Anyway, with a whole house to decorate this year, I was in my glory.   I tried not to go overboard in hopes to keep it simple and not break the bank.  I am beyond happy with how it has all turned out.  It’s cheery, bright, and most importantly, kid friendly!  It all feels so festive and celebrating the holidays feels extra special this year.

Here is a glimpse into our home all decked out for the holidays.

These oversized ornaments are hanging in our bow window in the living room.

And here is our mantel all dressed up.

After some hesitation, I bit the bullet on the Potter Barn embroidered stockings.  They were offering free embroidery and shipping so I couldn’t resist.  They first ones they sent I had to send back because the stitching was horrible and one of the stockings had a different color thread.  I’m very happy with them now, the second time around.

My favorite part of the mantel is the little gold light up trees that I found at the Christmas Tree Shop for $2.99 each.  They’re so simple yet so pretty.

And last, but certainly not least, is our tree!

We’ve started a new family tradition of cutting down our own at a tree farm.  I’ve had a real tree all my life and I vow to never have an artificial one.  Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without the smell of a fresh tree in the house and tiny pine needles all over the place!  I really love our tree this year.  It stands high, goes right up to the ceiling and is just a beauty.  It’s full of white lights and colorful ornaments.  There is no theme to it.  The ornaments are all shapes and sizes, some home made and some store bought.  The girls helped us decorate it and I like them to feel like it’s their tree too, not just a decoration.

I’d love to see (or hear) how you’ve decorated hour home for the holidays.  Do you have any special traditions in decorating?  Do you prefer a real or artificial tree?

]]> http://amothersworkisneverdone.com/2010/12/decking-the-halls/feed/ 1 http://amothersworkisneverdone.com/2010/09/hall-closet-makeover/ http://amothersworkisneverdone.com/2010/09/hall-closet-makeover/#comments Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:00:11 +0000 Kristin http://amothersworkisneverdone.com/?p=348 More >]]> We have a good sized closet in our main hallway.  It’s pretty much been unused since we moved in, mostly because we moved in during nicer weather and didn’t have big coats, hats, gloves, boots, etc to put in there.  Instead, it has become home to some very random things like mops, Pledge, light bulbs, grocery bags and our fire extinguisher.

(click to enlarge)

With the colder weather creeping up on us, I know that we are going to need to use this closet for it’s intended purpose rather than as a catch-all.  So, I decided to tackle it.  It was a very spur-of-the-moment decision.  I took some quick measurements, grabbed the girls, and drove to Lowe’s to buy some supplies.  There were a few things that I definitely wanted to accomplish with the project and the rest just fell into place.  First, since the closet is over a stairway, the floor is slanted upward which means you can’t really put much on the floor of the closet (but somehow that didn’t really seem to stop the clutter from gathering there!).  Then there was the abundance of grocery bags (aka toxic waste-smelling diaper disposal bags).  Even though we use reusable shopping bags 90% of the time, we still seem to end up with tons of these plastic bags.  So, I was determined to find an answer to this problem.  And finally, how do I make the closet not look so cluttered?  I know, I know, it IS a closet after all, but I just hated looking at all of the crap!

Here is how it turned out:

I am completely thrilled with it.  I installed a shelf near the bottom of the closet.  It can be used for shoes or whatever.  I put a small bin on it so the kids can put things away at their own level (ie hats, gloves, scarves).  I put two larger bins on the top shelf.  One of them has the light bulbs and other miscellaneous stuff in it.  The other is empty for now, but will hold Scott’s and my hats, gloves and scarves this winter.  I was able to eliminate two of the mops from the closet.  One was the Swiffer Wet Jet, which we no longer use (we replaced it with a Shark Steam Mop seen in the picture).  The other one was an old school sponge mop that somehow made it’s way to the new house even though we never used it at the condo.

