Decorating Our Home

When we moved in to our house, we were coming from a two bedroom apartment. We didn't have a ton of furniture, decorative items, and wall art. I'm still trying to figure out what to do about this wall in our living room. There's a nail already there left behind from the previous owners, just waiting for us to hang something. 

I've thought about doing a gallery wall, hanging a pretty mirror, or finding a cool piece of art work. Yesterday I was at World Market and saw this beautiful canvas. 

What do you think? I'm really torn. For sure I would get rid of our toss pillows (I hate them anyway) and get a brighter, not-as-busy pattern. I love the gold painted birds, something about it speaks to me. 

I've started ordering some gallery-wrapped canvas prints, of all the important, special moments of our lives. This one is from Easy Canvas Prints and is one of my favorites from our maternity session. I loved ordering from Easy Canvas Prints, their website is very easy to use and I'm so happy with the result. The canvas is beautiful! If you'd like to purchase one of your own, Easy Canvas Prints is offering all This Woman Cooks! readers 50% all their canvas prints!

The other print is from our wedding day and I plan to order several more, along with photos from Miss A's newborn session and 1st birthday. 

Eventually I'd like to have all these photos upstairs, on this large, empty wall we have in the hallway. 

There's also the mantle to think about. We have a brown wooden mirror from our old apartment that could work above the mantle, but I'd have to get crafty and spray paint it black to match our mantle and other furniture.

Decorating a house isn't as easy as I thought it would be! So much time and effort to get it right. For now I'm focusing on creating our gallery wall and finishing up the living room. I'll be sure to share our progress as we go along.  

I received a product to review from Easy Canvas Prints, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own. For more custom print options, visit Build A Sign www.buildasign.com and Allied Shirts. 

Christmas Home Tour

I love decorating for the holidays and Christmas is my favorite holiday to decorate for. It's my favorite time of the year! We don't have much, even though my husband says we have plenty, but after living in an apartment for the last four years, I definitely need more to decorate an entire house!

We've lived in our house for almost six months already. Six! I can't believe how fast time has flown, it really does feel like we moved in yesterday. I struggled with how to decorate certain rooms and where to put things; this is how our home looks now.

The Mantle

Hanging the stocks with care. I bought plain stockings last year so that the four of them could match. I like decorating and personalizing things on our own, so we used glitter glue to write our names on them. Yes, our dog has a stocking. She was our 1st baby, right? She gets presents on Christmas too!

I got the stocking hangers last year at Target. They work beautifully on the mantle, however, a certain someone tried to pull down the stockings the other day and I had to take them off. Now they hang on clear command hooks. Problem solved!

I added stick-on glitter stars (that I got at Michaels) for even more of a festive touch. The "believe" blocks are from Meijer, also purchased last year. 

The Kitchen 

Our breakfast bar is an area I wasn't sure what to do with. I got these cute penguin plate sets years ago from Target. I thought this would be a good place to display them. 

I always buy Christmas candy and have it out somewhere. These candy cane Hershey kisses are my favorite! 

In the kitchen I've got a printable that I framed, my favorite peppermint candle, our snowman cookie jar (Target) and snowman placemats. 

The Living Room

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree! I love how magical a Christmas tree can transform any room. The living room feels even more homey and I want to spend as much time as I can in this room. Only problem is, Miss A loves the tree!! I've taught her to wave "hello" and to Ooo and ahhh from a distance. So far is working...until curiosity gets the best of her and she wants a BALL!!

A few special ornaments- I bought this "our new home" key last week at TJ Maxx to represent our first home. 

My mom had this ornament personalized for us after we got married. 

Miss A's first Christmas ornament. I think a fun tradition will be to take a new family picture every year and hang them on the tree. 

The Dining Room

Eh, it needs work. I ran out of decorations by this point. I want to do something different with this room next year. But for now I hung some old stockings I had when I was a kid, a snowman that once held cookies, and our red globes. 

The Bathrooms

Yep, even the bathrooms get a little festive touch! With seasonal soap and lotions, special towels, and candles. 

I hope you've enjoyed a peak into our home!