I'm grateful to have a manicorn in my life.
Jessica McDougall » Blog
Yearly Archives: 2010I always love reading the giveaway comments – but especially this one because there are SO MANY inspirational ideas for how to make where you live a special and beautiful place! Random number generator selected 58. Congratulations to Taryn! Jess, Taryn is a pal of mine from college! Funny huh? She was so happy to have won this. Your give-aways are so fun! The February 2010 House Beautiful is the best home magazine issue I have seen lately. I pulled out about 50% of the pages for inspiration. And then I headed back to the store to get another copy to giveaway on my blog so that you, too, can be inspired. Would you love to have a… I guess it’s all relative. Clean is beautiful to me, but it’s a constant “process”. And when my work room is clean, it means I’m not working. i try to keep it all organized and together so it can be calm and inviting and homey and just a good place to be- sometimes hard with 4 boys and 1 girl, but worth it in the end! I think I just try to keep everything organized and clean to make my home beautiful Our home is a mix of old and new – things my husband and I have picked out together and great things that have belonged to treasured family members – I need a little bit of history around me. I love bringing the beautiful colours of the season outside inside whether it be summer, fall, winter, or spring. I love gathering ideas that will bring a bit of the outside in, I always find in calming when our inside decor matches the outside climate, it gives the family a certain peace. The magazine looks beautiful and full of great ideas. I always have classical music playing in the background. My preschoolers and I both find it relaxing and it adds a little class to the atmosphere! This is the lamest housewife admission ever, but our house is at its best when I’m following the daily flylady routine at http://www.flylady.com. A new glossy and fresh flowers….I’m in! I’m a fan of art and colors, but every few weeks I like a change. I find myself rearranging the furnature, painting new art (oil paint on canvas) for the walls and changing the photos in the frames. Having special areas for doing things. It keeps everyone organized, active, and constantly doing. A quiet area to read, a fun area to play games, a computer area, a tv lounging area. And it all flows nicely throughout our downstairs rooms. I think decor is in the details. I try to showcase items that are most meaningful to me – whether it be a handwritten note from my father or a grouping of oil paintings that have taken me years to collect. Beauty in our home is simply being surrounded by the ones we love (in person & in fun photos)& fresh flowers in vases through out the home I love to “wake-up” our home every day by opening up the curtains and blinds to let in the bright sun shine! This makes our home the most beautiful to me. ohhh, I like this! I make my home beautiful with fresh flowers in my bedroom; it never fails to put a smile on my face when I wake up every morning. I also make my home beautiful by eating at our dining room table by candle light every night. There is just something romantic and special about sharing a meal, conversation and background music by candlelight. There’s nothing quite like a chic tablecloth! Beautiful! I love surrounding myself with things I really love, it makes the house beautiful and makes me comfortable in it. Thanks for the giveaway! I make my living space beautiful by filling it with photos of my loved ones. I’m lucky to have a nice camera and a boyfriend that loves to take pictures as much as I do. Beyond visual beauty, my home is not complete unless is smells beautiful. I love having scented oils, scented “rocks”, plug in scents, etc around my home. I usually don’t have the same scent in each room, but they all coordinate (even the odor eliminator in my cat’s bathroom smells lovely!) so when the scents mix it still smells fabulous – not harsh or over powering, just enough to make the room feel welcoming & comfortable for everyone. By finally hanging those pictures I have propped against the wall! laying out pretty vintage tableclothes automatically gives my dining room a lift…and makes dinner time a little more ‘special’. even if it gets dirty right away w/a table full of boys ages 3, 7 & 41… I frame pictures of my loved ones and hang them up and try to keep the clutter at bay! ooh. Is that an American House Beautiful? I want one. even the cover looks lush! Can i get that somewhere in England? I have just moved house and when i get rid of all the boxes my house will look a whole lot more beautiful! The kids playing inside the boxes look pretty darn cute though! Wonderful giveaway~ My 9 month old daughter makes our home more beautiful than I could have imagined! There are two things I do that I think make my home beautiful: To make my home beautiful I keep the clutter out! I love the look of a fresh tidy room. what a fun giveaway!! I make my home beautiful by surrounding my family with pictures of “us” how we are in real life, it keeps us fresh and inspired! What a great giveaway! I try to keep things around that inspire me. I think beautiful, carefully chosen items bring a sense of peace that allows us to make a house into a “home”. Thank you for your inspiration! Hi there, Aw, I want! I make where I live beautiful with photos of and art made by my 4 