The Week in Review | April 21-25

Hope you enjoyed our week back in the blogosphere. Here’s what some other busy bloggers have been up to…

Week in Review

  1. Looks like I’m not the only one hosting an Easter Brunch! Can’t wait to try these Blackberry & Lavender Honey Nut Thins from Leah at Freutcake. And on a log slice platter, no less! A woman after my own heart!
  2. Jessica at Little Baby Garvin fueled up with this festive iced coffee bar on Easter Sunday.
  3. And what a spread from Pink Pistachio! Drooling over those cinnamon rolls!
  4. So glad it looks like most of the country had a beautiful sunny spring day on Easter! Kelly at Talk of the House welcomed the sunshine with a homemade forsythia wreath.
  5. And Rene at Cottage and Vine showed off her gorgeous window boxes with plant-by-plant breakdown.

Sun Porch Makeover

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with this sun porch. It’s a small room that juts off the back of the house. You walk out our mudroom door and there’s a back door to the left leading to the yard and a small space to the right with walls of windows. It’s unheated and poorly constructed. So much so that it’s visibly leaning to one side. The supports under the right side are indeed sinking into the earth. Not detrimentally so but to someone who firmly believes in the Monica Method of “if it’s not a right angle, it’s a wrong angle” this is highly irritating.

The porch was this sort of Pool Liner Blue (yes Benjamin Moore, you can use that color I just coined) when we bought the house.

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It was pretty early on in the renovation when we determined that the narrow dark door that led to this porch needed to go. We replaced it with a set of gorgeous french doors taking the view from the kitchen to the porch from this…

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to this…

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… minus the jumbo roll of insulation or whatever that is out there. The porch did become sort of a catch all for old appliances, tools, etc. during the renovation. I found myself constantly hiding things on that porch in order to tidy up the construction zone. I have to say, the dishwasher and stove that lived out there for nine months probably didn’t help that slant any.

In time, we will eventually need to rip this puppy down and build it right and strong and lovely. But for now, we’ve done the best we could with a temporary makeover that is sure to last us a couple of seasons.

And as for the reveal… you’ll have to tune in next week!


Easter Brunch & Family Charades Tournament

There’s nothing that says Happy Easter like a Family Charades Tournament! Well at least it did for us! Too old for egg hunts and too young for sitting around watching each other eat ham, we decided to host a lively Easter Brunch with some friendly competition.

The morning started with two of my favorite things- preparation and mini eggs. Having cleaned the house from top to bottom on Saturday, I staged my table and had all my platters and serving utensils ready to go.

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This beautiful arrangement came on Friday from my best friend Jamie (you’re the best James) and was the perfect size for my living room.

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These little moss bunnies along with this birdcage candle holder that I filled with some faux eggs served as my centerpiece.

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The table filled up nicely with bagels, pastries, a big fruit salad, my asparagus galettes, corn beef hash from Mum (to satisfy those pesky meat-eaters) and two beautiful quiches from my beautiful Aunt Lorraine- and despite her name, no they were not Quiche Lorraines.

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It was a successful Easter Brunch! And after a couple of mimosas, the Family Charades Tournament commenced.

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Forgive the blurry photo but I couldn’t resist Jared acting out Plunging a Toilet!

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We were actually all much better at charades than we thought- although Scooby Doo, as we all found out, is very difficult to act out. Nice try Aunt Carina! In the end, Team A defeated Team B by just one point despite a last stitch effort by cousin Rachel. We’ll get ’em next year team!

 

 


And We’re Back!

Sometimes you just have to step back from documenting your life to actually live it. I hope you forgive my lack of posts this past month but boy do I have things to share now!

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April 15th marked so many anniversaries. I shed some tears with all the tributes to the Boston Marathon Bombings but smiled at all the joyful stories that came out of it- especially the love stories! The day also marked one year when Jared and I stepped into our house for the first time alone. So excited to start our renovation we ripped wallpaper off the walls and carpet up with our bare hands.

It’s certainly been a year to remember. And though we loved cozy, lazy weekends in our home through this cold winter, the spring buds on the trees have us itching for more projects!

Things to look forward to this spring and summer include:

  • Backyard cleanup/planting
  • Sun porch makeover
  • Basement cleanup/storage solutions
  • Trip to Florida to visit my brother and his family (including our new niece who should grace us with her presence any day now!)
  • Revival of a family vacation (We’ll be spending a week at a New Hampshire cottage that our family went to for almost 30 years!)
  • Jared’s trip to Italy to visit our friend Kenny stationed in Naples (which could result in random house projects to take my mind off how much I will miss him!)
  • Much more!

As for this week, I hope to share some photos from our Easter Brunch we hosted here yesterday and reveal our sun porch makeover!

Happy Patriot’s Day/Marathon Monday to all… even if you don’t live in Massachusetts.