Worth the Wait

I read an article over the weekend from Elle Decor about a couple who had purchased their first home together in New Orleans. It was one year to the day before Katrina hit and with that, all their big plans (and budget) for decorating and renovating, came to a grinding halt in lieu of fixing all the damage that came with Hurricane Katrina.

Check out their beautiful home today....

We've  had a really big year - in one year we bought a car, bought a house and had a baby. It has been an INCREDIBLE year, but what we have come to realize is that with all those incredible things, others have to wait. So the leather chairs we want for the living room will have to wait and the dining room chairs we are using as place holders will do for a while longer. And the dated lamps that have been functional sources of light, although not pretty, will continue to work and light up our home, until we are ready to find the ones we want.

What I have learned, though, is that the wait is actually making Hillside Lane better. While it isn't a lesson I am always patient about learning, I realized, particularly after reading the article, that the extra time gives us a chance to consider other options, find new inspiration and the results are often better than originally planned.

I liked this quote from the article, "In the years since, I've learned that a decorating moratorium (even an involuntary one) is not a bad thing....the layering that happens over time has brought more meaningful pleasure than I imagine any "instant house" would have." And I have learned that I tend to agree.

Luci's First Birthday Bash

The past year has been the fastest of my life. How is it possible that my baby girl is already 1?!?! It has been such an amazing year and we have been so blessed with our Luci. I am a lucky girl.

We hosted her 1st birthday party at Hillside Lane this past weekend. It was a total success! We were lucky to have perfect weather. As a tri-level, our house works well for entertaining, but again, it's not huge and we had a pretty big crowd on hand - so the good weather made the backyard the perfect extension of our entertaining space. I always tell Dris that our winter parties will have to be more intimate affairs and we'll save the big bashes for the warm weather when the backyard is in play.

The party was decked out in pink, lime green, purple and orange - the same colors that were in here invitation. And, of course, I scoured Pinterest for inspiration for the party. Check out the details below...

I LOVE paper invitations and when searching for the right one for Luci's big day, I absolutely fell in love with this one from Tiny Prints.

Using the invitation as the color palette for the party, I went about searching for cute ways to bring in the fun colors throughout the party. A few Pinterest gems....

First was the wrapping paper runner for our dining room table. It turned out great, although there are a few things I would do differently next time. First, the plastic tablecover that I got was thin enough that our dark table showed through, making it look more purple than pink. I might go with the paper, more opaque option next time. Secondly, I spent TOO MUCH TIME using painters table to fold and tape the tablecover under the table, only to find much of it had fallen by the next morning. Next time I need to find a better solution or better adhesive (that won't leave sticky goo on my furniture).

I think the part I was most proud of was the pictures that I hung on our front window. Andris and I picked some of our favorites and some that just made us laugh, highlighting different stages from the past year. In the center we put a couple of the most recent one-year pics. Andris had the great idea of using colorful balloon clips to attach the pictures to the string. They were perfect and added more color to the photo display.

I added paper lanterns from Party City in pink, green and purple (I couldn't find any orange to add) to the back of our house to bring the colors outside. This was more of an original inspiration - not to say that there aren't lots of pins out there that showcase this - but this one I actually came up with on my own :)

The final touch were some backyard games for the big kids. We had Bean Bags, Water  Balloon Toss (thank you, Andris, for filling over 60 water balloons and hunting down hoola hoops to be used as targets!!!) and Bozo Buckets. I also put out the chalk table that I made a few weeks back...more on this one later :)

Oh and finally..."the goods". Luci had to have a respectable goodie bag to give out to all her friends and cousins. Again, I brought in the colors with the bags and a little ribbon attached to each. The contents included colorful crazy straws and LOTS of TREATS!

It was the perfect day for my birthday girl!



It Would Be Easier if You Just Agreed with Me

My husband often likes to remind me when I told him, in a flurry of frustration, "It would be so much easier if you just agreed with me!" When it comes to certain design choices, Andris is often a much needed Yin to my Yang. I can often find myself in the "all neutrals" trap, when it comes to home decor (and my wardrobe, for that matter), but he pushes me into color and our house is definitely better for it.

A great example is our living room couch. We went couch shopping shortly after we bought our home on Hillside Lane. I, of course, went directly for any classic, striped nuetral that I could find. Andris, however, was insistent upon this sage green with a subtle herringbone texture. I was hesitant - a couch isn't something you replace every five years and it seemed like a big item to step out of the box on. I like traditional, classic looks - so I was reluctant to gamble on anything that might look dated in a few years.

The couch was scheduled to be delivered the morning of August 17th - the same morning that I went into labor with our first baby (coincidentally, I also had scheduled the Water Dept. and Salvation Army to come that day...the baby didn't seem to get the memo). When we arrived home with our daughter a few days later, I absolutely fell in love with the couch and have been thrilled with it ever since. The sage green almost acts as a colored neutral and really picks up the grey from our fireplace and contrasts so well with our dark wood floors.

So, yes, while it would be easier if my husband always agreed with me - without his insistence our home wouldn't be the same.

Love at First Sight

March, 2011

When I first stepped into our house on Hillside Lane - it was love. Just days before, I had gotten an email that this house was on the market. I'm not sure what made me look at the listing. While we had been looking at houses in the area for a year+, my husband and I had recently decided to stay in the city one more year before we would buy. That was Monday. Tuesday I got the email. Saturday we saw the house. By Monday they had accepted our offer. A friend once told me, "You can't dip your toe in real estate," and she was right, because when you find the house, you're all in.

After looking in northwest Evanston, we knew that, at our price point, what you got for your money wasn't a ton - and it almost always needed a lot of work (read: more $$$). When we walked into Hillside Lane, we couldn't believe it. The inside was brand new - the paint colors, the dark wood floors, the open layout, the exposed beams downstairs, but it still retained the charm of a Bleitz house built back in the 50s - honestly, it took me by surprise (check out the pictures below of how we first saw it when it was on the market). Immediately, I could SEE us living there. I was five months pregnant and I could already imagine our expected little one running around, us cooking dinner and entertaining friends and family for all types of occassions and dinner parties.

It was the beginning of a love story with our home and making it our own.