I love a cheerful front door to welcome friends an I love a cheerful front door to welcome friends and family ❤️...

In this online space it's allllll about Christmas decor right now, but I've always been someone who likes to honor each holiday regardless.

I ran down to @shopluckyhome at Gilman Village last week and snatched up some of their last beautiful bits of fall decor to refresh my tired wreath (swipe for the before pic, which already had the faded pumpkins and hot glue globs torn off!).

Two of their talented designers helped me lay it out in store, then I brought it home and worked some magic with floral wire - and a bit of luck!

Didn't it turn out well? I've still got some gold ribbon to work into it but sometimes done is better than perfect 🤣! It's only got another week and a half to enjoy its view of our street before bells and green garland and cedar and pine take over!
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#falldecor #holidaydecor #fallwreath #fallwreaths #shopluckyhome #shoplocalshoplucky #frontdoor #frontdoordecor #frontdoordesign #frontporchdecor #thanksgivingwreath #homegirlbydesign #elevatetheeveryday #elevatedliving #homeismyhappyplace
'Tis the season... ...of celebration and family a 'Tis the season...

...of celebration and family and friends and merriment...and power outages, thanks to the perfect recipe of blustery winds, heavy rainfall, soggy ground and towering evergreens that fall on the power lines (hello, Seattle!).

Lucky for me, stormy weather means cozy days working from home with a lovely fire and all the candles lit. Be still my homebody heart.

Here's a new favorite this season - Fir and Firewood by @capribluecandles ...perfect for autumn all the way through your snowy, dreamy wintertime, and on sale now at @anthropologie .

What's your favorite scent? So many good ones!

Copy and paste this link to get yours: http://liketk.it/3rM77

Follow my shop @homegirlbydesign on the @shop.ltk app to shop this candle and more.

#ltkunder50 #ltkhome #ltkseasonal #ltkholiday #homegirlbydesign #capriblue #elevatetheeveryday #candlelight #poweroutage #cozyathome
Faux? Or Faux Pas? I fell in love with @nateberku Faux? Or Faux Pas?

I fell in love with @nateberkus eons ago, when he was first Oprah's "cutie pie" designer. (Still a cutie pie, btw.) He said that if you're going to decorate with plants and flowers, they need to be REAL. Something like, "if it's meant to be alive, let it be alive". Not his exact words, but you get the gist.

My preference is for real, but #reallife sometimes calls for longer lasting botanicals. I often mix real and faux for greatest impact.

What's your pick?
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P.S. If you haven't already, come join me @homegirlbydesign. See you there! xox
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#freshflowers #fauxflorals #floraldecor #botanicals #kitchendecor #coffeetabledecor #decoratinginspo #homegirl #homegirlbydesign #elevatedliving #elevatetheeveryday #freshisbest #happyathome #homeismyhappyplace #seattledecorating #pnwdecorating
It's WINSday, peeps! Feeling like I've brought my It's WINSday, peeps!

Feeling like I've brought my A-game today as last night I finally put to rest a silly tech challenge I've been putting off (avoiding) for far too long now.

I made it up to be this big impossible thing in my head, when in reality it just required an hour of my uninterrupted focus. 

I'm taking lots of baby steps in this entrepreneurial world, but I'm good with it! I'm learning how to digitally deliver the products so many of you have asked for, and it's got me excited for what's comig!

So what's YOUR win for the week? Fill my comments with good news, please, and I'll do the happy dance 💃🏻 with you.

P.S. If you haven't yet, come join me @homegirlbydesign - I appreciate your friendship and your follow ❤️!
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#homegirl
#homegirlbydesign
#elevatedliving
#elevatetheeveryday
#winsday
#winsdaywednesday
#happyathome
#homeismyhappyplace
#happydance
#happydancing
Monday, Monday... It's my favorite kind of Monday Monday, Monday...

It's my favorite kind of Monday today, with the start of a new week AND a new month - the perfect time to reset and get after it...so here's your friendly reminder that the sky's the limit!

I'm using that inspiration today to think about/dream about/strategize the month ahead. This means setting some goals in motion for myself, my business, my family and our home, all with a 30-day timeline.

What will YOU do this month with all your uncapped potential and endless possibilities? Anything goes! Read a book? Bake a pie? Start holiday shopping? Finish holiday shopping? Run 5 miles...or 50?

How are you going to elevate daily living in November? Tell me all about it in the comments 🙌🏼❤️.
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#homegirl
#homegirlbydesign
#elevatedliving
#goalsetting
#elevatetheeveryday 
#mondaymotivation
#mondayinspiration
#homeoffice
#planningtime
If the broom fits, fly it! I love Halloween with If the broom fits, fly it!

