Dream Tree

You would think with all the amazing trees gracing the pages of blogs and magazines that it would be impossible to have a favorite. There are many that incites sighs and just a touch of envy. But I have to say that none of them quite top this tree I tucked away years ago in my tear sheets. I just love it. I can't even say why, exactly. It's just so full. Full of color, full of life, and full of love. You can tell that someone put a lot of time and love into this tree. It seems to find it's perfection in the lack of it. If that makes sense. There's a kind of haphazard, carefree-ness that appeals to me. This is my dream tree, the one I hope will find residence in my family room one day.

I'm lucky to have three trees - all given by various friends and family. A silver, gold and white one in my living room, our family tree in the family room, and the kids' tree in their playroom. I was going to take pictures, but due to my baby's curious fingers my trees are all naked from the waist down. So maybe next year.

May you all have a wonderful holiday, filled with family, friends, food, and a little faith. And none of the flu that is making it's way - one by one - through my family!

See you next year!

Decorating with Ornaments

Nothing new, but in my opinion, it never gets old.

Christmas Count Down

My oldest has been asking that age old question - How many days 'till Christmas? - so I decided it was time for our family to have a Christmas count down. I considered the paper chain, the advent calendar, but those things are good for one time and I like things that last. Inspired by the Land of Nods adorable felt garlands, I decided to make felt mittens to count down the days.

Using the felt I had on hand, I cut out and decorated some mittens to help us count down the days. I want to have numbers on them, but my free hand felt ones weren't looking so good, so I'm hoping to find some precut ones online some where.

I wanted to have the mittens hanging on a rope, but I couldn't find any. One more thing to ask the hubby to do! Although, I have a feeling it's in the drawers in the garage that are being blocked by the armoir that still hasn't been painted...so the rope may have to wait until next year!


I also plan on sewing around the edges to give the mittens a more finished look. Not as cute as I would have liked, but my kids are happy and love taking a mitten down every day - so it works for me!

Closets

Remember when I wrote up my to-do list for December? And at the time it did NOT include moving all the contents of my closet into my husbands so I can turn my closet into a storage/craft closet? Well, now it does. Sigh. I have a really horrible habit of starting HUGE projects at the most inopportune time.

It was really supposed to be a quick thing. I needed to put away laundry, but lately I've been feeling a little cramped in my closet space so I thought, "Hey, why don't I just move everything into my husbands closet (he's got the big walk in - long story), and move all the storage boxes I've been putting in there into mine?!" Yeah, that wont take long (insert eye roll). And it probably wouldn't have taken too long if my husband didn't decide that if I was going to turn it into a storage closet he might as well install some shelving. Needless to say my room is a disaster with clothes and boxes every where. Is it too much to sigh again?

Of course the fun thing is that now that I'm in the big closet space one day I get to turn it into something like these...and in the mean time I have a place for the cow hide I picked up for free (sorry vegetarians and vegans, it's real) and one of my vintage chairs.

My December To-Do's

I definitely lost my home projects momentum in November. Maybe it was the fact that I had just thrown three birthday parties, put together three costumes for Halloween, and not to mention Thanksgiving. Whatever it was, I was feeling a little burnt out. But December's here and I'm ready to tackle some projects!

To- Do

1. Finish sanding, painting, and reupholstering chairs for kitchen - before Christmas!

2. Add a second color to my playroom rug. As much as I love how it turned out and wish I could leave it how it is, I neglected to factor in the whole "white-rug-in-playroom = dirty" thing, and I can't stand how, well, dirty the white part looks, so I'm dying it a light turquoise.

3. No more empty frames!

4. Finally get around to painting and hanging this shelf for the playroom.

5. Do something with the LARGE stack of frames (over 30) sitting on the upstairs cabinet. Either hang them up or put them away!

6. Finish painting my daughter's bathroom. Oh, wait! I just did that yesterday! That's one thing off the list :})