Santa came early!

Yes! Santa paid us a little visit a couple of days early, when he (and by "he", I really mean two delivery men from Home Depot) came and dropped off our brand new washer and dryer!!

Branden's father generously gifted the pair to us for Christmas. We picked them out a few weeks back and now they're finally here!





Let me explain my excitement. I haven't had a washer and dryer in my house (that I didn't have to stick coins in to operate) since I lived with my parents many years ago. I am beyond excited to not have to haul my laundry around and kiss the laundromat goodbye forever!! Now I really feel like a real grown-up with my own house.

We've got the washer downstairs in the still-under-construction new laundry room that we're building. We had a plumber in last week to get the pipes all set up and we had that new utility sink installed that you can see in the background of the photo above. Most of that room has been framed now, so once we get drywall up we'll get an electrician in to install an outlet for the dryer. For now, the dryer will get hooked up in the mudroom upstairs where a dryer hookup already is. Whew.

The oven is preheating and I've got Christmas cookies to bake. I'm looking forward to family, food, presents, and all other festivities coming our way over the next few days. Also laundry. I plan on washing everything I was too lazy and/or cheap to wash before (living room curtains, I'm looking at you). I hope everyone has a wonderful, warm, and very merry holiday!

Lucy does too!

Tree trimming details!

I know I've been a little quiet around the blog lately... I've been busy with parties, shopping, gift wrapping, and general holiday craziness. You know how it goes!

I did want to share some pictures of our lovely Christmas tree. For the last few years I've wanted to do a tree in those fun Dr. Seuss-esque colors. I always see ornaments in those bright and happy non-traditional colors: hot pink, lime green, turquoise, purple... and I've always wanted to use those colors for my own tree. So this year I picked up some cheap-o ornaments from Tar-jay (yeah, I said Tar-jay, deal with it) and went for it. And it looks so pretty! The colors makes me seriously happy.





Way up at the top of that last picture you can see our Lucy dog ornament. The dog has floppy ears and one patch over its eye, just like her. We saw it last year (back when she was just a teeny baby only a few months old!) and couldn't pass it up. I know it makes us those people. But whatevs. We love our pooch.

And cause I've got crazy Christmas fever, I got some holiday throw pillows to swap out for the couch. Does anyone else have seasonal pillows? Or is that a seriously kind of insane thing to do?



I couldn't resist the lime green and polka dots! So very merry.

And here's one more peek at the tree, all lit up at night and stuffed with presents underneath:



(Yup, it's December 15th and all my presents are wrapped and nestled under the tree! Woo!)

Oh, and after looking at it for a while, Branden and I both agreed that the outside of the house needed more lights. :) So he climbed out on the porch roof to string a few strands above the second floor and we stuck candle lights in the upstairs windows (the third one is hiding behind the porch roof). (I'd like to also mention that it was at night, while it was about 18 degrees out with 30 mph winds, that he decided it was time to climb onto the roof...)



And might I also mention that we, without a doubt, have the best lights in our neighborhood. Eat it, neighbors! (That's what the holidays are about it, isn't it?)

More Christmas cheer!

When I said I was like a crazy Christmas fairy lately, I wasn't kidding. I've been buzzing around the house putting little sparkly things here and there.

Here's the new buffet table in the dining room, all decked out for the holidays!



I went for metallics in mostly gold and silver, with some touches of green and red.



Love that reindeer! I filled the apothecary jar and glass vase from the living room with sparkly ornaments, sprinkled mini ornaments around the votive candles, picked up two cheap-o metallic candle holders, and a silver vase at Homegoods. Then I shoved in some glittery branches with beads and crystals on them from Michaels. Easy peasy.





The dining table got a new centerpiece, too.



We picked up a holiday tablecloth. I used the same wicker charger from the fall centerpiece and threw on a big candle, wreath with berries on it, and topped it off with some red bead garland. Then I popped some red tapers into the candlesticks and called it a day!



I'll post pictures of our tree next, so stay tuned! With the lights outside done, stockings out, and tree up we are officially ready for Christmas!

The faux-mantle, holiday style

Soo, remember when I showed how we hung shelves above our tv to mimic a mantle? That was mostly spurred by the terrible realization (in October) that because our house doesn't have a fireplace, come Christmastime we wouldn't have anywhere to hang our stockings! (BTW, I don't really know how our 90+ year old house doesn't have a fireplace, but whatevvvvs.)

I've been the crazy Christmas fairy the last few days, adding little decorations and dashes of holiday cheer throughout the house. I made some quick changes to the "mantle", adding some snowflakes, jars of ornaments, and of course our stockings!





You know my love of sticking stuff in glass containers...



Works every time. Plus sparkly ornaments make the easiest prettiest decorations!





We decorated those stockings a couple of Christmases ago and they've held up well. I meant to embellish Lucy's last year but didn't get around to it. I wanted to make a felt goose to put on it (since that's her nickname... Goose, Lucy Goose, Goosey, Gooseinator... she's smart and responds to all of them) but then forgot about it. Maybe this year!



So there you have it. Nothing too crazy, but a little added holiday sparkle. It might be a fake mantle, but it holds our stockings. Even the dog's. And someday we'll buy another house with 1,481 fireplaces in it to make up for this one. :)

Oh, and we put the Christmas tree up last night, so I'll post pictures of that in the next day or two!!