Life Update: Settling in to Suburbia

Life updates are my favorite blog posts to write, I don’t know why I don’t do them more often! I sat down at my computer today wanting to write a blog post but I wasn’t feeling any particular spark of creativity, so I decided it would be best to just pour out some of the details on what we’ve been up to since we moved into our new house. Plus, I can tell by my analytics that you all love these posts best too!

It’s been about 3 months of living in suburbia in our new home. There are lots of things that I love about this place, we have a yard, more indoor space, a garage, no loud upstairs neighbors. There are also lots of things I miss about living in the city. We moved this direction for many reasons, a big one was that we wanted to be closer to family for Stella, we wanted a big yard, and we could get much more house for our money the further we moved from Portland. Although we do hope to own a home or condo downtown again in the future, it all weighs out in favor of our family living in this current setting during this season of our life.

If you’re following along on Instagram, you’ll have seen the home decor and updates we’ve been making on our new space! I’ve been having fun with paint, furniture and decor in pretty much every room of our home save for the kitchen. When we moved in we had the intention of tearing out the 80’s style kitchen and fully updating the space to our liking, check out my empty home tour to see what it looks like currently. Of course we have yet to touch the space besides removing a couple cabinets. BUT - we do have a structural engineer scheduled to come out next week to help us gauge where and how we can take down this massive wall dividing up our downstairs. Progress, am I right?! I feel excited to finally get the ball rolling on this huge project so we can start gaining momentum on the heart of our home. I need that wall out ASAP so I can see what my naughty toddler is up to while I’m cooking her meals. Who ever decided that a walled off room was a good idea for a kitchen?!

Other than the home stuff, my life has been pretty boring as of late. I feel like work has been picking up a ton and I’ve kept busy with the blog/Instagram. I even started working with an amazing local photographer lately to up my content game, and it has been a total game changer! Below is an outfit she shot for me last week, I can’t seem to stop wearing this lace cami from my friend’s boutique. I love this cardigan too, it’s a great Amazon find that could totally pass as Free People! The quality is amazing, and it’s under $30!

Hat // Tank Top // Cardigan // Jeans // Shoes //

I can’t get enough of this HAT! It is seriously so gorgeous and I have gotten countless compliments on it! It’s super affordable too, definitely a must have for fall!

These Target shoes look designer and I think everyone needs them! I have my eye on the cognac color since I wear them so much in the fall.

Thank you all for reading and following along with my life. I wish I had more to share today in this post, but for now my life has been pretty boring! Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss any new home updates since there will be a lot happening in the near future (ie: kitchen remodel).

xo

We Bought a House!

I can’t even believe I’m saying this but we are officially home owners! Our story has been a long one, we’ve been renting for almost a decade and have moved even more times than that. Between school, jobs, having a baby, and everything else we’ve experienced as a family we’re finally settling into a permanent place and we are so excited, and honestly relieved. House hunting in the Portland, Oregon area is no joke! We started out looking at homes in a specific area that is notorious for being extremely competitive and was proving difficult to find what we needed within our budget. When we expanded out a few miles we found the perfect home for our family under budget that is still close enough to my parents as well as a quick drive to downtown.

Since we are saving some money on the house we have fun plans for the space! I’ve been pinning home decor inspo like CRAZY and I can’t wait to just get my hands on the space and get started. We’re going to re-do the entire kitchen and master bathroom and Stella will be getting her official “toddler room.” I’ll be sharing a whole series on the blog with before and after photos as well as the whole process of transformation! Home decor and design is a huge passion of mine, I used to draw and imagine home floor plans when I was little and constantly re-arranged the furniture in my bedroom. As a child I wanted to be an architect and then I got more into interior design as I got into High School and College age. Owning a home of my own has always been a dream of mine, to have my own space that I can mold into my own personal haven is a dream come true!

We won’t be moving in until the end of the month even though we’ve closed on the house and we are recorded as the owners, we’re actually renting the home back to the previous owners to give them time to complete the purchase on their new home, but I’m so excited to bring you all along on our moving journey in a few short weeks! get ready for all of the home decor posts over the next months!

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xo

How to Care for Your Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree

If you follow my Instagram, you're very familiar with my mirror pics from my previous apartment, and the famous fiddle leaf fig that was always in the background of these particular photos.