But, I know the biggest question on everyone’s mind right now is “What did she do with all of those grocery bags?!?”  Pretty sweet, huh?!  I’ve seen these type of bag holder/dispenser things before but for some reason never bought one.  Of course today when I was on the hunt for one, it took me forever to find it.  It’s stuck on the right hand wall inside the closet with some adhesive backing (or you could have used screws).  The box says it holds 30 bags but I was able to get at least 45 in there (yes, I was counting!).  I’m very happy about it.

So, I ended up spending about $40 at Lowe’s on the shelf, hardware, bins and the grocery bag holder.  I know it probably seems silly that I’m so excited about a closet makeover, but I know it’s going to make our lives so much easier once we’re wearing heavy coats and winter accessories.

Anyway, another added bonus of “knowing” them is that they were gracious enough to share with us pictures of how the home looked when they purchased it.  This was very neat to us.  It has also allowed us to see how the home has evolved over the years.  It’s quite awesome.  As I mentioned before, our house was built in the late 1960′s so even though it’s new to us, it’s not really new.  The previous owners had the glorious job of removing all of the old wallpaper and painting all of the wood trim white.  Both of which I am extremely grateful for!  When we moved in, most of what we did was cosmetic.

I’m going to share with you bits and pieces of the house as it has evolved through the years.  First we’ll visit the living room.  I call this room the conversation room.  It’s attached to the dining room and off of the kitchen.  We don’t have a TV in this room and it’s used more for sitting and talking or reading.  Our computer nook is also here though our laptop floats around the house with us most of the time.  Anyway, here is what the room looked like, sans furniture, when the previous owners first purchased it a little over five years ago:

It was carpeted, had dingy walls and the window casing appears to be beige.  What you can see is that the bay (or is it bow) window is a huge focal point.  What you can’t see is that there is a beautiful fireplace on the wall to the right of the window.  Otherwise, pretty basic and boring.

Here are the pictures of the same room from when the previous owners lived here:

Here you can see the work that the previous owners put into the room.  They put a fresh coat of paint on the walls, painted the trim and window casing white, removed the carpet and refinished the hardwood floors.  They did an amazing job!  You can also see that fireplace that I was talking about.  And notice how the window lets in a TON of natural light?!  I love it!

When we moved in, we originally had our sectional in this room.  It didn’t fit and was too overbearing here.  We intended for it to go in the family room, but that room was a work in progress and we needed a couch somewhere!  Once the family room was finished, we moved the sectional down there and were left with an empty space.  The girls loved it because it meant more room for them to run around in and create a mess, but we knew it was temporary.  Eventually we purchased furniture for the room and I’m happy with how it’s coming along.  Here are pictures of how the room currently looks:

I took these pictures at night so there’s no sun coming in through the window but you get the idea.  We’re planning to paint the wall behind the love seat and the wall where the fireplace is a lighter shade of green.  We are also currently looking for a new, larger area rug.  I’m sure I’ll put some pictures or something on the mantle eventually and I have to do some decorating in the desk area (pictures/cork board/etc).  Oh and we need to get a more beefy looking curtain rod.  The one that is there looks a bit too wimpy for the window.  Other than that, I’m pretty happy with how it’s coming along!  What do you think?

She continued swimming and I continued sitting on my ass lounging in the chair.  Seconds later I heard a rustling sound coming from the woods.  When I say woods I’m referring to the tree area part of our yard that separates us from our neighbors to the back.  It’s not a deep forest or anything.  Anywho, after a minute or two of the rusting, which I assumed was just a squirrel or chipmunk, I turned to see a freaking raccoon emerging from the woods.  In shock, I stood up from my chair, but then quickly stood still afraid that it would attack me.  I mean it was during broad daylight.  The thing must have been rabid, right?  I didn’t want to scare Brinley so I didn’t tell her what I saw.  I didn’t want her to freak out and cause the raccoon to go nuts and bite us.  Ok, I guess I sound a little paranoid here.

Well, the raccoon was looking me right in the eyes and it slowly walked into our back yard, around to the side yard, continuing toward the front of the house.  When I lost sight of it, I tried to walk over to the side of the house to see where it went, but I lost it.  So I went back over to where Brinley was figuring it just went into the woods or across the street.  Just as I was sitting back down I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  It was the raccoon!!  I was now in the driveway walking by Scott’s car.  It kept going past the drive way and over the small, tree filled hilly area and into our neighbors yard where  I again lost sight of it.

