When we moved to Pacific Grove, we knew that this was it. We fell in love with the small town vibes, the close-knitted community, the 5-minute drive to the beach, the 20 minute drive to the Big Sur coast. So when we looked for a house, we looked for one with good bones. We ended up finding one that we loved, but we knew that a remodel was in our future because we had so many dreams of what it could be: a dream home that would be the place for many gatherings, dinners, stories, and friends. After many months of researching, planning, designing, and DIY-ing our house remodel, we finally made it. Here's our journey!
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 If you know my husband, you'll know that he's a huge coffee snob. Wherever we go, we'll try local coffee shops. It's one of the first things we'll look for when we travel somewhere new. Over the years, these coffee shops have held so many memories for us. One year, we spent New Year's Eve at Deep Creek Coffee in Utah, where on a chilly winter morning, the barista asked Keith to step in to help out with the morning rush. We spent those nights watching the stars and talking about getting engaged. For our proposal, Keith planned a scavenger hunt, and one of the stops was a place that sold Heart Coffee, a reminder of our trip to Oregon that made us want to move to the Pacific Northwest. We took some of our engagement photos at Flywheel Coffee in San Francisco, which was just one of the many coffee shops we frequented over the years. So after all these years, we wanted a way to share those stories, the places we went, and the people we met. When we looked online for ideas, we didn't find any designs that really fit what we were looking for, so we decided to create our own! Check out this DIY tutorial on framing and displaying your coffee bag collection.
 When looking for nightstands, we loved the look of wicker/rattan/cane but couldn't find anything we liked in the right price point. So instead we found these inexpensive side tables and upcycled them into a boho wicker rattan cane nightstand! The end result was well worth it at the cost of $35 each / $70 for two nightstands vs. $113 for a similar one at Target.
 When advent calendars are too expensive and not that cute, you go with a DIY one! Inspired by the talented creators at The Merry Thought, I loved their advent calendars and decided to combine the two - this one and this one. All credit goes to these brilliant creatives!
 I bought my first succulent in one of these geometric diamonds - can you guess which one it was from the picture below? One is unlike the others...but oftentimes people can't tell the difference. The 3rd one from the left is made out of metal pipes but the rest are made out of...
Coffee straws! Who would've guessed right? Such a simple and cheap material turned into something that looks far more expensive! A little gold spray can do wonders.  One of the first crafts we ever made were pallet coasters made from stained popsicle sticks. They matched perfectly with another one of our favorite crafts - a dark stained crate table. But as our tastes changed (as you may have noticed), we decided that it was time to revamp our coasters to better match our new minimalist style. Marble and gold have been our two go-two textures, so we used materials we already had from other projects to make these coasters!
 As we prepare for our housewarming party this Sunday, we wanted to make menus for what we would be serving. We loved the look of white handwriting on glass that we had done for our wedding, so recreated it in a menu form using dollar store frames!
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