'Twas the Night Before...

I can't believe Christmas is tomorrow. Do I say that every year? I must. December always FLIES by and I never feel like I'm on top of it all.

We've kept pretty busy with parties and decorating and shopping and the like. I got the house decorated which is a miracle! Seriously. I think I deserve an award for bedecking a house in merriment when it's under construction. Beat THAT, Martha. It looks very festive and I love having Christmas everywhere! Confession: going through the house unplugging all the lights before bed takes about 12 minutes.

Tonight we went to Cody's parents house for dinner before Cody had to go in to work at Saratoga for the night. He works tomorrow at PG but can fortunately come up and spend some time with us! That left me to get Christmas ready, so naturally it's now the weeeeeee hours and I've been wrapping presents and making the house look all fancy for the big reveal tomorrow morning. Every year I swear I'm going to start earlier so I don't have to stay up so late, but I never do. 'Tis the season, I suppose!

This time of year is wonderful, I love it so. Even with the chaos and the cramming and the hectic shopping, I love it. I'm off to dream of sugar plums - Merry Christmas!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

What am I loving?

Our stacked stone walls!!

Are you joking me right now? I mean, seriously. How amazing is that. AAHHHHHH! I am SO obsessed, I can't stop staring at them. Rest-assured that Cody and I did not do that ourselves. No, sir. We thought we could do and had planned on doing it, but after we stayed up until 2:30am just applying the scratch coat...we got wise. We hired some guys to come set the stone and it is the best money we have ever spent. They did it in two days and BAM. DONE. It would have taken us 3 months. At least.

Do you know what this means!?? It means that our kitchen might almost be done! We have some small things to tackle, but it's almost done! You know, 20 months later. Who cares, it's gorgeous and incredible and totes worth the wait.

Cody is installing the hood above the stove this week and also finishing up the mantle for the living room (it will match our countertops. Marvy.). We had talked about finishing up a bunch of other things before Christmas, but I think that plane has sailed. You see, friends, I'm pregnant. And I'm tired. This pregnancy has really taken a lot out of me and while I think I should still be able to go full speed and do everything normally, I just can't. I get so exhausted. The other night I was feeling so overwhelmed and sad that my house wasn't all glossy and finished and bedecked in Holiday splendor (I know, even with my pretty stone walls I was sad face). Fortunately my fantastic friend Celine stopped by and cheered me up by helping me put lights on my Christmas tree. It may seem like a small thing, but having that light in the living room and that little thing done fully energized me to just get decorated already. It was just the shot in the arm that I needed. Projects can wait - Christmas cannot. I've spent the last two days getting everything up that I can. Sooo much tinsel. Pictures to come!

So you should probably come to dinner next week. Our house will be decorated and did I mention that we have stellar stone walls?

You know what? No.

Pinterest.com is a fabulous site where you can create virtual pinboard where you can organize and share things you love (fully stole that explanation from their site because I can never explain it correctly). It's FULL of great ideas, pictures, fashion, tips...I mean it's just fantastic.

I have spent (read: wasted) many an hour on the joys of Pinterest. I can look up 'Halloween Party Ideas' or 'Christmas Card Designs' or 'Theaters Costumes' and hundreds of images will appear for my pinning pleasure. I can pin whatever I like to a dozen boards I've created. Even when I'm surfing online and find something I like, I can pin that to a board if I want. Awesome.

In the land of Pinterest, there are a plethora of DIY projects and tips for creating things yourself. The majority of these tips are quite helpful and insightful, I have pinned many DIY ideas and sometimes think, "Man, why didn't I think of that?". But in this sea of 'You can do this yourself!', I all too often come across things that I feel are going a bit too far. For example:

Creating your own bath mat out of an old towel.

I see no harm in repurposing an old towel. This is a good idea, I can see that. What I can't condone is spending the time to cut up a few towels into tiny strips, then tying said strips to mesh to create a bath mat when I can buy one for $4.00.

Anything that involves repurposing crayons makes me cringe. I have NO idea why. Maybe it's because the thought of breaking up old crayons and melting them in a muffin tin to create a big, ball of crayon does not interest me. Nor does melting together lots of different colors of crayons in a heart shape. What am I supposed to do with that?

Some say a crayon heart is a great gift. Is it? Is it?

And I don't get crayon art. pass.

But this has to take the crafting cake - make your own glitter.

Make. your own. glit.ter.

The comments on this on hilarious. I found a few that were really disappointed that it didn't turn out - that it just looked like salt with food coloring on it (gasp! say it isn't so!). Others said that you need to cook it on tinfoil, use a different salt..just a myriad of other options to get your own glitter. Friends? Let me tell you something: Glitter comes in more colors than our eyes can register. There are literally hundreds of options and shades and SHAPES of glitter for your sparkly enjoyment.

One pinner was sad because they were hoping so save some money by creating their own glitter. Did glitter go up? Is it suddenly in high demand? I mean, sure - if you're buying fairy dust by the ton I can see why you'd want to cut some corners, but then if you can't feasibly craft without a warehouse full of sparkle then you've got bigger problems.

Make your own glitter. You know what? No.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Is it just me, or does December feel like it's been here for like 3 weeks? Nevertheless, here it is! The most festive month of all! I'm super excited, I must admit. How I love this cinnamon-infused Holiday.

To start off the season right, my nearest and dearest Bethany sent me 5 cd's of some of her favorite Christmas music and I LOVE THEM. She's hilarious.

I have so, so much holiday tunage and it was refreshing to get some new songs! Here are some favorites that you should probably get:

"I Want To Do More Than Whistle" - Christmas with Lawrence Welk

"A Snow Globe Christmas" - Pink Martini

"Once Upon A Wintertime" - Frances Langford(from the Disney short 'once upon a wintertime...not sure you can find this song anywhere, but Bethany's got the skillz).

"Out In The Cold Again" - Dean Martin

"Ol' Saint Nicholas" - Doris Day

"I'd Like To Hitch a Ride With Santa Claus" - The Andrews Sisters

"The Christmas Song" - The Ravonettes (I had been looking for this song forever!! Love it!)

"Welcome Christmas" - Glee

"A Winter Romance" - Dean Martin

Oh my, and so many more...I think I might have to devote a post to some of my favorite Christmas songs. Done!

I had hoped (and probably mentioned on here) to have most of our projects done by December so that I could enjoy decorating and spending time in my almost-finished house. Yeah, no dice. Not that we haven't made some serious progress, indeed we have! We cleaned out the art room (daun.ting) and moved in my marvy furniture that I got from my bestie, Amelia. Totally ok to be jealous.

I'm going to have some shelves built on top of this big one that go up the wall for ample storage. I'll paint them the same color so it looks like one complete piece.

Oh, how I love them. I still need to paint the room and finish organizing it (obviously). I'm SO obsessed with this muted purple color (similar to the color I painted my family room) and it looks awesome with the dressers. The chip I'm holding in the picture actually has some sheen to it. DONE. Since I live in a house of boys I figure I can do whatever I want that's frivolous and trivial in one room.

We are getting close to finishing our beams in the living room. We're going to stain them ebony and make them glossy and fantastic. I have painted part of the coat rack/bench dealio we're building for the entryway, I'm still working on the buffet..and the dining table...and we're hoping to put up the rock in the kitchen and living room. What progress?!

I think it's fair to say that we won't have everything done by Christmas, but as long as it's close I'm good with that. We got our tree the other night and our house has it's lights. The bedecking has begun! Happy December!