The curtain and painting nightmares continue. It takes me a week to commit to a paint colour and that’s £20 a tin. Somehow I have made it through my entire life without ever buying curtains and I’ve learned that I don’t ever want to have to do it again. Imagine how hard it is to commit to curtains knowing it’s forever? It’s like getting married, except if it came to the worst, I’d expect to take the curtains with me.

Currently Watching: Twilight. So far, not impressed. While I know that films almost never live up to the book, this isn’t even trying. The plotting is clumsy and forced, and I don’t care how much you have to fit into 117 minutes, you can do a better job than that with the dialogue. Jacob is too old and too tall. Jasper Hale looks like Edward Scissorhands. Rosalie isn’t pretty enough, Bella Swan isn’t nice enough and as Edward Cullen, Robert Pattinson simply isn’t good enough. 

Mr Rage just pointed out that Bella’s ‘I like to watch you sleep’ boyfriend is actually just a scary stalker. It did seem a lot more romantic in print. And what’s with all the stupid spikey hair? Hard to imagine this one becoming a classic when everyone’s attractiveness is immediately dated by absurd hair. Like any film made in the 80s. And why didn’t the director stop Jasper from pulling the Scissorhands face? That was a big mistake. And now we’re reaching the denouement, which has taken all of 5 minutes to build up to. Oddly enough, the tension is extremely easy to bear.

Now all the vampires are trying not to eat Bella even though she’s bleeding all over the floor, and it’s all remarkably unconcerning. And now a moving flashback over their entire 1 week history. You’d think that a show about vampires would be either exciting or sexy, and preferably both. This is neither. Sigh… Would’ve been so much better as a TV show.

And now they’re recapping during the end credits! What the fuck??? No one does that. I’m sorry to say I think this would’ve been a LOT better with a different director. And now they’re advertising ‘Robsessed’, a show about all the teenagers obsessed with Robert Pattinson because he plays a fictional character they fell in love with badly. Jesus. However, I do like this Linkin Park song so this isn’t a total loss.

You can’t see it through the stainless there, but that’s a big pot of wassail for decorating day. A family tradition.

I LOVE decorating for the holidays. I was just warning M last night that once we have a house, I am going to go National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation all over the outside of it. For now though we are in an apartment, so I’m limited as to how much I can do.

Every year, Black Friday is the big day when I set up the tree. Usually I take care of this job by myself, but this year, I had a helper – my 13 year old brother, H. We dragged the box containing the tree and bags of ornaments, wreaths, stockings, lights, and other decorations out of storage and spent yesterday afternoon putting Christmas together. With H assisting me, we got the tree up and decorated in a fraction of the time that it normally takes me! I told him he has to help me every year from now on.

Funny story about our tree – it used to belong to my mom and she passed it down to me when she purchased a new just before the holidays last year. We have been a fake tree ONLY family since I was a senior in high school because the last real one we purchased from a local farm came home infested with SPIDERS.  After a couple weeks the entire tree was encased in a giant web. GAH-ROSS. Obviously we had to get rid of it right away. Luckily it was a couple days after Christmas so we would have been tossing it soon enough anyway.

Because we don’t have a fireplace, our stockings are always hung by the windowsill with care. The larger ones are for M and me. The smaller ones are Oskar and Grover’s. Oskar wishes his was stuffed with catnip mice already.

Oskie approves of these stockings.

The fully decorated living room window! It looks really cool from the street.

Of course it wouldn’t be the holiday season in our house without cats dressed up in ridiculous costumes.

Oskar Claus & Baby G the (angry) reindeer! Please don't call PETA on me.

I can already see that one of the biggest challenges we’ll be facing this year is keeping Baby G out of the tree. It is his first Christmas and he doesn’t even know what to do with himself at the sight of all those shiny ornaments.

I’m not QUITE finished yet, but thanks to H, I got a great start yesterday. I know I must not be the only one that loves to go all out on the holidays; I’d love to hear your decorating stories too!

