Sure, You Have To Do A Little Extra Work When The Family Gathers At Your Pad For A Holiday, But You End Up The Next Day With Clean Toilets And A Couple Extra Bottles Of Champagne. Not Bad, Really.

Hosting family events is a great motivator to get some projects wrapped up before your guests arrive.  Take yesterday, for example.  We hosted Easter over here and, while I did need to run three loads in the dishwasher and developed carpal tunnel trying to scrape baked on egg off a baking dish, we ended up getting all of our outdoor curtains hung and our side patio about 90% finished.  Here are some visuals.

The Before.

We had furniture out here last year, but when we purchased our firepit (in a shameless effort to tempt the kids and their friends to hang at our house) we moved all of it to the back patio for seating around the pit.  We were left with a dirty rug, a lone table, and a bird's nest that our feathered friends have deemed too much of a fixer-upper to nest in this year.

And now, the After.

We love it.  The kids have even been hanging out here with their friends which makes me think we can put off finishing the basement a while longer.

So there's that.

I'm wearing this.

I wanted to wear something soothing.  This weekend was exhausting mentally and physically, and a long white t-shirt over some grey jeans felt functional and calming.  Of course, there's a pendant necklace because I'd never be too tired to accessorize (duh) and gladiator sandals because they are awesome.

For Meatless Monday we're having pasta with truffle butter (a donation from our neighbors who are cleaning out their fridge before they move to Arizona) and a nice big salad because after eating countless Reece's peanut butter eggs yesterday, we could all use a little roughage.

gratitude:  finished projects, peace and quiet, pretty flowers, detox tea

thanks and love.