The Saturday Six

 

This week's Saturday Six is inspired by the wildly diverse hodge-podge of things that made up my searches this week. Absolutely NO rhyme or reason to be found here today. (Or in my brain on most days!)

One.

I have started official planning for our TENTH anniversary trip. Whaaaaaat???? How is it ten years, my friends? Many details remain a mystery in this planning session, but I may or may not have been derailed by this amazing blog post covering a Pacific Coast Highway trip. I shouldn't let myself get sidetracked like this. It makes me want to drive over to our friends' house to get Abby and head out west. I also may or may not have sub-researched most of the places suggested in this post!

Two.

Last summer, one of our tenants at WillowBridge had a rummage sale in our parking lot. It was a fun part of our job to get to teach her things about pricing, presentation, and not giving up when the sun came out! :) It was also fun to shop her sale! I purchased an adorable chalkboard (because of course!) calendar that she bought new and used once. I have it hanging up in our kitchen, and I decided it needed MUCH more effort in May than it had in April. I searched Pinterest for chalkboard fonts and found this one that you can purchase as an actual font from Etsy. I used it as my inspiration for simple lettering, but I wanted to share it in case you're a font fanatic and want to check it out!

Three.

Our small group met last Saturday night, and I pulled out an ollllllllllld classic that I'm not sure I've made since we've been married. Super easy and quite yummy. Oh! And I made my own ranch seasoning mix. That was fun!! Here is the recipe for the whole dish, and here is the recipe for the ranch seasoning mix. 

Four.

Somehow, from an account that recommended an account that recommended an account, I happened upon the Instagram account of Selina Bergey. I found her a few weeks ago and learned this week that we are the same age. She and her husband are missionaries in Africa, and they have several children. About six weeks ago, I think, her 17-year-old son was diagnosed with an incredibly aggressive form of cancer. Selina and her so returned to the US so he could receive treatment, and I have been following their story every single day. My. Goodness If you want to read some encouragement, give her a follow. (She often shares the posts of her son, when he's well enough to post, and her 20-year-old daughter, who has been holding down the fort back in Africa.) I know they are overwhelmed, scared at times, and sad to be apart, but their unwavering faith in the Lord has blessed my heart SO much!

Five.

Ryan and I were at IKEA earlier this week, and I fell in absolute love with this wall art. Unfortunately, it only comes in one size, and it's bigger than any space I have left. I was hoping they had it in an 8x10 version, but...no. I still love it, though. If any of you buy it, send me a picture and let me live vicariously through you! :) 

Six.

Another acquisition for us this week was an old picnic basket from Ryan's mom and Allen's house. (More on this another day.) Ryan asked why I chose it, since we aren't really picnic people. Oh, but we should be! I mean, to be fair, our very first date included a picnic, and that led to a beautiful decade! I think we should bring back the picnic life. (Plus, we can take Lexi!) To get us started, here are a few ideas! 

Meet Our New Office!!

 

I love the room I'm about to show you. Who am I kidding? I love all the rooms! But I really really love this one extra. 

When we first toured the house, which is a three-bedroom, as I'm sure you probably assumed, we didn't hesitate in figuring out which room would be the office and which would be the guest room. We chose the bedroom closest to the extra bathroom to be the guest bedroom. That gives our guests a cozy little corner when they come to stay!

Besides, the office space layout worked better with that massive bookshelf we keep moving from place to place! :) 

There are two things I particularly love about the office. One, it's much bigger than the room we used for our personal office at WillowBridge. That room was so very tiny. Secondly, this room has a beautiful window that lets in all the natural light, and that makes my creative soul SO HAPPY. 

Here was the room from the day we closed on the house:

We were able to visit the house regularly from the very moment our offer was accepted. The builder gave us the codes to enter, and we came over about once a week (if not more) to check on it. We measured all sorts of things, and for some reason, both of us had it in our heads that the bookshelves were going to have to be split between two walls, as they have been in our last two homes. But in fact, they do fit on one shelf, and I love how it looks. It has such presence!!