I have so many craft projects swimming in my head that never quite surface, but during this Thanksgiving Break I resolved to get at least one done. And I did! I have this beautiful old snakeskin (fake? maybe. probably? Mom, do you know?) suitcase that belonged to my great-grandmother (Is that right, Mom, or am I making that up? I do have a very active imagination.) I have been carrying it from apartment to apartment since sometime in college when I rescued it from my mother and sister, who wanted to donate it to the church yard sale (Nooooo!). I always knew it had great potential, but never really did anything with it other than stack it on top of a wicker trunk to use as a surface for displaying random things, like this awesome red Buddha (who needs a serious dusting) that I got from my Grandma’s house (she was a Methodist, by the way):

awesome red Buddha from Grandma's house

Anyway, back to the point. Recently Cumbie and I serendipitously discovered through the great art of late-night conversation over more-than-a-few beers that we were both sort of annoyed and disappointed with ourselves for running out of steam on finishing decorating our house. We bought this, our first house, in July of 2007 and still have yet to hang a single picture on the wall. Each room is about 85% finished, but we have ignored that last 15% for the past 2 years. So, I decided the best plan would be to go room by room and finish. We have started with the living room. One major need was to replace the way-too-short teak(ish) patio table that we had been using as a side table between the two couches:

How obvious is it that this table is patio furniture?

It’s really hard to tell how way-too-short the table is from that angle, so I took another picture showing how it hides:

Incognito Table

So you can see that it wasn’t just an aesthetic issue, but also a practical one: only someone with arms as freakishly long as Cumbie’s could comfortably place and retrieve a drink on that table. Rather than construct a set of 11-inch high coasters, we decided we needed a new side table. Enter the suitcase. I can’t quite remember how I got the idea to make the suitcase into a side table, but after a Google image search for “suitcase table,” I decided it was a feasible idea: attach some legs and voila! Suitcase table! My original thought was to find metal legs sort of like the ones on this school chair:

Credit: http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00JCMQgcPagDqHM/School-Chair-MXZY-071-.jpg

But Home Depot didn’t have legs like that and I wanted to get my project done NOW, rather than shop around thrift stores until I found the exact legs I had imagined. Impatience is a recurring theme in my life and I’m okay with that. I also decided that spending the $12 on the wooden legs Home Depot had to offer wouldn’t be too much of a waste if they were replaced by the perfect metal legs later. So we spent about $12 on these legs:

second-choice wooden legs

Then I stained them using Mini-Wax water-based stain in “Olive Green.” We chose that color stain because we thought it would blend well with the vintage-y look of the suitcase. Next, we just drilled holes in the bottom of the suitcase and attached the legs (which came with a screw already sticking out of the tops of them) by screwing on a washer and a nut. For less than $20: Voila! Suitcase table!

Suitcase Table!

I love it! The legs look so long and spindly that it reminds me of a Tim Burton creation that might just decide to walk away. The only problem is that I think it might be a little too tall for the space. This problem could be easily fixed by just sawing a few inches off the tops of the legs and reattaching them. Please tell me what you think. Too tall? Just right? What should I do?

Julia

I have had a kokopeli/south pacific theme with turquoise and beige in my bathroom for the past 5 years. I need a change. I have decided to paint the walls of my new bathroom the same color that is in my current dining room, because I love the color and will miss it when I move. It is called fava bean and looks very similar to this:

I think fava bean has more of a brown/yellow undertone than this does, but you get the idea.

The shower curtain I have ordered is a gray and black modern print. Reviews say that the gray is more of a taupe color, which will probably coordinate with my fava bean nicely. I think the black pattern will set a bold statement against the pale green.

I also want to add in a few bright pink accents. I found a print that I might get, or I may just do a black, white, and pink painting to go in there.

So what do you think of the colors/patterns? I’ve picked out some white bathroom accessories and a pink soap dish. I don’t want pink to be an overwhelming color in the bathroom, just a little accent here and there.
Do you think design style and colors should flow throughout the house? I tend to think that each room is a new opportunity for design and color. My living room flows into my dining room (no dividing wall) so I’ll probably have similar colors there, but I think my bedrooms and bathrooms are fair game to play with different colors and ideas. For instance, we will have mostly red and gold in our bedroom, but the spare bedroom will be light blue and dark brown. I also plan to use mostly blues in my kitchen, even though my kitchen is open to my dining area.

I finally made some new pillows for fall/winter, now that I have my awesome craft table. I also got some new winter-friendly curtains for the living room. First, check out the before:

And, the after (sorry it’s kind of dark):

Here are the pillows up close:

I ordered the fabric from Etsy Seller Fabric Flair. What do you guys think?

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We put our Christmas decorations up yesterday, so lots of Christmas-themed posts to come!

Tis the season for killer deals on magazine subscriptions! Amazon has tons of popular magazines on sale right now for just $5/year — lower than the newsstand cost of one issue for some! Even better? These magazines qualify for FREE Super Saver Shipping, so that means when you just need to spend a few bucks more on something else on Amazon to get free shipping, you can add in one of these magazines to seal the deal. (Magazines aren’t actually charged shipping, they just help you get free shipping on other purchases.)

Here ya go!

• Real Simple
• Southern Living
• Sports Illustrated for Kids
• People StyleWatch
• Cosmopolitan
• Travel + Leisure
• Food & Wine
• House Beautiful

Expires: Unknown

Thanks, FrugalGirls & Jessica!

Hap-Hap-Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I know it is late, but yet again I have found myself off the grid for the past few days.  I hope everyone had a really fun day.  We found ourselves the subjects of an unusual amount of thanks this year because my sister’s boyfriend Chris returned from Iraq on Wednesday night, just in the literal nick of time.  You win this time, Army, but you were cutting it close…  He got off the plane, survived the ridiculousness that is the incoming ceremony, went home and took a shower, and went straight to sushi.  Nice!

Carol and Dad waiting on Chris! Maybe about to do the Stanky Leg!

Things haven’t really settled down yet because we had Thanksgiving on Thursday then yesterday Carol and Chris got high and decided to go to the Black Friday sales.  OK, they didn’t really get high, but that is what I would have to do if I were going to go brave that mess.  CRAZINESS.  And then the rest of yesterday was spent moving them into their duplex.  All around busy times, and the tide does not seem to be turning!  Today my dad and I get to do That Which Everyone Dreads — put up the 12 FOOT CHRISTMAS TREE!!!  Ahhh Laaaahhhhddddd….. (as Carol would say:)

We bought the bookshelves. They look pretty snazzy if I do say so myself. What can I say the hubby got a little early Christmas bonus and we really needed something to house all our books and DVDs and picture frames that have been sitting in boxes in our living room. Did I mention that our house came pre-wired with surround sound? SWEETNESS.

There are a few telling things about this photo that you might notice…

A. As you can see our clock and plate rack and other stuff is still sitting in the left corner. Operation: Hang Stuff Up has been a big ol’ FAIL.

B. There is a yoga mat and weights in the right corner… and they never get used.

C. Yes, that is a pepper grinder in the middle of the bottom of the photo. We are one of those couples who eats dinner in front of the tv.

D. The candy dish next to the pepper grinder is full of butterscotch buttons- leftover candy buffet candy from our wedding. OMG. It’s okay though because it’s all individually wrapped… right?

45 cool points to whomever gets the reference in the title.

I have a tree. I put this tree up several days before Thanksgiving and am quite happy with dragging out the winter holidays super early, thank you very much. When I expressed this sentiment in the the form of, “I put up my tree. Shut up.” on my Facebook page, a friend responded that it sounded like K-Tel was putting out a new holiday collection entitled, “Shut Up, It’s Christmas”. I not only found this wildly hilarious, but had to concede that that is pretty much what any Christmas album I could ever release would be called.

So the tree is up, and I couldn’t be more pleased. As all my stuff continues languishing in a storage facility, and I have little extra cash or inclination to purchase lavish new decorations, this holiday is being done shamelessly on the cheap and mostly handmade. The tree itself, including lights, tinsel, and basic ornaments were purchased at a Goodwill store with the remainder being made when I feel like it and stuck on the tree over time. I should finish decorating sometime around December 27th, I reckon.

The ornaments so far are…well, interesting. I have taken ideas I have found from various sources and “added my own touches”, or “cocked them up” quite nicely. I made little candy type hearts with cardboard backed felt and puffy paint, which look pretty cute if you didn’t see the much nicer inspiration pieces made of polyfill stuffed felt and fabric flowers. I also made some gingerbread men out of the same materials, however, I didn’t make them terribly plump. In fact, they are downright scrawny. When my exbesthusbandfriend remarked upon it, I tried to front and say they were just supermodel gingerbread men, but the truth is, these little guys clearly don’t feel ok with themselves. They have gingerbulimia.

I have also made cards, which was a whole new experience for me. I barely keep and fulfill a Christmas list, let alone handcraft cards to send to it. There’s just a mental block against it. Maybe it was using cookie cutter cards and this is the solution. I like the people I know. I know they live out there somewhere. I know they like cards. I like cards. It just always seems so…worklike to send cards out. When I am independently wealthy (aaaany day now) I will keep a card sending wench of some kind on retainer. I will make her answer to Becky like the scullery maid in A Little Princess and pay her in small amounts of money appropriate to buying crusts of bread and Fresca, giving the whole venture a Dickensian feel. You know, for the Christmassiness.

