Happy New Year! ~a few of my favorite things~

Happy 2025 everyone! (or mom and my other two random readers - ha!)

It all started with pulling the sourdough starter out of the fridge.

Which inspired homemade pizza.

Which caused us to take a trip into Walmart after church to get the toppings.

(This was our first in-store visit in over a year, since I started doing Walmart pick up - a wonderful invention that all mother's should be taking advantage of!)

And then, next to the fancy cheese section in Walmart were the....FLOWERS!

Caroline, age 5, insisted we get some fresh flowers, and I wholeheartedly agreed with her.

We've been stuck in doors the last couple of weeks because it's just that time of year in the northwoods.

And now that all the cozy Christmas decor has been taken down and everything feels empty, we definitely needed some little pop of life and color in the house.

So being myself, I selected the clearance roses that were already starting to open up.

And I had to come up with a lot of reasons why we weren't going to buy the RED roses Caroline had her eye on... probably should have just got her some for her bedroom. 

I don't really care for red roses even on valentine's day....

Pale pink or peach make my eyes so happy though!

Husband, if you read this, please take note. 

Anyways, as I was walking out of the nursery the other day after laying my almost one year old down for a nap, this little scene with the candles glowing and fresh flowers made me so happy I thought I should quick grab my camera and take at least one or two pictures... like back in the olden days when this sort of thing was my "hobby". 

And it all just seemed to work out with nap time and everything.

Although my two year old did pee on the couch in the 5 minutes it took me to do this photoshoot, so it seems there's always a bit of a sacrifice if you choose to look away for more than 10 seconds - at least at this stage in the game. Oh well! It still brought some joy to my day to do something a touch creative.

As I was taking these pictures I realized it's all my favorite things in one little area!

Chrystal chandeliers, warm candle light, lace, flowers, scripture.

Even my new favorite winter cozy drink - some LMNT raspberry chocolate with a splash of vanilla creamer. It's an occasional nap time treat for me. 

 Cheers to a new year!

I made a "twenty-five for twenty-five" list that's about half way filled in.

I think I should go add "make more than one blog post" for the year since I'm already half way to making that happen now! 

Maybe I'll make some time to do this again before Christmas. ;) 

Blessings!

~Olivia

P.S. Scripture memory card is part of a pack from "Not Consumed" and they double as postcards you can send to friends once you have them memorized, so that's pretty cool!

Christmas Home Tour 2024

Merry Christmas! 

Here I am with my annual blog post. :) 

I hope you've been enjoying all the hard and rewarding work of December just like I have!

Here's a quick look into our home this Christmas. 

The buffet has been used as a hot chocolate bar this year, since we hosted several Christmas gatherings. It has been put to good use!

 

I discovered that my little Jadite mugs hold just the right amount of rich, homemade hot chocolate.

 I think I'll be bringing them out every year!

So glad to have the new shelf up this year so we can hang stockings here

 and I can have one other safe (high up) place to decorate!

Vintage Christmas at the front of this cabinet staying safe from small hands.

Cozy Corner

My favorite little neutral things. "New" this year were the handmade vintage lace trees - love em!

Beloved snowflake collection

My larger white tree died last year (got tipped too many times by a little boy) so it was replaced with a bit smaller white tree. 

Part of my doily collection was put up on the plate rack above the cabinets, and with adding the bottle brush trees for Christmas, it almost gives a snowy feel.

One of our biggest, thickest trees right from the woods.

Little shelf in the kitchen decked out

Another "New" item this year was this set of 4 vintage santa mugs. When I got them they had just the tiniest amount of red paint left on them, so I decided to wash it all completely off (and use a bit of nail polish remover to speed things up) and now I'm loving them neutral! 

I was hunting for the perfect spot to put this little nativity scene silhouette, and finally the bathroom windowsill appeared! It fits perfect - I may just put it here every year to add a touch of Christmas in the bathroom.  

 

With more bottle brush trees to the entrance of the bathroom. 

And that's all! 

Merry Christmas to you - praying you find wonderful and special ways to celebrate the birth of a savior. Such a gift we've been given!

Blessings,

Olivia

Christmas Home Tour 2023 - At the "New" House!

 Merry Christmas from the new home! 

Well, one that had tons of wonderful memories for us already when we moved in this September.

It was my grandparent's home - we're so grateful to keep such a special place in the family, and it was fun to have a "new" space to decorate for Christmas this year. With a bit more living room and dining room space, we don't feel as squished when all the Christmas décor is up.

I have a "before" home tour I hope to someday post. And also an "after" home tour of our first fixer upper house, but we'll see when I get around to that... life is busy growing and raising little humans! 

So, without further ado, the annual blog post... 

A Christmas Home Tour!

In the dining room I went with mostly neutral décor and tried to stick with a lot of my fancier, sparkly stuff, because I think of it as my "fancy" room.  

It's probably the room in the whole house that's most my style. hehe!

The buffet table doubles as the coffee area - now that I'm a bit of a coffee drinker! 

It helps save some counter space in the kitchen which is nice. 

The nativity up high so it's safe and sound from the tiny hands.

It will probably live here for a lot of Christmases to come...

Beeswax candles in my thrifted, brass horn candle holders make me smile and also feel cool and trendy! Ha! I'm not usually but sometimes it just conveniently works out that way.

Not much to show in our 1980s kitchen, but there is this little shelf that shows my style a bit.

For time's sake I just stuck some Christmas stuff on top of/in front of what was already on there. 

There's even a different smaller plate left behind the Christmas plate! Kinda genius. 

Calla Lily in her Christmas bandana looking sweet and peaceful...

I hung the kid stockings separately from the mom and dad stockings this year because it conveniently worked out that this shelf had three hooks. 

Next Christmas we'll have to figure out something different, for a total of 6 stockings to fill! 

I added faux white pine to the stockings and, new this year, picks with red berries. I then stuffed the stocking toes with newspaper so they hung a little nicer, and I love how it turned out! I'm not sure why I just now thought of the newspaper thing, but it helps them look more apart of the décor until they get filled for real tomorrow night. Yippee! 

A tiny little Santa baby (well, quickly turning to big boy) working on sneaking a sip of coffee while mom is distracted with photography.

The mom and dad stockings ended up here and surprisingly Mr. toddler has been very good at leaving them alone or setting them back up if they get knocked off. 

A few new things on the end table that are very my style.

 The nativity with Bible that is also a music box was gifted to me this year. 

The beautiful needle point was a score at a Christmas sale.

A closer look at the vintage needle point. Charming and neutral! 

It was love at first sight, and I was excited to spend the $10 on it!

Our real tree right from the woods - very top heavy with breakable ornaments.

The advent hanging in the window that we have not done so well reading through this year. 

Red vintage went into this cabinet... and again, I didn't even take time to move stuff out.

I moved a few things around and just set the red stuff in front.

I know it looks better when it's more simple, but for time's sake.... 

It still gives the space a touch of Christmas!

And that's a wrap! Merry Christmas - I hope you enjoy celebrating the birth of our savior. 

The best gift. 

Blessings,

Olivia