My Father's Daughter

Houseguests are on their way, the house isn't clean yet, and I thought, "What better time to go through some pictures?" One of my all-time favorite pictures of my dad sits framed in my den. He was madly in love with Christmas, and, more importantly, he was madly in love with me.

Imagine my delight when I found this picture on our camera from Christmas day.

I'll be back when the houseguests leave! Happy New Year!

Savvy or Impractical?

My husband doesn't know this yet, but we're buying my daughter a new bed this spring. Of course, if you're anything like me, that means start shopping for it months in advance. I posted some pics of her room months ago, and boy do I wish it were that neat now! Here's the problem...
Her room really isn't all that large. She probably has too much in it, (white board, table and chair set, etc.) but she loves to play in there. So...I started thinking "daybed". You know, something simple and inexpensive like this one.

Okay, fine. So these are way out of my price range, but I think you get the idea. Personally, I'm a huge fan of daybeds--in the right room. My concern is, is a kids' room the right room? Sure, it's great for her now, but is it ok for a 12-year old? When she gets older, will it be too small?

I've looked into it, and they fit an actual twin size mattress. It's basically a twin bed. I just wanna make sure she won't be cramped. However, it would be PERFECT for the size of her room. I think about how much more space she would have to play in there.
It'll definitely be white, but I LOVE the sleigh daybed. It will also have a trundle for overnight guests. The one below (in white) is my favorite.

Okay. This is where you come in. Is a daybed ok for kids into their teens? She might not have it forever, but I want someone to tell me it's a good idea--or someone to tell me it's a bad idea. Can you tell I'm indecisive?

Christmas in Review

I survived days without computer access. How many of you can say that? I stayed the night at my mom's last night, and she has a computer. Woo Hoo!!! So...while she's in the kitchen making me a fresh pot of coffee (isn't it nice to go back home?), I'm going to blog.

I thought you might like to see some pictures of my mom's Christmas decor.
I left my camera at my in-law's, so I used my mom's. Her camera wouldn't let me take different shots, so they're pretty basic. I wish you could get the full effect of the tree.

The best picture I could get of this wreath had to be blurry. Bummer. It's pretty.

My best friend and I have spent every Christmas together since we were born. (He's also my first cousin.) He moved down to Florida in August, and it was my understanding that because of the new move, he wouldn't be up for Christmas this year. You can imagine my surprise when he came out from the kitchen when I got to my mom's. I screamed, I cried...what a great present!


A tradition for us is that my mom reads "The Night Before Christmas" (we celebrate on Christmas Eve) and then we open presents. Great picture, eh?

A benefit of having a best friend who flies to Peru for his job? Alpaca wool accessories for everyone! :) Too funny!

Anyone who knows me knows my unwavering and overwhelming love for my grandparents. My dad passed away at Christmas 7 years ago, and they are the only family on his side. We are extremely close. Look at them? Aren't they adorable?

Don't let my grandpa fool you. He never smiles in pictures, but he's the cutest thing you'll ever see.

I love this. Get comfy, Pop!

Well, this might be it for a few days. Lots of family time is needed now. I'm going home today only to clean my house for houseguests that will arrive in a few days. Aaauuuuggghhh!

I'll be back soon!

Because I'm not busy enough

Warning: Lots of pictures. We're leaving today to go back home for the holidays, but I thought I'd leave you with a couple of projects I did last night. So what if it's 3 days before Christmas, right? Because Blogger has decided to jack up how they load pictures, I don't know if you'll be able to enlarge any of these. I moved them around a lot.

If you've got a good dollar store in your area, you've probably seen these. If you're anything like me, you probably have 10 of them.

I don't really decorate in silver or cool colors except for in my dining room. Red just doesn't fit. So...I had some fun stepping out of my comfort zone with these colors.

I found an old frame in the basement, covered the mat with some pretty paper, and glued the ornament in the middle. Voila.
I bought a couple of these frames for .99 cents last week at the consignment shop. No plan, but I knew I'd find something.Of course, if you know me, you know scrapbook paper had to be involved.

The "Believe" came just like it is on a piece of paper. It fit perfectly into the frame, so I just cut it out and put it in. I love a project that easy!

Not bad for $1.66, eh?

And for the final project...I bought these scrapbooking signs months ago for $3.99 (all 9 of them!). I knew they'd come in handy some day.

Grab an old frame from the basement (don't you love basements full of frames?), put in some of my favorite paper, and stick it to the front. In case you're wondering, I don't use any of the glass from these frames. I like the dimensional look of it without the glass.

