Design Inspiration Monday

Happy New Years Eve friends! I hope you all have fabulous plans tonight, whether that consists of snuggling babies or going to bars;) We are going to celebrate with Bray at 6pm {before his 7pm bedtime} and head out to a fabulous party thrown by our best friends...can't wait! See you next year!

Countertops Like Carrara Marble

If you haven't payed attention, almost every stunning kitchen in those beautiful design photos has Carrara marble as its countertop. While I am totally smitten with that look, I am way more practical and realize my limits. I take care of things I love, but I also know that it's not only me that uses the kitchen. Especially once bray, and future kids come along, the kitchen will be used and abused more and more. Marble just simply has too much special care and upkeep for it to work for us.

With that being said, I have been on the hunt to find something that at least has the same feel to it. We do realize there is nothing that looks exactly like it, but surprisingly there are some good alternatives!

We started off by looking at the three options found here.

via

Here is a breakdown of our options:

Cambria in Torquay:
Cambria is a
"natural, quartz surfacing product that has a variety of uses in your home or business such as countertops, floor tile, vanities, fireplace surrounds, wet bars, showers, etc. Cambria is pure, natural quartz, one of the hardest and most common minerals on Earth. It has the natural look and feel of granite, but features superior performance because of its strength and durability. It is nonporous and will not absorb food and liquids like granite does. And best of all, it is maintenance-free." -via Cambria USA
We love the look of the Torquay. It is a true white base, and has beautiful 'veins' of grey and some cream. It is super smooth, but does feel a little off. It was super tricky to be able to see a full slab of this stuff since it is normally made to order, but I got lucky and someone hadn't picked theirs up yet! {Please keep in mind, I took these photos with my phone, so the lighting is totally off-sorry!}

Caesarstone Misty Carrera: 
We also liked this counter. The feel of it was exactly like Cambria {which it should be considering they are the same material} but the coloring isn't nearly as white. It also is a little less 'veiny' and a little more spotty than the Cambria.

via

Corian Rain Cloud:
Corian is the most affordable of all the options, but our least favorite. To us, it kind of feels like a really hard plastic. One thing thats nice about this is that you can get it at places like Home Depot and Costco, but that doesn't outweigh the cons for us. Although, there are a ton of people who love this counter, including Young House Love.

via

Now here are two granite options that don't necessarily look a whole lot like marble, but they are the best granite options that we saw.

River White granite:

The grey in this granite is perfect, but it is definitely busy. It also has some gold and deep red swirled in some spots, which is a pro and con. Con because I don't love the look of the colors, pro because we are still planning on having a brick wall, so the red would be tied in easily.

Bianco Montanha granite:
This granite is the lightest, least busy granite i've seen. It isn't by any means a white, definitely more an off white/light cream color. But the grey is nice, and as always, granite is beautifully durable and easy to work with.

So, there you have it..those are some of the options we are looking at. The Corian being the cheapest, and the granite and Cambria/Caeserstone all being relatively the same price. What would you go with??? Any of you have one of these and want to give me a sales pitch to get it as well- or a pitch to stay away from it?! I would love any and all input. Have a great weekend friends

Being Blessed By Strangers

Throughout the whole process of getting our new home, we have felt very blessed and guided. We had many reasons to believe that this was meant to be, and even more reason to be excited for what's to come from this home. Then this happened. When had owned the home for about two weeks, when one night we went to check on the progress and found a gift at the front door. I automatically assumed either my parents dropped something off as a surprise, or that maybe a neighbor was welcoming us, but I was wrong! It was a gift from the previous owners, and it was beautiful.

I already drank the cider, whoops!

When we first opened the bag, we saw a bottle of sparkling cider, an ornament, and the DVD,which we thought were sweet, and then we saw the box of salt. Huh? Salt as a gift? That's when we found the beautiful letter from them.

