Hi folks! Thank you for visiting my site. I just wanted to let you know that we are now self hosted and have moved to our own domain! Its all very exciting and I can’t wait to see you there. Here’s our new site:
See you there!
An Honest Unsponsored Review of the Nest Thermostat
People who know me know that I love technology. Not to say I’m great at it, but I love it. When we first moved into our new home in the fall of 2015, one of the first things we got was a smart thermostat in preparation for winter. It was version 3 of the Nest Thermostat. Continue reading
How to Find Free Art to Fill a Gallery Wall
Raise your hands if you love a gallery wall – I certainly do but sometimes getting pictures and artwork to fill a gallery wall can be frustrating and expensive. When we first started out with our first gallery wall in our loft and now another in our dining room, we knew we wanted a blue-ish theme (we have a little blue in every room) but while we had purchased some artwork, we didn’t quite have enough for an entire gallery wall. While yes artwork should be purchased slowly and only when you really find something you like and fits in Continue reading
DIY Light – Kitchen Sconce Edition
We recently axed our top kitchen cabinets in favor of open shelving. Oooo I could dedicate an entire post to open shelving – they look beautiful, they are so practical, they make grabbing and putting dishes back so easy and they are great for getting much needed artwork into the kitchen. I now know why so many interior designers favor open shelving – who wouldn’t?? We decided to only have one long shelf (its about 10 feet long) instead of multiple long ones. Given that this side of the kitchen was darker (the refrigerator and the wall hides a lot of the natural light, the idea was to keep this area open, airy and 2 shelves would have just made the wall heavier. This however left us with a huge area above the Continue reading
Darlin’ Leave a Light on for Me – Automating Your Porch Lights
Remember that Belinda Carlisle song Leave a Light On? Boy does that bring back memories…
“Darlin’ leave a light on for me, I’ll be there before you close the door to give you all the love that you need…”
Ok maybe you don’t – I might have just dated my musical tastes. I don’t know about you but I love having my porch lights on when I come home in the evening or just for security reasons when we’re not home or even if we are! Thing is, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten to turn them off only to have them on the entire night and day! In fact, truth be told, my neighbor has her porch lights on 24/7 and the little eco-monster in me just wants to help her automate her lights to save some electricity!
Realistically, who wants to remember to turn on and turn off their porch lights everyday? I certainly don’t. Enter the Honeywell Light Switch Programmable Timer. There are a bunch of other brands of programmable light switches – I personally went with this one because it was only about $20 and Honeywell is a pretty reputable brand.
Keeping Our Dog Maya Occupied with Smart Dog Toys
We have an Australian Shepherd (Her name is Maya and the blog is named after her as you can tell!) and as with all Aussies, they are smart as smart can be and need to be kept entertained! Keeping their brains working actually wears them out more than running around with them! I know I’ll never be able to outrun Maya but I sure can outsmart her Continue reading
Lighting up the hallway – DIY Globe Semi Flushmount Light
We’re on a mission, a mission to banish all boob lights from our builder grade home. Let’s see, we have 1,2,3,4.. ok many boob lights in this house – so many that replacing them all with beautiful lights from Cedar and Moss (like this one!) would be way too expensive or it would take too long! What’s a girl to do but to make her own DIY light! Introducing our very own Globe Semi Flush mount for less than $50! Let’s get started!
We disappeared and why we’re back.
We gave you a house tour in Sept 2015 and it was only our 4th post before we disappeared. We had to for a variety of reasons mostly existential in nature I guess. I’m a big time blog reader and the more I read, the less I felt I could contribute to the blog space. I mean how could I, I’m not an interior design guru, I don’t have mad construction chops – all I had was a first house that I was hoping to make into our own. Hell, I didn’t even have an Amazon affiliate account!
