This and That--December Edition

I have waited a good week to publish this post just so I could call it "This and That--December Edition"  Was anyone else in a November time warp?  It felt like it would never end. I was sick for most of November and it was the world's longest month.  Welcome December!!!

Here are a few things going on in my life:

1. I am a fan of Ann Taylor again. Sarah from Ann Taylor Corporate formally apologized to me over the phone for the rude manager at the Fashion Place Location. She also sent me a letter apologizing with a 40% off coupon and a $25.00 gift card for my troubles. I guess I can forgive them. I do love saying to someone at Corporate, "I know that if I were in your shoes, I would want to know if one of my employees was out of line." I act like I am doing them a favor!

2.  It must be the time of year for apologies because I also got an apology out of the blue from a guy who stood me up months ago at Cheesecake Factory.  I have never met him in person and I thought I would never hear from him again after I gave him a piece of my mind via text.  Lo and behold, he apologized yesterday.  I forgave him and told him I was over it and have moved on.  Here is a pic of me moving on with John at Temple Square seeing the lights:

2. My friend Sara texted me to say "Who gets a medium soft drink at McD's?"  Apparently she was behind a person in line doing just that.  Yeah, seriously. That is offensive. It is the same price as the large. None of you better be doing that!

3. I saw an article on MSN (where I get all my news) yesterday about a guy who is actually trying to colonize Mars. He is putting together space shuttles to take people there and DROP THEM OFF in these pods they will live in and they have to pay $500,000.00 to take the space shuttle there. I got nauseous reading about it. Seriously, have you seen Mars?

4. I put up a new garland on my banister. It is pretty freakin' adorable. I have to thank Ashley for it since she bought me the lit garlands after Christmas last year at Michael's for $1.50 each and the balls at Land of Nod on clearance as well. The big polka dot balls and candy canes picks are from Taipan and last time I checked, they still have them. The garland might have too much stuff on it but since I have no man living in my house to complain about it, I am going with it.
 

5. Along those same lines, I also added some new balls to my Christmas tree and put balls in these two containers. Pretty dang proud of my crafty self:

6. I am hosting Gourmet Dinner Night at my home in December. I should be panicking and cooking like a mad woman to find recipes. I'm not. I've done nothing. Odds are good that I will end up buying dessert and probably most of the dinner. GDN gals, you've been warned. On second thought, maybe you are rejoicing right now after the last time I hosted!

7. I took my kids to the BYU game last Saturday night in Provo. We ate at Brick Oven beforehand and Santa came around to visit each table. I love this (flashed out) picture of the boys:

8. I got this darling workout jacket at Target. It was still 40 bones but compared to the Lululemon stuff..it was a steal. They have knock-off Lululemon pants there too. Sometimes Target really gets it right. Mine is in hot pink and I wear it everywhere..not just the gym:

9. My saintly neighbor Doug installed the lights on my home again this year, and raked every.single.leaf off my lawn. I don't have a single rogue leaf out there, people! He comes over every other day or so to change out lights that are out. Jealous? My yard and house have never looked so good. I may never remarry just so he can always do my yard--it looks so good!

10. I have a new favorite make-up product.  I still love everything Tarte makes but this is a product by Benefit called Watt's up!  I got it at Ulta and it is an highlighter for your face.  I put it above my cheekbones.  It is perfect for holiday parties or just any day when you need a little oomph to make your skin glow (love Buster in this photo.  He is in zombie mode):

11.  (Because this random post goes to 11!)  My Christmas Elf hasn't shown up yet.  He might not make it this year.  How is that for lazy mom 101?  When you don't have the energy to hide the elf every night--you know you have given up!

Family Room: Take Two

Are you sick of looking at pictures of my family room?  Wait..Don't answer that!  Because I have a few more to show you.  In my last post, I told you I was contemplating what to do about the behemoth plaid chair and coffee table that were totally outdated and didn't go with the current decor.  And by contemplating, I mean I stewed about it non stop.  I can really smother a project.  It's not like I don't have anything else to worry about.  My kids had to audacity to ask for dinner sometimes...little did they know I was stressing over a big ugly chair.  They are so selfish...



