It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas

While I love Christmas decorations, we don’t own too many, and since we’ve never hosted Christmas at our house, I haven’t ever had that urge to go all out. 

But we do enjoy pulling out a few items that are special to us each year, so I thought I would share them with you.  Keep in mind that most of these were either hand-me-downs, gifts, or items we collected at yard sales. 

Sadly, we’ve never had a full-size Christmas tree since being married (I’m hoping to cut down our own next year), but I did snag this petite tree at a yard sale several years ago.  This year it found its home as the centerpiece on our dining room table and we even splurged and bought some porcelain ornaments for it while we were perusing downtown shops in Indianapolis last year.  They were on super clearance and I get all giddy every time I look at them.  Since I tend to be a window shopper, Matt had to push for these, and I love that we picked them out together.  Also, the rustic, textured garland was picked up in Shipshewana, which is a crafty Amish town in rural Indiana where we spent Thanksgiving with my extended family a year ago.

The garland on the mantel was stolen from my parent’s storage room a few years ago.  Somehow I packed that puppy into my suitcase and hauled it back to Colorado on the airplane!  A hint of greenery always makes the room feel cozier around the holidays.

Then there’s our open shelving, which tends to get a makeover as each new season rolls around.  This year we housed our nativity scene—which was gifted to me by my parents over many Christmases—on the bottom shelf.  This is one of my favorite pieces to rediscover every year.  If you’re wondering what would be a meaningful and lasting gift for your college student, this is a great set to gift piece by piece.

And of course, we always have to find a spot for our other nativity scene, which is handcrafted from Germany and was gifted to me by the family I nannied for in college.  When the four corner candles are lit, the fan spins!  This is one I can’t wait to share with our kiddos someday. 

Lastly, we’ve got ornaments gracing various knobs and baskets around the house.  Many of them were gifted to me by previous students, which is usually always a fun walk down memory lane.  One of my favorites is this sparkly reindeer. 

Yes, it’s simple and not overly flashy, but it just seems to fit this year.  We like being surrounded by meaningful pieces and not being stressed by the pressure that sometimes seems to come with the Christmas season.  Most of all, we are reminded that Christmas is all about celebrating the birthday of our King.  May we never forget to celebrate the true meaning of the season, and may it remain at the forefront of our hearts and minds amidst all the preparations of the next few weeks.  We are truly blessed!

Reality Check

Our house has been looking a little lot like this lately…

and this…

and this…

Let me just say that pregnancy has been…harder than I expected.  While I haven’t been super sick, I definitely have not felt like myself.  As in, my body feels “off” and my energy is far lower than before.  Funny how I thought I would beat all those symptoms before getting pregnant… In some ways, it’s been a healthy wake-up call to realizing that I’m not super woman, nor do I have to be.  Since this might be the last time I can really rest when the mood strikes me, I’ve been taking full advantage of it.  As my good friend keeps telling me, take advantage of it while you can!  For those of you who’ve been pregnant before, you know that almost every symptom can be blamed on pregnancy—and there’s documentation somewhere to back it up!  Needless to say, blogging—and most extra activities in general—have been

low

on

the

priority

list.

Oh, who am I kidding?  What list?!  I haven’t made a list in two months.  If you think I’m kidding, just ask my husband!  It’s true.  While it’s been freeing in some ways, I’ve also started feeling slightly better this week, which has me chomping at the bit to do something a little extra.  Hence, this wee little post.

If I sound like I’m complaining about pregnancy, I’m not.  I’m just facing the reality of what my body is going through—and because I’ve been busy creating another human being—that’s right—I haven’t been creating much else.  But I do have a few things up my sleeve which I hope to share over the next few days, so I plan to be back before too long.  Did I just make a list?  Hmmm…kinda.  If anything, I think I just planned ahead!  Feels good.

I’m Dreaming of…

 

That’s right.  Baby nurseries.  Any guesses why? 

Something Blue

It’s no secret that I’m a neutral gal when it comes to house décor, but I do like to play things up with interesting accessories from time to time.  Enter the exterior of our house.  (Is that an oxymoron?)  Clearly we played it neutral with our new stucco…

We also stuck with white trim—although we love how fresh white trim pops in such a clean and crisp way.

But doors present a whole new world of possibilities—hmm…that could get very philosophical.  The door within…the door to your heart….  The point is that doors can be punchy and fun, or they can be handsome and stately.  Since our house is small and doesn’t offer much in the way of interesting architecture—unless you just happen to love boxes—we figured that dressing up our front door would add a bit of splash to our otherwise plain Jane exterior. 

Choosing paint colors can be overwhelming, which is why I started pinning my favorites on Pinterest.  Check out my inspiration.