I love Halloween with all the festivities and kooky, spooky decorations. I remember dressing up as Peter Pan when I was a kid. I had a really bad pixie haircut in the 8th grade (don't ask), and my sister made me the coolest costume that made the awful coiffe seem okay for a day!

Today I'm carving jack-o-lanterns with my crew and heading to a friend's house with my daughter to help set up for her freaky fright night. I can't wait to see all the ghouls snd goblins!

How about you? Are you a lover or a hater?

Happy haunting this weekend! 👻🎃👹🤡🤖💀
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#halloweenhappiness
#frightnight
#whitepumpkins
#whitepumpkindecor
#homegirl
#homegirlbydesign
#elevatedliving
#elevatetheeveryday
#easyfalldecor
Wow, it's been a week! I'm grateful to be at my h Wow, it's been a week!

I'm grateful to be at my home desk today with the whirlwind of errands and appointments tucked nicely away in the past few days.

If you've followed me on Facebook for a while, you'll know that I am a homebody who aims to help you elevate every day living. But here's something my job description doesn't tell you:

Sometimes, elevating means slowing down. Lying low. Resting. Reading. Padding around in fuzzy socks and lighting a scented candle to create coziness. Taking in the details of your surroundings. Making the most of where you are by simply appreciating it rather than working to change it.

Just being.

I allow myself to rise above the busyness and see more clearly from a calmer, quieter point of view.

What about you? Comment below to tell me what grounds you. How do you elevate out of the flurry of life to find yourself again? I'd love to hear 💕.
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.
.
.
.
.
#homebody
#homegirl
#homegirlkaren
#homegirlbydesign
#elevatedliving
#elevateyourself
#elevatetheeveryday
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Making Things Lovely, Thoughts · April 14, 2020

PSA: Your Home is for You, Not the Next Buyer

Let’s get one thing straight, right here, right now. Your home, while you live in it, is for you, by you, about you. Nobody but you and the people you love who live there with you. Your home is for YOU, not the next buyer. As such, all the nice things you do for it and to it should also be for you, by you, and about you, and never for the next family who will live there. This is your place! It’s where you dream, learn, grow, become. So it’s important to honor yourself – your whole self and nothing but yourself – in its decor and design.

In a previous home, we were a very young (broke) family. We were trying to be financially responsible (which was in complete discord with my decorator’s heart). So our living room sat empty for the longest time. It had a big bay window facing east that looked out onto the snowcapped Cascades in the distance. Through that window, I saw some of the most breathtaking pink and orange sunrises I have ever seen (Texas mornings notwithstanding).

Yet we spent most of our time at home in the back of the house. Back where the kitchen met the family room, where Ben could watch Madagascar (love me some King Julian!) for the 7th time that day while I cleaned up breakfast and cooked dinner simultaneously, and where the space accommodated the chaos of our sweet kiddos and the messy necessity of Goldfish crackers and applesauce quite nicely.

Obvious Lessons Learned by Green Homeowners

As time went on, I became wistful each time I’d head up or down the stairs past that beautiful, lonely space. When we finally stashed enough cash for furniture, an entirely new realm (adult space!) opened up to us. We had a sofa! End tables sat on either side of it. Chairs and a rug were ours. Lamps and apothecary jars full of pretty vase fillers sat on top of a sofa table. Draperies finally framed our beautiful sunrises! And the clouds parted and the angels sang.

Neutral living room with sectional sofa, pillows, fur blanket, big window, coffee table, books, candle, plant.

Imagine two grown-up kids in a candy store. That was us, all wide-eyed and amazed at ourselves. (Note, Tom may argue that I’m mis-representing him here, that it was “just furniture,” but this is my post.) One night, we sat in our new living room together, marveling at our new surroundings. We legit looked at each other and said, “What the hell took us so long?!”

For two weeks after that, I got up early every morning to watch the sun stretch up over the pink-white peaks of our mountains. And those were some of my happiest, quietest, most grateful moments in that home. Moments I would have missed out on had we not made a point of fully making our house work for us. Solitude was hard to come by in those days, and I regretted not having done it sooner. This may sound like a big, “Well, duh, you guys. Furnish your house.” Noted. But we truly didn’t realize what we were missing out on until we gave ourselves the chance to use the space and love it.

Tips from the Real Estate Pros

Every time we’ve worked with a real estate broker to sell a home, we’ve received all sorts of tips on how to appeal to the subconscious of potential buyers who walk through. Said more simply, it’s smart to pull out all the stops to pull on people’s heartstrings as they walk through your home, so that it feels like home to them, too.

When we moved out of our first home, our broker advised us to leave a basket of apples on the counter for our open house; the familiarity and the color would be happy and welcoming to buyers. He also told us that if we could manage to bake some cookies just before leaving for the day (sure, no problem – let me just whip out a batch of yumminess with my potty-training toddler running around while my husband wipes all of said toddler’s handprints off the front windows!), it wouldn’t hurt. The smell of something warm and delicious, he said, would be comforting and inviting, and would subliminally make people want to stick around a little longer.

For our next move, an entirely different broker offered up a new set of tricks. She suggested we feng shui the place up a bit, to appeal to a wider variety of buyers with a positive flow of energy. She had us plant colorful annuals in our flower beds out front, which we had designed intentionally with perennials and evergreens to keep it as low maintenance as possible. And while she didn’t ask us to bake cookies, she did ask us to leave a subtle candle burning, again because people often associate the scent of “homemade” with comfort and happiness, which translates subconsciously into people falling in love more quickly with your home. (Including yourselves.)

Let Home be for You, Not the Next Buyer

When we came back after a long day out in soggy Seattle with a tired toddler, the smell of chocolate chip cookies was like a great big hug to welcome us back to warmth and a soft landing. Having intentional spots of color, in fruit or in flowers, both outside and in, made it look like we really loved and cared for our home. And it made us look at each other and go, “Ummmm…we need to sell our house more often!” JUST KIDDING. But we did have another obvious moment of dumb realization. It was as though it had never occurred to us to do those things before. In all honesty, we had done it all before, but we had always done it for somebody else.

Beautiful white kitchen counter. Long wooden bowl with greenery, two white vases with branches, white bowl with green apples. Your home is for you, not the next buyer.

The moral of this story: Your home is for you, not for the next buyer.

Do what you can right now to make your home comfy, welcoming and refreshing for yourself, so that you can enjoy it while you still live in it. It can be demoralizing to put your blood, sweat and tears (and checkbook) into a space, not to mention your heart and soul, just to hand it over to someone else. Unless, of course, you flip houses for a living. But assuming your home is yours for the foreseeable future, learn from our missteps and moves to upgrade your joy. Redo the bathroom. Plant the flowers. Bake the cookies, add the extra pillows and light the candles. Then sit right down in the middle of it all with your momentarily fingerprintless windows and love the hell out of it. Relish the sweet satisfaction that this beautiful place is yours, by you, for you, because of you.

In: Making Things Lovely, Thoughts

Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links, and I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. There is no additional cost to you. Please note that I’ve linked to these products because I love them (and think you will, too!) and they are from companies I trust.

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Back shot of two women walking and talking on a sunny but chilly day; daughter getting motherly advice.The Best Motherly Advice I’ve Ever Received + How HomeGirl by Design Came to Be
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I love a cheerful front door to welcome friends an I love a cheerful front door to welcome friends and family ❤️...

In this online space it's allllll about Christmas decor right now, but I've always been someone who likes to honor each holiday regardless.

I ran down to @shopluckyhome at Gilman Village last week and snatched up some of their last beautiful bits of fall decor to refresh my tired wreath (swipe for the before pic, which already had the faded pumpkins and hot glue globs torn off!).

Two of their talented designers helped me lay it out in store, then I brought it home and worked some magic with floral wire - and a bit of luck!

Didn't it turn out well? I've still got some gold ribbon to work into it but sometimes done is better than perfect 🤣! It's only got another week and a half to enjoy its view of our street before bells and green garland and cedar and pine take over!
.
.
.
#falldecor #holidaydecor #fallwreath #fallwreaths #shopluckyhome #shoplocalshoplucky #frontdoor #frontdoordecor #frontdoordesign #frontporchdecor #thanksgivingwreath #homegirlbydesign #elevatetheeveryday #elevatedliving #homeismyhappyplace
'Tis the season... ...of celebration and family a 'Tis the season...

...of celebration and family and friends and merriment...and power outages, thanks to the perfect recipe of blustery winds, heavy rainfall, soggy ground and towering evergreens that fall on the power lines (hello, Seattle!).

Lucky for me, stormy weather means cozy days working from home with a lovely fire and all the candles lit. Be still my homebody heart.

Here's a new favorite this season - Fir and Firewood by @capribluecandles ...perfect for autumn all the way through your snowy, dreamy wintertime, and on sale now at @anthropologie .

What's your favorite scent? So many good ones!

Copy and paste this link to get yours: http://liketk.it/3rM77

Follow my shop @homegirlbydesign on the @shop.ltk app to shop this candle and more.

