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December 31, 2017

Top Nine for Twenty Seventeen


My top nine favorites for 2017 from my IG account. I didn’t use the website that picks these based on likes, but picked out some of my favorite, most memorable photos from 2017. It’s been a fun year! We had a couple of fun vacations skiing and beaching. Preston started junior high and my work status changed to full-time. We were in our home for the entire year of 2017 and our pup Sadie turned 8 this year (nothing special, but I had to include her :) We remodeled two rooms in our home (office and kitchen.) We survived Harvey and although our home was spared, it was a sad time for our neighbors and city. We watched the Astros win the World Series and saw the city of Houston enjoy the event. After 8 years, we had snow! And most importantly, everyone was happy and healthy!

Looking forward to 2018!!

Happy New Year!! 

#bringon2018



December 8, 2017

My Christmas Home Tour 2017 | 12 Days of Holiday Homes


Welcome to my 2017 Christmas Home Tour!  I'm so happy to be part of The 12 Days of Holiday Homes again this year with so many of my favorite bloggers!  The inspiration from this group always amazes me.  You can find the complete line up of all the participants with direct links at the end of this post.  The tour is hosted by Jenny from Evolution of Style and Christy & Amy from 11 Magnolia Lane, who lined up a fabulous group.  A big thank you to them for organizing and to Lynch Creek Farm for sponsoring the tour.  Today three of us are sharing our homes, so be sure to hop over to Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss, and The Creativity Exchange and check out their gorgeous homes decked out for the holidays.  So let's get started...


I loved using fresh greenery again this year starting with my front porch.  The beautiful wreath on my front door is from Lynch Creek Farm which arrived so perfect.  I choose the Blended Bay Wreath and then paired it with a mini Christmas tree and basket of birch logs for a simple holiday front porch


I still haven't jumped on the flocked tree bandwagon for our big tree, but added this mini one to our front entry this year.


I'm happy to say that those wrapped presents actually contain gifts.  A few years ago when I did my tour I was behind on my Christmas shopping and wrapped empty boxes.  But not this year!  They sit below our family Christmas tree with everything from our fancy ornaments to all our special homemade ones.  I don't do anything else to it and love it like that!  It's so meaningful to us and fun to pull out the same ornaments every year and reminisce about them.



I added fresh garland to both our mantel and stair banister.  



A peek in the kitchen where I added a mini Christmas tree garland across the window and a fresh wreath on the back door.  The kids and I put together a few gingerbread houses last weekend and the simple, white ones are my favorite (big surprise)  We have two other houses that got a little crazy with an explosion of candy.




I added a simple ribbon with gold bells to finish off the banister.  We do an artificial tree, so it's nice to have some fresh greenery throughout our home.


Our last stop on this home tour is our dinning room.  I used my favorite white plates and chargers paired with gold flatware.  My table runner is actually a gray and white plaid throw which added a nice cozy touch to the space.  We are hosting Christmas for my husband's family this year, so my table will be ready to for guest.



And that wraps up my Christmas Home Tour.  Below is a complete line up of all the participants.  I've been so inspired by these homes and pinned lots of great ideas for next year!



The 12 Days of Holiday Homes Tour
December 2nd  Simple Details  |  Shine Your Light
December 3rd  11 Magnolia Lane(Amy)  |  The Heathered Nest  |  Maison De Cinq
December 4th  Stylehouse Interiors  |  Domestic Charm
December 7th  Life & Home at 2102  |  Home by Heidi
December 9th  The Pink Clutch  |  Evolution of Style
December 10th  11 Magnolia Lane (Christy)  |  Citrine Living
December 12th Holiday Tour Recap


Paint Colors - All walls and ceilings Palomino Gray by PPG

Front Porch - Doormat, Birch Bundle of Logs, Basket (similar), Striped Ribbon, Live Wreath - Blended Bay from Lynch Creek Farms, Mini Christmas Tree - Whole Foods

Entry - Plaid Pillow, Small Flocked Tree - Homegoods (similar flocked tree), Gold Mirror - Homegoods (similar gold mirror), Nailhead Bench - Tuesday Morning

Family Room - Wooden Christmas Trees (Target last season - no longer available) Linen Stockings, White  Cable Knit StockingsNavy Border Rug, Sectional with White Twill Slipcover, Plaid ThrowWicker Trunk - GrayGray Round Mirror - Homegoods, Basket - Homegoods, Bamboo Cordless Shades

Kitchen - Roman Shade, Riviera Counter stools, gold pulls

Breakfast Room - Set of 3 Harmony Bells, Gold Pendant Light (similar), Wicker Dining Chair (similar)

Dining Room - Nailhead Dining Chairs, Chandelier, White Dinner Plates, Gold Flatware, Wine GlassesRattan Placemat, Gray and White Plaid Throw (table runner) - Homegoods, Wooden Christmas Trees (Target last season - no longer available), Reclaimed Wood Table (DIY by my husband)




December 1, 2017

Holiday Gift Guide 2017


Are you ready for the most wonderful time of the year?  I'm getting a head start on my shopping so I can fully enjoy it.  I've rounded up ideas for most everyone and hope you find something to cross off your list!



























