A Whole Lot of Random

My, oh my! It sure has been busy around here...

Between the total craziness at my day job and getting the kids/house ready to go back to school, I feel like it's been pure chaos around here. There are just not enough hours in the day, or enough days in the week. Can we just make weekends a little bit longer? That would help out a ton!

I didn't get a post out last week due to all the chaos, so today's includes a number of random things we've been up to lately. And a lot of grainy iPhone pictures.

As I mentioned, we have been getting the kids and house ready for back to school. The kids are actually back in school as of today! And in an effort to get ahead of the clutter that's sure to come with the kids back in school, we have been tackling a few projects to prep for the mess. First on that list: Creating a pretty and functional drop zone wall in our entryway!

We finished the wall just in time. Although, this picture shows a work still in progress, I plan to "reveal" the space later this week. While this project was in the works, there was even MORE clutter than usual. Isn't that the way it usually goes? Tear one space apart until you finish your project and can manage to put it back together?

We have added some hooks to the wall in accessible heights for the littles. The plan is that this wall will provide a space in which they can hang up their own back packs and coats. Every little bit that the kiddos can contribute to a cleaner and more organized home is extremely helpful.

We're also in the progress of power washing the side of the house. I'm always amazed at the amount of grime that gets washed away by the power washer. Too bad we can only reach a certain height without a ladder. That might be something that we want to invest in sometime... In the meantime, you can see the point at which we just can't reach any higher!

In the meantime, we're also power-washing the fence. I'm trying to convince the hubs that we should also seal the fence with some sort of decking sealer. Have you ever tried to power-wash and seal your fence? I'm totally open to suggestions.

Also on the fence topic, we put up some galvanized steel wire to keep the dog in the fence. Sadie, the dog, thought that it was 100% acceptable to do her business in the neighbor's yard and then take a leisurely jaunt across the street to visit the other neighbors. No one was amused by this, accept Sadie, of course.

Last, but by no means least, we also celebrated a very special 6th birthday!

Our beautiful Skylar is now 6 and is now officially a first grader. Where does time go? It feels like no time at all has passed since she was a baby. We've really enjoyed watching her grow up to be such an adventurous little girl. If there's ever an activity that one of the kids is hesitant about trying, Skylar is always the first to jump right in. Riding bikes, racing down hills, you name it, she's a total daredevil.

With every spare moment we have had lately, we've tried to soak up every little last bit of summer.

With lots of bike riding.

Playing outside and walks to the park.

And even a trip to Knoebel's Amusement park with friends!

Summer vacation is officially over, but we had a blast! On to another new chapter of our lives :)

Inspiring Shutter Project Round-Up

Recently, Hometalk asked me to curate a board of shutter related projects. I had a blast browsing the site to find some inspirational projects. Having done our own shutter makeovers, I forgot that there are so many creative things that you can do with shutters, including making your own!

If you are not familiar with Hometalk, it is a site where you can browse home and garden projects, share your own, or even post questions to the community. It's a great place to find inspiration on a variety of things; home decor, home improvement, landscaping, you name it. If it's a topic related to your home, you'll find it there. But I warn you, it's a lot like Pinterest in the sense that it will suck you in. Before you know it, you'll find yourself having spent hours browsing.

Click on the graphic below to check out my roundup of adorable shutter related projects on Hometalk!

I just love the idea of using an old pair of wood shutters for a headboard, or using a whole wall of them to add visual interest to a room. So. Many. Ideas.

Take a look and tell me which one is your favorite!

Kitchen Paint Color Selected: Kitchen Painted

I thank you all for your input into our kitchen color selection process. It turns out that Tranquility was the winner by popular vote! However, we picked Pirate Coast in the end.

This room probably gets the most light in the house, so we could have gone with a slightly darker shade, but I wanted this room to be as bright as possible.We might bring in some darker color down the road if/when we decide to either repaint or refinish the cabinets.

Isn't is lovely?

Excuse the fact that the table and chairs are shifted slightly to the right of the rug and look like they are about to fall off the edge. Kids. I'll blame it on the kids. People should hire them to move furniture, because they do a great job! And I totally didn't catch the lopsidedness until now...

I can't wait until we get around the stage in our kitchen re-do when we get to rip our the backsplash. And replace counters. And swap out appliances. And replace that microwave hood that no longer works, causing a "ceiling tan" on the drywall above the stove. Yum.

But look at that beautiful DIY island!

And for comparison sake, this was a picture of the kitchen on move in day. Excuse Oaken's big head and the blurry iPhone pic. Look at those dark green walls!

When we first put the new paint on the walls, we kept thinking...It's white. Like almost completely white. In comparison to the dark green, it felt completely devoid of color. And, for a little while, I regretted our decision. However, after a few coats of the new color, we decided we really really liked it. It's amazing how much bigger the kitchen feels now! It's a much happier color and so much more "us". Yay!

Next on the kitchen list is to do something with that big blank wall behind the table. Plank wall? Big black and white photos? A banquette bench? The wheels are churning!