year old daughter. House Beautiful is one of my favorites. I think it took first place when my beloved Domino went under. My favorite way to make my living area beautiful is to cover the walls (tastefully of course) with my own photography. Landscapes, scenes, shots of my family, random objects that I love…:) I use different sizes and colors. It’s beautiful. I also like to include collages. I know this sounds like a lot but it’s tasteful. I feel like I “live” in my office…so to that end I have made it very homey (so much so that people love to visit!). I have some art on the walls (photos of Dublin and Portland), several bamboo plants, a teapot, photos of family. It is restrained but comfortable. My ‘secret weapon’ is a reed diffuser from Crabtree and Evelyn…it’s a subtle scent, but people say it smells ‘like a luxury hotel’ in my office – that’s high praise! Many little things keep it fresh. Dimmers everywhere we can help. Along with moving things around, and changing things around seasonally. And little vintage things give it flair I think. For me, it’s really hard with 3 boys + a husband! But everyday i work to keep things picked up and straightened so our home is clean and lovely. Soft lighting makes a huge difference I’ve found. A light glow instead of a harsh, bright glare makes everything cozier! I like candles, photos, cozy blankets, and flowers to make our living space beautiful. Thanks for the fun giveaway! Photos of my two children around the house make for a cosy and lovely home. I especially love when the draw a fabulous picture for me! I like candles, photos, cozy blankets, and flowers to make our living space beautiful. FUN!!!.well I’m another who loves to surround their house with photos..everywhere Family photos help make a house a home. I’m on a big kick to get rid of stuff right now. Would love some inspiration to make our home beautiful! The best and most important thing I have done to make our home beautiful is to make two daughters What a generous giveaway! Hi Jessica…. I’ve begun going through my home asking myself “do I love this? Do I use this?” My house has become cluttered with things I don’t love and I am on a mission to make my home beautiful again. What a fun giveaway! I like warm colors and comfortable pillows and blankets everywhere to make my home beautiful. Lots of candles too. make a home wherever you land. love can reside in any sort of environment you create together, it doesn’t have to be a mansion to be a happy one. xo I love burning candles and fresh flowers are a treat too! lots of windows and open space in our house. I try to keep it clean and organized so I can enoy the light. i enjoy cleaning and keeping things tidy, not having too much “stuff” is important to both me and my husband. simple is best for us When we recently moved into a much larger house than the previous one we owned I found that my old furniture really didn’t work. It was difficult to find furniture in the small town we now live in but I’ve been working for over a year to decorate it just the way we want it with a mix of modern and vintage pieces. It now looks pretty good and while we get lots of compliments on it I find that my house is the most beautiful when it is filled with friends and family. If I only had four walls and nothing else the sound of love and laughter would be my best decorations! Sorry-My entry is above-I love color and try to have favorite colors (green, blue) everywhere. How fun are you. Such beautiful flowers! Right now my little family & I are renting a home (we relocated halfway across the US & still have our home & property in Oregon), so it’s not our “ideal” home, but I’m trying really hard to make it pretty, cozy and feel like “home”. Fresh flowers always helps! Several years ago, my partner and I put in a lot of time and effort to decorate our home: perfect colors, perfect furniture, perfect feel. Since we both have pretty hectic schedules, our beautiful retreat soon got cluttered and untidy. So we put a strategy in place. i make where i live beautiful by choosing to decorate & fill my home with the things that have both a special meaning & a specific purpose–usually repurposed items. and lots & lots of photos. i’d love to win a copy of the magazine & flowers. oooohh, I love fresh flowers. (and new mags!)How do you store your inspiration pages once torn out? Binder with tabs? Thanks for the contest! Jenny Love fresh flowers … amazing what they do for a space, whether working or living. I’m working on simplifying my life, decluttering – it adds so much! Love this idea! Thanks for the inspiration – those photos alone get me thinking! family photos around the house. Toys picked up off the floor also makes me happy Beautiful to me (and my husband) is: bold wall colors we love – even though they may only be beautiful to us; a healthy dose of weathered vintage pieces; and a record spinning on the stereo. I think it’s beautiful mostly because the 3 of us are in it. But I think of our home as a constant work-in-progress, even if most people walk in & think it looks like a model home. I want it to be constantly evolving, just as we are as a family. I love using a lot of photos around our house. I think it makes the kids feel important and special to see pictures of themselves around the house and it adds a great personal touch. For me the beauty is in home made quilts in every room of our house!! I’ve lived in Arizona now