Big Lebowski Family Costume
Happy Halloween, friends! This year we dressed up as The Dude and Walter from The Big Lebowski. Bambi made a special appearance as the rug.
Big Lebowski Family Costume
I hope y’all are eating all the Halloween candy you can stomach and watching all the spooky movies.
Did you dress up this year? I’d love to hear about your costume in the comments!
Check out our costumes of year’s past here.
Our incomplete living room.
I’m sure y’all have heard of the slow movement– slow food, slow fashion, etc. It’s a whole thing. (Check out the Wikipedia post if you’re interested.) But what I haven’t heard much about is slow renovating. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately because, well, I’m living in a house that we’re slowly renovating.
If you turn on HGTV or even browse home design accounts on Instagram, it seems like everyone is renovating rooms in their homes or their entire homes(!) in a few weeks. WEEKS, people! We’ve now had our small home for about a year and we don’t have even one room completely done. For a long time, I was embarrassed and frustrated that we couldn’t get it done by ourselves in a few months. Then, I was frustrated that we didn’t have the time or money to just pay someone to do it for us and be done with it. I felt like I was going through the five stages of grief, people.
But the more I think about it, the more thankful I am for the slow renovation process. Taking our renovation slower than we had anticipated has given us a chance to make back the money we’ve spent on our home renovations. We haven’t had to take out a home renovation loan and I’m proud of that.
It’s also allowed me to think long and hard about what our needs are and what our style is. The longer we live in this home, the more I realize, it would be nice if we had a small dresser here, or it would be nice if we had a place for coffee cups there.
Honestly, George and I don’t always agree on a style for our home either. I like ultra-modern pieces and he likes more farmhouse. I want us both to be happy and comfortable in our home, so sometimes it takes us a long time to come to a happy medium.
I am also grateful that I’ve been given time to gather pieces that mean something to me. I’m not just going to a big box store and picking out a bunch of meaningless stuff all willy nilly. I’ve had time to search out pieces that I love and in some cases, I’m still looking for the perfect piece to complete the room. And that’s ok.
I’m tired of just seeing the before and after house porn pictures. The middle part is important too. Home renovation is a process and it takes time. So let’s all just slow down and enjoy it.
What do you think? Are slow home renovations just frustrating or should they be celebrated? Chat with me in the comments.
Our renovation process has hit a bit of a stalemate. George is extra busy with work right now and since we gotta make a living, it’s left me doing small projects around the house. There’s some things I’m comfortable doing on my own, but things like installing doors, I have trouble physically doing on my own. Real wood doors are heavy, folks. While small projects are not nearly as gratifying as large ones, I’m proud of the work I’ve done.
Here’s what I’ve been working on.
We’re feeling the burn a bit when it comes to our budget. We’ve spent our money on the important stuff and we don’t have much left for furniture and decor. So, I’ve been doing what I do best, shopping the flea markets and the sales.
I’ve seen ads for tons of different mattress-in-a-box companies. I’m sure you’ve seen them too! And even after reading review after review, I couldn’t really determine if any of the companies were different from each other. I also didn’t want to pay thousands of dollars for a mattress from a mattress store.
Enter Amazon Prime Day on July 11th.
Continue reading
I got a new phone half-way through our renovation progress, so I haven’t kept up with recording our renovation progress via video, but I found my old phone last week and thought this was still worth the post. Watching this video is encouraging to see how far we’ve come. We still have a ton of detail things to do. Which in some ways, is the worst stuff. Our house is livable now, thank God, but we’ve got a ways to go before I’ll be ready to post those beautiful “after pictures.”
In case you are wondering, I created this video with One Second Everyday. It’s an app that you can use on your phone to journal the everyday. If you can keep up with it, it’s a really neat way to remember your everyday life.
– Melanie
If I’m being honest, I haven’t wanted to post anything lately. I’ve felt straight-up ill about the things that are happening in America right now and writing about home renovations seems small and unimportant. But I’m getting out of my funk now and you know what is helping? Doing things. I donated to my sister’s classroom today because knowledge truly is power. If you want to donate too, you can do that here.
I’ve also been thinking about good things in life. There still are good things, like…
Please tell me some good things that are happening in your life. I need to hear it.
love, love, freakin’ love,
Melanie
The unfinished headboard/accent wall in the bedroom
For the past few weeks, we’ve been keeping our heads down and attempting to grind out some much-needed home renovation projects. Right now, I don’t have much in the way of tutorials or pretty pictures, but I do have a renovation playlist that we’ve been jamming out to. It’s pretty random, I must admit. There’s a lot of ’90s alternative– George and I still live in that decade, musically. But there’s also some of my girl, Dolly and a little of the King, himself, on there.
Spotify is something I’ve only gotten into recently. I know, I know, I’m way behind on the times. But I’m having fun with it. You can also see my super embarrassing work out mix, if you follow me on Spotify.
Are you on Spotify? Do you have any new artists you are jamming out to? Chat with me in the comments and happy Friday!!!
I’m all about buying vintage or used items whenever possible, but the reality is, sometimes it’s just not possible. Sometimes you have to invest in a new piece. And when that happens, you might as well get something while it’s on sale. Am I right?!
Here’s a few of the best home goods sales happening this Independence Day weekend. Continue reading
Patience is not my forte. I’ve thrown my share of Veruca Salt-style fits during our 10-month-long home renovation. None of my fits have been quite as musical as Veruca’s, but I’ve definitely been frustrated that the renovation process has been so slow. And this week has been no exception. I’ve been feeling super stressed and irritated that this week we had to go back to the farm and the Airstream for work.
And I’m not going to pretend like when we got to the Airstream, all my stresses melted away. They didn’t. But looking back on how we renovated the Airstream five years ago, helps me to remember that we’ve been here before. I need to chillax, as the kid’s say. Our home renovation is going to happen. And I might even be a little bit sad when it’s over.
In the meantime, I’m doing what I can– like dusting off our old porch furniture, pouring myself a drink, and enjoying the moment.
While we’ve been back at the farm, I’ve enjoyed rediscovering some of our old things we had sitting in the barn– like our porch furniture. I’m also carefully choosing a few new items for our new home. I want to be very picky and chose items that are in it for the long haul.
One of those long-haul items is this beautiful baby Alpaca throw from Serena and Lily.* It’s a thin, beautiful, neutral blanket that’s perfect for cool, summer night breezes. You can tell Bambi has already claimed it as her own. Insert eye roll here.
Are y’all slowing down or speeding up this summer? How are you taking time to just enjoy the moment? Talk to me in the comments!!
*Blanket was c/o Serena and Lily. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I’ve been pretty confident in my design decisions up until now. I know what I like, and I’ll search the ends of the earth to find it. (Once a librarian, always a librarian.) But the predicament in our master bedroom has me stumped. There’s no other way to arrange it, the bed in our “master” bedroom has to go in front of a window. The room is fairly small and I think the best arrangement will be putting it under the window on the left side of the picture below.
The “master” bedroom, before we tore it to shreds
Ok, so that’s settled, right? Well, yes and no. Truth is, we’re running low on funds (a huge post on budgeting is coming soon), so I’m not keen on spending even a couple hundo for a bed. I also want a bed that is low to the ground, as to not block all the natural light from the window, so we’re going to build something ourselves. I’d like a bit of storage underneath the bed for socks and undies– a simple box with drawers will do. (Similar to what we built in the Airstream.) Buuuuuut, here comes the hard part, what should we do for a headboard?
Here’s the options I’m thinking: Continue reading