our home and nostalgia

I've learned over the years, you are either the nostalgic kind of person, or you're not.  I'm nostalgic, through and through.  I think in each of their own ways, my parents were both fairly sentimental.  maybe it is genetic, maybe it is learned, maybe it is a bit of both pieces. 

I love looking through old photographs, storing little treasures in keepsake boxes, and pausing to talk about the past.  it is all good in my book.

when we bought our home over two years ago, we quickly came to learn that it had been owned by the same family since it was built in 1955.  and when one family owns a home for over sixty years, turns out they have a lot of connections to the neighborhood.

the great-grandson of the original owners is still watched a few days a week by one of our neighbors, and he will be in my daughter's kindergarten class next year.  when talking to the younger generations of the family on the front lawn I was shown this image.

immediately, I knew I needed a copy of the photo.  this summer I plan on printing and hanging it in our home, because I'm sentimental.  and I'm in love with this photo.  this was the original family who owned this home, watched it be built from the ground up.  they loved every bit of this home, and the energy they left behind is undeniable.  when we had our home inspection completed, the inspector told us he had never really seen a better taken care of house, especially one built in the 1950's. this home was loved by this family, and we love that we get to have it now. 

today, that glamorous woman in the white dress, holding her baby, sitting on the foundation of our home, is being remembered for her 97 years life.  she was one of the first and last of the original women to live on this street, in a time when women were completely the heart of these neighborhoods.  I'm sad that I never got to meet her; when buying a house, getting too personal with the people you are buying from seems to not be a good idea.  however, I'm glad we shared with her our family photo and a little story about us, and I'm glad she was able to know that she was selling her family home to another family who doesn't plan on leaving it for another sixty years.

rest in peace grace, I love when the neighbor ladies tell me stories about you.  

spring at home

if you would have asked me ten years ago about gardening, I probably would have laughed out loud.  gardening, what is that?  and me, no, not going to happen any time soon.  in my first years of teaching, I always got my pink slip due to california being in a major budget situation.  and every year, the school I was leaving would give me the obligatory plant goodbye.  thanks for the year, it was great, fast, and now you are gone, good luck plant.  and I would kill it in approximately two weeks.

eventually, I found my succulent obsession when planning the mr.'s 30th birthday party, and when those succulents were still alive on his 31st birthday, I realized I might be on to something.  desert plants are my jam.  and I've ran with that.

thankfully, I had my in-laws (gardening experts) help me spruce up our yard at our rental we had when ev was just a baby, and I started to get a little understanding of how things grow.  but not really a great handle, I was still buying plants just because I liked them, not necessary paying attention to how much sun they needed/wanted, how big they got, etc.  and consequently, nothing really thrived too much, but it worked for our time there.

however, all of these baby steps have landed me in our home now, our forever home, a home that I am very proud of the yard I have planted and seen flourish.  my raised beds have not a single vegetable, but thousands of thriving succulents and desert plants.  my backyard is buzzing with the hundreds of bees that have found a little piece of heaven in my yard this spring.  I just stumbled on a video of ev in our backyard when I first started planting it and I almost didn't recognize the space I have now become obsessed with.

By far her favorite souvenir ever. #everlymaeisthree #everlymae

A post shared by OliveEverly Blog (@oliveverly) on Oct 20, 2016 at 3:57pm PDT

I love working on little corners each season, our newest project included turning the sandbox that came with the house that ev never used into another little raised bed.  such a fun space to have right next to our stock tank pool.  much better than the pincher bug infested space it used to be.  even a nice cover doesn't keep out the tiniest of critters.

but most importantly, I love that I have a space that is truly magical for everly.  she loves playing in the backyard for hours.  she is always finding some new treasure.  like a fresh little caterpillar, or a ladybug like in the photo below, or that time I planted a new little tree and found a huge rollie-pollie colony.  she must have had 20 crawling on her arms at one time.  I remember how magical yards felt when I was her age, my grandma's backyard and the home I was born in just seemed huge and full of places to explore.  I'm glad that I can give everly a place just like that for her to play in!

