i o u

so for the sake of accountability i'm stating this now, with the plan of accomplishing it over my upcoming Christmas break. because who doesn't love a good checklist, especially the kind where you write down two things at the top that you've already done just so you can start by checking something off.

i am feeling quite delinquent in my posting of certain rooms of the house. there. i said it. DELINQUENT.

it's been on my mind for months now to do a tour of....

+ the upstairs/guest bathroom
[perhaps more adequately named the KID's bath from here on out?! ....yikes]

+ the office

+ the guest room

+ the master suite closet

+ the upstairs hallway
[ok i know you're jumping up and down over this last one, panting, sweating, shrieking with excitement. but really, there are a couple things up there i'd like to chat about]

+ the master bedroom

not all of these rooms are 'finished'. in fact in the case of our bedroom, it is so far from finished that i figure maybe writing about it on the world wide web will provide just the guilt-trip i need to get going on it.... but they at least deserve a mention, honorable or not. especially for those that are under the ever-so-misguided impression that every room of my house is perfectly composed and complete at this point in time. i assure you....not the case.

so then. i leave you with this little morsel. because i can hear you salivating, and its weirding me out.

christmas decorations: part deux

PREFACE: zero dollars were spent in the making of this post and its contents. you heard me. i spent $0, zip, nada this year on christmas decor. score!

+ + +

so i just couldn't feel complete without doing a little tour of the rest of the main floor. because after i finished decorating this weekend i kept singing 'whoa, oh, ohhhhh, its MAGIC!!' and dancing around on my tip toes with excitement.

let's start with the teaser i gave you in my christmas tree post: the kitchen table display. a touch of pretty plumage plus some jewel toned ornaments and aged-silver stars. ahhhh.


the feathers + ornaments i've had several years now and the tray i repurposed into a christmas item. well c'mon, with its shiny mirrored bottom the festiveness is built right in!

call it my love for accessories and bold earrings but i've always had a fondness for doing double-duty ornaments on french doors.

on the foyer closet knobs: birds of a different feather, flocking together

and on the kitty-corner office knobs, these guys came ready to party. grass green, lime green and apple green square sequins. and totally snagged 'em on clearance a few years ago. either hobby lobby or marshalls....my memory fails me.

swinging around to the right of the front door, stands a completely different kind of christmas tree. i ran into this fellow while going for a walk through our neighborhood, which butts up against a bit of wooded wildland.

kevin thought i was crazy hauling this skinny but cumbersome twig back up to our house, but i'd already fallen for its sexy striations. and plucking it from the gorge meant no swipe of the ole plastic.


add a few gilded twine balls and we've got a party. nntss nntss! oooh oooh!

but where oh where is that smattering of disco ball sparkle coming from, splayed across the french foyer doors? here's a better shot, sans feather ornaments:


why from this quintet of silver trees! the two taller ones i snagged off a cluttered shelf at tj maxx, and the more blingy three of the set were a day-after-Christmas target snag. just check out the gleam off that chair! major swoon.

thanks to the lovely front window, pretty well every nearby wall gets touched with some of that tree lovin'. have i been known to kick up my heels and dance around the dining room, showered in sparkles? maybe.


you can see the star trek-esque effect close up here....check those light beams shooting out across la table!

on the back console table i've got just a random gathering of silver items dug from our christmas decor boxes. some silver tinsel back from the days we were gathering decos for our wedding, and silver candles my mom in law gave me a few years ago from pottery barn. and the vases were about $4 each, marked down at pier one. their angular yet circular shapes had me at hello.

as for stockings....yes i finally got stockings!

you see i've been stalking [he he ho ho!] some from west elm for quite a while now....

....that are currently on sale for those who may be similarly stoked about them....and i was pretty happy to find these diamond-white ones in canada that i think have a comparable look and i actually love the crisp white in my overall scheme.

i just wasn't loving the expected placement of stockings on the fireplace so instead i opted to dress up this little bit o' banister. it was feeling a little lonely prior to picking up the fab four.

i stuffed 'em w/ a bit of newspaper that was on hand [used to pack away delicate ornaments] and they instantly gained some life. feeling sorry for us, with our newspaper packed stockings? well we haven't been THAT bad....we just don't like to pilfer away our cash on lots of itty-bitty things when we've got bigger fish to fry these days.

and how did i get those oversized socks strung up there? well in my random bin of collected Christmas goodies i had a piece of tulle that i'd previously used in a few different ways. i first tried using mostly-invisible twist ties wrapped around the top of each baluster. to no avail....they were larger than i'd thought.

so i started snip-snip-snipping that tulle and next thing i knew, a little ballerina tuft held up each stocking and there was enough remnant to split four ways and subtly pretty up the tops.

last but not least. the living room. i didn't go too nuts here, since i didn't think competing with the tv would be a good idea. instead i placed some glistening branches and beaded ivory balls and called it good. oh, and i threw in a few more of those peacock feathers just to tie everything together.

and a little bit of fool's gold tossed in....

amidst some other sparkle & shine, and....

it's a wonderful thing.

if a tree falls in the sunroom at 5am, does anyone hear it?

answer: yes. but i'll get to that shortly.

it all started last weekend with our kickoff to christmas '09....hunting down the perfect tree. preferably, in a field somewhere with a healthy dose of snow and some crispy winter air. and lots of triangular-shaped beauties to choose from.

after the prerequisite google search [hey, give us a break, we're still new to the area] we moved on to greener pastures....craigslist of course. and lo + behold, we found a local father-son run tree farm right about 8 minutes from our house.

one scenic drive + a frosty traipse through the field and there she was!

thats me, the bump [all zipped in + hidden well!], and our tree. ignore the snaggletooth bottom portion of the tree, we took care of that with our handy saw.

that is, until it broke. then we borrowed one from the gentlemen running the farm and we were back in business.

oh yeah. these things always look bigger once you realize they're going in your house....and in your car. except, some of us like to go griswold-style and just strap the whole thing needles + all to the top of our ride. suuuper klassy. [yes. with a k]
worked like a charm!

so anywho, we got 'er all chiseled down + ready to prop up in the stand....moved on to decorating + lighting....headed to bed pleased as punch with our accomplishments of the day.

until about 5:03am, when we awoke to the sound of shattering glass and tinkling ornaments. ruh rohhh....amazingly the amount of blood shed was rather limited. a couple broken ornaments and, oh right, this guy.

one of a pair of vases i'd bought for our wedding day, to hold flower arrangements. so i guess i figured out what the five year anniversary gift is. broken glass! [ha ha....ha.] really though, no biggie.

since they were partially tucked behind a rocker in the sunroom, preparing to be stuffed with something festive and seasonal, only one broke and more importantly we've now screwed in the trunk of the tree [how are you supposed to remember these minute details, after two years since you've rigged one of these pups up?]

after all that excitement we did get everything ship-shape in the end. oh, tannenbaum!

you're probably shocked to hear this, but i'm not big into red. so the whole red-green christmas package just doesn't get signed for at my door. i prefer to go the way of the bird when i celebrate christmas. peacock plumes that is, as well as a punchy dose of appley green + teal ornaments finished with silvery metallics.


and its kinda purty at night, too. you know our dutch selves love the free reflection of the lights in all the windows. talk about bang for your buck! depending on where you're sitting in the room you can see four or five sets of sparkles at once.

and that's the end of this christmas tree tale. check back for shots of the rest of our '09 christmas decor!

a word about orange

i read a fun tidbit a few days on a great blog called young house love [some people have actually drawn comparisons between that blogging couple and kevin/myself....and eerily enough, we're both pregnant now + due in the spring]

its an excerpt from feathering the nest by tracey hutson, of extreme home makeover: home edition fame. she talks about the use of color in nurseries in terms of impact on the child....ie: whether it be through stimulating the senses or evoking a sense of calm and peace. here's the rundown on l'ohrange.


orange

+ cheerful, bold, daring, spontaneous
+ creates a sense of adventure
+ encourages confidence and independence
+ takes creativity and enthusiasm to new levels
+ stimulates the lungs, respiration, and digestion
+ reputed to increase milk production in new mothers and boost the appetite
+ may elevate IQ as much as twelve points


independent? increased IQ? i'll take it! i feel like a better mom already.


on that note, let's look at an oh-so-orange nursery off ohdeedoh that i just came across.

ok so far. loving the mod mobile + mural. loving the orange ikea lamp in the background.

and LOVING the babymod olivia crib + dresser.

[yes, its both creepy and exciting to me how some people's thoughts are so similar to mine!]


LOVE THE CHILD SIZED ORANGE S-CHAIR. uggh. i wish.

great quirky details.

alpha + animal love.

all in all, a fabulous tot's room. so many aspects after my own heart. and the crib really pops off the orange wall! this child is sure to end up a genius. or an artist. or both!