This time of year everyone is focused in organizing and decluttering. It’s a new year with a fresh start and we want to make big, lasting changes.

But will the changes really stick?

Not likely.

I’m not here to rain on your organizational parade because I believe organizing and decluttering are incredibly important; however, we will never be able to truly release the clutter and get our house in order if we don’t have the right attitude about our possessions.

We are a society full of stuff and there’s really no getting around the plethora of things available for us to acquire.  For many people, this means buying more containers and dividers and baskets and bookcases in order to house the stuff they own.  More often than not, they have acquired so much there is no way they could ever use everything they own.  Their stuff owns them instead.

As I am beginning to pack up my home for the 10th time in 15 years, I am reminded of something I learned long ago about possessions.

I don’t need them.

That’s why I’ve written a FREE ebook entitled:

Let Go of What You Own
a Biblical approach to decluttering

How can you get a copy of this free ebook for yourself?

Like the Raising Arrows facebook page, click on the Only Likers tab on the left sidebar and grab the download!

I wanted to start the Welcome Home Link Up with this post because I truly believe we must have the right attitude about everything we own before we can create a welcoming home we enjoy caring for.

Won’t you join me on this journey?

Remember, you can get your FREE copy of Let Go of What You Own by liking the Raising Arrows facebook page, and then be sure to join the link up below!  You can grab the link up button in my sidebar.

This post is brought to you by Victorian Rose Soap – we love these soaps and we know you will too! And all this month, you can take 15% off your order using the coupon code: Raisingarrows – Enjoy!

This post is linked to The Better Mom.

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

For several years I have used this 12 week Holiday Planner to plan my time from shortly before Thanksgiving to New Year’s.

I had listened in on a conference call with Marilyn Moll {then of the Urban Homemaker} and two women I had never heard of.  The first was Sheri Graham, who had co-authored the 12 Week Planner, and the other was Ann Voskamp, who’s Jesse Tree devotional at the time was being included as a bonus with the Planner. {yes, there WAS a time when Ann Voskamp wasn’t a household name…at least not in my household!}

I decided this was exactly what I needed to stay on track during the holidays, so I purchased it that night and downloaded and printed it off immediately.  I took their advice and slipped each page into protective covers inside a notebook (Jesse Tree devotional included) and sailed through the holidays despite the impending birth of our 6th child {a large factor in my needing this planner!}

Now, some people can plan their holidays just fine without a planner.  I am not one of those people.  And I’m also not someone who can come up with everything I need this time of year on my own, so I am truly grateful for people like Sheri, who put together materials like this!

Now, you might be wondering why you need a “well-planned” Christmas?  And what does a well-planned Christmas look like.  Well, let’s just say, I got the planner out late this year and it shows!  Without planning, your gift giving is haphazard, your meal planning is over budget, and you feel more stress than peace during a season that ought to be full of peace and thanksgiving.  I am so glad I remembered to get my planner out, even if it was late in the game…better late than never!

So, if you are looking for order this Christmas (and the next and the next), I highly recommend the 12 Week Holiday Planner!  I’m sure there are others out there, but this has worked for me for several years now and I don’t plan on changing.

And if you are looking for peace in the weeks to come (and long after the Christmas decorations are put away), check out my ebook 10 Days to a Peaceful Home.  Only $1.99!

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

It’s Cyber Monday and here I am telling you to get rid of stuff! And not only am I telling you to get rid of stuff, I’m also going to tell you that you probably don’t need to replace all that stuff with more stuff!

You see, come February 1 (that’s not all that far off!), we will be moving…AGAIN. So, my admonition to you to clear the clutter and make wise buying decisions is really an admonition to myself. {and this post at The Better Mom cheered me along!}

So, I am being brutal!  I’m working through my tried and true decluttering methods (someday I’ll let you in on those, but now just isn’t the time!) and really focusing on getting rid of things!  So far, 10 (yes TEN) bags have gone to the thrift store and just about that many have hit the trash!  Even though I’ve done this before (see my Half My Stuff posts), clutter never really is conquered until you learn to not allow it in.  And even then, it still accumulates because we are not able to control what others bring into our homes.  It really is an ongoing process.

This holiday season, you won’t see a lot of posts here at Raising Arrows about the best holiday deals or buying more stuff to add to the stuff you already have.  In fact, what we will be doing is sharing our family traditions and the things we do during the holidays that have become near and dear to us.  We celebrate Christ and the family of God this season…not stuff.

