Christmas Home Tour: Den

I'm doing my home tour SO out of order this year. But y'all, ignore the porch and the foyer and come on into the den! :) Our den is small cozy so it doesn't take much to get it decorated. I started by doing LESS this year and I think I wound up putting more out than in previous years. I really don't know. I honestly had a TON of fun decorating this year. Hope I enjoy packing it up just as much.

I mentioned to Eddie that I wanted to collect a Christmas village and because I'm VERY mature {ma-TEW-er as my mama would say} I decided I wanted EITHER the Christmas Vacation village OR the Christmas Story village. Either one would do. Eddie must have mentioned to his mama that I wanted a village {and let it be known that he didn't want to pay the price tag of the other two} so she gladly passed one along to me. I got it here and started unpacking it and HOLY COW those things are HUGE. Also, I didn't realize that it wouldn't work on a dining room table. First, you cannot USE the dining room table AND there are cords ev.ery.where. So I put the little pieces away and moved the buildings up to the top of Grandmommie's desk in the den and I love it. Clark and George loved it, too. {Clark and George have since been asked to go back to the North Pole, but that is a story for another day...}

The desk is also home to three Christmas canvases that were painted by the boys, a hand-carved-by-my-dad Nativity, and a hand-painted-by-Eddie-circa-1980 Santa boot. I'm nothing if not an eclectic decorator.

My tree turned out PERFECT this year in my eyes! I love, LOVE it. We got this one last year at Lowe's and I have decided I am a huge fan of the slim tree. I may get another to go in the dining room next year to replace my smaller 12 Days of Christmas tree {which I didn't put up this year and have been told that was a mistake...}. I opted for burlap ribbon in the tree this year and just put all of our family ornaments on. I don't have a color scheme for ours. All of our ornaments either have meaning, were given to us, or were made by us. No color coordinated balls here!

On the shelves behind the tree you'll see a few things...Top left is a cross-stitch Santa that I *think* my mama made. Under that is another canvas from preschool and my pajama-clad carolers. I started collecting the same kids for Halloween a few years ago and Mom found the carolers a few years ago for me. She gave me one and I bought two on Zulily a few months ago. On the right side of the shelves is an angel balance toy. We have several of these and they're cute. I put this one away after Christmas every year and I always like pulling it back out.

Over on the other set of built-ins we have our "real" Nativity {my main one} and then another canvas and a bowl of ornaments. I love, LOVE Nativities and this one was bought in Israel. If my house burns down I want to grab this one as I run out. Sonny bought it for me either when I was in college OR when I had just graduated and I've put it up every year. It's one of my favorite Christmas things. Bought in Bethlehem! Just so neat!

My canisters are always on my mantle and I just switch out what's in them based on the seasons. The only time I have trouble coming up with something is in January-March. WHAT should I fill them with? At Christmas they are full of ornaments and this year I added battery operated LED lights to make them sparkle. I LOVE them.

I never, ever, ever have my coffee table "styled." Why? Because it doesn't STAY that way. But I made an effort here and I've liked it so far. Antique/Vintage/Eddie's old books on the side over there {don't tell him I called them antique!}, our Advent devotions on the center, and a bowl of old and new Christmas cards on the right. Also, a precious little nativity that we got about a year after we got married {as a wedding gift!}. It's the same brand that my mama had when we were growing up and she ALWAYS let us play with hers. Mine is hand carved from Israel and it is a don't-touch piece so this is the one I leave where little hands can play.

So there you have it! Our cozy little den! I still have the outside, the foyer, the dining room, and the kitchen to share of the decorated spaces!

Before...And During.

Here we are! T-minus 4 days from moving!!! Can you tell I'm a tiny bit excited? I packed up the boys' toys (well, some of them) this morning and hauled them over to the new house. One load down, one million to go! I'll haul another few loads this week by myself when I have time, Eddie's going to take BIG stuff on Friday - the sofa, the recliner, the washer and dryer, the boys' beds and mattresses, the freezer - and the movers will be there Saturday. Shockingly, I'm not at all stressed, just anxious to get started...hence the hauling by myself today.

