Home Decor diY

Now that our weather has finally turned for the better (pretty sure for good now), I'm itching to get outside to start cleaning out the flower beds and get planting! Gardening is another passion of mine and seeing the buds forming on everything is so exciting. I'm ready to get some color back to our exterior!  But I'm on a mission inside the house too -- and I'm determined to finish up before I allow myself to start outside. I need to self impose deadlines on myself like that or it will never get finished. I'm a HUGE procrastinator.  I'm going through our home bits at a time, using the Konmari method I told you about here . I've been implementing it for the past eight months or so and it's working. Our house is more organized than ever and it stays cleaner with minimal effort. I really thought our house would never feel like this but it's happening, slow but sure. My latest project was all of the toiletries. Our master linen closet holds most of them

Hey hey! Hope your weekend was great! Ours was awesome -- busy but wonderful. We saw the new Jungle Book movie and highly recommend it. The special effects were just stunning! We were going all weekend long but I managed to get a little craft project finished up -- I'm really thrilled with this one because it hardly took any time or effort to do.  I'm actually joining in on a trend when it's happening -- I can't believe it! I am not one to incorporate a lot of trendy stuff in our decor but sometimes something catches my eye and I want to use it. I've seen the chunky, wood strands of beads around for a long time now and love them. I think they're such a pretty and simple accessory. Sometimes you're looking for that one small thing to finish off a spot and these are perfect! I figured I could do these myself and it was even easier than I thought. I gatherer my supplies from Michael's -- three different sizes of wood beads and some leather cording:  I orig

Hey all! I have a quick post for you today that I'm kind of excited about! This project involved very little work on my end, which is always a bonus. ;)  We've had this little garden gate for years -- I put it at the entrance of our patio:  (You can last year's tour of our outdoor spaces and garden here .) I got it for a deal at the end of the season and it's a good thing because it fell apart pretty fast. I was always fixing it and then one day it fell over in a storm and was finally toast. The wood had split at the top where the pieces connect so it wasn't salvageable. So I did what any normal person would do -- I dragged it to the side of the house and it stayed there all winter. I told you about the ugly side of our house and obviously nothing has changed yet. ;)  As I've walked past it numerous times over the past few months, I started getting an idea of how I could reuse some of the pieces. See, I've wanted a vintage ladder for the family room for som

Occasionally I like to update you all about big ticket items we've purchased over the years. I always find it helpful when bloggers talk about appliances and how they have worked for them over time -- I think honest reviews are some of my favorite posts to read. (I'm planning an update on our kitchen soon to do just that.) Recently a friend was on the search for a new washer and dryer set and I was raving about ours. I figured it was time I shared my thoughts here on the set we purchased years ago. In short -- I LOVE them. But there are a few things to think about that I'll go over.  Four years ago we purchased a LG washer and dryer set ( here's our washer and I believe this is the dryer -- they've changed the design a bit):  I know there's big debate over top/front loaders. (Seriously, people get a little weird about their dedication towards one or the other, right?) We went with top loaders mostly because I didn't want to deal with the mildew issues so m

Hello there! Man, we are all on the struggle bus today. It's always such a shock to the system to head back to normal life after the lazy days of break. It seriously pains me to get up on these days. (I'm a late owl so it's always a struggle anyway.) This weekend I focused on getting the house back in order, at least somewhat. Funny how we weren't even here most of last week but somehow when we return with suitcases every room seems to explode with stuff. I'm still working my way through categories of our home, using the Konmari method I told you about here .  Since it looks like we'll finally have some consistent spring weather this week, I decided to tackle the coat closet next. I've shared this little space a few times over the years -- it's one of my hardest working spots in the house. It's funny because we have a lot of storage in this house, but not a lot of closet storage -- at least those that hold things other than clothes. :) I used one of

Hey all! Long time no see! How has your week been? We had a great trip down to Florida and arrived back home to find our humidifier had been leaking into the basement the whole time we were gone. GREAT times. This isn't the first time it's happened, so we're replacing the humidifier and have to replace some of the wall and ceiling in the basement.  It was hard to leave the warm weather and friends in Florida but now I'm so thankful we came home when we did. It could have been so much worse!  I'm back today with my last post with Better Homes and Gardens -- I have LOVED sharing these products with you every other month! If you've been following along with our guest room redo then you know I've used a lot of these products throughout. I'm going for a casual, slightly farmhouse feel in the space and the items I've found over the past year work so well.  Here's a reminder of how this side of the room looked last year after I painted in in it's ne

Hey all! Hope you're weekend was lovely! I'm back with the April edition of the Before and After Linky -- I actually remembered this month! :) This party is such a great way to find new-to-you blogs and inspiration. I'm always so impressed with the projects that are linked up every month! As always I love to kick off the festivities by showing off a few of the posts from last month. I've got some great ones for you! I LOVED these pretty rustic frames that Jenna made: Aren't they beautiful? They look like something you'd find in the store, but better. :) She gives a great tutorial on how to make them yourself.  Kristi's new kitchen is stunning!! So many pretty details that I loved:  The before and after is one of my favorites this month!  You know I'm a sucker for a kitchen renovation and I loved Casey's kitchen too:  You know I adore the two-toned look -- her kitchen looks like a completely new space with the painted cabinets. And she moved her ca