Here’s a simple, charming idea related to our vacation jars and framed key art—one that costs about 50 cents. The concept came from my creative husband. Early in our relationship, while writing a few postcards to friends and family, he suggested we save one postcard and write it to ourselves. It would capture a few … Read more

That she blows! Or maybe I should say “thar she glows!” Either way, we got her up. This year’s decorating theme followed a few simple rules: Use only free items we already had—no running out to buy anything. Avoid anything pointy, hard, or breakable for the little one’s safety. Load it with color—lots of bright, … Read more

It feels like ages since I last put together a mood board (you can find more than 125 of them on the original site). To shake off the dry spell I created a cheerful, sunny summer-inspired board designed to bring warmth and a welcoming vibe into a neutral room. These suggestions work well for anyone … Read more

Q: I have a house-hunting question for you. What do you look for? What do you look past? Help! My main complaint about all the older homes we’re seeing in our price range is that they feel dated, but that seems to be what you look for. How do you know which dated houses are … Read more

I’ve always been a cat person at heart — from a childhood fascination with tigers to caring for my high school cat, Casper — but life took a canine turn after meeting Sherry and her cat allergies. Our compromise was a small dog named Burger, who fits the bill perfectly. Still, I never stopped dreaming … Read more

We’ve been racing to finish rooms in the duplex so we can open up weeklong summer rentals on Airbnb. There’s still work left—two kitchens, two living rooms, two laundry rooms, and a couple more bedrooms and baths—but it feels huge to be completely done with the four rooms featured in this post. Imagine every celebratory … Read more

Every year when our blogiversary comes around, we like to pause and set clear goals for the next 12 months. So here are three things we’re committing to work hard on over the coming year. A public pledge always helps keep us accountable, so without further ado, here are the top three priorities on our … Read more

See what I did there? If our fourth wedding anniversary were a movie sequel, that’s probably how the poster would treat the title. (Yes, I’m aware it’s a cheeky nod to Scream 4.) As we’ve done each year, here’s a little recap of how we celebrated four years of marriage last Thursday. You can find … Read more

We swapped out the artwork in the guest bedroom and wanted to share the update. Because the room has one of the best views of the house—overlooking the large green backyard—we decided to bring more green into the space to complement the existing green headboard and the view. We also wanted to add some graphic … Read more

Our deck project was briefly sidelined while we tackled party, dollhouse, and bedroom projects, but in that time we made one big decision: like both of our parents did growing up, we’re going with pressure-treated wood. That decision wasn’t immediate. We compared several options, collected a few quotes, and took the necessary “sleep on it” … Read more