Earlier this year, I started using a wellness patch that, honestly, I didn’t expect much from. I was hopeful, but skeptical. I’ve tried SO many things over the years, as I’m sure you have too. One thing I’ve tried to do is to actually lower the amount of supplements I take because I need a simple system and routine.

And now, several months in, I can tell you this has been one of the biggest changes I’ve made in a long time, and one that has given us incredible results. And I’m finally ready to talk about it because you are too important to me to not know about this technology.

Since January, I’ve been wearing this small, non-invasive stem cell patch that supports the body in a really unique way. It doesn’t have any drugs or chemicals.

It uses light and your body’s own healing process to do its thing. It might sound a little out there, but here’s what I can tell you for sure:

I’m sleeping better. I have more stamina throughout the day. I feel more clear-headed and present. And most importantly, I haven’t had a single heart episode since I started.

If you know me, you know I’ve dealt with PVCs, sinus tachycardia, and atrial tachycardia for 5 years. My episodes were getting worse and more frequent, even as recently as this past December. I was back at the cardiologist and honestly just frustrated.

So when I say this patch has made a difference, I really mean it.

This Wednesday night, I’m hosting a live Zoom call with my friend Brittany (she’s the one who introduced me to the patches). She’ll explain how they work, why they’ve helped so many people, and how you can try them for yourself or even share them with others if it feels like a good fit. I’ll share a little of my story too!

It’s totally casual. You can just listen in and decide if it’s something you want to know more about.

If you’d like the link to join us on Zoom Wednesday at 7pm CST/8 EST, just leave a comment here on this post, message me on Instagram, or email me at emily@decorchick.com. I’d love for you to come!

I’ll also be doing a giveaway for those who join us live, just for fun!

Thank you for being here. I know this isn’t my usual content, but my heart has really been pulled toward wellness and helping people feel their best. If you’re curious at all, come hang out with us Wednesday night. I know you’ll be glad you did!

xoxo

Emily

The post How I’m Taking Control of My Health {Join Me Live this Wednesday!} appeared first on Decorchick!.

       

Several years ago when we visited my cousin in Alabama, she had the most beautiful rug in her living room and I’ve always thought about it. I asked where she got it and she said Ebay, and immediately I was like UGHHH, I don’t want to mess with trying to win auctions.

Until I won my first one. :)

This one is in our dining room and might be my favorite.

When it arrived, that’s when things escalated and I returned the thin washable rugs and went on the nightly Ebay quest to find more because it was SO GOOD. The quality and thickness and just gorgeous and vibrant colors are something you cannot find on Amazon, plus I love how they are all in a bunch of very random and hard to find sizes. Like, super long runners that are actually wide and fill up the space where you need it to.

The one above is at our front door.

The rugs are actually one of the first things people mention when they come over too–they just stand out and are so pretty!

They are hand-knotted vintage Turkish rugs, and some of the ones I have are the vegetable dye ones, which have very pretty saturated colors. I don’t know a lot about rugs y’all, but I trusted my cousin and she came in clutch!

That one in the living room I just have layered on top of a neutral wool rug I got from HomeSense.

This particular eBay seller does have them professionally cleaned and I haven’t ever noticed any strange smells or anything. He has no idea who I am but I’m going to link to him in case you’re looking around for some nice rugs! FYI-the photos on his site are not the greatest and I can promise you they look way better in person. ;) And shipping is not fast so wear your patience-pants. I know, it’s hard.

I LOVE this one in my office. You just can’t find rugs like this in the stores!

In our kitchen we have a large center island, and I have 2 large rugs on either side.

I have this one at the end of our bed, but I’m sure it will be relocated once I can make up my mind the direction I want to go in our bedroom.

Also, most of the auctions for the ones I wanted at least, ended late at night like midnight or 1am, so yes I would set an alarm and put in my bid at the last minute. It’s pretty exhilarating. But don’t worry if you don’t win your first one–he has tons and is always updating and I know the one you get will be meant to be!

I did pay more for the bigger rugs, but I feel (and Randy agrees!) they are so worth it and still affordable for the look and quality you receive. There’s just no comparison when you go look at Amazon or Homegoods etc. You can pass these beauties down too, because they will last forever!

Which one is your fav? Are you a rug enthusiast?

xo,

Emily

The post Affordable Vintage Rugs appeared first on Decorchick!.

       

It’s been a solid three-ish years since I last typed anything here, when I told you about about the best sectional (and it still is!). Life happened, as it tends to do.

We moved into a new home, added a sweet, fluffy, and fat girl named Cookie to the family, and I slowly stepped away, again. But it wasn’t just about the house or decor or total burnt out. The truth is, life brought some big, hard things too.

A few years ago, my husband Randy received a serious diagnosis that shifted everything. And not long after, I lost my dad. Both of those things broke me and completely rearranged my priorities. I found myself craving more peace, more presence, and more purpose. Y’all know how many projects my dad helped me do over the years at our old house (hellooo pantry carousels). They were special and I am SO thankful I have this blog and documented most every project we did together.

So I paused. But I never stopped loving sharing. I just needed a reset. One thing about me is I don’t do anything half-as* and when I do it I DO IT. So all of this back and forth nonsense is unlike me and I want to keep up as best as I can.

Somehow in the blink of an eye, the girls grew up right in front of me. Emma is headed into 11th grade (how?!) and Ellie’s starting 8th this next school year. Watching them become these incredible young women has been one of the greatest joys and reminders of why I want to show up fully for them, for me, and hopefully for you too.

What to expect from me now?

• Little peeks into our new home (while I’ve shifted focus, creating a cozy home still matters to me.)

• Fitness and wellness favorites

• Honest chats about life, growth, and longevity (maybe even some peri-menopause stuff because what the what??)

• And how I’m helping others feel their best every day and helping them to create another stream of income while doing it (click here to read about that!)

I’ve also been trying to be more active on social lately, so if we’re not already connected, come find me on insta! You’ll catch more day-to-day moments, behind-the-scenes life, and things I don’t always post here. I’m making tweaks to the blog too, and have updated a few things about my about page, and will continue to update things around here as I can!

So pour a coffee (or kombucha) and stay awhile. I’m really glad you’re here.

xo,

Emily

The post Well Hey There… It’s Been a Minute appeared first on Decorchick!.

       

It was delivered several months ago, and we did have to wait a bit (and I actually forgot about it when I got a delivery date confirmation!) so that was a happy surprise. :)

When I was shopping around for sectionals, I had a few requirements that had to be met:

1. the bottom of it could not be high off the ground (which I’ll explain more why later)
2. it needed to be BIG to fill up our living room.
3. it needed to be firmer and not plush.
4. it needed to be heavy so it doesn’t move when you run and jump on it (kids)
5. it needed to be a good price.

This sectional checked all those boxes!

The only other sectional that I once came close to ordering would have been twice the price to get the size we needed, and it would have been a custom order which would have taken even longer. When I went back to the local furniture store, they aren’t even taking custom orders any longer because of covid!

Here is a full room shot so you can see it all.

Isn’t it perfect in this space?!

Let me show you what it looked like before….brace yourself.

Obviously a very un-staged photo. ;)

So a few things wrong which I probably don’t need to point out but I will.

• the light grey leather sofa is way too small in this room. It is also very light, and moves around too easily. It now lives in the gameroom/school room upstairs.
• the charcoal sofa on the right was destroyed by our cats. (hence the reason our new sofa had to be low to the ground so they couldn’t get up underneath and make their kitty holes again. I have no idea where it lives now. Probably the dump.
• there just wasn’t enough seating in this room for all of us to sit or lay down comfortably. I had dreams of us all being able to chill on the sofa and watch a movie together.

But now….we can!!! And it’s the absolute best.

This sectional is from Macy’s, and it’s the Radley 5-piece sectional. I’m not going to link it here, because the price listed now is more than half of what we paid. It goes on 50% off sale all the time so be watching for it if you are looking! Just google “Macy’s Radley 5-piece sectional” and you’ll find it! I got ours in the color Heavenly Chrome Beige and I love it! I went to our Macy’s store to see it in person and test it out 2 times before I ordered with them. I did also get the warranty since it covers anything, even pet damage. And well, cats are crazy and unpredictable y’all.

