Bringing the outside in

Before I start to fill you in on the exciting facelift Tara is getting (Heaven knows she needs it!) I wanted to share some pictures of some of our Christmas decor. Yes, it's past Valentine's Day, but this might inspire you for next holiday season (or simply remind me of things to do once Christmas 2012 approaches).

I struggle with bringing the outdoors inside in wintertime. It's easy to do in the summer with fresh flowers, but the colder temperatures and depressing lack of color in the wintertime make decorating with live plants difficult.

Fortunately, we have a holly tree! I love magnolia leaves too...but using those would have required black clothing and a flashlight as I would have had to scurry down the street in the dark and steal branches from an unsuspecting neighbor. Rhett and I don't condone stealing, so if you're not going to pay for it, at least ask someone before you approach their landscaping with scissors.

Our back deck served as a staging area:

And after a few clever snippings, holly brightened up our home!

Easy, simple, and done in 30 minutes. Now that's something to make merry about!

A new year brings new renovations- big ones!

Anxiously awaiting to see what's in for Tara in 2012? Wondering where on earth we've been or if we've given up the remodeling dream? Honey, please. We took a few months to catch our breath and now we are back- with some big projects under way!

Check back after this weekend to see what's new (and read a little about some of the fun things we did over Christmas!). I promise, the wait has been worth it!

It's the little things.

3 months?! Has it been THREE months? Sorry, Mom. :)

I will make a concerted effort to keep my blog more current, not just for the entertainment of the few friends and family members who actually read it, but to better chronicle the evolution of Tara.

I am often tempted to think that doing little things around the house- small improvements here and there- don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. But they do. Making a house your very own is like watching a child grow up. Small things happen every day in the lives of our children that we are prone to overlook because they seem almost mundane or routine. But, with your kids, you blink and- bam- they're running across the room! And the memories of those first steps and countless falls you once thought tedious now seem priceless.

So, to better relish in the little victories in renovating Tara, enjoy the following fall improvements! Curtains, valances, and chalkboard paint (with a magentic layer underneath), oh my!

Hometown Homage

Speaking of hanging things on the wall, I can rest assured that wherever we move, my hometown will never be too far away with this sweet reminder hanging on my wall. Thanks, Mom!

Lesson learned? Find a spot in your home for a little something to remind you of where you grew up. Unhappy memories from the hometown or stuck in a family of gypsies as a kid? Pick a fun momento from a happy location, even if it's a ticket stub, and give it a place of prominence.

Summertime and the Living is Easy

Has it really been two weeks since my last entry? Sheesh. Even though I haven't been documenting all of the projects I've been squeezing in this summer, it doesn't mean that Tara is improvement free! It just means that our work ethic has taken on a summertime temperment, a less-rushed, slower feel.

Summertime and the living is easy.

This unscheduled summer has afforded us more opportunities to get pictures of our kiddos, and like any parents Rhett and I are over-eager to display them. Naturally, the blank canvas in the hallway seemed like a fabulous place.

Yikes! But THIS is a BIG space! (Not that we couldn't cover it entirely with pictures of our babies.)

However, how do you put something in a space like this that compliments the size? It's easy to hang something that would be quickly overwhelmed, and it's also easy to attempt to fill the space and end up cluttering it instead.

After seemingly endless searching, I found an answer.

As you might have noticed from prior posts, Rhett and I have a deep love for anything antiqued and weathered (hopefully he'll remember this love for all this antiqued when I am 95!) I found these three amazing frames, made out of reclaimed barn wood, at a little shop 10 minutes south of my house. They bring color, character, and a certain amount of charm to the hallway without crowding!

Horray for the casual, easy feel of these frames. For purchase information, email me at renovatingtara@gmail.com.

Just Beachy

Friends, I've just returned from a beautiful week at the beach.

What's not to love about some time at the seashore? Sand between your toes, the cool breeze, fun with family, delicious seafood, and...

...classy decor? I mean really. What is this and why in the world was it on dsiplay in our beach house?

How about this one.

Oh my.

Someone didn't leave their glitter ribbon and glue guns at home.

Why is it that condos and beach houses seem to be oblivious to the rules of home decor that we all try to follow? Is it that the owners of these places feel that their environmental surroundings are so superior to most of ours that they assume they can neglect any basic rules of interior design, throwing seashells on random items and then declaring it "beachy"?

Whatever the reason, we had a lot of fun shrugging our shoulders at the ridiculous nick-knacks in our house. It reminds me of the condo five of my high school friends and I stayed in when we visited Hilton Head Island the summer after graduation. It was covered, and I mean covered, with dolphins. Sculptures, miniatures, printed linens, placemats, framed prints- dolphins exploded all over each room. We lovingly named our home for a week the Dolphin Shack. And I still laugh each time I think of that crazy little place.

With that I only have one thing to say: stay classy, beach people. Your decorating escapades help make happy memories for visitors like me.

Happy Birthday to Tara!

Last July 4, Rhett and I spent our first night at Tara. Nevermind that the kitchen looked like this:

Charming, I know. Did I mention we were without plumbing too at that point? Oh, and let's not forget that I was 37 weeks pregnant going to the bathroom in the woods. I don't think our neighbors noticed, but I'm sure they would have been thrilled to know that the Clampetts were moving in.

Needless to say, our first night at Tara was not quite a 4 star experience, but we survived. In fact, if you're one of those annoyingly optimistic people you'd probably say that a rocky start at Tara has made all the things we've accomplished in the past year that much sweeter.

You're entitled to your opinion.

All this has got me thinking, however, of what we really need out of a house. What do we have to have out of a building to make us happy? You can say that plumbing and electricity are non-negotiables, but are they really? Will simply four walls do? And aren't the best memories of where we live memories of when something crazy happened- like when all the power went out and we had to cook over the fire and play Monopoly by candlelight?

This past weekend, our family traveled to south Georgia for Rhett's 75th annual family reunion. The reunion was a lot of fun, and over 225 of Rhett's extended family were there, which really meant that there was a LOT of good food. Although I'm from the South, I'm pretty sure that certain parts of the country should require a passport, because I couldn't find the tiny town (is it even a town?) of Hatley on a map. What impressed me as much as the food and fellowship of all the wonderful folks I met this past weekend was the simple character of some of the buildings.

Here's the Hatley Women's Club:

And the Courthouse, which I am told also doubled as the jail...

Silly to some, I suppose, but I love these simple buildings. They remind me that in some places the buildings we live our lives in were, and still are, free of fuss (though I'm not sure the "jail" makes me feel very safe). For women to get together and do good or for justice to be done in a place like Hatley, they didn't need  a glossy million-dollar place to do it in.

Winston Churchill wrote, "We shape our buildings and then they shape us." Isn't that the case? We have an idea of how we want our buildings to work and function but in reality, once we live and work inside them, they begin to shape the way we do things. It's not because of their ammenities either. Simple structures or even those that are incomplete can make a big impact.

While I'm grateful for the great strides that Tara has made in the last year, I smile when I think about those first few crazy nights at this house last July. Forget that there was hardly a kitchen and I had to run off into the woods to go to the bathroom, we were just so happy to be here.

Happy Anniversary, Tara!