New House, New City!

Well, I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus (although I still read all of my favorite ones daily) so I've got LOTS to fill you in on. Ready?

Back in September, we sold our house and moved to Birmingham! You see, we didn't actually  have our house in Tuscaloosa on the market yet and hadn't really thought too much about moving. We had only met with a realtor once to see if/when we might want to think about selling. Well, a couple of weeks later she had 2 prospective buyers who were very interested. After a few delays and setbacks, we closed on both houses the first weekend of September. Yikes! Enter a frantic weekend of moving before football season starts! (Note to self: next time we hire movers)

The hubby and I, along with our realtor in Birmingham, spent several days looking for a new house. Such an exhausting process and it rained every single time we went! I think the location (and of course price) were the most important factors because I needed to be on the right side of town to be able to commute to Tuscaloosa for my job. Turns out the one we bought had only been on the market for 1 day when we made our offer. Talk about good timing because our realtor said it would sell very quickly! In the end, I think we got the right house for us right now, even though I wish it was about 10 minutes closer. Is it our forever home? Nope. We will outgrow it but I think it's just right for us right now. :)

So without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to our new abode. It's in Bluff Park, an older area of Hoover, which I love. Our neighborhood is full of big, old trees with beautiful foliage in the fall. We're actually on top of Shades Mountain, which still makes my ears pop, and we can walk to the elementary school. Below are all of the pictures from the previous owners so stay tuned to see how it looks with our stuff in it. Here is the view from the road. It's a 3/2 built in the 60s (I think) with a basement and laundry room! I'm so super excited about having an actual laundry room now!

When you walk through the front, you enter into the living room and the dining room is to the left (the previous owners used it as a sitting room). Oh, and if you had been to our old house, this is basically the same exact floor plan, minus the screened-in porch in the front, and we now have a sitting room in the kitchen. :)

From the dining room, you walk into the kitchen:

I do love the seating area in the kitchen! It's the perfect place for sipping my morning coffee and looking into the back yard. :) Those doors lead to the back deck, which I will show you a little bit later. (Btw, the outdoor space is what really sold me on this house)

So if you leave the sitting area, you can take a right to go back into the living room or a left to go down the hallway. Down the hallway, first up is the guest bathroom on the left, which I painted about 2 weeks after we moved in. Just couldn't take the dark brown walls with that amazing blue tile:

Across from the hall bath is the guest room:

Down the hall on the right is Reynolds' room. It's the larger of the two so that's why we chose this one:

Right across from her room is the master bedroom with our private bath. The bathroom is small but that's really what we're familiar with. This one has been updated very nicely with new ceramic tile, double shower heads, and I love the beadboard walls. :)

So that's pretty much the entire living space upstairs. Now we'll head to the basement. I have plans to turn this space into a great family room since there is a lot of room for Reynolds' to play and dogs to roam. The door leading to the basement is in the kitchen, just fyi. It's got kind of a lofty feel to it with the exposed duct work. :)

Behind the plaid curtains in the photo below are the glass doors leading out to the patio, and the white door leads into the laundry room:

What I love most about this space is the storage! There is a lot of floor space but it also has several closets, including 2 under the staircase.

Below is the laundry room, with more storage, and they left the washer, dryer and pedestals for us! Oh, and that door leads into the 2-car garage.

So that's all for the interior of our new house! Now, let's move on to my favorite - the outdoor space! First here is the deck off the kitchen:

There is plenty of space out here for sitting/ relaxing, grilling, dining, etc... My big plans for this area is to screen in the top level. There is a small drop down you can see in the first picture and I think that would be perfect for the grill if we did screen in the top part.

Here is the view of the back yard from the deck:

There is just enough grassy area for us to maintain and Reynolds to play and I'm hoping the dogs use that back area since it's all fenced in. (Jax tends to be pretty rough on grass when playing fetch)

Here are a few more shots of the back yard:

And finally, an up-close shot of the rock work, which is really what sold me. I love it!

So there you have it - a glimpse at our new house. I can't wait to show you how it looks with our stuff moved in. Now that it's been 3 months, I'm happy to say we've painted 3 rooms so it's starting to feel a little more like home. I really want to paint our master bedroom over the holiday break so we'll see if I can get that done! It's much harder to do that sort of stuff with a 16 month old running around! :)

I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season! It really is the most wonderful time of the year! :)

-xoxo-
Katie

A Birthday Quilt for Reynolds

Well, my sweet little Reynolds turned one this past Saturday! It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed, but alas, here we are. We're very close to having a walking toddler who will be into everything. We've stored all of the bottles so now it's like we're feeding a real person with real food each day. I have loved all of the phases this first year, i.e. those nights where she was awake every 3 hours needing a bottle - that was just a sweet time for nightly cuddles. Then it was nice when she started sleeping 12+ hours each night because, let's face it, I love to sleep too. (We're extremely lucky that she still enjoys sleeping so much!)

Anywho, I've gotten a little off topic. In the months leading up to her 1st birthday I knew I wanted to do something special for Reynolds. Preferably something homemade since I'm all mushy like that. ;) I finally decided on making her a quilt! I've probably watched hundreds of videos on youtube, read countless DIY articles and other ways of trying to teach myself the basics of sewing straight lines over and over again...

I finally decided to use the Missouri Quilt Company's "Make a Baby Quilt" tutorial (you can find it here). It seemed easy enough! Once I had decided the type of quilt I wanted to make I decided on the type of fabric. I went with 1930s reproduction fabric, found in this Etsy shop, because I love the vintage look and feel of the 30s patterns. I ordered 2 charm packs - these are pre-cut fabric squares that come ready to sew and they typically have 25-30 squares. I also ordered solid white muslin to use for borders, and some additional yards of fabric to use for the big border and quilt backing.

I'll save you all of the step-by-step directions since I pretty much just used the youtube tutorial (I believe there are 4 videos from start to finish) and show you some of the photos.

Once I got my charm packs in, I laid them all out to figure out how I wanted to pair them up.



Then I sewed each group of 4 squares together:

I think the most important thing I learned about sewing (especially when trying to keep everything straight and lined up) is IRONING, which I'm not a huge fan of. But really, I ironed the seams every single time I sewed and that kept everything looking neat and tidy!

There were of  course some nights I just didn't feel like sewing, but knowing I had a deadline, a.k.a. her birthday, coupled with a nice, big glass of wine kept me going! :)

Once I had all of my 4 square sets sewn together I decided to add a white border. I sewed the shorter horizontal pieces to each set, then I just sewed one long vertical piece in between the rows (see 2nd picture).

Once all of the white borders were added, I decided to add a thick border just to make it larger. I wanted it to be larger than a baby quilt so this is why I just kept adding borders - now she'll be able to wrap up and snuggle in it. :)

 



Now it was time to make it look like a quilt! I was pretty nervous at this point because I had so much time and ironing invested. I did NOT want to mess it up! I headed out to Hancock Fabrics to pick up some quilt batting, a rotary cutter- which made my life much easier since I no longer had to cut long pieces of fabric with scissors and just hope I was cutting it straight, and some quilting pins (kind of like a curved safety pin).
 



Then I went back to my wine and youtube, thanks to Missouri Quilt Company, and she showed me how to assemble the quilt sandwich. Once the sandwich was made, I "stitched in the ditch" along all of my other seams. This is what gave it that "quilted" look. On a side note, it turns out there is a lot of lingo I had to learn in the quilting world. When you "stitch in the ditch" you just sew over your previously sewn seams. I would've love to hand quilt an intricate design like my grandmother did on all of our quilts, but I had neither the time nor the patience for that! Here's the final product:

I have never been so glad to be finished with a project! It actually wasn't too bad once I got started on it and I was happy that I stuck with it.

Is it perfectly sewn with perfectly straight lines? Absolutely not! But it's perfectly imperfect for my sweet little nugget. Happy Birthday sweet Reynolds!

A fab find at fab.com!

Hello all! I know I've been MIA for a while but I hope everyone is having a fabulous summer! As I was recently reading one of my favorite blogs, Bower Power for those of you in blog land, she posted a link for fab.com. I had never heard of it but they have some pretty unique stuff! I found these amazingly cute note cards and was excited to see them on my front porch yesterday.

I just love happy packaging! :)

Now isn't this just the cutest?! :)

It's a set of eight note cards but since I love botanical prints so much, I plan to frame them. Yay for a low-cost solution for art! I'm thinking I'll use white frames (maybe 8x10?) matted to a 4x6. A group of 3 would look sweet in Reynolds' bedroom or if I decide to place on large focal wall, maybe I'll frame all 8! Either way, I think I need to plan a trip to Ikea/Atlanta to buy some frames! :)

I'll keep you posted about where these end up. Hope everyone has a lovely day!

-xoxo
katie

New year!

So I realize it's February, which means I'm a little late for New Year Resolutions but here goes anyway. I usually don't jump on the resolution-bandwagon but sometimes the new year is just what I need to start something new.

In an effort to get back to my pre-preggo self (and ready for swimsuit season), I wanted to run in the Tuscaloosa 1/2 Marathon- Run for Recovery. This is the first year for the event and the path goes through much of the area that was devastated in the April 27 tornado. Oh, and it's also supporting Read Bama Read, double win. However, adjusting to a new baby, work, keeping the house decent looking, etc... I just couldn't find the time for that type of training... :(

But, then I found out there's a 2-person relay! It would be much easier to prepare to run 6.5 miles so I asked the hubby and he agreed! I didn't even have to beg. :) So our training began the first week of January and it's an 8-9 week program that I found here. Basically, we run on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday with the long runs on Saturday. This weekend was 4.5 miles and we only have 3 more weeks to go, yay! Race day is March 2!

