We originally built the treehouse for our 4 kids and ended up loving it like crazy, as adults. We were so inspired by it.. we added a cabin.  It all began by using it as a summer cottage on our own 100 acre property.

Put on your comfiest clothes because you can do your online shopping here with no makeup, no pants, no problem. 
Here are our absolute faves: 

1.   H&M home: fab for affordable linens and home goods. It's a reallllllly big FAVE of ours! 
2.  Amazon: We save all of our favourite home pieces to these lists. Lots of amazing affordable home items! 
3.  Ikea: for kitchen, rugs, small furniture, duvets, lighting.  Pretty much everything. Our kitchen is an IKEA kitchen. LOVE.
4.  Shop our home series : Shop our favourite items in our home, treehouse and cabin. 

HOME! Home is everything for kids. Make it a place they feel safe and HAPPY. A place they feel good about and want to bring their friends. It doesn't have to be fancy- just be sure to spend TIME with them. Listen to them. Put the devices away. Eat dinner together, every.single.night. 
When our kiddos were little- we read this book a lot... It's all about 'how to talk so kids will listen and how to listen so kids will talk.' 
Annnnnd when things got tough - we put them in the bath. LOL. That solved everything. Now, when things get tough... we talk...we listen....we love and we swim in some water haha. 

Living with a loved one with cancer can be so gut wrenching. But good. It's like climbing a ladder of life. It makes you savour every moment and yet, the truth is... there is a still a messy middle to wade through. GAH. Good news is.. he is feeling okay despite his health challenges right now. He is taking oral chemo tablets every day, and he is at home loving life with all of us. Any day his feet are above the daisies is a good day!  The hardest times are at night, as he moves in his sleep every 20-30 seconds. Like little tiny seizures/twitches. I have the leg bruises to prove it. LOL. You can read more about his latest health update here and in our instagram stories here. 

Everyone has a story. I've come to learn that we all have a torch to bear. Look up the meaning of SONDER. Such a beautiful word. We all have something we are going through. One day at a time. One thing at a time.  We try not to project too far ahead and just deal with what is in front of us.  Almost always, the answer is to love through it all.  That, and I got really lucky with falling in love with the man of my dreams 27 years ago.  xo 

This may sound cray, but I think it is easier to keep white clean compared to almost anything else.  The good news is that you can see the dirt and clean it ( which makes my head feel better about life + cleanliness. LOL. ) We live in the countryside, so hanging whites on the line in the sunshine, is the mother nature whitener that I adore. However, if you don't live in the countryside with a laundry line ... here is what to do :
I use Folex for spot cleaning just about everything.  The sofa, old stains on clothes and rugs. You name it. It works! I don't know what is in the bottle. Maybe magic? 
I sometimes also use kitchen / bathroom spray bleach for tough spots on white pillow cases, white tshirts etc, and wash like normal.  Strange use of kitchen spray, right? Call the authorities. Want to make an entire load of whites brighter? I've been dying to try out this technique by Jillee at One Good Thing.  Try it, and let me know how it goes. 
3% Hydrogen peroxide surprisingly takes out stains so well. And powdered tide. 
Last but not least, we use this machine as a spot cleaner to clean our sofas, rugs, car mats, and heavy duty spot cleaning.  

For a lot of our photos, we use our iPhones, since that is what is in our pocket.  I like this tripod for my phone because it has a blue tooth connection annnnnd the tripod stands quite tall. 

For our editing..we use lightroom. LOVE. We ended up creating our own presets to make things easier // more streamlined. Overall tho, we find if we take a photo in natural light, the less editing we need to do, the better. Natural all the way. 

WHITE PAINT : here are our two favourite white paint colours. Please note : we reallllly do find it makes a difference to get your paint mixed at a Benjamin Moore store/dealer. Yes, other brands will try to colour match it, but it just isn't the same. Get the real deal authentic Benjamin Moore. 

SIMPLY WHITE :
Our all time fave colour is Simply White OC-117 by Benjamin Moore. We use it for pretty much everything. It is a nice neutral warm white. It's ideal for most places, especially ones without a lot of natural light (like a small condo or an RV with tiny windows.) We love that it feels warm but not too beige-y or yellow-y. Yes, those are real words. It's soft, fresh and just the perfect shade of white, no matter the purpose (walls, trim, cabinetry). We find it to be a warm white but not yellow-ish. It's crisp. It's beautiful. For the walls and ceilings, we use the ulti-matte or eggshell finish and the pearl finish on the trim. 

WHITE DOVE :
White Dove OC-17 by Benjamin Moore is another one of our faves. We use it when SIMPLY WHITE doesn't work. It definitely has more creaminess to it, almost a beige undertone. But beautifully neutral but not too stark-y white-y. Again. Real words :)  

Over the last few years we have been painting our exteriors with Homestead House // Fusion Mineral paint.  We're obsessed. We use COAL BLACK acrylic exterior house paint for all our outbuildings : barn/ treehouse / pool house / outhouse / poolside timber frame. LOVE LOVE LOVE. You'll see it everywhere in our photo galleries here. 

The exterior of our home and cabin is Benjamin Moore OC-31 FOG MIST matte finish on the walls, Benjamin Moore OC-17 WHITE DOVE satin finish on the trim and the doors are COAL BLACK by Homestead House.  We love using the AURA exterior line with Benjamin Moore as it has a really great coverage. You can sometimes get away with one coat coverage, but we usually do 2 coats.