Honestly, I love love love the deep earthy tones of the last door (not to mention the awesome and super functional entryway—is anyone else drooling over those brick floors and plank walls?).  It just look so sleek!  But I also have been swooning over blue-grey tones.  Maybe it's because they evoke nautical themes, or maybe it’s because they are so playful and pretty at the same time.  Whatever the case, I printed a few inspirational doors off the color printer at work (shhh…) and then tried to find close matches at Sherwin-Williams, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Ace.  The good news is that blue-grey tones are super popular right now (at least that’s what I tell myself), so there are a myriad to choose from.  The hard part was narrowing down our options. 

For about two weeks, twenty or so paint swatches graced our doorway.  In the end, we went with Slate Tile, by Sherwin-Williams.  I actually had Lowe’s color-match it to their Duramax paint in semi-gloss, which allowed us to use quality exterior paint for only $15 buckaroos. 

Right before we painted, I began wondering if we should stick with a clean white door, but my mom encouraged me to try something different—and I don’t regret it!

We feel like it gives the front of our house a bit of distinction and helps to ground the neutrals.  Doesn’t our door look dapper?!  (Unfortunately, it looks a bit cold and stark in these pictures, as all the leaves have fallen and everything is beginning to look wintery.)

By the way, I’ve been listening to Christmas music for about a month now.  Yep, I’m one of those rebels who doesn’t believe in waiting until after Thanksgiving to break out the Christmas spirit—one month is simply not enough time!  Is anyone else out there a closet Christmas music listener?  Please tell me I’m not alone!

And The Winner Is…

To see if you are the winner of My Chic Shanty’s first giveaway, click here!  Thanks to those who participated, and especially to Ginelle Irene and her sweet Etsy shop! 

Nifty Gifty: Button It!

This giveaway is now closed.  Lori is our winner, and she has been contacted to receive her prize.  Thanks to all who participated! 

That’s right—it’s the first official gift giveaway for My Chic Shanty, and we’re so happy to partner with Ginelle, who is actually married to my cousin, Casey.  (Speaking of marriage, she went the extra mile and made all of their wedding thank you cards herself!)  Using a variety of textured materials, including buttons, thread, vintage items, canvas, and more, these lovely pieces are created.



Ginelle’s family owns a greenhouse and flower shop in Canada, so crafting in the realm of flowers and plants is truly second nature to her.  Be sure to check out the rest of her unique designs online at her Etsy shop. 

• GIFT: One unique, handmade card from Ginelle Irene’s Etsy shop!


• HOW TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “Button it!” and tell us…


• FUN TIDBIT: …what you love about buttons, memories you have involving buttons, or when you’ve told someone to “button it!”  (This is not required to enter, but do it for kicks!)


• GIVEAWAY ENDS: Monday, November 14 at midnight MST


• NUMBER OF WINNERS: One lucky guy or gal


• SHIPPING: The United States or Canada


• SUBMISSIONS: One entry per email address is permitted. The winner will be selected randomly and announced the following Tuesday as an update to this post.

*If you are interested in participating in Nifty Gifty as a host, just leave us a comment and we’ll be in touch! 

Exterior Facelift

We all say it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but let’s be honest. 

External first impressions do leave a mark.  It’s true, even if we don’t want to admit it, which is why I’m so happy to report that our house finally got an exterior facelift.  Woot!  Our main summer goal was to refinish the stucco on our house—yes, we know it’s practically winter—but the process has taken quite a bit longer than we expected.  You would think we’d know better by now… 

Initially, we planned to paint over the old stucco ourselves using quality paint made for rough exteriors, like Duramax from Lowe’s.  But in the midst of making that decision, we had our stucco repaired in a few spots by a local stucco handyman named Antonio…and come to think of it, I actually have no idea what his last name is.  Anyway, good ole’ Tony was recommended to us by our neighbors, and since their house is lovely and they had nothing but glowing comments regarding his work, we called him up to work on our house.  You can see one of his repairs on the basement window.

After he finished the small repair jobs, he asked us if we planned to repaint.  We said yes, that was the plan.  Then he threw us a sales pitch saying that he could put a stucco paste—tinted a color of our choice—over our entire house for a very reasonable amount of money.  We kind of stammered around for a second and then told him we’d let him know if decided to go that route.  I’m pretty sure both of us were rolling our eyes though, because even though he quoted us a low price, paint was certain to be much, much cheaper.  Right?  That’s when we realized that while paint may normally be a cheap and quick fix, it might be a different story when the exterior is involved. 

As it turns out, quality paint that is designed for stucco would have cost us only a few hundred dollars less, since we would need to do two coats (which would eventually need to be repainted, unlike tinted stucco paste), plus hours of our own labor.  Not long after actually calculating the cost of painting the house ourselves, we happily called Antonio to see when he could get a crew over to our house.  *I’m not gonna lie.  Contractors can be a pain to get ahold of, and while we loved his work, Antonio was no exception.  Thankfully, it was worth the wait.*

The color is slightly grayer than I envisioned, but overall we love it—especially the fact that they were able to update the texture to a more modern look that hides previous imperfections.  It’s just nice having a cohesive exterior; everything looks so much cleaner.  Clearly the neighbors feel the same way, because we’ve received lots of compliments—even from folks just meandering by on a walk with the dog.

