A Tree for Every Room: Gilded Dining Room Tree

Last year I had a goal to really do up the house for Christmas, including (as the title suggests) a decorated tree for each room. Between a convention in Mississippi in the middle the month and sheer end of the year exhaustion, it didn’t happen. I got 2 trees decorated and Todd put the lights on the big tree on the landing, but that’s as far as I got.

I did, however, order supplies for the dining room tree, so I was set to get started this year! Over on the Helmar blog I have step-by-step instructions of how I made the kitchen-themed garlandÂ for the centerpiece of my tablescape. Here’s the rest of the story, as it were.

I started with a simple artificial tree from Big Lots. It was the right size, but it was green, and the picture in my head was of a white and gold scene. So I used a tip from Jen over at EPBOT to flock our tree with spackling. Only thing was, all the spackle we could find was the heavier stuff, but there was spray spackle on the shelf and we decided to give that a shot. It worked perfectlyÂ and didn’t even take a full bottle to cover the little tree. If I find the second tree we bought (but is currently buried in the Christmas closet) it will be no problem to do it up as well.

Once flocked and the garland made, it was time to add a few more items. I didn’t want to overwhelm the tiny tree, so I added a single strand of white LED lights and a strand of small pearls to balance the heavier wood and gold garland. And it’s the dining room, it’s okay to dress up!

Finally, I made some ornaments from a set of metal chocolate molds. I used an awl to punch small holes in the top and bottom of each mold and wired a loop at the top with gold wire to attach a hook. From the bottom hangs a large faux pearl.

I still need more to really fill out the tablescape–one tree isn’t going to cut it–but for now this is a really good start. I love seeing the tree on our dining room table when I walk through the room and I’m really excited to go get our big tree for upstairs this weekend!

How to Hang Outdoor Wreaths Without a Ladder

The Gingerbread Diaries

One of the many awesome things about the Dollhouse is that it gives us these great windows to decorate. Since I’m so used to living in apartments or single-story homes with porches that obscure windows and doors (great for keeping the house cool, not so great for decorating), having that row of upstairs windows is still kind of novel for me. And I knew without question that I wanted wreaths for the windows for Christmas.

Don’t mind the bare center window–the upstairs tree will shine through it at night!

The question was, how to hang them?

There are plenty of instructions for double-hung windows that involve lowering the top sash, but ours are the old single-hung type. There’s always the “direct” route involving the porch roof and maybe a ladder besides, but I wasn’t keen on the danger element, there (and this was months before Todd and ladder disagreed and he ended up with plates in his wrist, no way we’d go that route now!). So what to do?

Necessity is the mother of invention, after all, so this is how we hung our Christmas wreaths on those upper windows (pictures from last year). If you’ve faced a similar quandary, allow me to solve that for you!

What you’ll need:

Wreaths of your choice (I got these 24″ wreathes from Walmart, again, last year, for only 3.98 each and the bows from the Dollar Tree–both held up great)
Tulle or some other sort of sturdy mesh material (thin is important here, you’ll see why)
Cup hooks
A wire coat-hanger
A helper

You can tell this was taken in 2014, the hallway still has its wallpaper!

So start out by fluffing out and decorating your wreaths as necessary. The fluffing is mandatory for most artificial wreaths as they’re quite squished and can look pretty anemic when first purchased. I chose to go with simple red bows and nothing else because it presents the highest contrast and is less likely to get damaged by the elements. Tie a fairly long loop of tulle or netting to the top of each wreath.

While I suppose you could anchor the wreaths to the window latch, it didn’t sound like a good option long-term. Cup hooks are cheap and it’s not going to compromise the window frame.

Screw a cup hook (hook facing down) to the center-top of the lower window sash, on the inside of the house. This will be your anchor.

Now we’re getting somewhere!

Straighten out the coat hanger except for the top hook. Now, open the window about 6-8 inches or so, just enough to let the wreath pass through when flat. (Oh, you’re going to need to remove the screens for this to work, too. Most of our upstairs windows don’t have screens, so it’s not really an issue for us.) Slip the coat hanger, hook-down, behind the lower window sash–it helps if your helper is tall–and between where the two sashesÂ pass.

We practiced on the downstairs window, just in case…

Hook the tulle onto the coat hanger and have your helper carefully pull the hook up and through the gap between the window panes while you guide the wreath safely through the open window gap. It’s worth noting that our windows are 70-some-odd inches high, making each half more than a yard tall. If your windows aren’t so lofty and you have reasonably long arms, you might be able to do this without a helper.

