• dining room,  Family room,  our house,  Uncategorized

    Spring touches

    I love the clean feeling of spring. Everything is coming alive, we clean out the yard, we clean our houses. As spring approaches I love putting away the heavy throws, cozy pillows, and all the heavy winter decor. When I decorate and change a room for each season, I choose small things to change and refresh. This year I decided that I would change up some pillows on my family room couch to add a clean new look. I found a tutorial here online on how to make envelope pillows and I got some fabric and went for it. Wow…just that little bit really gave my room a new, clean…

  • A's room,  DIY,  our house,  re-purposed furniture

    My daughter’s finished room

    A few months ago my twelve year old daughter came to me and asked for a room makeover.  She wanted a “teenager” bedroom. I’m not going to lie, I was a little sad, this is my youngest which means no more “little kid” rooms. That being said, I always love a great room makeover.  So we came up with a plan, and went to work. This is what the room looked like before…very very girly. Like a six year old picked things out right? I guess an update was due.   First thing we did was pick a bedspread, then the wall color. She wanted a gray bedspread and I…

  • Furniture,  girl's room,  Uncategorized

    Step by step tutorial for re finishing furniture

    So I am working on my daughter’s bedroom makeover, and in the process we decided that we would swap dressers with our two girls. My youngest daughter originally had a dresser that was mine when I was younger. It was yellow and blue which matches my older daughter’s room. Well, my oldest daughter had our old dresser I had found at a thrift shop years ago for only $20 bucks and was using that in the closet in her room.  I decided that I wanted to swap the dressers and paint the thrift store dresser to go in my youngest daughter’s room. Long story short, I was looking for a…

  • A's room

    Bedroom mood board

    So with much persuasion from my twelve year old, I have decided to update her bedroom. She has talked to me “for some time now” about how she would love to have a teenager room. So I asked her what kind of colors that she likes, what kinds of things she wants to have in her room, and what she is mostly going to use her room for. After I found all that out, I sat down and created a mood board for her room. This is how I love to start every room because first, it is on the computer, I haven’t purchased anything, and I can work with…

  • Crafts,  DIY,  fabric

    Winter Pom pom wreath

    Happy January! It seems like after the holidays and the house gets cleaned up, I need a little project or something new to help bring in the new season. This year I made a winter yarn pom pom wreath for my front door. I have been having this love affair with yarn wreaths lately. I made this one for fall, and this one for Christmas. I decided to make another one to get my porch through the winter months. I wanted to choose winter colors, and I wanted the yarn to have thick texture, like a warm sweater. I grabbed this thick yarn at the craft store. It was almost…

  • Christmas,  Uncategorized

    Christmas touches — My living spaces

    I am running behind this year. Usually I post earlier in the month, but this month has seemed to get away from me. I am going to show the rest of my living spaces in this tour. I have added Christmas touches all over my home this year, it is simple, traditional, vintage, and I love it. I added some Christmas touches to my dresser. It is the first thing you see when you walk in my home, and I wanted it to have some Christmas cheer. I have my Merry Christmas sign, my nativity from Germany, and my santa note in my typewriter. I put a Christmas pillow on…

  • Christmas,  kitchen

    Christmas touches – My kitchen

    Today I am sharing my  kitchen Christmas decor. This area is so fun to decorate because it is where our family spend most of our time. It is where Christmas goodies are baked, and meals are prepared every night. In my kitchen I mostly work around things I already have on my counter that I need to cook with. I am always cooking in my kitchen, so I need to be practical while decorating. One of my favorite places to add some Christmas cheer is my hood over the stove. I always have a wreath hanging on my hood, and Christmas is no exception. I just made this wreath this…

  • Uncategorized

    Christmas touches – My dining room

    I love Christmas time! Decorating my house is one of the highlights of the Christmas season for me. One of my favorite rooms to decorate and to be in is the Dining room. We eat in our dining room every night, and it is so fun to make it a festive room that everyone can enjoy! For my table this year I went clean and simple. Since we use it every night, I needed the height to be low so we could talk to each other. I bought a grain sack table runner, took my old books I had on my buffet, a cake stand from my hutch, the large…

  • fall,  front room,  our house

    Fall touches – my living room

    This year for fall I decided to keep it simple, and the living room is no exception. We usually call this room the music room since a lot of piano playing goes on in there. The room is painted denim, and all the chairs in that room are gray. This more neutral color palate helps the room feel formal without feeling stuffy. For fall this year I literally placed a couple of pumpkins on the secretary and vintage suitcase I have by the piano. I added some sunflowers on the table, and my topiary I usually have in the room just feels like fall already. My fur throw was perfect…

  • fall,  our house,  Uncategorized

    Fall touches – mantel stairways

    When we were renovating our home, we decided against putting a mantle above the fireplace. I just wanted a clean wall. This opened up our room and gave it a lot more space. The only problem was where I was going to decorated my “holiday mantels.” I have two stairways in my home. One going up, and one going down. We created shelves in both areas. This became the perfect place for my holiday decorating. In the downstairs hallway there was a natural shelf created from our foundation. It use to be just dry wall, but we trimmed it out and added some brick. This is an easy place to…

  • dining room,  our house

    Fall touches – my dining room

    My dining room is a fun room to decorate. I love adding touches of the season to that room because that is where we eat every night, and we can enjoy the space. I again went very simple this year. I wanted the room to have the feeling of fall, but not just be a fall room. So here are some fun touches I added this year to my space. I added some fall dishes and pumpkins to the inside of my hutch and added some pumpkins on my small cabinet and dining room table. I love adding pumpkins to the tops of candle sticks to add some height and…

  • fall,  Family room,  our house

    Fall touches…my family room

    I think I’ve mentioned before. I love fall. It is probably my most favorite season of the year. Most years I have gone all out with my fall decorating. I would use garlands, pumpkins, pictures…you  name it.  This year however, I decided to take a much more simple approach. I wanted to have a cozy fall feel to the room without the clutter of too much stuff. It is different than I have done before, but I like it. I did not want to completely tear apart my room to decorate for fall this year. Instead I just added a few fun touches. My blankets and pillows get added for…

  • Recipes

    Macaroni Salad

    I can’t believe it is almost fall. My most favorite season of the year! I have been busy getting my house all “falled” up with pumpkins, blankets, and leaves. In the midst of decorating, I made this simple macaroni salad recipe for dinner. I love making a large salad like this for dinner because there are always leftovers for a couple of days that I can use in lunches. This is my family’s favorite macaroni salad recipe. It is easy to make, you can take out or add any veggies you would like to use, and the dressing isn’t too heavy. I always add a can of chicken to the…

  • Crafts,  fall,  Uncategorized

    My fall yarn wreath

    Yea! Fall is almost upon us. I am busy getting all my fall decor ready to display and enjoy. Fall is my favorite season of the year. I think it is the funnest to decorate for because it stays out so long. I love the textures, colors, and smells. The house just feels more cozy when my fall decor is out and around us. I was looking at my fall decor the other day and I decided two things. I need to refresh what I have, and my daughter needs a fun craft to do with me. So we got busy and came up with a fun wreath design for…

  • exterior,  yard

    Talking outside flowers

    Ahh summer!!! I love summer, it is my favorite time of the year. I shared a post at the beginning of spring about sprucing up our yard. Here are some more mature pictures of the yard now that the summer has progressed and things have grown. Everything is growing great this summer. The yard looks lush, and the flowers are blooming beautifully.  My tip to a beautiful and manageable yard is perennials. My flower gardens are only filled with perennials. You only have to buy them once, they come up every year, and I really only trim back flowers and weed once a week. If you trim off the dead…