Fall mantle with chalkboard art
Bye, bye, Halloween mantle!
Hello, fall!
I made a pine cone garland using Thig & Thistle's tutorial, although I didn't have to punch holes in my ribbon. Bought my first chalk marker (holy moly, those things are awesome!) and created chalkboard art inspired by this Chalkboard House sign. I added some branches from my yard and dollar store pumpkins I spray painted a couple of years back and VOILA!
Recently, I looked around my home and realized I WAS DOING ALL THE THINGS.
I am lucky enough to have a husband who cooks and does most of the grocery shopping. But guess what? With church and community events and family obligations, we can go days and days without eating dinner at home, which means he is basically off the hook.
But breakfast? Packed lunches? Laundry? Picking up? Cleaning up? Plain ole KEEPING UP?
That was ALL. ME.
Several months ago, my dear friend Annie texted me pictures of her neatly organized drawers and told me to stop what I was doing and read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.
When Annie says, “Read this book. Do it now.” I do it.
I have been battling with my stuff for a long time. A few years back I announced a massive project in which I was going to declutter and inventory my entire house. Never happened. I tried going room by room and intensely declutter. Never happened.
I would walk around my house and feel like the piles of stuff were mocking me. I would spend weekends purging and organizing but never feeling like I got anywhere.
I was exactly what I didn’t want to be. I was a stuff manager.
The problem was I thought I already knew everything there was to know about organizing. What could Marie Kondo possibly teach me?
Turns out. A LOT.
This weekend I confessed in my weekly email (subscribe if you haven't already!) that I've been preparing for Christmas for months. The presents are bought and wrapped. The Christmas cards are ordered, addressed, and stamped. And this week I started decorating.
Instead of killing myself to get my entire house decorated the weekend between Thanksgiving and December 1st like I usually do, I'm taking my time decorating each room at my own pace. The biggest benefit so far is I've had time to redesign my decor and complete projects I've been wanting to do for years.
Pinterest is a great source of inspiration but I'm hoping this post to be a great MOTIVATOR. Here are the projects I pinned - primarily holiday themed - that I completed this weekend!
I received a 40V-X EXPAND-IT STRING TRIMMER and Edger Attachment from Ryobi and a trip to Ryobi headquarters in exchange for writing a review.
We tackled our backyard with the help of a generous family friends but - as you can see from above - our front yard was still a hot mess. Sure, there were no concrete planters but there wasn't much else either. We had two giant yews and two small but extremely sharp holly bushes planted directly in front of the water spigot and electric outlets (convenient!)
Ahhhh remember baby Amos's nursery? I loved that room. It was my favorite room in the house. Alas, the problem with falling in love with a nursery is babies grow up and need big kid rooms. In this case, last year we decided to move both boys into the same room so it needed to be a big kid room for TWO.
Sarah Holland
This is what it looks like outside my house right now. It's raining cats and dogs which isn't exactly prime DIY weather. See that playground in the background being soaked to the core? It really needs to be restained but between waiting for it to be completely dry and then remain completely dry for 16 hours afterwards... well, there's a reason it's never getting done.