growing a little

Things are changing and growing all over.

Change and growth can be hard! But it's usually a good thing.

I showed you our little plants and my very own basil planted from seed (that is still alive and getting bigger). That basil is big enough to be in a real pot - I am so excited! I'll show it off soon.

Our family is growing - Lauren and David had their sweet little baby Max at the end of April:

Oh. My. Goodness. So dang cute.

As much as we have done on our small house, the list of projects keeps growing. Does that happen to you, too?

Now that it's spring, our grass is growing. And the weeds, too. Darn it.

Colin is graduating in a few days. His life is really changing as he gets ready to leave home for school. And we will be down by one at the small house.

But something else is changing and growing, too. My ideas for this blog.

I really love having this tiny spot in the world to share my love of decorating and the adventure we have had downsizing from a house twice the size. (And I love your comments and input!) I've thrown in a few posts about non-house stuff, too (Macaroons anyone? Or how about a fake marquee letter?) 

I want to keep posting about our house projects, hoping to inspire you to tackle your own projects. And I also want to include other things that round our our lives - we have more than a house going on.

So, I'm excited to make some changes around here.

You see, one of the great things about having a small house and less stuff is having the time and energy for other loves.

And I have lots of good things that I want to share. Like:

Organizing - I've done a few posts (here and here), but I would like to expand to respond to specific areas I've been asked about.

Minimizing - You know we are working on that a lot since we bought the small house. And we have been working on keeping only the things we really love and/or use. Sometimes, I am really inspired by people who have so few possessions, they can fit them all in a suitcase. I do not want to do that - Yikes! - but the idea of it encourages me to really take a look around. I love the lighter feeling of less stuff to take care of.

Decorating - Love this! And I would love to feature other's decorating style, too.

Other Decorating - What? I'm talking about special stuff - Parties, holidays, weddings (In fact I have a wedding coming up soon!)

Crafty Things - I have about a million pins of very clever ideas. We can do pin challenges (Make something you've pinned and share - Great motivation!)

Hand Lettering - Speaking of pins, if you follow me on Pinterest, you may have noticed I have pinned another million (I have lots of pins.) lettering/font/lay out ideas. I have always loved graphic design, and have ventured into the charming art of hand lettering. It has been so much fun! I get lost in time with my pens and paper.

And I may throw in a few personal things occasionally - after all, my family is one of my first loves!

So with changes, I am excited to design a new look for the blog. I have been working on the new header and hope to have things together in the next couple of weeks.

After sampling several fonts, Hero and I both agreed that this sassy font could be lots of fun. 

What do you think? Which layout do you like best?

Front

Remember this photo?

This is the photo we posted two years ago of our then new to us house. With the rays of sunshine behind it and a cool filter, it looked pretty good.

And it is a good little house. We have not regretted trading down from the big house once. We have learned so much here (PEX anyone?) and found we can live with a lot less stuff. We have installed our first IKEA kitchen and got our basement in shape.

It's been a great little house.

But we have got to do something with the front. It is not all that super fabulous.

We had some odd bush situations going on - two round ball bushes and some really creepy creeper kind of bush. And if you look close, you can see in the upper left corner some really effective and attractive gutter action going on.

Oh, and the white address sign has been there since Hero's family lived here. 

The garage is not too bad - but the little eagles above the doors, which have most likely been there since the 70's, are not quite our style.

Two more random ball bushes. And a lily that seems to thrive on neglect (My kind of plant).

With all the happenings inside the house we have put the exterior on the back burner, but it is most definitely time to get on a few things to help improve the view. 

We have managed a few updates outside, including painting the front door and yanking out a few unfortunate looking bushes. 

We have plans this summer for a graduation party, so the outside has become more a priority. Here are a few items that are on the list:

1. Level the backyard. This includes bringing in some dirt followed up by laying sod. There was once an in-ground pool back there - now it is filled in. It is super lumpy. 

2. Get the veggie garden planted.

3. Do a little bit of landscaping. We want to keep things low-key, so nothing high maintenance for our yard.

4. We have a very sad evergreen tree in our back yard that really needs to come down. We are totally stalling on it though. It is home to squirrels and birds and it is alive. Plus it offers some privacy. But it is too tall and starting to compromise the wires. It was trimmed once - trimmed meaning someone lopped off the top. Hence the sad appearance.

5. Remove the most unattractive shed in existence. It is so awful. It is an old metal thing with squeaky sliding doors. Cannot wait until that is out of here.

6. Build a new smaller shed in a better location.

We have lots going on so it is taking a while to get a big push going. And all the rain we have had is not helping. But it has to happen soon.

We need to get this outside looking as fabulous as the inside.