So, buy less, declutter more and join us for a Raising Arrows Christmas!

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Have a tip you’d like to have featured? Email it to me!

Today’s Large Family Organization tip comes from Erin, mom of soon-to-be 5 and Stacey, mom of 7.  Erin blogs at Filling Quiver.

The reason I combined both these tips is because they were so similar, I thought they nicely complemented each other.

First, Erin:

I have all boys and one thing that helps streamline our laundry time is to buy all the same brand of socks (same color, same markings etc) but in the respective sizes for the kids.

Sock matching time then is just matching sizes (although sometimes daddy gets a little boy sock in with his mix). It makes it much easier for little hands to help match socks. They can lay one on top of the other and see if they “fit” together. My 2 year old helps match socks and loves that he can be helpful!

and Stacey:

I buy 6 bags of  unisex white socks for all the children to share and I put them in a plastic bin near their shoes near the door.

No time matching they just go from the washer into the bin.

Every six months or so I throw all of the old ones away and buy six more bags that way they always match and there is never an old sox with a new one.

I have 4 pairs of black dress socks the same kind that I put in a box with their church shoes that we get down on Sunday.

**********

Now, it’s your turn!  Your link doesn’t have to be about socks!  And you don’t even need to have a large family!

{RSS & Email Subscribers, click here to join the link up and see the entries!}

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I am a note-taker.  Always have been.  Always will be.  It’s the only way I can remember anything. (By the way, have you seen OneNote?  It has taken my note-taking to a whole new level!)

A short time ago, I found an old notebook that I used to make notes from audios I had listened to or from homeschooling and homemaking ideas I had as I read books or listened to conference speakers.  The notebook was old and falling apart, so I pulled out the notes and decided I would start looking through them and see if there was anything worth adding to OneNote or blogging about.

One page caught my eye because at the top was written my oldest daughter’s name with a curriculum we never used scrawled next to it.  As I looked down the rest of the page, I realized it was followed by all sorts of notes to myself…

goals I wanted to accomplish…

five years ago.

It was a fascinating blast from the past as I realized some of these goals have become second nature and some of these goals never happened…yet.

So, today I share with you my goals from the past and commentary on those goals because it is just as good to look back and see where you have been as it is to look forward and see where you are going.

1.  No phone calls in the morning – make calls at rest time. I don’t heed this, but truth be told, as I have aged and had more children and my circle of friends have aged and had more children, the phone calls are fewer and further in between.  We are all simply too busy to sit on the phone all morning long and chat.  The occasional days I do take a phone call in the morning don’t end up being a big deal in the overall scheme of things.

2.  Breakfast:  Winter = hot, Summer = cold – Hmmmm….Breakfast has always been a difficult thing for me.  I did not get this one down and I’m not sure I want to.  I did however recently decide to add Green Smoothies {thanks Erica for making it super simple!} to our list of breakfasts.

3.  Write out a few simple goals for each day the night before. Most of the time I do this, if not the night before, then the day of.  I even wrote a post about making simple goals when I have morning sickness.  In fact, I was thrilled to see Sarah Mae talk about this in her ebook 31 Days to Clean.  It really does help to have something to shoot for and something to cross off throughout your day.  Now if I could just remember to make this same kind of list every time I sit down at the computer…can you say rabbit trail?!

4.  Start trying to cook bigger batches and freeze the leftovers. This one made me laugh since bigger batches 5 years ago would have looked like our normal batches now.  This is a goal I would like to work toward and do occasionally accomplish, but not consistently.

5.  Schedule a little bit of housework every day. Let me take you back…I had just had #4.  Remember, my Crossover Baby?  Prior to his birth, I was doing FLYlady with success, but then I hit the wall and could no longer accomplish a full day of cleaning and one day of laundry and manage to keep the house clean for more than a few minutes at a time.  This goal must have been made shortly after finding out about Large Family Logistics (when it was only a website and not a book).  I didn’t end up adopting Kim’s exact days, but I did take her concept of bite-sized pieces and ran with it.  You can see our Weekly Chore List here.

6.  Be in bed by 11 pm and up by 7 am. This has translated to an hour later on both ends.  And for me, that is actually a very good and doable goal.  And yes, you may all now gasp at how late we get up around here.

7.  Have a routine, but not a highly scheduled one. Way to go, Amy!  You’re learning, girl!  And guess what…you end up writing an entire series on this and making it into a homeschool conference session!

