These Are a Few of Our Favorite Things!

Happy Wednesday to you! Hope you're all having a good week so far! I'm switching things up a little bit on the blog today to show you some of our favorite things that we've discovered (or done) during these quarantine days. Maybe you'll find a thing or two to try!

1. Elevate those curtain rods!

When we made over the guest room during quarantine, we took everything  off every wall and filled in all holes before we painted. This allowed us to start completely over with wall art placement, but it also allowed us to start over with our curtain placement! We elevated the rods to hang next to the ceiling and purchased longer curtains. I think Ryan was a little skeptical about the idea, but he went along with it and ended up loving it. The change helps make the ceiling look taller! We ended up doing the same thing in the living room when we started our little upgrade project in there.

2. Buy some spray paint.

This was another one of our cost-effective upgrade tools in both the guest room and the living room. We spray painted a wooden shelf, a decorative window pane, a handful of picture frames, and some curtain rods. All of it was much easier and cheaper than buying all new pieces for the room!

3. Matching spice jars and racks from IKEA - with labels from Etsy.

We didn't get a regular spice rack when we got married, so our spice jars have always been a mismatched mess in the cabinet. Because I love to cook and use a lot of dried herbs and spices in my cooking, I've always wanted a pretty, matchy-matchy jar collection. About a year and a half ago, we bought several sets of these empty jars from IKEA so I could fill them with the spices we use the most. We also bought a few of these spice racks, but we never got around to assembling or painting them. We got them before Ryan's mom got sick, and in all of that, spice jars just weren't a priority. And then they just became the project we never finished. But we finished it during quarantine! Ryan spray painted the shelves (which were a natural wood finish when we bought them) to match our cabinets, and then I purchased these labels from Etsy so every jar would have a sleek, clean label on it. The finished product is beautiful! (I also alphabetized them because it makes my nerdy word-loving heart so happy.)

4. Our tiny mulch border.

Last summer, after we added the sun room to our house, we finished the rock landscaping that had only been halfway done when we purchased the house. Only two of the four sides of our house had a rock border, so we carried it on around to give it a finished look. Ryan wanted to give it a small mulch border to set it apart from the grass. I confess I wasn't too sure about it, but he got a truckload of mulch and finished it during quarantine, and he was totally right! A little bit of mulch made a big impact!

5. "Amen" Bible study.

Several months ago, I was introduced to The Daily Grace Company, via social media, and I've been continuously impressed with the work they do in providing quality Bible study and encouragement material in print and online. I purchased the Amen study to do on my own, and I am absolutely LOVING IT. This particular study is basic in that it shows the big picture thread of the Bible accounts from Genesis to Revelation, but even though it contains material I know - and know well - it's allowing me to see the big picture in a new way. I do a day's worth of study in the book each day after I read my Psalms passage, and it's providing a beautiful addition to my study time. I've already ordered the next study so I can move right into it when I finish this one. (They have many studies, so if the topic of this one doesn't fit where you are right now, you can pick a different one!)

6. Guard Your ID stamp roller.

This was actually a birthday gift Ryan received from my sister, but he said it's one of his favorite things. Neither of us had ever heard of it before, but it's really handy! It's a little stamp roller that you run over your address or any other identifying information that comes in the mail or is reflected on documents. If you don't have a shredder or can't shred something (like a label on a cardboard box), this is a perfect solution! We had previously used markers to cross out information on boxes, but this is much faster and darker. Works much better!

7. Command Strips for the win!

As we have given a facelift to a few of the rooms in our home (guest bath, guest bedroom, living room, kitchen) we've tried to take full advantage of Command Strips when possible. Obviously heavy things like mirrors and curtain rods have required the use of secure screws, but for lighter picture frames and pieces of wall art, we've tried to use Command Strips to preserve the walls. This helps, too, if we decide we want to reconfigure how things hang at a later time. We won't have big holes in the way! (We've only had one thing fall, so that's a pretty good track record!)

8. See the space with fresh eyes.

As we've cleaned, organized, and spruced up the house, I've tried to remove everything from a space and then put it all back with a fresh perspective. I've regrouped some things, shopped the house to move items from one room to another, and removed things that made an area feel cluttered. And in some spaces, I haven't fully redecorated yet. I'm still thinking about where I want to put everything so I can do it right the first time. I am typically the person who takes a picture of an area before taking it all apart so I can put it back together "correctly," so being able to see it all with fresh vision has been fun and different for me! (Since shopping has been challenging over the last few weeks, I've made the majority of the changes through merely moving around the things we already owned!)


Well, we've been in quarantine for about eight weeks, so this list landed at one thing for each week of life at home. Hope you find something in there you can try!