Christmas 2015

    I can't believe it's Christmas time already! It feels like I was just fluffing the trees yesterday, and here we are again! I must confess, I stole these pictures from hubby's facebook album.  :-) Almost everything is from Kirklands unless otherwise stated.

Check out last year -->>> Christmas 2014

 Half our tree lights went out so we had to wrap a few of our own. Our next tree will not come with lights! I don't like stressing over whether or not the lights will work  year to year. I rather wrap my own lights. :-) We kept our burlap from last year, I tied a few bows this time. 

 Blurry candid pics

 Blurry candid pics

Blurry candid pics

Our DIY ribbon bow topper I made several years ago. I  removed the hanging ribbon, since I added burlap bows. I also used sparkly picks to help stabilize the topper and add drama. Hubby and I love "Rustic Glam" which mixes rustic touches with sparkle and glitz.

 Our dining room tree. My Mother-In-Law gave hubby a few of her Santas, which hubby happily incorporated. They hold lots of memories for him.

 dining room tree

  dining room tree

 dining room tree

 

Thanksgiving! I used a cheap burlap runner from Walmart (as usual) so my nice burlap runner doesn't get stained while everyone is eating ;-)  And we extended our table so we all fit nicely. It's a littler weird having the Christmas decor up for Thanksgiving, but it's my family tradition :-) 

 Nephew on Thanksgiving

 Hubby and nephew

For hubby's 30th birthday this year, his mom bought him a Christmas Village set. This has been his dream forever! And so it begins! 

Large sparkly Santa from Kirklands looking over our little town :-)

I love this new addition - rustic wood sign from Kirklands! 

Hubby and our nephew on Thanksgiving.

The catch all entry way :-P All the little knickknacks end up on this table.

Our mantle.  I wrapped our tiny trees with leftover burlap and added a flower pick on the top - kept it simple. 

 The evenings are nice <3

Jesus is the reason for the season. 

Hubby's favorite Santa from his childhood. This is one of the ones his mom passed along to us.

 Tiny Village in our TV console cubby. Hubby and I are most excited about this!

 In another cubby we put hubby's childhood manger scene with an under cabinet light.

In the breakfast room we have a ginger bread village.

Love our tree! I'm thinking about adding lace on top of the burlap to match the tree skirt and a few white snowflakes to bring in the white throughout the house. Maybe next year!

It looks like we need one more wrap of burlap at the bottom, but it's an optical illusion. I've checked several times because of this picture lol

 Front yard! Eventually we want to wrap the trees.

 

 Growing slowly. This year we wrapped the yard in lights. Next year hubby wants to tackle the trees and fence. 

 Gotta represent the meaning of the season! 

 Hubby's trees and gifts! A few garden picks in the background.

 Merry Christmas!!

Love,

 The Newmans

Hello October!

It's our favorite time of year, y'all! October is only a few days away and the excitement is building! This is the start of  a very special month for us - our anniversary, home buying anniversary and hubby's 30th birthday - not to mention the traditional reasons to love October like pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin carving, turning of leaves, costumes and cooler days. It's simply the best! 

    We don't go over the top decorating for fall, but we do add a little something here and there. Enjoy!:-) Almost everything is from Kirklands.

LAST YEARS FALL BLOG 

and

LAST YEARS FALL TABLESCAPE

Fall mantle. Sorry it's blurry but the sun was blazing through the windows and my camera was not adjusting well. We added a few things this year.

 Pumpkin Candle holder from Bed Bath and Body Works.

 I love this pumpkin candle holder from Kirklands. It's really nice in the evenings.

 We added a harvest canvas to the dinning room
 

Our mantle hasn't changed much, we added two scarecrows and a blue bird we purchased during our trip to San Antonia botanical gardens. 

 Female Scarecrow and pumpkins from Kirklands

Male scarecrow and white give thanks pumpkin from Kirklands

Pumpkins in TV cabinet

 Fall flowers and pumpkin on TV cabinet

Large floor standing pumpkin in our entry way - from Kirklands

white ceramic pumpkin on our living room coffee table

 Breakfast room - fall runner, two brown sparkly pumpkins and fall candle stand

 Random sparkly pumpkins are placed throughout the house.

Pumpkin Spice candle in Kitchen

I have two silver leaves from At Home stores on our dinning room.

Dining room Cabinet

    We picked up our new TV console at the local Rooms-to-go yesterday. This allowed us to move the cabinet we were using into the dining room like we've been planning for years. Check out my past blog post about this piece of furniture HERE.

( I love how slim this cabinet is - one of the reasons we picked it years ago. 

It fits well in our small space.)

