A Very Merry Christmas Dinner

For the first time since we moved into our home, I hosted a Holiday dinner.  It wasn't real big, 8 people (plus Aiden), which was the perfect number for our small abode.  My wonderful husband quickly snapped some photos for me before people arrived since I was busy in the kitchen.  I realized that I am so thankful that our kitchen is tucked in the back of the house, hidden, because it was a mess throughout the night!

Anyway, here is the table.  The place cards tied around the napkins I bought from the  same Etsy store where I bought our "Merry Chirsitmas" banner.  

I set up appetizers out in the living room and the windowsill in our dining room is the perfect place to set up drinks. 

There was plenty of room on the buffet and the console to set all the food so that it didn't have to be on the table.  

All in all, I think it went well.  I really enjoyed hosting and hope to do it again in the years to come!!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!  We are trying to recover and find a place for all of Aiden's new toys.  

Deck the Halls

Now that there is more than a foot of snow on the ground, it seems appropriate to do my Christmas decorating post.  And not to mention the fact that Christmas is only 5 days away!!  

I went with a more sliver theme this year instead of the traditional green and red.  

If you feel like you need some quick and easy decorations, notice the wrapped picture frame as presents (something I have been doing since our first Christmas when we were married and in our apartment).  Also, hanging ornaments in front of a mirror or window, and of course the popular ornaments in a vase or bowl.  

This sparkly tree and reindeer I got from good 'ol Home Goods.  I also got the white tree with the balls that match the wallpaper from there.  

This is my favorite thing I purchased this year.  It's from Etsy, and here is the link to the store.  There are a ton of this type of thing on Etsy, but this was my favorite.  I wanted something to hang in the doorway between the living and dining rooms and this fits perfectly.  

So, that's pretty much it.  I am hosting a small Christmas dinner (8 people), and have been planning the table settings for that, so hopefully I remember to take pictures and post.  

Hope you had  a good weekend!

Flash Back

My aunt found these plates at a thrift store and thought of my green-accented kitchen.  

I really like them.  Even though I have white crate and barrel plates that I love, it is sometimes fun to mix things up a little bit.

I tried to do some research about them because they are stamped on the back.  But didn't have much luck.  I mostly found ebay posts sellling this stoneware- it seems like there were quite a few collections.  This one is called ONDINE and I am pretty sure they are from the 70s . 

It looks like at some point there were enough for 8 place settings.  Some are chipped, and some are missing, but I wouldn't need to use more than 4 for us anyway.  It also came with a few serving pieces, which is also great.  

My mom pointed out how they match my curtains and the bright green matches my kitchenaide perfectly.  

Thanks Aunt Barbara and Mom! :-)  

The Rearranger

We had to do some furniture rearranging due to the size of our Christmas tree.

I have to admit I don't actually hate it.  I thought I would because every time Rob and I try and rearrange the furniture in the living room, it usually ends up with me throwing a temper tantrum on the floor and whining, "I knew it wasn't going to work! Why do we waste our time doing things like this?!!"

I think the reason I don't hate this is because the main problem is that wall is too big and needs more than just the chair on it.  So, with the tree there, it is just right.  

I assured Rob that after we take our tree down, the furniture is going back the way it was, no matter how inspired we are feeling.  Plus, we can only use one of the end tables which is OK for the Christmas season, but not permanently.  

The sofa saga continues

Rob and I were watching one of our favorite shows ("How I Met Your Mother") last week and I was saying how much I liked Lily and Marshall's sofa.   I realize that it is a little strange that I notice decor whem I am relaxing and watching tv, but I will say that Rob said he was thinking the same thing.  

Mostly I love the color of it.  I have been struggling thinking about what color sofa we would get because I really am not a fan of the tan/brown, neutral colors and some brighter colors are too scary for me.  But,  I really like this goldish yellow color.  

I can't find this sofa and if anyone has any idea where this sofa is from, please share!

We were in Crate and Barrel the other day and we really liked The Troy sofa.  I like the lines of it and it seems much more practical.  I think that it would take better wear and tear with kids.  It does come in a similar goldish color and they make a pull out bed version of it which would be ideal for us since eventually, some day (no- I'm not pregnant and not planning to be any time soon) we won't have a guestroom.  

The other thing that is great about Crate and Barrel is that you can pick any custom fabric too for any of their furniture.  You can even buy your own fabric for them to put on a piece of furniture.  

So, there's some more sofa ranting from me.  We're just trying to be very intentional about any furniture we buy in the future so it is important to know what you want!

Happy Thanksgiving

I know I have been horrible about keeping up this blog for a while now.  I really am sorry.  It is just that things have been so busy- Bailey's had fleas, I was doing some part-time work the past 2 weeks, the weather is colder and rainy so I have had to think of ways to keep Aiden entertained.  I am not making excuses, just informing you of why this blog has fallen by the wayside.  Ok, maybe I am making excuses.  But, I am really going to try to be better about this.  Especially since Christmas decorating is one of my favorite things.  I have already been collecting some new things to add to the decor this year and am excited to start decorating this weekend!!  So, I promise you will see more posts on here.  Even though the craziness of the holidays is upon us and there is lots of Christmas shopping/wrapping, etc. to do.

