Christmas Tree Show and Tell

So I searched all over the place for a tree this afternoon. I looked at a TON of fake trees and even a few real ones. Since we shouldn't be moving anymore I wanted to get a fake tree. Target by far had the best selection and prices. They were out of the one I wanted that was on sale but this one was a good deal and is even 7ft tall. :)

Here are our stockings and my nice red basket, please ignore the cords on the floor, this is the cleanest this room has been since we started revamping the mantel. It is still a work in progress. :) Next year we can have some greenery on the mantel, the tree blew my decorating budget and the string of lights planned for here died. :(

 Here is a close up of our stockings, I still miss the ones that were stolen. Taking these out of the decoration box made me sad. If I hadn't spent so much time stitching our names on them I would make new bright cheery ones, I still might. Darn it that I made the Christmas tree skirt to match....anyone want a tree skirt?

 And of course I have to share the K-State Santa that is hanging out in the kitchen with my plants. This windowsill has not been hit by my paint brush....yet. It needs a good sanding job first to cover up the water stains that my plant pots are hiding.

I wanted to share some cheer as tomorrow is December 1st! Christmas lights make me happy since they are bright and colorful when everything is cold and dreary. Even Colin the Grinch helped me put the lights on the tree....decorating the tree was too much though for Sir Bah Humbug.

Peppermint Mocha Creamer.....yummmmmmmmmm

I have a huge long list of things to do today and I am sitting here trying to type because our puppy insists he has to sit in my lap. It is makes me think he is part cat because they always want to sit with you when you are busy.

I finished off some more trim painting this morning and am waiting for my coffee to be done so I can add the peppermint mocha creamer I bought. Yesterday I ran and got some groceries and got several delicious flavors. As much as I hated living in Phoenix I miss my work team buying me breakfast and coffee at Starbucks every morning. I miss those delicious drinks! I would hate to think what they spent even in one week on that habit!

So today I am working on new pieces for my show Friday and getting organized. Lucky me gets to run to the craft store to get more ribbon (I ran out for ornaments), cash some checks, and go look for a decent inexpensive Christmas tree. Yea to birthday money that I just deposited, I was saving it for a shopping expedition but I think I might use it for a nice tree. I think I need to wait until this afternoon as I am already behind my daily schedule because I am on here! Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

Hope You had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!

We had a nice little break for Thanksgiving! Thank you Jenifer!

I ignored the mess when we got home....I left the kitchen spotless when we left at least. :) While I unloaded wood and filled our indoor pile up Colin made some Ramen noodles for dinner. Quick and easy and then we caught up on our DVR. Relaxing and nice, we added a fire in the fireplace and the swirling snow outside added ambiance.

Relaxing until this morning anyways.....I wasn't sure where to start. I repriced items for my show Friday, and made a nice list (this is like the 4th one) of items I would like to make this week to add to my stock. I wrote out a game plan and then moved on to laundry. While laundry started I went around the whole house and filled in nail holes in the window ledges. Then ran a coat of paint on one kitchen ledge and painted the caulking around the fireplace.

So now I am taking a quick break before I move on to folding, adding another coat of paint and then go back to making jewelry. It is VERY windy outside and the ground is covered in snow. I really need to run to the grocery store as well but I think that might wait until tomorrow. I think we will have chili tonight as I have all the ingredients on hand to make that. Yum! Hope you have a wonderful week!

Thankful for a weekend out of our house....

So that list I wrote about the other day....somehow my husband read my mind. We made our weekly trip to Home Depot to get supplies to fix the hole in the wall around the light fixture that the contractor created (master bathroom) and also came home with some trim.

I should start off by saying none of the woodwork in our house is the same stain and some of it is laminate junk so I cant easily paint. This is a combination of bad contractors and past homeowners with no ultimate plan. Poor construction work does not make my husband happy as his job is to make sure contractors aren't cutting corners.

