Today, you can easily spend a huge amount of money on holiday decorations: Halloween decor that becomes an eyesore on November 1, Thanksgiving decorations that become unseasonal 3 weeks later, and Christmas decor which is appropriate for 5 weeks at best. Rejecting this holiday-specific marketing for outdoor decor, a few years ago I resolved…
When we decorate for Christmas, we usually just decorate typical things: putting up a Christmas tree, placing a wreath on the door, and perhaps putting outdoor lights on our house. But the chicken house in your yard can be a fun spot to add cheer and decorate for the holidays too. As Americans rediscover backyard…
Last winter in Seattle was colder and wetter than most, and with my social media feeds filling with the comfort-loving aesthetic of Hygge, I decided I needed more cozy throws in my life. Unsatisfied with cheap throws and fleece blankets, I wanted a very substantial blankie- and I found it in an unlikely place. Bainbridge…
I’ve always been enamored by sea glass. When I was eleven, growing up in Kansas, I vividly remember opening an envelope from a pen pal on the coast that contained the beautiful soft frosted glass pearls she said were known as “mermaid tears” in her family. As I’ve become, in my professional life, a person…
It’s no secret to anyone who visits my home or business that I love equestrian decor. Even so, I used to be surprised when my birthday rolled around each year and casual friends seemed to always think the perfect gift for me was a picture or painting of a horse. It made logical sense, I…
You’ve made the leap to your own home- perhaps even your first time taking the exhilarating ride of being a home owner, and you’ve done it on your own: How do the rules for decorating a “master bedroom” change in a climate where 15-20% of houses sold each year sell to a single woman? Standard…
This delightfully absurd pairing is a bit of your own creation, dear blog readers. 80% of Hawk Hill’s visitors surf in for articles related to A. chandeliers or B. equestrian style and design. I’m naming you enablers, just a bit, because in replying to your comments and keeping my mind brainstorming in these areas I’ve…
I’m almost as excited to share this project with my readers as I was to complete this project for myself! Creating this vintage train case turned marker holder has been my goal for a while, but it’s taken some patience to find the perfect train case and marker holder that fit without wasting a lot…
From 2010-2015 Hawk Hill’s stable was inhabited always by a horse or two and I ran a tack store out of a warehouse building on the property that was designed to look like a barn, so it seemed appropriate for both my use of the property and the design of the buildings themselves to integrate…
One fun thing about Hawk Hill now operating as a B & B is that I get to hear feedback about the house often. Of the questions I am asked, one of the most common is where I purchased the tiered, ruffled curtains in the grey bedroom, pictured here. The layers and layers of tiered…
With my home and business as my canvas and a shoestring budget my medium, I demonstrate how to create high impact projects, solutions, and mini-remodels in your home or business as well as unique and playful artistic creations. The bravery required to create art and the gutsy determination to try DIY are birds of a…
This blog can practically be read as a tribute to chandeliers, decorating with chandeliers, the decorating of chandeliers, and the reselling and hacking of chandeliers, but one thing regular blog readers might not know about me and my chandelier fixation is that I frequently use chandeliers for utility lighting. I visit thrift stores and Habitat for…
One of the most frequently Pinterest pinned images from this site is this photo, above, from my chicken coop / barnyard, taken in the summer of 2013 (give or take a year), showing a an old leather horse halter that I converted into a hanger for a galvanized bucket of Calibrachoa flowers. The noseband of…
Within a week of signing the lease on my tiny studio apartment in Seattle, I had one of my favorite vintage chandeliers shipped to me from Missouri. Determined my new life had to have at least one chandelier, I converted it from a light fixture to a lamp with a plug and set about finding…
When I was a child my daydreams were filled with visions of riding and showing a big grey horse. When I was 23, fresh out of college and making a steady income for the first time, I had the opportunity to make that dream a reality and I spent most of my free time in…
Though I only make it to Ikea about once a year, I’ve been eyeing the Emmie Blom duvet for awhile. Finally, I grew tired of my Anthropologie Rosette quilt and decided Emmie Blom might be an inexpensive makeover (and make up, just a little, for my previous splurge on Anthropologie bedding). Paired with a basic…
A few readers have commented on a decorating feature in my house that I’ve never really mentioned on my blog: the natural tree branches wired to the ceiling in my living room. I’ve never blogged about it because my friends seem to either love them or really, really hate them- and it’s hard to blog…
