Ohhhh…. I love outdoor lights at night…. How about you?
This is one project I couldn’t wait for. I’ve been praying for a beautiful garden all lit up at night for several years now, so I was very excited to shop for some gorgeous lighting for our new gardens.
I knew I wanted to shop my favorite go-to, Amazon, as they always have a very large selection of everything to choose from, and I love being able to shop from home sometimes, so yeah, they definitely had some exciting offerings to choose from.
We went with three different varieties of solar lights. Swaying Outdoor Lights (or Firefly Lights), Cracked Glass Ball/Globe Lights, and Pathway Lights (Lantern look).
Everything arrived very quickly and very nicely boxed.
Everything was pretty much assembled and ready to go. The only assembly was attaching the posts to the Pathway Lights, which Willie accomplished brillliantly.
We love that all the solar lights we purchased are automatic on/off. You just have to set them to “on”.
We acquired all the lights in March. It is now April and they have been coming on like clock-work every evening, and staying on all night long. I have risen very early before sunrise, and they’ve all still been on, and shining bright. They are all so beautiful, and have been very durable as well. The only evenings that they have not all stayed on overnight, has been due to rainy days. On sunny days, they are good to go, which makes perfect sense; they are powered by the sun.
They add so much enchantment, so effortlessly. Let’s take a look from our front door at dusk:
Royalview’s Front Door Lighted Path
We love this view so much, and now it’s been made extra special with the addition of the Solar Pathway Lights.
These lights are all just too much fun. As our gardens have grown, the lights still are holding their own, and shining tall and bright every night. We couldn’t be more pleased with every one of them.
Which is your favorite? Or, are you like me, and love them all? Feel free to leave a comment!
Till next time, stay safe, and follow your joy! God is good!
Johanna and Willie
acrossthelake.blog
(Willie and I are Amazon Associates. All links that you follow from our posts are directly connected to Amazon. Any purchases you make from our links will earn us a commission. Thank you!)
Solar Lights, Solar Pathway Lights, Solar Cracked Glass Ball Globe Lights, Solar Swaying Lightening Bug Lights, Amazon Finds, Amazon Associates, Garden Lights, Texas Gardens
I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am that Willie and I are beginning to get our bedroom decorated. Certainly now feeling more like home here at Royalview.
We’ve been searching for a little while now for the bedding that we wanted to have here at Royalview. We love the look that we’ve achieved in our main living/dining room areas, and want to keep our theme going throughout our home, but without being too matchy. We came across this rustic quilt set while at the dentist’s office, actually , and thought this could be the one. This quilt/cover is lighter than a comforter, so it will be perfect for us now, going into the warmer months ahead.
It’s really quite lovely. It has the look/feel of a quilt, and I do love how the blue and white patterned pieces look very similar to the area rugs in our living and dining rooms. (See previous post re: Area Rugs)
I love that this quilt brings warmth to our bedroom, with it having not only the blue and white squares that go with our whole house theme, but also warming beige and browns. It enhances our bedroom furniture very well.
This gorgeous sheet set we chose from Feather & Stitch, really gives our bedding an overall wow-factor in pattern explosion.
This is really rolling out the country home theme here, but with elegance.
Here’s a peek at our dresser decor:
I told you we’ve been shopping! Various pieces shown here were shopped at Mimi’s on Main, Conroe, TX, and Hobby Lobby.
We still have a little ways to go, especially in our bathroom, but we’re getting there, and it does feel so much more homier now. Couldn’t be happier with how everything is coming together. It’s been so much fun shopping with Willie, and then yesterday, working together to get our room decorated. That’s what it’s all about. Building a happy home together with much love.
Till next time, stay safe, and follow your joy! God is truly good!
Johanna and Willie
acrossthelake.blog
Amazon Associates, Rustic Bedroom Decor, French County Home Decor, Lakehouse Decor, Rustic Quilt Set, Paisley Sheet and Pillowcase Set
The task of choosing the floor coverings for Royalview has not been taken lightly. We definitely wanted blue and white area rugs to go with our Lake House/French Country Home theme, as well as something that would be easy for us to install, and care for. We looked through a lot of designs and loved this Vintage Medallion Carpet that we found on Amazon. It is a washable, ultra thin, low pile area rug that really checked all the boxes for us.
