25 Days of Christmas - Day 10

 

I call this, "A Bowl Full of Jolly." :) I bought these bells last year to use as package decorations, but I forgot to use them. They're getting a lot of use though this year, at least in my photographs. Lauren also wore the red one as part of her kitty costume at Halloween. They may look festive, but looks are deceiving - they don't even jingle. How lame is that?!

Coming soon - The 25 Days of Christmas!

The holidays are in full force here - the decorations are up and the shopping is well underway. I've got Christmas crafts planned and ideas for this year's card. Christmas 2011, I must break you!





This weekend, Lauren and I made our first Christmas craft - paper ornaments. I found a Martha Stewart kit for half off, so I thought, why not? At first, I was a little intimidated by them, because they looked like they required a strong understanding of geometry, and I got a C in geometry. In reality, they were really quite easy and very addictive! I may even make some of my own for future occasions because I have 2 inch scalloped and round whole punches that I can use to make the large size balls.

 

This year, I decided to change up the dining room mantle. The hydrangea wreath has been hanging above the mantle since the end of summer and is super fragile. I didn't want to move it so that I could hang my usual wreath in its place for fear that it would fall apart, leaving me with little green clovers all over the dining room.

So instead, I left it there and gave it a little Christmas flair by perching a red suited elf in the middle and little red birds around the perimeter.



I made these paper houses last year, but I never put them on display. They too, along with the train, are both made from kits by Martha Stewart. I love paper houses - they make me happy each time I walk through the dining room.



After I took these, I got to thinking that it might be fun to do a little photography project for Christmas. Some folks do projects where they take a photo everyday for 365 days. I could never commit to that, but I think I can take 25 Christmas themed ones, kind of like a photo advent calendar. Of course, it occurred to me that I just wasted five days worth of photos here, but no one said it would be easy. In fact, I'm already stressing about what to do for December 1st because we have a Girl Scout meeting that night and time will be limited. I guess I'll just have to wish for a Christmas miracle!

Movin' on up.

So besides photography, what else has been going on around here? For one, we moved Lauren into a newly remodeled bedroom. Yep, she's movin' on up. Not to the East Side, but maybe the east side of the house. Not sure which direction that room faces.

Anyway, her new space is much bigger than the old one and comes complete with a walk-in closet. She picked out the color for the walls (Behr's Pooh's Favorite Things), and while mommy thought it was a too little bright at first, it's grown on her now that we have all the furniture in place.



Other than paint, the only new investments were the bedding, the wall decals, some dresser knobs, a throw rug and two goldfish (We'll get to them). I was originally perusing Pottery Barn Kids for the bedding, but as everyone knows, you look to Pottery Barn for design inspiration then go somewhere else to purchase the same thing a lot cheaper. For example, Pottery Barn had similar cute birds in trees decals for $50, but the ones we ultimately used were purchased from Target for only $12. The bedding was also from Target. The pattern is also available as a quilt, but we went for the comforter set because it had turquoise highlights to match the walls and came with cute mushroom printed sheets! And yes, I have to admit that I was the influence behind the owl decor. However, Lauren was all for it as soon as I showed it to her. C'mon - it has hedgehogs too!

Most of the furniture was repurposed. The daybed was bought at Ikea several years ago. I fell in love with the glass ball lamp when I bought it a few years ago, but never could find a good home for it until now. The repainted nightstand came from my nursery when I was a baby.




Also repainted was this dresser, which came from Mark's room when he was a child. The pink knobs are also from Target. As I've mentioned before, Lauren is a very lucky little girl in that she has a mommy who has amassed a large collection of dolls, toys and other interesting things throughout the years. The Bradley dolls on top of the dresser were a little stroke of genius. We uncovered them as we were cleaning out the bedroom's closet, so when I offered them up to Lauren, she eagerly claimed them for herself. I've always associated them with morning sickness because I purchased them at an antique fair on the day that it first came over me. Now they'll have a happier connotation.

