White Elephant gift exchanges are hard. You probably have a broad audience with a wide variety of interests and senses of humor. You probably have a low dollar limit (10 or 20 dollars is the normal, I think) and you don't want to spend any extra because you know that the gift that you receive...
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Our Outdoor Holiday Decor 2016
One thing that we were really excited about with having a new home was having a house and yard to decorate for the holiday season. We might be biased, but we think the front of our house is really cute and lend itself well to Christmas decor. This year, we decided to focus on white...
Our Indoor Holiday Decor 2016
Come on in and tour our Christmas indoor holiday decor for 2016! One thing that we seriously talked about when house hunting was where the Christmas tree would go. I mean, it wasn't make or break it, but picking a good Christmas tree spot while doing a walk through instantly made a place feel like...
Our Christmas Gift Guide 2016
It's holiday season and it seems like half the conversations I've been having with people lately have involved "what do you want for Christmas?" We are really hard to shop for for the most first world reason. If we want something, in general, we buy it. If there's something that we want but haven't bought,...
DIY Flock of Birds Christmas Tree Topper
Want to add a fun and colorful animal-inspired topper to your Christmas tree? Here's how to make a simple DIY Flock of Birds Christmas Tree Topper! Hey guys! You've seen a sneak peak of some of our Christmas decor we've been putting up this week, including our DIY wood slice reindeer, a driftwood Christmas tree...
DIY Felt Letter Garland Tutorial
Last year when we took our holiday photo at West Elm, I was really inspired by the Merry Christmas garland they had hanging behind the couch. I knew that I wanted to make my own but never got around to it. Well, this year I made it a priority to give this little project my...
3 Places You Might Not Realize You Have Pet Hair (and How to Clean it)
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #RollAwayLint #CollectiveBias Every year I remember how much I love the holiday season. Decorating and parties and baking and togetherness, it's all right up my alley. This year we are so excited to host guests for Christmas for...
How to make a Driftwood Christmas Tree
Wondering how to make a driftwood Christmas tree? Here is a complete step by step tutorial that you can use to whip one up this weekend! If you've followed us for any amount of time, you know we're obsessed with driftwood. Whether it was our coffee table or our wedding cupcake display or our Christmas...
Easy DIY Wood Slice Reindeers!
Holiday reindeers are a great project this time of year. Learn how to make DIY reindeers out of slices of logs in this post! Looking to craft up some holiday decor? What's better than some easy DIY wood slice reindeers? These cute guys can welcome all of your holiday guests outside your front door, looking...
We Painted the Sunroom
We've been rocking beige paint with three different grey splotches all over our first floor for a while. We painted our front room and dining room after we had the walls taken down, but our sunroom was still splotchy. Funny, since that's the room we actually spend time in the most. So this week we...
DIY Eucalyptus Wreath Under $20
Want to make a DIY eucalyptus wreath using real eucalyptus? Here is how I made one from greenery from Trader Joe's! Is anyone else not ready for Christmas yet? I am resisting all decorations for another week and a half, but I really just can't believe that it is almost that time of year! However,...
Gifts for New Homeowners
It's the season when people are really starting to look for gift guides. Keep your eyes open as we will start sprinkling some gift ideas in among our regular posts, while trying not to overwhelm you with them! Today we wanted to focus on gifts for new homeowners. We just bought our house in July...
Accessorizing and Completing our Pantry Remodel
Here's the finishing touches that we added to our DIY pantry to keep it neat and organized! I have to confess something. Tuesday, we published our "complete" pantry remodel, but we lied. It wasn't complete. Of course, is any room project ever "complete"? We thought it was done, but we quickly found three ways to...
My Experience Canning Clementine Preserves
If you follow me on instagram or caught this blog post, you might know that we have a bountiful orange tree in our yard. I have been trying to figure out what to do with all of the oranges. Sean keeps picking them and there are still a lot to be picked and used. Last...
