• house moving is everyone selling their house moving truck
    house hunting

    Is Everyone Selling Their House?

    Is everyone selling their house right now? Does it feel that way in your neighborhood? It sure feels that way in mine. I see new for sale signs popping up seemingly all the time.  Two houses directly across the road from us have sold in the last year. Hmm… Is it us? Do we smell?  Hahahahahaha! Don’t answer that.  I’m going to use our time today to provide you a little tour of what’s for sale in my proverbial backyard. These are houses that I find particularly interesting for one reason or another. A few actually made my gasp! These houses are not representative of the market as a whole in my area. At least, I hope they aren’t…

  • winter home inspiration from new jersey
    colonial farmhouse

    Our 2021 House Project Plans

    Our 2021 House Project Plans are a bit laughable. Don’t get me wrong, they are solid plans coupled with good intentions to improve this old house we live in.  But let’s all remember who is in charge here.  The house. The house is in charge. We will do our best to tackle our 2021 House Project Plans, but we’ve also learned to roll with the punches this house and life, in general, dishes out.  In no particular order, here are our 2021 House Project Plans.#1: Hope That Nothing Catastrophic Happens Hope doesn’t cost us a thing.  We’ll also add praying, begging, and crossing fingers to the list.#2: Replace Sunporch Floor We like to play a fun game in our…

  • happy 75th dad
    Family

    Happy 75th, Dad

    I know I said I wouldn’t be posting until the new year started, but I changed my mind! My dad is turning 75 this week and I won’t be there to celebrate with him in person. The next best thing is to write a blog post letting the world know that I think he’s pretty great. Don’t worry, I’m going to call him too.   In no particular order, here are 75 things about my dad that warm my heart.He listens more than he speaks, which is a sound policy for life. He can nap anywhere, even on airplanes. It’s like a superpower. He used to play basketball with me in the driveway…in his cowboy…

  • gold and copper wrapping paper Christmas presents
    happy list

    Happy List: #194 Early Edition

    Welcome to an early edition of the Happy List! Since Christmas is on Friday, I thought I’d do an early edition of the Happy List this week. I’m going to take time off the blog until the first of the New Year to celebrate the holidays with Handy Husband and the kids. It’s going to be a quiet Christmas for us. How about you? Thank you for the heartfelt messages so many of you sent me about Monday’s blog post about Christmas during a pandemic. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but I feel like we are finally getting there. Without further ado, here is the Happy List!HELLO, LOVELY TRIM Look at all the…

  • gold and copper christmas tree
    holidays

    Christmas 2020

    We are down to the last few days before Christmas 2020. How are you feeling about Christmas during a pandemic?  Less stress? More stress? Excitement? Relief? Anticipation? Indifference? Gratitude? Do you feel the magic of the season this year? The hope for the future? Are you making new traditions with your loved ones? Are you keeping old traditions alive? Do the answers to these questions change by the hour? I’d be surprised if they didn’t!    One thing is for certain. Christmas 2020 is one we won’t soon forget. It boggles my mind how blissfully unaware we were this time last year of all the ways our lives would change in 2020. That ignorance sure was bliss, wasn’t it? It makes me wonder how our lives will forever…

  • wood bead garland christmas mantel on the happy list
    happy list

    Happy List: #193

    Welcome to this week’s Happy List! I thought my kids would be starting their holiday break today, but NOPE! They have a few more days to attend next week too. *sigh* I really need to start looking at the school calendar more closely. Ha!  This week I shared pictures of our newly organized under the stairs closet in the music room. Much to Handy Husband’s dismay, no closet is safe from my critical eye now.  I also shared our festive holiday tradition of having Christmas trees in the kids’ bedrooms. As a side note, Christmas lights are the best night lights!  Here’s the Happy List!LEAF ART My jaw is on the floor. Artist Kanat Nurtazin cuts…

  • kids christmas tree
    holidays

    Festive Tradition: Kids’ Christmas Trees

    One of our favorite festive Christmas traditions is the kids’ Christmas trees that they have in their bedrooms this time of year.  A Christmas tree in my bedroom is something that I always thought would be fun as a kid. Shoot, I think it would be fun to have a tree in my bedroom now! Maybe next year.  I started this tradition when the kids were around five years old and gave them each a tiny tabletop tree. It didn’t take long for their ornament collection to outgrow the size of the tabletop trees and a couple of years ago I upgraded them to 4-ft trees. Another festive Christmas tradition we have is that I gift…

  • under the stairs closet shelves
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    Under the Stairs Closet Shelves

    We now have under the stairs closet shelves and I’m pretty darn happy about it. I’m also happy about “Clean Sheet Day,” a fresh jar of peanut butter, and no-show socks that don’t slip off my heel. I guess I’m an adult now. We have an under the stairs closet in our music room. When we moved into the Colonial Farmhouse, I found three fur coats hanging in this closet. So fancy…if moth hole chic is your sort of thing. That area looked like this when we moved in:  Sorry. I forgot to warn you that picture was going to be a little harsh on the eyes. As a reminder, that wasn’t our stuff. It was all…

  • a touch of christmas on our barn barn wreath
    happy list

    Happy List: #192

    Hello, friends! Fancy meeting you here again for this week’s Happy List! Have you had snow yet? We had a dusting on Wednesday, but I don’t really count that. I am hoping for a white Christmas. This week on the blog I shared a non-Christmasy thing. I hope you don’t mind. I have another non-Christmasy thing for you next week too.  But back to this week! I wrote about the Online Game Budget Form I set up for our kids. It’s been so helpful. Guess what my kids want for Christmas? Money for online game stuff. That’s not super fun to wrap, by the way. They also want books, but that’s about it. Makes…

  • gold and copper christmas tree
    holidays

    Gold and Copper Christmas Tree

    Every year I like to decorate my Christmas tree a little differently and my 2020 tree ended up being a Gold and Copper Christmas Tree. That wasn’t my intent when I lugged the Christmas boxes down from the attic, but that’s where the creative journey took me.  The only goal I had for this tree, besides making it something I want to look at for a month, was to not buy anything new for this tree. Reusing, repurposing, and making over whatever I had on hand was fair game though. Handy Husband kept saying, “Why don’t you go buy blah, blah, blah.” To which I replied, “That would ruin my fun! Maybe next year I’ll…