She's perfect! I was going to attach some ribbon to it and hang it, but I ended up liking her here.

Of course, my original thought was to give these away as presents, but I think I'll keep this one for myself. Merry Christmas to me.

Well, hopefully that sparked your interest for a couple of days. My in-laws live in the stone ages, and they don't have a computer. GASP! They might as well churn their own butter, right? I'll take lots of pictures and make up for it upon my return.

Merry Christmas to all of my blog friends! Be safe in your travels, hug your family and friends more than usual, and take time to enjoy the laughter around you!

Define Fabulous

Do you ever have those days where you wish you had a fabulous camera that just took fabulous pictures with one button? Yeah...I froze outside the other night waiting for that picture. This is the best thing I came up with.

This was a couple of nights ago before the 10 inches of snow we got. We're getting another 6 inches tonight. I went out tonight because I realized one of the lights had fallen out of the window. (Ooh...a game! Can you find it?) I got pictures of white dots, but no house. Between that and the beating these trees have taken on the front porch, I decided to just give up. No fabulous camera, no fabulous Christmas trees, and no fabulous picture. Hmph...When I came back in the house, I realized that I never showed pictures of my stairwell garland. I took whatever I had leftover from the fireplace garland and just plugged away!

I tied it up with some brown twine and covered that with huge, brown satin ribbon. Is there a better way to hang stairwell garland? Not sure. This seems to work for now.

The only picture I got of the entire staircase. Remember that fabulous picture with that fabulous camera? Yeah...not this one. It's blurry, and you can see my son's pants that I'm supposed to be fixing the hem in. How's that for fabulous?

5 more days 'til Christmas!!!

MIL's Christmas

In order to relieve the pressure of showing another picture of my house, I've decided to show you some from my mother-in-law's! Tricky, eh? We recently had a family Christmas party there, and these pictures were actually some that she had on her camera. Her really expensive camera, might I add, that has yet to take a clear picture. Go figure.

While my mother-in-law and I decorate very differently, we can appreciate each other's tastes. She tends to like cooler contemporary colors--blues, grays, blacks...while I'm all about the earth tones.
I prefer things extremely simple. Too much "stuff" around the house stresses me out. She, however, likes to have lots of collections of things around. She definitely likes to be surrounded by pictures--especially of her grandkids. Too bad for the tables. I'll have to take one another time that shows off the room better.

Somehow she finds the cutest Christmas decorations in colors that I just wouldn't imagine available.

If you ever want to find me at their house, I'll be here. I seek out the nearest fireplace at any house and sit in front of it--all night. Just me and gigantosaurus Santa.
Her dining room is quite lovely, but the picture of the vinyl table cloth and my niece doing the high karate kick just don't do it justice. Again...mental note to take another picture of this someday.
That was just a preview. She's got lots more that I can show--and will show--after the holidays. Until then, I'll leave you with my little one. She fell asleep in Grandma and Grandpa's bed with her new doll clothes on her doll. Stops me in my tracks, that one...

I found something!

I don't know about you, but I'm having a hard time spending more money on Christmas decorations. Don't misunderstand--I would LIKE to. I just find that I'm barely able to get all my Christmas shopping done, let alone buy decorations! So, my goal in this post is to show you how I shopped around the house to make some new ones this year.

Okay...I'm cheating a little on this one. I bought these on clearance at Hobby Lobby two years ago, and they were in BAD shape. Beat up, worn off, dirty...you name it.

Nothing like a can of spray paint and some irridescent glitter (you hear that, Kimba?!) to make things nice and beautified! Oh man, the pictures just don't do the sparkle justice!

In case you haven't noticed, one of my favorite ways to perk something up is to use scrapbook paper. Well, Christmas paper is no exception. Have you SEEN the selection of beautiful paper out there? I buy it without knowing what I need it for. Just don't tell my husband. As far as he knows, everything has a purpose. So...these rather earth-toned, non-festive candles go from thisto this
Don't worry--I notice the missing ribbon. I don't have one that matches yet. I LOVE something that doesn't necessarily shout Christmas. It's wintery, Christmas...y, and yet it fits right into the dining room decor.

Okay. This is a little out there for me, but I like it well enough. When you walk into my mudroom from the back door, you see this (FYI--this picture is of an undecorated table).

Keeping the "shop the house" theme in mind, I found some scrap fabric, hot glue (of course), and went to town. Notice the clearance sticker.

I think this is a bit of an improvement. I think it says, "Prepare yourself. Christmas has vomited in this house" as soon as you walk in the door. And what's more welcoming than the thought of Christmas and vomit?