It only took me a week to get the house ready for Christmas this year! Granted I'm forty weeks pregnant, and granted part of "getting the house ready" included painting the fireplace black (more on that later)……but it feels extra cozy in our house these days and I'm looking forward to snuggling with my newborn in it. When it comes to Christmas decorations, I tend to go the simple and classic route. Growing up, one of my favorite parts of getting ready for Christmas was getting out all the old ornaments and decorations that had years of memories attached to them. I think if I went a more modern route with Christmas decor, it would only last a few years before I grew sick of it. So here is what Christmas in our house looks like this year, and I will be taking a break until after the holidays to spend quality time with my soon-to-be family of four. Merry Christmas! 

Another shot of this DIY advent calendar (and free printable) I made last year…..

Here you can get a peek at our newly painted black fireplace and the pinecone garland I made this year (from pinecones I half-dipped in gold paint a couple years ago).

Not pictured, but another favorite Christmas DIY from a couple years ago are these sleigh bells. Merry Christmas, see you in the New Year!

When it comes to gifting for friends and family, I usually try to buy something that they would never buy for themselves. I love the chance to spend the time thinking about each individual on my list and how to show my love and appreciation for them. While most of us girls can justify buying an occasional new top for ourselves, here are some ideas I think most of us are more likely to admire from afar: 

I've gone back and forth with doing a gift guide this year. I've been particularly annoyed with the amount of emails (thirty-five one morning!) I've been getting this year from stores vying for my attention. On one hand, I try to steer clear of focusing too much on all the shopping hype….and there's so many great gift guides floating around already, and yet on the other I love putting thought into gifts for the ones I love.  We tend to be pretty minimal in our house…so when we do buy a gift for R (Christmas and birthday), I put a lot of thought into it. Here are some ideas that are either already big hits in our home, or ones that I'm very certain she would love:

I have had a serious lack of inspiration the past couple months when it comes to Fall decor, and had nearly moved on to Christmas, until I made a stop at Anthropologie the other day. Not the first time their gorgeous displays have brought inspiration my way, I spied the prettiest twist on this Fall's wheat trend….frosted wheat. It's also very fitting as we have snow on the ground this year. I immediately made a stop at Hobby Lobby for some wheat, spray glue, and glitter and got to work. It was the most rewarding five minute DIY, and now I have something festive for our Thanksgiving table. I'll probably keep it simple and just be adding some greenery to the mix.

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Ps. After spraying the glue and sprinkling glitter, I added epson salts to make the "frost" stand out more.

Life has been busy as of late….and the best kind of busy- exploring (both local and non local) with my family and playing hostess for a dear friend. While I love my little creative space on the internet, I love the people in my life more….which brings me to today's post. The idea of transforming our home into a cozy Autumnal space for memories to be made with my family  is such an appealing one, yet decorating for seasons is not my strong suit. Aside from buying pumpkins, I find myself wanting to invest in things that we can use year round rather than just a few months out of the year, and then of course I always seem to hit a roadblock in finding pretty Fall decor that is also my aesthetic. Not this year though…I've decided to start small and am finding loads of inspiration everywhere.  

If you follow me on instagram, you'll know Reese turned two over the weekend, and if you know me at all, you know I love any chance to celebrate.  It's not only a creative outlet for me, but it honestly brings me so much joy seeing people I care about enjoying themselves.  Instead of doing a party, we opted for doing a picnic with her best friend and her family.  Originally, I thought it would be a great idea to do a picnic at the Indianapolis zoo gardens followed by a visit to the butterfly house.  After a recent zoo visit, it became clear that what would would really make this two your old happy would be to run around with as little boundaries as possible with her best bud.  So we ended up having the picnic at the gardens near the Indianapolis Museum of Art (where there was more room for them to run around).   I made them butterfly wings, little crowns, handed them butterfly nets, and then we made a teepee (her birthday gift) just in case they got antsy.  When planning things like this, you never know what you're going to get…..the weather could be horrible, not to mention the mood of your toddler!  I was fully prepared to put a lot of effort into it, but have nothing work out……thankfully it was quite the opposite.  The weather was perfect, the girls ran around with their butterfly nets thoroughly enjoying themselves, and the only "glitch" was that the butterfly wings I made for the girls were not a hit.  Oh well, if that's the only complaint, I'll call it a success! 

