Around this time last year, I shared my pregnancy announcement. I showed y’all my babymoon in Paris portrait session, but aside from that, it was radio silence over here about anything baby. But yes, we welcomed a beautiful baby boy in the summer.
As you know, we moved to our new house recently. What you may NOT know is that we moved in exactly three weeks before I gave birth.
My pregnancy was less than ideal, and at one point I was put on bed rest. So when we moved in, I wasn’t able (nor did I have enough energy) to get started on my projects! It was looking like the baby would come into the world without a space to call his own.
If you’ve been reading for a while, you may know that my little family is now living in house number three. The first was a little mid-century ranch in the the Westbury subdivision of Houston, Texas. It was a foreclosure and we did quite a bit of renovations prior to moving in. We lived there for a little over three years, decided we were moving to Connecticut, then I shared a before and after of our first home.
Next up, we owned a little Cape Cod style home. It was smaller than our previous home, but newly gutted with brand new just about everything–pipes, electric, windows, drywall. Brand new. It was small and on a small lot, but it had a really lovely view of a pond directly behind it, and I’d hop in my kayak in my backyard and row around a bit sometimes. We also had the pleasure of seeing a lot of wildlife in our backyard. It was lovely, but then came time to move, again. So, I shared a before and after of our second home and a subsequent post about maximalist decor in a small space.
Now that I’m back to blogging, I’ll introduce you to home number three.
It started with my first trip to Terrain, which is Anthropologie/Urban Outfitter’s new gardening cousin with built-in coffee shop and restaurant.
It’s pretty heavenly: well stocked with succulents, plants of all kinds, organic beauty products, gorgeous decor and furniture for your home. If you’re worried that the Anthropologie prices being a little out of your league, you can always grab a cup of coffee and bask in its beauty.
Anyway, while a friend and I were ogling at all of the items they have for sale, I stumbled upon a nesting ball (not available online, similar: Birds Choice Cotton Tail Nesting Ball) and gushed at how excited I would be to have some birds nesting in our yard.
Then I suddenly realized, “Wait, I have this stuff at home. This looks like dryer lint!”***
Though I originally considered reusing the plastic netting from a bag of oranges, like this:
But we have a body of water in our backyard and I couldn’t risk it falling in and doing damage to any of the wildlife. I took to Pinterest, and found out how to make netting with some yarn I already had in my craft collection. I knew it would be easy, but I didn’t realize how easy.
After making the netting, I tied the ends together to make it into a little sack. I filled it with mostly colorful things, in hopes that I’ll be able to spot the nest more easily from my office window.
Most birds are beginning to build their nests at this time of year, so I recommend putting your own out soon if you’re an aspiring #crazybirdlady like I’m turning out to be. If you don’t have a hoard of craft supplies, the Amazon version is all natural, great for all nesting birds, and it’s available on prime :).
***Don’t use dryer lint for nesting materials! Use things like cotton, reeds, pet hair, wool, fabric scraps, yarn scraps, etc. Dryer lint doesn’t have the structure that the bird needs for its nest, though it looks like wool or cotton, which does. If you don’t
These designers/bloggers and I have one thing in common: they design around the idea that your home and the things in it should make you happy. To them, there’s no need for fussy formalities; your home should be, look, and feel FUN. I never called it anything, but I’ve loved bright colors and silly accents for as long as I can remember.
Our new house came equipped with white bamboo blinds on every. single. window. I appreciated the cohesiveness, but it wasn’t my style. I hung curtain rods and drapes on all the windows but two, one of which being the kitchen.
I’ve been a shopping, cleaning, box opening, credit card swiping fool for the last couple of weeks, but I finally cleaned up and cleared boxes enough to share some progress pictures.
I have so many DIYs in store for this house, and my little head was going to burst if I didn’t go ahead and map some things out. The first room(s) I have cleaned up are the living/dining room combo and the kitchen. We have an open floor plan for these rooms, so they’re pretty much one space. (The way I figure, it’s only a different room if you can’t see its mess from where you are. hah!)
In my previous post about the new house in Connecticut, I showed you how the home we bought is a completely blank slate. We received the keys two weeks ago from this afternoon, so don’t expect any magic to have happened. In fact, it looks less like my Scandinavian + colorful intentions, and more like a crummy apartment in need of therapy. In due time!
and gushed at how excited I would be to have some birds nesting in our yard.
tiny kelsie 