The most wonderful time of the year

I love this time of year! We live in Arizona so it is sometimes difficult to really capture that winter/ Christmas feeling, where we live there is definitely no chance of a white Christmas, it is still in the 70s today and supposed to hang right around there on Christmas too. I've done snow before and I can honestly say I do not miss it, I just don't like to be cold. Or shovel snow. Or scrape ice off my windshield. Or slip and almost die because I'm wearing flip flops even though it is snowing because I refuse to wear boots anymore because it is March and it should be sunny! Upstate NY and I did not see eye to eye on this.

White Christmas or not, I love holiday decorations! I'm really happy with how our tree turned out this year, I decided to go a little more  rustic and maybe more traditional to match the wreath I made for our front door. We usually go blue and silver but I decided to embrace the red this year, B really isn't a huge red fan and it is my favorite, but I decided to spare him by doing anything permanent like a red wall or something, when we started decorating the house. So he can give me Christmas, compromise is good. Unfortunately, we didn't really own red decorations, so I did some shopping. Definitely not the best quality pic, but it was from my phone when I was shopping. I didn't end up keeping the burlap bow and made my own instead, and I also picked up a lot more of the little berry and etc picks to stick throughout the tree. 
I love how the bow turned out! I roughly followed this tutorial here, it was super easy! I wish I had added some other sort of ribbon wrapped around the tree or had some garland to wrap between the layers of ribbon but it is on my list for next year. The red ribbon is a really pretty red and tan plaid with snowflakes printed on it that I found at Michaels. I also only had 1.5" ribbon on hand, something larger might've been better but we only have a 6' tree so I think it worked out ok. I wanted to add some giant ornaments against the "trunk" of the tree to add some depth but I decided to pass on those this year as well, I might try to find some after Christmas though. Instead I used these giant clip on poinsettias deep in the tree. It helps to cover up some of the bigger gaps, which I like and I wish I had grabbed a few more. I also really like the extra pop of color and how they look against the green of the tree and the ribbons.

So this is our tree this year! I love all of my gingerbread cookie ornaments, I've had them for years and never really had a chance to use them but they worked perfectly this year. I added a little extra detail to the tree with some super cheap floral picks, I was able to cut off the individual sections with some wire cutters and place them throughout the tree. They really helped to fill in some of those bigger gaps as well. For a tree skirt this year all I did was wrap some scrap burlap around the base of the tree. I think it pulls everything together nicely and I already had it, so free is nice as well!

 More projects around the house to come soon!

Holiday Party!

Yesterday was B's company holiday party. He works for GoDaddy and every year they rent out Chase Field and throw a truly spectacular event, this year was no exception. B and I had a blast, my hair actually stayed curled this year (that is a huge success by the way!), performers were awesome, and it was just an awesome excuse to get dressed up.

I am so not a girly girl, I'm actually really terrible at typical "girl" stuff but occasionally it is fun to have a girly night and get all dolled up. I don't have many excuses to get dressed up but I am totally digging on this site Rent the Runway. If you follow that link you should get a $20 rental credit after your first rental. The site is amazing! You are able to rent designer dresses for just a few days and pay a fraction of the price. I wish I had known about this back when I was doing the whole prom thing... I have not worn any of those dresses again and I probably spent thousands over the years between 3 proms, 4 homecomings and a couple others in between. They have reviews on the dresses from real girls that have actually worn them, plus you get a free second size just to make sure you get a perfect fit! I seriously love RTR, I've used them a few times now and will absolutely be doing it again.

Baby sis graduates tomorrow! So happy for her! And we now have 3 ASU grads in the family, since that is also where my dad got his MBA from and I graduated from a few years ago. Time is flying!

I have so much work to do on that furniture set but just a little update.... it is looking SO much better so far. Pictures to follow soon!

Who says Friday the 13th is unlucky?

I am definitely not in that category after today! And I am seriously loving craigslist lately! In the last month I have scored 2 totally sweet finds via CL. I got the trestle legs for my desk back in November and then we just found an awesome oak 4 piece bedroom set for $150! They need to be refinished, they are that awful honey oak color that I seriously cannot stand and would definitely clash with the gray and silver and pale blues we have going in our master, but the potential is there!

We have been desperately in need of a bedroom set but I've been struggling (since May) to find one that will work for us but won't cost thousands of dollars. The main issue I had been struggling with was the nightstands, they needed to be at least 25" wide.... much more difficult to find than you might expect. Why do they need to be so wide? I found these amazing mirrors on clearance somewhere months and months ago, and I really want to hang 2 above each nightstand windowpane style. The mirror are about 12" across, and I don't want the mirrors wider than the table, hence the super long search for the perfect bedside table.


I think we really lucked into this one. I would've been happy spending $150 for the 2 nightstands alone but now we also get a 9 drawer dresser and a highboy. That isn't really a piece that we need necessarily, but we have room for it in our closet so it'll get put to use. Right now the plan is to paint them black, I'm thinking satin/ eggshell finish for the paint, and then I'd also like to replace the hardware but I'm not 100% sure on that. I love the different styles of knobs on the furniture, I think it gives it a really unique style. I haven't decided yet how I want to handle the gold trim details on some of the doors and drawers. Gold isn't really our decorating style so I'm leaning towards covering it up somehow, either painting it black like the rest of the set will be, or some sort of silver or metallic look. Not the top priority at this point though. I am actually on my way to the store now to pick up supplies, although I don't know if I'll be able to get started this weekend. Tomorrow is B's company holiday party, Sunday we have his softball championship games (4 hours of softball... yikes!), and then my little sister graduates on Monday! Busy busy busy. I am super excited to get this underway though!

