HOME TOUR // THE GARAGE

*FTC disclosure: I was provided one free storage item from Monkey Bar Garage Storage Systems from their local dealer, Garage Solutions Minneapolis in connection with this review. All opinions are my own. 

M and I live in a little one and a half story home in a suburb of Minneapolis. 

This means we have a proportionally little garage to complement our little house. 

SO, the garage had never been a huge priority of ours in terms of beautifying and organizing, until recently when it reached max-nasty and upon pulling the car in one night, M said to me, "ACK, I need to organize the garage. This is a mess."  

Picture the perfect timing then when I was contacted by Monkey Bars Garage Storage Systems about a product review for a storage solution for our garage. Yayyy! Above you can see our previous "storage solution" (a term I use loosely), which was haphazard nails rammed into a 2 x 4 leftover from the previous owners. 

{the other side of our garage, equally a disaster}

The other side at least had some shelving, but that was organized quite haphazardly as well.

I selected the large tool yard rack, and it arrived less than a week later. So on Monday of this past 3 day weekend I approached M about hanging it. We'd been pretty busy doing house stuff all weekend- organizing closets, tossing clothes, painting the kitchen and hanging shelves (stay tuned on this one!), and cleaning, so his initial response was something more than a groan and just shy of a full fledged grunt. I told him it'd be easy and we trudged out to the garage.

Upon opening the package I found the bar (le duh), some hanging accessories and 2 brackets. Instead of mounting it to the old 2 x 4, we pulled down the old board to keep a lower profile and so tools wouldn't bump the car as we drove in.

I skimmed over the instructions and relayed the info to M who replied, "wait, that's it? Ok..." (the lack of readily apparent difficulty was met with heavy skepticism by M, who by now knows with house projects, nothing is as easy as it looks).

But nope, it seriously was that easy. Each bracket got 2 screws with washer heads, and the bar itself slid through one hole and into the other and was secured by those little push-button locking devices.

It seriously took 10 minutes. We spent more time tinkering around with the multiple styles of hanging accessories to determine how best to hang all our tools, and we didn't even use every hanging bar. The accessory pieces just kind of "clip" on the bar and are held by a tiny lip that catches on the bottom or back end.

If anything, this bar is too nice for our garage. I told M we need to keep a running list of "fixtures and appurtenances" to take down or make sure to keep out of any future purchase agreement because they're coming with us.

Now all our tools have a nice little home.

This of course spurred M to say, "aw screw it, let's just clean up the rest of the garage right now."
So we grouped fishing, outdoorsy stuff, and yard stuff together and tossed a bunch of scrap wood.

We still need to borrow the neighbor's push broom to sweep it out, but now it's actually become a place I feel comfortable storing some "nice" "outdoorsy" things vs. a place where things that we don't care if they get filthy land. 

So THANK YOU Monkey Bars Storage Systems and Garage Solutions Minneapolis (LOCAL company, FTW!), for helping us organize and clean up our garage!

I'll definitely be keeping them in mind for when we have a bigger garage someday that I can fill with useful (and PRETTY) storage items (like these beautiful garage cabinets/work space area. Swoon.) Getting excited over garage organization.. does this mean I'm officially old?

M and I hung some pretty sweet shelves in our kitchen this weekend too, which has me itching to properly photograph and update the kitchen home tour post, so stay tuned for that!

WOMEN'S HEALTH MONTH

It's no secret around here that I've been trying to be a "healthier" lately. 

I put that in quotes because that phrase can mean different things to different people. BUT between my food philosophy and a new love begrudging appreciation for fitness (I will simply never be one of those people who loves to work out), I'm working on it. Sometimes you do things because you know you have to, and quite frankly, because your life depends on it. 

May is Women's Health Month, and it can't be stressed enough how important it is to be proactive about health in every aspect of your life. Devoting time to your diet, exercise, and overall preventative medicine is crucial in living your best life. 

Recently I found myself thinking about preventative medicine visits and trying to recall, "is it every two years for mammograms? At what age does that start? What about other stuff, didn't they just change some guidelines?" Honestly I felt a lot like I did about eating right: I would find myself getting terribly overwhelmed, not having something easy to understand in one location, and as a result, not doing anything about it. 

So, the timing was pretty perfect when Oscar Insurance inspired me to post this neat info graphic on my blog in honor of Women's Health Month. (If you all already knew this stuff, at least now I have a convenient spot to come back and reference it for myself!) 

Oscar has tools like their Doctor on Call service where you can call your doctor right through the app with any health questions you have without making an appointment. Or the personal health care timeline that list out your entire health history within the app. Their incentive program uses Misfit wearables where members can sync them to the app, set personal goals for steps and every time they hit those goals they earn back cash rewards up to $240 a year.

For an industry as a whole that tended to associate with an older generation and maybe wasn't as progressive, I'm so impressed with what insurance companies have been doing lately in terms of technology and health. From services like Doctor on Call to Virtuwell, fitbits, misfits, jawbones- we've created a level of accessibility to our health and our health stats that is really incredible when you actually think about it.

I'm not trying to sell you anything with this post (although if you did need Insurance and lived in NY, NJ or soon TX or CA, Oscar seems pretty cool)- but I figured if it even prompts one of you to schedule an exam or do something proactive for your health, it's worth it! You can find more information on Oscar's health insurance plans here.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

This post is sponsored by DogVacay.com, nothing was provided in return for this post, all opinions are my own. 

