A Christmas Tour - Melody's House

Welcome to my home tour! Don't mind the crazy flurries that are happening, just come on in. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy my home.

The past weekend has turned this area into a winter wonderland. Yes, it means I have lots of shovelling to do, but I don't mind!

I placed garland above the kitchen cabinets. I made the "joy" banner with this template. I placed the letters onto some green scrapbooking paper that I had and hung it with twine. 

My coffee carousel always holds a good variety of flavoured coffee for anyone who stops by.. Winter Fest anyone?

 One of my favourite clients made this Santa for me. The girls love to pick it up and move it. I never know where it's going to end up!

Mason jars, a tray and garland make an easy decoration.

I found this snow globe at Target for $10!

Our Christmas tree is decorated with old and new ornaments. Bella had a lot of fun decorating along with us and exclaimed over every sparkly ornament she could find.. which was pretty much every one!

Thanks for stopping by! 

If you missed Heidi's house tour yesterday, don't forget to check it out. 

Getting Cozy: Cozy Spots in Our Home

Fall is the time that I look around my house and see what I want to change. I still have a few painting projects on my list of things to finish for the fall, but I thought I'd show you a few rooms from around the web that I love:

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I love this sunny yellow colour. I'm glad that I painted my side tables and coffee table although it will probably be changing soon since it's not my husband's favourite. (I'm being nice with his comments :) )

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I love this bed set from Land of Nod. I'm trying to reconfigure my girls' room and I love the crisp cleanness of this. A bed fit for a princess!

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I'm thinking about knitting up a few of these for my couch. There are quite a few patterns out there and if you choose the right yarns, they could look nice and fresh. 

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I'm loving this kelly green slipper chair. It is waaaay out of my budget for decorating but perhaps I can find something along the same lines. They would make perfect accent chairs in my living room!

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I love how comfy this room looks. I have a hope chest that my husband made me before we were married that has been put away for safe keeping until the kids are older. Someday I'd love to bring it back out and use it as my coffee table. Add a comfy couch and some eclectic picture frames and you're all set!

Remember that you've only got a few days left to enter our giveaway! 

Click on the button above to check out the rest of the posts in this series!

Getting Cozy: Styling Bookshelves

Since talking about some of my favourite books last week, it got me looking at my bookcases, and more specifically, the shelves.

(Don't mind the 'messiness' on the bottom two shelves. Work in progress going on there...)

I personally, love decorating bookshelves, but I know for a lot of people, it is a daunting task. The reason I know this, is because when I browse Pinterest, there are tons of pictures dedicated to 'how to's' to styling bookshelves. 

My first suggestion is to start with a blank slate. Clear everything off the shelves and put everything on the floor or the coffee table. Start with your books. Push a few to the back of the bookcase so you have lots of space for your accessories. Stack some on top of each other, biggest to smallest. Tilt a few on their side.

When you are done with your books, then grab your accessories and picture frames and start placing them on the shelves. As you can see, I like to put a few frames and accessories (I like that word better than 'knick knacks') on top of stacked books.

Place some items on top of a stack of books. Don't be afraid of 'hiding' your books with putting accessories in front of the books. Layers allow the eye to see more than just your books. (Although books are nice. Believe me, I understand.)

Since my shelves have the pallet backing (you can read how we did that that here), I stuck a push pin into the back and hung a few of my hoop art and a clipboard with printable art. Again, it creates that layered look.

 

Now grab a blanket, a warm drink, and a book and make yourself cozy as you look at your freshly styled bookshelves!

This is day 9 of our Getting Cozy series. 

To catch up on the rest of the series, click below: 

Intro: Hello Fall

Day One: Cozy Cowls

Day Two: A Fall Mantle

Day Three: Harvest Vegetable Soup

Day Four: Favourite Fall Book List

Day Five: A Cozy Cowl Giveaway (Open till October 30th!) 

Day Six: Decorating with Nature

Day Seven: Kids' Style 

Getting Cozy: Decorating with Nature

One thing about fall is that you don't need to buy anything fake to decorate your home. Just take a walk outside or go to your favourite farmer's market and gather the beautiful decorations that are already around you. Pumpkins, bright coloured leaves, pinecones, and mums. Why go to the craft store and pick up a fake pumpkin, when the real ones are available in abundance.

 via dear lillie

via bgh

via bgh

I realize not everyone lives in a place where they can buy pumpkins or pick them from their garden. Or not everyone lives in an area where the leaves are turning gorgeous shades of red and yellow. But for those of us that do? Go for a walk and gather up the beautiful nature that is provided right in front of you and bring it inside.

via bgh

via martha stewart

Stick potted mums in hollowed out pumpkins. Place branches of leaves in enamel jugs or vases. Decorate your steps inside and outside with pumpkins.

via three pixie lane 

via lambie-pie 

 via southern living

Let's take advantage of the beautiful creation that is around us and make our homes cozy!

 This is day six of our 31 days series: Getting Cozy.

You can click below on each day to catch up:

Intro: Hello Fall

Day One: Cozy Cowls
Day Two: A Fall Mantle
Day Three: Harvest Vegetable Soup

Day Four: Favourite Fall Book List

Day Five: A Cozy Cowl Giveway - For you!  (Open till October 30th!)

Bathroom Artwork Update

I have slowly been de-cluttering my house and getting rid of anything that was not useful or beautiful. I tend to keep things "just in case" and find that I store them for years and years instead of wasting them.

The reason I'm telling you this is because when I was going through all my things, I found some artwork that I had done when I was in high school. I actually used to paint quite a bit but I haven't touched my watercolours in a few years now.

After looking at my paintings, I decided they were pretty good and needed to be used. The colours were perfect for my bathroom!

A nice picture of my blank wall.. and my toilet! TMI?

I'm terrible for just eyeballing where I want to hang pictures. Thankfully I didn't need to make too many holes in my wall before everything was just centred. I need to take all those handy tricks they have for hanging pictures and start to use them!

I bought 3 frames for a total of $11 (they were on sale! Yay!) and framed my paintings. I'm happy with how it turned out and it freshens up the look of my bathroom for cheap! Gotta love that, right?

If anyone is interested in knowing, my cabinets which I updated a year ago are still in great shape. My kids slam the doors and put their grimy hands all over them and they've held up quite well! You can see my original bathroom update here.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. 

I'm so excited for what Heidi and I will be up to in October!

White and Fresh

In trying to make our home a restful, peaceful space (as 'peaceful' gets with two little boys), I decided to say goodbye to our green-blue walls (I can never remember what the actual paint colour is) and give our living room and dining room a nice fresh coat of white paint. I loved the previous paint colour, but it was feeling a bit too dark for the space.

I chose Benjamin Moore's "Fresh Cream" and I think it is a perfect creamy white. I could not be happier with this fresh space! 

In the dining room, I hung up a vintage world map that I found at a yard sale. Best find ever. And it wasn't $10, but it was less then $80. I know. I am crazy, but it was something that I have been looking for, for a very long time. I kept looking online on Kijiji (similar to Craigslist) and Ebay, but Kijiji had nothing and the ones on Ebay are in the high $200s. I wanted a map, but not that much. So when this map came up, I jumped at it. I love the colour that it brings to the whole room. 

Here's a before and after so you can see the difference a coat of white paint gives to the space: 

It is amazing what a coat of paint can do!