Simply Ciani

Was so grateful to custom design this personalized pillow collection with Porter Lane Home ✨ Click the link to shop: https://bit.ly/44wjphb

Is there such thing as a pillow addict?! I mean how can you resist when they're all so lovely!? Thank you, Jennifer (Simply Ciani ) for sharing your favorite PLH pillows! 🤍🤍

My absolute favorite time of the day ✨

This print from Collection Prints was the perfect addition for winter to display on our Frame TV

Such a fresh, classic design. Loving this look by Jennifer | DIY & Home] 😍

Artwork: Snowfall on the Farm

Featured by: Jennifer | DIY & Home]

Click the link in our bio to shop our selection of digital downloads, paper prints, frames, framed art, canvas, and long landscape!

For a girl who grew up in southern California on the beach, there is nothing quite like a house covered in fresh snow… 🤍

Guest Room Update • We’ve done some switching around over here, and the bed that was currently in here is now in our oldest daughter’s room. Truth is, I always have had a vision of a huge upholstered headboard for this room, so when this Serena & Lily look-a-like popped up on FB Marketplace for $80 I jumped on it! It is nearly 6 feet tall and in perfect condition, I couldn’t believe it. 👏🏻

Little by little we have pulled this room together. The pillows were ones I have been dreaming of for a long time but way out of budget at regular pricing. Amen to being patient and waiting for the good sales to come through!

is currently having a sale right now for 15% off of SALE ITEMS and is one of my favorite times to shop with them to get some amazing deals ✨ Especially on pillows 👏🏻

Just because what you see in someone else’s home may feel out of reach (for a one weekend makeover) doesn’t mean that you can’t make your home also look designer on a budget. Wait for sales, even if it takes months. Search resale pages and groups. It won’t happen overnight but it’s worth the wait to be intentional about the pieces you invest in for your home and create a space you will love 🤍

Wishing you all had a very blessed Christmas ✨ Wether it was spent with family, friends that have become family, listening to tiny screams on Christmas morning or cuddling with someone you love. Whatever Christmas looked like this year, I hope you were surrounded by peace, happiness and love. 🤍 And if your heart happens to be hurting or grieving, know that it’s okay to not be okay, and that you aren’t alone even when you feel like you are. 🤍

The Faux Fireplace Reveal • I spent years wishing and dreaming about decorating my first home for Christmas.

We have lived in many houses through the past 10 years. Military base housing & rentals, all in 3 different states, but none of them were our own.

This one, we built from the ground up. This one is OURS. And this fireplace (well faux fireplace) we built with our own hands. 🤍

• We started with a frame built out of 2x4’s which we then covered in vertical shiplap boards.

• The mantle you see wasn’t our original plan, but after spending 4 days trying to figure out angles, countless arguments and throwing away a lot of messed up plywood pieces, we went with a simple design and love it just as much.

• For the inside of the fireplace, we used faux brick panels and extended them up on the inside just like a real fireplace!

So, what do you think? Does this faux fireplace fool you and look like a real one?

One last touch we are still waiting on is the light for above our Frame TV… so for now I have just edited one in ✨

SOURCES:
• Paint: Shiplap - SW Pure White | Mantle & Hearth - SW Useful Gray

What are some of your favorite family holiday traditions? • 🎄✨

It’s December 1st… which means today is the start of one of my favorite traditions that we do with our kids through the holiday season 📚

For our advent calendar, I wrap up 25 Christmas books and each night we pick one to open. These are all books we have collected over the years, been gifted or thrifted, then each year we add one new book to the collection.

Each night is a different story, intentionally setting time aside to connect and make memories. ✨🎄

Happy Thanksgiving 🍂 May your hearts and your tummies be full 🥧 • Thankful to be celebrating our first holiday in our new home this year 🏠 It may just be the 4 of us but still a reason to get dressed up, set the table and carry on the traditions that my momma passed down to me (in her memory) 🤍✨ & make a few new traditions along the way too…

Holidays are always heavy when the ones we love most are no longer with us. If your heart is hurting today, know you aren’t alone. Wether you are grieving a loss, far away from family this year or longing for a sense of family you grew up not having, you are seen. 🤍

I promise the faux fireplace reveal is coming soon… (just waiting on one finishing element to arrive) BUT here’s a little peek for now! 👏🏻

SOURCES • Ribbon: • Garland: (with a mix of my own picks) • Stockings: for

The Media Room Reveal • Finally we have a finished space to gather together as a family, relax, play, do school time and game nights.

The built-ins are my favorite part, allowing each of my girls to have their own homeschool desk and bulletin boards from - along with the long window bench which provides all of the toy storage!

The picture ledges we built using just 1x4’s and a 1x2 then painted to match the built-ins for less than $10 a shelf.

