Prompt 8-Design your dream home

Today's journal prompt is to imagine your dream home. If you could design the home of your dreams what would it look like?

My answer? Simple. Cozy. Reflections of love and life and family. This is the perfect spot in my current home. Our family room great big couch where all 5 of us can lay on at the same time. The sofa table behind that my hubby built to hold my wine glass. The picture gallery wall is colorful and has some of our favorite quotes.

What can I say? I have a dream home and I'm living in it. I'm blessed and grateful that our family has this place to call ours.

What does your dream home look like?

Challenge idea came from here.

Take Twelve February - Color

February's Take Twelve for Twenty Twelve was focused on color. I chose to capture life as we live it right now in blue!

Journaling reads: Theme for this month is color ... and I picked blue. All around me this year, I am finding reasons to bring more blue into my life, to be more precise, it’s teal. It simply makes me happy. Here are signs of blue and teal in real life. Blue globe with dots for all the places we have visited or lived. Blue glass backsplash that Moi put in, my favorite part of our kitchen remodel. Blue framed quote “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” Teal wall in kids room with post card reminder of next dream vacation we all want to take ... Italy. Blue flowers in our home decor, blue items in our unorganized pantry that needs decluttering and organizing. Teal bins for organizing my scrapbook goodies, love buttons and bling. My teal lining of my current favorite Coach handbag. Bits of teal in my accessories ... hard to change a wardrobe of mostly black. New teal owl reusable shopping bag ... we are a green family. Blue all over the minibook of our recent Hawaiian vacation. Blue in the cases of cookies that are taking over our month of February with site sales and walkabouts. All of this is so us right now. This is our life, our family.

Holiday Tradition: Decorating Our Home (Dining Room)

One of my most favorite holiday decor items from past years has always been ornament filled glass jars. The simplicity and the elegance of it is so pretty. Plus the velvet table runner with contrast of soft and shiny together ... perfection.

I updated the chandellier by removing the formal beaded and silk covers. This is more clean and simple and modern ... kind of the look I'm going for this year with our home update.

Simple paper flowers and glitter snowflakes.

Our card garland ready to be filled ... complete with a new teal Merry Christmas sign.

... and here it is filled with love from family and friends. So much fun this time of year to see how the kids have grown and what everyone's up to.

Red snowflake pillows from Target (last year) adds cozy comfort.

Other small doses of holiday decor in our home include red ribbon added here and there, red glitter and more poinsettia.

Holiday Tradition: Decorating Our Home (Family Room & Kitchen)

Our tree never goes next to the fireplace. This year our new couch is an L shape and has taken over the corner where our tree usually goes. But I do have to admit I like these pictures where it's all together most.

New color scheme called for new stockings this year (from Target). Love this teal color and the simplicity of the white felt snowflakes. Lena has put her stocking to good use already with her note to Santa on what she wants for Christmas this year ... a DS game, Kinect Sports or Dance Central and a big screen computer. We'll see I told her ...

Love the teal and green and silver ornaments on our tree this year.

Love how it all looks so nice with my favorite portrait wall of black frames on a blue background. Here lies my favorite quotes ... Proof that God loves us ... and We must be the luckiest people alive. Not bad for spray painted bamboo frames ... a sign of the old beach cottage decor.

At the bar, a holiday snowman sits happily with our stainless steel barware.

And our simple new Ikea shelf with wine glass holders made festive with its own mini Christmas tree. Here I couldn't resist the country look of the birdhouse. :)

And on the same bar is our country snowman family. Too cute to leave in the box!

What completes our home decor the most is a kid-made school-project December calendar with poinsettias on the fridge. Merry December to all! Hope your home is making you happy this time of year.

Holiday Tradition: Decorating Our Home (The Living Room)

Decorating our home is probably one of my most favorite holiday traditions. Most years I try to do it as early as Thanksgiving weekend. This year I really wanted to start right after Halloween, but the kids kept insisting it wasn't right. Insert sad face here. :( But on Thanksgiving day, the adventure began ...

I love free printables ... this one from eighteen25 ... really updates my decor from Christmases past. Family picture from 10+ years ago when we had only one child living in da islands. The ornament tree is from Pier One 3+ years ago, every year it debuts in a different part of the house.

Our home is all about our family so we left most of the pictures out ... this one back to school from last fall. And my favorite red star that I keep out year round really looks most festive this time of year.

Banners were a fave even before pinterest and before they became popular all over the web. I made this one in a local scrapbook store scrap event 4 years ago. Love finding a new home for it each year. It's been above the fireplace, on the mirror in the dining room, by the nook in the kitchen and now in the living room!

I like simple decor, glass bowl full or ornaments ... easy peasy!

In our internationally influenced home, we also have bits of Eastern culture trimmed in holiday.

And only in an Asian house there money plants flanking our shelf and an altar for our ancestors.

As we travel, we are "blinging" our globe to show where we've been. A fun little piece of family history. Pink bling for mom, blue bling for dad and white bling for all of us together.

Even with my black thumb, it's just not Christmas without poinsettias. Keeping fingers crossed (and asking mom to help water it), we are trying to keep this one pretty like this until well into January.

What does your home look like decorated for the holidays? Please link in the comments, I would love a tour! :)

Holiday Tradition : Decorating the Tree

With the updated colors in our home this year, it was time to also change up the Christmas decor. Gone are the beach cottage-country snow man-red and gold theme. We now have a jewel toned glitzy modern theme. Starting with the Christmas tree, there are new glitter balls large and small ... my favorite being teal! It matches quite nicely with the blue and grey walls and my favorite portrait collection of quotes.

Gone are also the Hawaiian Santas (for now). Instead we have Hallmark ornaments that the girls picked out. Lena was five last year when she picked this one out.

Kaila wanted to show her love of technology as a tween with this cell phone. Her message to Santa will stay recorded on it for all time!

Nani likes "cute" things so this ornament for the year 2010 was perfect.

Celebrating the joy of the season starts nightly with our twinkling lights on the spinning tree. All is more quiet and peaceful in the house when the lights are on for some reason. I have to say how much I enjoy it. Do you turn your lights on to enjoy nightly in your home too?