The painting above the dresser was made by my late great uncle Dom. It had hung in the room previously, and Lauren insisted that it stay.

Last but not least, the fish. When we told Lauren that we were moving her into the bigger bedroom, she sweetly asked if she could have a goldfish. Since this seemed to be a simple request, we acquiesced, even though we already own 50+ fish in the pond outside. Two hours, three stores and approximately $40 later, Sofie and Julie now swim happily under the watchful gaze of the Bradley dolls.

2010 Fall / Halloween Decorating

The blog has been getting several hits from individuals looking for fall decorating ideas, so it's about time that I put up some!

This year, dining room mantel decor is inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Raven." Still using the candlesticks as pedestals for the pumpkins and the black framed mirror is ever present, but there are a few new additions.



"The House of Usher" is a luminary from Bath and Body Works. I usually don't purchase things like this, but when I was placing my quarterly order, I couldn't resist because it was on sale for super cheap. I can't wait to put a candle inside it!



Although I keep all the banners that I make, I can't seem to use the same one twice! I really like how this one turned out - whimsical and foreboding all at once.



The idea for the candy corn tree came from Woman's Day. This was a family effort. Lauren helped me hot glue the candy corn to the branches (Girl is a pro with the glue gun!), and Mark spray painted the urn for me (I purchased it from Target several years ago and could never quite find a use for it. Now it has one!).



Here is our dining room centerpiece. Mark picked out the the fairytale pumpkin (Named, I assume, because it looks like Cinderella's carriage.). He feels that it looks fake because it's almost too perfect. I got the idea for the hurricanes from Pottery Barn. The little skulls came from the good ol'Dollar Tree (9 in a package).




Next is our side board. I just love my See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil Owls! For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the catalog that they came from. If I do, I will be sure to post the link. Anyway, the three of us went on two collecting expeditions in order to find a nice variety of leaves to display. They are clipped to an antique photo holder, another item that I've had trouble using effectively. The lanterns are from Pottery Barn, as is the idea to put gourds inside of them. I steal from them a lot - who can help it when they send us 20+ catalogs a year? It eventually gets into your subconscious!



Lastly, here's our minimally decorated front entrance. Mark thought the pumpkin on its side had fell over. So much for being unpredictable with my pumpkin display...

Deck the halls.

Since the plans for tonight's post fell through, I thought that I would share some photos of some of the additions that we've made to our decor in the last couple of months. Besides, despite the Christmas reference in the title, it was time to write about something not related to Christmas!

All summer, I searched in vain for a carnival wheel for our game/family room. I was lucky to find one on eBay at a reasonable price. The seller actually had five of them, which makes me wonder how exactly a person comes to have so many of these things. I even have the stand for it, in case we want to have chuck-a-luck night at the Ross House. It's also my nephew Noah's favorite thing at our house. He has a thing for wheels.



Here's a chair that we picked out for our living room. Never order anything from Pottery Barn's catalog. Their customer service bugs, plus it took almost three months to have the chair delivered, even though it was on clearance. FYI, the pattern is called Serafina.



When my cousin Noreen visited last month, she brought me a big basket filled with good things. I don't know if she realized it or not, but I love owls. And although I hadn't realized it, I was in desperate need of something to keep all the mail, magazines, receipts and various stuff from cluttering my workspace. Inside the basket, you can also see the awesome Wonder Woman card that she sent to me.



Lastly, here is a photo of Noreen's famous thumbprint cookies. The recipe was handed down from her mother. They are as super delicious as they are pretty! In fact, there's still a few left in the freezer. I think I might go help myself to one now...

It's Fall, y'all!

Just returned yesterday from my trip to Boston. I intended to post this before I left on Monday, but I was having computer difficulties. Mark bought a new/old computer for our anniversary, and we just got around to setting it up this past weekend. It's all up and running now and will make my life so much easier. So I hope to use it to post photos and stories from my trip sometime in the next day or so.

