First floor details: Before and After

I suppose I should have posted the "before" photos before posting the "after" photos. Oops. Here's what the foyer and living room looked like when we bought it, with some of the seller's furniture in it. From these photos, it's a little more obvious what kinds of changes we made, and I'll give a little more detail about what we did. There aren't any huge changes, since the house was fairly updated and kept up well, but I always like to see befores and afters, so here we go!

Foyer before:

And after:

Etsy faves: Baby Edition

I don't know about you, but it seems like every time I turn around, someone's pregnant (not me though. this is not an announcement). It's officially baby season for more and more of my friends, and I have to say I love it. This is a round-up of my favorite baby item shops on Etsy should you need a gift for a sister or friend who is expecting, or for yourself! Since I'm always looking for more Etsy shops to support, feel free to add some of your favorites in the comments section.

Cairtree

Cutest onesies ever.

Arrow onesie $16

I am a warm weather person.

This weekend we are heading to Beech Mountain like we do every year with Michael's family. We get to stay at a beautiful mountain house overlooking a (usually) snowy valley, play in the snow, sometimes go skiing. And every year I have to convince myself that it's going to be fun. I have to "gear myself up" for it, in a sense. I don't like cold weather. I hate being bundled from head to toe to the point where I can't breathe or walk. This is probably due to the fact that I feel like I never have the right gear for it and always end up with cold, wet extremities. I don't like driving up the mountain in our little Prius when the roads are slick. I had a bad experience skiing once, and while I've had some good ones since then, it's still not my favorite thing. I'd rather sit by the fire drinking coffee and reading a book.

Home tour: part 1

So I finally took some time to snap some photos of our house this morning! This tour is just of the first level, and I'll do the upstairs in another post. There are a lot things we still want to do, but I wanted to get a snapshot view of things as they are right now. We want to buy a big sectional couch for the living room, so that is going to change things a lot. We are still looking to try to figure out exactly what we want but I'm hoping to pick one out soon. I'll have to post updates as things evolve! (Confession: I actually made some changes in the kitchen and dining room today after taking these photos, so I'll have to share those with you soon!)

What I'm thinking about 2014

So many bloggers out there are picking a word for the new year, and I think it's a really neat idea. I actually thought I might try it out this year, since I didn't set any new resolutions. However, I haven't the slightest idea what my word for 2014 should be. I felt a little weird coming into this year, like some big things are going to happen but I have NO IDEA what those are because no big things are really on the calendar! It's a strange feeling to be anticipating something but not know what that something is. Does anyone ever feel that way?

There are some things that are looming but we don't know exactly how or if they're going to pan out:

Weekend update

This past weekend was low-key but pretty amazing. There's something so nice about cozying up on a cold and rainy January day, not feeling like you have to go anywhere or do anything fancy. We were able to catch up on some things around the house: putting up curtains in the dining room, adding some shelves in the garage and finishing up the workbench (Michael), and re-organizing the kitchen pantry (me). There are several other cosmetic changes I still want to make to the decor of our house, but sometimes you just need to do the things that no one will notice but you. It feels so good to have all of my food organized with everything in its place and a clean kitchen to start the week off with.