Springing Into Winter!

Yep, it's definitely January. The boot tin is out for the season because it seems like there's always just a little snow on the ground and as soon as you put them up, it snows again.

I always find it depressing taking down the Christmas decor. To be followed by putting up the same old stuff I had before, stuff that looked fine before Christmas but somehow looks pretty plain and bare after the season.

So this year I decided to change some things up, move some things around and bring just a tad bit of spring into my winter decor...

These used to be in our bedroom, yes of course they're fake but I don't mind fake if they're not too fake looking:) Who doesn't have hydrangea on their kitchen table in the middle of winter? Ha, I love it! It's wintery white and refreshing if you asked me.

This is by no means done, just some beginning decor thrown on my now fabric covered dining room table (no place for the sewing machine just yet but hopefully soon).

I'm loving birds right now and my new color obsession is sky or what we call in our house "Carolina Blue";). So it may not go perfectly with my greenish and gold walls but I am slowly breaking free from my greens, reds and golds and leaning towards blues, browns, ivory and tan. However, it may take some time since a lot of my furniture fits into the first color palette.. like all of it.

So here are some of my attempts to add more ivory. Many of my frames and accents are black or dark bronze and I'm just over it! I need bright and airy during these cold winter months!

I love this verse and found this little plaque 50% off at Jo Ann Fabrics of all places. I just added some brown ribbon to hang it from. Jo Ann's now has a Shabby Chic line and they've got some really good stuff!

Just adding that Carolina blue in small doses and I told you I'm loving birds right now, well I love their houses too! Hobby Lobby has some really cute ones!!

More Carolina blue! You see, I really don't care that the blue candles don't "go" perfectly with my walls, I'm breaking all my rules and branching out! {plus I think I enhanced the color a little because it doesn't look quite that blue in person;)}

I got the stocking holders at Hobby Lobby (of course) and decided they would be cute all year-round! Yep, I've already started decorating some for Valentines too! I don't go crazy for Valentine's Day but the girls like it and it's fun having something else to look forward too. We're in for a long 3-4 (hopefully only 3) months of cold weather up here, so I've got to keep it interesting!

Another one of my favorite decorating changes is adding this little tray to my coffee table, it used to be in my basement, on a shelf, getting dusty. Not crazy about the color since it's in my "old" palette but it's great because for each season I change it up (Fall and Christmas were so much better then what I have now but these were some left over things that I'm not quite ready to banish to the basement, so in the tray they went).

This little guy usually gets packed away with the tree but I decided that he's not too Christmasy (don't think that's a word, so I made it up) and he's cheerful so he gets to stay a little while longer this year.

Fun hearts because it makes the girls smile.

So if you get depressed taking all the Christmas stuff down, do what I did, change things up, add a bit of spring to brighten up the house. It's not like you're putting out Easter eggs and bunnies, you're just bringing in some warmth and I know most of us are just about freezing right now!

12 Days of Giving-Day 7-Decorating!

Since my parents were here for Ainsley's birthday party I was able to take Ainsley to school without the other two {this is a real treat since we go up two flights of stairs to get to her classroom!} Last week the teachers had asked if anyone wanted to help decorate the staircase and I did but there was no way I could having Harper and Bennett with me. However, today when I dropped her off there was a mom decorating all by herself and since my parents were with the kids {although I told them I would be right back :)} I thought maybe I could offer her a little help.

So I did and it was fun plus I got to meet a mom I didn't know, as well as another that came a little later. I was so glad I was able to do this since it was something I wanted to do but didn't think it was possible. Thanks mom and dad for watching the kids for a few more minutes!!

Our First September Visitor!

September is busy with visitors for us and first up was my sister Alexa! She came down to help with the kids last week and although her husband and boys thoroughly missed her, we loved having Aunt Alexa spend the week with us!!

She lives far away so we don't get to see her or her family too often but the girls warmed up to her very quickly and starting in on playing barbies, reading books and coloring. It was quite amusing to watch her play barbies when she's got two boys that are older than my girls and the mere fact that they are boys should explain why it was funny to watch her play with my girls!

Tuesday we walked to the park and then I had a doctor appointment so Alexa watched the girls-which was a life saver-any time I don't have to bring them along, things go much more smoothly! That night an old friend of my sister's, Jennine, drove up from Philly for dinner so we all had a great time catching up.

Wednesday we made a trip to the fabric store-always fun taking three kids to the "boring fabric store"! I've wanted a little something more in my family room as far as my windows go and I knew Alexa did not have her sewing machine so we were going to have to do some major "mistreating" of the windows. She helped me pick out the perfect fabric to go with my current valences and while I hung the hardware she "mistreated" the curtains! Of course the whole project could have taken 10 minutes but since I do not own a sewing machine she was forced to hot glue and use fabric tape for everything. I'm sure this was hard for her to do as her profession is mainly sewing!

Here's the hooks we used to hang them from.

And here's a sneak peek of the curtains.
The bottom matches my valences and this fabric used to be a bed skirt that my mom converted into valences and now the left overs are being used for the curtains- so this bed skirt has come in handy!

Once we put them up we both agreed they were adorable but a bit skimpy. You see, we bought all of this fabric that the store had but of course there wasn't much left. And then my mom (the interior decorator) got a peek at them from a picture and said "I'm sure I could find that same fabric at my Jo Ann's and I could add a little more to the panels"-this made me laugh because Alexa and I knew once mom saw them, being the interior decorator that she is, "mistreating" would not cut it for her! Just teasing you mom! She thought they looked great but agreed that they were lacking in the fullness department so once she gets a hold of them with her sewing machine, I'll show you the finished product.

Thursday was more shopping and then we took the kids to the pool which was so relaxing because we were really the only people there! The girls got to burn off some energy, Bennett slept and Alexa and I were able to chat. That night after the kids went to bed we sat by the fire pit and laughed about old times. It's funny because we are total opposites of each other but we get along really well. Of course it wasn't always like that when we were younger and in our teen years but we both got married young and had children relatively young so we're able to relate to each other in that aspect.

Alexa having fun playing with Bennett. She discovered he makes funny faces when you bounce his back!

The girls had so much fun with their Aunt!

I'm so thankful for my sister! She is the most patient and caring person and so easy to get along with. She's the person you go to when you're super stressed or scared or mad about something and has a way of calming you down and always has good advice. She was there for me every day on the phone throughout my pregnancy with Bennett which I know had to be emotionally draining for her at times. When we found out about Bennett she was sad for me and was hurting too but she remained strong and encouraging for me because that's what she needed to do. I can only hope and pray that Ainsley and Harper will have a good relationship like Lex and I do.

Thanks so much for coming Lex, we love you!!