Oh Christmas Tree

The tree is up.  Presents are wrapped.  Almost all the presents are bought.  I think we might almost be ready for Christmas.

And I was successful.  I didn't buy any new decorations this year.  I did have to buy new lights but that was because I bought a new tree at the end of the season last year.  And I only did that because I broke the old tree.  Ug, talk about a Christmas fail.  Anyway, a new white tree meant I wanted white corded lights, the green would've looked a little rough.  So I guess technically I spent about $7.50 on Christmas decorating supplies.  Not too shabby though.

So, on to what we all really care about.  The decorations.

 I wasn't sure how I would feel about the white tree.  I didn't know if it would feel Christmassy enough.  It does.  I love it.

 The Christmas presents do not match each other...  I had plans for wrapping.  And they did not turn out as I imagined.  I was going to use brown kraft paper, gold and silver ribbons, and metallic Sharpies to label my gifts.  The kraft paper did not cooperate.  So I ripped it off and went into the wrapping closet and came out with leftover gold paper and green paper with reindeer for the kids.  They look fine, I just like to have a wrapping color scheme and color coded by family.

 

My olive wood nativity from Israel.

 

Stockings, mini cone Christmas trees, and a little confetti on canvases.  Much simpler this year.

 

The Merry & Bright sign I made last year, the Santa & Frosty candles of my childhood (they truly belong on the back of the toilet), and another nativity.

 My lazy Christmas card hanging.  Silver glitter washi tape hung up on our door to the basement.  I'm kind of okay with it though.

 

And the Christmas tree all lit up in a dark room.  My favorite way to look at it.  One of these nights I'm planning on shoving all the presents out of the way and laying with my head under the tree.  It's the best.

How's your Christmas decorating going this year?  I feel like I did a lot less this year but I'm really happy with it.  I kind of liked simplifying.  I also feel like I didn't go as crazy buying presents this year.  I also feel good about that.  I love buying people things they will really like and not just buying to buy. 

Oh, btw, I'm linking up over at Thrifty Decor Chick's Christmas party.

 

Snow Means Glitter

Snow days are the best.  I mean absolute best.  I didn't get the call that we were out of school until suuuper late, like I was about to get dressed.  So I was of course wide awake and couldn't go back to sleep.  That just meant I got more out of my snow day.  I caught up on all our laundry.  I mean all of it.  And it's even folded and put away.  And I did dishes and got the whole house picked up.  Oh, it was just perfect.

I did do a tiny bit of craftiness.  I decided to dress up a few plain candles.  They were just the basic jar candles.  They needed a little flair.  And I say they're not just for Christmas, glitter is good anytime, right?

I bought nothing new for this project, all stuff I had just laying around.  Um, I even used a partially burned candle...

 So I grabbed my candles, some Frog tape, glitter, and Mod Podge.

 I taped off a straight line for my glitter.  There was no measuring involved, just eyeball it.  I painted on some Mod Podge.  Shook on some glitter.  And just let them dry upside down so they wouldn't stick to the newspaper.  Clever, right?

Once the Mod Podge was mostly dry, I peeled the tape off.  And now they're ready to go.  I probably could've sealed the glitter with another layer of Mod Podge but I personally like to leave little trails of sparkle wherever I go.

Also, I'm linking up over at Hi Sugarplum today with my holiday craft for Holiday Cheer in the Blogosphere.

Anybody else whipping up crafts with what they have on hand?  Man, I love free crafts!  Now I just need to send the candles back to their original spots in our house.  And it's time to start panicking about Christmas presents.  I'm not sure how it got this close to Christmas so quickly.  Eek!

Some Ideas

Oh boy.  It's just over a week until Thanksgiving and I have done nothing to get ready.  Okay, maybe that's not completely true.  I started pre-cleaning a couple weekends ago, but that barely counts.  So it's possible that I'm beginning to panic a bit.  

My husband is off this week because it's deer season in Missouri.  So, pretty much a holiday.  I had big plans of organizing and cleaning in the evening.  But, he shot a deer yesterday morning and now my fridge is absolutely full of deer meat waiting to be processed.  So it looks like we'll be spending at least the next couple of evenings doing that.  I'm not complaining, I'm definitely thankful for the meat.  But Saturday is going to involve much more cleaning than I had originally planned.

 

My hubby and his deer, an 11 point buck.