Anyway, as you can see, Mark's pumpkin plant only produced one pumpkin this year, but boy, was it a doozy! Lauren just loves Halloween - so much that I think she may prefer it to Christmas. So I've been trying to keep her busy with various Halloween themed crafts.



She punched out all the flowers for this cute banner. She also helped glue all the parts together.



This paper haunted house was made from a kit that I purchased at Target. It was a little be easier to put together than the Martha Stewart advent calendar house that I made last Christmas, but that's only because it was less involved. Otherwise, it was a pain. The kit comes with enough supplies to make two houses, so I can always try again if this one falls apart.



Lauren also helped me make these Halloween party invitations. Since Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, a thought I'd have a little get together. The templates for the mask and the invitation are from marthastewart.com, but I used them a little differently because I like to put my own spin on things.



And what has the newest addition to our family been up too? Well, last week, Marcus was groomed for the first time. Now he truly looks like the terrier that he is!

Next week is a big week for Marcus because he will be going under the knife. He has an anatomical abnormality which causes his third eye lid to cover part of his eye (See the red in the corner of his eyes? That's his third eye lid.), so he's going to have that fixed. Speaking of fixing, he's having that done as well. We're very fortunate that Mark has connections in the veternary business, as one of his doctor acquantances has agreed to do both surgeries for the cost of what some practices charge just for the neutering. Neutering is standard, but any surgery on a dog's eye is specialized and would therefore be very costly.

I for one will be glad when it's over with. Hopefully I won't have to use Photoshop so often to remove a particularly offensive appendage from his photos.

Nips are in the air (Alternate title: Nips have sprung).

I'm not much for spring decorating. Digging out the feather tree from Christmas and decorating it with eggs is usually how far I get, but this year, I thought I'd give it the old college try. I even invested in some new things.



So I picked up a few things from my favorite site in the world, Etsy. The wreath came from here, the letter blocks from here, and the flags from here. Mark made fun of the flags and the blocks because according to him, I could have made these myself. This is probably true, but I find with some things that after you buy all the supplies you need and then put in the time to make them, it ends up costing about equal anyway. Besides, these will bring me years of enjoyment!

Now the letter blocks in particular invite mischief, as I found on Saturday night when my dinner guests thought it would be funny to creatively rearrange the blocks to spell out a different word (or sometimes not). So each time I came back into the dining room, the configuration would change. For example, from this:



To this:



Wiseacres. All of them.

Lastly some people spend their lives searching for the goose that laid the golden egg.



Personally, I prefer the golden bunny that poops Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

***Begin American Idol blabbering***

I'm two weeks behind, so where should I start? Oh, why of course - with Adam! First, wouldn't it figure that after I publicly declare my support, he has to go and throw that screamfest that was "Play That Funky Music." Now if any performance deserved to be called "indulgent" it was that one, because I think that was Adam putting on a show for himself. And even if the judges would have panned him for it, I think he still would have been pleased with it. I admit, however, that I did download it from iTunes anyway, and it does grow on you with repeat plays. Plus, it doesn't hurt that Lauren likes to sing along, "Play that bumpy music my boy!" It's pretty hysterical.

Last week, Adam instantly fell back into my good graces with "Mad World." That's the kind of performance that gives me reason to watch this show. Not the umpteen performance of "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch," or "I Want to Dance With Somebody" or some other uncreative, overly played song. He took a song that I barely knew and made me want to listen to it over and over again. And that's saying something because, boy is that song depressing: "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had." Yikes.

Next would be my second fav, Kris Allen. Loved, loved "Ain't No Sunshine." I really hope he makes at least top three, but he gave me a scare last week with "All She Wants to Do Is Dance." I love Don Henley, but that was all kinds of awful. I was so worried for him that I voted for the first time this season (Albeit for 15 minutes, but still!). How ridiculous was he standing in a mass of teeny bopper girls gleefully singing, "They're pickin' up the prisoners and puttin'
em in the pen." Talk about not emotionally connecting to a song.

I totally could have predicted Danny singing "Stand By Me" last week, but I do have to say that he looked real sharp. Wardrobe usually dresses him atrociously. And while I thought the impressions that they all did of each other during the Top 9 results show were cute, I couldn't help but feel that Danny was just a little too into making fun of Matt.

Speaking of the Top 9 results show, I didn't think Megan's crazy antics were disrespectful. After all the mind games that they play on these people, I'm surprised that we haven't had more of these moments of "self-awareness."

And speaking of Matt, I mentioned before that I don't really care for him. I pegged him early on as an Elliot Yamin wannabe, and we all know that there can only be one Elliot. However, although it was decidedly panned on performance night his studio recording of "You Found Me" is fantastic. I finally kinda get what they see in him.

Poor Anoop. They really have it in for him. Part of it is his fault because he seems to take himself way too seriously. I thoroughly enjoyed "My Prerogative," but those those "Watch out girls - I'm a playa!" faces he makes every time he sings an up-tempo song are ridiculous! A little smiling would go a long way. It's a shame because his recording voice is great. Like Matt, his "Caught Up" came across much better in the studio than it did on stage because I didn't have to look at his faces.

Lil bores me to tears. Don't have anything to say about her other than they should throw the support that they're giving to her behind Allison because I think she is the best girl in the competition. Maybe they'd realize it if they weren't so distracted by her wardrobe and "lack" of personality.

Scott seemed like he was a total sweetheart with a great sense of humor, but his "The Search Is Over" was uncomfortable to watch. For that, he deserved to leave, but I'll miss his wacky hairdos.

Lastly, it's official. Jason Castro was signed by Atlantic Records and is releasing an album later this year!! Atta boy, Jason - I knew you had it in ya!

Chipmunk christmas.

I should be filling out Christmas cards right now, but there's still plenty of time to procrastinate about that. We picked out a tree yesterday at Lowes, just in time apparently, as there were only around 12 left to choose from. In fact, just two weeks before Christmas, and all their holiday merchandise was practically gone, because they had already marked it down 50% off. A definite sign of our failing economy. Anyway, Mark and I chuckled because we settled on the very first tree that we saw. For $20, why be picky? As we were leaving the store, three more couples were stuffing trees in their cars, so we weren't the only ones non-deterred from the slim pickings.

We've added a few new decorations to this year's tree:

We have this wily little chipmunk that, if you're lucky, you can catch a glimpse of as he scurries over our patio. You'll have to take my word for it that he looks just like this (I think this is actual size too!). The nice lady at Pottery Barn added the acorn that he's holding.



And speaking of acorns, I spotted this glass acorn on the counter as I was purchasing the chipmunk. It's so sparkly - I wish I could afford a whole tree full of them! But I can enjoy one just as well.



I think that white lights are more aesthetically pleasing, but every couple of years, I like to give the multi-color lights a chance. These are actually the same lights that were on my family's Christmas tree as I was growing up. I inherited them, along with all the ornaments, a few years ago when my parents moved. One of my favorite Christmas things in the world is these bubble lights. They are around thirty years old, but they still can bubble with the best of them. I used to just love to sit by the tree and watch them do their thing. It's so fun to have them on our tree this year - makes me feel all Christmasy inside just looking at them.

Lastly, Jason Castro (Remember him?) just released his version of White Christmas on Amazon. The first few lines that I listened to sound sort of weepy, but hey, it's free Christmas music! Additionally, he looks ridiculous in that photo on the download page - I could have came up with something a little less goofy than that.

New additions.

As tempting as it always is, I'm trying not to reinvent the wheel with this year's Christmas decorations. But it doesn't hurt to add a couple of new things, now does it?



I made this paper cottage from a kit from Martha Stewart Crafts. It's an advent calendar that has little numbered doors on the roof to open each day before Christmas. I first spotted it on eBay this summer while searching for something completely unrelated. I knew that I had to have it, so I put it on my watch list to be purchased at a later time.

I found that it was much more challenging to complete than it looked. The directions were very brief, reading something to the effect of, "Fold on the lines, glue together and...you're done!" As a result, it's poorly executed in a couple of spots, but at least it stands on its own.



