Tour Through Blogland

I’m excited to announce that I’ve been nominated by the fabulous Tasha at Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body to be next stop on the Tour Through Blogland! Tasha and the work she is doing to her home are both beyond amazing. Go check out her own Blogland Tour post to see what she’s up to! As for me, this post is for you to see a little bit behind the scenes here at Dwell Beautiful and get to know me and some other new bloggers that you may not have heard of yet!

First part of the tour is an actual tour of my humble abode! If you want the full details and more awesome pictures, check out my whole house tour and project list here, but for now I will give you the condensed version 🙂

Hubby and I just bought this house in November of 2013, so we’ve only been here a little over 8 months. This house was built in the 1970s and the owners previous to us did a lot of remodeling and ad-ons, which was a total score! We are in a pretty quiet neighborhood a couple blocks between an elementary school and a middle school. There are always a lot of kids walking around! Anyway, let’s take a step inside 🙂

This is the front living room (the front door is at the back left). We are hoping to paint the fireplace white, and add a pallet wall over the barf green paint ASAP!

This is the kitchen/living room area. We’ve since gotten a bigger farmhouse table that fits the space better and a couple of barstools! Hoping to change out all the floors eventually!

Our family room is kind of a blank slate as of yet. The piano came with the house! We are hoping to change up the paint color, and add more art and accessories!

This is my office/craft room. One of the features that sold me on this house was the suhweet built-in bed/reading nook!

This is our master bedroom (we have 3 bedrooms and 3 baths total)! I LOVE the doors that open onto the deck and the fireplace for chilly days. Such a bright and airy room. Can’t wait to decorate more!

One of my other favorite features of the house is this killer deck! It’s super expansive and perfect for parties. The backyard also features a frogpond (seen to the left) and a fish pond/waterfall combo in a different corner of the yard.

And there’s a quick house tour for you! I’ve LOVED living in my own home and not renting. It’s so much more fun to be able to paint and tear stuff up and put nail holes in the wall without worrying about a landlord! I’ve had a ton of fun making projects to fill it’s spaces. Here are a couple of my fave projects so far:

Travel Gallery Wall

EAT Sign

Chair Makeover

Photo Display

Travel Gallery Wall // Jewelry Holder // EAT Sign // Chair Makeover // Desk Makeover // Photo Display

And now on to the next stop into my Tour Through Blogland – the answers to some questions about my creative process!

What am I working on?

Goodness. That’s difficult! In the boring sense, I’m working hard at becoming the most organized and knowledgeable blogger I can be! There is SO much to learn and manage so I’m constantly working on making sure I’m ahead of my game and up to date on all the different social media and technology bits to blogging. In the creative sense, I’m working on acquiring enough free pallet wood so I can do my pallet wood feature wall in my front room 🙂 Other than that I’m just constantly think of what small projects I can create that anyone of any skill set can do to make beautiful decor pieces for their home!

How does my work differ from others in my genre?

That’s a really difficult question! I definitely try to stand out by making sure everything I make and feature is affordable, even for people on a very tight budget, like myself. Home decor and “dwelling beautifully” doesn’t have to take a lot of money to be awesome and effective. I also love writing posts about current trends (like my recent post about how to use the color aqua in your home) and ‘Get the Look for Less’ posts which were inspired by Sabrina Soto of HGTV where I try to recreate a room from a big store’s catalog and recreate it using budget pieces like I did here with my Room and Board Bedroom.

Why do I write/create what I do?

Creating and writing are innate things for me. I have been creating practically ever since I developed motor skills! I’ve always been known as the “artsy” one; always crafting, or painting, or putting things together to create something beautiful. I’ve been an avid reader and self-proclaimed bibliophile and ‘collector’ of words since I started reading at the age of 4 or 5. Creating and writing are almost as necessary and natural to me as breathing. It comes so much more easily to me than other things and has always been a way I can express myself best. I need the outlet and it gives my soul such joy to be able to use my God-given gifts and share my creations with others. If I didn’t create, life would be very dull indeed!

How does my writing/creative process work?

Being an artsy fartsy one, you would probably think that my process is free-flowing and spontaneous and all the feel goody stuff. Hah! If you can believe it, I’m also a very type-A personality and LOVE being organized and on top of things. Lists are absolutely my best friends. Seriously. I get a high off of crossing things off my to-do list.

When it comes to my blog, I started out by making a master list of all the projects and topics I want to cover. This list grows daily, but I’ve split it into the labels/categories of my blog (DIY Tutorials, Current Trends, Get the Look for Less, Makeovers, Printables, etc.) and put all the different project ideas I’ve gathered into their respective categories.

At the beginning of the month I have a calendar where I take a projects from my master list and plug them into days of the week for the whole month. Mondays and Thursdays are usually craft project tutorial days, Tuesdays are for Trends, Fridays are for printables or Look for Less posts, and Wednesdays are usually social media days or catch up days. I write it all in pencil because even when I schedule it out I’ll change my mind on what I want to do when!

I’m inspired by so many things in life, from nature to Pinterest and gorgeous catalog photos to a well-turned phrase. I’m constantly on the look out for fresh ideas. I’ve been told that I’m the female version of MacGyver because I’ve got a knack for combining seemingly unrelated things to make a cool end product!

Each post takes hours worth of research, gathering materials or pictures, completing the project, taking and editing photos, writing and editing, and making graphics, not to mention the hours spent promoting posts and connecting with other bloggers! It may be a ton of work, but it’s one of the most rewarding, fun, fulfilling and totally “me” jobs I’ve ever had. I hope to continue blogging for many many years!

Phew! That’s probably more than you wanted to know about my process, but there you have it! I hope it’s able to help some of you other bloggers out there! 🙂 Now on to my nominees for the next stops on this Tour Through Blogland!

First up is Laura from Lovely Wren! “Hello! I’m Laura (: I just graduated from college almost two years ago, and moved to Augusta, GA, a little while after that. I live in a teensy apartment with my fiance, B, more house plants than he’s comfortable with, a few fish and a brand new puppy named Pippin. I started this blog to share things I’ve made and showcase things that inspire me. Most of all I hope to meet new friends.”

Next up we have Emily from Table + Hearth! “This is meant to not only keep our friends and family in the loop on the happenings, and yummy eatings, around our home but mainly and hopefully serve as help and advice to fellow DIYers/new home owners/restless dwellers. I have slowly been updating small things and developing my sense of style in the house which is somewhere among coastal, neutral, calm and rustic although I feel it leaning towards slightly more modern pieces lately….we’ll see where that goes.”

And that concludes this stop on the Tour Through Blogland! I wish you happy travels as you continue your journey among all these awesome bloggers! Hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about me 🙂