The meaning behind the phrase "home away from home" seems to be an obvious one, doesn't it?
It's a place that isn't home, but feels like home.
When I was contacted by DogVacay.com  to participate in their "home away from home" project I struggled a bit to come up with a place that truly stuck out as my number one. This was the case for many reasons, but I think the biggest one coincided with a line from their email, which read:

"sometimes, it just takes some good people, a great environment or a sense of comfort & familiarity"

One thing I've always prided myself on is my ability to adapt, so the truth is: I feel "home" a lot of places. Brunch wherever it is we happen to be dining that Saturday morning.. a coffee shop.. walking through the park or hiking (like we did this Memorial Day weekend!). However,  if pressed on one of my favorites, though... I'd have to say Naples, FL:

My aunt and uncle have a condo down there, so that definitely helps with the sense of comfort and familiarity.. but we've been down there a few times now and can now spot the "new" restaurants on 5th, have a favorite coffee shop, and have a bit of a routine when we head down.

I'm sad it didn't work out to get down there this winter, but it's nice to know we have a vacation spot that we love and are comfortable with just waiting for us to return.

So, what's the link between dogvacay.com and Florida?
I don't have a puppy (YET- M is a fuddy duddy on this topic) but I do understand the importance of creating an environment for a puppy that is comfortable and familiar. DogVacay offers you real pet sitters in your area- no cages, half the price of boarding costs, and your pup will be hanging out with a fellow dog lover. Can't think of any better "home away from home" for your furry family member.

It's definitely a service I'll be checking out when I have one of my own!

So, tell me- what's your home away from home?

GALLERY WALLS// AN EASY CANVAS PRINTS REVIEW

I'm a huge, huge fan of a good gallery wall. 

I'm also what I would consider a bit of a gallery wall snob. 

One of my favorite ways to do a gallery wall is with mixed media: canvases, monograms, framed photos, etsy prints.. some subtle variety adds interest and looks beautiful. 

M and I used our $300 "store credit" that came with our photographer package to order a canvas through our photographer. We decided to get a larger size than our credit would afford, so we had to pay an additional $50 on top of our $300 credit. It is a 16x20 and turned out incredibly beautiful. 

SO, imagine my chagrin upon seeing the reviews for easy canvas prints circulating the blogs, and I realize that with their frequently offered discounts, a 16 x 20 through them would have only cost us about $70, total. 

All this happened shortly before the Christmas season, so when M told me that his sister wanted a photo of the entire family from the wedding as a Christmas gift, I suggested we take it up a notch, and pulled up easy canvas prints' website. (This was before receiving an offer from them to review an 8 x 10 canvas on my blog!) We ordered her an 11 x 14, and with a Christmas sale they had running, it only cost us around $25. We decided it was such an affordable and beautiful gift, that we bought one for both his dad and his mom as well. 

(His dad's canvas, still in the plastic (hence the ripple/shine) before we wrapped it).

The canvases turned out BEAUTIFULLY (M's sister may or may not have shed tears over it- she LOVED it), but that wasn't even the best part of this story. We ordered them dangerously close to Christmas and paid for the shipping that would get them here "by Christmas," only, we didn't account for the fact that it meant on Christmas Eve potentially, and that we'd be up north already by that point. M shot off an email to customer service at easy canvas prints once we realized this in the hopes they'd be able to help us, and within a day someone had gotten back to him and re-routed the 2 canvases for his dad and sister to be delivered to his dad's house (3.5 hours away from our house) by Christmas Eve. They showed up that morning in a blizzard, and were wrapped in time for Christmas morning! I was SO impressed by the warm email and fast response. You just don't see customer service like that anymore.

After all of this, I was contacted to do a review of my own... which meant: BONUS CANVAS for our house! We are in the process of revamping our wall above the couch, so this came at a perfect time. I was already confident in the product so I hopped on and set to work designing my canvas. 

It's seriously the easiest process ever, and was all of 3 screens:

First: select a single canvas or a gallery

 Second: select your size and wrap preference. (I like that they give you the little graphic on the right to give you a sense of how big the canvas is that you're ordering! I have questionable spacial reasoning skills, so, this is perfect for me :)).

Third: upload your photo (you can pull pictures from Facebook and Instagram!), and select your display option (hanging or standing) and border option. Then you can drag the photo around so it's where you want it.

and then, ta da! Canvas is done.
Here's a peek of it in action, I plan to post the rest of the living room this week :)

{my well laid plans to print photos for those remaining blank frames clearly didn't pan out. Alas, sometime soon. :)}

I know there are some of you who tune out reviews, and if you're anything like me, it's because a teensy tiny part of you is jealous and want free shtuff... well, easy canvas prints wants to offer you the next best thing to free:

50% off code for your own canvas! 

The 8 x 10 is a perfect sized canvas- makes a statement on a wall without being too overwhelming, and at 50% off, it would only be $22! You can't buy picture frames that cheap, folks. So take advantage of this.

Pssst: Easy canvas prints also has a couple affiliate sites for other types of customization, custom T-shirts, and custom signs.

Full living room tour coming atcha later this week :) 

[FTC disclosure: Easy Canvas Prints gave me a free 8 x 10 canvas, with free shipping, to review for this post. I was not otherwise compensated for this review, and the opinions expressed are my own.]