I think it is so important to accessorize your home to reflect your personality. As I was photographing our house for this new blog venture of mine, I realized that I apparently have a serious love for animals, because you can find a lot of animal accents throughout our home. Since realizing this, I have also noticed that I gravitate to animal figures while out shopping. I'm not sure why, but I do love it because it adds a sense of lightheartedness to our home.

Here are some of my favorite, quirky, animal pieces throughout our house. I'll begin with the birds....

This wooden black bird painting is by Sugarboo Designs, and I found it at Duh. There was just something about it that spoke to me and I had to have it. Plus it was on sale, and I can't pass up a good deal. I initially bought it to place in my son's nursery. Call me superstitious, but it didn't quite feel right putting a black bird in a baby's room. So it found a perfect home in our kitchen.

The Sugarboo art must have inspired me, because I created this triptych work of art for our downstairs powder room. I'll be honest, I needed something to put on this wall because we were having a huge party for a friend, and I hate having unfinished rooms. I literally painted this in about 30 minutes and it was meant to be temporary. I painted it to represent my sweet little family of three, and I just love it so much that it hasn't moved since I first put it up.

This cute little rough teak duck has a home in my kitchen window. Before we had our son, my husband and I took a trip down to the Florida Keys. We stayed at a resort on Duck Key. While we were doing a little shopping in Key West, I found this fun little guy and just had to have him. He will always remind us of our adventures on Duck Key.

In our bedroom, you can find some cute little owl bookends in our bookshelf. There is no senitmental story behind these, I just thought they were fun and cute.

As you may have seen in my last blog post about my home office, I have this gorgeous white moose head. He looked so plain up there on his own, so I found an inexpensive decorative frame at Hobby Lobby, painted it glossy white, and now the moose is a work of art and a unique focal point in my office space.

Also in my home office, I have this beautiful mennonite deer print. This again was a great sale find at Duh. I sometimes catch our sneaky elf putting a little red dot on his nose during the holidays, so he magically turns into Rudolph! My son loves it!

In my son's room, we found some great watercolor artwork of chocolate labs on Etsy. We just knew he would one day become best friends with our family chocolate lab, Maggie, so we wanted to incorporate dog art into his bedroom. And if you're wondering, yes, they are indeed the best of friends!

I kept my favorite animal piece for last, maybe because I created it. While I was pregnant, I painted this dog in a canoe for my son's room. I thought it would be a fun and whimsical touch for a little boy's room, and it's something he can keep forever. When we recently restyled his room, he specifically asked to keep it where it was. That makes me one happy mama.

Have a wonderful week, friends!!