8.  Start school with a book. I do start school with a book…the Bible!

9.  Read outside when possible, learn outside when possible! I do this, but not enough in my opinion.  This time of year is absolutely beautiful for learning outside, so note to self…GO OUTSIDE!

10.  Plastic dishes for breakfast and lunch. I actually did do this for a time, but the reason it didn’t stick is because I really do not like plastic dishes.  I use plastic only for my youngest 2, but everyone else uses regular ole plates.  Now, my reasoning behind this was so that my then 5 year old could help with table chores (a newly instituted event back then).  Instead of using plastic, I now have all the plates, glasses (yes, REAL glasses too) and silverware in a cupboard next to the refrigerator where the younger children can easily access them and help out with my supervision.  Typically, it is the 7 and 10 year olds who set the table and put away dishes from the dishwashwer, but back then I didn’t have anyone over 8, so plastic made sense.

11.  Easy lunch, bigger dinner. Five years ago my husband worked from home.  Although I do not remember the circumstances behind this goal, I imagine I was trying to have big meals all the time and was burned out.  This is a goal I hold to even today.  Our lunches are fairly simple most days and our dinners are typically the largest meal of the day because Daddy is home at that time.  Recently we pulled out of the Feast or Famine cycle (thanks Sherry for opening my eyes to this!) and when I made my last Once a Month Shopping meal list, I made sure we had both Feast Meals and Famine Meals intermixed throughout the month, rather than all the Feasts at the beginning and all the Famines at the end.

12.  Take a short walk each day with the kids before lunch and then come home for lunch. I don’t do this, but it sure does sound like a nice idea!

Well, that was fun!  Thanks for sharing in my blast from the past.

How have your goals changed over the years?  I’d love to hear about it!

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I have a love/hate relationship with children’s books.

I love books.

I hate books that are on their last leg with torn pages, marked up illustrations (courtesy of the current toddler) and broken spines.

But, it is so hard to pitch books.  Especially books with memories attached.  And we all know how easily we {and our children} attach memories to their books.

Well, I ran across a great idea over at The Homeschool Chick the other day and had to try it!

Storybook Placemats!

So, while I had my handy-dandy contact paper out from the assignment card project, I decided to make these!

It was not hard to choose which book needed to be upcycled.

{Look at that price! We might just have to get another one!}

Bear’s Curiosity Book has been with us a long time.  When my oldest son was a tiny little guy, he would pour over that book and pretend he lived within the book’s pages.  Every child after him has done likewise.

And the book had begun to show it’s age.

It was coming apart at the binding.  Pages were torn.  Purposeful toddler hands armed with permanent marker had decorated it’s cover.  It was a sad, sad book, yet we loved it.

When the children were busy in another room, I quickly went to work.  {Yes, dismemberment of favorite books is sometimes best left for a mother to do alone}

This is a large book, so it took a lot of contact paper to do 5 placemats (poor Garin didn’t get one because this was all I could salvage from the book).  The best way to do this is to

1.  Cut a piece of contact paper for both the front and the back.

2.  Peel off the back of one of the pieces of contact paper and lay the pages you want to preserve FACE DOWN. If you are not very, super, extra careful with contact paper, you will end up with bubbles and ridges, so laying the front side out first keeps you from having any of these issues with the side that matters most.  Also, don’t forget to place the books pages in the correct order.  The one in the picture is NOT in the correct order.  The kids noticed right away, but thankfully, it is a section that doesn’t require you to read from left to right and they quickly forgave my faux pas.

3.  Peel backing off the second layer of contact paper and be VERY, EXTRA, SUPER CAREFUL to lay it just right on the back side of the pages. Start in the middle if you can and work your way out, gently pressing out bubbles as you go.  And word of caution, contact paper has static cling, so if you get anywhere near the other piece of contact paper, they will suck together!  There is a little window of opportunity where you can unstick and restick, but not much, so be very, extra, super…well, you get the idea!

4.  Trim edges and enjoy!

It warmed my heart to watch my children sitting at the dining room table tracing the pages of the book, talking about their memories, and laughing over new memories.

All this has me wondering how many placemats a family might need…..

Pin It

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I mentioned in a previous post that my children share bedrooms.  Boys in one bedroom.  Girls in one bedroom.

Some of you asked to hear more about the children’s bedrooms, so here goes…

Let me start by saying WE RENT.