And there you go! One safely hung wreath!

Close the window, sandwiching the tulle between where the sashes overlap (the tulle compresses enough that there’s not a big gap for air to seep in or out), position the wreath roughly in the horizontal and vertical center of the lower sash, and wrap the tulle several times around the cup hook to secure it, finishing with a slip knot.

Tadaa! You have now hung your exterior wreaths without risk of life or limb.

You can’t see the wreaths, but you can see the lit Christmas tree upstairs.

We’re looking forward to getting our tree this weekend and I’m sure the outdoor decorations will be coming out as well! We kept the unbent coat hanger in the closet with the rest of the decorations just so we wouldn’t have to hunt up another one!

Do you decorate your windows for the holidays?

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Fondue

Everyday Adventures

We have a habit of staying in on New Year’s Eve and our “tradition,” loose use of the word as it is, is to watch a movie, flip over to see the ball drop, clink Champagne glasses, kiss, and go back to the movie. Dinner is up to whomever is cooking, but it’s usually something that lends itself to being eaten on the sofa while watching said movie. This year we decided on a variety of nibbles and the ooey-gooey goodness of cheese fondue.

Fondue is not complicated. It’s shredded cheese (often one or more of the Swiss varieties), a little wine or beer (or broth if you so choose), and a touch of mustard or garlic. And if kept adequately hot it remains nice and smooth and dip-able. Some fondue pots are electric but ours is of the sterno/candle variety–seriously, never underestimate the power of a tea light!–and we were missing one crucial piece of the puzzle.

A match.

Or lighter or any other fire-starter you can think of. We searched high, we searched low. We searched junk drawers, offices, the butler’s pantry, the bar. And despite knowing for a fact that we owned at least 2 boxes of matches and one long-arm lighter, none could be found. The only thing we could locate was a box of strike-on-box fat lighter sticks, but that seemed like overkill, so Todd did the logical thing and went to the store 4 hours til midnight.

Dinner is served… and saved!

Our movie was From Time to Time, with Maggie Smith, and old drafty manor house, and a family secret that needed to be solved pronto, all set in the last days of WWII. That’s pretty much our movie preference tied up in a bow, though it’s in stark contrast to the numerous episodes of Criminal Minds we mainlined on Christmas day.

I’ve put in a request to add more 2-player board games to our stash so we can switch up our routines a bit.

* * *

This weekend was super-productive and I’m starting of this week with a very Seize the Day attitude. It was a mix of fun, work, and future work and I’ll walk into work for the second time in as many weeks with a clear desk.

Today I’ve got a post up over on Love My Fabrics about my favorite sewing technique: French seams. We (the creative team) are still anxiously awaiting our fabric to arrive, but it’s not stopping us from posting. (I also wrote a post last month on organizing my fabric stash.) Speaking of my posts elsewhere, I created a couple different types of ornaments for my December Gauche and Helmar projects. The Gauche site is currently in transition, but you can find out about my Victorian Lady ornaments on the Helmar blog.

My Gauche-inspired Vintage Christmas ornament.

I had big plans for decorating the Dollhouse for Christmas. We got, um, maybe 50% there? The exterior got garland, lights, and wreaths, but the inside only managed to decorate 2 of 4 planned trees and the hallway entry. Oh, well, it gives us something to shoot for next year!

The library hosted our “fussy” Victorian-style tree with lots of handmade glittery paper ornaments and bits of bling.

And we avoided rearranging the living room by sticking to our small table-top tree with the fun, colorful, mismatched ornaments on it.

The big tree was on the upstairs landing but it never got more than lights on it. Which was good since that’s what shone through the upstairs center window.

What you can’t see are the wreaths in the upstairs windows with the room lights off. We did finally procure electric candles but never got around to setting them up. Next year!

It’s not a full-on blogger house tour, but I wanted to at least get these pictures up before the decorations all come down on the 6th–just made it!

Merry Christmas!

Everyday Adventures, The Gingerbread Diaries

It’s Christmas Day and, as usual for us, we’re just hanging around the house enjoying the lack of activity. Several years ago my family started doing the big celebration on Christmas Eve (mostly to allow for my brother and sister-in-law to make the rounds of her family on Christmas Day), so we had them over last night for the big dinner and present-opening, etc.

Of course, things weren’t going quite as smoothly as I had hoped, when the scene both in the house and the garage was looking a bit like this…

Both in the garage…

…and inside the house!

Which necessitate a call to these guys…

Because doesn’t everyone want to call a plumber on Christmas Eve?!

