VALENTINE HOME DECOR TOUR {2013}

Here's to posting my holiday ideas BEFORE the actual holiday! I'm so proud of me.

I have never been a fan of the tacky, commercial-looking Valentine decorations overpowered with kissy lips, naked angels, red foil, and pink, pink, pink! (Bah, humbug, right?) Well, I took an unconventional wintry woods approach instead. Most of the Valentine touches are subtle. 

I reused the felt garland I made for Christmas (FYI: Easy as pie to make. I ordered the 2CM wool felt balls from an etsy shop and then strung them with needle and string. You can make your own felt balls by following tutorials like this one.) 

Then I made a doily garland by sandwiching the two halves of a folded doily on either side of string. It is held together with a little white glue. This frilled things up enough to look Valentine-y without overdoing it. 

Andrew helped me cut a dead Aspen tree into several skinny stumps while we were out chopping a Christmas tree. I knew I wanted to use them for some kind of display. I got the idea to make them work for February by adding the carved letters. Another subtle touch.

I kept the homemade wreath I used in December, because it continued the woodsy feel. 

{source}

I love this print. Not only is it pretty and matches my felt garland, but it sums up my feelings for Andrew. Sometimes I feel so boring and serious. Andrew is the funny, lighthearted, playful one...the source of  the color in my life. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the entire page to fit in the frame I had on hand. So I folded the bottom line out...hoping it still made sense. Good enough. 

Andrew thinks the shelves look like Easter...which works for me. That just means I can leave this up for several months...maybe with just a different framed print. Less work!

As for the mantel in the great room, I was never fully satisfied with how this turned out, but I wanted to show off my homemade garland. 

The framed print can be snagged for free at sissyprint.blogspot.com. I made a tiny 8x10 look a little more imposing in a large framed mat. 

I received this Hyacinth for Christmas from grandma.  It bloomed just in time to decorate for love month. Doesn't it look unreal? Hopefully, it sticks around a little longer. 

I made the bunting over a few evenings sitting in front of Netflix. My inspiration came from here. I cut pages out of a vintage, thrift store book with a razor blade--sinful, I know. Then I used a template printed from the Internet to cut out hearts from fabric scraps. 

I tried double stick tape with no success. Glue left ugly splotches behind the fabric. So I sewed the things on with a needle and thread and handful of mismatched buttons. 

They looked a bit plain...so I added a washi tape touch across the top. 

Then I strung all the flags together with needle and string. Seriously, easy. 

Have a happy Valentine's Day, folks. 

Feeling the Love,

Rachel

CHRISTMAS HOME DECOR TOUR 2012

No one is going to care about this post for another ten months. But here goes our holiday decor tour anyway. It was so fun to decorate a brand new house!

This is the shelf Andrew recently built for the entry way. It turned out exactly like I pictured in my head, and my man is a stud. Stockings and a wreath hung from the hooks. 

The framed Joy to the World printable was free from Angela Hardison's lovely blog. 

I framed last year's Christmas card.

I printed this wintery mason jar print from TWIGGSstudios.com.

Then cuttings from out Christmas tree were stuck between the frames. 

In the great room, I gussied up the mantel. Keeping the Proclamation print, I added our stocking holders, Christmas tree cuttings, and a cozy felt garland I made.

On the other end, I brought nature indoors and decorated branches with cheap-o ornaments rolled in glitter or fake snow.

I put small holiday touches randomly throughout the built-ins...

...Most of which I gathered for pennies from thrift stores. 

I already talked about our Christmas tree in greater detail here. 

Christmas cards from friends and family ended up strung across windows like this one. 

In the dining room, I had a family heirloom theme going on. Above the hutch I framed an old childhood picture of my mom and a photo of great grandparents. 

The back of the hutch got a touch of wintery glam with wrapping paper. 

I used double stick tape to attach the paper and then cleaned up the look with washi tape along the edges.

The chandelier was even festive with dollar store greenery, ribbon, and ornaments from my grandmother. 

And finally, the shelves. The frame with more old family photos was moved here from the mantel. Then I covered the tacky, shiny green foil around the poinsettias with burlap scraps already on hand. The Believe sign was a gift from a student, the mini sled was a thrift store find, and the wreath I made with moss and a grapevine form. Super simple. 

