The Story Of Us

We are into day nine of our renovations.. we lost a few days due to the Thanksgiving Holidays... we hopefully have only a few days of work left though.. phew. Here's a look at what we started with and where we are now.. So, we started with this wall... the wall divided our kitchen and our family room. While both spaces are large I hated the idea of not being able to keep an eye on D.. and with another one on the way.. I think the open space would just make life easier.. and just think about how wonderful it would be to be able to entertain in an open floor plan. This is the view from our kitchen. Now looking at the same wall from the family room. To the right, the green room is what would be a formal living room. Notice the faux wood pillars along the wall, outdoor lantern lights hang off them.. the walls are a faux textured plaster like pattern.. now the interesting part.. the faux texture was not something that was painted on, instead they are plastic like panels nail

Happy Thanksgiving! We have a little over 6 weeks before baby arrives.. so I am celebrating another week closer with another giveaway.. This week I am teaming up with  Cartesian Yarnistry , a dorable baby crochet delights, creating delicate, heirloom elegance designs for precious moments in time.  Susan of Cartesian Yarnistry aims to t o create "once-upon-a-time" precious memories of Babies and Toddlers in the genre of Crochet Wearable Art, while offering heirloom products to last a lifetime. Cartesian Yarnistry  is giving away an adorable newborn turtle outfit perfect for your babies first photo op.  Shades of Green Turtle shell attached beanie rolled brim style. Turtle shell hexagon pieces in multi-green shades surrounded by soft fern including tiny tail & embellished by forest green edging around entire shell. To Enter: - Visit  Cartesian Yarnistry 's adorable shop and tell me in the comments what your favorite creation is and leave your email a

pinterest So we hired our first contractor to help us create an open floor plan in our kitchen/family room. The work involved knocking down a wall, installing a window, new flooring etc. Didn't seem like much, just not something we were willing to try do ourselves. We started with an estimate in mind.. but having no experience we had no idea what to expect. I started by picking up the Home Improvement Guide at our grocery store.. picked out a few names of contractors and Googled them. Checked out their website, saw if they had any reviews or complaints and then made phone calls. We had a total of six contractors come out and give us estimates. You don't need to get six estimates.. but I would recommend getting at least three. We met an interesting mix of people. Of the six two declared our wall, separating the kitchen from the family room load bearing (this makes it a bit more pricey and difficult to knock down, but still doable). And then there were four. Our estima

We have a little over 7 weeks before baby arrives.. so I am celebrating another week closer with another giveaway.. This week I am teaming up with Zoe's Natural Creations , a  home based, family owned business  passionate about creating all natural, hand crafted products that are good for your b ody, soul and spirit with incredible smell and an ingredient list you can pronounce. Zoe's Natural Creation 's is giving away a 4oz jar of soothing Baby Bum Balm, perfect for your little one's bottom. To Enter: - Visit Zoe's Natural Creation 's lovely shop and tell me in the comments what your favorite creation is and leave your email address so I can contact you when you win :) - Visit Zoe's Natural Creation's  Facebook  page and Like it. - Follow my blog via  Bloglovin' It's as simple as that! Extra Entry - Get an Extra Entry by Tweeting about this Giveaway and leave a separate comment telling me you did it You have until Nove

In order to entertain D I sketched him a quick little family portrait for him to color in.. I emphasize on the word quick which I hope explains why our fingers are sprouting out of our sleeves. Instead of coloring in my drawing.. he decided to make one of his own.. his first of what I expect to be many family portraits :) p.s baba stands for dad Giveaway: If you haven't entered already.. what are you waiting for?! Get my post directly in you inbox with  Bloglovin I am now also offering ad space.  See  Sponsors  for more information .  Newsletter Sign Up - Let's Stay Connected, Shall We?

GIVEAWAY CLOSED We have a little over 8.. yes can you believe eight weeks before baby arrives.. and I thought it would be fun to count down the weeks with a few baby/child themed giveaways.. We are starting with Susie's Suitcase 's adorable tutu filled shop.. Susan and her daughter make fun and colorful tutu's, a must for any little girl's wardrobe.. The tutu's are available in a variety of sizes and colors and can be custom made to your liking. Susie's Suitcase is giving away a pretty Gold and Black tutu to one lucky winner. The tutu is available in sizes 6 months to 24 months. Teddy Bear not included ;) To Enter: - Visit  Susie's Suitcase  adorable shop and tell me in the comments what your favorite tutu is and leave your email address so I can contact you when you win :) - Visit Susie's Suitcase  Etsy  page and click on the Heart to favorite it. - Follow my blog via  Bloglovin' It's as simple as that! Extra Entry - G

When going through some old photographs I stumbled upon a few photographs from Iran that I seemed to have missed.. I had traveled to Iran in the summer of 2007 on a college trip. One of my first trips where I took photographs not as a tourist but a then amateur photographer.. not knowing then that I'd be doing this for a living..    Door Knocker   Knock Knock Rainbow Windows You can see more of my photographs taken in Iran here Get my post directly in you inbox with  Bloglovin I am now also offering ad space.  See  Sponsors  for more information .  Newsletter Sign Up - Let's Stay Connected, Shall We?