HOUSE TOUR {master bedroom}

After living in this house for almost a year, I decided it was time to decorate the place! My focus the past two months has been the master bedroom. 

Here is the same room, a long time ago. 

Here, we've added wainscotting and the wood ceiling. You can read how we built the ceiling step-by-step in THIS post. 

And here is the room with paint and stain. Isn't that ceiling awesomely amazing? My husband is a genius. 

And again, here it is today. 

The rug is 20 bucks at IKEA. I haven't seen a better price for the size and contemporary style. 

I made these wall hangings for a pop of fun color. They represent the states where we each grew up and the state we currently call home. More to come on how I made these in a future post. 

This family heirloom hutch was in the dining room before Andrew built me the big, beautiful new dining room table for Christmas. (I think I shared it with my Instagram friends, but I need to post about it here next!) The new table + the hutch made dining room look too crowded. So we moved it in here instead. 

I traded out the displayed dishes for books and picture frames. I thought it seemed more bedroom-y that way. 

Then I tackled this ugly, cheap bookcase. Sometimes you just have to find a way to work with what you have. I would eventually like to fancify this even more with trim and paint, and disguise it as a nice piece of furniture. But in the meantime, to match the hutch, I added wrapping paper to the back with double stick tape and lined it with washi tape. 

This was the ugliest corner of the room, so I tried my hand at (artificial) flower arranging in hopes of livening the space up. I'll talk more about this project in the future. 

The antlers were kind of an accident. They just "appeared" on this wall one day from where they used to hang in the garage. My husband's silliness turned out to be a stroke of brilliance. I LOVE the look of the antlers in this room.

The couch is actually on a piece of our sectional that wouldn't fit in the great room. So we improvised and created a sitting area in here as well. I got the pillows from THIS etsy shop. The owner was so kind and willing to work with me, the pillows were the best price around, and of excellent quality. 

Andrew built the bed and nightstands over three years ago. I'll never get over how amazing they are. Just like Pottery Barn...at a fraction of the cost. 

They tie in with the wood ceiling beautifully. I think the furniture grounds the lightness of the walls and balances out the darkness of the ceiling in a perfect way.

The round mirror was a $4.00 thrift store find! I love it when that happens.

The quilt was a Christmas present to ourselves. It is part of the Threshold collection at Target. It can be difficult sometimes, to find bedding that is a balance between frilly and masculine and pleases both the husband and the wife. This was Andrew's favorite, so I went with it...a decision I have not regretted. The longer we have it, the more I love it. 

I've had a problem with the clutter that always accumulates on the nightstands as a result of...living life. Chapstick, lotion, coins, phone chargers, receipts, books, wallets, pocket knives, measuring tapes, pens and pencils, notepads, glasses of water, etc. 

Rather than fight the inevitable, I decided to be practical and just roll with it. Or hide it better...take your pick. 

I built these trays, to collect and disguise it all. 

My tray hides a book, a notepad, a pencil, and six bottles of essential oils. You wouldn't even know it unless you stood directly over it. It is a beautiful thing. 

These trays will eventually get holes drilled in the ends to add rope handles. I will post more on this project too!

This month, I moved on to the horrifying task of organizing the office/project room (I don't call it a "craft room" for Andrew's sake). But I think I may come back to this room eventually and add some black rods and floor length curtains. Sheer white? Burlap maybe? 

So there you have it! It's fun to share what I've put together. Thanks for stopping by! 

Linking here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. 

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

MESSY HOUSE(s)

Keeping up with household chores as a woman with a full-time job, can be discouraging. How do just the two of us mature adults, who are hardly ever home, manage to make such messes?

 But now...we have two houses to keep clean and orderly. 

And one house is a lot worse than the other. 

BOUNTIFUL BASKETS

I hesitate to post this for several reasons:

1.) I sound like a TV commercial.

2.) You (like Andrew), are going to think I'm insane for photographing our fresh produce so thoroughly.

3.) I feel insane after photographing our fresh produce so thoroughly.

But if you aren't already aware of this Bountiful Baskets organization, it is in your best interest that you sit down, listen up, and learn yourself something kinda dang cool.

Also, keep in mind, I'm a woman with a lot of extra time on her hands at present.

Bountiful Baskets is a food co-op run by volunteers who buy fresh crops from nearby farmers at amazingly cheap prices. Then, it is evenly dispersed between participants.

If you want your basket of approximately $50 worth of produce for $15, you sign up on their website for the pickup time and location most convenient for you.

It is available in 15 states (including Utah, Arizona, Washington), but you'll have to see if there are any set up in your county.

I go every two weeks to pick up my conventional basket of about 50% fruits and 50% vegetables. I've never been disappointed with what I'm given. Nice variety...everything's fresh...and it's kind of fun to find unique food in your basket that you never would have picked out yourself.

Like cauliflower, for example. I've never bought it before. It smells funny. What am I supposed to do with it anyway?


It forced me to research recipes and experiment a little. Shake things up.

I've even had to Google pictures of some vegetables to figure out what they were exactly.

Jalapenos? Peppers of some kind? I wasn't sure at first.

They also offer add-ons: 2lbs of granola, boxes of in-season fruit, and loaves of nine grain or honey whole wheat bread (in packs of 5 at 2 bucks a piece).

You can even pay a little extra and get your basket 100% certifiably organic. If you're into that sort of thing.

Our grocery bill is now decidedly lower. We live for 2 weeks off this basket and a trip to the grocery store for basic necessities--milk, cheese, butter, meat, toilet paper, and...er...ice cream.

You know, the other things we can't live without.

It feels good to be eating so healthy. Before this, I don't think we were getting quite enough fresh food.

And it's just plain yummy. I couldn't even get a picture of these guys before I'd eaten half of 'em myself.

We don't just have to have a salad every night to get through the veggies either. They go great in stir-fry like yakisoba, or tin foil dinners, casseroles, burgers, soups, and fresh with Ranch dressing.

Personally, I've found the best way to eat celery is smeared with peanut butter and topped with craisins.

And I've always wanted to try making corn beef and cabbage.

I'm enjoying all of this while I can. You see, during the school year, my limited time to plan and cook causes too much of this stuff to spoil before we can ever get to it.

But for now, what else am I going to do with myself besides plan for, eat, and take pictures of produce?

Well, anyway, do I have you sold, yet? If you're interested, go check out the website HERE. Let me know if you have any questions!

SUMMER PARADISE

I cannot even express the joy of being home all day.

Quiet. Calm. With lots of time to do...whatever the heck I want.

For example, I can't remember the last time I made myself a beautiful lunch, sat down, and ate it. Without the phone ringing, cafeteria duty to be to, kids needing to make-up work, lessons to plan, materials to gather, papers to grade, messes to clean, copies to make, e-mails to answer, and band aids to apply.

I can arrange flowers from my yard and be at home to enjoy them.

I can spend all morning weeding and seeding and enjoying the sunshine.

I can get started arranging past blog entries into a printed book.
{Something I've wanted to do for a long time. And what a great family journal/scrapbook to have!}

I can even sit at my window and watch that tree go from this...

to this...in less than twenty-four hours.

The best thing is that I have the time to take pointless pictures of weeds and daydream on a piece of land that Andrew and I own as of 8am this morning.

That's right. Breaking ground this afternoon.

Boo-ya, baby! It's gonna be a great summer.