Thursday of last week was the last day the boys were in sports camp, so I had the house to myself to work uninterrupted.  The butler’s pantry was done and I allowed it to dry for a couple of days before loading it up.  “Playing” with all of the accessories was the best part.  Not only did I arrange and style, but I also cleaned out and organized the drawers and cabinets as well as the closed storage in the dining room and some in the kitchen.  Things were still pretty jumbled from when we moved it and it felt so good to get it all properly organized.  Even though I didn’t purge anything (I did that pretty extensively before our move), I ended up with lots of empty space just because it was all sorted and organized and random things were moved to a permanent “home” with other like

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by HanStone Quartz.  As always, all opinions expressed are honest and my own. I am so excited to finally share my new kitchen counters! More than one person thought I was a little crazy for replacing granite counters, but they weren’t my taste and we hope to live in this house for a long time.  The kitchen is the heart of the home and we want it to be “us”. And, I have to say, I am completely over the moon with how it turned out.  I have wanted white marble counters for as long as I can remember and now I have beautiful quartz counters (HanStone Quartz in Monterey) that give me the exact look I want without the concern about etching and staining.  They are perfect. Before I gush, here is how the kitchen looked when we first moved in…   What a

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by HanStone Quartz.  All words and opinions expressed in this post are, as always, honest and my own. As I’ve shared before, replacing the countertops was on our to-do list for this house before we even bought it.  These are nice granite counters and they really don’t look bad at all, but they aren’t my taste.  We would also like to install a tile backsplash, which would look a little odd coming off of the little backsplash that is currently a part of the counters.  We plan on being in this house a long time, so we decided it would be worth changing them out. So, I had my heart set on marble.  I love the look of it and the “soul” of marble.  It’s such a beautiful material.  I know the issues, though, and I’ve spent months reading reviews and asking friends who have