Adding in Fall Decor
Temperatures are still sky high but fall is just around the corner – my favorite time of year! Now is the perfect time to start adding in fall decor. I feel like there are just some ideal ways to add in fall decor throughout your home.
Incorporate earthy tones.
Warm, earth tones are a must during the fall season. What says fall better than shades of brown, orange, yellow, and red? With earth tones still going strong on the home decor front, it only seems fitting to up their game in your fall decor. Think branches, faux stems, earthen ware pottery – all good pieces to add to any room.
Texture, texture, texture.
Incorporating cable knit blankets, woven baskets, feathers, faux floral stems – all items add a layer of texture to your space.
One of my favorite bloggers is Brittany at White and Woodgrain. Here is a post she shared on some fall styling.
Only use what speaks to you.
I’ll be real honest, lately I have really had to search for some fall inspiration. For some reason the over the top, in your face fall displays have left me feeling “blah”. I am looking for simple touches that will welcome in this new season. If you love over the top, big displays for each new season, go for it! Decorate your home with what speaks to you for in the end, you are the one who lives there!
For more decor tips, you can read a previous post I shared here.
The First Day of School
The first day of school is cause for much anticipation in the Helms House. Preparation for a new school year takes a little bit of time to accomplish. With a few procedures in place, you can have a great start to the school year.
List supply needs.
Depending on how many kids you have in your home, you may have multiple school supply lists. However many children you have, list out each school supply needed and start making purchases to mark off the list. Some school systems offer a pre-order of school supplies to be delivered directly to the school before the start of the year. With Instacart, Amazon, and Walmart +, you can order your school supplies to be delivered to your door. If you are like me, you can list out the items then determine which store has the cheapest selection.
Make a list of clothing items needed for the first day of school.
If your kids are like mine, clothing needs vary from year to year. Does your son need new jeans? Does your daughter need new shoes? Having a list of needed items allows you the opportunity to search for sale items in your area or online. I like consulting Brad’s Deals for some good finds.
Lay everything out the night before.
Once your school supplies are purchased, pack them all in backpacks and have the backpacks by the door. Go ahead and lay out what the first-day-of-school outfit will be. Take the time to pack lunches the night before. Doing as much as possible the night before will help the morning of school go more smoothly.
Plan something special
Once you have completed all the prep work of outfits and supplies, plan something special for the morning of the first day of school. In our house, we go to a special breakfast place as a treat to spend time together before school begins. We have to leave our house extra early for this treat but my kids love it. Don’t forget to account for a crazy amount of traffic on the first day. Play calming music on the way to school (we play worship music), choose to not “fuss” or lecture the kids during this car ride. Time for correction and guidance can wait until after school. Spend time talking with your kids and praying together.
I share the above principles time and time again because they have added such value to my life. You can read more about where I learned my back-to-school procedures here?
Breakfast at Hero Donuts.
What procedures did I leave out? When will your children return to school?
Tips for Planning Your Own Travel Itinerary
Summer is the perfect time for travel! With kids out of school, beautiful weather, and vacation days, travel sounds like a great idea. You can check out another favorite vacation spot of ours here. Feeling overwhelmed with the idea of planning your vacation? Here are some tips for planning your own travel itinerary.
Conwy Castle
Tip 1: Pole your partner or family on desired location
Ask your partner or family members what locations they would like to visit. I’ve even heard of some family members creating PowerPoints with the highlights of their desired destination! Getting input from your traveling party allows you to consider what locales will best meet everyone’s ideals.
Tip 2: Utilize Pinterest and Google
Once you have a location, spend quite a bit of time researching the locale. Pinterest and Google are big supports in researching information regarding vacation destinations and amenities. My personal favorite is Pinterest. You can check out my Wales/Ireland board here.
I did use Google for Google Flights and booked my airline tickets through this site. Google Flights also required travel insurance purchase for the airfare. This is beneficial in case of an emergency that would require you to cancel your trip. We did not get travel insurance for the rest of our trip because it was not all-inclusive. Our car rental and hotel stays had their own cancellation policies that provided the necessary “insurance” to protect our interests in the event of a need to cancel. Whether or not to purchase travel insurance is a decision only you can make – you know your personal situation best.
