Our Home we built, the "Greystone Manor"

We've lived in our dream house for three years now. This house is a collaboration of design work between my husband and myself, down to every last detail. Building homes together is something we both love and enjoy. So today I am going to share some photos of our home that our friend, and professional photographer Tim Furlong took. Our home was built by my husband Jason Black, and you can find his new company website here.

A tour of our home....

Wall color is Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams

Wall color is Grant Beige by Benjamin Moore

Granite surround is Calcutta Gold Marble

Sea Salt on the walls again, it's a common color theme throughout our home.

Cabinet color was a custom color blend. We have quartzite on the island.

Bar stools are from Ballard Design

We custom designed our railing

Sea Salt is the wall color

Sleeping porch

Sleeping porch with hanging beds

If you would ever like to share or repost our photos in a blog post or other publication please email me. Information is in the contact me area on my home page. :) And stay tuned, because we are building a new home and can't wait to share photos with you. You can follow me on Instagram here, or my husband and his building company here.

XO~Gretchen

Love Notes for Valentines Day

Hope the new year is treating you well. So far I have been keeping up with my New Years Resolutions, and it's been keeping me busy, which is a good thing. Since Valentines Day is less than a month away I wanted to share with you an easy little project that you can make and use starting now through Valentines Day. It's my love note heart project. The purpose of this project is to create a heart with a pocket where you can leave love notes for your sweetie, and your kids. I challenge you to put something new in it every day. Maybe words of encouragement, or a sweet reminder why you love them so much, or even a ticket for a date night out. These are just a few suggestions. 

So here is a list of the supplies that you will need.

• Wooden Heart(I found mine at Michaels Craft Store)
• Scrapbook paper
• Crepe paper
• Tickets or paper slips
• Washi tape
• Embellishments
• Tape
• Scissors
• Pencil

The first step I did was to trace the shape of the heart on the back of the scrapbook paper that I was using. Then I cut out the shape of the heart using my scissors.

 After cutting the heart shape out, I then used my double sided tape at applied it to the wooden heart. I did this to add stability to the heart, so it wasn't just a flimsy piece of paper.

Next I took the crepe paper and pinch pleated it all around the heart using my tape. This is the most tedious part of the project. 

I then trimmed the crepe paper.

I found some small envelopes in the dollar section at Michaels a while back, and it worked out to be the perfect size for my center envelope. I attached it with tape. If you don't have these, you can make your own small envelope, or use a small paper bag. Most craft stores have those. 

Here is an example of the small bags you could use too.

The last step is to embellish your heart with words, or vintage Valentines. Get creative here, and make it your own. 

Hope you feel inspired to create a love notes heart for your nest. I think it's a fun way to stay connected with your immediate family and let them know how much you love them. Thanks for stopping by.

XO~Gretchen