I recently shared with you our cozy Christmas past in the Blue Abode. You can read it here, “Our Cozy Memories from Christmas Past”. I shared our struggle this year with getting into the Christmas spirit & how it just feels a bit different. Soon after I was able to “testify” our tiny home & it changed the game a bit. With keeping both minimal & budget friendly concepts in mind, we were able to fill this space up with Christmas cheer.

This is a weird time for us. It is filled with so much change & so many new opportunities. We are away from what has always been home, but are now closer to loved ones we were so distant from before. We are in a small, simple rv, but have the time to enjoy ourselves more than “enjoy” all the work it takes to care for a sticks & bricks house. Since this move happened early September, I have been so grateful for the pros. It wasn’t until just the other day that the cons set it slightly.

The town near me started hosting a farmer’s market & I think all of Northwest Indiana has been waiting for this moment. Two weeks in, the organization & planning & hype has been well worth it. So much hard work is seen at this event & the growth in the community will prosper for it. If you are in the NWI region, be sure to hit up the Cedar Lake Grounds every 2nd & 4th Wednesday of each month. This event goes from 3 pm to 7 pm & is full of shopping, yummy foods, loud music, & most importantly, fellowship. Being able to join this event is definitely the highlight of my summer. As you know I love creating an inviting space in my home. The Blue Abode hitting the farmer’s market means I have a chance to share that passion with others & that fills my heart with so much joy.

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home, don’t they? So isn’t it important for it to reflect you & the style of your home? Then WHY DO THEY MAKE IT SO EXPENSIVE?! Alright, I think you can see where I am getting at. This was the exact thought process that ran through my mind as I stood in our kitchen staring into the rest of the house, feeling like I was in two completely difference space. Our house is almost 115 years old. The kitchen & bathroom were non existent. Plumbing was non existent. When people started running pipes through their home, an addition was added on to the back of our house. You can see a patch in the floor boards where there used to be stairs leading outside. Little pieces of history like this is what made me fall madly in love with this home.

Does anyone else have those people or things that at one point didn’t exist much in your life, but then all of sudden it seems as if it is the only thing in this world? Usually for me it is a person that I seem to run into everywhere! This time, it is a word.

How we made a Little Free Library! Something I always wanted to do was add a touch of community to our home. Whether it was a mini food pantry or a frequent yard sale, I wanted to host some time of event to get to know my neighbors & be a light to those around me. The street we are on & the location we are in made it a no brainer for the addition we chose.

That is right, friends! We impulse added a fireplace to our living room! Since we bought the house we knew we wanted to add one. We just didn’t really know when, how, what kind, or anything in between. Some problems we needed to work around : had to be on an interior wall, our house is over 113 years old & old things are scary, it had to be safe & cost effective. Is adding a fireplace something you have wanted to do? Do you have similar problems to deal with? Well you are in luck! Here is how we made our living room more modern & more cozy for roughly $600.

Just like that, Christmas is over. I hope you all had wonderful days full of family, love & happiness. Now we’re on to New Year’s. Personally, I am big on resolutions. I am all about choosing goals, planning your game, & kicking them in their booties. This next year especially. My words for this next year are INTENTIONAL CONTENTMENT. I will be sure to touch on that later, but I wanted to end 2018 with just that.

I feel like the word of 2018 in the Instagram home decor world is : cozy. It is for sure the theme I am going for as I decorate & fill each room. The beauty of it is that cozy can be old, new, modern, antique, busy & simple. Cozy is the ambiance of your room glowing by twinkle lights at Christmas time or candles flickering in a row. It is feeling warm & welcomed. For me personally, I love taking things with an old purpose & finding it a new one. I love vintage, antiques, I love full & busy walls! Most of all, which you could all guess, is I love greenery.