Easter and Spring Themed Succulent Terrarium and Fireplace Mantel

Easter is right around the corner and at my house I try my hardest to make it look somewhat festive.  I think last year was the first time I purchased some Easter/spring decorations I bought on clearance after Easter.  So this year I knew I wanted to keep that tradition up but add some subtle Easter decor throughout the house.  I'm not a huge fan of decorating the ENTIRE house for the holidays and spending hours doing it.   That's a lot of pressure and takes up a lot of time.  One of my favorite stores is Cost Plus World Market because they have such a fun and eclectic decor, ethnic foods, stylish house ware items.  You can spend hours there.  When I decorate for the holidays I like to keep it simple, and my rule of thumb is keep the holiday decorations to only 2-3 areas in the home.  Like the front porch, my entry way to the living room, and fireplace mantel in the family room. 

One of my favorite things is to bring the outdoors in.  We love plants in our family and anyway I can add a bit of greenery in our house, I'm all for it. That's why I thought it would be really fun to create a seasonal terrarium where I add things to it during each holiday to make it festive. 

DIY Velveteen Bow Tree Topper Tutorial

Our tree has been decorated for a couple weeks now and I haven't put a tree topper on it yet because I don't have one.  I didn't want to spend any money so I did the best thing I could do was to diy own!  I saw this Christmas tree from the talented Kristen from The Hunted Interior and loved everything about it.  I've had this picture in my mind for a while now and thought of how I could incorporate this into my Christmas tree.  A couple nights ago at 10 p.m. when I getting ready for bed, I thought a big velvet bow would be the perfect touch to our Christmas tree.  With this simple and easy tutorial you'll be able to create this stylish tree topper bow for your sophisticated looking tree, wreath, garland, or make lots of bows to scatter them throughout your Christmas decor.  I love how it turned out!

Thanksgiving Tablescape Roundup

I have always wanted to host a Thanksgiving dinner in my own place, and so I decided a while ago that 2013 was the year!  It's not like I'll be 9 months pregnant and still working. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking, but alas, I am still excited!

I've been searching the web high and low for some Thanksgiving tablescape ideas.  I want something simple and easy to clean up.  But, something that looks nice!  And since I don't want to be standing over the sink washing my china with my newly formed swollen cankles, I am looking at paper good options as well!  Who says Thanksgiving can't be casual and chic?!

Here are a few ideas I have stumbled across that I thought might give you some last minute inspiration. Remember, Thanksgiving is about reminding ourselves of our blessings from God, the people we love, and of course the food!  Tablescapes are not that important, so keep it simple.

DIY Painted and Gold Dipped End Table Makeover

I've made it my mission to decorate my living room on a TIGHT budget.  We've lived in our home almost three years and I'm finally getting around to getting to this much neglected space.  I'm making slow progress.  I added a new little piece of furniture, a small accent table.  This console table was a $3 D.I. find and knew that this small table would be a great addition next to my sofa or an antique chair.  With a little DIY, work, patience, and a lot of coats of primer and paint, I was able to turn this little end table from sad to rad!

How to Paint a Glazed Ceramic Lamp Tutorial

I bought this lamp at Target over a year ago for $10 on clearance. I liked the shape and color, but I didn't really know where in my house the deep plum color would work.  And my husband vetoed it in the bedroom because he doesn't like it.  So, it sat in a closet in the guest room.  It turns out you can spray paint over glazed ceramic, and it's pretty simple too.  You just have to follow these steps...

Nursery update and some pregnancy brain ramblings

It has been a few months since I posted anything about the nursery.  When it comes to decorating, I always have the ideas in my head.  Then when it comes to actually implementing them, it's harder then I thought it would be!  It's overwhelming to undertake a whole room of baby stuff.  We're starting from scratch here!  We don't have any family close to borrow things from, and at times I have been overwhelmed by how much we need to buy!  When you're doing things on a budget, you have to get creative!  See what I've been up to after the jump...

A Festive Fall Front Porch on a Budget

I'm going to get a little personal here.  The last couple months have been really stressful for my McKay and I.  McKay's job has been in jeopardy because of the nationwide sequestration.  With several rounds of layoffs at his work and more to come,  McKay and I have felt so uneasy about his future and the need to have a more stable job so he can finish his masters and support Amelia and I.  The good news is McKay has been offered a job with a government program where they allow him to go to school full time, pay him salary, and they pay for school!  This is a huge blessing, but there's one crappy stipulation, it's a significant cut to his pay :(

We've had to have some serious heart to heart talks about our finances.  We even thought of moving out of our home and renting it out for a couple of years to save money.  Even though that would save us money we just didn't feel right about that option and plus I would feel overly territorial about someone else living in my home, worrying about whether or not they're keeping it clean, and thinking about someone sleeping in my bedroom (it kinds of creeps me out).

We'll be able to survive, but money is going to be really tight for the next couple years.   It's hard to be at a comfortable stage of your life then being forced to feeling like a poor college student again.  You feel like you're taking three steps backwards.  After weeks of feeling mopey and "my life sucks" kind of mood, and dealing with some health issues (it's been a rough week).  I've realized that this isn't the end of the world.  Many people go through set backs in their lives and this one will be such a small one in the grand scheme of our lives.  We're extremely blessed and have SO much to be grateful for.  This new opportunity is going to get McKay through school, have a stable job, and allow him to be home more.  Not many families in our area do have options, and I need to remember that.

I'll stop my whining now.

My friend Allison from Cupcake Diaries asked me to be apart of her series of 30 Days of Halloween where each day she features a blogger creating something Halloweenish.  You can go here to learn about the series and see all of the other awesome Halloween ideas you can use this year.

Anyway, I really, really, really, wanted to dress up my boring front porch this year for Fall/Halloween for Allison's series but needed to do it on a VERY small budget.  I was pretty skeptical I could pull it off.

I set a budget of $5 and promised myself I wouldn't go over it and I'm happy to say I was able to stay on that budget!  It wasn't easy.  I wanted to get a few new fall decorations I saw at various stores, but I stuck to my guns and bought only what I really needed.  Everything else I used I already had in my house, found in the garbage, borrowed, reused, painted, and grew to get this front porch looking festive.

Decorating Your Dorm Room On a Budget

I like to think that you can tell a lot about a person, by taking a peep into their college dorm room.

Living Room Decorating Ideas Phase 1: A Commitment and Plan

I love interior design. I secretly wish I would have become an interior designer.  Let's just throw it out there.  Yes, I have expensive taste.  I always tend to draw towards the stuff that's the most expensive.  Can any of you can relate?  Like many of you reading this, I love high end design but don't have a high end budget.