Friday, December 30, 2011

Year End Wrap Up

As 2011 comes to a close we thought it might be fun to take a look back at what happened in the past year, and maybe take a look at some potential upcoming projects for the next year. But first, check out my awesome Christmas present from my wonderful husband who knows me so well.


That's right, a palm sander. I can't wait to break this puppy out. I have big plans for this little guy. Side note, I love that it came with a storage bag. 

And now for a short round up of the past year. We started out the year explaining how we came to have a blue door in the first place. 


We also went over the porch re-vamp. 


We gave a quick tour of the house, which can now be found on the house tour page.


We bought a new refrigerator that matches the rest of the kitchen much better than the old one did, and is much quieter too.


And the doozy (doozie?) of a project this year, the back room overhaul.



We also did a quick coffee table switcheroo.


And to end the year out we made a nice wintery wreath.


There were also several projects that we haven't gotten around to blogging about yet, like the built-in bookshelf and the brand new shed. Hopefully we'll get to those soon. Now here's a list of projects that we would like to do in the coming year. 
We bought this chair off craigslist a few months ago and I still have yet to do anything with it. I need to either clean the upholstery really well or else reupholster it. We'll have to wait and see what happens. We also need to replace the cushion, but that will hopefully be the easy part of the project.


We got this stool from Jake's great-grandmother several months ago. I've been planning to sand it down and paint it, as well as reupholster the seat, maybe now that I have my new palm sander I'll finally get to that. 


We are also hoping to get new kitchen counter tops this year, but we're saving up for them right now. (this is where I put our NEVER USE CREDIT TO BUY THINGS YOU CAN'T AFFORD plug). Anyway, as you can see in this picture, we don't have matching counter tops. We've been meaning to replace them for a long time, but it's one of those things you live with and actually forget about until you're reminded, oh right, matching countertops do look nice...


So there it is, a quick look back at 2011 and a small look into some ideas for 2012. Hopefully this year will be just as productive as last and we can continue to share it with you all. Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Last Minute Decorating

If you're like us, you've had your Christmas decorations up since the day after Thanksgiving, however, if you are one of those people that wait to do things until the last minute (ahem, like me writing this post 5 days before Christmas..) then we may have a few quick decorating ideas for you. The first idea is my favorite new decoration for the year. It's our new wreath for the front door.



I got the idea from my pinterest page, but it was originally from here. I tweaked it a little bit though. I went to the dollar store and picked up these packages of snowflakes in three different sizes, as well as a white party streamer.


I picked up an inexpensive straw wreath from Michael's, and wrapped the streamer around it (leaving the plastic wrap over the straw part of the wreath to make it a little smoother). That took about five minutes. Next I heated up the trusty old hot glue gun and got to gluing. The snowflakes has a pretty good spot in the center to put the glue, so I just layered the snowflakes in varying sizes around the wreath. We decided the wreath was still lacking something though, so I used the strings that were already attached to the snowflakes to hang a few of them from the flakes that had been glued onto the wreath, in order to add a little depth and interest.


And there you have it, a simple, quick wreath to hang on your door or in your windows for Christmas, and you could even have this out longer for more of the winter since it doesn't have anything inherently Christmas-y about it.


Now for a quick look at tree decorating. Something that I like to do is to hang some ornaments on the inside of the tree, not just on the outer edges. They don't jump out at you, they just show through enough that you see a little shimmer and layering to your tree. To do this you have to make sure it's ornaments that are a little shinier or colorful to make sure that they show up enough and that you don't lose them when you're taking the tree down though. I like to throw some red and gold ones in towards the center of the tree. You can kind of see what I mean in the picture below, although sadly, it doesn't do it justice to real life.


And here's a look at our whole Christmas tree all lit up and even with a few presents underneath. 



One of our friends told us that whenever she sees the ornaments inside the tree like that it always reminds her of the Chip and Dale Chipmunk Christmas special where they're running through the tree. We're definitely cool with that though, it brings a little nostalgia to the tree.  


So there you have it, a simple last minute project, and a new way to consider decorating your tree. Anyone else made any decorations for Christmas this year? Or maybe have chipmunks running a muck in your tree. We're considering trying to find a fun little chipmunk ornament to stick in the tree, just for the fun of it.