Summer Living Room Tour

So the last couple weeks have been super full and stressful around here. Over the course of those two weeks I started a summer class, we celebrated Independence Day, My Nana and my aunt, uncle, and cousins came for a visit, as well as in-laws and some friends from out of state. All that equaled lots of cleaning, visiting, swimming, and two big cookouts.

By some miracle of timing, I ended up alone for a couple hours before the big cookout at our house. Hubby and friends had taken the kids to the beach while I was at school and when I got back, everyone else was making a grocery run. So I got to chill and tidy the house all by myself.

I had just cleaned a bit and was sitting down to enjoy my hot coffee in complete silence when I suddenly remembered that my house was clean and empty.

Perfect for picture taking.

Everything was clean(except maybe a few papers lying around) but nothing was styled. I rushed around, upstairs and down, grabbing stuff and trying to get it all done before everyone arrived.

Fresh Spring Mantel

Yes, I realize we are almost into summer but, due to things, I'm just a little behind. It's actually been like this for while but I only just took these pictures today. It's been really rainy and overcast for the last couple weeks so the lighting is a little dark and the kids were eating lunch at the coffee table. I wasn't about to move them, even if it meant better pictures.

I wanted to keep the mantel really simple and neutral while adding in some fresh spring touches. What can make you thing of spring more than plants and birds? I probably overuse those turkey feathers but I do love them so. There are good family vacation memories attached to them too so I just keep using them.

2015 Word of the Year

Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed ringing in the new year! We did not intend to stay up until midnight but we ended up reading, writing, and watching several humorous episodes of Jeeves and Wooster and The Big Bang Theory. I came away thinking, as I always do, that I need a Jeeves in my life. An immaculately dressed British valet doing all my housekeeping and fixing everything I mess up?

Where can I get one? Can I get one that comes with a blue police box?

Ahem.

Anyway, now that I've wandered off into nerd-dom and probably lost half of you, I want to bring up one of my favorite things to do for the new year. Every year, I pick a Word of the Year. A Word of the Year is a goal of sorts. It is a word to define one's hope for, and approach to, life in the coming year. I started doing it a few years ago after I started blogging and saw all the cool bloggers doing it.

Cool bloggers pick a Word of the Year. I'm cool and I'm a blogger. That makes me a cool blogger too which means I can pick a Word of the Year. Something like that.

Rustic Christmas Home Tour 2015

Well here we are a few days before Chtistmas and the Christmas tour is finally up! Between school finals, family stuff, and me or the boys hurting ourselves every two seconds, it's a miracle it's up at all. No doctor visits so far, although we've come close.

We are all excited for Christmas! This week, we've had little cousins staying at our house and an early gift exchange with my family so the boys are even more rambunctious than usual. Today is our first day without guests though and we are planning a quiet Christmas with just our little family this year. I think all of the presents have been taken care of and I've seen the new Star Wars movie so we are good to go!

This year I went with a rustic, green and neutral theme for Christmas. I especially love how the mantel turned out. I wish I could keep it like this year round, it looks so cozy! I changed the color in the living room this year and, while I'm not totally sold on this shade of white yet, I am loving how everything pops against the light background.

Since it's Christmas Eve already, go ahead and take a peek at how I've decorated this year!

Easy Five Minute Fudge

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is bake. I much prefer baking to cooking and when I'm in the baking groove, I can do it all day long. Cookies, muffins, you name it. I love it all. Fudge isn't technically baking, but I put it in that category because it's sweet and finicky. This Christmas fudge recipe is easy to make and it also happens to be the best fudge I've ever tasted!

Sweet and Simple Fall Mantel

Y'all, I have so missed posting here. It was not by choice that I stopped posting but school kind of took over. I should really be working on it now except it's been we'll over a month since I've blogged  anything. So here I am being bad and not writing that 7 page research paper draft that's due in two weeks.

While I've never really thought of myself as a super competitive person, college has shown me just where my competitive nature hides: academics. Everyone in the room is trying to pass with a good grade and I'm over here trying to get the best grade and outdo all of them. I have visions of my papers being used as future examples by my teachers...seriously. This is the stuff my daydreams are made of.

At the moment I have all A's in both my classes so here's to hoping that all my wildest dreams come true!

College has taken over my life but I've had my fall-ish mantel decorated for a few months already. I went simple because I'm learning that sometimes less is more. An understated nod to something can speak volumes.

December Review {2014}

Happy New Year!

