VALENTINES DAY AT HOME BLOG TOUR

Welcome my friends, I’m so glad you joined me and some of my favorite blogging friends as we share ideas on celebrating Valentines Day at home. I want to say thank you to Kelly of The Green Spring Home for including me in this talented group!  If you popped over from Erin’s home, welcome!  Isn’t she so creative and talented.  If you missed it, I’ll link to her tour, and each of the ladies opening their homes, at the end of the post.

We traditonally celebrate Valentines Day as a family.  The weekend prior to Valentines Day we have a family brunch.    Living in Southern California, February typically is sunny and starts to feel like spring.  If the weather permits we love to have our Valentines Day brunch in the backyard.

I knew I wanted to do something bright and festive on the table.  I saw this wrapping paper at World Market, and loved the pretty mix of bright colors.  Yes…that’s right, wrapping paper.  It’s an inexpensive way to add color and interest to any table.  You can see how I’ve used it for our Christmas Table HERE.

Our family is a big fan of yogurt parfait’s.  They will definitely be on this year’s brunch menu.

For the parfait’s I layered: Greek yogurt, granola, raspberries, and drizzled with honey

Last year I shared all about a tradition that my husband and I started when the kids were little.  You can find ALL THE DETAILS HERE.  To summarize-my husband and I take turns reading these same three books to the kids each Valentines Day.  We cry each year, in fact I usually just have to see the books and well up with tears.  They are the sweetest books and the kids seem to really enjoy hearing us read sob through them each year.

I have to say I love Valentines Day, and celebrating the one’s I love.  It’s simple traditions: eat brunch together, read/cry over books, and we each take turns sharing at least one thing we LOVE about each person, but simple ways to show your love can mean so much.

Thank you for coming over!  Your next stop is RACHEL ELIZABETH CREATES.  After Rachel’s make sure you stop by Courtney’s and Alyse’s.  They’re all so talented, and then more to come on Wednesday and Thursday.  I’ll tag everyone below.

TUESDAY’S TOURS

WEDNESDAY’S TOURS

2 Ladies & A Chair | Pink Peppermint Designs | A Tufted Life | The Posh Home | Almafied

THURSDAY’S TOURS

Hello Allison | House of Hire | The Green Spring Home | The Porch Light Cottage | VW Interior Style

Such a great group, and so much inspiration!

XO-Laura

A GIRLS DAY SHOPPING TRIP

I had such a fun morning out with my friend Courtney of A THOUGHTFUL PLACE.  We met through the blogging/Instagram world and she couldn’t be sweeter.  She has a quick wit, a big heart, and an amazing sense of style!  And it turns out the perfect shopping buddy!

We met up at our local outdoor mall and heading into Anthropologie, If you happen to follow us on Instagram we took you along via our stories as we went shopping, SO FUN!

We tried on things that caught our eye, and we also chose an item for each other to try on.   Let me show you a few favorites what I tried on, what Courtney picked out for me, and what I actually went home with!

The first thing I always do at Anthro. is head to their SALE section.  They are constantly stocking that area and I always seem to find something that catches my eye. This sweater below was the first thing I found in the sale section.  It’s a unique sweater with metallic thread running through the striped part!

I couldn’t find this exact one online to link up for you butGO HERE for all of their SALE sweaters. Right now they are offering an additional 25% OFF of the sale price.

What I typically buy at Anthro. is their tops.  I can’t tell you how many of this style I own, it’s a go-to of mine, and I really love the color of this one. I’ll link this top below with a few other favorites.

A FEW FAVORITE TOPS

THESE camouflage pants are sooooo comfy!  They fit perfectly, they somehow suck you in and are comfortable all at the same time!  I tried them in the Camo. and Black, both are below. They fit true to size, when I went to link them they only have an army green online instead of the camo.  I’ll link that but check your local Anthropologie for the camo.  I also linked the cream top, and a similar styled lace sleeveless like the one I tried on with the black pants.

WHAT COURTNEY PICKED FOR ME

As I mentioned, we each picked something out for each other to try on-isn’t that the best part of shopping with a friend?!?!  This dress is what she picked out for me.

I don’t think I would have picked it off the rack, but I absolutely LOVED IT!  So flattering on, and comfortable!  I love all the embroidered detailing on it, and it was on sale!

I couldn’t find it online but HERE is a SIMILAR TUNIC DRESS.  All of their SALE DRESSES are HERE.

Here’s another dress I loved!  It’s by Cloth and Stone, and they have the softest denim. I have a few of their tops, and this dress was extremely comfortable I’d pair it with a brown leather belt and booties.

ONE LAST TRY ON

Why does this always happen?! I was all done trying on, heading up to the register and this sweater caught my eye.  Isn’t it cute!  I couldn’t find it on Anthro.’s site but I did find it HERE.

WHAT I WENT HOME WITH

I went home with the two sale items, but I can’t stop think about how comfy and cute those BLACK PANTS are so I think I need to order them!

Thanks for shopping with us! And don’t forget to pop over to COURTNEY’S see her selections!