I know I probably sound like a freak for being so afraid of the raccoon, but for some reason it just seemed strange to me that it would so casually walk through our yard in the middle of the day.  I’m almost 100% sure that there are other raccoons that live in our woods and it doesn’t alarm me one bit as long as I don’t see them.  I mean they’re nocturnal, right?  So why should I see them unless they’re rabid!  I should probably do some raccoon research before I keep making these claims.  Our little visitor seemed completely innocent and didn’t bother us in the least.

Nora only has one window in her room so I decided to try my hand at sewing, and made her valance out of her crib skirt. With the style of the crib that she has, the skirt barely showed through anyway. Since her bedding set came with it, I figured I could cut it up and try to sew a valance. If it came out horrible, then the only thing I’d really have lost was the time it took me to make it. So, I called up my mom to see if she still had her sewing machine kicking around (she used to make lots of stuff back in the day, including dresses for my sister and I). I was in luck, she still had it.

Last week I busted it out and went to work. I haven’t touched a sewing machine since 8th grade Home Economics class. However, by some miracle, it all came back to me. I even remembered how to refill and empty bobbin! This was a pretty easy project though because most of the hems were already sewn since it was a crib skirt. I just cut off the longest sides of the skirt and sort of overlapped them and made a rod pocket. A few pins and stitches later and ta-dah! I had made a valance! It’s nothing fancy or special but it does the job and cost me nothing. It doesn’t bunch up as much as I would have liked since the window is really big and the length of fabric wasn’t very long, but I like it and I’m happy with how it turned out. (I will put up some pictures once things are finalized in the room.)

So now I’m left with a double window in the dining room, a bathroom window, a kitchen window and a door that are still left bare. I know I’m putting too much pressure on myself since we just moved in a little over two weeks ago, but I just can’t stand the sight of it looking so unfinished. I reused the scarf valance thing we had over our living room window in the townhouse in our bay window in our new living room and I hate the way it looks, it’s not long enough. So that will be replaced too at some point. It works for now.

For some reason though, I am just having terrible luck finding anything that I like. I’ve looked at Target, WalMart, JC Penny, Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock.com, Sears and just about everywhere that I can think of that sells curtains and valances. I don’t want to spend an arm and a leg, but they don’t have to be super cheap either. It just seems like all I can find for kitchens is stuff with fat chefs, wine bottles, or fruit on them. If I had more time (and patience – since I totally sucked at making a straight line) I’d sew some more myself but it would be easier for me to just buy them (and I’ know they’d look nicer).

So, help me out here. Where can I find some decent window treatments without breaking the bank?

Our townhouse had three huge flights of stairs.  Each probably had at least 16 stairs (surprisingly, I never counted them).  To get to the main level of the house, you had to go up a flight.  So when it was grocery shopping day that meant multiple trips up the stairs with arms full of bags.  Not to mention the every day haul up and down the stairs with 20 pound Nora + diaper bag in one arm and 35 pound Brinley in the other. (Yes, she could do the stairs herself, but she always complained about it.  So in an effort to get out the door faster I’d often just carry her down.)  The main level had the kitchen and living room.  The bedrooms were up another flight and then Nora’s room (a loft converted into a nursery) was up yet another flight.  Then if I had to do laundry I had to go back down to the ground level (where the garage and laundry room were).  The one benefit to all of those stairs – nice calves!  To put it bluntly, I do not miss the stairs one bit.

The townhouse also lacked a yard.  There was common space outside but it wasn’t very close to our unit and there were always cars coming and going so it didn’t seem very safe to be out there with the kiddos.  We went to the park A LOT!  Not that I mind going to parks, I’m sure we’ll still go plenty but that meant an trip away from home and packing a bag with kid stuff and maybe not having a potty accessible for Brin.  Now we have our very own playground right in our backyard! 

