My Breezy Room | Home Decor and DIY

How to Plant Indoor Succulents

in Home & DIY, How To, Tutorials on 07/06/17

I just love a good indoor plant! They help add color, texture and life into a space and I just can’t get enough of them. (Literally – I need more. Now.) I always heard that if you were starting out with plants, you should start with succulents because they’re hard to kill. I’m not sure if that’s completely accurate, but we’ll get to the care part of succulents in a bit. First I’d like to show you how to plant indoor succulents.

I use affiliate links in this post to share my favorite products.

It’s obviously not rocket science. It’s actually a lot like planting any other plant inside. But you might have found this article if you’ve killed a few of the “easiest plants to keep alive” and are wondering what you’re doing wrong. Hand raised. I definitely killed 4 or 5 succulents in the beginning. So there’s a couple things going on here.

One of my favorite succulents that’s super is to take are of is jade. If you’re having trouble keeping one alive, start with jade to build your confidence, then move on to other types of succulents.

How to plant indoor succulents

Most succulents are planted in fairly small containers until they grow enough to be moved to something bigger. I love finding modern planters with a big of personality, so I gathered these up from Amazon for you.

First – you need a to plan for some sort of drainage in your pot. You can either buy a pot that has a tray for drainage, or you can put rocks in the bottom of your pot with no drainage. As for rocks, just gather some from outside, they’ll work just fine! If you don’t have access to rocks, these will work too. Fill the bottom inch or so of your planter.

After you’ve got the rocks in the bottom of your planter, fill the rest with soil, leaving room for your plant. You can get the special soil for succulents, but I’ve had luck with the regular Miracle Grow Potting Soil. (Miracle Grow also makes a cactus, palm and succulent soil – so whichever you prefer.)

Insert your plant and you’re done.

How to Care for Indoor Succulents

The most important part of raising succulents indoor happens AFTER the planting. In my experience, plants need WAY more sunlight than what we’re led to believe. Sunlight decreases dramatically every foot from the window, so even if you think your plant is getting enough light, it might not be. Succulents are desert plants and can handle full light. So use them to decorate as close to windows as possible!

As far as watering goes, the key is not to overwater. I water around the 1st and 15th of the month and try not to mess with them until then. Your instinct is to give them more water if they’re looking sad, but that can actually kill them faster. If you feel like they need a boost, wait the full two weeks to water them, and add some succulent plant food.

With drainage, plenty of sunlight and the right amount of water, you’re succulents will be flourishing in no time. After you have success with one, you’ll be itching to fill your home with them!

If you liked this post about how to plant indoor succulents, you might also like my more complete guide to taking care of plants, houseplants for beginners guide.

Modern Farmhouse Patio Shopping Guide

in Home & DIY on 02/06/17

Hey guys! I’m just popping in real quick today to let you know I’ll be contributing over at The Weathered Fox on occasion. You guys will absolutely love her style. She’s got a great Joanna Gaines type of Fixer Upper farmhouse style, please go check it out! Today on her blog you’ll see my first post, a shopping guide for a modern farmhouse patio. Bonus: Everything is from Amazon!

Modern Farmhouse Patio Shopping Guide | My Breezy Room

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately making mood boards and finding awesome stuff on the good ol’ interwebs and putting them together to make a “look”. I think you’ll be seeing more of this kind of thing from me, so I hope you like it. If there’s anything specific you’d like to see in the future (like a specific room or a specific type of product like lighting), please let me know.

Modern Farmhouse Patio Inspiration

For this one, I’m loving the black and white mixed with the wood tones and coziness of the farmhouse details. And I love that everything can be mixed and matched. Can I tell you a secret? Those black stackable chairs are my absolute favorite – and the price isn’t too bad either!

You can get all the specifics about this look, the modern farmhouse patio, here.

How to Style Open Shelving: Learn from a Designer

in Recent Projects on 08/05/17

Open shelving seems like it would be easy enough. Add your favorite items to a shelf and arrange it so it looks good and you’re good to go. Most of us have tried just that and quickly realized it’s not always that easy. We love the look of it on pinterest, but most of us are at a loss about how to style open shelving.

I got together with my friend and designer Abby, owner of Intrinsic Design for a little more insight into how to style open shelving. It turns out there’s more to it than just picking out a few things you love. Of course, some people like Abby are blessed with an eye for these things that some people (read: me) don’t come by naturally, but she also has a few guidelines we can all follow to improve our shelves.

Gather a bunch of different items you like of varying sizes, shapes, colors and textures.