Luckily, though, the prancing and pawing of the plumber and his snake on the roof led to the clearing of the clog that was causing the water to back up, and he was gone about 15 minutes before the first of my family showed up. Timing is everything, folks!

On Monday I finally found enough holiday spirit to actually put up our holiday decorations. We had plenty of pretty cards from friends and family to decorate the pass-through, flanked by our Nick and Nora Build-a-Bear sock monkeys.

We continued to use our tomato-cage “trees” again this year, along with our “drunken monkey” ornament theme. Will we ever get tired of them? Highly doubtful.

Of course, this year we had an extra special addition to the ornaments: a “Happily Ever After” ornament complete with mouse ears and our wedding date, courtesy of a friend and wedding guest.

The way things are going, though, next year we might have room again for a full-sized tree!

This past week has been a bit of a whirl-wind. On Tuesday I found the house I was pining for in my last post, and on Friday I got some of the most grown-up news I’ve every gotten: pre-approval for a mortgage! So Saturday, as we toured the 1910 Victorian, we made the decision to put in an offer and decided to see if they’d accept almost 10K under list price. Imagine our surprise when they accepted it within a day without a counteroffer! Todd now thinks we could have offered less, but I think we’re still getting an amazing deal on a house this size.

After walking through it (and under it, in Todd’s case), we felt comfortable with the amount of work it would need to update parts and pretty-up others. The original house is in amazing shape–some cracks in the plaster from 103 years of settling, but still very sturdy and solid from what we could tell. The outside looks a little shabby, but that’s just peeling paint; the clapboards are still solid and strong. The 1970ish addition, though, that’s where the most work will be needed, including ripping out the kitchen floor and maybe a wall in the hallway extension.

rear view of a 1910 Victorian home with a 1970 addition

The back of the house, showing the add-on upstairs bathroom, and the kitchen/bath/laundry update from the 70s. Yes, the laundry room does look tilted–that’s something we’re going to have to address.

Of course, we’re not pros, so a lot will be determined by the formal inspection still to come. We’re hoping nothing new and drastic pops up from that process, but as long as his or her findings square with ours, we’ll continue on with the home-buying process. Our offer is contingent on a satisfactory inspection, and we have until January 15, to complete our Due Diligence and pull out of the deal without any repercussions. I really hope it doesn’t come to that–we’re looking forward to a move next year!

If all goes well, closing is set for the end of February, which would give us a 5-month overlap between taking possession and our lease being up in our current rental. Plenty of weekends to spend up in Thomasville doing the basics, getting the home ready for us to move in without the last-minute scramble we had in our last move.

But that’s enough house-talk for now. I think it’s time to raid the leftovers for tonight’s supper!

However you’ve spend your holiday, I hope it was a happy one. And if you have celebrations still to come, I hope you have fun

Our Last Christmas Before Mr and Mrs

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

I think all couples, especially those who’ve waited through a long engagement, enjoy noting various “last” milestones and playing the this-time-next-year game in anticipation of the major life-change that is a wedding.

Todd and I are no different in that respect.

This year’s holiday was spent, on Christmas Eve, with my family and then just the two of us for the sleepy, rainy, grey Christmas Day. We exchanged gifts and spent the day in our pjs and, honestly, I hope we’re doing the very same next year. But maybe without the rain.

Todd was kind enough to build a toasty fire for us and we both camped out on the couch with our laptops. I got caught up with my feed reader and then started to catch up my Project Wedding Project Life album:

Week 1 of our 52-Week Countdown

Week 2 of our 52-Week Countdown

Week 3 of our 52-Week Countdown

Week 4 of our 52-Week Countdown

I’ve been pretty good about taking notes, slightly less good at taking pictures in the craziness of December holidays, and a little behind on pages, but I’m looking forward to a speedy catch-up in the new year.

And that’s the other little piece of news: Third Time Bride and the rest of the sites in the Helper Monkey Network will be taking a bit of a breather for the month of January, posting-wise. Instead of posting I’ll be doing some behind-the-scenes work, spiffing things up a bit for what’s promising to be a very full, very busy, very awesome 2013.

So happiest of new year’s to you all, and we’ll chat again in February!

Scraps of Life

Better living through creativity!

Christmas

A Tree for Every Room: Gilded Dining Room Tree

Like this:

How to Hang Outdoor Wreaths Without a Ladder

Like this:

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Fondue

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Merry Christmas!

Like this:

Our Last Christmas Before Mr and Mrs

Like this: