Christmas Ornament Wreath

I know that everyone and their mother has made an ornament wreath by now.

But that doesn't stop me from feeling inordinately proud of mine!
 

I managed to salvage a lot of what I did last year - the original wreath made it through the move pretty well.  So I removed the old ornaments and substituted some other unused ones, then strung them on my hanger.  Any empty spaces were filled by smaller ornaments which I hot glued in place.

Once the glue was dry, it was time to hang.  I knew exactly where I wanted it - right on the new dining room wall, in front of the mirror.

With the help of Rob, I looped a length of ribbon under the wire on the back of the mirror and draped both ends over the top.  I knotted the ribbon in front of the wreath and cut the ends evenly, leaving them to drape down the front of the wreath as if they were the ends of the bow.  I then used the rest of the ribbon to create a bow, which I hot glued to the knot.

And that was it! Okay, sounds easier than it was.  It took some time to get it to look right.  But I love the way it looks now!

What do you think? Have you made an ornament wreath (and if so, did you have a hard time with it at first the way I did with mine? Because I was cursing the idea when I first tried it!)?

And if you're all "What the heck?" because you've never heard of/seen a Christmas ornament wreath before, here's a link to Eddie Ross's blog, where he details the process much better than I could. 

One note, though: I notice that he has ornaments with great big metal loops at the top to string along the hanger.  I on the other hand use dollar store ornaments and the holes are much smaller.  The first time I tried making the wreath it killed me that I couldn't get the ornaments as close together as his, which is why I hot glue ornaments in the bare spots.  The cheapy tops don't allow you to get the ornaments too close together without breaking from the strain (I don't mean popping off, I mean breaking entirely).  So there's my two cents!

Side story: While snapping pics for the ol' blog, I said to Rob "Do you want to be in the picture?".  He said "No, I look terrible!".  I said "Then get out of the way, you're in the mirror".


Happy to share with...

Dining Room Remodel = FINISHED!

As much as I really, truly need to focus myself today and get this house decorated because I really don't feel like working on it all weekend (although I know it's going to be a work in progress as the season goes on)...

...I absolutely can't wait another minute to share our dining room renovation story with you all! It turned out so well and we're all so happy with it, I just have to show you some pictures of the process.

Here's a before picture.  I wish we had gotten a REAL before picture, prior to all the junk being cleared out of the room:

As you can see, it was just lovely, wasn't it? Complete with sponge paint and 30 year old brown carpet.  Delightful.  Prior to being all cleared out, this was an exercise room with treadmill, solo flex, rebounder and stationary bike and all the crap we couldn't fit anywhere else in the house.  What you can't see, because it's open, is the curtain in the doorway to the far right.  It was composed of gold vertical blinds which could be drawn across the doorway and closed, making a mirrored door.  It was...something.

While changing out the ceiling fan, it was discovered by our neighbor (who is much more well versed in such matters) that the wiring was completely wrong and against code.  Yay! Good to know 15 years after it was done! So...

...a hole was cut into the wall so he could fix it.  He was such a huge help throughout the process.

What girl doesn't love coming home from work and finding a hole in the wall? Not I!

Here I am, touching up some primer:

Then it came time to paint.  The paint was quite an adventure.  What looked beautiful and rich on the sample from the store went on the walls way, way too orangey.  At first I was okay with it (since red paint is so darn difficult to get evenly on the walls in the first place and I didn't want to have to paint it all over again), but then Rob admitted that he didn't like the color and I agreed.

So he went back to the store and bought another color.  THAT was too pink! With the lights on, it looked like a dark bubble gum.  Again, I was willing to stick with it and suck it up and be done with the entire process (we primed on Sunday afternoon and it was now Monday night and 5 coats into it), but my man was determined to get the right color up there.

The third time was the charm!

That's what we were going for! I just wanted to kiss the walls.

I'll spare you the gory details of the frustrations and surprises we went through.  It's just not worth rehashing here.  Let's just say that we learned that there's no such thing as a straight wall, a squared doorway or a 90 degree corner.  Oh, and that certain cashiers at the hardware store think it's funny to make a running joke of how frequently they see certain customers (I think the worst was 5 times in one day) - the first few times, it's funny.  After a week, not so much.

