A Few Shots of Christmas Decor Around Our Home

When my in-laws were visiting last week, we decided to let the girls put up the tree with their Mema and decorate it. We also decorated the house right after Thanksgiving. This was a fun process and something I think we all enjoyed! 

I always say every year that we need I'd like to get a few more Christmas decorations, BUT once I see all the bins we have after they are taken down from the attic, I quickly change my mind. We have been using the same decor for years now, aside from a few new things the kids create at school and church, and it's served us well. Maybe one year I will decide to change things up a bit, but for now, we're using what we have!

One of my little helpers is "hidden" behind that recliner in the corner munching on some M&M's that my Dad and step-mom sent us. She was also listening to some music we picked out from the library- which is no surprise! She loves to sing and dance. :)

We've had the pillows on the couch for a while now, but I did recently buy some new red fabric and pretty light blue/gray fabric to change things up a bit. Plus, I think the red pops of color make things a little more festive. 

The nutcrackers were purchased from Sears a few years ago- I got them during an after Christmas sale, so they were marked down pretty low. My husband doesn't think they will live to see next Christmas because the girls love playing with them and can be a little rough sometimes. The ballerina's hair has been falling out a little since they last played with her, but I don't want to get rid of either one of them- not any time soon at least!

For the decor in the dining room, I kept things pretty simple. 
I added some garland and a Charlie Brown Christmas tree my Dad gave us a few years ago. It's still holding up!

I also added some garland and pine cones to our banister- I think it's probably one of my favorite spots to look at throughout the day.

We decided to put our Christmas tree in the living room this year, and I think we did that last year too, but the year before it was in the family room.
I just hung up our stockings and added a few other small Christmas touches to the family room.

The tree was decorated by our girls and their Mema.
Our son has only tried a few times to take off some of the ornaments and use them as a baseball. ;)

I hope to take some more pictures of the living room and get a post up soon about it, but for now I'll just share more of our family room and kitchen.

I also added this large chalkboard wall to an area of our kitchen. Before, I had alternated between hanging pictures or chalkboard frames here, but decided a painted chalk wall would be the best way to utilize the space. It's great for reminders, grocery lists, calendars, and the like.

I have other parts of the house decorated as well and hope to get to those sometime soon. 

Happy December!

A Great Deal on a Rug

If you aren't familiar with the site RugsUsa.com, it's worth taking a look. We have purchased a couple of rugs from them in the past and have been very pleased with what we got. Our very first rug purchase from them was this jute rug. We also ordered an Oriental style rug from them as well and have had it for 3 years...it's pictured below.

I had been on the lookout for a rug for our family room and wanted something soft with a little bit of color, but still neutral based.
Not too long ago, I spied this light blue wool rug that happened to be on sale at 90% off on their site and knew that if we didn't get it, I'd be slightly disappointed.
Because of this crazy sale they had going on, we just couldn't pass it up!

We received it a few days ago and are so very pleased with it. It's amazing!! It's soft, beautiful, and well-made. I never thought we'd be able to get a wool rug like this...and for the price we paid, I feel like we got it for more than a steal!

I will add this piece of information: Since our last rug was jute, it did hide spills well. So I do have a new rule for not just the kids, but for my husband and I too...no eating on the rug. Our last rug had seen lots of spilled juice, melted chocolate, cheese, snacks, you name it. And it did get kind of gross. 
Hopefully we can keep this one somewhat clean so it lasts longer.

Also, since this is a wool rug, it is supposed to clean up well. We have already had 2 milk spills on it (even with the new rule "enforced"...haha). But we're gonna try to take care of this one. ;) 

It Was Only A Matter of Time!

 You may or may not have noticed that there was a little change to our family room. It was only a matter of time before this change took place! Can anyone guess what's different about this picture?

I decided to go ahead and paint the double doors in the family room! Surprise! But, if you know me at all, this shouldn't come as a surprise.

I chose to paint these doors with the same color that I chose for our front door a few months back. The color is Ashwood Moss by Benjamin Moore and it has proven to be this nice rich gray that varies a bit depending on the light. It does have a blue undertone to it which is hardly noticeable to most people. I knew I didn't want to go too dark or too light and this color fits the bill and pairs nicely with our decor.