The number one problem with most home decor is that it appears flat. It seems unfinished and something is just not right. The solution to this is to add in texture. You can use different colors, or keep everything the exact same color, but you need texture to bring it all together. Texture gives your decor some visual fluff and helps it stand out from the other stuff around it so each piece contributes to the overall look.

You don’t have to spend a fortune on new stuff – shop your home first, then assess what you have and look for things that are missing. Maybe you need more color, or a few pieces with more height. A variety of heights and textures are the most important qualities you want to find.

Natural colors and textures will always work, you can pull off an entirely natural setup (think white and wood tones) or mix them with different colors to bring everything together. Also be sure to include some sort of plant, living or fake (they make some really realistic looking ones these days) to add some life to your arrangement.

Take your time trying different arrangements.

Black geometric planter (similar) / Clay Cactus (similar) / Gold Mirror / Etched ceramic bowls /
*shopping lists contain affiliate links

This is where I personally struggle. I am impatient and get frustrated when I feel like things aren’t looking great right away. Abby is a professional, and it still took us a little while to get our groove on. Play around with your decor and try different combinations to get a feel for what you’re working with. If you start out with more items than what you think you’ll need, you’ll have more flexibility when it comes to figuring out what looks good.

Try setting things vertically and horizontally or in ways you wouldn’t typically set them to find what works best. Also – layer things in front of each other to give more visual depth to your display. Some people say to group things in odd numbers and live by the rule of thirds – that’s a great place to start and you’ll notice most of our groupings definitely fall into those categories, but just remember, rules are made to be broken…be creative.

Strive for balance – but it doesn’t have to be even.

Teal-green basket / Cork coasters / Clay cactus (similar) / Mirror – Target, sold out

When you hit the sweet spot of balance on open shelving, you’ll know it. If you can’t tell, you probably aren’t there yet. While you can totally make everything completely even if you’re going for a traditional look, it’s fun to play around with the scale of things.

This is where the size and height of your items really come into play. You need a good mixture. I think most people tend to buy things on the small side, probably because those are easier to make decisions on and typically cost less. But having larger pieces too is so important (not just when it comes to open shelving). If you have a bunch of small things around the same height, your shelf is going to look super flat and cluttered. You can also use things like books to stack other items on to give them illusion of more height.

And try to think outside the box if you just can’t get it right. Don’t be afraid of two large circular shapes. Add a branch or part of a plant from around your home or yard (we grabbed a palm leaf) to add to a vase you originally planned to leave empty. Sometimes you’re just a simple tweak away from perfection.

Add some personality to your shelves.

Still Standing Framed Art / Gold pineapple (similar) / Large white vase / White Planter – Homegoods

Find some quirky pieces that represent you and your style and add them for more interest. I’m obsessed with plants so we have a little clay cactus that makes its way into these setups in addition to our live plants. We loved that large black and white art you see with the dish ware. It’s a bit unexpected in an otherwise functional layout.

In the bohemian layout we literally taped a photo to a wall – that’s an easy way to avoid a frame and to quickly switch out photos/art when you get tired of it. On that note, not everything has to be sitting on the shelf. You can hang (or even tape!) things on the wall if you feel like you’re missing something.

Don’t be afraid to mix and match different styles.

If you love mid century modern, and boho, and farmhouse, don’t be afraid to mix those! Obviously some of the trends from each style may not mesh well. But you CAN find a way to represent all of the styles you like. As long as you have varying textures, heights, shapes, etc – you will find a way to make them all come together!

Your shelving and your entire home is meant to be a representation of YOU. So use things YOU like, and don’t worry so much about what style you’re going for. Take your time and experiment, and save receipts. Return policies are unbelievably helpful!

Abby and I made a video where we talk all about how to style open shelving here, and also a video showing you how we added each piece to all 3 designs here.

If you liked this post about how to style open shelving, pin it!

DIY Mothers Day Gift From Kid

in Recent Projects on 28/04/17

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #HallmarkForMom #CollectiveBias

Mother’s Day is so much more fun now that I have a baby – and not because it’s celebrating me, but because we can get back to more fun ways to celebrate my mom. You know, all those hand made projects and corny t-shirts that were always fun to make as a kid. So this year Graham and I put together a DIY Mother’s Day gift for our beloved mom/grandma.

This was Graham’s first finger painting experience, such a fun project! It only took about 10 minutes to set up and then he was free to start painting.

First I taped a few pieces of computer paper to the table. We’ll only use the top one but I felt like using a few kept the top piece more sturdy and less likely get to get soggy and rip.

Then I used an exacto knife to cut out the words “LOVE YOU” from another piece of paper. I’d recommend using thicker paper for this so that the edges of your letters don’t pull back during the painting. My stencil only covered half of the page so he could also have a place to paint freestyle. :)

I used a paper plate for paints (the super washable kind), dressed Graham in nothing but a bib and let him get to work.