Tip 3: Create a Google Doc
As you formulate a draft of what you would like to see and do on vacation, create a Google Doc for your Itinerary. This format will be easy to edit and add to as you gain more knowledge of your accommodations and activities. For our recent trip to Wales, I added all of my Google Map links to the itinerary to assist with traveling from one location to the next. I also included all of my accommodation confirmation numbers and ticket purchase verification numbers. Our flight numbers were also typed into this itinerary and was easily accessible via Google Docs.
Newborough Beach
Tip 4: Don’t plan too much
Vacation should be just that – a vacation. I planned three activities at most for each day of our vacation with the understanding that we might not get to everything. I wanted enough options to keep us entertained but wanted the ability to opt out if we were feeling tired or overwhelmed.
Another factor to consider in your planning is the physical abilities of all of your travel party. You may have some highly active, physically fit members of your party as well as some members that struggle with stairs. Consider everyone’s activity levels when making your travel experience plans. For example, Wales had a variety of activity levels from a “Ziplining World” to train rides to see the local scenery. We crafted an itinerary that met our physical abilities.
Tip 5: Expect the unexpected
Know that no matter how much planning you do prior to your vacation, something can and will go wrong. Try to roll with the punches and appreciate each moment. For example, our vacation went beautifully until the last day. We had three legs of our flights. Our first leg of the flight from Dublin to London went as planned, the last two legs of the flight were delayed for 24 hours. We made it home and remembering all the fun we had on our vacation helped lesson the dissappointment of delayed flights.
Did I leave anything out? Do you have another tip in mind when creating your own travel itinerary?
Creating a Summer Schedule
While it is still spring, I like to spend time creating a summer schedule. My kids are 22 (our oldest lives on his own), 17, 15, and 11. Summer schedules have been a lifesaver to me during the summer months. I will share some of my strategies for enjoying the most out of summer break!
1. Add events to your calendar.
Looking at a three month calendar spread and adding all the events your family has in store for the summer will give you peace of mind. Having a visual calendar on display somewhere in your home is also a good idea. For my family, we place all of our events in our iPhone calendar so we can all access the event schedule.
2. Plan ahead.
Before moving to a suburb of Birmingham, the most planning ahead I would have to do would be if there was a sports camp I needed to get on the books. However, moving to a larger city with a larger demographic of two income families, planning ahead for summer is imperative. In our area, some summer camp registrations open in the December before summer break. For example, for summer 2023, some camp registrations opened December 2022. That is quite the planning ahead!
3. Make a list.
Make a list of how many children you have, what sports and activities each child is involved in, what camps and vacations you will be attending this summer. We love heading to the beach for summer vacation. 30A is one of your favorite destinations. You can read about what activities we enjoy at the beach here. Having everything listed out ensures you do not leave any events out when you go to plot them on your calendar.
4. Don’t forget the freebies!
Free events are AMAZING! Reference your local newspaper or happenings page to see what local events are free. A local mom’s group or page is an excellent source of event information. Birmingham Mommy and Rocket City Mom are two amazing sites filled with local events for the Birmingham and Huntsville areas respectively. Two organizations that I have used for years to supply my kiddos with free activities is the church and library. Vacation Bible School and children’s library programs are both FREE! Many volunteers and educators give their time to create remarkable events for our children to enjoy over the summer.
5. Create a weekly and daily schedule.
One of my biggest concerns over the summer months is keeping my kids off of their screens all day. To help with reducing screen time, I create a daily schedule for my kids. For example, each child gets a three ring binder at the beginning of the summer that is his/her Summer Binder. As a family, we decide what activities we enjoy best then create a weekly schedule. Our weekly schedule covers Monday through Friday. Saturdays and Sundays are left alone for weekend time. For example, we have: Make a Meal Monday, Theater Tuesday ($5 movies at AMC theaters), Wet Wednesday (pool day), Thinking Thursday (library day), and Family Friday (another pool day with family and friends – what can we say? We love the pool!) Here is a great example of a summer schedule that I was able to 1 find on Pinterest and utilized to help me craft my own.