And here they are, filled with the books that bring me SUCH JOY!

As you can see, we have some room to grow with the books, and that makes my heart happy, too! I also very carefully chose the non-book pieces that go on the shelves. Each one of those items has a story. Every photo, every sign, every little decoration. They all mean something! 

I should add that at this point, Ryan and I still do not know how much work for our jobs we'll be doing from home. (The job story is a whole post for another day. We're still awaiting final decisions and going through much prayer about the next steps we should take.) I mention it simply to say there is a possibility one or both of us will do some, if not all, of our work from this room. It was very important to us that we create a space where we could both work freely and comfortably. All my books sit right behind my work station so I can easily reference them as I create, study, write, and whatever else I may be doing!

Meanwhile, this is my view across the room and what sits behind Ryan at his work station. You might recognize the cherry blossom tree. We bought it when we lived in Kokomo, and it was part of our sun porch collection. We thought it added some nice ambience to this room here, so this is where it's living! I might do some more rearranging of things on that white shelf, but for now, it works. And I love how the little gallery wall came together! 

The two silver pieces are magnet boards. The art with the black frame was my gift from the Financial Aid crew at IWU when I left there. (They all signed the back.) Directly underneath it in the small frame is the art print below, which was a gift from one of the Gateway couples we knew from our very first day of work! (They went through training with us.) The cream-colored print with all the words was my gift from Ryan on my last day at WBCL, and I attached to the back of it all the notes my coworkers there wrote to me. I love it that this wall represents all three of my jobs and what God has taught me as I left to pursue His next plan for me! There's also Ryan's tan message board, which I gifted him for Christmas one year. And the white board, because I have to make notes somewhere! And finally - the picture on the bottom right is the really cool rainbow/bird/waterfall photo Ryan took at Niagara Falls a few years ago when we visited. I love that picture!

(That was the gift from the Gateway couple.)

Here is Ryan's side of the desk looking over to mine, and then underneath that is my side of the desk looking over to his. We did get this desk new to fit this space, and we really love it. The size is perfect. (We will eventually get better chairs. For now, the stools work.) We each decorated our own sides of the work station!

And here is the last part of the office, which we just completed this week! The desk doesn't have any storage drawers, so we needed a stand or shelf of some kind to hang onto the pieces and parts of office supplies. We found this one at IKEA, and it was perfect. 

We also have storage in the closet, which is really helpful. 

We have both already enjoyed working in here and can't wait to see what is next for us with the work God has for us to do in this room! 

Meet Our New Master Bedroom and Bathroom

Hope you're enjoying the house tour this week. If house tours aren't your thing...hold on! Regular programming resuming soon! :) 

Today I thought I'd show you our master bedroom. I think it's the perfect size. When we lived in Kokomo, we had an ENORMOUS master bedroom. I didn't dislike it in any way, but I always thought it could have been a little smaller to allow that square footage to go into another room. Then at WillowBridge, the master was so very small. It fit our bed and side tables and that was it. No room for a dresser or anything else at all. It was completely adequate, because really all we needed to do was sleep, so I wasn't upset about it, but it was definitely a small room!

I feel like the master here is the perfect middle ground between the two. It's big enough to very comfortably hold all our bedroom furniture - plus a couple of extra things we needed to put somewhere, but we weren't sure where. 

Here are a couple of pictures of the room on the day we closed. It was a beautiful blank slate.

We are very excited to have carpet under our toes again in our bedroom. It's just extra warm and cozy in cooler weather, right?

Here's the view from the door. I don't think we purchased a single new thing for this room (except the bedside lamps) but the layout of using this collection of furniture together is new. This bed was new to us when we moved to WillowBridge. (We always had a king bed, but we couldn't fit that in the bedroom at WillowBridge, so we downsized to a queen there, and this was the bed we got for that space. We still love it. Kept all the same bedding and everything!