That chaise is amazing and so comfy, and also the big corner in the center! I love cozying up in both of those spots.

We do still have the oval grey ottoman, but I did scoot it out of here when I took pictures because it is also trashed haha. I’m on the hunt for a new one or a coffee table, I’m not exactly sure what I want yet!

It’s held up really well so far, and I do flip the cushions every other week or so to keep things even.

We’ve been trying to keep the cats off of it with sticky tape and foil. ;)

Here is a view of it from upstairs so you can see how it fits in the living room better.

And yep, my husband has a recliner now too! The reason why is a story for another day, but it still goes well in here. :)

I’m so thankful I finally found THE one, and it makes me so happy. The room now definitely feels more proportionate and substantial with a sofa that actually fills the space.

If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll notice I redid the gallery wall too. That happened during lockdown at some point haha. For the how-to of the paneled wall in the living room, you can see this post. I still love it!

I think that’s about it! Let me know what you think of the new sectional! Or tell me if you’ve been looking around for one too. They are not easy to find!

~Emily

The post The Sectional of My Dreams! appeared first on Decorchick!.

       

Meet my new little egg cooker who makes the most magical eggs in just minutes.

I’m so in love with this little thing! The funny thing is, is that I had this on my Christmas list this past year. But then I took it off because I was probably overwhelmed at the time and didn’t have room for another thing in the kitchen. But then I recently ordered it because I was just so curious if it really is all that, and yes…it’s really all that.

It’s small and compact, and I ordered it here from Amazon which is always so easy and fast. And I love this blue color and it closely matches our retro toaster!

We immediately made boiled eggs and they came out PERFECT. We made medium boiled eggs to be exact using some farm fresh eggs, and oh my word they were eggcellent. ;) You can make soft, medium, or hard boiled.

See how orange those yolks are? Once you have farm fresh eggs you’ll never go back to the store-bought!

Then the next day I decided to try poached eggs with the rest of my breakfast which was leftover sweet potato and Brussels sprouts (a regular for me!), and mercy it was delicious. Perfectly runny.

That pic above is while it was cooking the poached eggs.

Here’s my yummy breakfast which I could eat every day.

It makes the boiled eggs in about 7 minutes, and they do really peel much easier when you poke the little hole on one end like they recommend! I forgot to do that one day and they still cooked great, but peeling was a little more tedious.

It’s totally worth the $20!! You’ll be eggstremely happy I promise.

Ok I’m done with the egg jokes. Let me know if you have one of these yet!

~Emily

The post The Kitchen Gadget I Thought I Didn’t Need, But Did appeared first on Decorchick!.

       

We got them done around May 2020, you know…lockdown renovations because we needed something to do right?! We totally hired this job out, and I’m so glad we did because it was a ton of work! I’m not afraid of work, but this was something that couldn’t be done my lazy ways. ;)

Here’s a before pic of what the carpet looked like.

Yes, yes we are pigs.

But skipping to the good stuff, I did take a few pics while they were working so I could track the progress. See, I knew I would be blogging again one day! I still take pictures of everything haha.

They used red oak treads if I remember correctly.

They look so good already with not even any stain! After the treads were on, they used MDF boards for the risers and painted everything white after caulking and filling holes.

Here they are after some walnut stain…

Remember these are after 2 years of wear already, and they still look fab! I haven’t done a thing to them either. I do have to sweep them basically every day because our cats are hairy monsters, but they are worth it.

I just love them so much!! Definitely one of my top favorite improvements we’ve done here. :)

If you have stairs do you have wood or carpet? The only complaint I have is how careful you have to be when moving heavy stuff up or down. I’m always afraid of damaging them! I wonder if one of those stair runners would be a good addition? Let me know!

You can read about the staircase wainscoting in this post. I want to redo the gallery wall portion, but it’s such a hassle because it’s so high!

~Emily

The post Our New Wood Stairs! appeared first on Decorchick!.

