Christmas decor!

I don't have many new Christmas decorations but they have all been a little rearranged this year. Mostly  for the breakable or dangerous things to avoid little hands. I haven't taken many pictures of my decor because well, I've been taking pictures of my baby (who's barely a baby anymore!!)  :)

But this is probably my new favorite decoration

And its about as simple as it comes. It is a strand of 100 multi color lights stuffed into my big glass vase, but I can't stop looking at it!

Oh and I can't stop looking at this either- how cute is he?

He LOVES looking out the windows at our christmas lights

Do you have any new holiday decor you are loving? 

Hallway runner

After building the second gallery wall in our hallway I really wanted to finally finish off the space with a runner. We have been talking about putting down a runner for oh... three years now! So I just want to finish off the space!
I am once again at a point where I just need to pull the trigger but I am having trouble deciding on which one!

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Not sure if I want to go this dark but I like the idea of it. And this one is wool, not an outdoor rug so it is definitely safer for it to be dark ( to conceal Sam's muddy paw prints)

These three are all outdoor rugs which I love in terms of durability! I always just worry about softness, but I know the Dash and Albert rugs are soft so it shouldn't be a huge issue!

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What do you think?? 

house updates!

So I finally took some updated pictures of the whole house! Be looking for them soon in the "Our House" page!

Love my stickygram collage on the fridge

our new reality- bottle drying rack

Breakfast room: 

Playroom: 

This is ever evolving and I'm sure will continue to change as Jackson gets bigger! Right now that mat and mirror are where we spend most of our time during the day playing 

 Hallway: 

Guest bedroom

Didn't realize until looking at this picture I desperately need to fix my bed skirt! 

my office area in the guest bedroom! 

 Nursery: 

Jackson's photo-bombing already! 

the humidifier is the only thing I really still need to find a good / pretty place for (where the cord isn't hanging out because that's not going to fly once baby J is walking! )

Hall bathroom:

Hopefully we will be renovating this within the next 6 months! 

my favorite part of this bathroom! 

 Master bedroom: 

ugh, still need to get those cords for TV hidden! 

Master bathroom: 

We have now lived in our house behind the ivy for 3 years and its pretty amazing the transformation! I will add these pictures to the "Our House" page so you can see the before & afters! 

Gallery wall #2

So I've shown you updates along the way for my first gallery wall which was a work in progress for a while. And that one actually looks like this now!

Just a minor tweak to accomodate a favorite picture of baby boy! 

Well I decided I needed to do another gallery wall. This time in our hallway. We have a VERY long wall in the hallway to our three bedrooms and I have always just had one row of 4 pictures up. But now that I have tons of pictures of Jackson, I felt like there were pictures frames taking over my house and they were all of just him, not even many of the three of us and none from before him! So I needed to house a lot of pictures on the wall so I could de-clutter and free up some other frames! 

My first gallery wall took me forever and I just couldn't figure out the best combination of objects, but this time I knew I wanted only family pictures which made it a bit easier. To keep a cohesive look I opted for all brown frames. Normally I would have done white/ silver frames but I already had 5 brown frames to work with so I just went with it. Then I decided to throw in a few gold frames for some pop. I had a lot of the frames and the rest came from Ikea and Michael's (during a 50% off sale!)

First I just laid it all out on the ground how I wanted it. 

There is a hole in the middle where there was already a picture on the wall! I took down all the rest of the pictures but figured this would give me a good starting point, and this particular frame was really difficult to hang so I didn't want to move it! 

Then I just went in rows from the center out and put them on the wall! This took me about two separate work times of 1.5 hours, to get all of the Ikea frames built, all the pictures in the frames and hung just right. I did everything while P played with baby Jackson, didn't want to wake him up hanging frames outside his room during a nap! 

From way down the hall. I may eventually come further down the hall when I need to add more picture but for now I used the light switch as my stopping point!

I LOVE walking down the hall now and seeing favorite pictures old and new! 

nursery reveal

Well the nursery is about as done as it's going to be pre-baby! I have a few spots I plan to add things on the wall and such, but that will require a sweet baby to take pictures of first! 

So for now here is our bright and colorful baby boy's nursery:

full shot with the crib skirt and rug (and a little of our sweet Moses basket) And clearly the bumper will be coming down soon! 

sorry about this pic- I have no idea why it turned out this way but wanted to include so you can see the sweet Noak's Ark painting my sisters and best friend gave me! And the full length of the bookshelves

The top shelves are filled with some sentimental items. The smaller frame here is holding one of my baby blankets (with the little lamb on it) And the turtle is for my grandmother who collected turtles my whole life. And of course baby needs a pic of mom and dad back before he was born :)

This shelf holds his silver baby cup (complete with his monogram which just kills me!) Baby book along with his daddy's baby book! A peter rabbit coin bank which was mine as a child and a little bear made from a coat of P's grandmother's. Lots of sweet sentimental items on here that I love to look at! 

The most comfortable glider ever! PS- the blank wall will soon be holding one baby J's newborn photos! I'm also looking for a very small side table to hold bottle, etc during feedings

needlepoint art that P's mom made while she was pregnant with P! 

This was before the Abacus was up but so you can see our second chair and the curtains! The wall behind Leon the giraffe will hold another newborn shot :)

The abacus I've been obsessed with and waiting on since October! SO worth the wait! I love it! I do still need a little tray/ basket to set out on the changing table for wipes, creams, etc! 

Our sweet little book nook! I searched high and low for simple shelves that were deep enough to hold lots of books and not too wide! Thank you Etsy for saving me! 

Nice and deep so we can display lots of books! 

Sammy guarding the nursery until baby arrives :)

Sources:

name prints: Etsy shop Design and Life

crib: Franklin and Ben

bedding: PB Kids

bookshelf: Nadeau Houston

glider: West Elm

pouf ottoman: Amazon

Rug: Shades of Light

curtains Etsy shop Sew Custom Designs

slipper chair: Target

changing table: Craigslist

Abacus: Etsy shop Keriv5555

toddler chair: Nadeau Houston

book ledges: Etsy Shop Lestudio 2

Christmas at our house

We are all decorated for Christmas and loving the festive spirit- if only we could get this Texas weather to cooperate and give us some festive/ December like weather!

my DIY'ed garlands

looking back at our wreath and baby tree

Without a fireplace mantle we hang our stockings with care on the baker's rack! 

Our Christmas tree! No themes or fancy ideas here- we like to use personal ornaments from our childhood and ornaments we collect from our travels! Also- you'll notice the bottom part of the tree is empty, Sam took it upon himself to start taking down ornaments for us so we are keeping this section empty to avoid any broken/ ruined ornaments

dining room table

breakfast room!! 

This is hardly all of our decorations but certainly the big areas! I hope your house is full of holiday spirit and you take some time to enjoy the season (and avoid the malls!!)