At Home in Winter

I so enjoy getting back into the kitchen in January after the craziness of the holidays is over and there is more time for the simple things - like cooking and spending time with my kids. It's refreshing not to have quite as much clutter around that all the holiday decor brings with it. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I am also a bit relieved to pack it all away and begin with a blank slate. 

I'm always happy to see my pot rack return. I love the warmth the copper adds to my kitchen and how it works so well with the color of the island (Oval Room Blue by Farrow and Ball). I also miss how well it functions - I keep things like the colander and cheese grater right above where I use it. Maybe next Christmas I will leave the pot rack up for a change. It's always hard to imagine what next Christmas will bring or how I will ever find the energy to come up with new ideas and yet somehow Christmas rolls around again and I do. 

               

I usually keep our microwave on the white cart that you see in the bottom left corner of the photo above, but to change things up, I put it back on the counter and am using the cart for kitchen storage. I am forever moving the microwave around! There is no good place for it, except built in somewhere and that wasn't as common of a practice when we designed this kitchen close to 13 years ago. The microwave used to be over the range, then moved to a shelf and finally onto this cart. I did see Billy measuring and pondering a way to retro-fit it into the island so stay tuned. Fingers crossed he figures out a way - he almost always does when it comes to projects like these.

 

 

I found these adorable bird sponges on Amazon and they made me smile even on some of those devastating news days that we all experienced this month. They remind me of Emily Dickinson's poignant words - Hope is the thing with feather, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops, at all...

I am happy to live with a lot less color this time of year but I am already thinking about adding some red in soon for Valentine's Day. After after all, it's just about February.

I still have our Christmas wreath from Costco hanging on the front door. I will take it down as soon as it starts to dry out but it always seems to last much longer than the holiday season.

Finally, here's a look at the living room area that is open to our kitchen. I kept the southing blues in here for winter with a small pop of red from the winter barn picture and flowers.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

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A Few Small Updates in Our Master Bathroom

It's always nice to have a few new items to put out after the Christmas decor is away. I found some new towels on a recent trip to Target that are by Opalhouse and I thought they'd tie in all the colors of our master bathroom perfectly.

The towels have ribbons of soft colors and patterns sewed onto them. I enjoy the details that Opalhouse puts into their items at the typical Target price point. Many of their items remind me of things I see at Anthropologie.

I think that January is all about things functioning well rather than just looking pretty. It feels good to get back to basics without all the excess. It's a month I always enjoy cleaning and organizing. This is a real- life look at out bathroom. The tiered stand holds our often used items out in the open. The baskets underneath the vanity hold my hair stung and overflow from the vanity. I keep my makeup in a tray that you can see on the lowest shelf of the built-in.

I still get asked for a source for our bathroom rug everyday and, unfortunately, I still don't have a source. I haven't even found anything similar enough to recommend. I will keep looking!

                   

Sources:

Vanity Paint - Opal Silk by Behr

Wall Color - Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams

Mirrors - No longer carried at Lowes,  similar

Vanity - Kitchen and Bath Collections 

Tiered Stand - HomeGoods

Chandlier- Overstock

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