heather & olive

I didn't mean to stay away for so long, but I have a good excuse: I sold my house!

Between packing everything up and celebrating the holidays, the past couple of months have been a total blur, but I'm so excited this finally happened. I put it on the market in the end of June and thought that it would sell quickly--there wasn't a ton of inventory in my tiny town and houses were selling at a fast pace, but mine just didn't. I definitely got frustrated in the fall (hence my vague references to being anxious for things to happen) and I thought multiple times of pulling it and trying again in the spring, but everything clicked in December. While bittersweet, I know the people who bought it will love it as much as I did.

The reasons for me selling are twofold: first, I really didn't need to be living in a four bedroom house by myself--it was just too much. I thoroughly enjoyed decorating it, but I had two rooms that went essentially unused. Second, I need to get out of the sticks. While I love the area and I love being close to my family, there is nothing going on here which makes things very tough for a single lady.

I have zero regrets about buying it--I spent a really great three years there and it allowed me to build equity and have a good foundation for my next move...which is yet to be announced. I plan on staying with my parents for the next couple of months while I figure out job stuff and I hope to move at the end of the spring. I will say my destination is in another state and one of my favorite places...so stay tuned.

Here's to 2018 being the year of new adventures. I'm so ready and so excited.

My favorite homemade cookies.

The most delicious mussels.

Weekend gardening attempt.

We've almost made it to the weekend! I don't know about you, but the Northeast has been dealing with some unseasonably cold temps and I'm really not amused that my heat is still kicking on. The forecast for the near future looks to be cloudy and rainy and blah, and I'm hoping we catch a break with some sunshine soon. I'm in desperate need of Vitamin D.

This weekend I visited with Quinn, attended a cheese festival, made copycat Levain cookies and cooked up some mussels for dinner (I can't recommend this recipe for mussels enough--it's super simple and makes the most amazing broth to sop up with french bread. It's seriously the best.)

I also bought some boxwood for my front steps (planter and watering can were Target finds). I really don't have a green thumb, but I'm going to try to focus on some landscaping projects this summer (sadly I'm still sore my my weeding on Sunday--this is going to be a process). Aside from my bedroom painting, I don't have a lot of interior projects planned so I'm hoping to clean up part of my side garden and do some minor planting. We'll see how it goes.

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While I have crossed a bunch of major interior house projects off of my to do list, one thing I've been struggling with is my bedroom walls. The previous owners had installed paintable textured wallpaper throughout the majority of the house (which I painted, and I'm happy with the outcome) but for some reason my bedroom is wallpapered in this unfortunate textured wallpaper that kind of reminds me of a popcorn ceiling. It needs to go.

My ex painted the trim in a darkish gray, and I was planning on just removing the wallpaper and keeping the walls white, but now I'm thinking pink (or, more specifically, blush). I absolutely love the combo of a muted blush with gray, but I'm a little nervous because I think the wrong shade could channel an eighties vibe that I am definitely not going for.

Do you have any blush paint colors you love?  

michelle adams via one king's lane

via jackie greaney's instagram this house was for sale in kennebunkport two summers ago and I was obsessed with it

portsmouth houses

a very blurry drive by of a house in York

My house is currently yellow with green shutters and I believe it's been some version of this combination since it was built in the early 1900s. Right before I purchased it, it was "spruced up" with a hack paint job and the yellow is a little too yellow. It's not my favorite. I have dreams of taking off the shutters (they're original and are always falling off and driving me crazy), replacing all of the windows and painting the house a dark blueish grey. While there are a number of other projects I need to tackle first, I'm hoping eventually my grey house dreams will come true.

This is totally lame, but until recently, I didn't really use my grill. I always found it a bit intimidating and I was fairly certain I was going to burn the house down. (And true confessions, it was always the guys in my life that did the grilling). Due to the fact that I'm currently sans man, my cravings for grilled meats and veggies have gotten the best of me and I recently decided to figure things out. I learned that oil/cooking spray is key--and it's really not that hard.

So, onto the grilled pizza--this is way easier than I thought it would be, and it ended up being super cheap because I bought all of my ingredients at Trader Joes:




I used Trader Joe's pre-made garlic pizza dough and bruschetta sauce (which is so, so good), a bag of shredded mozzarella (next time I'll use fresh) and some olive oil.

All you need to do is:

• Preheat your grill for about 10 minutes at a high temp (between 450 and 500 degrees). 
• Take a paper towel dipped in olive oil and rub all over using grill tongs to make sure the grates get oily (or just use cooking spray). Either way, you don't want a sticky dough situation. 
• Put down the flattened dough, cover the grill and wait a couple of minutes until the bottom of the pizza is cooked and has those nice grill marks. 
• Remove the dough from the grill and add your toppings to the cooked side (go easy on the sauce though, because it will get soggy if you're overzealous).
• Return to the grill and cover until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is cooked through.