#ltkunder50 #ltkhome #ltkseasonal #ltkholiday #homegirlbydesign #capriblue #elevatetheeveryday #candlelight #poweroutage #cozyathome
Faux? Or Faux Pas? I fell in love with @nateberku Faux? Or Faux Pas?

I fell in love with @nateberkus eons ago, when he was first Oprah's "cutie pie" designer. (Still a cutie pie, btw.) He said that if you're going to decorate with plants and flowers, they need to be REAL. Something like, "if it's meant to be alive, let it be alive". Not his exact words, but you get the gist.

My preference is for real, but #reallife sometimes calls for longer lasting botanicals. I often mix real and faux for greatest impact.

What's your pick?
.
.
.
.
.
P.S. If you haven't already, come join me @homegirlbydesign. See you there! xox
.
.
#freshflowers #fauxflorals #floraldecor #botanicals #kitchendecor #coffeetabledecor #decoratinginspo #homegirl #homegirlbydesign #elevatedliving #elevatetheeveryday #freshisbest #happyathome #homeismyhappyplace #seattledecorating #pnwdecorating
It's WINSday, peeps! Feeling like I've brought my It's WINSday, peeps!

Feeling like I've brought my A-game today as last night I finally put to rest a silly tech challenge I've been putting off (avoiding) for far too long now.

I made it up to be this big impossible thing in my head, when in reality it just required an hour of my uninterrupted focus. 

I'm taking lots of baby steps in this entrepreneurial world, but I'm good with it! I'm learning how to digitally deliver the products so many of you have asked for, and it's got me excited for what's comig!

So what's YOUR win for the week? Fill my comments with good news, please, and I'll do the happy dance 💃🏻 with you.

P.S. If you haven't yet, come join me @homegirlbydesign - I appreciate your friendship and your follow ❤️!
.
.
.
.
.
#homegirl
#homegirlbydesign
#elevatedliving
#elevatetheeveryday
#winsday
#winsdaywednesday
#happyathome
#homeismyhappyplace
#happydance
#happydancing
Monday, Monday... It's my favorite kind of Monday Monday, Monday...

It's my favorite kind of Monday today, with the start of a new week AND a new month - the perfect time to reset and get after it...so here's your friendly reminder that the sky's the limit!

I'm using that inspiration today to think about/dream about/strategize the month ahead. This means setting some goals in motion for myself, my business, my family and our home, all with a 30-day timeline.

What will YOU do this month with all your uncapped potential and endless possibilities? Anything goes! Read a book? Bake a pie? Start holiday shopping? Finish holiday shopping? Run 5 miles...or 50?

How are you going to elevate daily living in November? Tell me all about it in the comments 🙌🏼❤️.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#homegirl
#homegirlbydesign
#elevatedliving
#goalsetting
#elevatetheeveryday 
#mondaymotivation
#mondayinspiration
#homeoffice
#planningtime
If the broom fits, fly it! I love Halloween with If the broom fits, fly it!

I love Halloween with all the festivities and kooky, spooky decorations. I remember dressing up as Peter Pan when I was a kid. I had a really bad pixie haircut in the 8th grade (don't ask), and my sister made me the coolest costume that made the awful coiffe seem okay for a day!

Today I'm carving jack-o-lanterns with my crew and heading to a friend's house with my daughter to help set up for her freaky fright night. I can't wait to see all the ghouls snd goblins!

How about you? Are you a lover or a hater?

Happy haunting this weekend! 👻🎃👹🤡🤖💀
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#halloweenhappiness
#frightnight
#whitepumpkins
#whitepumpkindecor
#homegirl
#homegirlbydesign
#elevatedliving
#elevatetheeveryday
#easyfalldecor
Wow, it's been a week! I'm grateful to be at my h Wow, it's been a week!

I'm grateful to be at my home desk today with the whirlwind of errands and appointments tucked nicely away in the past few days.

If you've followed me on Facebook for a while, you'll know that I am a homebody who aims to help you elevate every day living. But here's something my job description doesn't tell you:

Sometimes, elevating means slowing down. Lying low. Resting. Reading. Padding around in fuzzy socks and lighting a scented candle to create coziness. Taking in the details of your surroundings. Making the most of where you are by simply appreciating it rather than working to change it.

Just being.

I allow myself to rise above the busyness and see more clearly from a calmer, quieter point of view.

What about you? Comment below to tell me what grounds you. How do you elevate out of the flurry of life to find yourself again? I'd love to hear 💕.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#homebody
#homegirl
#homegirlkaren
#homegirlbydesign
#elevatedliving
#elevateyourself
#elevatetheeveryday

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