going grey

once again, rather than taking down my Christmas decorations, i found something else to do.

except, this something-- well it is something i've been talking about doing for a while and was back and forth about a color.  a color for what you may ask? the green diamond accent wall in our living room. what to do?

ugh... brown or charcoal ?!?

here is the before:

(this was Christmas 2009)

when we moved in,

 we painted all the walls in the

living room/kitchen a neutral beige

{color: Nomadic Desert @ sherwin williams}

then,

i got bored.

and did this:

i wanted a little pizazz!

just a little something to brighten up the room

and make a statement, the green wall was lovely!

but, i got bored.

so, yesterday i did this:

bye bye green wall, hellooooooooo grey!!!

{color: Falcon @ wal mart, colorplace}

i love it.

its kinda hard to explain, but i'll give it a shot.

grey is complicated, it always has an undertone

its either

1. blue

2. purple

3. green

or 4. brown

and i wanted a grey with a brown or green undertone,

and i think it came out great

in fact,

i decided this might be a good color for our master bathroom

so, i just went ahead and painted that too.

excuse the towels, the walls are still wet

originally i wanted our master bathroom to match our room,

{bedroom color: sidewalk grey @ wal mart, color place}

but then,

i thought maybe the bathroom should be black.

(insert husband giving you the "you must be crazy" look here)

i'm glad i stuck with grey,

its crazy how much darker the bathroom looks,

i'm really happy with it!

now, time to do new mantle decor,

and decorate the bathroom!

happy friday :)

i promise to take the tree down by Valentine's Day

seriously, i hate that Christmas is over and it's now frowned upon to have a tree up... i'm just not over it yet. so instead of taking it down, i'm going to spend time blogging about all my favorite ornaments that i found... and maybe just one or two other lovely after-Christmas-sale finds...
so here we go, #1-3

apparently, i really like "WORD" ornaments.

word.

haha, lame joke.... okay, moving right along

top left: yes yes, a snowflake hairstylist ornament, if you look very close you'll see the little tiny shears (we call our scissors shears because they cost more than your basic fiskars from wally world) on each point of the snowflake, really... super cute! thanks mama!

bottom right: yes, i still love "word" ornaments -- literally LOVE. haha... lame again!

this little cutie is from NOLA

this was a gift from a hospital chaplain in honor of my aunt Sherrie, who passed away from breast cancer this past october. i'll prob trade out the blue ribbon for a pink one, i think its very sweet.

i think this one is gorgeous!!!

i found it half price at a boutique

(the marketplace, at frisco square) 

and of course, a wedding ornament

my mama actually painted blonder highlights on the bride, and well... they just dont so much make bald grooms-- i think the ornament people should make more diverse looks on their wedding couples.

i love this precious little bird :)

and the hairdryer... with glitter?

so so so perfect,

why cant real hairdryers have glitter all over them?

and you cant go wrong with a chandelier ornament

hubby attached this one to one of my gifts, i thought it was really pretty

i won this at our sunday school Christmas party, pretty pretty!!!

and, last but certainly not least...

here are our lovely "old" stockings

and ...

here are the new ones that i had my eye on for 2 months and just couldnt bring myself to pay $45 each (even though i hear thats a good deal, it just seemed a bit much) so, when they went 1/2 price... i decided to go for it--- and here they are:

i just cant get over how stunning they are,

and... bigger than the old ones,

MORE ROOM FOR PRESENTS!!!

and...

just because he is too cute for words,

my sweetie pie Coach

so, there you have it bloggy friends...

i'm avoiding taking the tree down, i'm enjoying every new ornament and my new stockings, and maybe perhaps... i'll take it down sometime this month.

doubt it.

he's making a list, checking it twice

and apparently all those in my family were nothing but NICE!!!

here is a quick re-cap of our Christmas
my parents & brother came to the Big-D to do Christmas with us, i thought we had a ridiculous stack of presents before they arrived...

i love to wrap presents, i dont so much believe in using sacks unless its a last resort

thanks to Hobby Lobby for my super fabulous wrapping paper!!!

i do all black+white+silver+gold

and my super wonderful hubby used PINK tulle on all my presents, which he wrapped himself

he sure knows how to make a girl feel special ;)

and then, the parents arrive, and there was literally ZERO walking room.

yikes!!! but the good kind :)

We had incredible food, lots of laughs, and most of all we made memories that are much more important than any of the material things we give each other.