But the finished product was more than worth the effort, the mess and the random tools being left all over my kitchen counters.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention our beautiful furniture! That's what started the whole debacle - the fact that we ordered furniture last month and figured the room should be finished before it was delivered (it wasn't, by the way!).

Look not at the unironed drapes, and if you do see them, try not to judge me too harshly.  Look, instead, at the beautiful floor! The floor I wish I could have throughout the house.  I just loooove it!

 

The wedding wall, which coincidentally involves my favorite little trick of the whole room.  See those two bottom pictures? They're in shadow boxes.  The one on the right is an absolute stroke of genius on Rob's part...

Surprise! It hides the ugly thermostat! We keep it open when no one's in there (until Rob cuts out the top and bottom to actually let air circulate around it) and when we want to hide it, we close the box.  I just can't get over how clever he is.

So one more time, before...

And after...

 (Don't ask me what my father-in-law watches on his giant TV.  I have no idea.  It looks like there's a dead body involved.)

Another before...

And after...

I wish I could spend all my time in here, I really do.  I might have to start blogging from that table.  It's so pretty and relaxing in the dining room now.  And a much as I hated that room during the process (and oh, how I hated it - and I wasn't doing HALF the gruntwork), I am so thrilled with it now.

I feel that we remodeled a small dining room and managed to make it feel cozy and warm, not constrictive.  That was the goal!

One room down...

A Thanksgiving Menu

Oh, Thanksgiving.

That day of days for a food lover.  The flavors, the colors, the textures.  The utter excess.

For years, I ate dinner at my aunt's.  Every year my mom made the pies, and I'll never forget the mad rush to get out the door with all the pies in one piece.  "Who's go the pumpkin? Where's the apple? Here, carry the whipped cream!"  And then there was the dinner itself, prefaced by the rush of my aunt's kitchen and finished with the men getting together to wash the dishes while the women folk gathered in the living room to...digest, or something.

After 26 years of this, it was understandable that I went through a bit of an adjustment period after I met Rob and we negotiated over Thanksgiving and where we'd be spending it.  The result was that we spent several years at HIS aunt's house.  His argument: He very rarely saw his extended family throughout the year, usually just on Labor Day and Thanksgiving and for a while on Christmas morning, and didn't often get to see his father in light of his busy work and travel schedule.  I couldn't argue with that since I see my extended family throughout the year and my immediate family even more than that.

This year, though, everything's different.  He HAS seen his family this year, probably more than the rest of his life combined, and we live with his father.  Add to that the fact that my aunt and her family are going to Disney World the day after Thanksgiving and therefore aren't hosting the big meal.  Well, I couldn't let my poor parents and sibs have nowhere to go on the big day! The horror!

So here we are, less than a week out, with an almost-finished dining room (pics to come) and a ton of food in the fridge.  Including a 20 pound turkey.  Yes.  I said it.  20 pounds for 8 people.


Because someone is a huge fan of turkey and Miracle Whip sandwiches on Black Friday.  And he has turned me into a convert.  So 20 pounds is necessary.

So what's my menu look like, you ask? I'll tell you:

Herb Butter Roasted Turkey and Gravy
Sausage Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potato Casserole (I plan to write up a Part Deux for that post)
Green Bean Casserole
Spinach Gratin
Corn...plan old corn
Sweet Dinner Rolls
Cornbread Pudding
Peach Cobbler

My mom is bringing pies as always, and last I heard from my sister, she wanted to make Red Velvet Cupcakes. 

I also want to come up with a couple of appetizers to put out but haven't arrived at any conclusions yet.  Do you have any ideas?


And while we're at it, what's on YOUR Thanksgiving menu?

Prettying Up for Easter

Hello friends!

In case you didn't know, tomorrow is Easter.  Yeah, yeah, I know you knew that.

Well here's something I didn't know until very recently: My husband is quite the little landscaper!

