What Will the New Year Bring?

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

 

Today is the last day of 2012 and it has me wondering what the new year will bring. 

 I'm hoping it will bring us some fun snow to play in!  Time will tell.  After all, I DO live in the south, ya know. 

 

We took down our Christmas decorations inside yesterday.  Still have to tackle the outside though.  I have left a few pops of red color up in the house so it will feel a little more cozy for the cold months ahead.  I still love my grey and white color scheme, but decided a few pops of red would be welcome right now. 

 

The paper whites are staying put. 

 

 

 

And, an amaryllis along with some vintage red books.

 

 

My coffee table has an old coffee sack with some red printing on it.

 

 

This old galvanized tub in my foyer is sporting some bunting that I made out of twine and upholstery webbing.

 

 

And the pine chest in the foyer got a little red too.  An old table runner I ordered over the holidays has been used in several places already! The chair beside the chest got a new look with a pillow turned on it's end and tied up like a sack. 

 

 

Do you like to change things up just a bit after you take down your Christmas decorations too?  I know I do.  It gives it a fresh feel and look. 

 

I wish all of you a safe and happy New Years Eve tonight.  See you in 2013!

 

Thanks for stopping by .

 

~ Kelly ~

 

 

 

 

 

 



Christmas Eve Dinner

Hello everyone!

 

Are you all as "pooped" as I am????  I am still recovering from a whirlwind of Christmas activities with the family. 

 

I wanted to share a few pics of the Christmas Eve dinner get together I threw at my place. We take turns hosting it every year and this year was my turn.  My husband took the pics, but I'm afraid a lot of them were unusable.  He is not used to the new camera (like I am) LOL! However, I'm grateful for these pics as I was too busy to take them.  So, here is what I was able to scrounge up for you to see. 

In this pic, you can see my sister's family gathered in the family room.
 

 

My sister's husband, aka "Mr. Savvy" and her son in-law, Eric.

 

 My son, Cody, and sister's grandson, Joshua.
 

 

 My niece, Jennifer and her boyfriend, Joe.
 





 

Here we are at one of the tables set up in the sitting room. Clockwise - Me, my mom, my sister, and my step dad.

 

 

A snapshot of the food in the kitchen.

 

 

 

 I served honey baked ham and rolls. Everyone else brought a side dish.  They brought potato salad, deviled eggs, green beans, macaroni and cheese and sweet potato casserole.  We also had a lot of desserts which included a chocolate ganache cake, apple crumb cheesecake and lemon bars.  There was plenty of wine, champagne and sodas to drink as well. 

 

We got up early the next morning to open Christmas presents.  Then I made homemade waffles and sausage for breakfast.

 

Hope you all had a nice Christmas with your family and are still relaxing these last few days of 2012! 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

~ Kelly ~ 



Have Yourself a Merry Little Chrismas

 

Just stopping in to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas!

 

  Hope you spend time with your family relaxing, eating good food and enjoying the spirit of the season.

 

 

 

 

~ Kelly ~



Christmas Preparations

Hello everyone!

 

It has been an incredibly busy week!  I have hardly been able to visit all of you.  I hope to get back to that very soon!  I'm winding down the last of my Christmas preparations and thought I'd share just a few of them with you.

 

The shopping is done and the presents are wrapped.

 

 

The baking is done and the teachers gifts have been delivered.

 

 

 

I've been busy crafting Christmas cards and ornaments too. 

 

 

 

I added these to my bottle rack to keep the stockings company.

 

Before I go, I wanted to share the recipe for the Strawberry Pretzel Salad I made the other day.  I promised you the recipe.

 

(Since I copied the magazine page, this is now printable!)

 

 

Here is a pic from the magazine too.  Sorry, I forgot to photograph the one I made. 

 

 

It's delicious and makes a nice dish to take to a gathering.  So give it a try!

 

  I will be back to normal posting after Christmas.  We have Christmas with my in laws family and a birthday to celebrate this weekend and then I'm hosting Christmas Eve dinner with my family on Monday.  I'm looking forward to a full day of rest on Christmas day.  We don't have to go anywhere or do anything!  Yay!

 

I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

~ Kelly ~

 



 

 

 

 



Outside Christmas Decorations

Hello everyone!

 

Gosh, what a weekend!  First of all, with the tragic news of the school shooting in CT, it has made me so sad to see the news coverage of that terrible event!  I can't escape it and it's hurts my soul to see and hear about the loss of life that happened last Friday.  I am unable to fully understand how anyone can take the lives of such young children like that.  It certainly makes me nervous about the safety of my own child still in elementary school himself! 

