Decorating Themes

Happy Thursday!  I had hoped to get pictures posted today of my dining room, but all the pictures I took yesterday did not turn out well.  It was a bit dreary out when I tried to take the photos so my house felt a bit gloomy when looking at the pictures.  I will try again today since the sun is out...hopefully it will make for better lighting. Maybe by tomorrow I can get some more before and afters posted.  In the meantime, I thought I would prepare you for a few decorating themes that you will start to see throughout the rest of my house.

Theme 1- LAYERING
I love to layer things, mostly frames.  It is almost obsessive. I sometimes feel like if something is not layered, then it is not complete!

Theme 2- H
I love the letter "H" (for Hasler, of course).  It is all over my house.  It is like I don't want people to forget whose house it is!  My husband even commented on it one time...something like "you're not going to put another H there, are you?"  Hmmm, I am sure I did put another H there:).

Theme 3- BOOKS
You will see that I add a stack of books to most spaces.  I LOVE using books to decorate!  Old books are ideal, but otherwise, I just take the cover off one of our hardback books and voila, decoration!  Usually, I'll top it off with either a vase or a candle to add a bit of height.

Theme 4- THREES
One final theme...I like things in "threes".  Three books, three vases, three frames, three candles, or whatever else I am decorating with!  Is there some kind of "rule of odds" when decorating?  Not sure, but in my house it is the "rule of threes" (not to be confused with the rule of thirds:)).  I have actually gotten a bit better about this one (it is much cheaper when you don't have to buy three of everything you like).  Don't worry though, you will still see plenty of this theme running throughout my house.

Can't leave you without a picture, so here is a picture of one my favorite pieces of furniture in our house.  It is an antique from Caleb's side of the family.  That, however, is not why I am showing you this picture. Once you have marveled at the beautiful antique:), notice the accessorizing...three vases, a stack of books with a vase, the letter "h", and some layering action...TOLD YOU!

There is much more where that came from!  Check back in soon!

Breakfast Nook Before/After

I hope you enjoyed the first glimpse of my house with the before and after pictures of the kitchen.  If you missed it, just go check out my older posts!  Today's pictures probably belonged with the kitchen posts, but I didn't want to overload the kitchen posts with too many pictures.  These pictures are the before and after pictures of my breakfast nook...we'll start with the befores.

That was before...and this is after:

What do you think?  So much brighter, right?!  Let me tell you, that red accent wall was a booger to paint over (at least according to my hubby:))!  And what about my mason jar light?  Don't you love it?  Thanks to my sweet husband for making it for me!  More pictures coming soon.

Kitchen Afters

Happy Saturday! I am back with the after pictures of my kitchen!  This whole "taking photos of the house" thing seemed so simple at first.  Then I realized that in order to take pictures of my house, I probably should clean it a bit.  I mean, I need to at least pretend to be a really neat person with a really clean house:). Also, I noticed that I have a lot of "kid stuff" that is not very aesthetically pleasing...you know like door knob covers, high chairs, bottles etc.  Don't worry though, I managed to conquer these obstacles, along with lighting issues, and get pictures of the room!

Wow, I really made that out to seem like some impossible feat.  I am not as dramatic as I sound, I promise!

Here are the "afters"...

Well, if you look close enough in the background, you can see I forgot to pick up some toys in the living room not realizing they would be making an appearance in my photos. Wait, why am I telling you that?  If you hadn't noticed before, you will certainly notice now.  Oh well, all you moms out there will understand:)!

You also got a glimpse of my new mason jar light in the last two pics that my honey made me for Christmas.  Love it! Stay tuned for more on that! And as I mentioned earlier in my first post, I intend to break down each room by detail...projects, paint colors, accessories...at a later time. Hope you enjoyed the new and improved kitchen! I love, love, love this room!

Kitchen Before

Well, I have my kitchen pictures all ready to post...but for you to truly appreciate my kitchen now, you need to see how far the kitchen has come! These pictures are from when my mom and I came to look at the house for the first time with my realtor. I immediately called Caleb and told him, "I found our house!" I preceded to tell him that it just needed "few" updates. Ha! Luckily, when he came to look at it, he saw the same potential that I saw. I am obviously starting by just showing you the kitchen.

So, here are the "befores"...

It was certainly a nice kitchen but definitely not my style.  Do you see the potential here?  Would you have left the kitchen like it was?  I know that for some of you, the surprise will come with the after pictures.  However, many of you that have been to my house, will be more surprised by the before pictures because you have not seen what it looked like when we first moved in!  Tomorrow will be the after pictures.  Goodnight and God bless!

My Decorating Obession

Welcome back!  Since my first post was so short (and sweet, of course), I thought I would tell you guys a little bit more about why I decided to start blogging and what this is all about.  In short, I love decorating!  I am sometimes obsessed with decorating.  I am constantly changing things up at my house and starting (often times, not finishing) new projects and, all the while, probably driving my husband crazy:).  He is actually very patient with the whole thing and probably does more on my silly projects than I do (because he loves me).  What an amazing man I have!  Anyway, I just wanted to start sharing this passion with others and hopefully give ideas and inspiration to anyone who reads this.

My love for decorating started when my husband and I bought our first house.  It was a foreclosure and it was ugly!!!  But we saw so much potential.  I am sure some people thought we were crazy for buying that house. You should have seen the paint colors in this house! They even painted the garage lime green.  Together, and with the help of friends and family, we transformed that house! (I will have to show before and after pics of that house too).  

Then, when found out we were pregnant with Carter, we sold that house and bought our current house for more space. The people that lived here before us had a completely different style than ours.  The house was nice but it wasn't "us"...so we transformed this one too.  It looks NOTHING like it did when we moved in!  We are talking new floors, new paint, new lighting, etc. and the hardest part of all...accessorizing.  All of this on a tight budget, mind you.  You will eventually get to see where we started and where we have come but I will keep you waiting for that.  I will soon be posting some kitchen pictures!  Get excited:).      

First Entry

Hello! Welcome to my first post! I know, I know...you are so impressed by my creative title for this post:). Alright, so I have some work to do on my creativity, but I will have plenty of practice with plenty of post titles. If you haven't checked it out already, look at my profile to see what this blog is all about.

As I think about how to begin, this is my vision for starting this blog. I will start by showing you guys pictures of my house so you can get the overall idea of my decorating style. Then I will break it down into a room by room description so you can see all of my projects and all the details on what I did to make my house a home. Now I need to go take some pictures so I can post them soon. Stay tuned!