Nutcracker Holiday Mantel Decor
Fair warning. Your jaw may drop after viewing my Nutcracker holiday mantel decor. (There also may be a pun or two in this blog post.) You know I love a theme, so I chose nutcrackers as this year’s holiday decor theme for our dining room fireplace. This theme has been a long time coming, as I have been in possession of my mother’s nutcrackers for years. Decades, actually, but who’s counting? I don’t always decorate with the nutcrackers because they don’t match anything that I own. I also can’t seem to get rid of them for sentimental reasons. I’m sure you have your own version of this in your house.…
A Rustic Carriage House Christmas
It’s beginning to look like a rustic Carriage House Christmas! Or, as rustic as it can get with four faux Christmas trees. Just roll with it, folks. That’s what I do. Speaking of rolling with things, please go along with me for a minute as I set up this story. A year and a half ago, we repointed this fireplace in our Carriage House. I’d venture a guess that it had been covered for well over 100 years. Then we immediately covered it, so to speak, with a weight machine because we use this part of the Carriage House as a gym. Not too long after that, we went to…
Happy List: #414, Thanksgiving Edition
A Happy List on a Monday! I hope this doesn’t throw your week off, or if it does, it’s in a good way. I plan to take the rest of the week off from the blog for Thanksgiving, a delightful U.S. holiday, so I thought I’d squeeze in one last Happy List for November. Thank you so much for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here with me. I hope you have fun and leave feeling inspired. It makes my day to connect with you. If you want to reach out, please comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also direct message me…
Happy List: #413
Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It’s a great day to be inspired, and I’m glad you’re here. This week on the blog, I shared how I have our sunporch set up for the winter. I may be writing this week’s Happy List from the couch in the sunporch. It’s a great place to work! I also shared the recent updates I’ve made to our music room. It’s amazing how a few small tweaks change how a room feels. On social media, I shared a reel of the finished wall, a cozy view of our sunporch, and an idea you can use if you don’t have a fireplace to…
8 Decorating Ideas From A Music Room
Not everyone has a music room or plays an instrument, but most people enjoy music! It’s relatable, and there’s something for everyone. Kind of like my music room decor. This music room is chock-full of ideas you can riff on in your own home. Like an eighth note, which is played quite quickly, this blog post will be a quick read. Here are 8 decorating ideas from a music room that anyone can use anywhere in their home. Music Room Decor Ideas #1: Make a statement with something bold and unexpected. Do I have a piano harp – the guts of a piano – hanging on my wall? Why, yes.…
Overwintering Plants Set Up On Our Sunporch
By necessity, I have tweaked how I’ve set up our sunporch to overwinter plants. That specific necessity is that there are more outdoor plants I’m trying to save. It started with three ferns, and now I have six ferns, two gigantic geraniums, three polka dot plants, one rosemary, two basil plants, a couple of petunias, and some other plants I don’t know the names of. Let this be a lesson. I’m not sure what the lesson is, so we’ll call it a choose-your-own-lesson type of story. Every plant on this sunporch spends six months of the year outside, either on our front porch or deck. If they survive the summer,…
Happy List: #412
Why, hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It is fantastic to have you join me here. This week on the blog, I surprised you with a DIY furniture creation. We created a plant stand out of what I think is a lamp base. Prettiest thing we’ve made in a long time, maybe ever. I also shared the plywood Christmas trees we made for our front porch. I do think we need a third one. Thank you for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here. I hope you leave here feeling inspired and less stressed out. Maybe you even laugh. Too many things on the internet raise…
DIY Giant Plywood Christmas Trees
Decorating for the holidays? The thing your front porch is missing is giant plywood Christmas trees. They can be painted any color, made in most any size, and can fold flat for storage. That’s it. That’s my pitch. Blog post complete. Kidding! You know I’m chattier than that. To make giant plywood Christmas trees, you need to cut two isosceles triangles out of plywood. I might have had to Google how to spell isosceles, but I do know from high school that it’s a triangle with two equal sides and two equal angles. We used rough plywood, not finish-grade plywood, because no one is examining these trees up close. I…
Upcycled Plant Stand From a Lamp Base
The thrift store gods smiled down on me favorably the day I spotted a $9 brass thingy-ma-bob on an overpacked, dusty thrift store shelf. It looked a bit like a giant brass candlestick. Maybe a lamp base. Probably was a lamp base. Although it could have been part of a table, for all I know. What I did know was that I was not going to waste this precious gift. Without a moment’s hesitation, I grabbed that brass thingy-ma-bob off the shelf and walked nonchalantly away. We all know you have to act quickly before someone else notices what you’ve noticed and swipes it out from under you. All’s fair…
Happy List: #411
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I’m thrilled you could make it. We are on a fast track to the end of 2025. That feels weird. It also feels weird that I did a 5-year update on how well the mini makeover we gave our kitchen is holding up. That makeover was supposed to be a short-term fix until we built a new kitchen. Haha! It just goes to show that we are not the boss of this house. This house is the boss of us. I also shared a roundup of beautiful Christmas ornaments from small shops. If you add to your ornament collection each year or are…