Painters are almost done with their painting (they'll come back and spray my mantle and built-ins in the den once the builders finish those today), carpet is going in one day this week (I'm not in charge here), and the house will be a MESS come Saturday so I thought I'd share the "during" photos for you. Whew! It's come a LONG way. The paint didn't look so bad when we first bought the house, but it looks CRAZY now that we've toned it down. I'll do the afters in a few weeks when everything is in and unpacked. Maybe James will give you a VLOG tour. ;)

Foyer

Before on left, After on right.

We went with Porter Paint in Almond Cream on the main living areas (I think...sheesh I tried a million). It looks DARK in the after, but it is the same color as the dining room in the next photo.

Dining Room

Before on left, After on right.

See ya, RED. Whew. I have never been so happy about a neutral paint color.

Kitchen

Before on left, After on right.

This room still needs the most work for me. We'll re-do counters, sink, and backsplash in a few years. It's definitely livable. It isn't like the previous kitchen (holy COW....I'll post that below), but it's not my favorite and it looks dated. The paint made a big difference, though! The first paint I picked the painter said, "I like how it picks up the orange/terra-cotta color in the backsplash." And I said, "Well, then that is NOT the paint we'll use." Ha!

Whew! White walls, white cabinets, we rearranged the stove/fridge layout, PURPLE counter tops, YELLOW floor. We've come a long way. See the whole re-do HERE.

Master Bathroom

Before on left, After on right.

WOW. That crazy wallpaper gave me a headache. It is PLAIN JANE, but that's ok. I may change out light fixtures and faucets. There's no color consistency there. Some are nickel, some are chrome, some are both...it just doesn't make any sense. Porter Paint Colonial White.

Boys' Bathroom

Before on left, After on right.

Simple, easy fix here! We took off the stickers on the walls and painted it Colonial White. Easy, peasy!

Boys' Bedroom.

Before on left, After on right.

They are THRILLED to no longer have a pink room. Now to take the butterflies off the ceiling fan. :)

So there you have it! So far, so good! The next few days will bring GREAT things. Can't wait to share them with you!

Just for future reference for me...

Porter Paint "Almond Cream" (or Almond Paste???) in kitchen, den, dining room, foyer, and halls.

Porter Paint "Real Simple" in master bedroom and boys' bedroom.

Porter Paint "Colonial White" in all three bathrooms, playroom, and office.

31 Days of Halloween: Day Seven - Halloween Decor

Here's a little secret about me...I love Halloween. I'm an almost-Halloween-baby (born the day before) and the whole Fall season/Halloween/football season is SO much fun to me. Because I love Halloween so much, my family has taken the opportunity to gift me with lots and lots and lots of Halloween decorations. I have boxes and boxes and boxes. And I just couldn't put them all out this year because there's SO much, our house is SO small, and little hands like to touch, touch, touch things even if they're breakable. So here's what our decorations look like this year:

My wreath on my front door is my absolute favorite. I got it on major sale (you know, in probably JULY) at Hobby Lobby a few years ago. The little family of pumpkins on the left came from my mother-in-law a few years ago for my birthday. The pumpkins on the right are our Georgia bulldog pumpkins. It's football season, fall, Halloween...why not celebrate it all, right? I got the top one last year at Hobby Lobby and Grandmommie gave me the bottom one in college and I LOVE it but I have no idea where it came from. It's been broken and glued back together and I'll be so sad if it finally bites the dust one day. This is the stoop on our new, temporary house, by the way. I'm not sure if it's made it's debut here or not.

This is the ONLY decoration I have inside. Isn't that sad? Papa and YaYa gave this light up Mickey pumpkin to the boys last year and it's cute and they love it. I think it came from Walgreens or somewhere similar. So cute!

My collection of Halloween decor comes in all shapes and sizes. I have a TON. One thing I have a pretty good collection of, though, is Lori C. Mitchell reproduction pieces. They're precious little paper mache folk art figurines of children dressed up for Halloween. They're the CUTEST things, but they have the tiniest, most delicate legs and parts and I came just imagine someone coming by and swiping them. I kept them up high in our other house but there's just no place here. Here's a great collection of them.

