kitchen inspiration.

we are starting to get to the point in building our house where we have to make big decisions. lately we've been visiting cabinet makers to decide on kitchen and bathroom cabinetry. while i'm having trouble nailing down idea's for the bathrooms i've got a clear idea of what i want in the kitchen.

here's my inspiration...

basically, here's what i want:

• shaker cabinet doors, medium-to-dark grey on the bottom, white on top
• white-ish countertops (probably quartz but we have to price it out still. crossing my fingers that we can fit it into the budget!)
• brass hardware. i'm seriously obsessed with the drawer pulls on the bottom left picture. now i just need to find somewhere that sells them for less than $30 a piece! 
• a big island. i think it will end up looking like the bottom left picture. big, with a sink, but with stools along one side. 
• also, drawers. lots and lots of drawers. 
• for a backsplash i'm thinking either white subway tiles or some sort of planking like they have here. what do you think would be better? 

so! what do you think? any red flags going up? do you have something in your kitchen that you love and we definitely need to get? i'd love some advice! 

by the way, i never actually shared our floor plans! here is the upstairs, where we'll be living. david's oma (grandmother) will be calling the bottom floor 'home'. basically we come in on the ground floor and go right up the stairs in the middle. also, it's cut off a bit but we have a front porch going out off the great room. 

(all inpiration pictures taken from my pinterest page)

new art for my living room.

the other day i was at my mom's house. she had been cleaning out the spare bedroom so she could make a sewing room. there was stuff all over the house waiting to be sorted through. while i was looking through some boxes i found these amazing vintage patches. my mom said she collected them when she was a kid, buying one from every place they visited. one of them was a sports participation badge my mom got when she was in school. i instantly pictured them displayed in a shadow box and told my mom she should get on that! knowing she would never actually do it she gave them to me. and i'm sooo glad she did because they look awesome in my living room. i think in the new house this would look really great in a gallery wall in the dining room or office.



basically i just wrapped a spare piece of grey flannel i had around the back of the shadow box and then used hot glue to stick the patches on. easy peasy.

i love that the shadow box makes them look so fancy, like they are worth a lot of money. now i'm dreaming up other things to put on display in shadow boxes. maybe some ticket stubs? origami paper cranes? the options are endless!

ps. sorry about the lame pictures, the glare on the glass was really killing me!

house update.

we have been making some serious progress on the house. the footings are totally done and we are pouring the rest of the foundation today. it is so cool to be able to see how big everything is going to be and where everything is ending up. i can't wait until next week when hopefully we can back-fill everything and start framing! here are a few pictures of everything so far...

around here lately.

hi friends!

it's been a while since my last post- too busy studying a working and not enough time for blogging! here's what i've been up to lately.

most importantly: i'm an aunt again! my sister, hannah, had a beautiful baby boy named jonathan. he is seriously the cutest.

also important: we started on the house! hole is dug, footings are in, foundation will be done by the end of the week. good stuff all around.

i've also been knitting up a storm. but since everything i'm knitting is going to be given away i'm not going to post any pictures and ruin the surprise! i already gave jonathan his blanket. it kept him warm for his first trip to target. you can't really tell but its got a white heart on it ;)

that's all folks! hope you had a magical thanksgiving :)