Aliya
Hi! my name is Aliya and I'm so glad you stopped by today! Truly you have no idea how much it means to me. I live in Ohio with my husband and 3 little girls. I believe that once we start opening our doors, that hearts will start to open around us as well. You can head over to the About Aliya page to get my whole story.
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Simple Cottage Christmas Kitchen Tour | Cozy & Beautiful
I’m excited to share our cottage Christmas kitchen tour with you now that we’ve finished the makeover. The Christmas touches on the vent cover are my favorite. I’m so excited to share today’s post with you! Now that the kitchen is officially finished with all the renovations, seeing it decorated for Christmas feels wonderful. Last year, I think the kitchen looked good, don’t get me wrong. There is just something in knowing that the project is finished. Not to mention my favorite part of the kitchen makeover was the vent cover, and we didn’t finish that until this past Spring/Summer. You can watch me decorate our simple Christmas kitchen on YouTube…
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Simple & Beautiful Budget Cottage Kitchen Makeover | 5 Lessons I Learned
Creating a charming cottage kitchen doesn’t have to be expensive. Today, I’m sharing our simple budget cottage kitchen makeover and DIYs that helped save money. I always feel like when we finish a room makeover, it always ends with a DIY post. The girls’ bedroom makeover and our fireplace makeover are examples that come to mind. Honestly, it makes sense to end a makeover series with a DIY. But in real life, when we finish a space, I don’t walk my friends and family into the room and start blabbing about the DIY that finalized the project. I take them on a mini tour. Sharing the ups and downs, the…
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Cozy Country Cottage Bedroom Ideas That Are Simple and Affordable
Transform your bedroom into a serene escape with these inspiring country cottage bedroom ideas. Explore rustic and cozy designs as we get ready for a makeover. When we bought our first house, we redid everything from the floor to the roof and everything in between. But the biggest mistake we made was waiting to finish our bedroom until we were ready to list our house and sell it. We said when we got to our second house that we weren’t going to do that again. So we moved in and did nothing with the master bedroom until we were ready to list it AGAIN. This time we are not going…
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Healthy & Easy Sourdough Strawberry Shortcake Recipe without Sugar
This easy sourdough strawberry shortcake recipe is delicious, and it also uses sourdough discard, making these fluffy desserts healthier than the alternatives. Growing up, we always had one of two types of “cake” to celebrate birthdays. It was either ice cream cake or strawberry shortcake. We used to buy the ice cream cake from an ice cream shop, and we made strawberry shortcake from Bisquik. While those are delicious options, they don’t offer us some of the healthier ingredients that we like to use for our family. So when I started using sourdough for all of the things I possibly could, strawberry shortcake was high on my list. This easy…
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Easy Ways to Transition Winter to Spring Decor | Living Room
Transitioning from winter to spring decor doesn’t have to be hard, so I decided to share some of the simple and cozy ways I add Spring decor to the living room. I’m so ready for Spring now that it is April. March feels like I’m holding on to what’s left of winters calm and peaceful months of winter. But when April hits, I am ready for Spring to start. Living in Ohio, that means I’ll still be fighting cooler days. But generally, all of April is a gentle slide toward warmer days. You can watch me transition our living room to Spring HERE How to transition from winter to spring…
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Affordable Spring Decorating Ideas for the Dining Room
These affordable spring decorating ideas bring the freshness of spring into the dining room and create an inviting space that celebrates the beauty of spring. How can I make my small dining room look nice? One of the best ways to make a small space look nice is to not clutter it. A small room can be just as beautiful, if not more in some cases, than a large room. But it’s easy to think that the best way to make a small space is to add more. But the opposite is the truth. A single vase of flowers and a candle stick, or a bowl of fruit on the…
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Charming and Simple Spring Kitchen Decor Ideas with Cottage Style
Today, I want to share charming and simple spring kitchen decor ideas inspired by cottage style. Add fresh seasonal touches for a cozy and peaceful atmosphere. The snow has officially melted here in Ohio. Which has me so excited for Spring. I’m ready to get outside and start playing in the gardens again. But I’m also excited to add Spring home decor with fresh seasonal touches that make it feel lighter and brighter. You can watch me add Spring kitchen decor HERE How do I make my kitchen look cottage? There are a few easy DIY projects that you can do to add kitchen style to your kitchen. I actually…
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Budget Friendly Country Cottage Living Room Ideas | Beautiful Simplicity
I’m excited to share some of the budget friendly country cottage living room ideas we added to our living room during our cozy living room makeover. I know it’s been a long time coming. But we finally gave our living room a little makeover. In this post I talked a little bit more about how our living room looked when we first moved in. The Amish family that lived here before us had high gloss primer white paint on everything. You can watch us transform our living room HERE Everything: ceiling, trim work, doors, and walls. The paint was also peeling off of the trim work and doors. So it…
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How to Make Easy Cinnamon Swirl Sourdough Bread with Brown Sugar
Today I wanted to share a delicious from scratch cinnamon swirl sourdough bread recipe for anyone who thinks they aren’t good at baking sourdough. I’ve been playing with this recipe for a while now. I’m so excited to share what I’ve learned about it with you. But before I get into all the details about this recipe, I want to encourage you to not be afraid to experiment with recipes. Especially my recipes. I used to be so afraid of baking and cooking. I was terrible at it. But as I have learned to make it my own and have fun with it, I have learned guidelines are more helpful…
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DIY Mudroom Storage Ideas with Country Charm | Beautiful & Simple
Today I’m excited to share the DIY mudroom storage ideas we incorporated into our mudroom closet makeover to make this space more functional and beautiful. While working on this post I made a pretty big realization about interior design and the choices I make for our home. I’m one to always talk about function. I love pretty things, but I want them to be functional first and foremost. I wouldn’t say that I have changed this mindset completely. But I do believe that by sharing these DIY mudroom ideas I have refined this belief. Sometimes failure teaches us things we wouldn’t learn if we only ever succeeded. This is not…
