October 2, 2014

We have had a problem with the Main focal wall in the living room. The T.V. is centered in between the corner fireplace and an open area that I had hoped to and possibly still may, add built in bookcases.

 

To balance the weight of the corner fireplace, the T.V. and (future Console) I knew the scale had to be large. I have been looking for the right art for a while now but knew that means a larger price tag as well. One day I saw this art on West Elm. 

 

 

I couldn't afford the cost but was very inspired to create one similar! We live in the desert and as much as we love the ocean we are much more lake people. I wanted my art to resemble the water from Lake Powell and our local desert reservoirs.

 

I love it when my husband agrees to my crazy ideas and lets me haul him to Home Depot. We searched for the perfect board and bought this 4x8 piece of Birch plywood. We had them cut it down to 3'10" x 6'. We trimmed the side the 2 inches because there was a little bit of damage on the wood.

 

We then hauled it home and started sanding it down a bit on the surface and really smoothed the sides. Don't judge the garage décor. That's the Mr's. zone. It's the only room he gets free reign on!

 

 

I was too busy to take pics of the painting process but I just layered water down acrylic paint and mixed a lot of my own colors. (Go Utes!)

 

So while I painted, Dustin planted two weeping willow trees in the two corners of our back yard. We chose the willow's as an ode to my Grandparents whom just recently sold the bed and breakfast they created in Cedar City, Utah. It was named Willow Glen after the many weeping willows they planted there. It is a huge part of my life and it makes me sad to know it's sold but I am relieved my grandparents will not have to work as hard as they have. I feel I inherited my passion for design and creating beautiful spaces from my Grandparents. So now we will always have a part of them at our home and I hope my children and grandchildren will know the story behind these willows.

 

 

 

Here it is hanging up. Because it is so heave we decided to find two studs and screwed it directly into them. I didn't take a picture with the fireplace yet, but it's next to the T.V. on the right.

 

 

 

 

It catches my eyes every time I see it and I feel like it really "flows" well with the mood and style of our home. Best part it only cost $45 to make! 

 

In different light, this wall really pics up a lot of green from the window to the back yard and all of my big indoor plants.

 

The plant on the left is one that I've had since before my oldest daughter was born. I've had it for 12 years and it has survived so many houses and moves. When I got it, it was in a little basket and about 10 inches tall, now it's almost as tall as me and looks like it needs a much bigger pot! Humm...

 

 

  Thanks for stopping by!

Free Falling

I'm kinda obsessed with all things fall. I'm so obsessed that the fact that it has been 99 degrees in this southwest desert has me upset because I am ready to dress for fall in my boots, jeans and cardigans. I'm on my third bag of candy corn, have eaten half a dozen pumpkin cookies in 2 days and have been using my Vanilla suede Scentsy. I am craving comfort food and have been pinning soup recipes. I have to resist the urge to "drive down the hill" to Hurricane to get mocha's. I am thrilled that football season is here but sad that I can't wear my new Denver Broncos hoodie yet.

 

So I decided yesterday that I would help my mood by putting up some fall décor. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I go all out. My décor has a base that can transition from fall to Halloween and then through Thanksgiving.

 

I started out my planning technically last Sunday when I drug the three kids, the dog and my husband down to the river to "help me" (Him do all the hard work) cut down some branches. We had fun though and all came home with horrible allergies but made it back in time to watch kickoff for the Broncos game! (We won too!)

 

First thing I did was get this old plastic pumpkin and give it a facelift. The light cord is long gone and it's cracked but I wiped it down and repainted it. I wanted to make it work for fall/Halloween/thanksgiving so I painted the back with fresh white. I wanted it to look handpainted and imperfect. Then I sprayed it with a clear finish. 

 

Front Before

 

You'll have to wait until Halloween to see the after of this side...

 

Back Before

 and after

I'm still working on the vignette that this will live on so I don't have it displayed yet.

 

We are also big Utah Utes fans. I made this wreath x3 last year. One for my Utes crazed in-laws and the other for our good friends.

 

 

So this is the porch before. It was clean and simple after our move in I had no motivation to do much!

