2010 Holiday tour, part 1

Thought I would start with the decorations in the bedrooms. There isn't a lot in the bedrooms but here we go.


This is in the master bedroom. I picked up this little wire tree a couple of years ago. I used it on the dining room table until we moved here and I put it in our room last year. This year I used blue, pink and silver ornaments on it. (and didn't notice until last night that the bow is white w/gold but I've already packed away the ribbon!)


I hung these little stocking ornaments on the shelf above the bed. The little blue shirt was hubby's, the white one was mine and the cap and booties were made by my great-grandmother for my oldest son. That's it for the master bedroom this year - now lets go upstairs to the guest rooms. :)


This little white tree usually sits in my sewing room/office but I didn't have a tree for this room so I'm using it in the 'twin room' (we call it that because it has twin beds - the other guest room is the r/w/b room) this year. It is on a bookcase between the beds. The glass nativity and candle holder are from years past also. (the candle holder has poinsettias etched in the glass)




I stitched the pillows on the beds a couple of years ago too.


The red, white and blue guest room. This room has a little more in it because I had decorated the one guest room we had at the old house with most of this stuff.


I've always wanted a feather tree, but I don't want to shell out the bucks for it. I found this tree at HL for ten bucks (it was half off) and figured it would at least give me the look on the cheap! I already had the glass ornaments and I used left over fabric from the valance to wrap around the bottom of the tree.


I've had the Santa on top for several years - I just loved him - I bought him before I even had a r/w/b room!


Again - nothing new on this table. I think next year I may try to make some kind of table cover for this little table though.

Well - that's it for the bedrooms. (since I use the 4th bedroom for a sewing room/office - and trust me you don't want to see this room right now!)

More trees tomorrow!

Detours, distractions and other stuff

Well, just in case you wondered - all those boxes of holiday decor are still out! Hubby had to be in J'ville for a couple of days and instead of staying here and getting all the decorating done, I went with him. (only time I get to see my parents so. . .)

This is what is keeping Daddy busy these days

Looks like quite a project, huh?


It'll be great when he is finished though!

We got back late Friday night and again, instead of spending Saturday working on decorating - we went to Galveston. It was 'Dickens on the Strand' weekend and the weather was nice so off we went. Got there just in time to see a parade!

Would you attempt to ride one of those?


Alpacas


Fire Brigade








There were some interesting entries in the parade!

After the parade we walked around - thought I might find a Christmas gift or two, but I didn't buy one thing.

There were plenty of street performers





And Captain Jack?

Sunday we went out and did a little (and I mean very little) Christmas shopping. I've been trying to get the holiday decor finished so I can get all these boxes put away and finish my Christmas shopping. (which is why I haven't posted - I should be decking the halls right now, but I took a lunch break!) I've had (tree) light issues which has taken a big chunk of my time but I think I'm on my way now. I can see light at the end of the tunnel - I just hope it isn't a train!

Okay - I better get back to it. I hope to have some decor pics to post tomorrow!

Since the ladder was out anyway. . .

While the guys were out putting up Christmas lights they also replaced two of these on the front porch

The other one had already been removed before I took the picture.


We replaced the 'builder specials' with these (it does hang straight - it was windy!)


So much better!

Back to holiday stuff.

So where do you store all your holiday decor?
The biggest part of mine goes in here.

I have one word for ya - claustrophobia. Our old attic had a regular door and I could walk right in, look through the boxes and decide if I wanted to haul them down. I have to wait for hubby to drag boxes out of here so instead of getting a few at a time they all come out at one once.

Now for some reality pics -

This is the current state of the game room. There are a few more boxes over to the right of these. I won't use everything out of these boxes but since I don't know what is in which box, they all have to come out so I can see what I have and decide what I want to use. (even thought I tried really hard to label them last year before they went in the attic)

That's not all folks.


This chest is full of holiday decor too! (the dog 'tent' isn't usually there - I had to move it to put the tree up and I haven't found it a new temporary home yet)

I should have taken more pictures (but these are scary enough!) - you can't see what is behind me in this picture - or the three totes that have already been emptied and returned to the guest room closet or the under-bed box under the guest bed.

Once I get some of this cleared out, I'll post some prettier pictures! I'm peddling as fast as I can!

Lighting up

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! Hubby took a couple of days off so he had a long weekend so he could spend some time with the boys while they were here and get some things done around the house - like getting the outside lights up!

He started Wednesday afternoon - notice the cloudy sky. It might have looked cold, but trust me, it wasn't! I was out helping (put hooks on the lights - I'm not going up that ladder!) and I'm still scratching skeeter bites. Apparently the skeeters don't know it is November.

Thursday morning the 'menfolk' got outside to finish up the lights while I was in the kitchen cooking.

Last year we used the lights we had been using at the old house. We had been using them for quite a while and some of them were getting to the point they didn't work well so we decided that this year we would get all new lights and switch to LED - which is fine but since I'm an all white light kinda girl and I have learned from experience that the all white ones are the first to go, so when they first started putting out lights we went shopping (looked at my receipt - Oct. 9) We looked at several places hunting for the best price.


Some brands only had one 'white' while others had three. I really prefer the look of the warm white, but we ended up getting the cool white. I'm not totally happy with it, but they are up and we aren't changing them. You can see the difference between the ones on the house and the ones inside and on the porch. (the dining room light is not on - that is the glow from the two trees in front of the windows - at least you can't see that they aren't decorated or that the lights on the bottom half of the tree on the right aren't working).


Maybe it is okay that the ones on the house are different - they do look more like 'ice' than the warm white ones do.

You can't see the Santa in the flowerbed at night - maybe he needs a spotlight?

I'm working on the inside this week- I think it is going to take awhile!

The boys are back in town

Well, not yet, but they are coming! My two 'Texas boys' will be here for a few days. Baby boy and his bride aren't able to come from New York and we will miss them. (We sent them a turkey from Texas so they could have a little 'home' for the holidays.

Here are a few shots from around the house.








I'm off to take a cake out of the oven and put a pecan pie in to bake

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Chance of rain - 30%

Really?

Right after I took this, it really started pouring!

Does this look fallish to you? Maybe a little - but then you have to figure in the temp which is 75 degrees at 10:00am! Not so fallish, huh? (Obviously we have not done any landscaping in the back yard)

I think a nice fallish candle is in order while I clean. (baking will take place tomorrow!)

Just FYI - spell check doesn't know 'fallish'.

Have a great Tuesday!

Up on the roof-top

Hubby got out this weekend and gave the outside of the house a little 'spit shine' with the pressure washer.


one of those jobs that you can't really appreciate unless you see it before or in progress - nothing like watching all that dirt wash away (like cleaning inside - no one notices when you do it, but they sure notice if you haven't)


Now she is all ready for Christmas lights to go up -hopefully this weekend, depending on the weather - it is supposed to turn cold - it is in the 80's right now but we have a freeze warning for Saturday morning. That's Texas weather for ya. I've noticed some houses in the neighborhood have already put the lights up - they haven't turned them on, but they put them up while the weather was good. Oh well - as long as it isn't raining they will go up. (although I think it was raining and snowing when they went up last year!)
I'll 'spit shine' the inside a little today and tomorrow, then give it a good cleaning while I'm putting out Christmas decor next week.

Hope you are having a great week!