       

How I Started to Quit Drinking

Coming up in May of this year, it will be 3 years. And that is pretty unbelievable to me, because wine was such a part of my every day normal.

The thing is, is that I didn’t intentionally quit. I was planning to start the AIP diet (autoimmune protocol) because I had this weird rash thing on the back of my neck that wouldn’t go away. So I wanted to do AIP and eliminate a bunch of food groups to see if that ended up helping.

I was going to give it 30 days and fully commit to it, and you can’t have alcohol while on AIP. While that was annoying at first, I still committed!

30 days came, and guess what?

I survived without wine.

And I didn’t miss it. Didn’t really even crave it anymore. So I just continued on.

I also stayed with AIP because I liked how I felt. I liked how the inflammation was less and less in my body, and I liked how I wasn’t bloated at the end of the day. I did lose about 10 lbs which was even more of a bonus. ;) The weird thing on my neck didn’t completely go away, but it did help and definitely wasn’t as itchy and inflamed.

The Results I Saw After I Quit

A year passed by and I thought ”WOW! This is a pretty big deal!”

I not only feel better, but I feel like a better mom and wife. I’m no longer waking up feeling miserable, and no longer counting down the hours till bedtime so I could get some wine and relax and work. I still look forward to bedtime don’t misunderstand that part, but it’s just different now.

2 years passed by, and I thought ”DANG, this is really incredible!”

And all I could think of at that 2 year mark is how incredibly grateful I am that the Lord delivered me from alcohol.

To no longer be a slave to wine and have it be something I thought about way too often, is a really great feeling.

I wasn’t the type to get drunk and wasn’t a party animal by any means, but I was the typical 2 glasses of wine per night gal.

Now here we are, coming up on 3 years in May, and I’m still just so grateful. I don’t ever think about it, I don’t run to that when things get stressful (and believe me we’ve had a LOT of stressful times!), and I am just so thankful I was free from this when the pandemic hit. I believe God freed me at His perfect time because who knows what I would have done all day being locked up.

Another really cool thing about this? Is that my husband stopped drinking also. His 3 years will be this October, and I’m just so proud of him. I’m proud of both of us for stopping something that was wrecking us and wrecking our marriage.

I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m just sharing a little bit of my story. And it doesn’t matter to me one bit if you drink! But if you know deep down, it might be a little too much or too often, just know that you can change. It doesn’t have to rule your life. Alcoholism runs deep in our family, and I don’t want it to trickle down to our girls. It doesn’t have to be a normal part of socialization like society makes it out to be. You CAN have fun still with your water or kombucha or whatever you like. :)

I’m here for you always if you want to talk about it, or if you want to share a story you have in the comments I’d love to hear!

~Emily

The post I Quit Drinking Alcohol appeared first on Decorchick!.

       

Uhhhh, yea. That’s me.

I did have plans to start writing again. I loved it. I love having a place where life is documented (and I still search for stuff on my own blog, especially our paint colors!). But, such is life and all that comes with it.

Let me tell you the truth.

When I realized I was failing at writing blog posts, I thought I would just stay active on my social media accounts and do everything over there instead.

But wow. Oh how I have failed there too!! Honestly, I don’t like what social media has become. I have zero desire to be an instagram sensation (I hate the word influencer and roll my eyes anytime someone says it!), and zero desire to make reels, and definitely no desire to document my life all day on stories. That will probably be another post for another day. ;)

Which in turn makes it hard when you run a business because everyone is on social media these days getting all their info. But dang…being on social media all day is HARD and exhausting and can really make you feel inadequate. And it’s just not something I’m willing to do because that would be what I’m teaching our girls. Who will never have social media. :)

That’s not to say I won’t ever post on IG or FB, because I will. It just isn’t going to be my primary focus.

I really just want to talk, in the form of writing. That’s what makes me happy. Trying to be someone I’m not on Instagram for the sake of showing my face is just not for me. I have tried, and I dreaded it every single time I did it. Social media should be fun, not dreadful. Some people have a natural talent at it, but others like me do not. ;)

So that’s what I’m going to do. Start writing again here on the blog. A lot has happened since I last wrote ummm 3 or 4 years ago?! Good stuff, bad stuff, and everything in between. You’ll hear it all.