If I get around to putting out anything else I'll update, but otherwise I think this is it this year. I've loved "visiting" some of my favorite houses in the blog world this year and seeing their decorations. Here's one of my VERY favorite blogs with her decorations up. Lots and lots of work to collect and put out this much!

House Progress: Dining Room

It's been a long time since I've shown how far we've come since we first bought this house. We bought a house that had been a long-term rental and was in foreclosure almost three years ago. We'd purchased after looking at thousands (*slight exaggeration*) of houses and we were just ready to have something. We were also newlyweds living in my in-laws lake house that was an hour from our jobs. The problem wasn't the hour-long commute (we rode together to save on gas money), the problem was that I had to be at school no later than 7 AM. We were leaving no later than 6 AM...and that made for a lonnnng day. SO...we were thrilled to have a new house and honestly, since we didn't know a lick about the place we moved, we couldn't have wound up in a better location! We're halfway between Eddie's job in the smaller town in our area and the big town that I do all of my shopping, etc., in! It's perfect! What wasn't perfect was all of the re-doing that we had to do. It's still not perfect...not by any stretch of the imagination...but I thought I'd show off a little over the next few weeks when I have nothing better to blog about!

One of my favorite rooms in our house is actually our dining room. I know it sounds strange, but I love how it's come together over the past two years. It still has LOTS of work to be done to it (I've mentioned before that I don't like the paint...), but I thought I'd show you some before and after pictures today and introduce you to our newest piece of furniture.

This is what the dining room  looked like when we moved in. The carpet needed to be ripped up, flooring put down, and the walls painted.

We have lots of arches in our house. I love how unique it is! When you're looking out the room on the right is the den and on the left is the kitchen.

We have these two alcoves that Eddie still hasn't put shelves in. It's on the "to do" list, though, so maybe one day! At the bottom are cabinets that are perfect for storing all of my dining room "stuff." I have so much!!! We've been given so many things and then I've added lots on top of what we already had just from selling Willow House. It's a blessing and a curse!

After we'd lived here for a while we acquired my mama's dining room table. She inherited her mama and daddy's so she gave hers to us! Wonderful deal in my opinion! :) Because I have so. much. stuff. I brought in an old dresser that I had. I can't tell you how old it is or where it came from because I just don't know. That's still in our dining room. Then we added Eddie's grandmother's china cabinet to the room:

When Eddie's aunt and uncle visited a few weeks ago, they brought me yet another prize! We also inherited a cabinet that belonged to Eddie's grandmother (and maybe his great-uncle before that). It's the perfect piece and gives me even more storage. So currently our dining room looks like this:

Above: Alcoves are still unfinished. Yes, the red is really that red. It's overwhelming to me. I think red is just not for everyone. I thought it was and I was wrong! 

Above: Good cabinet space! Love that this gives me extra storage for all of my things!

I made this for our wedding. I'd had the window forever and finally decided to put it to use. Top row: Dad's parents, Mrs. Bobby's parents, Mama's parents.

Middle row: Mr. Tommy's mama, Sonny's parents, Laura's parents.

Bottom row: Mr. Tommy and Mrs. Bobby, Dad and Laura, Mama and Sonny.

Above: Meet the newest piece of furniture! Eddie's grandmother had a marble top made for it. Beautiful! We're going to hang pictures above it.

Great storage! There are THIRTY cup hooks in that baby! The only downside is that James knows how to slide the doors open! I have to watch him like a hawk around it!

So what do we lack in the dining room? The plan is to hang a few pictures above the cabinet, I would love to paint it something in the brown family, we need to hang curtains, cover the chairs, buy a rug, and put shelves in the alcove. I'm also dreaming of a buffet for the largest wall in the room but it may be a while before that dream becomes a reality! Slowly but surely! Maybe within the next two years I'll update with the finished product!

Next week I'll give you a tour of the kitchen. It's the room with the BIGGEST transformation. If you haven't seen it before you won't believe it!