🐇 Spring Home Tour: Transform Your Space for the Season! PART ONE!

Hello friends, welcome back. It's Sarah from She Holds Dearly. We're moving into spring. I can't believe it. Well, actually it's a little bit cold outside and rainy and even snowing. I think it snowed last week. And so normally I would have started this process out on the porch, but I'm just not up for it. So we're going to start inside and I want to do a lot of chatting with you as we go through. There's a lot to explain and admire. And we've got to style up the thrifted finds that I found last week. You're going to see some of those in the house, some of them on the porch, and some of them in the garden, but most of them in the house. And then this week I launched the spring collection, which is a decorating kit slash box. There's three beginner DIY kits in these spring collections. And some of you are concerned that they're going to be too hard for you. I'm going to assure you today, they're not, they're not that hard. And I'm going to show you how to do them. And I of course want to use these decorations in my styling. That's why they made the cut and are in the boxes. So we're going to do that. Okay. This is an add on to my previous intro. So we are doing our spring home tour. What I was finding is that the video was getting longer and longer and longer. And I really think I should break it into two parts. So you're not sitting here for 40 minutes. So this video is going to be everything up until the hallway and then our bedroom spring decor. And then I am going to squish it in. We're giving you a bonus video this week on Wednesday. I'm going to release the second part of this video. I just find that people do better when you keep it at about 20 minutes. So sit back and enjoy today's video and be looking for Wednesdays. It's an extra special week. You get a bonus video and we'll finish up this tour. Enjoy. Let's start with one of the DIYs because I want it to dry while we're styling other parts of the house. So we're going to start with my favorite sheep print picture. And I'm going to show you this faux oil painting technique that will give it some texture and make it look more high-end. And you can do this on any print to level up the look. So our first project that we're going to do today is this sheep print that I adore. It's one of my favorite spring prints. It comes notched. The edges are notched because you're going to create the texture and let it dry. And then you're going to mod podge it onto this canvas. The directions are on the back here. After it dries overnight, you're going to wrap the edges around so it looks like a nicer oil painting. Okay, here's the process. This is mod podge that you get in your kit. You literally draw X's like this. One inch size X's. You can be pretty generous. It'll make more texture. And then you're going to let this dry for 30 minutes. And you're going to put it on your canvas. I'm going to go ahead and frame it right away so we can use it in our tour. All right, I have a few pieces that are purple. I'm not going to use them anywhere else for the spring tour. So I thought I would put all the purple things together in this bathroom to kind of give it some authority. When you put three colors together, that makes it look actually designed. This is very, very old. Italian Villas, J-H-S-C. Looks very, very old. I bought this when I was at Bespoke last fall in Virginia. So I would love to find more purple transferware, but this is the only piece I have. So this is going to go in here. I'm just going to switch out these little washcloths out of just a plain white dish. And we're going to give it a little color for spring. And then this soap is one of my favorite soaps. It's in the spring collection this year, the Lilac Blossom. And so I thought we'll just switch out our plain old soap and put that in the soap dish. We have dog shampoo right here. Can you tell where Nala gets her bath? So just little pops of purple. So along with my spring cleaning and changing out my decor, I also take a look at my beauty routine and potentially are tweaking things because I'm coming out of this winter rut. My skin is extra dry. It's extra pale. So I want to share with you something that I'm doing with my makeup that's different. Introducing Merit Beauty. Merit is a luxury makeup brand, but it's actually priced at 30% less than traditional luxury makeup brands. So it's more accessible to more people. They take a really essentialist approach to makeup, which I am really drawn to. I'm finding actually, as I'm aging, that it's really important to me to have less things, but better things. And I haven't always thought like that. So I'm drawn to brands that are on that same page. That means less products in your bathroom and less ingredients within those products. So here I'm using the Minimalist Complexion Stick. This is what you can instead of foundation. And I have a whole side of my face has rosacea that was triggered after menopause. Thank you so much for that party favor. And