christmas home tour.

 i absolutely love christmastime.

one of my favorite things this time of year is decorating our home for christmas.  i love having special pieces that our girls will remember, and filling our house with holiday beauty.  red berries, a norman rockwell print here and there, white lace, silver&gold and twinkling lights.  i always drag my feet at taking it all down, and love to enjoy the lights of our tree well into january... ah well.  i just love the warmth, coziness and beauty of our home at christmastime; here is a glimpse of what it looked like this year...

merry christmas!  from our home to yours.  may your christmas season be filled with hope and light because of the one who came for us.

give thanks bunting.

i'm such a sucker for christmas.  always have been, always will be.  we've been listening to christmas music for a couple of weeks now, and my kids have already started watching christmas movies.  i am itching to get our house decorated for the season, but since we are hosting thanksgiving this year i figure i need to keep it fall-ish for a bit longer.

i've been meaning to make a bunting for our hutch for a while now and i finally got around to doing it.  i had thought of a few different ways to make my banner, and tried to decide what word i wanted to use... i decided on "give thanks" because i love that it reflects on action--a choice--to reflect on what we are grateful for.  so important, and a great reminder.  i had a few different designs in mind, but i kind of just went with the flow and ended up with this:

 here's how you can make your own!

give thanks bunting

supplies:
* fabric
* canvas dropcloth (you'll only need a bit, so you will have a bunch leftover for other projects!)
* glue gun
* ribbon
* mini clothespins

- trace or free hand your letters onto your fabric.  i chose to write them on the backside of my fabric so that when i cut them out the ink wouldn't show as much.  if you do this, be sure to draw your letters backwards!

- cut out your letters.  also cut squares out of your dropcloth; one for each letter.  i didn't measure, i kind of just used one as a template so they were all pretty similar.  it turns out that i like stuff a bit shabby and eclectic in nature so that i don't have to be too much of a perfectionist :)

- if you need to, make sure you iron your letters and your dropcloth.  no wrinkles or creases!

- using a glue gun, attach your fabric letters to each square of dropcloth.

- secure a ribbon to wherever you are hanging your bunting.  use your mini clothespins to attach each square. because of the phrase i used, i needed to do two rows in order to fit all of my letters.  i also added a few bookpage leaves (remember this project?) so it coordinated with my centerpiece.

:

voila!  easy as pie.  you're done and ready to host a pretty thanksgiving feast.  well, except for the cooking part.  speaking of pie...

happy bunting-making!

this post is linked to these *lovely* blogs:

liz marie

shabby-chic white hutch.

when we moved into my grandparents old house two years ago, we were also blessed with their dining room set, which included a hutch.  i was super excited about this piece, and i knew right away i wanted to paint it white.

yes, folks... it has taken me two years to *finally* paint this hutch.  but the good news is: it is finished and i love it.

we had leftover sherwin williams paint from our kitchen cupboards, which made this project a bit easier.  i didn't have to sand it since the primer we got has special bonding powers.  guys, i can't even imagine what this would have been like if i would have had to sand this hutch.  this makeover was a bit of a beast: it all of the curves and different surface areas made it a bit tiring.

i may have popped a few advil in my course of this project.  phew.

but it's totally what i imaged it would be in my head, and i'm so thankful i finally tackled it!  i went back and forth on plans for the hutch... i thought of getting new hardware, finding wallpaper to line the back with, i even have a can of mint paint sitting out in the garage because i had most recently planned on painting parts of it mint green (my color crush of late).  when all was said and done, i decided to do the entire thing white and i'm so glad i did.  it's timeless and won't go out of style any time soon.

i originally wanted to change out the hardware, but i knew i'd have a hard time finding handles that would line up with the existing holes.  turns out, i didn't want to take the time to mess with wood filler and a drill.  so, i used some crystal knobs i had on hand for the bottom doors, and simply painted and distressed the original brass handles.  i love the shabby-ness of the brass peeking through the white paint and the distressed edges.  super simple and didn't cost me any money... yay.

this hutch originally had doors on the top half, but i didn't like the dated look, and wanted to use the shelves to display pretty pieces.  so i ditched the doors and filled and sanded the nail holes before painting.  i love the look of the white and cream decorations against the white hutch.  so classic.

i'm really excited about my new hutch and love the look it gives our dining room!  i have a couple more projects (ahem, dining room table and chairs...) to finish for this room to be complete, but the hutch gives me great inspiration to get it all done.

this piece will always remind me of my grandparents and the special place they have in my heart.  being the sentimental gal i am, that is the best part.

fall centerpiece.

slowly, but surely i've been starting to fall-ify our house.

cornstalks, mums and pumpkins on the front porch and lots of apple pies being baked in our oven.  i'm a bit picky when it comes to seasonal decor... and since we have so much color and mis-matchyness in our home, i like to stick to a more neutral pallet instead of oranges and reds for fall.  

i have lots of ideas of things to do with dropcloths, a bunch of burlap i have stashed in my fabric supply, brown paper bags (see my brown paper bag wreath i made last fall here) and some white pumpkins i hope to find at a local pumpkin patch this weekend... 

vintage books have always been a love of mine.  i have a couple stacks here and there around our home... i love the worn covers, golden titles and pages yellowed with time and love.  i decided a centerpiece made of book page leaves would be just the perfect idea for a fall centerpiece in our dining room.

 this craft is super simple, the tutorial seems a bit ridiculous to post.  but here's how i did it...

book page fall centerpiece

materials:

* old book pages

* leaf shaped cookie cutters

* branches

* vase

* scissors

* glue

- trace your leaf shapes onto the book pages.  i used two cookie cutters i bought a few years ago at the christmas tree shop: a maple shape and an oak one.

- arrange your branches in a vase.  i used my standard crate&barrel white vase nick&i got as a wedding gift.  i absolutely love this thing.  i found my branches at our favorite park.  they are thicker and have spots of moss on them.  i love decorating with things from the outside!

- cut out your leaves and use little dots of glue to attach them to your branches.

- voila!  you're done.

see, so easy.  i have visions of garlands and wreaths made out of these book page leaves as well... maybe i'll get around to doing those sometime soon...

happy fall!

eclectic entryway gallery wall.

i really love our entryway.

guests step off our front porch into this cozy little area of our house, with stone floors and light grey walls.  i have had a beautiful green buffet from my favorite antique store that i bought last summer, but it's been pretty empty other than that for the past few months.  over the summer i've been trying to finish it up!  i still have a few projects in the works, but i was eager to complete this one.

i have a thing for gallery walls (if you can't tell from my house).  i love, love, love them.  most of mine are full of pictures, but i wanted a really eclectic one for our entryway in a giant blank space we have above a little bench.  it was really important to me that it represented our family and all the things that we want our home to be about.  

i tried a few different things and hemmed and hawed over what i wanted it to look like.  i changed it a few times (ok: you guys do NOT want to know how many nail holes are in this wall...yikes) and ultimately came up with this:

and i just love it.  i wanted it to be full of things that say "us" as we welcome friends and family into our home.  i love color, words that are special to us, different textures and pictures, so this wall just really makes me so very happy.  here's a closer look at all of the pieces:

i knew from the beginning i wanted this verse displayed in our entryway; it is such an expression of our family and what is most important to us.  i've been wanting to try my hand at embroidery for a while now: yall, i used to faithfully cross-stitch when i was a little girl.  i think i started a million different ones and never actually finished any of them, but see?  i was a grandma at like age eight.  and i loved it.  so in an effort to return to my stitching roots, i ordered this pattern off of etsy, transferred it with dressmaking paper to the embroidery fabric and needled away.  it's definitely not perfect, but i love it.  and now i want a new embroidery project...definitely addicting!

this is one of my favorite parts of the whole wall.  i found these little typography porclein trays at nordstrom for ten bucks.  i seriously love them (and the "c" just happened to be yellow&turquoise...it was so meant to be).  i knew i wanted to put mine on this gallery wall, so i just glued a ribbon loop on the back so i could hang it in the middle of a frame. check them out; they're so cute!

there's my ikea kvill frame again; this baby is plastic and only like four dollars, but i love it and want one for every room.  this one displays one of my favorite family pics that was taken last fall by a great photographer here in maine (cait wilson photography; check her out!  she is awesome!)  i love how my coral sweater and bella's coral shoes match my "home sweet home" print.  i know; i'm such a nerd.

a while ago, i found this strip of wood in our garage in a scrap pile and i grabbed it as fast as i could.  i love how it looks weathered and the little knot hole in the end just adds character.  with just a coat of paint and some cursive writing in bright paint, i knew it was just perfect for my wall.  i thought and thought about a word that i wanted to describe the mission of our family and what captured us, and finally i landed on "love".  when i was single, if anyone asked me what i looked for in a man, i always said that i wanted to find someone who "loved jesus and loved others".  when i met nick, this was totally his heartbeat (and the verse he had on his myspace page... yes, myspace...i know, we are old!)  i want our home to be a place where people feel loved; not just our girls, but all who enter.  

i found this plate at tj's on clearance a couple of years ago for like three dollars: score.  it's perfect for the vintage-y theme of our home.  the photo above it is one of my favs taken by my dear friend of amanda kate photography; if you're in dallas, look her up!  you will not regret it, friends!!  i wanted to do something different, so i took the glass out and just used scotch tape to stick the photo to the wall in the middle of the frame.

if you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you know that i love lace and i love doilies.  i've refered to my decorating style as "funkified grandma"; it's totally true.  i love decorating with embroidery hoops to add pops of color and also some variation in shape and texture.

i'm in love with all things katie daisy and her etsy shop, the wheatfield.  i have a few of her prints in our home, and wanted this one for our entryway (for obvious reasons).  my sweet sister surprised me with it for my birthday last year, and i was so excited!  i love the color and cheerfulness that it gives this wall.

there you have it, guys.  an eclectic entryway gallery wall with so many things precious to my family's heart.  i love this sweet little display.  i am a firm believer in decorating with things you love, items that represent you and what makes you happy.  this is a perfect example of that for me.

because home should be sweet.