my little christmas corner

I am linking up again to the Christmas Cheer Party. This is the first year we have had an official dining room so I was very excited to decorate it. I went with a classic Christmas look. A little country, a little sparkle and a lot of red & green!

 The view from the living room.

 A closer view of the table. The red & green runner is accented by reindeer candle holders, snowflake candle holders and a sparkly pinecone & ornament centerpiece.

 A side view of my hutch. Last year I had my village squished on the entry table, but this year I was able to spread it out a little. The top of the hutch is the new home to one of my village scenes. Above it are litlte ladders with berries running through red & white stars. To the left is the wine fridge, which holds some of the best wines we have...perfect to bring out for Christmas family dinners. To the left is the childhood Christmas tree that can be seen here.

The front of our hutch has my wine cork wreaths that I saw on Pinterest and just had to recreate. They turned our so well and are the perfect touch to the hutch. Some of our popular wines are shown in the center and of course you can't celebrate the holidays without some l-o-v-e. :) 

On top of the wine fridge I have our Christmas wine charm tree, a wine that was signed for me by Fess Parker is in my adorable snowman wine holder and the singed glass, with a mini Christmas wreath around the bottom is in the back. This area of our dining room makes me wish I could only enjoy a glass, or two, this year.

Hope you enjoyed the little peak into my Christmas dining room!

our 2012 christmas mantel

Every year I change up our mantel just a little. Mostly because I am a perfectionist and I am never happy with how it turns out. Now that we have a little one on the way I have put a lot of pressure on myself to get it right. The hubs thinks I am crazy. I can't really disagree with him though because it took me 3 years to find the perfect stocking holder...did I mention I still need his and will need one for Jackson next year??

The last few years I have been snowman obsessed. I come by it naturally though since my mom is also snowman obsessed. For years that is all that adorned our house. The hubs joked that it looked like Frosty threw up all over and that's not very "Christmas-y" to him. Since I am such a wonderful wife great listener, I've decided to take his advice and ease up a little on the frosted accessories. After all, I don't want my home looking like someone threw up in it...even if it was only Frosty the Snowman. :)

So this year I decided to mix it up a little. I took a little of what I loved on Pinterest and a little of "me" and added it together. This is what I came up with.

Don't mind the episode of Prison Break on in the background. I love that show and watch it all the time. :)

What do you think?  Did I get it right or are there still too many snowmen?

Guest Room Revealed

Well it's been awhile since I have posted any photos of our house and I thought it was about time I get on it. With the holidays in full swing and the baby coming in just about 4 months; I know our guest room is going to be used a lot!

 The wording above the bed says "Be Our Guest" in french. I saw that phrase on Pinterest when I was redoing this room months ago and the first thing it made me think of was the little French candlestick in Beauty and the Beast.  Lumiere was his name if memory serves me correctly. So from there a half cocked French theme was born in this room. Eventually I want all of the walls to be white and I will keep the black and green accents throughout. Very streamline and very parisian.

 Can you tell I love books? The hubs won't let me put them anywhere else, so the guest room it was. I have them along the top of the walk-in closet in this room also. :)

If he isn't getting into mischief someplace else, this is where I can normally find Jagger. He is a total voyeur nosey neighbor!

Anyway, that's the room for now. We are spending all of our energy on the baby's room right now so I have a feeling that this room will stay as is for about a year. Hope you like it! :)

what’s in my pantry??

Last weekend I finally tackled the scariness of my pantry. I was shocked when I realized how much food we actually had in there... and how much of it was expired. :(

Wasting perfectly good food is not acceptable in my opinion...I mean there are starving children in Africa. 

Shoot...there are starving children in America!

 ...so I came up with a solution. Labels and organizers. Oh, and the diy chalk board grocery list is a helpful tool now too. :)

*Heaven gates open*

Now...the million dollar question is how long will it last this way?? ;-)

Also...just a reminder that my blog sale started and you can find it here. I will be responding to emails until late tonight and then will start back up again on Sunday. I am camping this weekend and not sure if I will have cell phone service to send out invoices. If I do...I will send out invoices. :)

Have a great weekend!

Home Tour- Living/Dining

Well, I mentioned in my post on Monday about doing a house tour and a few of you said you'd like to see it. Even though my home is still a huge work in progress, I figured I would start slowly and work my way through the house. I am thinking I should start with the room that I am least happy/finished with so that way you will get to see my changes when I am done.

My living room and dining room have probably come the furthest, but also have the furthest to go. I still need to find curtains, two area rugs (one for under the table and one for under the sofa/chairs.), a side table and a surprise piece that I am having designed on Etsy for behind my hutch. With that said, about 6 months ago there was ugly wall to wall carpeting in this room (ick), an empty space where the table is and an uncomfortable sofa (according to Michael) with two hand-me-down chairs randomly scattered throughout. Honestly, it was slightly embarrassing because it is the first room you see when you walk into our home. Plus, our house is about as open of a layout as you can get, so I could never get away from it.

After we got married I told Michael that I was redecorating and that he needed to give me a budget. He did, and this is what I've created (so far)...

This is the view of my dining room from the entry table. Keep in mind that I am having a special piece created on Etsy to go behind the hutch. I can't wait until it comes in!!

We have 5 chairs and a bench that is hiding on the other side of the table that seats 3 people. We went with a bench/chair combo because I want my dinning room to feel a little country and a little shabby chic. The size is perfect and holds a group of us for poker nights or family dinners. I absolutely love my set and can't wait to use it when we host our first annual Mother's Day Brunch next weekend.

This is the view from the kitchen/family room. The door you see is our front door...

There's our bench. :)

Our living room/dinning room is one large room, so this is the view you see from our master bedroom hallway. It gives you a better idea of how bare it looked when there was just a sofa and two small chairs.

Our sofa is a sleeper sofa and so comfortable. The fabric is a cream colored linen and I couldn't love it anymore than I already do. Now if only I could find a rug and end table to complete the look...

 Would you believe that we bought this table for $30 at a garage sale? Michael sanded it down and re-stained it so it matched the other furniture, but I fell in love with it when I saw it. He thought I was crazy (probably because he saw work in his future) but I had a vision! I'm telling you, garage sales are the best!

Here are my fun, punch of color chairs that we got to offset the wood and the linen sofa. I loved the two-toned look when I saw them and thought the pattern was so much fun, yet classy enough that I wouldn't get tired of them in a few years. What do you think?

So that officially wraps up the living room/dining room portion of our tour. I am anxiously awaiting the completion of this room, but refuse to buy things just to buy them. I am taking my time with it because I have a feeling that this room is going to be one of my favorites in the house!