Coffee Bar

Thank you Decocrated Curated Home for sponsoring this post. All thoughts and opinions are completely my own.

For awhile now, we've had a sideboard in our dining room that I used for storage in the cabinet portion but the top just served as a place for me to display pretty things. While I'm ALL for showing off my pretty things, I wanted the sideboard to serve a purpose. Then it hit me; our coffee nook in the kitchen was getting crowded and we needed more space, so why not turn the sideboard into a coffee bar? And that, my friends, is what I did.

I filled the coffee bar with all of our essentials:
-coffee grounds
-coffee filters
-K cups
-sweeteners
-a much needed spoon rest

And then I added in some touches of pretty with fun decor items. Earlier this summer I received my Decocrated Summer Box and it included the prettiest tiered tray that I knew needed a home on my coffee bar where I could see it everyday. If you are unfamiliar with Decocrated Curated Home, it is a quarterly subscription box that includes timeless, unique items to keep your home feeling comfy, on-trend and perfectly you. And Decocrated is shipped straight to your door each season, helping you refresh and spruce up your home decor. To read more about Decocrated, I wrote an in-depth blog post last year that you can see here.

If you like what you see with Decocrated and want to get your own box, you can use code LINDSAYTOLAR10 for $10 off your first box. Click this link to get started.

I'm quite pleased with how my coffee bar turned out. Enjoying a cup of coffee (with plenty of peppermint mocha creamer!) is one of my favorite parts of my day and now I love it even more because I have a pretty place to prepare everything. Also, everything is out on display making it easy to prepare my coffee since all of the essentials are right at my fingertips.

Gallery Wall and a Tip for Hanging a Picture with Two Hooks

We have lived in our new house for almost two years and it has taken me all of that time to FINALLY install a gallery wall in our bedroom. I'm in LOVE with the gallery wall and get so happy whenever I walk past it. I'm kind of glad it took me so long to install everything, because I discovered a genius tip that can help when hanging a picture with two hooks.

We have numerous other wall hangings in our house that require two hooks and we have invested too much time and effort in hanging everything straight. If only I knew about this tip earlier!!!!

What's the trick?

Painter's tape.

Yep, a strip of painters tape saved me hours of time and plenty of frustration when I hung my gallery wall.

Here's how it works.
Flip the picture onto the backside so you can see the two hooks. Then take a piece of painters tape and place it between the two hooks. Next mark on the painters tape where the exact center of each hook is located. This way you know the distance between each hook without having to worry about rulers or tape measures or inches.

Tips to Maintain a Clean and Tidy House

Out of all the questions I receive, the majority of them have to do with asking how I keep my home clean and tidy with little children in the house. I've written several blog posts about keeping a clean house and decluttering (see links below), but I still get questions so I'm here to offer more help.

To start, let me remind you that everyone has a different style to how they run their house and I don't ever want anyone to think they are less of a mother because their house looks like they just lost a game of Jumanji. There are times when my own house looks that way too and that is ok! Embrace it and LIVE your life with your children and family. Keeping a clean house helps me feel in control and less stressed, so I prioritize my daily schedule to include some housekeeping. To each their own! BUT if you do want some tips, keep reading.

TIPS TO MAINTAIN A CLEAN AND TIDY HOUSE

1.) Declutter regularly.
I don't like clutter; I live by the motto that everything has its place. But in order for everything to continue to have its place, I need to go through the "things" I have and decide what I want to keep and what needs to go. Otherwise, I'm going to need to find new places.
Before birthdays and Christmas, I always go through the toys with my children and have them help pick out the items that they can part with. At the start of the new year and usually sometime in the summer, I also try to declutter each room in my house. It is incredible how much stuff we all accumulate.
Below are some links to several posts I wrote about decluttering.

Clothing Closets and Dressers
Linen Closets

Kitchen
Living Room
Toys, Books, DVDs and Games

Battle of the Beauty Blenders

Often, people will ask me what my favorite beauty tool is and I can 100% answer that without any hesitation: The Beauty Blender.
I've used a Beauty Blender for years and absolutely love the flawless finish it gives to my foundation application. Although, before I was a Beauty Blender lover, I must admit that I first questioned if a makeup sponge was really worth $20. And I must tell you that YES IT IS.

When using a Beauty Blender, I get flawless makeup application with minimal product waste. It actually helps to stretch my foundation longer than if I used something else. My makeup goes on streak-free with very little effort.

However, I do recognize that not everyone wants to spend $20 on a makeup sponge. So I decided to test out some of the other dupes on the market and see which one really compared. See below for my honest to goodness, true thoughts.

Holiday Gift Guide - For Her

(Thank you to oNecklace for helping sponsor this post. All opinions are my own. This post may also contain affiliate links.)

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us! If you are anything like me, you might need a little inspiration when going shopping for the special people in your life. So today, I've pulled together a list of gift ideas for HER. A lot of these items I either personally own or have on my Christmas list for this year. You can shop these items direct from the numbered links below.

1.) Personalized Jewelry - I have several pieces from oNecklace and I love that everything is personalized for me. My most recent pieces are an "L" letter necklace and Stackable name rings with both names of my children. (See the pictures at the bottom of this post) Because of the personalization, I know that the pieces I am wearing are unique to me. ONecklace has so many beautiful options, you could spend hours on their site drooling over everything. They offer free shipping worldwide and free personalization on all products. Also, each item is custom designed to the clients request and hand finished. Check out this blog post I wrote last year about some other products that I love from oNecklace.
ONecklace has some great BLACK FRIDAY sales going on right now that I want you to know about as well:
15% off All Orders, use coupon code BLACK15
20% off Orders $75+, use coupon code BLACK20
30% off Orders $175+, use coupon code BLACK30

2.) Inverted Umbrella - Why has it taken me so long to add this to a gift list? An inverted umbrella is a genius idea because when you close it, all of the rain water gets trapped inside instead of dripping onto the floor. This specific one comes in so many colors and designs to choose from. I really like the pink and white striped one - this is most certainly on my wish list this year.