Here's a closer view of the bed. We try to keep all our wedding decor in this space. It seems sacred to us to be reminded of that beautiful day and the promises we made.

We love those beautiful bedside lamps! Ryan chose them, and he did so well. They're actually touch lamps with three levels of brightness, which makes them perfect for a bedroom. (In the evenings, we usually turn them on low to give some ambience to the room and they're perfect.) Prior to this, we had some blue and white striped lamps beside our bed, but on this move, I decided those were a better fit for our living room, so we moved them out there. 

Here is the space across from our bed. (It's one of Braeya's main two napping spaces, so you'll notice she's deep in sleep in this photo. Our bedroom is her bedroom. She loves it in there. You can almost always find her on our bed, under our bed, or on this chair.)

Let me tell you about this space! You might notice the chair is actually the extra section of our couch! I mentioned during the living room tour that in order to fit the couch in our living room without making it seem crowded, we needed to take out a piece of the sectional. So we put it right here, and I love it. My aloe plant is there beside it, and I also have a basket with my Bible study books/colored pencils/other supplies on the other side. In part, it masks the fact that the chair doesn't have regular sides. 

The table is the sofa table we used as our desk at WillowBridge. This is what the stools match - but we're using those at the breakfast bar. This keeps the TV up high enough to be seen from bed, and we love how it matches the bed, too! 

The white canvas on the wall was a wedding gift from my friend Kari (hi, Kari!!) and the wooden picture beside it was my gift from Ryan on our 5th wedding anniversary. The monogram above the TV was a gift from Lynne Ford shortly after we got married, and the other photo of us was one we purchased from a church directory photo shoot. It has the verse from Micah reminding us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Down on the floor is our foot washing pitcher that we used on our wedding day. It has deep, long-standing significance to our relationship! And you might see my empty cloche on the table. I am hunting the perfect thing to put inside.

This is the other wall in our room. I only have one thing hanging on it so far, but I love this little corner and all the heritage represented in the pieces shown here!

Our master bathroom is fairly simple, but I'll show you! :) This is absolutely the biggest master bathroom we've ever had (either of us!) and we love it. Plenty of space to get ready, a walk-in shower, and a walk-in closet, too!

The shower is fairly standard, but we did put this little barrel next to it. It stores extra toilet paper within reach, but it also gives us a place to put clothes or extra towels when needed!

There is only one sink, but we actually prefer that! So we each have ample counter space to get ready at the same time if we need to! The only change I would have made to this room would have been adding an extra plug to the left of the mirror. The only outlet is on the far right, so when I have to plug in a hairdryer or anything - it drags across Ryan's space. It's so rare that we get ready at the same time, though, that it's not a big deal. 

A photo from the closet - to show a little bit of decor. 

And then from the door...to show the other end!

It's a perfectly sized little suite for us, and we feel so thankful to have it just the way it is. 

Meet Our New Kitchen and Dining Nook

 It seemed fitting to show you the kitchen and dining nook today since you already saw a sneak peek of both yesterday in the living room pictures!

I fell head-over-heels in love with the kitchen the minute we walked in the front door. It had everything we loved from both our most recent kitchens. It had the espresso cabinets we ended up with in Kokomo after Ryan refinished them from oak. And it had an island with a breakfast bar, just like our kitchen at WillowBridge. We just loved everything about the kitchen the moment we arrived. Because we spend equal time in the kitchen and living room, it means everything to us that we can be in both places and still be in the same place. 

Here are the pictures I took the day we closed:

And now...it's home!

Those three stools actually go with the sofa table we bought when we moved into WillowBridge. It served as our desk at WillowBridge, but we used it in a different way in this house, as you'll see in a coming day. We did not need the stools for it in its new use, but they were a PERFECT fit for our breakfast bar! 