But as I tried to make changes that mimicked what I saw on blogs, I found myself constantly buying things. I found myself going through “round ups of what to buy” from every blogger everywhere. I get it, its a money maker but I got into DIY to make things, not just buy them. One of our first purchases for our home were some pendants from Rejuvenation. I love them but they were expensive and I knew if I were to replace all the lights in our home, well I would either be quite broke or I’ll have to wait forever. So I started searching on how to make my own lights. That’s when the light bulb literally went off. I actually started making lights that were COMPARABLE to those you find on Rejuvenation, Triple Seven Home, School House Electric. Yes I can and I did! Kristen told me I should sell the lights I made but I had a better idea. Why not empower people to make their own? I mean isn’t that what blogs and DIY is all about? This could be where I could make a difference. Imagine someone who goes through these amazing blogs but can’t afford a Cedar and Moss sconce, well, I can’t make ANY light, but there are some nice ones I can definitely pit together for sometimes a quarter of retail and I can’t wait to put these plans together for this little space on the internet.
Since our last house tour, we’ve made many many updates to the house. We’ll shoot another tour soon so that you can enjoy all the before and afters that we have! Well, this was meant to be a short hello we’re back post so I’ll let you get back to your regular scheduled program but a couple of things to look out for these next few weeks that we’re intending to blog about:
- DIY semi flushmount lights (we made fancy lights for our upstairs hallway!)
- DIY kitchen sconce
- Commentary on our new sofa from Article (formerly known as Bryght – not affiliated, just an honest opinion!)
- Living with our open kitchen shelf (and loving it!)
- Staining stair banisters
Talk you you all soon!
Finally a House Tour!
Kristen and I apologize for being absent from this blog. We were in the throws of moving in and let’s just say it has been a whirl wind! Well, we finally managed to get a video of the new digs for the internet world to see so here it is! Hopefully this gives you a better idea of how the home is laid out and we can’t wait to update you on all the changes we intend to make to this place – after we do all the fixes we need to do! So here’s our house… enjoy!
Favorite Etsy Artists
Part of interior design is filling your home with art and I truly believe that art makes a house a home. You may not know this about me, but I love to paint. In fact, many of the pieces we have at home right now are originals painted by me! Originals that only Kristen would buy, but hey, at least I can tout that I have originals! I’d had hope to show some of my art in this post but everything is packed in boxes right now! Well, just gives me an excuse to dedicate to whole post to home made art!
All that said, I love browsing Etsy for art because it is not only affordable, its by someone who may or may not be a full time artist but more importantly, its by someone who has something unique to say that hasn’t been pushed through galleries or mass printing. Sure the Audrey Hepburn canvas from Ikea is nice, but I’d bet a pretty penny that thousands of folks have that hanging on their living room walls. So here are some of my favorite Etsy artists right now. I’m definitely teetering over which ones I should buy for the new home – choices choices choices! I wish I could get them all!
– Definitely a blogger favorite! I love her work that uses strong muted colors like blues, blacks and greens. They stand out well on a neutral wall. I also love her theme of the hidden face (which is common amongst some of the other Etsy artists I’ve highlighted) – there’s just something mysterious about that draws you in!
– I first came across Kai Samuel Davis on another blog and fell utterly in love. His pieces showcase so much movement that it bring life to a wall. It makes you want to look a little deeper to figure out what’s going on. Love it!
3. David Lloyd
– I love David Llyod’s figure abstracts – especially the ones painted from behind (see my love for the hidden face??). I’m not an art aficionado but there’s just something about his figure paintings that scream sophistication.
– I hate to beat a dead horse but do you see my obsession with the hidden face? Add that to my love for hair styles and Elizabeth Mayville is my kind of artist! I love the neutral backgrounds she uses – all this just makes her subject pop that much more against a neutral wall. Pair this with some more neutral pieces and you have a really attractive gallery.
– I actually came across this piece on Framebridge‘s site and I think the quirkiness of this piece would look great in a home office!
– Young House Love first introduced me to Samantha French and really what’s there not to love? Its bright, vibrant and the rippling water just makes you wish you owned a pool! (We don’t own one so we might end up jumping into our bathtub instead!)
– Again, hooray for the quirky – something that is a little less serious but always beautiful.
Maya at Home 