sunshine time

after realizing the utes were playing usc, and utah was getting chilly... we decided we needed to plan a little weekender to cali for some

S U N S H I N E

T I M E

and to cheer on our utes, of course.
ellie's first vacation.

i was super nervous about the plane ride, but she slept the entire time and didn't make a peep. sometimes i think she knows her momma is a little stressed and so she thinks, "i'll just sit tight for now until mom can get a handle on things" haha. 

we stayed with one of my mom's best friends who spoiled us silly and gave us a place to crash. their last name is hampton, and so they call their home "hampton's inn" since they always get so many visitors (especially living right next to disneyland). 

the first days were spent on the beach, and saturday was game day in los angeles. it's interesting traveling with a baby- it's a much different vacation than bry and i are used to. we're used to a go-go-go pace, but this was much more relaxed. you know how sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation? well, this wasn't the case. it truly felt like a vacation and we came home so relaxed and ready to start another busy week.

our favorite thing of the trip may've been that ellie finally starting smiling- like, truly smiling in reaction to us. i'm sure we got so many stares everywhere we went. picture this... two adults literally huddled head to head inside her carseat saying, "come on ellie, just give us a smile," in the most high-pitched, baby voices. her smile is so big, and she's still getting the hang of it, but it warms my heart. 

we literally can't get enough of her:  her cheeks chubby-ing up, her thighs picking up a few more rolls, her "fake cry" when she wants some attention, her starting to coo, her big blue eyes that make everyone smile, her stretches when she arches her back with her hands over her head, and her funny faces that have us laughing every day. she is the sweetest.

Ellie's First Trip from Meg Miles on Vimeo.

 ^getting ready for take-off

 "bones" to the best beach day

^view from ruby's shake shack

 rose bakery cafe for breakfast. yummmm.

^can't get enough of those cuddles

^mickey mouse pancakes from hampton's inn :)

 
^don't let this sleeping beauty fool you... travis wilson made her cry three of the four quarters in this game. ;) she didn't like the earmuffs too much.

 ^a sad loss, but we still love our utes!

 those cheeks!!!

^#selfiefail but i love her eyes peering out on this one

 ^didn't love the freezing ocean too much

 ^everyone stopped us on balboa island to look at her with her wide open eyes. she was the hit in every store. :)

 ^the halloween decor on balboa island was on point

^(she's smiling at dad!)

xo

m

home sweet home

our life march-june of this year:

demo

painting

flooring

measuring

hammering

Home-Depoting

designing

sweating

covered in dust

assembling
creating

all day. every day.

this little fixer upper of ours has been more work than we'd ever imagined, but means so much more to us now and i wouldn't have it any different. it has always been a dream of ours to buy an older home and fix it up/design it to be our own. so, after selling our old condo, we decided to use that money to put into this project... and we went for it! 

here is a glimpse of some rooms in our new

H O M E  S W E E T  H O M E

luckily for me, bry was all in from the beginning. he couldn't wait to start demo, and has worked tirelessly to get everything done. i just let him tear things apart, and re-build... while he gives me full reign on the design and sticking to the budget. i think we make a pretty good team. :)

i thought it'd be fun to show some before and after pics of our little place because i've had a bunch of people ask... so here you go:

 B E F O R E

{kitchen}

D U R I N G

 getting that flooring (vinyl + tile) out was a nightmare... but so glad to see it go!

cabinet boxes painted

oak wood flooring going in!^

A F T E R

^quite the difference, right!? we love it. the kitchen was our biggest interior project. 

*to save us money, we kept the boxes to our cabinets, and just had the doors professionally made and added to the fronts. we sold the old appliances to buy the new ones... and in the meantime met and found our exterior painter, who bought our old microwave. :) the oak wood flooring and countertops + sink were installed professionally as well. but as for the tiling, painting, installation of hardware/faucet/appliances, sealing the window... that was the work we did.

B E F O R E

{living room}

D U R I N G

^we had so much help from family on this place... especially my parents. i don't know how we could've done this without them. i will forever be grateful for that.

i've never been so happy to have finished painting something before. painting the whole upstairs ceiling was a BEAST. never again....

 A F T E R

*hope you don't mind the halloween decor. this room was mostly cosmetic- the biggest project here was transforming that old mantle into the new one we have now with hidden compartments in the benches. we re-painted the walls + mantle, tiled around the fireplace, and bry built the benches to the side of the mantle so that they each have a lid for underneath storage (as well as serve the purpose of extra seats). that gas fireplace was such a hastle to clean, but it keeps everything cozy. i'm so happy we finally have a real mantle haha. the shelf that served as our "mantle" in our old condo was getting old. can't wait to string some stockings across it for christmas.

B E F O R E

{basement}

 D U R I N G

A F T E R

still not sure what to do about the red brick... may paint it, but if you have suggestions, let me know! i'm a little stumped with this one.

^the basement had that old wood paneling which may've been quite cool in the 60's, but we wanted it out! also, whoever installed the gas fireplace for the basement had it off center by about two feet (who does that!?). so, that created a little bit of a problem for our renovations, but we made it look a whole lot better, i think. now we have extra storage to the side of the fireplace (can you tell we like extra storage), and bry did such an amazing job building the new cabinets! we put our old furniture down here, and still want to create two bedrooms with the space we have, but that can wait a little.

B E F O R E

{backyard}

D U R I N G 

A F T E R

^sooo happy to get the old knee-high weeds and old/overgrown trees out! we couldn't believe how much of a difference the new grass made!

*for privacy reasons, i'm not posting pictures of the front of our house... but it went through the biggest transformation of all. we ended up painting, installing a new front door, cleaning out the light fixtures, rearranging the landscaping of the gardens, laying new sod, repainting the rusted mailbox, and installing a new garage door to make it look a little more updated. if you want to see it, come pay us a visit!

B E F O R E

{dining room}

 D U R I N G

A F T E R

*this ended up being one of my favorite rooms because of all the natural and pretty light that pours in. i was glad we turned this addition into a dining room instead of an extra play room. it's so fun to have a room to entertain in, and that hutch that we repainted serves as a great place for storing extra dinnerware/decorating supplies, as well as displays some fun things from our travels. i still have a piece of decor coming to fill that space in the middle of the hutch, but it's pretty much complete.

we couldn't be happier with how everything turned out, and even though we still have projects to do, it's so nice to be settled in! i'll post ellie's nursery pics soon to those that wanted to see it as well.

*if you have questions about where we got certain things, i will do my best to get back to you. keep in mind that i'm a master-thrift shopper and love finding things that mimic designer pieces for more affordable prices. so, many things you see in these pictures i've either made, found at consignment stores, bought off ksl, thrifted, and waited (not always patiently) for sales to appear before buying. being on a strict budget made things tricky, but we loved the challenge of recreating spaces without breaking the bank. and, it makes everything so much more rewarding!

xo

m