Gosh, this feels good. To write freely. To not worry about writing for likes or new followers or having the perfect picture. If anything, I’m writing for me again, with you in mind hoping that something I might say may be of interest to you. And if not, that’s cool too. We cool.

And because I can’t write a post with no picture at all, here’s a pic of the fam from Thanksgiving. Everyone’s all grown up since the last time you’ve seen them!

All of the photos that will be on here when I post, will be from my iPhone because I’m definitely not dragging out the real camera and tripod like a professional blogger. :)

Want to know something funny? I had to ask my husband how to login to my blog so I could write this. :)

Talk soon!

~Emily

The post Hello, Is This Thing On? appeared first on Decorchick!.

       

I love to have pretty flowers and plants though, and ones that I can manage easily. Like water them, and be done. :)

And I’m happy to say I’ve had what I’m about to show you around 1 1/2 months now, and they are doing GREAT!

We have 2 of these up by our front door in planters.

And they have grown SO much since I first got them! If any of you know what this is, let me know in the comments because I threw away the card. #rookiemistake

I do know they are shade plants, and our front door area doesn’t get much sun at all, so they have been doing well!

Then on the back patio, I have hanging baskets of Double Purslane and Bougainvilleas and I just LOVE them!!

There are different types of Purslane, and these are a double. I love how it’s a round and full flower!

From a distance they look like pretty little fuzzy flowers. :)

Then I have 2 of these pink Bougainvilleas…

I just love them! If you have tips on if I’m supposed to trim them then let me know. Because…rookie here!

All of those hanging baskets get full sun in the afternoon. :)

This beautiful fern is doing excellent too!

That one stays in the shade. :)

On the patio table I have a small planter of succulents. I LOVE succulents!

So that’s it guys! What do you think? Do I have potential to maybe have a green thumb after all? :) We did have a veggie garden several years back and that did amazingly well!

xxoo,

Emily

The post A Green Thumb in My Future? appeared first on Decorchick!.

       

It’s been too long since I have blogged, and goodness, that makes my heart break a little.

So let me fill you in.

I hate to give the lame “busy” excuse. So let me think of another…

We’ve just been doing life together. How’s that?

And when you are doing life with multiple people at the same time all day every day, things are bound to get cray-cray right?

I miss you though!!!

My husband and I both work from home which is awesome, and we both homeschool our kids. YES, the youngest started Kindergarten this year can you believe it?!!! I sure can’t.

So you would think I would have all this time in the world to decorate and do projects but honestly, it’s quite the opposite. (insert laughing/crying emoji) Just think about 3 prepared meals every.single.day. and alllll the snacks. That’s sort of my life right now.

Our days are filled with school, gymnastics, dog walking, dinner, bedtime, repeat.

OH YES, I said DOG!!!

We got a freaking dog y’all!!

If you follow me on Instagram you already know this. His name is Louis (pronounced Lou-ee) and he’s an F1b Goldendoodle. He is GORGEOUS and SUCH a good boy and it’s like I gave birth all over again in these first few months with him. When people say that getting a puppy is like having a newborn baby, they aren’t kidding.

But I couldn’t imagine life without him. Seriously, he’s an amazing now 1 year old who is smarter than humans I think. He has some VERY human-like characteristics it’s kind of scary. Like, he really loves hugs.

So what else?

OH! My blog got a much needed update and I love the simple clean design! Thanks babe! If you are reading from a reader, click on over and visit the site! I hope you love it.

Our small home business is going great, and Randy is busy as ever with his music gigs.

I DO plan on writing more because well, I’ve never been one that doesn’t have an opinion or something to share. :) And I am excited to get back into it!

Life is good and we are blessed and I have no complaints! Other than I missed you and hope you are doing well!!

So tell me…what have YOU been up to friend?!

xxoo

Decorchick!®

The post It’s Been Too Long!! appeared first on Decorchick!.