What Inspires You- Finding Your Signature Decor Style Part One

What Inspires You- Finding Your Signature Decor Style Part One

by | Jun 8, 2023 | Homemaking

Frankly I’ve been feeling a bit bored with my home…Our house projects have been focused on the outside this year, and looking around I realize that a lot of my decor has been the same for some time. Yes, I’ve changed out my vignettes, and centerpieces but overall… the same. This is not to say that over that past year I haven’t bought a new thing or two for my home; I have purchased several prints of original art… but haven’t gotten them framed and on display yet! 

As I looked around I realized that I don’t feel inspired by my home… I like my home’s decor but it’s missing something! I’ve felt like this for a while and, while some people ruminate on trying to find a solution for world peace, I have been dwelling for a while on why I feel bored and a little stilted by my home. 

I am not a minimalist (see my post Who Told You) but I do prefer a less cluttered home. I identify as a Creative and as such I also crave color, and pattern, and some bright, playful splashes in my home’s decor. I’ve always thought of myself as a little bit of a daisy. Let me explain: 

I love the pulled together refinement of a really tight color palette- and I think it’s important to have a tight color palette- however I need a pop with my refinement or else I find it too uptight for me. For my friend’s wedding she had a tight color palette of a few shades of dusty blue and purples… I love that! It was gorgeous and very elegant! For my wedding? I had a dusty sky blue for my bridesmaids dresses, and sunflowers and daisies in our bouquets. I tend a little more to the fun pops of color, with a very neutral base for my style. That is true for my home decor, as well as how I dress! 

Often when you are creating your signature style it can, and many times should, reflect who you are as a person. If you are a relaxed person you probably won’t have a very formal home. In just about all areas of my life I like a neutral, classic base, and then I add pops of color and personality from there. I’m not overly maximalist when I dress, but neither am I super sleek and sophisticated. Our homes are an extension of us and should reflect our personalities accordingly! 

For a while I had been pursuing magazines and books, wondering if I needed to change my decor at a more fundamental level, but I still Liked my home.  It’s just that I was just a little bored. I had taken time ( 3+ years!) to get the base of my home how I liked it and now it just didn’t sit right with me to change it. 

First takeaway: If you took time and thoughtfully designed your home to reflect you, you probably don’t need to change everything the instant you get bored with

I also am not one who wants to rush out and buy things, especially things that don’t enthrall me, just because I am bored. I want to love the things I am bringing into my home and I want them to have a purpose! 

This discovery made me realize that 1) I don’t need to change up the core of my home’s style, and 2) I needed to indulge my creative side a little bit more than I had been. 

So what tangible steps do I need to take to bring more personality into my home? I started noticing what things made me feel excited, inspired, or just like curling up with a good book! These things are what make my house feel like a hoe to me so I took note and decided to start incorporating more of these things into my home.  

When I look at vintage floral fabric, with pops of fun color, I smile. When I see a cool vintage item and bring it into my home, my home starts to have a little more weight, a little more of that warm, lived in feel. And when I look at some of the art I have collected over the years, I think of the fun place; a gettysburg vacation, the city’s arts festival, and lucky yard sales where I found these treasures. These are what I want more of in my life. 

The vintage things. The things that evoke that collected feel.  Timeless elements.  And the pieces that bring that inspirational/ artsy feel from some of these pieces. 

We will talk more about the importance of naming your unique style in an upcoming blog post, but until then if you are feeling less than infatuated with your home I hope you spend some time thinking about what feeling you think your home is missing; what do you want more of in your life? What do you want to feel more often in your life? And think about what things evoke these feelings for you! 

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

What to Do When You Are Feeling Bored with Your Home

Capsule Decor

How to Create a Cohesive Color Palette

A Prayer for the Graduate and the Long Since Graduated

A Prayer for the Graduate and the Long Since Graduated

by | Jun 4, 2023 | Sunday Scripture

This is the day that the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. 

Psalm 118:24 NASB

 

It is early summer, a season of new beginnings and new endings. A season of goodbyes, and a season of new opportunities. For the graduating: this is a new season, this may be your first last time that you have experienced in a big way in your life- congratulations! Enjoy. For those who have long since graduated; remember the excitement you felt as you embarked on a new venture of your own choosing, for the first time? 

 

Enjoy everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or lastime: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory. – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. 

 

This is a new season, and whether you are graduating from high school, college, or have been graduated for so many years that you’ve lost count, I pray you gain back some of the wonder you had when you first graduated. I pray this is a season of refreshment, of new discoveries, of feeling hope and joyful ambition as you embark upon or continue in the work He has called you to do. 

 

May you have joyful ambition even if it is yet another season much like the last for you. In the mundane, monotonous everyday tasks, I pray for rest for your soul, and joy in the everyday little miracles; a sunrise, a rainbow, sunlight illuminating a field at the day’s end- little showers of grace, every one. 