Our daily schedule may look like: No more than three hours of screen time, complete responsibilities, play musical instrument, walk the dog, play outside for 30 minutes, read a book, do devotions. Giving a list of possible activities that can be done greatly reduces the “I’m bored!” comments. Factor in our weekly activities and we have a great summer!
Whatever your crew likes to do, my hope is that my tips for creating a summer schedule will benefit you!
Tips for developing your landscape and garden
There are a variety of tips for developing your landscape and garden. Allow me to share a few tips that I incorporate in my landscape and garden.
1. Create a list of what you enjoy.
Taking your environment into consideration, create a list of plants, flowers, trees, and shrubs you enjoy. If planting your garden, what vegetables do you and your family like to eat? When thinking of landscaping, what flowers and shrubs make you smile time and time again? What plants and shrubs match the look of your home?
2. Design a map of your yard.
Designing a map of your yard allows you to craft a layout for where you want your landscape design and garden to reside. Making a map gives you a visual for what space you have available to utilize. For example, drawing out my front yard and backyard gave me a view of what actual areas were available for landscape and/or garden organisms.
We purchased our current home in December of 2021 and it is a total remodel. You can catch up on some of our progress by reading an older post here. In relationship to landscape and gardening, I have determined where I want flower beds and where I want my raised garden beds. Once you have a map design, get to work!
3. Use hardscapes in your landscape.
Hardscapes are a new concept for me. Hardscapes are hard landscape materials that are in the environment structures of the landscape and/or garden. For example, a wooden trellis to hold cucumber vines. I had my husband construct a wooden A-frame structure and will use it in allowing my climbing vegetables a space to move up and down the wooden frame.
Wooden raised bed can be a hardscape. Choosing to connect beds with chicken wire, pvc pipe, metal caging all are examples of hardscaping. Garden decor such as metal design incorporated throughout a garden is hardscaping I believe.
Love the hardscape features that have been designed in this space. 4. Use what you have on hand.
Our current home is old. Our house was built in 1939. I share this because canvasing our small property has produced a wealth of landscaping materials. When we purchased our home, the previous owner left behind a variety of planters and garden decorations. Some items I have culled due to differing taste while others I have kept because I can use them in our flower beds and garden.
Behind our garage, we have found OLD brick which I feel makes the perfect flower bed border. Our backyard contains two gigantic pine trees which produce a large amount of pine straw. I love using pine straw as mulch in flowerbeds.
The previous home owner placed pea gravel throughout the entire backyard. While moving this gravel out of the yard has been a headache, I am making lemons out of lemonade and redistributing this gravel as border to my raised garden beds.
For my garden, I keep whatever seeds I do not use each year in my freezer. Some people say this will not work; however, the only seeds I have had issue with so far are bell pepper seeds. I feel like keeping my bell pepper seeds in the freezer is not the issue. I think I need to prep my bell pepper seeds using a different method. Living in the city provides the perfect opportunity to container garden. Have a planter or container? Plop a squash or zucchinni plant in it. Have just a small raised bed? Google square foot gardening and see how many vegetables you can grow in a small space. Companion planting is a wonderful subject to research. This subject allows you to see what plants grow best near each other.
5. Determine what materials you need to purchase.
Once you have taken inventory of what materials you have on hand, create a list of what you need to purchase. Don’t have any vegetable seeds? Start listing the vegetables you enjoy eating. While I love the idea of a big massive garden, I have to be honest with myself – what am I going to actually eat? What meals do I like to cook using these specific herbs and vegetables. I love seeing herb gardens but if I am honest, I’m not a big fan of mint or dill. Why place items in my garden that I am not going to use? I purchase my seeds either at a local grocery store (herbs) and a local Feed & Seed store (vegetables).
Do you need border material or mulch? Do you need containers? How many plants or shrubs do you need in your space? Make certain that you have a firm understanding of how wide and tall your plants will grow and allow for adequate spacing before you plant. In our flowerbeds we used: Dwarf Holly bushes, Peonies, Gardenias, Rose bushes, and Tea Olive trees. List your big ticket items first and go from there. It is okay to build your garden over time. Creating a successful garden is something that I have been working on for years and I am still learning! This home is the first one in several years that I am taking the time to create a landscape design and garden space I can use and enjoy.