I drizzled the final product with some balsamic glaze, and it was delish--it kind of reminded me of the bruschetta pizza from Roma Pizza in Kennebunkport which is super tasty. Best of all, it was SO easy, and I think it finally got me over my grilling fears. The possibilities are endless, and I could totally see myself making some sort of variation when I have people over (even as an app).

Go forth and grill!

I've been living in my house for almost a year and a half now, and I'm finally getting to the point where I'm "finished" with some rooms. When I moved in, I knew that I wanted a home office--I work from home full-time so I needed a space dedicated only to work so I could be productive (and with four bedrooms and just me and Olive, I figured this would be a good use of space instead of creating a wrapping paper room á la Candy Spelling).

The before (taken from the original real estate listing online, so not the best quality/detail):



The room has dark floors that are a little banged up, and the walls were painted a dark gray/brown color with a kind of muted white trim--I initially didn't mind the color but the previous inhabitants did a rather crappy paint job and I wanted something a little more crisp.

The after:









I painted the walls Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy and redid the trim in Benjamin Moore's Decorator's White--I ended up getting a new desk (from IKEA) because my old one was way too cramped for a second computer monitor, but I switched out the hardware with knobs from Anthropologie. I got the desk chair from Amazon and the rug came from Lulu and Georgia.

I'm really happy with the way it came out--I know the floors need some serious touchups but it just isn't in the budget right now. Chipped floors or not, it's great to have a dedicated workspace (and cross one room of my list!).

It's boxwood overload at my house thanks to to Trader Joe's and their $9.99 wreaths. I've been spritzing them with water daily and I'm hoping they last until Christmas.

I made a chocolate cake for Thanksgiving (along with my annual sweet potato contribution), and I think it's a new favorite.

My parents and I went up to Maine and took lots of walks by this cool house--you can't get more oceanfront than this.

I had a really nice Thanksgiving and long weekend. My parents hosted, and everything was delicious. Friday, my mom and I headed up to Maine to do a little shopping (and I was able to cross a couple of people off my list)--we went out to eat, ran a Turkey Trot in the rain on Saturday, took some pics for my Christmas card and enjoyed some strong Manhattans by the fire. It was super low key and relaxing and a perfect recharge for the upcoming holiday craziness. Happy December!

This weekend was the best--the temps have finally cooperated in the Northeast (70s and high 80s???) and I'm loving having the windows open and wearing short sleeves.

Snail placeholders available here.

Coming back from vacation was the worst--I had great plans to do a complete recap of the Bahamas trip last week but readjusting to usual life took its toll. (Recap is coming this week). Luckily, I had a super low-key weekend on tap to get back in the swing.

MET went away, and I was left to my own devices:


Friday consisted of Panera's Autumn Squash soup (my fave, and I love that it's available at Target/your local grocery store) and catching up on HBO. I have a total love/hate relationship with Lena Dunham/Hannah Horvath/Girls, but I absolutely loved how this season ended. I have high hopes for season 5.

Saturday I did the typical suburban errands with my mom, and scooped up these at Target. They're currently situated on my mantle and they're fabulous.

My dad came over to help with some lighting fixture replacements in the kitchen, and I'm beyond pumped with the results:

Befores on the left, afters on the right.

Saturday night I decided to lay low and catch up on season two of House of Cards.

Clearly this weekend consisted of coffee table snacks and Olive attempting to eat them.

And Sunday my mom came over for bellinis, rom-coms and leftover cheeses and MET whipped up a delish dinner. I was a happy camper.

Here's to a productive Monday.

One of the bedrooms in my house is covered in a rather unfortunate yellow/marigold wallpaper. (MET refers to it as the "scary room".) I think the easiest way to deal with it is to cover it with new wallpaper, but I've been struggling with what kind to choose--the options seem endless.

I was recently perusing the Serena and Lily website for a baby gift, and lo and behold, they have their own wallpaper line. I had no idea.

Clockwise from top left: Palmetto, Herringbone, Peridot, Lamu

Friday was a crazy night of pizza, beer and InStyle. (I'm a party animal.)

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to run some house-related errands--I have a bunch of overhead lights in my house that I was going to replace with new fixtures, but when we removed one of the existing ones we discovered the wiring was ancient and needs to be upgraded. Because money doesn't grow on trees, I've decided to put the wiring upgrade on hold and make do with what I have.

The inspiration:

West Elm's Industrial Semi-Flush Canopy Pendant (on sale)

The result:



Super easy fix--I spent $7.98 each on some vintage lightbulbs, and now I can live with my lighting until I have some extra cash money.

After I solved my lighting debacle, I treated myself to a mani-pedi and then my dear friend S. came up from Connecticut and hung out with her husband and her sweet 11-week old baby. It was so good to catch up and meet the little one, and I took absolutely zero pictures (because I'm the worst).

Sunday was the laziest day ever: MET and I drank a number of Bloody Marys and I finally saw the first season of "House of Cards"--obsessed.


It was the perfect weekend and it was over way too soon. And I can't believe it's March. Yowza.

Oh, heyyyyy. I didn't mean to fall off the radar completely over the past two months, but I have a legitimate excuse: I bought a house.