Category Archives: Home Decor

March favorites

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Here are a few things that I am pretty darn excited about this month (hint: there will be absolutely no SNOW included):

Facebook articles that confirm my parenting (and coaching) beliefs – Love this one by a Stanford dean. We love our kiddos and want the best for them but by high school they need to start experiencing the hard stuff and finding their own solutions to practice before they are truly on their own!

Canon all-in-one printer – can’t wait to print photos on this highly-recommended printer. My last HP all-in-one was seriously the most amazing printer and I had it for a good 10 years so I have been mourning it’s loss for a while. A little trip to Best Buy last weekend connected me with a lovely salesman that highly recommended this one. Happy day!

Oily Vinyl Kit Club – Elizabeth and Amy have teamed up to produce and create vinyls for your DIY rollerballs and sprays to use around your house or gift to friends and family. Here is a sneak peek of April’s vinyl kit:

Pinterest husband -a  few side by side comparisons of my pin to his finished product.  We are very self-aware to know that a renovation or house building project would be the end of us so this little arrangement of my sharing a picture and him building works out perfectly. He’s so lucky he has me to keep him busy on his days off. ?(still need to add hooks and a cozy cushion)

Back to the dale….

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These past two weeks have been full of surprises – a super fast close and move date and then a whole week off with snow to settle in! As many of you know from the paint samples that were on our old living room wall for well over a year, I have some commitment issues when it comes to decorating a house. This week with our snow-mageddon storm, I had some time to work all of that out and start making our HOUSE a HOME. Part of that included quite a bit of Amazon shopping which then I felt super guilty about – sorry beloved delivery people – your sacrifical efforts this week to get to our house in the weather and bring me my furniture were SOOOOOO appreciated.Still deciding if I like this headboard or not with the navy and white decor. Perhaps with the wood dresser and some cooler nightstands – it will go better? Feel free to weigh in – it helps with the indecisiveness.Love love love the sliding barn doors on our closet – poor Scott is living out of a different closet since this one is a bit small but so cute to have a little nook all to myself.Did I mention that our downstairs has a FULL KITCHEN??? We love all of the possibilities that this opens up, including keeping the kiddos contained during snack and breakfast times. Scott found this adorable little table and chairs to perfect their personal “kid cafe.”I know many of you saw the progression of WonderGIRL’s room unfold over Instagram posts, but today we added real mattresses and bedding and the inner 14 year old me is uber jealous about this whole situation (although the real 14 year old me should be extremely grateful because I had a huge room, bathroom, and most importantly, the DJ Tanner phone in my room where I could sneak three way calls after bedtime with all my homies – so thank you Mom and Dad).We don’t have much in our upstairs living space and I hope to build the room around this amazing vintage-y piece of goodness I found at our local furniture store. I am so excited to actually get to put my scrapbooks on display versus hidden in my craft room. Don’t mind the cluttered mess on top – I’m feeling out what looks good and where all my “mantle” decor from the old place can go.I used to be utterly ENAMORED with these old Bobbsey Twin books on display at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house growing up. After the passing of my Grandpa and my Grandma moving out of their beloved home, I was the lucky recipient of these gems. I feel honored to get to display them for future generations of readers to lovingly peruse while visiting my house as well. The copy of Gone with the Wind shown on the right is from 1913 – how cool is that????

As many people have mentioned, the renovation that the previous owners did on this house are beautiful and PERFECT for our family. We are extremely grateful to them for putting such care and attention to detail in so many place throughout the house – hopefully they catch this post and others on FB (the previous owner is a childhood classmate of mine) and can see some of the results and love come out of their amazing efforts in fixing up their home for a future family.

On moving….