 so, thanks spring, you are really feeling pretty perfect this year.  maybe my favorite spring yet. 

it started with a suggestion [stock tank pool]

I grew up swimming a ton in the brutal northern california summers.  there is nothing like a pool to keep your sanity, and I say that as we are currently in a week long stretch of 108 degree days [we sure picked the wrong week to go to lake tahoe, but a new adoption training for school has kept me from escaping this ridiculous heat].  and speaking of ridiculous, ripping apart my entire yard, and my finances, to put in a 50K pool wasn't really an option right now, but after a conversation with my sister about people turning stock tanks into pools, I was intrigued, and then obsessed, with making this a reality for my yard this summer.   and so we did it, in less than two weeks.  thankfully I had a lot of people to oblige my crazy requests, mostly my husband and father-in-law, the latter which tied down my 8 foot stock tank to the bed of his truck, and then had to retie said ties at least three times on our way home, all with an insane amount of confidence & calm. and you cannot forget my mother-in-law who volunteered to sit in the back with the tank - don't worry, we didn't let her!  but again, see the dedication I'm talking about. it was pretty endless.  ^many phases to this little project^

and because I missed my succulent garden that I left behind at our rental [not the succulents of course] I had to recreate the project, this time, acting as a mini- wall enclosing our new pool space. and the pallet that helped us get our pool home has been re-purposed as a little artwork for this space.  everly did a great job with the stenciling, she would have been very successful in the 90's.

and finally, our inflatables are from michael's, 

they are only $5 - and they let you use a coupon

so for $2.50, you better believe I have a ridiculous pool to float ratio

our stock tank was purchased from our Tractor Supply - make sure to call ahead to make sure they are available in your store, AND have them double check that the tank is not damaged before you go to purchase.  we learned the hard way, which meant a crazy amount of driving!

working mom playdates

working moms don't always have time for playdates during the regular work week - but being friends with a bunch of teacher-working moms is all good in the months of june & july [notice how I left out august, because, somehow, august is no longer a part of summer for schools around here].  today we played hard with some of our favorite littles, and their smiles really say it all!  I'll have to share more on our stock tank pool, but for now, we're just all smiles here.

family portraits [with sarah maren photography]

last month we were contacted by sarah of the amazing sarah maren photography to take our family portraits - on film!  of course the answer was a quick yes, and yes, and yes, and I couldn't believe I had missed the email for a few whole days.

last year we had talked about taking our family portraits in our home. but at the time, we were still in our rental, and I was itching to get out, and so we put it off for a year.  well, this time around, I was more than eager to have our home the backdrop for our photos.  see last year's portraits here

now, our child has been photographed since she was literally thirty minutes old, so she kind of gets how the process works.  however, film was very new.  for her at least.  she finally got that she needed to hold still for a few seconds and wait for the click, challenge accepted.  mostly.  I had a ton of questions for sarah too, but pretty much, you still get your final product just as before, all digitalized and ready to do whatever you would like with, but with gorgeous difference that film makes with your photos.  I've been asked if I could tell the difference between film and digital by friends, and the answer is YES!  and since digital is now the common form of photography, something that we all can even do with our phones, seeing actual film photos just makes me giddy.  there's something just uniquely special about them.  and uniquely special about a photographer who is working to give you such a remarkable product.

I'm so in love with these photos, such a perfect capsule of our family right now.  and our home.  our kitty sadie.  and our green door, yes, the green door.

and every time we see sarah I just think how lucky we were to find her almost a decade ago, and all the moments she has been there with us!  see some of our other photos by sarah here.

I cannot tell you how happy I am with the photos of just the two of us.  we rarely get to take photos just the two of us, and typically, they are only taken when our toddler is throwing a tantrum and refuses to be in the photo.  so really, these are pretty perfect to me.  no crying toddler in the background, and someone else holding the camera.

sorry, clearly I didn't really try to narrow these down

but really, I'm not sorry, just pretty smitten

find sarah here : Sarah Maren Photography

see her photography blog here.

and contact her directly here.