Currently Clicking: Week #26

Each and every week (aside from the week I skipped last week....), I gather links of all of the places I have been perusing in the great, grand internet. There are plenty of people out there doing big things and small things. Some of these are practical, some are inspiring. This week I found some really cool new bibs for the kiddo. I clearly am thinking mostly with my stomach because most of the points below involve food or grocery shopping. I stumbled upon a couple of great home renovations and makeovers. I was reminded of how great it is when we print our photos and don't just keep everything digital all of the time....

1. As Marin grows older, her amount of drool increases because of the lovely process of teething. Here is an awesome monthly subscription, called Fresh BiB, that sends you adorable bandana bibs that are stylish, practical, and reversible! You have the option of a one time purchase or they can send you bibs monthly. I think this is awesome! It sure beats the normal bibs that she wears most of the time. These ones are adorable. 
2. Emily Henderson is a designer that I follow fairly regularly. Her family purchased a house and have been renovating it ever since. Here is a sneak peek of the house so far. I love her style. I love the colors. I love everything about this. 
3. I would like to make a point to cook more. That isn't always the easiest thing with a 7 month old in the house, but here are a few recipes that caught my eye this week. Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Bowls. Baked Peaches with Cheesecake Filling. Homemade Pizza Bagels. Yum. 
4. I normally don't shop at Whole Foods, especially because my husbands works for King Soopers, but I am always interested in how people cook and prepare meals for the week and for what price. This is a great post on cooking for the week on $125.
5. Since I am clearly on a grocery and food kick, we purchased a Costco Membership from Living Social. Costco is coming to our town and I am stupidly excited about it for some reason. I have been researching ways to make Costco trips really work for us and our budget. Get the most bang for your buck at Costco. Shopping for real food at Costco. What to buy from Costco. I believe our store opens at the beginning of October. 
6.  A reminder for women everywhere. Let's stop torturing ourselves when it comes to food. Eating: A Manifesto. 
7. I love a good kitchen remodel/makeover. Here's one. Here's another. 
8. This is a great idea. I need to print more of our photos in general. It's a great way to capture all of the little moments that we capture with our cellphones, which nowadays, the cameras on our phones are pretty unreal .

Currently Clicking #19

Each and every week, I gather links of all of the places I have been perusing in the great, grand internet. There are plenty of people out there doing big things and small things. Some of these are practical, some are inspiring. This week I realize that I always need to eat more salads and figure out how to eat healthy on a budget. I am also drooling over a house tour, wondering how you know a trend is truly over, dreaming of a peach dish to make, thinking about what it means to separate work from motherhood and whether or not is possible, and reminding myself about the reasons we all have to let go of our past. 

1.  I always need to eat more salad. Here are 5 Tips for Making a Week's Worth of Salads on a Sunday. 
2. Trends come and go. My ever changing hair over the years should probably be a sign of that. How do you know if a trend is done and over with? How do you know if a trend is officially over? 
3. I am completely in love with this house tour. They make living with two children in a 1100 square foot house actually seem doable. I love the back yard space and the flooring throughout the house. I am becoming more and more ready to get our house on the market and find a new place to call home. 
4. We always need tips on healthy eating on a budget. This post has some great tips to keep in mind, especially when aiming for a whole food, plant based diet. Also, might I add her grilled peaches and sweet cream with crunchy bits looks so darn delicious. 
5. Now that I am a mother, even more of this post rings true: 10 Things Women Like To Do Alone. 
6. One of my goals someday, hopefully, is to have the ability to work from home or something that looks somewhat like that, in a job that is creative and challenging. Here is a great post about working from home for entrepreneurs.  But on the flip side, here is another point of view of being a work at home mom. Both of these links were seen at Shutterbean and I love her list posts so very much. As a mom and a person in the work world, can we every truly find balance between the two? Are we meant to? 
7. And lastly, a good reminder: 10 Reasons to Let Go of Your Past. 

Weekly Lovelies: Currently Clicking #8

Every week, I gather links of all of the places I have been perusing in the great, grand internet. I like these posts. I can go back and see what I was obsessing over for the week. This week it's parenting & friendship, getting out of debt, a new e-course, anything that has to do with decorating our home, brunch recipes, and a new album that you should buy. I'm all over the map and I like it that way. Also, here is an adorable picture of my family. That is all. 

1. Once We Become Parents We Don't Want To Hang Out With You Anymore (But Not For Reasons You Think). I relate to all of this. Having kids pretty much changes everything. 
2. This blog. She is so encouraging when it comes to managing finances, getting out of debt, and living more frugal, intentional lives. 
3. I just purchased this class and I'm super stoked. The team at A Beautiful Mess have done it again. I took their first Blog Love class and loved it. 
4. How To Have A Hipster Home. I hate to admit that I am guilty of many of these....
5. For some reason I have brunch on the brain. I love this, this, and everything in this post. 
6. Some awesome friends just released their new record. Gleemer is a top notch band that you should be listening to. Get their record here. 

IKEA TRIP

I can mark yet another item off of my list. My whole 28 Things List is actually going quite well. Let's see if I still say that once a baby comes into the picture. 

This list item: TAKE AN IKEA TRIP. 

I love IKEA. It's like the land of inexpensive furniture that I can actually use in my house. Did I mention there are meatballs? There are meatballs. And mashed potatoes. And Swedish everything. 

