Blog - at home with Ashley

How to Make Face Masks Cute

When the pandemic first hit, my husband was the designated “go to the store” person. I went on walks around my neighborhood, but never left my house other than that. As time went on, I hand sewed a mask for an occasional grocery store visit. Now that it seems like masks in public are going to continue for the foreseeable future, I thought I’d find some ways for how to make face masks cute.

I’m approaching masks the say way I approach my whole life. If something has to be around, might as well make it functional AND my style. Need a fridge? Paint it with rainbow stripes! Have to do laundry? Make it a pretty space! Have to wear a mask? Add some ruffles!

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DIY Dog Bowl Planter

This post is sponsored by Freshpet.

The other day, we were on a family walk and saw the cutest little area- there was a dispenser for dog treats and water for pets walking past. There were framed pictures of the owner’s dogs who no longer were alive saying that the treats were in memory of the dogs. It was so sweet and inspired my DIY dog bowl planter.
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Playhouse School Reveal

When I was little, my friends and I started a club. We needed a headquarters so we selected my friend’s treehouse. It was pretty beat up so we convinced her dad to help us fix it up. A little deck carpet and screens on the windows and it was good as new! The feeling of hanging out with my friends in a place just for us- it was felt special. I wanted the same for Don. Today I’m going to share his playhouse school reveal.

I think kids rarely get spaces JUST for them. Since I think the feeling of ownership of a space is important, I’ve been trying to give that to Don. I’ve also been letting him select most of the finishes. For this, I give him a 3-4 options that I like that’ll fit with what Don is into and then let him choose. It’s been fun finding a compromise with both of our styles!

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How to Improve your Air BNB Listing

Hi friends! The main part of this blog post will be 10 tips for how to improve your Air BNB listing. Before that, I thought I’d give an update on my Florida Air BNB.

the good news

We started renting it out at the beginning of June when we came to Utah for the summer. It was probably rented out at 90% capacity. Which was a relief because we weren’t sure how it’d do– would anyone even stay at our home in Florida during a pandemic in the summer?

Mostly we had people doing staycations and movers relocating to the area and renting our house while theirs was getting worked on. Which was great! With the no contact check in and having the house available to one family, it felt like a safe way for locals to have a break from their own home.

the bad news

And then Covid cases spiked in Florida. Which was terrible. That lead to the county our Florida house is in (Broward) making Air BNB’s illegal until August 20, so we pulled our listing. It’s been a little stressful to not have the rental income, but we obviously have to follow the law.

We’re hoping it’ll be ok to welcome back visitors after the 20th, but’ll that’ll depend on what the county says. My fingers are crossed though!

when are you back in Florida?

All of this Covid stuff has slowed down our plans to go back to Florida. The cases are much lower in Utah (especially the area we’re in), so it’s been with safety in mind that we’ve pushed our moving date from August to later in the fall.

But what is Don doing about kindergarten? If you remember, our plan was to spend the whole school year in Florida so Don could attend kindergarten. Well, our Florida school district is doing 100% online learning. Which isn’t a great fit for my son. And with it being kindergarten in a new school I had MANY thoughts on it. And I’ve obsessed about this decision for weeks.

We’re probably going to hold him back and hopefully start kindergarten next fall. In the meantime, the plan is to home preschool him. That was a massive decision and I feel 89% good about it. I’m sure, like most parents with school aged kids, it felt like picking the best of bad options. I know this is a life changing decision for him and us so I don’t take it lightly.

And now to less complicated issues- how to improve an Air BNB listing!

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The Playhouse Mood Board!

At the beginning of July we started building the playhouse with a few pieces of plywood. And now there’s a whole structure and we’re FINALLY at the fun part- decorating! I better get started because this’ll be a great place for Don to play once it’s complete. I thought it’d be fun to show how the interior currently looks and the playhouse mood board.

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Horse Inspired Girl Room

A few weeks ago, Builds by Kristen invited me to help her makeover a room for a little girl, Nora. She is 5 and recently had open heart surgery. The idea is that by redoing her room, she can have a beautiful place to heal and have some hope for the future! She loves pink and horses and so I was so excited to help design her horse inspired girl room!

I quickly said yes- a chance to design a room for a special little girl? Definitely! I’m going to show you the before photos, the inspiration, and how we got to the final space.

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Painted Night Stand with Wood Bead Detail

Forever ago, I saw a picture of a dresser with wood balls glued to the drawers and I put that idea in my back pocket. Then, I started redoing the guest room and decided that I could use a larger nightstand. So I headed to the thrift store and found a $10 chest that was the perfect blank slate! Here’s how to diy a painted night stand with wood bead detail.

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DIY Arch Wall Mural

Here’s the truth- like many of you, money is a little tight right now. It’s been a hard few months. But even if my projects aren’t all as big and exciting as I’d maybe like them to be, I still like to update my house. Lately, I’ve been looking for ways to make my guest room feel just a little bit more special. So, I decided to add a DIY arch wall mural behind the bed.

I know the world looks vastly different than it did in January and sometimes it feels like the world is burning while I paint rainbows on everything. But creating is and always has been my therapy. Dreaming up an idea and executing it then sharing it here- the process keeps me sane. I don’t know what the future holds, but until then, I’ll keep painting.

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Thrift Haul

On Saturdays I like to unplug and have as much fun as humanly possible. I don’t know if many of you know this, but I live in Logan Utah which is about an hour from Salt Lake where most of my friends and family live. So about once a week, we head down and pack our schedule with as much as we can and see the people we love most.

This week, one of my visits cancelled and so I decided it would be fun to thrift! I invited my sister Kate and our blogging friend Laurel. Luckily, we were all free at the same time and met up for some thrifting! Side note, I like to wear a mask and social distance as much as possible while shopping. We headed to the Murray Deseret Industries which is super big! Want to see my thrift haul?!

p.s. if you’re wondering where I normally thrift in Logan, click here.

If you’d like to see the best thrift shops across the UT, click here.

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DIY Compost Bin

Ok- so this is a project I’ve been wanting to do for years! And we made it in 4 hours. Tell me why again I put stuff off- lol! I guess the reason is that building a diy compost bin isn’t a pretty or glamorous project. But it’s much better than having compost piles all over our garden!

Before we moved into this house, we owned our condo for 9 years and rented in Florida for 5 months. Which meant that we didn’t have a backyard before we lived here. So when were preparing to move in and dream of all the things we could do with this place, composting was on the list!

I told three year old Don about composting and showed him a video about the environmental impacts. And he started crying- he loves the earth so much, bless his heart! If you remember, he used to be into a major phase of loving garbage trucks. Not. because he loves trash, but because he hates it 😂. So, as you can see, this was a long time in the making.

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the good news

the bad news

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