6. Enjoy the journey.
Enjoy the process of creating a lovely landscape design and garden. Life is a progression. You do not have to achieve perfection this side of Heaven. Practice makes skills. Every time I am out in my flowerbeds or garden, I am learning a little more about my home.
Technology is amazing. Researching information via Google or Pinterest or Instagram or YouTube provides a wealth of information that you may use in your outdoor spaces.
I would love to hear from you. I am hopeful that these were helpful tips for your landscape and garden. What tips did you find helpful? Do you have tips that I left out but you feel are important to share? Let me know in the comments and happy gardening!
While I am not at Toni’s level, I absolutely love following along on her garden journey and learning from her. Tips for Successful College Campus Tours
Brainstorm Colleges of Choice
I’ve been cautioned for years that this season of life approaches and passes quickly. Oh how true that is! The season of planning for college is upon us. From my experience, I want to share some tips for successful college campus tours.
Tip #1 is to sit down with your high school junior and discuss: career interests, college location interests, and financial obligations for college. Having these discussions early during junior year is ideal. Have your junior create a list of possible colleges he/she would like to visit.
As you can tell here, I love to travel! And visiting colleges offers multiple opportunities to see new places.
Auburn University’s Football Stadium
Set Up College Campus Tours
Returning to work outside of the home this year, I really felt behind on setting up college visits for my son. However, we picked an evening with no distractions and sat down with our computer and calendar to schedule college campus visits.
I learned during this process that some colleges only have Monday visits available. In my mind, I thought all college visits would take place on the weekend. That is not always the case. For example, the University of South Alabama held their college Pre-Med tour day on a Monday and since my son is interested in the medical field, we needed to schedule our visit for this particular day.
Out of the four schools we visited (University of South Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Auburn University and Mississippi State University), two tours were held on Mondays and the other two were held on weekends.
Include All Relevant Tours
Typically at each school, there will be a variety of tours offered. The standard tour is the campus tour; however, some colleges request their housing tours be booked separately as well as their recreational center tours. Take the time to look at all the tours available and schedule any tour that might be of interest to your student.
We booked campus, housing, and recreational center tours. In some cases, we scheduled meetings with the department chairs of the College of Math and Science. Scheduling meetings with specific department chairs allows you to ask detailed questions about the major your student is interested in pursuing.
A part of our campus tour at Mississippi State University.
Take in the Extras
If the college your student chooses is their home for the next four, six, or longer years, then take in the extras. What do I mean by that? If the college/university is a distance away from your home, book a hotel and stay a night or two. Allowing your student to experience the surrounding town of the college/university will afford him/her the opportunity to get a feel for what life will be like while they are in school.
We love asking the locals where to eat. I enjoy seeing what famous spots the towns are known for. For example, if visiting Auburn University, then Toomer’s Drugstore is a must stop for their world famous lemonade. The picture below is of the cute area of downtown Starkville, Mississippi where Mississippi State University resides.
The beautiful downtown area of Starkville, Missississippi – home of Mississippi State University.
Hopefully these tips will help guide you as you tackle this developmental milestone. May you have many successful college campus tours!
How to Raise Kids to be a Part of a Whole
While kids are a wonderful addition to the family, effort must be given to raise kids to become successful adults. Successful adults that are capable of functioning well as a member of society. Reaching way back to when mine were little, I’m sharing how to raise kids to be a part of a whole.
An Instagram follower asked me to share how I am able to get my children involved in helping around the house. This request prompted contemplation as to what strategies I incorporated in having my kids participate in household chores and household life in general.
Help Clean Up
Cleaning up after one’s self is a lifelong skill. There is no harm in talking with your little ones from day one about picking up after you are finished with whatever item/items you are using. The added bonus is talking through your activity. Talking while moving through your actions builds language for your children. As children age, sing “Clean Up, Clean Up” (from the Barney show) or any other similar song to encourage your children to clean. As you clean up, have your children put away items with you as well. You are the model for appropriate action.
Create Responsibility Charts
Pinterest offers a variety of ideas on when and how to start utilizing chore charts. I like to call them responsibilities. An age-appropriate chore chart gives kids visual cues on how to help out around the house. I have a variety of pins on my Kids Crafts board, you can check out some chore ideas here.