I bought this vintage table cloth for $10 at an antique fair a couple of years ago, but I never actually put on a table until this year. When I unfolded it, I found that it was in pristine condition. Our table is oblong, so it's tough to find vintage linens fit, so I think that I'll buy a cheap red table cloth to lay underneath it. That way, when we eat I can remove it in order to keep it pristine.



Here's a close-up of the apothecary jars on the table. This photo was actually taken last year. When I went to fill the jars this year, I decided to refer to this photo and found that I never uploaded it. The Santa and snowmen are vintage figural light bulbs that I salvaged from my grandparents' basement, like, fifteen years ago. I was a visionary, I tell ya!

We still haven't put up a tree yet. I'm thinking about going the easy route and putting up our white tree rather than going out and buying a real one. The white tree has a lot of character, but nothing compares to evergreen.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention in the the midst of all this decorating that the baby Jesus came to no harm, which has to bode well for me. On the other hand, since it's seven years bad luck when you break a mirror, I fear that I may be in for an even longer term punishment for breaking the baby Jesus.

Christmas at my old house.

Since there continues to be a drought of new subject matter, I thought it would be fun to post some old photos. Okay, not really old, just from five years ago - 2003 to be exact. Hey, for me a lot has happened since then.



Sometimes I miss decorating cottage style. I have a split personality when it comes to decorating - part of me likes country/vintage/retro/cutesy style while the other part likes colonial/graphic arts/clean lines/Pottery Barn style. Am I making any sense? Probably not - why would a person with two personalities make sense?



I decided to retire the Shiny Brights after Lauren learned how to walk. Too sparkly, too tempting, too breakable. I do miss them. Mark my words, they will make a come back on our tree someday.



We always used real greenery on our mantle. It was a horrible mess to clean up after the holidays, but it was worth it.



These little paper cottages are my favorite things.



The wreath above our mantle was decorated with random things - bottle brush tail birds, more paper cottages, ornaments from my father's childhood, a skeleton key and even a funky tea spoon.



Here's a spry four year-old Daisy posing with the Depression Glass. To those of you who visit our house - the blue bubble glass is back in the cabinet. I gave up on the Butterprint Pyrex.



And lastly, here is the 2003 version of me. Young, carefree...and blonde.

The return of fall decorating.

This weekend, Mark was feeling under the weather, so today was a good day to work on things around the house.

When we lived at our previous home, Mark had planted a snowball hydrangea bush on the side of the house. It really thrived and was the envy of all the ladies in the neighborhood. We were sad to leave it behind when we moved.

Over the last couple of years, Mark has planted bushes at our new home, but this was the first year that it yielded enough blooms to dry. Mark bought the French enamelware pitcher for me as a Christmas gift several years ago. French enamelware is so hard to come by around here. I'd collect more if it wasn't so darn expensive. The pillar candles were a few bucks a piece at Ikea. That green one smells like candy. I walk by it just to get a whiff.



Now that I had green hydrangeas, the old red and blue print pillows wouldn't do. I found these green velvet pillow cases at a nice discount on eBay. They are still being sold in Pottery Barn stores right now at full price, so hopefully they're not hot. Then again, would people really sell stolen pillow cases?



Did I mention that I love hydrangeas? Sometimes the best things in life are free.



Here's what the dining room mantel looks like currently. The birchwood wreath was purchased during one of our trips to Ligonier. I thought I'd take a picture of it since it's going to give way to Halloween in a week or so. That architectural salvage thingy (Mark told me what it's called, but I'm not going to attempt to spell it.) is one of my favorite things. I think we paid $12 for it a few years ago. Anyway, the wreath and the thingy will go back up again after Halloween because I think it looks very Thankgiving-y.



And since we're talking fall, here is Lauren's new favorite shirt. It's green, of course.

Lastly, in case anyone has doubts about how staged my photos are, behold the other side of our living room: