Here's to dreams and wishes for the new year! 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

My Christmas Home

Welcome to my Christmas House! I shoveled the front walk, and attempted photoshopping the ugly orange electrical chord!

My Christmas tree is in the entry. This is our first real, chopped out of the forest tree:

Since I couldn't use most of my ornaments on the tree, I made some photo ornaments that can hang without making the branches sag:

My dining room chandelier:

Also in the dining room:

The library/piano room received a bit of greenery and a branch:

I added our Santa pictures in the family room:

And I tweaked the mantle since the last time I posted it:

Some greenery on the shelf:

I started a card tree today:

We open presents in the basement. I made the jester's stockings years ago:

The children decorated the tree:

Thanks for visiting my home!

I am linking with The Inspired Room's Christmas Home Tours.  

Before and After-The Built In Bookcases

Several weeks ago, I showed a before and after of my fireplace wall, and the moulding I painted that was on the brick. I was contemplating painting all my built-ins on this wall, but I was afraid of painting over all the wood and lowering our property value. The wood was just oak, but you know how some are about wood. :)

Well, after staring at it for too long imagining how it would look, I went ahead and painted the built-ins. Here is a picture of the built-ins in April of 2009:

Then in the Fall of 2010:

Fall of 2011:

Now, with the built-ins painted:

And because I always love a wider room shot even if it doesn't look as good as the closer view:

I am still tweaking the mantle and the shelves for Christmas. I have to say I have absolutely no regrets over painting the wood. I love the new look, and visually, it really opens up the room!

Thanks for visiting. I will post some more Christmas decor in the next few weeks, but for now, I really need to do a little Christmas shopping. See you next week!

Linking with Miss Mustard Seed & Between Naps on the Porch

Our Search for the Perfect Imperfect Tree

Last Year's Tree

I have always been an advocate of the artificial tree. I always put up the tree the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I always assumed a real tree wouldn't last that long. However, this year, the thought of putting up our 17 year old tree (pictured above) did not interest me. I was tired of the decorations and tired of the tree. If it weren't the kids, I would not even have put up this "pretty mom tree". Ba humbug! (There is still an artificial one in the basement that the children decorate. )

My "real tree" friends kept telling me that a fresh cut tree will definitely last until Christmas even if we cut it around Thanksgiving. OK. So, because I was so late to the party, a few days before Thanksgiving, I had to drive up to the forest service to pick up a permit to cut a tree down for the day after Thanksgiving. Here are a few pictures of our memorable tree cutting day:

 This one below loooves this hat. She wears it every where she goes. I finally had to ask her to take it off once in a while because it's getting weird.

 This was after about an hour and a half of searching. My son is antsy and needs to torture his sister by throwing a snowball:

 FINALLY, after about 2 hours. You'd think with a forest full of trees it wouldn't be that hard. A lot of these trees have one side since they grow so close to each other. I think we went around in circles. We are newbies to this; and you would've laughed in our faces at some of the trees we were considering in the beginning. Here's the tree:

Our tree this year. I ended up using about 10% of our decorations. They are mostly framed pictures I do of the kids each year. The other decorations were way too heavy.

I will post better pictures soon. I didn't bring out the tripod for this. Was our tree-cutting outing worth it? Definitely! It is an event I would love to make into tradition. And, I love our "Charlie Brown" tree. I love being able to see through to the trunk of the tree, and all the imperfections and character of a "right out of the forest tree".

CYBER MONDAY SALE

"Celebration" for sale. Click HERE to view.

I have decided at the last minute to have a cyber Monday sale! Everything in the shop is 25% off. It will last until Tuesday, November 29th midnight pst. Just use coupon code CYBER25 at checkout.

The Art Nook is Coming Along

The basement art nook is coming along. I have the frames up, and I just need to fill some of them.

Hopefully I can complete this project before the holidays begin!

In weekend news, we took our family to watch some of this:

It was a great game to take the family to, since our team actually won.