He did try to eat it a couple times, as you can see. Whoops!

While we waited for our picture to dry, I made a little 1-hr photo album online. I included almost every picture I could find of my mom with Graham, as well as some of our favorites from the past year and a half (Graham’s whole life). I’m excited about this photo book because most of these pictures were taken with cellphones and rarely get printed out. It’ll be fun to be able to look back on photos that we forgot we’d taken!

While picking up our book from Walmart, we also picked out a card. The Hallmark Signature collection has so many adorable cards and messages to choose from, and they’re available for all holidays and seasons. Right now there’s an Ibotta offer on Hallmark Mother’s Day cards, so don’t forget to cash that in too. This is the one we went with. So cute!

And we picked out this one for our other mom/grandma. It has a felt front and is super cute too!

To finish everything up, I taped Graham’s art into a few of the blank spots in our photo book. I love how perfectly imperfect they are and how he’s able to contribute something to our gifts now. It makes them that much more special. And of course he’ll need to sign the card before we hand it over, I’m sure with lots of scribbles and a few tiny circles.

We love giving paper cards for every holiday, especially the ones like Mother’s Day when they can help us express exactly how we feel about someone special, and the Hallmark Signature line helps us do just that!

You can find more coupon offers and Mother’s Day inspiration here.

Working From Home as a Blogger

in Business Tips on 19/04/17

Most people, even my friends and family, have a hard time envisioning what it’s like to be a blogger and work from home with a baby. Quite a few people (including my husband sometimes) think I just sit at home and watch TV and bring in a few extra dollars here and there. So I thought it might be fun to give you an idea of what a typical week looks like for me.

First off, there’s no such thing as a typical week. Blog campaigns can be sporadic and I always have different projects going on at different times. There’s always a mix of things I want to work on for my blog (writing, social media, website updates, etc), client social media, home projects (which lucky for me also count as blog content) and personal to-do lists. Then of course, everything really revolves around Graham and his schedule, because babies gotta eat.

Recently I’ve started taking Graham to a sitter on Mondays and that’s been huge. So I really try to carve out the most important things I need to do for my client and my business for the week on that day. This is most likely computer work and pictures, things that are difficult to do with Graham around. I try to ignore all the messes around the house – if I’m on top of things I’ll clean Sunday night so it’s not stressful (but I’m never on top of things) – so I can concentrate only on work.

The rest of the week nap time is my most productive time of the day. I usually get a solid 2-3 hours of nap time (wish I was the one napping), so you’d think getting a lot of work done would be easy. But I have to prioritize what’s most important during those hours. It’s usually a not-so-balanced juggling act of business tasks, personal to-dos like cleaning and self care.

A lot of the time it’s internet work. Sometimes it’s a home project. This week I spent most of my nap time working on our fireplace. Sometimes it’s a shower first. And yes, sometimes it’s my sanity and I choose Netflix. Don’t worry, I always have to make up for it later, whether that’s trying to work while Graham’s awake, or staying up extra late to get things done.

Evenings after Graham’s bedtime are when I KNOW I’ll have unlimited time to pick up where I left off at nap time, as long as I can stay awake. Usually I’m on the computer with Netflix in the background and Will’s streaming something on his phone. One thing that’s so important for getting stuff done when everyone else is home is having a reliable internet connection.

It’s so frustrating to be in the middle of working on something, especially if there’s a deadline involved, and get disconnected. It used to happen to us all the time where a page wouldn’t load and I’d have to manually disconnect and reconnect to the internet. Recently we got the Deco M5 Wi-Fi system to help keep our entire house connected at all times.

The system comes with 3 receivers which is awesome because our tri level home has 3 floors (which may have been part of the problem with our connection before) so now everything is covered. I also love that the design of them fits in well with my modern theme – you barely notice they’re there! Also – while we aren’t quite ready for this yet, the system allows you to set advanced parental controls for your home so when Graham is bigger we can make sure he’s safely browsing the net on every device.

Find out more about the Deco M5 Wi-Fi system here. You can also find it on Amazon and get free prime shipping, love that!

So now I can work the evening away with no worries about our internet connection. It’s currently after 10:30 pm as I write this post…just a typical day in the life :)

I am lucky to have found a job I love that gives me the lifestyle I want. It’s not always easy fitting it all in, but I love working from home and being able to be with Graham. I love being able to go to lunch with a friend and being able to take advantage of nice weather. I do love a good Netflix binge, but working from home as a blogger, that’s definitely not all I do!