So at Home Depot I mentioned that I would like a fancier molding on the fireplace mantel which was a very obvious display of stupid ideas and bad craftsmanship. We bought some 4" trim and planned on adding it to enhance the mantel. This was until I pulled off the side trim and the front trim to sand.....there was NO caulking or insulation! Figures! So my husband and I proceeded to remove the entire mantel so we could spray insulation foam and caulk. In the middle of that genius me says can we lower it (we had about 6-7 inches) and make it so we can hang the TV up there? Maybe not my best idea. The rest of the day my husband devised a plan to run all the cords inside the mantel and some fancy outlets (like this photo, a coworker sent my husband) to make all the components work.

Our mantel is now smaller, because my vision didn't work with his building plan. The top is now removable and underneath is a tunnel for the cords. Right now he still has to cut an outlet into the top of the mantel, a hole into the garage, a hole back into the family room to wire everything. I might also mention he is not very fast at wiring as he can't see the colors of the wires. I think I may need to call my dad to come help. He said he would do all the drywall but I need to re-texture and paint. I know we wouldn't have been happy with a newer house (HOA's) but seeing the mess in my family room I wish we had a new house that was made for today's technology.

I do have to mention that spray texture in a can works AWESOME! We were hesitant to buy it due to cost and whether it would work. You cant even tell we patched the wall in the bathroom. I also have to say that now my husband and I have a plan with the family room, kitchen and dining room that fixes A LOT of the stupid mistakes made in this house. It feels good to be on the same page visually and mathematically. I tend to see how I want things to look not knowing how, and he sees how to get it that way built right. Sometimes it is a struggle figuring out how to get both. Winter is my time to get things fixed inside the house because it's too cold in the garage for him to work on his 4-wheeler. I think this wiring project just took over though, we are supposed to have New Years party......

I am REALLY thankful that we are headed to Kansas for Thanksgiving so I can get out of our mess from this project. I am also really glad I got such great useful birthday gifts because I think I know what I am getting for Christmas from my husband. Once I am done painting I will post some improved photos. :)

Lengthy Dreamy Post

I keep having this dream that someone is going to knock on the door and say what do you want done to your house? Yeah right! If that ever happens....I don't really know what I would want new. For instance if they asked me what kind of cabinets I want I would have no clue. I am so used to turning the less desirable items into things we use I don't know what I would want if I had money to do anything. So of course while I am trying to sleep ideas are popping into my head, isn't that when all the good ideas come? I used to keep a sketch pad in college to draw ideas when I was supposed to be sleeping. I have to sneak out of our room so as not to wake Colin up now, he does not appreciate me drawing at 2-3am.

So my mental sketchpad says if I had money first I would have one single flooring on our main floor (dining, den, kitchen, and the laundry room), I would want a high quality wood floor laminate. I was against laminates but I kind of like it now that we have it and if you spend the money you can get a nice looking one. While doing that I would replace the banisters and stairs to look like this photo I saved from a catalog. According to my husband our banisters are not up to code and our dogs sneak through the rails because there is too much space not to mention one of our friends kids got his head stuck.

And because this woodwork is white like I have wanted I would then  paint all our trim white and the doors along with new hardware. (I am planning on this but the hardware costs $$$). Right after that I would have our family room mudjacked (they make the slab foundation level again). I have no clue how much this costs but there seems to be a lot of companies in Denver that do it. Then I would like new carpet in the family room, upstairs, and basement.

This is where I am torn, I would like to make the basement more functional which in my brain means wait but I am dreaming of unlimited funds right? So I would add a bathroom in the area that is set up for one, change the bar to be 1/4 the size it is and have a room down there. All the other houses in the neighborhood have functional basements with rooms added, not having this makes our value go down. Plus I would like a room where I design the storage for my crafts.

I also wish I could have new counter tops and sinks in the bathrooms. Subway tiles as a back splash in the kitchen (Colin can tile now, I just need to save) and crown molding around the top of the cabinets. And I forgot Colin would like his floor in the garage coated.

