Drywall is in!!

Woooooo baby! We have drywall! Now I can really start to picture how our home is going to going to look when it’s complete—with its white walls, black windows, espresso cabinets, white oak floors, wood beams, brass accents…I’m drooling y’all. I can’t wait!
PS. If you want to see more progress pics of the house in real time, checkout the “HOME BUILD” highlight on my Instagram!

The backyard diy I’m obsessing over

Sarah & Dan’s new grey herringbone deck makes for serious backyard goals! They built the whole thing themselves and I’m absolutely obsessing over it! Check them out on Instagram (@JoineryAndDesignCo) and look at their “Deck” highlight for behind the scenes of the building process. I’m totally using this as my inspo for our own backyard since we plan on extending our covered patio across the back of the house with composite decking. Watching Sarah & Dan tackle building their own deck gives me just a liiiiitle confidence that maybe Ira and I can do the same!

and since I’m basically In Full backyard planning mode…

I came across this service called Yardzen. It’s an online design service specifically for outdoor spaces and landscaping. We’re probably going to go more of the DIY route (like Sarah & Dan did), but I thought his service was super cool and really affordable!

and how about a sneak peek of little front yard too!

Checkout this new mockup I did of our front yard—it’s not the best, but you get the picture! How many potential projects can you spot?!

fourth of july 2020

Fourth of July this year felt different than previous years for many reasons. COVID aside, now just didn’t really feel like a great time to celebrate the freedoms of our country when those freedoms still aren’t afforded to everyone. I saw a lot of people on social media yesterday criticizing others for not celebrating…or accusing them of being “un-American” for not taking a pause on social justice efforts and just shutting up and BBQing. The overwhelming majority of this criticism seemed directed at black people who chose to speak up about why the Fourth of July doesn’t mean to them what it means to white people. I came across this quote by James Baldwin that fits my sentiments about the situation perfectly.

“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

It is because we love our country that we point out the ways in which she needs to grow and change in order to love all of her people back—not because we hate it. Hell, our ancestors built this country for free. There is no other place that is moreso home than the land of the (mostly) free. But until this country actually provides freedom and justice for all, it is our duty to criticize her.

meet My little dood!

Ira and I get DM’s, texts, questions from random strangers on the street all the time asking about Ginger. So here are some quick facts about our sweet little pup!

• Ira got Ginger for me as birthday present last year & we picked her up just a few days before Christmas 2019.

• Ginger was named after the greatest girl group of all time—Spice Girls. (Debate ya mama.) I LOVE the Spice Girls, so Ginger Spice seemed like the perfect namesake for our little dood.

• Ginger was born on October 28th, 2019 and will be 9 months old at the end of July.

• She’s a mini F1b Goldendoodle. We chose F1b (75% poodle, 25% Golden Retriever) so that her coat would be be more wavy/curly and not so straight. She’s also hypoallergenic and doesn’t shed!

• She’s full grown! Mini Goldendoodles only grow to be 20-30 pounds—Ginger weighs 28. She’s pretty small, and even smaller in actuality because she’s all fluff!

• We got her from Johnson’s Goldendoodles in Ranger, TX. Her litter had 12 pups in it (8 girls, 4 boys) and we chose her because of her sweet face, her curious personality, and because she showed a very loving, mild temperament.

• Yes, she has an Instagram! I have a highlight on my Instagram titled “GINGER” with some shots and videos of her around the house, but you can also follow @DoodleSpice (see what I did there?) for more videos of her barking at rocks and looking super fluffin’ cute.