O' Christmas Tree

I don't know why I haven't found time to use my somewhat new camera to take pictures of the whole house decorated for Christmas. It may have something to do with a lot of things going on at the same time and, oh yeah, it's dark when I get home from work making inside shots a little challenging for a novice like me.

Anyway, I will be back with a Sum It All Up 2012 Christmas House Tour but for now I snapped some shots of our trees before bed last night.

I used chocolate, teal and lime green in our living room this year. It doesn't look this noticeable in real life, but in these pictures you can REALLY tell that the very top lights are out. There is a short in them as it is all of that top strand that is out, not just a few here and there. AND. I did not notice until it was too late. We've only had this tree for about 4 years so I'm pretty bummed that they're out already and one in the middle that I did notice and was able to add a mini set of lights to. Wow, I need to find one of those devices to help you locate the short and play around with it this weekend before our 1st annual Christmas party!!

The top of the tree can be seen from the room and as you go up the stairs so I put a lime green star on the back of the tree and a big bow with brown, teal and green ribbon on the front.

I also have four of these little things that plug into the lights that make the ornaments spin. I just love using those every year. This one is a glittery ball. The disco balls also look really cool in action.

My husband picked out his colors for his white tree. This year he went with red, black and silver. He did a good job decorating and then I went back with the Peace ornaments because I'm not sure he even knew what to do with those! We also figured out how to get the red star tree topper plugged into the tree lights this year!

See my wreath here.
See my Vignettes here.



I'm linking up today.

Thrifty Decor Chick

Christmas Vignettes

Today I'm linking up over at Southern Hospitality for Rhoda's Vignette Party. (I linked to the craft party on the 6th and you can see that post here.)

Here are some of the vignettes at my house. There are a few more which will be in my upcoming Christmas House Tour post which I'll use to link up to the Christmas Tree link party on the 15th with Sarah.

Lantern in the Kitchen

Christmas Tree Cones In the Den

Console Table in the Living Room





Christmas Wreath for the Front Door



I made a wreath for our front door using red and silver materials last year, but this year I took everything off to add a couple of new items. I found this HUGE wreath at a thrift store in Florida when visiting the in-laws last year for $5. Yes, five dollars!

Here is what I started with: large red and silver ornaments from Hobby Lobby from last year, red deco mesh from AC Moore bought this year, a red glitter star from Dollar Tree bought this year and a Merry Christmas red glitter sign on sale at the end of Christmas last year at a local home interiors store.



Wreath Starting Point - I did not remove the bow from last year



Balls, star, floral picks from last year



Red Deco Mesh





This shot makes it look a LOT smaller than it is.

Finished on the door.

There is a little string of battery operating red lights but I need to add some more. I actually thought I was buying white until I got them home and read the box that they were red. You can not tell until you turn them on.

I've almost finished decorating and just need to take pictures. I'm planning to link up to parties as the season goes on! I will hopefully tie it all together with a Christmas House Tour for 2012!

I'm linking to:

Centsational Girl

Nesting Place

Screened Porch Makeover

While everyone is posting beautiful pictures of their Christmas decorations, I'm still working on finishing touches and finding time to shoot pictures of it all! This week and last week have been super busy at work.

In the meantime, I finished updating an empty room that only took until this August to finish, having started around LAST August! Then I just took pictures of it in September. If blogging was strictly about real time I'd be worse than I already am!

Anyway, here are some before, during and after pictures with brief explanations of all that went down during our screened in porch makeover. It is located through the french doors off of our breakfast nook in the kitchen with a small deck directly off of that.

These are the shots I grabbed but the movers had already unloaded this stuff. On the deck are the matching lounger and loveseat. Those felt more 'outside' than inside so we kept them out there and pulled the bar inside.

Since we did not have a screened porch in our old place, we had no furniture for it except for the bar and stools. We ordered a Martha Stewart loveseat and chair from Home Depot, delivered to the door. #gottalovedelivery



Cute kitty with his Summer Lion's Cut not included!



Mr. NW&TOH showing his furniture building skilz.

I found this cool chandelier at one of my local consignment stores and thought it would work for this area as a non-electric one. There are already cool laterns on either side of the french doors.

I also added a little trim to this shade I got at the same consignment store.

Then I did a little LOT of sewing (spread out between last summer and this summer) to make pillows and cover an old love seat cushion as well as cover the pillows that came with our loveseat. There is one lesson that can be learned here regarding online ordering. NO Matter how close something looks in the pictures, it is usually NOT the same. The pillows that came with the loveseat looked exactly like the fabric I got by the yard at the Home Depot (did you know you could do that?), online. However, when it all came, they were not the same. Though you would have to be really paying attention to notice AND they'd be on the loveseat on the deck, I covered them anyway. #callmeOCD

 

A pattern created from graph paper



Using two coordinating fabrics, I made pillows for the furniture and then made cushions for the bar stools . I ended up with back cushions when my attempt at seat cushions using poly-fill were too thin. That's about the time that winter hit allowing me to set this project aside. Then Spring hit and we realized the downfall of a screening in porch (other than not being able to use it in the winter): POLLEN can get thru the screen!

See the too thin 1st attempt at seat cushions.

Enter Spring/Summer of 2012 and the nice weather had me craving a cold beverage on our porch. After emptying the whole room and hosing down everything from furniture to candles and anything that was out there to the room itself, we began again.

Since the bar furniture was clean and sitting in the yard I stained it and the matching loveseat and lounger. It had been a few years since it was given attention so it was time. 

Then we put the furniture back in the room, I ordered a lounger cushion since it was cheap and easier than trying to cover the old one, and headed back to the sewing machine. There I created new seat cushions for the bar stools using 2" foan instead, created a cover for the loveseat and covered the 2 pillows original to the new furniture. Then finally took pictures of it all!

Here is the deck directly off the porch, then shots of the porch:







playing with new Nikon P&S







Chandelier finished in Lagoon



Side of the room opposite the bar



Here's the finished lamp shade.

 


Look at the awesome ceiling!

 

Spray painted the side table by the chair from
white to black to match the lights and shelf.



I love the orange accents spotted around the room
and on the deck.



I really love this room. After using it for a couple of seasons I think I'll order the ottoman that is still available at the Home Depot come Spring. I'd been holding out for an orange pouf or a ceremic garden stool, but I have not found a good enough deal to do it.  We will add a small mounted flat screen in the corner above the bar next year.

We would also love to get panels to put in the window openings but they are crazy expensive. We may go the trailer trash route and put up the plastic ones that use a hair dryer to seal them to the wood. At least it would keep it usable for longer and keep the pollen out this Spring.  (There may be a bigger reason, like this is where we would like to set up the bar for our Christmas party next weekend. Yes, there's that.)

Linking to: 

A Glimpse Inside

Fireflies and Jellybeans