My favorite part might actually be the back stoop.  Check it out…

If you’re wondering about the white trim, we painted it ourselves before the stucco guys arrived.  Despite having a small house, it took us a full weekend and a half to put on one coat of primer and two coats of Sherwin Williams exterior paint.

We’re not done quite yet though.  I’m itching to paint the front door, and we need to add some lights and house numbers.  Hopefully we’ll make some headway on those things this weekend.  Eventually I plan to spray paint our mailbox (which is happily sitting the planter at the moment…), and when the weather warms back up, we’ll add the adirondack chair we picked up at ACE for a song, along with some plants.

Ultimately, I’m just glad I no longer have to tell people coming to our house for the first time, “Yeah, it’s the pink and yellow house.  You can’t miss it—it’s the ugliest house on the street.”  What do you think? 

Homemade Pumpkins

No, I am not writing about food made with pumpkin, although I have been craving pumpkin desserts like a nut lately!  And yes, this weekend I did make the.most.delicious.pumpkin.cream.cheese.muffins.ever.  I’ll even be nice (although I’m sure the calories are, um, not so nice) and share the recipe with you.  Check out Annie’s Eats—which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite blogs—and give her muffins a try.  Scrumptious, I tell you! 

But if you’re looking for a cheap and easy fall craft, these homemade paper pumpkins are right up your alley.

Seriously, I was listening to a podcast and messing around with some scrapbook paper, and within ten minutes both of these pumpkins magically appeared! 

Find the step by step instructions here.  You might notice that I made my pumpkins more petite, which makes them more portable for decorating.  I also used jute twine in place of ribbon, and I love how it stands up like a stem and has an organic feel to it (some of you know that I think the word “organic” is way overused, but it just seems to fit here…maybe that’s why it’s overused…people just think it fits everything…I digress).  One more look at the cute couple. 

Just for the record, I love Pinterest, and recently I’ve been trying to actually make some of the things I find on the site, as it’s so easy to pin and never do.  Ya know?  Speaking of, I think it’s time to get your Betty Crocker on and try your hand at those pumpkin cream cheese muffins—before you forget about them and move on to something else.  They’re just too good to miss.  Promise. 

I totally ended up writing about food made with pumpkin.  Such is blogging.    (Did you know these little guys are called “emoticons”?  What a crack up!)

Gettin’ Twiggy With It

Fall is upon us my friends, and it has caused a small frenzy around our house as I’ve been bustling with energy that comes from crisp autumn air and the spirit of a new season.  Due to this burst of creative juices, I’ve finally attempted to finish several ongoing projects, like filling our bare walls.  One of the fastest ways to change the mood of a room is to change out the art.  Now I am no art expert, nor do we have any so-called “real” art.  But I do enjoy a project, so when I saw this idea roaming the blogosphere, I added it to my Pinterest art board and kept it tucked away for a rainy day. 

You might remember when we added these clean white frames to our dining area…

And you might recall that I shifted them to the living room and filled them with placemats…

I was quite certain that we would make a collage wall in our dining room, since it’s the only room where the walls are made of sheetrock, rather than plaster, making it much easier to hang things.  But, it was not to be.  At least not yet.  My décor seems to change with the wind, and I fully reserve the right to blow where it takes me.  As long as it’s okay with the hubs. 

Which brings me back to the twiggy art.  As I was digging through our basement one weekend afternoon, I stumbled upon a massive old frame that I used to have as the “Word Wall” in my classroom, along with a bundle of decorative twigs that never really fulfilled my original vision.  Light bulb moment!  Within 30 minutes I was spray painting my artwork and beaming over my success.  It’s the little things in life, truly. 

Project breakdown:

1.  Gather materials: frame, twigs, knife, hot glue/gun, spray paint 

2.  Decide if you want your twigs aligned vertically or horizontally.  I chose to go horizontal, because it seemed to flow with the layout of the room, rather than chopping it up. 

3.  Cut twigs to fit inside frame.  I broke a pair of scissors doing this, even though the twigs are make of fairly soft wood, so I recommend a sharp knife.

4.  Space the twigs to your liking and then hot glue them to the inside of the back of the frame.  I glued each end of the twig to the lip of the frame for stability. 

5.  Allow hot glue to dry completely (this doesn’t take long), and then remove any hot glue strings. 

6.  Spray paint several thin and even coats onto your artwork in a well ventilated area.

7.  Hang and enjoy!

We’re enjoying the modern, yet slightly rustic feel of the piece.  The best part?  It only required two holes to hang—and it was essentially free, since I had all of the materials on hand!

What artsy concoctions have you whipped up lately?