Before & After: Exposing a Brick Chimney Under Plaster Walls

We've sort of been all over the place with house repairs around the upstairs of our home lately — we've been tackling a few plumbing issues, repairing wall damage in two rooms and even opened up the plaster wall in Brandon's room to expose the brick chimney hiding underneath. While we've got a lot going on, the most solid progress has taken place in Brandon's room and we're finally at a point where we share a pretty substantial "before and after" progress update for this space! As you can see from the picture above, Basil asked if he could do the honors of revealing today's makeover.

Halloween Skeleton Cookies

While our niece, Virginia, stayed with us over the past week, we'd lined up several little activities to do with her after picking her up from kindergarten each day. Tuesday was cookie day, and with Halloween in mind, we decided on skeletons!

Weekend Basics

As mentioned last week, we had out 5 1/2 year old niece staying with us last week as a house guest while her parents were out of town. As you can probably imagine, she kept us busy and on our toes in the best of ways. Highlights in between school included the pumpkin patch, our first time watching Frozen, baking cookies, and a trip to the Science Museum of Virginia to see Pandas: The Journey Home in the IMAX theatre.

Over on eHow: Floating Fall Leaf Placecards

These autumn leaf-shaped place cards are simple to make and add a touch of seasonal whimsy to any tablescape. I made these in about an hour for our latest eHow project post, using actual fallen leaves from around our neighborhood as the templates for the leaf shapes.

Over on Etsy: The Poison Apple Halloween Cocktail

With Halloween around the corner, we've been getting in the seasonal spirit, concocting up a handful of sweet ideas. Yep, we've really been getting our "creative juices" flowing, har har har...

Weekend Basics: Pumpkin Patching it!

Over the weekend we took the chance to hit up the pumpkin patch with my sister's children, which is shaping up to be a fun yearly tradition.

Fancy That!

Original image by Tori Watson, Marvelous Things Photography

Today we're back again, sharing all the smaller things we're into (or fancying, hence the series name) that might not fit into a single post for one reason or another. Sometimes there might be a long list of randomness, other times it might be a single gem — whatever the case, here's what we're into right now.

Over on eHow: How to Cut & Recycle Wine Bottles Into Modern Glass Vases

Ever wondered how to cut glass bottles to recycle into everyday useful pieces like vases, drinking glasses or even candles? So did we — so we tested the process on several different bottles, then detailed what method worked best in our latest project post for eHow.

Basil's Blanket Season (aka Call Me Crazy)

Happy hump day! Well, we can tell the autumn weather is truly starting to set in now that "Basil's blanket season" has returned in full swing. What's Basil's blanket season? Well, it's the 5 months out of the year that Basil gets spoiled with his own throw blanket while lounging about — tell me we're not alone on this?

Sage Butternut Squash Gratin Recipe

It is officially fall in our neck of the woods, which means the food focus shifts from outdoor grilling and quick meals to slow cooking and comforting casserole dishes. After receiving a big old butternut squash in our CSA box last week I got to thinking about how to use it...

Weekend Basics

Not sure about you, but it's been a pretty dreary string of days here in Richmond — lots of cloud cover, rain and general bleakness:

 

Days like these make us want to hibernate at home under the throw blankets, which we did a great deal of over the weekend — Sunday Football and The Walking Dead anyone? You know who was right there to keep us company and show us how it's done best:

Fancy That!

Original image by Tori Watson, Marvelous Things Photography

Today we're back again, sharing all the smaller things we're into (or fancying, hence the series name) that might not fit into a single post for one reason or another. Sometimes there might be a long list of randomness, other times it might be a single gem — whatever the case, here's what we're into right now.

Over on eHow: DIY Geometric Concrete Bookends

One of our latest projects involved playing around with quick-drying concrete to make these geometric bookends that are now complementing our cookbooks on our kitchen shelf — and we're digging the modern architectural feel they ended up with!

Indoor Office Plant Updates: We've Got New Rubber Tree Growth!

Just wanted to pop in to share our excitement in finding what we're calling these little "rubber plant babies" sprouting up from our office plant:

Fed Up Movie — Have You Seen It?

Over the weekend we watched the newly released documentary, Fed Up. We'd been eager to see it ever since previews starting coming out earlier this year and pushed it to the top of our queue as soon as we saw it hit Netflix.

Fancy That!

Original image by Tori Watson, Marvelous Things Photography

Today we're back again, sharing all the smaller things we're into (or fancying, hence the series name) that might not fit into a single post for one reason or another. Sometimes there might be a long list of randomness, other times it might be a single gem — whatever the case, here's what we're into right now.

Over on eHow: DIY Rustic Tree Slice Chalkboard

Our house is continuing to look more and more like autumn, especially with the addition of this rustic pumpkin shaped DIY chalkboard we made in our latest project post for eHow.

Vegan Red Lentil Stuffed Acorn Squash Recipe

Can anyone else believe it is October 1st already? We love fall here in Richmond as the leaves change and the streets of our neighborhood become about as beautiful as any we have seen. With autumn comes all of the flavors it has to bring — greens, root vegetables and of course hearty squash varieties! Acorn squash is one of our favorite fall varieties to cook with and I've been looking forward to sharing one of my favorite ways to prepare it here on the blog.