We did most of our Christmas decorating today (Sunday, I know it’s after midnight so it’s technically Monday). But better late than never, right? On all accounts. So most of my posts this week will be Christmas related, which is quite appropriate, given that Christmas is indeed this week. I’m a blogging rebel 🙂

I put this mantel together about an hour ago.  I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

You see what I did there?? I moved my coffee filter wreath from the dining room to over the fireplace using my handy dandy command hook.  We planned on hanging some frames over the fireplace by Christmas but yeah, that didn’t happen.  So I whipped up this solution and I actually like the wreath better here!

Some detail shots…

Yeah, I hot glued that star to the center of the mantel.  Mike told me to do it…no really, he did.

I was going to post a list of where everything is from, when I realized that the majority of things here are from Target.  And very few things here are new.

From Target:

Stockings

Initial pins on stockings

Stocking holders

Twine trees (which I totally could have made with a hanger and some twine)

All but 2 ornaments

Star garland

Silver candle holders

The fancy glittery twig things (I think they’re technically tree picks)

The only things on that list that were purchased this year were the trees and the candle holders.  Everything else is possibly 4 years old… including the garland.  I put it on the mantel because I didn’t have enough for our new 9 foot tree 🙁

Also included on the mantle are:

Sticks from my backyard

A “wish” sign from Kohl’s about 3 years ago

Silver ornament candles from Ikea

Round glass candle holders from the Crate and Barrel outlet

2 ornaments from Walmart

This was my first time putting together a mantel quite like this, since our tv used to be over our fireplace in our old place and I generally just stuck the round ornament candles under it.  But this was a lot of fun and I liked pulling things from around the house to make it complete.  And I got to use a lot of my old decorations that I couldn’t use on my giant tree this year 🙂

Oh and incase you were wondering what Macky was doing as I put this together…

He had a rough weekend, he had a seizure last night.  So you’ll be seeing a lot of pictures of him the next few days since I am being a completely overbearing momma and just looking at him makes me emotional. Plus he’s super cute when he’s mushy.

Just wait until you see him with the tree…:)

So just yesterday I posted about the lack of seating in our eat-in area.  I thought of a temporary solution a few weeks ago and this week I pulled the trigger.  We decided to get two stools to put in either corner of our sliding glass door.

We got one for where our recycling basket currently is, in front of the curtains, and one for the corner where the kittens’ food bowls are, in front of the other side of the curtains.  We generally move the cat bowls when we have company so they’re not intimidated to come downstairs and eat.  Not that Macky has any fear of anything/anyone!

The area by the recycling basket has the countertop and the area by the food bowls has the half wall overlooking the family room for people to stick a coaster or an appetizer plate on.

I went to my #1 chair source, Target.com.  Our dining room chairs are from there and they just have the best selection at reasonable prices.  I had an exact idea of what I wanted, a woven sort of chair ala Pottery Barn. Thanks to Target, I found exactly what I wanted.

It’s the Andres Stool in Espresso.  I waited a while and stalked it on Black Friday, then Cyber Monday and no deals!  We wanted them in time for Christmas and fortunately, my stalking paid off and they went on sale this week.  I ordered two on Sunday (they qualified for free shipping yay!) and they arrived today.  Mike put one together while I was at school and texted me a picture of the completed chair.

When I got home, there she was…

Okay here is where I am honest.  I was a little disappointed.  Mike warned me before I got home that the legs were super dark, which I honestly didn’t even look at while ordering.  I’m not a matchy-matchy wood tone person and I learned with our dining room chairs that you hardly notice such things.  So I wasn’t disappointed in the near-black legs, but the yellowish tone of the woven part.  I was hoping it would be more like our recycling basket.

I also think that if it wasn’t directly behind our cherry colored table and chairs, it would look perfectly fine.

But as I took these pictures, it grew on me.  The woven part looks good with the curtains and the counters. It also adds the texture I was originally aiming for. Plus when I sat on it, I was pleasantly surprised…that badboy is firm! I imagined it would have a lot of creaky give to it, but none at all.  So I think I’ll keep them since they were affordable and we plan on tucking them away when it is just Mike and I.  They add an extra two seats for people to hang out in the kitchen and who knows, maybe someday I’ll go for this Pottery Barn look I’ve loved for so long.

Once we get the second stool together, I’ll snap a picture of our whole new make-shift area!

I always wanted to do a fancy table setting, then last week Mike randomly told me I should try one of those fancy table settings, so I considered it a challenge. Up until about 2 hours ago, I had no clue what I was doing. I went to Michael’s earlier in the week and grabbed a few things, but they were mostly for Christmas. I was planning on just winging this.

So I began by cleaning out some old, reliable vases we have that got very cloudy from constant use (note: I use these 2 vases to decorate A LOT. My parents got them for free when they took home a centerpiece from a wedding)

I peeked out our kitchen window and had a revelation… I should go get some sticks!

So I went outside, with no jacket or plan in mind.  It was freezing out there, but our yard is very sticky…

(That sign on the tree way back there is a no hunting sign.  I’m glad there will be no bullets flying in my animal loving yard.)

In the midst of my stick search, I heard my neighbors come outside.  I am now the looney chick who picks sticks with one hand, holds camera in the other. Great.

My gatherings…

(another note: In the midst of taking these pictures, I complained to Mike about how the kitchen appears so orange when I take pictures.  So he showed me how to adjust the white balance on the camera, genius! From this picture on, the colors of the countertop/backsplash are much more accurate!)

We also had a bowl of apples from when we went apple picking in September. They’re not good enough to eat but they’re good enough for props!

And my vases are now sparkling!

So still, no plan.  But I began to throw things in this square banana leaf basket I got at Michael’s and things just sort of took off. Pine cones are from Michael’s, mini-pumpkins we had, apples we had and sticks from the yard…

That’s a napkin in there, it was all looking too brown so I had to improvise.  Then I stuck it on the table, on a ramie runner I picked up at Target.

The vases? They got filled with apples and sticks (oh yeah, I had to go back outside and get more sticks!) Then I wrapped a sparkly brown, thick ribbon that I bought for Christmas around them.  I taped the ribbon so that it comes off easily and stuck them on our buffet.  Oh and on the bottom is a mini-wreath from Michael’s, also bought for my Christmas decor.

Here’s my Crate & Barrel pumpkin I bought a while back, on a “mini-runner” of two napkins…

And the completed table, assembled mostly from stuff I had…

What, the heads of your table don’t get their own special wooden bowls? Okay we only have 2 of those, but they’re too great to leave out!

Mission accomplished! Luckily, Macky was sleeping throughout this process, so he still has no clue of what I did.  I tiptoed through the house so I wouldn’t wake him.  Not to shabby for our first Thanksgiving and it was lots of fun.  Now on to some cooking!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 🙂

Dear bloggy buddies, I need your help.

I’ve been searching for a grass greenish and white, graphic print area rug for our office.  I want a modern yet classy print, along the lines of this…

Happy Trellis Rug in Sprout from Shades of Light, approx. 5’x8′, $578

Yes, five-hundred-and-seventy-eight dollars.  So I set out to find a cheaper alternative.

I checked West Elm and found two favorites…

Zigzag Rug from West Elm, 5’x8′, $229

West Elm Andalusia Rug, 5’x8′, $229

Okay we cut the price in half! I love the Andalusia rug, even in yellow, but I don’t want yellow for the office. And neither are available in green 🙁

On to Target!

DwellStudio for Target Orbit Rug, 5’x7′, $139.99

Have I ever mentioned my love for DwellStudio? Especially their kids’ stuff? Love it.  It’s fail proof.  And I love the price of this rug and though the pattern isn’t as repeated-graphic-design as I originally wanted, if it was green I’d be all over it. But it’s not :::Snooki cry:::

Then there was this one, which I originally spotted in person at Target…

Target Home Medallion Wool Shag Rug, 5’x8′, $129.99

It’s like the less expensive, more neutral version of the above West Elm one.  I spotted this before I got the green idea in my head, so I almost pulled the trigger.  But it is very very fluffy.  So much so that I was afraid that Darwin would mistake it for one of our washable puppy pads and would pee on it.  TMI, but true story, we’ve learned from experience.  Oh and it’s still not green…

Then there was a glimmer of hope when I was browsing Pottery Barn Teen…

Pottery Barn Teen Double Dot Jacquard Rug, 5’x8′, on sale for $129.

I wasn’t sure about the dots, but I ran it by Mike to assess the girlyness and he declared it acceptable.  Not my ideal pattern, as I wanted something a little more sophisticated, but the size, price and colors were right.  So I got all set to order when I saw that the GREEN WAS SOLD OUT.

So I’m back to square one.  Has anyone seen any green and white patterned area rugs out there? Do you know of any rug retailers I haven’t thought of? (ps- I’ve been checking HomeGoods whenever we go, but they are so hit or miss) Or has anyone used those carpet tiles to build your own area rug?

Any help would be very much appreciated! 🙂

Back when we had our condo, we kept both our garbage and recycling cans in those under cabinet pull out drawer things.  It was practical then, because we didn’t have any wall space to stick one garbage can, nevermind two, but I hated that they took up precious storage space.  So when we got this new place, I began eyeing this Simple Human semi-round stainless garbage can…

Mike originally didn’t want to leave a garbage out in the open, but I stressed the ease of people coming over and not having to give directions to the can.  And also being able to move it to places where we were chopping or making other messes.  It would also add some prettiness to the side of our island, which was a plain old side of a cabinet. I obviously won the battle, despite the expense of the can, but if you’re sticking it in the middle of your kitchen, it better be a nice one, right?

We figured since we no longer use water bottles, we wouldn’t have enough recyclables to justify a can.  We planned to just bring them out to the garage when we had to.

But since we use a can of cat food a day and get mass amounts of junk mail, it seemed that we couldn’t keep up with the trips to the garage.  We always had a pile of cardboard/paper and one for cans on our countertop.  I hate cluttered countertops.  Like, I couldn’t relax at night unless everything was cleared off.  So one day we were in Target and I spotted this small basket…

I wasn’t looking for a solution, but I just loved the dark color of the basket and the idea immediately popped in my head to use it as a place to store our recyclable paper before we bring it out to the garage.  I knew it was more realistic to accept the fact (especially with winter approaching) that we wouldn’t be making 3 trips out to the garage per day.  So we began using it and it worked like a charm, living on top of our fridge and getting emptied about every two weeks with the recycling pick up.

I also liked that it brought a little more of the dark brown warmness into the room, since there’s some dark brown in our backsplash tiles.

But we still had the can issue, which was fine until a few weeks ago when we went on a seltzer kick.  Suddenly we couldn’t keep up with those trips to the garage either.  Then once again, while randomly walking past the basket aisle in Target looking for picture frames, I noticed they had a round version of our small rectangular one.

I put it on the floor, in the corner between our cabinets and our sliding glass door.  It’s mostly out of sight, but I once again like the dark homeliness it brings in.

Garbage can, meet basket…

And basket, meet garbage can…

(Yes my curtains are wrinkled.  I will get on that.)

So far the process has worked wonderfully…it has been practical and efficient, yet pretty.  We have to decorate practically around here, since we have a 4 legged terror running around…

“Oooh nice basket!! MINE?!”