It is so soft. It feels wonderful under bare feet. Now, this rug is thinner than any we’ve ever owned, and at first I wasn’t sure how we’d feel about it, but you know, it was easy for us to unpack and lay down ourselves, so that was an instant plus.
It lays very well. We’ve owned this now since February, so we’ve been living with it for a little while to see how it performs, and we’re still loving it a lot. We opted to not get padding, so it’s very close to the floor, but we’ve been fine with that. It seems to keep us from having any tripping issues as well, since it is thin to the floor. We have not had any slipping or movement issues either. Win, win, win, on this one.
We’re really enjoying the color and pattern of this beautiful area rug as well. The color tones are perfect for our furniture. This particular rug that we chose comes in different colors and patterns. This one is a Vintage Medallion Carpet in Blue-06, and we got to choose the size we wanted, which is 8×10.
We’ve enjoyed this rug so much, we decided to purchase another one for our dining room, this time in the size 6×9.
We think these rugs are really beautiful. They have a vintage, worn look, but still have vibrant color. Perfect for the look we’re trying to achieve in our home decor here at Royalview.
I wanted to also show you a closeup of our table decor. I purchased a vase with a faux floral arrangement from the brand Leftover on Amazon for our table, and we’re very happy with it.
I chose this arrangement for it’s vintage country style vase, and the wispy blue, purple, and white faux florals. It’s so pretty, and has some eucalyptus sprigs as well.
The big surprise in our dining room table decor is the large blue and white platter.
Would you believe I’ve had this and didn’t even know it? It’s the truth! I brought this along with us here to Royalview without even realizing it. I had some old platters that were apparently handed down to me? Given to me? by someone in my family. I was going through some of our boxes and found this with the other platters. I was so shocked. It is perfect for our home here.
I couldn’t have even imagined a more beautiful or fitting piece of decor for Royalview, and apparently I’ve had this for years without even realizing.
It’s like it’s meant to be here with me now at this time, and at this place.
But, back to our floor decor, here’s a picture of how the rugs look in both our dining and living room areas combined.
Project Decorate Royalview has been in full swing around here lately. We’ve had several fun decor shopping sprees this past week, which included a fun birthday shopping spree with my Aunt Bunny at Mimi’s on Main, in Conroe, TX, and a spree at Yesterday’s Treasures in Willis, TX.
On Bunny’s birthday we traveled to downtown Conroe to visit Mimi’s on Main. Mimi’s is a very charming antique mall with so many beautiful things to see.
Aunt Bunny at Mimi’s on Main, Conroe, TX
This booth up front caught my eye right away with that fire engine and Flapper fashion. So fun!
Fun Antique Finds at Mimi’s on Main, Conroe, TX
Easter decor was in full display.
Easter Decor at Mimi’s on Main, Conroe, TX
So many beautiful things to shop.
Farmhouse Decor at Mimi’s on Main, Conroe, TX
We enjoyed visiting all the different vendor booths at Mimi’s. Bunny really liked the old books, and we came across a little child’s tea set just like the one we used to play with together when we were children (Bunny and I are only 6 years apart in age). There were a lot of things there that reminded us of our childhood. Perhaps we’re antiques too!
Tea for Two Poem, Antique Books at Mimi’s on Main, Conroe, TX
We had such a great time browsing, and I did find several pieces to bring home with me. Yay!
I found these 2 cuties together so I purchased them together. They are now residing on our entertainment center in the living room. I love their distressed white washed look, and I’m collecting quite a few bird figurines, so perfect! I do not know what the other figurine is exactly. It reminds me of a chess piece. But it’s really pretty and ornate.
Cute Ceramic Pieces from Mimi’s
I love this next piece. Willie picked this out for me to hang my jewelry from. I almost didn’t get it, but now I’m glad I did. It’s so pretty, and makes my necklaces so easy to store and choose from. There are smaller little hooks on the inside portion where I’m hanging my bracelets. White wash distressed look – bingo!
Antiqued Jewelry Holder from Mimi’s on Main, Conroe, TX
Willie and I had another antiquing spree the next day. We invited Bunny to join us, but she had another engagement. Hopefully we can meet up with her sometime soon at Yesterday’s Treasures. This antique mall is in Willis, Texas.
This was our second visit. I found a lot that I loved on our first time around, so we went back again to spend more time there looking at everything.