In our last home, I painted our interior doors a beautiful color called Porpoise by Sherwin Williams. I had always thought that color was a bit too light for our doors and so that is why I chose to go with a darker interior door color here. The original color on the doors when we bought this house was brown (painted in such a way to make it look like a wood door). I first painted them white but that made the whole area disappear a little bit and I wanted to highlight the doors and the view to outside, not hide it. 

Eventually, I am thinking of using this color on some of the other doors in our home...still deciding on exactly which ones will get painted with this color. Dare I say that I'm even thinking of painting the closet doors to my son's room in a rich dark green color? Bold, I know! But after all, it is just paint so if I decide it doesn't work out it can be repainted...that's just what I keep telling myself anyways. ;)

First Post of the New Year

Like the title states, this is my first post of the new year- 2016!
I said it in my last post and I'll say it again, I can't believe another new year is upon us. And how is it that it is already the 5th of January?! Doesn't it seem like yesterday it was Christmas?? 

As I was thinking about what to write for my first post in the new year (a lot of pressure, I know), I came upon some pictures of our current home when we first moved in just a little over a year ago. I wanted to re-post some of them again because I have already forgotten what things looked like around here since the move. My husband and I have been able to make some changes with the house, some big and some small, and are very pleased at how things have been coming along so far. It's really, really starting to feel like our home and not someone else's and it was fun to look back on some of the older photos of the place and compare them to how things look now. 

First up, the family room!

To recap, we have since replaced the green carpet, painted the trim and the walls, painted the fan white (yes, you read that correctly!) and rearranged some furniture around. The only major cost in this room was replacing the carpet for a cleaner/updated one. Everything else was updated with paint pretty much.

Next up is the glorious kitchen.
(It really looks like a hoarders house with all the boxes and stuff piled onto the counters- just ignore all that). These photos were literally taken right after we moved in, obviously. ;)

And yes, we still own that lovely fridge and stove...when we can save a little bit more, we would like to update those as well. The current ones you see pictured are about 25 years old... and no, I am not making that up! 

For this area, I painted the cabinets, island, trim, and walls. I also painted the fridge, of course. 
We replaced the ceiling fan with a light fixture and also replaced the 80's table light with a Restore light fixture. We also added a thrift store table and chairs that I was able to refinish.

The dining room is next up on the tour!

There weren't any major changes to this space, just small ones that made a big impact.
The walls and trim were painted. I added bead board wallpaper to the bottom half of the walls (that stuff is pretty awesome and inexpensive...fyi)
We traded the older curtains and blinds for some simple white curtains.
I was able to paint the chandelier- there was nothing wrong with it and I thought it looked pretty in here, so it just got updated with some paint and glaze.
And of course, we added our signature buffet table in here as well as an IKEA storage piece for coffee.

 The rails on our stairs were painted and so was some of the trim.

The next room (pictured below) is now the nursery. 
We were able to remove the window valance and added curtains. Originally, I wanted to keep the valance, but because of the shape, it was just really hard to recover.
This room hasn't been painted yet. I'm still decided on whether or not to do that. Haven't found a paint color that would work in here yet- but the original wall color works for now.

Next to the nursery is this little room that is now the reading room that houses all the kiddos' books (it's pictured below).
We added some rain gutter shelves to the wall opposite the window and also took down the valance in here. The girl's lemonade stand got moved up here and we also added a storage bench we made to keep books and art supplies.
That's pretty much it for this space!

I threw this picture in here because my daughter was walking her doll up the stairs and thought that was so cute! Just looking at this picture reminds me of how much she has grown in the past year!!

And this last room is the office. Wallpaper is still up and no real attempts have been made to remove it. :) That would be a project to tackle for another day- far, far away in the future! 
The valance has been taken down and a desk has been moved into here...but that is about it! 
The room has a door and stays closed most of the time (mainly so I don't have to stare at the ducks and stripes when I walk by)

Hoping to type up a post soon with more "before and after" photos. That way you can see the changes that we have made since the move.
Overall, I'm happy with what we have been able to accomplish since moving into this house. Can't wait to see what kind of things we can get done this year! 
Here's to another good year!!

