Live Your Best Life – Sunday Morning Coffee
Volume 9
Today I am pleased to share with you Sunday Morning Coffee. This is where I share my weekly thoughts about entertaining, decor, crafts, and recipes. This is our place to share, learn, explain, dream, and have fun. I think having fun is to live your best life every single day.
A Little Bit About Me
Live Your Best Life
Today is one of my favorite days of the year. We set our clocks forward which to me, is amazing! We get an extra day of sunlight today and every day we actually get a little bit more. Now that is how to live your best life.
Daylight Savings may not seem worthy of being called “one of my favorite days of the year” but here is the thing. I am a Spring and Summer gal. I like the warm weather, eating outside, and enjoying the beauty of the outdoors. (Of course, if I lived anywhere else other than Southern California I might be a fall gal. Who knows?)
I love how the sun shines all throughout our home. Look how the morning light shines in through the window.
I style my home to highlight the outdoors in the best way I can. I watch the light in every room and try to emphasize the sunlight in every way I can.
A few years ago I removed all of the drapes on our first floor. Before you think I am crazy, you need to know that the silk dining room drapes had faded and shredded and they needed to go. The change was so dramatic I went straight into the living room and removed the drapes in there too.
Dining Room 
Living Room 
I believe we should all style our lives as we live them, rather than wait for an event or party to do something. For the longest time, I use to cram all of the updates in our home a month before our Christmas party. Now I actually spread it out all year long. It’s so much more fun to do it this way!
Always decorate your home in a style that is 100% you. (Ok, your spouse and kids can be included in this thought, but you know what I mean.)
When I decided to simplify everything in our home and add white slipcovers and neutral decor, guess what happened?
(Other than the fact that my husband thought I was crazy …)
More color came into our home.
What?
By changing most of the rooms in our home to neutral, I had a clean palette and found that I could add color every season. I love how I added simple color to the boy’s room in the photo below. (It’s funny because if I look at my old photos, my home has much more color now than it ever did.)
My old photos had a mishmash of color that never changed. Now the color in our home changes three to four times a year. In January I went with a lot of pink. I absolutely loved how our home looked. Or looks!
Slowly, green is being introduced into our home and some of the pink is fading away.
I also believe that we shouldn’t wait for a special occasion to decorate or clean or declutter our homes. Don’t wait! For very little money, you can add some visual accents to a wall. Or even just add paint!
Entertaining is fun. So don’t just talk about entertaining, just do it. Even if it’s only for your family. I try to do something fun every week because I think we should enjoy our home in a unique and fun way whenever we can. Even if it is just a fun dinner sitting at our kitchen island, I love to mix it up.
My favorite times are when we entertain with family. When I am sitting in the middle of our yard, enjoying an evening with the ones that I love, I know this is how to live your best life.
If you find yourself thinking it’s been a long time since you did anything to your home, then it means you need to do something now. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Just do something. Anything!
The easiest and least costly thing to do is to rearrange the furniture. Or take ten things away from each room. Sometimes I just move accessories from one room to another!
If I could sum up all of this into one saying, it would be “A little less house, a lot more home”.
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Around Our Home
What is it that makes our house a home?
Comfort
I think the most important factor in making a house a home is comfort.
Do me a favor. Go through every room in your house (mentally not physically) and come up with a list of items in each room that are not comfortable.
I just did this and here is what I found.
Our kitchen counter stools look good but they are not comfortable. They are also twenty-one years old and so wobbly that it feels as if they are going to break any minute.
In our Living Room, our coffee table is too far away from the couches. So I moved them in closer. Duh. That was an easy fix.
In our Boys Bedrooms, there is no where to sit other than on the beds. have a bunch of old chairs that I could/should slipcover that would be perfect in both bedrooms.
On the third floor, which is now known as the World Wide Headquarters of My 100 Year Old Home, these desk chairs (aka dining chairs) are the worst. They are so uncomfortable.
As you can see, each one of these is an easy fix. Something as simple as moving the sofas in the living room to bring the sofas closer to the coffee table made a huge difference. I might want to look at new stools for the kitchen, office chairs for the third floor, and recovering some chairs for the boy’s bedrooms.
Live Your Best Life – The Carriage House
The last room in our home, or actually backyard, I want to talk about is the Carriage House.
Last week in my Sunday Morning Coffee blog post, I mentioned that I had just cleaned out the Carriage house. We have used the Carriage house for storage, a batting cage, my art studio, and most recently storage, again.
When I say “cleaned out, I actually mean “three loads of junk donated and tons of trips to the third floor” to put things in storage.
Well here is my plan and I am so excited to share it!
Soon, the Carriage House will be a new entertaining space and work room.
One side of the Carriage House will consist of a workbench/buffet and flower arranging area. I finally will have all of my vases and pots in the same place. And having a large area to arrange flowers for my party is going to be amazing.
I found a 10′ farmhouse table with ten chairs in Roundtop, Texas that will soon arrive in California. The other side will be the dining area.
This is the place where we will entertain and plan parties and arrange flowers, and … who knows what else? I can’t even imagine how wonderful this is going to be.
Can you?
A Tip For Your Home
What Makes a House a Home?
11 Things to Help Make a House a Home
I put together a list, and some photos above, of simple ways to make your home feel cozier.
- Vintage Items – Older items add character to any home. Keepsakes, collectibles, and flea market finds are perfect items to make a home feel loved. I have so many blog posts about the items I collect. All of these items are so important to me, our home, and our family.