My husband and I even give some money for each chore completed. The amount is not a lot but enough to put a little spending money in our kids’ pockets. From this money, we have taught the 10/10/80 approach. 10% to God, 10% to savings, and 80% to spend as you choose.
This an example of age-appropriate chores. Teach the Belief of Family
In addition to using chores and allowance as a motivator for our kids to participate in helping with the household, my husband and I have been very intentional about the belief of family. What do I mean by this? From an early age, we share and discuss with our children the importance of taking care of our family. Thus, each member of our family has an important role to help the whole unit. Some tasks and responsibilities are not compensated. They are performed simply for the good of the family. As parents, we determine what tasks and responsibilities need to be completed for the well being of the entire household. It is important for kids to learn that not every responsibility is going to receive a paycheck and it is important to follow the guidelines that mom and dad have established.
There are some great resources available for assisting with raising your children. I encourage you to find an older woman in your church that you admire or feel like she has a good handle on her family life. Follow her example, become a part of her Life Group, or ask for her guidance. Here is another great resource I like – Raising Girls and Boys.
Disclaimer
By sharing what my family has done to have our children become involved in the household responsibilities, this does not mean we have it all together. My biggest area of weakness is consistency. Being consistent with requiring my children to follow through with their responsibilities is always going to be a struggle for me.
While not perfect, I am willing to share all that is going on in The Helms House here. I hope you will follow along and interact with me by letting me know what you like or have questions about. Raising kids to be successful adults is challenging, rewarding work.
What I Learned from 365 Meals
Have you ever felt like you were stuck in the same cooked meals rut? I did. Last year I challenged myself to have (notice I didn’t say cook) a year of different meals and here is what I learned from 365 meals.
1. It’s okay to ask for help.
At the beginning of last year, I started posting questions to my Instagram followers asking what their favorite meals are. I also asked my family what meals they love. After I received some responses, I made a running list. I even included restaurants that I loved. My overall goal was to get out of the rut of making the same meals over and over. Whether we ate out or cooked at home did not matter as long as I was experiencing a different meal.
Asking for help or input regarding meal plans opened up my knowledge to different family traditions and different cultural foods. It was enjoyable trying new recipes.
2. Use a meal service.
After asking friends and family for meal ideas, a friend recommended the meal service company Hello Fresh. At first, I thought a meal service would be too expensive; however, with the increase of food cost, I cannot even take my family of five to McDonald’s for under $40. I would much rather have a home cooked meal than fast food. There are a variety of meal service companies (Blue Apron, HomeChef, EveryPlate, etc.) My friend gave me a coupon code for Hello Fresh and I went with this meal service company. My experience with them has been a mostly positive one. The biggest positive from using a meal service is it hits my goals of providing different meals. Hello Fresh gives you a variety of meal options to choose from then sends three meals per box your way. I selected the meals for a family of 4. While we are a family of five, I selected meals that would go farther (rice or pasta based meals). Through this meal service, I discovered I love roasted vegetables.
3. Save recipes and ideas.
We live in an amazing time of technology. I used my access to social media to help meet my meal goal. Instagram reels, Pinterest pins , and YouTube videos all provide a wealth of opportunities to find new recipes to try. Instagram reels were remarkably easy to save then reference at a later time when I wanted to recreate the meal I saw. I also shared in a post from 2021 some tips in helping to plan your dinner menu. You can check it out here.
Grateful is what I feel for my year of trying to have 365 different meals. This experience allowed me to push myself to try new recipes and meals. Let me know in the comments if you would like me to share the list of meals we had in 2022.
Updating My Daughter’s Room
Remodeling our home feels like what I imagine a marathon would be like – slow and steady but honestly, it’s more like slow and erratic. The latest project is updating my daughter’s room. When we moved in, her room had one small light hanging in the middle of a dark gray room with some pretty cool industrial shelves. We knew we would need to update the space to suit her needs.
This is a shot of Lilly’s room with the paint color on her walls at the time we moved in.
Design Elements
For a year, Lilly and I have discussed what she would like for her bedroom. Our upstairs ceilings are slanted with the slope of the roof. The existing ceiling and wall colors were contrasting and draw the eye to the sharp angles of the slant. Adding one color to these spaces, softens the sharp angles and gives each space an open feel. The elements Lilly requested were: an accent wall and double doors to her closet.