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The stars and powers above that be have teamed up to align and we are moving!!! Although we’re pretty content in our current home, we would love to add some more room (separate rooms to be exact) for the kiddos and for potentially more children in our home. We thought our “starter home” was dang big when we moved in….add two energetic school-age children to the mix and voila! We’re constantly on top of each other!!!When looking for our forever home to team up with our new forever family (still gives me all the feels to say that), we had a few key things we were looking for. Extra rooms for more foster/adopted children. A separate living space, especially for entertaining our friends and family and their lovely kiddos! A mother-in-law suite or independent living space for WonderGIRL  to grow into and practice independent living before heading out into the real world (insert extreme Mama anxiety here). The house we found has all of these specifications and we are so lucky we found it when we did! It even has a special nook (see picture above) that the Wonders have deemed our “cool-down” spot to escape to when feelings are strong and tempers are hot.Oh ya and the master bathroom after their recent renovation on the house is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
It’s been fun to share the planning and decorating ideas with the kiddos. I can’t wait to be intentional with our spaces and create some calm, happy places for each member of our family (and future family members too!).The “mess” of moving has been interesting to process with WonderGIRL and WonderBOY. Moves before for them have been forced on them and the result of usually negative experiences (a relationship change, being kicked out, foster care, etc.). They also haven’t traveled with all of their belongings before. Sometimes they wander around our current house and point at objects, asking, “Do we get to bring this?” And we respond with “Yes. All of it. We are literally CARRYING all of this into our new house piece by piece, box by box.” Their eyes and smiles get big after this response.

We have also used this experience to teach them about the value of money. That moving into a nice house is a result of smart management of our money. We are careful to tell WG and WB that “we aren’t CHOOSING to spend our money on that” instead of “We don’t have money for that.” They both know we have money (and most likely, much more money in our family than what they are used to) and we don’t want to lie to them with dismissive statements like that. We reinforce these concepts each time we go shopping, create wish lists for birthdays and Christmas, and head out to meals together as a family.

I’m sure there will be more stories to share as this adventure unfolds but thank you for all of your kind support and some of your physical support too (you know who you are crazy friends that actually ENJOY the moving process and have helped us so far). Cheers to new adventures!

Snippets of daily life

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My weekend consisted of lots of down time, extra big mugs of coffee and dowsing myself in this amazing Hope oil. Although I know many people think our life is go, go, go…..in reality our weekends are intentionally bare for us all to recharge and connect before the workweek/schoolweek begins again. I know this might change once WonderBOY starts getting into more sports so I am appreciating every relaxing moment of this season.Speaking of relaxing moments, this photo is in response to my prompt, “you must eat two bites of cauliflower before moving on with your day”….avoidance tactic of choice today? WB takes a 3 hour nap. Parents are so mean…..until he realized that the same cauliflower tastes kinda gross 3 hours later.
Sometimes, self-care means escaping to the mall to get storage bins from Target and coming home 2 hours later with some new shoes. Also, trying to ONLY get one item from Target is like eating one red vine from the Costco sized red vine bucket… simply impossible.
With some heightened emotions around our house for a number of reasons, I am loving giving both Wonders this teeny tiny box and letting them choose what they need to calm down and move on. Aromatherapy and kids is such a magical combination due to their heightened amygdala response to stimuli – if you haven’t tried it yet with kiddos, I highly recommend (and can point you to a good starting spot if you’d like – message me if you want more details).Sharing each step of our big moving adventure (more details to come soon) with the kiddos has been so very exciting! It’s amazing some of their misconceptions and confusion around moving for a positive reason and with ALL of our stuff. Their past experiences with moving involve mostly negative situations, new parental figures and relationships, and according to them, with only the amount of possessions they can fit in a backpack. WonderGIRL and I have bonded over pinning many many pictures of potential room decor ideas – this color combination is currently in the lead!!!

A few things I’m loving right now….

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It’s been a busy couple of weeks with our big Oregon Coast adventure and then WSU volleyball camp so no blogging for me. But here are a few things invading my mind and making me happy right now….This picture literally makes me swoon with my love for my little wonders and the great big beach/world around them they get to discover. I am excited to get it printed big like and display it in our house somewhere….any suggestions?
My brain and I have been battling quite a bit this summer….insecurities, judgements, and comparisons are running wild up in there and I am finding this book is helping me rewrite a few stories that need to be revised for the good of myself and my family. I’m only a few chapters in and feel the impact already. Love personal development reads in the summer…..I can read a few pages and let them simmer in my brain and heart for a bit before moving on.
“Oh your team goes to WSU team camp? What a coincidence since you went there and all….” SOOOOOO not a coincidence. I love everything about WSU and Pullman (even the drive) and really get excited about showing my high school girls around. My heart swells as I enter the town, shop for new crimson and grey gear, and walk around the campus (my calves swell too but from all the hills…..small price to pay). Go Cougs (just in case my Husky friends are reading)!
As many coaches do, I love a good quote and passing it along to others. I also love Instagram…..Word Swag is a fun app that takes cool background pictures and swishes your fonts around until you find a combination that you like. It’s great for both short labels and words on photos AND longer quotes or passages.

