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6 Things Stories: Our Den

Someone I follow on Instagram recently shared the stories behind some of the items in her photo and I thought it was a really fun idea. I mean, when you think about it… basically every single thing in your house has a story behind it. So, I thought I’d put together a little “6 Things” series, starting with my Den.

Thing 1: Birds of Love

On the left side of our fireplace is a glass vase with sticks in it and little paper birds attached to them. If you take a closer look, you can see that each paper bird has a handwritten wish written on it. This is from my baby shower when I was pregnant with Jack and each guest wrote their wishes for us as a family. This is one of the most special gifts I’ve ever received and I love reading all the sweet words written on each bird!

Thing 2: The Home Sign

While my husband has many wonderful attributes, he typically is not a great gift giver. It’s okay, he knows this. And frankly, I’m pretty darn hard to buy for. A couple years ago, he decided that he really wanted to make me something special for Christmas. Something all by himself with his two hands… and NO help. He would sneak off to the garage time and time again, working hard in secret. And then on Christmas Day, I unwrapped this 100% homemade by my sweetie HOME sign. The “O” perfectly fits Jack’s old school picture and the sign sits in a place of honor.

Thing 3: Our Family Tree

I actually wrote a whole post about our Family Tree back in 2016 (you can read it here) and this is an actual tree illustration that traces my paternal family ancestry from 1699. I was able to get my hands on a digital version and update it before gifting a copy to each of my siblings for Christmas that year. Of course, now that there are more babies it will be time to do another update soon!

Thing 4: Great Bear Spring Company Crates

We use these crates to hold firewood, but they were originally used to hold 5-gallon glass bottles of water. Apparently, the Great Bear Spring company has been in business since 1888, and my best guess on dating these is that they came from around 1900.

So, how did I come to own them? Well, when my paternal grandfather passed away his house was FILLED with stuff. So. Much. Stuff. My grandfather was a huge collector of antiques and just generally cool old stuff. We were literally pulling antique soda crates out from underneath stair cubbies.

Anyways, cleaning the house out so that it could be listed for sale* was quite the undertaking and my dad asked everyone in the family to come over and take what they wanted.

Before I was able to get out there, my dad ran into an antiques appraiser lady. He told her to go on through the house and put anything she was interested in into a pile. So, she did. She made a big pile of stuff and left with the intention of soon coming back.

And then I got there… and my dad told me that was the pile that the antique lady collected. Some lady who isn’t even part of the family. Can you guess what I did? Yeah, I shopped that pile! She had a good eye… and I yoinked those crates (along with other stuff) right off of there into the back of our truck.

Oh, and if I remember correctly, she never even came back anyways. So, I appreciate that she did some of the ‘picking’ for me. And both Travis and I LOVE our firewood crates!

*Fun fact, my brother ended up buying the house so it’s still in the family!

Thing 5: My Old Bay Container

Here in Maryland we are known for putting Old Bay on basically everything – crabs, French fries, macaroni and cheese… everything! My brother and I did a 5k a few years ago (the Old Bay 5k) which was run by the McCormick Spice Company. While the race was nothing special – it was basically through an office park – the goodie bag was amazing. It was this giant Old Bay tin filled with a ton of different McCormick spices. While the spices are long gone, the tin is perfect for holding our fire starters with a bit of Maryland pride.

Thing 6: Jack’s Octopus

I love kid crafts. Like, SO MUCH. One of the things that I was so looking forward to when I had a kiddo was all those fantastic kid art projects that he would bring home from school. This one was from 2^nd grade (I think) and it’s so cool and I love it so much!

My ‘Week Off’ Projects

I took the week off work between Christmas and New Years because I’ve been feeling very burnt out and really needed some time off. A full week of NO work and NO online schooling sounded like heaven. My plans were to do some home projects I’ve been putting off, read a book or two, watch a movie or two, and keep up with my Peloton workouts.

We also knocked out a few doctor’s appointments – dentist appointments for me and Jack, and then a dermatologist appointment for me and a pediatrician appointment for Jack. I mean, we are LIVING LIFE over here. But really, when you have time off as a working parent, you need to get as much done as possible!

