Home is where you hang your mini jacket

We moved into our current house just one year ago today, and it has been a bit of a troubled journey making it our own.  If you remember, we had some home problems including several mouse incidents (refer to posts: “The mouse incident” and “The mouse incident, part two”), a roof to replace unexpectedly, a pool that wasn’t closed properly before an extremely cold winter, among some other small troubles.  The upside to our new nest is that we were able to spend the year making it our own.  And while we aren’t done, we have made a nice little abode here, complete with a newborn.

The easiest changes that you can make to your home to change the look without major remodeling include two big things: paint and fixtures.  Here’s what we did:

• Paint every room in the house, including ceilings and trim.  In this case, our house had original dark brown espresso trim, windows and doors.  We updated this look to white trim.
• Replace door handles.  Our espresso colored doors (now white) were complete with some old and outdated gold-ish round knobs.  Since we were taking doors off of hinges and repainting, it seemed a waste to put them back on with the old hardware, so we updated with brushed nickel hinges and lever handles.  We have a lot of doors, so this made an incredible difference in the look of the house.
• Update light fixtures and cabinet hardware.  We updated some light fixtures (e.g., nursery), salvaged some light fixtures with a little paint or rewiring, and changed cabinet hardware in key places (e.g., bathroom).

Nursery - before:

Nursery - after:

Guest bedroom - before:

Guest bedroom - after:

Master bedroom - before:

Master bedroom - after:

Bathroom - before:

Bathroom - after:

I am so happy to have a house we can call a home for our little family of three.  I look at our house as the first makings of the background of so many family memories.  This is the house that our kid(s?) will remember fondly as the cool house they grew up in.  It will be in the background of so many family photos, and has plenty of memorable spaces.  Home is where you hang your mini jacket.

Temporary art: Restoring my faith in humanity

Buffalo Street between Water Street and Broadway, Milwaukee

Earlier this year, Milwaukee's Third Ward was chosen as one of America's top art places in the country.  How exciting!  The Third Ward is arguably my favorite place in the city, and I am glad it is getting deserved recognition.  In fact, I love some of the things that are popping up all over the city that remind me about some of the people that are working for good in the brew city.

I was walking through the Third Ward this week with all of the time in the world (Ref: The Week of Katie) and looked up to see, for the first time, the picture above painted on the side of a building.  I wasn't sure if I had missed it all this time by watching for traffic, but after a brief bit of research, I found out it was just finished in the last two weeks.  It became a reality by the ideas and support of Hanson Dodge Creative and Lululemon.  See the scoop here.

I love this type of pop-up art, conceptualized by the people that live and work right in that community.  This shows a commitment to where they spend their time, and sharing the same positive energy with the world.  Just think how many moments of impact a simple mural like this will have over time.

An impactful example of more temporary art in the city can be seen while driving down Fond du Lac Avenue where 16 locations of temporary art can be found.  Some are paintings on boarded up buildings, some are messages tied from bright streamers on chain link fences.  In one of the parts of the city that can most benefit from the positive message, I hope non-denizens make the trip down Fond du Lac Avenue as well to see what impact a small visual effort can make.  Click here to see more of the story.  Below is a map of the art stops.

Via radiomilwaukee.org

Who are the ringleaders behind the temporary art beautifying these areas of the city with temporary art? In:Site Milwaukee. This is the same organization that brought us art on boarded up buildings in the Century City neighborhood off Capital Drive in 2011.  Artist Christopher Willey painted brightly colored animals with messages to address environmental issues in the neighborhood, and it was AWESOME.  I am proud to be in the city that is one of the best kept secrets in the Midwest for art and culture, if you know where to find it.

A blog about blogs. Blogs better than this one. You're welcome.

I am really enjoying reading some of my favorite sources for eye candy and inspiration because I am always comforted to find other people that think or feel in the same bizarre way that I do, or that I can look up literally anything.  The hubs and do about 15 combined searches a day on Wikipedia. 

Since one of my best hobbies is napping, I sometimes need inspiration for living the full life.  Here are some of my new and old favorites to read to ensure we are L-I-V-I-N.

Snippet and Ink: For the best eye candy, wedding or otherwise, check out Kathryn's blog.  The only downside about it is that I wish I could plan a wedding once a month.  There has never been better inspiration boards in the history of blogging, and this is the essence of style over just fashion.

Coco+Kelley: Speaking of style, not just fashion, I love to read Cassandra Lavalle's blog so that I can dream about being that put together.  I use her blog to peer pressure myself into taking my hot mess down a few notches.

Victor Schueller: For positivity and self help, I must recommend my friend Victor.  First, he is one of the most positive and genuine people that I know, so his attitude is legit.  When I listen to his radio podcasts for guest appearances, I am often like, oh, I don't buy into that shenanigans.  And then I am like, huh, good point.  Positude, people.

Jen Lancaster and Jenny Lawson: Jen Lancaster and Jenny Lawson's blogs, while not related, offer enough sarcasm, swearing, and better-than-fiction stories than I could ever live in a lifetime.  And believe me, I am trying to keep up.  These are for a good laugh and when your positive attitude is even annoying you.

Rick Steves' Travel Blog: Rick Steves is one magoo dude, but damn if he isn't always right.  Don't travel to Europe without Rick Steves and a nerdy back pack that you only wear with one strap.  Apparently, that is Rick's preferred method of travel, with backpack circa 1987.

22 Words: Random, fun and quirky inserts of things you never knew you needed. But you TOTALLY do.

Don't get me wrong, I am keeping up my black-belt napping skills.