That means rarely are we in charge of the color scheme, rarely can we do much about where walls and doors are, and logistically, we have to “make do” with our circumstances.  So, our bedroom situations are not ideal, but they work.

I like uniformity.

I am going to be totally honest here:  the matching bedspreads on the girls’ beds are for MY benefit…not theirs.  While it helps my brain to see uniformity within a bedroom, I realize I should not expect this in every aspect of their rooms.  These bedspreads are starting to show their age, but until we decide new bedspreads are a priority {or this UK children’s bedding company makes their United States debut–love their Scripture bedding!}, we’re sticking with the matching bedspreads and allowing them put their own special animals and pillows on the beds to make it theirs.  And yes, I do allow several stuffed animals and several pillows to be on their beds.  I could fight this battle, but it’s not a worthy cause to me.  Which brings me to my next thought…

They need individuality.

The same things I took into account when I was decorating my master bedroom are the same things I try to take into account when decorating a child’s bedroom.  I am not of the mind that bedrooms are simply a place to sleep.  Often this is the only room where a child has any say-so in what the room looks like.  Let them practice here for the homemaking skills they will need later on.

The girls’ room has butterflies and horses and aqua blue and…

Legos

While Lego has fallen out of favor in our household (too “dark” for my taste–we much prefer the ones from Vision Forum), there are still a few that meet our criteria (Hero Factory being one of them…unless they change their storyline).  And yes, my oldest daughter in particular, really likes them.  So on her bulletin board, underneath her butterflies is a picture she printed off.

My favorite?  No.

Reasonable?  Yes.

God didn’t give me little copies of myself to raise…one of the most humbling aspects of parenting.

Right now, the girls’ room has

• petite bunk beds (made in England and given to us by some friends)

• an expensive-for-WalMart-but-not-high-quality dresser (2 of the drawers hold keepsakes for each girl, the other 3 drawers hold clothes)

• a stacker with magazines and crafting supplies

• a basket for Megan’s books and a basket for Melia’s dolls

• a changing table and diaper pail (because there’s a place for it there)

In the closet is

• a coat rack for purses and hats

• Megan’s lock box

• clothes that need to hang

• shoes

• their laundry basket

• breakable toys (i.e. porcelain dolls, tea sets)

The biggest issue with their room is the paper stash that grows daily.  There is a tub under the bed for papers, but it overflows all over the room, into drawers, and onto doors and walls.  Until recently, the only solution I could think of was to periodically go through it all, either by myself…pitching at will, or with the girls…exerting much energy along the way.  I finally came up with what I hope will solve the paper issue.

My oldest daughter (who is my “paper” child) now has 2 notebooks.  One for

Things I Like

and one for

Homemaking

Those are the two main reasons she keeps bits of paper and magazines and whatever other papers lurk in the corners of her room.  She keeps an entire magazine because of one article on 10 Reasons Why We Homeschool (from The Old Schoolhouse®).  Or she keeps a catalog because it has one of her favorite books with a summary she likes.  Having these 2 notebooks has really helped lessen the amount of paper around the room and has given her a place to keep all those tidbits of information she wants to hold on to for the future.

Now, for the boys…

When we moved to this house, there was one room decorated in red, white, & blue. We decided to put the boys in there, even though it was the smallest bedroom.

Our 13 year old has a twin bed, our 5 year old has a toddler bed, and our 2 year old has a toddler mattress that slips underneath his older brother’s bed during the day (the little boys have nicknamed it “the peekaboo bed”)

Also in the room you will find

• safari decor my oldest son bought (with his own money) at a garage sale (that’s right…DOES NOT go with the Americana theme…but it’s ok…no, really, it is)

• a plastic 3-drawer “nightstand” we hope to replace someday

• their laundry basket

• a gun rack used to hold their hats and backpacks

In the closet is

• the same dresser the girls have

• 13 year old son’s hanging clothes to the left of the dresser, 5 year old’s hanging clothes to the right (little boys’ clothes are in my closet)

• telescope, microscope, Scout stuff, etc

My boys are much tidier than my girls.  The worst they manage to clutter their room with are their cowboy outfits and stuff the girls bring in!

Now, perhaps you are wondering about Boy #4…Mr. Garin.

Well, he’s in my closet.

Yikes!  Did I just say that?  Yep, I did.

My closet is big.

Big enough to hold my clothes, Garin’s clothes, Micah’s hang-up clothes, AND a porta-crib (because you gave me permission to use it!)

