a home decor blog, making it pretty one space at a time
Have you ever wanted to design your own wallpaper that you can use in your house? I have! I’ve used custom wallpaper in three spots around my home and it feels so special! I thought today I could show you how to make your own wallpaper for walls even if you’re not that artistic or great at graphic design.
Hi friends! I thought we could do a recap of 2022 with my top posts. After that, I’m going to share some of the project plans I have for 2023. I’ve been on break and spent some of my down time brainstorming my next projects. There’s some exciting plans that I’m excited to share with you!
For Christmas this year, I decided to make my son a puppet theater. I recently saw a vintage Guignol puppet theater from the 1800’s in France for kids. The design is SO cute! But you can’t buy them anymore so I decided to make a DIY puppet theater. I hope my son loves this! If you want to make one for a child in your life too, here’s the instructions.
I have been really looking forward to putting up my Christmas decor this year! Last year I added a bunch of really cool stuff, then we spent most of the winter in Florida (when we owned a home there). Since I wasn’t able to really enjoy it, I’ve been looking forward to this year! Want to come on a colorful Christmas home tour with me?!
Ready for an IKEA hack?! I’ve been wanting to make a dollhouse nightstand inspired by Pottery Barn’s. I think it’ll be really cute for my son’s room (though he’s obsessed with cats, so it’s a cat house to him). I thought I’d take the IKEA Songesand nightstand and make it over to be a DIY dollhouse nightstand. Anything to add more mini houses. (my favorite motif!) around!
To start off, here’s a look at the Pottery Barn Dollhouse nightstand. I love how sweet the legs, door, and windows are. I’d like to add more color and personality. But overall, I think this is adorable! Though too expensive for me at $449 plus the price to ship it.
For YEARS I’ve been wanting to make this tree skirt. I spotted the original for $328, which is too much money for me. So I decided this is the year to make my own DIY rainbow tree skirt! It easy to do, just time consuming. I did a no sew version, but will share some different methods to make this too if you want the same look.
I’ve been trying to be better at cleaning my house. So every morning after Don is in school I clean up the clutter, wipe off the countertops, and then vacuum and mop. To simplify things, I’ve been looking for a way to vacuum and mop with one machine. I ended up buying the Bissell Wet Dry vac and for an amazing price! I thought I’d share how you can save money buying certified refurbished on eBay.
This post is sponsored by eBay
We recently redid our main bedroom and as part of that, completely re-did the closet. I’ve never had a fancy closet, so I figured that this was my chance! I decided to do an Ikea Pax Hack. So I used the affordable IKEA wardrobes and then added trim to build them in. I thought I’d walk through the build in case you want to try this too.
There is nothing I love more than a cute, homemade advent calendar! It’s festive, a great way to make each day special in December, and there are so many options to make them fit perfectly in your decor! This year I was inspired to make some cozy stockings and hats in a rainbow of colors. If rainbow isn’t your thing, these can be made in any color!
This is a great project because it’s small to store and easy to pull out to enjoy annually. The little hats and stocking stack really compactly and then they go in with my other Christmas decor bins. I keep them on the yarn I hang them on so I just pull that out and re-hang at the beginning of the season.
What is Advent? Traditionally, it’s the season leading up to Christmas as celebrated by Christian churches. This was a time of preparation and celebration. In some churches wreaths were lit with candles, or Christmas trees were put up, or doors were marked with chalk to count the days leading up to Christmas.
The first advent calendar was printed circles in a German newspaper in the 19th century. They were for kids to cut out as a countdown to Christmas. Later, in the early 20th century, printed calendars were made. Then a few years later, around 1920, wooden advent calendars with little doors were first sold in Germany.
If you aren’t Christian, but celebrate Christmas or just want to do an advent calendar- here’s a language tidbit for you! Advent comes from the Latin word “advents” which means arrival. So just think of it as a way to countdown to when Santa comes! Advent calendars can work for all families (especially since they’ve been so heavily commercialized- ha!).
Thank you to A Beautiful Mess for the inspiration for this project.
This year I planted zinnias and they absolutely thrived! They have 100% been the highlight of my garden this year. I decided to save the seeds from my mature flowers so I could plant the same variety next year. The good news is that this is super easy! So if you have a zinnia plant- you never have to buy seeds again. Here’s a tutorial for harvesting zinnia seeds.
How do you get seeds from zinnia? You let a mature flower dry on the plant. Next, cut off the head and let it dry an additional week. Then, pull the petals from the dried zinnia. At the base of the petals will be an arrow shaped seed. Pull those off the petal and let dry for an additional few days. Once the seeds are gathered they can be stored in a seed packet or envelope.