As the month goes on, no doubt all measure of mad things will be going up on the tree in the form of can tops, and bits of magazines and twine and such. It will be glorious. I just hope the gingerbulimics don’t persuade the can top snowmen to go emo and start cutting.

So, I spent Black Friday in a totally nontraditional way. Instead of hitting the shopping centers, otherwise known as those madhouses, I decorated my home for Christmas, just as my mother has done for years. I put up lights in the windows, set up all three of our artificial trees, decorated shelves and found all three of our stockings. I also dug out and listened to a number of my Christmas Carol CDs. I did not leave the apartment once, except to take out some trash and go out to my van to put some things in it.

Christmas decorating has evolved for me throughout the years. When I was little, I was excited and wanted to help my parents as best as I could. So the tree got decorated with ornaments on branches that were only four feet off the ground and my stocking was hung happily upon whatever piece of furniture we used for our “fireplace” that year. Usually it was a bookcase decorated up like a fireplace, complete with cardboard bricks, pop can and kraft paper logs and tissue paper flames. I remember being told by my parents that it was a magical fireplace and that Santa was going to come through that magical fireplace just like he would any real one. And of course, being the imaginative child I was, I believed them. To this day, a little part of me still believes in that tale.

As a preteen and teenager, decorating sometimes was a chore for me. You see, my mom had a rule that everything had to be CLEAN before it was decorated. That meant tables had to be moved and rugs and walls vacuumed and such. Fall cleaning was usually done the week before Thanksgiving so that the day after Thanksgiving we could decorate everything with the mounds of decorations my mother had accumulated over the years. Everything had to be put in certain spots and I’d get annoyed with my mother because she’d move stuff I set up. At the same time, we had a real fireplace by then, though I no longer believed Santa would come down the chimney. And as for the tree trimming, we got to do most of it, except for the tinsel. That was usually mom’s doing, because we’d all get annoyed after the fiftieth branch or so and the time spent untangling the little pieces of silver plastic as they knotted. My brother and dad would take to throwing the tinsel on to the tree, only to be met with my mother’s scolds of “no, that’s not right!” and her fixing it. In the end though, the effect was magical, though itwas a pain getting ornaments off the tree after Christmas because of the mess the tinsel made.

These days, I find myself wishing I was back at home, listening to my mother and father as they argue where to put the lights as my bother climbs all over the roof trying to arrange them so both can be happy. I want to see the Christmas village as Dad sets it up in the bay window at the front of their house and watch the dog go nuts as people run around putting the accumulation of Christmas decorations into places they’ve been for years. I find myself missing them, but at the same time, I am enjoying making my own traditions half a continent away, with my own family.

Even though we are all recovering, I’m sure, from turkey-induced sleepiness, the Friday after Thanksgiving is far from uneventful.

For many, it means waking up at unthinkable hours to go brave the shopping world.  Every where you look there are doorbusters, liquidations and clearance sales.  A deal-hunter’s dream!

For others, today’s the day to go out to the rolling hills of the country to find that perfect tree.

Either way, there’s no denying that the world seems different when you wake up on this Friday morning and carols fill the air.  There was even a refreshing winter’s chill here in Chicago.

This is the day when it officially becomes “The Holidays” and , as we all know, “for the holidays you can’t beat home, sweet home!”

I love the way Home feels in the month of December when all the trimmings are out.  How exciting it is to peel the tissue paper off of all of your ornaments and decorations exclaiming, “Oh!  I remember this one!’  Surrounding yourself with all of these items filled with sentimental value and memories of years past warms the heart and home.

A house is a just a house (or apartment!) until you make it your home.  Put your personality into every piece of decor and watch your comfort level increase every time you think of your home and sanctuary, not just in December but all year long.

For sanctuary-building tips and inspiration, visit Material Girls Chicago and never be at a loss for creativity!

And, let’s always remember that the most important part of Home is the people inside.  Invite friends and family over to enjoy your “decked halls” and create memories that will last a lifetime!

-Rachel

No shopping for us today on this Black Friday. Instead, we’ve stayed in our pjs and watched football (or Say Yes to the Dress for me), drank coffee, cleaned, and decorated for Christmas.

It took a lot of self control not to put some of Jack’s Christmas pajamas on him tonight. I’m trying to wait til at least December 1st…

Can you find our Hidden Mickey on our tree??

And then there were three [stockings]

My official Christmas time coffee mug

We have filmed a video to help with sizing of table cloths.

I am normally one of those people who feels you should wait until one holiday is over before you move on to the next. But all of the Christmas decorations out in the stores were too much for me to resist this year. Especially when they’re all on sale! So here’s what’s been sitting around our house for the last few weeks, just waiting for Thanksgiving to be over.

Hopefully the “after” pictures will be coming soon.

Bland Brits are spending big bucks on giving their homes the personal touch 80% would like to make a greater style statement with their homes, and are looking to celebs like Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell for inspiration when it comes to decorating their dwelling.

Bland Brits are spending big bucks on giving their homes the personal touch 80% would like to make a greater style statement with their homes, and are looking to celebs like Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell for inspiration when it comes to decorating their dwelling.

The survey of 1,000 people by Mira Showers showed that the celeb wed most like to steal interiors tips from is Cheryl Cole, who was the top choice for over a quarter of ladies as well as the majority of respondents under 25.

Which celebritys home would you most like to visit for style ideas?
1.Cheryl Cole 19%
2.Simon Cowell 16%
3.Nigella Lawson 15%

Which celebritys home would you least like to visit for style ideas?
1.Jordan 27%
2.The Queen 17%
3.Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen 16%

Source

In a previous post, I explained how I made a collaged pillow with different pieces of wool and linen. Here are some more pillows that I made the same way for my own living room.

In some cases, I deconstructed pillows that came with my furniture and added on collage designs. These were especially fun because I got to skip inserting the zipper, which is one of the more tedious steps.

First, I used a seam ripper to remove the stitches from three sides, leaving the zipper in place.

Then, I used a pattern to cut 20″ squares. This just required that I cut a bit off of each side. Since I wanted to use different pillow inserts, this step was necessary for me. I could have just used the same inserts, in which case I wouldn’t have had to cut these pieces at all.

Next, I layered two bands of wool-felt on top of one of the squares and pinned the pieces in place.

I sewed the felt to the fabric with wide, tight zig-zag stitches. Then, I sewed the three open sides back together with a simple straight stitch on the sewing machine. I made two pillows this way, using different colors of felt for each.

It’s easy to spend a lot of money on holiday decorations for inside and outside of your home — but it can also be done on the cheap, and my goal this holiday season is to come up with a few nice decorations that don’t cost much money.

Here’s the ultimate cheap holiday pot: It cost nothing. A couple of weeks ago, I trimmed back some decidedly overgrown red-twig dogwood bushes. While many of the branches went to the county brush pile, I picked some of the longest, straightest, and brightest for use in outdoor holiday decorations. For this simple pot, I took a good-sized bunch of branches and set them in a strawberry pot that otherwise would spend the winter in the garage. Ta-da! A decorative holiday pot.

in pictures:

Let the craziness begin.  I’m so excited.

The boxes are out of the attic and all over my house, the tree is up, the garland is on it and I scored a $59 Tom Tom from Walmart.com today without ever leaving my house.  Do you have a visual of the boxes all over my house, you better because the USB cord broke on my camera….UGH! 

The Baby Girl’s tree is decorated, we started the tradition a few years ago and she loves it.

Is that the cutest group ever?  The Baby Girl was not loving having her picture taken.  The boys are participating in “No Shave November”, yes it’s something that boys do.  I think this is Mr. Perfect’s third attempt.

I loved my table yesterday and so did the kids.  We just had a touch of some family drama in the beginning and then the rest of the day was a delight.  What would a holiday be without a little family drama.

Remember the post where I wondered if they could be bought for a $1?

I spent hours yesterday looking at Christmas ideas on online. 

Hope you love my finds.

Pictures from Country Living

Pictures from Pottery Barn

Picture from Ballard Design

Pictures from Better Homes and Gardens

I am going to decorate today, buy a new USB cord and then drink a bottle of wine!

Stop by The Inspired Room for more eye candy then you know what to do with!

Greetings, friends and fans!

Jeanette here. I have nice news for you!

This blog, Jeanette’s Life, Ups and Downs, has a post being featured in Pet Society Anonymous’s blog! Found at http://lifeinpetsociety.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/fishing-time/, this post was one of my happiness-jerking mosts!

Actually, it’s not the post. It’s just the picture that my servant created. I sent it the Pet Society Anonymous and she really posted it! Thanks, Pet Society Anonymous!

