Category: personal

Odds & Ends, vol. 4: Autumn Reads and an Easy Home Styling Hack

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Autumn Reads

This time of year always makes me want to read The Night Circus. It’s one of my absolute favorite books, especially this time of year. It’s in my top 3 all-time favorite books and is one of very few that I’ve taken the time to re-read. (Also great for fall: Caraval, Harry Potter, Practical Magic, Bread & Wine (pictured above), and Ninth House.)

An Easy Home Styling Hack

This is the easiest way to make all those random dresser-top things look nicer. (1) Get a nice looking hardcover book or two. (2) Line everything up. That’s it – I recently tried this with my dresser and think it made a big difference! Look at this before and after:

Recent Buys

Target has had some surprisingly great workout clothes recently! I’ve been working out much more often and found that I needed some new things so I wasn’t having to do laundry every other day. A few recent buys have been this workout tee (nice fit, good quality) and this tank top (cute pattern and good fabric, but runs big).

Master Bedroom Inspiration

This master bedroom by Studio McGee is so good! It’s been a major inspiration for our master bedroom refresh. I almost bought this very similar (but much cheaper) bed from Target for our bedroom, but we ended up not using it since it needs a box spring.

An Easy Meal Idea

Grill chicken for dinner and made extra to add to a salad or eat for lunch the next day. (Cold grilled chicken is one of my favorite lunches – which may sound weird but it’s delicious.) A simple but tasty marinade we’ve been using is olive oil + salt and pepper + jerk seasoning + lemon juice. It’s great with hummus and pita for lunch or dinner!

Life Lately

Nothing very new here! Jamie still runs around and talks a lot, and he is at a very fun age where he loves to “help” us work on the house. We’ve been (slowly) working on a few fun home projects; our powder bathroom is starting to take shape after a long leak-related hiatus, our upstairs linen closet has nice new matching baskets, and we rearranged our living room!

Odds and Ends, vol. 2: Our Christmas Cards!

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Note: this post may contain affiliate links (i.e., if you click my link and make a purchase, I’ll make a small commission at no additional cost to you). Read my full disclosure policy here.

Merry Christmas from the Wilsons!

We’re only sending a handful of physical Christmas cards out this year (hopefully, if I can manage to actually print and mail them), but we think it’s too cute not to share:

Merry Christmas from the Wilson family! We’ve had an exciting year – mostly because we welcomed our sweet son into the world in April! He’s an active little rascal now and leaves us very little time to work on our home (or eat dinner), but we wouldn’t have it any other way! We are grateful for all the growth, fellowship, and fun that 2019 brought, and can’t wait for the new adventures that 2020 will bring!

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Odds and Ends, vol. 1

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Announcing: Made With By Michelle

For the past month or so, Scott and I have been working to open up my Etsy shop! I’m selling printable cards – many of which I’ve used myself for a number of different occasions. I love the flexibility of having a library of card downloads on my computer, so I can just print one whenever I need it. I made sure they’re priced affordably; for the price of just one traditional printed card, you can purchase a product you can use again and again! If it sounds up your alley, you can check my shop out here.

Celebrating Halloween

We celebrated Halloween this past Saturday (due to poor weather on Halloween, our township postponed trick-or-treat). We put together a very low-key Winnie the Pooh family costume, and Jamie loved watching all the people come up to our door! Scott and I enjoyed passing out candy and reminiscing about how far our house has come in the past year. (Last Halloween, we didn’t have any floors or furniture in our living room! We figured that counted as a Halloween decoration.)

A New Friday Night Tradition

Scott and I both love the Great British Baking Show – and Netflix aired a new episode each week this season. We started a tradition of baking a dessert to eat each Friday while we watched, and it was so fun! I’ve been loving this cookbook for classic recipes (we’ve made the pain au chocolat and eclairs). Scott’s favorite dessert was millionaire shortbread (we adapted this recipe), and mine was this sticky toffee pudding cake.

Audiobooks I’ve Loved

I often listen to audiobooks at work, and while I typically go for books I haven’t read before, I also love re-“reading” books on audio. Two of my favorite re-reads (especially for this time of year!) are the Harry Potter series and The Night Circus. (Coincidentally, both are read by the same narrator.) Both are fantastic on audio, and both were available for free through my local library using the Libby app! (If you’re looking for a more wintery read, I loved The Bear and the Nightingale on audio, too!)

Festive Finds

If you know me at all, you know I love a good Christmas sweater – but I’ve also been loving simple festive tees likes these ones from Old Navy. (I also snagged this onesie – in the Happy Holidays Christmas sweater motif – for Jamie.) Every year, I wrap presents in kraft paper and finish with a ribbon. The past few years I’ve done red and white ribbons, and I’m eyeing this green velvet ribbon for this year! Finally, if Jamie were a bit older, I’d for sure getting this sweet treehouse play house set; it’s so good!