I went a little crazy with the cedar

I think I've started a new tradition here. I used a little bit of cedar last year in our old house and I loved it, but back then we only had a few little saplings in our little townhouse back yard.

This year I started out using my old dollar store greenery garlands, but then....

I realized that I have a giant hedge of cedar and pine that runs the whole length of our house now.  Neat huh?

I got to work.

On top of the fridge! Our name isn't Field. Long story. Bottom line: Pottery Barn is great.

You haven't seen much of this hutch, mostly because I can never really get it quite right. I love it like this though. Would it be weird if I just left the cedar up all winter? Yeah? OK, fine.

Excuse the blur. I wanted to show off my blue and white tureen that my mom gave me as an early Christmas present. My gramma sent me the little bowl beside it.

Stuffed into some pitchers.

 

With my gramma's silver.

 

On top o' the TV.

 

In the window with the barn out back.

OK, this is all fine and good, but it's starting to look a little too pretty and perfect up in here, and I assure you: perfect it is not.

 

I just haven't really bothered to straighten the cover on the couch yet. And that's tape on my walls. I don't really like those walls anyway.

 

OK, that's enough reality for anyone. Back to the pretty in the dining room.

 

This little stand thing is just endlessly fun for me. 

 

In the bedroom.

Wait, did I just make weird 70s paneled walls look OK for a second there?

 

You bet I did! 

Well, that settles it then. I'm never going back to fake again!

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Holiday Season Family Night

Kennedy has been trying to implement a "Family Night" for the three of us every Friday night. We try to do a nice dinner, and then some kind of activity afterwards together. Sometimes it's a movie, sometimes a board game. You know, things like that.

The problem is, we're not very good at the whole thing, and we keep having things come up on Friday nights that we "need" to get done, or we all get distracted and don't end up doing our activity. So it's a work in progress.

We still need dinner though! I decided to set a pretty table one Friday night to make it feel a bit special.

  

I did kind of a casual country Christmas theme. Bandanas for napkins, burlap wrapped mini trees, and my Target napkins for a little runner.

 

My mom gave me the napkin rings a few years ago. They're not Christmassy at all, but I just felt like using them. 

You know, I never run out of ways to use my dollar store Christmas balls, or my dollar store trees for that matter.

Oh, you found my secret. It was a table set just for three, but it did the trick just fine.

I hope you're finding lots of time this week leading up to Christmas to spend with your friends and family! Pin It

The Most Simple Front Hall Ever

I had my wisdom teeth out on Monday. It has not been a pretty week for me. So while I'm here on the couch feeling like death warmed over, I might as well post some of these pictures I took several weeks ago, right?

To the front hall!!

(I've also been on painkillers for several days, just an FYI)

 
I actually really love my front hall and even the weird trim color on the door is starting to grow on me, so I had big plans here. However, like with most of my projects, I started out by putting a few things up "just to see how they would look" and I liked it, so they stayed.

I used the last of my favorite dollar store ribbon. You can sorta see how it really works well with my Stars and Stripes in the corner there that doesn't have a home yet.

A little burlap-wrapped Christmas Tree is always just the thing when I don't know what to put somewhere.

One day I'll refinish this whole banister, but for now I'll just enjoy the chippy paint. The greenery and pinecone garland were just left over from something or other last year. Having them kind of loose and imperfect makes it feel more natural to me, like I went out back yesterday and cut some branches off my trees.

I've been working away bit by bit on pulling up these tiles and cleaning the wood underneath with paint thinner, so I've had the doors open quite a bit. The cats have been loving it. Chris did make a good point the other day though, that I probably don't want to be opening up toxic chemicals in the house in the middle of winter, so I think the kitties will have to wait until Spring to get outside and get some more fresh air. Common sense....always getting in the way!

Oh well, that's our front hall! Pin It

The Christmas Fantle

It's here! It's here! It's finally here! The moment my little fantle has been waiting for! Finally, it's all decked out in it's Christmas best.

OK, maybe not Christmas best, but definitely it's Christmas good enough. We're keeping it simple this year, but I'm still finding the whole setup quite enjoyable.

We have an old grapevine wreath wrapped in some absolutely fabulous ribbon I found at the dollar store. The things I find there....

I kept the little shuttered mirror thing that Chris got me for my Fall fantle because it's just so great. The sign was another dollar store find from last year that I spray painted white. I just saw them there again today if you're interested! The little boxwood ball is from the same place. I kinda think it reminds me of a mistletoe that should be hung up in a doorway somewhere.

There are my super-cute stockings again!

I stuck the ginger jars there just to fill the space, but I ended up loving them there so they stayed. Really, I love ginger jars anywhere.

Here you can see the whole thing and where it fits into the rest of the house. The big pile of tissue paper is actually Kennedy's advent calendar. I just wrapped a bunch of little gifts up and tossed them in a big basket. I promised Chris I'd come up with a slightly less messy solution for next year. Oh well, it's still tons of fun for Kennedy!

This is the view as you walk into the living room from the kitchen. As I said, we went simple this year, but for right now, it's just perfect for us.


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Big Ol' Window

Hey, wanna see something else we found in our garage attic?

I'm not in love with these photos, but I am in love with this window. Chris was a little grossed out that I wanted to bring it inside, but how could I not? Just 15 or 16 passes with a rag and some soapy water and we were good to go! Spidies and spidey webs are no match for a girl with an idea that involves her house.

I actually didn't really know what to do with it, but I knew I wanted to look at it all the time, so I stuck it in the dining room for now with a little twine garland. It works.

We think this may have originally been in the back wall of our garage, which is now covered up and a solid wall. One day, when we build our new 2 car garage/workshop, we plan to keep our old garage as a little outdoor entertaining building and install french doors off the back out to a deck over-looking the creek. Oh, big plans.

For now, I'm just enjoying my cute window. Pin It