I love autumn.
There is something so beautiful about a season of celebration dedicated to change, to endings, and to beginnings. I love the gradual change of colors in the trees from gold and sage, to rust and peach, to firey reds and yellows. Every day is different; every day marks the end of one moment in the season, and simultaneously the start of the next. Nothing in nature is stagnant; the world around us is ever-changing. Autumn causes me to slow down. To savor the changes that seem to slip through my fingers so quickly. To be grateful and celebrate with thankfulness every moment I am in, because they are fleeting. I've been taking pictures around the house and outside our house as autumn slowly wraps us up in the firey glow of everything it has to offer. I decided to post them here, because I always want to remember our first autumn in our little house. Enjoy. xoxo, Meg
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Fiddle leaf fig trees are well known for two reasons. First, they are ridiculously adorable and totally trendy. Second, they have been given a bad rap for being super high maintenance. Because, well, they kind of are.
If you are a proud new plant mama (or papa) to a fiddle leaf fig tree, or if you want to get a little fig but you have a healthy respect of your less-than-green-thumb, or if you're just wondering how to keep the thing alive, this is for you. I adopted my fiddle leaf fig a few months ago. Since then, it's grown quite a bit already and seems like it has a pretty good quality of life. I've had a few people ask me how to care for it, so I figured I would share with you the few things that I have done to make sure it remains healthy and continues to flourish. 1. Start with a healthy plant. Fiddle leaf fig trees aren't the cheapest of plants, so make sure to choose a healthy one to purchase. Be selective. Don't buy any that have brown spots, since that's a sign of disease, bad watering, or pests. 2. Let it sunbathe. This plant likes its sun. Place it in a spot that gets nice indirect sunlight throughout the day. South facing windows get a lot of light, but an east or west facing window does well for them too. Just make sure it doesn't stand in the way of direct rays of light. Keep it a couple of feet from the window, or place it in front of a window with a sheer curtain. You don't like sunburns. Your fig doesn't like them either. 3. Keep it in a room that stays roughly between 60 and 80 degrees. Also, keep it away from any cold drafts from windows and doors. Fiddle leaf figs come from warm climates, and they really don't like the cold. 4. Water thoroughly once weekly with a water-soluble plant food fertilizer. Ask your local greenhouse what brand they carry, and be sure to follow the instructions on the container. Mine says I can use it every week, but there are bi-weekly options out there as well. Also, watch your plant. Brown spots are sometimes signs of too frequent or not frequent enough watering. Be mindful and try adjusting your watering schedule if brown spots start to form. 5. Dust the leaves with a clean rag every so often. Dust build up can interfere with the leaves' ability to absorb sunlight, so getting rid of any dust buildup every once in a while is pretty important so that the plant can continue to thrive. Just make sure to use a clean rag so as not to spread any bacteria onto the leaves. Also, watch for brown spots, falling leaves, or yellowing. This variety of tree is fairly susceptible to pests. If signs of infection are forming on any of the leaves of your tree, use a rag with warm water and a little dish soap (1 gallon of water to every 1/2 tsp of detergent), to gently cleanse the leaves. So, compared to a succulent or something, I suppose fiddle leaf figs are kind of high maintenance. But honestly, they are also surprisingly hearty. Given a decent environment, they flourish and can grow to be above six feet tall. Just remember that a little consistent love goes a long way for this plant, and if you take a little time each week to give it some attention, your fig will be fit as a fiddle for the days to come. xoxo, Meg Some of my favorite childhood memories of my mom revolve around our kitchen. She taught me to bake, she let me write out my own recipes in a little cookbook, and she even hosted cooking classes for me and my friends. Now, as a wife and a homemaker, I have found that having beautiful kitchen tools makes even the most simple of tasks so much more enjoyable. For the past few months, I have been in the process of slowly editing out the things in our home that we don't need or use. This pursuit of a more minimalist-inspired living has led me to purchase intentionally and to value quality over quantity. By reducing the number of things we have, particularly in the kitchen, I have found simple cleaning and homemaking tasks to be peaceful, and an opportunity to express joy and thankfulness. I'm really grateful for my mom; particularly for her example at home, for her joy in living, and for her authentic heart of love for others. So, in light of Mother's Day being just around the corner, I have gathered my absolute favorite daily-use kitchen items to create three gift bundle ideas that promote beautiful homemaking. 