Happy 2011!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! We had some great time with family and a whole week off together, which was tons of fun.

I usually don't enjoy New Year's Day very much. After all the other holiday fun, it had always been a little bit of a let-down for me. But this year, hubby and I spent the day cleaning out, organizing, and rearranging things in the house. I love those types of projects, so it was actually the best New Year's Day I've ever had!

Here's my favorite project from the day. I not only have a junk drawer in the kitchen, but the cabinet above it is also full of junk! A couple months ago, I spent some time cleaning it out and arranging it, but in no time at all, it was back to this:

Ugh! It may not look too bad from far away, but believe me, this was craziness! So we made a trip to Dollar Tree, and I found these:

I probably wouldn't have chosen pastels, but for a buck a piece, I'm not going to complain!



Here's the finished product! Well, almost finished. I'm planning to make labels to put on each box, and I may go get another one to put all my candles in, just to make it look that much neater :)

Christmas: Part 1

My Christmas decorating is FINALLY done! I've been really anxious to get pictures and a post written and share everything, but half of my pictures didn't turn out too well. So this post will start things off, then I'll write another post later when I get some better shots!

To start, welcome to our front door :) No one ever uses this door, but I love the new color I painted it this summer (used to be dark brown like the siding. It looked like the opening to a cave!).

I like wreaths, but I was soooo inspired by something similar to this that I saw on a blog somewhere. It's just an old picture frame I painted white and tied ornaments to with ribbon. Easy! So sorry I didn't keep the link, so I'm not sure who came up with it, but I think it is too cute and different.

Next you'll enter our living room, which I newly rearranged to accomodate that huge black TV cabinet! I don't think the angle of this picture does the cabinet or the fireplace justice. It really looks a little less crowded in person!

I'm super proud of how the mantle turned out! Here are a few close ups:



I think I need to work on my photography skills, because these didn't turn out as pretty as I hoped! Anyway, next is the kitchen, which has probably my favorite things this year. You can't see it so well, but I went for the red/lime green scheme, which I'm in love with!

My improvised Advent wreath...

On top of the pantry cabinet. The red bowl has vintage colored metal icicles sticking out of "snow".

So there's part one. When I get a chance, you'll get to see the bedrooms and bathroom!

Snapshots of Life

At 7am on Thursdays, I'm.....

....putting on my scrubs and heading to the hospital for a long day of clinicals for school!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

So it took us 3 days altogether, but we got both of our Christmas trees all decorated today! It's our first Christmas married, and we both had our own Christmas stuff, so instead of cramming it all onto one tree, we put up 2 :)

Here's hubby's tree in his office. Notice the sports theme evident on the wall :) This is his normal tree: colored lights, silver star with colored lights, solid colored ball ornaments, and silver garland (I added the tree skirt!).

This is "our" tree, the main one in the living room. The tree was my grandma's until a couple years ago, and it is covered with white AND colored lights, an assortment of glass ornaments (mostly mine), random ornaments we've collected through our lives, and icicles. Lots of icicles! Oh, and grandma's vintage tree topper.



I don't have a skirt for this tree yet, but I do have a project in mind to make one. Stay tuned for that!



Here are some of my favorite ornaments:

I couldn't get great photos, but the first and last ones are vintage from my grandparents' collections, and the middle one is oh so shiny in person!

Snapshots of Life

4:00 PM on Thursday had us doing this:

After Thanksgiving dinner and the usual passing out for a while from being so full, we pulled out my parent's brand new pre-lit fake Christmas tree. We've always had real trees, so putting the tree up on Thanksgiving day was a whole new thing for us! This is me, my hubby, and sister-in-law working on getting everything plugged in right!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my first year married, so Thanksgiving will be a little different than in the past, but we'll still spend a lot of time with family. I was really happy to learn that my in-laws have a Thanksgiving get-together the weekend before, so we get to see both families without running like crazy!

Thanksgiving at my family's house has always been a great time that extends through the whole weekend! Today we'll have an amazing lunch cooked by my mom and grandma, then we'll watch football, talk, and eat through the afternoon. Tomorrow we'll set up the big tree at my parent's (this is their first year with a fake; for quite a few years we went and cut a 12-foot real tree!), and we'll drag out the rest of the Christmas decorations and start putting them up. This year, my brother and sister-in-law are visiting, so we plan to have Christmas with them on Saturday, since we won't be together probably until spring. And hopefully hubby and I can find some time in there to start getting out our own Christmas stuff!

Have a wonderful holiday and don't forget to be thankful for all your blessings!

Snapshots of Life

Life at our house at 9pm on a Thursday....means me and the dog watching tv and waiting for hubby to get back from church!