Irelance Ring of Kerry

Sneem Ireland in county Kerry was just idyllic! 

I spent a small fortune buying box mice and clothing/accessories for Esme in a shop called the green chair. The shopkeeper was a timid Irishman who was delighted to show us every little outfit and item in the toy line and it was all so so cute I could die. Been I told him I have two 9 year old daughters, he brought out two little cardboard gift boxes that look like tiny houses and gave instructions on how to fold it for set up and pop out the windows and cut the doors so they open. The girls are going to love them! 

Ireland is my color palette for sure. rich olive green, mustard yellow, pops of cream, stone, natural woods, and occasional purple. 



Wild blackberries are growing all over. I ate a few and they were the sweetest/non tart berry ever. 




I love these women! 

Oh Johnny O Conor we will never forget you 



Hydrangeas are my love language. I wish I could grow them. I can’t describe the joy I feel in my heart when I see a pretty hydrangea.

Skellig Michael where the Force Awakens was filmed can be seen here in the background. It was WAY to windy/choppy to even consider the sketchy boat ride out there but the ruins are mind blowing 

















Sheep everywhere! I love them! The little colorful spots on their bums are so bright and happy 





Muckross House in Killarney 

The wallpaper in this place was a vibe! I think the owner and I would’ve been very good friends lol. I loved the decor! 



The carpet in the nursery was magical! 

Annnd the kitchen. Dreamy. I love visiting old homes and manors and I don’t think I’ve ever loved one as much as this estate. Every corner was eye candy for the farm I will have in another lifetime and design inspiration everywhere. What a dream!  

Know what else is a dream? Bread and butter in Ireland. Every pastry I tried was incredible. These people are doing it right. Butter and soup and dessert. Yes please! I had a Napoleon thing with puff pastry, lemon custard, whipped cream, and a smashed raspberry spread. Perhaps a cheesecake layer in there as well. It was unreal. And it was enormous. And I devoured it. 



More Irish butter and nutty brown bread. So good!! We are determined to recreate this bread and the vegetable puree soup. 

Esme and Bear are 9!

My babies are 9! 

I was out of town on their birthday this year so we postponed celebrating by 2 days. They still had a great day though! Before I left town I made them each a chocolate confetti ball to smash with a little hammer. Sort of like a kinder egg with $10 inside. They loved it and we got to sing and smash over FaceTime with Mr and Sister Willardson on the call for p day. 

The party continued when I returned and lasted into the week. It’s birthday month! I love them so much. 

Irelance with Carly and Kasey Days 1-2: Ireland

I’m on a trip with my best friends! It’s lovely.

K and I flew to DFW, spend a few hours living our best lives in the admirals club thanks to Kasey’s perks. Carly arrived just in time for us to hop on a 8.5hr flight to London. I sat next to an adorable young couple from  Utah with a lot of questions about being a member of the Church. This particular international flight was 

We hustled through customs in London and got right onto our flight to Cork, Ireland. 

Our cottage in Kenmere was adorable! 

We arrived in the morning, and stayed up all day. My superpower is that I somehow never get jet lag (yet!). I think I’ve operated on zero sleep for so many years that I just go on like normal. Anyway, we had a great day exploring cute shops and markets in Cork and Kenmare and had a character “girl dinner” in our cottage.  The next day we drove the Ring of Kerry, hiked the Kerry cliffs, ate meals in Irish pubs and found live  traditional Irish music at night. It was all so incredible! 

Day 1: beef stew with a scoop of mashed potatoes in it! “Toasties” = grilled cheese with pickles and ruffles chips in them. Vegetable soup and brown bread with butter are the best comfort foods ever. We are determined to replicate these recipes at home. Driving an automatic car on the left side of the road has been a crazy adventure with the narrow and steep one way roads all over (with blind corners!). 

Stone walls and buildings and walkways and churches and fences everywhere. So much stone! I love it! Sheep everywhere! I want to take them home with me! The woolery mill at Blarney castle was really cool to see the process of yarn making start to finish. The Aran knits and cashmere are incredible but so expensive! I do regret not buying a sweater but there just wasn’t one that screamed out to me enough to justify the cost. And on our walk to Aldi we found a rainbow. The wild mustard yellow flowers and mossy color way in Ireland is my dreamy color palette. I could started at these landscapes all day and never grow tired of them. Add in the moody dark overcast sky and dark shake rocks give me a room full of these colors! I loved it. I also was obsessed with the hydrangeas in every color imaginable from limelight green and baby pink, cobalt blue, and bright purple to maroon red! 

Guest Room Refresh

I emptied out and cleaned this closet in our guest room yesterday, and found this scene, today. Like do I have extra people living here that I don’t even know about?

I’m trying to tackle some of the projects I ignored for 2 years while I was using all my spare energy on school.  One is our guest room. We moved the bed to Corbin’s room, and now have a space and a closet absolutely stuffed with things we no longer use-mostly outgrown clothing. 

I sent all of the clothes my big girls have outgrown with my cousin for her daughters, and I love love love seeing Lily and Lochlan sporting things that my daughters loved. The clothes Bear outgrew went to a some friends, and I have 4 bins of clothes from Corbin and Soren to take to Deb Project. A friend called this week asking if I had anything my little girls have outgrown for an associate of his who will be fostering a 5 year old. Yes. Yes I do! Supporting foster care AND purging the guest closet? Perfecto. A bonus, this friend happens to have a daughter just smaller than the size of the child in foster care, SO I’m sending all of the duplicate outfits from my twinner girls for her to enjoy! 

Yesterday I started a wallpaper project in the room and so far I think it adds to the moody study space beautifully. My teens said their orchestra assignment videos are going to have a way better backdrop this year than a closet so packed with storage they can’t close the doors in the background 😂

I have felt so content clearing out and repurposing this space for my family this week. 

Three cheers for homemaking! 



And hello to this new to me little cabinet. It was in my grandmother’s home when she was a child and before then, it was in the home of the governor of Colorado🤷🏻‍♀️. My parents just passed it on to me and I feel so lucky that it gets to be mine, now! 

Activity Days for Bear

The triple threat have Activity Days twice a month at the church and no one looks forward to this evening more than Bear. This week he won a tower building contest and is still talking about it days later!