Any who,  over the weekend, the chair went bye-bye!  I found this lovely one at Down East Home and my mom and I hauled it home.  

Next up was the ottoman.  After much soul searching, I decided that I needed to go with a brown leather ottoman instead of the other choices, namely, a red leather one or a burlap looking upholstered number from Target.  I got the new ottoman at Sweet Briar Hollow.  My only concern was the fact that it was a large square instead of a rectangle.  I didn't know if it looked right in the room.  But once we moved the armoire, it looked more centered and balanced.

After having it my home for less than 24 hours, I was convinced I made the right choice.  The kids have been playing King of the Mountain on it.  Sammie has been doing gymnastics all over it and three kids can lay on it to watch tv (which is why I wanted an ottoman instead of a coffee table.) 

The thing looks indestructible and my house is the perfect place to test its durability.

The whole space finally feels DONE.  What a relief.  We had to move the armoire over to the right about a foot so my large family photo had to be moved to the other wall by the hutch.  My dad already helped me hang it.

Now, I sit in the room and marvel at how much better it looks.  Now you all can go ahead and tell me how much better it looks!  I'm waiting....

Paint Reveal and Furniture Quandary

If you remember, I got my main living area painted back in June. The dark tan color has been a huge improvement to the light yellow I had been living with for the last ten years. I had my painter paint my armoire black and a little sofa table black for me as well. And I got some lamps and a little table for next to my green chair. Finally, I got my family pictures made into canvases (thank you Groupon!) and hung some other things on the walls that had been sitting around for ages.

Here is the before of the paint in the kitchen:



And the after:


 

Here is the armoire before it got painted (the wood felt too light with my dark wood floors):

Remember this huge chandelier canvas Ashley bought at TJ Maxx in California and I was so jealous?

Well, An exact copy showed up on my door at Christmas time from a very generous friend.  It finally found a home over my stairs:

Here is what my house looked like in the process...check out the old yellow color.  (Thank you to some very kind men in my ward (David, Tyler, and Jamie) who came over and moved all of my crap to the middle of the room)

Thank you to my dad for hanging everything. He holds himself out as a master hanger. He is a perfectionist and wouldn't rest until he was convinced everything was perfect. He also loves to curse the "Phi Beta Kappas" who put the frames together the wrong way:

The Finished living room (I moved the pictures of my kids to that wall because I added the one of Buster):

Back to the family room.  The question is--What do I do about the big plaid chair and the coffee table?

Neither one goes with my currect decor. Recovering the big chair will cost as much as getting a new one. Is it worth it recovering it because it is huge and two people can sit in it? Or do I spring for a cute one like this:

 

What about the coffee table? My kids lay on it to watch tv. I would love a big, soft ottoman instead. I saw this one on Target.com for about 300 bones. (Don't worry..If I do that chair, I won't do this ottoman.)

 Pretty great deal. Would they thrash it? My friend has a huge square red leather one..would that be a better option?

Talk to me people.

Holiday Home Tour

Come on in! I've been waiting for you...Here is your hot chocolate...let's take the tour! I know you think you've see all this before..but not so fast...I got some new balls on my Xmas tree! and I am desperate for a new blog post.

Let's start in the living room with my tree....no one lays a finger on this tree. I don't even like my kids looking at this tree. Buster already broke one of the ornaments this year.



A close up:



And if you turn to the left you will see my entry decor.. My mom bought these knitted stockings for me last year. I love them:



Now, into the family room where we have the...wait for it...family tree! My kids help me decorate it. Don't look too close. I had to appease my children with the PBK stockings.



Check out these big balls...hehe. I found them at Taipan. I obviously have a thing for red and white polka dots. These balls were sold out and I had to drive to Orem to get them. Truth be known, I would have driven a lot further..I love them so much.



And turn around. What is that? My hutch. Probably my favorite piece of furniture. I try to cluster my Santa stuff here:



In the kitchen, I have my Xmas plates:



And candy jars (these are my only claim to fame..they have been pinned thousands of times on pinterest:



One of my favorite things about this season is displaying the cards from family and friends:



Let's go back to Sammie's room. Remember this candy tree? I am anal about it because it is flocked and it loses more flocking each year. I used my lamanze breathing and let her help decorate it.



