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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

Book
Speaking
Meet Vanessa
- Featured

Recipes

July 25, 2017

Sun Tea and a Summer Story

June 29, 2017

How to Make Lavender Simple Syrup

June 24, 2017

Weekend Wonderings

May 24, 2017

Patriotic Desserts

March 31, 2017

Baked Lemon Rosemary Donuts

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Built In Shelving Makeover in Family Room August 31, 2022
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Christmas Kitchen and Family Room December 19, 2021
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A simple fall mantle put together in under 10 minu

A simple fall mantle put together in under 10 minutes means more time to enjoy the season! All of my decorating this year is centered around simplicity and using what I have on hand. The first day of fall is upon us and I’m here for it! 🍂

I can’t help but think that one of the best thin

I woke up yesterday morning and discovered a pimpl

I woke up yesterday morning and discovered a pimple right in the middle of my nose. I’m sorry but STILL getting pimples at the same time as I’m getting wrinkles and grey hair is just flat out wrong. Can I get an amen? 🙌🏻

In happier news, cooler weather has arrived here in the Willamette Valley and I’m slowly starting to transition my decor to reflect the changing season.

Have you started decorating for fall yet?

When we moved into our home 14 years ago, I was so

When we moved into our home 14 years ago, I was so thrilled to have more storage than I could have ever dreamed of. And in our family room, that included built-in lower cabinets on either side of the fireplace that were quickly filled up with toys, games CD’s and DVD’s. Yes, those ancient relics of technology. This was almost 15 years ago folks! But, I could never understand why the builder didn’t ‘finish’ the job and install upper shelving as well.

Money was tight in those years as a family with young kids on one income, so we did the best we could to make inexpensive, DIY improvements knowing that, someday, we would be able to finish it properly.

Prior to having all of the cabinets in our house painted white, we lived with the cherry finish for quite awhile and found matching shelves to put above the built in cabinets. *photo 2*

I cringe when I see these photos because they look SO different from my style now but that’s all part of growing into yourself, isn’t it? But, seriously, I can’t believe this is the same home!

Then, when we had all of the cabinets painted white, we made a slight upgrade to the floating shelves. *photo 3*.

But, this year we decided it was past time to take this space up a few notches. So, we asked our incredibly talented friend Matt from @redemptive_woodworx to build us new floating shelves and add shiplap to the wall behind them.

And we couldn’t be more happy with the results!

With the upcoming fall and holiday season, I can’t wait to have fun with these shelves and enjoying this FINALLY completed space! 👏🏻

In the Little House on the Prairie episode entitle

In the Little House on the Prairie episode entitled “A Harvest of Friends,” Laura Ingalls utters one of my favorite lines ever spoken or written in any series.

“Home is the nicest word there is.”

As we say goodbye to summer and spend more time indoors, I truly believe that this phrase takes on even more meaning. Even though fall can still be a very busy time of the year, we find ourselves needing home to be the place where we rest and refuel. And, as the landscape outside our windows takes on a golden hue, this is the perfect time to refresh our decor to reflect the new season. If you focus your time and energy on just a few areas and spend only a few minutes of time on each one, you’ll soon be ready to welcome fall to your home.

I joined the @joyfullifemagazine this month to share some easy ways to welcome the new season to your home!

“As the alluring song of September begins to whi

“As the alluring song of September begins to whisper in my ear, my passionate spirit yearns for the splendor of its promise.” (Peggy Toney Horton).

Happy September dear friends! 🍂

It’s 97 degrees here in the Willamette Valley as

It’s 97 degrees here in the Willamette Valley as I type these words so it seems crazy to be thinking about fall but with Labor Day this coming weekend and kids heading back to school I know those cooler days are right around the corner.

Which means I’m looking back at how I’ve decorated for fall in the past while I make plans for this year’s decor. What I know for sure is that whenever I get started, I’ll be keeping things simple and affordable!

How about you? When will you start decorating for fall?

I can’t let the summer go by without making lave

I can’t let the summer go by without making lavender simple syrup! It’s my absolute favorite to add to iced tea and also so yummy in a cocktail. And it couldn’t be easier to make. I mean, it has the word ‘simple’ right in the name!

Pour one cup of water into a pot, add one cup of sugar, toss in a few snips of lavender and then bring it to a boil. Once it starts boiling remove it from the heat, strain the lavender and voila!

Cheers to these last few weeks of summer!

I’m slightly obsessed with lavender and have pla

I’m slightly obsessed with lavender and have planted it all around our home. Seeing it waving in the breeze, using it to make simple syrup and just breathing it in as I walk past fills my soul!

Matthew 7:13-14 says, “Enter through the narrow

Matthew 7:13-14 says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.”.
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When I was a little girl we took a trip to Silver Dollar City theme park in Branson, MO. One of the attractions there is the Marvel Cave. The whole theme park was actually built right around the cave! I will never forget the feeling of descending into the darkness. We had to walk down a steep, narrow path and I could feel the rocky walls beginning to close in on me. From time to time, our guide would even have to call out for us to duck our heads so as not to whack them on rocks that were jutting out. And just when it felt like we had been walking forever; just when it felt the most narrow and the most dark; just when we were starting to get really weary from navigating this path, we turned the corner and found ourselves awestruck as we gazed at this enormous room. Everywhere we looked there were stalactites and stalagmites. Lights had been installed and they reflected off of these formations creating the most beautiful colors on the walls. There were pools of water in a shade of aquamarine I had never seen before and waterfalls flowing from upper levels. That long, winding, damp trek had been so very worth it. The descent into darkness had revealed light…and life!

My prayer for you friends, is that you will look at that narrow path with the small gate as an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to experience the kind of freedom that our souls are longing for. The wide and broad path of the world promises us a freedom that is fleeting and temporary. But at the end of the narrow path, there is hope and peace and life everlasting.

I’m choosing the narrow path. And in spite of the hardships, in spite of the challenges and the fears and the times that can feel as dark as the journey down into a cave, I wouldn’t trade a single minute of it.

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