1. Turkish Towels + Wooden Scrub Brush Honestly, I didn't understand the craze about Turkish towels until I got my hands on a few for myself. Now I'm hooked. I bought both the towels and the brushes on Amazon, but you can also find wooden or bamboo scrub brushes at TJ Maxx. Turkish towels get softer and softer the more times you wash, so toss them in the wash prior to using so they can be luxuriously absorbent. Purchasing Sources: Turkish Towels Wooden Dish or Veggie Brush 2. Amber Glass Soap Dispenser + Wooden Scrub Brush I know, I know, that little brush is in this roundup twice, but seriously. I love them. They are durable, have multiple uses, fit nicely in the hand, last way longer than sponges, dry easier (so they don't stink like dishrags), yada yada yada. They're essential. And word on the street tells me that if you love something, chances are it will make a great gift. As far as the soap dispenser is concerned, amber glass is just so pretty. Target has some beautiful ones in stock right now, or you can get crafty and make your own by up-cycling a kombucha bottle. I've found that Brew Dr. Kombucha bottles can fit some soap pumps. Just scrub that label off with a magic eraser, and voila - super pretty soap dispenser. Skip Bath and Body Works this time around, and instead fill that pretty soap dispenser with some natural lavender dish soap by Seventh Generation, and you've got yourself a beautiful mom's day gift. And don't forget a little twine bow to tie it all up. Purchasing Sources: Wooden Dish or Veggie Brush Amber Soap Dispenser 3. Wooden Cutting Board + Glass Bottle of Cutting Board Oil Wooden cutting boards are classic. They also make beautiful gifts, since they're used basically every day in most kitchens. However, as with all wood, they need to be cared for properly in order to keep the wood hydrated and to avoid splitting. You can pick up a bottle of food-safe cutting board oil at most any grocery or hardware store. To elevate the aesthetic of your gift, pour some of the oil into a small amber glass bottle. I purchased my small amber bottles in the vitamins section at Whole Foods. They're really inexpensive. Plus, they can be reused for homemade essential oil concoctions, so including it in this gift bundle is a sweet, worthwhile touch. Purchasing Sources: Wooden Cutting Board Cutting Board Oil Small Amber Glass Spray Bottle xo, Meg PS. Oh, and one last thing. Regardless of what you give your mom this Mother's Day, don't forget the chocolate. Because, let's be honest. Mother's Day simply wouldn't be Mother's Day without chocolate. I thrive off of lists. I make them every day. Sometimes four times a day. There's something satisfying about checkboxes. That’s why I decided to share with you my Weekly Cleaning Rhythm PDF printable. It’s what my typical week’s cleaning-to-do list looks like. Sometimes things get shuffled around (laundry, ahem), but for the most part, everything always seems to get done. This printable is perfect for taping inside a cupboard for easy reference. If you like crossing things off lists, laminate it and use a dry erase marker on it. Whatever floats your boat. It’s just nice to have a visual reference point. I find cleaning to be therapeutic. I also find devoting 15 or 20 minutes a day to a few household tasks to keep the house in a state of cleanliness is more preferable than, say, letting everything pile up for a few weeks until I have to dig myself out of a pit of dirty towels and crusty dishes and crummy surfaces. Weekly Cleaning Rhythm Printable to the rescue. So, in the spirit of spring cleaning season: download it. Print it. Use it. Enjoy it. ![]()
My mother is the queen of Easter tablescapes. Some of my favorite springtime memories from growing up revolve around the beautiful ways she styled our table for Easter breakfast. Scattered among the forsythia and the tea lights, platters of delicious homemade pastries and fresh fruit beckoned us to come, eat, and celebrate the resurrection of Christ. She carefully curated beautiful Easter baskets with cascading ribbons, filled to the brim with thoughtful gifts. She even made a basket for my boyfriend when he joined us for Easter breakfast when I was in college. This year, Clayton (the boyfriend she made a basket for; now my husband) and I get to host my family’s Easter brunch. With my mom’s beautiful Easter tablescapes of my childhood in mind, I’ve come up with a list of three inexpensive ways you can brighten up your dining room table for spring:
As a child, you sat on your grandfather’s Levi jean-clad lap, breathing in the scent of Dial soap and Old Spice, listening to him share the stories of his life. You sat at attention as his raspy voice spoke of a time before the internet, a time when he ran around barefoot through the hills of Kentucky, a time when he won your grandma’s heart by his strong, tan shoulders and his generous offer to buy her new shoes with the ticket given to him by the military after he survived the invasion at Normandy.
