Lupines in the Secret Garden

 Lovely lupines in bloom in my secret garden spot. 

Pink roses and a snow ball tree and sparkly crystals to complete a beautiful escape.

A peaceful spot to sit and pray. 

Blessings,

Olivia 

Galentine’s Party - “Wine, Cheese, & Chocolate”

 

Here’s a fun theme for a Valentines get together with the ladies… wine, cheese, and chocolate! 🍷 🧀 🍫 

A little gaudy, a little classy!

Indulging in tasty treats,

Puzzles, games, chit-chat.

Candles, roses.

      Pink and red and hearts galore! ♥️ 

You never really need a reason to get together with friends and celebrate, but I do love a good theme. 😉😘

Blessings,

Olivia

Christmas Vignettes 2025

 Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Here is a look at how I arranged our Christmas decor for this year.

All the same stuff...slightly different places!

A few evening glow shots of the living room.

Vintage santas and vintage bottle brush trees in the kitchen.

Vintage santa mugs on some of our new open shelving in the kitchen.

The living room on a random December day with my little loves running all over.

Favorite models enjoying the warm glow-y lights. 

You wont find any LEDs on my tree - ever!

And the stockings were hung...

Cause that just has to be the caption for any stocking photo.

Lots of greens, creams, and maroons... my favorite Christmas color scheme.

My one new piece of decor this year - this cute little rustic snowman, made by my dad!

A neutral living room corner with my favorite vintage trees and sign painted by my sister.

Baby Jesus sitting safely up on the buffet, away from small hands.

They only tried playing with him a few times.

Nothing quite like the taste of Christmas coffee running through a plastic and aluminum pod... 

Still most efficient way to make coffee on my busy mornings. 

I get excited to bring these mugs out every December.

The little white tree adding sparkle to the dining room.

Clearly decorated by children.

The tree on the end of the buffet was made by my mom and dad last year!

Vintage Santa mugs in the kitchen window and a garland above it that quickly was filled with Christmas cards from friends.

I put this little nativity in the bathroom window again, and wreaths on the doors of the yard barn.

Jingle bells on the front door... they drive my husband crazy when I put them on the knob, so I moved them to the wreath and we still got the lovely sound of Christmas every time someone came in.

Our cute yard barn (in it's new darker shade of red) surrounded by a winter wonderland!

Christmas Eve - the best we got.

We know how to hold still :)

It was a very Merry Christmas!

Praying you have a blessed new year.

~Olivia

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