November 16, 2017

Our Home Office Reveal | ORC Guest Finale


It's finally time to wrap up this One Room Challenge guest series and reveal our home office!  I love how it turned out!  When I changed my work status from part time to full time getting this space finished became a priority for me.  When I'm not at an event, I work from home so having a nice, functional space was a must.  I also have to keep lots and lots of marketing materials for work so storage and organization needed to be addressed as well.

If you want to see the week by week you can find all the details here:  Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five, Week Six


The largest project was to add French doors to the opening so that I had the option of closing off the space.  As I stated in Week Two, this space was originally designed as a formal living room.  We really have no need for a formal living room and it was in the perfect location for a home office.  The opening was about 8 feet wide so in addition to the French doors we also had to add side panels to fill the space.  We looked at several door options, but ended up going with traditional French doors to keep with the look and style of the home.  You can see a before and my husband's DIY installation of the doors here.





Next up was storage.  There is no closet in this room, so I needed to create space to store my marketing materials and other office supplies.  These storage boxes and magazine files from Ikea work perfect on the shelves and I use every single one of them.  

We also decided to make doors for the bottom section of the shelving units to hide all the supplies.  We tried to keep the style of the doors the same as the front of the desk...a simple shaker style cabinet front.  The desk I also found at Ikea.  And besides the million pieces it comes in, I love it.  It's sturdy and has good storage space.  You can see how my husband made the shelving cabinet doors here.



And next up are a few before pictures so you can really see how far this space came.  The first two are right when we moved in.



This picture below was shortly after we moved in and painted the walls.  The space looked cute, but it really was not set up to work well and store materials.  The file cabinets facing out were not ideal either, but made the room look presentable. 


And I included this picture below to show you how some of the furniture looked before we painted it.  The shelving units we have had for over 16 yrs.  They are two of the first pieces of furniture we bought for our first home from Dillards, ha!  Originally, they were part of a three piece entertainment set and it had an armoire in the center of the shelves that stored our old tube TV.  They are actually really well made and have been moved around a lot, but they have held up so well.  The file cabinets were once black and we also painted those white as well.  They are from Pottery Barn and you can actually buy them in white.  So after I bought them in black and then asked my husband to paint them white only a few short months later, you can image the look I got :)  I cringe when I look at this set up below...it was sooooo bad!


And so much better below...




I opened up the front door when I photographed this room to bring in more natural light and this girl loved sitting and watching out the door.  

We also changed the light in the front entry, which you can see a peek of below.  It's the same lantern light that was once our kitchen at our old home and also over our breakfast table in this home.  When I remodeled our kitchen in the Spring ORC, I changed out the breakfast light with the gold lantern and we moved this light in here.  So it has definitely been around.  I still really love the look of it and I think we finally found it's permanent home (for now :)



And the finishing touches in this space were the new light, the artwork, rug and hardware.  I love how it all came together.  It's so nice having it finished especially being the first room when you enter our home.






November 14, 2017

Fall Into The Holidays | Dinning Room


Today is the final week of this fun holiday series!  I hope you've found some inspiration from this talented group, including:

• Katie of Miss Dixie • 
• Jennifer of Dimples & Tangles • 
• Pam of Simple Details •  
 • Shelley of Crazy Wonderful  • 

I have found so many great ideas from everyone and I love that everything is "doable."  This week we are wrapping up the series and featuring the Dinning Room.  With Thanksgiving right around the corner I thought I would share an easy tablescape.




I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but once again fresh greenery/flowers and fresh fruit are my decorating accessories of choice.  It is seriously so easy and makes such a pretty table setting.  If you have some basic tableware, like these white plates and wicker chargers, they provide a great starting point.  And honestly, I usually get my flowers at the grocery store when I'm buying my fruit and other groceries.


For this setting, I found the cedar tree clippings which are then great to transition into the Christmas season.  I spritzed them every other day and they actually lasted a good while.  I kept my place setting simple with a napkin topped off with a small clipping and twine.



I hope you've enjoyed this fun mini series to get ready for the holidays seasons which are fast approaching.

And next up this week is my ORC Home Office Final Reveal.  I can't wait to share...I love how it turned out!  So check back on Thursday and let me know what you think.