I'm baaack! Mostly. I am still so worn out from December. Part of me wants to just sit back and enjoy vegging out and binge watching Parks and Recreation for a bit longer. But then I won't ever get anything done.

Y'all are my motivation.

Looking back at December, I didn't get a whole lot of posts up. I had plans but then we all got sick and it was all I could do just to handle Christmas. The Munchkin was on antibiotics all the way up to New Year's. A month of sickness and scary ER visits are not my thing. I am done.

Hopefully.

We did have a pretty great Christmas anyway. My big, loud, crazy family was even bigger and louder for the week. It was so great because my brother and his family came to visit which meant I got to meet a new niece! My grandparents live a few states away and they managed to make it too. After Christmas we took off to the In-Laws to spend New Year's with them.

The most exciting part was Little Man receiving a drum set for Christmas. It is his favoritest thing ever. I have never seen him so excited as he was that morning. He had been asking for drums for a while so we couldn't resist when we found a kid's set at the thrift store for $15. We had a slight scare when it fell over and popped one of the drums off, but hero Hubby and YouTube came to the rescue and the drums are back together again, thought slightly off in sound.

So we have drums, the house is loud, laundry is everywhere, and the kids are so happy to be home and in their routine again. Overtired, Christmased out kids are not for the faint of heart. I'm ready to sleep for a week.

Anyway, here are the very few posts that I managed to eke out in December. It's a quick read and I hope you enjoy!

The Real Inspired Christmas Home Tour 2014.

'Tis the Season to Rest

Rest. It's what we all long for. The thought of it is what gets us through our long week. Rest is a beautiful concept; work finished, and there is time for self and others.

I believe that Christmas should be a time of rest. If no other time of the year, than Christmas it should be. Is there no better time to rest than during the season in which we celebrate the birth of the One who said, "Come to me, all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"?

Christmas is crazy, exciting, and wonderful. And, dare I say, magical? It is a season of hustle and bustle. Shopping trips, road trips, kids tripping over the Christmas tree branches as they go by; it's so easy to get caught up in it. This year, on top of it all, I've had some majorly sick kiddos.

I had such high hopes for this Christmas. Little Man's at that wonderful age where he's really starting to get holidays and birthdays. I wanted this, his first memorable Christmas, to be magical and amazing.

DIY Winter Mason Jar Terrarium

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season! I am! Can you believe it's already only 9 days until Christmas? I like that Thanksgiving and Christmas are close but it can be hard to get all the decorations up in between. After all of us being sick the last couple weeks, I needed some quick, simple, and cheap Christmas decorations. This DIY winter Mason jar terrarium came together in 5 minutes!

Thanks to Pinterest, Mason jar crafts are the big thing. To be honest, I have never been a fan of the Mason jar fad. I love jars and all, but I just wasn't into it. BUT, I think the Mason jar snow globes and terrariums are adorable! So I made one.

Christmas Home Tour 2014

I am happy to be a part of the "Christmas in the Country" Home Tour and Link Party 2014!  I am one of over 40 decorated homes participating in this two week event from November 28th till December 12th.  Please visit Creative Country Mom's to see all the new stops on the tour each day.  There is also a Holiday themed link party for the event where everyone can add their posts!  Let's enjoy a homespun, Country Christmas at www.creativecountrymom.com!

I'm finally back! And just in time to do the Christmas Home Tour 2014! I had to take a short hiatus because we all caught a respiratory virus that landed the baby in the ER for breathing trouble and both kids on antibiotics for ear infections. It's been a rough two weeks for sure. But hey, I got to ride in an ambulance for the first, and hopefully last, time!

Since I've been spending the majority of the time since Thanksgiving holding sick kids, this year's Christmas decorations are rather simple and thrown together. If it weren't for Hubby and my wonderful mother-in-law, they wouldn't be up at all. But lest you think that all the cleaned up photos are our real life, I've included some behind the scenes shots too. I hope you enjoy the tour!

Welcome to our home! It's so nice to have you here to share the season with us! Don't mind my Christmas wreath. I made him last year and he seems to have suffered the loss of a few of his pinecones while in storage. Fixing him is on the agenda, but it probably won't happen this year. Do come in!

DIY Christmas Ornament Craft

Welcome to the Blogger Christmas Series! For the next four weeks, I am teaming up with some other fabulous bloggers to bring you a variety of posts about Christmas stuff. Lights, decor, recipes, ideas...anything and everything related to Christmas! You can find the links to the other bloggers posts at the end of this post. Check them out when you get a chance!

