Merry Christmas Eve!

While Round 4 of cookies cools (yes 4 rounds this year!) I walked through the house and took some photos for you of our somewhat thrown together Christmas decor :-)

Round 1: fudge
Round 2: peanut butter hershey kiss cookies, sugar cookies and a few sugar cookies w/candy cane kisses
Round 3: rum balls and chinese noodle cookies
Round 4: molasses and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

tins and plates to fill with all those cookies!

upstairs doors have faux garland and red ribbon swirls

I added 2 paper Reindeer heads to the guestroom door :-)

sparkly red trees

and a cardinal pillow brought some RED into the guestroom

hallway is simple this year with a tall silver tree and our red 'BELIEVE' wooden sign

And since I had leftover cinnamon pine cones, I tossed them into a silver bowl along with another little wooden sign to add some color and holiday scent to the hallway.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas! My parents are here celebrating with us so I'm not sure that I'll be logging on tomorrow - I hope you all are enjoying time with family and friends and great food & drink!

Basement Day 15 (& cookies!)

Closets!

This skinny closet houses both of our electrical boxes - we have 2: one for the house, and one for the geo-thermal system - as well as our cable and internet boxes. The HUB of the house, if you will :-) It will be painted the same color as the walls so it blends right in and hopefully won't be as noticeable.

My giant double closet got shelves that run the full length of the inside of the closet! I'm so excited! I can't wait to fill it up and get everything in its place so anyone can find what they are looking for!

And since I'm behind on Christmas decor this year, here is a shot of our lit tree with all the wrapped packages. Most packages will be leaving for friends and family's homes, but for now, they decorate this corner. UPS got a frantic visit on Saturday for the last box which I found sitting under the tree and thought it was already in the mail - I can only hope UPS will get it there in time! (I think they should be called Santa's helpers at this time of year!)

Yep! Christmas baking!

Believe it or not, this is round two! Round one was fudge which is chilling in the fridge. Round three is the non-baking cookies which I forgot to take pics of, I know! But no worries, round 4 is coming up tomorrow morning and I will be sure to take pictures then!

PS - for those of you that noticed the big Samsung box under the kitchen counter, we scored an amazing black Friday deal for a new HUGE TV for the finished basement. I will share more when it comes out of the box! And speaking of the basement (again!) painting is starting tomorrow! woot!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep! It's my birthday :-) It's a low-key one this year with the hubby and the dog baking cookies :-)
The number seems big to me this year (33), but inside I still feel like a kid - definitely not a grown-up and definitely not that number! So, I'm going with the 'you're-only-as-old-as-you-feel' rule of thumb this time around :-)

I hope you are all enjoying a peaceful day before the happy chaos of the holidays is truly upon us!

The Holiday Season is Upon Us!

Yep! So I named this back in November for a Dec 1 or 2 post.... I blame a late Thanksgiving and thus a shorter time frame for Christmas. I blame my crazy work schedule and...life in general. I'll be honest with you. I LOVE the month of December. I love the color red and that we celebrate so many family birthdays (on both sides of the family!) and Reese's adoption day and Christmas all in 1 month! I love finding that perfect gift, wrapping it, baking cookies, the music, the cheese-y movies on TV :-)
But this year I was too stressed and couldn't find that spark of inspiration... it took me a while. I tried. I put the below mantle together over the course of a few nights, but I didn't have a theme, a picture of what I wanted the house to be. Matt even noticed and asked if I was ok. I listened to carols in the car, watched holiday movies - cried (again) at the end of The Polar Express (I can't help it - I adore that story!) - but no spark.

 So what finally kicked me into the Spirit of the Season? Going to get our Christmas Tree and wreaths! Maybe it was the smell of pine or the light snowfall the day before or the roaring bonfire they had going, but I sang all the way home and couldn't stop grinning!

I brought the evergreen wreaths IN this year and hung them on our double windows adding red ribbon and cinnamon scented pine cones to each. The ribbon is wire-edged which allows you to form the bows, curl the ends and walk away with it staying exactly how you want it! I highly recommend it for wreaths, especially outdoor wreaths as it keeps the bows from looking a bit bedraggled in the weather.

The dining room light got a bit of holiday cheer with faux pine garland with red berries and pine cones!
It's the first year I've 'dressed' the chandy and I really love the way it looks!

The 3 Wise Men and our Creche went back up on the top of the hutch. 

I will have to update this picture once I've gotten all our wrapping done - I picked up a new table cloth on sale at Home Goods this year and will be using my new napkin ring holders that I got on Clearance last Jan!

Packages have to stay up until we are all on vaca so Reese can't unwrap them while we are at work! :-)
Stay tuned for more!

Basement Days 13 & 14

trim work! and doors!

I LOVE the little shelf!

I'm already thinking about the pictures/items that will go here!

do you see the light switch just above the railing?
Still getting used to it being in the right place!

these doors will be replaced as they are wrong. :-(

these doors are correct and will be staying! 

hello step! so awesome to have a step

trim work on the top of this little box - it hides poorly placed utilities

door to the bulk head. same door,
but looking so much better with finish trim and a step!

looking towards the office space.

News on paint color you're asking? Still under debate is the answer. But we are heading towards the pale-barely-there-yellow that is in our living room. A decision will be made in the next day or two so we can start painting!

Basement Day 12

wall guys are done and trim is starting to go in

hello trim board!

OO! A door! The doors came in!

bi-fold doors on the big closet for easy access

Last set of doors for the water tank closet and all the trim!

Media Cabinet for this wall is on order! Thank goodness for holiday sales!

something about trim just finishes off the space :-)

which means its time for paint! 

the pic above and this one are the same paint chips, in the same order,
just different light. I know. They look completely different! :-/
Matt and I chose them at the store. 

I didn't like either one so I went to my spare paint and started pulling colors.

again, same paint chips, same order, different light. 

Sigh. Still not sure I like any of them. The light changes them so much! I'm leaning towards the darker grey but it's definitely too saturated, so I'm going back to the store and see what other colors are on the same color card. Maybe a shade or two up the card (lighter) will work better? I will keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Matt!

 This year has FLOWN by - I honestly have no clue where it went! But it was filled with new adventures, laughter shared with old friends, house projects, a few trips to warm and sunny places - it was a great year!

Happy Birthday to you, my partner in (making funny faces!) all things. xoxo

pics from July 2013, Shakespeare in the Park, Boston

Basement Days 10 & 11

Sadly. No real changes. The drywall guys are waiting for the patchwork to dry. They've got heaters going and our dehumidifier has been going non-stop but it's so cold (-7 this morning!) that it's taking longer than normal :-(
But! We should be getting a trim and door delivery shortly which leaves..... the sprinkler guy, the dropped ceiling installers and carpet! Yes, painting in there too, but to save $$, Matt and I will be doing that. We went and spent some time at the store and came home with 2 colors to try - because who can decide in a paint store? :-) Just waiting for smooth walls in order to throw up some swatches and decide! I'll be sure to take pictures!
In other news, we are slowly catching up on Holiday wrapping, baking and decorating; Matt took (and passed!) his GMAT's which means he is officially into Grad school and starts in Jan! Woohoo! :-)

Basement Day 9

Reese! Get your head out of that bucket! 

The goal this weekend is to choose a wall color, decorate the tree and finish the house decorations! :-)