It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Finally!

I got a really late start on my holiday decorating this year. A really really late start.

 Typically, my goal is always to be finished decking the halls (and railings and trees) by Sunday night after Thanksgiving, have the tubs put away and the house clean so that I have a good month to enjoy it all without having to constantly work on it while climbing over bins and boxes. For the most part, whatever isn’t finished by the end of Thanksgiving weekend doesn’t happen. I prioritize the most important things—the tree, outdoor decor, staircase and dining room; those seem to be the tasks that are doable in 3 days. Sometimes, the weather doesn’t cooperate, and I may have to work on the outside lights after the weekend is over.

This year, too many things got in the way—a family wedding Thanksgiving weekend followed by a 4-day work trip, followed by a 3 day weekend in Memphis. Never mind my very Grinchy, un-Christmas like attitude in general. I was tempted to not decorate this year, but Brandon is coming home for Christmas. Brandon is coming home for Christmas!!! Since it will be the first Christmas he has been at home since 2011 as well as the first Christmas we have all been together in 4 years, not decorating wasn’t a real option. The last time we all spent Christmas together was in a hotel room in Great Lakes, IL when the boys were in boot camp. While I have known in my heart that I wanted to decorate, it sort of felt like more of a burden than the fun task I always enjoy and look forward to.

So, I took a vacation day on Wednesday, put on my Santa hat, filled my travel mug with coffee, took my boom box and Christmas CDs outside, and spent a freezing cold day trimming the porch with greenery and bows and baubles and stringing lights through the bushes and trees. There may or may not have been a little bit of dancing around while singing Christmas carols, too. There may also have been a few horn honks and amused looks from passersby.  I wonder how many people went home that day and told everyone about the crazy old lady dancing around her front porch wearing a Santa hat?

That sounds crazier than it really was. I sang quietly to myself, and the dancing was pretty calm, but I guess I still made somewhat of a spectacle out of myself.

I also nearly fell off the roof. And a ladder. (I wasn’t dancing then!)

I was sort of dancing when I tangled my feet in a strand of lights, fell and banged my knee on the brick retaining wall. (Thankfully, I was on the ground when that happened).

I also ended up with a hand that looked like I got into a fight with a cat after I made the very unwise decision to put lights in my very large rose bush.

Yeah, I think I am too old for this outdoor Christmas decorating. Or perhaps I shouldn’t combine outdoor Christmas decorating with dancing and singing.

At the end of the day, in spite of all the mishaps and my frozen hands, by some Christmas miracle, a smattering of something resembling holiday cheer had warmed my Grinchy heart, and my house had been transformed into a winter wonderland.  The only thing missing is some snow. (But, I gotta admit, I’m not missing snow all that much).

This treat at the end of the day may have had something to do with warming my heart, too. J

 

 

 I always treat myself to a bottle of Bailey’s right after Thanksgiving. I am not a boozy sort of gal at all, but I do enjoy a splash (or 2) of this creamy yumminess in my coffee on cold winter mornings when I have the luxury of staying home on the couch bundled in a blanket while I watch cheesy Hallmark movies. And on frosty evenings when I have spent the day outdoors decorating…

I am 2 weeks behind schedule, but I am thrilled to be finished, both indoors and out. (Except for the dining room table; I need to find my Christmas dishes that are still in some hidden box down in the basement).
 
I found a fantastic sale on plastic ornaments on sale at Michaels, and I thought they would add a fun touch to my porch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Can you tell that I just love, love LOVE decorating the outside of my house? It is usually the very first thing I do, sometimes, even before we put up the tree. On Wednesday when I was outside, three different people stopped to say they wondered what was going on because it was the first time they had seen my house not decorated. One person, who I didn't know, said he'd been living here as long as we have, and every day, he drove by wondering why I hadn't decorated yet. My next door neighbor came over when he got home from work to tell me that he and his wife assumed I must be sick. I didn't realize how much people notice things. 