I am moving heaven and earth to make my system cleaner to try to get it under control because goodness knows I put my face on camera every week. And so I love how simple and safe these products are. And I love the coverage. One of the things that was so incredible about buying that complexion stick is that they help you with the color matching. So I have struggled with matching colors of foundations. Um, yeah, since junior high. So there's one that I have found. It's a L'Oreal one. And I was like desperate, like, I don't want to give this one up. But I know it's not as healthy as merit. But on their website, they have this form that you fill out of any brand. I was amazed at all of the brands and colors that they had on there. And you pick the one that you do like, you know, for a fact works for you. And then they match it to their product and they send that to you. It was so nice. Such a great feature. I've never seen that before. Merit really focuses on hydrating your skin and evening out the colors, which is a huge thing for me with my rosacea. I think anytime you can find a makeup brand that focuses holistically, meaning they're not just about putting color on or masking imperfections or something, but they are actually about your health and keeping your whole body healthy. So that your skin is radiant. That is a good brand. Merit uses antioxidants, vitamin B5, and a plant-based squalling. They've worked with experts to eliminate 75 ingredients that cause acne and they're just unnecessary in general. Speaking of acne, if that's a concern, all of their products are non comedogenic, which means that they do not clog your ports, but definitely need some color on these lips. So looking a little purple, this one's called tiger. As you can tell, Merit has become my favorite minimalist makeup brand because they believe that less is more. You can get 15% off their exclusive sets right now. If you go to my link in the description below and all first orders, get this darling Corduroy makeup bag. It's complimentary plus free shipping. If you spend over $40. All right, let's get back to the home tour. Time for the second DIY. In this spring collection, you get a kit that you can make four beeswax candles with. It's a very simple process. I'm going to make one here and we're actually going to use these in the hallway as we're decorating. All you need is a hairdryer. If you don't have a hairdryer, you could do this over any place that has heat coming out of it. So you could hold it over a heater. All you want to do is you take the beeswax, you smell it and you admire that smell. It's one of my favorite smells. And then you're just going to soften it with the heat. You don't have to melt it. You're just going to, for 20 seconds, you just go back and forth. Then you take your wick, your little piece of string, and my corner broke off right here. So I'm going to hide that inside the candle. You leave one side out so you can light it later. Let it hang over the side. And then I tell people, roll it up like a little sleeping bag. Nice and tight. You can soften it again if you need to. You should have time. Okay. And then at the end to seal it, it's still a bit soft. So I just press in that seam right there. Just kind of blend it in. I'm going to trim that. That doesn't need to look so long. But that's it. That's the candle. There you go. We first made these at the Bespoke Design Retreat and they were such a hit. At the welcome reception, we used these sort of as a little icebreaker. So we had to include them in the kit. Okay. We're going to work in the living room now. And I need to take down a few Christmas things that I left up that worked for winter. We have some ice skates. We still have our big snowflake with the crepe paper. That has been really fun this winter. I don't know. I've got some poinsettias and things. So let's clean those things up. I've collected cloches and birds nests over the years. And so I love displaying them for spring time. And this look goes really well if you're doing like a light academia or a dark academia. I maybe should have done this first. I forgot I was going to do this, but I want to do bleached ferns and do a swag, an asymmetrical swag along the top of the piano. I just use tape, scotch tape. Every spring decor box that we have going out has one of these in it. And my thought is that the new owner could put it in a frame. It would look really good in a Reese frame. Although that's kind of a large Reese frame. Tuck it onto a bulletin board, use it like a doily in a platter or something. Anyway, I love bleached ferns. So I'm just using tape for this. I'm going to make another runner upstairs on my mantel when we get up there, but I'm going to piece it together. I especially want this side to be really big and billowy. And I found this print at Goodwill years ago and I loved it because it reminds me of a chickadee. I don't know if that's exactly the bird that it is, but that was my nickname that my dad always called me when I was little. So I