Bursting With News to Share!

Where do I even begin to tell you everything I have to tell you about life over the past couple of months?

The last time I wrote, before leaving on a long Christmas vacation and much needed break, I was here, living in our Southern Colonial.  What I didn’t tell you at the time was that our house was SOLD.  In fact, it sold over Thanksgiving weekend but our Realtor, wanting to err on the side of caution, suggested that I not make any announcements until the final papers were signed. THEN, we held off the closing until January – so of course I haven’t shared the news until now.

But wait, this is March.  Yes it is, and I’ve been doing a ton of things I’m bursting to tell you about, but this post is going to give you a only glimpse of what’s been happening here, because I have far more important news to share today.

DA-DA-DA-DA!  This week is the official launch of The DIY Home Planner Share on X written by KariAnne Wood of Thistlewood Farms.

Note: A link to the book can be found at the bottom of this post.  If you purchase it here I make a small commission off the sale but you won’t pay any more than you would by ordering from Amazon directly.

This is a silly selfie I took when I first received my book.  Note the backwards lettering.  It was a decent  hair day though.

And here is another look with the letters facing forwards!  Much better.

If you follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, you’ve been seeing my posts about The DIY Home Planner.  I received an advance copy of the book as a part of the launch team and it came at just the right time as I’ve been using it to help with the choices I’ve been making in the building of our new home. 

This was the dream last Summer.

And this is the reality of what’s been happening over the past several months.

So let me tell you about The DIY Home Planner.  It is the absolute BEST decorating book I’ve ever read.  Like KariAnne herself, to read the book is quite an experience.  This book isn’t just about pretty pictures and nice advice, but it gives you the DIY, get-your-hands-in-the-mud, process for decorating your home.

Here’s a look at the Table of Contents.  Isn’t it cute?

This book will take you through every aspect of home decorating you can imagine.

It even has a cute little pocket where you can stash your fabric samples, or paint chips, or whatever else you might think of that needs stashing.  A dark chocolate sea salt caramel bar perhaps?

As I began the book I started thinking through how I was going to decorate our Great Room.  The DIY Home Planner has graph pages where you can figure out how much space you have in your different rooms, as well as furniture pieces that you can cut out to play around with different arrangements!  BRILLIANT!

So I may have been getting ahead of the game by decorating my rooms before the house was even built, but what else are you supposed to do in the early stages of clearing, pouring foundation, and framing? 

Once we got to the point of scheduling the meeting where we would choose our finishes, I really dug into the this book and went to work, and KariAnne’s advice made this process far easier than I’d imagined.  For  instance, I really wanted to have very little color on the walls of this home, at least for now, but her advice to go one shade darker really allowed the beautiful trim work to shine.

This was great fun as I learned, through a questionnaire within the book, what the best flooring options are for our particular family dynamics.

I can hardly wait to share with you the choices we made.

In addition to interior paint colors we needed to choose the exterior colors of our home.  With KariAnne’s help I ended up choosing a color from the opposite side of her handy color wheel when it came to picking a color for the front door.

I thought you might like a glimpse at how things are progressing!

There is a whole section on wall treatments and this is a sample piece of a cool wall treatment we found in a local tea shop.  Maybe an accent wall?

Window treatments are also covered in depth and I’m seriously considering stealing my friend Leslie’s (GoodbyeHouseHelloHome) idea and buying bamboo blinds just like hers!  Thanks for texting me the info my friend 😉

Pattern mixing was a very important chapter to me and it’s where I had a question answered about my rug:

When you have a rug with a lot of pattern like mine, let it shine.  Let  it be the large pattern that the other patterns revolve around.

Honestly friends, I could just go on and on about this book.  Like the section on choosing lighting!  I’m heading out to pick up a new light fixture for my kitchen nook today and I’m SO excited.  Shall I give you a peek?

 

Just because I love you!

I’ve only scratched the surface of all the yummy goodness you’ll find inside the pages of The DIY Home Planner, so I hope you’ll take the time to order your very own.  As you can see, it has valuable info for building a whole house or redesigning a single room.

So MUCH wisdom to be found HERE.

And also HERE, if you haven’t already read KariAnne’s personal story of learning to find beauty in imperfection.

 

Blessings until the next time, and I promise it will be SOON.

 

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

SundaysAtHome, TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays,RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays

Monday:

IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, TheDedicatedHouse, Dwellings, ProjectInspired, InspireMeMonday, BetweenNapsOnThePorch, CelebrateYourStory, What Joy is Mine/Monday Musings, Darling Downs Diaries, The Art of Homemaking, MomentsOfHope,Glimpses, SittingAmongFriends, InspireMeMonday, GodSizedDreams

 

Tuesday:

TalkOfTheTown, HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, CoastalCharm, CedarHillFarmhouse,TuesdaysAtOurHome, TheWinthropChronicles,  Rich Faith Rising Unite Linky, Testimony Tuesday,Cheerleaders of Faith,Tell His Story

Wednesday:

SavvySouthernStyle, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Woman to Woman Word Filled Wednesdays, Coffee for Your Heart, MessyMarriage,ThreeWordWednesday,  WriterWednesday

Thursday:

ShareYourStyle, ImpartingGrace, EmbracingChange, HaveADailyCupOfMrsOlson,MyRepurposedLife, ADelightsomeLife, KatherinesCorner,  Thought Provoking Thursday,SincerelyPaulas, ThoughtfulThursday, Tune-inThursday

Friday:

FrenchCountryCottage, TheCharmOfHome, TheDedicatedHouseAnythingBlueFriday,ShabbyliciousFriday, Sweet Inspiration,  Faith’nFriends, Missional Women Faith Filled Fridays, Dance With Jesus FreshMarketFriday

Saturday:

FunkyJunkInteriors, OneMoreTimeEvents,  SaturdaySparks, TheInspirationGallery, Make My Saturday Sweet