Christmas Card Photo and Holiday Decorations

Hubby has a great tradition of sending Christmas cards... when I met him, he was the only guy in his mid-20s that I knew that sent greeting cards.  It's one of the many things I love about him. To make his tradition truly ours, I have added extra complications (a tradition of mine) to the process.

Hubby used to send regular cards with a Santa or funny phrase, but I insist on sending photo cards.  It wouldn't be that bad if we sent cards with photos of just hubby and me, but I don't do simple.  I insisted that we take a picture of us as well as the two dogs.  I had been thinking about this photo since October when we had plenty of capable visitors to take our photo, but instead we waited until late November and hoped for the best with a tripod.

I thought the whole thing was so entertaining that I made a video of the series of pictures that made up our photo session...

Beyond sending out Christmas cards, hubby and I have decorated the house so that there are holiday greetings coming out of every corner.  With two Christmas trees (one real, one fake), the cutest tinsel trees from Target, stockings, and ornaments galore, it truly feels like the holidays at home.

Our real tree is joined by a snowman who is so excited that the holidays are here

 Our fake tree is a little more folksy and has lots of homemade ornaments

Here's a close look at the ornaments... my mom and I made all the little girl ornaments that are joined by store bought home-y ornaments

 This is our red tinsel tree bringing glimmer-y goodness to the coffee bar

 These cold weather birds are bundled up and keeping the coffee warm

 A vintage Starbucks advent calendar is one of my favorite additions from hubby's Christmas collection

Fall in Dallas & Ice-mageddon

We just had our first big ice storm in Dallas.  We lost power, and all the fall colored trees are covered in miniature frozen icicles.  Before the ice came, however, everything was in full fall mode.  The tree in the backyard was a bright yellow, and there was a small tree in the our secret garden, which had turned a crimson red.  Hubby and I have spent time raking up leaves and taking in the crisp fall air. 

 Proof of fall in our backyard

 Maui gladly posed near our pile of raked leaves

 We just got a fire pit, so we can enjoy the chill outdoors while having s'mores

 The pups are enjoying the cooler weather... this is them after a long run at a dog park

 Although not very autumnal, I love that our roses were blooming

This weekend an ice storm, called by some "ice-mageddon," disrupted the fall feeling in the neighborhood, and now everything is covered in a snowy/icy layer of white.  It's been quite an experience living in a Southern winter wonderland.  The pups are exploring the backyard with a whole new curiosity... perhaps the ice gives everything a new smell. 

The ice is so heavy that it has been bending trees

 You can see the icicles covering the leaves

Icicles are hanging from street signs and, in this case, the garage

Happy (Belated) Halloween!

From the title of this post, you can see that I'm a little behind in my blogging.  Though I haven't been blogging, I've been getting great blog ideas and can't wait to share them with you.  But first, Halloween...

We were told when we first bought our house that Halloween in Oak Cliff was a big deal.  We heard stories about the thousands of children that descend upon our neighborhood each year.  At first, hubby and I were skeptical... Where did all these kids come from?  Do people really spend that much money on candy?  Just in case, hubby and I (and some of our friends) loaded up with 1,000 pieces of candy.  I was a little afraid that we would be left with most of the candy, but that was not the case.  As promised, there were children everywhere.  We had a constant stream of trick-or-treaters from 6pm until we ran out of candy around 8pm.  If we hadn't had friends over to help pass out candy, we would never have found the time to eat dinner.  Now that we know what to expect, we are really looking forward to Halloween next year.

And what would Halloween be without decorations...

I made lasagna (not pictured) for dinner on Halloween night with skull shaped cakes for dessert and plenty of Halloween-themed wine.

Thanks to my mom, who gifted us the skull cake pan, I was able to make some very gruesome cakes.

 This is my attempt at exploding brains.

 We had spider webs all over the dining room... watch out for the black cat!

A skeleton garland hung on the fireplace with pumpkins all over...

There were LOTS of pumpkins!

More current holiday posts to come!

September's Blog Post

As you may have noticed, I've been remiss in writing blog posts in the month of September, and while I am writing now, I have no plans to write another one this month... that makes this September's one and only blog post.  Lots has been going on, which is why I haven't been writing.  Over Labor Day, we made a very quick trip to South Florida so I could go shopping with my sister.  Then we decided to go on vacation in Hawaii for a week.  We went to Maui and Kauai, which were both spectacular.  It was my first time to Hawaii, and I was not disappointed.

This is us on the road to Hana

Since being back home from vacation, hubby and I have been working on the house again.  We had bought a puzzle of old time candy wrappers and were finally able to start it (and finish it!).  This weekend, I glued it together and framed it for above the breakfast nook.  The vintage wrappers not only look delicious but add to the vibe of the kitchen. 

