Real Life Notes

A Week in May

May 24, 2013 by Jill Leave a Comment

What have we been up to lately? I definitely owe a family post, so here goes! Last Saturday, after breakfast with Pops, we walked down to the park by Pops' house. After a long time playing, Jaye was hot and thirsty. She clearly needed a treat from the ice cream truck. "Mmmm." On Tuesday, Jaye and I met up with her friend Sam at the Galleria play area. She and Sam sweetly shared their snacks with each other, even though for the most part they didn't interact much. Baby playdates are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: jaye, life Tagged With: firsts, going places, playground, weekend

Memorial Day: Carry the Load

May 24, 2013 by Jill Leave a Comment

This post is sponsored by DFW GMC Dealers. I was compensated for my time. However, all opinions are my own, and I believe in the Carry the Load organization. This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. I have to admit, the first thing that jumps into my head about Memorial Day is just "Sweet! Phil will be home on Monday!" We're going to spend Saturday and Sunday with my grandparents in Oklahoma, and it will be nice to still have a day off once we get back home. But Memorial Day is not actually … [Read more...]

Filed Under: sponsored post Tagged With: holidays

Oops! We did it again.

May 20, 2013 by Jill 4 Comments

We bought another house! Before I go any further, I have to clarify: Do not do this at home. Phil and I firmly believe that buying a house is a bad idea. We've been telling each other that repeatedly as we go through this process. Some of our belief is based on the fact that we probably shouldn't have bought our first house at all. We were renting an apartment but were ready to move up in the world. We fell for the false schpiel of "renting is throwing money down a hole; owning a house is a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: home, life Tagged With: buying a house, richardson house

Jumping Right In! Spring Project Life Free Printable

May 17, 2013 by Jill 3 Comments

I mentioned on Wednesday that I started a new project called Project Life. When I start something, I usually just jump right in! So today, I've got a spring Project Life free printable for you! In my current Project Life layout, I didn't have a lot of pictures, so I wanted something else cute to fill up a space. So I whipped up this spring Project Life free printable. It has a fun quote from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I remember my mom reading that book aloud to us when we … [Read more...]

Filed Under: project life Tagged With: free printable, seasons

Furniture Swoon #CB2NovogratzBrasilSweepstakes

May 17, 2013 by Jill Leave a Comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of CB2 for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine. Several things may have happened this week. Exciting things. It's possible that we bought a house. It's possible that it has a lovely back porch. It's possible that CB2 and Robert and Courtney Novogratz are partnering in a new line of furniture and home decor awesomeness at CB2. It's also possible that I want almost everything in the line to spiff up aforementioned lovely back porch. The … [Read more...]

Filed Under: outside, sponsored post Tagged With: back porch, richardson house

On Beginning Project Life

May 15, 2013 by Jill 6 Comments

So I've started this new project for memory keeping and documenting every day life, called "Project Life." I'm here to tell you what beginning Project Life is like! It's partly to blame for my recent blogging slowdown. The idea is basically to take more pictures and document the everyday details of your life. But not to stress out and freak out about perfect "scrapbook" pages. For example, here's one of the first pages I created. It's from January of 2012. I'm clearly not a "scrapbooker," but … [Read more...]

Filed Under: project life

A Hodge Podge of Things

May 13, 2013 by Jill 2 Comments

Things I haven't gotten around to blogging about: Our awesome spring break trip to Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells. We went with some friends (Phil's best friend from high school) who have a two-year old little boy. It was totally stress-free and perfect. The kids napped at the same time, the kids splashed and had a great time at the water park, and then the kids went to bed at the same time, and we played games for several hours. It was a really fun, relaxing trip. The perfect … [Read more...]

Filed Under: blogging, life, outside, tidbit Tagged With: garden, going places, lists, traveling, vacation, weekend

An Evolving Gallery Wall

May 8, 2013 by Jill 15 Comments

The gallery wall in our living room is changing. It's been evolving over the last few months that we've lived here, and it's finally starting to look more like the inspiration image. Source: Curbly via Pinterest, of course. In September, a few months after moving in, I wrote about hanging art and starting the gallery wall. At that time, the living room wall looked like this: It was pretty skimpy to say the least. But now that we've seen the Before, I can show you the After and tell you more … [Read more...]

Filed Under: home decor Tagged With: gallery wall, living room, lorrie house, pinterest challenge, wall art