{Love Handles}

Hey everyone, I hope you have had a fantastic week and are ready for the weekend! I know I am! This weekend, I am focusing on the kitchen again. We bought the tile for the backsplash, but still haven't had time to get that done, so the kitchen has been a little neglected lately. This weekend, I am going to paint over the base cabinets to touch them up and seal them, and then I should be expecting a package by Wednesday to give the cabinets a more polished look.

love handles!

Aren't they pretty?! Maybe not your style, but I love them! They're oil rubbed bronze, which will go with our sink faucet, and they've got the perfect vintage rustic vibe to them. Aaaaand....they were only $0.82 a piece. Seriously?!! Yes, please. I'll take 21 of them. So for $17, I am a happy camper. I can't wait to install them. Opening drawers without handles is no fun. I will post pictures as soon as I get them installed. In the meantime, I will be finishing up the last of the shelves in the laundry room, so I will share our Laundry Room Reveal with you! Gonna be a busy weekend!

See you tomorrow,

{Tara}

{Things Addison Says}

#1. Addison (while taking a bath): "Mommy, there's cookies in the tub! Mommeeee! Mommy!" (starts crying). I run to the bathroom to see what she means. I find poop in the tub.

#2. Addison runs down the hall laughing and says, "I fart. Watch" Stands there for a minute with a blank face and then says "it not work."

#3. Showing us a picture of stick figures she drew, she points and says, "That's Daddy, that's Mommy, that's baby Zoey, that's aunt Hannah, that's Daveed (David), that's grandma, and that's bob."
Me: "Who's Bob?"
Addison: "bob pants. I wanna watch bob pants!" (Spongebob, for those of you who aren't sure who bob pants is.)

#4. Addison: "Daddy, I want cake."
Stephen: "No, you need to eat dinner."
Addison: "Daddy, please! I need cake."

#5. Addison sees me licking my ice cream cone while driving (it was dripping, I had to do something!)  and says "Mommy, I wanna wick it!"
Me: "You have some in your cup that you can have when we get home."
Addison: "Mommy, please, I wanna wick it!!"

#6. I find Addison in the bathroom putting on some of my chapstick.
Me: "What are you doing?"
Addison: "Mommy, I put my wips on!"

Anyone else's kids saying some funny things? Share them with me! I need a good laugh for today. :)


-Tara

//Summer to-do List\\

This summer we've got some projects up our sleeves. We're the type of people that like to tackle everything at once and work on it as we can afford the time and money, which then makes our home look like a warzone workzone. When we first moved in, in November 2010, we pulled up the nasty carpet and replaced it with laminate wood flooring. We took the baseboards out to help with the installation of the new floors and then decided that we would replace them. We have yet to do so.
Our living room had "decorative" beams that were not to our liking (I know this is in now, please don't hate me), but we couldn't stand them and ripped them out. They were ugly, trust me. So our living rooms ceiling is popcorn, with off white spots where the beams used to live and small little holes where my husband had to use extra force to rip them out. They were really in there.
Also in our living room, lives our creepy back door. It's dark, it's had the yellow blinds on them since we've moved in, and its beaten up. Bad. That thing doesn't even deserve pretty new blinds. That's why they haven't been replaced. I'm horrible.
We will also be painting our 2 year old's bedroom a prettier color, and I'm even wanting to do something fun with her wall. It is absolutely adorable and I can't WAIT to show you! Our bedroom will also be painted, because I've always hated the baby blue walls that were supposed to be more white than blue. And then there's the kitchen-we are finally installing our subway tile backsplash and putting in new "marble" tile flooring that will look real purty with our wood countertops. And the laundry room, which is right off the kitchen, will get a makeover-same color walls as the kitchen, for a nice transition, and wood shelves to match the kitchen shelves. This might take us all summer to complete these projects, because we work and are currently in school, AND we have two children. :)
I know I'm horrible with updates, but I promise I will keep it up this time. We also probably won't start until we are back from a wedding in June, but the first thing we are doing is getting new windows installed!! Our are OLD, like over 30 years old. You can't see out of any of them and they have aweful brown trim, no screens, and aren't enery efficient. They make for cold winters and hot summers. So I'm pretty pumped about those. I will definitely have some before and after pictures for you. And all the details to go with them. I hope you're all having a marvelous week!

ps. In Sutton Home Interior news...I have opened shop on Etsy and already had some great orders! I'm feeling the love, keep it coming!

{Tara}

.Brick.

We're getting ready to get some new windows installed in our home because ours are 34 years old and you can hardly see out of some of them. Trust me, they are beyond trying to clean. I am SO excited to get pretty new windows with white trim {instead of the ugly brown we currently have} and it's put me in the mood to update the whole outside of our home. Now, these things will cost money and time, but I have been saving ideas on what we could do to our outdated home. You can see in the picture below that we have reddish-brown brick,  brown trim around the doors and windows, and this ugly brown shade of wood for siding. Could it be hardboard siding? I don't know, but our realtor told us we wouldn't be able to sell the house with it because it's not FHA approved. So eventually, we will have to replace it.