And now, you sit on the creaky old hardwood floor of your 104 year old home, and you wonder at the stories the walls could tell. Stories of a baby’s first bath in the claw foot bathtub in the new indoor bathroom. Ah, the luxury. Stories of two friends sitting on the porch, surveying the sunset, sipping ice cold lemonade and chuckling about college memories. Stories of the dining room’s mint green phase, its’ yellow phase, its’ white phase. Stories of little children’s feet pitter-pattering through the hallway 90 years ago, and again today. And as your home’s newest inhabitant, you feel as if it’s your mission to bring what you have to offer to the space. There are ways to let your home whisper its’ memories of times long past. Maybe you are in the middle of a full blown flip, or maybe you’d simply like to leave your fingerprints on the house – to make it feel like you. What you do to your house is up to your discretion, but amid the paint swatches and stain colors and shower curtain fabric choices, here are a few thoughts. Texture creates warmth and expresses personality. Plaster walls, peeling paint, exposed lathe – used tastefully, these are just a few examples of texture adding character and age to a space. If your house is 100 years old, let it be 100 years’ worth of lived in, well-loved character. It doesn’t need to look like a brand new home, because it isn’t. And chances are, if you let your home’s age shine through, its’ walls will whisper secrets of knowledge that spans the century. Your old home has a story. Let its’ walls have a moment to speak. The best piece of advice I have heard for curating a home that is truly you is to simply take your time. We live in a culture ruled by the more, the better the sooner. Bur that doesn’t mean we have to embrace that lifestyle. As years pass, you’ll bring home the geode paperweight from the wilderness trip, the Mexican blankets from your Florida internship, the copper pot from your honeymoon, the family heirloom furniture, and the beautiful vintage kilim throw pillows. Select items with care. Wait for the right thing to show up for the right price instead of filling the void with a temporary fix that you’ll toss in a month, two months, a year. I knew I wanted black bentwood style chairs for the dining room, but I didn’t purchase them immediately. They can be pricey. I waited and watched. I was able to source a few from Craigslist, one from a flea market, and a few on sale, and now we have a complete set that came at a beautiful price. Sure, it would have been nice to have a full set immediately, but now each of them have a story attached. For me, they were well worth the expense of patience. There are still projects on our to-do list, but that’s what brings the joy in the journey of having a home. My home is my safe space; my favorite place to be. I love the texture of the plaster walls. I love the tall ceilings and unique arching doorways. I love our tiny, plant-filled rooms with antique portraits on the walls and our furniture that spans the centuries. I love our vintage rugs and when the afternoon light throws long shadows and crystalized rainbows across the walls and floors. But most importantly, I love the people whose footsteps and laughter echo through the old walls and leave us with memories for the days to come. As decades roll by, the most-changed room in older homes is typically the kitchen. This is due partly to the rapidly changing appliance and aesthetic upgrades, and partly because kitchens are one of the highest traffic zones in most houses. The more you use a space, the more it is worn. Our house was built in 1913. That’s right. Our little home turns 104 this year. And let me tell you, some of its rooms have aged better than others. The kitchen needed a little extra love. The vinyl floors were stained and honestly pretty gross, the wood cabinetry made the space seem smaller than it was, and somehow roughly 4 ½ different shades of clashing whites made an appearance throughout the small space. The tile backsplash had a disintegrating ivy sticker running all across it, and the faucet was more of a leaking utility spigot. But more than that, I knew it had potential. Have you ever been there? Have you ever stopped to survey your kitchen’s desperate need of a spruce? Have you ever trudged into your kitchen in the early morning light - and there you stand - planted in your fuzzy slippers, rocking a slept-on messy bun, and clinging for dear life to your morning cup of coffee. You blink at the dripping sink. More coffee. Sigh. We didn’t want to gut the whole kitchen. We simply wanted to improve its aesthetic and its function while remaining true to its early 1900’s personality. So we did. You can too. It won’t even break the bank. You won’t even have to give up that morning coffee allowance to fund a kitchen renovation. I painted the cabinets and walls white. I removed some of the upper cabinet doors, creating open shelving to lighten up the space. While orange rolls were baking in the oven, I grabbed a razor blade and a magic eraser - off came the ivy stickers. After a little looking, I found an affordable (and pretty) area rug. On a whim, we sanded down the floor and painted it black. Clayton replaced the existing drippy sink faucet with a new one that has a quirky vintage vibe. I absolutely love it. Now our little kitchen is the perfect mesh of vintage eclecticism and rustic charm. The perfect mesh of our creativity. The perfect mesh of us. You don’t need to style your home for the visitors. You need to style your home for the people that live in it. You. Your family. Whatever you do to enhance your space, don’t have to feel obligated to the current trends. Just do what you like, and if you don’t like it, do something else. I believe that the most inviting homes are the ones with well-worn and well-loved interiors that honor the truest style of its inhabitants. xoxo, Meg PS. Below are some how-to resources that we used to breathe some life into our space, as well as links to my favorite kitchen items that help bring personality into our otherwise black and white space. Walls and Cabinets: “Roman Plaster” by Behr at Home Depot
Rug: I thrifted ours, but I recommend checking out At Home’s selection of rugs. They have a good selection at reasonable prices. I have a few of their jute rugs, and they have been great. https://www.athome.com/ Floor: “Tar Black” by Behr at Home Depot http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/diy-room-decor-how-to-paint-over-vinyl-floor-tiles-apartment-therapy-tutorials-200139 Faucet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OYZN4U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Chemex: http://www.chemexcoffeemaker.com/eight-cup-classic-series-coffeemaker.html KitchenAid Mixer: In “Almond” (Ours was a wedding gift from my mother-in-law and father-in-law and we absolutely love it.) https://www.kohls.com/product/prd-25941/kitchenaid-ksm150ps-artisan-5-qt-stand-mixer.jsp?ci_mcc=ci&utm_campaign=SMALL%20ELECTRICS&utm_medium=CSE&utm_source=google&utm_product=06373162&CID=shopping15&gclid=Cj0KEQjwwoLHBRDD0beVheu3lt0BEiQAvU4CKsuOeRnJzfjtX_fu-aRCwfH9fw7Jezli_dy45OATDP4aAg9i8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CLyIrK2ghtMCFcEBPwodWk4EuQ Wooden Cutting Board: We have several, and some of them were gifts. They are the best and look really pretty displayed on counters. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50233422/ You know that daunting task of picking out paint colors for your new home? Of knowing that the existing color probably could use a refresh; that the uncomfortably medicinal shade of peeling mint desperately needs to be laid to rest? So you march up to the paint chips (you just want to paint it white) and then you realize that there are seemingly 200 shades of white. Each nuanced. Each unique. Like snowflakes.
