everyday essentials for our home

 

I love being home. It is truly my favorite place to be. Isn’t it for us all?

When I think of home, I think of comfort. Home is often the place we feel most comfortable to be ourselves and most often where we all yearn to be. Especially with what is going on in this world, we are all spending more time at home than our “usual.”

When at home, it is important for me to feel comfortable and for my guests to feel comfortable. That comfort can come from the help of Alexa (Amazon Echo), the yummiest espresso, the ease of cooking, or even the ability to remove a stain from spilled wine and/or quickly kill that pesky fly. Over the years, we have slowly collected items for our home that we now consider to be our everyday essentials in helping us and our guests to feel comfortable and content.

texas: friends + food + magnolia

brian and i celebrate our anniversary every year away from home. year two was at Disney World, year four in Kansas City, year three in Africa and year one was in Puerto Vallarta. while on our one-year wedding anniversary (or one-y-moon as i like to call it), we met a couple who were celebrating their one year anniversary, as well. from California, christian and amanda quickly became some of our closest friends!

after only being able to spend two days together at the tiniest resort (the 42 room resort allowed us to recognize faces quickly)–because they were at the end of their vacation while we had just started ours–we made plans to stay in touch and visit one another in our home towns. we have since visited their home in California and they have visited ours. honestly, i like to think of the Arriaga’s as our “marriage soulmates.” 

staying in

i am so excited for today’s blog post! though i am posting this five days later than i hoped to (i worked all week so that we could leave for vacation today!), it is my hope you find these nine “must have” décor times to be inspiring for keeping your home cozy and ready to host your future guests!

the comfort of home

When dreaming of what our house could be I knew I wanted a home that felt inviting to others, giving them a sense of comfort and coziness. I have spent years finding the perfect piece for the perfect place, collecting decor for every room in our home (even when we did not own our home). One thing I know for sure. . . you do not need to spend a lot of money to make your home “Pinterest worthy.” Instead, your home should be however you wish it be, having the most important pieces being ones that mean something to you!

One Year of Loving You

One year ago today your father and I got to experience the greatest joy in knowing what it felt like to be parents – something we longed for. It has been one entire year since we first learned you were in this world with us. It was one year ago today we told you “we love you” even though we loved you long before you were created. From hearing your heartbeat for the first time to seeing you grow and kick as the days went by, we loved you and longed to meet you. We prayed for you every single day and never went a moment without thanking God for the blessing of you. You are the greatest gift our God could give us and we promise to love you forever.

my kind of motherhood

I choose to believe that we all are born into this world dreaming. Seriously. Have you ever watched a baby sleep? One minute they have the most peaceful face and the next minute the biggest smile forms across their face. I’d like to imagine they dream about being held, playing with their daddy, and milk. As we grow older we dream about a variety of things.  We dream about becoming that superhero you saw on tv, about getting out of school and playing with friends, about getting that college degree you hope for, about planning that “dream” vacation you swear you’ll save up for, about starting that business you’ve worked so hard at, and about becoming what you’ve always wanted to be. For some, it’s being a lawyer, a business owner, a writer, a professor, a chef, and anything and everything else one can dream they can become. For me, it was always to be a wife . . . and a mother.

Out with the Old & in with the New! DIY Bathroom Remodel

When looking for a home after moving to Kansas, we had a “want” list that included many things – a garage, three to four bedrooms, lots of windows, at least two bathrooms including a master bathroom, and a great room for entertaining guests. Did we get all of those items? No. Did those “missing wants” get replaced with even better features? Yes! No, we didn’t get a master bathroom. But instead we got a gorgeously huge sunroom attached to a beautiful back deck. What our home lacked in more modern style homes, our home gained with beautiful features only an older home could possess.

DIY Sliding Door

Owning a home built in the 1930’s comes with so much character (it was a huge selling point for us) but lacks in the modern appeal of master bathrooms and larger closet space! It is a good thing I was (and still am) in love with our sunroom and back deck, that having practically zero closet space and the smallest second story bathroom didn’t matter in the end to us!

Once receiving the keys to our home, we took an entire evening to walk around our home and dream up what our home could look like . . . what we could do to make it our own.

I knew something had to change about our second story bathroom!

Staircase Remodel

One of our final projects for our first and second floor home remodel was our gorgeous staircase! Growing up, I have lived in two primary homes that did not have a second floor; therefore, having a staircase in our home has been such a fun addition for me! We even have two (the second to be remodeled at a later date with the basement)! 

Our Entryway Remodel

I love sharing a place with my best friend who we can call together, “our home.”

Over the many months of renovation, we have worked hard on creating a place we could feel comfortable in that fit our style/needs. As my bare blog clearly shows, our home renovation came with many hiccups which caused many more months of remodel than we originally expected. One of the “easiest” and smallest areas of our home remodel was our front door entryway. When I first saw it during our home buying process, I fell in love with the character of the door, the charm of the mailbox, and the idea of a small area that leads into the rest of our home.