It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

 I've decided to go silver and gold this year for Christmas.  It wasn't that much of a departure from my usual, I am just giving up the red.  I started with this little silver tree and added some gold mini ornaments from Target.  The Mariposa tray hold everyone's keys and glasses as they come in.  I need to get a little skirt for this tree to complete the look.

 I'm also using a lot of pinecones in my decorating, so I added a couple of pinecone picks to my flower arrangement and a nutcracker I picked up at Joann's for 60% off who has a pinecone hat.

 I tossed a couple of pinecones on the tray to tie it into the decorating scheme.

 The table is set with a woodland theme.  I found these cute deer at HomeGoods and the bottle brush trees at Target.  I added some iced pine branches with pinecones to complete the look.  

I am enjoying the change, a softer look. 

I will show you the buffet trees tomorrow.

Finished Wainscoting and Painting

 It started out as a small project...it always does.  We were going to paint the downstairs, but if I change the paint color, I had to take down the red drapes, so I needed to encase the windows.  When the guy was here to encase the windows, I asked how much to install crown moulding...then wainscoting...6 months later we are done.  I had to wait 3 months before the guys were available to install the wainscoting, so I had plenty of time to pick out paint.  Which is a nightmare, by the way! The Handsome Husband got so sick of all the paint blotches on the walls and my asking him which one he liked.  I must have bought 25 samples of different whites, blues and taupes!

 My former color scheme was gold walls, green accent wall and red drapes and accents.  I thought it looked cozy, but apparently, after talking to people looking at the new room, it was dark and gloomy.  I had no idea.

 I never knew there was so much involved in painting wainscoting.  Filling holes, sanding, primer, paint, and wax.  What a job!  I spent a whole week hanging out at Alyssa's while the painters took over my house.

 The reward was great!  I love the new lighter look.  I'm not sure if I am going to add drapes, if so, they would be just silk panels down the sides of the windows, no valances.

 The accent wall is painted a blue green.  I was really stumped trying to pick a blue.  They were too shallow, too cool, too bright but then I bought two pillows for the couch and I had my inspiration.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.  

The colors I used are:

wainscoting - whisper white - dunn edwards

walls - parisian taupe - behr, home depot

ceiling - baby's breath - dunn edwards

accent wall - patina creek - dunn edwards

I wanted so much to use Benjamin Moore, everyone uses Benjamin Moore, but in the end, I just couldn't find a color that was right for me.  As an added benefit, I also saved myself some money.  

Place Card Holders

 I decided to make some place card holders for our Thanksgiving meal.  I used these little silver sugar bowls that I got last year for Christmas.  They can be bought in a set of six at Layla Grace.  I filled the containers with styrofoam cut down to size and then glued the moss on top of the styrofoam, careful not to get any glue on the silver sugar bowls.

 I bought these cute felted acorns from Stone House Crafts off of Etsy.  They are beautifully made and high quality.  I also used this moss from Michaels and went outside to collect these little sticker balls from the Liquid Amber trees.

 I was spending the day at Greg & Alyssa's house because our house was being painted.  She has these cute little flowers growing in her front yard and they were the perfect size for the place card holder.  I love the color of these flowers.  I ended up not using these flowers because I didn't put florist foam (I just used styrofoam, lesson learned) in the containers and they wilted after an hour.

 I then added the sticker ball with tacky glue.

 I secured the acorn and let it hang off the side.

I then added the names.  I ended up using a creamy paper instead of white, but you get the picture.

I also ended up using fake flowers instead of real due to the fact that I didn't use florist foam.  

For this project you need:

containers

florist foam

moss

tacky glue

small scale flowers

natural element (such as the sticky balls)

felted acorns

name cards

Post Thanksgiving Post

 I'm back, finally, after a month!  Our computer crashed the day after my last post and we have been waiting so patiently for the new iMac to come out and we finally got one Friday!  Yippee!
Here is a picture of our Thanksgiving table.  As they say, better late than never!

 I got a floral table cloth from TJMax with rich burgundies and purples, I used velvet pumpkins and pinecones for my centerpiece.

 I added flowers in the rich burgandies, purples and some bright orange and green.

 I made place card holders out of some silver creamers I received last year for Christmas.  I believe my daughters got them at Layla Grace.

We had a wonderful, tasty thanksgiving and we are truly grateful for all our blessings. 

The Color Run

Katie, Amy, Lynn and Kelly

On Nov. 3rd, Katie and her friends ran in the 5k Color Run.

As you are running along the designated route, there are color stations.  People throw colored chalk on you as you pass through.  They had a ton of fun, but Katie said that all that chalk was suffocating at times.    

It was the first time any of them had participated in any kind of run and it is a wonderful bonding experience they will share forever!

 Good job girls!

First Fall Decorations Are Up

 I thought I would share with you this years pumpkin topiaries for fall.  I used some leaf garland and fall picks from Michaels.  I bought all the supplies about a month ago (you have to buy way in advance for holidays because when the holiday gets close, the supplies are sold out!) at Michaels.

Things are a little sparse at the moment, painting starts on the 12th and I don't want to put out a bunch of stuff only to have to take it down and put it back up again.  Looks like I have a leaner on the right, I'll have to fix that.

Happy Fall!

Halloween Porch

 I wasn't going to decorate the porch this year, I wasn't feeling good, we just had a bunch of work done in our living room and painting was starting next week.  Halloween morning I woke up and decided I would just get out a few things to decorate the porch for the little trick or treaters.  

 I used two spider webs, my black crows and this spanish moss stuff I bought years ago at Roger's Gardens.  

 As I was attaching the crows to the branches, one fell and he looked dead.  I decided to go ahead and keep that design. It looked creepy.  I don't like to get too scary because we have little kids on our block and I don't want them to be scared. 

The jack-o-lantern was easy and fast to carve and I put spiders all crawling up him to get to their web.  

I'm glad I decided to put out some decorations, I just felt better about things.  When the kids were little, I had a reason to decorate, but really I like to do it, so I should just do it for me.