decorating

  • boo halloween mantel with hand painted boo sign, paper bats, and branches
    Crafts,  decorating,  holidays

    Boo! Halloween Mantel

    It’s a boo-tiful day to share my Halloween mantel with you! That ghost pun was cheekily intended because the boo sign I painted is the centerpiece of this year’s Halloween mantel. It is simple, playful, and won’t take up hardly any space in storage! I enjoy the fun of Halloween and, let’s be honest, the candy too. I don’t do scary though. Nope. Not my thing. I’ll pass on the haunted houses. I don’t even like going into my attic after dark. I’ll stick with a sugar rush and leave the adrenaline rush to the rest of you ghouls. Speaking of ghosts and ghouls, I have heard some stories about…

  • how to display running medals and race bibs on an old door or cork board
    decorating

    How To Display Running Medals and Race Bibs

    Do you know someone who is REALLY into running? Let me show you how to display running medals and race bibs in a fun, artistic way. All you need is a cork board or an old door and some cork. Now take the ever-growing collection of race bibs and running medals that are stuffed in every junk drawer, glove box, backpack, and coat closet you own and staple them to your cork board. That’s it! It’s faster than running a 5k and, dare I say, far more enjoyable. If you’re turning an old door into a cork board to display running medals and race bibs, it’s best to find an…

  • modern country laundry room in a colonial farmhouse with wainscoting stained glass horse art basket wall and inset wall shelves
    decorating

    In Praise Of: Unusual Stained Glass Art

    Let’s talk unusual stained glass art. Normally, when I think of stained glass I think of church windows or sun catchers that people hang in their windows. It’s all pretty (Hello, colorful glass!) but not always my personal style. There is probably a better word to use than unusual, but that’s the first word I thought of when I looked at the stained glass horse head I have that is unusually mounted onto felt and placed in a wood frame. I couldn’t find anything online like this. My horse is further unique in that it might be a combination of stained glass and painted glass but it’s hard for me…

  • yale smart lock on a black front door 3 things we love about our smart lock and one we don't
    decorating,  DIY

    Front Door Smart Lock: 3 Things We Love, 1 We Don’t

    Two months ago we switched to a smart lock on our front door. There are three things (at least!) that we love about about this smart lock and one thing we don’t love. Before I dive into the details, I want to mention that we feel so fancy now with a smart lock. We don’t have a Ring doorbell camera. We don’t even have a regular doorbell. If you come to our house, you have to knock on the door like in the good ol’ days. If you do knock, I may or may not “hear you knock,” if you get the excuse I’m throwing out there. Just depends on…

  • bedroom gallery wall of nature paintings sitting area with gallery wall of nature paintings
    decorating

    Bedroom Gallery Wall of Nature Paintings

    Do you have something in your home you look at daily? Perhaps this thing has been fine for months or maybe years and not merely fine, but enjoyable to look at too. Then one day, out of the blue, you look at it and it’s all wrong. Has that happened to you? As long as that thing isn’t your spouse, I’m pretty sure that’s a normal reaction. But what do I know? I didn’t go to school for either psychology or interior design. The thing that was no longer fine in our home was the painting behind the sitting area in our bedroom. It wasn’t specifically the painting. It was…

  • tiny art packs a big punch tiny painting display on a wood ledge
    decorating

    Tiny Art and Where To Display It

    Let’s talk about tiny art and where to display it so that it packs a big punch. By tiny art, I mean art that is a few inches in size or smaller. I’m not a designer, but I do pay attention when they all say something to the effect that art needs to have the right scale for a space. Same thing for furniture, lighting, etc. Scale, scale, scale. Got it. Then you find the cutest tiny painting at the thrift store. Did someone say something about scale? I tried stepping on one of those once. Didn’t like it. But I do like finding tiny art. Love it, actually. I…

  • zassenhaus pepper grinder via amazon in praise of pretty pepper mills
    decorating,  Food

    In Praise Of: Pretty Pepper Mills

    Let’s spice things up! I went on the hunt for a pretty pepper mill recently because our old one broke. Apparently, there are things we cannot fix around here. We are still recovering from that shock. In the process, I learned if you Google “pepper grinder,” you get a video game, not a spice grinder. Oops. Today, I will try and use the words “pepper mill” instead of “pepper grinder” because I’m fancy like that now. I went to college and everything. Ha! I also learned that spice aficionados are very particular about pepper mills. They know all about and argue over blade material, mill capacity, grinding speed, hand comfort,…

  • why we chose to keep our vintage blue bathroom tile
    decorating

    Why We Saved Our Vintage Blue Bathroom Tile

    Out with the old. In with the new! Or not? I recently read an article in Domino about why designers are saving vintage bathroom tile during remodels. We saved the vintage blue bathroom tile in our upstairs bathroom for a variety of reasons, so the article resonated with me. It was a tricky choice though. Is this vintage blue bathroom tile a tile I would have chosen?  Enthusiastically, no! Not in color. Not in pattern. Not in shape. Has the blue bathroom tile grown on me?  Yes. I’m not ready to pledge my undying love, but I don’t recoil in horror every time I walk into that bathroom either. Why…

  • 6 split ceiling medallion installation tips
    decorating,  DIY

    6 Split Ceiling Medallion Installation Tips

    If you’re considering installing a split ceiling medallion, I  have six split ceiling medallion installation tips for you! (Say that six times fast! Haha!) A ceiling medallion is that decorative circular ring on the ceiling above a light fixture. They used to have a practical use of helping to conceal the ring of soot put off by lighting that involved a flame, but today are mainly decorative. If you’re considering installing a split ceiling medallion (two half circles you put together) over a regular ceiling medallion, you probably have a very good reason for not wanting to take your light down to install a ceiling medallion. I had my reasons…

  • daffodils in a crystal vase in a living room 10 wedding gifts I still use 25 years later
    decorating

    10 Wedding Gifts We Still Use 25 Years Later

    Every time I pull out our popcorn maker I think to myself, “We got this for our wedding.” Well, I’ve now been saying that for 25 years. Twenty. Five. That’s a lot of popcorn! It’s hard to believe we reached that anniversary milestone earlier this year. It doesn’t feel like we’ve been married that long. But it did get me thinking. What other wedding gifts do we still use 25 years later? I’m going to share mine and I thought it would be fun, no matter how long you’ve been married, to see if you have and use some of the same things. Or maybe you have different wedding gifts…