Not So Black Friday

At our house, as it was at my house growing up, the day after Thanksgiving is for decorating for Christmas.  I was so excited to decorate this year since it is our first year in our home.  I got to use our big tree and not the Charlie Brown tree we used in the apartment.  We had our friend Mark come put colored lights on our roof line.

Here's the front of the house from the road.  Mark gets those lights in such a straight line.  So nice!

And a closer view of the front window.

We inherited the snowman from Adrian's folks.  He was a bit dusty, but nothing a Magic Eraser couldn't fix.

Bright and shiny!

 

I LOVE our new fireplace!  This was one of the things I was most looking forward to and it came out great!












 I put all of my snowmen on the mantle.  I love snowmen.  I know...  I don't like winter, but I love snowmen.  Going to have to come up with a way to make snowmen that doesn't involve cold weather.

I feel like this needs something else, or something different, but I'm not sure what.  More height differences?  I feel like it's all on one level.  Any ideas?

 Here's our kitchen table and the wall opposite the table. 

I like to switch out our usual art, in this case some coffee prints, for Christmas art. 

And finally, our tree.  It looks so pretty in our front window! 

I really like how the top window afforded me the opportunity to hang the wreath. I used a regular door wreath hanger.  It was skinny enough to fit behind the molding on top of the window, then I just bent it to wrap around the frame and hang next to the window itself.  The wreath is hung backwards so the majority of the lights show from the outside, but you can still see them from inside too.

Here are a few of my favorite ornaments.

Our First Christmas - as a married couple.

Colten's First Christmas - I can't believe it's been 14 years.

Joshua's First Christmas - 10 years on this one.  This ornament is actually a little book that I filled out about what we did and who we saw on Christmas.  Being 3 months old, Josh mostly slept and nursed.  But I'm glad I have the memories in writing.














And our tree topper - Miss Angel.  She's so pretty.

If you look closely at the bottom of the picture of the tree up there, you can see a little bit of white and grey fluff.  I think the kitties are the most excited about this new play structure full of dangling toys.  Thankfully, most of my ornaments are not breakable, so they are ok to swat them around.  They love this dangley jingle bell and the ball hanging at the very right of the this picture.  We've had a couple of crazy chases involving the tree as base.  I put an end to that madness, and now they just stay on the lower branches to play.

 Ack!  They are so stinking cute! Let's be clear...  We are NOT cat people.  We've always had dogs.  We are C.R.A.Z.Y. about Gwennie, our English Bulldog.  We love our friends' dogs and any other dog we happen across.












 But cats?  We tolerated our friends' cats, but never dreamed we be so in love with a cat (or two).  I'm not sure how this has happened.  We still maintain that we are not cat people.  We just happen to be our cats' people.  





So that's our Black Friday tradition.  What about you?  Do you brave the shopping masses or stay home and decorate?  Any crazy critters in your life keeping you on your toes and tugging your heart strings?

Sputs and Sputters

I can't seem to get this blog up and running with any consistency.  I think I need to actually set myself a schedule to get this done.  I just looked back and my last post was on Sept 17!!?!?!    So I've got a lot of updating to do...

THE DECK IS PAINTED!

And also the white bench and side tables.  I much prefer them in color.  Although, since my in-laws moved into their new home, we returned their deck furniture to them (a bench, two chairs and a coffee table) and now our deck is pretty empty.  We do have more chairs, but they are all living around the fire pit now that it is fall.

Here are a couple more shots of the deck and a before/after for full effect.

I put two coats on the deck floor.  The second coat being pretty thick so it could soak into all the cracks and crevices.  I had noticed that the first coat was already peeling up in some spots when it rained, so I wanted to be sure to have full coverage.

 It seems to have worked well.














BEFORE: Grey blah...

AFTER:  Tan Ta-da!

I am thinking about adding some paint accents to the deck and/or a rug.  Something to warm it up a bit and add texture.  Also, this color is showing dirt. A lot.  I like the color, but didn't count on this.  Hopefully adding some other elements like more furniture and a rug will help with that little issue.
I'm thinking accents in a dark brown and either blue (like the side tables) or green. Maybe both!  But with cooler weather here and colder weather approaching, that will most likely be a spring project.

Speaking of projects, I have so many ideas flying around in my brain.  Here is the current list.

TORRES TO DO

Outside things to do (in no particular order):

Curb Appeal:
Paint shutter, front door, railings?
Flower boxes (same color as shutters) under the boys windows and big window
3 Azaleas and 2 Spireas under front window
Something taller on either side of window
Raised beds around trees
Trim lower branches

Backyard:
Paint deck
Enclose bottom of deck with trellises
Hummingbird/butterfly garden surrounding deck
Raised vegetable garden
Terraced flower beds up the hill w/steps to upper lawn
Doggie door
Paint shed
Lower patio
Pergola over deck
Upgraded fence
Pool
Hot tub

Other:
Reside house in better color
_________________________________________
Inside things to do:

Master Suite:
Remove wallpaper border
Door for bathroom - barn door
New cabinet pulls
Paint (moody grey?)

Living Room:
Redo (paint or new) fireplace surround
Family pictures wall going to basement
More seating in living room
Paint (muted blue?)

Boys Rooms:
Paint boys rooms
Closet organizer for Colten
Reconfigure Josh's closet organizer
Bed frames
New bed for Colten
New curtains

Bathroom:
Flush regulators in all
Paint main bathroom
Replace switch plate
Replace shower curtain rod
New cabinet pulls
Paint

Basement:
Movie Room

Subbasement:
Exercise Room

Kitchen:
New cabinet pulls
Island
Repair flooring
Paint (sage green?)

So a couple of things are done.  A lot of these are inside projects that we already determined were being saved for winter.  That makes me actually excited for the cooler weather.  I'm not a big fan of winter normally.

So, what are you working on?  Any long drawn out projects that keep getting derailed by the weather? What are your winter project plans?