It’s a Christmas Tree party!

It’s here! The final party in our Holiday Home series is finally upon us. :)

I hope you’ve enjoyed the parties as much as we have!

Year after year, my hubby and I waffle back and forth on whether or not we should get a fake tree. EVERY. year. The conversation usually starts about January 2nd, when we’re hauling a massive, shedding tree out the front door, and trying to get it back on the car to take it to the recycling. With a needle trail following us the whole way…

It basically comes up when we are over. it. :)

This year, we decided to finally take the plunge and go faux – and we headed to Lowe’s to get the BIG honkin’ tree we had been eyeing for weeks. It was gone, so we called two other locations  -- gone. Called one more, and they had the display available -- “Come and get it!” Lowe’s guy said.

We drove ten minutes to the store and walked in to see someone else wheeling it out. GAH. It was nuts! Did I mention it was still November?

Sooo…we decided to go for a real tree again, and hubby insisted we go BIG. (So THERE!) ;)

And big we did. She’s tall and fat and chunky, just how we like ‘em. Twelve feet tall to be exact. It’s go big or go home around here!

The theme of our main tree is always traditional, always gold and red, and always has lots of sparkle!

I used the ornaments we’ve had for years:

Those cheap glitter ball ornaments are so great – they look fantastic and the price can’t be beat!

Because we usually purchase a nine to ten foot tree, we didn’t have quite enough ornaments to fill it. Well, we did…but I like lots and LOTS of ornaments in there. :)

I got a few more at Big Lots for a STEAL:

  

I love sparkle!!

I picked up a new one from the Rockettes show over Thanksgiving:

I like to get one new ornament a year to signify something special, and this one is perfect. :)

I stick all kinds of stuff in the tree every year, like the twirly sticks and some gauzy stuff from Hob Lob that positively GLOWS:

I love my poinsettias placed here and there:

All that filler stuff is great for hiding empty spots, cords, whatever.

The Bub helped me this year and the bottom of the tree is dripping with ornaments:

I let him put them wherever he wanted, and I didn’t move one afterwards. :)

Every few minutes, an ornament he had just put on the tree would plop on the floor, and I’d hear a little voice yell, “It’s otay Mama!!”

I heard that many, many times that day. ;) Ugh, I could squish him!!

The other night, I walked into the living room and found hubs sitting in there, staring at the tree. We LOVE it. And we do love our real trees – maybe next time we’ll plan ahead and go faux. But for now, that smell is pretty amazing.

And of course, it’s best with the lights low:

I can’t wait to see your beautiful trees!

You are welcome to use this cutie little button in your post to link back:

Have fun – I’ll leave the linky open for a week for those of you who need a bit more time. :)

P.S. I have to send a hollaaa out to Wendy G. and Alexis C. – thanks for the love on Facebook!! ;)

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Before and After Party: Festive outdoors!

Hey all! Whew, we have Internet back! I actually started a different post last night for today’s Before and After Party, but when I drove up to our house this morning after running errands, I changed my mind.

I love love LOVE the front of our house at Christmas. I was so taken with it, especially with all the pretty snow, I wanted to share this instead today.

I usually have the same recipe to our outdoor decor every year, but I changed it up just a bit this year (that would be easier).  :)

I started with a couple $3 big honkin’ sparkly bows from Big Lots on our spray painted coach lights:

They’re a little droopy, but I LOVE the pop of red!

Our porch hasn’t changed much:

I showed you how I hang the greenery every year here. Last year I added the red ribbon and ornaments and I love that festive touch!

The wreath is a basic (fake) evergreen with the beautiful amaryllis wreath from Target wired on top:

I drooled over that red wreath for weeks and got it on clearance a couple seasons ago.  I love how layering them combines the green and red, makes it super full and gives some padow!! to the front porch. ;)

For years, I’ve hung lighted wreaths over our windows, but this year I was inspired by a picture in a magazine and wanted to try something new. I ADORE our shutters, so I wanted to play them up.

I took some simple small wreaths and just looped some basic red ribbon through to hang them from the top and bottom:

I just used one tack at the bottom and top to hold them on and they’ve held up great. (This spring I need to replace some of the wood on the shutters and repaint them – they’re starting to look a little worn!)

I usually put some greenery in the window boxes, but goodNESS it got cold fast. I’m just going to deal with the frozen kale. ;)

And that’s it! We feel all smooshy and googly when we drive up this time of year, especially with the lights on at night. :)

The snow totally completes the look, don’t you think?:

:)

So here’s my before and after for the month of December – our windows in the past (which I do love!)

