My dog Brodie

I used to celebrate my dogs' birthdays when they came around, but after two kids, it's hard to make an additional effort to remember.  I remember about a month later.  Well, this past November, my dog Brodie turned 8.  This post is about him! 

He is the best dog I'ver ever had...and that's saying a lot because I've had a few pretty awesome dogs in my life.  He is a full blood pitbull.  We brought him home when he was six weeks old and weighed 6 pounds.  Our chihuahua was bigger than he was.  Now, he weighs 70 pounds.  Even though he is 8 years old, he still has the heart of a puppy.  He frolicks in the backyard and plays ball with all his heart.   The fact that he is a pitbull makes me love him more.  For those of you who are prejudiced against pitbulls, you need to meet Brodie.  He is a people dog and loves attention.  I have raised my two boys with him in our house and my boys love him and he loves my boys--especially when they feed him human food!  Sloan, my baby, loves to climb on him and pat him on the head.  Brodie just lays there and lets him do it.  If he doesn't want that kind of attention, he gets up and walks away.  He has never been aggressive towards either Jackson or Sloan. 

He is the perfect family dog!  Do some research on pitbulls.  Originally, they were bred to be people dogs and their personalities reflect this.  It is a horrible horrible circumstance that some people have chosen to train and teach these dogs to fight and be aggressive.  That is not their nature, and if raised in a loving home that teaches them boundaries and the correct way to behave, they are the most wondeful pets!

Happy birthday, Brodie!  We love you (even if you are spoiled rotten).

T'is the Season!

Now that we've loosened our belt buckles after a good Thanksgiving meal, it's time to go all out and decorate for Christmas!  Here's a look at some more of the decor in our house.  I've always loved Christmas and decorating for Christmas, but it seems even more special and fun now that Jackson is old enough to get into it and help me and appreciate the decorations!  How fun Christmas is with children!!



My husband had a little scare when he saw this wreath on the door.  He thought I'd screwed in a hook or nailed into the door to hang the wreath.  Nope, just one of those 3M release hooks!




Since our fireplace does not have a traditional mantel, I had to find an alternative place to hang the boys' stockings...





yes, we already decorated our gingerbread house.  Jackson has been asking for days to make it!



Let the decorating begin...

I started Christmas decorating...before Thanksgiving!  Usually, I wait until the day after, but last year I started and finished all my Christmas decorating before Thanksgiving because my sweet little Sloan was going to be born a few days after Thanksgiving and I didn't want to have to come home from the hospital with a new baby to care for and a whole house to decorate.  This year, I was excited about my new entry table that I had just finished painting. Soooooo...I decided to start there.  I probably won't finish before THanksgiving, but it's a good start, I'd say!  What do you think?



Does the glass globe look familiar? It's the buoy that I bought in Canton, but I took off the roping.  I like it much better this way.



Have I mentioned that I have a thing for decorative birds?  Don't really care for real, live birds, but something about having them in my decor makes me smile.  I bought this little guy on my trip to Canton too.

Entry Table project

The entry in my house is not really a grande foyer like you see in some homes, but my house is craftsman style, and grand is not what the craftsman style is about.  However, there is some space there to have an entry table and I finally found an old piece of furniture that I thought filled the space perfectly.  It's got storage too!  I ended up painting it a metallic silver. I'll show another "after" picture of it all decorated for Christmas soon too!


The dresser has a nice shape to it.  It's a little on the traditional side, but I thought I could make it a little more modernized by painting it a metallic silver and dressing it up with modern accessories.

  

I went ahead and painted the original hardware too.  I don't think it was original to the dresser, but I didn't mind it and it turned out nice after it was painted.



The Mudroom...the most underrated room.

The mudroom.  This room has become the single most crucial room in my house(s) since I've had children.  It's the place where everyone (including myself) puts their junk when they first walk into the house.  It's where shoes go, sometimes it's where laundry is done, like mine, because my washer/dryer is in it, it's where the dog sleeps, and it's where most of the mud and dirt and leaves and grass land first so that the rest of my house is spared. 