I don't typically decorate much in the kitchen other than putting a few flowery things and a candle on the windowsill and a Christmasy tablecloth on the table. But, I am rather tired of looking at the unfinished frame around the new door that Tony put in, so I decided to hide its ugliness with greenery, bows and lights. And wow, I am so glad I did! Honestly, I think this is one of my favorite decorations this year. It doesn't totally disguise the mess that the wall still is, but it sure helps. Rachel came home yesterday and said, "Mom! That is sooooo CUTE!" That is high praise from a teenager. I don't know how "cute" it is, but I am smitten with it.

 

 

 

 

Pretend you don't see that large hole that is STILL in my kitchen ceiling. Tony did bring us one step closer to being able to close up that hole this weekend--I think he finally got the plumbing problem fixed. The hole will remain a bit longer just in case, but I really am hoping that very soon, that hole will be gone. I won't miss it looking at the upstairs bathroom pipes every time I am in my kitchen.

 

I know, this is very picture heavy, but I'm not finished yet! Part of my problem is that I am still trying to figure out my camera, so I take lots of photos with different settings trying to get the perfect shot. I have a long way to go! (That is why the walls in pictures of the same room look very different. I clearly have not mastered my camera after more than a year!)

 

My second favorite thing to decorate is the stair railing. Even when the lights are not on, it makes me smile to see it first thing when I walk in my front door.

 

While you are pretending you don't see the hole in my kitchen ceiling, keep those rose colored glasses on and pretend you don't see my STILL unfinished stairs. There is probably dog hair on them because they are rough and hard to vacuum, so pretend you don't see that as well. :)

 

 

 

 

Remember that basket I filled with fake fall leaves and pinecones? Well, I developed quite a fondness for it, so I decided to keep it for Christmas and fill it up with holiday-ish fake stuff.

 

 

 

 

I have saved the best for last.

 

My dining room and my new silver tree. I never thought I was a metallic tree sort of person, but I was inspired by my super duper Christmas decorating extraordinaire brother in law who has the most amazing and beautiful gold tree stuffed to the brim with only metallic ornaments. I loved it and couldn't get it out of my head.

 

 

 

 

Soooo...I purchased a silver tree at Hobby Lobby a month or so ago. It's tall and skinny--the first time Tony saw it, he asked me why I bought a Charlie Brown tree--but once I put a few metallic ornaments on it and wrapped it with silver polka dot ribbon, I think he likes it. 

Even if he doesn't, I do! It's not quite as spectacular as my brother in laws tree, but I really do like it tucked in a small corner of my dining room. Most of the ornaments on it were ornaments I already had, including all of my angel ornaments, but I did buy a few new ones, including some sparkly icicles. I wanted to put a small angel on top, but I haven't been able to find what I want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos of the dining room:

 

 







Clearly, I do not believe that “less is more” when it comes to Christmas decorating, do I? J

My house is festive, and my heart is finally feeling festive as well. Mostly, that is due to knowing that by this time next week, all of my children will be safe and snug here at home. My heart will truly be happy then!

 My wish to make this holiday season extra-special for my family, most especially Brandon, inspired me. It sure looks like I have found some Christmas cheer, huh?

Everything looks and feels homey and cozy, just how I like it. I am now sharing one last photo...of my Christmas tree. I took this last night when I was snug as a bug on the couch watching yet another corny movie.

 

Now, it’s time to make it smell as wonderful as it looks, aka, the time has come to pack away the decorating supplies and let my kitchen be taken over by sugar, flour, chocolate and candy-dipping tools. My next post will be titled, “It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas.”

 

 

Live Beautifully

A couple of months ago, I created an Instagram account. I am not a big social media guru by any means; facebook is enough for me to keep up with. But, I joined Instagram because there are people I wanted to follow.

One of those I follow does beautiful brush calligraphy, something I have been trying to teach myself. Not only is her lettering lovely and elegant, but she adds swirls and flourishes and layers of colors that are the perfect finishing touch. I have no fantasy of ever creating anything even close to the quality of her work (she’s a professional artist), but I have been having fun in my free time. I don’t have much of that these days, but I try to take 30 minutes or so a few mornings or evenings each week to practice. Cuz as the beautiful letterer that I follow says, “Practice makes perfect!” J

The above title of this post, in her graceful writing, was at the top of my Instagram feed one early morning a couple of weeks ago.

