around our house

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I thought I'd share a few little areas of our home that I love right now. I suppose I really do enjoy decorating for every season/holiday. I always did when our sons were little, but even though they outgrew this, I did not apparently. I love for our home to look a certain way—"clean", neat and tidy, dusted, vacuumed and I like for it to be pretty. I have this insatiable need for things to look pretty wherever I am. I do this in every space I'm in, whether it dates back to the days when I worked in an office or if it's in my car, a bathroom, our house or if I'm staying as a guest with someone. For the record, I don't decorate my car, but you'll find it neat and tidy! I did hang a Christmas lightbulb ornament necklace from the rearview mirror during the holiday season and I keep those plug in things in my air vents to keep it smelling fresh. Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am my mother's child.

I'm starting with the main focal point in our living room. I learned back in the fall of this past year that you can get a "screensaver" for your television through the YouTube app on your tv. You just turn on your tv, scroll down to YouTube and type into the search bar, "Valentine's day screensaver" or "pretty screensaver" or "seasonal screensaver" and you'll see tons of options. This one is my current favorite. I like to subscribe to a channel that I know I love, like Calmed by Nature or Candy Music Room because that makes it easy for me to find. This one pictured above is by Candy Music Room. There are hundreds to choose from! I love the little Parisian cafes or bookstores like this one and I like that lots of them have calming background music. It's nice to leave on all day, so I love it when they're hours long. This one is around seven hours long, I think, but some of them are live and will go all day. This does not damage your tv screen in any way and it makes it unnecessary to buy an expensive art frame tv.

You're welcome! ;) My friend Tanya taught me this and now I'm passing it along to you.

While I was cleaning Friday before my dad came over, I switched out a lot of my stuff for the more "spring like" décor I had put away. I put this little jar with flowers out where a green plant had been. I love to buy things like this from HomeGoods. It's my favorite store for home décor and I like to buy things that look and feel realistic. These flowers feel real! I just need to add some clear pebbles to the bottom or something. I love to use lots of books and special lighting in all of our spaces and I like to hide the cords or outlets as much as possible. Side note—this drives my husband insane, but I can't stop. 

I love lots of signs and pretty containers, like these green ones Mom gave to me years and years ago. I keep our coffee creamer and sugar in these jars. And once again, I love using little plants or topiary trees like this one that sits beside our coffee pot.

I keep these wreaths up all year and I just change out the ribbon. I have them here above the kitchen sink and on the cabinets across from this that hang above the oven. I like to buy the hand soaps that come in glass jars from HomeGoods and keep them for other things, like the dish washing soap I keep out on the sink. When it gets clogged, I just take it apart and clean it really well. 

I keep this little board by our kitchen for things I love, but that I don't want just sitting around. Lots of old favorite pictures hang here, or my favorite Christmas photo cards from family and friends. 

I somewhat cleaned off the bookshelf in our living room last week and wanted to share this cute little typewriter I bought myself while out of town with my best friend. It came from the adorable bookstore on the square of Columbia, Tennessee that I fell in love with. That ornament that says "book nerd" also came from there that Missy gave me for Christmas. 

Isn't this sign so adorable? I love color and think it looks cute sitting on the desk that is in our living room. I rearranged the top of that on Friday as I cleaned and moved things around. I think it came from the Dollar Spot in Target a few months ago.

I just keep adding to the things hanging from the mantle. I'll clear it off after this month, most likely. Those lights stay put all year long and I've kept the greenery and red berries up on purpose.

One more, with a different screensaver. I love these! 

I love lanterns and houses and keep these on the piano in our living room. I also keep nativities out that people give to me, like the one you see resting next to that piano book. The rock is one that my boys gave to me when they were little and says, "God rocks." 

I've said this before here that I don't decorate in a way that is trendy and our home isn't so beautiful that it could be featured in a magazine, at least by most people's standards. I don't even fully know what my style of decorating is, other than eclectic. I like a mixture of things that are sentimental to me and I have never been scared of color. Our home is beautiful to me, and that is all that matters. Mom and I were talking about this over the weekend, how your style can change every few years. I would love to say my style is traditional or shabby chic or French country, but it's not. I do like a mixture of all those things, but I love a colorfully decorated, warm, inviting and cozy style. I like to engage all of the senses while decorating our home. 

More than I want any of that, I want people to feel loved and treasured as they come inside. It's not the stuff that matters, it's the people inside and as long as my people are here, it'll feel wonderful. What about you? Do you decorate for the seasons and holidays? Do you have a style that is uniquely yours? I'd love to hear from you on this. I've always loved looking at people's homes, so if we're friends on social media, share some pictures and tag me! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all.