A Little Bit of Love

I've been telling you for days I would post some pictures of our Valentine decor.  It's not much, but I did finally snap some pictures.  All you really need is a little bit of love to make your home feel special.  

This is the cute little banner my oldest son brought me from work.  Can I just say, having two of our sons working at Hobby Lobby is a HUGE blessing in my life?  One is a cashier and the other one works in the stockroom.  Between the two of them something sweet is always being brought into our house.  I love it!

My budding seamstress whipped up two pillows for our rocking chair and I just adore them!  Having a girl who sews is turning out to be a big blessing also.  

She said she is planning to keep them on her bed but through Valentine's Day

I could have them for the front porch.  Wasn't that sweet?  

(Here's a little picture I took at her sewing lesson of her making one of the pillows.)  

Also for the front porch (door) I have a little heart wreath.  I wish I could say one of us made this but we didn't.  I found it {very inexpensive} at Target and couldn't resist.  It's so cute and since I'm limited on time these days it kept me from having to make something for the front door.  I'll save that project for Spring.  

This is our kitchen table.  We are going to have a Valentine party in this very spot on Saturday.  (I've got to get my shopping done!)

The kids covered the back door in vinyl Valentine decals.  A few of the decals they colored themselves.  

The girls have been busy today making Valentines and cookies for their friends.

I guess the stool by itself  just wasn't enough.

We just used the regular Nestle Toll House recipe with a little food coloring to make these pink cookies.  My girls love everything pink.  :)

While I finished cleaning up the mess my honey read the girls a couple of Valentine's Day books.  Now they are down for a nap!  Ahhh...

So, tell me what your family does to show a little bit of love for Valentine's Day.  I love hearing what other mamas do for special days.  Please share!

Tis the Season

I finished up my Fall decorating over the weekend and I thought I would show you around today.  When it comes to decorating I don't do anything complicated and I try to spend very little dough.  It's sometimes surprising how thrifty you can be when you try. 

Here's our front porch area.

I made this wreath on Saturday.  It's just a grapevine wreath from Hobby Lobby, some stems I picked up there also, and a bow I purchased at a Farmer's Market.  I'm challenged when it comes to making bows so I purchased this one pre-made.  

My kids think I should take the flowers all the way around the wreath.  I had planned to only go this far.  What do you think?    

The dining room...

Would you believe I scored this tablecloth for three bucks?  I found it at KOHLS.  The original price was $25.99 but it was on sale for $12.99.  I had a $10 off coupon good on anything in the store.  My coupon brought the price down to $2.99 and with tax I paid $3.27!

These stems are from Hobby Lobby again.  My mother in law gave me the cool light up branches and I just love them.  I got the metal can for $10.  It was originally $19.99 at Hobby Lobby but was on sale 50 percent off.  (Have I mentioned I *heart* Hobby Lobby???)  I really like the chalkboard part on the front of the can.  You could write any sort of clever thing there. 

This is the area in the foyer I show you in pretty much every decorating post.  That's because I change it out a little bit for each holiday season.  

I picked up this little Halloween flag for a couple of dollars last summer when all things Halloween were very cheap.  

I didn't do a whole lot in the kitchen but I did put out a pumpkin tablecloth.  I prefer vinyl in the kitchen.  With six kids it's just too hard to have a cloth tablecloth on the table where we are constantly eating.  

Lastly, I'll show you the fireplace mantle in the family room - another little spot I change frequently.  I've gotten hooked on banners.  You've probably noticed that.  

Do you enjoy decorating for Fall?  Where's your favorite area to add some seasonal cheer?

Happy Spring Decorating

Hellooo!

I am sooo glad Spring is here!  Aren't you???  It's a beautiful, sunny day here in my neck of the woods.  I've had the pleasure of being outside several times today and it's so warm it makes me smile!

On that exciting note, I have a few Spring decorating pictures to share.  I've done only a bit of decorating, as we have been superdy duperdy busy, but I will show you what I've got.  I would love to see/hear what you are doing to usher in springtime too.  Feel free to leave links in my comment section or slide some pictures into my inbox.

(About that "super duper busy" thing...
I haven't had near the time to write that I would prefer.  I'm trying to keep things in proper order - My honey, my kids, our home, our school.  You know, clean underwear for my family and food on the table comes before blogging and that sort of thing.  So, if something is going to get neglected, it's my blog.  If you're checking here for new posts just know that spring is usually a busier time for me and I will get back to regular blogging soon.)