So, this is basically a brain dump of what has to get done by this weekend.  I know, Thanksgiving isn't until next week but my parents are coming up this weekend so my mom and I can do a 5K on Sunday so the house needs to be ready.

Um, here's the list.

• Buy a turkey.  I know, I know.  I can't believe it either.  But I can't buy a turkey until there's space in the fridge.  So that means deer processing like maniacs.  We're planning to smoke the turkey.  Cross your fingers for us!
• Figure out the table situation.  Our table only seats four...  I may run to Lowes or HD to get wood cut and make a leaf for the table.  Especially if my dad will be there on Sunday to fine tune the fitting of the leaf.
• Buy a table cloth for whatever table we end up with.  And maybe cloth napkins.  How am I 30 years old and own zero cloth napkins?  I fail at being a grown up.
• Drag out the china.  If I have china, I'm darn well going to use it.  And since it's in the cabinet above the fridge, this is definitely a job for when the hubby is at home to help.
• Clean clean clean like a crazy woman.  The house isn't in bad shape, but I need to do some of those things that I don't do every week.  Like cobwebs.  Ug.
• This is embarrassing... but I need to count my silverware and make sure I have enough place settings.  I started with 8 place settings but somehow I'm not sure I have enough...
• And then there's the other cooking.  We're doing the turkey and I'm making sweet potatoes and rolls.  I'm also making maybe rolls or another side and a chocolate pie to take to my in-laws so that will all be next Wednesday.

What are you guys working on for Turkey Day?  Anybody else starting to panic just a tiny bit?  Or want to come over and help me  make a table leaf?

On Cutting Back

I love Pinterest.  I really really do.  But it's become a serious problem.  I've become obsessed.  I don't even want to tell you how many times a day I check Pinterest.  It's truly embarrassing.  Not only does it cost me to waste too much time, I always come up feeling inadequate. I end up feeling like what I have and what I do is never enough.  And I hate that feeling.

So I'm challenging myself.  I'm going to take a Pinterest break until the new year.  I know, I just heard all the air suck out of the room from shock.  But I feel like looking at Pinterest always causes me to spend money I don't need to spend and buy/make things I don't really need.  So this is going to be a holiday of simplifying.  I know, yesterday I had all these ornaments I wanted to buy.  But instead, I think I'm going to work with what I've got.

So, there's a new plan for Christmas.  I'm not going to buy any new decorations.  I'm going to use everything I already have.  With one exception.  I am going to buy some white lights with white cords for our tree.  I'm just sure that the green cords are going to look horrible on the white tree.  Other wise, it's all what's already in the house.  This isn't to say I won't make anything new, it's just to say I won't spend any money.  Anything I make has to come from existing supplies.

 

I just, I don't know.  I feel like it's all too much.  I've gotten so sucked into making my holidays Pinterest worthy that I've lost the holiday itself I think.  So this year I'm going to strive to not make myself crazy.  I'm going to decorate and have fun but I'm going to focus less on what I want and more on what I'm blessed to have.

So I'm going to walk away from Pinterest until the new year.  I'm going to read more books.  Be more purposeful.  Enjoy conversations.  And not worry so much about what I might be missing online but instead focus on what's in real life.

How bout you guys?  Anybody else feeling the Pinterest pressure?  

Christmas Plans

Oh man, I am so ready to dig out my Christmas tree.  I'm extra excited this year because we have a brand spanking new white Christmas tree.  This will either be the very best or horribly worst tree purchase I've ever made. 

You may remember I broke my Christmas tree last year.  Yup, you read that right.  I broke it.  Not like it was a huge loss considering it cost $15 almost ten years ago.  And it was a 6 foot tree, so obviously very real looking and high quality.  I was pulling the garland (or tinsel as I like to call it) off my tree and yanked too hard and the whole dang tree came crashing down.  On top of me.  I broke the whole base.  Well, when you wait until New Years Day to take down your tree, there are not a lot of trees left to buy when you go to replace it on January 2.  Thus the white tree.  Still only 6 feet tall but lots fluffier and it was only $20.  I'm super cheap.  I want a tall tree, but I don't want to pay a tall tree price.  Cheap.

But I'm pretty excited to decorate with my new tree.  And I'm pretty sure I'm going to be making some new ornaments.  Like I literally cannot wait to go to the store and buy a huge package of the clear ball ornaments and just go crazy.  But I'm making myself wait.  I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year for my family and that will make me crazy enough without adding in Christmas crafts.

But, this is what I'm thinking.
-A few beach inspired ornaments like these.  Complete with sand and shells from our Florida vacation.
-Maybe some cute sparkly monogram ones like these.  Because you can just really never have enough glitter.
-And some filled with glitter like this or this.  Or even some glittered styrofoam balls reminiscent of my childhood.  I may have a glitter addiction.  My husband totally loves it...  Or maybe not.
-I also love these that are just filled with paint.  Obviously, not literally filled with paint.
-And I'm thinking some other randomly filled ornaments with tinsel or feathers would be super cute.

I'm also thinking any of these would be great to give as gifts.  Pretty sure the person I have for Secret Santa at working will be receiving a couple.

And just for fun, here's a quick flashback to Christmases of past.

 

Our mantle the first Christmas in our house.  I was super excited to have a mantle to decorate! 

   

Front door wreaths.  Unless I get super creative, these will be the same this year.

  

Looking at our tree up close, I'm reminded it was definitely time for a new tree.  But I love the pretty silver and gold.  It's also seeming not very decorated...  Strange.

 

The whole tree/mantle last year.  I loved how it looked.  But apparently precariously perching your tree on the hearth and a crate is not the best idea ever.  Lesson learned.

Anybody else dying to decorate for Christmas?  Or maybe you already have.  Like I said, I'm hosting Thanksgiving for the first time ever so get ready for some panic posts about Thanksgiving prep.  Any tips for first time holiday hosters?  I kinda feel like it's a lot of pressure for everything to be perfect. 

For Your Valentine

Like I've said before, I'm totally susceptible to peer pressure.  If somebody else does something cool, I'm pretty sure I need to do it too.  I know, I'm a grown up, get over it.  It's not bad things though.  Just you know, fun, silly things that don't hurt anybody.  So, today I'm jumping on the bus and bringing you my Valentine Gift Guide.  It's pretty much just a little list of stuff I would love to receive.  It's fairly general stuff that I feel like many other people would also enjoy getting as a sweet little gift.  So, here we go.

 

And let's break it down....

1.  Pistol Annies, Hell on Heels.  You can go buy it here.  Or anywhere else, I'm not the boss of you.  I just love to buy things online and have them magically appear at my door. I love Miranda Lambert, I love the Pistol Annies.  I'm not sure why I don't own this CD already.  I'm hoping my husband remembers I desperately want it.

2-4.  Pandora charms.  I would love a couple more to add to my bracelet.  And it's not quite the traditional Valentines jewelry present.  A gold heart, a silver heart, and a football.  Something sweet and something fun.  But none of the creepy stories like the commercial with the Red Hot Love bead.   Ug.  Not cool guys.  My Pandora bracelet is from Jared.  And I can always say "He went to Jared"

5.  Okay, this is more of a date night thing.  My husband always buys me a book for Christmas.  And he always does amazingly well.  This year he bought me Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks.  He said he regretted buying it because it's getting ready to come out as a movie too and he knew I would make him go see it.  I told him no it was okay.  But now I totally want to go see it.  So, if you or your sweetie likes chick flicks, go see Safe Haven for Valentines.

6-7.  Apparently I really need a leopard print scarf.  Animal print is my new(ish) addiction.  I pinned both a black and a brown leopard print scarf in a matter of weeks.  And scarves are always great in the winter.  Good for keeping you warm and great for making shirts with a low neckline a little more work appropriate.

8.  A manicure.  I looooove getting my nails done.  But I'm super cheap and am rarely willing to pay someone to actually do my nails for me.  So I would love a gift certificate to a nail salon for a little pampering.

Here's the thing though guys, we don't do Valentines gifts at our house.  I'm not really that into it.  We will go to dinner and maybe a movie.  But not on Valentines.  Probably some time over the weekend because we both have a three-day weekend right after Valentines.  So, what do you and your honey do for Valentines?  Do you buy gifts?  Does he bring you chocolates and flowers?  Or do you do the non-traditional route like us and do a date day some other time?

Showin' a Little Love

Holy cow you guys!  Someone nominated me for one of the Homies awards on Apartment Therapy.  I'm nominated for Best Home Project & DIY Blog.  Guys!  I don't know who nominated me.  I didn't even know I was nominated until I noticed my traffic was way up and the Apartment Therapy website was the referring address.  Holy cow.  Whoever nominated me, thanks, you're the best.