Here it is hung up above the breakfast nook... now we need to find things to put on that shelf above the nook

 Here's a close up of some of the candy wrappers

Also this weekend, we painted the living room!  We were beginning to feel the all white living room was a bit sterile and reminded us of an insane asylum... not the look for the center of the home.  We decided on a light brown called Churchill Hotel Maple.  The new paint job has added a warmth to the room as well as highlighted the trim and doors.  See below for a video of us making it all happen.

See you in October!

Adding Decor

It's been just over two months since hubby and I moved to our new house.  While we managed most of the unpacking within the first week of being in the house, there was still one large box left unpacked.  This box held all of our artwork and wall decorations.  After buying a new piece of art for our living room, we were inspired to finally unpack our last box.  The house is feeling more like home now than ever before.

That's our new painting and some new additions to our living room decor

With the pillows recovered and a few new additions, the living room's Moroccan theme is really coming together.  We've also added to our coffee bar.  I found the cutest print from Paper Finch Designs on Scoutmob.com.  It's a map where the states/cities we've lived in have been highlighted.  We were able to customize it with some of our more recent homes, and now it is hung above the coffee bar surrounded by photos of our travels.

Our travel themed coffee bar

 The greatest design... it says "roam if you want to"... and hubby and I have done quite some roaming

The girls waiting for us in the morning... so adorable!

Project Home Decor

Hubby and I are slowly decorating the house and putting our spin on it.  We recently bought a piece of art for the living room, and I am in the process of recovering the throw pillows on the living room couch.  I love doing different projects to help add personal touches to our home (as you might guess from my homemade coffee table project).  When we were looking for houses, I made sure we would have an extra room to serve as an office/guest room/crafting-project space. 

The newly recovered pillow on the left and the old pillow on the right.

This all-purpose space is key to all the crazy things I come up with.  I have set up a table that flaps open to hold my sewing machine for the pillow project.  There's a tall bookcase that has all my cookbooks and craft books.  My treadmill sits in the corner of the room ready for morning workouts.  The desks in the room are not as necessary with the study that is located just off of this room, but they still hold stationary, a TV, and inspirational mementos.

Where the magic happens... this is the view from the door to guest room/workspace.

You can see my workout space and the surprisingly comfy pull out couch.

The sewing machine is set up for my pillow project.  You can see the fireplace in the living room through the door.

The Heart of the House

To me, the heart of the house is in the kitchen.  I enjoy cooking and love to eat, so that is where I spend most of my time.  Even when I'm not cooking, I'm hanging out in the breakfast nook by the kitchen, which is a great place to get work done.  When we did our house search, the kitchen was my area of concern.  There were obviously other factors I looked at, but the kitchen had the highest priority.  While our kitchen is not huge, it is just the right size for my culinary projects as well as all the gadgets needed in order to be ready for any food challenge.

This is the view beginning to the right of the kitchen entrance.  We have a double oven and gas stove, which were both musts for me.  Also, our fridge is awesome, which is all thanks to hubby.

You can see the archway as you enter into the kitchen that mirrors the archway from the living room into the dining room.  That is the laundry room beyond the smaller archway.

The farmer's style sink is so beautiful and goes well with the vintage touches in the house.  A window allows light to stream in.

This counter is just to your left as you enter the kitchen from the dining room.  The coffee bar in the dining room has cleared up much needed space for prepping food.  Though, tonight is just take out... that's what the boxes on the counter are.

Our laundry room is hidden in these cabinets.  The front-load washer and dryer hidden inside allow us to be energy efficient and give us even more cabinet and counter space for folding.

Although the kitchen is the heart of the house for me, hubby feels that the backyard is the heart of the home.  He loves being outside, though Dallas summer takes a little more courage to brave the heat.  We have outdoor couches set up under a pergola with a built-in fan, which helps us fully appreciate our garden without getting scorched.  Hubby spent a large chunk of last weekend weeding and sprucing up the backyard, which was a step in the right direction.  This fall will definitely see some fun garden parties and maybe some fire pit s'mores in the winter.  

Here is a view of the backyard from our backdoor.  The couches and such are to the left outside of the picture.  The trellis in the back leads to what I call our secret garden.  The building you see next to the trellis is our detached garage.

 Now you can see the corner of one couch and the door to the garage.

This is our side yard, which is along the side of our house (duh).  The door you see at the end, leads to our study.

This is the current state of our secret garden.  The side yard looked like this last week, so hubby did an impressive job with that.  This may be the next project.

The real heart of our home are our two pooches... aren't they the cutest?

Nooks and Crannies

One of our new home's selling points was the breakfast nook.  It is so cute and cozy with sunlight that streams in through the windows.  Originally, I thought it was a little unnecessary considering that we already had a dining room table and that most of the time we just ate at the coffee table in front of the TV.  Now that we are in the house, we actually use our breakfast nook for breakfast and our dining room for dinner (we still eat lunch at the coffee table). 

It was a bit tricky to get it all in one shot.  There is a shelf above the window that used to hold vintage coffee pots in the previous owner's home.  We're not sure what we will put up there yet.

The breakfast nook is located in the room beyond the dining room just before you enter the kitchen.  Hubby and the dogs will hang out in the breakfast nook and talk to me while I cook.  Hubby's mom and pops were in town this weekend, and I made a pancake and bacon feast that we ate in the breakfast nook.  Although we don't have a counter with bar stools (a feature I really like), the breakfast nook allows for people to be part of the cooking process without being directly in the kitchen. 

We've hung my cutest aprons up on the wall.

Just across from the breakfast nook is a small butler's pantry where we've put our wine glasses and server-ware.  Here again there are older influences that came from the original house.  The etched mirrored cabinet panels are beautiful and give a nod to the mirror design in the master bedroom.  My little sister gave us the Pacifico sign that appears above the cabinets.  Even without having seen the house, she gave us such a thoughtful gift that blends flawlessly with the house's style.

Maui decided she wanted to be in the picture.


 

Just because we love them, a picture of the puppies sitting outside our bedroom.

And a video of Lanai (affectionately called Little Leni) dancing

Time to dine

The tour of our new house continues.  Decorating has been a slow process with busy schedules, but hopefully I will have artsy projects to update you on later in the summer.  For now, the tour takes us to the dining room.  We are using much more of our dining room now than we did before, which is wonderful.  The most fun part of the dining room is the coffee bar we have set up.  Hubby loves coffee and has been collecting mugs from different places he has visited.  As a way to show off his love of coffee and keep the kitchen counters and cabinets a little clearer, we set up a coffee bar to house all of our coffee machines and accessories. 

The dining room is located just past the living room through a really pretty archway

There are windows that line one wall of the dining room letting in great natural light... that's our wine fridge in the corner

This is the coffee bar, my favorite part of the dining room... our plan is to add paintings/prints above the mugs either in a coffee theme or a travel theme

 And because I think they are adorable, a picture of our pups as they sit here with me

Home Sweet Home

After a whirlwind two months, things have settled enough to actually sit down and write a post.  In May, hubby and I began searching for a house.  We felt that we had been apartment dwellers long enough and wanted a place to call our own with a backyard that Maui could call her own.  We searched much of the DFW metroplex trying to find a neighborhood that would fit us and a commute that wouldn't kill us.  As our search continued, we felt that this might never be possible until we visited the Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas.  This up and coming gem is filled with houses built in the early 1900s and new, independent restaurants that have popped up during its gentrification and rejuvenation. 

From the moment we saw our house, we knew it was the one... much the way that hubby and I met and how we met Maui.  Our house was built in 1936, and although some parts have been redone, all remodeling has kept a nod to the past.  Hubby and I love these little details that remind us of the house's history.  For example, we have a telephone nook in the hallway which must have been where the one central telephone was put. 

 Our new home!

 I think this may be the original door knob... how cool!

 This is our mail slot from the inside of the house... they just don't make stuff like this anymore

Understandably, our home search and the move have kept me busy over the last two months.  Things are finally starting to settle down... and things are finally out of boxes.  I am beginning to envision how we will decorate the rooms and add our touches to the house.  I thought I would share with you views of the house as I get to cleaning it up and decorating. 

To begin, I would like to introduce you to our living room.  It is the first room you enter when you enter the house through the front door, and, therefore, also serves as our foyer.  It's a lovely light filled room with plantation shutter windows and a gas fireplace.  My mom came to Texas to help with the move, and while she was here we made a new coffee table with tin ceiling panels we picked up at a flea market in McKinney (I love being handy in our garage!).  We are holding onto our old couches but I am trying to re-imagine them by adding new pillows that bring a new feeling to the room as well as some new accent colors.

This is the view from the wall next to the front door

You can see the new (but vintage looking) sconces and the detail in the corner of the archway to the dining room

This is the coffee table we made... I am very proud of it

The tin panels are so fun... I love the style they add to the room

Here are my mom and I using our new saw... I love power tools!

My dad was in town for Father's Day and pitched in during our project

In addition to the new home, we have a new family addition.  Hubby and I felt that Maui was a little lonely and might want a playmate to share her yard with.  Lanai (Leni for short) is a shih tzu/poodle mix rescue who is about 11 months old.  She and Maui are getting along well even with the slight difference in size.  Leni is super cuddly and has made herself at home in our new house. 

 Welcome Leni!

I promise to introduce you to more rooms in the house and add more puppy pictures (hubby can't get enough).  Thank you for coming along with us as our Texas adventures continue!