Five Friday Favorites #6

Happy Friday! I hope you're having a great week! Here are a few recent favorites...

Favorite closet: Now that I've actually seen the layout of my closet, I've been thinking about how to organize it. I definitely want to add some shelving for shoes....not that it will be anything nearly this impressive, but hey, a girl can dream!

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Got stairs?

So even though our framing has been completed for a little while, we didn't have any stairs. Which meant we couldn't see the whole 2nd floor, even though it was right there above us. Such a tease!

Well we finally got our stairs the week of April 28! Here are some terrible, low light phone pictures from the 2nd floor (when will I ever learn?!).

View of the family room from the upstairs hall

Five Friday Favorites #5

Happy Friday! Can you believe I actually prepared this post ahead of time, and that I could schedule it to go live Friday morning? Shocking! Anyway, here are a few of the things I'm loving this week...

Favorite cleaning tool: This is probably the most random favorite I've posted yet: it's a crumb brush. I don't like crumbs, and I certainly don't like to clean them... but I love this little hedgehog brush from Crate & Barrel. Isn't he cute?

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FMS Photo-A-Day April Wrap-up

What happened in April? Didn't it just start, like, a week ago? We did the Cherry Blossom 10-miler/5K (you can guess who did which race...), Bryan did the Tough Mudder, I went to the Maryland SPCA March for the Animals, Bryan had a couple of business trips (Minnesota/Michigan & Vegas), I moved to a new office at work, we had some 30th birthday parties to attend (lots of those this year!), and all of the framing for our house went up! I also managed (barely) to keep up with the Fat Mum Slim photo a day challenge...

Five Friday Favorites #4

Happy Friday! I hope you had a great week. Personally, I'm just feeling slightly freaked out that it's May already. How did that happen?!

Favorite recipe: It's almost cinco de mayo! Last year we went to a cinco de mayo party and brought creamy baked chicken taquitos. I really enjoyed them and intended to make them again, then totally forgot about them (until now!). Definitely turned out better than my sangria that day (note: too much ice can turn into very watery sangria...)

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Sugar 'n Spice VoxBox

I was super excited to learn that I was receiving a second VoxBox from Influenster (you can read about my first one here). These things are seriously awesome - completely free boxes of goodies to try. And they're free! Did I mention they're free?? If you're not already an Influenster member, I'd definitely suggest signing up  - and anyone can join; you don't have to be a blogger. Here's all the swag I got this time around...

Five Friday Favorites #3

It's been a weird week for me, at least in terms of my work life. I worked from home Tuesday because of a leak in the bathroom, had to leave early on Wednesday because of the leak, had to leave early on Thursday to meet at our home site, and I spent a good chunk of the day on Friday packing up my office so I can move down the hall. Definitely didn't get enough time for actual work squeezed in there. But I'm still happy today is Friday, since really, how can you not be happy on a Friday?? Here are some things I'm loving this week...

Favorite DIY planters: How easy and adorable are these little brick succulent planters?  Grab some construction bricks with holes in them and plunk in a succulent and a candle. Done!

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{House Update} Wraps and windows and doors, oh my!

The house is speeding along so fast lately, I can't believe it. We stop by every couple of days, and each time we go, we see so much progress! Here's what she's looking like now...

{Beauty} Birchbox Bliss

Are you a Birchbox subscriber? If you're not familiar, it's a $10 monthly subscription for a box full of beauty goodies each month. I'm three months in, and the most recent box was my favorite one yet.

{Recipe} Baked Plantain Chips

When we were at the Outer Banks last summer, one of our friends fried some delicious plantain chips. I loved them and made them several times at home after that. When I noticed plantains were on sale at the grocery store recently, I decided to try a baked version and was pleasantly surprised with this healthy, simple snack.