And the slightly simpler version this year:

And our porch before, as it looked till two weeks ago:

And now:

Funny how the temp has dropped about 50 degrees in two weeks! I could barely stand to be outside long enough to take these pictures. YIKES. It sure does feel and look like Christmas around here! ;)

So what have you been up to? I can’t wait to see your Before and Afters! And don’t forget to link up to Kate’s crafty party tonight! I need to get busy!

Remember to link up to your post, not your general blog address!

 

 

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Before and After Party: A private pantry

Hello there! Welcome to the Before and After Party for November! (Can you even believe it’s November?) I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to! But first, I wanted to show you the pain-in-the-booty project that I am SO GLAD is done.

Remember the pantry door transformation I showed you?:

I was lucky enough to get this beauty for FREE with some help from an Amex Points promotion. But, like always, I saved some cash by installing it myself (with Dad’s help!).

It wasn’t the easiest project ever. Actually, it was really quite annoying. And the part I finished up this weekend didn’t help it’s cause. Sheesh!

I mentioned I wanted to cover the windows on the door with something – I originally bought window film -- but it wasn’t the texture I was looking for. (I ended up using it for the ghost in our foyer!)

So when I posted this project, a few of you mentioned you had used plain old contact paper to get the look I was going for. Bahhhrilliant!

I admit I was a little teeny tiny bit doubtful – I picked up some clear contact paper at Target, and when I got home I tore it open, I was expecting it to be perfectly clear.

Well…you Squeezies were right (I know, I should just believe) – it was exactly what I wanted! A very soft, hazy look – just enough to let light in, but block the view to the canned goods. :)

What you lovelies didn’t tell me was it was a TOTAL AND COMPLETE pain in the booty to install. Gah. OK, maybe you did. I may have blocked it out. 

I started with my supplies – not much needed:

I tried a few things, and the pan scraper worked best for this project by far! I cut out a piece of contact paper, slightly larger than the window pane. When I installed it, I used a razor to trim the contact paper so it would fit perfectly in the pane.

The problem was…1.) the contact paper is supersonic and I tried four razors and not one would cut it easily 2.) when I would push hard to get through the “paper,” the knife would grab at the painted trim around the panel and little itty bitty flecks of black paint were coming off and getting stuck under the plastic:

It was driving me batty. I tried everything possible, and finally gave up. I decided to just cut a piece that was the exact size of each window pane, so I wouldn’t have to do anymore cutting with the contact paper on the window.

It was a lot of trial and error. Lots of cutting, holding it up, cutting, holding it up, cutting, realizing I had cut it too small, starting over. :)

When I would finally get the right size, I’d make sure it was perfect one more time:

Then I soaked the window with window cleaner:

You can try to do this without soaking the window but you will realize quickly it’s next to impossible. :)

When it’s wet, you can move it around and make it fit just so:

Then use your scraper (or any flat surface) to push out the bubbles:

You’ll want a paper towel handy to soak up the cleaner as you go. Lots of pushing, wiping, pushing, wiping.

It took FOREVA. Mostly because I would cut it the wrong size, or scratch it when peeling it off the backing. I lost my mind a little more with each window pane. :) I think it took four days of me tackling it whenever I had a few minutes to tackle it. FUN stuff.

Did I mention I couldn’t use the same size cut out of the contact paper for every window pane? You’d think they were all the same size, but amazingly – NO. Most were just a tad different. How is that possible? Because it’s a Sarah project, that’s why. :)

BUT. Dare I say it…SO worth it!!

It helps just a tad that I decluttered and moved some items around in the pantry:

I adjusted my little labels so they were centered on the shelves:

And I LOVE it.

But I wasn’t done yet. :) Remember how I wanted to light up the inside of the pantry? Dad and I talked and figured out how we’re going to do it – but for now, I rigged it up with an extension cord just to see how it would look:

SWOOOOON. Exactly how I pictured it in my head all those years ago when this project first popped in my head. ;)

I used rope lights around the door frame to get the “glow” look. And now I can see to find my sour cream and onion chips at night:

Awwwww yeah. All is right in my world.  :)

**The instructions on the rope lights say to not put them in an area with no ventilation, as they get just slightly warm. I called the hotline on the package to confirm a pantry is OK, and the man on the phone had no record of the product number – the product they make – so he was zero help. But I have talked to two people experienced in wiring/lighting, and they said it’s absolutely fine. When the manual says the lights get slightly warm, they mean slightly warm.  :) 

The contact paper idea would be perfect for any smallish window where you want privacy but don’t want to block the light – for cheap! The roll was $5 and even with all of my mess ups, I barely used half of it. This would be a great solution for windows above tubs, sidelights by a front door – whatever!

