Hello again, Texas

A couple months ago, my sweet Texas client texted me with a proposal. (Remember Mike & Christie? Had the pleasure of styling their entire home this last May…you can see the whole thing here!) Wellllll Christie had this fun idea to have me come back down, decorate her home for fall, and then do a design project for her sweet sister. Ummm, let me check. YES! We booked the flight, ordered some fun items for her sis (everything was kept a surprise!), and waited for the day to come.

This last Wednesday was the day. As soon as I arrived at the airport in Dallas, we were off to get pumpkins and a few other essentials. (Do we look excited, or what?) We made a quick stop at her sister’s to see what we still needed…and then home to Christie’s. Naturally the first order of business was to hold the chickens. 🙂

Day 2 was our shopping day for sis. We grabbed some amazing breakfast tacos (have you ever? like. heaven.), scooped her up, and set off for the fun!

We started here, an adorable shop in Flower Mound, Texas, called Southern Charm Cottage. Oh, did we ever find some goodies!

Next stop, HomeGoods/TJ Maxx…and let me just say, when there’s an amazing teepee at the front door, you can’t walk by without trying it out. 😉

We made several other quick stops, and by the time we were done shopping, there was hardly room in the car for US! (This is Christie’s sweet sis, Katherine.)

After a full day of shopping, I couldn’t wait to decorate Christie’s porch for fall. She had purchased an amazing vintage flower cart that was giving me all-kindsa-heart-eyes…I was anxious to deck that baby out with some mums & pumpkins! Such a unique piece!

Can I just travel door-to-door and decorate porches? This was a blast! (Ok, that’s one amazing business model if I do say so myself! haha)

Day 3 was a FEAST for the eyes, if you’re a junk/vintage/antique lover. This whole trip was born out of the idea of attending this show together, “Vintage Market Days of Denton.” We arrived at opening…and oh my. SO MUCH GOODNESS.

They had several adorable photo booth areas set up…aaaaand since we LOVE crazy pics, we were alllll over it. 😉

We came away with some awesome pieces for Christie’s place, and boy. We oohed and aahed all over that building, and gasped at the cuteness on many occasions. Now that’s a great sale! We grabbed some burgers for lunch, and headed home to add some “fall” to the INSIDE of Christie’s house. Wanna see?

First up? The. mantel. This shiplap covered wall is one of my favorite spots in the house, and a treat to decorate (inside scoop: I actually decorated it twice. The first time it featured some faux pumpkins that just didn’t look realistic enough…so it was scrapped and after some cheez-its and Diet Coke I was ready to try again. haha).

Simple. Rustic. Authentic.

This living room…still one of my ALL-TIME faves.

This perfectly perfect little rustic stool (we found it at Vintage Market Days!) is so darling in the entry way.

The kitchen table needed a little fall fun as well, and I adore this scale.

This gorgeous light green pumpkin is so pretty on the island!

Also LOVE the pretty little fabric pumpkins we found at Vintage Market Days, made by Cara Howell (@farmhousedesigns on Instagram). Cara is the sweetest and it was so much fun to meet her!

Day 4 was “Install Day” at Katherine’s. A special day like that calls for a power breakfast…sooooo, Kolaches and donuts it was! 😉 I was pretty excited to try my first Kolache (yum!)…and the blueberry cake donut was NOT GOOD. Just kidding. It was life-changing. 😉

At Katherine’s our goal was to add storage for their kiddo’s toys, and bring a light and bright feeling to the room. Here’s a little “before” shot:

aaaaand after:

The room was repainted prior to my arrival, the color is now Valspar “Coconut Milk” (sound familiar? We have the same wall color in our home!). It’s a great light neutral, and worked well with the warm tones in the fireplace tile and carpet. The area rug (find it here) brings some fun pattern and interest to the room, and defines the seating area. The mantel decor was simplified to support our “light and bright” theme, and the new built-in shelves in the TV niche are so airy and light (built by Mike, Christie’s hubby. Didn’t he do an amazing job?). There are tons of cute baskets around the room, which hold the kids toys, puzzles, and games.

We added some pillows to their leather sofas to help carry our colors around the room, and to soften the look. Window treatments, hanging nice and high, really add interest and height to the room. It was really amazing to see how they brought instant warmth. As soon as they were up, it was like a big HUG! 🙂

Here’s another angle, just for fun.

Here’s a pic of the entryway “before.”

We added some new rugs, artwork, a new light fixture, and a stenciled niche. Simple, fresh, and clean!

It was a long day, but sooo worth it. Mike and Christie worked like crazy to help pull this off, and we had the best time doing it.

Day 5 was dreamy for this farm girl. Christie and her sweet daughters took me for a fun golf-cart ride around their back pasture, and we picked the most amazing wildflowers from the prairie. Aaaaaand, they’re yellow. How perfect. 🙂 (Did you catch it? Yellow Prairie? Anyone?) 😉

We stopped and said hi to their chickens and ponies…I mean, stop. Could this day get any better??

And to top it all off, one more craft project before I caught my plane back to Oregon. We had purchased this cute chippy fence picket at Vintage Market Days for $4. It was begging for some stenciled words, so we felt “Fresh Eggs” would be appropriate, and pointed it toward the chicken coop. Bam. 😉

The pretty fresh-cut wildflowers were added to the kitchen island vignette, and it was time to go.

Guys. What a blessing it was to work with this sweet family again. An absolute treasured time. I’m not sure how I got so lucky, but I’m super thankful. I love how God puts little sparkles in our path at different times in life. Yes, we all have to deal with the not-so-great stuff. But the sparkles. Those are my favorite. And this family? SPARKLE-CITY! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Until next time, Texas! <3