Here is our little family after we got home from the Christmas Eve Service at our church

I LOVE Coach's jingle bells Christmas collar :)

Coach loves his Mimi

and after setting cookies and milk out for Santa,

we all went to sleep and woke up to a room full of wonderful presents!!!

-we are so blessed-

and how cute are they

and Coach and his Uncle Alexander

of course, i managed to not get a pic of Drew and I on Christmas morning, but oh well.

it was lovely and I had a great time hosting my family,

everyone is invited again next year!!!

emily giffin books

I know i might be a bit late on the Emily Giffin train, but i decided to give her books a try, so far i've read:

loved it.

loved it less than "something borrowed"

loved it even less than "something borrowed, and something blue"

and

better than expected, but something borrowed was still my favorite.

seeing as how i noticed a bit of a digression in my enjoying of the books, i'm a bit hesitant to read "The Heart of the Matter" -- but why stop now. i'll probably pick it up, since i've read the others

but, for now

i'm currently reading:

so far, so good :)

anyone else a bit disappointed in Emily Giffin books???

happy monday! 

deck the halls

here is the proof that i've decorated for Christmas...

our little tree, and even a few presents

when we were engaged, Drew bought me this beautiful tree topper at one of my favorite stores {Hodgepodge} but... it really doesnt show up, so i wanted to add just a little something extra...

and really, who doesnt love feathers???

a few little sparkly ornaments hanging from the kitchen light fixture

i made these ribbon trees for our kitchen nook

and then, the one area i never seem to be happy with is the "above the cabinet" space in our kitchen, i tweak it over and over again, but its never really what i envision. sigh, oh well... here is my latest "tweak"

i'm not into garlands or greenery, so it makes "fullness" a bit more difficult, but i want it to be an eclectic mixture of all black and white antique pieces. .... i think. maybe.

i secretly wish our tree could stay up all year long... i just love it.

am i the only one???

this is why you order your Christmas cards online

so, i was feeling all artsy-fartsy and thought it would be so cute (and maybe even cheaper) to make our Christmas cards this year....

--so, i bought the cards/envelopes at Hobby Lobby
(40% off totaling $3.87 per pkg x 3pkgs=$11.61)
--ordered the pictures from Walgreens appx $8.00
--and bought the acid-free glue
and a few sheets of paper to do envelope liners,
give or take $7.00

so, for a grand total of $26.61ish--- i created A HUGE ORDEAL THAT WAS ENTIRELY TOO TIME CONSUMING AND MADE ME WISH I HAD JUST UPLOADED THE PICTURE ON A TEMPLATE AND ORDERED THE STUPID THINGS FROM ONE OF THE BAZILLION WEBSITES WHO DO THIS ALL THE TIME. {but i do feel good for at least attempting them, even though i'll never do it again}

but, they're pretty cute.... or i think they are, maybe i've been staring at them for too long.

also, each card has a personalized note written by either me or both of us....

yes yes, all out on these cards this year.

but i really really do love that i lined the envelopes with cute paper

i do plan to do this again (the envelope lining part, not the making the cards part), i hope everyone who opens the cards adores the pretty inside of the envelope, or at least doesnt throw it away immediately.

and the picture(s) we used:

Lesson learned- nice try.

Merry Christmas Bloggy Friends :)

(and for those of you eagerly waiting next to your mailbox day and night, you might want to pack up your sleeping bag and thermos of cocoa, because the handwritten notes are taking a bit longer than anticipated. so, for the record... none have been mailed yet. head on back into the house)

No, he is not a horse or a reindeer

We took our precious Coach to meet Santa and have his picture made...

of course he was a huge hit-- but he was pretty hesitant about this whole Santa character.

maybe its because "Santa" was a woman?!?

hmmmm...

eventually he warmed up and we were able to snap a couple pictures

he was a bit confused with everything going on at the pet store, especially all the greyhounds that were around for adoption.... so cute, but very distracting during picture time.

(Coach's cousin Cisco is a greyhound, so we love to play with them too)

i took a picture of the picture we ended up having printed,

its horrible blurry... but is really precious in person.

Merry Christmas Santa,

Love COACH!

and happy monday to you!