Home Tour: Dining Room

Welcome back to our Fun Stuff Fridays Summer Home Tour. This week I am going to show you my dining room.

I love our dining room!

Our dining room has a lot of our vintage things in it, so I thought it would be fun to start a vintage family tree photo wall in this room. A lot of these family pictures were taken on our family’s wedding days. I am still adding to this wall, but this is what we have so far.

Another thing we have in our dining room is our china set. I am in love with these pieces.

The china cabinet is so fun too. I have a thing for old keys!

I am ready for a tea party with all of these beautiful tea cups.

j

Thanks for taking a peek into our dining room. Next week we’ll be in the kid’s rooms! Stay tuned.

p.s. I am moving to http://pencilleddaydream.com

Happy Father’s Day!

 

Happy Father’s Day Dad!

I love that we share a love for writing, great stories, and traveling adventures.

I love that we share a love for God’s word and ministering to people.

I love that we share a love for our fur balls- Ed, and Cosy!

 You are the best!

And I love you SO much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are You a Winner?

And the three winners of the Original Dish Drying Mats are:

1.  Kyle   2. Jessica W.   3. Dani

Winners please email me so I can send you your prize!

 

 

p.s. First winner was the comment winner. Last two winners were chosen with random.org

*picture taken from the Original Dish Drying Mat’s fb page.

Saturday Giveaway

Yesterday I had so much fun showing you my kitchen that today I want to give you a chance to win something for yours!  

 

 

{giveaway:}

Today Schroeder & Tremayne, Inc. is generously giving three lucky Pencilled Daydream readers a chance to win an Original Dish Drying Mat! I love my drying mat and think every kitchen could use one!

  

{how to enter:}

 Like my blog’s Facebook page (then leave a comment here on the blog telling me you did)

(mandatory entry)

 

{really, really want to win?}

additional entries - leave a comment for each entry 

 

- Like the Original Dish Drying Mat on Facebook (1 entry)

- follow Pencilled Daydream via  Bloglovin (1 entry)

- follow me on Pinterest (1 entry)

- follow @pencilleddream via Twitter (1 entry)

- blog, tweet or facebook about this giveaway and include the link (1 entry)

 

Giveaway is open to US Pencilled Daydream readers thru June 15th .

Winner will be announced on June 16th.

 

 

 

 

 

*Photo was taken from The Original Dish Drying Mat’s facebook page.

3 Ways To Overcome Writers Block

1. Keep a notebook close by: Write down ideas as they come. Fill your notebook with all of your ideas and sketches. Create a topics list. Write down blog post series ideas. Make a word list. Then when you need a topic for a post, you can go back and pull from your notebook.   

2. Take lots of pictures- Take your camera or phone with you everywhere. Take pictures of what you are doing. Snap a photo of something that is beautiful, that has color, that inspires you. Pictures are great for inspiring stories and posts.

3. Keep reading- A good writer will always be a good reader. Read good books. Read good blogs. Remember that what you read will inspire you. And know as you start to write that an easy read is always a hard write. Don’t be discouraged in that. Keep writing. Keep reading. Reading will add new words to your toolbox and give you new literary ways to communicate your point. Reading will help inspire new stories and posts.

Summer Fun

Today was the perfect day to take the boys to the splash pad. The sun was bright and water felt just right. While we were there we had a little family picnic.  

I’m No Martha Stewart!

There is an elephant in the room. Instead of ignoring him I’ll just usher him out by telling you that I am no Martha Stewart. My home will never be nominated to be on the cover of  the Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

I’ll just confess that up front. Besides I don’t even have a garden. But I’m sure if I did have a garden it would look amazing. Really it would.

Just picture me out on my hands and knees with a big floppy hat, floral patterned gloves on, and a little shovel in my hand. I would spend hours out there talking to my little flowers, telling them to “grow.” I mean what else would I do out there for hours? After my little flower grew, I could get a professional photographer to come take a picture of it and then I would win the most beautiful home and garden of all eternity award. (Note to self: get a garden. This will solve all of your “beautiful home” problems). Ok…I’m getting carried away. Where was I? Oh, yes beautiful homes.  

To be honest, I consider myself lucky when Cheerios aren’t smashed on the floor and when mount laundry is not declaring war on my home and trying to advance through each room of my house. I am happy when the floors are cleared of toys long enough to vacuum. I am overjoyed when the dishes don’t sneak out of the sink and try to take over the countertops. When everything is in its place, my house feels like a beautiful place. 

In line with that thought, I’ve decided to do a home tour. My heart behind this fun little tour is to serve my family by cleaning and organizing our house one room at a time, and hopefully along the way you’ll feel inspired to clean, organize, and enjoy your home.

HOME TOUR: FAMILY ROOM

Lets start in the Family Room since that is where we spend most of our time.

When we were deciding to buy our house, this is the first room I fell in love with. I love how open it is. It’s perfect for little boys to run around in.

Because this is the family room, I love decorating it with family pictures.  

I love this fireplace in the winter!

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our home. Stay turned for the rest of our tour!

 

Guest Post and a Few Favorites

Mrs. Baker from Baby Baker Love invited me to write a guest post for her blog today. I am sharing my favorite nursery DIY on her fun blog!  Check it out here.

Since I’m sharing on her blog today,  I thought it would be fun to share some other fun posts here. Here are a few favorites that I’ve read lately.

• Trisha- Dinner Horrors
• Devon- The Day I Gave Up On My Dream
• Challies- Competitive Mothering
• Casey- Fashion
• Mackenzie- Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets

5 Reasons To Rent A Cabin

As you may know, last week my little family loaded up and went to a cabin for our summer vacation. We enjoyed a lot of time talking and resting in the cabin and then went to Dollywood. Because we had so much fun today I want to share 5 reasons we chose to rent a cabin instead of a hotel. These benefits can be applied to beach house as well.

1. You can eat in. A great way to save money on your vacation is by eating in. Even though my energy sometimes runs out of the room when I have to make dinner eating out every day can get expensive. With a rental cabin/beach house you can stock up on groceries and use your own fridge, microwave, stove, and oven.

2. You can have multiple rooms. If you are a family with small kids you will need multiple rooms so that the kids can take their naps. A good nap equals a happy baby. A happy baby equals a fun vacation.

3. You can do laundry. Nobody wants to have a weeks worth of dirty clothes piling up. Having a washer and drying in your rental allows you to cut down on what you bring. You can do a mid-week wash if you need to.  

4. You have privacy. In a cabin or a fun beach house you have secluded entryways, balconies, hot tubs, etc. I loved this benefit with our cabin. We sat on our balcony and rocked each morning and night.

5. You have the luxuries of home. In a rental you can spread out in a living room, pop open the fridge to find a coke, do laundry, have your own private bathroom, and watch TV from your own bed. Having the comforts of home on vacation is a definite plus.

We loved our time at the cabin! I’m so glad we chose to rent a house instead of getting a hotel.

We were sad to go home, but I think that is a good sign that we had a lot of fun! Or maybe we were simply dreading unloading all of this stuff. Tell me… who really needs that much stuff???

Just Married

Last Saturday night Mark was honored to be in one of his best friend’s weddings. John and Mark have been friends since sixth grade! It was so fun to celebrate John and Jenn’s union. The sweet couple met on a hike and quickly fell in love. They were engaged for four months and had an amazing outdoor themed wedding.

We enjoyed much of the reception with our dear friends Natalie and Marshall.

Look at their amazing cakes! I love how the groom’s cake was inspired from how they met.

They were so fun! I thought you’d like to see the progression of the couple feeding each other cake.

Congrats John and Jenn! We are so happy for you guys.