thought we needed to add a bird in. So I'm going to style up the coffee table. I want it to feel like a little bit of a greenhouse feel. I have a bunch of little topiaries. Everything actually on this coffee table is thrifted and it was all about $2 each. Something that helped make these faux plants look more real is I add moss along the top of the dirt area. I even found this candle at a garage sale for $2 and it's a, oh, it's a $20 one. It's a Studio McGee threshold candle. Here's one of the pots that I shared in our last video. I'm going to keep it inside and the rest will show up on my porch next week. I was getting ready to style the window seat and look who's here. All the little babies. You want to be in on this part? You're on the heating pad. That's smart. So our painting is ready. There's just a little bit of texture and we're going to put it in a frame of a beautiful thrifted frame, the eye spray painted cream, and I think it'll look really good on our window seat. Just makes me think of Easter and Psalm 23. And the last thing I'm going to try to do, if you guys will let me, is I'm going to add some pillows. We've got some new pillow covers. These were thrifted, all of them thrifted. I have two of these green velvet ones. These are originally pure one and then I have a paisley silk one and I really liked how the two colors pulled the exact greens out of this print. One of the things that's easy to do when you're trying to switch out decorations for seasons is to just hone in on a piece of art and switch that piece out. So for instance, I have had this hanging there for a while. It's one of my favorite pieces for Christmas. It's from a dear friend and actually my admin who works for me, but she bought me this winter scene. I'm going to replace it with something more springy. I just printed off a bird picture that I liked. Just found it online for free. And then this is a pants hanger. I think that's what they call them. I taped it in there because it was sliding out too much, but these are a dollar or so. If you see these, pick these up for artwork. I'm just going to replace that piece. And then one more fun idea. One of you told me this. So last year I had these in my spring decorating. They're little flash cards and I actually have a printable. I'm going to put it in the description for you if you want to get a free set of these and just print them out and cut them out yourself. When I gave these out last year, one of you said you should take those brushes up there. I have them up there like dog grooming tools. I don't actually brush the dogs with them, but I find vintage brushes. And then I put them up on the shelf above where the dog stuff is and they said flip over a brush and you can put one of your little flashcards in there. And I think that's so cute. So we're going to do that this year. I actually feel like I could leave up this garland, but it's been up there for so long. It's been Christmas and winter and I kind of just want to clear it up. So I'm going to take down the garland. Of course I need to take away our sled and I'll style the bookshelf with you. Oh, and I have some pillows too for the couch. We put these little knobs along the stairwell to hang stockings on at Christmas, but I like to decorate them when it's not Christmas too. So I have this print, this bird print that my friend gave me. I think she thrifted it too. My friend Bridget. Thank you, Bridget. And I thought putting just something that made me think of spring cleaning up there would be fun too. So I'm going to switch those two things out. I've thrifted just a couple of these green plates. We always bring these out for Christmas and for spring. And in this spring decor boxes, everybody gets a small transfer wear plate. Just at least get started on your collection. You could use it for a soap dish. You could use it for butter. You can use it for jewelry, a lot of different things. You could hang it up. I'm actually going to put a candle on mine and we're going to have it here. The last thing I'm going to do in this room is, do you recognize this pillow? This was from the bed. People are just using it as a napping pillow. It's like everybody's favorite when they go to lay on the couch. So it has this great blue striped. Oh, love it. Love it. Love it. Okay. So this is going to go here. I have basically three lumbars in different sizes. So we'll have papa bear, mama bear, baby bear. I made this from a scrap of fabric last year and I had it on the porch. And so I'm excited to be using it again. That looks good. Kind of a lot of fun putting it together. I really feel like each year gets better and better. And I feel like each of us gets that way, hopefully that you feel like every year you're getting clearer on your style and the colors that you love. And so this year was definitely my favorite. Stay tuned for Wednesday. I will give you the second part. We'll finish up the home tour. I'll show you the hallway, the rest of the DIYs and the bedroom tour. Take care. I'll talk to you soon.