Live Beautifully.

I stared at it for a few seconds and let it soak in before scrolling down the page. Then, there it was again. And again. This person also has daily lettering challenges, and I follow some of those who participate in them. Apparently, “Live Beautifully” was her challenge of the day.  

I had a busy day at work, but as I went about my tasks, I kept that thought and what it means close: Live Beautifully.

When I got home from work, I again took a few moments to peruse Instagram while dinner was cooking.  And you guessed it, there it was again. I saw it three more times in the minute or two that I was looking at Instagram that evening.

And in yet one more case of “How scary and mind reading can the internet really be?” when I got on facebook the next day, there in the sidebar where all of those annoying ads magically appear, was an advertisement from Amazon for a book called, “Living Beautifully: With Uncertainty and Change.” No, I am NOT making that up! I don’t know if by me clicking on a few of the Live Beautifully calligraphy photos some signal went zooming through the world wide web straight to facebook, but wow, how very bizarre. (By the way, I did purchase the book on my Kindle because it was too intriguing NOT to. I haven’t read it yet, though).

Two simple words, but they have had a profound impact on me these past few weeks.

They have been a kick in the pants that I really have needed.

I haven’t been living so beautifully lately.  The past months have been filled to the brim with frustrations and problems from every direction…my job, my kids and life in general. I so often trudge through each day in an endless parade of sleep, work, deal with problems, sleep, work, deal with problems...

 My house still is not back in order, which surely has not helped, and I have been finding it most difficult to even enjoy being at home like I normally do when life is crazy. My home has not been the snug and comfortable haven I try to make it be. It’s still fairly devoid of furniture and most everything is still packed away in boxes and bags in the basement; I hadn’t even decked my house out for fall like I normally do because it seemed pointless when so many things are unfinished and uncertain and in disarray. (If I had to choose a word to describe my life right now, that would be it…DISARRAY).

I seem to be at a crossroads in more than one area of my life. I want a job change, but I’m not sure how to go about it since I actually love the work I do, just not the actual JOB anymore. Everything is so out of whack and downright distressing with my parents, and I am trying to come to terms with that in a way that I never have before. I’m having a tough time transitioning from a mom who is used to having what is going on with my kids rule my life to being an almost empty nester with way too much time on my hands some days. I’m having an even tougher time transitioning from a mom who could fix a child’s problem with a hug, a batch of cookies and putting them on my lap to read a good night story. This is perhaps what I am struggling with most of all…being a mom to adults and all that entails.

And then, there is my house. Back in April when we decided to put down new floors, I was beyond excited, as I’ve written before. It is now November, and after so many setbacks and changes of plans, the house is still in chaos, which isn’t helping my mood any.

I have been so focused on the inside of my house that the outside was sorely neglected to the point where I was beginning to feel embarrassed by it while wondering every day as I pulled into my driveway what the neighbors must think.

Most of my kitchen necessities are not yet unpacked, so I have not been cooking very much. Since cooking is something I always enjoy, especially when I am frazzled and in need of something to take my frustrations away, not having what I need to make anything beyond the basics has caused me feel out of sorts  and out of patience.   

I would never have dreamed back in April that our house would be in this condition for so long. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t, because I doubt I would have taken it on.

After seeing that “Live Beautifully” quote, and really letting those words embed themselves into my brain, I realized that I have been putting things I enjoy on hold until:

My house is finished…

Things at Share slow down…

Issues with my kids are resolved…

Issues with my parents are resolved…

I have the money to __________...

Yada yada yada…and on and on and on.

I realized there always seems to be something that I let stand in my way.  

And that is not living beautifully.

