It took us *forever* to decide on a theme for Luke's birthday. And, with sports schedules, life schedules and general craziness, we weren't able to formally celebrate the big day until well after his official 8th birthday. Life, am I right?! After watching him solve puzzles like a pro, it was at my mom's suggestion we give a puzzle birthday party a go. I will say, Pinterest was ZERO help in planning a puzzle party. It seems as if nobody ...

Hooray! It's almost Thanksgiving. I'm always grateful that holiday falls before Advent and Christmas. It is a tangible reminder to be grateful for a Maker who has given me this beautiful life, with all its joys and sufferings, all its love and sorrow. I pray you have a peace-filled week. As we look toward the season of giving, we're making the interior choice to give with purpose. It's easy to get into the rat race of flash sales! coupons! door ...

Now, to the good stuff. The hardest part, for me, was choosing a tile and color scheme. You walk into the store *thinking* you know. Then you quickly realize it's like Sonic and choosing a soft drink combination. There really are 300,000 different combinations. There are two really fun parts of this whole design and every time we look at our bathroom, we'll remember them with fond memories. Several months ago, Scott and I decided to take the Texas Monthly ...

Oh shiny brass how I hate thee, let me count the ways. You have to understand. When we moved into our house nine years ago, it was completely white (floors, carpet, walls, counters, tile, cabinets) and brass was everywhere. We call it Operation Remove the Brass. I see the end in sight. Functionally, this bathroom has done everything we needed it to do. The layout is pretty good and while we toyed with moving things around, the extra plumbing costs ...

Sometimes, you just make do. For 21 years, Scott and I have been the inhabitants of three beautiful houses and two tiny, but cute, apartments. Our first house, we built. We did that once. Since then, we've enjoyed buying homes and slowly DIYing our way through them. It's just what we do. We knew the cabinets, the paint and the flooring could all be changed, but we could never buy neighbors like this or plant 50yo oak trees that we ...