Hello world!

I’m writing this as a sit at the dining table, watching my husband make some chilaquiles for brunch. He’s the cook of the family and because he’s that good, I’ll feature him on the blog one day.   I constantly tell him he needs to start his own vlog—like I said, he’s that good.  As I look around, I see an empty living room with freshly painted walls, new floors and no furniture—a blank canvas.  Scary stuff.  I have so many ideas.  I replay my favorite “Fixer Upper” episodes and all the things I pinned in my head. The fireplace from episode 8, the farmhouse door from episode 6 and basically everything from the bed and breakfast episode.  It’s pretty overwhelming.  Insert deep breath here.

Our little house has lived in our family for about 20 years.  Throughout those years it has housed multiple families (pretty cool that others in our family at one point called this place home).  It’s the go-to gathering spot for this not so little family.  It’s not built or designed to hold a lot of people but well what do you do when you have at least 45 people part of just your immediate family (my husband has 8 brothers and sisters).  We purchased the house off my sister about 15 years ago. [Side note: My sister is married to my husband’s brother.]  My sister and her husband did very little in terms of updates and repairs to the house–to be fair, they weren’t here that long before they ripped my god daughter and nephew from me and moved to Arizona.  Even so, I  don’t know how they lived one day with a 50 shades of peach bathroom or how they had the heart to cover original hardwood floors with carpet—I die.  

It’s very quiet. I purposely wake up early on weekends and days off to have some alone time before the kids wake up.  Don’t judge me, I have four kids.  I make myself a pot of coffee, open up a good book (currently Homebody by Joanna Gaines, of course) or my laptop.  I’ll browse Pinterest for ideas, Offer Up to buy whatever I liked on Pinterest and Amazon in case I couldn’t find anything used on Offer Up.   See how that works?

I can time it down to the minute and know what order the kids will wake up in. First will be Thiago.  He’s 6 and is my early bird.  He beats me to waking up sometimes.  I know he’s up when I hear the pantry doors slam and then his little steps as he climbs back into bed with a cookie or whatever he managed to reach.  He’ll turn on the TV and when he gets bored, he’ll wake up Teresa.  She’s 5 and Thiago’s BFF (although neither of them will ever admit it).  Lastly, about 4 hours later, will come my lazy boys, Iggy (10) and Chris (19)—who can sleep until someone remembers they exist and wakes them up or they get hungry. Anyway, that marks the end of my quiet time and the beginning of my beautiful chaos.

My name is Sandra.  I’m the middle sister in a family of four kids.  I struggled to find my place throughout life which I think was the catalyst to my creativity. I’ve been creative, crafty and design-oriented since I could remember.  This blog will bring you into this little old house and all my interests—design, decor, DIY projects, health and fitness, motherhood, culture and all things in between.

We live in an old house on Myrtle. Welcome!

Sandra