Pondering all of the ways I have not been living beautifully lately segued into giving some thought about what living beautifully means to me. I have narrowed it down to a short(ish) list:

*It means coming home each day to a restful home. (Even if it is not in perfect shape and there are unfinished projects)

*It means spending time with and talking to people I love. (Even when life is kicking my butt and I don’t feel like I have much to offer other than a foul mood)

*It means taking time each day to notice, really notice the blessings and beautiful things around me. (Even when they are next to impossible to find)

*It means feeling good about what I do each day. (Even during times when work is stressing me out and I am feeling more hate than love for my job)

*It means doing things for the people I love to let them know how much I love them.  (Even when I am exhausted and want to hibernate and/or run away)

*It means making time to do things I enjoy. (Even if I am super busy and the only time I have is 10 minutes in the morning to have coffee on my porch before work)

Like I said, I’ve been thinking about how to live beautifully a lot in the past few weeks, and I have to say, it has made a difference in so many of my days. Again, I have written a shortish list.

*Even though there is still a hole in my kitchen ceiling due to an unresolved plumbing issue and the baseboards and molding around the French doors are unfinished, I was tired of looking at my beautiful new kitchen that was still “undecorated.” I bought a new tablecloth, futzed up the top of the cabinets, bought a new lamp, and hoped that making the kitchen look warm and cozy would help me to ignore the giant hole in the ceiling. It didn’t quite do that, but it is much homier now, and I try to not look up very often.

 

 

 

 

*Even though I still don’t have blinds or curtains or a rug in the family room, I have slowly started putting that room back together.

 

 I found these candles on clearance at Michaels, and I had to have them because they really add a warm fall touch to the room at night. They also make me think of Brandon and the beautiful aspen trees in Colorado. I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest and purchased the metal bin with clear glass bottles. I added some fake greenery and some colored flat marbles that I already had, and I love how it turned out.

 

 

I also bought a Rosemary bush. I haven’t yet unpacked the other items that are normally on this table, but the plant smells so good, AND, I can use snips of it when I cook.

 

*Even though my dining room is completely bare other than the table, I decided to go ahead and pretty it up for the season like I enjoy doing. I always have fun trying to be creative and mix and match what I already own to come up with an interesting table setting. I picked the acorns off the ground at the park the day of the Share walk.

 

 

I have probably written more than enough for one post, but I want to share a few more photos.

*I finally decided to clean up the porch, weed, throw away the leftover dead summer flowers, and make it look fallish. (Even though my front door looks like crap because the door frame needs to be replaced and the door itself needs to be painted)

Once I decided to decorate for fall, I went all out. Again inspired by Pinterest, I put together this basket that sits by my front door. (Even though the staircase it sits next too is ugly and still unfinished!) There are a few pine cones in there that I gathered a few years ago when I was visiting a friend in Maine. They were in her back yard, and every fall when I get them out, they bring back such fond memories. I also tossed in a few cinnamon pine cones from a bag I bought at the grocery store, so it smells delicious as soon as I walk in the door. The other nice thing about this basket is that I didn’t have to buy one thing (other than the cinnamon pine cones) because I used what I already had in a new way.

 

(Ugly staircase!)

 

 

I also found this woodsy pumpkin, a real bargain for only $9 at Kirkland’s a month or so ago. I hung it on the pantry door (that still is waiting for me to paint it).

I will close with one last photo. Remember how this post started, with my admiration of an artist and her brush calligraphy? I was so inspired by her words and artistry that I made my own version of Live Beautifully in my own brush calligraphy, embellished by my own art work. I’m no artist, and I will never be one, but I don’t think it turned out too shabby. I framed it and found a place for it in the corner of my desk. My hope is that it will keep on inspiring me to live beautifully.

 

Hello, September

Oh, how I have missed you.

I love summer, I really and truly do. But I also welcome fall with wide-open sweater-covered arms. I realize it’s not really fall yet, and today, it’s close to 100 degrees so my arms are bare and just the thought of sweaters makes me sweat profusely. Summer this year has been something that I will not be sad to say farewell to for more than one reason. It has been so hot and humid since early June, and I am so ready for some days that I can walk out of the house without my glasses fogging up. That alone will be awesome.

I haven’t written here for quite some time, I know. Work on the homestead has slowed way down the past month or so, while work at work has sped up faster than I like. There hasn’t been much time for me to write, or much to write about.

