What Ana Does

My goal for the weekend was to finish the basement niche shelves construction and I did!  I'm so excited with how neat and tidy it turned out.  I got book storage at the top. Some game and craft storage in the middle, though that's not final. And blankets at the bottom, which was the greatest need.  Everything got painted and caulked, so it truly looks like a built-in storage space that has always been there.  If you remember how it was before, with an old bookcase tossed in there with no organization. So much unused space and wasted potential.   Constructing those built-in shelves are still not one of my strengths. The pantry and laundry room closet were my last two projects and they didn't turn out completely perfect ... but I learned a bit more in each try.  This project allowed me a bit more practice AND made the basement look more put together.  I'm still sorting through the tons of leftover furniture and toys, among other things, that are st...

I don't like wasted space. If you're not new around here, that doesn't surprise you. When I think of areas of my house that are not living up to its true potential, it's a blaring red alarm in my brain. FIX ME FIX ME FIX ME This weekend I started fixing the niche in my basement, which was one of those spots. Here's the BEFORE of that corner of the basement.  It's our "media center" space, so you'll see the edge of our soft, comfy sofa. It's also the corner that has all the toy storage and toys the girls just couldn't part with. (Ugh) The actual niche is holding one of my mom's book cases, but, as you can see, there's so much unused space in there.  My grand plan was to install a cabinet with built-in shelves above, but once I started to think about what I needed storage for, going with open shelves made more sense. As you can see, we need blanket and pillow storage, as well as some place to put away toys and books.  Supplies for fou...

Oh, our poor guest room. It's time to give this often-overlooked room some attention.  Here's the thing ... this room is currently used as the "GIRL DEN" for art projects, youtube watching and "sister sleepovers." And we spruce it up a bit for when my Mom visits and it turns into a true guestroom.   But it's a total disaster. The wall color is wrong. The curtains are all wrong (color and location). The closet is a cluttered mess. The furniture is just the rejects from all over the house. The girls do their best to make it a "cool hangout spot" but it's just a mess.  Here's the REAL, unfiltered BEFORE picture:  But I've got BIG PLANS.  ACCENT WALL: Oh baby. It's going to be so sweet to create an accent wall on the far wall which is really what you focus on in the room. Shiplap is currently pricing out to be somewhat affordable. I also found a cool peel and stick real-wood option, but it was incredibly pricey. I'm hunting othe...

As a family, we are devoted to bringing reusable bags to the grocery store -- every time. It's a practice we started WAYYYY back when we were living in New Jersey, continued in France (where a plastic bag is not free) and we've gotten pretty good about remembering each time we go. (Checklist: grocery list, phone, sunglasses, bags).  And yes, I look down my nose at people walking out of the grocery store with a cart full of plastic bags. It's so wasteful, horrible for the Earth and bringing your own is stupid SIMPLE, people.  BUT, with this pandemic, grocery stores are not allowing use of reusable bags for fear of spreading germs from home. I'm fine with that. But I'm NOT OK with using plastic bags.  We get by with refusing a bag, when it's just a few items. Or requesting paper bags, which are a far more sustainable choice. Most are made of recycled paper, are easily recycled or reused around the house.  But let's discuss the reality of the situation. It...

We miss three things the most in the pandemic world: travel, restaurants and seeing BIG movies in the movie theater. Otherwise, we're pretty content (on most day) with staying in and keeping our community safe.  BUT the travel thing is a real big bummer. We love to travel as a family (obviously) and the WANDERLUST is a thing.  We can order from our favorite restaurants for pickup. And we can watch movies at home, in the dark basement while eating popcorn and approximate a theater experience. But there's not much we can do to fake a trip to London. Or Hawaii.  Then ... my older sister told me about her cool NordicTrack treadmill with iFit that uses videos of trainers in locations all over the world and you VIRTUALLY run along with them. The best part ... there's an app! So I don't have the fancy treadmill that will adjust to the trainer's speed (I have to automatically adjust the speed) BUT I can follow along on the video using the iFit app  on my iPad.   ...

Isn't it funny how spaces reflect us and how we change?  Leah's room has definitely been such a fun snapshot on watching a little girl grow! When we moved into this house, she was 5 years old and wanted a blue room. I found a beautiful quilt and used the blues and greens from it to decorate her little-girl room. (Here's that 2012 post .) It went from flowers and teal to blue with a surfer/beach theme a few years ago. And we filled it with beachy elements, including a huge surfboard mural, and updated the blue last year when we returned from Paris ( here's that post ). But, now as a high school freshman, and so grown up, she wants a more minimal, subtle room theme. And, as a fan of painting bedrooms, I was ready to do it for her.  We worked together to pick the right color, "Swiss Coffee from Behr" because it was a creamy white that would match the headboard we brought back from Paris AND the beach mural I refused to allow her to removed. (It was expensive, peo...