I love watching the powerful women of the show, Open Concept and am also insanely jealous of how easy it looks to create literally my dream furniture and decor. Following their IG is full of inspiration – definitely worth a follow!

Some other honorable mentions:
– Missy Elliot pandora station (Ludacris, Usher, and Nelly show up a lot – perfect workout/cleaning/driving music)
– High School Musicals on repeat in our house this summer
– planning for some fun essential oils classes with my peeps in August before the craziness of volleyball starts
– how hard my volleyball girls are working in the off-season
– secret plans for a killer warm up playlist for this season

Coming up on the blog this week – my year “blog-a-versary” and what I’ve learned/loved/hated about it so far.

A few things I’m loving….

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Since I gave up wine for my 30-day detox cleanse, I’ve been missing my glass of red wine each night. I’ve been finding some comfort (and some relief from bloating) with this little “tea” I concocted:
1 cup apple cider
2 tbl. apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 drop on guard or cinnamon 
I’ve been disliking my bathroom counter top lately so I asked my crafty husband to do a reclaimed wood shelf and I am loving a little farmhouse feel in our very newly built (aka very vanilla) house.
As a Mother’s Day present to my Mother-in-Law Lori, I crafted a special planner with small pictures of her family members on their birthdays. I liked the idea so much that I used it to decorate my new planner and I love peeking through all the months and seeing so many smiling faces that I love so much.
My new favorite app straight from Shark Tank…..Felt! This app has amazingly cute card designs but then you can customize them and add your own handwriting (using your touch screen) for a handmade look. Plus, I only pay $5 per month and get to send 3 cards as part of the subscription plan (which I already used in the first day I had the app – oops).And just because I love how my little WonderBOY texts – a screen shot between him and Scott. I’m not sure what I was “letting him do because he is cute” but whatever it is, I am fully guilty of and for his exact reasons…..I better work on that before he uses that excuse for more than just staying up an extra 5 minutes or eating popcorn in the living room.

A Year of Bests photo project – finally!

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One sunny afternoon after our friend Annie’s amazing wedding, us 5 soulmates concocted a crazy idea to document the following year together. We each would be responsible for taking pictures one week out of the month and then we would have a crazy fun book filled with our memories the following May 4th!Although we had a few mishaps during the year of documenting, the girls did amazing capturing and sharing pictures from their unique, but amazing lives. We lived in three different cities, added three new kids to the mix, and had multiple fun events all together to include throughout the book. I used the Project Life App on my Ipad to create the pages and then simply uploaded them onto empty photo pages in Shutterfly. It was super easy to do (although the addition of WonderGirl and WonderBoy in my house definitely slowed down my progress quite a bit – kids will do that to even an avid scrapper).
I absolutely loved seeing how our 5 lives intertwined at points (birthday parties/showers) and then showed drastic differences in other weeks. And all in all, I only made one typo and typed 2015 even though technically, that Halloween was 2013 (I’ll make a sticker for that bests – no worries!) – 58 pages and only one mistake that I’ve found so far….pretty good!My favorite pages to complete were the ending page with that fabulous quote from Dawson’s Creek and the teaser on the back cover (sound familiar? I tried to emulate a little Real World intro along with it). Shout out to things only kids from the 90’s would know and care about!
  Many people continue to be amazed that I remain such good friends with my ladies from high school (elementary school to get technical but who’s counting), but it is one of the amazing pieces of my life that I am constantly grateful for. When you have friends that have literally been through the worst (overalls with one strap….really?) and best parts of your life ALONGSIDE you for years and years, it leaves so much room for nothing but pure joy and celebration in each other, no judgement, and lots of silly stories that NO one besides your group cares about (sorry husbands). I hope this book adequately honors this friendship and I can’t wait to look back on it in 10, 20, 30 years to come! Perhaps it might even become a tradition we do every so many years – wouldn’t that be a fun collection to build for the coffee table/bookshelf?!?!