I thought this was cool:

I know these players were being genuine, and not doing this in a mocking spirit.

Sneak Peek-My Basement Art Nook

I have been working on a family art nook. This area in our basement has been a storage area for some time. I never got around to putting anything on the walls like I intended 7 years ago when we had the basement finished. This nook has 5 walls to fill. This particular wall on the left is filled with a mixture of my children's art, my art, and meaningful photographs. I had most of the frames sitting around for years. See that office chair? It's actually quite comfortable. My husband has wanted me to give it away for years, but I intend to slipcover it. I will show you the other walls when(if) I complete it. 

Whimsical

We had a day off of school the other day because of snow, so I painted this abstract family portrait:

My husband thinks I should use this painting as the image for our Christmas cards. What do you think? (I know, it's a little blurry. I didn't use my tri-pod to take this picture. )

This is how crazy we soccer parents are. We did this the day after our  snow day:

Blurry here too - I am not a sports photographer! I have to sit down and learn some of the features of my new camera.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Weekend

This was what we had on our trees 2 days ago. I had to go out and shake all the snow off the trees so the branches wouldn't break. Pretty, isn't it?

Have a great weekend!

A New Painting, and A Lamp Makeover Using Chicken Wire

"Pink Garden" for sale. Click here to view.

My children are in school this week after Fall Break. It went by so quickly, yet it seemed to last forever!

Even with them being at home, I completed so many projects, including a makeover for my younger daughter's room. I will post pictures soon.

 Anyhow, I have had the above painting for a while now, and I have finally listed it.

I picked up this lamp at the thrift store:

It was bright brass, but I liked the shape. So, I purchased a can of Rustoleum spray paint in Champagne Mist, and spray painted it. I took apart the lamp shade, and used the base to wrap chicken wire around it to make a new "shade". I think I like the new lamp now:

This is my daughter opening presents at her birthday party/sleepover this past weekend. 

I hope you all are having a great Monday!

A Friend's Gallery Wall

I went to a friend's home for a monthly coffee morning. She has 3 gorgeous, talented, and freakishly genius kids. Why not showcase them in her family room? 

(Photo taken with iphone-sorry!)

Have a great Wednesday!

Fireplace Makeover

My Fireplace mantle got a makeover last year. It used to look like this:

I loved the new mantle. However, the rest of that wall looked like this:

It kind of had a split personality with the dark wood moulding at top, and the distressed mantle in the middle. Risking ruining the fireplace crown moulding and built-in bookshelves, and the re-sale value of our house, I went ahead and painted that moulding on top of the brick:

My husband said it was too white compared to the mantle which was aged and distressed. I had to agree, so I went and did a little aging. And, since I can't leave well enough alone, I also went and painted the brick. I never loved it in the first place, I thought when we picked it out, there would be some more variation in the colors. On a whim, I decided to paint. I figured I went this far and there's no going back.....

I'm glad I took the risk and painted the brick and moulding. Next up, the built-in bookcases. Do I dare? I'm still pondering this one. The other end of this room is our kitchen, which is a dark cherry. I would love to paint the bookcases a dark grey, but would I completely ruin them? Would I turn into the dreaded "former homeowner" if we ever sold this house? And, while I'm questioning myself, why did I not tighten those slipcover seats before I took these photos?


If you want to see how I distressed the mantle, click here.


I'm linking with Miss Mustard Seed.


Have a Great Weekend everyone!

Weekend in Vail

We spent this past weekend in the Vail Valley here in Colorado for my oldest child's soccer tournament. The colors were beautiful. I had my big camera with me. Me, with my camera that I take everywhere-FORGOT to take pictures of the scenery! I was so obsessed with the games, I completely spaced out that I should be taking pictures!

It sorta looked like this up there:

A teammate's grandfather took some awesome pictures:

I think I'm going to turn this into a 16x20 poster for her room:

The viewer can imagine what happened next.

The result from the tournament? First place!