Santa brought me door knobs!

I have wanted to replace the door knobs in this house since before we bought this house....yes during our second viewing, I knew they had to go...

 

 

But last year we did so much and spend so much money...new door knobs never happened...so this year, I made sure they happened.. I asked Santa!!! ( I asked boyfriend Santa, not dad Santa, I have two!)

I told Colin for Christmas I wanted a purse and door knobs. : )  and he got me both! Good Boy!

I wanted dark bronze knobs to replace the dated and scratched gold knobs.  I didn't go crazy shopping around for them, I just went with the basic Home Depot ones available at our local store.

 

 

 

 

We got enough for the entire first floor.  We did not update the second floor yet, but do plan on doing that at some point so the whole house matches.

The power room and basement doors are newer doors and Colin got the knobs on no problem.  Once he moved to the hallway and our bedroom, it was a different story.  The holes in the door weren't big enough and the new knobs couldn't be in stalled.  Those doors are all older doors, I am assuming original doors to the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what did we do???? We called in the Big Guns..aka Colin's Dad..and he saved the day!  We had bigger holes drilled and new door knobs installed in no time! Yay!!!

 

 

 

 

 

The door hinges in the hallway and in our bedroom are dark, so they go nicely with the new knobs, although the hinges in the laundry area are kind of gold-ish, so they don't match great, but I am going to pretend I don't notice and hope no one else does. : )

It looks so much better and it make

me really happy to see them! 

 

(Not as happy as crystal doors knobs would make me, but Colin hates those, so let's not talk about it....it is too upsetting )

Wreath Time

One more Christmas post, even though I know everyone is over Christmas.... : )

 

One of my winter tasks was making wreaths for our doors.  When Molly and I were at Michaels to pick up supplies for another craft, I got some wreath decorating supplies.  Fun Ribbon, Pine cones with painted tips and gold Christmas balls.  I know a 'red' scheme pops better from the street, but come on, gold...glitter... poka-dots, how could I saw no to that ribbon!?!? I also got thin dark green floral wire. The thinner wire you can cut with scissors, which is good since I don't know where my wire cutters went!

 

 

 

 

I wanted to support our local garden center to get my wreaths but they had slim pickings so I went to Home Depot...(boo don't get fresh greens at the big box store...) any way...moving on...

I had some time one day so I got to work....  The gold balls already had wire, so they were easy to twist into the greens to secure them.  I decided to wire them in in groups of 3. 

 

 

The pine cones did not have wire, but that is easy to add, just wrap the wire around the base, but tuck it into the cracks so you can't really see it.  They had plastic stakes, but I ripped those off.

 

 

 

Then the real challenge...make your bow..in hindsight I should have bought a bow, or had someone at work make my bow, since I didn't do that great of a job. haha It is way too big and lopsided...oh well, you win some you lose some!  And the way I made it, I cut little slits in it, so I couldn't redo it.  Good think I didn't bother taking photos of the steps I used to make the bow, since they wouldn't have been worth sharing! : )

 

 

But I think the average person thinks the bow looks fine, and the wreath does look nice.  And sometimes that needs to be good enough. : )

Updated Bird Wall

Last winter I got working on a collage wall in the kitchen which I fondly call my bird wall.  I showed it to you in april, but it wasn't 100% done. But now it is!

 Check it out!

I wanted to add one more picture and I wanted to swap out one of the white frames with a another brown frame to better balance with all the brown cabinets.
 

Notice the before and after for the light fixture in the hallway too!
 

I got the square frame from the same Etsy store I had gotten the white square one from.  And the new print, the lady cardinal, was from the same Etsy store I had got one of the robins from.  The lady cardinal frame is just a cheap one from Michaels.

 

Bird Wall Complete!

Christmas Tray and Breaking the Rules

Growing up we had a hard and fast rule...No Christmas presents before Christmas...NO EXCEPTIONS! and I mean NO exceptions....

 

But Colin broke the rule and gave me a present early!  We live in a little down town, so last weekend, while it was snowing, we had a little down town day. : )  We got hot chocolate and strolled down one side of the street, the up the other side in the falling snow, popping in and out of the shops.  Colin got cookies from the bakery lady, I bought some Christmas gifts  and Colin let me pick out some of my own Christmas gifts!  One of which was a Christmas Tray.  I had assumed it was going to be wrapped and put under the tree, but to my surprise, I went into the front room and it was on the table. : )  I wasn't about to argue.

 

 

 

I have a pretty tray my mom's friend gave me there usually, but I thought it might be fun to switch it up for the holidays.  I discovered this artist last year, and I have noticed over the past year, her work is available in more places.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry and Happy Indeed!  Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

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Christmas Around the House

  I had fun decorating this year, so please enjoy a little Christmas House Tour. : )

 

 

I think the window between the kitchen and the tv room looks lovely, but I have noticed it is a hard place to get a good picture of, but I tried anyway. : )

 

 

 

 

 

These little guys are my new purchase.  I had seen big ones, but didn't want to spend the money on big ones, so when I saw small ones I was sold! They are ornaments, but I just took off the string.  Their glittery scarves look extra sparkly at night when the candle is going.

 

 

This room has come a long way from last Christmas, when we had a tree in any empty room!

 

 

 

 

Our skinny Christmas tree from our tree hunt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas Everyone, I hope your homes are just as Merry! : )

Christmas Tree

I love driving around in December and seeing Christmas trees on top of people's cars.  It makes me happy.  And last weekend, my car was one of those!!  We had a 'Christmas Tree Cutting Down Day' with our friends Chris and Roxanne.  We headed to their neck of the woods, had a yummy Italian lunch, then headed to a small tree farm.
 

 

 

 

 

 

You could wander around and pick out any tree.  They had a variety they wanted to get, we just wanted the narrowest one possible, regardless of the variety. 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to keep the tree in the bay window in the front room, but since we have furniture in there this year, there isn't too much room for a tree.
 

 

 

 

So we wandered, Megan forced everyone to pose we posed for pictures, we wandered some more...then we saw it! Our narrow little 2013 tree!

 

 

 

 

 Pose by your tree!
 

 

 

It was 'cut your own', but we had the teen that worked there do the cutting. : )  Then the teen tied it onto the top of the car and we were off! Yay Trees!  Time to get home and decorate it!

 

Christmas Time is Here!

Hello friends, sorry I have not posted in a while!  Since I last posted Christmas has arrived!!!! I have my own photos to edit and put up but in the mean time, please enjoy some lovely Christmas images from Pinterest to fill you with holiday cheer! The vintage ornament edition! : )

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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!

I have had gourds and pumpkins around the house, but I did a little extra for Thanksgiving and did a nice little vignette on the sideboard in the dining room.  I had eyed up these downloadable prints from Etsy and decided it get them to make our dining room more 'thankful'. : )

 

 

The frames are just ones I found upstairs to not spend anymore money, but they work considering they will be up for about a week, then get stored for next year.  Although I really love the chalkboard one, so perhaps that one might stay out a little longer.

 

Be Thankful always Print

give thanks Print

 

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and a nice long weekend without work! : )