Happy Boxing Day! I meant to get to this posted on Friday for Christmas Eve, but well, that didn’t happen. So we get Five Things on a Sunday this week instead. 🙂
We made another tiny bit of progress in the back stairwell! Actually, this progress is a little symbolic for me because after ten years, we’ve managed to fix one of the most in-disrepair parts of our house, which was the ceiling in the back stairwell. It was actually caving in from all the damage it suffered from the leaky roof we had when we moved in and even though we fixed the roof right away, the whole interior area needed a lot of work and wasn’t really visible because we could just close the door, so we’ve left it all this time. It’s exciting to see it actually looking presentable now! Maybe even more than presentable. Good, actually. I love the shiplap we installed there and can’t wait to find a really beautiful light fixture to hang right in the middle of it all where you see that pot light just hanging there for now.
Despite all of my preparedness, our Christmas season wasn’t quite as quiet as I was hoping it would be, but it was definitely a lot less stressful. I guess you can’t really ever have “quiet” per se, when it’s Christmas time and there are excited kids around and busy clients trying to squeeze in just one more shoot before the Holiday. One thing that I’m really proud of is the fact that we were able to get so many fun activities done like baking, movie watching, gift wrapping, crafting and we did it all in a more intentional way. We planned out which fun things we wanted to do on which days and then did them, instead of kind of hoping it would all work out and stumbling into doing certain things when they absolutely had to get done or when the kids begged so much that I just reluctantly agreed even though I didn’t feel like I had the time. I also managed to get a lot of spaces in our home really decluttered, so we have space to put things away and a clean home to enjoy now that all of the unwrapping is done, instead of feeling like we have a mountain of mess to dig out from underneath. So that’s kind of a big deal. 🙂 We aren’t totally done with all of our festivities and mess over here because we still have two more family Christmasses to do over the next couple of days, but we’re on a good path for sure.
We’re going winter camping for a few days this week. Winter camping is always one of the coziest events of the year for us, so I’m pretty excited because you know I like to be cozy! 🙂 We would normally rent one of the yurts at our nearby provincial park, but this year we have an old camper trailer sitting in our driveway that we’re fixing up a little bit for Chris’ mom. She got it to replace her old old trailer out at the lake, and we’re going to bring it out there for her next summer, but for now it’s just sitting outside of our house so we’re going to use it. I’ll be packing my new, miraculous fleece-lined tights, aaall the sweater fleece pullovers and vests, and our super cozy llbean sleeping bags that we always look for any excuse to use. I’m considering buying into the hype and getting a few of those Yeti mugs for hot chocolate and hot toddies around the fire. And of course our pie irons. I love finding a new supply to make camping a little more fun.
In general, I don’t love things like after-Christmas sales or Black Friday sales because I feel like people often end up just buying a bunch of junk that they don’t really want or need just to feel like they got a “deal”. The best “deal” in my opinion is buying something that you’d be happy to pay full-price for and that you won’t want to toss, donate, or replace in six months or a year. That being said, there’s nothing wrong with paying a little less for something that you were going to order anyway. Here are a few Creek Line House-approved sales going on this week and some things that are worth buying and that will serve you for a good, long time.
LL Bean – Certain items on sale
Our favourites: Bean boots (aka the last pair of winter boots you’ll ever buy), Stonington ankle boots, Super warm sweater fleece, waterhog doormats, classic boat and tote bags, camp sleeping bags, quilted dog blankets, indestructible kids winter boots (but for real though), waterproof picnic blanket, wicked good slippers (I have size 6 feet so I just buy the kids’ version) all-cotton camp socks, hanging toiletry organizer
The LL Bean Stonington ankle boots. I feel like I like the way they look more and more as they get more worn in.
Williams Sonoma – up to 75% off
My picks: A great time to finally get that heavy duty stand mixer for next year’s Christmas cookies (that’s the same as the one I have) or that fancy espresso machine that I’ve been wanting but that Chris doesn’t want anything to do with because he says they’re always filthy.
Pottery Barn – up to 60% off
My picks: These super thick towels, this tiny side table that has been on my wish list forever, this arched floor mirror that I just discovered and I’m now planning an entire room around.
Banana Republic – extra 60% off sale
My picks: These pants that fit me perfectly and actually come in xxs petite, This incredibly flattering wool wrap coat I bought a couple of weeks ago that comes in xxs petite, but in regular sizes as well. I think it looks so much better in real life than it does in the product photo. Even in this quick iPhone photo with bad lighting. 🙂
My all-weather Adirondack chairs are on sale, as well as my white square all-weather planters. Both such great, lasting upgrades for your outdoor spaces. My coffee table is not on sale, but it’s in stock, which has been rare this past year, and such a great deal already. Still so happy with it. Likewise, with my gold mirror that you can see a bit of in the photo above.
And the very best place to shop for Boxing Day/After Christmas? The thrift store. They’ll probably be freshly restocked, but no one else will even think to go there that day so it will also be a super peaceful shopping experience.
I’ve been working on clearing out our extra bedroom upstairs and it’s making me feel like our house is suddenly so much bigger. We have an extra bedroom upstairs that we call our “orange room” because it still has its old orange shag carpet from when we’ve moved in. This room has served so many temporary purposes over the last ten years, but none of them has ever seemed quite right. It’s been a guest room, it’s been our temporary bedroom when Jack was just a baby and we wanted to be close to him at night, it’s been a makeshift home office, it’s been a studio/storage room for me for all my Art & Spaces styling supplies, and it also always serves as our gift wrapping room at Christmas. I recently decided to reorganize all of my styling supplies and move them to the first floor of our house so they’re easier to pack up and get them out the door when we’re heading to shoots. I was tired of lugging them up and down our steep stairs every morning, and then bringing them all back upstairs every afternoon when we got home. So now I’ve created kind of a “bonus room” for us up there and I’m not 100% what I should be doing with it, but I’m loving all the extra space now that all the Christmas wrapping is done and put away. Maybe we’ll even get that orange carpet ripped out finally and actually make the room presentable!
NEWS AND FINDS
-So, apparently people are looking for ideas for what to get for teenagers. It’s a little late for Christmas shopping now, obviously, but I was folding laundry the other day and thought I should share Kennedy favourite sweatshirts with you, in case you have teenagers to clothe or shop for with other birthdays and things like that coming up. Kennedy has these super basic sweatshirts in three colors now and they’re probably her most-worn piece of clothing. She says they’re just perfect. It doesn’t hurt that they’re so affordable too, of course. 🙂
-Have you seen everyone talking about this Always Pan? It’s supposed to replace 8 different pieces of cooking equipment. At first, I thought another cooking gizmo wasn’t for me, but now I’m intrigued. I love the idea of using it replace existing cookware so there’s less clutter to store and I appreciate how it’s both a frying pan, but also deep enough to use for boiling. It actually could work for me. And it’s cute.
-That’s it. Ha! I feel like we’re really not doing anything interesting or newsworthy right now or in the near future other than just taking photos of other people’s beautiful homes. I have hope that we’ll actually get something done for ourselves for one day, but for right now my mission is just to enjoy Christmas and then we’ll go from there.
MORE RECENTS POSTS
- Decorating With Foraged Greenery for Christmas
- Woodland Christmas Porch Decor
- Black and White Christmas Decor in our Living Room
- Five Things on a Friday 12/10/21
- Plant-Based Ginger Molasses Cookies
This post contains affiliate links.
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.