decorating

oy…the joys and whoas of decorating a new home!

it’s tough. we are working on the living room right now. we need to buy a new rug and curtains for it. ugh. i am overwhelmed with the options…so many choices and i need to make a decision soon! we need curtains asap! there is nothing on our window right now and we need to have the privacy and i want to have the room aesthetically pleasing.

we keep debating back and forth on patterns and colors for our curtains. it’s such a big expense and i can’t make up my mind!

here are some ideas for the curtains:

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this swatch is from regal drapes. i love the cross pattern and colors. i am torn though, i’m not sure what color i really want the drapes to be! i want color but i’m wavering on committing to one!

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this one is from the shade store. as you can see…i am leaning towards yellow. i do love the yellow and gray, i think it will be a nice accent color and give the room a nice pop of brightness.

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i like this iron gate style from drape style. i’d maybe do this in a dark grey but i think i am leaning towards color. ugh. i dunnoooooo! honestly, everything i peek at looks really nice, i wish i could get several options and just change them out when i feel like it! yeaaaaahhhh, right.

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the iron gate looks very nice, i think the print will impactful in the space and neutral enough to play around with when it comes to any accents.

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hc and i really like this print above. it’s from an etsy seller, she offers quite a range of fabrics and color.

as for rugs, i played around with idea of doing something bright. i am now leaning towards something more graphic and bold. a nice statement rug that can flex with any of the color and accent changes in the room.

here are some ideas around rugs:

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i love this rug from ikea. i like the bright colors. the only issue i have with this is that is doesn’t come in a larger size. the size it is will do but we really want a larger rug to fit better into the size of the room.

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i love this rug from rugs direct. i like how bold it is but still neutral where we can change our room colors around it. i like the graphic design and the bold neutral colors that still make a statement. the only thing that makes me nervous is that it is a cream color! i must be crazy to want a cream colored rug with kids!!

i wish i had everything available so i could play around and then truly make a decision {wouldn’t that be great?!}! the whole decorating thing is fun…it’s our house and we get to make it as beautiful, lovely, comfy, and cool as we please! i love it.

well, once we finalize everything, i’ll let y’all know what decor we decided on! we will still have a lot to do with the room but getting the main pieces implemented is our main focus! ooohhhh, I can’t wait to share!

xoxo

olive’s room

we finally put the final touches on miss olive’s room! oooohhhhhh yay!

her room is perfect. i love everything about it. it’s light, whimsical, and fun. all things a baby’s room should be!

if you have been following my blog, you might have seen this post and this post from the past about olive’s room {also, we have already completed grace’s room in the new house here}. it explains the compilation of her room, when we were living in chicago, and olive’s nursery was as big as a closet {that was quite a challenge but we made it work!}! now she has a lot of space and we absolutely love spending our time in there.

if you click on the links above, you will see where most of the decor comes from.

olive’s room was inspired by the land of nod, blog sites, pinterest, my love for anything whimsy, soft colors, modern and clean lines. i was the anti-theme soon to be momma. i did not want anything ‘themed’. it’s so not my style. no monkeys, no winnie the pooh, no caterpillars, no nothing. a lot of people asked me what my theme was going to be for the baby’s room and i would say nothing {which was true…i mean, what was i suppose to say? it’s going to be the coolest, chicest, baby’s room ever done?? okaaayyyy, i did say that a few times :)} and i would get a blank stare in return {gasp! no theme?!}. i would say something like, “it’s going to be a cool room but no theme” but peeps still didn’t understand.

anyhoo, when we were decorating olive’s room in the city, we knew it wasn’t going to be permanent. we knew that we were going to be in a house soon {at the time, how soon? we weren’t sure}, so we didn’t want to go all out in her room {i still had a few tricks up my sleeve with the decor}.

so, once we bought our house, olive’s room was number one priority! i couldn’t wait to finish it. hc worked very hard on it and worked hard on getting it done. since we had so much more room, we purchased a few more pieces of furniture to complete her nursery.

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[olive’s room pre-makeover]

olive’s room was painted this awful blue color and had lots of nails and holes in the walls. like i’ve said before, the whole house is trimmed in this oakey wood color. every door, every window is in this blah color {just not our style}. hc patched up everything, repainted, and replaced all the wood base boards. he fixed up the closet {new shelf, bar, and paint}, he replaced the closet doors, replaced the knobs with an antique rubbed bronze color, and cleaned and redid the window and window frame. that set it up for a clean slate and ready to decorate!

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[pouf from land of nod // lamp from ikea]

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[pbk sheep rocker]

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[paper tassels with rifle paper lettering]

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[oh joy cherry pillow]

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[cloud garland from land of nod]

olive’s old room in the city had just a small window. so we only had one silk panel and it was perfect. when we moved into the new house, we needed to buy another panel. it was actually hard to track down! nevertheless, we purchased another matching panel…phew! we also had to put money into altering it! the panels were too long and we purchased the shortest length they had. oh my. it cost almost as much as one panel to do the alterations…holy cow!

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[pbk toy basket]

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[wall decals by mur]

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[fawn clock from land of nod]

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originally, we only had one little sloane leaning bookcase. basically, that was all we could fit {actually the bookcase barely fit!}! once we put the bookcase into the new room, we knew we needed another one. now it’s perfectly balanced and we have more storage space for olive’s toys.

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i love how her dresser drawer turned out. hc replaced and painted the drawer fronts and i purchased the prettiest pink glass knobs from anthro to personalize and perfect her dresser. it’s perfect for the changer {we draped a waterproof sheet saver over her changer to catch any accidents!} and her diaper caddy, from land of nod, is the perfect size. it houses all her essentials: lots of huggies diapers, butt paste, mustela body lotion, gold bond powder, babyganics sunscreen, and organic apricot oil {for cradle cap}.

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i love pottery barn kids for their cute personalized pieces. her olive hamper is perfectly sized. it houses all her dirty garments and looks super cute while doing so!

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via tandeminlove.com

[jonathan adler giraffe]

we love the ceramic giraffe but we knew it wouldn’t be so safe once she started crawling. with great surprise, she doesn’t touch it! she might pet it but that is about it! amazing. she really has no interest in it…so far 😉

via tandeminlove.com

via tandeminlove.com

we love her little cloud shelves. such a perfect fit in her room and perfectly placed above her changing table. she can’t reach it and it houses all her cute, fun books and toys. don’t you love the ‘olive you’ print?? it was a gift from olivia and aaron. so cute.

well, that is olive’s room! we hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoy living in it! we are so happy with the updates and how her room was transformed. thank you so much to hc for working so hard on it and together we have made it a cozy, cute, cuddly little room for the babes. it’s now full of fuzzy toys, comfy blankies, and filled with love.

xoxo

liv and aaron

olivia and aaron stopped by to 1. aaron hasn’t seen our house yet 2. to check out the updates we have made 3. and to see each other…it’s been awhile!

we were excited to have them over. they arrived in the early evening. when they got here, we took them on the tour {although olivia has been through it already}. they also brought their dog, bruce…he’s such a cutie! we started outside, of course, hc had to show off the garages to aaron first! we wrapped up the tour inside and we were ready to eat! i was so hungry!

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[lol…olive is so skeptical]

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[me and bruce]

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[bruce doing his business]

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[olive was loving olivia]

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[getting the tour]

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[best friends]

hc and i decided to keep it low key, since we had a lot going on, so we ordered in for dinner. chinese anyone?! yum. soooo healthy 😉

we hung out, caught up, olivia became olive’s best friend, and bruce was the curious dog. i loved that olive was loving olivia. they played together all night. she’s getting a little better and better with others…hopefully i’m not typing this out too early 😉

we are super happy olivia and aaron are back in chicago. they moved to florida for a year {last year} but missed us all too much 😉 and had to come back.

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[dinner]

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[my girl!]

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[bruce relaxing]

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[playing together]

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[having fun]

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[holding the kids]

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[bromance]

i love these two. it was great having them over. we had a lovely evening hanging out with them and bruce! thanks for stopping by, we will be by your new place in chicago soon!

xoxo

oohhh, beer and pizza

we were so excited to have johnny, janice, georgia, and charlotte come to visit our new house and meet little olive!

they arrived at our house in the early evening. we decided it would be best to have a casual dinner night…pizza and beer! yum. hc toured them throughout the house and gave the usual spiel.

the girls settled down on the couch and cruised through the apple tv selection to find a movie. they snuggled in with their dolls and were quite content.

we broke open several beers and cheered to finally getting together. we chatted for quite a bit before we decided on what we were going to order. we tried a place called aurelio’s and it was delicious! we got some apps and ordered their specialty pie of the moment.

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[georgia and charlotte {rich’s goddaughter!}]

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[revolution brewery]

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[janice and olive]

while we were waiting for the delivery, we had lots of fun catching up on all sorts of events. janice and i talked a lot about nursing, the guys did their talks, and we circled around to discuss more things like babies, triathlons, vacations, family, and life.

olive really took to johnny! oh, she loved him. she actually let him hold her and she giggled at him! awww, it was very sweet.

i love janice and johnny. they are such a cute couple and so fun. hc has been friends with them, what seems like forever! when rich and i first started dating, johnny and janice were so welcoming of me and we instantly hit it off. their humor are off the charts! we love it when we are able to get together with them.

olive also received the cutest gift from them! so, janice is from canada {oh canada!}…they got little olive a pink fleece set emblazoned with the words canada all over it. it’s just the cutest little outfit and we can’t wait until she can wear it!

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[olive was very fond of johnny[

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[joining us for dinner]

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[aurelio’s pizza]

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[these two cuties enjoying some desserts]

the pizza came, the beer was being guzzled, and good times were being had. how cute are georgia and charlotte? they are such sweet, kind, polite little ladies. they are growing up so fast!

the family brought the desserts, so after a bit, janice set them out and we devoured them! the tarts were so good! i loooved the chocolate, caramel, hazelnut one…to die for. it was amaze. it just melted in my mouth. yum. i could have eaten five of them…hehehe.

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[delicious pastries from whole foods]

after several hours of hanging out and putting olive down in-between it, it was, sadly, time for the family to leave. we had a wonderful, wonderful time with them. thank you so much for the cute gift for olive and thank you for stopping by! come back soon! muwah!

xoxo

darling dana

dearest dana came to visit {finally}! after we moved, it was a constant debacle trying to get us together! our schedules weren’t coordinating. if we happen to have the same day off, she or i would already have plans, or she would be out of town, etc. welllll, we finally, last minute, got ourselves aligned! hallelujah!

she came over bright and early in the morning {no traffic…woo!}. i walked her through the house…a tour of what has happened {remodeled} and what was to come. we chilled at the house for a bit before heading out to brunch. dana tried multiple times to hold olive…um, fail. baby girl will only be in my arms if i am in the room *sigh*, i do wish she would let others hold her but a screaming, crying baby is no fun for anyone! dana, being dana, was so amused and found it so hilarious! thank goodness 🙂

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[dear dana loving olive]

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[olive giving a shoutout to the westside!]

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[attempting at another round of holding olive]

so, after many tries of holding olive, we digressed and moved along on getting ourselves to the restaurant. i offered a few options and we settled on trying a place by our house. a breakfast place {new to us!} that we have been interested in trying for awhile.

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via tandeminlove.com

[orange juice for dana, grapefruit/orange juice for moi]

it was cute inside and not busy {bonus!}. we settled into our seats and perused the menu. there were so many choices! i decided on the banana walnut pancakes with a side of bacon and dana went for the eggs over easy, hash browns, and a side of chocolate chip pancakes.

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[banana walnut pancakes]

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[noshing]

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we did a lot of catching up over brunch. the food was yummy. the company was even better. we yapped for awhile, until olive was getting a bit fussy. it was good timing with the fact that we were dunzo…check paid, we were ready to go when olive started fussing. so, out the door we went!

we went back to the house to hang out some more. olive needed to eat her solids, so i prepared her food and asked dana if she wanted to feed her. gosh, miss olive answered that for all of us. she was liiiike, um no. momma is the only one who will feed me! what a picky lady! poor darling dana…olive wouldn’t even let her feed her!

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[oh em gee…poor dana trying to feed olive…nope]

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[flashdance…she’s a maniac, maniac on the floor!!]

after a few hours of lounging, dana headed out {before crazy traffic could build up}. it was fantastic to finally get together and just hang out {what we do best}. olive and i miss her already.

xoxo

housey

we were so excited to have bought our house this past april. i love being a homeowner. i love being able to decorate, do whatever we want, jump up and down on the floor with no worries of neighbors down below. we love having a huge backyard. we love having more space. there are so many positive things with having your own house.

along with that, it’s a lot of work! with it being an older home, aesthetically, it was not to our tastes. we knew, when buying the house, that we would remodel the inside and then some. not my idea…it’s all hc’s grand scheming.

anyhoo, with all this, we are tackling one room at a time. it’s going to be a long process that’s going to take a lot of my patience! as our neighbor put it, you have your whole life to renovate and when you’re done…you will start again with the first room you remodeled!

the first room we took on was originally going to be olive’s room. hc started to renovate it when we decided to switch up the girl’s room. we decided, since grace was only with us, maybe, every other weekend at most, that olive should have the bigger room. after much debating, we concluded that it made more sense. so, grace’s room was the first to be finished!

