changing with the seasons

When my husband and I first started dating, one of the things he liked most about me was my slightly tomboyish attitude. I didn’t mind to ride mountain bikes on a tough trail through the woods or ride a four wheeler through a muddy farm field. For the first five years of our marriage, I was very comfortable living in a house full of boys — my husband and then our two sons.

But something happened when I gave birth to our third child, a girl. We both joke that bringing a girl into the world unleashed my inner girly girl. Suddenly, I was dying to paint walls pink and purchase headbands with huge flowers. Even my own wardrobe changed to reflect my more feminine side.

Something similar seemed to happen when we moved a few years ago. For the first 14 years we owned a home, I never bothered to decorate for the seasons. Sure, we would put up a fake Christmas tree and unpack a few boxes of holiday decor in December. But the rest of the year, our home pretty much always looked the same.
I had a good friend who loved to decorate for every holiday. She would come to visit and ask about the lack of festivity inside my house. “How can anyone even LIVE like this?!” I’m sure she was thinking. “Who has time for such ridiculousness!” I KNOW I was thinking!

Then, we moved into our current home with its large stone fireplace and wood mantel. Suddenly, a flip switched, unleashing my inner home decorator.

Sadly, I barely knew where to start when it came to bringing in what I had always referred to as “sit arounds.”

But during the past 2.5 years that we’ve lived here, I’ve been growing more confident in my ability to decorate for the seasons. Not only do I change up our decor at Christmas, but at least the mantel gets a facelift for each season and even holidays like Valentine’s Day, Indepedence Day and Thanksgiving. I’ve found that celebrating holidays with a change of decor somehow makes the change of seasons feel richer to me. I look forward to what’s next and the opportunity to transform our living space to reflect what’s happening outdoors.

Since I didn’t really have a decorating style before, I’ve been working on developing one. I love the whole rustic feel that’s trending right now, and I hope it stays popular for a while. We are so blessed to live near a prairie and all the lifestyle opportunities that brings, from going on walks to taking nature photos to just sitting outside and listening to the birds and frogs. I love bringing that feeling indoors through our decor.

I have been wanting an old window for a while now, and I was so excited to find one at a market a few weeks ago.

I’ve mentioned before that I also love, love, love the chalkboard trend. It gives me a chance to practice my hand lettering and change out my chalkboards with different sayings to reflect the mood of the season.

I seem to have fallen in love with wood slices this summer, and I’ve also been using them like crazy in my decorating. I added these wood slice ornaments to the tree this year. I used my Sihouette to cut out a template for the words, and then painted them.

I’ve always struggled with the cold weather half of the year, but honestly, I do love the change of seasons. Changing the decor inside my house is just one more way I’ve been enjoying the variety of what’s happening outside. Instead of dreading winter, decorating helps me embrace it!

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So, what about you? Do you like to decorate for different seasons? Do you have a decorating style? I would love to hear about it in the comments!