Call me an old soul, but I love actual books you hold in your hands. I’m not a Kindle kind of girl. To me, there is nothing better than curling up in bed and diving into a great book! This also applies to coffee table books- hello, inspiration! I have been gathering coffee table books for as long as I can remember and have quite the collection now- it’s actually my signature way to decorate. You will find a stack of “coffee table” books with a shell or trinket styled on top in EVERY room of our house.
My mom, sister and I have always been into interior decorating and my mom gifts us the coolest books for inspiration with a handwritten note inside. These are books I love to display & will treasure forever. I have decided to follow suit because the sentiment is so special to me and this Father’s Day we got Nick “Lost Fish”. It was fitting as we took our first ride in our boat to celebrate the day. Now it’s documented inside the cover with the girls adorable little signatures.
While I can’t link all the books I have in my house because I would need 1/2 a day to do so …here are some of my absolute favorites. Enjoy!
It’s been a minute since I have posted anything over here. Mostly because that quarantine forced homeschool/work from home life took every last bit of my energy and by the end of the day all I wanted to do was drink wine and binge shows on Netflix. Once the girls were officially on summer break and my 9-5 work schedule resumed, I felt a sense of calm. Maybe a little too calm because if you know me, I do better when I’m busy and have a project or two happening.
Fast forward one week and we had drawn out plans to build chicken coop and had six new baby chicks on our back porch- Nellie, Mae, Alice, Goldie, Nora and Clara.
I never imagined myself as a mama hen holding dried meal worms and scrolling through blogs about chickens but here I am, and I love it. The girls absolutely adore the chicks and ask to give them “recess” out of the metal trough 24/7. We have an existing shed in the back of our property that Nick is building the “Chick-Inn” coop off of and we will transfer the girls within the next few weeks! Stay tuned.
A few months ago Nick and I were talking about how we haven’t hosted an ADULT ONLY party in years. In fact, it’s been about 7 years because #kids. We decided to claim NYE ‘19 and host a soirée going into the new decade. If you know me at all you know I LOVE throwing parties, even though they are usually for my girls. Either way, I usually go all out! Nick and I put a list together of our closest friends and I got an adorable invite made. Then the planning began…
I knew from the start that I wanted to create an entire charcuterie table because it would offer so many different options of snacks for everyone throughout the night. I bought everything from Trader Joe’s + Costco as it was most cost effective. We even got all the champagne, wine and beer from the two stores. I am not gonna lie, I was a little nervous that the table would be tough to put together but it was so easy (with help from my sister + BFF). We covered the table with craft paper and placed boards down that would have the meat and cheese on them. I had a festive champagne tower as the center piece and we just started loading it up!
My mom convinced me to have “Nothing bundt Cake” as the desserts and they did not disappoint. The leftovers didn’t go to waste 😉
I used our farmhouse sink as a giant cooler for all of the drinks. We had a separate tub for the champagne and a small “mule” area- which was a huge hit for the guys.
We had three cornhole games going allll night, major fireworks and fire pits to hang around. It turned out exactly as I had hoped and we had a blast ringing in 2020 with our friends!
I had so much fun making the girl’s shared room extra festive this year! Target for the win (as always!) They had a sale on Christmas sheets so I picked these up for under $25 a set! I added Stress Away + Peppermint essential oils to my wool dryer balls so their sheets smell like candy canes!
We picked out very girlie ornaments & tinsel for their little tree and I am keeping my fingers crossed that Ava doesn’t knock it down at night from her crib.
Harper & Emmy made a paper countdown to Christmas chain to add to their room. This was a fun craft for them to do together with minimal arguments until they started to talk about who gets to rip the first one down on December 1st!
I also pulled out our really “tan” Elf named Jack. My mom didn’t know there were different elves to choose from, bless her. We love his magic around the holidays and definitely put Jack in the girls room a little early to watch their behavior – don’t judge haha. Who else does “Elf on the Shelf” tradition each year- I need new ideas! Thanks as always for following along friends!
When we bought our house back in 2014 we were a family of three. It’s a three/two but is on three acres of land, so we knew if we decided to stay once our family grew we had the option of adding on. Well, we are now a family of five and still haven’t added on! Embracing one of my favorite quotes I suppose, “Love grows best in little houses, with fewer walls to separate. Where you eat and sleep so close together, you can’t help but communicate. And think if we had more room between us, think of all we’d miss. Love grows best in houses just like this.” Also, we live in Naples, FL and it isn’t cheap- so we are making the most of our three bedroom bungalow.
