DIY Painted Farmhouse Style Sign Tutorial

Today, I am finally sharing how I made the "Baking Co" sign that hangs in our dining area.  I always hesitate to write posts like this because I am not an expert at sign painting by any means.  As you will see, when I do projects like this, I come up with the idea and then sort of wing it through trial and error.  I am going to share the good and bad of this project.  More importantly, I am sharing both my thought process and the actual steps we took so you can create your own sign that has meaning to you.

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Winter Fun - Dogs & Snow

Hello from snow covered NJ.  The storm hit us pretty hard (we got about 18 inches), but we didn't get quite as much snow as locations to the south of us.  Our boys were happy to report that it was a light snow, which made their shoveling jobs easier.  Our younger boys shovel for neighbors and our oldest works for a friend of ours who plows.  He shoveled snow all through the night and then some - hard work, but good money.  Me?  I stayed warm by the fire and read Chris Bohjalian's new novel, "The Guest Room" (a great read).  Today, I thought I would share some snow pictures and dog pictures since those both seem to be the headlines around our house.

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Cozy Farmhouse Style In Our Kitchen

Happy Friday!  Today I am excited and honored to be joining some fabulous bloggers who share my love of farmhouse style for Farmhouse Fridays.  The 4th Friday of every month we will all share about a specific topic related to farmhouse decor.  Today's topic is, "How to Cozy up the House - Farmhouse Style".  At the end of this post, I have linked up to the other posts loaded with wonderful farmhouse style ideas to cozy up your home so be sure to check them out.

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Winter Reads, A New Magazine Feature & An Update

Hello!  One of my favorite things about this time of year is how the pace of life slows down and leaves plenty of time for one of my favorite things to do- read.  Today I am sharing a couple of the standout books I have read in the last few months.

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Winter Family Room Planning - Choosing A New Slipcover

As I mentioned in my last post earlier this week, we are slowly making some changes to our family room this winter.  I created this mood board to help me bring it all together.  I envision a room filled with layers of texture and pattern that feels collected over time.  So far, we added the lantern pendant light and put together the mantel decor on the stone fireplace.  Next up is a big update for our sofa.

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Winter Changes For Our Family Room

Isn't the best part about packing away all of those bins full of holiday stuff the clean slate that remains? I love the fresh start feeling and the opportunity to re-arrange things a bit.  This year, I started planning what I would do with the family room back in December.  I am super excited that we decided to keep our Ikea Ekeskog sofa in here and I have big plans to update that.  More about those plans in a post later this week.  We spend the majority of our time at home in this room during the cold winter months and I like it to feel as cozy as possible.

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