Monday, December 28, 2009

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas....

And a Happy New Year!!! I am looking forward to 2010 and am working on an extensive TO DO list and TO CHANGE list both decoratively and personally.



I know much time has passed since I last posted and lots has taken place since then. Christmas is over and I am already working on the new. I am making a pledge to faithfully blog each day!!!!

(Let's me honest...at least a few more times than I usually do during the week!
)

For your enjoying pleasure (or displeasure) here's a little bit of what we have been doing in the meantime:

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1) Christmas Tree Makeovers

Several seasons ago, my pal Heather & I battled the shopping wars of the after Thanksgiving Sales and one of the stores we targeted was Jo-Ann's for these lovely trees:
Over the years the paint chipped and I never removed the "extra" glue the factory graciously supplied me with.

Despite their imperfections, I believe these babies price tickets were $19.99 a tree (if my memory if not mistaken...Heather feel free to correct me if I am wrong ;). At that time, it was a steal! A.k.a. a smoking deal!!!


I covered these hostages and got to work with my spray paint gun and a can of Rust-Oleum Flat Black on my "professional paint station".


And a couple coats later, they were transformed. I think they match our house better if I don't say so myself.




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2) Shopping...But Not for Stockings!

I hit Cost Plus World Market to take advantage of their great ad coupons and to my surprise, our store was stocked with plenty of $1 stockings.
(get it...stocked with stockings....)




To hang these socks, I reused a ribbon that was on one of the furniture sets we bought for Annelise @ PB Kids.
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3) Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we baked cookies and put them out with a glass of milk for Santa. The kids scurried to bed at a unseen speeds and were out like a light in seconds.

On Christmas morning, Annelise was up at the crack of dawn and was astonished the presents she viewed from the top of the stairs. With persistence, she was successful in pulling Mike and I out of bed.

Annelise was in total awe and kept screaming "oh my gosh Santa" in delight!


And the fire station kept our little firefighter entranced for hours!
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4) Setting the Table

2009 was the first year that I actually put in some effort with setting the table. For some reason I did not have the passion for it that I do now.

The only new additions to the table were the place mats and napkins from Dillards.

This high class tableware only cost a pretty penny...
well maybe a little more but darn close....

Place Mats only $2.40 ea. & Napkins only $1.80 ea.

Hopefully next year I will have something a little more elaborate and will invest a little more craft and thought!
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5) Clean-Up

No pictures to show for this but trust me, my house was a complete disaster after the in-laws came to visit and eat Christmas dinner.

My hubby & I were up into the wee hours of the night picking up the wrappings, washing dishes, doing laundry & wiping down counters.

Fortunately, we decided not to wash the floors before the company came so we would have clean floors for longer than an evening ;)
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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year
from Anne, Mike, Annelise & Michael @
The Loyd Collection

1 comment:

  1. Looks like your Christmas was awesome. Thanks for all the puns in your post. LOL
    I love the table setting, but it needs a little greenery or some pretty flowers. Just a helpful suggestion for next time. :)
    You are always so full of "helpful" suggestions that I thought I would in turn assist you!

    ReplyDelete