 

 

I have ideas spinning in my head and they all include painting that brick. Should we whitewash it? Should we paint it a light gray? What about the new siding, what color should that be? Of course, the trim will be white. Our roof is new, so that's not going anywhere. Some of my ideas came from these pictures, some from Pinterest, some from houzz.com

 

This is my absolute favorite image of whitewashed brick. I love how faded it looks.

 

 

See how charming it looks? I couldn't find many existing pictures of houses with half brick/half siding, but these pictures helped me to see colors together.

This one I like because of the neutral brick, which would let me do any color shutters: white, black, a darker gray, etc.

 

 I love the gray brick in this picture with the black shutters; it would match the roof and look great! I could do a fun door color, like turquoise! ;)

 

What do you guys think? I'm torn! We don't have to make a decision now, but I am a planner & I like to know where we're headed before we get there :)

Gimme S'more...

"S'mores Cracker Candy" is what this is called. I found it on this sweet blog here.

You cover a baking pan with tinfoil and spray with Pam spray. Then cover the foil with graham crackers, like so.

In a small saucepan, melt 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1 & 1/2 sticks unsalted butter together until just before boiling. Pour over graham crackers and bake in the oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees. 

 Here comes the fun part.

Pour 3 cups of mini marshmallows, 1 cup chocolate chips, and 4 mini Hershey's snack bars, broken into pieces, onto the warm graham crackers. Return to the oven for two minutes and then remove & cool in pan.

This is what they will look like all warm & gooey. They are delicious any way you eat them, but I love them when they are cold! They're much firmer and not as messy.

Yummy!

Enjoy!!

{Tara}

//Friday Favorites\\

Today I just want to share with you some of my favorite pins. I have a major obsession with exposed wood & that rustic look mixed with some white. ie: these barn doors. and that rustic antler chandelier. Somebody please 

 make me one of those sexy things. I'm begging you! Also, I want barn doors everywhere in my house. (Insert whisper voice).  Everywhere.

 I just think this little path would be so stinkin awesome on a country farm leading to a cozy little guest cottage.

 Love this window box and I think it would add lots of charm on a barn. So sweet!

 I've actually got a spare little bed in our garage that we got from a yard sale years back for only $10. I'm thinking I'm going to put it to good use and make a cute bench out of it for the front porch. Painted white, of course.

 Saw this picture on Pinterest and the shutters and window boxes were DIY-ed! We are about to get new windows and put up new siding soon (and white-wash our red brick!) and I would love to DIY us some shutters. Would be so much cheaper than buying them.

 Okay, so this has me all in love and swooning. I mean, seriously. I love the exposed beams and that table is awesome. Could totally make that. And those lanterns back there, and the planked walls and ceiling...oh, baby...

 This last picture makes me want to go buy some wood and do some handy things with it. Like make a smaller version of this vanity for both of our bathrooms. And frame out some mirrors. Love this! I think I have a problem with throwing that word around so easily. ;)

Tomorrow, I will be back with a super yummy, simple recipe I found that I love. See, there I go again. Don't tell my husband...

{Tara}

Land Owners. Farmers. Country Living

Hello there, friends! I know it's been a while since I've posted and I still need to share pictures of our kitchen with you, but today I want to share with you a dream. It took us a little longer to finally realize what exacty that dream was, but my husband and I have finally discovered it. It's beautiful, it's exciting, it's scary. It's going to be hard work, it will take time, it will take learning. It will lead us to a new place. It will be an adventure. It will be rewarding and profitable. It will allow us to have more family time. It will teach us patience. It will be a blessing to others.

This may seem like a weird dream to most people. Stupid, perhaps. Why would you want to do a thing like that? Don't you want to do something different, something bigger, maybe better? We want the "simple" life. In no way is this just "simple". Like I said, it will be hard work. We want to live on acres of land. Hundreds of acres. Maybe over a thousand one day. We want to build a home on a hill, overlooking the beautiful mountains like the ones above. We want to raise cattle and chickens. We want to have horses and a guest cabin for friends/family to visit us. We want to have lots and lots of fruit trees. And grow fruits and vegetables. We want to have pigs, maybe goats. Lots of soft, green grass and beautiful skies. We want to be, in a sense, farmers. Old fashioned. We want to live somewhere in God's beautiful country where we are completely surrounded by His creation. We want to be engulfed with it. To be involved with work that would constantly remind of us our Creator. We want to serve in a small community. We want to bless friends & family. We want to teach our girls what it means to be a hard worker and to be grateful for what God blesses you with. And we understand that there are many ways to do this. You don't have to live out in the country. But that's our dream. To be a little bit excluded. And I am excited. We both are. If we could, we would pack up and go right now. But we can't. We're not ready. So our goal is within the next 10 years. To set aside everything we can to help us reach our goal. Pray for us, friends. That we could get to this point in our lives. We will need God's help every single day, but it can be done!
And aren't those pictures just beautiful? That is Idaho! I am ashamed to say I have never really seen pictures of that state. I can say I am in LOVE. ;)