Thursday, September 12, 2019

The Decor I Adore

September Writing Challenge - Prompt # 11:

Decor

A while ago, someone left a comment on my blog pointing out that I never post pictures of my house anymore. I hadn't noticed this, but now that it's been brought to my attention, I realize it's true! I rarely post any photos from my home. I don't have an explanation as to why this is... other than we started some remodeling projects several years ago, and everything has been in disarray since, so I'm not as apt to take and post photos anymore.

Side note: A long time ago, I did a home tour on my blog. I just went back and looked at those posts and saw how much my house has changed in the last decade. Here is my family room (which no longer exists - we made it into a bedroom and storage room), here is my kitchen which now looks like this, here is my living room (watch for Old Stinky), and here is my bedroom.

Since we're talking "decor" today, I'll throw in a few home photos. I really love decorating. I'm not going to claim to be good at it (heaven knows I've tried some really weird things during my time as a homeowner), but I enjoy experimenting and moving things around. My version of "cleaning" is actually "rearranging home decor." So nothing ever really gets clean around here, but stuff gets moved. I make lots and lots of holes in my walls because I'm always swapping things out (I've tried using Command products. They just don't cut it).

One of my favorite decor items is wreaths. I'm a sucker for wreaths! In fact, on the very day I'm writing this, I walked away from this beauty:


Because I already have two white wreaths. But I came *this close* to have three.

This is my oldest wreath and one of the first things I bought when we moved into our house 15 years ago:


It's very "stick"-y, and it's actually been falling apart for several years and is kind of lop-sided, but I love it so much, I just keep making it work.

This is my newest wreath:


I bought it from Ross last week. I'd been eyeing this one from Sam's Club for a while:


So I was really excited when I found the one at Ross because it looks very similar but was $13 cheaper. 


The window frame is another one of my longest-lasting pieces of decor (the stick-y wreath spent many years hung on the window frame, but a few years ago, I moved the window frame from the living room to the kitchen, and the stick-y wreath kept stabbing guests in the head while they ate dinner, so Stick-y Wreath isn't allowed in the kitchen). I bought the window frame from a yard sale for $1 before I even had kids, and it's been a staple in my house ever since (I recently tested it for lead. Let's just say... licking and/or inhaling the window frame is strongly discouraged). 

In addition to the interior, I also love having a seasonal wreath on the front door. 


I have wooden door hangers for a few holidays, but my preference is always a wreath. Oh how I adore a good wreath!

For a typical member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I have surprisingly little religious decor in my house (if you looked at my past home tour, you would see that this hasn't always been the case). 

Currently, this is the only religious decor (or it was until last week... keep reading):


I made that temple myself. I was looking for something to represent the temple in my home, but I couldn't find anything in the size, color, or style I wanted. I stumbled across a similar picture on Pinterest, and decided to try making something like it. I cut the temple silhouette by hand with a stencil cutter. That was an exciting new adventure (I also did a Jordan River one). I wrapped some canvases in... well... canvas, but the kind that has more of a burlap look, and slapped on some paint. I really like how it turned out (but I just don't want anyone to look too close because stenciling doesn't always result in good clean lines). 

When I shop for home decor, I tend to be drawn to items that correlate with what I'm going through at the time - things that represent my current learning or feelings. Last week I found this sign at Ross (making this my second piece of religious decor):


I had to have it because this has been a big theme in my life lately - faith over fear (as briefly explained in this post). I don't know where I'm going to hang it. It's just floating around the house for now. 

When Scotty travels, I tend to use decorating as a coping mechanism. He knows that when he comes home, there's a pretty good chance our room will have new bedding or the bathroom will be an entirely different color. Last time he was gone, I bought this sign:


It spoke to my soul because Scotty's most recent trip was his last one for the year, and now he gets to be home for a while. 

This week I've been really excited about getting my fall decor out. I used to go hog wild with fall and Christmas decorations, but now I've adopted a "less is more" approach. I've stuck to the things you see in this post and a wooden pumpkin garland over my living room window. When I did KonMari earlier this year, I reduced my holiday decor to one bin for fall, one bin for Christmas, and one bin with all the other holidays combined. Okay, so mayyybeee the wreaths aren't included in that since most of them don't fit in my bins. I haven't yet learned how to hold back on wreaths. They spark joy, I swear!

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