Five Things on a Friday – 9/20/24

Happy Friday! I hope your week has been productive and full of all the best things that come from these golden September days. I was playing around with a few ideas for this year’s fall decor this week, and that’s what you see in the photo above.

When I last checked in with you, we were just getting Kennedy moved into her apartment. Well, she’s now settled in quite nicely with her two friends, and they’ve been living quite comfortably and happily for a few weeks now. They seem to be enjoying having a big, full kitchen to cook in, and I haven’t heard any complaints about the furniture set up yet, although I suspect we’ll still need to find them an extra comfy chair and a rug for their living room at some point. We spent all summer searching for the perfect vintage desk for Kennedy, but unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be at this time. We ended up finding a new MCM-inspired desk for her, which has worked out quite well, but we’re still hoping to find the real vintage piece one day to swap out. It’s been a good reminder that building a home, even a tiny little condo home in the city, takes time.

I’ve always wanted a wooden obelisk trellis for my garden. Chris built me one a few weeks ago, and it’s honestly just perfect. I’m hoping that I can get him to write something up or draw up some plans for us so I can share how he did it because I just love it so much. The plan was originally to have him build four, but when I saw how big the finished piece was, I realized that just one in the middle of the newly cleared section of the garden would look perfect. We had a bramble of raspberries growing there previously, and we mostly just left it to the birds, so I decided to plant a tall garden of mostly grasses, salvias, asters, and alliums. I have a few things in there already, but it’s looking pretty sad as of right now. I’m looking forward to getting it really filled in next spring and seeing my vision come to life. Fun fact that I learned this week: Grasses actually sequester more carbon than trees, so adding a grassy meadow area to your garden is great for the environment, especially if you can mix in native plants for pollinators as well.

Chris sealed the driveway, and it’s this kind of boring, practical home project that I live for. It’s something we’ve been intending to do since we moved in, but it wasn’t a priority and we weren’t really sure if we wanted to re-pave the whole thing, just seal it ourselves, have it professionally sealed, etc. So it just kept getting put off. He patched up a few holes and sealed it himself last week and it’s honestly like having a whole new driveway. He had to leave the patches unsealed so they could set, but he’ll be able to seal over those in a few weeks as well. Our house looks so much less neglected now. 🙂 The funny thing that happened is that now that our driveway looks so presentable, I’ve been inspired to dress our little garage up for fall like I’ve always wanted to do. We have this cute little rustic barn door on the side of the garage that I see outside the kitchen window, and I’ve always wanted to fix it up and create a nice view, but there was always junk piled there or a vehicle parked in front. Now that everything’s cleared away and looking so nice and tidy, I’m finally going to take advantage of my little barn door and do something festive for fall. I’m excited for all the cozy fall vibes.

In other home project news, I added a rug to the “elevated peasant” room and it, well, it elevated it. I wasn’t going to add a rug up there originally, but I decided it needed something to cozy it up a bit. This is the rug I got (pictured above) and I love it. Hopefully Kennedy feels the same when she comes home to visit next. The next project on my to-do list isn’t really an exciting one, but I need to repaint our ensuite. I tested a lighter paint color on a large section of the wall in the spring, liked it quite a lot, then proceeded to do nothing about it and leave a big, messy paint splotch on the wall. I’m going to take the opportunity to give the accessories in the room a little refresh at the same time, so hopefully, I’ll be able to report back on my progress there in a couple of weeks.

September is septembering around here, and we’re back in the full swing of things with school and soccer and work and everything. Jack is back in school, and this year, he’s (unbelievably) in the sixth grade. Things have been pretty much smooth sailing so far, and everyone’s fallen back into our normal morning and afternoon routines quite seamlessly, so I’m thankful for that. Jack’s on a new soccer team this year that plays at a higher level across the border in Michigan, so we’ve really been enjoying our trips over there to watch his games on the weekends, and we’re gearing up for fall tournaments with him training pretty much every weekday right now and loving every second of it.

NEWS AND FINDS

-Have you been receiving my new and improved newsletter? My goal is for my emails to be a bright spot in your inbox and for them to bring you fresh blog posts, helpful seasonal ideas, and a bit of inspiration for all things home. If you aren’t already an email subscriber, you can join our email community here or click on the “subscribe” button at the top of this page.

-I reached 10K followers on Instagram over the summer. It’s a bit of a milestone that people strive for, although I have to say that it’s been something that has been much less important to me over the last little while. It’s funny that I would reach it now when I don’t care as much and have just been posting whatever I feel like for so many months, but isn’t that just how these things always work? More than anything, I appreciate my little community over there that I can keep up with and share with as I go about my regular daily life. You can find me here if you’d like to stay in touch on Instagram: @creeklinehouse

-Nancy Meyers’ films and, of course, the beautiful homes that are featured in them are definitely having a moment this year. I’m loving this trend because I’m one of those people who have been coming back to the homes in these movies over and over again for inspiration for decades. It’s nice to see that the rest of the world is appreciating these cozy, homey spaces. I recently wrote a press article about the “Nancy Meyers Aesthetic” trend and how it’s being reflected in homes and kitchens, and it was picked up by quite a few news outlets around the country – over 100 I think? Here’s a link to the article on a news outlet site out of Minnesota: It’s the Year of the Nancy Meyers Kitchen as Cozy, Rom-Com Decor Continues to Trend for Fall.

-I was recently asked to contribute my advice to a great article on planning for a safe and organized home renovation for Porch.com. If you’re starting to consider a remodel, definitely check it out! P.S. I love contributing advice and ideas for articles online and in print. The questions asked are always so interesting, and they just make me think. 🙂 If you’re working on an article about anything related to home, garden, food, or family, definitely send me a message!

-Currently reading: Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I’ve gone down a bit of a Thomas Hardy rabbit hole this summer and I really just love each book more than the last. This one is considered to be his most poetic and tragic piece, and there is definitely a bit more of a troubling undertone beneath all the intricately-described beauty. In past books of his that I’ve read, there was tragedy, and terrible things happened constantly, but you had this sense that the characters would bare it well and all would work out well for them in the end. In this one, so far, I’m not so sure. I’ve also recommended another Hardy novel, Far From the Madding Crowd, as my September book choice in my newsletter. Such a wonderful, pastoral read for autumn.

-I have to tell you about Shoe MGK. Rather than replace my favorite white sneakers, I decided to see if I could brighten them a bit and keep them going for a little while longer. I’ve walked many hundreds of thousands of steps in them all over Toronto, New York, Philadephia, and many other places in between and they’re still just so comfortable and look just right with everything. They weren’t worn out in any way other than just looking a little less white, so I tossed the laces in the wash and decided to try this Shoe MGK whitener/polish. It’s a bit pricey for a shoe polish, but it really did the trick and my shoes were brigtened right up, almost like new. Highly recommend, especially if you feel a little guilty about treating shoes and other clothing items as disposable things like I do.

-Color of all kinds is definitely having a moment, and I’ve been getting a lot of interest in my blue rattan desk chair from my little living room desk nook. That actually one of the few things in my home that isn’t vintage, so I’m happy to report that it’s one item I can actually provide you a link to: Here’s the soft blue rattan chair here. I’ve had it for a few years now and I still love it.

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