Thankful!

Did you have a good Thanksgiving? It has seriously thrown me for a loop having Thanksgiving so late in November. It was a busy month!

My best friend was in town for about a week. I hadn't seen him in almost a year! About this time last year he was living in Wyoming and came home for a couple weeks with his girlfriend before leaving for their 3 month bike tour of New Zealand. He was back in town for all of 3 days before heading back to Wyoming to help out at the lodge his parents bought. (I haven't had a chance to visit yet, but it looks beautiful and his family is seriously the greatest ever.)  While up there over the summer he got engaged (yay!) and found a job working for a paper... back in Wyoming. This is too funny because he and the gf were dying to get out of Wyoming, and they just can't seem to do it. Long story short, I've missed him like crazy and it was so SO good to finally catch up!

It was also my mom's 50th birthday and my sister's birthday last week. We had an amazing steakhouse dinner to celebrate. I feel silly to admit this, but I ordered the sea bass, at an incredible steakhouse... I know, I know. But it pretty much melted in my mouth it was so good. I've never been so uncomfortable full in my life. I made the mistake of betting my dad that I could finish the butter cake by myself. After a full meal. With a name like butter cake I probably should've known what I was getting myself into. I am embarrassed proud to say that I made it, somewhat painfully, through. Delicious but so rich and filling. I have the ultimate sweet tooth and that definitely did it for me.

Thanksgiving was a pretty quiet affair. B and I went over to my parents' for dinner with the fam. Usually we bring our fur baby but with the addition of Lux, and my family adopting another rottie, we wanted to make sure we could have puppy introductions before putting them all in the house together for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, we had some seriously crazy rain the last couple of weeks and all of the parks have been kinda flooded, neutral ground probably being best for first time intros. So hopefully we can fit something in with Christmas just around the corner so that the whole family can be included.

We didn't do any black Friday shopping this year. Well, technically I guess that isn't true. Kohl's had sheets on sale so B and I bought 2 new sets. I decided I didn't want to stand outside in the cold or wait in line for 2 hours this year, nothing that we need enough to make it worthwhile. And everything is online now! We finally brought my mom up to speed with the modern world and convinced her to order all of the dvds she wanted online, with free shipping, instead of going to Target/ Best Buy at midnight. Seriously.... why doesn't everyone do this?!

Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Office Inspiration

So, the next room on my list to work on is my office. I have put it off for a LONG time. That room has essentially been a dumping ground for all of the stuff we don't have a place for/ don't know what to do with. Needless to say, it is a disaster, when we have people over we sort of just shut the door and hide the mess. I'm ready for my own space though, I've sort of taken over the dining room table for my laptop and craft projects and now that is sort of a disaster too. Are you seeing a theme here?

If you follow me at all on Pinterest, I have a board just to inspire me to put together the amazing office/ craft space that I want. My very favorite room is from the blog A Bowl Full of Lemons. I love everything about this space.
The shelves above the desk, the pretty organization, that it is both functional AND beautiful. And that pretty much everything is from Ikea. I know Ikea can be very polarizing, personally I love the store but I know many others that feel differently. I worked there for 3 years though, so I may be biased.

This is sort of the look that I am going for in my own office space. I have a good amount of room to work with, honestly the space could perfectly function as a bedroom, not some tiny room that we're just repurposing as an office. I just scored these Finnvard trestle legs off craigslist for $20 for the set! They're $30 a piece at Ikea, which isn't bad but I'm trying to stay somewhat on budget. (I don't really have a budget, just an imaginary number in my head that I really don't want to go over. We'll see what that number is when I get there!) The table top I want to go with it is 59"x30" and $36. That's not bad but I'm still looking at other options too, like buying some wood planks to screw together and stain. B rolls his eyes every time I mention a new project, so we'll see how that goes.

Halloween

Yikes, how has so much time gone by? I've apparently been gone awhile, but honestly not a whole lot has been going on. I'm still indecisive on paint colors for the house. We still haven't done anything else. And it is pretty much the end of October. Good news though, it finally cooled off so we have no more excuses, besides financial reasons I suppose, not to finish up on the house.

We went out for Halloween last night. Do you watch Dexter? Or I guess did you watch Dexter would be a better question since the series finale happened. Sidenote: anyone else think that was the most disappointing conclusion to an epic series? I won't give it away if you haven't watched the show yet because besides that episode it is amazing. But I was seriously let down. The writers totally killed it for 8 seasons and then just took the easy way out I thought with the finale. Anyways, back on track... Dexter was the inspiration of our costume! That is my sister as Deb Morgan, B as Dexter, and myself as a kill victim. We apparently fail and somehow this awful phone picture is the only one I can find currently. We had so much fun out though! It was a good night, and now October is nearly over! Like I said before.... where has all this time gone?




Update: This is the only other picture I can find from that night... That is us with our friends Michelangelo, the ninja turtle, and Joe Dirt.

Sangria Sunk

I have never been so hungover in my life. Actually, I've never had a hangover in my life, even post 21st birthday shenanigans I was good to go the next day. This has been a rough Monday, I have not moved from my spot on the couch since I woke up this morning. Apparently 2 days of wine cocktails are enough to do me in. Or my body is telling me I'm not 20 anymore. Either way, holy headache. And naptime.