a little bit of life lately:

**This post was originally written back at the end of October, but I am just now getting around to posting it... Such is life, am I right?**

It's been a while since I've done any sort of "what we did this week/weekend" update and I know that I will regret not capturing those moments here to reflect on later. This past weekend was simple, but filled with fun - my kind of time well spent!

On Friday, Peyton went to a fun trick or treat event at a state park with her Dad and his family (one of their yearly traditions) so my Dad and Nick worked on the mudroom for a bit, before we headed out to Home Depot to pick out our "faux wood" tile. I've been so excited to see this room come together because, considering what it looked like before, it is going to look SO much better now! There were decisions to be made about which tile would look better...

Originally, we had planned on the right - "Rustic Bay", I think it was called) but instead I liked the lighter "Dapple Grey". Ironically, our first picked just looked too "muddy"... for the mudroom ;)

After we loaded up the car with our tile purchase, we headed towards Walmart for some much needed baby formula and other essential food items. This little munchkin man was so good for us, and it is so much fun shopping now that he can sit in the cart like a big boy. 

Since it was so late, neither of us felt like cooking dinner. So, Little Ceasar's pizza and crazy bread (while snuggled in bed!) it was! Hashtag fatties but we love it.

Saturday started off with a bath for little man. He loves bath time and will splash around and play with his bath toys 'til his little heart is content. 

Nick and my Dad spent the morning working on the mudroom, so Peyton, Rhett and I got ourselves together and hit up the library for some new book selections for my little which, Peyton and then we made the drive to go pick up my Dad's birthday presents (his birthday was Sunday!).

Once we came home, we relaxed and were bums for the rest of the evening. 

The next day, Peyton and I took a trip to the hair salon down the street!

She got her bangs trimmed and Mama became a redhead! 

When we got back, Dada and Papa Ron worked super hard to finish up the mudroom floor.
The day before, they had laid the tile and then Sunday they filled in all of the gaps with a dark grey grout. It looks so good!

^^ The tile before the grout was applied. ^^

Me, Peyton, and Rhett spent the afternoon preparing for the evening of Papa Ron's post-birthday celebration by baking a cake. Which was, not without a few whisk and spatula licks - because icing is tastyyyy, duh!

^^ Peyton showing Aunt Nenna the card that she made for Papa Ron while they were facetiming. ^^

It was a wonderful weekend, indeed. And then that Monday we carved pumpkins and listened to Halloween music. There was also an in-living-room screening of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" that I was more than happy to be a part of. Life with this family of mine could not be better.

Life is good. So, so good.

xo,

Sara

mudroom inspiration

Since we have moved in to our home... actually, since the day that we walked through the house before we even made an offer, we knew that we would want to renovate the mud room.

It was a dark, very dingy room that was just kind of thrown together and neglected. I think it was actually a porch that was converted into two spaces, our laundry room and mudroom. The laundry room was actually finished out nicely, but the poor mudroom was just in shambles. Considering we almost always enter the house through the mudroom, it was driving us crazy to be greeted by old, nasty carpet, weirdly dark slate blue/grey walls that were peeling, and depending on the season - either freeeeezing or scorching hot temperatures (since it was so poorly insulated).

Thankfully, after two years of living in our house, we have finally come to a point where we are ready to renovate and make this space the beautiful room it deserves to be! So, I present to you, my design board for this soon-to-be-fresh space of ours:

Isn't it beautiful?!

Thanks to Pinterest (picture 1 and picture 2), I've had so much visual inspiration for what I wanted for this space. I craved an area that was fresh and light to walk in to -- as well as a functional and practical place that served as a holding tank for the mountain of shoes that we accumulate during the week as well as for our jackets, winter accessories, and other random things that come with being a family of four (+ a dog!).

I am a sucker for the bright and airy and ever since I watched my very first episode of Fixer Upper (Love me some Chip and Jo Jo!), I've been wanting to implement some shiplap into our home somewhere, anywhere, everywhere!

Here's the (rough) floorplan to give you an idea of what we're working with:

The floors: We laid the tile a few weeks ago and it is just so, so gorgeous that I can't even contain myself. We went with the Porcelain "Wood" Tile in a Dapple Gray color and it looks amazing! Originally I had wanted the herringbone pattern on the floors (similar to pictures in the design board), but we went with just the standard, staggered design and I am pleased as punch with the way it turned out. We are thinking that eventually we will want to lay a similar tile in the kitchen and foyer and I was worried that having the herringbone in the mudroom compared to the regular design in the rest of the rooms would just not look right.

The benches: Next up from the floor would be the bench(es). I wanted a place where the kids could sit down and either put on or take off their shoes. We came up with an L-shaped bench with half of it being closed off on the bottom and having an opening top for storage (think: hats, gloves, scarves, umbrellas, etc.) and the other half being open on the bottom to keep all of the shoes out of the way. So, I was thinking of making the bottom portion of the storage bench a white shiplap frame and then having the seats resemble the reclaimed wood pictured at the top.

The walls: I'm still not sure what I want to do about the walls. I would love to shiplap the whole room! Buuut, I think Nick would kill me after all of the hard work he has done on the dry wall in that room. So, we shall see what we come up with. For now, I'm definitely thinking to keep all of the walls a neutral white to keep the space feeling bright, since it is such a small room.

The doors: Months ago I painted our kitchen door that beautiful Robin's Egg blue color with spray paint from Home Depot. I absolutely fell in love with it and, to this day, I am still so happy when I walk into the kitchen and see it. I am not quite committed to painting the outside door any other color than white, so that'll probably stay a blank canvas until the room is mostly complete and I can gauge what color would suite it best.

The coat hooks: We have these hooks in our foyer and I think they are so classic looking. I am super excited about putting some at not only adult height, but kid height so that it's easier for Peyton, Rhett, and any future little ones to hang up their own jackets or backpacks.

The ceiling: First, and foremost, we've already purchased and hung this light fixture and I can't tell you just how beautiful it is! We tried it with an Edison bulb, but the light that it gave off was just too yellow. So, for now we just have a regular light bulb there. As far as the ceiling goes, if we don't end up decking the whole room out in shiplap (or even if we do!), I would LOVE to do a white bead-board ceiling.

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And there you have it. I can not wait to see this room reach completion! Hopefully finishing that will give us the gumption we need to get started on our kitchen. Or maybe to at least re-paint the rest of our 1st floor.. and by "we", I mean "Nick" --  Just don't tell him I said that ;)

xo,

Sara