What Ana Does

I haven't done one of these is quite a while! What some of the things I'm currently loving or using or excited about? Here's what comes to mind ...  Nike Air Max shoes -- these are my new favorite shoe obsession. I bought a pair in San Francisco while on vacation this summer, that I wore the rest of the trip, including the two days I was at Disneyland. Let me tell you ... my feet, knees and hips have never been happier. They're super cute but they're also amazingly comfortable. I can stay on my feet for so much longer than any other shoe. I wore them last time I traveled and stood in the security line for 45 minutes and my feet never hurt. I love them so much that I've got my eye on my next pair. Maybe I'll be a sneaker-head!   New bras from Lively -- this month I decided to trash all the bras that are falling apart or uncomfortable and replace them with new ones -- what a way to start the New Year! I tossed 5 bras and bought 6 more from Lively during a gia...

The best part of having open shelves in the kitchen means I can decorate them for holidays. I went all out for Halloween this year ...  Such fun. 

The guys left me all the unused shiplap from the bathroom and I've been trying to think about where to use it. I had so many ideas but not a lot of shiplap, so I eventually settled on this corner of our basement. It's where the exercise mats and treadmill live, right behind the sofa. And also where the Marvel-themed bathroom with shiplap is located. So it made sense. It took much of a rainy Sunday to cut and nail up the new boards ...    I even had enough to do on the "backsplash" of our little kitchenette in the basement I've been slowly building out.  Next up will be to patch all the nail holes and calk around the edges for a clean look. And then the best part ... picking out paint color. Since this is a "free" project, I'm hoping I can find a color in my paint cabinet.  I'll keep you posted. 

 Made a quick improvement at the start of the school year that I'm pretty excited about.  And yes, I'm probably the only one excited about it, but here goes ...  Here's our "command central" in our kitchen. This is a good landing spot, and a central place to all look at the family calendar ... it's that huge wipe board in the middle of the photo. All our activities are supposed to be written on here and our electronic family calendar on Google.  (Brief aside: my family is the WORST at writing their plans down in either calendar and Dave still doesn't share his events on our Google Shared Family Calendar consistently, which makes me nuts. And they all ask me "what are we doing today?" instead of looking at the calendar, usually directly behind me. But, that's another post.) I went to so much trouble putting this little area together and that huge calendar with wobbly writing was really killing the sophisticated look of that space. PLUS, we don...

Completely forgot to post the final bathroom pictures. We're so pleased about the way it turned out. And the room feels so much larger First, this might be the most important view. It's what I see from bed while I'm reading at night. Before it was super ugly, especially when I put paint samples up on the wall. And the terrible tile around the huge tub and all the junk we put on it. Isn't this dreamy?!  And here's the tub accent wall with the new light, ledge and the gleaming shiplap painted with water-friendly paint.   Before I forget, the paint color on the shiplap is SW Fleur de Sal and wall is SW Greek Villa . The floor is a cheap porcelain tile and this star tile is from Home Depot.  The blue tile in the shower is the one thing I would change. I love the dark blue but if I had another go, I'd pick the denim color I looked at. OR a white tile to really brighten the room.  On the other hand, I'm so glad I used the same vanity and mirror/lights. I'm so...

 Surprise! We're renovating our bathroom!  At the beginning of August, we noticed a wet seam in the ceiling of the kitchen. We assumed it had something to do with the kitchen renovation last year, so we called our contractor to come out and take a peek. Lo and behold our toilet in the primary bathroom, just above, was slowly leaking.  Gross. To sum up, we got the mold remediation guys involved, submitted a claim with our insurance company and hired our buddy General Contractor Bruce ... and now we're renovating the bathroom.  Look, in the back of my mind, while I'm falling asleep at night or while strolling through Pinterest, I have thought about what I'd do when the time came to redo that bathroom. When we moved in, it has been "updated" with grey & white matte tile and marble hex tile. But the bathtub takes up 80% of the bathroom and the tile was never sealed, so it grows dirt/mold like no tomorrow. And it's painted an offending beige and you know h...

I'm on the hunt for a cozy reading chair for our bedroom. While I have plenty of cozy reading spots around the house, I'd really like one up in our bedroom where I can hide away with a book in late afternoons.  While I was sick, I really missed having that second place to curl up, too. So, I'm hunting around for the best option.  My criteria is comfy, a little higher on the back so I can rest my head, large enough I can curl up my legs, and maybe blue to match the blue room. My budget is around $500. Here are my current favorite contenders ...  This is the Albany Park Swivel Chair in a blue or green velvet. It's $900, so out of my price limit but I'm waiting on some good sales. The sofa in our basement is from this company and I really like their mission and quality. I like finding pictures of people in the chairs.  This one is a more modern version in a heather blue color ...  It's the Mod Chair from Article , a store a few of my Insta-people really like. I li...