I really needed to sign up for an actual race because it gives me something to work toward. It's much harder to make myself run during the week, and when it's cold, if there isn't really a reason to. Accountability helps me and it's not as intimidating to think about running a long distance. This was my thought process when I was training for the Mercedes Marathon too- each day is just a small part of the process. Wow, that sounds like Coach Saban, huh? Maybe I've listened to too many of his post-game interviews that I'm now brainwashed, haha. :)

Anywho, Matthew and I have really enjoyed the training and look forward to our Saturday runs together! This particular day was unseasonably warm so the whole family went!

I love that we live across the street the park with a good track for running. If I don't take the baby, I usually just take the dogs and we run at the Arboretum. I'm pretty sure they would rather live there than at home so I try to take them as often as possible. It's also easier for me because I don't have to put them on a leash - they can run free like dogs are meant to do. :)

Reynolds loves when I take her for a run so I'm really ready for springtime weather. We got a Bob jogging stroller at our baby shower at Matthew's work and I absolutely LOVE it - I definitely recommend this brand!

My weekday runs usually aren' as exciting because I go to the gym on my lunch break. But it's extra motivation to work my pace since I have limited time. I actually have improved my mile pace by about a minute since I started. :)

 

It's so nice getting home in the evening and not having to worry about working out/ running - all of my time can be spent with MR until Matthew gets home from work. :) I so wish I could motivate myself to workout in the mornings but I like to sleep as late as I possibly can... But running on my lunch break energizes me to get through the work day and I only do this 2 days/ week.

 

So that's my resolution #1.

 

Resolution #2 is that I'm trying to take better care of my skin. You see, although I haven't gotten in a tanning bed in 7ish years, I did tan a lot when I was in high school. So I want to use make sure that I'm using the right preventive skincare to minimize aging, sun damage, etc... So far I've tried Clinique's new Dark Spot Corrector; it worked ok but I'm thinking about going with Estee Lauder next time. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

 



 

I am trying a new moisturizer too - Philosophy's Take a Deep Breath. I like it but I don't love it so I'll take suggestions for a new moisturizer too! :)

 

Well I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! I'm spending it at my mom's house in Brilliant and it's been very relaxing. Is anyone else getting spring fever yet? I am beyond ready to see the sun regularly, have more daylight hours when I get home from work, see fresh flowers and smell freshly cut grass! :)

A little update...

Happy Friday Y'all! I'm finally trying out the mobile app for this, mainly so i can upload my mobile photos directly (it's much quicker than syncing my phone to the computer, uploading, wah wah wah...)

I want to update you on one of my favorite rooms (or space?) in our cozy little bungalow...the screened-in porch! To jog your memory, this is how it was looking after the makeover on the outdoor couch mentioned  here and here:

Not bad, but not great either. I needed some change! Of course, this feeling hit me about a week after having Reynolds. See, when I'm stressed, I stress-clean. I guess that's better than stress-eating?? When I came home from the hospital, I came home without my baby - enter "stress."

Somehow I found time to work on this project, even though I was visiting the NICU 3-4 times each day. But while I was home, by myself, I needed some distraction. The screened-in porch was the lucky recipient of my stress relief. :)

For starters, I painted the flooring of the porch. It had been dusty blue, the same color as our house, but the paint was so badly chipped in places, it was kind of sad-looking. I used the rug above to hide a lot of the chippiness, but this rug had gotten nasty from the weather, dogs, etc... So picture me, 1 week after having a c-section, on my hands and knees, painting this floor. I justified it to my worried husband that I would still be sitting down, just on the floor instead of the couch, and that my arms weren't needing to heal from anything. I doubt my doctor would've approved but oh well...

The next thing on the agenda was all of the wood work. We had all of the white wood exterior of our house (i.e. windows, trim, etc...) repainted this summer and it looks so much better. However, we forgot to have the painter include the porch. :( There is a lot of woodwork out here and I knew I couldn't handle it this particular week so Matthew's dad graciously volunteered to help us out. He and a friend came one morning  were finished shortly after lunch. Now that I think about it, they actually did this before I painted the floor; I didn't want them to have to be super careful about dripping paint.

So at this point, the 2 big projects out here had been taken care of... yay! Next on the list was the outdoor couch. I must've been feeling extra colorful the day I first painted this. Remember this is what it looked like when I inherited it from my mom:

Then I spray painted it teal:

Well I decided to jump on the ORB bandwagon and go for a nice neutral oil rubbed bronze. (note to self- I've kinda been on this bandwagon for a few years now). Anywho, after a few coats of spray paint and updating the throw pillows, here is how she's looking:

We also scored this outdoor rug on clearance at Target for $30 (marked down from $90) and I think it really defines the area better than the previous one. I also replaced the large coffee table with a smaller trunk so there would be more space and threw in some new accessories here and there. .

See how the fresh white paint pops off the black floor. Love.

 

Side note: it's been over a year since I made the seat and back cushions for the couch (see that project here and here) and I must say they are holding up quite nicely! :)

This space instantly became much more inviting and I love spending time out here. I'm trying to convince the Mr. that a small flat-screen tv would be perfect out here, don't you think? I'll let you know how that turns out, ha! :) I think these 2 really love the new space; can you say spoiled?

Well, that's all for today. Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!