While having all of this right outside our back door is awesome, it also means more work!  As if I (we) didn’t have enough of my plate already we have new chores now.  There’s raking and mowing and edging and mulching and trimming and watering and….  I spent two whole afternoons last week raking up the lawn. I even have blisters to prove it! (I quickly went out and bought some yard gloves the next day.) Scott then spent two evenings mowing the lawn.  We laid 10 bags of mulch (and that’s just the back of the house).  We looked forward to the rain yesterday when we’d typically frown upon it.  Why?  Because we wouldn’t have to water the lawn or plants.

Don’t get me wrong, I love our yard!  It’s amazing having all of this space.  The girls absolutely love being outside.  Brinley can play with all of the outside toys that have been stored in our garage for the past few years.  If we’re out playing and someone needs a snack or a potty break we can just go right inside and not have to have preplanned for any of it.  This might seem old hat to many of you, but it’s a huge change for us.  I’m sure the novelty will wear off at some point, but I’m actually enjoying the yard work so far.  It gives me a huge sense of pride.  I’m just worried that it’s going to be hard for us to keep up with it.

So, do you have a yard?  How do you keep up with the yard work?  Any tips or tricks to make it stay fun?

My feelings are very bittersweet.  I am SOO excited to be moving into a HOUSE.  A single family, stand alone house where we won’t be sharing walls with anyone else.  A home with a yard, with grass and a swing set.  A home where the girls will each have their own bedroom.  A home in a neighborhood with kids and friendly (I hope) neighbors.  At the same time, I can’t help but feel a little bit sad about leaving our townhouse.  This place hold so many memories for us.  We moved here six years ago, back when it was just Scott and I.  It was our first home together.  We went through so many life changes while living here.  We got married in July 2005, Brinley was born in September 2006, Scott started his new job in February 2007, and then Nora was born in May 2009.  But the time has come where we have simply outgrown this space and we need to move on.

So, in 65 days we’ll sign all the papers and get the keys to our new house.  It will be a new beginning for us all and I am so excited.  Who wants to help me pack?

We made the decision that it was just time to move on. This place has treated us well and we’ve been happy to call it home for the past six (wow!) years. We’ve had the luxury of living in a new construction place which has been virtually worry free… our driveway gets plowed when it snows, our trash goes in a dumpster and is out of sight immediately, our grass (the little that there is) is mowed weekly and everything is just “new”.

It’s going to be a bit of an eye opener to move into a “new to us, but not new” home but I’m really looking forward to making it our own. We’ll have a yard, a swing set, and we won’t have to share walls with anyone else! We’ll have lots of projects and lots of space and I just can’t wait. So let the packing and purging begin. Just before our baby turns one, we’ll be in our new place. Yippee!!

The garage before.

On Wednesday afternoon, we drove up to Nashua to look at some carpet at Home Depot and a couch/chaise/futon type thing at BJs. We ended up purchasing both things right then and Scott rented a UHaul van to pick both things up saving us big on tax and delivery charges.

By Friday night Scott and I had “installed” the carpet and assembled the couch. We also started bringing some of the toys down. We decided that a trip to IKEA was in store. I wanted to get a table and chairs for Brinley as well as some sort of storage type thing. We ended up scoring big there with the table and chair set, a bin storage unit, a curtain to hide stuff behind, a clock, some trash cans, a tent for Brinley and some other odds and ends.

By Saturday night the room was nearly finished. We just had some remaining things to find homes for. This project was a huge success and it also made us organize and get rid of a lot of the stuff that we had just been throwing places. Now we have an organized laundry room, closet, “notch” cut out area and playroom. Brinley absolutely loves it as its probably the biggest open space in our house. She can take out whatever she wants and we don’t have to worry about tripping over her toys in the living room now. I’m planning to get some more things for the walls, like a calendar and weather chart (its the teacher in me), but I’m beyond thrilled with how it all turned out. Its certainly going to make this winter a lot easier on us since we won’t have to be crammed up in the living room day after day.