I'm over at Ungrind today sharing about how God has uniquely gifted us and what that has to do with cartwheels and leap frogs. Don't you love it when God reveals things that are good for your heart through your children?
Link to Ungrid.com HERE
Scott traveled all this week which normally means I skirt away from cooking, however, this time around I decided it best to make some meals for me and the girls. Between my diet (grain free) and the girls diet (gluten free and dairy free), its just easier to make our meals at home sometimes. Monday - Easy dinner--Trader Joe's GF nuggets and roasted broccoli. Everything cooks at 425 degrees. Everyone is happy. I ate a leftover burger patty on a bed of lettuce.
Tuesday - I made GF spaghetti noodles with Gigi's Spaghetti Sauce. This is Scott's grandmother's recipe and the girls LOVE it. Since Scott can't have red sauce, we decided it was a good time to make it. I served up some Zucchini Noodles for my dish.
Wednesday - Taco Salad. I decided to push past my desire to have the kitchen to myself during the witching hours and invited Sinclair to cook with me. She browned the meat, added the black beans and seasoning. She beamed from ear to ear. Sometimes we need to let go of our reigns. The girls ate corn chips with it and I ate taco salad. Winning. I used the Gracious Pantry's seasoning recipe.
Thursday - Since Scott was away, Chick-fil-a was in order after gymnastics. I ate leftover taco salad when we got home.
Friday - I love life in our small community. I had to work at a conference all day Friday so my sweet friend picked up the girls from school for me. Once I got there, we enjoyed an impromptu dinner--sweet chili and corn chips. My heart (and stomach) was so full and it made the last few hours until Scott arrived home much more bearable.
Saturday - Atlanta finally cooled down enough to feel like fall so we had chili at some friends' house along with hotdogs, cornbread, salad and raw veggies.
Sunday - We took the girls to their first Braves game and they had a blast! It was seriously the most perfect day to be at the ballpark. We were home for dinner so in keeping with the ballpark theme, we ate hotdogs with chips & guacamole.
This is what life is all about--doing life with others.
I am in full preparation mode here since our trip to Northern California is around the corner. I clearly am a visual learner because before I started packing for this trip, I laid out different outfits via Pinterest. You guys, doing this step makes me giddy. I love dreaming about what to wear. From my time living in Southern California, I know that there is a casual presence and cooler temperature especially at the beach and at night. Our plan is to fly into San Fransisco and from there travel to Monterey for the first night, Big Suf for the second night and then drive up to Sonoma for our last night. I can't wait to share with you our adventure. For now, here are the pictures from my Style board that are inspiration for my outfits.
My goal is to only use a carry on. I love a challenge! I hope to take black jeans, white jeans, one pair of shorts, denim jacket, green vest, navy dress, 3/4 sleeve lightweight sweater, lightweight casual top, chambray shirt, gingham shirt, sneakers, sandals, and booties. All of these items will mix and match well. Its all about layering.
Here is an idea of what will be in my bag.
I will likely throw a swimsuit in my bag, too, just in case. I can hardly wait to see the beauty of the west coast. Its been many, many years since I've been to that part of California. What would you recommend to pack?
I write this post sipping on a blonde misto from Starbucks... honestly I wanted to jump on the Pumpkin Spice Latte wagon, but for the love its 90 degrees outside. I wannnnnnt it to feel like fall so badly that I wear sweaters around my AC chilled house and then sweat the moment I walk out the door. I am committed to waiting for a fall drink until it actually feels like fall (which may come sooner than later for me since we travel to northern California next weekend!) FASHION
Speaking of fall, how many of you are dreaming of boots, scarves and layers?! I get so excited about fall clothes because I feel like I know how to own fall outfits. Summer-wear is basically like survival instincts. Its tough to be stylish when you have to suffer through 90 degree weather with a heat index of 200 every. blessed. day. But there are two staples that I want to add to my fall wardrobe. First is the denim jacket. You guys, I could kick myself. I bought a denim jacket back in 2001 from The Gap and I just gave it to Goodwill the year we moved to Atlanta. I really push myself to not hold on to anything and denim jackets haven't been in style in a really long time so I finally let it go. And although the jacket was too big for me now, I still hate that I have to buy a new one now. I've seen a few options around: here and here and here
The other fall staple I want are white Converse shoes. I have worn black Converse shoes since 2001 as well and simply love the classic style however I'm ready to update the look. Last year, I purchased my well-worn leopard sneakers but need to add another shoe into the mix.
READS
I mentioned recently that I read For The Love by Jen Hatmaker. There is an excerpt from that book on the Washington Post for church leaders. If you are a church leader or know someone who is, there is a great read.
I made a goal to read more books this year--and not just books that make me better but to read more fiction books. I tend to view reading as something I do to grow or learn or improve myself rather than viewing reading as entertainment. I do believe there is a balance of both views, but I've pushed myself to read more fiction this year. When I find an author I like, I tend to stick with them for awhile. My current favorite author is Liane Moriarty. My favorite is What Alice Forgot and then I read Big Little Lies. For our trip next week, I'm thinking about reading The Husband's Secret. Doesn't it sound dreamy to wrap up in a comfy chair with a warm drink and get lost in a story? What fiction would you recommend?
VIDEOS
My latest Spotify list involves cover songs. I don't know what it is about cover songs but I absolutely love them. I sometimes enjoy them more than the original versions. You must check out this mash up cover of We Can't Stop/Price Tag by two sisters, Megan & Jaclyn Davies on YouTube.