Well, a little overdue, but there it is. Our home at Christmas. 

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE 2012

We drove to Green Canyon, Idaho, to get our tree this year. That area has the spruce trees we prefer. 

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of us finding, cutting, or dragging the Christmas tree to the truck. Instead, I have fifty-seven pictures of Moose playing in the snow. 

It was his first time seeing any significant accumulation and he kind of freaked out about it. 

Let me fully impress upon you the point that Moose LOVES the snow. 

Dad, look! Snow! Everywhere! I love it! I must run! I must prance! I must feel the wind through my ears!

Mom! Look at me! I love you! And I love the whole world! Pet me! Never mind! I must run speedily through this glorious snow!

So, yeah. His utter joy was highly entertaining.

And that's why our Christmas tree post is all about our very large puppy.

And his beautiful golden eyes. 

But anyway. Back at the ranch...with Moose exhausted in his backyard kennel, we dragged in our thirteen footer and set her up. We felt the need to take advantage of our new vaulted ceilings. 

Good thing for the ginormous ladder, is all I have to say. 

Fully decorated with "The Grinch" playing in the background and 600 drops of sap waiting to be scrubbed off the wood floors. Becca kept saying it looked like a Dr. Seuss tree. I'm cool with that. I think.

Glowing in the dark. It was at this point that I decided to forego the white ribbon next year. It just looked like I toilet papered my Christmas tree.

At the after Christmas sales, I searched for a birch wood-looking ribbon I had seen, but ended up instead with a pale blue burlap ribbon for next year. Pale blue, pale green, and white is the color scheme I have been trying to gather and pull off for years. But my love for red keeps sneaking in and stealing the show. 

A full tour of my Christmas decorations will be coming soon! Until then, here are a few inspirational photos I found to help me with my new color theme next year...

{source}

{source]

{source}

{source}

PROCLAMATION PRINT {decorating the great room}

This print is based on The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I love the way this document lays out God's laws and purposes for family relationships in a world where things definitely need to be clarified.

Rather than hanging all nine paragraphs on the wall and making it hard for me to focus on specifics, this print focuses instead on the nine more important words: 

"Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

I saw a similar one on the Etsy shop Kiki & Company, but after the owner was listed as "on vacation" for about a year, I got impatient waiting to buy her's and used Photoshop to create my own. This ended up being better because I could choose my own fonts and colors...and it was free.

I printed it as an 11x14 for a buck and displayed it on the mantel in a Wal-mart frame spray painted white. 

Looking for more color, I sewed a bunting from thrift store fabric finds and draped it across the vintage windows.

This other picture frame is filled with photos of important women from my heritage: Mom, Grandma Jennie, and Great Grandma Maggie. 

I have a future project in mind that involves more ancestral photos, barn wood, chicken wire, and clothespins. I'm excited to build and share that later, but in the meantime, it will wait as item number fifty-seven on my to-do list. 

But this reminds me...I am going to eventually need help (pretty please?) from some photo bearing family relatives (Dad? Rhonda? Grandma?) getting scans to represent all the branches of our family tree.

Anyway...this room does not completely satisfy me yet. But it is coming together piece by piece. And I love my homemade Proclamation print!

FALL DECOR 2012

We built these shelves to put on the dining area wall. I love the shelves. 

This is my first attempt at trying to style them. Arranging a bunch of pointless knickknacks makes me feel foolish somehow...it almost looks to me like clutter.

But this is how it will stay for now. 

I made the garland over the window several years ago. 

I covered a plain, thrift store grapevine wreath with craft moss I already had on hand. 

I filled an old pickle jar with small autumn-y items.

I tried to pull off a dipped paint look on a squash I knew we'd never eat. 

And Leftover metallic leaves from the garland went in the glass bottles.

Those are the shelves.

In the kitchen, I tried for an autumn look with a mini wreath...

And stacked pumpkins...

The great room didn't get much fall decor. 

That was pretty much it, until I felt inspired on a walk with Andrew, Moose, and CC (yes, CC follows us on our walks). 

A few autumn branches in a vase was statement enough. 

Now, this display is not mine. But it was too fun not to share. This blogger was able to create an autumn theme using the Wizard of Oz as inspiration. Seriously, go check out his post for more pictures and explanations. 

That lion kills me.