picking pumpkins

We almost didn't make it to a pumpkin patch this year. I feel like I have been saying this a lot lately, but life is busy! I guess that is what happens when you are renovating a house and it is the holidays. But, we did finally manage to squeeze in a short trip to walk around the corn maze and pick out some nice round pumpkins. It was freezing cold, but the girls still had fun and I am glad the tradition went on... See past pumpkin patch trips here, here, and here!

our favorite children's books

Choosing a favorite children's book is a hard task, I discovered. There are so many books filled not only with wonderful stories and illustrations, but with nostalgia and happy memories from my childhood to the time I was a new mother with a fresh baby in my arms. After going through our entire library, I was able to narrow it down to the five most requested titles in our house for a guest post over at Apartment Therapy. We love each one of these books!

We spent one of our usual afternoon reading times with the camera set up on a tripod to take some pictures, and I let the girls take turns pressing the remote (which can be quite entertaining when you look through the pictures later). It was a nice excuse to capture this everyday scene of me with my two girls by my side and a big pile of books on the floor.

I love reading with them. It helps ground us. It makes us stop what we are doing and brings us together, and lets me at least forget about the laundry and all of the little or big messes around the house. It lets me snuggle with my always on-the-go girls, and if our day is going south sitting down to read books is the best reset button for us.

If you had to pick, what is your favorite children's book? I would love to know.

shop update

Kitties Circle Skirt//Pink Corduroy Outfit Set

Houndstooth Coat and Bonnet//Yellow Plaid Cape

Maroon Floral Print Dress//Pink Floral Hearts Dress

 Pink Wool Snowsuit Set//Pink + Black Triangles Snowsuit

Maroon Smocked Dress//Navy Peter Pan Collar Dress

 Orange Polka Dot Blouse//Yellow + Green Hoodie

A new shop update was added today with some really great winter items. Does it snow where you live? We got our first little snowstorm yesterday and another bigger one today, so I have snow boots and mittens on my mind - the two winter items the girls are in need of this year. I ordered myself a pair of snow boots (sale ends today) knowing I will be more willing to take the girls outside to play if I have a warm comfy pair of boots to throw on... and I have to say, looking forward to a cute new pair of shoes makes this cold snowy weather rolling in just a little more welcome :)

 Check out the shop, or click on the links above to go directly to your favorite piece. Thanks!

lately

Snapshots of our life lately...

Best Sculpture Award//Best Dressed Award (okay I just made that one up)

Exhausted from too much fun//Daddy can do all of the Disney character voices

We painted a lot, but you already knew that//Did you know I got a blister though?

Unsupervised art time//A confetti-filled birthday letter 

Popsicle karioke//She's been doing this thing lately... 

She wants to learn to play violin//Hipster ballerina?

Tippy-toes mean trouble//As in getting into things she shouldn't 

Vintage dresses about to get soaked//Take that dirt

Trying on costume options//Striking Halloween costume gold in my stash

Mini pumpkins are the extent of our decor//Enjoying one last afternoon at the lake

A Hip Handmade Holiday was super hip//Look for the e-book coming out November 1st! 

 Getting to know our new backyard//First snowfall of the season! (It melted within the hour)

Life is busy, but oh. so. good.

(rotten) apple picking

When we were searching for a house one of the items on my 'would-be-nice-if' list was mature fruit trees. This was not a deal breaker, but if there were fruit trees my eyes would light up just that much more. So when we first looked at our house way back in February I was happy to look through the window and see rotting fruit hanging off of two big trees in the backyard. There were no leaves and it was cold and getting dark so at first we guessed they were peach trees, but we soon discovered they were apple trees - one red, and one green.

Since six months passed before we finally owned these trees those rotten apples we first laid eyes on from last season were never picked off, and the new harvest was taken over by worms and birds. This left us with a lot of rotten apples on our hands. But, we were determined to find some good ones among the bunch this year - and we did find a few to taste! Mostly, though, we just have a lot of clean up to do.

I look forward to more successful harvests in the future, but for now I am just happy to call these trees my own.

making a house a home: PAINT

Oh, these walls. We have been patching/sanding/patching and sanding again/painting these walls for weeks and weeks and we are so close to being done (with the upstairs at least)! Close enough that I want to share the before/afters of the hallway and bedrooms with you. I swear these poor walls never got a hole patched in 50 years, and although we didn't count there had to be hundreds of them. On top of that there were some pretty horrible paint jobs that needed to be scraped and skimmed over with mud. And then, once all of the prepping was finally done we rolled a coat of primer and 2 coats of paint - Benjamin Moore Marscapone to be exact. I wanted to brighten up the place with (almost) white walls everywhere. It looks so fresh and clean!

(We haven't had time to take all of the tape down yet, sorry it's a bit of an eyesore)

The hallway was painted a beige color. The before is a bit blurry, but I'm glad that I could find one. In the after you'll notice we also ripped up the Pergo flooring and the door frame around the first door on the left. It is the bathroom door and we are fixing it to match the height/style of the rest of the doors (why is it different - who knows?!) so, yes, we will have some more patching/painting to do once that is done.

The girls will continue to share a room when we move since I know it will help with the transition, and they love being together. They are starting to ask to sleep next to each other. Just last night as LM was hugging Lark on her bed she said, "I love my sweet Larkie. I want her to sleep next to me." I promised them they can sleep next to each other when Lark is a little bit older. It is too cute to see their love growing. Anyway, their room was a light yellowish-tan. LM was disappointed I didn't choose to paint their room pink, but I told her we could paint the closet pink as a compromise :)

The master bedroom is one of the more dramatic changes. I don't even know what to say about this brown gold-faux thing going on. It was even worse when we realized it was covering up a grid pattern underneath (see the bottom left corner?). We had to scrape the whole gooey wall down and then sand like crazy to get rid of the grid pattern. We were so happy when we covered up this mess!

A fun discovery happened when took the door hinges off to freshen up the door jams. The original colors that were painted in the master and the girl's room way back in 1958 were hidden underneath! The master was originally a pretty aqua blue, and the girl's room was a peachy-orange. I left the colors there in homage - I love these little connections to the past.

The third bedroom will be the playroom for now (eventually the nursery). It was a dark army green and had a peeling chalkboard on one wall...but, you would never know it now! We also got rid of the swamp cooler in the window.

It's like a breath of fresh air! Next on the long list of to-do's we need to lay tile in the kitchen and down the hallway (where we ripped out the Pergo). We are also waiting on kitchen counter tops and then we will tile a back splash too. I have to think only a few steps ahead or it all becomes too overwhelming. We got ourselves into a lot of work, but it has been satisfying work!