#134: Where Have All The Family Photos Gone?: a house log

Today we are sharing how to find the right balance when you are choosing between artwork or family photos for certain walls – and we are revealing where we have subconsciously gravitated towards putting personal photos in our own home (and why we think that is!). We also have pointers for how to personalize your walls beyond the usual smiling-at-the-camera snapshot. And we have officially gone shed crazy (like truly, truly shed crazy), and the silver lining that we discovered after a yearlong delay at the beach house that is saving us money and getting us excited for the summer. Plus I am at last jumping on the crystal train. I know, it is unexpected.

You can also find this episode on your go-to podcast listening app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.

What is New

• Here is a peek at the patio & shed work that is going on at the beach house. The duplex is a little bit further behind (the sheds are simply done being framed) but it is shaping up to be a quite exciting, quite productive, and quite shed-filled spring!

• If you want to hear some of our previous discussions about the small beach house backyard, it first comes up in Episode #84 (aka LAST February) where we outline our disagreement about the shed.
• Those shownotes also include a lot of planning photos, including this reminder of what the original metal shed looked like when we picked up the house.

• We also talked last summer (in Episode #107) about updated plans & background layouts around the time we had our hot tub delivered. Spoiler alert: the plan evolved a few more times between that episode and now…
• You can also learn more about our shed here in Richmond in this post, as well as in this post about how we organized it!

Listener Question

• That is an older photo of our bedroom, before we simplified the big family photo gallery wall around the bed (we also mentioned the term “quieting the room” – and there is more on what that means in Episode #111 about Cozy Minimalism).
• You can see that some of those photos landed in our guest room above Sherry’s sewing/craft desk.

• In the photo below you can also see an example of the “candid” family photos we have around – it is our kids playing on some rocks at the beach several years ago. Nobody’s smiling at the camera, but between their accidentally matching striped shirts and the fairly scenery (and the memory of spending that day together) it was a definite keeper.

• In our kitchen we also enjoy a new family photo every single day thanks to our annual page-a-day calendar. We tape them up displayed inside our “mini mudroom” cabinets (it is a pleasant way to personalize each person’s cubby).

• Beyond photos, we talked about hanging actual artwork that is made to represent your family, whether it is a shadowbox of little wooden pegs painted to look like your family, an embroidered version of your fam, or even a painting or sketch that someone on Etsy makes of your pet, child, or the whole family. Here is a post about the portrait of our kids that we got made our children, which hangs in our foyer, below.

• And here is that kid artwork we blew up and hung in our bonus room to create a large scale piece with a personal touch. You cannot expect to make successful cupcakes following the recipe, but it makes us smile every time we read it.

• And we promised a few other leads if you are looking for ways to celebrate your family with homemade art from Etsy, so here are some cool options for ya (Sherry’s dying over these boots and you know I enjoy the idea of a custom Simpsons-ified family portait).

We are Digging

• Below you can see my crystals in action (yes ME, THE BUILDER). Well, I guess I can simply call them my glass window prisms. I ordered 2 sets of these and they have been such a success we are going to get a few more for the beach house.
• We are still figuring out the best spots for them to get maximum light reflection, but this one in our kitchen window is everyone’s go-to so far because the rainbows splash across the cabinets in the morning (all the way over to the far wall where our shoe cubbies are!) while everyone’s getting ready for the day. It has been such a lively pick-me-up.

• As I mentioned in the podcast, it was reading this Joyful book that Sherry talked about in Episode #130 that gave me the idea to buy them.
• Lastly, here is a link to the not-kid-or-work-safe trailer for Russian Doll (warning: the bad language starts right away). It is the Netflix show – certainly not for kids – that we lately binged and it is funny, weird, intense, scary, and refreshing all at the same time. Also, each of the 8 episodes is only about 30 minutes, so it was the ideal swift low-commitment binge!

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we have recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Grove Collaborative for sponsoring this episode. Sign up at Grove.co/YHL and spend your first $20 to receive a FREE gift: a trio of Mrs. Meyers cleaners, a 60-day VIP Membership AND a surprise bonus gift on top of all that.

Thanks for listening, folks!

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