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend filled with lots of love and yummy food!  I don't know if I will ever host a Thanksgiving dinner, but if I ever do, I would use the above picture as inspiration for the table.  

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'm back

Sorry I haven't done too much blogging recently.  Things have been busy around the Jonesabode this fall.  I finished an exciting project last weekend that I am finally blogging about.  

So, you remember how I have been whining about wanting the circle cut out chairs from West Elm?  Well, a couple of weeks ago we were up in Lancaster and stopped at the Pottery Barn Outlet.  They didn't have the exact chairs that I wanted, but they had these...

Yes, they are a strange bronze color, I know.  But, the weekend before I found these chairs, we were visiting our friends Peter and Tiffany.  They bought a house this past summer and Tiffany has been working on lots of decorating projects since they moved in, making the house look great!  She was showing us some of her spray-paint projects and so, inspired by Tiffany, I thought to myself, why can't I just spray paint these chairs white?!!  

Now, I have to tell you that the brand new white chairs from West Elm retail at $229 a piece. Which, honestly, I would never spend.  I also know that I have never seen these chairs in white at the outlet, and, even if they did have them, they would probably be pretty banged up.   These bronze colored chairs were $100 a piece at the outlet and were in great shape.  That is more than 50% off the price, plus I had a $50 gift card.  So I ended up only paying $150, which I thought was well worth it.

I did some research and it seemed like the best spray paint for this project would be the "Rustoleum Universal All- Surface Spray Paint".  In addition, I did prime the chairs and just used the Lowes brand, since all primers are pretty much the same.  I didn't do any sanding or anything to the chairs, just went at them with the spray paint.  I only used 1 can of the primer between the 2 chairs and then used 2 cans per chair of the Rustoleum.  

Here are the chairs completely done and drying outside.  

They turned out great and I am so happy that I took the risk and just decided to spray paint them.  Here they are in the dining room.  

I still have the other chairs that were in the dining room and I am playing with the idea of fixing them up a little bit with a fresh coat of paint, since this was so easy, and repairing the arm on the one chair, and then selling them on Craigslist for maybe $50 for both or something....I don't know, we'll see.  

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a spooky and fun weekend!  

I promise I will be back soon....

Sleeping

Sorry for the lack of posting recently.  To be honest, this house has been revolving around the Phillies recently, which is a good thing.  But, these late night games have left me walking around glossy-eyed, and chugging coffee to keep up with Aiden.  The good news is that the World Series doesn't start until Wednesday, so I plan on catching up on some sleep these next few days.  Doesn't this bed just look like you could stay in it forever??

I have a couple of projects that I should be letting you know about soon.  But, until the World Series is over, I am not sure how much I am going to get done, but I'll do my best!

Rainy day project

If you sew and have some extra fabric laying around, here is a quick and easy, rainy day project for you this weekend (since apparently there is a Noreaster up in these parts).

Recovereing a lamp shade:

We basically have a lightbulb in the ceiling of our walk-through closet, so a LOOONG time ago, I put a lamp shade over it until I find exactly what I want for that space.  However, I was never fond of the shade.  It was a paper shade and I actually ripped off the top layer so that you won't be able to see the design under the fabric.  You could also spray paint it white, but I didn't want to take the time to do that. 

All I did was measure the size of the shade around.  It was about 28 and a half inches, so I cut it at 29 to leave room for a half inch seam.  

I then sewed the 2 ends together ( right sides to each other) to make a tube out of the fabric.

Then,  I just turned the tube inside out, and slipped it onto the shade.  It was a tight fit, but that is how you want it, you don't want it to be loose. 

I then used decoupage glue and just glued the edges to the inside.  This worked well because I could do a coat under and then I did 2 coats over top of the fabric to really hold it down.  I also cut slits in the fabric to wrap it around where the wires are.

 

Voilla!  A brand new shade

And here it is in the closet.

 

Hope you have a good weekend despite the bad weather!!

Adding color to the bedroom

I love the color on the walls in our bedroom, and although I loved our all white bedding in the summer, I have been wanting to add more color now that the weather has changed.  I was looking at all of the pillow covers I have and I came across this one that used to sit on our living room chair last fall.  

I realized how much I like this golden yellow with the pale blue walls in the bedroom.  So, I looked at the other Amy Butler prints that had this same color in it and liked this one because it had gray in it and just a little bit of light blue to connect with the walls.  

I found this gray quilt at TJ Maxx months ago and have been checking on it periodically when I would go in.  The packaging it was in was open and it looked a little messy which is why I think it has sat on the shelf for so long.  When it was still there today, after not checking on it in a few weeks, I just decided to buy it.  It is exactly what I wanted and I don't think I could have beat the price - $40 for a King size.  I kept on the white quilt underneath.  

And, here it is all put together.

Other than that, everything is pretty much the same in the bedroom.  

Although, I did find this vase shoved in the back of a closet and realized how well it matched the new fabric.