Christmas hall tree

Today I have been busy getting some of my Christmas decorating done.  I have half of the family room done, most of the front porch and finished the hall tree.  I will be working more tonight trying to get as much done as possible.  I don't even want to think about how many more rooms I need to do.  I decided to do a plaid theme for the hall tree.  I have eveything I will need for a little outing in the snow (minus my coat).  I have my scarf, hat, gloves, boots and of course a thermos of hot cocoa.

Here is a sneak peek at my front porch.  I have a little bit more to do since I could only take so much of the cold air.  I guess I was pretty dedicated to getting most of the outdoor decorating done today in 20 degree weather for two hours.  At least it wasn't windy today.

Linking with

Dwellings The Heart of Your Home, Boogieboard Cottage, Elizabeth Joan Designs, Le Chateau Des Fleurs, Between Naps on the Porch, Huckleberry Love,  I Should Be Mopping The Floor,  Coastal Charm, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, A Stroll Thru Life,
Cozy Little House, Worthington CourtThe Dedicated House, Our Home Away From Home
The Winthrop Chronicles, Savvy Southern Style, The Style Sisters, DIY by Design, Green Willow Pond, The Happy Housie, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson, From My Front Porch To Yours
Ivy and Elephants, Katherines Corner, Posed Perfection, Anderson & Grant, All Things With Purpose
Embracing Change, Live Laugh Rowe, A Delightsome Life, Rooted In Thyme, Imparting Grace, The Charm of Home, Shabby Art Boutique, French Country Cottage, Redoux Interiors, Craftberry Bush
Bacon Time With The Hungry Hypo, My Romantic Home, The Shabby Nest, I'm Not a Trophy Wife
Serenity Now, Nancherrow, DIY Vintage Chic, Just Us Four, Chic on a Shoestring, Natasha In Oz
Six Sisters Stuff, Scrapality, Pieced Pastimes, House of Hipsters,  Be Different Act Normal
3 Little Greenwoods, Rustic & Refined, My Salvaged Treasures, Life on Lakeshore Dr, Thoughts From Alice, Finding Silver Pennies, Mod Vintage Life, Creative Country Mom, Elizabeth and Co
April's Homemaking, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson

Christmas plates

I received my replacement dishes today.  I have to tell you that I was expecting the worst.  The way my day has been going I thought for sure that I would open up the box and something would be broken.  I am happy to say that all is well.  They sent 4 dinner and 4 salad plates this time. Yeah!!

I can't wait to use these plates.  I will officially start my Christmas decorating Saturday after work. 

Best of November

It is hard to believe that this year is almost over.  Where has the time gone?  I am still cleaning up from hosting Thanksgiving yesterday ( I was just too tired to clean everything last night).  Tonight after work I will start taking down my Fall decor so I will be ready to decorate for Christmas on Saturday after work.  For now I thought that I would share my most popular posts from November.

First is my kitchen table

Second is my Christmas sneak peek

Third is my Thanksgiving dining room table

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving and invite everyone to check out my Christmas Home Tour that I will be doing on Creative Country Mom's Christmas in the Country on December 8th.  See you there!

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish everyone here in the United States a Happy Thanksgiving.  Here in the Denver area it will be 70 degrees  today.  Such great weather to have for Thanksgiving. We will be having ours at 4pm so I have a couple more hours until I need to get the turkey going.  I still have some cleaning and laundry to get done so I better get going.   God Bless everyone!

Bay window in bathroom

For some reason I am not that good at hanging curtains.  I always seem to have problems with the pleating.  You think that it would be easy but not for me. This is the best that I can do for the moment.  I might try and work with more after Thanksgiving.

It is amazing how much curtains change a room. The bathroom definitely needed some color added.  I will be getting the rest of the decorating done before Thanksgiving since I have to show the family all of our hard work.  I am still waiting on my shelves.  Hubby keeps saying maybe tomorrow.  I hope it gets done before Christmas.  One last picture.  I can't believe this is my bathroom.

