Most every morning I spend more time than I care to admit browsing through my favorite blogs.  The Milk and Honey blog is one of them.  Today, a picture in their post led me to once again browse through their fabulous design portfolio.  Oh. My. God.  I had forgotten how much I love their work!  So, I'm going to gush a little and share with you some of their eye candy.  Hope they don't mind!

Here's the picture that got me started:


Oh my, how I do love this room.  They have such a great way of mixing things for a collected, cozy look that is casual but elegant.  This is exactly the type of look I am striving for in my own home.  Cozy, elegant, warm, yet clean looking.  Yes.  That's it!

The following is the picture that Holly Mathis (the decorator I've been working with for my living room) sent me as an inspiration for my fireplace and built in. I haven't shown you my entire living room yet, but when I do, I'll be showing you this picture again. 

Oh how I love to see beautiful blooms in my garden!


After a few good rain days and temperatures staying below 100, my garden is seeing a bit of a resurgence this August!

The kids made it back to school yesterday.  And, although I was looking forward to having the house to myself and getting my own chores done the day was a little bittersweet. 

School starts tomorrow so for the past two days I've been working with the kids to get their rooms tidied up before the start of the new school year. 

Not "tidying up" so much as organizing and purging.  Am I a fun mom or what?! 


Is it just my own kids or do others suffer from a minor hoarding addication as well?  As we went through their drawers and bins we easily threw away a gazillion super balls, countless candy wrappers (yes, with no candy in them), and who knows how many dollar store toys from birthday parties. 

She's here and her name is Madison.  I love her! 


She just arrived this morning from Ethan Allen and I am so happy she's here!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I've been slowly re-doing my living room with the help of decorator Holly Mathis.  We considered many chairs

I'm excited.  Tomorrow the new chair I ordered for my living room is coming!  Can't wait!

For the past few months I have been very slowly re-doing my living room. I will be posting before and after pictures when it's all done, but I just wanted to give you a small peak at what it looks like so far:


(Forgive the blurry picture!)

This is the one room that gets used the most, and is seen almost immediately upon entering our home but it has been my least favorite room in the house. 

It's only August, but I really look forward to fall every year.  Particularly because we get so much heat here in Texas that I am more than ready for cooler temperatures and a change of seasons.

This morning, I woke up to drizzle and forecasted high temperatures in the 70's.  Say what?!  Did I wake up in the twilight zone?  I LOVE it! 

So, naturally, it got me to thinking about fall and everything I love about it.  Like, bittersweet, for instance.  It grows like crazy back in Minnesota and it's something I wish I could harvest in my own backyard.  But, I am planning to buy myself a bunch this year!



I also love fall crafts and fall flowers.  Doesn't this floral arrangement look absolutely beautiful?  I think I'm going to collect some acorns this year to make an acorn basket of my own! And those berries -- LOVE!



And, I absolutely love decorating my front porch for fall.


Plus, there's always stuff going on in blogland in the fall - can't wait to see what Melissa's going to do with her Fall Nesting Parties!


So, how many times did I use the word "love" in this post?  Ha ha!  Obviously, I like fall...a lot.  Can't wait to get started on fall crafts and projects.  Hope you'll stop by and join me!

Awhile back I was browsing Pinterest and saw this idea:


How ingenious! She used a simple, cheap tension rod to organize pots and pans lids -- why didn't I think of this? I love it!

Today I was at Walmart and saw the curtain rods and remembered this idea.  (Of course, I think of this idea every time I wrestle the pans out of the drawer while they're buried under a few lids but usually forget about it when I'm shopping -- until today!)

To be honest, my pots and pans drawer was not in that bad of shape.  I'm a bit anal about organization and that's why I figured there was definitely room for improvement!



Look at it now! (Sorry the picture is a little blurry.)



Two of my lids were too large to stand on their sides so one is still leaning over the pans and the other I turned upside-down and put over my large stock pot.  Still, having three fewer lids to get in my way makes me happy.  And, this project cost less than $2.50.  So there you have it!  Thank you Kelly at Imperfect Homemaking -- you rock!

I'm pretty excited!  I just found out that my china hutch project will be featured at the DIY by Design blog this Tuesday -- yea!

Until then, I thought I'd share the news and give anyone who stops by here the opportunity to check out Judy's beautiful DIY by Design blog.  So many great projects and decorating ideas.  I love her daugher's tween room update -- so cute!   I'm in the middle of updating my 7-year-old daughter's room and it's great inspiration for us.

Have a great Sunday y'all!

Do you ever feel like a room or an outdoor space in your home is missing something or it just doesn't feel right to you?  Well, that's how I've been feeling about my little chalkboard easle I made a few weeks ago that sits on my front porch (I'll write more about the easel project in a future post).