for eight years, although Washington state will always be my ‘home’ so I make my house beautiful by incorporating green in my decorating every way I can. Paint, artificial grass, throw pillows, candles…I have come to appreciate the beauty of the desert but still long for the lush green of Washington. would love some flowers. just got bad news from my doctor. being in grad school, there’s not much extra $ to make my home beautiful, but we make up for it with laughter, love & music. oh- & keeping it clean helps, too! thanks for the giveaway! Oh I do love this magazine and flowers! Photos. I love photos all over my home. They make it beautiful! Such a kind offer! As a Libra (which apparently makes me have a strong need for aesthetically pleasing things) and a very organized (read: anal) person, the way I make my home beautiful is to HIDE THINGS! I make my house beautiful by incorporating things that I love into my design and decor. I love black and white photos of people that I love and that influence my life. I have an amazing photo wall that makes me smile and realize how lucky I am every morning. I also love how fresh flowers smell and look – I love white orchids – they are such a timeless flower and also entertaining friends and family makes my house feel beautiful. Thanks Jess! Another lurker fan here … hee. Hosting friends and family for any occasion or no occasion makes my home beautiful! Our breakfast nook window perfectly frames the view of a beautiful mountain peak and blue sky. It’s better than any painting one could buy! Hi Jessica, Hi Jessica! I just moved to a new pretty stale apartment but lately I have been buying colorful pillows for my bed and couch to brighten it up. I love your blog! Thank you Hi Jessica! I’ve been lurking on your blog for sometime because I find your style and attitude inspiring. Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful outlook on life! I like to fill my home with things that have meaning to me — family photos and lots of found objects that I repurpose and make beautiful. Filling my house with pictures of my loved ones seems to do the trick in any room that needs a special touch! This is so thoughtful of you, Jessica! I am on a shoestring budget so I need to be very creative. I find that having pictures throughout my home that are current but also old family black and white pictures add depth to my home. I find different fabrics that have an array of textures to add some pizzaz to my home. I also buy flowers from the farmer’s market every weekend and have them in my home to extra color and life to my home. I’m constantly searching for inspiration, thanks for the chance to win. Regardless of all my decorating efforts the thing that makes our home most beautiful is all the memories we make here together…cheesy, I know! I have photos of those whom I love EVERYWHERE! Thanks for the giveaway! Candles – I make sure our home smells good because then it looks better. I simply love the WoodWick candle line. Give them a try, they are amazing! I will check this magazine out. I never know which one to buy at the book store. I like your style so I know I’ll like this. we are in the process of rennovating a house and haven’t moved in yet…currently we are living at my mom’s…i am trying to make our “SMALL” space like the home we left behind. we decorated our “room” for halloween and christmas….can’t wait to spread all out again and have lots of room to make our own! Hi Jessica! I love your blog. I make my house beautiful for my husband and boys (yep, I am the only female) by putting little touches around the house for each holiday. And, I always fill a little glass candy holder we have with holiday M & M’s. I just got valentine M & M’s today. We shared a tiny city apt before our house and all our stuff was on display! Now we have lots of storage with drawers, doors, lids, etc. to put it all away. It feels clean, simple, and relaxing. I am a big fan of your blog and how generous of you to offer a chance to win! Black and white are my favorite colors to decorate with and I spruce up our dwelling pad with bright colored pillows (lime green currently), new pictures in the frames and of course fresh flowers! I try to keep clutter at bay… feels like I’m always picking up. I do love that feeling of having everything clean. I love flowers in the house and I tend to get them on fridays, but I think I should switch it to Monday! Hi Jessica! How generous and thoughtful of you to offer this giveaway How very generous of you! I guess I would have to say lots of natural light is what I do to make my home beautiful. We have lots of windows so I make sure to keep them clean(LOL!) and the curtains up and out of the way as much as possible(hard with near neighbors and a big front bay window!) I love having our home flooded with light! It puts everyone into a better mood! I love flowers all over my home — it makes me happy and feel like every day is something special. No need to enter me in the giveaway (I live in England), but oh, how so generous of you!! Love the photos, btw. It's been a wonderful Sunday. Down the light rail tracks from where we live is Uptown Charlotte, so Gabrielle and I went on a little adventure to document some sights of the city. A peek at Duke Energy Center, the newest building in Charlotte's skyline, from the freeway overpass that is South Boulevard. Gabrielle enjoying… What gorgeous photos! Thank you for