- Fun Pillows – Obviously I love making pillows. Click to see all of my pillow DIY’s and projects.
- Rugs – A rug brings so much warmth to a room. I love how cozy they can make a room feel. Here are some of my favorite rugs in our home.
- Blankets – I love blankets and you can find them in every room in our home. This is my favorite blanket I have ever made.
- Books and Magazines – I think having books and magazines, nearby where they can be read, is a great way to make everyone in your home feel comfortable. I love how I redid the books in this room.
- Photos of your family – Family photos are amazing and they add the most perfect touch to any home.
- Art – As an artist, I love to paint and we have a lot of paintings all over our home. To learn more about your art, read this blog post.
- Stuff – Nothing is worse than a home that doesn’t feel lived in. A kindle on the end table or a basket with a craft project by a chair is a good thing. Don’t laugh, but I once made bags to store “stuff” in our home that matched my decor.
- Personality in a Room – I love adding personality to rooms. Some fun paint and color can add so much personality to any room! This blog post about redoing one of the boy’s rooms is one of the most hysterical blog posts I have ever written. My boys and their text messages are the best!
- Candles – Candles in a room or on a table bring more beauty, romance, and coziness than anything I can imagine. I have two favorite blog posts about candles I have written that I love. You can find them here and here.
- Flowers – Last but not least, I love having flowers in every room in our home. I have so many blog posts about flowers! I love both fresh and faux flowers and they really do make a house feel like a home.
Reflections on the Week
It was another very bust week and I am pleased to say that I still have about a gazillion more ideas to share. I shared lots of Easter ideas, including five ways to decorate eggs, Easter brunch recipes, and a beautiful Easter table. I also shared how to plant a vegetable garden and a very fun DIY to make printed napkins with a paint roller.
My Favorite Things
In the Craft Room
Accounts I Love to Follow on Instagram
Garden Things Things I Love
I love these planters so much!
Good Things From Martha
Martha Stewart shares her best tips about restoring garden tools.
What’s Ahead
I promise every week is fun and full of lots of ideas at My 100 Year Old Home. This week will be crazy around here because we are filming a commercial at our home. They are prepping today and they will film Monday and Tuesday. Be sure to follow along with me on stories!
This week I am sharing my Colored Glass Collection, How to Clean Slipcovers, How to Make Lanterns (not for the pool!), the Prettiest Focaccia You Have Ever Seen, Tips to Styling Your Home, and a Fun Make it or Break It Craft.
Get ready for an incredible week!
Catch up on Sunday Morning Coffee
- Sunday Morning Coffee Volume 8 – Living Green
- Sunday Morning Coffee Volume 7 – Why I Love to Entertain
- Sunday Morning Coffee Volume 6 – February is All About Living Beautifully
- Sunday Morning Coffee Volume 5 – Our Beach House in Ventura, CA
- Sunday Morning Coffee Volume 4 – The Story of My 100 Year Old Home
- Sunday Morning Coffee Volume 3 – I Think I Might Be Martha’s Biggest Fan
- Sunday Morning Coffee Volume 2 – A Tribute to My Mom
- Sunday Morning Coffee Volume 1 – How Chip and Joanna Influenced My Life
Pin the image below to your decor boards on Pinterest (just click the Pin button in the top left corner). You can also follow along with me on Pinterest!
For more real-time updates, follow me on Instagram @My100YearOldHome
Your account is just beautiful! You have given us so many great tips, on this Sunday morning! I love the rubber roller napkins you did. So simple, so pretty! Happy Sunday!
I love following your daily posts but loving even more your Sunday morning coffee posts! Thank you for sharing your home and all your wonderful ideas, such an inspiration!
I love reading your Sunday morning coffee blogs. I share a lot of your same interests and find that you often remind me to remember the things I love and get back to doing them, using them, creating them . It’s easy to get caught up with life and not remember the joys some of our simple favorite things truly bring us .
Can you tell me where you purchased the dining room rug?
Thank you!
Leslie, this was a wonderful post (as always), and I cannot wait to see what you do with the carriage house. Thanks so much for your inspiration, and have a great week.
I am so excited for your Carriage House!!!
What I love most about your Sunday morning posts is your enthusiasm for enjoying our homes.
We can chose how we want our places to look and you help us to go with what we are wanting to change or live with. Good luck in your week ahead and look forward to seeing the renovation of the carriage house. Sounds like it will be a perfect place to share all your talents in.
Kathy, thank you so much for your kind words. I am so excited to finish and share the carriage house! Stay tuned!!
Leslie,
Such a great post. You are so inspiring! I can’t wait to see your carriage house.
Rachel.
It is going to be amazing Rachel! I cannot wait to share it with you!
Hi Leslie
Your Sunday post is a priority, must read each week. As always, all you posts are informative and delightful to read, but my jam is the Sunday one.
Kim
Kimberly, thank you so much for your kind words and for reaching out to me. This makes my heart so happy!
I love your blog! Just reading and looking at your beautiful photos calms me down about all that’s happening in the world! So thank you for sharing.
I absolutely love the art over your mantle, would you share where that is from?
Thank you so much Tina for reaching out and for your thoughtful comment. The art in the living room over the mantle is by artist Ray Turner. Here is a link to his website and his landscapes if you want to check them out: http://rayturner.us/works/landscapes/#9