A Different Kind of New Year's Eve Party

Tonight is New Year's Eve...

And what do we have planned?

A dining room makeover!

So unconventional... but I am willing to overlook the timing to see what we can do.

The above photo is the goal.

Wish us luck and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here's hoping 2012 brings us many happy dinners in our new dining area!

Help! Choosing a Paint Color

2012 just might be the year for paint at our house.

I'm excited.

But how do you choose a paint color when your significant other has different ideas?

I'm thinking a compromise.

 Something neutral like in the dining room above?

Hubs wants to do the burgundy thing.

 Is this still trendy? 

 I saw something in the ballard designs catalog like this ...except without the orange toned chairs.

We have dark mahogany furniture with ivory padding.

 How about a golden wheat with burgundy drapery?

Not a dining room but I definitely like this idea...and would like to try it in our stairway.

Opinions accepted and welcome!

Hope you are having a great week.
We had a fabulous Christmas...lots of traveling
and I took tons of photos.
(More on that later...pics are still on my *NEW* camera)

PLUS My listings will be up sometime right aftert the new year.

Until then...I'll be getting my decorating cap on!

Yes, Jillian There Really IS a Santa Claus!

I didn't think it was going to happen.

And then it did!
Now I believe in Santa Claus.  Well, maybe not really but I do know someone was listening.

One of my gal pals! She didn't need to think long and hard about what I wanted for Christmas this year. All she had to do was read my blog! That in itself, is a gift.

If you recall I have posted about it not once, but TWICE for Pink Saturday.

The Babycakes Cupcake maker. Is. All. Mine.

From my sweet friend....here she is below

And what did we do? We instantly made mini quiches. 

Not cupcakes, ohhhhh noooooo.

Quiches.

They were so easy to make and delicious.

Just a little tweaking of the recipe for next time.

Also with my gift were the accessories needed for the ultimate cupcakes.

Mini paper baking cups and beautiful pastel sprinkles.

I'm all set! Thank you, thank you!

 Looking forward to the new year... I've even gone antique shopping and found a few new treasures for the new year.. here is a sneak peek of the pinky pastel treasures. There are more but these are the goodies with pink or pastels in them. Enjoy!

I'm drawn to pink lustre like a moth to a flame...

 Hmmmm.... what could this interestng piece be????

 Did someone say "Please find more pink and shabby ornaments"???? I think so!

 Beautiful!

 I really really want to keep these...

 January means Valentine's day will be just around the corner...

Here is another German pop up.

 Lovely old glass garland...

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Linking to Pink Saturday and

Show and Tell Friday Show and Tell Friday  

Just a few more days....

Just a few more days now and all of the busy busy busy will have gone away.

It will be nice to relax.

But I've really enjoyed the season this year. Having Bebe along by my side has been a lot of fun.

Her excitement and laughter.... she is at an age now where she understands what is going on.

This week everyone is busy...we have last minute gifts, cookies, cards, and greetings to neighbors on our "to do" schedule.

What's on your list this week?

I'll be back for another post for this weekend and Christmas Eve... until then be Merry!

Overflowing Joy

This past holiday season I have been filled with joy. An amazing joy!

You could say it is all of the fun things we've been doing.

We kicked everything off by visiting a tree farm the day after Thanksgiving.
Hauled a tree home for our living room!
It was lots of fun!

We decorated it and bought presents.

We made cookies.

And gingerbread houses. 

 

And decorated some more.

But, I think, I think it just might be ... something else.

 The real JOY behind all of that.

The birth of our saviour! Unspeakable joy.

An overflowing joy.

Nativity artwork by That Artist Woman.
Check out her blog on how to make a silhouette nativity!

Wishing you and yours a heart filled with the JOY of Jesus this season and all throughout the year!
(I have never met anyone who regretted it! What a gift!)

A Merry Pink Yummy Ho Ho Ho

 This past week I participated in my first cookie exchange. 

 My dear hubby also helped and really wanted to make pressed cookies... just like he did when he was a kid. Here they are and they turned out pretty good! (See the photo above)

We added orange and lemon zest for flavor. I think next year I'm going to try almond extract.

I'm also going to check out other types of cookies I can make. It just seemed like so much FUN.

Kind of like "THE MORE THE MERRIER!" Tee hee.

 I just had to check out pinterest and see what was on there...

here we have peppermint stuffed oreos.

WOW!

 And these are just beautiful! Almost too pretty to eat...

 And of course I was choosing only pink cookies since it is PINK SATURDAY!

 I'm not sure what these delectables are but I think I gained five pounds while I was on PINTEREST.

Seriously!

And while I was shopping this week I found this yummy looking cookbook... so I came home and bought it on ebay at a discount.

Watch out next year cookie exchange! Can't wait!

Have a Merry Christmas to my Pink Peeps...check out the other holiday posts, here.

Decorating with Natural Greens: Part 2 The Inside

Dear Reader of the Christmas in July party:

This is a past post from 2011, but thought it was still

 a great way to show using natural greens around the house!

 

 

In my last post I wrote about decorating the outside of my home using natural greens on the trees and bushes outside. We live in the woods, so I admit, I have an advantage.

But this is also partly why I wanted to start doing this.

I have the holiday decorating world literally at my fingertips.

So without further ado, here is what I came up with:

A vintage pottery serving bowl made a great pine cone display for

my coffee table.

I wasn't sure how I was going to use this nice Lenox vase but the ivory tone is the perfect backdrop for green and red!

 Here I combined (Note that my ugly 70's mantel is pretty well hidden!) faux decorations

with the natural.

Using the trimmed branches from our Christmas tree I've added them here and there.

And it helped to soften up the dark metal of the fireplace.

Same branches trimmed from the bottom of our tree.

 Why let them go to waste?

 And Mrs. Cow here needed a little something to jazz up the kitchen!

 Now for my "M" wreath... the jury is still out on the results but hey, it was my first time trying it. I think a thicker base and arranging the branches in a way that I could fluff them... see the post below for Ballard Designs "B" wreath.

 It is a learning experience!

The cedar was fun to work with although I did discover I may

be allergic to it.

 I'll leave you with a few shots of some older goodies we've collected over the years.

After all, we do love vintage.

Enjoy the day!

Linking to

Knick of Time: Christmas in July Party

and...

 Ivy and Elephant's What's It Wednesday

Faded Charm's White Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday

Decorating with Natural Greens

 I think it all started when I saw this in the Ballard Designs catalog.

 A personalized letter wreath! Love it! Now to figure out how they made it.
I've also always wanted to use the natural greens found in the woods outside my home so this was a great opportunity.

But where to start?

We decided to go for simple. Hubby fashioned an "M"

out of heavy gauge wire. It does help that my dear hubby used to make wreaths on the family farm.

(Or I'm sure I would have NEVER attempted to do this on my own!)

Next I spotted a tall cedar tree...

 Cut a few branches...and hand wired batches of the little branches.
Now I'm almost finished with my wreath.

I'm not sure how I like it. I think I'd like to create a thicker frame for it next time.

Pictures to follow...I just have to add a few doodads, a bow, a ribbon hanger
and it is done.

Then I spotted a holly tree (with red berries!) and a pine.

Not all holly trees have berries, did you know that? We actually have two.

One of them does not have berries. I think there has to be a male and a female tree in order to have one with berries...but I'm sure I have this info all mixed up but it is something to that affect.

ANYWAY....

Snipped a few branches from each...

 And we created nicely filled urns for either side of the door.

And swags for our lamp post and windows!

It was a lot of fun and we used everything found already at our house.

My kind of decorating!

Next up: Using natural greens indoors!