Jimmy Fallen is no stranger to my Friday Finds. I think he is the best thing that has happened to late night show and pop culture in general in decades. I love his lip sync battles and this one with Ellen will not disappoint. The last two songs are hysterical! He also has Justin Timberlake on this episode and they perform History of Rap 6. Enjoy!
I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend and maybe (just maybe) the weather will slightly cool and we can enjoy the long anticipated fall.
I don't know about you, but I love inspiring kitchens. One of the toughest parts of renting, is not being able to change things in the kitchen. We have a decent kitchen in our rental, but it would still be fun to make some changes. So I thought it would be great to debrief about our Ocoee Home kitchen. We had so much fun creating this space--over 5 years ago. (Where has time gone!?) I first want to talk about the planning period. When we began planning for our renovation and actually renovating, Pinterest did not exist. Can you imagine a world without Pinterest? My life was less inspired. However, even without Pinterest, Scott and I took to the internet in search of most things. The times we ventured out to a showroom or store, we were left unimpressed or uninspired. We loved that the world was quite literally at our fingertips. So since there was no Pinterest, I would bookmark every. single. thing. I. liked. You can only imagine how many bookmarks I had and how difficult it was to look through them all. We also spent a lot of time flipping though magazines at my mom's house or Barnes & Noble. The girl in me who loves school supplies and organization (hence the DIY planner) created a notebook organized by room with magazines pages and samples.
That notebook brought me so much joy! In fact, I had an entire file box filled with fabric, rug and tile samples much like a hoarder. The dreaming part was fun but it can also be overwhelming because you literally have so much to choose from. It may be tough to narrow down what you really want and you totally get the pressure of picking out the right thing because there are hefty dollar signs attached to get item. Nobody wants to waste money or want to change it within a few years. So take some time to plan and figure out what you really want.
Maybe you feel lost even figuring out what you want. I took time to figure out our style by looking through lots and lots and lots of pictures. As I looked through inspiration photos, I noticed that the same things kept popping up--white, marble, accents of black, chrome, open shelves. We were also very drawn to using two shades of paint--one for the majority of cabinets and a different one for the island. Through this process of researching, we were able to figure out our style--classic modern is what we called it. We were designing a house that was originally built over 100 years ago and was technically considered in the country even though it resides about a mile from the city square. We wanted to restore the classic feel yet add modern touches. Figuring that out helped us tremendously. To figure out your style, ask yourself as you research:
Here's some examples of how we implemented classic modern: Our cabinet choice nods to classic shaker style yet the black sleek hardware is modern. We chose classic white subway tile with white grout to capture both a style that is classic yet clean and modern. I realized that I didn't like rounded edges. Most of the pictures I liked had straight or hard edges. That signifies a more modern style than traditional. Get the idea? All houses are different yet this house deserved a little bit of modern mixed with its classic beauty.
I want to share with you the few main inspiration pictures behind our Kitchen renovation. The first comes from the Southern Living Idea Home from Senoia, GA in 2010. At that point, we knew we wanted a mostly white kitchen but we still hadn't landed on where to buy from. We had quotes from Home Depot and a local cabinet maker--both so much money. When we saw this picture, we realized that we could do an Ikea kitchen. There are a few things from this one picture that narrowed our ideas: Ikea cabinetry, custom hood woodwork, custom woodwork on the back of the island, wood floor stain color, and to push our kitchen table right up next to the island. That is a lot from one picture!
Another kitchen that largest influenced us was designed by Urban Grace Interiors. This kitchen is completely swoon-worthy. Behold this glory...
This kitchen mostly inspired us to do a few things, the first being open shelving. We mimicked the bracket design from this kitchen. I just LOVED the chalkboard idea so I, Miss Not-so-crafty, created one out of scrap wood from Home Depot and a little chalkboard paint. At first, I wrote HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT because that was the daily reminder that I needed (Amen from all the mothers of little humans). Then after a while, I realized how fitting GIVE THANKS BE JOYFUL was for me and changed it. We obviously loved the white cabients but we also drew inspiration for our hardware from here. Originally, we were going to do chrome or silver hardware to go with white marble countertops but when our countertop choice changed (due to the amazing deal we scored from Ikea) we changed our minds. In fact, we were already living in the house before we ever ordered the hardware. When I saw the specks of black in the New Venetian Gold Granite, I decided we should accent that in our hardware.
Here is another picture that inspired how I decorated our open shelves. The open shelves really were one of my all-time favorite parts of the entire house. It was a place that could truly capture my personality. We used everything that was on our shelves. I wanted it to be functional yet beautiful.
The last kitchen picture that was a big inspiration for what we did was the home of Julie Holloway from Milk & Honey Home. She also had beautiful open shelves. The hardware in here is what we originally were going for until our countertops changed. We chose the same oval lanterns, sink faucet and apron front fireclay sink.So now you know how our kitchen evolved. You can see all the elements from the pictures before displayed in our kitchen. Spend some time figuring out what you want--you don't want to change it within a few years. We originally wanted a different color island but decided that it would be easier to start with a white cabinet and then paint it down the road if we needed a change. Don't rush the process and be flexible (like we were about the hardware).
If you are in the middle of researching a kitchen renovation, I hope our steps help you. I have a whole board of kitchen inspiration for you to jump start your research. At the end of the day, you want to create a space that you enjoy and feel at peace.
