Helpful House Guests

This weekend for Easter, my parents were in town to visit so we put them to work! I knew my mom would want a job to do so I gave her the job of arranging the shelves around the built-in hutch in the dining room. While I knew I had the right items to put in the shelves, I was drawing a blank on how I wanted everything arranged. Luckily, that is one of my mom's gifts!

She happily took on the job and even found inspiration on Pinterest to get a vision for the shelves. To our surprise, she even came up with an idea that required Rodney to purchase a few more bottles of wine. Here is the dining room wall now, with the entertainment hutch filled with glasses and the shelves perfectly arranged thanks to my mom.


On the left side of the hutch, my mom arranged our collection of white vases and pots, various seashells, and framed pictures of us at the beach. 


Here are a few close-ups of the shelves from top to bottom:






On the right side of the hutch, she helped us think of ways to store our ever-growing collection of wine. 


Not only did she purchase the wooden box for us (pictured below on left) from a local wine store but also came up with the idea (right) to put diagonal boards across the shelves to store the wine. This project required Rodney to purchase more wine in order to fill the shelves, which he did happily! 


My dad was also very hard at work the entire weekend! He and my mom were very helpful as they did a beautiful paint finish on our dining room chairs. For now, here's a sneak peak at my dad hard at work on the chairs... more on that to come later in the week! 


Thanks Mom & Dad for all of your help this weekend!

Be Our Guest

This weekend, our girls and my parents will be staying in our house for the first time since we moved in! I spent the week making sure their rooms were ready for their arrival. Below is one of our two guest rooms, the one Emily and Molly will most often stay in when they come to visit. 


Although they won't have their room when they stay here, we gave them each their own space, including their own mirror to use when getting ready. I purchased the mirrors at a Salvation Army in Austin over Thanksgiving and had our painters paint them both white. 


The twin beds have grey and white John Robsaw shams (from my favorite store in NYC - ABC Carpet), as well as other pillows and shams from Home Goods and Target. 


The bird quilt on the bed is actually a throw I found at Anthropologie just before the move. I was excited because the other side is grey which I thought made them perfect to use with the John Robsaw shams. The dust ruffle is a recent purchase from Target. 


The throws at the ends of the bed are also from Target and are several years old.  


In keeping with the bird theme found in the bedspreads, I decided to put one of our bird cages in the room. I am currently looking for one of our antique bird prints in the black hole storage unit to add as well. 


The room also has a fireplace that doesn't actually work but still is a pretty addition to the room.


Finally, bedside tulips complete the room for our Easter weekend guests! 


The girls and my parents will be arriving over the next few days, and we are excited to spend the weekend with them. In the future, we look forward to having many more guests here in our new home!

Subtle

Can anyone spot the subtle change we made in our bedroom yesterday?


If you guessed "white baseboards," you are correct! Yesterday, our painters returned and painted our trim, baseboards, and a few doors white. We used Benjamin Moore's Snowfall White. I personally like the contrast of the antique white walls and stark white trim. 


Previously, the trim and baseboards were the same red color found in the kitchen cabinets (before we painted them). 

The painting continued in our bathroom (one of the doors that was painted white) and the trim around the windows throughout the house. The doors that are stained dark will stay the same.


Also, as I mentioned over the weekend, we were wanting a dresser for our master bedroom, and we found one yesterday! We visited The Bear Market, a nearby antique store, and as I was searching, I was greeted by one of our old neighbors of 12.5 years, who I didn't realize owned the store. It was such a treat. 


While there, we found a dresser that I really love, especially the detailing and crackle. It is also a good size for the space, as the large room tends to swallow furniture. 


I didn't buy it while I was there, but sent the owner a text today claiming it and will pick it up later today. I am going to discuss paint finishes with my parents this weekend. 

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday, I spent the majority of the day cleaning things out and getting organized. I cleared out the guest room closet, moved things in the great walk-in attic closet, and organized the space below the buffet in the dining room. 

