Attributed to the Danish, Hygge is finding happiness in the little things and finding moments throughout our day to embrace & create bliss. I grew increasingly fascinated with the concept & principles of Hygge, and the deeper I dove, the more I wanted to learn.
At the top of the year, I found myself binge rewatching old shows and/or movie series… with some new shows sprinkled in between. Reconciling how these shows/movies made me feel as a young adult when I first watched em with how they resonated with me now as a thirty something wife & mother… it was kind of a mind trip.
One show that I watched A LOT in my twenties, that I could not bring myself to binge watch again, though, was Sex & The City (SATC). I own the entire DVD box set - the collector's gift set - with all sorts of bonus DVDs, and yet it's been probably close to a decade since I last watched the show. Earlier this year I rewatched the movies - in the middle of my tv show binge - and by the end of em, it was painfully clear to me that I no longer connected with these characters & their stories... more so, it made me wonder if I ever did or if I was just too young, inexperienced, and naive to know any better.
Read MoreThere are two types of holiday shoppers —
the shopper who’s been planning since Labor Day and actually purchasing gifts since Halloween, so on Black Friday, they’re doing “last-minute” shopping
the shopper who only started thinking about holiday shopping after Thanksgiving & isn’t above giving holiday gifts in the new year
I am definitely the latter and I’m willing to bet you are too!
While everyone had their gift guides up and running since November, I decided to put together these last-minute holiday shopping gift guides for us last-minute holiday shoppers.
So what do you get people when you’re shopping at the 11th hour? Yeah, you could start handing out gift cards like they’re candy on Halloween, but I’ve got some better last-minute gift ideas!
Read MoreWhile setting up the kitchen cafe for the season, I stocked up on a bunch of favs for hot chocolate for the family; and now that I have more kitchen (and counter) space, I decided to try something fun this year when it came to what would normally just be a hot chocolate bar. I decided to create my first ever charcuterie board... specifically, a hot chocolate charcuterie board.
Read MoreGoing into this holiday season is the first time I am like geeked to decorate... like actually planning & designing a "holidayscape" versus just picking a color scheme and seeing where it leads me... which is exactly what I would do in the past. I knew the vibes I was looking for & I knew what colors would gimme that. From there, I would just go on a shopping spree of sorts & then figure it all out once everything is unpacked and in front of me. This year - after a year of home improvement projects, deep personal trauma, and just general exhaustion, I decided to reclaim this season. Even as a content creator, I was like I will not be rushed to create or feel forced to perform. I wanted to take my time with this. Who knew the end result would be not one... not two... but THREE holiday designs for the hygge ranch.
Read MoreI've put together a list of essentials that every guest bedroom/suite should have, but this isn't any ol' essentials list — no ma'am (or sir). Each of these items was hand-picked by yours truly to make the holiday guest experience comforting, special, and memorable. But before we start shopping, let's talk about some practical steps to pulling your guests' home away from home together.
Read MoreWhen we bought the house, there was very little in terms of the footprint that we took issue with. The layout of the house is actually what we loved most about to because it was perfectly compartmentalized for the way we wanted to live - walls where we wanted em & no walls where we didn't... well with the exception of the wall separating the kitchen & the dining room. The only thing that proved to be a real problem for us was that there was no mudroom off the garage and no foyer off the front door.
We needed to find a proper place for our outerwear, footwear, and accessories as we would come in & out of the house.
As we transition from summer to fall to winter, it also means transitioning into school and holiday. It's a weird time when things overlap and it was definitely reflected in my shopping. I shopped for the mini as she continued into the school year. I shopped for myself as the season changed. I shopped for the house to prepare for the upcoming holidays.
Read MoreIf you've been following along the past 7 weeks, then you know that this is actually a multipurpose area, aka The Flex Lounge... with it having flexibility in terms of its current function, flexibility to change over time as our lives change, and a total flex (as the kids say) because this room is straight from my "must be nice" Pinterest board.
Read MoreOh happy day!
Oh happy day indeed!
And not reveal day... it's "finishing touches for photography" day! This day, for my last 4 major reveals at #thehyggeranch, is always a day that gives me a lot of angst because there's always so many little things to day + it's not just about cleaning & styling for use... it's about cleaning & styling to share & inspire.
Read MoreI remember when I did my very first kitchen accessories guide, it was partly to help you guys with your own shopping & partly to satisfy my own love of digital window shopping. But this time it’s different. For my own kitchen reno, in addition to wood, white, and black (coming soon) accessories, I’ve been shopping gold & brass accessories to complete the design.
Read MoreWhile I love to shop — duh! — I don’t believe I always have to buy everything all new every time I want a new look, because no one has that kind of money or storage! When I decided to set the dining room tablescape, this year I pulled out my fav tablescaping pieces from last year — because that’s when almost everything was purchased — and started to plan out place settings with what I had on hand.
Read More‘Tis the season of decorating & entertaining, and while people’s time (and money) may be wrapped up in all the festivities the season brings, as an e-designer you can step in an offer affordable, convenient, and unconventional alternatives to many of the things they’ll already be doing and/or need done.
Read MoreIt should come as a surprise to no one that this project involves removable wallpaper - this'll be my second removable wallpaper project here at #thehyggeranch and my 4th wallpaper project in the 6 years since we've been in Washington.
Read MoreIf you’ve been keeping up with my kitchen color series, then you know the two most recent shopping guides were hues of blue and all white everything. With Memorial Day just passing and 4th of July on the way, it just made perfect sense (to me at least) to close out the American flag trifecta of kitchen decor. So here we are folks — a red kitchen accessories shopping guide!
Read MoreFor National Color Day last week, I decided to revisit all of my old posts from my kitchen color guide series featuring white, black, gold/brass, copper, wood, red, blush pink, and blue. Having had started this series 4 years ago, I knew that updates would be necessary, plus it gave me a chance to reconnect with color in a way that I hadn’t for quite some time.
I took to my Instagram with new of my updates and asked you guys which color should be next. The overwhelming majority said green… so here we are we the newest installment to the series!
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