Hello there, Friends!

How have you all been? It’s been so wonderful, and busy, and chaotic around here… Lots of messes and moments of wondering how life can be so insanely frustrating and so absolutely, earth shatteringly, wonderful at the same time. To say Mira has changed our lives would be an understatement. But I can’t even come close to describing the amount of wonder and gratitude and completeness she’s brought to our family either.

Her sisters are so proud. I mean, so proud. Jenna and Aubrey are 9 and (almost) 7 now, and they have been so incredibly helpful ever since their littlest sister came.

It’s almost as if having a baby in the house turned them both into little, wannabe mommas overnight.

They try to sing Mira back to sleep the second they see her little eyes flutter open in her swing, insisted I teach them how to change diapers (and are both actually pretty good at it), load and unload the dishwasher for us (what?!?!), and the list goes on. I mean, it’s crazy, Guys. I keep thinking this helpful streak is going to wear off, but it hasn’t yet.

Please tell me it won’t. Insert praying hands emoji here.

And then Ayla has just been super excited to finally be bigger than someone! She’s three, going on four, so she’s not ‘helpful’ in the same sense that Jenna and Aubrey are, but it melts my heart to see how gentle and how proud she is of Mira. It’s just too. much. sweetness. I’m telling you.

…Which makes up for the sleep deprivation and dark circles, and wondering where I can possibly squeeze in a nap at any given moment during the day!

But anyway, I’m popping on to FINALLY share my spring tour with you today. Yay! We were actually looking at Essex Homes Greenville/Spartanburg but we’ve decided to stay put for now. We were worried about the expenses of having to move everything, but our friends have just used a storage facility to help them store all of the furniture and belongings that aren’t a necessity during the move, which worked out relatively well. As well as this, I’m pretty happy with how our house looks at the minute anyway! Here’s our living room this year! {You can see last year’s spring living room here.} If you are looking for a new home for you and your family then you may want to look at different mortgages so you can own your own beautiful home, if you want to opt for a variable rate term, then you can read more by visiting lendingexpert.co.uk.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve been seeing some of these photos over the course of the last few weeks. I finished up decorating and photographing WEEKS ago, but just haven’t had the time to get the post up. I know, I know. I’m sorry. The last thing that I want to do is deprive you of seeing the final product. I think I need to set aside some time in my very busy schedule to dedicate to my social media, as I won’t have one to come back to if I carry on with the way I’ve been going. Although, if the worse were to happen, (which I’m hoping it won’t), and I do find that my follower numbers aren’t as high as I would like, then I could always look into this instagram growth service to see how it can help me to restore a decent social media presence again. But to prevent this from happening, I know that I need to post more, so I’m going to do the best I can, I promise. I hope you like the final product when you do see it though.

When I started thinking about decorating for spring wayyy back in January, I knew I didn’t want to spend any money this year. Christmas had just ended, plus my super sweet hubby bought me the chandelier you see in all of these photos for my birthday, and that’s where I wanted the spending to end.

Isn’t it so pretty though? I need to take a photo at night and share it with you on Instagram, because the shadows it casts are amazing.

If you’ve been a reader for a long time, you know I’m a big advocate of pillow covers. They last forever, and they don’t take up any space to store. Plus, they’re the simplest way to inject color into a space, and give a room a fresh, new feel.

This spring, I saw that Target is even selling pillow covers along with inserts for the first time ever. It was my idea first, Target!

Just kidding. This has been a designer trick forever, and most mid to high end home decor stores do the same thing. It just makes sense.

Invest in pillow inserts once, and they’ll last you at least a decade. And then as the trends or your tastes change, just swap out the covers. Not so for regular pillows. They normally look decent for one to two seasons, at most, and then they start looking lumpy and frumpy. And nothing grosses me out more than a scuzzy throw pillow. It’s weird, I know. It’s just one of those things, and I can’t help it!

I shopped the house, well, the basement really, to freshen up our bookshelves. (Except for that pretty, blush colored vase.) I have four or five big bins full of off season decor, which makes it really easy to swap things out.

A little tip when you’re storing things away in bins…. Buy the clear ones! I find that even though we label ours, being able to see what’s inside makes finding what you’re looking for feel less like a scavenger hunt. And sometimes you even get lucky and see what you’re looking for from across the room, which is the best thing ever 😉

Oh, and the curtains! I almost forgot!

You may remember me saying in my last post that I was going to change out the curtains in here, which I did. These are from IKEA and I’ve had them stored away for a few years. They’re a GREAT deal at full price, but I bought them when they were having an IKEA Family sale awhile back, which made them an incredible deal.

And because it’s so expensive for me to outfit this room with new drapes (I always need six, 90 inch panels and it really adds up) if I see cheap curtains, (or table cloths, or sheets, or fabric, or anything that could become curtains) at a good price, I buy them!

Once I put the curtains up, I loved the change but… It made me really want to paint.

It was a little bit of an ‘if you give a mouse a cookie’ sort of situation.

I’m so glad we did it though, because I love the color. I’ll give you all of the sources at the end of the post! I’m not holding out on ya, I promise!

I kept the changes in the kitchen to a minimum.

Some flowers, and new chalkboard art…

rearranging the hutch a bit…

The changes were all very simple ones that absolutely anyone can make. This hutch was also a freebie on Craigslist that we sanded down and painted, and it’s one of my favorite furniture pieces now.

Since Mira came, our house has never felt so small, Guys! Small and cozy, for sure. I’ve always loved this poem, but it’s even more meaningful to me now. And FYI, my husband made the chalkboard door for me. {You can find the DIY chalkboard door tutorial here!}

It looks so sunny and fresh in here, but our yard is still covered in frozen snow from the storm we had last week. Ugh. Come back, Spring! We miss you.

The girls have been running circles around this island all winter, and it’s about time they start running circles around the house and climbing the apple trees again.

And I am so excited for some sunshine to go along with these longer days.

I don’t often share this angle of my kitchen because it’s still not completely done. I try not to talk about it much because it’s just so darn embarrassing that we still have finish work that we need to do in here! This hood isn’t staying and wasn’t ever in my design plan, hence the missing piece at the top {visualize the monkey covering its eyes emoji right about here.} My hubby is going to build a custom one.

Someday.

*Sigh*

But it’s ok. I’m super grateful for how far it’s come.

And especially for the ceiling… A beadboard ceiling has been a dream of mine since I was 16, so this was a very exciting part of the reno for me!

I hope you’ve all been doing well, and if you’re not from New England, I hope you’ve been enjoying some warmer spring weather. I’m living vicariously through all of you!

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking my little ‘tour,’ friends. I appreciate you all so much!

I’m posting sources for the things I’ve never shared before below. If you’re new and have questions about where I got anything else, just ask. I’d be happy to let you know!

Happy Spring!

Laura ?

{Oh, and I’ve had the purplish pillow covers for a couple of years. They were custom, and the fabric is made by Tilton Fenwick. It’s called Cecilia Floral if you want to have some made! I tried to track the same ones down on Etsy but couldn’t find any. I’m linking to a couple of others that I like below though!}

Sources

Chandelier

Paint Color

Curtains

Pillow Covers

Pillow Covers

By the way…

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