Little Ranch for the holidays

I absolutely love the Holiday season, and decorating the house for Christmas is something that I look forward to every year. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting my favorite Christmas decor pictures from my home.

This is our kitchen tree. It's a little rustic looking, and a perfect fit by the back door. It's a German twig tree that my mom found a few years ago at HomeGoods after Christmas for an incredibly cheap $15!


The stockings were hung...

I love a tree with tons of white lights. Ours came pre-lit, and it has a combination of clear and frosted lights. It glows beautifully.

Shameless plug

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Apples & Pumpkins

I finally got my perfectly crisp fall day this past weekend, and it was well worth the wait. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Fall is here!

But you'd never know it. Here in NH, the temperature will climb to almost 90 degrees with high humidity. HUH???? It's the end of September and how the heck am I supposed to get into the spirit of all things fall with this heat?
I want to go buy mums and pumpkins in the worst way, but the mood has to be right, and it's so much better on those apple picking and hayriding excursions when there's some leaf-crunching going on under foot.

Fortunately, it's not supposed to last more than a couple days, and by my birthday (on the 29th, people!!! wooo! 29 - AGAIN!) maybe it will feel more like the season it's supposed to be, instead of the season that seems to be dragging on in an endless loop!

I am looking forward to lighting a nice little fire in my newly revamped fireplace . I love that cozy, relaxed feeling of sitting by a warming fire. It defines "home" for me. Not to mention it's a nice way to keep our oil bill on the down low.
For anything you ever wanted to know about alternative home heating, follow this link to read up and compare a ton of options. Even if you're in the middle of a heat wave like me, it's never too early to prepare for colder days ahead.

P.S.
As you might have noticed, I entered Remodeling My Space's "Remodel, Blog & Win contest. If you like my style, it would be great if you'd take a minute to drop a vote for me. (just click on that button in the upper right hand corner) Make sure you check out my older posts to see what we've done up to this point.

90% Done

I patched...
I sanded...
I primed and painted...
And here it is so far!

This little room has taken up so much of our time, but the end is finally in sight! The last 10% on the to do list is finishing touches. Curtains, pictures on the walls...er...closet doors. Maybe it should be more like 80% done.

Everything came from IKEA, and these magazine organizers are my favorite thing in the whole room. It manages my huge addiction to Real Simple. I love how neat and orderly everything looks now.
Speaking of IKEA, we had such a good experience shopping there. It was an all-day event, but we ended up getting exactly what we needed for this room. Even putting everything together wasn't as painful as we had anticipated.

Soon it will be 100% done, and then it's on to finish my sad looking bedroom. (after a well-deserved break!)

DEMO!!!

I love demolition. It's fun, and it means that there's a BIG change coming.

Yesterday, I tore part the ancient built-ins in the office. The previous owners had them installed in the early 80's as sewing room furniture. They weren't worth keeping, as they were not made with the best materials in the first place, and they were pulling away from the walls. The pieces were built on site, and consited of large, deep shelves on one end, a laminate run of countertop in the center that was entirely to low, with shallow drawers. On the other end was a tall closet that was used for various sewing projects and ironing.

I got to work bright and early in the morning, and even that early it was exceptionally hot and muggy, but there was no turning back- when the inspiration hits, I have to do it all the way!

Tearing out the old stuff was harder than I thought. Even though it appeared to be falling down on its own, it was was all held together pretty well.

I sawed:
I pulled:
I found these fabulous 70's artifacts: After about 300 trips up and down the cellar stairs, and out to the garage with all the debris, the room is clear, and looks huge!
I have a few ideas about what this room will look like. It will still be an office, but it needs to do double duty as a guest room, so we may do a daybed, or window seat/bed thing. I am having enough trouble deciding on colors roght now, buit I will try to sketch out a few things and see what works.
That's it for now, I will post pictures as we go!

Blank Wall No More

A couple years ago, I tried my hand at this faux finish in the dining room (translate= eat-in kitchen). It was so simple to do (just dunk an old t-shirt into some glaze and slop and swirl it on!) and added a ton of texture and visual interest. Unfortunately, the large expanse of wall remained blank for the better part of 2 years. I was at a loss as to how to fill the space. Later, we would like to add on and add windows, but I wanted a more affordable fix for now.
One day, I was at The Christmas Tree Shop and found these 2 ledges. $9 bucks each! I have to say, it was tough hanging them, and my husband and I were furiously flinging drywall anchors at each other (jokingly) by the end of it. I hate keyhole mounts! gaarh!!! We have too many chairs! lol , but the wall is no longer a boring stretch of nothingness. I would like to shop for more interesting doo-dads for the shelves (bigger things would look better up there) but for now, a few favorite things will do.
I had to mention this red piece of furniture. This was the center part of a small entertainment unit that my Aunt had built years ago. It had bookcases on either side, which she kept, but gave this to me when she moved into her new apartment. It spent a while in our office as a tv / printer stand, until I moved it in here to hold my cookbooks and table linens. That Grape-Nuts picture on the wall is an old grape-drying rack. That hung in my childhood home until my mother gave it to me for my first home, almost 10 years ago, and I love it. My friend Kelley threatens to smuggle it home every time she's here! LOL