A Christmas Miracle

Yesterday I was running around town and decided to stop by Goodwill. And there I saw it - a brand new white Christmas tree, pre-strung, for only $9.99. I've been wanting one for years... now THAT is a Christmas miracle!!

I brought it home and set it up (yes, only 3 days until Christmas) and was admiring it all night. I'm so glad we have a tree we can open presents next to on Christmas day next to a warm fire! (Our other tree is in the furniture-less living room).





My mom, dad and brothers are coming in for Christmas so it will be a packed house. I can't wait!

I hope everyone has a very HAPPY and SAFE Christmas and a big THANK YOU for reading my blog!!

Holiday Gift Guide 2010 : Children

I'm running a little late this morning so no explanations... just links :) Here are some of my favorite things for little kiddos!

1 - Sushi Play Food - $9.45
2 - Upcycled Crayon - $2
3- Batik Sealion Artwork - $27
4 - Sock Monkey Hat - $20
5 - Wood Rings - $35
6 - Handmade Rabbit Doll - $48

Holiday Gift Guide 2010 : Men

I'm here with the Men's installment of the Esty Holiday Gift Guide.



1 - Monogrammed Leather Wallet - $140
You can't go wrong with getting your man a really nice wallet. My husband purchased a great wallet years ago and it's still going strong.

2 - Gentleman's Soap - $5
I just have to copy and post the description from Etsy.. it sounds like it smells amazing: "Tobacco and black tea are the dominate notes with hints of fruit and spice blended to remind you of the Gentlemen's clubs of the 18th century. This soap has a heady, masculine scent that will have your nose craving more."

3 - 3D Lion Shirt - $32
This is the perfect gift for those of us who cannot get our husband's 3D TVs this year ;)

4 - Recycled Red Stripe Drinking Glasses - $15
I think these are so cool. You can get your guy's favorite beer made into drinking glasses. I'm partial to the Red Stripe ones.. they have a great logo ;)

5 - Evergreen Painting - $100
A great starter painting that reads very masculine to me. Art may not be something a guy would pick for himself, but it's a very special gift.

6 - Junk Container - $32
This gift makes me laugh a little. Doesn't it always seem that guys have "junk" laying around? I know, one man's trash is another man's treasure. This could be a cute tongue-in-cheek gift.

7 - Laptop Sleeve - $60
A gorgeous tweed-like fabric with leather.. so cool and guy-ish (even though I like the combo for myself, too).

Tomorrow will be a fun one - kiddos!

(None of these sellers nor Etsy.com has compensated me for this post.)

Holiday Gift Guide 2010 : Women

I decided to do a little Holiday gift guide series this year featuring all things from Etsy.com. You all know how much I love Etsy - I'm all about supporting artists and handmade. It's also nice knowing you're giving something truly one of a kind!

1 - Large Leather Tote Bag - $100
This bag is beautiful and a fraction of the price of a designer bag. The style and color are classic, I'm sure any women would love to get this!

2 - Vintage Glass Candlesticks - $65
I was so blown away by this color. They are a bit pricey for candlesticks, but so unique and beautiful. You could design an entire table around them.

3 - Fig and Almond Sugar Polish - $6.50
A great stocking stuffer or hostess gift. Just reading the description makes me want to take a bath. You can even use it on your face!

4 - Sewn Moleskine Notebook - $6.50
This notebook is so pretty! It would surely get compliments when pulled out to jot down some notes. And.. it's made in France. So cool :)

5 - Blue Topaz Ring - $169
This ring is STUNNING. Not much more to say about that!

6 - Romo Seraphine Lumber Pillow - $65
I adore the pattern on this pillow. And the down insert is included! I'm sure you know my favorite part... the matching piping!

7 - Magic Carpet Painting - $40
This painting is so beautiful. It's small (5x7) but packs a big punch. At first it looks like a piece of marble paper, but as you get closer you'll see it's hand painted. A perfect piece of original art on a budget.

Tomorrow I'll be posting an Etsy gift guide for men and one for children/babies on Weds!

(None of these sellers nor Etsy.com has compensated me for this post.)

I'm Back!

I didn't intend to take a little vacation from work and blogging, but the full house and the holiday (and the booth!) kept me busy. I'm sorry for the absence!

Now that Thanksgiving has past, it's officially "The Holidays". I set up our Christmas tree a couple days ago. I originally wanted to get a real Christmas tree, but we went out to look at them and I couldn't justify the extra cost when we had a tree up in our attic. Someday I'll get a real Christmas tree, but this year the fake will do. I have a booth to fund, after all ;)

I wish I were one of those people who had a super fancy tree, but ours is your generic variety. Here it is:



I hung only red and pink baubles on the tree, mainly because that's what we had ;) But I like the monochromatic look during the day.



Along with the baubles, I put our meaningful ornaments on our tree. I have ornaments from when I was a baby all the way up to recent years. My grandmother always gave us kids an ornament each year, and I continued the tradition when Matt and I started dating. I these special memories are what makes our Christmas tree.

Here are a couple..

1985 - I was one year old.

1990 - I was six, and I L-O-V-E-D that dress. I remember crying and crying because I didn't want to take it off to take a bath.

I could go on and on about the special ornaments, but I won't bore you :)

The only other decorating I've done so far is our entry table.



The wreath was given to us by my grandmother this year. It's from William Sonoma and is made out of bay leaves.. it slowly dies and then you can use the bay leaves in your cooking!



The feather trees I got through the shop I work at. See the little red tray? That's a sneak peak at one of the items in the December giveaway!!

And that's my Christmas decorating thus far.. maybe I'll add some more soon!

What kept me the busiest during the Thanksgiving break was getting items ready for the booth. We've made some changes (and improvements). Here is what it looks like now:







It's definitely a work in progress but so far has been so fun. I've mastered the art of an invisible zipper and have been sewing pillows like crazy. We eventually want that entire shelf FULL of awesome pillows. If you are in Charlotte, be sure to stop by!

Our Thanksgiving Table

As I've mentioned before on the blog, we are hosting Thanksgiving this year and I am so excited! I've been finding little things here and there all month for our table.

You'll probably note the table and chairs are different. Our friends next door are moving across country and they graciously gave us this table and the chairs. The other table was too small for the space, and I have yet to get the gold-legged chairs reupholstered. So we'll be using these for now :)



I started out with the pine cone salad plates, which I found on Etsy. I especially love the delicate gold needles on them. I looked at all sort of decorative plates but I purchased these because they were simple and they could work for Christmas, too. Around the same time, I also purchased the turned wood candlesticks.



Next I found the amber votive holders from Pier One. They were on sale and I love the detail on the glass. These with the gold plates set the color palette.

The water glasses I got from a thrift store in California. They are from the 70's (I think) and are a smokey brown color .



I also had the glass bottles on hand. They are from IKEA and I will use them to hold water on Thanksgiving. The small gold swirl plate is from Home Goods. I purchased two of them for butter (scooped with a melon ball scooper day of).



I always love how Eddie Ross has salt and pepper containers.. I got mine on Etsy (love Etsy!). The pine cone candlesticks I found just yesterday at a small vintage shop.. I love how they mimic the pine cones on the plates (a small detail only I will notice probably).



The copper buckets I picked up at Home Goods for $3 each and the flowers I got at Walmart for $5 a bundle. This table was very budget friendly! As I mentioned before, I got the gold batik tablecloth at Home Goods, and the burlap I had on hand.



And that's my first Thanksgiving table! Now we just need to get cooking :)

Another Eddie Thanksgiving

What can I say, Eddie sets a mean table. I've blogged about his tables here and here. Well, I'm at it again!

I found an amazing gold batik tablecloth from Home Goods this week that set the stage for my Thanksgiving table (more on that later). But this gold table from Eddie majorly inspired my styling.

[ See more on Eddie's blog ]

After getting my new tablecloth this weekend, I was excited to "play" with the table and set it up to see how it looked. Here is a sneak peek:



I cannot wait until Thanksgiving! I'll be sure to share pictures of the table in advance (I think on Monday).

Tis the week for pumpkins!

Only a couple days until Halloween and I have pumpkins on the brain!

I found this unique wreath idea from myhomeideas.com:



Isn't it awesome? The directions read:
Tiny grocery store pumpkins and pale, early-season nandina berries affix to a wire wreath frame for a lovely fall welcome. Not just for Halloween, these miniature gourds are meant to last -- extending your decor well into November.