LOVED SHOPPING WITH YOU-

Laura

VEGETARIAN ENCHILADAS THE EASY WAY

These easy Vegetarian Enchiladas are a regular go-to, weeknight dinner, for our family. I love that they only take 10 minutes to put together.  I also want to share a quick and fast way to assemble them that my mom taught me years ago.

CLICK HERE TO PRINT

I was raised vegetarian, and although I have tried meat several times, I just can’t acquire a taste for it.  I am often asked by friends, to give them ideas for vegetarian meals, this one’s a great place to start.  Also, if you’ve never tried tofu, but have wanted to, this is the perfect recipe to start with! Honestly you can’t even taste the tofu, but it’s a great way to add in some extra protein.

INGREDIENTS

Above are the ingredients I typically use to make these yummy enchiladas.  However, you can really fill with anything you may have on had or that sounds good to your family. I love to add spinach and mushrooms, but my kids aren’t quit fans of those….yet!

NOTES-My all time favorite three cheese blend is this one by Trader Joes.

My daughter loves green sauce on her enchiladas, and my son prefers red, my husband and I love both…So to make everyone happy I buy the smaller, 19 oz. cans, of red and green sauce.  Then I make half the pan with red and the other half with green.  That way everyone’s happy, and if we happen to have left over’s you can eat the other color and it’s like a whole new meal!

ENCHILADA’S-THE EASY METHOD

Growing up this is often how my mom would make our enchiladas.  It’s a casserole style, where you quarter the tortillas, layer those on the bottom, add your filling, and then top with another layer of tortilla’s.  In my opinion, it’s just as good as traditional enchiladas, and saves so much time!

I add a lot more cheese, I just wanted you to be able to see all the ingredients and not just the top layer of cheese.

Of course, you don’t have to use half of one sauce and half of another.  It’s just a fun option!  As I mentioned I buy the smaller cans of sauce (19 oz.) and I don’t use the full cans.  I don’t like my enchiladas too “soupy,”  so I use approx. 3/4 of a can on each half.

QUICK AND EASY WEEKNIGHT DINNER

I’ll typically serve along side the enchilada’s, Spanish rice and a southwestern chopped salad (I love the kit’s that have all the salad ingredients in one bag).

This recipe is crowd pleaser in our house, I hope your family enjoys it too!

XO-Laura

LETTING YOUR ROOM BREATHE

I am determined to let things go this year and simplify.  I’m tired of clutter and hanging on to things because someday I may use it again.  This has been a process and it started last year when I read The Magic Art of Tidying Up.  I highly recommend it as a starting place for anyone wanting to simplify and un-clutter their home.

  I took down all the Christmas and Holiday decor last week, and once this room was cleared I thought I’d let it sit empty for a few days.  Just take in the room when it was stripped down to the furniture and see what I really want to bring back into it.

Emptying your room of everything except the furniture, is the key to letting your room breathe.

 Sometimes our rooms get lost in all the decorative items.  Emptying your room will also let you see if you love the basics-the paint color, the window coverings, the furniture, etc.  You may not be able to change all of those things at once, but it can help you make a game plan for the future.  Sometimes we get stuck in the trap of constantly buying new accessories for our rooms and never really liking the results but not understanding why.  If you find yourself experiencing that it may be because some of the core elements of the room aren’t quite right, and letting the room breath will make that easier to identify.

What I saw when my room was cleared out, is although I love that modern farmhouse style, I had a lot of farmhouse happening and not a lot of modern.   I am not changing up any furniture in the near future, here’s how I plan to change the feel of the rooms with some key decorative accessories.

THE BOOKCASE

I love our large bookcase, it’s hands down my most asked about piece of furniture.  It has however unfortunately been sold out for months.  I’ll link a few similar bookcases below.  The plan is to update it with some modern decorative pieces.  I had simple white, wood, and glass accents on it before Christmas.  Seeing it emptied I want to add back in some white accents along with pull in some grays and blues.  I’ll add some life with pops of greenery.  I’ll be sure to share the outcome with you.  I found this photo as an example of the direction I’ll be going in. 

Source

PILLOWS

Another great way to change the feel of a room is by changing up the pillows.  I’m going to try and use pillows that I already have, but here are a few that I really love.

ARTWORK

Another area that caught my attention when the room was breathing, is the empty wall space near our piano.  There’s so much white on the opposite side of the room, I think it would be nice to balance out the other side by adding some large white frames and some art.

Below I photo shopped some pieces onto the space to see how they would flow with the room.  I’m still on the hunt for art work but here are two options that may work.

Here’s another option…I love testing art out with photo shop, it really let’s you get an idea of how the room will look.

RUGS

Looking at the dining room all cleared out, the way to add in a modern element here would be through a rug under the table.  I love the rug we have, find it HERE, but just for fun I linked a couple other modern rugs that would work well in this room.

MIRRORS

What I am most excited about is transforming this space!  I have disliked this niche in the wall since the day we moved in.  While the house was breathing I finally got a vision of what to do here!I need to find a huge mirror and say goodbye to that odd niche all together!  Why I hadn’t thought of this earlier, I don’t know.  I credit having the space clear of all the distractions and letting it breathe.

I hope you try this technique; clear all of the distractions out of your room and let it breathe.  My creativity really started to flow and I can’t wait to slowly add in some of these ideas.

XO-Laura