A Home Away from Home

A few weeks back, I was asked to participate in a cool activity.  The people from DogVacay.com asked me to share my home away from home.  

I must say that I love home.  I am not a big vacation person because honesty, I miss my house too much.  Being a teacher, we spend each day at our home.  We enjoy morning coffee, time at our pool and eating outside.

When I considered my home away from home, I realized that it is any place where I can be creative about design.  One of my favorite places is walking down the aisles of any home  store.  I adore fabric and could browse through samples for hours.

 

My brain thinks in colors and patterns.  I love to find elements from several different sources that, together, make the perfect vignette.  It settles me to dream up cozy spaces and furniture arrangements.  It feeds my creative soul, quite like scrapbooking does.

 

It can be Home Depot or the paint shop, Home Goods or Target.  I adore the flea market.  Poking through tables full of old junk looking for the perfect treasure makes me happy!  I love to go with a list of things I am looking for as well as discovering a hidden gem.

At the end of the day, my home away from home is any place that helps me celebrate my home.  Having that connection back to the place I love the best is priceless.

 

At Home: Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day...a time when the kids bring me poems they wrote at school and serve me breakfast in bed, when Steve gives me the day off.  Nathan was soo excited to make today special.  He wrote me a poem and one of the lines read "you're a beautiful star."  Gosh, who doesn't want to hear that.

I feel very lucky today to have this beautiful family. This unit that holds all my hopes, dreams, fears and love.  These people have enhanced my life more than I ever thought possible and my gratitude today is huge!

The kids and I looked through their baby scrapbooks today.  I read them all my journaling and we giggled like crazy.  Nathan could spend the entire day doing that...he is so loyal and loving. We found photos of people passed and felt lucky to have those moments recorded.  Nathan asked Steve and I to see our scrapbooks from when we were babies.  Steve explained that we don't have those...that is what makes it so special that they do. 

That is why I scrap.  Forget the teams, the collections, the embellishments.  It is the stories.  Those things even I had forgotten until I read them.

and while every day get busy and I lose my cool....while we sometimes forget to share how deep our feelings are...it is obvious how loved my kids are when you look at those books.  It is obvious how much I love them and how they have changed me.

I hope you are having wonderful moments today...you deserve them!!

Be sure to come by tomorrow as Webster's is having a blog hop with lots of giveaways!!

At Home: Fairy Party

I love planning the kid's birthday parties!  I take great joy in searching ideas for themes, shopping, and creating.  It was a ton of work...but totally worth it every time Ella would squeal and jump up and down upon seeing a new party idea come to life.

At one point, I heard her friends say to her...this is a great party. 

I went to the dollar store for many of the decorations...I lucked out as their garden items were fully stocked!  I decorated the table for a proper luncheon and made our chandelier the centerpiece!  The dessert table was completed by magic mushroom cupcakes.

Each girl arrived at the door and said the fairy pledge.  She received her wings (from Oriental Trading) and her crown (which I made from dollar store items...).  Ella then sprinkled each girl's wings with fairy dust, aka glitter.  They ran around the yard until everyone arrived.

We headed in for lunch...I made little sandwiches cut into hearts and stars.  We made fairy sticks (pretzels) and fairy moss (Pirate Booty) and fairy berries.  And, of course, tea.

For activities, each girl decorated mini birdhouses, aka fairy houses that I bought at Joann's for a buck each.  We also decorated wands that I got at Oriental Trading.  I jazzed each wand up with curly ribbon from the dollar store and extra ribbons from my stash.  We played musical toadstools...musical chairs.  The last activity was a scavenger hunt where each girl had to find a golden necklace, earrings, a feather, a gold coin and a wishing rock. The put their loot in little gauze bags I got from the dollar store.

The day resulted in this....

This happy face...which makes it all worth it!  Always!

Monday: At Home

so my days are a bit off...it is the holiday season!

Speaking of the holidays, I thought I would share my holiday home!  I always reconfigure my living room in the winter to make it cozy.  I shift all the furniture around, making the fireplace the focal point.

This is it in the summer:

Now...the room is split in half...couch faces the fireplace.

I turned the jelly cabinet around to be able to place a chair next to it.

 I turned the chairs to completely face each other, creating a conversation space.  It also works better with the fire, which is lit every single day. 

I love our stockings...$6.00 each from Kohl's on Black Friday.

Those urns from Pier 1 that sit on my mantle are made using greens right from our backyard.  I love to go out with a big box and chop whatever I need!

The Christmas decorations will stay for another week.  Then the house will seem bare for a while as the eyes adjust to normal. 

Hope your holiday home is warm and cozy!

Merry Day

I hope you are having a wonderful day....whatever holiday you are celebrating!  It is a time for family, laughter and gratitude.  We are moving and shaking to all of our different celebrations and feasts.  The kids are being spoiled.  And, I am too...simply because of all I have!

Happy holidays!

At Home: Winter Front Porch

So I should probably think about sharing my holiday home set up...but just haven't been able to snap photos!  Next week...even though it will be Christmas Day!

Today, I am sharing my front porch decorations.  I love to change my porch for the seasons.  This winter I was originally looking for an old wooden sleigh to place along the wall, complete with a pair of ice skates.  Didn't have one

so I turned to plan B.  I remembered that I had an antique wagon in my shed.  It was a gift from my dad years ago and I just never put it to good use!  Steve dug it out and it makes such a nice statement...

I simply filled it with a bundle of firewood and lots of greens.  I cut all my own greens from my yard...we have an evergreen, holly bushes and boxwood plants!  I placed the wreath along the mailbox holder to give a bit more detail!

I love all those Pinterest images that showcase lights and ornaments nanging along the porch so I went for it!  I found my snowflakes at Target...white, glittery...and they come 4 in a package for $1.00.  Not bad!

I simply hung them with fishing wire and used sticky tabs on my roof!

It makes me happy to drive up and see it!  I am thinking it can stay for most of the winter, right???

Hoping your Sunday at home is relaxing and full of happiness!

At Home: DIY Swag

Happy Sunday!  This weekend is our only slow weekend for the month of December.  We spent is decking the halls as a family!  The rooms are decorated and the trees are up!  I will have pics of my living room decor next week...but wanted to share some easy DIY ideas today!

Of course, I have been inspired by Pinterest yet again...

I have seen a variety of these...

and this....

so I made this:

Want to know how?  First, go to Jo'ann's when they are having a fifty off sale...grab a variety of large evergreen picks.  Pick up a set of bells...I got mine at Kohl's for 50% off...score!

Collect your evergreens...this would work with the real stuff too, but I want to have this year after year!  I had to use wire cutters to trim the stems on each one.

 I had to remove some of the pine cones from these...keep them!   I am going to show you what you can do with them over the next couple of At Home posts!

Layer these on top of each other, each one longer than the other.

That is my daughter dressed up as Batgirl coming to my rescue!  Fasten with heavy duty elastic bands.

To hide the bands and create a way to fasten your bells...grab some ribbon.  Cut a small piece off and wrap it around to hide the elastics.  I used Glue Arts Ribbon Adhesive to help!

Then grab more ribbon to make your bow!  Before tying your knot, loop the bells through so they are securely attached to your swag.  Mine came with this cool ring at the top!

Finish off your bow and you are ready to hang it up...I tied a small piece of ribbon around the top and tied that to a nail on my front door!  Pretty, huh...and cheap...and festive!

It will welcome my visitors all season!