We've Gone Blind!

Well not really... we just got blinds. 

So we finished our first little project for the Tyni Cottage! When we moved in (like I previously mentioned) we had nothing over the windows so in order to not feel like we were in a fish bowl I nailed blankets to all of the windows and used the girls pants as tie backs haha! It worked but it obviously wasn't a permanent solution. 

Tyler measured all the windows and recorded the measurements. Then we took our info to our new hang out spot, The Home Depot and they actually cut the blinds to fit exactly what we needed for no extra charge! It was pretty cool! Here is a few pictures of the process...

Tyler's "helpers"!

The Before :)

BEFORE

AFTER

And here's some adorableness :) 

 So not a huge change but it was a HUGE deal to me! And I really love how it turned out. They make the room seem a lot more put together :)

More updates soon! 

Thanks for reading! 

Dani

Our First Week in Our New House.

So this week hasn't been pretty and I wouldn't say it's been fun either. It's been a lot of stress, readjustment of expectations, patience, and trying to see the potential. 

Here's how it went...

Friday

We got the house! We went in and signed all the papers and waited for the county to record that it was our house. Then we went out to lunch to celebrate!

I packed a few things but thought I could finish the next day no problem.

Saturday

Tyler worked from 6 am - 3 pm. So I packed and organized and got the house as ready as possible with two little ones in tow. 

Then Tyler got off work and the real fun began. We got the UHAUL and then family came over to help us lift some of the heavy stuff. After they left we were up loading the UHAUL until 1 in the morning! It was exhausting. Then we had to sleep on the ground because our mattress was packed so that was fun.

Sunday 

We get ready and clean the house. By 11 am we were on the road. 

It was actually really sad for me to leave our apartment. I mean that was the place where my girls have had all of their birthdays and where I brought Violet home from the hospital. It had so many memories and I just wanted it's next residents to take care of it because it had done such a good job taking care of us. 

Continuing... When we got to the house we walked in and it smelled like a dog. You know the smell. As we unloaded the truck it started to sprinkle and the heater wasn't working and the flies decided to set up camp and I was going crazy! Not to mention I was in a dress because I was dressed for church and all my clothes were at the back of the UHAUL. It felt dirty and gross and all I could think is "what have we done?!". Fast forward to that evening when all of the windows had no curtains and it was like we were in a fish bowl. I couldn't take it so I nailed up all our blankets to the windows. 

As I went to bed that night I was really disappointed. I mean we left our nice temperature controlled, good smelling, flyless apartment for this? 

Monday

Things started looking up. We got the UHAUL unloaded and bought a couple of fly swatters. 

Tuesday

We discussed the smell and came up with a game plan to get rid of it. 

Wednesday 

We bought blinds and a carpet cleaner. That night Tyler set up the blinds in the living room and cleaned the living room carpets. He's so awesome. 

Thursday

Thursday was the day where I remembered why we bought the house. It was sunny and the girls and I spent a few hours outside and they love it here. We have horses next door and a view of the mountains and I'm going to try my hand at gardening in the spring. That night we all chased each other around the living room in our pajamas and we didn't worry about disturbing downstairs neighbors. The girls play more here and it seems as if life is slowing down. We came up with a list of projects and it all seems more doable. 

We are no where near what I want the house to feel, smell or look like but we will get there. And I don't think we made a mistake I think this is just the beginning of a big learning and growing process. 

I'm excited to share it all with you guys! 

xoxo Dani

Apartment Gardening.

Hey Friends! 

So this past spring/summer I became obsessed with gardening. The idea of growing my own food is just so fun and exciting to me! At that time we had no plans to buy a house so I improvised. I started my own little herb garden. It was really fun and an easy project. 

I only planted 4 herbs to keep things simple.

wheat grass

chives

thyme & 

basil

For plant markers I just wrote on rocks I found with permanent marker.

To start off the garden I went to Walmart and purchased THIS planter. Which made it easy to keep it watered and it was skinny enough to sit in my kitchen window seal.

Then I purchase THIS potting soil. Remember to get seed starting soil if you grow your herbs from seed. It makes things much easier. 

Then I went to our local NURSERY to get the seeds. Which were very affordable and they had a huge selection. 

When I got home I read the backs of the seed packages and got to planting! 

After a few weeks I started seeing growth which is really exciting!

This would be a good beginning gardener project, it's easy and simple and doesn't take a lot of space. You can even plant individual herbs in tin cans if they have good drainage! 

There are so many resources on youtube and pinterest. So if you want to test your gardening skills without getting too committed try out an herb garden. 

If you have any questions send them my way!

Stay tuned for my next gardening adventure in our new house! 

xoxo 

Dani

Halloween with the Hollingsworths.

Okay so I'm not a big Halloween person. I don't like scary and I don't like gross so Halloween and I aren't that close. (ooo I rhymed!)

I do however love to dress up... I love coming up with costumes for movie premieres, football games, spirit weeks, and talk like a pirate day at Krispy Kreme... so in the dressing up sense Halloween and I are pretty close. I guess our relationship status would be "It's Complicated". 

This year we've been moving right up until Halloween so I'm not sure if we'll get to take the girls trick or treating on October 31st but we did get to go to our church Halloween party which was really fun and safe and not too spooky. PERFECT! 

Our family costumes this year are....

THE STARTER POKEMON AND PIKACHU! 

Those of you who know my husband know that he is THE Pokemon Master. So he actually made all of our costumes out of old shirts, felt and hot glue! 

I was very impressed with his craftyness! 

HUBBA HUBBA!

Happy Halloween!!

xoxo 

Charmander

Hooray!!

Hooray, Hooroo, Hoorah!

I am so excited! One of my life long dreams has come true and I can't even contain my excitement any longer and I just have to shout this news from the rooftops!!! (or the internet) 

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!

*happy dance*

We actually bought a cottage and it's so stinking adorable! 

I will be documenting our journey to make this cute little house a "tyni" little house! So subscribe to get updates and such! 

Woohoo!

xoxo Dani