And also, I have other fantastic news for you.

I just found out what the word “interactive” meant on the Luminous Film Camera Decor meant. (The word is on the blue colour thingy thing)

My friend Birdie (the guy whom I posted a picture and asked ya’ll to gimme a caption) bought one of those. When you click on it, it’ll play the starting part of a movie. See?

Isn’t it creative of Birdie? You can have a nice movie while having your Thanksgiving meal!

Now I’m saving up my coins to buy one of those.

Gotta go!
Jeanette

Okay, so we’re not actually undertaking any serious renovations on the house just yet.  That may come later, when the budget has a little more breathing room.  For the moment, I’m contenting myself with a lot of painting, a little bit of flooring replacement, and a bunch of new hardware in the kitchen and bathrooms.  Oh yeah, and the exterior doorknobs.  Somehow, the house’s previous owner did not have keys to the back door or the basement door…?  I don’t know.  Anyway we’re replacing them both, and since the front door handle is gold and I hate it, I figured we might as well do them all at once so that they’ll match/coordinate.  But that’s all coming in a few days.

Today, we started in on the painting.  Oliver and I took down all of the kitchen cabinet doors,

then taped off the walls and appliances around the cabinet “boxes,”

sanded the lacquer finish off of the boxes, and painted them.

They are now “Ultra Pure White,” which is quite predictably bright white.  I think they look pretty good, and we had a good time getting them done!  Music was playing the whole time and there was quite a bit of dancing involved.  =)

This is the beginning of my awesome kitchen!

We did a few other useful things today as well: we removed all of the weird wooden accent pieces from the upstairs bathroom (no more yucky soap dish and toothbrush holder! adios, ugly towel racks!) and pulled at least two dozen pins, nails, and screws out of the walls in the kitchen, dining room, and living room.   Then, finally, before we left for the night we chose all of the downstairs wall colors.  They’re actually not at all what I was originally planning!  But that’s okay, because I think they will be beautiful.  Annnnnd here is the lineup of paint colors:

Kitchen: Valley Mist, a pale grayish green

Dining Room: Manhattan Mist, a silvery gray  (are we noticing a misty theme here?  this color will also grace the walls of the staircase to the second floor.)

Half Bath: Donegal Tweed, a caramel brown

Living Room: Melted Butter, a soft yellow

Even though these aren’t quite true to the sample swatches I have, the colors look roughly like this:

And finally, my truly wonderful next-door neighbors Dick and Suzanne noticed that we were at the house painting and thought that we might have intended to skip Thanksgiving dinner (we did), and invited us to share in theirs.  How sweet!  I have a lot to be thankful for this year, indeed.

Happy Turkey Day!

My forever favorite Thanksgivng art, next year I think I’ll print it and frame it.  Thanks Mr. Perry.

Well the long awaited day is finally here, I love Thanksgiving.  I have been preparing for days ok weeks, but whose keeping track right?

The bird is in the oven, the potatoes are in the crockpot and I’m thankful today for two crockpots because the other one is filled with stuffing.  I got these two recipes over at Kelly’s during what else a blog party.  The table is set, yes I set it yesterday.

I have to say setting the table turned into major stress and drama.  I thought I had an eight piece set of china, nope.  I had to make a quick run to Old Tyme Pottery last night and grab some white plates to set the second table, I don’t like the table but still fussing with it so I’ll show those pictures later.  “The Kids” are going to be at the above table and then Mr. Wonderful, The Baby Girl and I will be at the other table.  I like my placecard holders and I think the kids will get a kick out of them.

Looking at my table the only thing that isn’t a great thrift find is my napkins and silverware.  The centerpiece, the tablecloth, the china and the glasses are from the thrift store.

Once dinner is over we are going to see Blind Side and then I’m coming home to start Christmas decorations.  I have a project in process in the garage, it involves an old window, garland, burlap, ribbon and Christmas cards I hope you stop by tomorrow to see what I come up with.

Did I mention burlap, ribbon and garland…….see you tomorrow! 

I’ll be linking up to

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE.

Not work, technically, but a CUTE CULINARY PRESENTATION nonetheless, no? AESTHETICS FOR EATS. Vegetarians, PLEASE FORGIVE. And for those who need a little MIND CANDY during those LOGEY LAPSES, the DREAMY SECTION of SUBJECT-OBJECT.NET should be UPDATED today or tomorrow, as usual. ENJOY!

SUBJECT-OBJECT.NET section : DREAMY