You guys know what I love? The smell of freshly washed linens drying on the clothesline. It’s the perfect mix of lavender and sunshine. Yet for the past few months we’ve been dealing with major bouts of skin allergies so I’ve decided to start making my own laundry detergent.

I lobbied hard for a color of grout named Bone but in the end we chose Alabaster. It was supposed to be a pale gray that I think is going to look really nice given we have black granite countertops, maple cabinets and a wall colored aptly named Cream in My Coffee.

One of my home goals this year was to finish the kitchen. There’s wasn’t a major renovation planned just a few updates one of them being adding a backsplash. It didn’t take us very long to decide we wanted to use white subway tile in a basket weave pattern. But we struggled for months to find the time to actually complete the project. I knew I had to get an action plan together including a timeline. I gave myself until the end of February to finish the task and called my bestie S to the rescue.