Tag: our home

Happy Monday, friends!  After a busy weekend, I wasn’t quite ready for the week to start.  But here we are, ready or not!

Welcome to our kitchen.  🙂  After last week’s post, you know that I love a good, festive garland.  Give me a mirror or a chalkboard, some scotch tape, and a cute garland and you can be sure what I am going to do with it!

I totally cheated and made a DIY Valentine’s Day ‘table runner.’  But I didn’t sew anything!  I bought the heart fabric (1.5 yards) and heart tulle on super sale at JoAnn’s (plus used a coupon) and decided to try my hand at the iron-on hemming tape.  Usually when I buy fabric for a table runner, I basically just fold it the way that I want it to lay and call it good.  But I wanted a step up this time!  😉

Like I said, I tried the iron-on hemming tape.  But it did not work for me.  Maybe my iron was too hot?  I could not figure it out.  So I used some heavy-duty fabric glue and just glued it the way that I wanted it to be.  I’m hopeful that I will get a sewing machine in 2019.  I think it’s time!  For the pom poms, I used this YouTube tutorial and then I glued them with a few strands of the pom pom yarn onto the corners of the table runner.  The pom poms were so easy to make, I have been making them like crazy and putting them all over our house.  I guess I am the nutty pom pom lady now, lol.

The tulle was a little something extra that I found that I thought would look really cute bunched up down the center of the table.  I love it!  It adds another textural and dimensional element that I think looks really fun.

I have a few of these small mismatched glasses that I use for all kinds of things.  These came from a local store and they are so delicate — I love them so much!  I sprinkled the table with a few for a nice nighttime glow.

And, of course, I used a little bit of the leftover lip candy from our coffee table centerpiece to decorate the table.  Although, I must admit, these are gone now.  We got hungry.  Lol.

I bought a big bunch of tulips from Trader Joe’s and used half of them for the coffee table and half for this centerpiece.  You just can’t go wrong with pink during the month of February!

I hope you all have a great day!

Hey there, friends!  I hope your week is off to a good start.  Wednesdays always kind of get the best of me.  Does that happen to you, too?

Valentine’s Day is in full-swing over here!  I mentioned in last week’s Valentine’s Day round-up post that this is the third year I have brought this DIY wreath out of storage.  I’m thinking maybe next year I will make another one, even though it’s held up really well.  I like to switch things up sometimes.  😉  I love grapevine wreaths because there usually is no hot gluing that needs to happen if you’re using faux flowers — you literally just cut them to the size that you want and jam ’em in there.  The banner was a JoAnn’s find and that is just tied in there.  Super simple and festive.

Come on in and grab a cup of coffee!

…And be greeted by the world’s cutest pup.  😉 I’m not biased or anything, no way.

I had this garland from the Target Dollar Spot from a few years ago, but this year I added the faux chalkboard labels to it.  They are just black folded name cards that I hung around the twine and then put a piece of tape in the center to hold them shut.  I used a chalkboard pen to write the ‘X’s and ‘O’s.  I’m no chalkboard artist, lol.  Striving for festive, not perfection.

Tulips make me so happy.  🙂  They’re definitely my favorite flower.  I was at our local grocery store a few weeks ago and this adorable Valentine’s Day gummy candy stopped me in my tracks in the bulk section.  I knew that I wanted to make a centerpiece like this with it!  This was very easy, too — I just found a glass that would fit in the center of this apothecary jar, and then layered the candy around it.  I used tongs to arrange a little bit and also to grab any candy that had a mind of its own.  😉  Then I filled up the glass with water and added the flowers!  A little tip — the way that I fill this up to refresh the water is by using a little coffee creamer pourer.  So far the water has just sort of recycled itself because the flowers seem to drink up lots of it!

I hope you have had a great day!  I’ll see you back here soon!

Hey there, happy Friday!  I hope you’ve had a great week.  🙂

Welcome to the Month of Love.  😉  I love February.  It’s short and sweet!  Over the past several years, I have posted some really simple vignettes and projects for Valentine’s Day so I thought I would kick off the month by compiling some of the photos here.  Some photos are from my in-laws’ house over the years, too (remember, we lived with them for a couple of years while we saved up for our house!).  I have a few projects in the works for V-Day so I will be sharing those soon!

Target always has little seasonal throw pillows that are fun this time of the year.  On another note — it’s neat to look back and see how different our house looked just a couple of years ago!

This was a kitchen table vignette that I created using just a bunch of random things that I shopped from our house right after we moved in.  The blocks were my favorite!

And here’s a vignette that my mom-in-law created using blocks.  Hers was the inspiration behind mine.  😉  I love those little crystal jewels.  A lot of times you can find those in the wedding section at craft stores.

For a little gift, I made these yummy (and versatile!) cookies for some family and packaged them up in a festive way.  I love to use doilies this time of the year.

