Merry Christmas Season

I haven't written in a while...I didn't feel like I had much to share...I was hoping to maybe paint the bathroom before christmas, but that isn't likely to happen. However, I have been busy doing my christmas cleaning and decorating. Then to my joy and amazement, we actually got a beautiful, lush snowfall! Never a person to waste a perfect snowfall, that night we put up our tree...I mean, you can't ignore the backdrop of snowflakes falling while Ken & Dolly play in the background...(I play it to irritate my husband and in honour of my parents!)

The photo above of the beautiful Christmas cape cod house was made by my beautiful mother! She did a replica of my house, but in the colour scheme we might like to put on the house once it is finished...right down to the cranberry red door! It is so pretty and I love it so much because she made it for me! Somehow the gene for creating pretty things skipped me and only rested in my mother and sister....which isn't so bad because they take pity on me and make me pretty things!

My decorating ranges from au natural...which is my favourite, to a touch of tacky glitzy...retro 1970's nostalgia! How's that for a description! I love the memory of my sister Linda and I driving around her hometown admiring people's christmas decorations. She remarked at one house "how could anyone like coloured icicle lights!" I took great joy in responding that I do and that I had them all over my house! I was tired from the sea of white light perfection that was the rage back then, and I craved the tacky, but colourful joy of coloured christmas lights...though I can only handle the small twinkle lights and no blinking lights either...drives me crazy!





The kids and I made our gingerbread houses on December 1st! That is always fun and the house smells delicious! I love getting people to guess whose house is whose...and the houses actually are decorated much like their personalities!

Almost Finished...

Well, my boys room that we started way back in early June...is almost done! We worked in between my husband's shift work and a busy summer schedule. What we thought would be quick and easy...wasn't! However, the floor is laid, a new closet door installed, new trim throughout, new electrical outlets, new heater and many little nail holes (some not so small) are filled, patched and painted. I think the reality when you redo an older home is that it will always take longer than you anticipate. We are used to working in new construction conditions, minus flooring, furniture, etc...you go in and you create the room you want without many extra steps in between.

The room isn't a decorating wow by any standards! Especially compared to what I see in blog world. But, I do think it looks really good and the kids like it! I will fine tune the decorating as I go along. I think what you will enjoy about seeing the room is how cheaply we did it, yet I don't think it looks cheap! I really am a yard sale, on sale only shopper and that works great for us!

My other big fear in decorating is ever owning something that I consider more precious than my kids! You know what I mean, the stuff that can't be touched, sat on, set a drink on, etc.. Plus, the pressure to keep things perfect does some weird things to my personality, so I avoid perfection like a disease. I always like a little kitch or "huh"...why did she do that??

So, the room needs only one final coat of paint on the doors and then I am done for now. I still need to paint or remove the dresser and I may repaint the kids bookshelf. But moving hundreds of books doesn't inspire greatness in me, so that will stay as is for now!

So, hopefully within the next day or two I will put photos up of all my deals including prices and you can maybe be inspired by my thriftiness...