What Ana Does

Girls are back in school and while I'm still lining up their Fall activities, those quiet summer days are feeling farther and farther away. And schedules are starting to ramp up and feel busy. Alice is Playing the TUBA for Band. Gah! School Supply Shopping! 

I bought this dress for my birthday in April and haven't had the right occasion to wear it until last weekend. I love it so much ... and it was comfortable and flattering. I got it from J.Crew on a very good sale ... here's the link . For me, they do denim so so so well. In fact, this is the third J.Crew denim dress in my closet. ;) Plus, you can see a little more of my master bathroom  of which I can report we still very much love since our winter remodel! Related links: Have you thought about doing a capsule wardrobe? I did.

We have three sets of shutters on our house that probably haven't been touched since they were installed 20ish years ago. This weekend we finally got around to painting them -- a project that's been on our TO DO list for, oh, five years. We picked the shade "inked" by Behr because I love navy and wanted it to be dark and moody. But I'm not sure that's what I got ... Here's the Shutter on the Ground Floor BEFORE AFTER: "Inked" Shutter  The color went on super bright blue, but it seemed to darken as it dried. So I went from feeling so-so, to thumbs-up. Then, Dave crawled out of a bedroom to paint the shutters on the upper level. You can see the "before" on the windows to the left, and the "after" on the right. I am not completely sold on them and I think it's because either a) I'm not used to seeing a pop of color on my house or b) I simply don't like the color. I'm giving it a week to deci...

When we talked about adopting a dog while in Paris, I kept repeating  "we have to fix the fence first before we get a puppy."  I was adamant. This was a prerequisite. Then, we got home and had to wait for the weather to improve, and we redid the bathroom and suddenly we didn't have the budget, time or inspiration to deal with our fence. And our desire to get a new little buddy grew. It had been years since we've been in this house without a dog, so it felt like a piece of the house was missing without a dog. You know the rest of the story ... puppies and ... Bruce ! Always On a Leash In The Yard But it's torture for him, and us, not to be able to run around in the backyard off leash. We've tried it a few times and he almost always makes a run for the hole in the fence and explores the neighborhood -- giving us a heart attack in the process. At the beginning of the summer I started looking at fence prices. I started with vinyl, which was about $8,...

I'm finally getting this post together with all the details from our Hawaii adventure. It's almost too much to put into one post, but I do love to document the places we stayed and ate so I can pass it on to the next adventurer. Let me preface by saying David booked the whole thing (he did a fab job) and he choose family-friendly resorts. In fact, I think his search keyword was "resorts with water slide" in Hawaii. Monday - Friday: Oahu After an 9-hour flight, we checked into the Hilton Waikiki Beach , which is on the island of Oahu , in the city of Honolulu and a block away from Waikiki Beach . Honolulu  has a bustling main street with shops, resorts and restaurants. This was great, because we had lots of choice for meals and could wander and shop -- but not the relaxing, tranquil vacation I was looking forward to. However, Waikiki Beach is known for great surf and watching surfers catch waves quickly turned into my favorite pass-time.  We would recommen...

The Bookcase Before While trying to fall asleep last night, I worked out the demo on the bookcase in the office. I figured, if I went slow, looked for all the available screws, I could take it down in three pieces and maybe reuse or sell it. I imagined moving it behind the TV in the family room, maybe painting it navy to match and removing the layer cake molding on the top to simplify it. That was not the case.  It's solidly built and was completely stuck together as one unit. I got it unscrewed from the wall, and unhooked the electrical (there were florescent lights on the top) wires and sockets, and that's where I got stuck. I needed to get to the back of it, so I could see where it was all connected, but I couldn't. So we got a little crazy. Leah and I wiggled the entire unit to the edge of the counter, cleared the floor and ... tipped the whole thing over. BOOOM! Yup, so I wasn't going to resell or reuse it in another room after that. But, the drama ...

The largest task in my home office redesign is removing this expensive, custom bookcase that the previous owners had built-in. I know it was expensive because I have the receipt! And because it cost them a lot, it's controversial for me to trash it. I mean, it's custom work! Why? Because... 1 - YES, it was a selling feature in this house. It's "pretty" and "stately" but it's SO NOT my style. This swings really "traditional" (layers of classic molding) and that's a contradiction to my minimal, modern style. 2- And YES, if we were selling the house tomorrow, I wouldn't touch it. But this is our house and it should be a reflection of us, and this bookcase isn't it. It just isn't. 3 - PLUS, look at all the room it takes up on that desk counter. It's crazy. The middle 1/3 is really all the work space you have. The other sides are walled off. And while I'm at it ... If I had my dream setup in this office, I woul...

Now that we've gotten all the really ugly rooms in my home addressed ( basement , laundry room and our master bathroom ), I'm turning my attention to our home office. Office Floor Layout; 1) Cabinets and Bookcase, 2) Sewing Cabinet. 3) Chair? 4) Second Desk We are so lucky to have this room. It's right off the entryway, is a great size and when we work from home, we can close the doors and have some privacy. But, mainly, it's a clutter-catcher room. Boo! My goals for updating it will be to add more table/work space , which is sadly lacking. I'd love to have enough seating so the girls could do their homework in here, too. But for now, getting two working desks will be enough. Also, I want to keep books and my sewing storage in here. And I want a space dedicated to household paperwork . I'd love to get an upholstered "reading" chair in here, too, but I'm not sure it will fit. Last, it needs an overall stye update . Right now the ro...

It was 10 days of exploring, shopping, swimming, and sitting poolside. And it's going to take me a few days to download and write-up everything we did. In the past, we've done "explore" vacations in European and American cities, and we've done sit-on-your-butt vacations in Mexico and the Bahamas. But this trip pleasantly combined all that, as we went island hopping from Oahu and busy downtown Waikiki Beach, to the Big Island and an isolated, kid-friendly resort, to Maui at a resort near small-town amenities. Here are a few picture highlights from the trip ... Luau Was Spectacular! Maui Beach The Maui Coastline Related links: Other vacation highlights