Adventures in New Decorations

With a new house comes all kinds of possibilities – where to put the couch, how to arrange the master bedroom, are we going to fit all our stuff in the tiny pantry. The usual!

Plus, when the holidays come around, how are we going to decorate the brand new place? When we first saw our house last Memorial Day weekend, I knew that I wanted to put lights on our holly bush outside plus candles in the dormer windows. It would be so perfect!

The inside of the house was more of a question. We had the big fireplace in the sitting room that would have the nativity on the mantle and the stockings hung below. We figured the tree would go in there too, because there was room. Turns out we had a ton of decorations and didn’t have to buy a lot for the new place, except for some ribbon to decorate the outside wreaths with.

That’s when Husband had a great idea – he took ribbon and some extra decorations from the wreaths and brought some color to our staircase!

We took the wide red ribbon from Costco and wrapped it around the handrail on each side of the stairs. We put a small piece of tape at the top of bottom to secure it, but the rest was wrapped around the balustrades.

The red and silver clusters are just stuck in the ribbon. We probably should have taped them down because holiday visitors under the age of 5 really loved playing with them!

I love going up and down the stairs, even if we don’t have a handrail to hold onto. It’s just so festive! Plus, we hung our holiday cards on the same ribbon going down the hallway to the right of the stairs so they are always in sight.

The first Christmas in our house was a good one!

The 2014 Directive - January

So I might be a bit late to the game, but we still have a few weeks left in January, right?

I know I've already posted about my resolution for 2014 - being present to win - but I came across another goal-setting idea,  the 2014 Directive, on Jessica’s Kate and Trudy blog last week and really thought it would help me out this year. More info on the Directive is here.

The idea is more than New Year’s resolution or a goal. It’s something you can focus on each month, whether it’s dieting or spending less money or getting your house in order. You pick something to focus on each month, stay accountable through a mid-month progress report and then complete your project each month, if that’s what is called for. Some of the projects might go beyond a single month, but all in all, I think this is a great system! The only rule is that the directive must be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound.

I have so much things on my to do list that I think this process will really help me focus on each project and get them done.

So for this month’s directive, I’m working on my 2013 scrapbooking project. I started Project Life last year and loved it – I wanted to capture the everyday and regular full page scrapbooking wasn’t doing it for me. So this pocket scrapbooking style really helped me. But, I’m woefully behind. I don’t think I even got to Fourth of July in 2013! So my directive this month while it’s still freezing and a foot of snow outside is to work on that project. After all, my craft room is now organized and clean so it’s a perfect space to work on that project!I will print out all the pictures and add them to the pockets, and fill out the journal card to complete the 2013 project! When I do that, I'll allow myself to buy the 2014 supplies and start on that scrapbook. :)

I hope that I can keep on track and get move some of these projects from the “to do list” to the “completed list”!

Adventures in New Year's Resolutions

Happy 2014! I simply cannot believe a year had passed.

This time last year, we were with friends at Innsbrook, enjoying the falling snow (which would cause some problems in leaving the resort the next day!) and celebrating Husband's final exams the month before. He had just finished his last semester of law school and was preparing for the Missouri Bar Exam.

2013 would see him take and pass the big scary test, get admitted to the State Bar in Jefferson City with a ceremony that made me cry, then we got to celebrate his accomplishment at SLU's commencement ceremony and a party with all our friends and our family.

Pretty awesome year, if I do say so myself. :)

Now looking on to 2014, it's got a lot to live up to. I'm not one who loves resolutions or hates them. Sometimes I make them and sometimes I don't.

Last week, I watched a TedX video by Laura Schwartz, an author and speaker, and former Director of Events at the White House (see the video here). She talks about "being present to win" - she's talking about winning something at a conference, something we're all familiar with, you drop your name into a bowl and they pull the winner's name at the end of the event.

She talks about how that same concept - being present to win - is also a life lesson. You have to show up - being in the moment. You have to look up - look up from your device screen and be there for experiences in your life.

This really resonated with me this year. My husband will tell you I'm addicted to my iDevices and that's probably true. But I'm also so busy that it's hard not to experience the moment.

So this year, in 2014, I'm going to be present to win. I'm going to be there in the moment, and not be worried about tomorrow's event, next week's meeting, or next month's vacation. I'm going to be present.

It's show time!

What's your New Year's resolution?

Merry Christmas!

Husband and I (and Santa, of course!) wish each and every one of you a very, merry and joy-filled Christmas.

When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness.  ~Bob Hope

A Crazy Fortnight

Today begins a bit of a crazy fortnight.

Tomorrow is the internment of Husband's grandpa and grandma who passed 7 years ago and 3 years ago respectively. They were cremated and never interned. My MIL secured a site for them at Jefferson Barracks in South County, as Peepaw served in the military for many years. The Husband's cousins are coming in for Thanksgiving and it was a good time to have the ceremony when most everyone is here.

We have a luncheon scheduled afterwards so we can spend some time with his extended family since we won't be here for the holiday.

Because after the luncheon, we head to the airport for a flight to DFW! I am so excited to see my family for Thanksgiving even if we may end up eating out instead of cooking a big fancy dinner. I still want to stuff my face with desserts when I get the opportunity.

