Lemon Thistle - Rad DIY and design for 'the rest of us'

Sep 17

Modern Neutrals Fall Home Tour

Sep 17

Sharing my home all decorated for autumn… without the orange (yet!). Welcome to my modern neutrals fall home tour!

I am never quite sure how to start home tour blog posts. Welcome! Come on in! It’s my house! I decorated for fall! Ha- either way… it’s home tour time! This week is the Seasonal Simplicity fall home tour week and today it’s my turn to share along with some other amazing bloggers! You can see them all down at the bottom of this post, but if you’re here from Life is a Party… welcome!

I know a lot of bloggers would break this up into a few blog posts. Modern neutrals fall living room decor… How to decorate a kitchen for fall… whatever it might be. But I kind of like having it all in one place!

Sep 11

Simple Fall Mantel (thoughts on less is more in home decor)

Sep 11

A simple fall mantel that embraces less is more for autumn decorating… and a discussion on how less decor has helped my sanity!

We’re having a few rainy days here and it’s like magic, all of a sudden I’m in the fall mood. I was hanging on to summer. Wanting a few more weeks of slow mornings and long nights but school is back in, I’m dressing the kids in sweaters and I decorated my house for fall. Just like that, friends.

Today I’m excited to be sharing my fall mantel decor with you guys and with a bunch of other amazing bloggers for the Seasonal Simplicity fall mantel hop hosted by my friend Krista from The Happy Housie! Every time I do these hops, we get the images ahead of time so we can share it at the bottom of our posts. And most of the time I’m really confident in what I create. I love to create, craft, and decorate and I feel like I’ve really found my own style over the past couple of years. But sometimes I look at all those beautiful pictures and I feel like what I’ve put together is lacking.

I mean… it’s certainly not over the top! But more than that, I feel like I didn’t do enough to be inspiring. Does that make sense? Like… when you’re hopping around looking at mantels, you want it to be full of ideas and this mantel is not FULL. But that’s also what I’m so drawn to lately. This is what works for our family and I don’t want to put on a show for you either.

I actually shot this mantel twice. I shot it once with a floral arrangement in that large vase (see it below). But I walked by it all day and it bugged me. It felt too fancy for our family. So while dinner was on the stove, I pulled it apart, ran into my yard and snipped some more branches and made it a wild foliage arrangement. I gifted the flowers that were in there to a friend that night. Continue Reading…

Sep 07

3 Dollar Store DIY Ideas for the Home!

Sep 07

3 Rad Dollar Store DIY Ideas for your home… that you actually want in your home! All three crafts rang in at $6 from Dollar Tree!

Today I’m excited to be joining my friend Christine from Amidst The Chaos for a collaboration over on YouTube… a Dollar Tree DIY Challenge! We challenged each other to take a trip to the dollar store and pick out some items to create some rad home decor DIY with. I definitely overshot the ‘make a couple things’ part of that and have more than enough to make some fall DIYs as well, so at the end of the video I challenged Christine to another round.

It was so fun to get back into the dollar store and really think about how I could use those affordable items to get creative. Since moving into this place last year, I really have only been into the dollar store before birthday parties to load up on supplies since we’ve been so busy with the remodel. It was fun to stretch myself creatively to create some items that are totally my modern style but at a wicked good price. I can’t wait to show you what I’ve made!Continue Reading…

Sep 05

Free SVG Maple Leaf Line Art Sign

Sep 05

I’m launching SVG files in my shop so I’m celebrating by giving one of them away! This line art maple leaf is so pretty on a DIY acrylic sign. Sharing how to make it + where to find the bundle of line art leaves!

After making my DIY acrylic sign for fall last week… you know the one that looks almost exactly like this, but bigger and hand lettered… I had to give it another go with one of these leaf files! Aubrey actually suggested that I draw leaves on that first sign but I had my heart set on the quote. I think I might give her this one to decorate her room for fall with since she was so set on the idea.

