New Year & Winter Kitchen

Hello friends! I hope your new year is off to a great start. I put away all the holiday decor and, while I was at it, organized all of the storage areas in our basement. I purged a bunch of stuff and am feeling much more ready to begin the new year. We also packed away my mom's Christmas stuff AND at the cabin. Phew, I am SO glad the holidays are over!

I always enjoy the quieter winter months to putter around the kitchen and cook more. My 2 older boys have been around much more with their break from college and nothing makes me happier than having them all around me in the kitchen. 

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I love getting out my non-seasonal stuff and filling my spaces with things I enjoy being surrounded by. I definitely use less color at this time of year. I always take my decor cues from nature and this is a more simple time of year and my home reflects that.

Other than changing the decor with the seasons, I don't foresee many changes in our kitchen in 2020. It functions very well and I am happy with the updates we made over the last couple of years. I would love to change the countertops but we wouldn't see a return on that investment anytime soon so I doubt think we'll do that. The granite does function very well, I am just a bit tired of it.

I was so happy to to hang the pot rack back up! I missed having it during the holidays and found myself reaching up for kitchen tools and pots only to find they weren't there. My most-used items on the pot rack are the colanders, cheese grater and measuring cups/spoons. These hang on the back of the pot rack with the more decorative copper items on the front.

I hung a few more functional items on the Ikea rail at the end of our island. 

I cleaned out all the baskets and jars on our kitchen island. I don't know what we'd do without these open shelves. Since we don't have a pantry, this is a great alternative. Still dreaming of a pantry someday!

I'll share more of our dining and living spaces next. Have you been organizing with the start of the new year too?

Our Christmas Family Room

Today, let's take a peek inside our family room, all decked out for the holidays. I already shared our new European Fir Christmas Tree in an earlier post. I love how much cheer this large tree adds to this space.

Our Christmas Living Room 2019

Our living room is always such a fun spot during the holiday season. I enjoy displaying our most treasured, collecting Christmas items in this space.

Our Christmas Kitchen 2019

Hello friends. Today, I am excited to share one of my favorite rooms to decorate for the holidays - our Christmas kitchen!

The old vintage sled is flying over the island once again. It's becoming a tradition for us at this point and I think we'd probably miss it if we didn't have it up there. I decided to go with a Gingerbread/Baking theme this year. I enjoy baking throughout the holiday season and it brings back memories of baking with my mom and grandmother. Like so many of you, we still use the same recipes each year that I did back then and I love passing that tradition down to my kids.

The End of a Chapter

I once heard it said that one of the wonderful things about having pets as a part of your family is that they help you to divide your life into chapters. I think that is so true.

Keeper joined our family at Christmas 9 years ago. We still had 3 young boys and her arrival was so exciting for us all. A highlight of our kids' younger years for sure!

She was right there with us as these boys turned into teenagers with so many lessons along the way. And love. Always love.

The next picture was to be our Christmas card photo this year. As you can see, those young boys have grown into young men. I think maybe we'll just skip the card this year. Some years are better than others and that's okay, another important lesson in life.

Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to our sweet girl. She had been slowing down a bit in recent weeks, but at first we chalked that up to old age, while quietly hoping she'd rally - we've had 2 goldens before, this wasn't our first time at this rodeo. But that doesn't make it any easier. This past weekend, it began to be apparent that something was very wrong - she was lethargic and not as interested in her food. We gave her lots and lots of love. We all just knew. Yesterday was the hardest day in any dog owner's journey with their dog.

Keeper's favorite thing to do was swim. In our backyard pool, in the lake and the creeks upstate - she was a magnet to water. She could dive to the bottom of our pool and retrieve lacrosse balls. She provided so many hours of entertainment for us with that trick! And she loved to soar off the diving board into the pool. This is what I imagined she did yesterday, free of pain and soaring off.

Thanks for the wonderful memories, sweet girl! You will be so missed.

And thank you friends, once again, for following along on our journey. Posts like this are so hard to write, but I know that through this blog, some of your have come to know and care about our dogs too. xoxo

Note: For other dog owners who are wondering, she developed a hemangiosarcoma on her spleen, which is never a good prognosis and their health usually deteriorates very rapidly, as was the case with Keeper.

A New Festive Fir for our Family Room

*I partnered with Balsam Hill for this post but, as always, all opinions are my own.

Today marks the official start of the most wonderful time of the year here on my blog! I am excited to begin sharing the Christmas decor that I have been hard at work on for this year. And today we are beginning with a wonderful new addition to our Christmas decor this year - our very first Christmas tree from Balsam Hill. Be sure to read through to the end of the post to enter Balsam's Hill Twelve Days of Giveaways and also to find a coupon code just for my readers!

Flea Market Decor Magazine and Christmas Planning

Hello friends! I've been fully immersed in decorating my home for Christmas for a couple of weeks now and I can't wait to begin sharing it! A highlight for me this past week was when Flea Market Decor magazine came out in print. It's available on newsstands and digitally now! Our Christmas home from last year is one of the homes featured inside.