Not sure about the Black Friday shopping - lounging on the couch in my PJs with a hot cider and shopping via my iPad sounds like it might be more my speed this year for some reason. {Side note: who AM I that I'm not psyched for shopping?! I am getting old.}

We come back home on Sunday evening and spend three days doing laundry, cleaning my house, setting up Christmas decorations (I hope) and then head to Walt Disney World on Thursday morning!

Yup, it's another trip to the House of the Mouse with only me and Husband. We're staying in one of our favorite resorts, Port Orleans French Quarter and have tickets for the Christmas party and the Candlelight Processional, neither of which we've done before. It's five days and four nights of a vacation that we've been looking forward to since April - he passed the bar and we decided this would be our celebration.

So for those keeping score, that's December 10 when we are finally back in town and ready for Christmas. We are hosting our first holiday in the house - with my mom and brother and his family - and there's some major decorating, tree buying and setting up, plus menu planning and executing to do.

How's your next fortnight shaping up?

Adventures in House Tours, part one

Welcome to our new home!

Since we closed on our first house back in July, we've been slowly getting the place in order. Unpacking boxes, moving furniture around, hanging pictures and slowly removing every single decorative flower in the house. The woman who owned the house before us had a thing for pink tulips and they manifest themselves everywhere - in the sidelights next to the pink front door, wallpaper and its borders in multiple rooms, window dressings, shower curtains and even toilet seat covers. It's quite impressive, actually. I have a whole collection of soft goods in the basement if you're interested!

I promised a house tour and I finally had part of the house clean enough to take pictures last weekend.

I can see lots of fun decorations on our front door in the coming seasons! However, that mauve pink on the door and the shutters will be going away next spring, I hope. Now, to choose a color!

When you walk in, the dining room is on the right hand side. The painting of Paris has been with us since our rental house a few years ago and we love it. It makes us want to go back every time we see it!

The dining room has a cut through into the kitchen. The wall with the painting on the right has the garage on the other side of it.

The dining room table and chairs, with the cabinet, came from my in-laws. That has been their dining room set for years and now its ours! Lots of memories with this furniture. The china in the hutch is also from my in-laws - so excited to have service for 12 now! I loved the Noritake pattern we chose for our wedding but we only have service for 5 in that one, and not nearly all the pieces. I hope that we can grow that pattern over the next few years because it would be great to have two! The blue china from our wedding would be amazing for Christmas, with blues and silver.

So when you walk in with the dining room on the right, this is the stairs to the second floor and the hallway to the back of the house, with the sitting room, powder bath and master suite.

If you turn left instead of right, that's our living room.

Complete with our family shrine - I am pretty sure that between the pictures displayed on the cabinet on the left and the table on the right, we might have everyone represented.

This is a good look from the corner of the living room across the whole front of the house. We love the double windows in both rooms and the great light it gets. We installed black out blinds in the living room so we can close 'em up and get it nice and dark for movies on the couch. It's the best.

One thing the old homeowner left behind (besides the window treatments and pink tulips everywhere) was this picture. It's an ink drawing of the house when it was about 10 years old. We absolutely love it! It's hanging in the main hallway and I think we'll leave it there until it's time for us to sell the place. Then, it will be there for the next owner. It's a really nice touch.

At the end of the main hallway, we have a small cabinet and more pictures. There's a castle cutout with the quote "To all who come to this happy place, WELCOME!" My in-laws presented me with this at our housewarming. I definitely cried.

Around the corner from the cabinet above, and in the back of the house is our yellow sitting room. I'm in love with our white fireplace that was like that when we moved in! We left the window treatments and decorated around them.

This is where our books live and the chairs from Weekends Only makes it a perfect nook for hanging out. It also opens into our kitchen which is exactly what we wanted.

Not quite as much counter space or cabinets as we would have hoped for but with those stainless steel appliances that were bought for the house before we put our offer in, how can I complain?!

The kitchen also has an eat-in kitchen. Love!

The door to the left is a double French door that leads out to the back patio.

We haven't done a lot to the outside, other than our small patio furniture and Hubs' new grill, but we will.

We've noticed that there are a ton of leaves that gather due to that big tree in the middle. It was so beautiful when the leaves turned but they fell so fast I couldn't get pictures. There's always next year!

There is plenty of space back here for expanding the patio or installing some kind of garden. We are really excited about the space!

The bedrooms and bathrooms are next!

Adventures in New iDevices

It's been a week without my iDevices and I'm going through withdrawal.

I mean, it's only a phone, right? It's only an iPad? What's the big deal?

It's a major #firstworldproblem and then some, I understand. But every time I come back to my desk and reach for my <fill in the blank iDevice> I am reminded all over again that someone came into my space and took something that wasn't theirs.

I spent the week updating the new phone, changing passwords, answering questions from the police and providing them with serial numbers, and borrowing my husband's iPad so I can watch Drop Dead Diva on Netflix from the comfort of my own bed.

Even with the office's new security policy and the increased awareness, it's still like someone broke into my home. And now I'm back at the desk every day and wonder who in the world could have stolen from me.

The police have used the word "victim" a few times when referring to me and my co-worker. I realize that that word technically does describe me now - a victim of petty theft. But it just seems that they're talking about someone else when they use that word. It almost makes me cringe. I never really thought of myself as a victim and I don't want to be.

Whatever they call, whether they find the stolen property or not, we're moving on. Nothing to be done - no Find My Phone feature to be activated - so we are pressing forward. We're working on the house, I'm running my events and getting excited about the fall and all the holidays. Life does go on, with or without iDevices.