'Tis the Season! Preparing For the Holidays Coffee Date

Hey everyone!

It's nearing about a month to Christmas, and I have un-officially decided that I'm kick starting the season  in my house. Christmas is my favorite, thanks to my Mom and late-Grandmother who are Christmas nuts! I like to have a solid month, if not more, of soaking up the splendor that is a fully decorated home. I come by it honestly, what can I say.

I started earnestly by just placing a few "wintry" decorations around, a few snowmen, a cute bear in a sled, but this past weekend I threw caution to the wind and dug out my boxes from storage (aka. my in law's basement, mini home probs)

Let's sit down and have a coffee date, and discuss Holiday decor!

Christmas decorating is always a family affair! Usually just after Remembrance Day, we gather at my Mom and Dad's to put up their lights. My parents' house is a big two story with a covered porch, and lighting it all up like my Mom likes usually takes some fancy footwork on the roof, which is the method behind our madness for putting them up so early... nobody wants to run around on a slippery roof! Roof crew used to consist of me and Dad, but since Eric's joined our family Dad's passed the torch on to him.. lucky Eric! It's always a fun day with hot chocolates, lots of laughs, and Mom usually cooks up a yummy dinner. Can't go wrong!

Eric and I since decided to piggyback off that idea and usually put our lights up the weekend after. It's not as big a family affair.. but within our little family we always have a good time. Our kitties, Oliver and Beatrice, were ready for the occasion and excited to lend a hand. 

I captured this sweet moment between the two of them while they were playing around in the yard, while we were getting everything set up. I swear they are best friends deep down!

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Beatrice was so excited she scurried up the ladder to help Eric with the hard part! Unraveling the lights and clipping them to the gutters! Just kidding, she just batted around wiggling light bulbs as Eric clipped them in place. But it was really cute, and made for some cute pictures!

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Our lights are so easy they usually only take us an hour or two, we were lucky enough to find a big long set that is 84 feet long! Our house is only 74 feet, so the lights fit perfectly, with only a few left over! They came on a spool too, so we just unwind, clip, and plug, and done! It makes for no headache, and lots of time to enjoy the afternoon. With all our spare time, we decided to take it a step further and set up our tree!

Our tree is artificial and pre-lit. We bought it with the gift cards we had gotten from our wedding. It's been through 3 Christmases so far with us and its still going strong!

I'd like to get a taller one, since this one was bought to fit the lower ceilings of our apartment, but it's just so nice and such a breeze to put together, that until it gets smelly (like some trees do once they are too old) or lights start going out, I'm going to keep it. I propped it up with some cute wooden crates, and covered those with my burlap tree skirt. It really goes with the rustic, country chic look I go for in my house, and gives more room for presents. Once it's packed in with gifts, you really can't tell anyways!

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I then spent the evenings this weekend tidying up my house for the guest-filled Christmas season. I put up the rest of my Holiday decor, and added a few fun new touches. One of which was this adorable birch branch window decoration. I found a beautiful, weathered looking branch from our birch tree out front, and hung it on the window with some ribbon and tape, and hung some ornaments off it! It looks so rustic and cute.

I'm going to tidy it up with some bows where the ribbons hang, and getting clear tape instead of my fancy masking tape to secure it to the panes, but it was too cute not to share right away!

A beautifully decorated home does not have to be expensive!

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Lastly, it was project guest-room this weekend at my home! I finally got the two rooms cleaned out and ready for Holiday guests. This room is my pride and joy. We painted the walls a sunny, pale yellow a few weeks back, and I finally got Eric's old bed situated inside. We outfitted it with quilt Eric's Nanny made for us, and I finally got some decor situated. I added Holly berries for a bit of Holiday cheer, because as you can see from the bed, this room has become Christmas HQ! Look for a room tour of this pretty room coming soon!

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Well that's it everyone! I was busy busy getting my home Holiday and winter season ready this weekend! Finally everything is pretty and cozy, and we're just waiting for a fresh blanket of snow... and of course... Santa!

Until next time,

xoxo - Court

Decor : A Sweet Spring Refresh

Hey guys!

It's no secret I love decorating, and when spring rolls around my creativity really starts flowing. Suddenly, Pinterest is full of bright, cheery, home decor posts, the sun starts shining, and I get inspired!

Now, this could go one of two ways: budget friendly and chic, or budget obliterating and also pretty chic.

Of course I chose budget friendly. It wouldn't be me if I didn't!

I'm a huge follower of the "shop what you've got" philosophy, because not only does it save you money, but it also helps you see the treasures you already have in a better light, and refresh multiple rooms at once! More enjoyment = more bang for your buck, which makes it an even smarter purchase! How can you go wrong??

I literally only bought 2 new pieces for my living room, the rest were moved around and harvested from other rooms. Keep reading to check out my tips!

Pictured above is what you see when you first walk into my living room. The couch we bought from my Grandmother when she moved, and are in incredible shape, and so comfy cozy. I love the look of blankets draped over furniture, it just gives such a warm, lived in feel. The large white one I've had for years, and the grey fuzzy one was a Christmas gift. The pillows were purchased from Target before it closed with a gift card I got for Christmas.

The only new pieces are the carpet, and the lampshade. Both were purchased at Walmart for around $20 each. The lamp was given to me, and I re-painted it white. It doesn't really work anymore, there's a loose wire somewhere, but I use it mainly as decoration and for the bite built in stand on it.

I adore this carpet! It's small, but the print is so pretty, and provides a little interest for the eye in the room, tying together the colors I have. It's also really nice to have something soft and cozy to put your feet on when relaxing on the couch. The cats love it, too!

I had to show a close up of my gorgeous curtain sheers, which were purchased at Walmart when we bought the house last July. They were also only around $20. They are this adorable, shabby chic, country vibe, the exact style I love love love! Everyone who comes in gives me so many sweet compliments on them, and I love the way they flutter in a summer breeze.

To the left of the couch is a little love seat, aka the cats' chair. 90% of the time it's covered in a quilt so they don't unwittingly claw it up with their paws. They're good kitties and don't claw furniture, but sometimes when they play it just happens. I really only uncover it for pictures or when friends come over. On the plus side, how cute are my little John Deere accessories? The blanket was my husbands baby blanket, and the pillow was a gift to my husband. John Deere is our thing!

Beside the love seat is the adorable Target-inspired end table feautured in this post!

The circle chair is beside that, a house favourite. This thing has a serious vortex, everyone who comes over is sucked into this chair, and it's so comfortable!

Previously, I had old wooden crates stacked against this wall like shelves, but I decided I wanted to use them for something else. To fill up the dead space, I brought over a cute white mirror that came with a dresser I plan on re-finishing for the guest room. I love the dresser, but am not a huge fan of mirrors attached to them, it just feels so 90's to me. But the mirror was big, the frame a nice colour, and the glass in excellent shape, so I knew I had to do something.

I had it in my bedroom, but it was really just too awkward in there. I decided to bring it out and place it agains the wall to open up the room more. I then placed my potato box come end table up against it. My sequin shade lamp was the perfect topper, because when the sun hits it just right in that spot it fills the room with glitter! Also, the light bounces off the mirror when the lamp is on, filling up the room with more light.

I hate the way movies look in a tv stand, it just looks so bachelor pad-ish. I decided to designate my wooden boxes as inserts to house Eric and I's growing DVD collection. I love the end result. It has that country vibe, and is neat and organized. The very bottom centre box hides all the ugly cords, and the XBOx 360 that is used like once a year. It's simple to pull out if we decide to use anything behind there.

The basket on top houses controllers, cords, and my laptop when I'm not using it. I really only use it for downloading music every few weeks. Most of my blogging is done from my iPhone and my computer at work after hours, because my laptop now is pretty old and slow. I'm saving up to hopefully get a MacBook sometime, but for now I'm happy with what I have! It makes it so I can work on my blog anywhere, anytime, which is really rather convenient!

So as you can see, it's really easy to freshen up a room for the season of sunshine with just a bit of creativity and very little money! I love the way the room came together!

What's on your agenda for your home this spring?

Decor: What's Old is New Again

Hey guys!

We had one day of Spring-like weather here last week, and that was totally enough to ignite spring fever for me. Although two days later we were buried under 30 more centimetres of snow, inside my house it's spring, and nobody can tell me different!

With that mindset, Eric and I have launched on a few little projects. Project one is hallway/computer area cleaning, painting, and organizing, and two is project guest room. Most of our friends live out of town, and I want a cozy, inviting place for them to stay, should they choose to spend the night. The guest room will also be, eventually, turned into our child's room when we have one (not for a while yet, people) and I wanted to get a head start on gathering nice furniture and things our future child will enjoy for years to come.

Project Spare Room was more going to be a late spring-early summer project, just because it's such a bugger to clean out the rooms of all the junk we've gathered in a short year. Also, there's a lot of nice things that I either have duplicates of from wedding showers, and just things that are nice, but aren't my taste I wanted to yard sale. Now, I don't know if any of you are reading from Southern New Brunswick, but if you aren't there's snow banks up past my head (I'm 5 foot 3) and I sincerely doubt I'll be seeing yard sale weather until July, so I wanted to hold off. I mean, it's a spare room, I can just close the door and pretend it's pretty, right?

Eric, apparently, says no.

It all got kick started into gear when Eric's Dad showed up with a beautiful dresser, an amazing lamp, and a cute little night stand, from a lady he was doing carpentry work for and was just giving it away. He knew Eric and I were looking for little extra furniture for our spare rooms, and snatched them up. Boy, was I glad!

The dresser is in immaculate shape, a beautiful rustic white color, with tons of space for our off season clothes so they're not tying up space in our closet, and eventually kiddo's clothes. It also has a mirror that we can attach if we want, however I'm not sure if I want to attach it just yet... I'll have to see how the room unfolds. I do know for sure, I want to get a burlap runner for it, and set that lamp on top of it, with a few decor-y things. It will look stunning, I can't wait to get a post up about that spare room.

The most gorgeous lamp of life, excuse the messy kitchen and eaten cupcake wrapper....

But on to things I can actually take pictures of and post about! The most easily fixed up of all the things I got that night was the night stand, and it comes with a little back story.

As stated in the news, Target Canada is closing. Which made me sad, because it was one of my favourite stores. Because of some of their actions after the closing announcement, I chose not to support them any longer. However, there was this precious little night stand that was in my local store, that I was just dying over. It's called the South Hampton night stand, and I was just smitten. But not with the price, of course.

I had all but given up on my little night stand, although I couldn't shake how perfect it would be for this lovely lamp I had that was in desperate need of a home in my living room. We previously had a stand lamp for our living room (our living room has no in ceiling lights) and it was just plain busted, wobbily, and no good. Eric's Nanny had given me an adorable, vintage, white lamp that was just darling with a chevron lampshade, and that puppy needed a table to sit on.

Well when my father in law showed up with that stand, I nearly died. It was nearly exactly the same as my coveted Target stand!

With a quick sand and a few coats of paint in a similar grey shade, we were in business.

I also grabbed a can of gunmetal metallic spray paint and painted the base of the lamp, just to modern it up a bit. I love the finished product!

I love lamp.

So step 1 of Poject House is complete! My lamp and night stand are in place!

Now on to Step 2, finish hallway, and Step 3, guest bedroom. I can't wait to update you all with progress!