And then there’s the decorating. So many choices. I have had my fair share of rooms I painted, and then with a wince, promptly repainted (sorry, honey). But I learned something through the process. I like neutral walls and furniture accented with vintage pops of color. Neutrals are a tried and true color scheme that have stood the test of time, and to me they are calming. Our home’s color palette is built on black, white, and brown surfaces. We like well-worn leather. We like wood. We like vintage finds and useful objects with meaning attached. We like family heirlooms. I’m not sure why it took me so long to discover the right color scheme for our home. After all, I’m the girl whose go-to outfit for the foreseeable past and for the foreseeable future has been black and white stripes with a brown leather bag. This leads me to some advice. One. Maybe your go-to outfit holds the answer for the colors and textures you can use in your home to make it the most “you” that it can be. Two. In my experience, shopping for a room all at once rarely results in a space that will feel like you, and more often results in standing at the returns counter at Target for 25 minutes, wondering how your caffeine-induced shopping spree had ended so tragically. Instead, try taking stock of what you already have and what you already enjoy in your home and just shuffle things around a bit until they feel comfortable for you. Chances are, you don’t actually need the trendy new whatever, you just need to get a little creative with what you already have. A home filled with objects tied to memories is of far more value than a home filled with the new Target design line. (Don’t get me wrong. I still love Target.) Three. If the time is right and you’re really itching for some change, try a can of paint. It covers a multitude of wrongs. Personally, I like the $25 can of Behr paint from the Home Depot. It’s a good price with good coverage and a great line of colors to choose from. And this prompts a bit of paint-color-choosing advice: Four. We crave contrast. We follow supper with dessert. We dip our corn chips in salsa. We like scary movies with happy endings. We wear lipstick. Even in using neutrals, try to build depth with contrast. My high school art teacher taught us to blur our eyes at our paintings to see where more light or dark needed to be brought in. When I didn’t think to do that in our house, I ended up with a dining room that was a gloomy brown cave top to bottom and all in between. Oops. Hello, can of white paint. Much better. Our homes shouldn’t be something we feel like we need to escape from. They should be the place we can escape to. This doesn’t mean we have to go through extravagant measures to make it feel like a magazine. We don’t live in a magazine. We live in our homes. Our homes, with the china passed down generation after generation. With the afghan your great-grandmother knitted, and that you now snuggle up under to watch Netflix or read library books on rainy mornings. With the kitchen faucet your husband lovingly bought and installed as a gift for you, and you smile at when you scrub pots. With the throw pillows you thrifted in college (and cleaned; no worries), and they’re so worn out and napped on, but now you’re emotionally attached to them, so they’re still on the sofa. For me, living simply is letting yourself enjoy the things you enjoy and not feeling obligated to the rest. It’s cultivating a spirit of thankfulness. It’s living within your means and scrubbing the sink – again – while singing in your little kitchen and being so happy to have a sink to begin with. It’s realizing that a lot of the time the things we think are needs are not needs at all. They’re gifts. It was love at first sight.
I first noticed the trend it in the realm of Pinterest, and then suddenly my attention was alerted and I noticed it was everywhere. Fiddle leaf fig trees in baskets, fiddle leaf fig trees in pots, fiddle leaf fig trees on little scooter cart things – the funky houseplant had become a phenomenon. Now, I know that this little tree has exploded across the design world – how could it not? With its big, waxy leaves that flop around to its skinny little trunk and unique silhouette, its mere aesthetic and persona seize your attention in the same way that your friend’s California-vacation-palm-tree-pictures do when you scroll through your Instagram feed. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a plant lover. Lucky for me, my husband is okay with my plant obsession, even when it means finding thirty-two plants distributed carefully throughout our century old house. Although he didn’t really get my love for the fiddle leaf fig, he said that when the time was right I could get one – but it would be my job to keep it alive. His philosophy is probably similar to your mother’s philosophy of childhood pets: if you feed it, you water it, and you take it outside when it needs to go outside, then you can have it. As much as I love and care for all my other plants, when I first saw that fiddle leaf fig, I knew it was my dream plant. I researched, I saved spare change, I charted the sun patterns in our house to decide its ideal resting place, and I got a little rolling plant cart thing for it at Menards. Finally, after months and months and months of waiting, our local greenhouse called me and told me their truck had just come and my fig tree had arrived. I freaked out a little (okay, a lot), dropped everything, and drove to the greenhouse. Apparently I had really hustled over there, because the fig trees were still in the unloading zone wrapped in the brown paper they travel in and chilling out on their wooden pallets. The greenhouse workers all gathered around, gave me advice, told me how to care for it, and after inspecting the selection of figs, I picked a nice and healthy one to be mine. After paying, I lugged my new baby out the door and managed to fit it in the front seat of the Subaru. When I got home, I was so excited that I just wanted to take a million pictures of it and post all of them on the social media like a new mom showing the world her newborn baby. I refrained. Now it’s been a few days, and I actually had to take an unexpected trip to Florida. My husband is super awesome and said he’d plant-sit. He also offered to take pictures of my cute fiddle leaf every day that I’m gone. I could be wrong, but I think he’s starting to understand the whole fig-loving craze. And who knows. Maybe when I get home I’ll discover that he sang it lullabies at night in my absence. xoxo, Megan |
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