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[grace’s room…the before]

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[grace’s room…after!]

hc repainted the room. he, first, redid the ceiling and then the walls. we then went to the home depot and grace picked out the green paint color to match her room {she did a great job selecting a perfect match}! hc redid all the trim {all the wood was an oakey color…blah!}, replaced all the outlets, replaced the closet doors, bedroom door, and added new hardware. he took out the windows, cleaned it inside and out, and repainted the entire frame.

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the pencil drawings are from a very talented friend. i commissioned her to do the drawings…she loves, loves robots and i love, love her work. so, she created three very cool pieces of art! amaze. i cherish these drawings…so delighted to own such beautiful work.

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the ferris wheel is a wonderful vintage piece. a couple years ago, hc, grace, and i took a trip to iowa to visit antique archaeology, one of our favorite shows! we were in awe over the shop…there were so many cool items! we perused the whole place up and down, fascinated by all the vintage objects. when i walked into the shop, the first thing that caught my eye was the ferris wheel. i loved it! well, so did grace. soooo, the lovely rusty piece came home with us and ended up in grace’s room!

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her chair, lamp, shag rugbed, and bedding are from ikea. the bookcase is vintage. her bedside shelf is from the container store. we bought the curtains at target and had them hemmed by hc’s mom. the pillows in her room are actually from our wedding!

grace’s room is fun and bright. i love how it turned out…of course it’s great, my wonderful hubby worked so hard on it!

next up…olive’s room!

xoxo

swinging in from seattle

we were very excited to have carol come over to visit us at our new house!

but before carol came over…hc and olive were hanging out at the grandparent’s house. they enjoyed the morning and afternoon over at dick and jane’s place.

it was the first time olive rode in a swing! she loved it! you can see it in the picture below. what a cutie. hc reported that olive had a great time hanging out with gramma and papa! duh…of course she did!

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[looking cute in her new sun hat]

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[super smiley with papa]

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[how adorbs are these two?!]

***

carol and famille came into town for a week and we had planned on her and the kids to visit us at our new abode. they came over on a sunday afternoon to hang out and eat dinner with us. hc was able to walk carol around our place while she gladly held olive in her arms. kenzie and travis gleefully ran around the property while carol received the tour.

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[carol and olive loving each other]

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[mackenzie being cute]

hc cooked a delicious meal for us and the kids {he’s seriously so awesome}. carol caught us up on all the latest of life’s happenings. every time she comes into town, she has such a crazy, busy week! she meets up with everyone and is booked solid every day!

we casually hung out, while the kids ran around and played {well, played as much as they could…our house does lack in the toy department}. olive let carol hold her a few times without having a grumpy moment to be back into mommy’s arms {miraculous…although each time she held her, it was short lived}.

travis did have a very, very cute moment with olive. he actually held her and sang to her! how freakin’ cute! it was such a sweet moment!

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[travis being so loving with olive]

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[my favorite peeps // olive’s current thing…talking while she waves her thumb around in her mouth]

carol had to get back home to her mom’s house…motherly duties called {giving the kids baths and getting them down}. it was a perfect evening together. we were able to show her our new house, eat some yummy food prepared by hc, and spend some good moments together. it was a great start to a upcoming great week!

xoxo

oh em gee! we are homeowners!

we are beyond excited to be homeowners! it happened on tuesday, april 15, and it was quite the whirlwind week for us. i have been so delayed with blogging due to the fact that we didn’t have wi-fi set up in our house yet {or the fact that we moved and that was crazy in itself!}, so blogging bigger blogs was a no go but we are all set up now! yay!

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[a very proud pic of us at our new house! thanks jane for taking the photo!]

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[our house status updated on redfin…woo hoo!]

april 15 was not only tax day but also hc’s birthday. we closed on the house that morning, we went to the banks to change our info, hauled a bunch of stuff into the house, had hc’s parents come over to check out the new abode, we drove back to chicago that evening, and continued to pack up our place to get ready for the movers on friday!

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[already doing the suburban thing…eating lunch at a mall, we had to grab a quick bite to eat after we closed on the house and before we started our long day!]

i worked on wednesday and hc worked on thursday, taking a day away from us to pack and get organized for the move. we continued to box up our place and take care of little olive in between everything we were doing {huge thank you to jane for totally helping us out!! not only did she help take care of o, she helped us pack too!}. from the moment we closed on the house, hc had been slowly moving our stuff to it every single day. what a start to a crazy week.