This island is one of our favoriate spaces in the whole house. It's perfect for everything. Cooking, eating, projects, you name it. And you can't tell from the pictures, but the sink is SO deep. Love it! I also love the pendant lights over the island. Someone else chose them, but they did a great job! 

Our coffee bar is back in its original glory! Ryan was inspired by shelving at the coffee shop in Grabill and put these up to hold our mugs! Everything else is the same as what we had in both Kokomo and Grabill. 

And here is our dining nook!

I will tell you the story behind our table. The official dining room table we've had for the last seven or so years (which was a hand-me-down in Ryan's family) just didn't fit in this space. At its smallest, it was too big to fit comfortably in here. So we returned it to his family and got a counter-height table instead. This is the table without the leaf, but there is a leaf that we can put in to make it a full square size. I love the bench seat! We've loved the chance to eat our meals at the table each day, and when our buddy was here last week, we all ate right here, and he loved it. When he was hungry, he'd go to his chair and pull on it, showing us he was ready to eat!

As with every room, we have so many dreams for this space. We hope to use it as a place of ministry, where friends and family can come to share meals, have some coffee, and leave well-fed and happy. I've already enjoyed cooking, not just for the two of us, but for others as well! 

Meet Our New Living Room

 Hope you enjoyed our first glimpse of our new home yesterday. Today I thought I'd welcome you into our living room! 

This little corner is right next to the foyer you saw yesterday, and I love how it turned out. It wasn't my original vision for this space, but it's what seemed to work best here. Ryan and I got this little bench for our guest room in Kokomo and used it again in our guest room in Grabill. I'd planned to do the same here, but then I thought it fit so perfectly right here. If someone needs to sit to put on or take off shoes when they enter, they can use the corner of this bench for that!

The clock was a gift I gave Ryan our first Christmas together, I believe. 

Here's a closer look at the decor on the bench:

One of our favorite things about our home is that our living room is open to the kitchen. You might remember that we took down part of a wall in Kokomo to achieve a similar look, but this one is completely open. I know that isn't everyone's favorite, but we love it.

I took these pictures from the kitchen. The first one was from the day we closed, and then you can see it now!

It's the coziest space, and we love being in it!

This little spot was my original vision for the place where the black bench is, but I moved it over here, because it felt like it was meant to be right here. 

We ended up taking one section out of our couch to make it fit more appropriately in this space. You'll see that section again in another room. In the background here, you can see the kitchen area, and I'll show you more of that tomorrow. 

Our rug that we got while we lived at WillowBridge was equally made for this space and warms it up so beautifully. Our big window overlooks what will someday be our backyard. We were able to reuse every single curtain from our WillowBridge apartment in this house, so I am excited about that!

A little peek at one of the shelves beside the TV:

This wall leads from the living room to the hall, and we made it our little photo collage space. We've always put these photos behind our couch, but we no longer have a wall behind the couch, so we shook up the location a bit!

This rocker belonged to Nita, and Ryan brought it home to live at our house late last year. We didn't originally plan to have it in our living room, but this is where it fits best, and I'm so glad. It was meant to be here. 

I ended up getting a coffee table runner with a gift card I had, and it ties the living room together so well. This is the tray my friend Amber made for my 40th birthday, and then the vase of flowers Ryan gave me for Easter. They fit perfectly right in that little spot!

Ryan and I have thoroughly enjoyed resting in this space over the last month. We've napped on the couch. We've watched movies. We've studied our Bibles. We've played with Lexi and Braeya. And last week we had our first opportunity to use this space in welcoming a guest. Our little godson spent an entire week here. He played for hours on this rug. We rocked him in that chair while praying over his life. It felt like our dreams for this house were already beginning to be realized. We had a space that was quiet and peaceful that we could offer to him. 