Comment below your favorite part and of course any questions about the space. 🤍

Last August, I stood in this very spot when the framing went up while building our house. These stairs were the first thing I envisioned decorating. It was that inspired this view, years ago, and it stuck with me ever since 🤍

Welcome to the dark side… 🕷 & swipe to see the sweetest little pumpkin face 🎃🖤

Who else loves gallery walls? 🙋🏻‍♀️ Can you believe that these frames from come out to be only $6 each? You can find the source for these frames and the rest of this cozy nook on my .ltk

Sharing more of Christmas past…

This time last year we were still in our rental. I didn’t have it in me to decorate anything more than the tree. I felt discouraged and “stuck in a temporary environment”. I let the joy of decorating I normally have, slip away from me after comparing my living situation to others with their perfectly curated Christmas homes, smiling families through all of their holiday outings…

My schedule running a small business through the holidays and my small budget couldn’t compare in my mind.

We all can get stuck in our own heads and let joy be stolen out of what fulfills our souls but sometimes just need a little reminder, that even in a rental, military housing, or a temporary home, allow yourself the joy of decorating whatever space you might be in.

I know so many of us, especially in this season want everything to be perfect and compare what we have to others. But any space can become magical by the people that you surround within in it.✨

It’s national rainbow baby day 🌈 & this little girl fulfilled every wish that I could ever dream of. She came into this world on a hot May afternoon, with just a little cry, she quickly quieted when placed on my chest. We stared at each other for over an hour, and my heart burst with love for this tiny human. After years of grieving, she brought nothing but rays of sunshine.🌻

& while her big brother in heaven will always be carried in my heart, this sweet girl fulfilled an emptiness in my arms, one that I never imagined would come… 💕

Thankful for you daddy 🤍

Happy 5th Birthday Emmalyn Faith 🎂 • Our rainbow girl who has been a ray of sunshine since the day she was placed in our arms 🌻

Happy Mother’s Day mamas 💐🤍 Wishing you a day showered with love, a house that stays clean longer than 10 mins, a trip to the bathroom alone & no fighting kids! 😂🤷🏻‍♀️🤪

Grateful for one more trip around the sun☀️

364 days of being 33...

(Hang in there with me as I get a little wordy - I normally do around emotional milestones) 🤍

Tomorrow, I add another candle to the cake 🎂 Looking back on the past year and what year 33 brought me, it is surreal to think back to where I was a year ago today. I was at probably one of the lowest points in my life. Depression, anxiety, self doubt, mom exhaustion, a husband filled with unhappiness due to work circumstances... I stood on the opposite coast, staring at the sunset over the ocean. California was shut down. We hadn’t had physical contact with anyone in over a month and no clue as to when that would change.

I didn’t know it then, but a month later I would pray that God open a door if our life was to be lived elsewhere. I had no idea that 2 weeks after that, we would be packing up our home and headed East. I had no idea that a month after that, we would find the land where the home I always prayed for, would be built.

We know that God can move mountains but also, the valleys are what truly change us.

Heading into another year and am grateful for all of the mountains, waves, deserts and valleys that have shaped me 🤍

What is one thing most you love or miss about where you grew up?

While South Carolina is now home for us, that coast will forever hold my heart! 💙🌅 I miss sunset drives up the coast of Carlsbad. I miss Sunday mornings at Swami’s cafe. I miss foggy morning walks on the rail trail in Cardiff. I miss taco Tuesdays at Las Olas... If you are local to north county San Diego, you know what all of that means & if you’re not, well that all just sounds confusing I know. 😂 This will forever be home, where all of my memories were made...

But Carolina has also captured my heart and can’t wait to make new memories here too 🤍

What is it about tulips that instantly make everything more elegant 🤍

We have officially lived here a whole month and I finally have one room at least semi-finished 👏🏻 There is still lots of work to be done in here but I am so excited to see how this all comes together for my pink loving girl. After 10 years of rental & military housing living, it has been so fun to just dream of how to transform each space (whenever our wallet allows) 💸 For now, it is just one step at a time and being completely content in the “in-between” 🤍

Seriously, I give major props to the “Instagram Moms” who always have their kids perfectly matched and photographed daily in cute poses... Over here, that’s not our reality! When all you want as a mom is ONE GOOD PICTURE... (swipe to see) 😂 I’ve photographed more kids than I can count over the years but when it comes to my own, forget it 🤪 Not even bribery would work this time around but hey, I did manage to at least get one of each of them alone!

My Valentine for 10 years... 🤍

The first look into our new house 🏡 This week has been full of the not so exciting part of moving... getting all of the little things in place around the house and organizing, organizing, organizing. This dining nook though is where I find myself coming back to again and again to take a breather and is quickly becoming my favorite spot in the house. We still need shades put up, but there is something about being surrounded by all windows and the warm sunlight coming in when it’s 30 degrees outside!

Do you have a fave spot in your own home? If so, where?

What a process this has been... From a dirt lot to a finished home, every step of the way has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Everything from excitement to stress. So many have been asking to have a peek at the finished house... and I promise, it’s coming! Just keeping you in suspense a little longer until I finish up a few more spaces... Then will be sharing a blog post about our whole build process and what to expect when building a home for the first time 🏡