As I’m sure you already know, naming a child is a difficult task. I mean, how are you to know which name will fit best for someone you don’t even truly know yet? 

For years (even before I met Dane), I’ve been saving my favorite names to a note in my phone. I think by the time we came around to picking a name, we didn’t agree on a single name on my list. ​

For every big life event Dane and I have shared together, he has one big requirement he likes to throw out. For our wedding, the requirement was that he wanted to get married with a view. Specifically either a lake or mountains. Well folks, we live in Missouri. Not a lot of mountains around, so I found a beautiful lake that had all the things we’d need for a beautiful wedding. 

For buying a new house (our current house), his requirement was that it had to have a place he could claim as a workshop so he could continue on with the furniture making venture we started a few years back. 

So for naming our first child, his one requirement was that her name had to be rare. Although I agreed that I didn’t want her to be one of three Britney’s or Jessica’s in her classroom, coming up with a name that was rare but not weird is a fiiiiinnnee line. And most names I found to be rare, weren’t rare enough for Dane. I was really starting to panic that we’d not have a name chosen before I’d go into labor. 

I remember going out to Noodles & Company for a mac n cheese fix, and spending our entire dinner on baby name websites and apps. Guys, I used every tool available to help find a name we both could get behind. ​​

Then one day, I decided to get on my favorite site of all time: Pinterest. I typed rare baby girl names into the search bar and scrolled for what felt like forever until I came upon ‘Lenna’. I mean, woah. What a BEAUTIFUL name! I could see her immediately as either a big personality or more reserved. I could see her as a soccer player or a piano player. It seemed to work with every version of her I painted in my mind. ​

So then I dug into its rarity. Check! And it’s meaning? It’s come to be known as “lion strength”, “lion-strong”, or “lion-hearted”. And to top it all off, it’s origin is German. SOLD! Both Dane and I have German ancestors and maintain a relationship with the country and a few of it’s residents. It really couldn’t be more perfect of a name for our first born.

Thanks so stopping by and reading my sweet little story. :)

XO -Heather

​So the other night, I was trying to pull together a meal from what we had already here in the house, and pretty far into our making of fajitas, I realized I didn’t have any fajita seasoning. 

Now could I have used a different seasoning? Sure. But why settle when you can just make a fajita seasoning with a few other seasonings you probably already have on hand? 

Here is a simple Fajita Seasoning recipe, along with a few others you can quickly pull together for a meal at home. 

Here are a few other blends you could quickly pull together when in a pinch. I've linked each blend to websites with quick and easy recipes. Let me know if you try them and what you think!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

XO -Heather

We all dream of what our dream home looks like, right? Well, mine is clean (does anyone actually dream of a dirty house?!), filled with lots of natural light, and very well organized. I can't help but scroll through Pinterest or Instagram and hate everything about my kitchen situation. 

For those of you who have been here with me since the beginning, you're familiar with our first home -the true Dresden Avenue. I loved that house so much for all of it's original charm and character, but the pantry situation was bad. It was about 24 inches wide, only 6 inches deep, and had maybe 5 shelves. It was rough, but we made it work since at the time, it was only Dane and I. 

When we decided to move, we knew our next house would be where we would raise our babies, so I had imagined a pantry big enough for our future family. I even created a Pinterest board to save all of my inspiration and organization ideas. Well, as luck would have it, we found a house that had a separate garage space for our workshop, it was newly remodeled and had SO much yard space for our pups. The problem was that we would be going from a very small pantry situation, to no pantry at all. You win some, you loose some.  

So first up was my dream spice drawer. Something about having them all laid out, easily seen, with pretty labels just nerds me out. Dane thinks I'm psychotic, but whatever. Maybe I am. 

I bought the glass spice jars on Amazon for a great deal! You can find the exact jars I bought here. I bought 36 of them, and they come with a collapsible funnel, plastic shaker lids, the metal caps, 2 kinds of jar labels, and a chalk marker. 

I have a Cricut Maker, so I was determined to make the custom labels myself. They are inspired from the labels I found on this ​​Etsy shop. The only thing I didn't like about them was the numbers on them. I really don't think I could've lived knowing I had missing our out of order numbers, so I nixed those. But most everything else is very similar.  

I think I may have Dane build me a spice holder to slide into this drawer so that the tops sit up a little higher. I think it may make it easier to get them out of the drawer when I need them. 

Most of the spices I have are ones that I've gotten from the grocery store, but I do have a few that I've put together myself. You can find my Everything Bagel recipe here, and my Fajita seasoning blend here. 

My next project will be organizing my fridge and putting together a pantry in one of our cabinets. Be sure to follow along over on my Instagram page, and send any and all inspiration my way! As always, thanks so much for stopping by!

XO -Heather