Let the Christmas posts begin! I have a no Christmas anything before Thanksgiving rule. I've been ignoring the peppermint mochas at Starbucks for three weeks now. That's how hardcore I am. Since it is the week of Thanksgiving, I shall bend it ever so slightly and go ahead and post this Christmas ornament craft. You'll need a week or so of drinking frozen orange juice to be able to make it anyway!

16 Craft and Decor Ideas for Thanksgiving

 It's been one crazy week around here lately! We started the week off with a sick kid and a clogged dishwasher and we're finishing the week off with a recovering kid and a clogged dishwasher. Hopefully this week will see the dishwasher fixed!

Today, I leave you with a little round-up of 16 Thanksgiving craft and decor ideas. Go forth and be creative!

(clockwise from top left corner)

Fall Home Tour {2014}

Welcome to the Fall Home Tour 2014!

I'm a little late to the fall home tour game this year. It can take some doing to get the house ready for pictures when you have little ones and toys everywhere! Many of these were taken on different days with different lighting and kiddo toys stuffed safely out of camera view. But the house is finally ready for fall. In the middle of October.

That's how I roll.

Let's start the tour in our entry hall...

Neutral Nautical Fall Mantel

Woohoo! Mantel time! I am so very happy that I live in a house that has a fireplace with a mantel. Mantels are one of my favorite things to decorate because the kids can be running amuck and have toys scattered everywhere but that mantel will still be nice. It will look down on the mess from its lofty heights and laugh.

My second favorite thing to decorate is the couch, but you know all those pillows and blankets will always end up as lava or a tent.

Mantels are so much fun to decorate and fall mantels especially so!

I call the look Nautical Neutral Natural Fall Mantel. Not really, but that is how I titled the pictures when I saved them. It makes me chuckle. If it doesn't make you chuckle, well, you're probably a normal person.

7 Easy Ways to Decorate for Fall

Can you believe fall is here already! I wish it could be fall year-round! I love everything that is fall: crisp, cool air, colored leaves, sweaters, blankets, the smell of smoke, and cinnamon in my coffee. Fall is my happy.

I like to take inspiration from nature and my favorite fall outfit for fall decorating. Chunky sweaters, leather bags, moccasins, a scarf...think of taking a walk through the cool woods in the perfect fall outfit while sipping on a hot pumpkin spice latte. Autumn perfection right there. That's the feeling I want to evoke with my fall decor.

I dislike a lot of the premade, cartoon-y decor that you can find in the stores. It's not exactly the Audrey Hepburn version of home decor, if you know what I mean. I want classy, natural, touches of fall and I want to use a lot of things I already have to create that warm, cozy look. Things that I can use year-round if I want. It's really simple to create that cozy fall look with just a few elements that you probably have around you already!

Nautical Summer Living Room Tour

It's summer! I'm not ecstatic over it. Summer weather is not my favorite. I've lived in the southern US my whole life and summers here are hot and humid. My only consolation now is that I get to live near the beach. It helps make up for it a little bit.

I am the hugest fan of beach houses. Growing up, my family would take an annual trip to Florida for a week. We would rent a beach house together with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We could cross the street and be at the ocean. We'd be in the water all day, go fishing and snorkeling, and stay up late eating ice cream. 

It. was. fantastic.

Since beachy feeling decor is my friend, I went nautical for our living room this summer. All inspired by the thrifted ship art that I madeover for the mantel. Let us proceed with the tour...

Happy 4th of July, y'all!

Nautical Summer Mantel

Since tomorrow is the first day of summer, it just seemed right to show you all my nautical summer mantel. Actually, it might just turn into my all-the-time mantel! And it all started with some super cheapo, thrifted art.

I love the beachy feel and I love being out on the water. There's not much better for a hot, southern summer day than lazing around in a pontoon on the lake and catching some fish. Or renting a beach house on the ocean for a week...it just makes me relaxed thinking about it. The smell of sunscreen, midnight walks on the beach just because you can, sand everywhere, and just the whole casual atmosphere is wonderful! I am thinking that living near the coast makes it acceptable for me to decorate our place like a beach house. I want to evoke that relaxed feeling everyday!

This ship "painting" that I picked up at the thrift store really isn't one. The frame isn't exactly a real frame either. The whole thing is basically cardboard. I could pick it up and chunk it somewhere pretty easily. I managed to get it for a little over $3, which is great because it's really not worth more than that!