We have two pumpkins sitting on our front porch and I think I'll set a date with the husband this weekend to carve them. I haven't done that in a while and I think it'd be fun! Martha has the best carving ideas of anyone...

Pumpkin Projector:


Cute little noses!


Such a great party idea:


My favorite.. but looks soo hard:


This is perfect for a family! Everyone can have their own..

I'm curious to see if we'll have trick or treat-ers in our new house!

Eddie Ross & Thanksgiving

Too early to talk about Thanksgiving? Maybe... but maybe not. One thing I've learned about this year... time flies. FAST. And this year I'm hosting and I'm so excited, but also I need to start planning NOW.

I was so excited to see a Thanksgiving set up by Eddie Ross in the newest Lonny (which is soooooo good by the way!).





No one does tablescapes better than Eddie Ross. I've also coveted some of his Thanksgiving tables from years past...

[ found here ]

[ found here ]

I can't wait to see what he has in store for us this year!

He inspired me to purchase a set of turned wood candlesticks for my Thanksgiving this year. I just got these from Etsy:



These candlesticks are the only thing I have so far... but first things first - I need to paint the dining room and reupholster the chairs!

Holiday Decor: Gothic Silent Night

I'm BACK! It's good to be back to regular blogging.. I missed this little (BIG) part of my daily life!

Last post I introduced to you one of my favorite ways of holiday decorating. Today is another favorite of mine - CANDLES! Like the previous suggestion, candles during the holiday is nothing new. But I love love love candlelight so any excuse to light up an entire room or house with them is a good excuse to me!

When you think about traditional Christmas candlelight, I'm sure something like this pops in your head:



Boring! [And on a side note, what is up with those candles??? they are all wrinkly. Weird.]

Anyway, this year I'm really loving deep dark blues with blacks. Dark black/blue rooms have been a favorite of many, so why not pull it into your holiday decor? I call this look "Gothic Silent Night"...



Like this look? Pick up black and navy candles at your local craft store. Cover the taper candles in navy blue glitter. You can get the black garland here and the snow covered branches here.

Holiday Decor: Baubles + Glass

Thanksgiving has come and gone (and was great!), and here we are in the Holiday season.

As we've been driving around (still on vacation), I've seen so many families out in their yards dressing their homes in pretty lights, wreaths and tinsle. I've seen some not so pretty decorations, too (blow up plastic).

It seems that this week is the week everyone puts out their decorations, so in honor of that I'm going to post my favorite Christmas decorations...

First up is the use of baulb collections as decoration. I just LOVE Christmas baubles and this was how I decided to (simply) decorate last year. Just pop them in glass containers, and done! It's not original, but very classic and simple. (I'm all about simple Holiday decorating).

The best is vintage baubles in vintage bowls.

My pink & red decorations last year

This year, my take on the baubles and glass decorating style is the use of gold ornaments + milk glass bowls.



Like what you see? You can bid on the vintage gold baubles here. If you can get some milkglass with the lace edge, thread gold ribbon through the holes to make your 'arrangement' extra pretty. You can get the curled milk glass piece here. The flat milk glass piece is being sold by one of my favorite bloggers, High Street Market, here.

Tidings of comfort and joy.... and lots of good food

Christmas was great this year, filled with small gifts and lots of great food. We went to Matt's parents house, who live an hour away. I came back home with some great gifts: Domino Mag subscription, Cooking Light subscription, pearl earrings and a KitchenAid Pasta Maker attachment (from my in-laws).

But the gifts weren't what was important - we laughed and ate lots of great food. We even called my family in Texas on Skype's video chat. It will definitely be a tradition from this year on; I had such a great time talking with my family 'face to face'. It was a Christmas to remember!

And on to the fun part - the pictures!


My awesome vintage dress - I just loved it, even if my brothers-in-law called it a tablecloth ;)


My "Please don't take my picture while I'm cooking" face


Scrabble is not my forte.


15 months of marriage and still going strong!


The aftermath of Christmas morning


It was pouring, and I LOVED it!


Matt's Nanny, she's a hoot!


And our adorable Charlotte, doing what she does best.