Whew, what I didn't mention was the paint colors running around in my head. Because of this I moved all the furniture in our master bedroom yesterday by myself. It might have also been motivated by the bruise on my leg from running into my dresser. The new arrangement is much better.

So even though I listed all the things I would like done none of them are super exciting. All of them revolve around issues the house came with really. Bad decisions, the time frame the house was built, and the woodwork not matching. The biggest undertaking is new flooring. The mismatched flooring on the main floor turned me off when we looked at the house and I know it will turn buyers off when we sell. Our carpet is in fairly decent shape but needs stretched and has some spots from the previous owners. It will need replaced at some point anyway. So because no one is probably going  to knock on our door I will just keep saving and working slowly to get these things done.

I just can't decide where to start painting the trim.....and debating if I should wait until I have enough saved for door hardware so that matches.

Finally Some more Photos

I finally have the rest of those boring pictures from 2 posts ago.

Yesterday I used my birthday gift card from Colin at the Gap. Because he also snagged me some coupons to be used on Wednesdays so I got 2 sweaters and a new pair of jeans for under $73! 

 A red basket for the holidays to store our fire starters. It was a dinghy white before, spray paint is awesome! Thanks for the basket Mamo, its perfect just like you thought!

 My tiny fish tank in the Laundry room. It is a nice change while folding laundry. :)

 The new fixture in our entryway, no more dinky small gold fixture. If you look close at the door you can see the peep hole Colin put in for me. Thanks Mom for the fixture and thanks to Colin for drilling a hole in the door which was killing him.

And like I said earlier this week I broke my own rule of decorating before Thanksgiving. I am just thankful I actually have a place to put my entire nativity this year. This is the replacement of one that was stolen several years ago. I have never had a place to put it all out because its HUGE! I even put a little light in the stable to turn on at night. :)

Decorating Early

I am normally opposed to stores and people decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Probably because I like to decorate for both and Thanksgiving deserves credit too!

Well this year I am kind of breaking my own rule. I want our Christmas cards to have a photo of us in front of  our new house decorated. I measured the house and we figured out where we want lights, then I pulled out our lights to figure out what we had the most of. Nothing exciting but we are having white plain lights for the next several years with some red bows. I bought them at Ace Hardware several years ago so I could hopefully get more that match if we needed them. Since Ace is awesome they still have the same light brand. :) I only had to buy 4 more strands, we have lots of other sized bulb strands that I don't know what to do with though. So today I am getting my decorations out so I know what I can give away or keep. I like colored lights in the house so as of right now I have no clue what to do with all the extra white lights.

Colin is most likely not going to be happy that he has to put up those lights this weekend, but it was his idea for me to decorate early. Quite a few of our neighbors have already gone all out. Even if we decorate our house is not going to be even 1% as cool as those around us. All I can wonder about is where are they storing all the junk that is now on their houses/in their yards. I would really like to check out the organization for all those decorations.

Well I better get to work figuring out where to place the decorations I am about to make a mess of. I am missing a piece of garland for the mantel and a tree so that cuts out opening all the boxes of ornaments. Hope you are having a wonderful week.

Missing Photos to Great Projects

So I was going to share LOTS of new photos but alas blogger doesn't seem up to uploading all of them today. :( So I was going to show you the snazzy new black & white bedding in my red studio. I had to cut down an old comforter to go inside the duvet and forgot to share. I also forgot to share the headboard I found for $7.50 that matches my desk perfectly. Now the room looks a little more finished.

I also was going to share my fish tank, I finally set it up again after a lapse of 6 months+. It now lives in the laundry room, and I love the glow when I walk in there. I knew I had Colin put in super strong shelves for a reason. I went with cheap tropical fish this time, no saltwater this year. Photo wont upload :(

The new light fixture in our entryway and the new one in our bathroom. The bathroom one wont be finished for at least a week though. The silly contractors that built this house had the bracket on the wall not in it and it wasn't centered so Colin says he has to replace a chunk of drywall and I will need to paint. :( As he also needs to take the mirror off to do this I think it is a perfect time for me to frame it so it looks more finished and not outdated. :) Personally I would just patch that small section and paint but he wants it done right.