Red and Green Decorations

Here is a sneak peek at some of the red and green decor that I am going to be using in my home this year.  Most of it will go in the family room.

I would still like to have the six foot nutcracker from Sam's Club but this guy will do quite well.  I am going to put him on top of the Christmas boxes to give him added height.

Woodland Christmas

Today I finished decorating my sitting room for Christmas.  I went with a woodland theme for this room.  I updated the mantel by adding a vintage screen in the background.  Now I have one room that I can relax and listen to Christmas music in until after Thanksgiving.

Here is a close up of the inside of the box.

This room is not easy to take pictures of since it more of a passway between the family room and the master bedroom.  I got out my vintage wool blankets and put them on the wicker trunk.  I think I will probably keep these out.  These are the best pictures I could take.  I wish that I could get the whole room in one shot. 

 I love my parents maple desk that they got back in the 40's.  It has a few scratches here and there from all the moving that I have done but some scratch concealer did the trick.  

I am working on the master bathroom today.  We got the curtain rod hung above the bay window so I can get the valances hung.  I am going to get it decorated today also, everything that is but the cabinet nook area since I still don't have my shelves in yet.  I will be posting it in the next few days.

 Check this out.  I bought this CD at Walmart the other day and I got to looking at the cover closely.  The couple on here remind me of Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe.  What do you think?

Linking with
Boogieboard Cottage, Dwellings The Heart of Your Home, Le Chateau Des Fleurs, Elizabeth Joan Designs, Between Naps on The Porch, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, Huckleberrry Love
Coastal Charm, A Stroll Thru Life, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Cozy Little House
Worthington Court, The Dedicated House, The Winthrop Chronicles, Our Home Away From Home
Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, The Style Sisters, Ivy and Elephants, Beyond the Picket Fence, Bacon Time With The Hungry Hypo, The Happy Housie, From My Front Porch To Yours
A Delightsome Life, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson, Posed Perfection, Anderson & Grant
Rooted In Thyme, Redoux Interiors, All Things With Purpose, Embracing Change, The Charm of Home, Just Us Four, My Romantic Home, The Shabby Nest, French Country Cottage, Natasha In Oz
Shabby Art Boutique, Pieced Pastimes,  Scrapality, 3 Little Greenwoods, Six Sisters Stuff
Thoughts From Alice, Life on Lakeshore Drive, House of Hipsters, Rustic & Refined
DIY Show Off, Finding Silver Pennies, Thoughts From Alice
Beyond the Picket Fence

Friday favorites

As I sit at my desk fighting with this stupid tape gun that I have to use for the Ebay items that I have to ship out today for my husband's business I can't help but have visions of Christmas in my head.  As I am doing this I sneak back and forth looking at Pinterest for fun.  I can't tell you how bored I get here.  Here is what I have been looking at today.

I just love the santa ornaments.  Such a cute idea for a centerpiece.

I would love to decorate my chandelier like this one.  Mine probably wouldn't turn out as nice.

 I would love to have this carousel horse or even an elegant rocking horse.

One of these years I am going to change out my bedding at Christmas to look something like this.

  This is such a cute idea to make the napkin look like a bow.  I am going to have to try this.

What a great idea to use a top hat for a tree topper. This would be great for a snowman themed tree or even a Charles Dickens tree.

At this point I am about ready to hurl this tape gun across the room.  I can't understand what is wrong with it.  I just bought it a few months ago.  The old one used to do this but it was over 5 years old.  I always seem to get something that is defective lately.

Updated Christmas mantel

Do you ever walk by something that you decorated and think that it just doesn't look right?   I have been walking past my sitting room for a few days now and the fireplace mantel is bugging me.  My sitting room is right before the master bedroom so I walk by it several times a day.   I feel like I needed something behind the decor.  Well, I think I have the solution.

I know that it is not a big change but I think that it changed it completely.  Here is the before.