Last year I drew these line art leaves for my free printable fall to-do list. I have loved the design since and even started making them into SVG files last year but got sidetracked. I was determined to get it done this year! So I actually have 5 leaves that I created for that printable and that I’ve turned into SVGs. I totally love them as a set, so put those in my shop RIGHT HERE (my first SVG bundle! expect to see more soon!) but wanted to give one of them to you guys for free and show you how you can make something rad with it!

I chose the maple leaf (how Canadian of me!) as the freebie and continued with my obsession of acrylic signs. You can snag that below. These are really simple to make as long as your acrylic is the right size. This time around I wanted a smaller sign so had to cut mine. I’ve done this before so knew what to do. You can check out this post right here if you’re needing to cut acrylic! Alright… ready for the file + DIY? Continue Reading…

Aug 29

Never Stop Learning – September Free Backgrounds

Aug 29

Sharing this months new free backgrounds for all your devices! Calendars, monthly script and a hand lettered quote for your computer, phone and tablet… plus a free printable version of the quote, ‘Never Stop Learning’!

September always feels like such a fresh start and it’s usually one of my favourite months of the year. But this year I’m SO not ready, you guys! I’ve loved having the twins home from school for the summer. I’ve loved our slow mornings and days full of whatever we choose. We’re not done half the renovations we’d aspired to this summer. We’re not done every last adventure we’d dreamed of doing this summer. But the calendar says summer break is over so I need to get my head in the game for fall activities and drop offs and allll the stuff that comes with it. At least there’s weekends, right?! ;)

In the spirit of ‘back to school’, this month’s tech wallpaper is all about learning! ‘Never stop learning’ is such a good reminder even as an adult who’s not taking any kind of school. I love learning and I want to remember to make time for it. Whether that’s reading a book about self development (or something else fun!), learning how to integrate a new plugin on my website or learning how to create in a new way (for all my crafty friends!). I hope you make time for it this fall!

If you’re new to Lemon Thistle, every month, I create free handlettered backgrounds for you to download. I make each a quote version, a calendar version, and a monthly script version in each desktop, phone, and tablet sizes. You can take your pick! I also create a free printable 8×10 version of the quote for my e-mail friends. If you’re not yet signed up for my list, you can get in on the updates and freebies right here!

Enough with the chatter, am I right? JUST GIVE ME THE GOODS! Just click the linked words below to download the tech wallpapers!Continue Reading…

Aug 28

Fall DIY Acrylic Sign

Aug 28

This fall DIY acrylic sign is simple to make with a brush stroke ombre background + fine line hand lettering… plus it’s affordable with this tip for finding affordable acrylic!

Fall decor always comes early and we’ve been seeing halloween in stores for weeks. I’m not totally ready for it (the twins are in grade one this year… that feels way more real than kinder did!) but I am excited to start crafting some decor for fall! This is a DIY I’ve been wanting to try for a while and when I was brainstorming what to create for today’s Seasonal Simplicity fall series DIY… well, these colours were too good to resist!

I really love how this one turned out but I totally cracked it, trying to rush the drying… fanning it aggressively. *sigh* So I’m definitely going to be making another DIY acrylic sign and might even do two at a time so I can try some different things… like maybe a texture instead of ombre! I mean… look at the amazing shine on this sign! And with all the texture from the brush strokes. I’m obsessed. Just look at it in the sun! (I had it outside to pick the sunflowers- ha!)

Anyways… want to see the how-to? AND if you’re looking for more fall DIYs, make sure to scroll down to the bottom and check out all the amazing ones in the Seasonal Simplicity series!

Free Printable 2020 Calendars Are Here! (5 Formats!)

Fall DIY Acrylic Sign

Modern Entryway Reveal

Modern Neutrals Fall Home Tour

Simple Fall Mantel (thoughts on less is more in home decor)

3 Dollar Store DIY Ideas for the Home!

Free SVG Maple Leaf Line Art Sign

Never Stop Learning – September Free Backgrounds

Fall DIY Acrylic Sign

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