Week Off Project 1: Organizing the linen closet

Our linen closet is a catch-all for everything from extra items, towels, light bulbs and paper products. As we go through life, it gets more and more messy… until I finally take a couple hours to rip it apart. For my first project of the week, I went through all our medicine and threw out all the expired products and re-arranged everything so that it fit without attacking you when you opened the door. I also used some boxes that I saved from the recycle bin to better organize everything for free. This whole project probably took an hour or so.

Week Off Project 2: Organizing office crafts/art miscellaneous

Here’s another spot in my house that needed some attention. This organizer shelf contains a ton of different art/craft project supplies, extra office supplies, books and candles. I had thrifted some decorative boxes a while ago, so I spent some time sorting through everything, putting it into boxes with like items, and labeling everything. The entire square full of extra notebooks is a good reminder that I don’t need to buy anymore this year.

Week Off Project 3: Take down and rehang my gallery wall

I had a gallery wall in our living room that had been driving me nutty for years. There were too many frames and they often would be knocked off center… so everything just looked crooked to me all the time. I took every single frame down off the wall, filled the nail holes and then picked just a few frames to go back up. I was also planning to repaint the filled holes… until I found that the touch up paint was fully expired – it was clumpy and discolored and totally useless. Luckily the new frames covered most of the filled holes and the others are barely noticeable. So I’ll have to be okay with it until I decide to repaint the entire living room.

You can click through here to see the before, during and after:

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Also, I found this photo hanging kit at Home Depot that keeps each photo frame perfectly straight and it’s a life changer! It’s the PicGenie123 kit and they are super easy to install and then keep everything from moving once they are up on the wall. I love, love, love them and will definitely be using these elsewhere in the house!

Week Off Project 4: Organizing the stockroom

Yup, more organizing. This time I attacked our stockroom areas in our laundry room. This is the overflow area for food that won’t fit in our pantry. Once again, as life happens this area gets super messy as we just throw stuff on there when putting the groceries away. I took about 20 minutes and pulled everything off and rearranged everything. Now, I can see exactly what I have and won’t accidentally buy 2 more packs of cookies when I still have 3 on the shelf.

I’m so glad I finally had the time and energy to attack these organizing projects. Not only did it make me feel good to check some projects off my list. But I feel like I get to start 2021 with a clean(er) slate!

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Dining Room Planning: The After

Back in November, I shared that after years of looking I had finally found a dining room table that I liked. I mean, I liked it online… but I wasn’t sure if I’d like it in person. But I had HIGH HOPES (high apple pie in the skyyyyy hopes) that I’d love it. You can read that full post here: Dining Room Planning: The Before.

Well, it’s been a few weeks and I’ve finally received all the different bits and pieces for my new and improved dining room!

As a reminder, here is our previous dining area:

And here is what I ordered:

Sources: GrainWoodFurniture.com, WestElm.com, and Wayfair.com

Dining table: Grain Wood Furniture, Valerie Dining Table in Driftwood, $399
Dining chairs: West Elm Windsor Dining Chair, set of 2 for $199
Rug: Wayfair Alicea Striped Flatweave 5×8’ rug, $126.99

After the dining table and rug arrived, I had to wait and wait for the chairs to come. And while I was waiting, I thought I might actually want to go ahead and switch out our light too. I mean, we might as well go for the FULL before/after reveal, right?

After so much more clicking, my husband and I decided on the Joshua Rectangular Pendant from Overstock for $97.99.

The light was delivered right after Thanksgiving, so my dad came over and helped me install it. And by helped me, I mean he installed it while I held it in the air and handed him various tools.

With the new light, new table and new rug… I was almost convinced that I should cancel my chairs order. Everything looked so much better and I couldn’t imagine it possibly improving.

Then, on Monday I finally received my West Elm delivery. And OHMYGOSH you guys, our dining area is even more beautiful than I imagined. It is exactly what I was hoping for – a perfectly rugged table that will only get more beautiful over the years, a modern farmhouse kind of light that Joanna Gaines would totally have picked out, a neutral but soft rug that pulls the room together, and the most beautiful and heavy black enameled Windsor chairs that are somehow modern and classic all at once.

When I walk into my kitchen, the new set up just makes me feel so cozy. We have been in this house for almost 9 years now, and I finally feel like our entire first floor is exactly what I want.

So, let’s look at the big reveal!

Here is the before again: