We’ve owned 2 houses and lived in 8 houses/apartments together in our 13 years together and I’m tired of moving haha. We thought the Atown Aframe was our forever home, but things changed after Fischer was born. We still own our house in Atascadero and we’re currently renting a house in Livermore while we wait for the right thing to come for sale. What we want next is to find land to build our dream home. We did the fixer upper thing, and now we just want to start from scratch and design every inch of the place. It really excites me :)
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Photo Tips- Taking Photos At Home (during Quarantine)
I’ve been asked a lot of questions about taking good photos yourself, especially during this quarantine. Families are stuck at home and can’t have professional photos taken of their family. This is a great time to learn how to take better photos and be able to capture special moments yourself. These tips below are ways to get professional looking photos at home, with your phone or your DSLR camera.
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Branch Basics- Non Toxic Laundry Detergent
I’ve been searching for a non toxic, clean laundry detergent for a while now and finally found one I like, Branch Basics! I’ve tried many brands over the years, and most left our clothes and sheets with a weird smell within days of being washed. Some even left the clothes smelling weird after I changed detergent and washed them again and again. I had given up and went back to using regular laundry room, and Adam wound up having an allergic reaction to something in the soap and broke out in a rash. When this happened, I knew it was time to continue my search for a better laundry soap. It also means I can wash our clothes and Fischer’s clothes together, since it’s a gentle detergent and won’t bother baby’s skin. We’ve been using Branch Basics for a few weeks now, and so far we are totally happy with it :)
Head to this LINK to get $10 off!
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Dog treats
We don’t feed Sawyer many dog treats and he’s on special dog food because this poor guy has a sensitive stomach. Recently, we tried out Jiminys treats and so far they haven’t bothered his stomach! Yay! And he loved them of course :) They contain crickets as the protein, which are one of the easiest proteins for dogs to digest. They are also gluten free, which is surprisingly hard to find in dog treats!
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Yes You CAN
We did a few small grocery trips to stock up on items we always eat when we started hearing how crazy it was getting a few weeks ago. Adam came home from one of the trips and told me he bought emergency Kraft Mac and Cheese and emergency Bush’s Beans (2 of my guilty pleasures haha). And if you know me, you know I have ZERO self control so I took out the beans over the weekend and used my new can opener from Kitchen Mama. I’ve always thought electric can openers were better then hand crank ones. This one is the best because it basically does the job all on its own (great for parents with only 1 hand free because they are holding a kid in the other arm) and it’s cordless, so you can use it anywhere in the kitchen. It’s also compact so it stores easily in the drawer. Use the code DANIELLEP10 and get 10% this electric can opener!
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What To Consider When Buying A House
It easy to get caught up when house hunting and buying a house. It also can be daunting when you put offers in and they don’t get accepted, or no house feels like the one. I promise your house is out there, and know that the right one will come along when it’s meant to be :)
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Nursery Tour at the Atown Aframe
I’m really excited to share Fischer’s nursery! Our decor plans changed a little from the beginning to the end, but always had the same vibe. We didn’t want a theme, as we aren’t really theme type people when it comes to decor. I wanted his room to feel like an extension of our house, design wise, and not feel like a “kids” room. As you know our vibe is Mid Century Modern, Palm Springs, desert, so that’s what we did for his room too. We brought in greens and oranges, mid century modern furniture and lighting, and put up desert photos I took on our first trip to Palm Springs a few years ago. Nursery items can get pricey, but I found some great deals while still being able to stick to the look I wanted.
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Adding Wallpaper To Your Walls
So let me start off by saying that the first panel of wallpaper went up really easy, and then every piece after was a bit of a pain haha. The instructions (and youtube videos) don’t tell you exactly how much water to use to make it sticky enough, so you’re just guessing, it claims you can slide the wallpaper around for a good 20 minutes or so as you adjust it which is NOT TRUE, they mention nothing in the instructions about how to line up the pattern, and they make cutting the wallpaper at the ceiling or around anything super easy looking.
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Feb 2. Weekend Update + Links!
If you followed us on Instagram stories over the weekend, then you know that we put together our guest bedroom and a lot of the nursery. We had to finish laying some floors before we could bring things into the nursery, but we got it done!! We also had to clean up the guest room and get some things out of there before we could start. After that, we put together the bed frame and brought our old nightstands downstairs (if you’ve been following for a while then you know about this nightstand issue we had haha). Basically both rooms started as blank slates yesterday, so by the end of the day we felt very accomplished because the rooms look so good now!
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Why A Fixer Upper?
Buying a fixer upper has been a goal of ours for a long time (bucket list item for sure!). In case you didn't know, we've been together for 12 years, so dreaming of our future started when we were 17 years old (2007). When it came time to buy our first house in 2014 in Livermore, we had wanted a fixer upper. We offered on a house in a neighborhood that two of our friends lived in, and I really had my heart set it on it. It was a good price, it had the potential for an amazing kitchen, and overall would have been a good flip . We wound up having the highest offer, but lost to an all cash offer that was lower than ours.
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