A Valentine Spark

Hopefully I'm coming out of the January slump I've been in. I spent the day sprucing up the house for Valentine's Day and getting a little crafty. It's a start.

I started with the shelf in the kitchen. I decided to use the heart banner that I made last year and it just kind of went from there.

I find that as I "steal" items from one part of the house, then I work on filling in that empty space. So often it is total chaos as I move things around. For example, I took the ironstone pitcher with greenery in it from off the TV cabinet and moved it to the kitchen shelf. Once I got things how I wanted them on the shelf, I moved back to the living room to work on the TV cabinet.

I spent a little time working on this little chalkboard that I made a couple years ago from a plastic "silver" tray from the Dollar Tree. I kept it simple.

 

 

 



I spent some time making a new banner for the living room. I had a couple banner kits from Target and I just personalized them with my own hugs and kisses.

 

 

 

 

It's very simple, but I have to admit.....I kind of love it.

 

So then I just went around the rest of the room sprinkling some red and some hearts here and there.

 

 

 

 

 



I'm happy for something a little different. You know how I love to change things up around here.

How about you? Do you feel like you're finally breaking out of the January doldrums? Got any Valentine décor going on?

If you'd like to see our house decked out for Valentine's Day last year, you can click HERE.

2014 Christmas Home Tour: In The Kitchen

Happy Monday! As promised, I'm bringing you the second part of my Christmas home tour today.

C'mon in to the kitchen!

 

 

The table is set for Christmas breakfast.....which is really kind of funny. We have never sat down as a family for a big Christmas breakfast....ever! With celebrating our own family Christmas at home and then preparing to make the rounds to both Grandparents', we usually wind up having a quick Christmas cookie or maybe something leftover from our Christmas Eve gathering. But I wanted to set a pretty table for you today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the last couple years I have fallen in love with these Better Homes & Gardens Christmas dishes from WalMart. Each year I've collected a few more pieces. This is the first year that, mixed in with my other china, I have enough to set a whole table. There are several different Christmas-y scenes on the salad plates.

 



 

 

 

 

I have a secret about my "tablecloth." I actually used rolls of Christmas wrapping paper to create my own tablecloth. Who has the money for those pricey ones that you only use once a year? It was a simple project.....well, except for having to wield an unruly roll of paper....and that whole "measure twice, cut once" thing. But really, I just rolled the paper out, taped it down in a couple spots to hold it secure while I traced around the oval shape of my table, and then cut it out. I even made a runner for my table. I loved the script paper I found in the Target Spot.

 

 

For my centerpiece, I used these fun red house lanterns that I got for 80% off at Target after Christmas last year. I surrounded them with some faux greenery and pinecones. Cute!

 

 

 The shelf above our table doesn't look that much different than last year. But a new addition is the platter that is part of the BH&G dishes.

My kitchen cart even got a quick little holiday makeover!

 

 

 

And it's all against the background of our December calendar on the chalkboard wall.

 

 

 

Over on the other side of the kitchen there are some Christmas touches as well....fresh and faux greenery mixed with some ironstone and pretty dishes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my little tour today. If you missed it, you can also check out Part 1 of this year's Christmas home tour. And last year's home tour is HERE.

 

Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas!



The December Chalkboard Calendar: It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Yesterday I decided that since it was December 2nd, I'd better get started on the December calendar for the chalkboard. So in the morning, I erased November. And then I stood there and looked at the blank wall. And nothing came to me.

So I decided the best thing to do was to walk away and come back when I was feeling a bit more inspired. I really loved the December calendar from last year and I wanted to make this one special too.

When the boys came home from school the wall was still blank and they commented how "weird" it looked. As soon as everybody was settled in with a snack and doing homework, I tried again. I looked on my Chalkboard Love board on Pinterest for some inspiration. I tried to copy a couple things and it just wasn't working. I needed to do my own thing, and....FINALLY....it all started to come together.

So I present to you.....the December chalkboard calendar.....

