Washington, DC: National Zoo and National Museum of Natural History

National Zoo: I feel like the theme of the day at the zoo was bad pictures: See? Abe has never been to the zoo in Atlanta, because he’s mostly been too young to care and because it costs a bunch of money. So we drove 11 hours north instead to where the zoo is FREE! Sometime we’ll take him to … Continue reading

DIY Toddler Water Table from Recycled Wood: The Backyard Just Keeps Getting FUNNER

It is not lost on me that this has kind of been the summer of kid stuff here on the ol’ blog. I feel like maybe I need to apologize to readers without kids for being so relentlessly child-focused. We painted grown-up friendly chairs just last week to appease you! And, honestly, I might have more kid stuff coming up … Continue reading

Milo and August’s Forest Room: Tour, Sources, and Elaborate Backstory

This room has taken an awfully long time to come together, particularly given that I think I started planning it in my head earlier than any other room. A long, long time ago, even before we bought our house, I came across this forest themed nursery with a big old wall mural featured on The Lettered Cottage, and I knew … Continue reading

Washington, DC: Monuments, National Archives, and Spy Museum

Another installment of our summer roadtrip re-cap! It won’t be summer anymore by the time I finish these! But that’s okay. I’m pretty sure all the stuff I’m talking about will still be around whenever you’re reading this. So when we left off, we had just finished our visit to Colonial Williamsburg. We left Williamsburg in the evening and made … Continue reading

Painting and Re-upholstering our Mismatched Kitchen Chairs…..at long last!

This project has been on our list for nearly as long as I can remember. Or at least for a long time. Back when we made the farmhouse table for the kitchen, almost exactly a year ago, I starting rounding up mismatched chairs from thrift stores, with the plan that eventually they’d all be painted the same color. And, look, now … Continue reading

Abe at ONE AND A HALF! Also, other kids and a fence

(This was going to be a post about our trip again, but then it got late. Maybe because I was taking so many pictures of my one and a half year old. Next week!) Abraham Barry is ONE AND A HALF! So that’s pretty crazy. I’ve had it in my head that 18 months is when they start to get … Continue reading

Hobbit Gallery Wall: or How I ALMOST Made the Coolest Gallery Wall of All Time

Let me tell you a little cautionary tale about how important careful reading skills are. Awhile back, I came across this post about art from The Hobbit on the blog, Brain Pickings. The post featured artwork from different editions of The Hobbit from all over the world, like this illustration by Tove Jansson: Gollum?! Is that YOU?! It was pretty … Continue reading

Special Guest House: My Mom’s! Plus the Least Comprehensive Haven Recap You’ll Ever Read

Update! Part 2 of the tour is up now. See the upstairs, including the two bedrooms and the master bath, here! I am still quite sleepy and mentally drained from my weekend at Haven (a blogging conference for DIY/Home bloggers). I wasn’t sure going into it whether I was going to write a full scale blog post about it, but … Continue reading

Colonial Williamsburg: Summer Road Trip, Part 2

So when we left off, we had just spent a fun/history-filled, ridiculously hot day touring Jamestown and Yorktown. The next day, our designated Colonial Williamsburg day, was overcast with a high of around 80–a very pleasant change from the day before. You start out at the Visitor’s Center in Williamsburg, where there’s plenty of parking and a building with a … Continue reading

DIY Honeycomb Hexagon Shelves

Post contains affiliate links; thanks for supporting Boxy Colonial! I know hexagon shelves are a dime a dozen these days, but I wanted to make some for Milo and August’s room because they’re awesome. We have a special affection for hexagons around here because two of our bathrooms came with hex tile. Our house had hexagons before hexagons were cool. … Continue reading