Yum Sweet Home update today!
I’ve been so excited to make the house pretty and warm and cozy since we moved in in November, but as I may have mentioned a few million times, these last few months have been, oh, how can I say it? Chaotic and unorganized. Yeesh. –> Which is totally why I’m trying to reset my life with a new job focus (here’s more on the full time blog gig) and you guys? It’s been 200% better. And I’m not melodramatic about life at all.
So during that crazy time when I was doing both teaching and blogging, I had a million and one little updates and projects and details that I wanted to work on with our house because apparently I like to tackle unnecessary projects right in the middle of the times when I need to be doing something else. I would go through my whole day and get all the regular stuff done, and then right around bedtime I would start to get the house-decorating-bug. Like: get excited about a new shelf, measure the walls for where the new shelf might be able to fit, research ways to hang shelves on plaster walls without taking out half of the wall with it, get mad when attempted hammering of nails into plaster turns into plaster chunks for days, plan another trip to Home Goods to return that shelf that actually did not look awesome in the living room, lay shelf on floor behind chair and ignore for 3 weeks. And then it was midnight and I was sweaty and stressed out and avoiding going to bed to get up in the morning to do it all over again. House-making is a lot of work.
Now that my schedule has changed, suddenly there is more open time to make small house updates, specifically those updates involving buying a handful of things from Etsy to fill in the empty spots on walls and shelves and floors. We’re still not totally there, but honestly, do you ever get totally there with a house? Little by little by little, this old, charming, fixer upper house (affectionately known as Yum Sweet Home) is coming together.
A quick word about Etsy: it’s my favorite place to shop on all the internet. I love that crafty people make these cool things and then you get to buy them directly from the crafty people. The things I find on Etsy are always so unique and so beautiful and I feel proud having this art made by such creative craftsmen (and women) in my little house.
Today I’m just showing you a few of the detail and decor things that I’ve found on Etsy that I like best for our little old house. If you have recommendations for Etsy shops that you like (of any kind! beauty, fashion, home decor, etc) please share in the comments! Etsy-surfing is one of my favorite ways to semi-wastefully but actually sometimes productively spend time.
Wood Clipboards From Brittany H Designs
I had this great idea to fill our empty dining room hall with pictures of food on clipboards, but then I ran into the massive problem of not being able to find clipboards anywhere. I can’t even remember how I found her, but with some combination of search terms like “rustic” “wood” “super cool” “clipboards” “cute house”, I eventually I stumbled on Brittany’s Etsy shop and I knew right away this was exactly what I had pictured in my mind. I ended up taking some pictures at the farmer’s market during one of our recent trips and printed them with a cute white border, so now we have this awesome set of colorful food photos displayed on clipboards in our dining room. If you want clipboards, this is your place.
Reclaimed Wood Mirror and Chalkboard From Hurd and Honey
I now own three large pieces from this adorable Etsy duo – they make all kinds of wonderful reclaimed wood pieces and other fun rustic modern home decor, like soap pumps from mason jars and other hipster things like that. This is my go-to for new reclaimed wood decor – the wood that they use is so gorgeous, and it’s finished just the way I like – still totally grainy, knotty, and rustic looking but polished enough not to give you immediate slivers. If you’re into this kind of old barnwood reclaimy thing, I highly recommend this shop.
Painted Mason Jars From Drop Cloth Design Co.
I use these little jars for anything and everything – vases for flowers, holders for pens and scissors and other desk-related organization, and even bookends when filled with some rocks or something heavy in the bottom. They have a rustic chic look that is subtle but still eye-catching, and people ask me about them all the time. Although they’d be easy to make yourself, I prefer to keep my DIY projects limited to things like hummus and crackers.
Pallet Wood Crate From Annie’s Images
These crates are hands down the best decor purchase we’ve made for our house so far. They are functional (like little end tables and/or storage boxes at the end of each couch in the living room) and they look completely and utterly stunning. The wood is fantastic – it’s pallet wood made into these incredible crates with wheels and rope handles and it is just varied enough in color and texture to really grab your eye. I even ordered one for my BFF when she moved into her new house a few months ago. We love these!
Side note: the shop owner does not have this listed in their shop (it’s a custom project) so if you wanted to order this from them, I would suggest contacting them directly and asking about the wood crates with rope handles. You can reference this post.
Text Print From Petek Design
This is a unique and design-y shop with lots of interesting prints and posters and even phone cases. The poster that I got is obviously text only – I am inspired every time I read these words from Nelson Mandela, and I love how simply they are laid out in this print. But this whole shop is full of super creative and artistic pieces that go far beyond text. The girl behind the goods is located in Israel, so you can feel extra cool getting some international mail when you order from her shop.
Distressed Frame Sets From Birdie Go Go
I know I’ve shown this to you before, but this is my collection of photos of the kids from CSC that we have on display in our living room. I got these frames from the Birdie Go Go shop and they work together perfectly. They’re the perfect balance of style without being overly expensive – the frames themselves aren’t super sturdy but the most important thing to me was finding a whole big set of similarly styled frames that were still unique from each other in the details, and this set fit the bill.
I’m currently waiting on my next Etsy order which is something super exciting: NEW WOOD BOARDS for my food photography backgrounds! I am seriously so excited I can’t even stand it. I’ve never been a DIYer so I am so so happy to have a found a shop that specialized in helping people like myself get really unique, rustic, individually created pieces for my food photos. Wohoo! I’ll be sharing some pics of those boards (I mean, obviously in food but also in an additional post) if they end up being as awesome as I think they’re going to be.
I hope you’ll share your Etsy favorites with me so that I can borrow a piece of your style and so that I don’t (or DO?) get sucked into the black hole of Etsy search for hours. Because let’s be real: there could be worse things.
Thanks for coming over today! It’s like we had virtual coffee and snacks – always snacks – together right in my living room and I likey that. If you want to check out more about our little Yum Sweet Home, I have a few other posts that can be found here or you can look through the hashtag #yumsweethome on Instagram.