It was time to write a blog post about my favorite shades of dark green paint colors since I have a lot of green in my home and get a lot of questions about those colors. I also recently wrote a blog post about my terracotta paint colors and how I used different shades of them in our home. In that blog post, I also mentioned that my favorite color combo right now is green and terracotta and showed several examples. I don’t know what it is about these two colors together but I just love them. More about this color combo is also mentioned below. Table of Contents My favorite shades of dark gre ..read more

I love making affordable easy Christmas ornaments and today’s honeycomb ornament definitely fits that category. This is not a new design and has been done before but I wanted to simplify the project and make it easier for you. I’m showing an idea where you don’t need to use a cutting machine like a Cricut, circle cutter, or template to create the ornament. They also make great gift toppers or could be a gift in itself. Table of Contents Easy DIY honeycomb ornament for beginners (no cutting machine needed) materials needed video tutorial step-by-step instructions with photos Tips for making ..read more

Ever since I was little and growing up in Germany, I have loved German Christmas pyramids. There is something so magical and festive when the candles are lit and the pyramid tiers spin, creating moving shadow patterns on the ceiling. The intricate craftsmanship of the woodwork is also something that fascinates me and makes these handcrafted pyramids so special. The entire construction and look of these little candle carousels are stunning. Table of Contents My favorite German Christmas pyramids What kind of different German Christmas pyramids are there? 5-tier pyramids 4-tier pyramids 3-ti ..read more

My favorite time of the year is Christmas blog hop season and seeing what everyone else has come up with. This year I’m participating in Jennifer Rizzo’s Holiday Housewalk again and I added some gingerbread Christmas decor to our home. Start the tour on DAY one with our host Jennifer Rizzo! I hope you have some time to check out all the tours. Today the Housewalk is starting with Sarah of Grace in my Space. She never disappoints and that outside view!!! So festive… Our gingerbread-ified Christmas home tour Are you sick of seeing paper bag snowflakes all over social media and Pinterest yet? I ..read more

I love oversized ornaments to fill up gaps in your Christmas tree. And today I want to show you how I made large gingerbread Christmas ornaments with cardboard and white puff paint. If you use salt dough gingerbread cookies or real baked gingerbread cookies they are way too heavy and pull down the branches of the tree especially if they are oversized. So cardboard is definitely a better and lighter option. The cardboard gingerbread ornaments are also more affordable. I also don’t like to bake, so for this project, you do not need flour, sugar, icing, or an oven LOL. All you need is a few item ..read more

I wanted to write a more in-depth series about my love for traditional folk art and German Christmas decorations. Today I’m starting with German wooden Christmas ornaments since they are the most affordable and easiest to collect. Nutcrackers, German incense smokers, candle arches, nativity scenes, and German Christmas pyramids are much pricier and also require more storage room. If you are new to German wooden crafts, the German craftspeople are mostly famous in the Erzgebirge region of Germany and a town called Seiffen. They still work in small workshops and everything is handmade with grea ..read more

This year I’m even more drawn to German Christmas Decorations than I have ever been before. Maybe it’s because I realized that I haven’t been home to Germany for Christmas in 20 years. It actually upsets me to put this into words. I don’t want this to become a distant memory and I’d love to take our kids one year but we are always too busy with their school and sports and it just has gotten way too expensive to just go for a couple of days when they actually have their Christmas break. You can also see my German-inspired Christmas home tour on my blog. So today I wanted to round up my favorit ..read more

I started collecting different antique wooden spoons and displaying them over the stove a while back. Since I didn’t have a utensil rack, I only used command velcro strips to hang them on the tile which was less than desirable. Especially since the heat from the oven dried them out and the spoons kept falling occasionally. I love the look of antique utensil racks above stoves. Not only are they pretty but they also provide extra storage space which is so important in a small house like ours. But, copper and brass utensil racks tend to be very pricey which is why I wanted to figure out a way t ..read more

I’ve always been a fan of checkerboard patterns. As a matter of fact, I have had it in every place I have ever lived since I was in my late teens as a floor. This was probably a result of my traveling to France so often during my teen years and seeing how beautiful it can look in very old French estates and farmhouses. I’ve always been drawn to geometry and symmetry. An apartment in Germany had black and white checkered floors in the kitchen. When I got married, our apartment also had black and white checkerboard floors in the kitchen and later I also added it to our house (the one we still l ..read more

One of my favorite materials and colors right now is terracotta. My porch’s new checkerboard pattern is also in ivory and terracotta and so is our one bathroom. I’m also painting our door in a dark terracotta color, which I will share soon. So painting some random plastic mismatched Jack-o’-lanterns into faux terracotta pumpkins just felt right for this year’s fall porch decor. Table of Contents How To Paint Faux Terracotta Pumpkins or Jack-o'-lanterns Inspiration: The original Pottery Barn Jack-o'-lanterns Materials needed to paint the pumpkins colors used to paint the terracotta pumpkins ..read more