So there’s my before and after for this month…I don’t have a before, before picture handy of the white door we had up initially, but here’s the new door unpainted:

Here it is painted:

And here it is all soft and purdy and lit up:

And here’s all of our food for the world to see before, and the softly lit after:

It makes even wire shelves look pretty. :) This wasn’t an easy project…but totally worth it. And only five bucks for the privacy! (Which, by the way, is WAY cheaper than the window stuff you can buy.)

I am one happy chick!! :)

It’s time to see your before and afters! Remember to only link to the specific post – not your blog. I’ll leave this open so you can link up till next week!

Link it up yo!

Before and After Party: Buh bye ceiling fan

Hello there! Welcome to the October Before and After Par-tay!

So…I got nothin’ against ceiling fans. Really. We have three of them in our house. Well – now two. :)

We’ve always had one in our bedroom -- we hand picked it when we built the house:

And pretty much since the first week we lived here, I’ve wanted to take it down. :)

We used to use it fairly often, but over the past few years, it’s made hubby and I both feel like we have a cold the next day if we have it on all night – so we haven’t used it in a long time.

So…for a few months now I’ve been planning to replace it with a gorgeous new chandelier. But I have no gorgeous chandelier. DANG!!

And the Dave Ramsey plan (that’s WORKING, by the way!!) makes it so we need to pick and choose our splurges, so it wasn’t really on the horizon anytime soon.

And then…while I was working on the basement a couple of weeks ago, I moved a light fixture I’ve had forever around about 20 times before it hit me. DUH.

Why don’t I use this?:

I got it from our local Habitat for Humanity Restore at least a year ago – maybe even longer. I didn’t know for sure where I’d use it, but it was BIG and only $22, so I just couldn’t pass it up.

I wasn’t crazy about the finish, but I figured a coat of paint would help that:

I knew I could totally make it work! Whooeee! And since I bought it forever ago, that made it FREE! According to my way of thinking anyway. :)

So I set it up in my fancy spray paint station in the garage, (a.k.a hanging it on a hook with a sheet behind it), and covered it with one coat of basic black spray paint from my local True Value:

If you’re like me, you get spray paint finger pretty easily. To prevent my hands from turning into claws, I’ve used a few different spray paint handles over the years. But they never work great -- I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been spraying something and the can falls right out of the handle. Drives me batty!!

I saw this one at the True Value and decided to give it a try:

I LOVE it! I don’t know how it’s different, but I didn’t have one issue with it. The can stayed put the whole time (and every other time I’ve used it). LOVE.

My sweet Dad came over and helped me hang this one. I had never taken a ceiling fan down before and wasn’t sure which wires would go with what. Because the light fixture didn’t come with any of the usual accessories needed, we got a crossbar to hang it:

And a new canopy as well (that I still need to paint black!):

True Value also had some frosted bulbs that I wanted to try:

And after a quick coat of spray paint and some help from my awesome Dad, we had the new light up in record time:

Don’t you love the frosted glass on those bulbs? I think I may change out the lights in our dining room fixture to these too – I just love them. It makes the light just a bit softer.

Dad must be my good luck charm, cause this one was up in no time flat! Seriously, I think start to finish, it took us about 15 minutes.

And I LOVE it!:

It’s not the blingy, crystally (word?) chandelier I’ve been dreaming of, but for now, it works beautifully. I may raise it just a tiny bit more, so it doesn’t complete with the canopy rails (which are staying because my hubby loves them).

Because it’s on a dimmer (I had the fan light on one), it’s super bright turned all the way up:

Like, surface of the sun, bright. :)

But most of the time it’s turned down:

Sigh. Dimmers rock. Try them – you won’t be sorry. (They are so easy to install – check out my post here to find out how to do it.)

So here’s this month’s before and after! The ceiling fan before:

With the previous bedding, lamps and drapes.

And the after, with the new bedding and some fab drapes for a steal at JCPenney's:

One of my lovely readers, Missy, gave me a heads up about these drapes. The are only $12.99 each -- even for the longer lengths! I wasn’t sure the color would work, but I ordered them because of that price. Turns out the color is perfect!

They are reversible too – and the buffalo check side is gorgeous, it just was a bit too country for this room. I’m going to add a liner behind them so they are more solid during the day, and maybe a little detail to bring in some cream – not sure about that yet.

You can find the drapes here – but I think this is the only color left.

Ohhh, I almost forgot! Did you catch the Nate Berkus show today? It was “our” episode! Proof I was there:

(I’m in the back in the purple sweater. See Rhoda next to me?)

That’s me nodding, saying “YES Nate, you are adorable. And YES I would be happy to come on your show! And YES Nate, I know I am dreaming!”

:)

I totally zoomed in on this shot…but still. COOL!

Alrighty, let’s see your before and afters! Please remember to link to your post, not your blog. I’ll keep the linky open till next Monday evening, so feel free to join in!

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*