The fact that this home was not only a blessing to them personally, but also to the community, just made us so happy. We cannot wait to see just how much God is going to use this home to bless others {and us, which it already has!}

An update on whats going on with the house: Doors are being moved, taken out, and added. THE WALLS ARE ALMOST ALL SMOOTH. Yes, all caps were required on that! They all look so beautiful perfectly smooth. Including ceilings. Who knew ceilings that are perfectly smooth could make such a difference!? I'm sorry I don't have a lot of updated photos of the progress. Its hard when I can't take Bray there since the air is literally thick with drywall dust. Soon though, hopefully by next week it will be more settled.

I'll leave you with some photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. These two days were completely magical, and we feel SO blessed by how much our family loved on Bray.

PS- Tomorrow I am going to be asking for some advice on counters...so please check back to help a sista out;)

Merry Christmas!

Not sure if y'all know or not, but I should win mother of the year award. Yesterday Braylen and I ran errands for the house, and while out and about he had a complete poop explosion. Of course, me being a fabulous mom-I didn't have any extra clothes for him except a onesie in my car that my friend lent me. It was a "my 1st birthday" onesie...clearly appropriate considering Bray is 7 months! Well it gets better, I had also planned to get photos with Santa that day, and had zero time to go home. So what does this all equal...a Santa photo with bray in just his diaper and cute beanie:

Pretty great, right?! He was all smiles! I am going to be signing off of here till after Christmas, soaking in my sweet little family. Hope everyone has a beautiful Christmas.

French Door Dilemma

It seems that with most things we are picking out for the house, I find myself asking the classic question of "how much will this option suck to clean, compared to the other option?"

Our current dilemma is for the French doors we are putting in. We love the look of the 'older version' ones:

The problem with this one though is the cleaning. Not only do you have to clean each pane individually, but you also have each ledge collecting dust. Also, there are pretty big screws that show on the inside of the door. Bummer!

The other option is for the grid to be inside. The thing that kills me with this look is the fact that since all glass is energy efficient now, it tints the white grid to a now tan look. The contrast of white to tan kills me! Dramatic, yes I know! Also, it feels more modern to me, which isn't what we love.

We can always do doors with no grid, but I think we both prefer having a grid a little more. So what would you do? Would you go with the more classic look, even if its a pain? Or the grid inside the panes of glass, thats not exactly how we like for it to look, but would be so easy to keep clean? Or, do we go with the solid glass, no grid, option? That way theres not tan grid, and no pain in the butt to clean problems?

Decisions, decisions! Would love your input, please:)

DIY Christmas Snow Globe:Anthropologie Knock Off

When Anthropologie came out with their incredible snow globes I knew I would have to make them at some point. They looked adorable, and seemed insanely easy to replicate...but for a whole lot cheaper! 
via Anthro sells all different sizes, but I knew I wanted a set of three, but did not want to pay the $96 it would cost from there.  On a beautifully cold day I made myself a delicious cup of hot chocolate, pulled out the supplies, and crafted away with Js mom and sister, all while Braylen napped perfectly. All that is true except for the last bit;) Here is what we started with:

• Mason jars
• Fake snow {or something of that sort}
• Bottle brush trees
• Fun extras {we used little pinecones, Christmas lights, and letters}

We used three sizes of jars for some variation. The process was the easiest thing ever. For some of the trees the jar wasn't quite big enough, so I took off the bottom base:

Most worked well though, so all I had to do was glue the base to the bottom of the lid:

Some people chose to simply have loose snow floating around in the jar, but I wanted to make sure that my 'ground' was covered in snow at all times, so I glued it all around the bottom, and added just a little to the jar. You don't want to add too much, otherwise it won't float well, and it will cover anything you are trying to display in it. 

• Once the base of the tree is glued down, extras are added in, and snow is in, you simply screw your jar closed and flip it upside down. Easiest craft ever! Also, I added burlap and ribbon to the bottom of my jar, but that is totally not necessary if you don't want to.

I made three different scenes:

three little trees for my family of three

Especially if you already have the jars, this craft can be done for very cheap. The trees were on sale at Michaels this week too, so go snatch yourself up some! Hope you enjoy this Anthro knock-off.