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[‘last’ time being downtown before we moved]

then friday finally came! the day our movers were coming to transplant the rest of our stuff to our new house! as we were packing, the movers finally showed up {after being a bit delayed} and took one look at our place and decided they could not move us!!!  oh em gee. are you kidding me?!

our place was 90% packed up and already moved. no joke. all we had left in the apartment were about 12 boxed up boxes, and stripped furniture {such as our couch, beds, dining room table, a book shelf, dressers, a crib, and my closet. that was it. the company was all my sons moving {don’t use them! awful, awful, awful service…or lack thereof} and they only sent two men {shady looking characters} on a friday afternoon {good friday, mind you! and they had already mixed up our set moving times twice!} to move us. they literally walked out on us! they said there wasn’t enough man power {um, hc was very clear on what was being moved and how many rooms} and they couldn’t get a third guy, so they left us stranded. it was horrible. we couldn’t believe that they left us high and dry. the two shady dudes had someone on the phone from their company and hc got on to speak with him. the man was so boorish! hc argued with their dispatcher and he so rudely called hc a liar about the whole situation and all that was going on! unbelievable!

anyhoo, after some terrible encounters and experiences {and a big complaint to the illinois movers association}, we were connected to bernard movers and they were amazing!! we ended up moving everything on saturday morning. we couldn’t have been happier with the moving company…they were professional, quick, gentle with our stuff, and literally moved our place from the city into our house exactly how it was originally set up {how it should be!}! we were so happy!

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[the last night at our place in chicago before we moved out on saturday]

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[our house getting a little more homey]

hc is itchin’ to update the interior and eventually the exterior! we are excited to modernize the inside of the house to our taste and style. there is a lot of work ahead of us to get this place to our aesthetics. we can’t wait until the little touch ups are done {painting, trim, new doors, a carpeted basement for the kids, an updated kitchen, etc.} that will really give the house a facelift and freshen it up.

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[hc’s most favorite current activity…mowing the lawn and drinking a beer in his brand spanking new john deere lawnmower! thank you to dick and jane for gifting us with this wonderful housewarming present!]

needless to say, we are so excited to have our own house, our own place, our own property, with no neighbors above or below us! i could go on and on about the benefits of having a house but my true love is still the city. i love chicago, i love the craziness of it, the diversity, the convenience of the restaurants and shops…but i am truly happy to have a place to call home sweet home with my beautiful family. 

dana’s new place

such great things are happening this year!

included in one of those things is dana buying her own place! i am so excited for her, what a grown up thing to do 🙂 she moved in a few weeks ago and we were in limbo on when we were going to visit her. either it was too cold and snowy for me to tote olive around or she had workers coming to her place on her day off and that wouldn’t be a good time as well. so, finally we agreed on a date {not without complications!} and we were able to see her on a thursday night.

hc came home and we relaxed for a bit before we gathered ourselves to head out the door close to 5:30pm. not ideal, due to the high traffic timeframe, but c’est la vie! we pit stopped at starbucks, although it was 5 degrees outside, i wanted an iced coffee. an iced grande vanilla latte to be exact! yum!

we scored rockstar parking in front and trekked our way to the front of the building. there were some residents coming home and they just let us in {at least we didn’t look dangerous…a man, a women, and a baby aren’t threatening!}! the building was gorgeous inside! i loved the entry way. so pretty!

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[the foyer]

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[dana and moi relishing in her beautiful condo!]

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[olive pouting in dana’s new abode]

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now this is hilarious! dana is having a good amount of work done on her place. the floors being re-stained, painting of rooms, new kitchen counter tops, window blinds, etc. so, we walked into her bedroom to find this. no, peeps, it’s not a work of art that you see or some might consider it a work of art! she doesn’t have her curtains or have had blinds delivered yet, so she taped up holiday wrapping paper over her window with blue painter’s tape! we could not stop laughing at this crazy looking display!  oh dana!

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this was too cute. rosie was scared? nervous? curious? over baby olive. she didn’t know what to do with herself. i don’t think rosie had ever seen a baby before! she was freaking out, barking, and pacing like a mad animal! olive was laying on the couch and dana was playing with her. rosie was acting so funny! as dana leaned over to play with olive, rosie kept leaning over her shoulder to see what was going on but she definitely didn’t want to get too close, in fear the baby might attack {lol}. how cute is rosie in this picture?!

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[dana’s reading nook]

we got the tour {fabulous}, we relaxed {ahhh!}, and chatted. we absolutely love her place! we are so excited for her and can’t wait to see her complete the decorating {how fun!}

xoxo