Quasi-Traditional-Bohemian-Country-Artist-Loft

(Whewww, thats a mouth full, but that is kinda what I am...)

A long time ago I came across a magazine article that featured a loft owned by an artist in NY. He had such amazing style. Mixing all genres and decorating techniques, seeming to effortlessly mesh them together. That was such an inspiration to me...
Take what you love and make it work!

I have never liked conventional things. Often times I don't like "the rules" that we are supposed to play by. I like to mess with things, turn them on there head, change them up to suit me and my style... take something ordinary and make it original. I think a home should be a reflection of who you are and what you love, the bits and pieces that make you one of a kind.

 lil' bit lofty

 lil' bit bohemian

lil' bit traditional

 lil' bit country

... now mix it all together, sprinkle with lots of love and comfort and then you have... home.

Small change = Big difference

I have been making a list of my favorite things, those little things that make a house a home. I am sharing two of them today. The rest will be coming soon :)

(Favorite thing # 36 Vintage "Drafting Table Stool"
& Favorite thing # 18 Fresh flowers)

 Seriously, I am so stoked that I found these!!! I just happened to be in Cost Plus World Market when I spied my dream bar stools hiding in a corner...

 It seemed like destiny when I realized that I was also carrying a coupon that would allow me to by 3 and get one free... The gods had spoken, these bar stools were to be mine.

 I had admired these ones above at RH, but the insane pricing kept me at a distance (seriously who pays nearly 400 for ONE barstool?!)

These from Crate&Barrel are cool too (and priced a bit more friendly at 200 each) but they lacked the character and vintage charm that I was hoping for.

The Best Gifts of All

It is Mother's Day 2011 and I am feeling the love... not only from being a mom (or for having the world's greatest mom for my own mom)... but the love of family.

 I can not even begin to express how grateful I am to be a part of such an incredible family. We love each other, and I mean it, we really do love each other. Does that mean that we always get along and agree.. HECK NO! But it means that we respect each other enough to laugh at our differences and forgive our "character flaws" this to me is the definition of family! I once described my life growing up as being "Beaver Cleaver-like" to which my brother scoffed "What house did you grow up in?!" haha! He was right, our life was nothing like "the Beavs"... (Thank the Gods!) But I guess what I meant was, our life has always been... fun, interesting, eventful, honest, forgiving, memorable, hilariously sarcastic... and most of all... filled with 

L-O-V-E. 

Lucky for me that I found a man with a similar family. Melting our outlooks on life and family together to form our own little house filled with love. Yep, how lucky I am indeed... Life is short, Family is forever. 

1.1.11

This comic, from the Calvin and Hobbes collection, has been a favorite of mine for many years...

Here we are busy embracing the spirit of the New Year

by taking the blank sheet of paper in front of us

and discovering all of the possibilities...

This year it is my goal to concentrate on things like living in the moment... finishing the rooms in our home that still need painting/decorating, making my family feel (even more) special, and being more (ugh!) organized.

Cheers to 2011... It's a magical world... Let's go exploring!

Star light, Star bright, The first star I see tonight...

I really enjoyed dressing up our new home for the holidays this year. I had picked up an abundance of decorating supplies during the after Christmas sales of 2009, where everything was 90% off (super-duper SCORE!)

As I strung the lights across the roof-line, my kids danced across the front lawn... singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman"... we had so much fun! Of course it was day-time when we decorated... so we would have to wait until night fall to delight in our display! That evening, we were heading over to my parent's home for the yearly gathering to decorate the "Regal Buckingham Tree" (a fantastic event that includes many delightful traditions that I will have to blog about in detail at a later date :P) Before we left for the evening, I turned on all of our lights, making sure that we would be greeted with all of the wonderful holiday cheer upon our return home.

After all of the evening's festivities were complete, we invited our family members to take a tour of all the Christmas lights in the neighborhood, with it all culminating with a drive down our street. But as we came closer to the curve in the street that leads to our home, we began to see a glow. A glow that became brighter and brighter as we approached...

Once we finally made it around the bend, we couldn't believe our eyes... (Or perhaps it was that we could no longer use our eyes... suffering from a temporary blindness, similar to that of staring at the sun for a brief amount of time!) Our house was lit up like the 4th of July!!!

I have attempted to mute the brightness by running garland around the lights, but it has not really had the dampening affect that I had hoped for...

Meanwhile, we are spreading, what I can only refer to as "Extreme Holiday Cheer," and I will continue to cross my fingers that we do not give the sweet elderly couple that lives across the street, heart attacks every night when we plug our lights in!

Zen and the Art of Holiday Madness

I spent a good part of last week pulling boxes out of the attic. Boxes and boxes and boxes of holiday decorations... and I loved every moment of it! Dusting off each box and carefully extracting it's contents... feeling the emotions that each item held in my heart... taking the time to really enjoy these special trinkets that I only get to see for a few weeks every year. It's kind of similar to visiting loved ones who live far away, every moment that you have together seems that much more special.

Our holiday decorations include family heirlooms that have been part of many generations of our families' celebrations. Every year we have added a little bit more to our collection by making crafts and finding unique items that fit our quirky style. Our Christmas tree tells a story... a story of where we have been, what we have loved, what we have lost, what we dream of and what we cherish most.

Billy and I both have numerous ornaments from the trees of our childhood. The one pictured above is one of my favorites! My aunt (not technically my aunt, but I always thought of her as one) made a few of these for me. They are so delicate and beautiful, and I can't imagine my tree being complete without them!

My newest favorites consist of the home-made items that my kids have created. Tanner loves art! What I really meant to say is... TANNER LOVES ART!!! I have an abundance of beautiful pieces that she has made through the years. Tucker has made a few items too, but Tanner has made enough to fill her own tree! The ornament pictured above was created completely by her, the concept, the coloring and the detail, were all her own. She made it for me a couple of years ago, it's an ice cream cone (so special because not only is it beautiful but it is also my favorite treat of all time!)

These treasured ornaments were made by my mom. She made these framed pictures for Bill and I the year we were married. Like a piece of stained glass, they have an antique look, fitted with a photo from years past. I misplaced these once while packing up all the Christmas decorations and we missed them for the following 3 years... those trees seemed naked without them! Thankfully (gratefully) they were found!

Now I know what you may be thinking here... "What the heck does Spiderman have to do with X-mas?" and the answer (of course) is.... "Everything!!! at least when Tuck was 3 years old it sure did! Spiderman toys predominated his list to Santa, Spiderman pj's were worn to bed, Spiderman books were read every night. So it only seemed right, that Spiderman should be hanging (upside down of course) from our Christmas tree! Awwww, the memories!

(I should also note that we have quite the abundant supply of Barbie, Hello Kitty and Sports related ornaments hanging from out tree too!!!)

This ornament commemorates an especially wonderful trip to Disneyland. The trip in which the entire Koning clan was able to take over "The Happiest Place on Earth" all together! We had such a wonderful time, and one of our favorite memories from that family vacation was the discovery of the "Hidden Mickey" (this is a beloved pass time still to this day, and btw, you do not have to be at Disneyland in order to find a Hidden Mickey, they are EVERYWHERE!!! scroll back up 3 pictures to the ornament Tanner made for me, to see what I mean :)

Please allow me to introduce you to "Zombie Clause." (This is what happens when I let my husband play with crafting supplies intended for the kids. Nuff said.)

This little guy reminded me of the characters from the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas." That is one of our all-time favorite X-mas movies. I couldn't imagine a holiday season without it!

and my wish from my childhood still holds true...