Silver Tinsel Wreath

I found this silver tinsel wreath at a store the other day. Now, I do understand that this is as far away from a real pine, natural wreath as you can get. It screams "I'M FAUX" for sure. However when I saw it something spoke to me. I told my husband "go look at that silver wreath and tell me if I am crazy for wanting it." He looked at it, came back with it, and put it in the cart. He never did tell me if I was crazy or not;) When I saw that strange silver wreath it brought back wonderful memories of my Grandma. My Mom told me that Grandma used to have a similar Christmas wreath hanging on her door when I was a young child. Although, she did say Grandma's was gold. I am sure that is the reason I felt I just had to have it. It looked a little plain, to me. So I thought I would take some holiday stuff I already had and jazz it up a bit. It has a bit of a vintage/retro look, I think. Feel free to leave complements, comments, or if you do think I am crazy, you can tell me that if you like;)

Little Pink Christmas Tree

This small glass tree is from Venice, Italy. It belonged to my Mom, but she gave it to me because I love it so much. She has had it for many years. I think I was in about 5th grade when she got it. I have been decorating with the white flocked deer since I bought them way back when I was in high school. I thought they looked cute placed inside this glass greenhouse.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I will be spending time with my family today having the traditional Thanksgiving dinner and enjoying their company. I am thankful for so many things this holiday. Too many to name them all, but here are a few of my favorite

I am thankful for

the hugs and kisses from my son

his requests for "read another book" at bedtime when he is really too tired to stay awake for another book

his laughs that sound like he is trying to communicate with dolphins when he is swimming at the pool

seeing my husband and me in the things our son says and does

and the love of my family.

Here is a little turkey hand print that my son made when we went to his Early Childhood Class. It has a little poem that says:

This isn't just a turkey,

as anyone can see.

I made it with my hand,

which is a part of me!

It comes with lots of love,

specially to say...

I hope you have a very

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

My wish for you and your families is that you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Home Improvement Project - New Garage Door!

WOW, it was a lot of hard work, but I'm glad it is done! I bet everyone is sitting on the edges of their seats wondering where the instructions for this project are. Oh...... did you think I installed it? Anyone who knows me knows that I don't have the skills to tackle something like that. Don't expect a tutorial for this home improvement project;) My husband installed it and he did a great job!

I know this isn't the type of post that causes a lot of excitement, but here is a picture of my new garage door. My husband backed the trailer hitch into, and knocked a small (cat sized) hole, in the old door. He said he was going to tell the neighbors that I did it, but I got the word out before he could - LOL. Every time our son saw the hole he pointed at it and said, "naughty Daddy!" Also some sort of small animal, that I suspect is a cat, had been coming and going as it pleased through the hole leaving small chunks of fur on the edges of the hole. I told my husband that either it needed to be fixed or replaced before our garage became the home to every stray animal in the area. The door was old anyway and needed to be replaced. My husband spent all last weekend (and I mean all) replacing our old garage door with this shiny new one that we bought at HD for the bargain price of $125.00! It is so nice to have the new one. I am so thankful that my husband put in the time and had the patience to deal with this home improvement project. Installing a garage door is harder than it looks. He deserves a nice restful Thanksgiving holiday. Hopefully he will get enough rest for more home improvement projects to come;)

On a side note: that "lovely" purple trim will be painted white to match the door in the Spring. The former owners chose the color. We knew right away all the purple trim had to go, but it has taken us over 4 years to start on this project. Hopefully we will have all traces of it erased by next summer.

Happy feet!

When I saw this cute penguin cinnamon stick scented candle I just had to have him. I have been adding touches of silver to my living room and thought he was perfect for the holiday season. I haven't decided for sure if he will go on this table 0r another spot. When I get up more of my Christmas decorations I am sure I will find the perfect spot for him.

Chandelier Dressed For Christmas

My Christmas decorating style is a little on the vintage/retro side. I use a lot of white with fun, bright colors thrown in. We don't really do much of the typical red and green. The colors and decor of our living room clash a bit with the traditional Christmas colors. Here is our chandelier all decked out for the holidays. The art on the walls are photographs that I took at Como Zoo Conservatory in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Kitchen Decor, Owls and More...