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These two girls have the sweetest friendship, it is the most adorable thing to watch them together and makes my mom heart happy.

It's hard to believe Easter is only two weeks away isn't it?  I'm actually hosting Easter for the first time and I couldn't be more excited.  I thought I would share with you some of my tablescape ideas (minus glasswear and silverwear).  

1. First off, I made the moss green chargers a couple years ago for a French garden themed birthday party I hosted, and I keep finding reasons to use them (I love it when that happens!).  I simply traced the shape of a plastic charger from sheets of green moss and then sprayed them with a fixative.  

This picture is from our Valentine's breakfast this morning.  As I've admitted before, I'm not a huge Valentine's person, but I'm all about celebrating the people I love in my life.  We had a nice breakfast, complete with homemade marshmallows and homemade hot chocolate (a favorite tradition for the day)…..and you better believe I've already had my fill of French macarons.  Talk about sugar overload!  Now the Valentines Day decor is down and the birthday sign up and I'm off to make a cake for my favorite guy.  A few Friday favorites for you, enjoy the long weekend!  

A favorite view near my house...

When it comes to Valentine's Day, we like to keep it simple over here.  Red and I tend to spend more time and thought than money on this holiday.  Not to take away from anyone who does it differently, we just really like it that way.  So, instead of giving you a gift guide, I thought I would share some of my favorite inspirations from across the web to make the day all the more special.  The special date art piece aside, this list also goes for anyone who just wants to throw a fun party with all the people they care about.  

1. Make your special dates into a piece of art

2. Heart-shaped Notecards

3. Matches

4. Tic Tac Toe

5. DIY Floral Wreath

6. LOVE sign 

7. Instax Mini Camera

8. Felt Garland (and for a good cause too)

9. Valentine Backdrop via

Last year I decided to get a little more creative with my gift wrap, and I enjoyed it so much that I knew I wanted to do it again.  With R's sporadic naps the past couple weeks, it's become a little more challenging to find time for these types of crafts, so I've started doing them in fifteen minute increments over the course of a few days.  

1.  Carve a stamp out of a potato.  Honestly, it's way easier than it looks, and remember it doesn't have to be perfect.

First off, Congratulations Rebekah on winning the calendar! Message me your address:).

I thought it would be fun to bring up some Christmas crafts/projects from my house last year.  I'm not going to lie,  looking at these pictures makes me a little homesick for our New York home with all of its character and the beautiful old wood floors.  It's easy to forget my 12 inch square counter space, and a storage unit full of things that wouldn't fit in our place.  Now, for the glimpses into our Christmas past.

First up, that's surprised me by the amount of traffic it brings is this DIY garland from Christmas tree trim.

Half dipped pine cones, so simple but I still love them

This is the first year in a while that I've had a mantle to decorate at Christmas time.  If I'm honest with you, I have been staring at my mantle for over a week trying to figure out what in the world to do with it.  I needed something long that complimented our tall ceilings.  I found a leftover piece of plywood in my garage, and so came about this easy DIY.  I always have chalkboard paint on hand, so this mini project didn't even require an extra trip to the store. 

( You're also getting a glimpse of our living room…..remember this post about the floor-to-ceiling painted brick fireplace?  We've decided that needs to wait until we get hardwood floors.  So, until then…..it's a work in progress:).  

      

R helping her dad with the tree stand….

For the past couple years I have been wanting to make my own advent calendar, and I almost missed my chance again this year.  In case you are like me and the first day of December habitually creeps up on you (this year was extra quick with Thanksgiving being so late in the month, right?), here is my easy Advent calendar.   I took out my sketch pad yesterday and made this simple design, scanned it onto my computer, and printed it onto paper bags from my printer.  Here is the printable, if you care to make your own.  I also made another garland from our Christmas tree trim like this one from last year.

  

*Hint- I printed on the side without a crease, and taped down the flaps before putting it through the printer.  We also found that it worked best for the printer to tape the bag to a piece of paper.