Our Complete Pantry Remodel - How to build pantry shelves
Wondering how to build pantry shelves? You will love this simple DIY tutorial and DIY pantry idea! We aren't planning to remodel our kitchen until spring, but one of our biggest problems in the house has been our pantry. The pantry was full of shallow wire shelves and when we moved in all we did...
DIY Wood Slice Lazy Susan
Want to build a simple lazy susan from a wood slice? Here's an easy tutorial! For me, the holiday season is all about gathering. Whether it is friends or family, it is a great opportunity to come together and celebrate everything that you are thankful for. And, of course, any good gathering will include food....
ORC Week 6: Front Room Reveal & Budget Breakdown
Hey guys and welcome to the 6th and final week of our One Room Challenge Front Room (formal living room) makeover. We have spent the last six weeks completely decorating and furnishing our formal living room. Chairs - At Home // Pillows - Homemade // Coffee Table // Sofa - Joss & Main Plant -...
Is Carvana Legit? An Honest Review - How I Bought a Car 100% Online
Looking for an honest Carvana review? Here is my experience! Buying a car is one of my biggest dreads. I am not good at negotiating and hate being hassled by sales people. The whole thing is awkward, and I feel like a lot of other people agree with me. I was recently unfortunately involved in...
How We're Tracking the Paint Colors in our Home
One of my biggest goals when decorating our new house was to create and maintain a sense of flow from room to room. I am trying to do that by keeping a rather consistent color scheme - blues, grays, and white, along with dark metals and woods. In order to track our main paint colors,...
How to Build a DIY Industrial Pipe Bench
Want to add an industrial touch to your entry or bedroom? How about a bench! Here's a tutorial for how to build a DIY Industrial Pipe Bench! I love the sleek functionality a bench can add to a space. It's a place to sit and put on your shoes, pull up to a table for...
Our Orange Tree
We had a long list of things to look out for while house shopping, but at no point did we think to check the trees. Yet, a few months after moving in, we discovered that we had some cool ones. In our front yard, we actually have two pecan trees - if anyone has any...
DIY Raised Pet Feeding Station: a Nice Gift for Naughty Pets
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, MARS Incorporated. All opinions are mine alone. #PAWsomeGifts #ClausAndPaws #CollectiveBias We love our pets and are so thankful for them, even though sometimes they can be really naughty. You might remember when we were painting our bathroom and CiCi got into the wall...
How to make a Driftwood Starburst Mirror
If you want to learn how to make a DIY driftwood mirror in a starburst shape, you will love this simple and practically free tutorial! I love decorating with driftwood - it's a great way to bring a natural element indoors. We've made a driftwood coffee table already, and I wanted to add an extra...
Happy Halloweekend! Our Favorite Decor & Costumes
Hey guys and happy Friday! I hope that you had a great week and are excited for Halloween weekend. Even though Halloween is on Monday, I know that a lot of people will be celebrating for the next few days, so we wanted to pop in and share some of our favorite Halloween decor and...
ORC Week 4: We are starting to have a room
Welcome to week four of our one room challenge formal living room! We are redesigning our front room which was previously vacant (we just moved in from an apartment in July and didn't have any furniture for this space). Our end goal is a coastal chic vibe focusing on shades of seaglass, which is kind of...
Front Room Layout Options
This post might be a little late since I have already been giving sneak peeks of the furniture in the space, but I wanted to go ahead and share how we decided on a furniture layout for the front room. I have always had a specific vision for the front room design-wise, but one of...
A Front Door Makeover
I have been wanting to update our front door with a coat of paint, but just haven't gotten around to it. Well, the One Room Challenge is pushing me to get on some things that I have been putting off! We decided that I didn't want to paint just the outside of the front door...
DIY Live Edge Wood Slab Coffee Table
If you love the look of a live edge wood coffee table, but it isn't in your budget or you don't think you have the skills, here's the simplest way to make one inexpensively! *Note- we did this project in 2016 when these slabs were readily available on Amazon. It is now more difficult to...