Back to my bedroom..this is where the magic happens.. (I hate how they always always say that on MTV cribs...get a new line!) Just kidding. We're not going in my messy bedroom.

Let's go into the boy's room. The sports tree. Ryan decorated this one:



And finally out front. You saw my elaborate Halloween display (wink wink) I decided to keep it simple for Christmas. My sole piece of outside decor:



And my new star wreath..waiting for my friend Heidi to come adorn it with ribbon..hint hint.



And of course, my favorite thing in my house...these four! Their excitement about Christmas is palpable. Ryan talks non stop about reindeer, Santa, and elves. I love it.



Now I am coming over for a tour of your house. Don't stress, I will let myself in. Just leave the Fernwood mints out on the table!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This is a shameless post where you all get to comment and tell me how cute my house looks. It only took me 10 days to get all of my Christmas stuff up. I love this time of the year but sometimes spending every evening doing my normal clean-up and then decorating is exhausting.

But I was excited to decorate this year because I got some new stuff.

New stockings and tree skirt:


The tree skirt is really just a quilt that I wadded up and put under the tree. The stockings are PBK and were my second choice. Last year, after Christmas on Amazon, I found this amazing deal on 8 red and white knitted TAG stockings.


I ordered them and then immediately emailed some friends and my mom and sister to brag about my deal. Yeah, I'm classy like that. When the stockings finally arrived three months later (they were back ordered) they were tiny--like little socks for cats. No wonder they were so cheap. I was devastated. I ended up sending them back and just buying my kids these PBK ones on Ebay. The kids are thrilled.

I also rigged up this stocking display in my entry:


When my mom and I attended our cooking class at Thanksgiving Point, we saw a cute bar with all these stockings hanging on it. My mom convinced me I needed to do the same for my house and she purchased the stockings at Roberts Crafts with coupons. (Don't be jealous Ashley.)

For the first time since having kids, I put up my olive wood Nativity that I bought in Jerusalem cough 13 cough years ago when I was in college. That makes me sound sooo old. Now that we have a piano, I felt like I had a safe place to put it where baby Jesus wouldn't end up in the Barbie house:


I remember buying it from this cute little man named Baghdadi. I gave him my wad of cash and he assured me he would pack it up and ship it to me. When I arrived home, my dad told me I was a total sucker. He said "you will never see that nativity." Low and behold, about 8 weeks later, an old beat up, taped together box arrived on my doorstep with this bad boy inside. It doesn't go with the rest of my decor (for about 1 minute, I considered spraying it white and rolling it all in glitter but decided against it!) I still love it because it reminds me of the Holy Land.

That's it. My five trees are up. My gourmet dinner night that I am hosting is this week (Heaven help me!!) and Sam has recovered from hauling a gigantic chair to the basement at my request. Tis' the season!

When You Let Your Yard go to Hell in a Handbasket

This yard was the product of 5 months of complete neglect. The last time a weed was pulled was April 24th. I know this because I pulled the weeds on a Saturday and then my water broke on the following Monday.

In Sam's defense, I had been putting him to work inside the home with a massive DIY project and since then, he has been training for a marathon. We honestly had gotten to a point with the weeds where we didn't know where to start. We took solace in the fact that ours wasn't the ugliest yard in the neighborhood--there is a xeriscape number down the road...

Enter Carey and crew. In one day (one day people!) five guys moved sprinklers, pulled all the weeds, ripped out a tree, laid down weed mat, moved plants and put down bark. They worked from 8:00 am until 8:00 pm that night. They made tacos for lunch in a microwave they plugged in outside. I kept the diet root beer flowing and they worked like dogs.

I know I have no dignity in posting these before and after photos.

This:


Went to this:



This:


Went to this:


This:


Went to this:


And this:


Went to this:


We also had the front door painted by someone else:


How long do you give it until we are back to the before pictures?