So, if you want to vote for me you can click here and it will take you there.  And if you don't want to scroll forever and try to find me, you can hit "Ctrl F" and a cute little search box will appear and you can type in Lip Gloss and Flats.  Or you can vote for whoever you want to.  I'm not the boss of you.  There are tons of wonderful people nominated.  Lots of sweet people whose blogs I read and more I can't wait to start reading.  Either way, head over and vote for somebody, show some blog love.

And in spirit of some love I'm back with some fun little Valentiney projects to share with you.  First off, my other front door wreath.  Remember, back when I shared this wreath with you, I promised there was more in store.  So, here we go.  Since I have two front drawers, I have to have two front door wreaths.  Apparently at all times.  It's become an addiction.

So, this is a foam wreath wrapped with white yarn.  I hot glued on pink and grey diamonds and wrapped hot pink yarn to make this snazzy argyle pattern.  To finish it off I hung it with a grey ribbon (the ribbon came off a blanket I got for Christmas, resourceful!)

And my Valentines mantle.  I wanted to do more but....  I got lazy is really the only excuse.  So, I dressed up my candle holders, I just wrapped some pink polk a dot ribbon around them.  And I made a pretty pink wreath.  I wrapped bright pink yarn around a foam wreath.  And I made a big pink bow out of felt.  So pretty.  And then there's the heart canvas.  It's the cousin to my Christmas confetti canvases.  The canvases from Christmas came in a three pack so I had one left over.  I grabbed all the bottles of pink paint from my paint stash.  I just went to town making pink dots in the shape of a heart.  I used a piece of wax paper cut into a heart stencil as my guide.  It's not perfect but I think it's pretty cute.

So, there we go.  The rest of my Valentines decorations.  Did you decorate for Valentines?  Or are you like me and had great intentions of pretty decorations and then just got too busy.  Sure, I could do a couple more things this week/weekend but I don't see much point when Valentines is next week.

Love is in the air

Okay, Christmas is over.  New Year's is past, that obviously means it's time to decorate for Valentines, right?  Here's the thing.  I think Valentines is about the goofiest holiday there is.  Next to April Fools of course.  I've never been into celebrating Valentines.  Like at all.  I know, totally un-girly, right?  I've never gotten into getting flowers and candy for Valentines.  Not that I complain when my husband shows up with flowers.  I love flowers, I just prefer when they come un-mandated by Hallmark.

So, back to decorating.  Maybe my little Valentine Grinch hard grew one size, I don't know what it is.  But I've started decorating for Valentines a little.  Okay, let's be honest.  A lot.  I may have spent my entire day yesterday making craft projects.  With the Christmas decorations down, my doors were looking a little naked, so it was obvious that I had to make a couple of new wreaths.  

Today I'm sharing my front door wreath with you guys.  I did a little Pinterest investigating and came up with some wreaths I loved.  The great thing was I already had almost all the yarn I needed.  I'm still kind of in love with yarn wrapped wreaths.  So for my first wreath I grabbed a charcoal grey yarn and a pale grey yarn.  I loved the contrast.  And I cut a few hearts from bright pink felt and hot glued those bad boys on.  My inspiration had yarn wrapped over the hearts argyle style but I kind of liked it plain so I left it alone.

I think I may need to hang it from some ribbon instead of just hooking it on the wreath holder.  We'll see.  

Anybody else already decorating for Valentines?  Am I the only crazy one?

Out with the old, in with the new

Wow, 2012 is almost over.  How did that happen?  2012 has been a year of home improvements.  Maybe not quite as many changes as 2011.  But we've settled into a rhythm at our house.  And we've started our second year of marriage.  And I'm finally figuring out how long it takes to get dinner ready.  It's been a great year, I'm looking forward to what 2013 will hold.

So, let's look back at all the home improvements we accomplished over the year.

January

I painted the basement over Christmas.  We went from dingy cream colored walls to a light celery green.

February

February is always kind of a lull at our house.  It's too cold to go anywhere.  We've hit total cabin fever.  So there weren't really any major house pictures in February.  We took a little mini-vacation to Lake of the Ozarks and then to Springfield to see Brad Paisley.  

March

My mom and I landscaped.  We planted flowers, we ripped out tons and tons of weeds.  Our new landscaping was then ripped out by our new puppy in April.  We also got new gutters in March.  And new fascia. 

