Love Your Abode

Eight months—can you believe it? That’s how long I’ve been in my new role at Friends of Refugees. This time has been filled with amazing memories, a ton of hard work, learning how to support a loved one through intense anxiety, and balancing the demands of being a working mom to kids who are rapidly growing and hitting their milestones. Reflecting on this past year, it feels like a true reflection of life—an unpredictable blend of highs, lows, and everything in between.

A New Season for LYA Hi friends! How is it already March? I had all the intentions to start fresh in 2024 with new content and ideas to bring to your home. Well, let’s say that life went in a different direction! For almost a decade, I have had the privilege of building my business through design, blogging, and content creation. It has opened doors for me to gain amazing friendships, experience the most wonderful opportunities (hello White House), and financially provide for my family.

Here’s how to make DIY holiday bookpage art inspired by the White House I recently was a volunteer Christmas decorator at the White House and had the most amazing experience! I wrote all about it in this blog post. I also shared a post on how to make DIY cluster ornaments that were also inspired by the White House. I saw these DIY bookpage art ornaments in the Vermeil Room in the White House and I thought they would be so cute to recreate at home.

My Experience as a White House Volunteer Christmas Decorator I recently had the coolest experience as a White House Volunteer Christmas Decorator! The whole experience was so amazing that I decided it was too important not to write a blog post covering the entire four days. You can also check out my Instagram where I saved some highlights along with a reel.

Create DIY cluster ornaments to create a big impact on your Christmas trees. Recently, I had the most amazing opportunity to volunteer as a White House decorator. I was one of 12 Pinterest creators who also had the special opportunity to take some of the beautiful decor inspiration we received and create similar projects at home. We hope these projects inspire you to recreate some of the magic we helped create at the People’s House.

Custom blinds can be expensive and inconvenient especially when you factor in the turnaround processing time. The Home Depot has blind cutting machines in their local stores so that you can buy great quality cut to width blinds the same day. After living in our house for over a decade, we noticed five of our blinds had broken over time and I just didn’t want to deal with the hassle of replacing any of them.

If you’re looking for a delicious breakfast idea, try this high-protein turkey egg scramble This particular recipe has been heavily repeated in the last few weeks in our home. This high-protein turkey egg scramble keeps me full and satisfied for at least 4 hours in the morning. If you’re looking to add something healthy, delicious, and easy, try making this high-protein turkey egg scramble. Here’s how to make your own.

Make this Easter Bunny Planter with your kids as a cute centerpiece this Spring. Hi friends! I know it’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a blog post so I apologize for the leave of absence. But did you know it’s the first day of Spring? I thought I’d share this cute project that Emmy and I did together in collaboration with The Home Depot Seasonal Kids Workshop. You’ll want to check out this cute Easter Bunny Planter that we made from an empty paint can.

Utility Closet Makeover Reveal It’s time to share my 5 week utility closet makeover! This utility closet used to be full of coats, chairs, vacuums, and other miscellaneous items. We moved the coats to the other smaller closet across the hall and decided to make this larger one strictly for storing cleaning supplies, household appliances, and our carry-on luggage. Let me show you where we started.

Utility Closet Makeover Week 4 Hey friends! It’s already week 4 of my utility closet makeover. I have loved having a much smaller scale project carried out over the course of 5 weeks. There has been no stress which is highly unusual for any project! Here is this week’s full recap. If you missed it from the beginning, be sure to check out and catch up on weeks 1, 2, and 3. Here is where we started.