2014 -- A Look Back

Wow, another year has gone by. I can't believe I am in 
my second year of blogging already. 

Lo let's take a stroll down Memory Lane and catch up 

on some posts you might have missed!

World Market To The Rescue For A Last Minute Gift Idea

 Hello and Happy Sunday everyone, today I went to our local World Market in

Olympia and came up with a cute last minute gift idea. World Market has this awesome

collection of glass jars, bottles and mugs.

Christmas Decorations on the Back Porch

 Hi Sweets, this weekend I played around on our back porch a bit

and decorated for Christmas. I didn't want to invest a lot of time back there, 

because we really only see the back porch this time of year when looking

out through the sliding glass door from the kitchen. BUT never the less I had fun

and got a few good pictures (including a Bunny photo bomb)!

A Christmas vignette decorated with nature

I Am Featured Over At DESIGN DREAMS BY ANNE

Good morning everyone, I was so busy yesterday getting our
 Christmas Home Tour  posted that I forgot to mention that I am featured
over at Design Dreams By Anne this week.
You can take my Home Tour there and check out her gorgeous blog
while you are visiting. 

Anne lives in beautiful Canada, is a super creative DIY’er, and someone
I wish I could meet in person one day. I have been following her
beautiful blog since I first started blogging.

Here is a glimpse of her super cute house and style.

Welcome to my Christmas Tour

Hello Lovelies, I am so glad you are here 
to take my Christmas Tour today. 
I am part of a Christmas Blog Hop, so please make 
sure to visit all the other fantastic blog tours
 listed at the bottom of this post.

Let's start at the front porch.  

Are You As Late As Me With Your Christmas Cards?

Hello and Happy Holidays everyone, one of my favorite things during 
the holidays is to create a Christmas card to send to friends and family. 
Problem is, I run behind every year....always last minute!!!
Luckily on-line sites like Cardstore.com safe me each year!
I used  Cardstore.com/ this afternoon after taking some quick 
pictures on the back patio. 

My First Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Project

Hello and Happy Friday Sweets, I have lots of errands to run 

today so making this post very short. I took my very first Annie Sloan 

chalk paint class last weekend with my friend Jenn and I 

wanted to share our projects with you. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!Wishing 
you all a beautiful and relaxing 
Turkey Day tomorrow! 

 

Tons Of Fall Decor Inspiration from Little Brags

Hello Sweets near and far away, Thanksgiving is almost here and we will all be 

decorating for Christmas very soon (many of you already have).

So before it's officially winter, I put some pictures together with both 

indoor & outdoor inspiration for fall. All pictures are from Little Brags, 

no other sources.

Just A Couple Of New Things

Hello Sweets, just popping in real quick and sharing a couple of new 

things around here. I got these cute led string lights from World Market 

last week. 

A Guest Post on Decorating Tips

Hello everyone, the other week I got an email from the lovely Grace about 

writing a blog post for my sweet readers on Little Brags. Grace is a writer and is 

hoping to get some extra exposure by guest posting here today. Since I am 

NOT a writer, and always keep my posts very short in verbiage I figure it's a 

good opportunity to have some real professional decorating advice

 on my blog for once...LOL

Greetings to the world! Let me step up and introduce myself, I am Grace White and I do blog assistance here. If you would like to speak to me about anything, you can find me on Facebook. I am so happy to be on Little Brags today. Thanks to Christine.

Thoughts on Creating a Luxurious Living Room
The living room tends to be the most public part of the home, being the place where visitors are entertained. As such, we want our living rooms to be fabulous: obviously neat and tidy, but also exquisitely decorated and perfectly appointed! Achieving this, in today’s busy world, is harder than it seems, but the following tips will help you to give your living room a luxurious make-over that will look great without breaking the bank!

A Little Thanksgiving Home Tour

Hello Peeps, I am thrilled to have you here for a visit. I am stop number 5 for the 
Let's Gather Blog Hop. First off, I need to thank these lovely ladies from Cultivate Create , 
Hollydays Paper , Our Joy His Glory , Designs By Miss Mandee and 
Nikkis Nacs for inviting me to participate in my very first Blog Hop ever. 

So, here we go, let me share my little THANKSGIVING tour with you...

Let me take you outside onto our back porch. I created a cozy 
sitting area "Thanksgiving STYLE" and I made a giant
sized "GIVE THANKS" pillow.

Last Minute Halloween Decor

Hi Sweets, so I just decorated our house for Halloween yesterday.
I am sooo running behind with everything..
So before Halloween has come and gone, here is a quick peek!

First Stop KITCHEN

Displaying Beautiful Art Work In Different Ways

Hola Sweets, 
Do you ever get tired of just hanging art work on a wall? Well, I know I have been, 
so I created an inspirational board with all the things I love. I like to display paintings 
in different ways, instead of just hanging them on a wall. Layering art, especially 
with unique pieces such as an old window frame add such interest. 

Adding Personal Touches In Decorating

Hello Sweets, today I want to talk about how adding special personal details
to Home Decor adds so much character to your home. For instance,
I found this old window frame for 20 bucks at a local craft show the other day. I printed
out some B&W prints of our boy playing in the dirt and placed them in the window frame. 
I know that you can order custom prints online at Shutterfly.
I added the word "WASH" (more on that project coming soon) on top of the frame to
give the wall even more character and interest. 


New Junk And Decorating

Hello everyone, we've had some awesome fall bazaars in our area this last

weekend and I found some more junk I couldn't live without!

Here are some of my new treasures...Oh how I love that new junk pile of mine!!!

Boys Room Design Board

Hello Lovelies, how is your Monday morning going to far? I have been busy thinking and planning 

out a new look for our 9 year old sons bedroom this weekend.

He needs a lot more storage, starting with a bigger bookshelf with room 

to display Lego's and Collectibles. We already got him a queen sized bed 

recently (which is super great for sleep-overs by the way). 

Well, let's get started and let me share a few ideas I put together on a design board 

with links to some of the products that are on my Wish-List (insert drool-marks here).   

Sharing "Must See" Blogs With You

Hello and Happy Sunday Sweets, today I am committing a major blogger cheat. 

I am posting tons of beautiful Home Decor pictures, and none of them are mine.

You see, I have been in-luv with Norwegian and Swedish Decor Style blogs and I feel like 

I can't withhold this major eye candy from my readers....lol

There is just something different and unique about how people decorate in different 

Country's and these bloggers I am sharing with you are "out of this world talented". 

So get your self ready for some major eye candy....

Let's take you to Norway first, Villa Paprika 

is the name of this awesome blog I 

just found the other day

http://villapaprika.blogg.no/

Decor Inspiration from Europe

Hi Peeps, I finally sorted through my vacation pictures and picked some to share with you. 

Since my little blog is all about "Decor" I don't want to bore you with our personal travel pics,

but rather share some inspiring decor I noticed all over Europe.

First Stop - SPAIN 

I took these pictures at a beautiful Restaurant

Enjoying The Last Bit Of Summer Around The House

Hello and Happy Sunday Friends, it's been a busy week for me still playing
 "catch up" after being in Europe for an entire month. The weather has been
absolutely wonderful in Washington State since we got back.
Cool nights and beautiful sunny days.

Today I took some pics from around the house. We are enjoying every
second of this beautiful weather while we still can.....

Sharing My Dad's House In Spain

Hello Peeps, just checking in, letting you all know that we are back from Europe.

I hardly checked my email the entire month we were gone, so I apologize if I have

not responded to your comments yet. I will do my best to catch up with everything

once I am settled back in at home.

Today I have some Spanish Eye Candy for ya from our trip....this is my Dad's Casa in Spain.

It is located in a little city called Javea on the Mediterranean side of  Espana.

DYI Chandelier Inspiration Curated For Hometalk

Hi Lovelies, I am currently in Germany on vacation, but I could not say NO to 

Hometalk when they ask me to curate a board for DIY Chandeliers.
WHY? Cuz I love Hometalk and chandeliers!!!

My First Cowhide Rug

Hello Everyone,  Well I finally jumped on the cowhide wagon and got myself a
"MOO MOO" cow for our dining room. You might remember my plans for a new
Dining Room Look ? Well it's coming along slowly but surely!

On my  IKEA Shopping Trip last weekend, I purchased this brown cowhide
with a few little white spots on it.

A few new things from IKEA

Hello Sweets, my friend Jill and I went to IKEA yesterday and did a little damage between the two of us. 

I am really busy today, so here are some quick pictures of some new treasures throughout the house.

I got these beautiful white MATILDA curtains for our Master Bedroom. They have a little pattern to it that I love. The wicker trunk is also from Ikea, but I've had it for a while. 

DIY Chalkboard & A Monogram Tutorial

Hello and Happy Weekend Peeps, I am really busy working on our Dining Room this weekend, 

so I am sharing a little project I actually did a few month back but never shared before. 

I've always wanted to have a Family Name Monogram on a Chalkboard for our Staircase wall,

so I did some research on Pinterest and found this awesome tutorial from 

Lilacs and Longhorns

Paint Your Old Buckets

Hello and Happy Weekend Sweets, if you have been following me for a while you know that I am 

a sucker for old buckets. This time of year I love to use them for my flowers outside. 

I wanted to "cutify" them a bit, so I got out some paint. 

Touring Through Blogland

Hello sweet readers, the awesome Kelly from The Essence Of Home
invited me to join a fun blog tour. Kelly's blog was one of the first ones
I ever followed and she helped and encouraged me when I first
started my own blog.  Although I have never met Kelly in person,
she is one of my favorite blogging pals. And her beautiful Cottage
Style Home is just amazing!!!!!

So let's get started with my mini tour......

 

Dining Room Design Board

Hello Sweets, I am so excited to share my very first design board with you today. 

I used PicMonkey to create this inspirational board for our dining room.

Since I am such a visual person, I feel this board will really help me pull

things together when I get to the final stage.

While searching for Dining Room inspirations on the web, I've learned what really attracts me.

Here is the scoop: I love creamy light slipcovers and darker tables, white sheer curtains,  

jute rugs layered with a cowhide rug, wicker baskets and the contrast of black & whites.

A Little Outdoor Chandelier and the Tortoise and the Hare

Hi there sweet peeps, I haven't been up to all that much this week. 

But I did manage to hang up a little chandelier on my front porch today. 

The chandelier is actually meant for indoors, the candles 

are battery operated. But I really wanted it for my porch. 

So if it gets a little rusty over time -- even better!

String-light GIVE AWAY

Hello Peeps, I got a fun give-away going on for you!

Daniel from Brillante is giving away 5 sets of globe string lights to Little Brags Facebook fans today...

You can see the lights here: http://www.amazon.com/BrillanteTM-Indoor-Outdoor-String-Lights/dp/B00JSXT5NS

How to win: Send a note using this contact form saying you're a Little Brags fan - http://brillanteglobestringlights.com/contact-us/

Each of the first 5 fans to email him will receive a coupon code good for the full price to order the lights from Amazon (you'll need an Amazon account and agree to leave an honest review of the lights at Amazon.com after you receive them). 

Outdoor Serving Station

Hello Peeps, first off I am so excited to show you all my new blog design. Yes, Little Brags needed a Face-Lift and Rebekah Louise Designs came to the rescue. If you have a blog and need some help, I highly recommend her (very reasonable too)!!!! 

So today I played on our back patio. Remember my Potting Bench  I got lost summer? Well this year I decided to turn it into a Beverage Serving Station. I've been seeing so many awesome ideas in Blogland lately. So here is my version...

Tons Of Outdoor Decorating Inspiration From Little Brags

Hello and Happy Memorial Day Weekend Everyone!!!! I am sick this week with a nasty cold and actually stayed home from work on Friday. So I have no energy to tackle anything new this weekend. But since this time of year we all seem to have the urge to get outside and spruce up our outdoor spaces, I decided I want to put together a post with all past outdoor inspirations from my blog. Al l images are mine, no Pinterest Inspirations from other blogs.

Pictures are not in any kind of order, anything from front porch to back porch and garden, as long as it's outdoors....

A Lantern Make Over And Our Back Porch

Hello and Happy Weekend Everyone. I've been feeling the spring fever lately! Last Sunday I pressure-washed our back yard patios, and now I am working on making it cozy back there. The first step is done....I had these 2 huge brown Lanterns that I grew tired of, so I spray painted them a light grey. After they dried, I rubbed some white acrylic paint on them to give them a  bit of a white wash look.

Showing Off My New Adirondack Chairs From World Market

Hello there peeps, today I want to show off my new Adirondack chairs I got from World Market. I've been eye-ing (is that even a word?) them for a while and with Spring almost here it was the perfect time to get them

 I put them in the front of our house along the walkway that leads to the front porch

A Springy New Look With New Sofa Pillows

Hello Sweet Readers, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend with Family and Friends. My Mom is still here visiting from Germany and we've been busy shopping and having fun, so I haven't been able to blog about much. But I do want to share some new treasures from our shopping adventures. Such as these awesome 24x24 pillows I found at Target, from their Threshold Collection. 

Find me today at MUST LOVE JUNK

Hello sweet readers, today I am so honored to be featured at Susan's beautiful blog Must Love Junk and Kris's blog Junk Chic Cottage for "Saturday Spotlight"
I can't thanks these ladies enough for even thinking of me.....Here is the link if you want to take a look.....xoxoxo Christine
Must Love Junk

A little Easter Decorating On The Front Porch

Hello and Happy Weekend Everyone. It was a gorgeous Spring day in Olympia today! I really enjoyed spending some time outside, decorating the front porch a little, before Easter has come and gone....

I will keep it short and sweet today, my Mom surprised me for my 40th Birthday with a visit from Germany, so we have Company and I am a lucky girl!!!

I always prefer to decorate with natural things

Serious Cuteness Alert -- The Real Easter Bunny

Hello Peeps, I hope you are all having a wonderful Spring so far. I wanted to share some CUTE pictures I took this week of our son's "American Fuzzy Lop" Bugsy

So are you ready for the real Easter Bunny?

Hiding A Thermomstat In Plain Sight

Hello Lovelies, today I want to share a wall in our house that I have been hating for a long time. It is a narrow wall right next to our Family room. There is a Thermostat right smack in the middle of it, so I never really knew what to do with it. So I just left it naked for 5 years....LOL

But after getting into the beautiful "Land Of Blogging" and seeing all those beautiful Gallery Walls everyone seems to be doing these days, I went through my house and found a bunch of homeless junk I had stuffed away in a closet.

Just Sharing Some Bunny Cuteness

 Good Evening and Happy Weekend Everyone, I had a plan for a project this weekend, but it turns out I actually haven't been feeling all that well for a couple of days. Our son was sick earlier this week and I caught it a couple of days later. This morning I had a major headache and didn't crawl out of bed until 10 AM. So all I managed to do today was a few chores like cleaning the Rabbit and Tortoise cages, folding laundry and I got to watch a bunch of TV laying on the couch. But I do have a little something cute to share from around here this weekend.

Here is a little Bunny Cuteness ..Bugsy made himself comfy in a little crate by the fireplace...too cute! And he fits perfectly!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Hello Lovelies, I have been busy up-cycling a bunch of little things around the house. So sit back and enjoy...."Show and Tell" is about to begin....
Pottery Barn Inspired Chalk Board Frames

A while back I noticed these cute Chalk Board frames in the latest Pottery Barn Kids catalog. I've been meaning do "DIY" some for a while. 

http://www.potterybarnkids.com

Moss Lovin on the Front Porch

Hello and Happy Weekend Everyone....After I took down all Christmas Decorations this winter,  I just kind of let the front porch go for a while. Everything was BLAH and uninviting  looking out there. Today I finally got to it . I was shooting for a "Wintery" look with moss accents. Soon I will have to change everything again for Spring and Easter...LOL...

A Copy Cat "Demijohn" And The Problem With Blogging

Hello Sweets, I hope you all had  a wonderful weekend. I have long been looking for a "Vintage Demijohn" with a wooden crate around it. While browsing through T.J. Maxx this week I found these 2 large glass bottles for a good price.

I placed them in a wicker basket that I already had and dressed them up with some twine and little iron numbers. I also stuffed some string lights in them.

Happy Valentines Day

Hello and Happy Weekend everyone. So I keep seeing all these awesome Valentine posts everywhere in Blogland. I never really have decorated much for V-Day, not really sure why. However, I always like to take pictures and make my own Valentines Day cards, so today I got busy with my Model. 

My Newest Crush -- Furs and Cowhides

Hello and happy weekend everyone, today I want to share a new crush with you ....Furs and Cowhides....Seems that they are everywhere these days.....Around Christmas-time I purchased this fake throw fur from World Market.

Our Tiny Mudroom

Hello Peeps, today I want to share our tiny mudroom. Actually, I shouldn't' even call it a room, it's really just a little area you walk into as you enter the house from the garage. It has been driving me crazy for a while now. It's mostly a big mess of shoes and coats. So I finally started cleaning up and decorating a bit. We actually have another coat closet just around the corner, so I moved everything we don't use on a daily basis in there, let's hope we can keep this area a little less cluttered for a while.

I actually forgot to take a BEFORE picture..sorry! I was too excited to start de-cluttering....

Our Play Room

Hello sweeties, fist off I need to thank each one of you who left such sweet and heartfelt condolences on the loss of our Newfoundland Brucie last week. If you missed that post you can click here HERE to catch up. It was truly touching to read all of the sweet words and sharing your losses with me. I miss my little bear lots!

So today I want to share our Playroom with you. I don't think I ever shared the bonus room here before. Mostly, cuz it's always a mess...lol

Having To Say Good Bye

I've been taking a break from blogging these past few days. My heart is heavy. We had to say good bye to our 11 1/2 year old Newfoundland Brucie this Friday. He was an old boy for the breed, but I don't  think you are ever ready for the final good bye.
Last Friday morning his stomach bloated, totally unexpected and we had to let him go.
 I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures of our gentle giant over the years, celebrating each season with one lucky Baby Boy who got to grow up with him.