Decor changes....or not

I forgot to mention a "big" purchase we made last weekend. Sort of an anniversary/birthday present. We still have most of my year end bonus in savings, so DH wanted to get us some night stands for our bedroom. We bought our bed about 8 years ago and then got the matching dresser a few years after that. The night stands we have had for the past 31 years are nothing special and don't match. One was from my teenage years - a piece of particle board crap. The other one was nicer, solid wood - gotten for free from one of my mom's neighbors when we first got married.

Of course, after all these years, since we bought the bed and dresser, this style is no longer being made. DD and I went to the big furniture store and looked around for something as close as possible.  This is what I ended up with:

The wood is a little bit lighter than the bed and dresser, but it's the closest I could get. The knobs and pulls are very similar. They weren't cheap, either. $218 each. (well, that's expensive in my book). But they look really nice in our room and will last us the rest of our life (and then some).

How often do you change the decor in your home? I really don't very often, but I sure have been wanting to more lately. I guess I'm tired of looking at some of the same pictures and knickknacks I have been looking at for 15-30 years!I know of one person who changes her decor every season!

Most of my decor got put in place about 16 or 17 years ago. I think DD was around 3 or 4. I had gone to someone's "Home Interiors" party. I had no money to spend (of course) and ended up just buying a couple of their candles in a jar. for $5 each. But I ooogled over the whole catalog and the thing I liked the most turned out to be a "hostess" item -  meaning I had to host a party in order to be able to get it. I'm not usually one for hosting parties like that, but I really wanted that item bad!  What is it? I still have it and actually still love it! It sits on a wall in between my living room and dining room (the horse and greenery were from this company too).

I still remember this company's catalogs. Different groupings of decor for different rooms, styles, etc. I booked my party, invited everyone I knew. Quite a few came and they spent a lot of money! Plus it was a hostess double points promotion. So much money everyone spent that I was able to get this free and I still had so many points leftover that I got to get a lot more too!  And most of it is still decorating my house. I still like the things, but just ready for a change in scenery, ya know?!

At the time I was in the process of changing dd's room over from baby to toddler. I was able to do her almost her whole room with the free stuff. It was kind of a "country charm" theme, I guess you'd say. I had an adorable patchwork comforter on her twin bed, painted the walls a light yellow and got this little collection of "stuff". She still has that part left in her room all these years later. (a couple of things she added to the shelf later)

This is also still in her room, as you walk in the door. I painted the coat hook myself, made the little wood bear and the stuffed bears were gifts she was given when born.

In my dining room, I still have the free stuff I got from the party sales that are a "western/cowboy theme". This stuff I still really like, for some reason. I think I'm still a Montana girl in my blood (born there)

I had also gotten some bathroom decorations, but those got replaced when we remodeled our bathrooms about a year and a half ago.

I got this "grouping" for my bedroom

I also got a whole bunch of fake greenery. Example here, above our built in china cabinet

I have some of this greenery stuff other places in the house too. I actually would love to get a couple more pieces, but can't find anything this nice anywhere I have looked (Joann's and Michael's).

After I got all my free stuff I still actually had a whole bunch of points still left to spend. It was crazy. The lady told me I could wait and see what new stuff might be in the next catalog.  Then one day she calls me up and says she's getting out of the the business of selling for this company. She had a ton of stuff at her home she wanted to get rid of, marked way down and I could use my leftover points. I remember going over to her house and using up the rest of my points on a couple of nice big pictures. One is in my living room still

It's not crooked, I promise LOL. and it looks kind of weirdly smallish for the wall in this pic, but I think that's because you can't see the ceiling just above the picture line and the bedroom door frame just to the right. It actually does fit the wall space nicely.  I remember liking this picture a lot, but there was a small gouge in the gold frame. The lady said "oh, I can fix that right up - she grabbed a gold colored marker pen and filled it right in". Couldn't even tell. LOL.  I also got this picture for my bedroom. Kind of Thomas Kincaide style

So, I was basically able to decorate my home for free. It was awesome. Especially because I was a stay at home mom, DH wasn't making squat and I couldn't have afforded even one of these items to buy on my own.

I would like to start replacing a few pieces. Right now I really want to replace that picture over the couch with this clock

It's fairly large - 24" in diameter. I have been pricing it on the internet. The first place I saw it (through Pinterest) was Houzz and they wanted $89. Then I found it online with Walmart for $77. I see Houzz has it down to $77 now. Amazon carries it too. It's what I'm saving up for right now.  I'm either going to wait until I have more in my Walmart savings catcher rewards or I need to amp up doing Swagbucks so I can earn some more Amazon gift cards. I only have about $13 in Walmart $, as I spent the $90 I had earned in cashback at Christmas time. I do also have almost enough points with Receipt Hog to cash in for a $20 Amazon gift card (or just to PayPal).

Once DH hangs up the 2 new pictures I got for my office/bedroom, I'll snap some pictures of those. One was from Ross for $17 and the other was a birthday gift.