Hunting for pinecone crafts to make? This easy craft project transforms ordinary jars into fall decorations in no time. You'll love how these pinecone jars easily fit into your home's decor while also looking festive....
When you walk up to my friend Cara’s 1912 Victorian home, you can’t help but feel the holiday cheer. She decked out the home for Christmas. The wicker chairs on her porch got dressed up for the holidays with bright, red stripey throw pillows. And a green table runner draped over the table in front of them proves that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get festive. A real evergreen wreath hangs on the door. But it isn’t the only greenery in sight. A galvanized metal bucket brims with sticks, holly berries, and evergreen and pine boughs clipped from her parents’ land and hauled back in her dad’s pickup truck. The door’s open but before you step inside, her sweet puppy Jude might come out to greet you. And then you’ll know you want to stay awhile. Vintage meets new Every year, the teeny town of Weston, Missouri, where Cara lives in her much-loved rental house, hosts a holiday candlelight homes tour. She decorated her house especially for the tour using vintage items, new finds and what she could forage in nature. Everywhere you look, her vintage-meets-new decorating style abounds. Like her collection of new...
If your new year’s resolution was to finally get organized, don’t give up on that resolution just yet. (Statistics show that 80 percent of people who make a new year’s resolution Jan. 1 won’t stick with it by Valentine’s Day.) Get your whole house in order with my favorite strategies, tips and ideas for home organization. I’ll give room-by-room organization tips, plus cute storage ideas. From the bathroom to the office, here’s how to finally clear the clutter and get organized. 5 Ways to Use Wooden Boxes for Storage We all need to store stuff. Why not make it look good at the same time? Wooden boxes are one of my favorite creative storage solutions that serve a purpose and look attractive. You can pile just about anything in them and they make a jumbled mess of stuff much more easy on the eyes. Try these creative ways to use wooden boxes for storage. Stylishly Organize Your Home With Vintage Tins We often associate “storage” with dumpy, bulky plastic tubs and containers. When you work so hard to fill your home with items that fit your style, you might wonder why can’t storage do its job and look good too?...
Like many of us, a lot of my New Year’s resolutions tend to carry over year to year. The ones that never seem to leave my list are: Write more. Read more. Enjoy more. Slow down. While all of these goals still hold true this year, I have just one resolution for 2017. One oh-so-simple resolution that will hopefully reduce my stress, help me get organized and keep me sane. Before I tell you what my resolution is for the coming year, I want to reflect on all of the happy things 2016 brought. Because despite everything, it was a good year! This year I traveled to Iceland. Iceland! Slept on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, soaked in the ice blue sulfur waters of the Blue Lagoon, ate the best fish soup of my life. And that wasn’t my only adventure. I kayaked; hiked; camped. Trout fished at a spot I hadn’t been to since I was a kid. I may not have purchased my own house like I wanted this year, but I helped my sister transform her home. Painted two bathrooms. Completely remodeled the laundry room. And finished countless other little projects. In 2016, I stepped out more. Went...
Welcome to my home for the holidays this year. It’s actually my sister’s townhouse. What an amazing sister to let me live there while I’m house hunting. Despite her sometimes ‘bah humbug’ attitude when it comes to holiday decor, she also let me decorate her home for Christmas. (And, I might have gone a little overboard.) From a coffee filter wreath to DIY garlands to a few tchotchkes here and there (…and there…and there,) see how I decorated my sister’s urban townhouse for Christmas. It’s my holiday house tour 2016. All it takes is a few pops of red to make your home feel Christmas-y. Throw pillow covers, like these ones from IKEA, are easy to slip on when the holidays roll around—and easy to take off and store away once the season is over. A cozy, red blanket draped on the end of the couch (or over the back of it) is another simple trick to add holiday cheer. It’s also practical and not just for looks. My coffee filter wreath adorns the back of the balcony door. Along with a ‘Merry Christmas’ banner from the Dollar Spot at Target, it creates a festive focal point in the...
The front porch is the welcome center to your home. You see it every time you leave and it’s there, welcoming you, after a long day at work. Shouldn’t your front porch feel warm and friendly? And, what better time to spruce up your front porch than when guests start arriving? After all, it’s that time of year. Fall gatherings. Football watch parties. Thanksgiving. Before fall’s over (why does it happen so fast!?) I wanted to share my front porch all decked out for autumn. Dressed up with just a few fall essentials, my front porch is bright, happy and welcoming. Add some fall mums In pops of bright yellow and deep burgundy, fall mums add festive fall color to your front stoop. Pop the plants into unexpected containers, like woven baskets or my plastic pumpkin planters, and your plants will be anything but boring. Bring on the pumpkins No fall porch is complete without a display of pumpkins. Orange and white pumpkins keep it classic, but you could also add in green pumpkins or warty pumpkins. A place to sit If you have the space, a simple wooden bench makes the perfect spot to plop down, read a...
Fall is here! Bring on the fall boots and pumpkin spice lattes. The pumpkins and the gourds. The apple cider and the cozy scarves. We have to celebrate this season because it’ll be gone before you know it. Somehow Christmas seems to get closer every year. Am I right? The holidays usually crowd fall out of the picture too quickly. Decorating for fall is such a happy time. I like the shift in the seasons. It always indicates a fresh start. And I start to wonder what the new season holds. Are you itching to make your home feel ready for the new season? Guests will come to stay soon. Chilly nights are here. It’s time to make everything feel cozy. You probably don’t need a list of reasons to love fall, but just for fun, here are 21 reasons fall is the best season. 1. Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins You can’t have fall without pumpkins. Whether you’re picking one from a pumpkin patch or grabbing them at your local grocery store, they’re the ultimate décor to dress up your house or porch. 2. Unconventional pumpkins Move over orange pumpkins. You can easily find green pumpkins, white pumpkins, warty pumpkins...
