We’re officially moved in!

If you’ve been following along on Instagram recently, you probably already know that we’re officially all moved into A Hosting Home! We made the move the day before Thanksgiving, and, while it was crazy, we couldn’t have been more excited to spend the Thanksgiving holiday in our new home. (Even if it was filled with boxes and we couldn’t find anything!) I can’t help but share with you a photo of our Thanksgiving tablescape. By looking at our dining room, you’d never know we moved in just the day before! Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the rest of the house – HA!

P.S. How darling is that centerpiece from Flaura Botanica?!

Also, don’t mind me that I put the forks on the right rather than the left, y’all… That’s how my momma always set our table, so I do it that way at home too!

But First, Christmas Home Decor

I can say that unpacking is now officially in full swing in hopes to be settled before family starts arriving for the holidays. But, of course, I couldn’t help but put up the start of my Christmas decor first. Not surprisingly, I have received so many comments (from social media, friends, and my neighbors!) about how I put up my Christmas decor before anything else. Last year when we moved into our rental right before Thanksgiving, I got the exact same reaction.

The way I look at it is this. This is my absolute favorite part of year. Actually, I look forward to this time of year throughout the rest of the year. I just love it, and it makes me so happy. Why not make losing at the game of Tetris that is moving less stressful with some holiday cheer? From all the times we’ve moved over the years, I’ve actually found that starting on my kitchen and living room first and creating a ‘normal’ space to retreat and relax at the end of the day without the clutter of boxes helps make unpacking a less overwhelming task. (Especially for someone who is OCD and has anxiety, like me!)

Finding My Own Style

Back when Rob and I were in college, I decorated my apartment completely as a red and white peppermint-esque wonderland, and he strung his bachelor rental house in colored light strands. I got my Christmas decor passed down or bought from my parents and my grandparents, and I was just so excited to finally decorate a place of my own. Now as a full-blown adults, these past two years have been a process of discovering our own style for our home. Slowly, but surely, we’ve been making our dream space a reality.

Y’all, I couldn’t be more excited to share with you how I’ll be decorating my home for the holidays this year. Not only because we are in our gorgeous new home. But, I have also done a complete 180 in terms of color and style since our college days. As weird as it may sound, I feel like I’ve finally found my own style over this past year – one that I’m sure won’t surprise some of you at all. While I still don’t quite know how to describe it, all I know is that it combines my love for all things cottage style, farmhouse, and rustic charm. The beauty of it all is that it doesn’t have to fit in one category when it’s made your own.

For the Love of Neutrals…

I don’t know exactly when it happened, I fell in love with neutrals a couple years ago. (And, y’all, I fell in love HARD.) It was almost as if I grew up a little bit. I have always loved to decorate and re-decorate. But, I would soon become bored with color schemes as I saw the next trendy thing on Pinterest.

When I fell in love with neutrals, I almost feel like I became more rational. I fell in love with the idea of styling a space based on neutrals and building in colors (if I wanted!) from there. I soon found that, not only is it easier to swap out a few accessories than major furniture pieces, but it’s also a lot easier on the wallet. And I must admit, I really still love the red and white christmas style. I do hope to one day start incorporating it more subtly back in like I did with our red beaded chargers. (Maybe less peppermint and candy wonderland this time around!)

The Change

Last year for Rob and I’s first Christmas as a married couple, I decided to dip my toes into the neutral Christmas decor pool. My mom gave me her old brown metallic and glitter ornaments, and we decorated our living room tree with those while keeping our smaller tree sporting the peppermint vibe in my office. Y’all, I was hooked. This year I went all out while raiding Hobby Lobby and Walmart of their neutral, white, and snowy winter wonderland ornaments, picks, and everything else while I started to find my own style. I combined them with the glitter brown ornaments from my mom’s collection to create a little bit of contrast. I even debated on DIY flocking my tree. But then, I decided against it out of fear for messing up and ruining my tree. Has anyone done it? I need a good tutorial. (Maybe next year!)

Holiday Home Tour of Our Christmas Home Decor

All-in-all, I’ve gotten off to a great start this year decorating our new home. (Especially for not being able to find anything in my sea of boxes!) I can’t wait to fine tune my style over this Christmas season for next year. More decor and tablescapes will be shared with y’all as the season goes on and I start to find things again. Simple – for now!