Garin just isn’t old enough to be in a main bedroom without the others in the room causing him to wake up several times in the night.  That is the very reason why we moved him from our room to the closet.  The door of the closet is kept ajar and we all get a good night’s sleep. {Garin wakes up between 6-7 am}

Eventually, we may have to put some of the children downstairs, but for now with the amount of children we have and the ages they are, this works well.

So, how do you have your children’s bedrooms set up?  If you have a post on children’s bedrooms you’d like to share, link up below!

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You’ve been listening to me ramble on about my bedroom, now it’s your turn!  Have you visited the other blogs participating in the Spring Spruce Up?  Have you been inspired?  Have you tackled a project of your own?

Let’s see it!

Write a blog post, then click below to enter in your project so we can all ooh and aah over it!  Your post will be visible on all the Spring Spruce Up blogs, so all our readers will be able to share their projects!

I can’t wait to see what you’ve accomplished!

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My bedroom isn’t perfect.  There is still a lot to do since the move.  And I’m not sure I would have chosen that deep burnt umber color for the walls if it were my own home, but I still want to give you some ideas on how you can take your bedroom, no matter how “difficult” of a space it is, and create a haven away from the rest of the world.

So, this post is where you take all that brainstorming we did and translate it into your real world.  I’m going to offer you some very simple, “real world” tips because I’m guessing funds and time are not unlimited and if you truly are going to create a haven, you have to be able to do it right away before you either forget about it or life crams back into your space.

Here is my #1 rule to creating a haven…

MAKE YOUR BED!

Yikes!  Did I just sound like your mother???  Yes, I did!  If you do nothing else EVER to your bedroom, do the bedroom a favor and make the bed.  Take a look at what that one thing can do for a room:

BEFORE

AFTER

Everything in the room was out of order.  Kids had hauled blankets in during the early morning hours.  I hadn’t tidied up a thing.  But, the bed is the focal point of the room.  That is where your eyes go to.  Simply making that one place neat and tidy, you change the entire feel of the room.

Now, that brings me to the point of bedding.  Coming from someone who knows what it is like to have a hodge-podge of mismatched bedding versus a well-outfitted matching bedding set, I can honestly say there is a huge difference.  Having a set that matches makes you WANT to make your bed. But bedding can get expensive.  The new set in our bedroom was a birthday present from my mom.  A birthday present I asked for.  Remember, I’m practical when it comes to gifts.

So, don’t be afraid to ask for something like that as a gift.  Or scour thrift stores for things that match.  It might take a while, but it is well worth it.  And even just make it known throughout your network of friends that you are looking for a matching bedding set for whatever size your bed is.  You might be surprised how many people have extra bedding just lying about their home taking up space.

Another great thing to have in your bedroom is some sort of soft lighting.  There is something very beautiful and inviting about having soft light on in the evening hours as you retire to your bedroom.  It blurs the ugly and warms up the less-than-perfect.  You can do this with a simple lamp and a soft light bulb or use Christmas lights or rope lights in certain areas of the room.

Now, back to our brainstorming session…

Who are you?

Who is your husband?

Who are you together?

In our bedroom are mementos of our wedding day.  Our wedding invitation, framed with dried flowers and ribbon, our wedding picture, my bouquet.  All treasures and celebrations of our marriage.  These sorts of things make good decorations about the marriage bed.

Now take into account how you can use the things that make you smile in your space. I really like baskets, so we have baskets that hold everything from loose change to phone chargers.

Perhaps your husband is a sports fan.  That doesn’t mean you have to have NFL themed bedding and sports team pennants all over the walls.  You’ve probably noticed how popular the Fleur de lis has gotten in decorating.  Obviously, if he is a Saints fan, you can easily find a classy way to translate this to your bedroom space.  Hobby Lobby sells a lot of fleur de lis decor or you can create your own knock off…

This decoration from Overstock.com retails for $65.  However, you can do something similar with tiles from the hardware store or ceramic trivets salvaged from the junk shop.  Spray paint the background and freehand the shapes on in white paint.

Now, the Saints is an easy one to figure out, but what about oh say, the Green Bay Packers.  Pretty sure no one here wants huge pieces of Styrofoam cheese in their bedroom!  In this case, use his favorite sports team’s colors as accents.

Think outside the box on this one.  I imagine your husband will be touched by any gesture on your part to include his passions in the room.  For years I had dead animals hanging over my head.  You get used to it.