 

We did end up taking advantage of Saturday to get some much needed Christmas shopping done though.  I've been busy wrapping presents and stashing them under the tree. 

 

I wanted to share some of the outside Christmas decorations on our home.  I wanted to go with an old fashioned farmhouse feel to my decor this year.  More greenery and red and white stripes.  I threw in some burlap and galvanized tubs too.  Here is what I came up with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The small trees, at the bottom of the steps, have white lights on them at night. 

 

 

 

 

 

The candy canes light up at night too.

 

 

Some night time shots.........

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I've got a busy week ahead next week.  It's my son's last week of school before Christmas break. We will attend  a Christmas breakfast with his class and a game exchange.  I've got some Christmas cookies to bake and need to finish up some more shopping.  Whew!  I probably won't be blogging as much next week as a result.  It's getting down to "crunch time". 

 

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

~ Kelly ~ 



 

 

 

 

 



Goodies from IKEA

Hello everyone and happy Friday!

 

I wanted to share some of the things I found at IKEA.  (Warning:  picture heavy post)

 

 

My husband took the IKEA pics with his IPhone.  I didn't bring my camera. He thought it would be cute to show me shopping.  LOL!

 

So here I am enjoying everything around me........(Please forgive me for posting these corny shots.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now.......you want to see what I bought?

 

I fell in love with these little grey and white cones.  They are Christmas ornaments, but I used them on my mantel.  (I know.....yet another change on my mantel.  It's a sickness, I tell ya!)

 

 

I also bought these cute little metal planters.  They look like paper, don't they?

 

 

And because I changed this all around, I added some little Christmas balls to the branches in the pitcher.

 

 

Now, you're probably wondering where did the little burlap stocking go that was hanging in the middle?  I found another great spot for it in the sitting room.

 

 

And, where did the little gift tag banner go that was hanging on this chest?  Why it went in the kitchen, of course! 

 

 

Do you like the yarn wreath I made?  I made pom poms and tied them all around a wreath form.  It's shaggy because I didn't shape the pom poms, but I like how it turned out.  It's a fun craft!

 

 

 

Are you keeping up with all my changes so far?  LOL!

 

OK, back in the family room, I added this gorgeous fluffy romantic looking blanket.  This is what I went to IKEA for in the first place! 

 

 

I have it draped over the arm of a chair, but it can even be used at the foot of a bed since it's large enough.  It's actually stretchy!

 

 

And while we're in this room, thought I'd throw in this pic of my old galvanized container dressed up for Christmas too. 

 

 

 

I found these cute little furry hanging hearts for my tree too.  IKEA had a lot of Swedish inspired Christmas decorations.  Perfect for my theme!

 

 

Then, I found these cute Christmas (Swedish inspired again) dish towels.

 

 

And last but not least, this adorable grey and white yarn wreath.  (I added the red ribbon.) It's hanging on a bread board on the wall.

 

 

Are you still here?  I haven't lost you by now, I hope!  IKEA is very inexpensive, BTW.  If you ever get a chance to go, you should.  It's also huge, so wear comfortable shoes. 

 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

~ Kelly ~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 



 

 

 

 

 



An Early Christmas Present

Hello everyone!

 

I ordered a couple of things that I wanted for Christmas and am already using them!  They are in my kitchen. 

 

I learned about these adorable Lori Mitchell figurines recently.  Most of them represent holidays.  I saw this one and just had to have it!  It is called Surprising Santa.

 

 

Isn't she just the cutest???  I found her on Ebay.  I've moved her all over the house to find the perfect spot for her.  For now, she is part of the coffee station.  She looks like she could use some coffee huh?  Do you see her mouse shoes? And just look at that expression!

 

 

I discovered that the artist is from Marietta, GA too!  We're practically neighbors.  LOL!

 

Then, I found these cute dish towels custom monogrammed from Frog Goes to Market. 

 

They came packaged so cute and she even included a bar of lavender soap that she made.

 

 

There are so many ways to use these.

 

 

I draped one over the stool seat.

 

 

I fell in love with the lettering.  They look like what you would see on a grain sack.

 

She sells various versions of this towel in her shop if you're interested.

 

 And while we're in my kitchen, thought I would share some of my chalkboard art with you.  It has been so popular lately, that I decided to try my hand at it too.  I'm no artist, but I'm happy with these little messages sprinkled around.

 

This one hangs on the wall by my stove.

 

 

This one sits in my family room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and I had the best time the other day.  My husband and I had a chance to go to IKEA together and I found a few goodies that I will share in an upcoming post!



Thanks for stopping by.

 

~ Kelly ~