In our new house (picture below), I designed our mudroom to be the same room as the laundry room because of convenience.  It's great to throw dirty clothes/socks right into the wash instead of trekking all taht dirty stuff upstairs to the hampers in the closets.  My mudroom is also where my dog sleeps and eats.  The mudroom definitely lives up to its name in my house.  If you don't have a designated mudroom in your house, you can still create an area that serves the same purpose.  A section of wall or hallway that leads from your back door or the door to the garage is a great place to hang a shelf, put up some hooks and maybe even a bench, if there is room.  You can even get a cabinet maker to build you some cubbies and shelves if you want the built in look. 

The mudroom.  The most utilized room in my house.



This is the picture I found of a mudroom that I used for inspiration when designing the mudroom in our new house.  It's much cleaner than reality...




This is my mudroom and laundry room.  I gave my cabinet makers the picture above and they reproduced the bench and coat rack area perfectly!  Mine is a little messier than the one above, but atleast the mess stays here instead of overflowing into the rest of the house--namely the kitchen, which I hate a messy kitchen!




I bought these bins at Target and love them.  Each boy has his own to put things like shin guards, trucks, toys, goggles, you name it, inside them.




Perhaps the best thing about my mudroom, is the pocket door to the kitchen.  I can close it off and not see the mess (and keep my dog in the mudroom).  I hung a mirror between the kitchen door and the door to the garage so that I could give myself the once over before heading out the door...you know, don't want to leave the house with baby spit up on the side of my face!






Better than the Box Recipe: Mac n Cheese.

My 4 year old and 11 month old both love macaroni and cheese.  I buy the whole grain kind in the box that costs 89 cents and I buy the organic "velveeta-ish" kind that costs a lot more.  I, and they, have grown tired of both kinds from the box, so tonight I decided that I was skilled enough to make homemade mac and cheese in 10 minutes.  I figured an added bonus would be that there would be no preservatives or extra "junk" in it!  It actually turned out great, so I am sharing my improvised recipe.  Measurements are not precise, so adjust as you see fit- especially depending on the type/amount of pasta you use.

Ingredients:
-1 cup uncooked miniature pasta shells (semolina or whole wheat is best)
-1/2 cup milk (any kind but skim)
-2 Tbsp flour
-2 Tbsp butter
-3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
-salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta in boiling water until done.
In separate saucepan, heat milk and flour over medium high heat, whisking flour into milk.  Heat to simmering, then add the butter, stirring until butter is melted.  Add mozzarella cheese, stirring until melted.
Combing pasta and cheese sauce.  Serve and enjoy!!

House paparazzi

(Note:  Every so often, I will have a "House Paparazzi" post.  These will cover houses that I find and visit and have a certain liking for---usually parade homes or new model homes.)

Ever since we've been together, my husband and I have always loved houses and looking at houses.  We love to stop by an open house when we see one as we drive down a street.  Before we had kids, we used to visit my parents in Dallas and then take a day to visit open homes and model homes.  Sometimes (shhh..don't tell anyone) we would find new houses for sale that were not technically "open", but find an open door or window and go look inside.  Hey, it's not breaking and entering. We just walked around and had a look-see.  Anyway, we love looking at houses and we still try to visit new homes when we can, but it's harder with children in tow.  Here's some pics of a parade home in Austin that we visited last summer.  I was really inspired by this house and used some of that inspiration when designing the interior of our new house.


I love the red windows and the metal roof (but metal roofs are bad for cell phone reception)

Forgive the slight blurriness (camera issues--or operator error) but I loved the light fixtures in the kitchen- very modern, but classic.

The cabinets were shaker style, but I thought having them all wood toned made the kitchen a little dark for my taste. 

L.O.V.E. the transom window above the half bath.  Really wished I could have done this in my house, but I wasn't working with an unlimited budget.  Also loved the frosted glass door, but not sure that would feel very private for those using the bathroom. 

Beautiful stair railing. 

Loved this use of a dark gray glass subway tile in one of the secondary bathrooms.  Almost did this in our house for my boys' bathroom, but decided on less glass tile--so as to be more budget friendly.