Tag: home

April 19, 2013

A Little Bit of Spring

The other day my sister and I received these happy postcards from a friend. (Thanks Caitlin!) Notice how the yellow one with the tree is extremely similar to the print hanging on the wall to the far left. This girl knows my style well! I just wanted to share them because they make me smile. I’m definitely ready for some actual springtime here in the chilly Midwest. These postcards make me think about all of the things I want to accomplish around my home this spring. Here’s my list: To Do This Spring: 1. Be super planty. Start more seeds in eggshells. Plant flowers from seeds in containers. Make my porch basically a container garden oasis. Maybe create a raised garden bed in my teeny backyard. 2. Repaint living room furniture. So many of the pieces in my living room are painted black. They all need a revamp. I’ve been all about the light and bright lately, so the black furniture is bringing me down. (Look for a future blog post on this.) 3. More do-it-yourself. I’m loving DIY home projects. I have a few in the works, but I want to come up with some on my own, instead...

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April 10, 2013

3 Tips to Accessorize Your Home

Choosing items to decorate your home seems easy enough. Pick furniture, lamps and accessories you like. Aaannnd…done. While it’s true that you should pick items you like, you also don’t want your home to be filled with stuff just for the sake of having stuff either. So, how do you know what stuff to choose and what to pass on? With these three accessorizing tips, you can never go wrong. Choose comfort When it comes to accessorizing your home, don’t overlook comfort. (This is one I have to remind myself of a lot when shopping.) The prettiest pillows will just annoy you if they’re not snuggle-able when watching a movie. And, who wants a couch that you can’t lounge on? Or, a scratchy blanket? Pick comfortable accessories and you’ll be happy every time. Also, don’t forget about good light. Light affects your mood, and therefore your comfort! If you don’t get a lot of natural light in your home, use sheer curtains on your windows and keep your color scheme light and bright. I also can’t talk enough about the greatness of lamps. Lamplight is far better than overhead light. Fill your home with lamps to create cozy light...

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March 29, 2013

Simple Mason Jar Display

Mason jars just have a certain charm. You can fill them with just about anything—flowers, candles, candy, drinks—and they look good. Yet, I’m also drawn to their simplicity. I like them just as they are. That’s why I decided to decorate the front of my fireplace for spring with just a simple row of Bell mason jars. There’s nothing to it. You can create this simple display yourself in just about any area of your home. Line a few mason jars along a shelf, on a windowsill, along the middle of your dining room table. It’s simple perfection. You could also drop a tea light in each one and light them at night for a pretty glow. Who loves mason jars? Let me know about your favorite ways to use them in the comments… Keep Up With Red Leaf Style! Follow Red Leaf Style author Kirsten Hudson on Twitter @kirsten_hudson, Google+ and Pinterest....

March 24, 2013

Spring Decorating Ideas

Springtime is practically here. Can you feel it? I can’t. Mother Earth decided to celebrate the first few days of spring by dumping Kansas City with four to six inches of snow. Still, I can imagine what the lovely spring weather will feel like soon—and I can decorate my home to prepare! Here are a few simple ways you can create springtime cheerfulness in your home.   Decorate with flowers What could remind you of spring more than flowers? Pretty spring blossoms just make a room feel happy. Grab a bunch at your local farmer’s market and split up the blooms to fill several vases. That way you can enjoy flowers all around your home! Want to make your blooms even more spring like? Use metal pails, pitchers and milk glass vases to hold your flowers.   Use woven baskets Baskets are so completely spring-like. They remind me of Easter egg hunts and spring harvests. Use pretty woven baskets as easy accents in your home. They’re perfect for corralling all types of items. Right now I’m using a couple woven baskets by the front door to hold rain boots and umbrellas. Another one rests near my couch brimming with...

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March 12, 2013

St. Patrick’s Day Decorating Inspiration

St. Patrick’s Day is this Sunday. Yay for green beer and parades and loud Irish music! It’s just a fun day where we pinch each other for no reason and try to speak in Irish accents. While I don’t usually decorate for St. Patrick’s Day, I’m open to bringing a bit of green into my home. It’s a nice segway into spring, and some green will remind me that this winter is almost over! When decorating for holidays, I like to use items I already own. I just shop the house for pieces that will work. For St. Patrick’s Day, I looked for green items (duh!), as well as anything else that fit the feeling of the holiday. I love the different hues of green I found around my home in everything from flowers, to vintage hardback books to a lone mixing bowl. I also rediscovered a rock that I already had that reminded me of Ireland. I love the bits of moss stuck on it! And, finally I had to include my claddagh ring, a traditional Irish ring that I bought in Dublin. (Fun fact: If you wear it with the heart pointing towards you, it means you’re taken. If you wear it pointing out, it means you’re single!) I hope you’ll feel inspired by the items I found around my home to decorate your home for St....

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March 3, 2013

Indoor Gardening Day

I don’t take my home so seriously that I can’t drag a big ole bag of potting soil inside to do a bit of gardening. That’s exactly what went on in my kitchen this Saturday. After weeks of chilly, snowy and dreary weather, I’m ready to fill my home with greenery! A week or two ago I started some seeds using eggshells. (Check out my tutorial to learn how!) I planted a smorgasbord of veggies and herbs: spinach, carrots, lettuce, radishes, oregano, basil and chives. All easy-to-grow plants that I can cultivate in containers. The radishes sprouted far faster than all of the other plants. They were ready to transplant to larger containers, so that was this weekend’s project. If you’re looking at the pictures and wondering if I used that soup ladle to fill the pots with soil, why yes, yes I did. (Go ahead, file that one away for future reference. Soup ladle works just as well as shovel.) I didn’t actually plant the peppers or tomatoes in the pictures above, but I love the happy colors on the seed packets. That’ll be a future project. Until it warms up enough to move all of these plants outside and transplant the rest of the...

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February 21, 2013

Snow Day Home Inspiration

Happy snow day from the Midwest! We’re pretty much buried out here. The Kansas City area saw 8 to 12 inches of snow or more today and it’s still coming down. As a home blogger, I have perhaps an out-of-the-ordinary love for being at home, but I think a snow day makes everyone appreciate home just a little bit more. There’s nothing quite like snuggling inside with a pile of blankets, a cup of something hot and a window with the curtains pulled open to reveal a snow-falling scene outside. My house is happy, warm and oh-so comfy right now. This is what makes me love home decorating. It’s about creating the same comfy, satisfied and simply happy feeling that you have for your home on a snow day—all the time. Everything I write about, every do-it-yourself project, decorating idea and thrift store find, is because it’s something that made my home feel just a little bit happier. And, I hope all of my ramblings give you some inspiration to make your home feel happier too. Well, that’s enough home philosophizing for one lazy snow day. What makes you inspired when it comes to your home? Apparently weather does...

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