Our paint color of choice for this home is Benjamin Moore’s White Dove. With the warm tones of the hardwood floors, White Dove gives a nice contrast. However, I wanted some type of pop of color for her space.
Boutique Rugs
I have utilized Boutique Rugs in a variety of areas of our home. In fact, sometimes I have changed up the location of a certain rug to multiple rooms based on the home we were living in at the time. What impresses me about Boutique Rugs is the quality for the price. There are over 40,000+ varieties of style, color, and sizing. We wanted a new rug for Lilly’s room and they had just what we needed.
Lilly helped me select a gorgeous 6’7″ x 9′ rug titled Bood Area Rug. While I have purchased multiple rugs from Boutique Rugs, the ability to select this new rug of my choice was gifted to me for product review. The Bood Area Rug has beautiful grays and subtle blues throughout as well as varying pilling sizes which offers a cozy texture to the space.
Here is an after shot of her updated paint color and new rug.
I have yet to be disappointed in a rug that we have from Boutique Rugs. Our living room is host to a beautiful area rug as well as my oldest son’s bedroom showcases another rug from Boutique Rugs. In our last house, I decorated the sun room using the rug that I now use in my son’s bedroom. You can view a picture of it here. I had one more but I am embarrassed to share that I decided it would be a good idea to pressure wash it. I have pressure washed other rugs. Unfortunately this particular rug was a shag rug and pressure washing is a no-no. My lesson has been learned and maybe you too can learn from this cautionary tale!
I love the beautiful grays and subtle blues in the horizontal lines of this rug.
Stay Tuned
If you are in the market for a new area rug, check out Boutique Rugs. The code: HELMSHOUSE will get you 5% off your order. There are still details to finish up in Lilly’s room. She has expressed she wants to try moving her bed to a different wall. Stay tuned for future updates of the completion of updating my daughter’s room and I will share all the design elements we used in this bedroom.
What I Learned from 365 Outfits
Let me share my takeaways with you about what I learned from 365 outfits. 2022 proved to be the year to get out of a rut – clothing wise that is. Ever find yourself wearing the same articles of clothing over and over? I am not sure who to credit but I remember hearing or reading that you utilize only 20% of the items in your closet. I believe that.
1. I learned to evaluate my closet.
When wanting to get out of the rut of wearing the same clothes over and over, I needed to take stock of what I owned. Evaluating each piece of clothing in your closet allows you to determine if you still like the item or if the item still fits. Eliminating unloved or outgrown items gives you an accurate view of what you are working with.
Once you have only items you love and fit in your closet, you are able to shop for any items that might fill in any gaps in your wardrobe.
2. I learned to take a picture of myself in each outfit.
Part of me feels like taking a selfie is prideful or ostentatious; however, the pictures themselves allowed me to see what my body actually looked like in the outfits I picked. I highly recommend getting a full length mirror. You can even purchase a cheap mirror from Target or Walmart – the point is to allow yourself to view your outfit in its entirety.
Some pictures I snapped allowed me to see what outfits were not a good fit for me and I could then get rid of the ill-fitting piece or match it with a better article of clothing.
3. I learned to follow accounts that had similar body styles and/or outfit inspiration.
To create 365 different outfits, I needed to tap into any creativity or inspiration I could find. Thankfully Instagram provides inspiration at your fingertips. Over the course of the year, I found a variety of women I enjoyed following because either their body types matched mine or they gave wonderful outfit ideas. I absolutely fell in love with the fact that I could follow a plethora of body sizes. Not any one body type/size provided all of my outfit inspo! The fun was in the variety 🙂
Here are a few of my favorite accounts to follow (you may find all accounts on Instagram):
@maddy_gutierrez_
@loverlygrey
@stylenright
@the_other_mk
@retailcheapskate
@wandalovessharing
@taryntruly
While I do not see a career in the modeling industry, I am grateful for the 2022 year and the goal of wearing 365 different outfits. I did not achieve absolute perfection on my goal but I learned a lot along the way! If outfit choice is not your ideal topic, you can always check out some of our home projects like this one.