 

This is what I did to the branches we got. I stuck them in these big pots that still had soil from last year at our old house. Then I hot glued the fake leaves and attached the glitter pumpkins and leaves from cheap garlands I bought at Target last year for a buck! I also wired on the black birds and owls figuring they can be fall-ish not just Halloweeny. I plopped my plastic jack-o-lanterns in backwards and put some of these cheap dollar store flower sprays in the dirt. I also secured them to the columns with fishing line because it get really windy here in the fall.

 

 

To these planters I just added some fake pumpkins and some scarecrows to the plants that are still hanging on for dear life. I have plans to change it all up for Halloween soon! 

 

 

I still have some fine tuning to do.. I don't love how the garland around the door looks so I'll fix that this weekend. I love it so far though!

 

 I promise there is not enough treats dog nor kid, in the world that could get those two to sit and pose like that, they did this all by themselves!! It is pretty darn cute though!

 

 

From Piper, Parker, & I Thank you for stopping by!

Where we live

Welcome inside! I am thrilled at how everything has come together. Again, these pics are from my camera phone so they aren't the greatest and the lighting was terrible but at least you can get the idea.

 

This is the entry way. Not too big, not too small, but perfectly welcoming. I need a bigger rug that's for sure. I adore the light fixture. I found it here on www.wayfair.com It says they are out of stock but will have more in October.

 

You can really tell how the gray looks in the photo below.

 

 

I have had the table set for 10 years and repainted it twice now. I painted it before I picked the paint color for the house but it works! I purchased the clock from Noble House Design when I worked there but it is easy to find. They sell them at Ogden's flooring and Design in St. George. It makes a big impact and is affordable!

 

Our beautiful stair rail was created by the super talented Mason Lofthouse of Lofthouse Designs

 

 

 

The living room set. I love it. Dustin decided to buy a Polaris RZR which guaranteed that I would get a living room set with no questions asked. Ha ha. I was searching for month's, literally from the time we sold the old house till this post to find the rug that would tie everything in my head together. I ordered it as soon as I saw it even though it was online. I went to Ashley furniture and found this set that was perfect. It has clean lines but it's comfortable and the colors are perfect. The tables actually match my cabinets too!

(The rug still needs to relax a bit.)



 

My beautiful kitchen! It is just amazing! I love everything about it and it is my favorite part of the house! The cabinets were done by Aubrey and Kody Lister of Oakshire Cabinetry in St. George. They went above and beyond my expectations and were awesome to work with.

 

The granite was a tough decision. I was super picky about it. I didn't want the typical venetian gold. It had to fit in the budget as well. I was beginning to think I would have to settle for one I didn't love and that would suck. Until we discovered the New Caledonia Granite. It is beautiful. It's mostly gray with a bit of black and warm brown. It also has an almost opal fleck in it which picks up pretty light and I think makes it a bit feminine. Chad Stephens of CS Tops was extremely affordable and great to work with as well!

 

 

We found the barstools at Target.com and the mini pendants at lightingdirect.com

This faucet is the masterpiece of the kitchen! Dev Fry at Winnelson of St. George is a rock star! This piece is a work of art, and again compliments all of our squareness in the home. The water even flows out square! If you need new fixtures go see Dev! He had great recommendation's and ideas that we didn't think of. Wait until you see the master shower!

(I don't always do shots of patron when I do dishes but I love the bottle and use it for my dish soap.)

 

 

 

Our dinning room. The pendants are from Home Depot. We had one at our old house and I loved the idea of doing two here. The cute little centerpiece box was made by my friend Ashley and I. We like to get crafty when the kids are at school and we made these out of old fence posts from Dustin's Grandparents so it's sentimental and functional.

 

 The original plans didn't include the window to the left. We added it and are sure glad we did..

 

Because we have the view of Zion national Park's East side which is known as the Steamboat.

 

 

We will end this post of the living areas with my treasured pantry! Our old house didn't have one. We had a laundry room/recycling bin/storage/pantry/entryway. This is soooo much nicer!