I am totally liking the screen that I put behind everything.  Now all that I need to finish in here is the hearth area.  I have to say that I really like this better.

Linking with
Chic on a Shoestring

Has this ever happened to you?

I don't know why but it always seems that something goes wrong with just about everything I do.  This is the first time that something like this has happened to me.  I saw these cute dishes at Home Goods but they only had a couple left so I found them online and ordered a set of 16.  I also saw another set that I liked and ordered them also.  They both arrived yesterday and I waited until this morning to open the boxes and here is what I found.

This is the extra set that I bought online.  I just love these plates.  They look even better in person.

I only got a place setting for 4 since I will be using them in the kitchen.  Now here are the plates that I saw at Home Goods.

Did you notice the difference?  Look one more time.

I received 8 salad plates instead of 4 dinner plates and 4 salad plates.  I have ordered numerous dishes online and this is the first time that this has happened.  Of course I have contacted the company and I am waiting for their response.  I don't mind having more salad plates since that was all I was going to buy at the store but I was really looking forward to having the whole set. 

Linking with
Between Naps on the Porch

Christmas sneak peek

I didn't get as much done today as I would of liked.  Last night my hubby decided that he wanted to hook up the water softner and as always something has to go wrong.  Of course all the water had to be shut off so I didn't get to do the laundry or any cleaning done since I had to help him.  Well needless to say we had many problems, several trips to Home Depot in the snow (yes it was snowing pretty good yesterday) and looks of leaking.  It was after 9 pm when we finally got all the leaks taken care of and the water softner going.  So today I had to do all my cleaning and the laundry which didn't give me much time to do decorating.

 
I decided to do a woodland theme in my sitting room.  I started in here first since I am hosting Thanksgiving and this room is separate from the kitchen/family room.  I didn't get the whole fireplace done.  I still want to decorate the hearth area some more.

I decorated one corner of the coffee table.  I would sure like to something else in  its place.  I would like to have an ottoman instead.  That will something for me to make at the beginning of the year.

I thought that the desk would look like decorated a bit.  

I also had a small tree that just happen to fit perfectly in the corner.

 It's not too easy to see all the ornaments in this picture so I took some close ups.

At one point I looked out the window and saw this in my maple tree.

At first I thought it was an owl but upon a closer look it was a hawk.  I ran to get my camera and was able to take a couple of shots before he flew off.  I love this one of him looking at me.  He is such a beautiful bird.

Now that I am totally exhausted since I had to go up and down the basement stairs a million times I think that I will relax with a glass of wine and look through my Christmas magazines in my sitting room.

Linking with
Dwellings The Heart of Your Home, I Should be Mopping the Floor, Boogieboard Cottage
Elizabeth Joan Designs, Le Chateau Des Fleurs, Huckleberry Love, Between Naps on The Porch
Coastal Charm, A Stroll Thru Life, Cozy Little House, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Worthington Court, Our Home Away From Home, The Winthrop Chronicles, The Dedicated House 
Green Willow Pond, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, The Style Sisters, The Happy Housie
A Delightsome Life, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson, From My Front Porch To Yours
Posed Perfection, Katherines Corner, Ivy and Elephants, Anderson & Grant, Live Laugh Rowe
Embracing Change, All Things With Purpose, Rooted In Thyme, Imparting Grace, The Charm of Home, Shabby Art Boutique,  French Country Cottage, Craftberry Bush, Redoux Interiors
I'm Not a Trophy Wife, Nancherrow, Bacon Time With The Hungry Hypo, Love of Family and Home
My Romantic Home, Serenity Now, Simple Nature Decor, DIY Vintage Chic, Just Us Four
The Shabby Nest, Natasha In Oz,  Pieced Pastimes, 3 Little Greenwoods, Scrapality
Six Sisters Stuff, Be Different Act Normal, Thoughts From Alice, Life on Lakeshore Drive
House of Hipsters, DIY Show Off, Finding Silver Pennies, It's Overflowing, Rustic and Refined