Maybe there are things you both enjoy. Perhaps you and your husband are coffee lovers.  Think coffee shop when you decorate.  Warm colors, scrap metal spray painted black and hung in funky arrangements, candle holders made from coffee beans and clear glasses like these.  Mugs painted to match and hung on the wall with teacup hooks and used to hold jewelry, loose change, and odds and ends.

Ty and I both enjoy traveling and especially our annual vacation to the mountains.  The photos above our bed are from our vacations.

They remind us of places that are very dear to us and also very relaxing as well.

But, what if it seems like the things you enjoy are polar opposites?  Tie them together with color or materials. Perhaps he loves old cars and you love music.  Take his love of cars and hit the salvage yard looking for pieces you can mount on your walls as decorations or hooks or shelves.  Make “chrome” an accent color or add splashes of color here and there to “warm up” the chrome.  Then take your love of music and tear your favorite hymn from a hymnal, brush on tea to age the page, add hints of silver with ribbon or a matte or the frame itself to tie it in with the chrome.  Use an old instrument case as a jewelry box.  Or better yet, take some trim pieces you found at the salvage yard and create a staff by screwing those pieces to the wall and then find a way to shape belts into musical notes and key signatures.

OK, I’m getting carried away now!  But you get the idea…think outside the box.  WAY outside the box!

If you have curtains, but they aren’t the right color, consider dying them.  We have carted dozens of different curtains along with us on our moves simply because curtains are an easy thing to repurpose and reuse, even if it requires a bit of tweaking or hemming.  If you sew at all, curtains are an easy project from sheets or clearance fabric.

The possibilities are endless!  Really, all you need is a fresh perspective and a creative eye.  If you don’t feel like you have these things, call a friend over to evaluate or brainstorm with you.  Hey, maybe she’ll even let you dig around in her junk piles (those are the best kind of friends, aren’t they?!)

I could literally go on and on and on and I am by no means a decorator-type person, but I do enjoy creative thinking and I am passionate about having a beautiful place in your home that makes you smile and soothes the frazzled nerves of the day.

Ultimately, your bedroom is a place of REST.  It should be RESTFUL.  What is one thing you can do today to accomplish that? Let me know of any ideas you have or other thoughts on the matter!

And don’t forget TOMORROW is the day for the link up! The link up will appear on ALL the blogs below:

Sprucing Up the Laundry Room | Mama’s Laundry Talk
Sprucing Up the School Room | Homegrown Mom
Sprucing Up the Craft Room | Many Little Blessings
Sprucing Up the Bathroom | Feels Like Home
Sprucing Up the Playroom | …Life’s About a Dream
Sprucing Up the Garage/Storage Space | A Slob Comes Clean
Sprucing Up the Master Bedroom | Raising Arrows (that’s me!)
Sprucing Up Your Homeschool | Jimmie’s Collage
Sprucing Up the Kitchen | So Happy Together
Sprucing Up the Garden | An Oregon Cottage
Sprucing Up the Backyard | Successful Homeschooling

That way everyone gets to share in what we are doing to spruce up our spaces!  I can’t wait to visit all of you and see what you are up!

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Welcome back the the Spring Spruce Up!  Today, we are going to brainstorm!  However, this isn’t a sit down and brainstorm kind of session.  This is going to require you to visit other areas of your home and possibly other areas of your world!

Ready?

Here we go!

1.) Go in your bedroom and stand at the door.  Answer these questions:

-What is the first thing your eye is attracted to in this room?

-What is your favorite thing about this room?

-What is your least favorite thing about this room?

-What do you think of when you walk in the room?

-Does this room reflect you and/or your husband in any way?

2.) Go to your favorite room in the house.  Answer these questions:

-What is the first thing your eye is attracted to in this room?

-What is your favorite thing about this room?

-How does this room make you feel and what is it about this room that makes you feel that way?

-Is there anything in this room that reflects you and/or your husband?

3.) Take a break, grab a paper and pen and do a quick bit of brainstorming based on these questions (and any others that come to mind):

-Your favorite color?

-Your husband’s favorite color?

-Things that make you and/or your husband feel relaxed?  Seashore?  Trees?  Waterfalls?  Butterflies?  Sunflowers?  etc…

-If money was unlimited, what would your bedroom look like? (and please don’t tell me you wouldn’t dare spend a dime on your bedroom because you’d rather spend the money on homeschool curriculum!  If you have to, think of this as decorating the parent/teacher conference room. )

4.) “Shop” your house.

Take your list and your head full of ideas, and walk around your home looking for things that fit your vision of a beautiful bedroom space.

The fact that we moved recently helped out tremendously in this area because nothing had a set place and I had a chance to pull out decor I had stashed away because it didn’t quite fit our last home. Therefore, I had a wide array of things to choose from.

5.) Shop your world.

Look online at decorating blogs and websites.  Thumb through catalogs, looking at the decor the designers have matched up.  Head out to thrift stores, garage sales, flea markets, etc.  But, STAY FOCUSED.  You are creating a space that is cohesive and calming, not a junk shop with a bed in it.

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Here’s how my brainstorming went and a few notes to go along with it…

We rent, so the room color was already chosen for us, but paint is relatively cheap for those of you who think a different color would make your bedroom a more beautiful space.  However, I know how hard it is to paint with little ones in tow, so how about choosing a color scheme?  Once I built our entire decor (in our entire house!) around our wedding colors–burgundy and forest green (can you say 90′s?).  I’ve branched out a bit since then, but my bouquet is still a part of our bedroom decor.

Maybe you should go with a theme. Perhaps you like sunflowers and your husband’s favorite color is green.  Take those two and mesh them together.  Try not to be obnoxious about it, though.  Overdoing a theme will not create a relaxing space.  I’ve tried to keep a Teddy Roosevelt-ish theme to our new home.  Roosevelt was an avid hunter as is my husband.  He was passionate about conservation, as is our family.  He had a passel of kids, as do we.  When I think of Roosevelt, I think of earth tones and natural decor.  I think of an incurable curiosity and a life filled to the brim with living.  This translates to our bedroom in the bedding and the buffalo robe, the open windows and the foliage I have chosen to decorate with.

Consider textiles and building materials that appeal to your senses. Do you like wood or wrought iron?  Smooth or textured?  We are wood people.  Natural, unpainted, unadulterated wood.  In fact, my ideal bedroom would be in a tree house–think Swiss Family Robinson!

What season do you like most?  Maybe it’s spring with it’s eyelet and pastels, or winter with it’s icy blues and glistening silvers.  Ty and I are both fans of autumn with its rich earthiness…again, Roosevelt-ish.

You might take note of the fact that my husband is very much a part of the decor.  In fact, the centerpiece of our bedroom is a buffalo robe on the bed.

Gals, your husband needs to like this room too!  Do not, do not make this room all frills and lace and ignore the fact that your MAN has to sleep there too!

That brings me to the most important part of this brainstorming session:

Who are you?

Who is your husband?

Remember, I said our master bedroom is our world, refined and honed?  If you stepped into our bedroom, you would see both Ty and Amy.  You would not see a separation of us, as in, this is Amy’s side of the room and this Ty’s side of the room.  You would see a mix, a melding, of two lives that are now one.

You would see a corner dedicated to the greatest heartache we have ever had to endure as a married couple.

You would see a lamp in the fashion of a water pump, reminding Ty of his grandfather who dug water wells for a living.

You would see books that speak to my heart and baskets that make me smile.

It is all there…our past, our present, and our future.  Together.

So, tell me, who you and your husband are.  How have those two lives been melded together?  How can you translate this into your bedroom?  I’d love to get to know you better, so leave a comment…tell me how you can take this post and make it yours.  And if you have a blog, consider writing about your ideas.  Remember, there will be a link up on Thursday for you to share what you’ve been doing to spruce up your spaces (and it doesn’t have to be your bedroom!)  In fact, here are the links to the other blogs participating in the Spring Spruce Up, so head on over and see what they are up to!

Sprucing Up the Laundry Room | Mama’s Laundry Talk
Sprucing Up the School Room | Homegrown Mom
Sprucing Up the Craft Room | Many Little Blessings
Sprucing Up the Bathroom | Feels Like Home
Sprucing Up the Playroom | …Life’s About a Dream
Sprucing Up the Garage/Storage Space | A Slob Comes Clean
Sprucing Up the Master Bedroom | Raising Arrows (that’s me!)
Sprucing Up Your Homeschool | Jimmie’s Collage
Sprucing Up the Kitchen | So Happy Together
Sprucing Up the Garden | An Oregon Cottage
Sprucing Up the Backyard | Successful Homeschooling

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…and if you need a break from all this sprucing up, check out my post at The Homeschool Classroom on homeschooling gifted children!  I promise you CAN do it and do it well!

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!