I already had the little star-shaped grapevine wreath and just stuck it on there to cover up the top-half of the chalkboard space (for lack of anything clever to write there) but it didn't really "wow" me.
Then I started seeing some cute little wreaths on Pinterest and it got me thinking.




I already had a small straw wreath form that I bought awhile back to do a project that never materialized so, I got motivated and bought some green Spanish moss to get started.  I dug up some leftover burlap webbing,  Mod Podge glue, my hot glue gun, some twine and an old button and, voila, a quick, easy little wreath that fits right in with my front porch decor.  And, it only cost me about three dollars to make!  Love that!



Here's how I did it:

First, I unwrapped the plastic wrapping off of the straw wreath and coated it a section at a time with Mod Podge.


Then I took "hunks" of the moss and wrapped it around about 2/3 of the wreath form not worrying about full coverage on the back of the wreath. 


I used my hands to gently squeeze it so that the glue would adhere to the moss.  Spanish moss does not come afixed together on a sheet.  It is already somewhat tangled together but it will hang a little loosely on the form when you glue it.  Giving it a gentle squeeze helps.


Then I used some green floral wire I had on hand to wrap around the moss.  I went around the entire wreath but wrapped the wire about and inch or two apart from each wrap around -- hope that makes sense.  I couldn't take a picture of myself doing this step!  The point of the wire is to just give it a little more "support" so the moss that's dangling will not fall off so easily.  I felt this was especially important for mine since it will be outside and subject to wind.


Then I took my little burlap remnant and pinched it together in the middle and tied it with twine.  I kept the end of the twine long so I could then wrap it wround the wreath and tie it to the back. 


Then I hot-glued an old button to the front of the "bow."


There you have it!  A little moss wreath that fits any season.  I love the green for my porch because everything in Texas is so brown this time of year (which explains the sad state of my potted plants!).



 Happy crafting!

So yesterday when I was going on about quilts and how I'd love to have a collection of them in a fun little armoire I searched the web for a quaint picture.  And, wouldn't you know that today when I was browsing my favorite blogs I came across this beauty:



How cute is this?!  She used Miss Mustard Seed's new milk paint that isn't available yet.  She's going to be a distributor.  I cannot wait to try this stuff!  Looks so fun. And, I LOVE this color!

Check out the link to Petticoat Junktion's web site to learn more about the paint and how to work with it.  If you like painting furniture like I do, it's definitely worth a look.

You can also check out Miss Mustard Seed's website to learn more about the paint and when it will be available.

There is just something about a quilt that is just so darned cozy.

Of course, my fave, Sarah Richardson really knows how to use a vintage quilt in a stunning way.




And, Kelly at the Polished Pebble, has such a rustic flair with her antique quilts:




Holly Mathis adds such cozy, rustic comfort to her boys' room with solid Pottery Barn quilts:


I love, love, love them!  I don't have a collection of vintage quilts but I would like to someday.  The price tag usually chases me off and the fact that I don't know where I would put them right now! I would love a little armoire full of an antique quilt -- or any quilt -- collection. So fun!

I have quilts/coverlets in each of my bedrooms.  None of them are old or vintage.  Each one reflects the style of it's inhabitant.

My daughter, who is 7, likes bright, vibrant colors and would have bright teal walls in her room if I let her! This circle quilt is from PB Teen. (Excuse the masculine headboard...I'm on the hunt for something girlier.)



My son, likes blues and reds.  These blue quilted coverlets were on clearance at Dillard's a few years back and there were two of them -- score!



Finally, our master bedroom has the dark browns that my husband prefers  because I didn't want to get too frilly in here for his taste.  I found this quilted coverlet at Overstock for less than 50 bucks...awesome when you consider the cost for bedding for a king-sized bed!




If I had a guest room -- or better yet, a lake house --  it would definitely have brightly colored quilts and would have the feeling of this room from The Lettered Cottage:


I love that little embroidered pillow from IKEA. I look at it every time I'm there and wonder where I could put it in my home.  I also have this quilted pillow sham from Pottery Barn just waiting for a home:


I never bought the quilt because I didn't know where to put it.  Now it's discontinued and I'm kicking myself!  But, at least I have the sham for a future bed someday.  I just love all these colors and the fabrics used.

Do you have a collection of something you love in your home?

I've been seeing silhouettes everywhere lately and I really love them. 










After you print out the picture, start cutting.




Someone wanted in on the picture taking!  Maybe next time we'll do your silhouette, Boomer!




I decided to use some pretty scrapbooking paper for a little color since I'm placing these silhouettes on a shelf in my built-in.



And, there you have it!  A very easy project.  However, I kept it very simple because I didn't add any embellishments to their hair.  I've noticed on other silhouettes that they have had fun with the hair with bows or little spikes. I didn't do that because it didn't seem true to my kids style.  My daughter is not a hairbows and fancy kind of girl, so I kept her hair simple the way she wears it.