three days to spare.

Well friends, I've finally uploaded some not-such-great-quality Christmas decor photos. I think a new camera is going on my birthday wish list, for.sure. I'm not head-over-heels for our decor this year, but I have seen so many photos from all of you lovely bloggers that I have fabulous ideas for next year! I know, I can't possibly be planning for next year already right? Oh, I am. :) Maybe Santa will have a 'special delivery' for us next year. ;)

Let's get right to it. Our tree, well, it's fake one this year. A battle I fought long and hard about with the hubby, and I finally lost gave in. It's a 9 foot beast that took me next to forever to "fluff", with very little help from the mister that wanted a fake one to begin with of course! (Aaarrrgghhhh) And it's adorned with mostly silver and red, with touches of turquoise and a few random sweet ornaments we've been given over the years. I like the way it matches the Christmas presents wrapped underneath...

Don't worry, I'll tuck those presents away before my niece shows up on Thursday since she has a better understanding of Santa and will expect it to be bare until Christmas morning of course!

A few of my favorite ornaments are from the year Jack was born.

This is of Pooh and Piglet overlooking a "Moses basket" with a new baby tucked snugly inside. It reads: "How delightful," said Pooh. "to be oh so brand new".

And this one of a baby bottle on ice in a champagne bucket. (Sorry it's blurry)

I'm very disappointed that we could not find a tree topper this year that we loved, so we don't have one. Maybe I'll stick a bow up there today but we wanted a glittered star. Or should I say, I wanted a glittered star. You see, Jack (the little guy) is obsessed with stars! I think it came from a little cartoon skit he liked which was all about the seaside and had starfish in it because he calls stars, "star-bish", which, as you can probably figure out, means starfish. Any star, any where, he spots it. He even calls the snowflake ornaments on our tree "star-bish" with such excitement. Had I thought about it sooner, our tree would simply be filled with silver ornaments and white starfish... there I go with ideas for next year already. I only hope we can keep this obsession of his going strong for another year because my gosh, it's cute!

The staircase has garland tied with red ribbons draped from it:

And since I draw so much inspiration from the lovely and talented Holly and her own holiday decor I just had to put this together:

I already had the jars and a few tapers. But after finding the glittered "Noel" and tall tapers for 60% off, I just had to grab them. Hubby likes the simplicity of it. I like that hubby likes it. Makes us both happy. :)

And as for my favorite of all things "Christmas" in our home right now:

I grabbed a grapevine wreath for about $3 and the white berry garland for $2 and am in complete love with our simple wreaths. Originally I only had one on our back door but having fallen so deeply in love with it, I removed our very busy wreath we had on the front door and replaced it with a matching white grapevine one. I might even leave these wreaths up through the winter season, not just until the holidays are over. Is that un-cool? Lol.

Next year, absolutely no red in the house. None. It's fine for this year, seeing as Christmas is 3 days away, but I'm over it. Looks lovely everywhere else I see it, but it doesn't feel quite "right" for us.

As for that adorable little elf perched up on the wreath. It was a gift from Jack's grandpa and "Bubba" as he calls her. My father-in-law sent it to Jack in the mail and although Travis nor I had ever even heard of it, it's one of the most fun things about the season this year. The idea behind it is, the elf returns every night from the North Pole to a new spot in our house to keep an eye on the child(ren) to report their behavior back to Santa. The child(ren) are encouraged to talk to the elf, send messages through the elf to Santa, but not to touch the elf, as he is not a toy. Although at just 2 years of age Jack hardly gets the full concept of it, it's absolutely precious to me to watch my hubby contemplate a new spot for the elf every night so that when Jack wakes up in the morning he can search for him. And, he does. It's so cute to see my little guy wake up and set out to find something that makes his face light up when he finds it. It's like Christmas morning every morning already!

I have tons to do still in preparation for Friday but I hope to finish a small project I've been working on so I can share it with you all tomorrow! I mean, you want to know that there are stocking in this home, right? ;)

See you tomorrow then!

luck be a lady.

I am in total shock and awe over a few things today. Fortunately, it's a good shock. I was thrilled enough to find a new cool blog I love taking a peek at: high-heeled foot in the door. But, imagine my excitement as I discovered she was in the middle of a week of "favorite things" give-aways and this was the give-away I stumbled upon! I mean, seriously, how could one lucky gal even decide between all those fabulous options if she won???

Well, out of all of the lovely ladies that entered, I, yes I, was the one to be faced with the challenge of deciding. I won! I cannot believe the graciousness of you lovely bloggers. From kind comments and/or emails that brighten my day to fabulous give-aways.... thank you doesn't quite do my feelings justice. I'm starting to feel like maybe, just maybe, good deeds do bring around good karma. :)

Miraculously, I have made a decision on which one I would like. Since I loved them all, I figured I would choose the one that would get the most use and compliment my ever-so-simple 'jeans and a t-shirt' style beautifully. So, here she is in all her linen handmade glory:

I can't wait to see it in person. I just know I'll fall more in love with it. (If that's even possible.)

A big thank you again to high-heeled foot in the door for such a pretty (early Christmas) gift!

And, if you love all things pretty, linen, and handmade also, be sure to head on over to emersonmade.com  and find yourself a little piece of fabulous-ness.

My little elf and I are spending the afternoon wrapping the presents Santa dropped off for daddy *wink wink*, taking presents to the post office to be sent to the boys and girls who made our "nice" list this year :), finishing up some holiday decor (that I really hope to share with you all before the holiday has come and gone), taking photos of such decor, and dropping off hubby's "work car" to the mechanic (ugh!).

