It’s just been one of those days. It happens… and sometimes these days are the hardest to get past for me. They put me in a funk, a mood. And then my neighbor knocked on the door. She had just seen a car hit a cat in the street and drive away. The cat had hobbled up into a side yard and collapsed. My husband ended up taking it to the emergency vet, where the cat passed way.

It wasn’t my cat. It wasn’t my fault. In fact, we did everything we could to help it. But it just feels heart-wrenching. We put so much into taking care of our three pets. They’re our family, our pack, our loves. Sure, they’re animals… housepets. But they’ve taught me so much about myself, about other people and about love. I feel sorrowful for this tabby cat that died today, but I feel lucky to be around my little family, human and pet alike.

And I think we’re going to rescue another cat.

Hang tight for a real deal house tour… you know, when we get everything set up just right. So FOREVER from now.

But the painting… painting one or two rooms turned into painting every room but one. Once we patched some holes and got matching paint to fix it up, we realized our “matched” paint doesn’t really match. So we had to paint that whole room again.

It’s going to look good (at least I’m clinging to that idea), so we’re trudging forward. Word to the wise though:

If you have a 1400 sq. ft. house to paint + one week in the evenings to accomplish it + one other relative newbie to painting = you should GET HELP. And I don’t mean your friends. No one wants to help you paint your house. Hire someone who knows what they’re doing to at least lend a hand and speed the process along.

That being said, we now know how to paint an entire house now. And I’m riding high (and almost throwing up) on those glorious paint fumes…

the whole set of BEFORE pics of the interior of the house

We’re also going to do a little painting, some storm door installs, more attic insulation and some house weatherizing. For the attic insulation and the weatherization we’ll get a bit back from the city energy company to help compensate for the cost. Plus, our utility bills shouldn’t be quite as high as they normally would. Which is good… have you lived in Texas in the summer? Yeah.

We bought this cute buffet hutch thing from Modern Salvage here in Austin, and we think it will be just DARLING in our open kitchen/dining area. I want to put our vintage mugs, antique percolator and other fun kitcheny items in the top glass shelf area. I’ve been on the search for the perfect, affordable vintage dining table but so far have come up empty. In lieu of vintage we may purchase one these expensive (I’m kinda cheap, okay!?) Industrial Dining Tables from West Elm, though I wanted this angled leg table because it was expandable AND cheaper. But now it’s discontinued. BOOO.

True to my crafty inclinations, I’m also slowly working on a larger-scale embroidery of the front of our house. I wanted to commemorate our first house purchase! I’m excited to get it finished, though I’m in the very beginning stages of making it. I can’t wait to hang it up on the wall of the very first house we have ever owned!

The journey so far in house-buying has been a bit stressful. We didn’t win a bid on the first house we THOUGHT we wanted. Then we had our other option picked out and we were just SO sure of it. So damn sure. It was perfect for us, mostly. The backyard was perfect. And I mean that… perfect.

But then, we just couldn’t get our neighbor’s house out of our heads. We’re good friends with our next door neighbors and had been to their house many times. We admired it’s style from the first day we moved into our rental. And then it went up for sale. We joked HAHAHAH we could move in next door. That idea was so funny… but we didn’t want to stay in our neighborhood. Or so we thought.

We finally gave in. We decided that even though it was a bit smaller than we were hoping for, and it would be super duper hard making a large financial deal with a good friend and neighbor, that it just seemed like the house for us. And it was right there, all along. I don’t want to jinx it y’all (waiting on final financial dealings to clear!) but we’re SO excited to have a place of our own! It means so much more that we’ll be living in the space that our friends and their wee little girlies (and four pets) have called home and cared for over the years. It’s a good step in the right direction for us…

I won’t tell anymore, for fear of spoiling the surprise (and jinxing our first home-buying ordeal). But we love our new place. And I’ve ALREADY put together a Pinterest inspiration board for it. What do ya think?

We’re shopping right now for houses so we’re FINALLY GOING TO BUY A HOUSE. I’m beyond excited for this new part of our lives, and a little reticent. I feel like Brett and I have both been looking, planning and yearning for a place to call our own for quite a while now. While this decision comes at a somewhat tumultuous time in our lives (big life decisions and such), it’s a welcome turn of events.

Just thinking about the funky changes we’ll make to our new place, carving out a little piece of “us” there, makes me giddy. Mid-century modern doors? YES. Retro light fixtures… uhh yeah. Painting things wacky colors!? Totally.

I’m perpetually inspired by Danielle Thompson’s home. Eeh gads. Is it not rad around every corner?!

I have a feeling you’re gonna be hearing a lot of designy/remodel talk in the nearish future. Big plans are a’coming folks! I like this life. It’s growing on me.

But first thing’s first… I have to profess my happiness that the Austin City Limits Festival is over! I recently took a job as a marketing and social media assistant at Front Gate Tickets (and have been LOVING it) so this was my first year to work at the fest. I loved seeing a few celebs, sweating my ASS off and listening to some super kickass music. A few highlights were: seeing Christian Bale backstage at TV on the Radio, meeting Nick Collison (of the Oklahoma Thunder) in the guest list line and seeing TWO actors from the TV show Friday Night Lights. Oh, and then there was the music: Mavis Staples, Kanye West, Phosphorescent, Tyree Morris and the Hearts of Worship, Alexander, Skrillex, TV on the Radio, Stevie Wonder (I couldn’t hear his set! I was so bummed.), Death from Above 1979, Hayes Carll and Empire of the Sun. And that was all in between working about 25 hours in three days. ROCK.

I also have a new batch of laser cut bamboo items in the shop! I’ve been experimenting with designs and applications and am really enjoying where it’s all going, which leads me to my next topic…

I just scored my first consignment gig! Jenni Charles at the awesome ATown shop here in Austin was super excited about selling some pom pom pillows, kid’s embroideries and some laser cut brooches and necklaces. I’m not sure I’m cut out for consignment, as it’s difficult for me to make quantities of my custom items in a timely fashion, but this is just one way I’m stepping out of my comfort zone and going for it!

In other news, my photos still suck AND I still have some new items to add to my shop (embroidered laser cut bamboo constellation necklaces and some laser cut brooches). But I’m working on it… life is good/crazy/disorderly/exciting!

PS – I’m (slowly) working on some friendship bracelets for my neighbor Mindy’s cutey kids. I hope they like them!

She paints these cross stitch and embroidery designs on the wall with cross hatches. When you step back it gives you the whole picture/design. Eline Pellinkhof is a crafty genious! I want this to be in my home SO MUCH.

I have now been inspired to get creative with these brittle, non-cooperating oddly-shaped nails of mine. They will become works of ART!