Here are a few shots of my Spring spruce up.

I've always thought it terribly difficult to decorate around electronics.  I hate the way electronics look with primitive decorating but they are a necessary evil, I suppose.

I had planned on making a banner, and had even purchased all my supplies, then I found this one.  I loved it so much I decided to put my banner making plans on hold.

I've been wanting to do a Peeps craft ever since one of my friends did this one a couple of years ago.  I put mine together the other day and it was pretty fun.  Eventually I will let the kids eat it, but for now it's just so fun to look at.

I've shown you this area by our front door in other decorating posts.  I change out the decor frequently.  It's the perfect little corner to put holiday goodies in.

The thing you see on the middle shelf is my bunny train.  I've had it for 20 years and the kids love it.  Every car on the train opens up, even the caboose.

This hutch sits in our family room and serves many different purposes throughout the year.  For right now I've got a bunny tucked in one corner and Easter books ready for reading at the other end.

Speaking of Easter books, here are some of our favorites.  All of these we've had for a long time.  We enjoy getting out our box of Easter books every Spring and re-reading our favorites.

And, every year we take a look at our Resurrection Eggs.  We've had these for close to 20 years also and we adore them.  It's one of our most loved traditions.

The girls and I made this little Easter tree for their bedroom.  It sits on their dresser and is bright and cheerful.  We simply hung plastic eggs with fishing line on a little tree I picked up on clearance.

I've just started to work on our front porch.  These cute little bunnies sit on a bench near the door and the wreath is one I made last year.

These last two pictures have nothing to do with Easter really.  They are just some new additions to my porch.  I'm showing them to you because (a) I love them and (b) to remind you that you can inexpensively add a little spring spruce up to your porch too!  Both of these items were under $20.  Little things can make a big difference especially on your front porch/door area where you greet your guests.  With each change of season I like to add a little something different to liven things up.  It's nice to hang a wreath on the door or to change out the welcome mat.  A good sweep and clean is always nice too.  Add a little something new to your front porch and see how it makes that area feel.  By the way, the rug is from Kirkland's and I believe it was $10.99.  The mail drop is from Hobby Lobby and if I remember correctly was $5.99.  See what I mean?  Cheap and easy, just the way I like it!

Happy Spring decorating!  Please send me photos of YOUR latest projects.

Bathroom Do-Over

I just finished up a re-do on the boy bathroom.  This is the bath our four sons share.  I had worked on it before but I wasn't entirely pleased so I tweaked it up.

Since everyone seems to love before/after pics, this post should make everyone happy.  That's my job, right...to make everyone happy??  hahahahaha!

Ahem...sorry...

(I just love that.)

Back to the bathroom.

Here's the before: 

Beige walls, navy shower curtain and not much else.  Pretty boring.

I had hung this little sign I love (I really should start charging, you know) and I knew we were going to need extra towel space with four boys so I picked up these hooks.  

The first thing I did for this bath was change the paint color.  This probably looks really white to you but it's actually an off-white.  It's whiter than I planned but that ended up working out perfectly.

Next, I shopped for a new shower curtain.  I'm not one to buy the first thing I see no matter how much I love it.  I'm a bargain shopper.  If you keep your eyes open you can always find deals.  I had been looking for a shower curtain for a while but I was determined to stay under $20.  I found this one for $17.  

Now the whole bathroom seems lighter and airy and fresh.  This curtain was acceptable to the boys but also works for the times when this room doubles as a guest bathroom.  Just by repainting (an inexpensive way to change any room) and replacing the shower curtain the room got larger - or so it seems.  

I found a clock (I love) on a clearance table.  It was a big table piled with junk that I almost passed by but I decided to stop and take a look and boy am I glad I did!  The original price was $24.99 but I picked it up for $7.48!  It's pretty large and it has sort of a bottle-cap look to it.  The boys love it.  They told me they were always leaving the bathroom to go to their rooms to check the time.  Now they can just look up!

Any household find under $10 is a good find to me!

I happened upon a "white" sale at Target and even though I wasn't purchasing anything white I was happy to get 20 percent off the rugs and towels I purchased.  I went with chocolate brown towels and blue/green rugs.

This do-over was so simple and fun.  Any projects going on at your house this weekend??