Lavender Kay

I have decided to reboot my Explore Your City column!  One reason why I wanted to restart this column is that I think it is so important to immerse yourself into the community you are apart of, and take advantage all the wonderful places around you!  The other is because I LOVE Milwaukee!  I want you guys to be able to follow along in our crazy journey, and get to see all the wonderfulness Milwaukee has to offer!

Our first stop is the fabulous wine bar, Ruby Tap!  This is a fun, local spot right in our neighborhood!  One of the best parts of this wine bar is that they serve wine on tap — how amazing right?!  You can either choose the wine specials that they have on tap, or choose the wine machines that allow you to pour your own wine choosing the size you want and allowing you to try a lot of different kinds of wine.  I also love the menu at Ruby Tap because it is basically an amazing, build-your-own cheese board!  Now I’m in heaven!  And, not only is the wine and cheese wonderful, but the decor is fabulous too!  They have beautiful succulents on the tables, and huge floor to ceiling windows that slide open.  If you ever find yourself in Milwaukee, you must try this wine bar!

top left: fire pit // top right: art museum on lake michigan // bottom left: hanging plant on our front porch // bottom right: rainy day art project

Hello!  Happy Monday!  How was your weekend?  My weekend went by way too fast!  Here are a few instagrams from the past couple weeks.  The top left picture is of this amazing fire pit at a coffee shop by our house!  It is a perfect atmosphere for cool, crisp weather!

Happy Friday lovelies!  What are your plans for the weekend?  I will be working a lot this weekend, but we might try to fit in a Brewers game too!  We haven’t been to a game yet since we moved to Milwaukee.  But, I hear the Brewer’s stadium is wonderful so we would like to make it to a game soon!

Here are a few fun links from around the web:

I love this modern home

Dying to try this recipe

Doesn’t this restaurant look amazing

Cute craft idea for kids

Just in case you missed it: our painted cabinets

(image, via)

Here are some pretty pins from around the web!  I thought it would be fun to start a column highlighting different inspiring pins from Pinterest from time to time.  These pictures have been inspiring me lately!  If you are interested, you can follow me on Pinterest here.  Have a beautiful day!

(Image source: Clockwise 1 // 2 // 3)

Good morning friends, and happy Wednesday!  Today I wanted to share with you a DIY project Jonathan and I worked on this past weekend.  We have these really nice, vintage cabinets in our kitchen that just needed a little love.  Someone before us had used that sticky paper stuff that is supposed to look like paint but it just wasn’t cutting it.  At first we were just going to rip the paper out and paint it white, then right before we went to the paint store we decided it needed a little extra pop of color so we decided to paint the back wall coral too!  First I want to show you the before and after pictures.  What a difference right?!

This process ended up taking a little longer than we thought but it was totally worth it!  Here is what we did.

Step 1: First, we used a scrapper to rip up all the paper paint.  I think it had been their quite awhile because it was pretty hard to get off.  But, so satisfying when you got a big piece!

Step 2: We sanded the tops of the wood to help the new paint stick to the wood.  Step 3: Then, we primed the wood shelves (top, bottom, and sides), and let it dry.  Once the primer was dry, we painted all sides of the shelves white.

Step 4:  Once the white paint was dry, we used a small paint roller and painted on the coral paint on the back and side walls.  After that paint is dry, your done!  Just make sure to leave the cabinet doors open so that they can dry quicker.

You guys!  I’m obsessed with this color palette!  I just can’t get over that black wall and white bedding!  What a perfect pair!  I think the trick with painting a wall black is using an extremely light color palette to contrast the black.  I like how even though the wall is dark, almost everything else in the room is white!  Beautiful!

The other day Jonathan and I were trying to decide what color to paint the bathroom and I suggested black.  Jonathan wasn’t too fond of the idea, and suggested I make a color palette to see what you all think of a black wall.  I’m curious, what are your thoughts on a black wall?  Would you do it?

(image, via)

 Good morning dear friends!  How was your weekend?  We were busy doing household projects over here.  We did a lot of painting as well as worked on some DIY projects.  I am excited to share them with you soon!   We also had our neighbors over for drinks on Friday night, and it was a blast!  It is really nice to start settling in to our life here in Milwaukee.  People have been so welcoming which has made for a smooth transition.

Today I wanted to share with you an Instagram Book I made for Jonathan through a fabulous company called Artifact Uprising.  I wanted to surprise him with a book of all our fun memories from the last year.  It was a crazy, yet memorable year, and I wanted to have something to remember it by.  I was excited to try Artifact Uprising because I had read a lot of good things about them, and they have a wonderful, easy-to-use website.  They make beautiful, well-made products.  And, I love their simply, clean design!  I would highly recommend them to anyone!  Here are a few pictures from my book!

Have a fabulous Monday!

Jonathan’s parents were in town this past week!  They were so sweet to drive my car all the way from Washington to Wisconsin!  We had so much fun spending time with them and showing them around Milwaukee!  They also got to meet the cute neighbor dogs!

While Jonathan was at work, Julie and I went plant shopping!  We bought a bunch of cute plants, and planted them in pots on our porch.  Isn’t that succulent wonderful?!  The weather was beautiful the whole time they were here so we spent a lot of time outdoors.

Jonathan has a lot of relatives living in the state of Wisconsin so we also spent time meeting a bunch of family members which was so fun!  We were invited to two different BBQs where we got to meet relatives and eat tons of amazing food!  We even did a water balloon toss!  It has been so encouraging to know we are not alone in Milwaukee!

Good morning friends!  How is your week going?  We are so excited because Jonathan’s parents came to visit!  They drove my car from Washington to Wisconsin for me, isn’t that sweet?!  Now we have a lot of fun activities planned around the city.  We want to show them all the great neighborhoods and restaurants (and talk them into moving here)!

Also, isn’t the above picture cool!  I took this last week when we were downtown with some friends.  One of the many cool things about downtown Milwaukee is that there is a river running through the middle of it!  There is a river walk all along it with fun restaurants and twinkly lights.  You can just sit outside along the river and watch boats and kayakers ride by.

Alright, I’m off to make some coffee, and get ready for today’s adventure.  Jonathan’s mom and I plan to do some gardening, and maybe even do a couple DIY projects for our house.  Have a fabulous Friday!

Hello!  So I know I said I was back, and then I disappeared again — sorry!  Life has been so crazy trying to get our house in order, and trying to get used to this new city!  Plus, I started a new job last week so I haven’t been home much either!  I hope to update you on all the details soon!

In the mean time, I wanted to give you a new desktop calendar before it was too late so I hope you enjoy!  Happy Monday!

Ps: To download, just click on the image and once the large image appears in a new window, right click and choose “set as desktop background.”