house tour

When we  found out that we didn't get the AZ job, we were still in the mood to revamp our house. You know, reorganize, purge, and just change things up.  So we had a humungous yard sale, took a fun trip to IKEA to get some new wares with our profits, and then took about 2 weeks to turn our house upside down and inside out until we liked what we saw.

We still have mismatched furniture, an armless couch, and a student look, but we made some changes that functionally have really improved the peaceful feel of our house.

 We got this cube organizer at Sam's Club. It is wonderful! We each have our own shoe cubby and it really helps keep our house looking less cluttered.

 Using frames we already had, I made a frame wall around our already existing mirror. This is one my of my favorite changes...mostly because it was free. :)

The boys' beds were assembled into a bunkbed...

and we put them in the same room. It was a rough beginning, but now I can't imagine them separated.

 Which means I got my own craft room! It is so nice to lock up my projects while they are in progress and not have to clutter our bedroom with all my craft stuff. It was actually Jared's idea. I think he was sick of tripping over my stuff. The bonus is I've been creating more things because I have my own space now.  

And if you feel bad that Jared doesn't have his own space, remember that he has an office on campus. I had to keep reminding myself of that when were moving things around. I felt so guilty at first.

The biggest improvement has been in our bedroom. It is such a relaxing place to be now. We love it.

 There are barely any pictures on the wall. We had wall to wall stuff in here for so long. I think all the white space is good for us...at least for now.

I finally put our summer duvet on our bed. We have two duvets that I got from a Down East bag sale a few years ago {Mom you were there remember?}, one for spring/summer and one for fall/winter. I like how it makes us feel we just got new sheets, without actually getting some.

 Our little garden is growing and adding to the beauty of our space as well. These were taken almost 2 weeks ago so they aren't really accurate anymore. The lettuce is large enough to harvest tender 5-7 inch leaves. We actually started harvesting some for dinner this week.

 The strawberries have three more blooms...I'm so excited. I thought it was done producing.

All our plants look about double this size by now. It's amazing what can happen in 2 weeks.

I love watching everything change and grow. Growing a garden is by far one of my most favorite things about summer.

 We have garlic chives this year and they are the best! I snip off a bunch almost daily to go with dinner.

 Here is some boxwood basil. A slightly spicier basil that you don't have to chop up. I just slide the leaves off the stems into our dishes. And it's not spicy as in hot pepper spicy. Just more woodsy tasting than it's "sweet basil" relative.

 Sweet mint. This one is a favorite for the boys. They snack on the leaves daily as we come and go from the house. I was surprised to find that it is slightly spicy/pungent tasting too. Maybe we don't water it enough?

 Sweet Lavender. This one I experimented with. I saw it with the herb starts and grabbed it {since the sale was something like buy 3 for $7 I think}. But it barely smells like lavender at all. Maybe I'll add to our lemonade like the plant marker suggested?

 And that's where we live. I still want to add some more touches, like make some throw pillows, add a few more pictures that I'm working on. But we're happy with our changes and we love where we live. How long we'll stay? Is yet to be determined. Until then, I am pleased to wait in this beautiful place.