We accomplished so much in the couple of weeks before Rachel’s party, and in the month and more since…well, we’ve accomplished not very much at all. We wore ourselves out, and unlike the Energizer Bunny, we haven’t had a whole lot of energy to keep going and going. Tony has gotten the new baseboards on, and I painted the family room a few weekends ago, and that is about it. All furniture and everything else is still in the garage or basement, and I gotta say…I am more than ready to get my house put back together. A few days ago, I was digging through a box in the basement looking for something I needed, and there were Easter decorations in it; that is how long my house has been torn apart. When we started all this back in April, we thought we would be finished by the end of June, maybe mid-July. Then, after Tony broke his arm, we pushed the finish line back until fall. Now, it is fall…and my house is still in disarray, nothing is put away, I have piles of boxes in the basement, dust- and cobweb-covered furniture sits in the garage. Tony doesn’t want to bring anything back until he is finished with the baseboards. (They are nailed up, but he still has some work to do caulking and sealing them).

While the new baseboards aren’t completely finished, they do look really nice. When Tony said he wanted to throw our old ones away and put up wider ones, I wasn’t sure I was going to like them,

 b

 

ut I really do.

I also finally got the family room painted a few weeks ago. I love it, too.

I pretty much love everything we have done so far! It’s like a big ole hippy love fest around here. If I had the ability to write the word love in that groovy, flowery 70s style, I would. Use your imagination and envision that.
Lauren did most of the painting in the family room…she helped me with the ceiling and did the rolling on the walls while I did the trim. I wasn’t too excited about giving up the sunny yellow that used to be there, but this new color, called Beach Grass, is a good compromise. The room is still light and bright, and I can’t wait for it all to be put back together because right now, it’s rather dull and empty.

 

I did something rather redneck-ish in that room, too. There was/is a wallpaper boarder that I put up during the heyday of my wallpapering phase not long after we moved in. So…almost 22 years. I’ve had lots of experience scraping wallpaper off the past few years, so I knew what taking that border down would be like. It would have taken me at least an entire day, then it would have taken Tony a couple of days to repair the drywall that I destroyed while removing it. So, I decided to paint over it.

 

Yes, I painted over wallpaper. It doesn’t look so great in a few spots, but Tony’s next big project after he finishes all the work on the baseboards is putting up crown molding in the family room. Since I knew it would eventually be covered up, I felt okay with being lazy and painting over it. There are only a few spots that look bad because the bottom edge of the wallpaper had peeled up a bit. I thought about painting/trimming around it, but I was/am so tired of painting walls that I just really did not care. Not even a little bit. And it doesn’t look terrible. Most people won’t even notice.

 

Labor Day weekend, Tony was out of town and I took on my scariest most ambitious DIY project yet.

Let me back up a moment though before I write about it.

We had a certain amount of funds set aside to do the things we wanted to do to our house this summer. It wasn’t a lot, and it would have cost us more to go on a fun beach vacation than we planned to spend on the house. We are tightwad bargain hunter do-it-yourselfers, after all. I always joke that I have Champagne taste on a cheap Sam’s Choice bottled water budget. Not even a beer budget as the saying goes. I am tighter than that. I have learned to be frugal over the years, and it has served me well. I like things to be nice and just so, but I also take great satisfaction in finding a great deal and in finding a way to make what I want happen while spending as little money as possible. And while I want to spend cheap, I don’t want anything to look cheap. I’m all for DIY, but not if it looks tacky or shoddy, or, well, cheap.

It’s a fine line I walk sometimes. While I don’t make wall art out of toilet paper rolls or crafts from dryer lint, my thrifty DIY projects don’t always turn out so well. But I won’t talk about those. I would much rather talk about the thrifty DIY projects that turn out so freaking awesome that I wish I could pat myself on the back.

So this summer, we planned to do some things as inexpensively as possible, and I took on the task of painting my kitchen cabinets. It was quite an undertaking, one I will hopefully never have to do, ever again because it sucked.

 It totally SUCKED.

But, they turned out great, and I am really happy I did it. However, the next time I want new cabinets, I will take out a loan and buy them. As God is my witness, I will never paint kitchen cabinets. Not ever again.

I do love them though.

The project I took on Labor Day weekend was more challenging than painting the kitchen cabinets.