25 Pet Costumes Under $20 on Amazon Prime
Halloween is fun, but when you are a twenty-something without kids who wants to stay home and drink wine and eat Reese's pumpkins on the big day, the highlight can really be dressing up your pets. I have an embarrassing number of pet costumes, many of which are from when I was single and did...
How to use moulding to extend your fireplace
Want to give your boring fireplace a grand look on a budget? Here's how to extend your fireplace with molding! You might remember that we are participating in the One Room Challenge and are focusing on making over our front room. It's the first thing people see when they come in. We removed some walls...
GetSafe Home Security System
Considering a GetSafe home security system? Here is our honest review! Check the end of this post for an awesome coupon code! A couple of months ago, we bought a home security system from GetSafe. After moving into our new house, we didn't feel as secure as we did back in our condo. It's not that...
How to alter pillowcases to fit foam pillows
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #StickItToLint #CollectiveBias We are loving our new bedding, but have been having one problem with our pillowcases. Sean & I both use memory foam pillows, and they are slightly smaller and much less fluffy than standard pillows. So, they...
How to replace a screen in a door
Holes in your screen door? Here is how to replace the screen on your door, the easy, cheap, DIY way! Want to know how to replace a screen door screen? It's really quite simple. Pull the spline out, lay down new screen, put the spline back in place! We love our wonderful pooch CiCi. However,...
ORC Week 2: Painting & Gathering & Evacuating
Hello all! I am so excited to check in with you today on our front room progress. If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about, we are participating in the fall season of the One Room Challenge where we will make over a room in 6 weeks! You can read all about...
How to Grill Pizza
Traditional grilling season might be over, but we are keeping it strong. Between the weather finally being enjoyable in the South and tailgating football season going strong, we are using our grill more than ever. One thing that we have been grilling a lot of lately is pizza! It is super quick and simple and...
Marriage: 18 Months In
As of today, we have been married for 18 months. In some ways it feels like years and in some ways it feels like just a week or two. In reality, we have done a lot in the last 18 months. We have gone on trips to Italy, Chicago, Portland and Acadia, Chimney Rock, Asheville, Congaree, Kauai, Richmond, Minnesota, and...
ORC Week 1: Front Room Design Plan
We are so excited to be spending the next 6 weeks fully making over our formal living room AKA The Front Room! Now, you may wonder why I say six weeks? I am so excited to be linking up (as a Guest Participant) with the One Room Challenge this season! I have followed along with...
A Long Weekend in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky
On our quest to visit all of the National Parks in our lifetime, we are trying to target some relatively local parks that we can visit in a long weekend. That goal led us to planning a trip to Mammoth Cave, Kentucky with my parents and sister. Mammoth Cave is the largest cave system in...
A Fiesta Baby Shower
This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting a baby shower for one of my really good girlfriends. She is expecting her second - a girl this time! - in November and we are so happy and excited for them. To celebrated, I planned a fiesta! We kept it very casual and set up a...
Contractor Taking Down The Walls - The Reveal!
Here's an update on the contractor removing two walls for our upcoming coastal kitchen makeover! We have had a contractor in our home for the past two weeks working to take down the walls between the front living room and the dining room as well as the wall between the dining room and the kitchen....
Wall Removal Progress
Our house is looking so different on the first floor! Last week we showed you the first day of demo when the walls came down. After day one, progress looked a loooooot slower each day. Still, it started looking better and better each day. First, the electrician and plumber came and rerouted the wires and...
Drywalling Over Popcorn Ceilings
Drywalling Over Popcorn Ceilings As you might have heard, our entire new house has popcorn ceilings. That's 1,900 square feet of the nineties, baby! Not only is popcorn out of style, but the texture casts lots of little shadows all over the ceiling, making the room look much darker than it really is. Want a...