This is my third Valentine’s Day pulling this wreath out of storage.  I made this our first Valentine’s Day in our house and it’s still goin’ strong!  It’s just a simple grapevine wreath with the flowers tucked into it and the banner wired in.  It took all of ten minutes.  🙂  I store my wreaths in garbage bags in our garage and so far I haven’t had to re-make a single one, they’ve held up so well!

I find myself reaching for garlands over and over again for each season.  They’re such a simple way to add a festive touch.

Printables are a fun way to decorate for the season, too!  There are so many beautiful free ones.  I have a whole Pinterest board with my favorites that I have found and used over the years.

This was another pretty vignette my mom-in-law created in their dining room.  A silver tray, moss, dried roses, and some candle holders.  Very simple and elegant!

Of course festive cocktail napkins go a long way.  🙂  I like easy this time of year.  We really only go all out for Halloween and Christmas.  The rest of the year I like to acknowledge a season or holiday in our home but not go overboard.  Less to clean up — and less to dust around!

Have a great weekend, everyone!  I’ll see you back here next week!

Good morning!  I hope you had a great start to your week.  How was your weekend?  Ours was BUSY, but really fun, too.  We’re looking forward to a weekend with no plans and hopefully a date night thrown in there.  😉  BUT, it’s only Tuesday, so…

The Christmas decorations have been down for a couple of weeks and I have been busy nesting in our house.  It’s always an interesting feeling when the holiday decorations come down, isn’t it?  The house feels so bare!  I must admit that I do kind of enjoy it, though.  After so much excess it’s usually really nice to put everything away and have a clean slate for the beginning of the year.

I usually take most everything off of every surface to start and add as the mood strikes — no centerpieces, nothing very elaborate…  It’s a nice feeling!  And we clean and scrub the house.  I left these twinkle lights in our tree in the dining area of the kitchen.  I just couldn’t resist — they make me happy!

Incense was a huge part of my life growing up.  I feel like my dad always had some burning!  I’ve been getting into it lately, too.  And I have been loving the scent of Palo Santo wood when I feel like our space needs a little cleanse.

The incense holder I found at World Market, but it needed something to collect the ashes, so I found this marble tray on clearance at Target.  The match striker is also from Target, and I use it for the Palo Santo because it burns better when the burning part is contained — keeps it alive!

I am all about cozy textures — especially this time of the year.  I like to buy these faux sheepskin rugs and use them as throws around our house.  We have one on our bed right now, too.  It’s really Kuma’s now, lol — he loves to snuggle with it, or throw it around and “fight” with it.

My sweet friend Madison gave me these blue and white glass balls for Christmas.  She knows me!  😉  I put them on a collection of mismatched candlesticks for now.

I love the wood candlesticks from Harp Design Co.  My in-laws gave these to us for Christmas and I think they are so beautiful!  I love the natural wood.

I recently found a collection of photos from Grey’s teenager years and my childhood that show us playing music — bass guitar for him, piano for me.  🙂  I put them in a little crystal dish, and this has me inspired to curate other mini photo collections, maybe based on the season.  I’ll keep you posted on that!

How are you cozying up for the Winter season?

Good morning!  We’re almost to the weekend!  😉  I hope you’ve had a great week so far.  It’s been a very productive one over here for me.  Lots of good has happened.  I’ll take it!

This is our humble little kitchen where I cook food to nourish our family and where the magic happens on my stovetop when I create yummy scents.  This latest creation was born from a desire for a clean scent — without the cleaning products!  We were taking down our Christmas decorations and I wanted the house to smell fresh and new.  We opened all of the windows (we can do that here in Arizona “winters” 😉 ) and this boiled happily on the stove all day long.  The night before I made this my parents had been over for dinner and I used the eucalyptus leaves from the table setting for this scent.  Plus, after making the blueberry sauce for the cheesecake that I served, I saved the rinds of the oranges and lemons that I squeezed for this purpose!

The ingredients in this stovetop scent are: eucalyptus leaves (I stripped them from the sticks), 2 orange rinds – sliced, 1 lemon rind – sliced, vanilla (I don’t measure, I just pour some in – maybe a tablespoon?), cranberries (again, I don’t measure these – just whatever looks good to me!), and water to fill up your pot.  You do have to watch the pot and refill it throughout the time that it is boiling because the water does evaporate, but most of the time when I make these scents, I have them going all day.  I pick a day that I plan on staying at home and puttering (my favorite!), and these scents waft through the house and, I’m telling you, it is pure HEAVEN.  One of my favorite things in the whole world.

For Christmas, my sweet in-laws gave this beautiful copper pot to me and I will always treasure it.  I have been putting it to good use cooking up all kinds of scents and I know that I will continue to do so for many years to come.

If you want to create your own scents, my best advice is to just think of how you want your house to smell.  Clean?  Festive?  Cozy?  Then think of different spices, extracts, fruits, etc. that smell that way to you.  Things that I always keep on hand are fresh rosemary, lemons, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla extract.  You can make a scent with just those things — and all the rest that you add is just a bonus at that point.  🙂

If you try a recipe, definitely let me know!

What “flavor” combinations sound good to you?