Happy December! It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year!

Setting The Table For Thanksgiving

This year I will be hosting my family for Thanksgiving and yesterday I decided to do my table's dress rehearsal. I love puttering around, mixing and matching, and grabbing things from around my home to make a pretty table.

I fell in love with Lauren's table over at The Endearing Home....especially the beautiful Thanksgiving napkins she found at Pier 1. They were a bit of a splurge, but I kept reminding myself of all the "fraying" Mom and I did for napkins for my Easter table....so I went for it. Thankfully, they were on sale and I had a coupon, so that helped. And they were the only thing new that I purchased for the table. Everything else I already had.

So the napkins were the jumping off point and I knew they would look nice with my black and white dishes. I never intended to use the turquoise dishes though. We could have as many as eleven for Thanksgiving dinner, and I so I started experimenting with different place setting combinations so I would have enough for everyone. That's when I started pulling out the turquoise. And as I looked around my home, I started finding more....first the Ball jars (fancy, I know), and then the candlesticks and tray....and it all started coming together. Once I had that all in place, I started contemplating adding some Fall colors, but I decided to keep it simple with just a wire basket filled with pinecones.

Here are the three different place settings I came up with. The clothespin chalkboard tags I used for place cards came from Target (okay, so I did purchase those too. I forgot.) You can see the details of the napkins better in these photos too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If everyone does wind up coming, we will set up another table for the kids. I love Thanksgiving! The good food and time spent with family is special. I love when there's a chill in the air and everyone is just content to stay inside and spend time together.

 

 

 

 

Last year, I wrote a post about our Thanksgiving traditions if you'd like to read about that.

 

And if you need more inspiration for your holiday table, here's the Thanksgiving table I put together last year.....just for you!



The October Calendar

Well, after all that painting last weekend, I finally got to the October chalkboard calendar. I know, I'm a little behind. The kids kept reminding me of that.

 

 

I DO honestly miss the calendar when it isn't up to date....besides all the extra math I have to do to figure out dates based on the previous month. Ha!

 

 

 

Okay, so now we're good....for the next three and a half weeks anyways.

September Chalkboard Calendar Update



Hey Everybody! I hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend! Did the weekend fly by, or was it just me? Our weekend was full of family get togethers, church, and just hanging around home (recuperating from our first week of school, I think.)

 

I found some time on September 1st to get the monthly calendar up on the chalkboard.

 

 

 

 

That meant erasing our Summer List. It was bittersweet....looking back at all the fun memories we made but knowing that it's time to move on to something new.

 

We did pretty well with our list this year.

 



 

 

 

But now September is upon us. The month is filling up already with cross country meets, our annual "camp" weekend with Hubster's family, a Fall church picnic, hopefully painting the playroom (PLEASE can we get the playroom painted already?!?), and I'm sure more than I can remember at the moment.

 

 

 

 

It's that time of year when we get back into a routine, yet there's a lot of NEW too. How about you? Are you holding on to the last fragments of Summer or you moving full speed ahead to whatever is in store for you?

 



 

 

 

 

May!!

Wow, it's May!

May is one of my most favorite months of the year and not just because my birthday is in May. But I love Spring, the end of the school year, warmer temperatures, and flowering shrubs and trees. My favorite flowers are the flowers of this time of year too.....daffodils (although I think they're a little late this year), tulips, and lilacs.

I chose to add a bunch of lilacs to the calendar this month.

Our family's calendar has already gotten pretty full for this month. Mother's Day, a special dinner at our church that both Hubster and I are involved in planning, baseball games, birthdays, end of the school year activities, a band concert, and Memorial Day. I will also be accompanying my son and his class on their 8th grade class trip to Washington, D.C. during the last week of May. Phew....it makes me tired just thinking about it!

 

 

Yes, it's a busy time. But it is also an opportunity to make so many memories with our children or grandchildren. I'm ready to dive in....how 'bout you?

 

 

 

 

Is your calendar filling up too?

 

What are your plans?