Meadowlark Prairie

Welcome 2016!

I love the motivation that the new year brings to work on areas that need improvement and the opportunity to grow more as a person.

One of my favorite authors of 2015 was Ann Voskamp. I just finished reading her advent book called The Greatest Gift and it was amazing. I came across this beautiful printable that she posted on her website and I knew I wanted fill this out for myself.

So here is what I Purpose To in 2016.

Embrace God’s Grace

Engage more with people that God places in my life and path

Be Quiet and listen more

Believe in myself more

Break unhealthy eating habits

Daily spend time in the Word

Do exercise even if it’s just walking

Let Go of my imperfections

Learn Photography

Live a more simple life

Give more time to the people who really matter

Grow and foster relationships with family members and friends

So here is to 2016, may it be everything you hope for!

Christmas- Better late than never

I know it's a little late for a Christmas post, but I'm getting ready to take my Christmas decor down and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't share it now.

We kept the decor pretty neutral this year to go with the other decor. The little skis were a new addition this year. I found them for $3 each at Target.

I've been collecting this nativity set since Daniel and I were married in 2001. It's always such a joy for my girls and I to set up each year. This year we added some tiny little lights from Anthro and they were perfect.

Here's a shot of the sofa and all the decorations. Very small changes were made, we swapped out our Pottery Barn pillow for the sweet Bear pillow from Target. Added some mercury glass, a silver tree and a sweet little "Baby It's Cold Outside" sign.

Here's a close up of the Bear pillow from Target. He was way to cute to pass up!

Now for a close up for the sign. My sweet friend Kristy from The Painted Nest made this custom sign for me. I plan on leaving it up all winter.

I guess one of the reasons I wanted to make sure and share this years photos is because we will be putting our house on the market in the summer and you never know this might be our last year here. Fingers crossed!

Future Farmhouse Update

It's been a while since I shared any updates on our soon to be Farmhouse. The floor plan has changed once again, but this time will be the last major change. Fingers crossed. Right now the rough sketch is with a good friend and he is putting it into a program that will give us a 3D rendering, so we can get a better idea then just a flat drawing. After that we will wait for the weather to warm up a bit and then we will spray paint the floor plan on the actual house site.

In the meantime, I've been going crazy on Pinterest. I have turned my original Farmhouse Inspiration board into individual boards, so I can really narrow my focus to the individual rooms and how I want each of them to feel. Here is a quick peak of some of the main living spaces.

The main point of entry to the house will be through our Mudroom. I've been in love with this mudroom ever since I saw it years ago on HGTV's Sarah's House. I know this is going to make me sound like a total weirdo, but I already have the drapery fabric and will be picking up the rug in a few weeks. To view her whole Farmhouse click here.

Sarah's Farmhouse also is the inspiration for my kitchen. I love the neutral color scheme and the touch of yellow. It's so cheerful.

Here is the inspiration for the Dining Room. I love the substantial size of the table, the mis-matched chairs the fun light fixture. Here is a link to view this picture and others by Lia Griffith.

One of the things that I look forward to the most in having this new home is the ability to entertain. The kitchen and dining room will both me major gathering places for our family.

In the coming weeks I'll share the inspiration photos for the other rooms. Stay tuned.

Living Room Update

Hey Y'all...long time, no see. Back in July, I started giving our Living Room an update new furniture, new wall color, new curtains and we finally got around to hanging the rest of the trim. We've been in our house for almost 12 year now and this room has changed several times, but this will be the last. You see, we are planning on putting our little house on the market in 2016, so I needed a nice neutral look that would show well and I got it!

Over the last year, I have found myself drawn to more neutral palettes and the warmth and coziness they bring. I've shared a couple of my inspiration pins awhile back and I couldn't be more pleased with how the space turned out.

We added a new sofa,throw pillows from H&M, as well as Pottery Barn, a cozy faux fur throw from World Market, a new coffee table, drapes from Target and this over-sized tray from DecorSteals.

All of the items on this wall were pieces that I already had, but I just arranged them in a different way.

This beautiful sign was a custom design from House of Belonging. Although the words are simple they are full of truth and something I aspire to.

On the other side of the room is a beautiful sign by Between You & Me. Tara Lowry makes the amazing signs that you see Joanna Gaines use on Fixer Upper. This one is the song lyrics of "Below My Feet" by Mumford and Sons. This sign is very large but I love it.

This last photo shows the chair from Target that we added last minute. Before the update we had a sofa and love seat and although the new sofa is larger than the previous one, we were still short on seating. I'd love to add another one of these chairs, but unfortunately we don't have the space.

I'm so happy that I made the choice to go with a neutral color scheme for the Living Room and I've even carried it over into the majority of our home. I'll share pictures of the other rooms in future posts.

Back to School {Lunch Box Edition}

Wow! It's so hard to believe that it's already time for Back to School. To me the best thing about the girls starting school soon is the routine. Just having the girls on a normal sleep schedule is worth all the homework and PTO meetings.

My girls officially start on Thursday and we are scrambling to get all of the necessary prep work done. On the list of things to do are make the girls teachers their Back to School presents and also plan Grace's Lunch Box. My youngest is happy to eat at school every day, but my oldest usually brings her lunch.

As I mentioned, my girls really want to make their teachers presents this year and so I searched Pinterest and found a craft that we had all the supplies on hand for and here it is.