There was some damage to the picture and the frame where a sticker or something had pulled off the top layer of cardboard/paper/whatever-this-is-made-of. The best cure for that is paint of course! The part I really liked was the area around the picture that was gold and something that looks kinda like grasscloth or burlap. I wanted to keep that part showing so I taped it off. I gave the frame a coat of primer and 3 coats of white paint, leftover from the boys' room.

Now it's gone all cottage chic on me!

To create my mantel, I did what I always do: shop the house. It took me a week or so to finally get it here. I kept changing it and then leaving it for a few days to see what I thought. I've decided that this is the end result simply because I'm tired of redoing it. Honest confessions found here!

I do think that the end result is a very beach cottage feel. And I love that. Come back next week and I'll show you the entire nautical summer living room!

Happy Holiday Season!

Happy 2nd day after Christmas!

{Your house still looks like this too, right?}

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday...

Filled with wonder...

 And crazy lights.

Minimal grinch sightings,

good food,

new memories,

And family.

Wishing everyone blessings and joy as we remember our Savior's birth from Christmas, through the holiday season, and throughout the new year!

My $15 Christmas Mantel

Yay! Yesterday was a sunny picture taking day that was perfect for snapping photos of the Christmas mantel! It's the dark side of the room so even on sunny days it can be a challenge to photograph. Which is great, because I think it might be the best Christmas mantel I've done yet. Out of the two I've done.

Anyways, on to actual pics! Or at least the few I got before my camera battery died...

This year I decided to go with an elegant, rustic, modern, green and white theme with touches of red. Partly because I already had a couple Christmas pillows and I wanted to work with them to save money. And I am loving my Christmas pillows this year! But that's another post for next week.

I shopped my house like a boss to get this mantel. I bought the mirror rather recently at the thrift store for $5 knowing that, whether Christmas or not, it was going over the fireplace. Since we were currently painting the new nursery and all the brushes were out and covered in paint, I taped the mirror off and gave it 3 new coats of white paint. I should have sanded it first because the previous paint job was gloppy, but I was in a hurry. Just don't look real close, mmmk?

The wreath is the one purchase specifically for the mantel. I found it at Ikea for about $10. I love how wreaths look hanging on mirrors so I knew I had to go for it with the new mirror! Just a strip of burlap garland and some thumbtacks in the wall to hold it. Definitely needed Hubby's help for that one.

Everything else is stuff I already had floating around. A few old green bottles, with a few berries left over from making the wreath for the front door brings in color, while all the white candles keep it light.

He he he...light.

Aren't I punny?

I'm still in love with the chalkboard. I reused it from my fall mantel. Maybe my chalk art skills are improving? Ummm, not yet.

I really love how it turned out! And I'm dying to light all those candles at once! I bet they'll look amazing. I love candles but I always forget to light them. Doesn't help that every candle I have has to be up high before I can light it with Little Man running around.

And being cute and stuff.

Please tell me I'm not the only mom with only blurry pictures of her kid because he won't be still for two seconds? 

So, the mantel looks great! When you count the mirror, I only spent $15 with the wreath. Since Christmas is usually a budget buster time, it's really great to try and reinvent things you already have for decorations. I had to gather every white candle I had and move some stuff out of their place in other rooms to put it all together. It's a skill I'm working on.

I love having a mantel!

Do you shop your house? Do you have a mantel or mantel type thing that you decorate?


I may be linking up to a few of these link parties.

Christmas Mantel Round-up!

Christmas mantel time! I've been working on mine for the past couple days and I think I may have decided on a final design. I will be sharing it later this week so keep an eye out! I think we're supposed to get one sunny day here soon so I've been working on different Christmas projects so when that day gets here I can just whip out the camera and take all the pictures. Sunny days are few and far between around here at the moment.

So, in lieu of sharing mine, today I'm sharing a few of my favorite mantels that I've seen this year. They are all so gorgeous! 

West Elm

Holly Mathis Interiors

Thrifty Decor Chick

My Blessed Life

Nesting Place

All the gorgeousness! 

Have you decorated your mantel yet? Or do you even decorate your mantel? Or do you decorate it for another holiday besides Christmas? I've never seen a Hanukkah mantel but then I've never looked either. I'd love to see one!

ps. After talking with Hubby, I have decided to cut back to posting for sure only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He's been asking me to consider cutting back to twice a week for a couple months now, and with the holidays and a new baby almost here{here's to the third trimester!}, we just think it will work better for us. I love sharing with you all and I hope you will still stop by every now and then!