Dream House: Week 8

The dream house update is a little late this week because it's been, well, a week. You know, one of those weeks. The kind where you can't tell whether you're coming or going. Anyway, without further adieu, let's take a tour of the house as it looked on Friday.

Come around back and park.

You may have to levitate up the staircase.

Or, you can walk the plank to enter through the front door.

Look! We have three beautiful walls (spoiler alert: as of today we have four beautiful walls and much more!)

The library was hiding back in this corner.

Now step back and admire the whole first floor, just watch your step, it's a bit of a fall!

It's getting to be very exciting around here!

<3
Hattie

mad for plaid and fall

Fall means apple cider, crunching leaves, buying new boots, and a reason to make a new duct tape purse.

This lovely new bag has lots of room for all the items I feel the need to cart around (electronics, books, water bottle, sweater, etc.) and the punchy plaid trim makes me smile. Before it was a fun fall purse, it was a humble free gift with purchase makeup bag.

I cut off the old handles and covered everything in merlot mania duct tape, leaving a few empty strips to allow me to sew on the trim. Sewing through duct tape is not advised unless you want to go crazy and kill your sewing machine needle.

I used a plaid skirt from Goodwill to make the pocket ruffle and handles.

Pretty easy peasy and custom fit to me!

Oh, duct tape, my life just wouldn't be as fun and crafty without you!

<3
Hattie

Dream House: week 7

Framing!

Wednesday was a pretty exciting day - we have walls! Sort of.

Brad had to hang out in his future man cave.

By Friday the stairs were also framed in. It's starting to look like a house, and not just a cinder block hole in the ground. Woot! We can't wait to see the first floor take shape - hopefully this week, but the weather forecast isn't looking great.

Fingers crossed for sunshine and more framing.

<3
Hattie

dream House: week six

Nothing to report this week. We were rained out the entire week! Good news, though, framing starts this week!

I should have lots of great pictures for next week's wrap-up :-)

Did you have a rainy week?

<3
Hattie

P.S. I just noticed the word "week" is in every single sentence.

Two Sisters Fashion Friday: Little Black Dress

This Friday, Hannah and I are wearing that great wardrobe staple, the little black dress.

Our favorite place to find dressy dresses at great prices is Ross. Both of our LBDs came from there, and we've found swanky dresses in other colors there as well.

Hannah's dress is actually a dark navy, but still has all the style and wear anywhere advantages of a black dress.

I think the cut and ruffle design give it a 1920's vibe.

Hannah is wearing:
Dress: Ross
Shoes: Steve Madden

I also love ruffles and fell hard for the neckline on this dress.

I love a simple dress that has one really special detail to keep it from feeling too plain.

I'm wearing:
Dress: Ross
Shoes: Sam & Libby (also from Ross)

Other great sources for classy dresses: Mod Cloth (they have amazing sales) and Target (some really nice stuff online that's not in stores).

 What's your secret shopping place?

<3
Hattie

Dream House: week five

This week was a digging week at the dream house. Not very visually exciting, but super important!

First we had some gravel added to help with draining around the retaining wall.

There was also a lot of this pipe sitting around.

By the end of the week, the pipe was all buried, and we should be able to have a nice, non-soggy yard with good drainage.

The side yard became a series of hole and pits for a few days. Not pretty to look at, but very, very important because,

our new septic take is buried under that handle.

The vertical pipes will be hidden underground once the yard is filled in, but can be uncovered when umm, "things" need to be pumped out in the future.

By the end of the week, all our holes and pits were filled back in with dirt.

The basement also had some excitement this week. It's now waterproof and insulated.

Woot!

In semi-related news, we now have part ownership of a 5 to 6 month old kitten. Skeeter just showed up at my parents' house one day. We think he was probably dropped off by someone who didn't want him. He is very sweet, but skittish, and is slowly learning to trust people. My dad named him Skeeter because he's no bigger than a mosquito. My family has two indoor cats, so Skeeter is an outside/garage cat for now, but he will hopefully move to the dream house when it is finished.

<3
Hattie

Two Sisters Fashion Friday: First Day of School

Friday got away from me, so let's hear it for a fashion Saturday. This week we are wearing our back to school outfits.

Hannah is headed back to college classes.

And I'm headed back to the school library.

Although our outfits are very different, we both gravitated towards a vintage vibe.

I think Hannah looks great in classic shirt dress in a trendy chambray. Her red Keds add a cute pop of color and keep the look casual.

Hannah is wearing:
Shirt dress - Target
Red Keds
nautical chevron bracelet - made by me.

I went for a more dressy look. This is probably the only week of the school year I'll wear killer heels. Since I work in a high school, I like to establish that yes, I am in fact an adult and not a fellow student! I'll have to add an open black cardigan to to look when I'm in the school building. True fact: all libraries are meat lockers.

I feel like the bow is sort of whimsical and fun, as is a silly librarian shush! We DO NOT have a quiet library by any stretch of the imagination - and I wouldn't have it any other way!

I'm wearing:
Top - h&m
Skirt - h&m
Belt - Old Navy
Shoes - Sam and Libby

Outtakes!

Sleepy eyes!

Extremely worried look.

Here's to a wonderful 2011 - 2012 school year!

<3
Hattie