Map It!

We have officially called Denver for our home for 1 trip around the sun, & are beyond excited to begin the next chapter of our lives - home ownership (!!!) - in the mile high city! I am a firm believer that home is wherever you gather together with your loved ones, & over the years there have certainly been many "homes" that have a pieces of my heart. From my hometown in Arkansas, Summer camp in the Texas hill country, my post-college days in Nashville Tennessee, the Oregon boy who stole my heart, and our latest destination here in Colorado.

One of my girlfriends has the coolest latitude/longitude tattoos celebrating the meaningful locations in her life & while I am needle/tattoo adverse, I too love looking at mementos of the many places I have called home, but my method is via art on my walls (not my body... for now).

I recently showed off my latest art print featuring the city of Denver (on Instagram here) & love it so much that I have to gush about the source of my city love - Modern Map Art. They not only have ready to go city prints that you can choose with different size/color options, but also pillows, phone cases & accessories for your home, or you can create a custom map to fit your specific location.

I've rounded up my top 10 favorite ways to show off your map love below. Which one would you pick for your home? What city means the most to you & why?

1. Beaufort, SC; city poster // 2. United States, country poster // 3. Avalon Map, throw pillow // 4. Atlanta, GA; city poster // 5. Paris, phone case // 6. Amsterdam, throw pillow // 7. San Francisco, skyline print // 8. Annapolis, MD; city poster // 9. Savannah, GA; city poster // 10. Breckenridge, ski trail map poster

Follow Modern Map Art on Instagram.

deck the halls

Top 1 // 2 // 3 Bottom 4 // 5

For me, the Christmas holiday begins as soon as the plates are cleared from Thanksgiving dinner. I love the decorations, the food, the {spiked} hot chocolate, & the shopping hubub that surrounds Christmas, culminating in my family's most treasured traditions. 

Ty, Doug and I live in less than 1000 sq feet... meaning that any & all available storage space goes to housing my clothing habit instead of holiday decorations. As much as I dream about decking my halls with boughs of holly, it just isn't going to be an all out decking around these parts any time soon... luckily I still consider my parents' Christmas tree MINE!

I was super excited to add a little bit of holiday cheer to our apartment through Dreaming of Dimples' ornament swap. The sweet Amanda of Southern Glamourista sent me two gorgeous & glittery snowflake ornaments that I currently have draped around some candlesticks, but I imagine they will travel around our cozy space through the coming weeks.
And I had the great pleasure of sending some ornament love (a flying pig ornament to be exact) to Alexis of Living the WifeStyle.

Is your space already decked?
 Do you have the luxury of having a full size tree? Or is more Charlie Brown style?

glimmer in my eye

While my Here&Now does not currently include extensive holiday decorations, I do admit to dreaming of one day having fabulous seasonal decor! There is no time of year that brings this out in me more than between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Holiday decorations are big in my family- we have traditions that we up hold every year (picking the tree from the same family, only after my sister's birthday of course, hanging homemade ornaments in the doorways, and plugging in the Christmas Cactus), and as kids we always enjoyed making new holiday crafts too.

My current living situation as a student, with 4 other roommates, and a pug is not conducive to decking the halls, and I'm not home very much to enjoy a festive home anyways (and will be at my decorated home in Arkansas on the day), but if I was going to decorate this year, I would be inspired by old-fashioned, glitzy decor... below is some of my inspiration:

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