(lots of spaces between the chairs and cabinet)

(The evenings are nice.)

Blue or white TV console?

     We have been going back and forth on which color TV console to pick from Rooms-to-go. We love the bluish green one, obviously lol. Our house is filled with this inspiring color. Surprisingly, for this reason we are leaning towards the white. We considered that adding a blue TV console would be to much of a good thing in our space. The white would also brighten things up.

( blue/green console and warm pine console) 

(white rustic console)

DIY Mantle

     My next project, only because I assume it will be easy, inexpensive and I can do it on my own, is to change the tile on our fireplace. The only thing I'm stuck on is what to replace the white tiles with. Obviously, I want something warmer but other than that I'm very indecisive.

 (2012 before we moved in)

 

As you can see the tile doesn't go well with our moody space

I think the white sticks out like sore thumb



IDEAS:

I love the idea of adding a thin decorative trim to whatever tile we choose, as seen in this picture. 

New lamps & accent pillows

See previous master bedroom blog posts CLICK HERE!

Hubby and I spotted this beautiful lamp on sale at Kirklands and it was love at first sight! If you don't know, Kirklands has a spin to win app --- >> you can play once a day! Hubby and I always spin before we check-out. You can get huge discounts, up to 50% off, I think. Anyway, it's a must download! Kirklands always has a variety of lamps in stock. These are shimmery and creamy. Love them!

 Hubby had this bedroom set before we got married. It's very big and masculine. I don't hate it, but one day I may replace the headboard, that's at the bottom of our list, no where in the near future. I purchased the "Dream" sign a few years ago at Garden Ridge (now AtHome stores). You can see the new lamp on the right side.

 I love flowers, and I love blues/greens. I found this bed spread a few years ago. It's got a corduroy type of feel, so it's durable with a house full of dogs who like to jump up and claw everything. Our accent wall is painted in Zen by Behr from Home Depot. I also purchased the sparkly "Mr. & Mrs." pillow from T.J.Max or Ross (I can't remember). The shiny cream pillow is from Target.

Here you can see the two lamps on our night stands. They are sheer when the sun shines through them. I planted 8 roses bushes behind bedroom windows a few years ago. It's so nice to see the bright red fresh blooms peeking in (unfortunately they aren't blooming right now). 

 

 Another angle . We have a third huge window to the right of this picture where you can see our fountain. 

(the fountain front and center outside our third window. I have a past blog about restoring this old fountain into what it is today)

You can see the main paint color in our bedroom here, also a peek at our vaulted ceilings. We painted the other three walls in our bed room, Avenue Tan by Behr a few months ago. Finally changed it from Burnt Almond, which was much to dark! All we need now is crown molding which we will install ourselves eventually. :-)

 Making memories with each project.

Dining Room Chairs

Check out our dining room BEFORE pictures <<<---- Click there!

      The day has finally come, we have chairs in our dining room! It's been two years! We found our table on sale about a year ago and couldn't find any chairs we liked. Finally, we found something slim for our small dining room. The colors look great in our space!

 

 (Here you can see the fabric details. I love the variety of blues, golds and creams.)

  

As we were shopping for chairs, we knew we weren't looking for something overly matchy-matchy. The woods didn't have to be identical, they simply had to go well together. I like how the spindle legs mimic the table legs.

( the height work well also)

    

      We have three more things on our to-do list. 1.) Buy a rug.  2.) Buy a new light fixture. 3.) Install white arch molding (see the tan/yellow paint along the room transition/arch?) 4.) Move our current TV stand to under the map and use as a buffet table (we are waiting until we get a new TV stand.) So, that's it for the dining room for now.

Dining room paint color: Hazel by Sherwin-Williams

Master Bathroom Cabinets

       We finished up a bathroom projects a few weeks ago. Valentine's weekend I painted the Master bathroom cabinets white and we added new knobs. The previous owner had painted the cabinets and hinges quickly with primer. Seeing the wood peek through here and there has always bothered us, but we never got around to painting them.
       I'm so thankful we had the burst of motivation to do it, even if it was Valentine's days. I must say, a good coat of paint does wonders! And who knew hinges could be such a hassle! We made at least 3 trips to Home Depot buying and returning hinges. :-)

 

       Eventually we will replace the original counters and put in a nice white quartz counter. One thing I've learned about real-estate is you have to put a little money into your house every year if you want to sell it for top price. We were able to get a great deal on our house because it didn't have any upgrades, but now we have to invest and do those DIY projects. It makes for great memories, though. 

Future cabinet projects include painting guest bathroom cabinets and kitchen cabinets. 

Previous cabinet projects - Laundry room cabinets