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The Best of 2020|Open Doors Open Hearts
2020 has been full of so many trials. But I think if we take a closer look we can find beauty and successes that were birthed from 2020. Today I wanted to say thank you for the success we’ve experienced. You, yes YOU, are a huge part of our successes at Open Doors Open Hearts. I’m so excited to share this post with you all. It feels surreal to think that I’ve been blogging for nearly 1 year! Just a little over 1 month until I reach the 1-year anniversary! So, I thought it would be fun to wrap the year up with a best of 2020 post. This was…
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How to Build A Simple & Easy DIY 3-Tiered Rack
The coffee/hot cocoa bar I put together with my girls has been a big hit. Nearly daily they walk over to it and grab toppings off the 3-tiered rack and ask for some hot cocoa. Since it’s been so fun for my family, I thought I’d share how I built this 3-tiered rack in case you wanted to set up a hot cocoa bar for your family too. Inspiration for the 3 Tiered Rack When I was preparing this pie safe to become a coffee/hot cocoa bar I cleared everything (except the baskets) off the pie safe and started working with a blank slate. I began adding the different elements…
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The 5 Best Children’s Books That Our Children Love
I want to share some of the best children’s books to help give you ideas for Christmas gifts this year. By reading we can expand our knowledge, go on adventures, and experience things we otherwise may never experience, so why not gift it? In our family, books are a big deal. My husband and I usually use the audible version of books, since we are in the cars driving around so much. But our girls are more into flipping the pages and see all the pretty pictures. When we moved back home 3 years ago, I started taking my oldest to the local library’s Storytime every week. This became a…
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Original and Meaningful Family Tradition: Passing On A Legacy of Love
Every year, in preparation for Thanksgiving Day, my family holds “Baking Day”. This began a few years ago and has become very important to our family. This is one of our most meaningful family traditions and is nearly prized as much as Thanksgiving Day itself. Thanksgiving Day has changed over the years. Especially now that we kids grew up and started families of our own. I remember Thanksgiving Days with over 40 people in my parents’ house. I remember Thanksgivings where I spent half the day with Mom and the other half with Dad. Now my husband and I alternate Thanksgiving between his family and my family every other year.…
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A Simple & Beautiful Thanksgiving Table to Inspire Conversation
Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays around here. We gather with our friends & family and enjoy delicious food while we engage in fun conversation. So I created a Thanksgiving table that inspires more of this. We have been honored to host Thanksgiving at our house a couple times since we moved back home. We love every minute of having family over for the day. Although, I’m not sure my family enjoyed being at my house for Thanksgiving! Two years ago, I made them all drop their phone in a basket as they entered the house, and then I took the basket away and we literally spent the entire…
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A World Where There are Octobers: An Ohio October Picnic
Winter is quickly approaching, so I’ve been doing my best to prioritize outdoor time with the family. One of the easiest ways I can ensure we do that is by eating dinner outside. I put together a fun October Picnic with all the Fall necessities, hoping and praying that it’s not our last picnic before the snow! I can’t get enough outside activities in the Fall. This year we’ve been less busy with Fall festivities than usual, BUT to make up for it, we have been eating dinner outside quite a bit. Today I want to share a fun outdoor picnic I put together for the “A World Where There…
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A Simple & Romantic Fall Picnic that Reflects the Season
Having quality one-on-one time is something my husband and I have struggled with since having children. But recently, the girls had a slumber party at gramma and paps house. I knew I wanted to do something special for Justin to remind him amid the busy schedules and honey-do-lists, he is still my number one. Summer picnics are a ton of fun, but I prefer a picnic when its cooler. The truth is I prefer cooler days to HOT days all the time. When Summer begins to turn to Fall I throw parties! Fall is such a beautiful time to be sitting outside taking in all that nature has to offer.…
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Time Management: My 6 Favorite Tips and Tricks
I wanted to share some time management tips that have been the biggest help to me managing my schedule instead of my schedule managing me. Time management is such a tricky thing, isn’t it? We want to fit all the things into each day, but we never have enough time. In an effort to offer some encouragement, I thought I’d share my favorite tips to reach goals yet keep your sanity. I’ve learned if I squeeze nothing but productivity out of my days I become drained and exhausted. But, if I let my schedule run wild I look back and realize I didn’t get anything done. Whether you battle with…
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The Four Elements That Make Our Home “Just Right”
With all of the home improvement projects and decorating I’ve been doing over here, I’ve discovered a trap I don’t want to fall prey to. It’s this belief that by doing all the things and making my house look a certain way I’ll eventually “arrive”. The house will be perfect and all I’ll have to do is sit back and enjoy it. Well, the thing is, that couldn’t be further from the truth. After a precious, out-of-nowhere conversation with my oldest daughter, I learned the four essential elements that make our home “just right” right now, in all its apparent imperfections. To help visualize this I decided I would share…
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Create an Inviting Dining Room: Mixing Vintage and New
Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below, but these are products I recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used. During the dining room makeover, we tried to analyze all the ways we use this space to ensure everyone felt like they belonged in this room. Life happens in our dining room and we wanted everyone to feel invited here. I’m so excited to finally be sharing the whole dining room with you! It’s officially the first room we’ve refinished and I couldn’t be happier about it. It’s one of my favorite rooms in our home. From a design perspective, it’s my favorite…