My new laptop arrived yesterday afternoon. It is going to take me a little while to get things transferred. Right now I have my everyday links and my antivirus switched. This could take me awhile, I am glad most of it is on my backup hard drive.

Lots of new jewelery pics, I made a bunch of $10 items for an upcoming show the 5th of December. I sell a ton of my lower priced items at shows, I wish it was worth it to add them online. These photos also wouldn't download :(

Besides that I raked the leaves in the backyard that were covered in snow. Dug out dry wood and filled up our indoor wood pile and filled a huge bag up in the garage so we have backup dry wood. It is still snowing and they say we should get at least 6 more inches today. Yeah! I love snow!

Hopefully I get lots more accomplished as Colin's friend Shane is coming tomorrow night to hang out for the weekend. We are going to watch Wade Bowen Saturday night, I am pretty sure I have to be the DD. I will add photos as Blogger gets it's act together.

Hope you have had a wonderful week! I also have to brag that I need to buy only 7 more Christmas gifts and then I will be done! Yeah!!!!

Great Weekend

Just wanted to say a quick hi before I get back to breaking things. Quite a few things I touch have broken in the last week. In the last 10 minutes I broke the vacuum belt by just turning the vacuum on! Hopefully the next few days are as good as this weekend has been otherwise.

Since we were planning on putting in tile Saturday for my mom Colin took me out for dinner Friday for my birthday. We thought about going to a movie but nothing looked exceptional so we got movies from Redbox instead. A nice start :) On top of that Colin won a $15 itunes gift card that he gave me on top of the 3-step stool and the Gap gift card he got me. What great birthday gifts! We also ordered a new laptop Saturday so we have a updated/running computer, it was a GREAT day! Colin finished off the weekend by putting a peep hole in our front door so I can see who is knocking before I open the door.

Hope you had a great weekend as well. :)

Overflowing Generosity

Thought I would say a quick hello and share some pictures. Hope you had a WONDERFUL Halloween. We had so many treat-or-treaters we had to turn the light off because we ran out of candy :( The puppies were not so fond of the doorbell ringing non stop and I need to add a puppy/baby gate to my wish list, kitchen chairs do not work that well. Here is a picture of my "fake" pumpkin that I carved.
My new dining room runner. I like a LOT of color and this room was struggling. Thanks to my friend Joyce that helped me find it while I was in MO. :) Colin likes clear patterns like this due to not always seeing the colors, he even really likes it. Yeah!

And since it is going to be a long time before I ever get a new couch after getting estimates for a new furnace I bought a colorful rug for the family room. Maybe I am over the top with color but it makes me happy. Now I just need to update my pillows....Unfortunately every time we need something my couch fund takes the first hit.

And last but not least my source of nervousness/scared/amazed/grateful. If this didn't appear in my car Saturday I would have no idea what this red box is other than it has stole my ONE corner of the garage. It is a parts washer, short story the top lifts up and it cleans tools/parts. It has NEVER been used and my dads friend gave it to Colin because he already bought a bigger one. That is the largest of gifts Colin received this week but one of only many. My Grandma and Jerry brought Colin so many tools he is still grinning from ear to ear and our garage is about to burst, I had to move almost all of my tools in the house except my gardening items. Right now a shed is at the top of my NEED/WANT list, like I said no couch. :( At least I can store items under this silly washer. Colin also tried to bring the 4-wheeler parts in the house and take them in the basement to make room! It just makes me think of my Aunt Fleta and all the motorcycles she lives with because my Uncle John just keeps bringing them home.

Most of the items on Colin's want list got fulfilled this week. :) Good thing because he is getting a dress coat for Christmas from me, nothing fun this year. Walking into the garage is making me nervous, we have never owned half this much stuff and having so much is making me edgy about the future and moving. Hopefully it wears off a bit, right now I feel like spring cleaning. Thank you to everyone that has been so generous to my husband! Hope you have a wonderful week!