December 2017 Round-Up

24 days of Christmas Kindness

This was our second year of forgoing the traditional count down to Christmas and embracing what I have coined our "Acts of Kindness" advent calendar.  You can read all about how this came about in the post I wrote last year, and I am so happy to report that the second year went even better!  I still targeted the idea primarily at my oldest son (next year I hope to be able to fully include the little one) and he is actually sad that the month is almost over and he won't be getting his special notes from Santa any more.  This time I'm going to try harder to keep these acts going throughout the year and probably tie them into starting an allowance for him.

I've had a few moms mention to me that they'd like to try this idea with their kids so I'm thinking of maybe putting together some kind of kit next year that others could use.  I'm still brainstorming but hoping to have something to share around Halloween next year - fingers crossed.

Our Mini Basement Makeover

Every year we like to get the boys a bigger Christmas present, something sentimental or something that they can enjoy all year.  Two years ago we got them their outdoor playset, last year we got them some personal artwork, and this year we we did something slightly different and worked to make the basement a little more "friendly" and become a space they could go during the winter when they need to get out some extra energy.  Our basement is unfinished and although we have grand dreams of what the space will eventually look like, right now the unfinished-ness works in our favor as I use the space for painting, and the boys don't have to worry so much about getting things dirty.  That being said, the way it was set up really didn't make them want to spend much time down there, so we set about doing a few easy fixes to change that.  1)  We moved the couch and their toys closer to the staircase and created a small living space around a new outdoor rug from IKEA  2) I moved anything I didn't want them getting into onto higher shelves that I built our of scrap wood and our old kitchen cabinet  3)  We bought them a small TV so they can watch Netflix and movies (we bought this one on Black Friday)  4) We bought a small space heater (it's cool to the touch and has  an automatic shut off) that they can operate if they get cold.

While it's not pretty, and it's seldom clean, but it's a space that they can hang out, play, and feel a little independent from mom and dad.  It's been a lifesaver on these cold, dark nights and I think it'll work great on rainy spring/summer days too.

December Delivery....

For the last month I've been working on this handsome gentlemen and this morning he started his journey to his new home in Maryland.  This piece is a smaller version of the Barn Door Console table that I have in my living room but with beautiful Dark Walnut stained shelves to contrast the painted bronze frame.  I'm really happy with the way he turned out and digging the smaller size!  The barn door makes it perfect for a TV console where you would want to hide some of your not-so-attractive tech gear + cords.

If you want to check out some of my favorite projects be sure to visit my Custom Builds tab.

Christmas Living Room Tour

Only 16 days to go folks!  Our weekends are pretty much packed solid until the big day so I wanted to get done decorating early enough to actually be able to enjoy all the holiday feelings.  I mentioned before that I had done a big cleanse earlier in the season, and while I put out some of our usual decor in the rest of the house I tried to only add new stuff to the living room this year (you can check out the full living room reveal here)

Maybe it comes from the house I grew up in, but I like to feel like Christmas has exploded onto every surface (No minimalist approach for this girl!) But instead of just buying stuff I concentrated on adding handmade pieces wherever I could.  I already shared the mantel in an earlier post, so this week I wanted to quickly share the rest of the room.

The biggest addition was the village that now lives on the shelf above the TV.  I quite literally got bored one day and thought "hey, I've got tons of scrap wood in the garage - what can I do with it?" and started cutting out house shapes, building this village as I went.

 

The whole village is almost 10 feet long, so I attached a few pieces together at a time to make it easier to display and store.  Once sanded, I painted it all with white chalk paint.  I added some pine and holly branches from the trees outside, as well as a bunch of bottle brush trees from Target's Dollar Spot.  I may add some more colorful trees next year, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

On the other shelves I added in some more pine branches (the little white bells are from IKEA a few years ago), a faux white antler I found at Michaels, and made a hand-painted sign with this lovely quote I found on Pinterest.....oh and my husband is OBSESSED with Poinsettias so I've had to utilize every space I could to display them.

The tree got a little makeover this year too.  My husband insists that Christmas trees need colored lights (in trade I get to keep the outside lights all white) but to make it a little more cohesive I found lights that only had Red, Green, and Blue lights.  I had him mix in a strand of white lights, and picked up a few strands of white beaded garland from Target (which he correctly realized look like strands of popcorn) and presto - it looks great!

Last year the tree skirt and the Roomba had a contentious holiday season, so when I saw this galvanized metal tree collar from Hearth and Hand I grabbed it immediately and it's so much better.

On the bookcases behind the tree my husband had the great idea to set up some of his father's old train sets.  The boys of course love playing with them and I love that it's kind of a modern take of the "train around the tree" tradition.

One of the main reasons I built the picture ledges during the living room makeover was so that I could have a place to put our Santa Pictures from each year and I'm happy to say they're working out wonderfully.  Of course, I couldn't resist even more Bottle Brush trees, and I was able to sneak in our pixelated Reindeer from Ikea.

On either side of the fireplace I added two ornament shadow boxes based on these plans from Shanty-2-Chic and filled them with two pretty mercury glass ornaments from Home Goods and some more Pine branches.

Behind the couch I built one more ornament display stand to replace the planter box that is usually there (plans also from Shanty-2-Chic) and filled it with ornaments from Target (the stars and the Snowman are from this year's Wondershop; the balls are from last year).

And of course, I couldn't resist some new pillows and blankets for the couch!  The big light blue one and the red striped pillow I found at HomeGoods...I honestly am super cheap when it comes to pillows and HomeGoods is my go to place - they're a good price and almost all of them have removable covers and down-filled inserts.  I went a little crazy in the blanket department and bought 3 of the big cozy green blankets on Black Friday (in my defense they're 3 different colors and they were only $18 that day)....oh yeah, and I also got that little gray plaid one too (for only $10!)

Speaking of that big green blanket - I don't usually do this but I have to share one more thing.....this amazing little tool from ConAir!  Those blankets are amazingly comfy, but they leave lots of nasty little green fuzz on the couch - this little battery operated baby to the rescue!  I'll post a video of how it works on my Instagram, but I just lightly brush it over the couch and it sucks up all of the pilling.  It's only $12, can be used on all kinds of fabrics, and for some reason comes in 4 or 5 different colors - so it would make an awesome stocking stuffer!!

Even though Cash isn't feeling the holiday spirit, I sure am...now to cuddle under the blanket and enjoy the lights!