• wicker acorns from etsy shop wicker decor workshop pretty acorn decor and jewelry
    decorating

    The Prettiest Acorn Decor and Jewelry

    Did you know that acorns and oak trees symbolize, among other things, growth, fresh starts, and potential? Yes, please to all three of those things. I’ve been crafting with acorns for ages. Maybe you have too? There’s just something about them that is so compelling for the fall season. I found some of the prettiest acorn decor and jewelry to share with you today. Maybe this will inspire your fall decorating and holiday gifting. Or maybe, like me, you’ll come away with another idea for something fun you can make with acorns! Let the inspiration begin! Acorn Bells | Etsy A combination of bells and acorns in a rustic patina?…

  • fall front porch with paint blue ceiling and potted mums and pumpkins
    decorating,  gardening and landscape

    Fall Front Porch And The Funny Place I Buy Mums

    Can we talk restraint? Restraint is experiencing the calendar flip from August to September and knowing you can’t decorate your fall front porch yet because Mother Nature didn’t get the “it’s fall y’all” memo and it is still 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside. So what do you do instead? You console yourself with an apple cider donut (or two, I won’t judge) while you wait for the weather to catch up to the commercialized hype of our existence. I waited 25 days. Twenty five! There are no prizes for this sort of restraint. I know. I checked. Some of you wise ones might say the prize is that the mums I…

  • paint blue porch ceiling
    decorating

    A Haint Blue Porch Ceiling Of My Own

    Why did I wait so long to paint my front porch ceiling haint blue? No, really. Why? If I had known what joy this simple change of a haint blue porch ceiling would bring me, it would have been much higher on the priority list. Maybe not higher than replacing rotten siding, but higher than planting those boxwoods that may or may not be growing. Here’s how our porch looked in the fall of 2023. Perfectly delightful. Nothing wrong with it. I love, then and now, sitting out here with a drink in the early evenings and watching the world go by. Pictured below is almost the same view now.…

  • boo halloween mantel with hand painted boo sign, paper bats, and branches
    Crafts,  decorating,  holidays

    Boo! Halloween Mantel

    It’s a boo-tiful day to share my Halloween mantel with you! That ghost pun was cheekily intended because the boo sign I painted is the centerpiece of this year’s Halloween mantel. It is simple, playful, and won’t take up hardly any space in storage! I enjoy the fun of Halloween and, let’s be honest, the candy too. I don’t do scary though. Nope. Not my thing. I’ll pass on the haunted houses. I don’t even like going into my attic after dark. I’ll stick with a sugar rush and leave the adrenaline rush to the rest of you ghouls. Speaking of ghosts and ghouls, I have heard some stories about…

  • how to display running medals and race bibs on an old door or cork board
    decorating

    How To Display Running Medals and Race Bibs

    Do you know someone who is REALLY into running? Let me show you how to display running medals and race bibs in a fun, artistic way. All you need is a cork board or an old door and some cork. Now take the ever-growing collection of race bibs and running medals that are stuffed in every junk drawer, glove box, backpack, and coat closet you own and staple them to your cork board. That’s it! It’s faster than running a 5k and, dare I say, far more enjoyable. If you’re turning an old door into a cork board to display running medals and race bibs, it’s best to find an…

  • modern country laundry room in a colonial farmhouse with wainscoting stained glass horse art basket wall and inset wall shelves
    decorating

    In Praise Of: Unusual Stained Glass Art

    Let’s talk unusual stained glass art. Normally, when I think of stained glass I think of church windows or sun catchers that people hang in their windows. It’s all pretty (Hello, colorful glass!) but not always my personal style. There is probably a better word to use than unusual, but that’s the first word I thought of when I looked at the stained glass horse head I have that is unusually mounted onto felt and placed in a wood frame. I couldn’t find anything online like this. My horse is further unique in that it might be a combination of stained glass and painted glass but it’s hard for me…

  • yale smart lock on a black front door 3 things we love about our smart lock and one we don't
    decorating,  DIY

    Front Door Smart Lock: 3 Things We Love, 1 We Don’t

    Two months ago we switched to a smart lock on our front door. There are three things (at least!) that we love about about this smart lock and one thing we don’t love. Before I dive into the details, I want to mention that we feel so fancy now with a smart lock. We don’t have a Ring doorbell camera. We don’t even have a regular doorbell. If you come to our house, you have to knock on the door like in the good ol’ days. If you do knock, I may or may not “hear you knock,” if you get the excuse I’m throwing out there. Just depends on…

  • bedroom gallery wall of nature paintings sitting area with gallery wall of nature paintings
    decorating

    Bedroom Gallery Wall of Nature Paintings

    Do you have something in your home you look at daily? Perhaps this thing has been fine for months or maybe years and not merely fine, but enjoyable to look at too. Then one day, out of the blue, you look at it and it’s all wrong. Has that happened to you? As long as that thing isn’t your spouse, I’m pretty sure that’s a normal reaction. But what do I know? I didn’t go to school for either psychology or interior design. The thing that was no longer fine in our home was the painting behind the sitting area in our bedroom. It wasn’t specifically the painting. It was…

  • tiny art packs a big punch tiny painting display on a wood ledge
    decorating

    Tiny Art and Where To Display It

    Let’s talk about tiny art and where to display it so that it packs a big punch. By tiny art, I mean art that is a few inches in size or smaller. I’m not a designer, but I do pay attention when they all say something to the effect that art needs to have the right scale for a space. Same thing for furniture, lighting, etc. Scale, scale, scale. Got it. Then you find the cutest tiny painting at the thrift store. Did someone say something about scale? I tried stepping on one of those once. Didn’t like it. But I do like finding tiny art. Love it, actually. I…

  • why we chose to keep our vintage blue bathroom tile
    decorating

    Why We Saved Our Vintage Blue Bathroom Tile

    Out with the old. In with the new! Or not? I recently read an article in Domino about why designers are saving vintage bathroom tile during remodels. We saved the vintage blue bathroom tile in our upstairs bathroom for a variety of reasons, so the article resonated with me. It was a tricky choice though. Is this vintage blue bathroom tile a tile I would have chosen?  Enthusiastically, no! Not in color. Not in pattern. Not in shape. Has the blue bathroom tile grown on me?  Yes. I’m not ready to pledge my undying love, but I don’t recoil in horror every time I walk into that bathroom either. Why…