 During this time, I found the box of blue and white plates that I had planned on hanging in the guest bathroom but had not been able to find. Although I feel like I took away the "settled" feeling during my cleaning and tore things up a bit, I know that in the end, it will help us feel more settled by feeling more organized. 

Here is the plate collection now hanging in the guest bathroom: 


The blue towel shown above is my second purchase from my trip John Derian to NYC (where I bought the polka dot sham for my bed). 


I am glad to have the house a bit more organized in anticipation of our girls and my parents staying here for Easter this weekend and am looking forward to enjoying that time together. 

Frye Favorites: Square Burger

One of our favorite neighborhood restaurants is Square Burger. We loved it before we moved in, and now it's just a short distance from our house! Square Burger has a great selection of different types of burgers, from the classic burger to salmon and lamb burgers. We recommended sitting at the bar if there are just two of you eating. The seating is comfortable, and the service is much more personable.


 I like both the turkey burger (although I get the High Society burger subbed with turkey and whole wheat) and the Spicy Tuna burger, and Rodney likes the more traditional hamburgers. Last night, I ordered the Spicy Tuna burger (left), and Rodney ordered the Stadium burger (right).

Spicy Tuna Burger: fresh tuna with pickled ginger, Japanese cucumber, shiso, sesame, and soy, topped with Japanese cucumber salad and daikon sprouts, with spicy chili aioli

Stadium Burger: grilled onions, dill pickle relish, spicy brown mustard aioli, and Gruyere 


You always get a fried pickle with your burger, which you can see next to Rodney's Stadium burger. 

 We love both the sweet potato fries and the spicy string onion rings.  Last night, we ordered the spicy onion strings (pictured below). They also have an amazing beer selection (for Rodney), nice selection of wines (for me), and a great selection of desserts.


We really enjoy Square Burger and think you will too! Go try it out! 
Check out their pages below for more info, pictures, and their menu!


Enjoy

As I mentioned Saturday, we are starting to feel settled in the new house. We finally got the chance to enjoy a nice weekend at home after having been on vacation over Spring Break. A nice weekend at home included a wonderful warm home-cooked meal on a cold day and relaxing in our living room.



We also made a few strides this weekend in decorating the master bedroom. I got the chance to hang my white platter collection, which was in our previous home's guest bathroom, (below on left) over the new covered headboard. We purchased our headboard from Pier One Imports a few weeks before our move. One of the shams on our bed (below on right) is a pillow I purchased on my recent trip to NYC at John Derian Dry Goods on 2nd Avenue. It was one of the treasures I found after a very cold walk to the store in January as I anticipated our move to the new house.


The other shams on the bed are from Pine Cone Hill (left), and Pom Pom at Home (right). 


Here is our master bedroom at the moment with the updates we made over the weekend:


The antique oil painting that hung above our bed in the old house is now on the wall across from our bed. The space below it would be a great place to put a bench. Also, Rodney recently hung a pendant shade in the bay window (where our slip-covered chairs will go when finished). 

Below are the entry way to our bedroom (left) and view when you walk inside (right). 


A few changes that still need to be made include: painting the trim and baseboards white, adding our two slip-covered chairs, and finding a dresser to go beside the bed.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend! 

Feeling Settled

For the past three weeks, the dining room was the "piling room." The room was filled with odds and ends from around the house, so spending Friday getting everything in order helps us feel like we are finally settled.

On Friday, as we worked in the dining room, I hung a collection of fern pictures. The collection was purchased when my Aunt Dee was collecting, pressing, and framing ferns in old frames. I started collecting them when we moved into our last house.


Here is a shot of our dining room, finally no longer the "piling room":


We also hung a few fern pictures in the back corner of the kitchen (left) and some family beach pictures in the back entry by the dining room (right).

After working on the dining room this weekend, we are feeling much more settled! We are looking forward to having our girls and my parents here next weekend for Easter so we can all enjoy the new house together!