I hope all of you are kicking off an already exciting week with as much fun as we are!

makeover? yes. please.

If there are two things that could use a makeover even more than I could, it's my blog and our home. Our living room to be exact. Would you like a little 'sprucing up' done to your blog or a room in your home? Well then, friends, you are in luck!

Be sure to enter for a chance to win an e-decorating package from High-Heeled Foot In The Door! I mean seriously... is that not the ultimate gift to yourself or what? Taking the guess work out of what you want your room to look like? For this fickle Gemini, it would be the answer to my constant dilemmas.

And, if your blog could use a creative touch, Fabulous K Creative is giving away a blog makeover. I took one look at Holly's new design and was immediately off to look in to how I too could have such a fabulous looking blog. Imagine my excitement when I found that exact opportunity was being given away to one lucky follower.

What a gift-that-keeps-on-giving either of these would be! Wish me luck... and then get outta here and go enter for your chance to win! ;)

Christmas came early!

I woke up this morning with the intention of taking my little elf out for more Christmas shopping for our "big guy" but instead now plan to clean up the house, catch up on laundry, and cover a shift at work tonight. Needless to say, the day I was ever so excited about quickly became one I was less-than-thrilled to face. I did do plan on squeezing in some present wrapping, and managing to take some photos of our holiday decor. But, the most pleasant surprise, (as it often does), came to me when I logged on to take a quick look at my favorite blogs and noticed The Kelton's Cozy Cottage had chosen a winner for their latest giveaway.

And, the winner is... Moi!

Considering I'd probably lose my head if I didn't have an ever-so-necessary neck to keep it in place at the end of long days of motherhood, being a lovely and supportive wife, tackling household projects (which could consist of a simple ten loads of laundry or taping, priming, and painting just about anything), rushing to and from work, and managing to 'be there' for whatever friend or family member may need me, a glass of  wine is my 'self-prescribed dose of sanity'. Soooooo, as you can imagine this lovely little gift will surely get plenty of use!

Aren't they just gorgeous?!?!?!

Thanks again to The Kelton's!!! Be sure to take a look at their blog and follow them through their "adventures in their 1949 fixer-upper".

these are a few of my favorite things.

1.) finding a fabulous 'new-to-me' blog through another blog I loooooove!
2.) coming across a fabulous give-a-way on the new blog I am happy to have found!
3.) entering to win this little piece of loveliness...

4.) (a little off the subject but equally as wonderful to me) the changes made to my sweet ole' blog ;)

and....

5.) sharing the opportunity to win something fabulous from here, with all of you lovely readers!

ANYONE can enter so be sure to head on over to high-heeled foot in the door by Saturday Dec. 19th at midnight EST and enter to win something special for yourself (or someone you love enough to share such fabulous-ness with) this holiday season.

If you love something fabulous and FREE (and who in the world doesn't?!?!?) check out another uh-mazing give-a-way over at one of my favorite blogs! What a season of giving these ladies are making it out to be!

I'm off to play elf and wrap presents with my boys while cookies bake and fill the house with the sweetest aroma of the season. Be back tomorrow, finally, to share some of our holiday decor.

well, that's changed.

Things around our home are constantly changing. Mostly, it's my mind, but that usually means so does our decor, or more accurately, my ideas for our decor. But in this instance, I'm referring to how our lives have changed.

Before October 31, 2007 a Saturday night consisted of dinner out and a movie or dinner and drinks with friends. Or maybe shopping, and take-out then a late-night snugglefest curled up on the sofa watching the latest new release. Or maybe, it was spent away from home at a hotel for the weekend to relax in their hot tub, or with family playing cards and drinking wine. But here we are, two years plus after that oh-so-special date and our Saturday nights go a little more like this....

 

Pizza delivery, a couple diet cokes, candlelight, and of course...

 

a third party. :) Do we still take an occasional Saturday night to ourselves to have "us" time and a dinner where someone waits on us and makes seventy-three and a half trips back and forth until we are happy with what we are eating or drinking? We. Sure. Do. Do we miss having every Saturday night to just the two of us? Not. A. Chance.

We spent Saturday night together at the dinner table with what I must say was quite a delicious dinner and despite getting up a few times to get our picky-eater something more appealing to his eyes and his little belly, we stopped for a moment and made a point to really appreciate where our lives are now. Married, happy, healthy, and with a precious little boy who sees us as his whole world. Well ok, maybe the occasional new toy is his whole world but more so, us. :)

Things change, and, in this case, change is good.

I'd love to stay and type but that precious little boy I just referred to is now up from his nap and immediately noticed I turned the Christmas tree off while he was snoozing. "Tree on mama", he says.

Hope to be back soon with photos of our holiday decorating, that is, if we ever find a tree topper we love. Anyone know where to find a star tree topper that isn't made of gumball machine plastic and blinky lights? No offense to anyone who loves those. ;)

feeling inspired.

Thanks to the lovely (and always inspiring) Holly over at life in the fun lane I saw this post the other day and immediately fell in love with the knobs and pulls she used on a dresser for her master bedroom. Considering I've been stressing for months over ideas on how to turn Jack's very neutral nursery into more of a little boy's room that will suit his style personality better, I immediately wondered what that hardware could look like on his dresser, in his room. A quick call to Anthropologie to see if they had them in stock.... exactly 6 pulls left, just what I need (plus two knobs) and, we. are. on. our. way.

Me, and my adorable companion....

...are off to shop for his room.

be. still. my. heart.