I was recently reading about the great debate of what’s considered thrift shopping and what’s not. Some people use the term thrift shopping in place of antique, consignment, or estate shopping. Each of these terms refers to buying pre-owned items. But if you’re curious where I stand on this great debate, I say that I only consider shopping at an actual thrift store like Goodwill, Salvation Army, or a thrift store supporting a local business, actually thrift shopping. Thrift stores have a lower price point and offer a wide range of things for your home. Items don’t have to be vintage, just something pre-owned (typically). They are almost always donated items for the purpose of reselling to support a local mission or business that supports the community. Now that we’ve settled that, let’s see what I picked up on my thrifting trips this past weekend!

My husband is the sentimental one in our relationship, and he’s always asking for more pictures around our house. So I’ve been trying to make an intentional point to add more framed photos and albums throughout the house. Over the past year and a half, we’ve been working on transforming our unfinished basement into a fun place for the family to gather and watch movies, and play games together. It’s a pretty large room, which means when you’re implementing decor and things, you have to be very intentional that it’s to scale. You can’t add small or medium-sized frames to a large wall.

Well, this may not be a trend as people begin to come out of the woodwork, sharing their love for thrifting. I know that thrifting might not be for everyone, but I have to say, I’m here for it! As a lifelong thrifter, my husband is the first to admit that I’m a bit on the stingy side. But the truth is, I just can’t pass up a good deal! And as someone who has some slight hoarder tendencies (I would call myself a collector of treasures), I can extend my dollar and my collections when I shop second-hand!

I’m feeling ready to kick out the red and green, but I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to all the coziness that Christmas decor brings. So I’ve been scrolling for inspiration for simple, cozy winter decor as we step into winter. I say step in because here in Michigan, we’ve hardly seen any stow this year, so it’s feeling a bit drab, and really not at all cheery.

Organizing after Christmas is not my strong suit. Each year, when we pull out our Christmas decor, I frustratedly swear to myself that I’m going to invest some time and money into putting away our decor in a more organized manner that year. The girls are typically so excited to get decorating the tree, but they fight over who gets to put on the “good” ornaments. If it’s just a colored bulb, which is much too boring. But they can’t seem to wait for me to dig down to the bottom of the tote that was haphazardly put away the year before to find the ornament they are looking for.

Each year, all around the interweb, designers (and other highly opinionated people) drop their predictions for the top design trends of the year. While you know I try to avoid trends and instead encourage you to discover your personal design style, I thought it would be fun to go through this year's trends and decide which ones are worth sticking around.

I opened a vintage shop! This is something I’ve secretly been wanting to do for a while, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it work practically. The idea of adding another thing to my plate wasn’t something I could wrap my mind around. But also having a shop somewhere that I would have to go set up and maintain was just out of the question. I’ve realized I need to prioritize being home as much as possible. I still have three girls home that I’m homeschooling, and that is first in this season. Everything else needs to fit around that.

I was out running a few errands the other day and decided to steal a few minutes for myself. There was a sweet little antique store down the street. I’d been there before, but not for a few years, so I wanted to pop in and see how to store may have changed. I found a few items to come home with me, a few for a client I was shopping for, and LOTS of inspiration and beautiful treasures.

I’m always on the lookout for vintage oil paintings when I go out thrifting, to antique stores, or estate sales. Oil paints bring such a rich texture to a room and do a lot to create the mood you are trying to convey. Vintage oil paintings usually also come in beautiful, ornate frames. So as a whole, they bring so much character to any room.

Have you heard about the collaboration between Morris & Co. and Ruggable? I hadn’t until the other day when I started seeing ads from them multiple times a day on Instagram. And they were wrong, I LOVE these rug patterns! They are a sweet and whimsical style, and choosing a favorite is nearly impossible.