We decided to embrace the season we are in (TOYS) and transform our front room, that is a waste of space, into a playroom for the girls. We ordered the Billy bookcases from Ikea to store puzzles, games, Calico Critters, Barbies, etc. That was the plan. Until Nick was away on a guys trip for his birthday last weekend and I started moving stuff around. I will admit, I am a serial decorator- I just love creating new spaces! Once I moved the eye sore of a Barbie house into the front room I cringed. There is no way I could walk into that everyday. So I made the executive decision to switch Ava’s nursery into a playroom and move all three girls into one bedroom. This was the best decision ever! Nick wasn’t super on board with the shared bedroom idea at first but after seeing how well they all sleep together he’s a fan! We are still in the process of the building the bookcases to use for storage in the front room. Now let’s get to all the details….
Shared Bedroom: I love the idea of having a room dedicated to sleep with a minimal amount of toys. I am sure more dolls and Barbies will move their way into this room but for now it’s a quiet space for reading & dreaming! The transition of having all three girls sleep together was a breeze. We are firm believers in sound machines and essential oils for the best sleep ever. All three have an 8pm bedtime and now that school is back in session, Harper & Emmy are ready for bed and ignore any “chit chat” from Ava. I also think Ava feels included and safer in her new room because she is sleeping past 6:30am (never slept in past 5:30 since she was born). All the happy dances over here!!
Playroom: Most of the decor from Ava’s nursery was repurposed in here and I went with a whimsy coastal theme. Harper is SUPER into art so I knew we needed a space for that and of course, homework. Ikea wall desks are AMAZING for small spaces! We had extra knobs from the kitchen reno so we added on the drawers and found these chairs on Amazon. Touches of nostalgia make me happy- the girls great grandpa Brower’s ukulele is displayed, along with some of my old books, and a blue mason jar from our wedding filled with shells from Harper’s first trip to the beach.
Baskets and bins are a lifesaver for storage of stuffed animals and baby dolls. Target always has fun ones!
The girls love the Barbie house so I just have to embrace it and at least I can keep the door shut. We also have a play kitchen & karaoke machine for hours of fun 😉
Now that it’s all complete, I’m wondering why we didn’t make this switch sooner? Both rooms make me happy and are both functional & fun!
I have always dreamed of having a magical playhouse for the girls to play “family”, do crafts, or just have a few good ‘ol tea parties in. Nick and I bought a cedar wood KidKraft playhouse on Wayfair back in April and decided this summer we would do the damn thing. By “we” I meant “me”. I was determined to build, paint, hack, and decorate this baby all on my own. Girls can do anything, right? Well, about 5 minutes into me reading the directions I threw in the towel on my solo project and begged for help. It took about 4 hours total for us build this gem.
Painting the playhouse was my favorite part because I actually really love to paint (I get that from my mom). We chose Behr Marquee exterior paint in white for the base of the house and interior, Pink Quartz for the door, and Rust-oleum black spray paint for the windows and accessories. I am not going to lie, I was sore after a FULL weekend of painting 3 coats! I am so glad I painted the interior roof white PRIOR to building because I can only imagine how much more paint I would have had on my body and in my hair- I was covered just from painting. HACK- use Lemon essential oils to remove paint from skin 😉
The little details made such a huge impact on the overall look. The “3” address number was from Home Depot, for our tiny girl gang. The black bell from Amazon is just the cutest ever and it’s a good thing we live on 3 acres because any neighbors would hate us by now! The hanging wall rack with pots will be fun to switch up for each season and was also from Amazon (flowers from Michael’s Craft Store). Nick put 2 puck lights inside to keep it bright once the sun goes down. We originally were going to put the playhouse in the yard but want it to hold up for a while and summer rain in Florida can be brutal (oh, and hurricanes). Instead, we placed a piece of soft turf on our back enclosed patio which will also keep bugs away and it has become our favorite hangout! Nick can grill out and I can enjoy a glass of wine while they play 😉
I can’t wait to decorate the playhouse and make it festive for each holiday and watch the girls make so many memories in it! There is no place like home. Who’s ready to tackle building a playhouse for their kiddos? It’s a lot of freaking work, but you won’t regret it.
Brower Bungalow 