Day Of Silence

On Tuesday, December 18th, there will be a blogger day of silence. 

 We are also raising money that will go to an organization in the memory of this tragedy. The organization is called The Newtown Family Youth and Family Services. Here is the official description of the support service we are donating to: 

"Newtown Youth and Family Services, Inc. is a licensed, non-profit, mental health clinic and youth services bureau dedicated to helping children and families achieve their highest potential. NYFS provides programs, services, activities, counseling, support groups and education throughout the Greater Newtown area.

ANY DONATIONS MADE TO NEWTOWN YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES WILL BE DONATED DIRECTLY TO THOSE EFFECTED BY THE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING."

Please visit THIS PAGE to make your donation.

 We can't imagine how they must be feeling, especially this close to the holidays. We would love for you to spread the word on your own blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Let's make a difference and use blogging in a positive way. Thank you in advance for participating.
 Love,
The Blog World 

p.s. If you would like to, copy-paste and repost any part of this, please do. Share on.

Design Inspiration Monday

This weekend J and I got to get away to beautiful Sedona with his work. We left Bray with my parents and had such an incredible time! Hope you all had a great weekend as well. Lets start this week off with some great eye candy: via


both above via

both above via
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both above via

7 Month Baby Update

I feel like I need to start this by saying that yes, I totally cheated. I added the wording on Picmonkey, but I have a valid excuse- I specifically packed chalk to bring to Js parents house so I could do his 7 month board, and then I couldn't find it anywhere. But I must admit, it was e.a.s.y! We both cannot believe that our sweet boy is on the other side of the pendulum to turning a year. Crazy! Here are some of the fun things we have done this month:

• Theres an awesome little park by my in-laws that is always deserted. Bray and I have loved going there. Clearly he just chills in the swing:)

What makes it even more fun is when my MIL is watching my nephew as well, cousin time is the best!

•  We spent a lot of time this month taking in our 'lasts' with the old house. Especially spending time on the front porch. We miss that place already.

• He drank from the sippy cup for the first time this month. Doesn't always understand it, but is getting better at drinking from it everyday.

• He celebrated his first Thanksgiving. He was so excited about it that he decided to completely skip his last nap;) He did love spending so much time with family though. 

• He also got to spend some quality time with my sisters sweet boy, another awesome cousin. This photo shoot was freaking hilarious. At first they were being all sweet smiling and holding each others hands {on their own will, best thing ever!!} but then Bray started to think his cuz was a toy, and kept crawling on top of him and yelling. We were all dying!

•  This month he officially got TWO teeth in. Their were a pain in the butt coming in, but now that they are here..they are so adorable. The few bitings that have happened since though, not so adorable!

This was before they REALLY came in!

• As usual, he loves his time with his daddy. The bond they have is too much for me to handle. 

• Speaking of bonds- this boy is so lucky to have such incredible grandparents. He loves spending time with his Nonni and GMA. And we feel so fortunate to have them close.

 

• One unfortunate thing of this month is Braylen getting his first head cold. And it sucks, meaning he has had it since Saturday and its still going. We went to the doctor just to make sure there was nothing else going on, and fortunately there isn't. Unfortunately, I am already doing everything I can to help, and it hasn't helped too much yet:( He of course was as happy as can be at the doctors, and attempted to eat the paper 1,000 times.

• The best thing of this month, enjoying the holidays with him. He is completely mesmerized by the tree and lights. Celebrating every holiday with him is way more fun than without him. Its like seeing it all through a new pair of eyes.

 His favorite things this month are: bath time {always}, getting up on his knees attempting to crawl, eaing all sorts of foods { to date: apples, pears, bananas, prunes, sweet potatoes, peas, butternut squash, avocado}, and getting bounced or thrown around. We can't wait to celebrate Christmas with him, and are super exctied for him to be able use his gifts. I am totally weak and have wanted to give him his presents for weeks already, but thankfully have restrained myself;)