sharing your outing! love these pics jessica..great little collage there..and those apples look so so good Hello little glimpse of Chanel. And I'm considering these Tacori Cognac Quartz studs as an everyday earring alternative to diamonds or pearls. How do you do that smirk so well?! and why?! LOVE IT!! I’ve never seen cognac quartz ..that really would be a great alternative…so pretty I have a pair of cognac quartz studs that I wear pretty daily. I receive quite a few compliments on them as they’re unusual, yet soft and pretty. beautiful! i have a david yurman cocktail ring in a smoky quartz that i wear quite regularly – it’s surprisingly neutral (esp. as the ring has both silver and gold on it) those are fab. Oh vintage, I love you. Oh my…a good example of why we should respect our history…especially our fashion history.www.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.comwww.hervelegerweb.com Perfection. I can’t wait to see it on you, assuming you already purchased this lovely! Hi Tina! I noticed you wore this dress on 2/12, do you mind sharing what type of shoes you wore it with please. And, is the clothes on Etsy true to size? Loove it!!! Oh my…a good example of why we should respect our history…especially our fashion history. Perfection. I can’t wait to see it on you, assuming you already purchased this lovely! Here are some of the images from my kitchen inspiration board. I think that built in frig is so nice….and what gorgeous counter tops! That’s (concrete) not conrete, sorry! Have you ever seen polished conrete countertops? A little pricey, but they are gorgeous! Gabrielle texting her papa. Oh, to imagine what the world will be like in her future. In thinking about this, I concurred an addition of texting history (from Wikipedia) might one day give her a good chuckle. Many companies claim to have sent the very first text message, but according to a former employee of… I know what you mean..none of my kids have texting…yes they do feel a little deprived I TOTALLY remember how to fold a note (and stuff it in the vents in a locker)! My daughter is in kindergarten and I love to leave her little handwritten notes in her lunch box and she loves to get them! So fun! I can not see her being your daughter and not writing notes! That would be a tragedy. Next time you come home bring all the old letters to read! That would be a good laugh. Pincer grasp is in full operation around here. Especially when there are HappyBaby Puffs in the picture. I think I've settled on my selection (B) for the hardwood floor in our kitchen loft. A is ebony. B is ebony with water pop. C is the sanded floor. D is the original. Amazing what a little… Where do you get Gabrielle’s clothes? She has such amazing outfits! I have 3 baby showers coming up in the next couple of months and would love to get some ideas. I especially love that sparkly hat she’s wearing in your January 5th post!! Please share! love that little dress…love that new polish color and I’m going to make that beef lo mein..you are quite the cook..everything looks so pleasing to the eye..yum! Love the pics and stories of your lives! I have printed the beef and veal recipes off the computer and we are having beef lo mein for dinner this evening. I am looking for the Henri Bendel bead necklace that you picturend for my daughter. You help me in all parts of my life, you enabler you! Where are you going to be in Fl., we have a meeting that same weekend in West Palm. Ordering that cookbook I love the stain color you selected for your hardwood floor. Very, very nice. And now I must go and seek the new Chanel nail color you posted. It’s a beautiful color! love the pics We're back! Had to take a short road trip from virtual existence to fix a couple technical issues with my site. (Thanks Andy.) If you have my blog bookmarked, please make sure you're pointing to www.jessicamcdougall.com. Love that little car!! And I was wondering if you could help…I got some riding boots for Christmas and have no idea how to wear them!!! Could you tell us who makes your jacket and pants in 1/8/10? You look amazing!! I freaked out yesterday! TG you’re back! Cool – no problems viewing now…but I did have a little trouble accessing gabriellegitomer.com Is that one not ready yet? Got your card in the mail…very sweet. Love you! |
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Right now, opening up all of the blinds each morning is how I make my home its most beautiful. Finally having sunlight in the middle of the most frigid winter we’ve had in years makes me breathe a little easier & gives everything inside a much-needed glow.
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© 2012 Jessica Ann McDougall - Thanks for stopping by!
Erica Hettwer - I love my manicorn!
Here’s a little something I found for Gabrielle. http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Gabrielle
payton churchwell - Loved your outfit yesterday…could you tell me who makes the shirt and jeans? I have always loved your sister’s blog and now I love yours. Your style is awesome and that sweet baby is too cute! thanks!
elizabeth - love it!
robin - yes I do believe jeffrey fits this description quite well!..that site is hilarious
Cathy - He he…
Thanks for my laugh of the day. I have a manicorn as well!
JeanetteS - I like that…manicorn. It’s the best of both worlds!!
I also liked the same issue of House Beautiful you featured recently. Very inspirational.