Rae Dunn Husband Prank & the Hunt!

Part of my new found love of farmhouse style has also been falling in love with pottery pieces by Rae Dunn. These adorable pieces, most notably her large writing mugs and canisters, are signature pieces found in a lot of modern farmhouse styled homes and something that I gravitated towards after seeing them in numerous Instagram posts!

Rae Dunn mugs & plate

They can be found in the US at sister stores HomeGoods, Marshall's, and TJMaxx, which are all owned by the same parent company. The prices are very reasonable, ranging from $3.99-$14.99 per piece, mugs in the starting range of $3.99 and larger pieces like serving platers or large canisters at higher price points. However if you're familiar with shopping at these stores, you know that it can be quite hit or miss with what they have in their inventory and if you see something you like, you NEED to grab it - because it may not be there when you go back!

And so... the hunt for Rae Dunn was on! I'm lucky enough to live in an area that has a TON of these stores. A number of HomeGoods stores, and numerous Marshall's with a HomeGoods area in them, along with many TJ Maxx locations. A large number of them are within close enough proximity to check 5-10 stores within a few hours time, if you have the time to devote to hunting... so as I started keeping an eye out for Rae Dunn pieces, I found that I had incredible luck finding things at a number of the stores.

Perhaps too good of luck? ;)

Current Rae Dunn display after a bit of hunting!

After a month's time, I have ended up with an entire display area of Rae Dunn and I've slowed my search and started helping find things for other people on their wish lists. I know how incredibly hard it has been for some people to find things, so I'll put together some tips for Rae Dunn hunting in a future post, that have at least worked in my area. For now, I'm pretty happy with all of the pieces I've found, and the main outstanding pieces that I would love to find are the TEA teapot, TEA canister, and perhaps one more decorative canister. Other than that, I really can just be on the hunt for other people!

Some surprise finds I came across!

Valentine's Day Shelf Display

My husband is a great sport, but mentioned along the way while I started collecting these that he didn't really "get" the writing on them, and it became a running joke in our house. One morning he decided to prank me by labeling everything in our kitchen, check out my reaction here!

All in good fun, it has been a great time hunting for Rae Dunn pieces and I'm enjoying transitioning our home from a more traditional style decor to incorporating more farmhouse style pieces.

There is a lovely community of Rae Dunn collectors on Instagram and YouTube! One of them, Jen from Craft-o-Maniac, started a series of videos for people to join in on Mondays called "MonDunn Monday"! Any Monday you have new finds or a collection update to share, you can share it with this series phrase. Here is the first MonDunn Monday I participated in:

If I can annoy my husband a little in the process, well that is just a little added bonus!

** This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.

Disney's Pinocchio Giveaway

I love sharing the classic Disney movies with my girls, and I'm looking forward to them seeing Disney's Pinocchio for the first time! You can WIN the awesome items below from a group giveaway I'm a part of through The Hopping Bloggers!! Check out how to enter to win these awesome items!

Pinocchio is going to be available for digital download for the first time ever on January 31st and The Hopping Bloggers is excited to celebrate with you! Several of us have come together to put together a group of items that will make the ultimate Pinocchio prize pack for one lucky reader! Included in the prize pack are:

• Pinocchio Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
• Pinocchio Plush
• Pinocchio Little Golden Book
• Pinocchio Tsum Tsum
• Pinocchio Soundtrack CD
• Pinocchio: The Making of the Disney Epic Hardcover Book

Synopsis “Pinocchio” tells the tale of wood-carver Geppetto's beloved puppet who embarks on a thrilling quest – with faithful friend Jiminy Cricket – that tests his bravery, loyalty and honesty, all virtues he must learn to fulfill his heart’s desire: to become a real boy. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHI_0dlzqFo&feature=youtu.be[/embed]

Enter to win a Pinocchio Prize Pack using the form below.

Entry-Form

Are you a blogger looking to connect with brands? Join The Hopping Bloggers database and get started today! Are you a brand looking to connect with a network of over 1,000 professional bloggers? Click here to see all that we have to offer and get your personalized quote!

Be sure to check out the giveaway above and let me know what your favorite classic Disney movie is in the comments!

** Items in this giveaway are part of a group giveaway by The Hopping Bloggers. All opinions are my own.

DIY Wood Bead Garland for Home

Lately as my style has changed, I've enjoyed checking out new home trends that kind of lean more towards the "Vintage Farmhouse" vibe that I'm trying to incorporate in our home more this year. As I would look through pictures on Instagram, one item kept popping out at me over and over again... Wooden bead garland! I just loved the look of it, and loved the idea of decorating the house with a bit of its own "jewelry"!

In the past, I'd made beaded bracelets just for fun, so I thought that stringing wood beads would be fairly easy - and it did turn out be to so. There are a lot of different configurations, colors, and sizes to chose from... with my first beaded garland, I chose a natural unfinished bead that was 1 inch strung across a single strand of twine. I made little tassels at the ends from jute I had leftover from burlap wreath making, and I thought it turned out great!

