of living in our house at the end of this month. It feels crazy that we’ve been here that long, and at the same time it also feels like recently it’s truly started to feel like our home. Part of that feeling comes from completing some big house projects this summer — we finally have a master bedroom! As that project wrapped up, we’ve been putting the finishing touches on a guest bedroom update too. The guest bedroom was our bedroom for the first year and a half we lived here, and now that we have our own space it needed a refresh. read more