Yesterday’s Treasures Antique Mall, Willis, TX
I absolutely love all the blue and white kitchenware and dishes residing in one of the booths.
Beautiful Blue and White Kitchenware and Dishes from Yesterday’s Treasures, Willis, TX
I picked up this vase and brought it home with me. I saw it previously and left it behind, but this time I got it. The big incentive was a marked down price from $20.00 to $12.00. It is huge. 18 inches in height.
I know the paint is kind of gaudy, and that’s why I didn’t pick it up the first time, but I’m thinking paint project… I have another piece (woodwork) that I brought with me to Royalview that I’ll be painting soon as well, so we’ll see what we can do with this one too.
Here are some other finds from Yesterday’s Treasures that are now residing at Royalview:
Fun Antique Finds from Yesterday’s Treasures, Willis, TX
This setting is on the top of our entertainment center in the living room. Everything pictured is from Yesterday’s Treasures except for the wood riser (Amazonaffiliate link), and the worded metal plaque.
Check out these cuties we picked out for our coffee table.
That little horse caught my eye, it’s so ornate and the pattern on it’s body compliments the table runner and our living room rug so well. I’ll share our Amazon rug finds in a future post. They’re really pretty. But the table runner is from Amazon as well. This is a Blue and White Peacock print. Here is our Amazon affiliate link to that. I ordered two of these. This one’s size is 13×60. I also purchased a 13×90.
Also in the coffee table setting is an antiqued white lantern in which I placed a cute little blue bird that has rocking chair legs. The lantern was a fun surprise. There was a couple (vendors) who were packing up things in their booth, and I stopped by to ask them a question, and they asked if I would like the lantern. I said yes, and they gave me a $20.00 discount. It was priced at $35.00, and they sold it to me for $15.00.
Rounding out the Yesterday’s Treasure coffee table setting is a really pretty glass bowl. This one caught my eye as it was casting the most beautiful blue hue at the antique mall. I need to find the right lighting to get it to glow the same here. The top portion has a milky hue in which you can see the iridescence.
I just really love how I am able to find pieces that go together to create a unique look and feel in every setting. I call the setting on our entertainment center our Alice in Wonderland Setting. All the items came from different booths and I wasn’t really going for any theme, they just all ended up going very well together and had the Alice vibe to me after I arranged and set them all together.
This last Yesterday’s Treasure setting is on an end table that we brought with us. I first purchased a blue and white lamp on a previous visit to replace a lamp that we brought with us that no longer matched our decor, then on our next visit, I found some more goodies to complete the setting.
The faux books were an Amazon purchase since I knew that was something specific I needed to add some height. The ones I picked out are so beautiful and they are actually storage boxes as well as lovely decor. The larger blue book says Oscar Claude Monet, and the beige book on top says Rembrandt Paintings and Portraits. So classy. The wooden butterfly is from Hobby Lobby (yeah, those are other hauls). So I had already purchased those 2 items to go with the lamp, but it needed something else, so I had that in mind while shopping at Yesterday’s Treasures, and found the 2 bird plaques and the wooden bead garland to pull it all together. I’m really loving it now.
So, as you can tell from this post, we have been shopping decor in local small business shops, local big box stores, as well as our favorite go-to, Amazon. It has brought about a very eclectic mix of items, and I’m having so much fun curating different but complimenting looks for all the areas around our new home.
We have also purchased wall decor, but have not hung any of that as of yet. We’ll get to that next hopefully. Willie is also working on putting together patio furniture we purchased from Amazon. Looking forward to that getting all set up. We have an electrician coming out to install a new ceiling fan under our patio, so there’s a lot of things going on over here, as usual, and we are loving it!
Till next time, stay safe, and follow your joy! God is truly good!
Johanna and Willie
acrossthelake.blog
P.S. I’ll leave you with some more fun moments from Bunny’s birthday outing!
She’s such a ham!
Birthday brunch at First Watch
They brought out Bacon Cornbread for her Birthday Cake
Thank you to the very friendly Manager for Bunny’s impromptu birthday cake!
Emma from First Watch. She’s a blast!
Thank you First Watch Willis, TX for a very fun and delicious birthday brunch!
Antique shopping Conroe, Willis, Texas, Decor Haul, Home Decor, Lake House, French Country Home Decor
Across the Lake 