I have had a love hate relationship with this plant since I got it a few years ago. I spent the first two years of it's life just fighting to keep it from dying, it came close more than a couple times I'm sad to say (sorry tree)! When I moved to my apartment in said Instagram pictures, of course my little fiddle came with me, it had been going through a phase of extremely slow growth (but any growth at this point was a win in my book). We moved in the winter and I had already decided that first thing in the spring that I would re-pot it from the nursery planter that it came in to a more decorative looking and functional container (yeah, it took me two years to do this, oops?) since I had been decorating the new place from scratch. 

Fast forward to spring, I re-potted my tree, and it was like a sudden explosion of growth occurred! It was insane to see this sad little tree with four leaves start producing multiple buds followed by leaves over and over, and RAPIDLY at that! It got me so excited, , I didn't want my tree to lose momentum so I started to research how to care for these plants. I know they can be finicky and particular, so I wanted to make sure I was doing everything correctly to maintain this consistent growth. There is a lot I've picked up along the way, from friends and family and snippets of online articles. Here is what I've personally tried and what has worked well for my fiddle leaf fig tree! 

 

SUN EXPOSURE:

PLANT FOOD

The big difference between the new apartment and my old place was definitely the amount of light we were getting in the living space where my tree was kept. I think this made a HUGE difference and played a big part in the massive growth I had seen in such a short period of time. fiddle leaf fig trees love a good amount of light. Bright, indirect light is what I've heard they like best, and as long as they aren't getting any kind of extreme sun-rays for an extended period of time they should be happy by a window that get's good light for a majority of the day. With windows wrapping around three of the four sides of our unit, this little tree was one happy guy!

SOIL:

RE-POTTING and PLANT GROWTH

So, like I said, I re-potted my tree in the spring which was perfect timing as it was the beginning of it's growth season. I transferred it into a larger pot since I wanted it to be taller, I added some fertilized soil to the pot as well. I made sure to break up the root ball when I re-planted it but I did not remove any of the roots as this can be detrimental to growth. You can use this method if you'd like to keep you're tree from growing too large if you have a small space, just make sure to never remove more than 10% of the root or you risk your plant dying. This is when I noticed my plant really take off. I think the large pot in conjunction with the fertilizer and sun was the magic combo during its growth season for it to really take off, which brings me to my next topic.

PRUNING:

CREATING BRANCHES

So, my tree, as many others that I have seen purchased cheaply like mine (I got mine from Ikea for $20) are usually only one stalk to begin with, no branches. Me being un-familiar with plants, and never having grown a tree before I had no idea that it was up to me to make sure it branched if that was the look I preferred for it. My tree was exploding in growth so I was sure it would grow some branches soon... HAHA, was I wrong! Finally I hit up Google to see what the heck was wrong with my tree... it was growing almost a full leaf a day but it never branched! Google told me I needed to take matters into my own hands. It was time to prune my tree to create branches! A friend told me that this may temporarily stunt the growth of my tree, but it was the end of the summer at this point and I was prepared for my tree to slow down on the growth anyway as we headed into colder (and darker) months. I cut the top of my tree about an inch below the last new growth, expecting it to be stagnant until the next spring. Well.... about a week later there were 5 new buds which then grew more buds and then more and then leaves started sprouting and suddenly my one stalk skinny plant became a full bushy tree! It was an amazing transformation! Moral of the story, make sure to prune your tree if it doesn't have branches and you want it to! I should have done this earlier, and I would have had I known! Side note, the shorter your tree is when you prune it, the bushier it will be as it grows. Prune it higher up for a leaner more slender tree, like mine!

FERTILIZER:

TREATS FOR TREES

I try to fertilize my tree about once a month, sometimes less since the soil I added already has fertilizer in it. I only fertilize in the spring and summer when my tree is actively growing. 

LEAVES:

CLEANING YOUR PLANT

One of the most distinguishing and beautiful details of this plant is the magnificent, rich green leaves. They are shiny and a little bit waxy, and because of this they collect dirt and dust like a magnet. It is super important to clean this layer off consistently as it will inhibit the absorption of sunlight which makes it harder for photosynthesis to occur, aka it will make it harder for your tree to grow and be healthy. I took this for granted for a long time but when my little tree started growing quickly I became obsessed with making it look perfect, so I trimmed all of the sad brown parts and started regularly cleaning the leaves. I just use a microfiber cloth and a little water to softly remove any dust from the leaves. I've also heard you can use coconut oil to enhance their shininess, although I find this unnecessary since they are super shiny by nature and the oil can tend to attract more dust, but I think this is just a preference thing! 