 

 

I will be posting the bedrooms soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Recovery

Deeeeeep Sigghhhhhhh. Wow. I have not only taken a break from this blog but from this house. We moved in on June 13th, followed by the birth of my niece, and then Parker's birthday party, and trying to unpack and landscape. Then Dustin had to go to work out of town again. The girls were out of school for summer which meant crazy schedules with them going in different directions and play dates. I have slowly put the house together. I lost all motivation to do much of anything but be a full time Momma again. We needed the break that's for sure.

 

We are settling in nicely though and it has felt like home from the first night. We feel beyond blessed and forever grateful for everyone that worked so hard on our dream home.

 

I haven't even taken pictures of our home until yesterday and it was with my cell phone not my good camera. I skipped a lot of the progress because we were too busy to breathe let alone stop long enough to take pictures!

 

We will start with the view from the front..

 

The landscaping is doing well. We have lots of plans to add to it but at least we have grass that is green and some shrubs and sage to start.

I absolutely love our garage doors. They compliment the squared look we have going throughout and match the windows. There has been a ton of work going from a 2 car garage with a 2 car shop to a 3 car garage. We have taken multiple trips to the dump, had a slightly successful yard sale and have built tons of shelving to hold all of our crap and Dustin's toys and tools.

 

The compass and house number sign we found on Etsy.com here.. alkemymetal

The pots and chairs were my mother's day gifts. Dustin and I have spent many hours pondering our landscaping dreams with a cold beer in hand here.

 

Thank you for stopping by!

Overwhelmed!

Wow! This post isn't going to have any house photos. I have not had the time to do much of anything that is leisurely. I miss my photography so much. Just being behind the camera and capturing beauty. There is so much beauty to capture at the house right now too!

We are soooo close! Too close! I can't sleep over how close. Like less than 2 weeks close. I have a toilet that flushes close.

I have been packing the old house, mostly in my head thinking what will go where, but have made progress. We have entirely too much junk to get rid of!

But, we have so much fun new stuff too. I've made friends with the UPS guy. He brought me the rug I searched months and months for today!

I bought the rug from Target online

It has the sea salty blue I love, the green I'm ever so drawn to, gray, and brown. It's perfect. Not too trendy, and almost has a tiny hint of southwest to it, we do live in the desert after all. I can't wait to see it down. I am quite weird when it comes to new things. I like to keep them new as long as possible. I haven't opened the boxes that have the bar stools I ordered, or the kids bedding, or even the pots and pans my mother in law got me for Christmas. Does anyone else do this?

We have light fixtures, fireplace tile, the master shower tiled, the plumbing fixtures were delivered, and the exterior shake is waiting to get it's final paint touch ups. We got the granite countertops installed yesterday and today. Gosh. It's all just perfect. It's perfectly us.

From Grey to Dried Thyme

This post is full of photos! Ready to scroll?

 

When we started designing our home we knew we wanted siding mixed with Stucco, hardy board cedar shakes and a little color variation on the exterior to add depth. We decided to finish the two sides and rear of the house in Stucco. It is the best option for homes in Southern Utah. We broke up the front a bit that is why it is unfinished. I can't wait to see the finished look.

 



Parker works so hard to build this house too. Seriously. The kid has to do everything just like his Dad and Papa. He has helped with every step and knows his way around the site and how to work the tools.

Ooohhh.. See the exterior color sneak peek?

The view of the dining, pantry, and kitchen.

Kitchen, hall, and Powder bath

Powder bath, stairs, entryway

The coffered ceiling adds so much to the home!

Where the clawfoot tub and I will live.

bonus room, guest room and bath, photo studio

 

 

 

The laundry, and kids room hallway

 Parker's room

West side of the home

The septic tank.. Gross I know but it was cool to see it delivered!

That's my plumber.

The front porch is going to be nice!

Here are the walls with Texture. We went with a very smooth finish on the walls and ceiling.

I can't wait to see paint!

Miss Jaisy MiChelle

 

That moving figure that doesn't stop moving is Moose (Amaia)

I cried when I stood back and saw how beautiful it is and how perfectly it is coming together. Dustin worried about the color. He said, "It is different than all of the other houses that's for sure." I told him that it's perfectly us. This is our dream home and it is going to reflect our family's culture. We already have created some special memories here and we can't wait to relax on the back patio with  cold beer, good food, and our amazing family and friends!