Our New Pillows

A bit recently, my family and I took a quick trip to JoAnn's to look at some fabric. Thankfully, they were having a pretty darn good sale on some of their fabric at the time, so I decided to go ahead and grab 4 different kinds of fabric by the yard and had each cut to the proper length needed to make some pillows. (yes, you heard that right...I said I was going to make some pillows with all the fabric I bought. Coming from someone who hasn't really ever sewed much in the past, this was a fun learning experience for me...but I must say that I really enjoyed it and while each pillow is not perfect, they came out pretty okay and I am glad I learned how to finally use my sewing machine- even if it took years to finally learn).
 
For the fabric, I decided to go with a mix of grays and greens to start with (no surprise) and added a little pop of color- pink- to the mix! I don't know if it's because our daughter's room is pink or what, but that color is starting to really grow on me more than it ever has before. And I also think it happens to pair wonderfully with our gray walls. I do, however, plan on adding some more pops of color in here and throughout the house at some point because having light gray walls can really make things a little dreary sometimes, but adding some little pops of color here and there shouldn't be too hard and it should do the trick.

I have to say that I am just learning to sew so if you look closely at these pillows, they aren't the best....but doing something like this on your own and learning as you go is pretty satisfying and in the end, they are just pillows. What I like is that if/when we tire of the color patterns (which will probably be a long while) they can easily be switched out.

And a lot of these photos were taken at night after the girls bedtime, so sorry for the poor lighting. :)

Some other fun facts:
These pillows were all purchased at one of my favorite thrift stores in Williamsburg. A good majority of them are feathered pillows and so I was surprised when I found them in the local thrift store there...I quickly snagged them up...didn't even think twice about it. They were all $7 and under....seriously?! 
Love it! 
I grabbed a total of 6 for this room and paid about $30 with tax for them all...including the 20x20 pillows. Sounds like a great deal to me! The other pillows that were originally in here were moved to our living room.
So if you ever want to pillow shop, I strongly suggest checking out a good thrift store nearby and looking at the selection. In the end, it doesn't matter what the pillows originally look like because if you are going to recover them it doesn't matter, so go ahead and give it a try!

Source list:

Wall color- SW Mindful Gray in Satin
Pillow covers- JoAnn fabrics
Rocking Horse- Goodwill
Globe- Goodwill
Water Pitcher on fireplace- Target
2 end chairs by TV- ReStore and recovered by me
Candlesticks on each side of fireplace- Goodwill
Blanket Storage Ladder- Hand built by us using left over wood from another project
Jute Rug- Ordered from RugsUSA
Metal storage unit by fireplace- Came with the house (was originally used in the garage but has since been cleaned and spray painted in oil-rubbed bronze)
Mason jars- Target
Large picture frames by TV- KMart


As you can see, we shop a lot at thrift stores, but we also mix our older items with new ones from other stores in our area. It makes for a unique collection of things and the hunt for some of these items is always fun- plus it is always fun to save a little money in the process. :) 


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LoveOlympiaJune 

Family Room Pictures

It has been a little while since I have showed some more pictures of our family room.
It is probably one of our favorite spots in the house because we spend a lot of time there, it is open to our kitchen and nook area, and we love having people over so it is a great spot to hang out in. One of my favorite features in the room is our brick fireplace. I know it is pretty popular to paint brick right now, but it was one of the things my husband and I decided not to paint...we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. I think it adds some charm and color to the room and you know, brick is brick, so once it is painted, there is no going back.
We also chose to leave the wood trim around the fireplace natural and didn't paint that either. It was a decision I wasn't sure about, but my hubby said he really wanted to keep that area all wood, and I think that was the right decision for us. It really gives the space some warmth among the white trim and walls.

These frames were a steal from K-Mart at $5 a piece. They were on sale and are pretty large...they can hold an 11X14 picture...can't wait to fill those up.

Another thing we love about this space is our french doors that lead out to the deck. In our last house, we really wanted to add a pair of those doors, but never got the chance to. Once we saw this house and the french doors, we got excited and were happy that we didn't have to add those in somewhere because they were already here for us. They also provide a lot of natural light which is really nice.

The wooden horse rocking chair was a thrift store find...I may have blogged about him before, but my girls love having that around and after I saw something similar on another blog, I knew I wanted to get one for our family room. He looks great in front of the fireplace, don't you think?

Thanks for stopping by!