And her I was, thinking that I'd be the one to be fretting over bulbs and mulch and which plants would do well with our virtually sunless front yard.  But no!

See, we wanted to pretty up for Easter.  The front looked terribly blah and empty - there's three bushes which were pretty much wrecked by our lovely, lovely winter weather.

I've been told that they used to be quite full and beautiful.  Not so much nowadays.  We've decided to keep them in the ground this year to see if they bounce back after we reshaped them, but in the meantime...

...we planted two of the little bushes you see above, plus violas and primula...

...two bunches of these pretty red tulips, plus two bunches of purple...

Then the ice cream man came up the street.  Breaks are important, right?

Rob put in edging and mulch, and it wound up looking much nicer!

I also potted ten hyacinth bulbs which I purchased on Thursday night.  To me, hyacinth just screams "Easter".

I thought that they would be a cheerful and pretty greeting for visitors tomorrow.

Small steps, yes.  But I feel like we've already come a long way!

I hope that everyone has a happy and blessed Easter!

OH! I almost forgot!


Please join me on Monday over at Our Krazy Kitchen, where I'll be sharing a recipe on Save Room For Dessert Monday! It's a fabulous site full of talented and tempting bloggers, where you'll find tons of crazy good recipes.  Check it out!

Company Girl Coffee: Backyard Beautification

Hello, Company Girls and other blogging friends!

This week seems to have flown right on by, at least to me!

One of my favorite projects this week involved working out in the yard.  The warmer temps have had us itching to get outside! We already knew that we wanted to buy a grill for out back and some patio furniture, but there was one glaring problem:

The nasty, nasty condition of the patio.

It's clear to me that RD spent very little, if any, time in the backyard prior to our moving in.  I'm talking about years and years worth of mud dried onto the concrete, along with pine needles and old leaves.  Clearly as part of our Backyard Beautification Project, something needed to be done about this!

So the neighbors across the street were kind enough to lend us their pressure washer! Of course they've been kind enough to do many, many other things - they're truly the nicest people I've ever met.  Constantly giving.

There's a "before" picture.  See how grimy it looked! And there's Rob in the beginning stages of the work.

See the difference? It's amazing!

Icky.

Anyway, it was soon determined (by me) that I had way more patience for this task than Rob did, so I offered to take over while he used a scrub brush on a long stick to make the job a little easier.  But it really wasn't necessary - it would just have to be a long job.  So he went into the garage to put together the patio furniture while I veeeeeeeery slowly washed the patio.  Veeeeeeeery slooooooowly.

By the way, and this is just a friendly public service message: If ever you find yourself barefoot and pressure washing a patio, KEEP THE SPRAY OF WATER AWAY FROM YOUR FEET!

It might hurt.  A little.

End of message.

Anyway, here's how it looked after!

It looks like an actual patio again! I cannot express the pride we both felt at the sight of our clean concrete.

I also cannot adequately express the spaghetti arms I had afterward.  I felt like I'd been lifting weights for two hours.  But it was worth it!

So on Wednesday, to celebrate and let's face it, because he was too eager to wait any longer, Rob grilled some burgers for dinner.

He also got a little saucy and cooked bacon on the side burner.  Show-off.

In case you didn't know already, frying bacon smells good.  I wish I had Smell-o-Vision to share it with you.

In honor of the first day of spring, we'll be having my family over on Saturday for burgers and hot dogs.  We're really looking forward to it! Rob's so happy to be playing host for once.  And as I've stated previously, he'd been just about ready to explode from grilling desire.  Now he can grill to his heart's content!

I hope everyone had a good week and wish everyone a fantastic weekend!

PS - When the patio was finished Rob said, "You only did this yourself so you can blog about it".  And I laughed because I had been planning to post on it anyway, regardless of who actually did the work.  And then he said in this whiny voice, "Myyyyy husband is sooooo laaaaaazy! I had to do it aaaaaall by myyyyyyself!".  That was the best laugh I had all day!

But now that I'm thinking about it...maybe he's right...   ;-)