TO SUM IT ALL UP:

I am definitely no expert and most of this I've just picked up along the way, trial and error style. If you have any tips that I haven't tried, leave them in the comments below! I'd love to hear what has worked (or not worked) for you and your fiddle leaf fig tree! 

Thank you all for reading!
xo

My Riverfront Apartment Living Room Decor

It was definitely just as difficult to photograph my space as I thought it would be. A room never looks the same in a photograph as it does in real life and I struggled with that in these photos. I feel like it looks ten times better in real life, which is why I could only choose a few photos for this post. 

Since I'll be moving in just a couple weeks I figured its time to document this apartment before I pack everything up. This is by FAR my favorite place we've lived since Dustin and I have been together. We've moved a total of 6 times in the 6 years we've been together, we thought this would be our home base for at least two years but alas our yearly thanksgiving tradition has decided to continue with another move this year. See, we didn't know we were pregnant at the time when we moved into this apartment and now that Stella is here we've quickly outgrown our digs. Also now that we're down to just one income, we would like to decrease our cost of living to something a little more realistic for apartment living and continue saving for our dream home! Either way, I had fun buying all new furniture for this place when we moved in a year ago. I like to say I finally got my "grown up furniture". No more Ikea show room home for me! 

I bought all of this furniture to fit perfectly in this space and I'm hoping it translates as well in our new place, I can't wait to show you more decor posts after we move! I have plans to overhaul our master bedroom and of course Stella will eventually have her own room which will be a super fun project to document! 

LAMP // COUCH // CHAIR // MEDIA CONSOLE // COFFEE TABLE

This couch. I LOVE this couch so much! We originally left Crate and Barrel with a smaller more Mid Century Modern style, tufted couch originally. After sitting (uncomfortably) on it for a few months we decided it just wasn't going to work out for my pregnant self who needed something much more comfortable for lounging. Cue the Lounge II couch! It is soooo deep, perfect for prego naps, and also now for nursing comfortably and cuddling with my little babe. The fabric is super cleanable and durable for family wear and tear, and the neutral color goes with everything! We got the matching chair in a grey leather for a little textural contrast. The lamp we got for this room has got to be one of my favorite pieces that we own. We had some troubles with the first two that we got before we realized it was actually the electrical outlet that we we're plugging it into that was burning it out. Third time is the charm, and I'm so happy I didn't have to settle for a different lamp. This one has a dimmer and is on a beautiful marble base. 

Also I wish I could show you how small that Fiddle Leaf Fig tree was when we first moved in. I'm pretty sure it had two total leaves and didn't even come up to the windowsill. This apartment is like a greenhouse, it helps me pretend I have a green thumb, my plants thrive here! 

TABLE // CHAIRS // PLACE MATS (similar) // RUG (similar)

I got these chairs before I moved in. Another blogger I follow had the same style in barstool form and although they are not my usual style, something drew me to them and I couldn't get them off my mind. As soon as they went on sale I scooped them up, and I have to say it was the greatest decision I could have made for kitchen chairs... they are so comfortable! And they look so chic. I couldn't be happier! 

I wanted a round white marble table, but had to compromise with Dustin for this more traditional one, which I have grown to love and it does go really well with the bistro chairs! I will get my marble table someday, though!

This Orchid is another example of a flourishing plant that I somehow brought back from the dead. I don't even know how it happened, no one I've ever known has been able to re-grow an orchid and this one is blooming for the second time this year now... I can't complain!

VASE

Fun fact: my mom comes over a few times a week and brings me flowers! She brought over fresh hydrangeas a few weeks ago and I dried them so they'd last through fall and winter. They're so beautiful and the colors preserved perfectly! 

I hope you all enjoyed a sneak peek of my living room! I'm excited to post the progress on my new place when we move in and begin to decorate and get settled. Keep an eye out on Instagram stories for moving updates and decor progress!

xo