A while back I shared with you my finished Christmas tree. You can see that here if you missed it.

Now I'm back to give you a tour of our holiday home. I did two DIY wreaths this year that I'm very pleased with and look forward to doing again.

I kept it minimal this year, since we weren't expecting any guests. The major focus was on the tree.

Without further ado, here's our home.....




Here's another view of the tree

I love how this wreath turned out and I'm very happy I decided to do it.

Love the simplicity of this wreath and that it and it's counterpart aren't permanent so I can change them up each year.



Overview

So last week I finally check off an item on my patio sprucing to do list. That was to repaint my patio table. I used Krylon spray paint in Island Splash and it was a fairly quick and simple project and it had a big effect. And after searching Google for ideas and tutorials it was go time.

A few tips I have for you if you plan to do this:

1. Make sure your table is clear of dirt and rust. I wiped my furniture down  first with vinegar to remove rust. Once that dried and the rust was gone I followed up with a dish detergent and water mixture.

2. Spray in quick short bursts whenever possible to be sure you cover the table and not your drop cloth. See my picture below for what I'm talking about. Because I let too much come out at once I ended up needing two cans of paint to finish the table. MAJOR WASTE!!!!

A lot of wasted paint

Happy Monday Peeps!!!!!!

After much meditation and conversation, I have narrowed down the projects I'd like to take on in our home this year. The first one you already know about and that's decorating the boy's room. This is a pretty big project as this room will serve multiple purposes: sleeping, playing, and learning; so it has to be multi-functional and easy to keep organized. I don't want to overthink or overbuy on this project. Or any other project for that matter....

We want to take time and figure out our style; because that is something we have never been able to do in our whole 6 almost 7 years of marriage. Being a young couple having family and friends wanting to help, our home is full of items from other people's homes and styles. While we purchased a few decorative or small items here or there, we have yet to buy a significant piece of furniture ourselves. Which was a great blessing that saved us a ton of money; and I'm grateful. But I'm ready to look at OUR home and see OUR taste.

So we are taking our time doing research and getting advise from where ever we can.

In the meantime... here is my list:

House Projects:

Kitchen:

• organize and declutter pantry
• organize and declutter cabinets
• organize and declutter fridge and freezer
• purchase bar stools for breakfast counter
• purchase deep freezer
• install shelf under cabinets for microwave
• add decorative accents

Dining Room:

• get chairs reupholstered and fixed
• add decorative accents/wall art
• purchase table linens (protective/decorative)
• purchase storage furniture piece (buffet)
• create office nook

Living Room:

• get couch slip covered/reupholstered (Mom sponsored)
• purchase a large rug
• purchase ottoman (replace coffee table)
• mount our 60" TV
• purchase new lighting
• update decorative accents
• purchase small chair for secretary desk

Boy's Room:

• purchase bunk bed
• make cushions for storage bench
• paint/varnish furniture
• purchase bedding and decorative accents
• organize closet
• create play space
• make/buy window treatments
• create reading corner (get or make small bookcase)

Kid's/Guest Bedroom:

• find shower curtain or towel pattern I like
• purchase guest towels
• organize storage
• add decorative accents

Master Bedroom:

• paint/purchase new furniture
• storage for vanity
• seating for vanity
• add casual seating
• organize closet

Laundry Room:

• purchase iron and ironing board
• install drying rack
• organize storage

 I crossed out the decluttering tasks on my list because it is my intention that after the 40 bags challenge I will not need to declutter anything else in my home. This list is by no means all inclusive or written in stone. It is just a spring board to get me started and who knows what may be added to it.

What projects will you be tackling this year?

I just LOVE Fall don't you?!?!?!

We've been getting back into the swing of things around here and one of the things I tackled this week was decorating the house for Fall. We don't really celebrate Halloween around here as we are a christian home; but we do celebrate in the harvest. At our church we have Harvest Night on Oct 31st where we play games and have arts and crafts, and of course candy. So the same goes in our home. While there are no witches or spiders, etc I decorated with hay, leaves, pumpkins and other gourds, etc.

My mother, who loves this time of year, has helped me cultivate quite a collection of fall decorations. The focal point of the decor this year was my fireplace; I don't have a mantle, oh how I wish I did, but I improvised with the small space in front of the fireplace itself. I also did my front porch and added a few small elements to my dining room table. I'm very happy with how it all turned out. I did my happy dance a few times and went snap happy with my cellphone. Unfortunately I only remembered to take pics during the work in progress stage, so I have no pics of the finished product. Arrrggh!!! You live and you learn. Anywhoo, here's how it all looks...somewhat

Homeschooling:

I have been doing lite "homeschooling" with my oldest son since he was about 2 years old. But now that he is four and about to head to Kindergarten; and he hasn't consistently been in a formal school setting (no daycare or preschool), I wanted to be sure that he was as equipped as I could possibly make him. In addition to that I could use this time to get teaching practice as I finish up my teaching degree and kind of work out the kinks and find my teaching niche. That being said, I am sort of overwhelmed at how serious of a task this is and how important it is for me not to fail. Fortunately, I have the constant support of my wonderful husband and my amazing mother; who just happens to be a retired teacher with over 30 years of experience.

We started learning about the Fall season. I began by telling him why it was called Fall and what months are in the season. Then I made up an activity sheet with different types of leaves and had him color them as we talked about the various characteristics of fall leaves and colors of fall. I love teaching about the seasons; and since I almost always decorate my home to accompany the season, thanks to my mother :), I have tons of little "teaching aids" readily available. Later in the week we went outside picked different leaves and pine cones (which for some reason I keep calling acorns *shrugs*) and examined how different they were and why they thought they were different shapes, sizes, colors, etc. Then for math we counted how many different leaf colors we had and made a graph to represent them. He really loved this activity and did very well with it.

This week was an overall good beginning week. I am very proud of the things that my son already knows. It wasn't until I sat him down and created a classroom setting with him and began to give him assignments and start the teaching process that I realized how much he actually knew and how eager he is to learn. I can't wait to continue on this week and the future weeks/months to come.

What are you doing for Fall?