Five Days… With Pictures!!

Despite a really, really awful week at work last week, progress inside the house is getting made.

  • Put up the Christmas tree
  • Do “something else” with the fireplace (paint or replace items inside)
  • Purchase a rug pad for diamond jute rug in living room
  • Purchase a rug pad for zebra rug in guest room
  • Clean off the guest bed so it’s sleep-able
  • Generally make guest room ready for guests
  • Do a little more festive Christmas decorating
  • Decide yes or no on outdoor Christmas lights
  • Get a shower curtain (right now we just have a liner)
  • Curtain clips for the dining room
  • Hang higher curtain rod in guest room
  • Do a little kitchen re-organizing
  • Buy groceries (so they don’t starve while they’re here! Our fridge is usually a big cold empty box…)
  • Liven up the white wasteland that is the hallway (halfway there!)
  • Hang pictures in guest room and master bedroom
  • Frost window on kitchen door and in bathroom (I want to try this)
  • Paint front-door dresser and move cold-weather accessories into its drawers

This weekend saw a few minor updates, we are still working on digging out the guest bedroom… we’re quite close, actually and I’ll be able to post pictures sometime this week! I crossed off a few less-urgent items, even after all my prioritizing by making things bold last week. Isn’t that always how it goes? We picked up a couple of curtain rods for the guest room and hung them–they look magnificent :) Elsewhere in the house we have dark bronze but since the paint is so dark in the guestroom we decided to go with brushed nickel and I really love it.

My Christmas decorating is officially done, except for a project I have in the works to use for the I Heard A Lion Christmas party which will be at my house this year. I’m not going to start working on it until my parents have come and gone, though, so no more hints on that :) Here’s what I have so far…

We set the tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving (heresy, I know) since it was our last free weekend until the New Year, more or less. Busy busy!!

Saturday we swung by Hobby Lobby and got in a knock-down drag-out brawl (okay, not really) with the middle aged ladies in the faux greenery aisle but came out victorious with some more-or-less matching “pine branches” which were easily slipped behind the big photo frame and instantly gave the mantel the little “something” it had been missing.

Oh, and here are the curtain clips we bought a few weeks ago. I like the interest they give at the top–before the wall of curtains was a bit too “heavy,” I think. Since adding them, the curtains have the opposite problem than before (when they were too short), they drag on the ground a little more than I wanted them to. However, Doug suspects they’re helping avert a chilly draft so for now they’ll pool on the ground slightly. The nice thing about these rings is that it makes the curtains wayyyyy easier to open and close. Before they were getting hung up on the parts where the curtain rod joins together. Now they slide freely. So that’s good :)

So, looking at these photos gives me something else to add to my to-do list… steam curtains? Man they’re all really wrinkly!

Merry Christmas.

Everybody have a safe and happy Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Greetings from Southern California B-)

O (3 foot tall) Christmas Tree…

Well, I didn’t want to get a tree this year because we’ll be spending Christmas eve and Christmas day in sunny (although lately I hear that isn’t the case) California. Doug loves Christmas trees apparently and insisted that we get one… so we got one from the Evil Empire (Wal-Mart) and put it up Thanksgiving evening after returning from the afternoon with his family. Now, I’m glad we did because having it in the living room has helped me feel “Christmasy” all season long :)

I have saved the photos until now to keep you in suspense! Just kidding. I didn’t want to jump the gun because I didn’t feel like the tree was finished. Which it wasn’t, as I kept finding nice things to add to it until just a little bit ago. Now it’s finished and ready for a reveal. I was going to post this on Friday, Christmas eve, but then I thought people might not be at their computers obsessively checking my blog that day. So now’s as good a time as any to share the festivities with you!

Here she is, in all her 3-foot glory.

We set it up on our record album cabinet and used a set of curtains that came with the apartment (that I’d changed out but kept for just such an occasion) for a tree skirt. Oh and there are the presents that have been 75% distributed. Doesn’t look so crowded down there now.

Okay, time for some detail shots!

Paper fan ornaments I made out of an old book... I made about 5 or 6 of these.
Using the same book, I made a star for the top of the tree.
These are our "love birds" (purchased at Target for $1 each) for our first Christmas together. Cue "Awww"s.
The most expensive ornaments on the tree... pinecones. 2 "bunches" for $10 at Dillard's. The balls were $5 for a box of 20 at Target.

Additionally, those who pay attention to detail may recognize the paper circle garland from the backdrop of our Christmas Card photos.

All in all, the tree and ornaments came in at around $35. Not bad, and pretty classy if I do say so myself.