Hello Life Made Lovely readers! My name is Alison. I share bits of my life as a wife, stay at home Momma, and somewhat crafty girl on my blog, Little Green Thread, and sell sewn items in my Etsy shop. I was honored when Heather asked me to share my dining room / homeschool space on Room Made Lovely. I’m thrilled to be a part of this new series.

My husband and I have two little boys, ages 5 and 3 1/2, and we spend a lot of time in this space. This is where we eat, learn, work and craft. Many evenings you can find my husband & I at our dining room table, him working and me sewing. Our home is such an eclectic mix of furniture & decor, and I love that about it. We don’t have a particular style, and have always mixed lots of colors and patterns. We are guided by what we love, even if it doesn’t necessarily “go together”. Much of what we own was purchased early in our marriage, or was gifted to us, so it all holds a lot of meaning. It has always been important to me that our home feels warm and inviting, and that no spaces were “off limits”. I want it to be a space that our friends and family can come in and feel welcome and at home.

I have always loved decorating for Christmas, but never did much in the way of Fall decor until last year. These fabric pumpkins were the first of many projects I took on, and I loved the way they turned out. They are one of my favorite things I’ve made for my home.

The crocheted garland that hangs on our chalkboard was made by good friend Christa, and the table runner was a gift from my friend Virginia. The yellow pitcher was purchased a few years ago at a local craft fair, and is filled with tree branches that I collected from our yard and spray painted. Anyone who knows me knows that I love, love, love coffee. A lot. The second I saw this “I love you more than coffee” print from Katy Girl Designs I knew I had to make it mine.

This is our first year homeschooling. My original plan was to have our school space in our (somewhat finished) basement, but I quickly realized that wasn’t practical, so we turned a small corner of our dining room into a place to hold all of our schooling supplies. I love this arrangement. I love that we can all sit at the dining room table together, or that the boys can work independently, and I can still be close by because of our open layout.

I was also home-shooled off & on until high school, and this is the same desk my sisters and I used. The chair was purchased at a local antique store, as was the green basket that holds flash cards, crayons, pencils, and small dry erase boards & markers. I purchased two old clipboards at a thrift store for $1 each, and painted them. They now hold inspirational prints from my good friend Lindsay’s shop, Pen and Paint (the large painting you can see hanging on my living room wall was also done by Lindsay).

My grandmother passed away in December of 2006, two months before I found out I was pregnant with our oldest child. We gave him the middle name Gable, which was her last name (my mother’s maiden name). I inherited several pieces of china from her collection, including the tea pots & sugar bowl above. She & I were very close, and it means a lot to me to have these beautiful items that belonged to her.

Thank you so much for joining me on this little tour, and a big thank you to Heather for having me!