This project/idea could totally work with a family or any group that cares about each other – maybe everyone even just documents the same day each month and you put them all together in a book? You could make it as simple or complicated as you feel comfortable with!

on my “kinda capsule” wardrobe….

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Some of you may be familiar with the recent trend of capsule wardrobes. The basic jist is picking out essential clothing items, shoes and accessories and only rotating through those pieces for an entire season. While I love this statement of more with less, I am far too lazy and indecisive to actually label items and put others away never to be seen again (or until the weather changes).

Shopping and determining my own style has grown on me in my adult years, partially due to having professional income that makes those interests way easier to keep up. I tend to stick to trendy clothes from cheaper stores or online shops versus buying expensive items that I will wear often. Due to these tendencies, I really love pieces of clothes but just for short spurts of time usually. After they have “served their purpose” to me for however long (sometimes even 1-2 wears), I don’t feel bad sending them on their way to consignment for someone else to purchase and love.

With this temporary and purpose-filled strategy, I am proud of my limited wardrobe and clean closet. It makes choosing outfits easier in the morning when I know I am going to love and look good in whatever I pull out of my closet for the day.

 Bonus closet organization tips I have picked up along the way:

1. Off season items in bins in top shelf (bathing suits and cover ups in one, scarfs and mittens in another).

2. I adore this shoe organizer from Bed, Bath and Beyond for my shoe and boot collection. Hanging it up makes it so much easier than them lined up on my closet floor.

3.  Shirts and blouses on top and workout tops and sweatshirts on the bottom rack make dressing for work vs. casual days much easier in the morning (decisions are always harder pre-coffee no?).

4. Special occasion shoes/pumps are stored in plastic bins on top shelf. Easy to see yet out of the way during daily decisions (I got that idea from my best and shoe lover Mary – thanks Mare!).

Oh Christmas cards oh Christmas cards….

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I love receiving Christmas cards and putting them up on our wall for the Christmas season (and if I’m being honest, they usually stay there until April/May due to pure laziness how much I love them). I started putting them into small mini-albums after the season is over to display during the following Christmas season on our coffee table. Now that we’re into year 4 of receiving cards as a couple/family, it’s been so fun to see our friends and family grow and grow in their size and in their adventures. It definitely puts the passage of time into huge perspective and positive nostalgia and memories are some of the best parts of the holiday season.
Here is a peek at all of my mini-albums from years past. I keep it pretty simple with just a cover and back cut from one 12×12 piece of scrapbook paper. In the early years, I got fancy and added some journaling about our traditions and favorite presents from that Christmas season. Then….we got kids. Ain’t no one got time for fancy.What do you do with your Christmas cards? Leave a comment below….since I work so hard in taking those pictures and choosing the right font and personalizing that return address sticker, they better not be in the recycling bin right??? (insert wink….why don’t blogs have emojis yet….insert frustrated face).

On family photos….

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I have to admit…..I have some commitment issues when it comes to family photos in our home. It has been oh…..about 3 years since our wedding and you will not see one wedding photo of the hubs and I anywhere in our house. It’s a bit odd because if you know me, you know I LOVE photos and scrapbooking but something about the finality of choosing a picture and a frame and where to place it in our house overwhelms me. When adoring one of my favorite blogs, I saw some beautiful frames on her wall and went to Framebridge’s website to gawk further (post Thanksgiving self-shopping vulnerability here). 
This website (and company) has made it so easy to pick your favorite photos (mine of course were from my insta account), pick from a number of gorgeous frames, and soon they were traveling over the river and through the woods to our home! 
I used an oldie but goodie Pinterest idea to hang the frames and it worked great!! I lined up the 4 frames on this piece of wrapping paper and marked where the nails should go by putting marker on the backs of the frames. Then, after taping it to the wall, I nailed directly into the paper and tore the paper down from the nails after. The frames were lined up, spaced evenly, and only 4 nail holes in the wall (skeptic Scott approved). I highly recommend this method if embarking on your own gallery wall adventure.
Above is just an up close and personal look at the 4 photos I chose. My favorite photos of my wonders and of course how this little party got started, a picture of me and Scott on our wedding day (finally!).

Framebridge is offering 15% off their frames and products to any friends/family/readers by using the code Patti15 when placing your order. Amazing products, fast shipping, and more family memories up on the wall equal an adulting step forward in my book. Happy framing!