I don't have a really large kitchen so the decorating space it limited to an area that is over the stairs leading to the basement. We have slowly been working on giving our kitchen a face lift. We decided not to totally gut it, but work with what we have. The house was built in the late 50's so it does have some charm, and we wanted to keep that. Also we are working on a budget, so we kept the painted maple cabinets and repainted them. We also painted the walls a sunny yellow called Spiced Butternut by BEHR. We replaced lighting, and decorated a bit. During the winter months my husband plans to tile the counter tops and back splash, and change the flooring. These pictures show some of the decorating that we have done. There was a house shaped shelf structure already existing on the wall. We thought about removing it, but it is actually built into the wall, so we decided to paint it the same color as the wall to minimize the look of it. The previous owners had painted it a contrasting color and it really stuck out. I wanted downplay it. I decided to use it to display some of my favorite stuff. Our accent colors are red and black so a lot of the decor reflects that. I recently found the cast iron owl trivets at a local thrift store and placed them on a ledge with in the "house." I am still not sure about them, but I think they add to the vintage feel of the home. So I think I will let them roost for awhile. The two frames that flank the "house" contain old recipes from a cookbook published in 1966. They are a great economical do-it-yourself form of art . On an adjoining wall I have four photographs framed. My Mom and sister recently visited Europe together. These are photos that they took while they were there. When I was young I lived in Europe for five years. Their photos brought back so many good memories for me, so I had to frame some to put on my wall.

I'll show the rest of the kitchen when we get the renovations done on it. Right now it is not especially pretty;)

I apologize for the quality of the photos, we don't get a lot of natural light in this area and even the flash didn't help much except to throw spots of glare off the glass from the frames.

Christmas Tree Up!

I admit, I have started decorating for Christmas and Thanksgiving isn't even here yet. Seeing all the holiday decor in the stores is too much for me. I have my tree up, but not decorated yet. We have a three year old and the last two years we put a baby fence around the tree so that he couldn't get at it, get hurt, break it, break the ornaments, etc. This year I am trying not to put up the ugly fence. So by getting the tree up early without ornaments maybe he will get used to it and not try to touch, pull, and remove the ornaments once they do go up. One can hope;)

Here is my tree. I hope you will stop back to see it decorated.

Home Improvement Project - Tray

I love all the special touches that bring a little glitz and sparkle to a room, but I am a bargain hunter and like to buy stuff on sale. Often that means your options are a little limited because by the time the good stuff goes on sale or clearance, a lot of the good stuff is gone:( A recent discovery of mine..... ok, ok, I am a little behind a lot of people.... is spray paint! Did you know you can paint almost any old junk and make it look a whole lot better? Well most of the time. Recently I noticed trays for coffee tables painted in pretty metallic paint colors in some of the stores. Imagine my luck when I came across a plain wooden tray at a local thrift store for $2.00. I grabbed it up knowing that if you see something you like you better grab it quickly or someone else might. Anyway I took it home with me and hid it in the garage so my husband wouldn't see more old junk that I carted home and had "amazing ideas" for. Well I forgot to take a before picture of it, but here is the after. I primed it, painted it with Krylon Metallic spray paint in the color Satin Nickel and used a clear topcoat. I think it turned out rather nice. It looks really cute on the coffee table I begged my husband to turn the car around for because it was sitting near a sign that said FREE STUFF! What bargain hunter can resist a sign like that? I have "amazing Ideas" for that coffee table too by the way;)

Home Improvement Project - Silver Table

Before

After

Every now and then I decide to try to turn something old or ugly into something new and improved. My husband and I decided to take this side table, which I really didn't like, and make it into something that we would want to have in our home. I am not sure if the before picture shows it, but the table top is really just pressed wood. It had some sort of faux wood (picture?) on top of the pressed wood. The legs of the table were solid and I saw some potential in the shape of the table. We painted it with Krylon Brushed Metallic paint. The color is Satin Nickel. Then we used a clear gloss topcoat. The handle was shiny brass, but we painted it black. I found the lamp on sale at Target for 50% off. I love a bargain:)

Please forgive the missing baseboard molding. Our living room is a long work in progress;)

Fall Fun

Here are a couple of pictures of my son and dog playing together in the yard. The nice Fall temperatures have quickly given way to the sharper, colder Winter feel. We have had a couple of lighter snowfalls. I am feeling the need to get up the Christmas stuff even though it is not yet Thanksgiving. Maybe it is the quick transition from T-shirts to Winter coats. In Minnesota the Winter can be very long. I love the bright anticipation of decorating for Christmas. The cheery decorations can really help get you through a long Winter. Maybe that will be my excuse for not removing the Christmas decor till well after New Years ...... or like last year, not until after Valentine's Day;)

Handmade Gift

I am a little late getting to the party, however I wanted to join in the fun!

is having a "I Can Make That Party"Thanks Chris for hosting such a cool party!

My son who just turned three on November 12 created this painting for me. I think these would make great Christmas gifts for family. I just love it. It looks great in our living room and it is so special to me because he painted it.

Forgive the photography. I had a hard time getting a pic without a glare.