• grey fireplace with a snowy christmas painting hanging over the mantel. there are natural wood bead garlands draped in in front of the mantel. Sittin got the mantel are a variety of mini christmas trees in a blue color, and a handful of burgundy candles in brass candles holders. Image featured on the happy list
    happy list

    Happy List: #416

    Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am delighted you are here. This week on the blog, I talked about nuts. That was a first. I had fun decorating with in-shell nuts this year and shared five ways you can decorate with nuts for the holidays. I also shared pictures of our 2025 Christmas tree. I’m calling it the blue and metallic tree for lack of a better name. It is full of handmade ornaments and clippings from our property. Thank you so much for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here with me. I hope you have fun and leave feeling inspired. It makes my…

  • blue and metallic christmas tree decorated with small blue paper tree ornaments, faux velvet baubles in blue and green, small faux velvet tree ornaments in blue and green, pampas grass, blue and tan ribbon, kimekori ornaments, and a wood star topper. The tree is in front of an ornate oval mirror and stained glass french doors.
    holidays,  Uncategorized

    Blue and Metallic Christmas Tree

    Welcome! Come, join me in my living room. I’d love to show you my blue and metallic Christmas tree. It’s a little bit rustic, a little bit glam. We’ll call it an opposites attract situation. This year, pretty much all of the ornaments on the tree are handmade or semi-handmade, meaning I put my own spin on an existing ornament. Truth be told, it’s more fun for me to make Christmas ornaments than to decorate with the things I make. However, decorating a Christmas tree isn’t exactly a chore. This blue and metallic Christmas tree is decorated with all sorts of fun ornaments, most of which are reused from prior…

  • christmas garland with greenery and it is wrapped with a handmade nut garland of in-shell walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts. the garland is draped over a white fireplace with brick surround and is featured on the blog post five ways to decorate with nuts for christmas
    Crafts,  decorating,  holidays

    Five Ways to Decorate With Nuts for Christmas

    Decorating for the holidays with natural ingredients is a hoot! This year, I have come up with five ways to decorate with nuts this Christmas. Three of these ideas are mine. Two are not. I consider the two ideas that are not mine to be crafts-in-waiting. There’s only so much time in a day. I can either buy something another maker has made if I really want it now, which is okay!  I can also save the idea to make it another year. At my current rate of idea saving, I have enough crafts to keep me busy for the next 1,413 years, give or take a decade. Can you…

  • christmas tree decorated with colorful ribbons and hand embroidered flower ornaments set in front of a built in, white bench next to a fireplace with white mantel in a 250 year old home. On the fireplace are burgundy candles and small green christmas trees. Colorful packages are wrapped under the tree. Featured on the Happy List.
    happy list

    Happy List: #415

    Ho, ho, ho! Happy December, and welcome to this week’s Happy list. I am delighted to see you here. This week on the blog, I shared how I decorated the Carriage House for Christmas. It’s a very rustic setting, and I should have taken a family picture in front of that mantel. I also shared how I decorated our dining room fireplace for Christmas. If you love fireplace decor, this was your week to read the blog as I published back-to-back fireplace posts. Thank you so much for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here with me. I hope you have fun and leave feeling inspired. It…

  • large fireplace in an old house decorated for christmas with seven nutcrackers of varying sizes on the mantel and an off centered green garland with red berries. Layered on the mantel is a handmade nut garland comprised of walnuts, hazelnuts, and almonds. Sitting in front of the fireplace is a skinny christmas tree with a tree collar that looks like a red drum. The tree is decorated with faux red and white berries and ornaments fashioned out of nuts.
    decorating,  holidays

    Nutcracker Holiday Mantel Decor

    Fair warning. Your jaw may drop after viewing my Nutcracker holiday mantel decor. (There also may be a pun or two in this blog post.) You know I love a theme, so I chose nutcrackers as this year’s holiday decor theme for our dining room fireplace. This theme has been a long time coming, as I have been in possession of my mother’s nutcrackers for years. Decades, actually, but who’s counting? I don’t always decorate with the nutcrackers because they don’t match anything that I own. I also can’t seem to get rid of them for sentimental reasons. I’m sure you have your own version of this in your house.…

  • rustic carriage house christmas rustic stone fireplace decorated for christmas
    decorating,  holidays

    A Rustic Carriage House Christmas

    It’s beginning to look like a rustic Carriage House Christmas! Or, as rustic as it can get with four faux Christmas trees. Just roll with it, folks. That’s what I do. Speaking of rolling with things, please go along with me for a minute as I set up this story. A year and a half ago, we repointed this fireplace in our Carriage House. I’d venture a guess that it had been covered for well over 100 years. Then we immediately covered it, so to speak, with a weight machine because we use this part of the Carriage House as a gym. Not too long after that, we went to…

  • give thanks free printable happy thanksgiving
    happy list

    Happy List: #414, Thanksgiving Edition

    A Happy List on a Monday! I hope this doesn’t throw your week off, or if it does, it’s in a good way. I plan to take the rest of the week off from the blog for Thanksgiving, a delightful U.S. holiday, so I thought I’d squeeze in one last Happy List for November. Thank you so much for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here with me. I hope you have fun and leave feeling inspired. It makes my day to connect with you. If you want to reach out, please comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also direct message me…

  • fall mantel with leaf wreath and mini pumpkins on the happy list
    happy list

    Happy List: #413

    Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It’s a great day to be inspired, and I’m glad you’re here. This week on the blog, I shared how I have our sunporch set up for the winter. I may be writing this week’s Happy List from the couch in the sunporch. It’s a great place to work! I also shared the recent updates I’ve made to our music room. It’s amazing how a few small tweaks change how a room feels. On social media, I shared a reel of the finished wall, a cozy view of our sunporch, and an idea you can use if you don’t have a fireplace to…

  • music room decor ideas quirky music room decor with piano harp on the wall
    decorating

    8 Decorating Ideas From A Music Room

    Not everyone has a music room or plays an instrument, but most people enjoy music! It’s relatable, and there’s something for everyone. Kind of like my music room decor. This music room is chock-full of ideas you can riff on in your own home. Like an eighth note, which is played quite quickly, this blog post will be a quick read. Here are 8 decorating ideas from a music room that anyone can use anywhere in their home. Music Room Decor Ideas #1: Make a statement with something bold and unexpected. Do I have a piano harp – the guts of a piano – hanging on my wall? Why, yes.…

  • color drenched navy blue sunporch overwintering plants
    decorating,  gardening and landscape

    Overwintering Plants Set Up On Our Sunporch

    By necessity, I have tweaked how I’ve set up our sunporch to overwinter plants. That specific necessity is that there are more outdoor plants I’m trying to save. It started with three ferns, and now I have six ferns, two gigantic geraniums, three polka dot plants, one rosemary, two basil plants, a couple of petunias, and some other plants I don’t know the names of. Let this be a lesson. I’m not sure what the lesson is, so we’ll call it a choose-your-own-lesson type of story. Every plant on this sunporch spends six months of the year outside, either on our front porch or deck. If they survive the summer,…