I painted the countertops.

Yes, I painted my kitchen countertops, and feast your eyes upon them!

 

We had a certain amount of money in mind for how much we would spend on our countertops when we remodeled the kitchen. And it wasn’t a lot. We weren’t budgeting for granite or quartz…a nice laminate was all I was wishing for. But, just as other plans we had for the summer fell apart to be replaced by new plans, our plan for new countertops had to be tossed out when in a 2 ½ week period, we had to spend over $3,000 on car repairs.

Unfortunately, we had our new countertops picked out, but we hadn’t ordered and paid for them yet, so they got put on hold until…well, who knows. Tony said maybe we can get them if we get an income tax return. L

I was disappointed. I have these beautiful freshly painted white cabinets, new brushed silver hardware, a new kitchen floor…and our 22 year old ugly, stained white countertops.

 

 Even if they wouldn’t have been ugly and stained, I really did not like the look of white countertops, white tile backsplash and white cabinets. It was really sterile and downright blah and boring. Then one day, when I was wasting time on Pinterest, I saw a tutorial for painting laminate counter tops. I was intrigued and started reading more about it. It seemed like the perfect solution and an inexpensive way to get rid of my ugly countertops.

But was I brave enough to do it? Painting cabinets white is one thing; painting countertops to look like stone or granite or whatever else is quite another thing. The photos and videos I saw showed beautiful work, but I wasn’t sure I had the skills to pull it off. You can buy countertop refinishing kits that are made by Rust oleum, but they seemed messy, and they were expensive. More than I wanted to spend anyway. So I watched lots of You Tube videos and scoured Pinterest for every tip I could find. Then, I went shopping at Home Depot and Michaels. My two favorite places to shop. I know, I’m weird…not that that is news or anything…

I ended up with all this:

 

I spent a grand total of $55. And most of those little bottles of craft paint are going to be returned to Michaels since I bought way more than I needed.

It may have been a scary project, but it was so easy. Much easier than painting the cabinets. I started out by sanding and cleaning them before covering them with the Rust oleum Countertop Coating. That was actually the worst part of the whole project because that stuff stinks something fierce. It could be smelled outside. Gross. And it was sticky and a bit hard to spread evenly, but I didn’t care since I was covering it up anyway.

 

Once the coating had dried overnight, I used scrunched up Walmart bags and started layering on the colors.

Step 1 (charcoal gray) left me smacking my head and wondering what the hell I was thinking when I decided to paint my countertops.

 

I thought things would improve with step 2 and tan paint…but they didn’t.

 

By this point, I was smacking my head, questioning my sanity and continuing to wonder what the hell I was thinking when I decided to paint my countertops. I really thought I had crossed a DIY line that should never have been crossed. I envisioned Tony being so pissed off at me because I made our ugly countertops look even uglier and that now we would have to buy new.

Then came the light gray layer, and I was finally able to start to envisioning them looking fabulous. But, I still wasn’t convinced yet this wasn’t going to be one of those Pinterest FAILS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added white, then a little more tan in a few places, I dabbed on some more gray and white, and finally…

TA-DA! New countertops! They look great, but I still need to put a few coats of that acrylic sealer. These photos are after 3 coats of acrylic sealer, and they still need at least 2 more.

 

I can officially say I have a groovy 1970s love for how they turned out. They are only supposed to be temporary until we can buy new ones, but they look so much better than before I started. I only hope they hold up and don’t start peeling away. I am also a bit worried that they look TOO good, and now Tony will never want to buy new countertops.

Up next…

Last weekend, I started yet ANOTHER painting project.

Yeah, I know I keep saying how much I hate to paint…

I am painting my china cabinet and buffet with gray chalk paint. When I started, it all looked like this.

 

Right now, this is where I am at. I took today off work so I could finish them, but it was grossly hot and humid, then it rained, so painting outdoors didn’t work out. I am excited to see if they turn out the way I am envisioning them.

One of my favorite things about fall is making my house cozy, and it is so far from cozy now. I need to fix that! And I am excited to see if we reach our new goal for having our house back together…Christmas.