Check out the tutorial on how to make it HERE:

Next, I plan to try different size configurations together on a strand and also painting the beads to add different colors into rooms, I love the added effect the beads make on the shelf and think it is a great way to add something interesting to a small space!

** This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.

New, Year, New Style! Transitioning from Traditional to Farmhouse Vintage

One of my goals for 2017 was to explore my home decor style and try out some different decor trends that had been speaking to me lately. I consider my decor style to be more on the traditional side, but I also appreciate a bit of vintage and rustic feel from time to time. I like to keep our home comfortable and cozy, not on the stuffier side of traditional.

Lately I've liked different aspects of the "Farmhouse" or "Farmhouse Vintage" look, especially the clean whites, bright rooms, and vintage touches. This is a bit of a departure from the darker furniture that I've gravitate towards in the past. I don't plan on running out and buying a whole house worth of furniture the first week of 2017, but rather over the course of the year working towards developing our home style to something that I feel is most suited for us at the current time.

There are two rooms that I want to focus on at the offset - the kitchen and the living room. I feel like these two rooms could be most benefit from the Farmhouse style of decorating.

Beginning of 2017, Kitchen Eat in Area "Before":

Beginning of 2017, Living Room "Before":

In the kitchen, I'm planning on adding in some word graphic signs, cream or white colored dishes, and I believe I've even found some great linen chairs to complete the look!

New mug rack area in my kitchen! Most items found at HomeGoods!

Sign found at Hobby Lobby that I'm planning on adding in to the kitchen!

For the living room, I'm planning on keeping our furniture the same for now, but adding in touches of decor like new artwork over the main couch, light & bright throw pillows, and possibly an additional sitting chair for the room.

I recently posted a Home Decor Haul on YouTube of some different home decor finds that I picked up for the living room and family room areas... check it out here!

I'll be sure to update on Being Mommy with Style YouTube channel and here on the blog over the course of the year... I can't wait to compare the before to the after for the year, and I hope to see how exploring my style over the course of 2017 led to a more defined home style for our house!

** This post is not sponsored. All opinions are my own.

2017 Word of Year

Well, we made it. 2016 is over and it's time to start fresh in 2017! I'm looking forward to seeing what this year has in store for our family and like I mentioned in my looking forward video... I'm not even going to try to guess what that may be!

Check out my look forwards to 2017 in my video "More of This, Less of That":

The past few years, I've had a phrase or word that has stuck out to me at the beginning of the year. Since I don't particularly do resolutions, it has become a tradition to have a phrase or word that speaks to me become my "Word of the Year". I've previously had #YeartoSparkle and #Joy, along with #FindingJoy, which I still frequently use on Instagram. After thinking about it this year a number of words came to mind...

What would 2017 have in store for me? Fun... Fabulous... Focus... I was stuck on the letter "f" for a while, and while those were great - I couldn't seem to narrow it down to just one. While I do hope 2017 holds all of those, they just weren't quite "it". I also thought about Strength... Calm... Hope... They just still weren't quite what I felt was propelling me forwards. Then a word came to me, and it kept coming back...

Explore.

At it's core, that's what I felt like 2017 would be about for me. This year, I feel like I was meant to explore. Not only with our upcoming travels that we have planned, we plan to try some new places and after the last cruise sparked a bit of wanderlust in me, over the next few years I'd like to take on even bigger and further destinations. We recently sent in our paperwork to receive our passports, which would open up a number of travel opportunities. Even locally or here in the Midwest, I feel like I'd like to explore a bit more.

Explore wouldn't mean just travel though. I know 2017 will have some changes in store, some that I've been looking towards and wondering what they will be like for a long time. This will be the first year in 7 years that I will be back to being a Stay at Home Mom (or just adult human), without small children at home. Natalie is due to go to kindergarten in the Fall and Isabella will be in 2nd grade. I will have to explore what I means to be a stay at home mom that still has all of the "main parenting" duties of getting children ready for school, taking care of all of the school items, transporting said children back and forth to school... but it opens up possibilities during the middle of the day.

Also, I feel like I'd like to explore style this year... home style, fashion style, and just my personal sense of style and self. What will I find that is most important to me? Has my home decor taste changed over the years? (The answer is slightly yes, I am planning on doing a few room refreshes in the coming months and will plan on sharing those!) Also my fashion style has changed as well. I'm not as concerned about logos as I was in my 20s, I've settled down quite a bit with my fashion and become content with staples. That being said, I love to dress up and I'm always on the hunt for gorgeous shoes that don't kill my feet! Lots of shoe stores to explore as well!

So this year... I will explore. I will be an explorer. After the word came to me, and stuck... and I thought about all of the changes that will happen over the next year, the next thing I thought about was actually the movie Moana. (Disney nerd, yes, I know.) I thought about how I felt watching that movie and how just thrilled I was when she found out her ancestry of explorers, and she set off on adventure. While I don't see any quests like that happening to me throughout the year, I do hope that as we see more new places and experience new things - that the sense of exhilaration I felt watching her set off to explore the sea can be felt first hand. 

I'm excited about the possibilities that the year will bring and interested to see where we are at the end of the year. What about you, do you have a word of the year? What is your word?

** This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.