Christmas Delight!

I love Christmas parties. Since I won't be hosting one this year, I thought I would share some ideas for those of you who are! Simple, inexpensive ways to adorn your tables and add a little Christmas spice to your surroundings. Also, a few sweet treats that are easy and fun!

 

 

 

As a cake plate lover, I find this idea quite lovely.

 

 

These look delicious. Recipe here

 

 

 

Cute way to spruce up your brownies!

 

 

Fun for the kiddos.

 

 

Such a pretty and simple tablescape

 

 

 

These rings may be hard to find, use cedar branches instead and just tie a knot with the natural greenery around the candle.

 

 

This is so easy and it offers such a clean and classic look!

 

Enjoy celebrating this beautiful holiday!

 

Christmas Finds

Here is a shout out to my sponsor Plum, fun ideas for
Christmas gifts!

 

If you are like me, your grocery list is in five different places. If I had this cute paper reminder I might actually put my list in one place!

 

 

Sweet and simple. These 3 owls would be cute on a bookshelf or in a kid's room!

 

This lovely scarf is only $22. Great accessory for the girl who has everything.

 

My favorite perfume! I wear Stella every day. Guaranteed you will love it!

Doors!

I can't even tell you how long I have been waiting for these old doors to go in! Tonight we went out there and I was happy to finally see them in. Front door goes in tomorrow, I found a new front door that is a close match to these old doors. It seems so surreal every time I go out there, it is starting to feel more and more like home.

 

 

 

The boys have been enjoying their time tearing things down. Feels good to see these boys work on the land. It's gotta be good for them. Chip went out and bought the boys their very own axes. Let's hope these axes only tear down what they are supposed to...

Waste Not

Near the front of the farmhouse is an old shed. Chip is real close to getting a tractor and bulldozing the ugly little guy. He says it is an eyesore and needs to be removed. I understand his point completely. It is ugly and it serves no purpose.

 

This week I realized a few realities about the farmhouse: my pantry and laundry are not quite as big as they appeared on paper. I really wanted a double oven in my kitchen and it was going to back up to the pantry. If I do this now, my pantry will only be able to hold about 9 cans of green beans if I am lucky. So I had do away with the built-in oven along that wall so my pantry would'nt be so tiny.

 

My old house had a pantry that held all my kid's backpacks, all our food items, and every single vase and container I own. It was huge. I liked the idea of a large storage area within my pantry for all my entertaining items and decor- it was clean, organized, and accessible.

 

Back to the Shed... Since it is not very far from my front porch, I am starting to like the idea of this thing working for me. I also have a second refrigerator for all the meat the boys bring home; we also need extra storage for all the eggs. Didn't have a place for these things until now. It may seem weird to have a frig, oven, and storage in a shed that is not connected to the house, but at this point, it is that or nothing folks.

 

Tonight I sat down and drew a sketch of my ideas for the shed. This is how I start envisioning things, not for what they are but they could become. I am not an artist and the drawings are very amateaur, but it helps me get an idea and feel for a potential space. This shed needs to accent the farmhouse instead of being a complete eyesore.

 

I have two old windows we pulled off the house that I wanted to incorporate somewhere.

 

 

 

 They would be perfect for the shed renovation don't you think? I also have a lot of extra lumber, siding and metal roof that is left over.

 

Here are my ideas for the shed:

 

Re-side the shed with hardi siding to match the farmhouse

Raise the pitch of the roof and install scrap metal roof

Install the two old windows from farmhouse 

Add window boxes

Add two exterior sconces

Paint door fun color!

 {Existing}

{Sketch for Renovation}

 

Of course I have to run all this by Chip, so we will see if this drawing on paper becomes an actual solution for my organizational and cooking needs! I will keep you posted. Get inspired in your spaces at home and be creative and intentional with what you have. Don't waste your space... Make it work for you!

Pretty on Paper

My sponsor Lark & Lily has the most adorable stamps for the holidays! Check them out and order today to get in time for your Christmas packaging or for gifts! These Holiday stamps are a great way to personalize your gifts!

Check the out here!

A great idea for stocking stuffers and sweet gifts for friends or teachers is Lark & Lily's tags and cards. Check them out Here!

Frame Happy

I love this new frame my sponsor, Ruby and Lily just put out... Check out her site and order these unique frames for your "hard to buy for" friends for Christmas!!

Farmhouse Update

Now that the filming of the pilot is over, we can concentrate a little more on the farmhouse. The siding should be finished this week and I can't wait!. Most of my windows are in now. When my window guy measured the original windows, he measured them about 6 inches too short on width and height because he didn't factor in the window frame. Of course, this kind of thing drives me nuts because I want as much light in the house as I can get. Another thing I realized is that because of the fireplace on the front porch, I can't do shutters on all my windows. In fact, both of the windows on both ends of the house are too close to the edge and I can't do shutters there either. When you build from scratch, this is stuff you can plan around and make sure of before you start the building process. With a remodel, a lot of the important decisions you have to figure out on the fly.

 There are certain things worth fighting for and other things I just have to let go of my expectations and let it be. I am glad I let it go on the windows. As I drove around and looked at true, original farmhouses, one thing they all have in common... Tall, thin windows and no shutters. These little mistakes are truly perfect for the character of this home. Now I can appreciate these little imperfections and move forward feeling good about these unexpected surprises!

 

 

Here the guys are finishing the back porch addition off the master. The girls sippin' their Big Reds and watching their friends work. I can't wait to show you the progress we make this week, it's all starting to come together and I get so excited every time I go out there.

We are Finished!

 

Well that was fast and furious! We finished our last day of filming last Friday and it has taken me about a week to recover. Now back to real life. Started cooking dinner again and the kids were very happy about that. Household management is back on track and I am figuring out my old routine again. Chip and I had such a fun experience filming the pilot, there were tons of mess ups and a lot of laughs!

 

Editing takes about two months so we will find out if it is a go or not around January! I will keep you posted if anything new comes up.

 

 

This was a full day of filming at the farmhouse. Never realized all that goes into making a show until now. We had the most amazing crew to work with. Such a fun adventure!