• Coastal Inspired Altered Bottles {Making Memories from the Sea}

    With summer in full swing, many people are heading to beaches and lakes to get away, so today I am sharing a project to keep some of the memories alive from those trips, while adding a coastal touch to your decor. It only requires an old bottle, some embellishments and letting your creativity flow. You could embellish these bottles with nature collected along the shore, pieces saved from trips passed or items that remind you of a previous vacation. I made these “Ocean Relic” altered bottles, as I affectionately named them, for my online shop back in 2009. I shared a glimpse of them last week in a vignette I…

  • A Cottage Style Summer Vignette {a look back to 2009}

    Since I haven’t had a lot of time to decorate for summer lately (other than the small bit I did on our front porch recently), I thought I would share a vignette from our former townhouse that I set up the summer of 2009. Decorating was basically my life then. I lived for creating these vignettes. Not a whole lot of time (or space) for them these days…but it is still a passion. Life was sure easy back then. It is very different now and a lot harder in some ways, but I wouldn’t go back. I love spending my days with the little ones and even though that means…

  • Eclectic Summer Porch

    Even though our porch could use some improvements, I still enjoying changing out the decor season to season. I didn’t do much with it this past spring, since it has been very rainy, but here is how I dolled it up for summer, just in time for the 4th of July. I would ideally love to paint our siding gray and give the trim around the door a crisp coat of white. I’d also love to add some shutters and window boxes. At this point we aren’t sure how long we plan on staying here, since it is getting pretty cramped inside, so we have held off on doing any…

  • A Year of Mantel Vignettes

    Today, I thought it would be fun to share all of the mantel vignettes that I created this past year. I love changing out the decor of our mantel season to season. I am still on my blogging break but got this post ready for you before, so you could enjoy it now! Our mantel currently resides in our dining room and has for the past few years. We purchased it at an architectural salvage store right after we moved into our current home. It was painted dark brown then, but because the paint was literally chipping right off, we sanded it down and gave it a rough coat of white. Click…

  • Rustic Bohemian Patio Makeover

    Earlier this week, I shared the before and after of my porch and patio that I was able to get all spiffed up for fall. {Click here if you missed it and want to see the “Before” first} Today, I am sharing more details of the patio itself, that I decked out in rustic bohemian flair. I was kinda hating on this space before, but now I love it! The old dresser in the center was a roadside find (literally about three houses down from us). It was in really rough shape and not something that I wanted to bring inside, so we put it here and then it got piled…

  • DIY Outdoor Storage Organization {Without a Garage or Shed}

    This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Rubbermaid, but all my opinions are my own. #PMedia #FallFixUp http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV One of the most difficult quirks about some older homes, is that they lack in adequate storage. Our home, is no exception, and one area where we especially struggle is outdoors. We have no garage or storage shed. We have a large covered patio at the back of the house and a smaller porch area off of the mudroom. And that’s pretty much it.  Is there any hope for those of us in this situation to get our outdoor space organized? Since we…