A few years back, Colorado finally got their own IKEA. When I lived in the northwest, I used to drive by the IKEA in Portland every single day on way to class. Talk about tempation. Luckily, the Denver location is a pretty long drive. Convincing my husband to drive all of the way there isn't always the easiest of tasks. But, this time, I succeeded. 

We also didn't bring the mom van (bad choice.) But, we ended up fitting everything in Ryan's car. I had to ride in the back seat on the way home. I bet we looked like an odd pair driving back to Fort Collins. 

Some of our goals for this trip: 

1. We wanted to bring back the Man Cave. Now that we don't have room mates, I figured I'd be a nice wife and let my husband have his room back. 

Sad Man Cave 

Geoff helping. Not. 

2. Since he was getting back his man space, I wanted a new rug for the living room and whatever other goodies I could find. 

3. We wanted to check out the baby/kid section at IKEA. Before this, I always breezed through that area because I didn't really have a need to look at that stuff yet. We have a lot of ideas for the nursery now. 

Our Man Cave....

I would like to take a moment and tell you that I am a total nerd. The X-Files, I Want To Believe poster, all my idea. Mulder and Scully forever. 

Our Spruced-Up Living Room....

I am obsessed with the rug and pillows. Obsessed.

A few other odds and ends from trip....

Dish Towel 

Kitchen Rugs 

This same weekend, I finally painted the accent wall in bedroom as well. 

I feel accomplished and really like these little additions to our home. I predict that we will be taking another trip to IKEA for some nursery items in the future. And meatballs. 

Weekend Project: The Front Door

We own our home. I love it really mostly all of the time. Being a home owner also gives you the ability and opportunity to paint whatever nook and cranny of that home that suits your fancy. I always love how a coat of paint can completely transform something. 

This past weekend's project: The Front Door

Our front door was bland, predictable, and the same color as the rest of the house. Boring. What fun is that?

Somewhere in the midst of building our front porch, I was looking through paint swatches to find our perfect door color. I feel that red has been fairly overdone and wanted to find something unique to us. I've been placing more orange into our house over the past few year or so and have been trying to get away from red. (Nothing against red, but I've just used it far too long!) 

Here enters: Maple Leaf. The color of our freshly painted door. In the course of a few hours we had a spruced up door, some pumpkins to go with it, and my wreath hung up on the front door. Home Sweet Home.

I love it. For an inexpensive, weekend project: this is it. Aside from cleaning the door off and making sure that it was ready to be painted, this project was seriously a piece of cake. You just need a bit of patience in making sure the first coat is dry before you add the second, but other than that: easy as pie. (Clearly, I must want cake or pie, or really any dessert of any kind, due to my use of sayings today.) 

I need to quit thinking about dessert. 

I really must fix the number on our sign. The crooked two pretty much drives me nuts. 

I also managed to get some decorating done on the inside of our little home as well. 

I love this season. 

Yard Crashers 2012: An Update

Hello. I've returned from the land of no-blogging. It's been a while. So much has happened. 

Yard Crasher 2012 has been a success. We haven't completely finished everything, but for once we no longer have the worst looking lawn on the block. Success. We pretty much sweat like crazy for three days, worked until it rained every afternoon, and I managed to only get a little bit of sun. We weeded like crazy, cut down branches, trimmed bushes, fertilized the lawn.  It feels really good to put some love into our yard. It really needed it. 

Before 

Really Before. 

After

In Progress

Yard Work Break. A Cucumber Jalapeno Margarita. Spicy!

The finished product. I will get better photos soon. We have chairs there now and a little table. 

We are still choosing stain colors. We also are planning on painting our door "Maple Leaf." 

I'll update more once I have light to take some photos. 

White Walls, Wood Floors

Normally my decor taste leans far more towards bold, colorful walls and lots of prints. Lately, I've been noticing that I'm drawn towards fairly minimal spaces, with white walls, and wood floors. The thing I love about this type of home design is that even though the walls are white, like a blank canvas, the pieces in the room speak for themselves. Color pops from places other than the paint on the walls. I am also entirely envious of the wood floors that I find throughout all of these photos. Someday, I will rid our home of carpet forever! 

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 Source: unknown source, on Pinterest 

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I want to sort through so much of what we own and start over. I also want to buy a bunch of paint and create a clean slate. 

Bedroom Inspiration

Earlier this year, we embarked upon re-doing our outdated kitchen. We had to work with a small budget, couldn't replace any appliances (someday), and did it all with our own hands and the hands of others. My lovely friends help me paint every nook and cranny. My dad built cabinet doors and I felt like I had white paint on my hands for weeks. The outcome was exactly what we wanted. 

Now my current endeavor is that of re-doing our bedroom. Truthfully, I haven't even started it yet, but I've been collecting ideas for the past few months. After Christmas, my goal is tackle this room and make it our very own. Pinterest has helped me with my decorating obsession. This is the direction I am hoping for....

I want grey and yellow to be our main color scheme. I also love the idea of throwing a little teal in there. I'm leaning towards grey walls with yellow/teal accents. I want the overall feel to be very calming but with a few splashes of color. 

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I would love to create a plush headboard as well. 

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I want to focus on more natural, warm wood pieces. 

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As I head into this new challenge, I will keep you all updated. Once again, we are on a small budget, but that challenge makes it even more fun. 

Inspiration

Home Living

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Music 

Literature 

My read this month. 

Photography
This man inspires me: Blind Photographer

| Artists Wanted | In Focus : Pete Eckert from
>Artists Wanted on Vimeo.