A DIY Fail

Sometimes I am inspired by something that I know will not fit in our home. I may love it, but realize it just won't work in the current space we have. Other times I love something, try it, and have to undo it. 

I recently had one of the those times. My inspiration was this pin on pinterest:

I loved how the dark doors warmed up the space. My style tends to be neutral and clean and can often come across as too sterile, so I thought darker doors might help. 

Here's our hallway with off-white trim (I still haven't gotten around to finishing up all the painting in this house, I still have trim and doors left):

I had visions of lovely black doors, giving a nice rich feel to our home interior. So I got to painting! It took several coats, but by the end I had a beautiful dark door and couldn't wait to get it back in:

This door is to our bedroom and when we put it back in place to check it out, we knew it wasn't going to work. Our room is dark already, with navy-ish walls. The black door just swallowed the room and was too dark, even for me (I love heavy dark colors and rooms). 

We entertained the idea of only painting the sides of the doors black that faced the hall, and leave the other sides that faced into each room in white. But that just seemed a little too much. For whatever reason I couldn't get out of my head the fact that I would probably have to re-paint most of them if we were ever to try and sell the house. Plus, it really bothers me when things are not symmetrical, even, and consistent. Somehow having doors that were black on one side and white on the other just made me cringe in a weird                  I-might-have-OCD-tendencies way. 

So now I'm in the process of painting it white again. But that's okay! I do still love the look of the darker doors but I can appreciate that it won't work in our current house. My latest home decor inspirations have been much brighter anyway, so it's all working out. That's one of the things about DIY - you have to be willing to admit some projects simply don't work and then you undo them. :) 

Colossal Photo/Video Dump

Here's a huge post of our everyday. :) 

Harry hiding under the bed with Piper:

Our latest attempt to keep Harry in his room, now that he can open doors:

Spiky hair!

Dr. Eden, giving Piper a check-up:

Riding bikes on the porch:

Bedtime reading with Daddy:

I've noticed that although they have always played well together, the kids seem to be enjoying each other more and more these days. They spend a lot of time playing tag and chase and just playing together in general. 

So that's what we've been up to!

Happy Birthday, Megan!

God has blessed me with some pretty amazing friends. I met Megan in college and our friendship has grown stronger and stronger over the years (12 to be exact!). We even toured in a singing group together and made lots of memories traveling the US as well as England, Scotland and Ireland. 

My dear friend turned 30 this year! We celebrated by getting dressed up and taking her out for a nice dinner at a local restaurant, Bleu. 

The food was amazing! We ordered an appetizer of brie that came with cranberries, apples and garlic, with pita bread for dipping. 

My salad (sorry for the dark pics, there was some serious mood lighting!):

I ordered bleu cheese crusted steak with potatoes:

I didn't get shots of everyone's food, but all of the dishes had such pretty presentation! Here's Shawna's shrimp and grits:

Chatting with the birthday girl, Shawna and Meg:

Shawna and Erika:

Me and Deanna:

Tabatha (her picture comes later, because it was the best :) made a delicious banana chocolate chip cake. We presented it and sang ever so softly to wish our dearie a happy birthday (sorry most of what you hear is me singing since I'm holding the camera):

And the promised pic of Tab:

I have the best friends! :) 

Opening gifts:

Such a fun evening with my favorite girls! Thanks for letting us celebrate with you, Meg, we love you!

A Bit of Spring Cleaning, er...Organizing

I do so love to clean and organize! Especially in the spring, when all things are feeling freshened up. Unfortunately, my back has been flaring up and hasn't allowed me to do much. But one little teensy update I did was to prep the bathrooms for easy cleaning. 

When we moved to this house, we got THREE bathrooms. Hallelujah! We came from a one bathroom home (that didn't even have a tub!) so I felt like we were moving into luxury. And although I do love having all 3 of them, obviously it created a little more cleaning. Since one of the bathrooms is downstairs, it made sense to have multiple cleaning items stored in each bathroom to keep me from having to cart everything up and down the stairs every time I wanted to clean. 

Enter these little cuties from the dollar bin at Target:

I think they are actually supposed to be used as spritzers to water plants, but I saw potential for my bathrooms. I had bulk size containers of Windex and Lysol All Purpose Cleaner and just divvied it up between three containers each, one for each bathroom. Combined with a roll of paper towels and a toilet brush, each bathroom is now set for spontaneous cleaning at any time!

I didn't take a picture of our bathroom cabinet because it is a total disaster and on my to-clean-out list. :) 

So there you have it - a very simple way to make life easier when cleaning. And I totally have to give a shout out to the dollar section at Target, they always have great stuff!

Short and Sweet

Just a little post to show my Edie girl in action. :) 

Caranci Kiddos Update

Thought I would do a little post on random kid shots, just in their everyday. Enjoy!

Here is a shot I took of Eden in Piper's bed, and it reminded me of a shot of her way back when...look how much she's grown!

I walked in Eden's room to find Harry snug as a bug in Eden's baby doll stroller, enjoying a movie. :) 

We had a picnic lunch in Eden's room on a rainy day. 

I hate to be part of the cliche, but I managed to snap all of 5 pics for Harry's 2nd birthday, totally proving the theory that the 2nd kid doesn't have near the photos as the first. This was at the family dinner, celebrating 4 April birthdays - Jason, Grammy, Kellan and Harry. I didn't snap pics of any of the other birthday babies (except Jason managed to get in on a couple with Harry)! I'm a horrible blogger, but oh well! It is always chaos when we are all together, so the fact that I got any is lucky. He got a new tricycle, camo sleeping bag, train set, and scooter. I'd say quite the haul! We will have a few family things on his actual birthday (April 26th) so I will make sure to be a better photographer for those!