I also painted the bar in the basement.  I know the picture from January might lead you to believe I painted the bar in January, but it was really over spring break.  I kept making people come over to stare at it, weird, I know.

We went from this

To this!  Such a great change!  The hardware got a coat of ORB.  And we just pretended we liked that green tile.

April

In April we kept ourselves busy with the sweet little puppy I got my hubby as an early birthday present.  Turns out labs are never calm and cuddly, even as tiny puppies.  I think the only time he was calm was on the drive home.  So, there wasn't much home improving in April but there was a lot of puppy corralling and cleaning up of messes.  He was awfully cute though.

We did manage to install a new mail box in April.  One we got as a wedding gift.  So cute!

May

I love May.  School gets over in May and the desire to DIY seriously kicks in.  We installed 6 new light fixtures.  Two on our deck, one by each front door, one outside the basement, and a new fixture in our hallway bathroom.

I also refinished three light fixtures.  Two of which were ceiling fans.  We had some doozies of light fixtures in our house.  The most amazing was in our basement.

Before.  Man oh man, that thing is ugly.  And those are the tiniest ceiling fan blades I've ever laid eyes on.

After.  Blades were spray painted and fixture was painted with silver boat paint.

Over Memorial Day weekend we also started staining our deck.  Not the best idea I ever had.  It didn't get done until July.

June

In June we started work on the outside of our house.  Not big work, but work.  I also painted our mantle and built ins in the living room.

Built ins before.

Built ins after

This month I finally tackled the trim in the kitchen.  After months of my mom's nagging.  And I couldn't figure out why it took me so long to do something so small that would make such a big difference.

I also bought a new table for our front hallway.  I was supposed to meet one of my friends for breakfast and we ended up hitting a garage sale.  I brought home this little gem.

After two coats and two different colors of spray paint and new knobs I had a brand new table.

July

Man oh man, it was hot in July.  July brought paint with it.  And stain.  We finished staining the deck.  A month and a half after we started the project.  It looks gorgeous.  I love it.  But I hated doing it.  Hated it so much.  My least favorite house project to date.

I also painted the front doors in July.  That old ugly blue is gone.  And bright shiny red is here to stay, until I get tired of it anyway.

We also re-floored the front entryway in July.  We went from ugly, curling up linoleum to nice brown tile.

 

My mom and I refinished a table.  We also made a faux Roman shade.

We started working on the trim to go up on the outside of our house.  We also started painting the outside of the house.  And that's still not done yet.  Don't judge.

August

I made some sweet paintings for our living room and bedroom.

And there was more painting outside.  Always more painting.  And I found out I'm allergic to the whole world.  

September

We took another mini-vacation.  Our anniversary tradition, just a month early.  We went to Lake of the Ozarks and stayed at a the resort my husband lived at when we started dating.

In September I also got super excited about fall and created a fall fireplace.

October

My elementary kids at work helped make decorations for a Veterans Day Assembly.  I also made some sweet flannel envelope pillow covers.

I made an adorable tray that almost did me in.  Ug.  Seriously.

November

Oh boy, November brought a mini-series:  No-Clutter-November.  I tackled my laundry room and bathroom cabinet.  The success was the bathroom cabinet.  It's still totally snoop worthy, especially since I painted the inside of it.

I participated in the Fall Pinterest Challenge by making a couple of sweet little wreaths.

November

Man, in November our TV broke and we were left looking like rednecks.  Bad news, that's how we're still living too, one TV in front of a broken TV.  And in November I went on my first ever duck hunting trip with my husband.

Another friend and I threw a baby shower for one of our favorite friends.  I also made that friend a bunting for her nursery.

I did some fun little projects for Dare to DIY.  I made these fun little glitter candle holders for the Dare to Entertain challenge.

December

In the third challenge for Dare to DIY I made a homemade project to gift, a sweet little wreath.

In December I pretty much glittered and crafted anything I could get my hands on.  Man oh man, do I love decorating for Christmas.

All in all, 2012 has been great.  I can't wait to see what 2013 will bring.  One thing I know for sure, there will be new kitchen floors in 2013.  Right now there are samples laying all over the place.

So, how bout you?  How was your 2012?  What are you doing tonight for New Year's Eve?  Any great plans for 2013?  We're spending tonight curled up on the couch watching Mad Men with a bottle of wine.  We really know how to live it up.  Have a safe and happy new year!