 

If you are moving on from something big this year, I pray you charge towards your target filled with the naivete of one who doesn’t know how big life’s obstacles can be. I pray you are shining light in your new endeavors, I pray when you are halfway through,and feel as though you want to give up, that you remember the joy of starting this grand new thing in your life, and keep going. 

 

For those who are just happy to see sunny days and are not expecting much out of this summer season, I pray that whatever your hand finds to do, you will do it with all your heart. I pray that you remember that His mercies are new every morning. I pray He will refresh and revitalize you, and I pray that you will remember that this life was exciting once, and it can be again! He has made each of us a special job to do and that may we find fulfillment in that calling! 

 

I pray we can try to look at the world again through the eyes of the graduate, excited for what lies ahead, excited to see what life has in store, and expecting more good than bad from this life. 

 

Dear graduates, old and new,  when life knocks you down, I pray you remember the One who can help you stand back up. I pray you remember that life is made of seasons. I pray you remember that when life knocks you down, knocks you off course, or doesn’t turn out the way you wish it had, that we serve a Redeemer who can set the captive free, restore life to the dead, and make our paths straight. I pray that in the seasons when life is going so well, that you choose joy, and revel in His goodness, and live wide open to all the blessings be showered down upon you. 

 

We serve a risen Savior, one of love and peace, I pray we remember to live in His peace, this day, and all the days moving forward. Amen.

Disclosure

Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!

 

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Gettysburg Visitor’s Guide and Books pairing 

by | Jun 2, 2023 | Book Nook

I’ve decided to sprinkle in a few posts that are a little different this summer. It’s summer so I hope you get to do some sort of travel. Living in Pennsylvania, one of our favorite places to visit year after year is Gettysburg! Gettysburg is a little historical town which had the unfortunate job of hosting the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and was the turning point of the Civil War. Since my family and I have traveled there most years, we have amassed our favorite things to do and places to go while there and, of course, I have several books I would recommend reading to get more out of your visit—and to enjoy even if you are not able to visit Gettysburg! 

The Battlefield

You can drive, you can take a bus tour, or you can hire a guide to drive you around the battlefield in your car for a personalized experience. One of our favorite ways to experience the battlefield is to bike it! There is something about being out in the open air that allows you to take in the battlefield and what it would feel like to be marching across it, that you just cannot appreciate the same way from a car. 

Reading Companion: Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Museums

The Visitor Center

Roughly 10 years ago they redid the Visitor Center and wow—is it nice! The museum inside the Visitor Center takes you through the Civil War chronologically. While this isn’t imperative if you are trying to see as much of Gettysburg as possible (I would block at least a half day for this), it is a great refresher if you are rusty on your Civil War history. 

Also found inside the Visitor Center is the Gettysburg Diorama—a large painting going all the way around a circular room. A narrator and spotlight explain the parts of the battle depicted in the painting. Again, a great overview of the battle. 

Seminary Ridge Museum

This just recently opened but I am so glad that it did! The old seminary, located on top of a hill known as Seminary Ridge, was used as a lookout point for the battle of Gettysburg. The cupola on top of the seminary gives you a panoramic view of Gettysburg. If you decide to see the museum (which focuses mostly on the history of the seminary and the part it played in the battle of Gettysburg). I highly recommend paying the extra for the cupola tour. You will be able to see and hear about the troop movements. I had been to Gettysburg so many times, but never had as clear of an understanding regarding the actual battlefield logistics as I did after taking this tour.

Museum of Gettysburg

Located on Baltimore Street, my dad and I were poking into the little shops and stores, taking in the bullet holes stills found in the bricks of the houses in Gettysburg, when we happened upon this little museum, which looked more like a house than a museum. What a hidden gem! This museum has artifacts such as a mummy’s head, Adolf Hitler’s foot stool, Marilyn Monroe’s undergarments, an object’s from the Kennedy assassination. At this time, only donations are required to enter this museum so don’t miss it!

Reading Companion: Killing Kennedy by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

The Horse Soldier

This is a privately owned antique store, which sells antiques such as Civil War uniforms, guns and bayonets from the Civil War, as well all the other detritus from war that you might imagine. Go visit some of the other museums—then come to this one and see the price tag for all the objects you grumbled about having to pay to see—it will put things in perspective! 

Human Interest

Gettysburg Aftermath Night Walking Tour by Grave Digger Tours

If you go to Gettysburg you will see just about every shop on Baltimore Street (one of the main thoroughfares) have nightly ghost tours which you can go on to hear the ghostly history of Gettysburg. I am not a ghost tour person. But I am a huge fan of the aftermath tour! Take a tour of Gettysburg in the evening and hear about how the residents of Gettysburg coped after war left thousands of dead men and horses on their land. Many people moved away due to the stench. Learn what one widow with ten children did to save her family after all the dead left on her property ruined her well’s drinking water…. 

Reading Companion: The Last Full Measure by Ann Rinaldi 

The Jennie Wade House

As bloody as the battle of Gettysburg was, only one civilian was killed during the battle—young Jennie Wade. For a human interest angle take this tour! Though called the Jennie Wade house, this house is in fact Jennie Wade’s sister’s house, who Jennie was staying with for a few days, as her sister had just had a baby. See what life was like for those who had war come to their homes.

Reading Companion: The Slopes of War, a Novel of Gettysburg, by N. A. Perez 

Ten Pin Alley and the Tillie Pierce House

Ten Pin Alley, like a bowling alley, and the Tillie Pierce house are again another great human interest angle to explore if you are visiting Gettysburg. See how young Tillie Pierce survived as a young girl during the battle of Gettysburg. 

Reading Companion: Two Girls of Gettysburg, by Lisa Klein

Other Things to See

Evergreen Cemetery

If you come to Gettysburg, you can’t leave without making a quick stop by Evergreen Cemetery and taking a moment to stand under the arches where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address. 

Eisenhower’s Estate

Located just off of the battlefield is the Eisenhower estate where you can take a tour of this president’s home! 

Dining

There is no shortage of good places to eat in Gettysburg! While we don’t typically eat out a ton when we come to Gettysburg, a few places we really enjoy and have heard other rave about are: 

O’Rourke’s 

Pub-style food, reasonably priced and very tasty. 

Appalachian Brewing Company 

This brewery has great burgers too! 

Coffee 82

Located on main drag to where many of these shops are located, get your morning started off with a great cup of coffee with some innovative flavor options.

There is no shortage of things to see and do in Gettysburg. We haven’t seen it all! As I’m sure is evidenced by this post, I highly encourage you to add a trip to Gettysburg to your bucket list. If you cannot come now, make sure to visit at some point in the future! 

 

Disclosure

Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!

On the Right Track

by | Jun 1, 2023 | Sunday Scripture

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3: 5-6 NIV

 

We were lost, and from the bars on all of the store windows we were in one of the not so great sections of Philadelphia. And it was getting dark. My Mother had come with me to Philly for a work conference I was attending, and we had decided to go out for Chinese food for dinner. I should probably mention here that we are a little directionally challenged. If someone gives us directions and says, “It’s so easy, you won’t be able to miss it!” you better believe we will find a way to miss it! In fact earlier that day, my mother had dropped me off at the conference, and while just trying to get back to our hotel room, had made a wrong turn that sent her over a bridge into New Jersey! 

 

We had started the evening by searching for one Chinese restaurant near us and using our GPS had gotten there. That restaurant did not have the orange chicken, dripping with that tangy orange glaze that we were in the mood for so we decided to try again with one of the many Chinese restaurants in the area. The second restaurant didn’t seem that clean, but there was another restaurant 3 minutes away… next thing we knew we were in a seedy-looking area of Philly, where every restaurant and convenience store had bars over the windows. On top of that it was getting dark. 

 

We tried using the GPS to get back to the first restaurant we stopped at- general Tso’s would be just fine instead of orange chicken-  but the ramp we needed to get on to get back to our hotel was, and this may sound weird; blocked by a king size mattress across the road. Why was there a king size mattress on the road? We didn’t know but given the roads, we decided it was better to try another way than to try to get out and move it. Perhaps other people felt the same and that accounted for why a mattress was still on the road! Eventually, we were able to get back on track and we ended the night eating our chinese food, in the safety and comfort of our hotel room! 

 

This work situation has a lot of parallels to our spiritual life too! Take David for example: He was the man after God’s own heart, but he sure messed up along the way. He started off strong in his faith, rightfully giving God all the glory for the defeat of Goliath. He went into battle and gave God all the glory, he spared King Saul when he had the chance to harm him because Saul was God’s anointed king over Israel. Then David decided to stay home from a battle, perhaps he should have gone… Instead, he committed adultery, and instead of confessing what he had done, he furthered his sin by committing murder. 

 

Just like that David had veered off the path and was way in the weeds. God sent the prophet Nathan to call out David in his sin. David had two choices: he could confess and repent, or like Saul he could have hardened his heart and deny his wrongdoing. Thankfully David confessed his wrong and got back on the right track. 

 

We all face this same choice in our lives. We are human, making mistakes and finding ourselves in sin is going to happen. But when it does we can either confess and repent, or we can deny our sin, but denying our sin won’t bring us closer to God, instead it will drive us further apart, and like my mother and myself in Philly we will find ourselves making wrong turn after wrong turn, getting further away from God’s goodness and grace. However, if we repent, and get back on the right track, then we will find ourselves growing closer again to our heavenly father and the comfort of our Eternal Home. 

 

 

 

Disclosure 

Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!

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Outdoor Decorating Ideas for 2023

by | May 26, 2023 | Homemaking

 love being outside. I love summer! And, I love enjoying the outdoors in the nice weather. We enjoy immensely and use our front porch/deck and our fire pit area in the summer. On our front porch, which faces west, we have an outdoor sofa and chair set which is great for eating dinner or dessert on warm summer nights. We also have a little bistro furniture set on our east-facing balcony that is perfect for drinking coffee and watching the sunrise. We shall not speak of my garden area as it is still a work in progress (maybe they will be fit for public consumption next year?!?!).

This setup works great for us because this is how we use our space. I am excited that we have been able to redo our fire-ring area this spring as it helps us utilize a great space that we have, but sometimes fail to utilize, since it needs fixing up. What I have found is that while yes, my gardens still need lots of attention and I am slowly making progress on those, putting a little bit of work into areas we use most makes the biggest bang for our buck and is the most gratifying. In this post I am sharing some different outdoor setups that I have seen. My hope is that one of these will spur a take away for you of how you can tweak the space that you have to make it work for you. So often we think we need more, different, bigger spaces but I have found that oftentimes we have what we need, it’s just a matter of tweaking it and getting creative to turn what we already have into our own little paradise! 

What Do You Need to Make the Space Work for You? 

Do you need a big umbrella to provide some shade for you when you are outside? Is your deck or patio in need of some softness? Try adding an outdoor area rug to soften the area. Do you live in an area where the evenings are often cool? Add a throw (perhaps one you don’t care too much about) to that area so it is not one more thing you have to run inside to grab when you are trying to enjoy a few minutes of quiet on an evening. 

Maybe you just have a tiny little outdoor area that isn’t big enough to fit a table and two chairs—can it fit one chair? Maybe a little garden stool too on which to set a drink or a book? Some of us have large areas, some of us have tiny outdoor areas, but if you have even just a tiny balcony, adding a chair and a plant can bring your space to life.

Rehab and Refresh

Does your outdoor area just need a refresh or does it need some rehab? If the side of your house is turning black and green, it probably just needs a good power washing. However, if your deck is turning black and getting splintery then it might need some rehab. 

Power Washing

 

You can get your own power washer, you can hire professionals to do this, or you can scrub the side of your house by hand and then spray it down with a hose. No matter what course you choose to take, I think you will be shocked how much this can improve the look of your home.

Rehab

 

We have a wooden structure encircling our fire pit and from this structure we have hanging wooden swings. This year we had to reinforce this structure; while we were at it we realized how rough the chairs were getting. Not only was the stain starting to peel but the wood itself was getting rough. After talking with several people more knowledgeable about this than myself, I discovered that there are thick stains out there that will fill in the groves in the wood. The product I am using is Superdeck by Sherwin Williams, but there are similar products by other companies.  My chairs are turning out great! (Stay tuned for a post coming soon on the step-by-step process on how I refinished my chairs.)

In addition to this stain, there is also a product called a deck resurfacer which basically does the same thing but is made for a little rougher wear. These resurfaces will leave your deck with a rougher texture, like sandpaper, so take that into account, but it might beat rebuilding your deck if the wood isn’t too far gone! 

Add Flowers

 

Flowers are nature’s jewelry! Don’t underestimate what they can do for a space! Even just adding one flower in a pot on an outdoor table can improve the feel of your space and make you want to spend more time there. 

Add More Outdoor furniture

Do you have a table and chairs outside? If you have a partially covered outdoor area or just live in a mild climate, consider adding a china cabinet outside so you have dishware and other items right at your fingertips! 

Along those same lines, maybe you have found a piece of furniture at a yard sale or flea market that has seen better days; try refinishing it with a heavy duty stain or varnish such as Polyurethane, to make it suitable for outdoor exposure. Adding storage and making your outdoor space feel more homey will help increase its use. 

Lighting

Stringing a few Edison-style lights or café lights outside can make it feel like you are at a cute beach-side bistro. Of course, they are lights which means you’ll have more light outside—perfect for reading at night. You can attach poles to your railings to add height to string the lights between. If you have a patio instead of a railing, you can pour cement into cute pots to secure the poles to give yourself something to string the lights to and from.

Lanterns

Lanterns are another source of adding light; using a decorative lantern with a battery operated candle will add some ambience, while using a working oil lamp or lantern will shed some serious light on your area.

Tiki Torches 

For a more tropical feel, adding some Tiki torches will help to add some mood lighting to your outdoor area. Citronella fuel is one option you can use to keep the bugs away while lighting your area. Obviously though, you do need to be more careful around any source of light that houses an open flame. 

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

 

Ways to Use Your Outdoor Space More this Summer

Centerpieces for Late Spring and Early Summer

5 Historical Fiction Reads to Kick off Your Summer