There are still a few things to update as we have time. Most of them are pictures I need to print and put in frames. I also have a request in to Amber to paint me a little ornament with Lexi's face on it to coordinate the one she painted of Braeya. (I told her we would wait until Lexi is a little more grown up and we know more what her face will look like with her hair grown out!) 

We are eager to see how God allows us to use this space. We have our dreams, of course. Small group gatherings, friends for dinner, kids and pets having fun, good conversations, and so much more. May His dreams be grander than ours! 

Meet Our New Foyer (and Our First Project!)

Alrightie! I think we are finally ready to do some house touring here on the blog! Are you ready??

Before I begin this little mini-series of posts introducing you to Shafferland 4.0, allow me to say this. I wanted to wait until we were settled enough that you could see our personalities in this place. There will never fully be an "after" to this home, because we always want to make changes and allow life to unfold in this space. So if you're looking for a completed home, you're about to be disappointed. But if you're looking for the beginning of a story, settle in!

When we first started looking at houses in preparation to move, the main thing we did not want was a fixer upper. If you've been reading here long, you know that Ryan and I are most certainly not afraid of a good house project. In fact, we've worked hard to make each of our homes our very own, and we have great memories of the projects we've done in each of those spaces.

But we knew we would be coming into this new house on the tired side from our last couple of years. We didn't have the stamina for big projects. So we were excited to find a move-in-ready home, brand new with no true need for projects. To be fair, all the paint throughout the house is a soft beige, but even so, we decided to leave everything as it was and just move in and make it our own with our belongings rather than paint colors and projects. 

Except...

...Ryan decided to do one tiny project. ;)

Back when we were at WillowBridge, Ryan had borrowed a table saw from his dad - for a couple of projects he needed to do there. His dad needed the saw back, so Ryan decided to use it one more time before returning it, so we could put some finishing touches on our little foyer. Not long before we left Kokomo, we had put up board and batten in our foyer there, and we both really loved how dramatically it finished that space. Ryan wanted to add it to our foyer here, too. It was a small project, really, requiring only the purchase of the wood. (The builders left a decent amount of trim paint behind, so we used that for this project, which saved us even the cost of buying paint.)

So! Here is a picture of the foyer on the day we closed on the house. (Note: the light fixture is incomplete in this photo. When the builders took it out of the box, the globe was broken, so they had to order a new one. It hadn't arrived by the day we closed.)

I love our foyer, mostly because it simply exists. Our Marion house opened right into the living room, so in rainy and snowy weather, that meant dragging wet coats and shoes into the heart of the living room. Our Kokomo house had a foyer, and I loved it that our guests could have a space to remove wet shoes and coats if needed! I was happy this house also has this space. It's not huge - in fact, it's not as big in real life as I think it looks in the picture above. But it is plenty spacious enough, and I love it. 

Here are some photos from our project days:

Ryan did the installation/mudding/sanding, and then we worked on the painting together. We had it finished up pretty quickly! 

And here is the after version! (Well. Mostly after.)

Let me tell you about this side! The white wall hanging on the left contains verses from Lamentations and was a gift from our real estate agent. 

The wreath was our gift from Gateway when we left there. Our coworker, Sarah, made it, including the actual wreath itself! The darker hanging underneath the wreath was a wedding gift from Ryan's cousin, and we've had that metal monogram since our Marion days!

The table belonged to my Grandma Freelan, and I just love it. It's a perfect fit there! 

Here's the not-quite-completed side! We always get watercolor paintings made of the homes we live in. We have completed paintings of the Marion and Kokomo homes just waiting to be hung here. My friend Amber is going to paint WillowBridge and this house for us, and once we have all four, they'll go up on this opposite side! 

I have more dreams for this space. Maybe a rug someday...maybe a plant by the window. But for now, I'm content with this cozy and hopefully welcoming spot for guests to enter our home. And our prayer is that all who enter here will know they are loved by us and by the Lord! 

(Haven't decided which picture I want to hang on that frame yet.) 

Come back tomorrow for another room tour!