Hello December!

Whew -- So long to November!

It  was a bit of a tough month

with Mr. Tennis being ill and having surgery

during Thanksgiving week

Deja vu all over again as last year

at this time he was ill too.

He is on the mend and we are hopeful

for a full and speedy recovery!

Pine cones -- love these!

So, in a rather slow attempt to get some

holiday decorating done,

Maddy and I went to our local Earl May

and put together some

pot-toppers for the outside planters.

It was a DIY day so we nabbed their heavy duty

cutters and went at it.

Glitter and pine cones and embellishments were flying!

We each put one together 

and think we did a fabulous job!

We love to pat each other on the back 

when we accomplish something halfway crafty!

This morning when I picked up the newspaper, I noticed now that 

we've had a bit of snow,

the pot-toppers look even more festive!

Check off part 1 of outside holiday decorating!

Christmas Tree Decorating 101

Oh dear -- why, oh why am I not one of those 

super-organized

people with gifts purchased and wrapped,

house cleaned and decorated??

But, let's just accept it, stop 

beating myself up

and have a few more Hershey kisses while I ponder that,

shall we??? :)

We finally got our tree up and mostly decorated!

Here's my extremely valid excuse!

Last April/May when we had the floors done,

the guys had to jackhammer out the

concrete subfloor!

A ton of that concrete dust and debris

floated down to the storage room below, covering

everything in a very thick layer of 

yucky, icky-sticky dust, bits of concrete, etc!
So, unless everything was totally covered (and it wasn't)
that crud got everywhere and messed up my decorations!
A lot of garland and wreaths had to be tossed -- there's no
way without the hose (and it's too cold for that)
to get that dust out!

So, this year, we went for a different look on the mantle!
Can you say white feather boas??
So floaty and soft -- Maddy says it reminds her of snow
(yes, she's praying for snow and lots of it!)!

Maddy and I love it and, after all, our opinions count the most!
We still have few a few more things to pull out and dust off.
One of these days
(maybe Dec. 24th), we'll be ready!  :)

Fa
 LaLaLaLa
LaLaLaLa!

Constructing a Pot-Topper

Tis the Season . . . 

to start the holiday decorating!

It was warmish on Saturday, so Maddy and I cleaned up

the leaves and disgusting frozen pumpkins from the

front yard and trimmed branches.

We knew the cold would be back

and it was -- by late Saturday!

Soooooo, on Sunday, we headed

over to our local garden center, Earl May, to

put together some pot-toppers.

Earl and his workers had put the greenery together

on Styrofoam blocks.

Then, they had all kinds of goodies to add

to the greenery  -- acorns, ornaments, flocked branches,

colored leaves and berries!

Our job was to do add whatever the heck we wanted!

It was so much fun!

We wished we had arrived sooner so we could

put together more fun greenery!

Definitely marking our calendar to do this

every single year. 

They also provided some hooks so we could place the toppers

on a pot of dirt and secure it.

Last year, I purchased pot-toppers and they cost

at least $10 to $15 more each plus had less add-ons!

We had such a fun mother/daughter afternoon 

of holiday fun!

Decorating Advice Needed

Oh wise Internet bloggers -- can you help a girl out?? There's my fireplace, yeah, right there. I need some advice on some sconces for my living room. I checked into putting electric light sconces up years ago, but the electrician spent a great deal of time scratching his head trying to figure out the wiring or some such, so I discarded that idea. But, having been inspired by Lisa's cool decorations and the Queen Bee's great re-dos, I found these great wood sconces on sale at Micha*ls for 80% off -- yes, they were only $6 each. So, my question is -- do I just put them up like this or paint them? And if I paint them -- what color - black? white? other? As you can see the fireplace and the wood trim all over the house is painted white.

Here is one of the wood sconces -- so aptly (albeit reluctantly) held in place by the Hub. Other furniture in the room is fairly dark (like cherry) wood. So, do tell, what should I do?