Christmas Lights

One of our yearly traditions is to go see Christmas lights downtown. This year since my parents were visiting from Virginia we decided to wait until they were in town. It was a cold night, but we had fun seeing the beautiful lights. We just had to bundle up good.






Do you have a tradition of going to see Christmas lights?

A Little Pantry Organization

Here is our kitchen with our little angled pantry with a skinny door.


Well about two weeks ago I couldn't take the mess and disorganization any longer in my pantry. Some of the stuff on the floor came from underneath our kitchen sink since we had to pull everything out from under there for our sink install. But as you can see it's a mess.





So I didn't want to spend a ton of money or time on this project. And it had to be done before my hubby got home from work. So the first thing I did was take everything out.





It's always good to start with a clean slate. Then I threw away all the old shelf liner and then got out my paint for some touch up. I didn't have time or want to paint the whole thing, so I just painted the bottom shelf and a few other places that looked bad. At this point it was looking a million times better already.



I bought some more shelf liner from Walmart to add to all my shelves and it's non adhesive so I can remove it at any time.


See there actually is a floor in our pantry.


I put all the baking stuff on one side - I still need to get some cute labels for my rubbermaid canisters.


And all the canned goods on the other side.




Okay, now I can breath again. It is so much easier to find things too. This was a great way to clean out and rotate the older or expired food. My oldest son made the comment when he opened the pantry, "where's all the stuff at?" It's been a few weeks and it still looks about the same. So we're doing good at keeping it organized.

Have you done any last minute organizing before the holidays?

Linking up to Beneath My Heart.

Before and After Kitchen Sink

This year for Christmas we decided it was time to take the plunge and get a new sink. For one, our faucet was super loose and leaking. Second, our garbage disposal had a crack in it and after fixing it a couple times unsuccessfully I was ready to rip it out. And third, this sink is the original and our house is 21 years old - it was ready to be updated. So let me just show you a few before pictures so you know what I'm talking about.

You're thinking - that doesn't look too bad. Well let me bring you a little closer.

Still doesn't look half bad. Just wait.

Here is a good one of that ugly chrome faucet with hard water, a chip in the sink and the cream color. Isn't it beautiful? Let me show you a real close up.

Just gross right? It's hard water and if I scrub too hard the chrome will just come off. So needless to say we're way over due replacing everything.

Well the weekend before Thanksgiving we went to Lowe's and we picked out what we wanted and had it installed the second week of December. Now we're just loving it. I must say that when it comes to plumbing we decided to let the professionals handle this one, so we just paid Lowe's to install it. The installer was done in about 2 hours which probably would have taken us 8. I just love the after.

Can I just say that it looks a million times better. We went with stainless steel everything and a Delta high arc faucet. It's so much easier to fill up large pots and pans. Love it. We also had the disposal replaced with a 3/4 horsepower one. So much nicer and quieter.




Even my oldest son was loving the new faucet and decided every time he needed to wash his hands after using the bathroom he would get some soap in the bathroom and then come downstairs with soap all over his hands to wash them in our new sink. After about 4 days of this process, I asked him if that was enough and to just use the bathroom sink to wash his hands. He was pretty cute about it all.

So let me just show you again just because it's fun.

BEFORE:


And AFTER:


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!! Do you ever buy yourself a Christmas present?

I don't think I'm the only one out there.

Kitchen Table Centerpiece

I love to put a poinsettia on my kitchen table for Christmas so I was trying to find some fun things to add to my thrift store basket that I spray painted black. I started out with some greenery from Michael's, some Dollar Tree bells, battery operated lights and ornaments.


I added them to my metal basket along with some red berries, pine cones and my red poinsettia to come up with this.




Here it is with the lights on - although you can't see them lit up that well.



It just screams Christmas to me, I just love it. If you want to check out my family wall better you can see it here.


Merry Christmas!!

Co-worker / Neighbor Gift Idea

Last year my sister-in-law gave me the cutest personalized hand soap dispenser. I thought I could duplicate it this year for my co-workers for Christmas gifts.

I created a template using some adjectives and then created a text box to insert the last name. I found some transparent paper, which you can find at any office supply store. I printed them off and cut them down to size.


I used the Equate brand hand soap from Walmart since the label peeled off so easily. Remove the lid.


Roll up your printed insert being careful not to scratch off the ink and put it in the soap.


Watch it magically unroll and then put the top back on.


Add a cute tag and some curly ribbon and then you're set to pass them out to your co-workers or neighbors.


They were definitely a hit and I had several people ask me how I put their name on them. So keep this in mind for next year. We're using these for our teacher gifts too.

Christmas Decor - Family Room

Okay, well I've been on a break for the last week. Mostly because my schedule has been jam packed, but also because of this little guy.


He thought it would be fun to jump off the foot stool. Well it certainly was fun the first few times, until he landed wrong and got hurt. I ended up taking him to the Dr. to get x-rays and then have a splint put on. Poor little guy. Amazingly, he gets around pretty good crawling and dragging the hurt leg behind him. So he's been a little more needy the last few days and I haven't been able to post anything.

So let me continue where I left off. I was going to show you my family room where we spend our time playing toys and watching movies together.

We have two toy cupboards where we can keep the toys locked away.



Don't you just love that charger?


You can order the vinyl for this from Jill over at utahvinyl.com and add it to any plate or charger.

Here is our mantel with our stockings to go along with our whole Snowman theme this year.




I put our village above our entertainment center this year and added some snow and white lights - it looks so pretty at night.


And of course you already saw my fun subway art I printed off and framed.


But most of the time our family room looks like this. At least my son and his little friend are having fun.



We finally got our first big snowfall for December this morning. Only 10 more days until Christmas. Holy cow - I gotta get busy.