Christmas in the DeCrib {2013}

I wanted to get a post together of some of the Christmas decor we have up this year. This is Christmas #2 for us, and I would say this year is definitely an improvement {in the decor area} from last year. Luckily, I managed to find a lot of good stuff after Christmas last year on sale. This year was like an early little mini-Christmas opening up all of the totes and remembering what I got! Cheers for bargain decorations.

Front Door

^ There's a tutorial here for the wreath. What started out as a Razorback Football Wreath, transformed into a Christmas one with a "Merry Christmas" sign!

Entryway

^ I made this little banner to hang our Christmas cards on. These are last year's cards that I still had on the banner. Time to take them off and get ready for this year's!

Living Room

^ We received this Willow Tree Nativity as a wedding gift! Such a great present, even though we got married in June. I know we will treasure this nativity scene every year in our home.

^ The awesome beam that Ty made and hung for us earlier this year! It's almost like a second mantle… I love getting to decorate it for the holidays as well as the rest of the room.

^ This picture frame is one of my favorite decorations I got last year! I love the music notes and the different Christmas patterns on it. {FYI - I got it at the Country Hearth in Bolivar.}

^ Our tree! I love ornaments that are neutral, rustic, and "woodsy" as my Grandma Stevens would call it. I am also a fan of the big-bulb lights instead of the mini ones. I know it doesn't add as much light to the tree, but I am pleased with the overall look!

Kitchen/Dining

^ I also scored some garland last year and decided to hang some in our dining room!

^ Sink Window & Bookshelves. The bookshelves don't currently have a ton of Christmas decorations. That's my goal for next year!

Ty's Office

Since our main Christmas tree is a tad on the girly side {pearls, lace, etc.}, I didn't want Ty to feel left out. Plus, I got this little tree last year from Hobby Lobby for like $15.00 so I decided to put it in his office this year with some slightly more masculine decorations...

^ Since this tree is small, I set it on this giant spool that I got at a flea market last year!

I hope you enjoyed our little home tour with all of our decorations.

Merry Christmas! :)

High Five Friday

In high school, a group of us had t-shirts made that said "High Five Friday!" And what did we do when we wore the shirts? Walked around giving everyone high fives… Seems sort of ridiculous now, but believe me, it seemed really cool at the time.

So here's my take on "5 on Friday." My top 5 high points of the week {or upcoming weekend}.

1. Snow Day

Today's the first snow day of the 2013-14 school year! That's something to celebrate and take full advantage of. I've been able to catch up on some of the projects that I didn't get finished over Thanksgiving break. I was also glad this took place on a Friday: Three. Day. Weekend.

2. Possible DIY Scarf

My cute friend Camrie posted this picture on IG of a scarf that she made using a youtube tutorial. I am super pumped to try it! I've got the yarn, now I've got to just sit down and start it. I've never knitted or made a yarn anything… So, I'll let you know if it ends up being a success.

3. Bell Ringing & Christmas Caroling

Pray for me. Tomorrow I've agreed to stand out in the frigid air and ring bells for three hours with some of my students. Why couldn't I have picked Monday or Tuesday of this week when it was like 60 degrees?! With those crazy kids, though, I'm sure it will be a good time, even in the chilly temps. Hopefully we'll be able to sing some carols without our vocal chords freezing over.

4. Festival of Christmas

Every year, our town has a special service called the "Festival of Christmas." It's a time for community members and churches to come together and celebrate the season - and most importantly the true reason for it, Jesus' birth. I'm singing in the community choir with the orchestra and I know that it will be a lot of fun and a great kick-off to the week of Christmas programs {my church program and school program both happen on the following weekend}. 'Tis the season!

5. Some Christmas Song List Additions

I posted a list on Monday of my 10 favorite "un-famous" Christmas carols. Find it here. A friend sent me two more this week which was awesome… One of my very, very favorite groups right now is The Civil Wars. Ty and I both love their unique sound and folky style and we own their other two albums. A review that I saw online that said their songs are like "lullabies for adults." Ha! {In a laid-back, cool way. Not creepy. Or X-rated or anything!} The two Christmas songs that they've released are Tracks in the Snow and O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Both are performed in typical CW style and are awesome. Find them here:

 Tracks in the Snow

 O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Have a fun December weekend!

Turkey Month Transition

So, last Friday, November the 1st, I was serious when I asked Ty if it was acceptable for me to decorate for Christmas that weekend...

{This might be a close comparison to how some Turkey Day lovers

feel about hauling out the holly a little too soon}...

Looking at the next few weekends in November, I only have one or two options as to when I can 100%, totally, whole-heartedly commit to a few hours of Christmas season kick-off. Last year, the Saturday that I decorated for the holidays was seriously the most cozy and wonderful day of the whole year {other than Christmas day itself, of course}. After only six months of marriage and home ownership, I had already collected a decent amount of stuff to decorate with for our first Christmas in our house; unpacking each item was like a little mini-Christmas all on its own!

I began a tradition. I first put on my holiday jams {favorite Christmas playlist post coming soon!} and/or find whatever Harry Potter film is currently on ABC family, make some cider, and Christmas-i-fy-the-you-know-what {heck... what were you thinking?!} out of our house. I can't wait to do it again this year!!

So, since Ty and I agreed the day after Halloween was a bit too early, I found a couple of Thanksgiving/ish things to satisfy my inner Martha Stewart.

^^ Current goal/project for Ty? Get our fireplace working. Pronto!

^^ Found this cute printable online. I also started liking pumpkin-flavored things this year, so it works. ;)

^^ Got this adorbs feather wreath and my Thomas T. Turkey for around $5.00 last year after Christmas at Tuesday Morning. Score.

I can't wait until my next decoration post!! Why? Because it will be featuring all of the new items I got on sale last year after Christmas. Christmas being, of course, "The most wonderful time of the year....." YippEEEEE!!!*

*NOTE: No excitement has been feigned in this post. Holiday excitement is 100% genuine. Just ask my better half.

An "Un-churchy" Dress to "Churchy" Skirt

Anyone who has gone shopping with me before knows that I am a definite bargain hunter. I have always been the sort of girl who goes straight to the sale rack and then might meander around the rest of the store if nothing suitable was found on sale. I worked at Target in college and realized way too quickly that stuff can be so overpriced and it will all eventually be marked down anyway; so why buy it full-price?! Unfortunately though, one problem that I do run into is that this bargain-hunting-girl is completely average in every fashion way possible: size 8 shoe, medium shirts/tops, size 6 pants, even in bra size... I think I fit the "average" category in all of those areas.

This summer I was bargain hunting at an outlet and found this cute little sundress. I loved the print and then I looked at the price tag: $4.00. WOW! I couldn't believe that it was seriously only FOUR dollars! Score.

Plus, I will go ahead and make this statement.....

{Black + colorful floral = a winner in my fashion book}

As much as I loved the price and the print, the style of the top was just a little toooo revealing and it was definitely not church appropriate {or school appropriate for this teacher}. I even tried it with a sweater or a jacket on over it and it just didn't look right. I will spare you the pictures of it on my person.

I decided to try my sewing hand at a dress-turned-skirt transformation...

{Before}

^^ The top part was just a little too... Not there?

^^ Good riddance to the top 1/3 or so.

{I guess I wasted $1.33 of the $4.00. Ha.}

After cutting off the top, I only sewed a strip of elastic into the inside of the top hem to help it keep its shape and give it a clean edge on the top. After trying it on, I really should have cinched it a bit tighter with the elastic, but I think it works ok.

Dunnn duh duh DUN!

This week, I wore this to church on Sunday night and to school today! It's super comfortable and I decided that I like the way it looks with a shirt tucked in. It was kind of hard to find a shirt to go with it, so I may have to explore some more sale racks to find another top!

No more slinky spaghetti straps. It is also a good transition piece for summer --> fall. :)

It's good to know, that when cute clothes aren't quite to your liking, you can get them anyway and tweak them just a bit to make them perfect for you!

A File Cabinet DIY

Yesterday was my ideal kind of Saturday. We slept in, ate breakfast, and didn't have any plans. I don't know how long it has been since we had a free weekend and I was thankful for it!

After much careful thought and consideration on what we would spend our time doing for the day, we remembered that Ty had purchased this used file cabinet in Springfield at a thrift store and it needed a little t/l/c. He has been working on setting up a home office and has needed a file cabinet to store some of his super important documents.... {Like fantasy football draft records? I'm not positive.}

It was a great find; he found it at the Habitat for Humanity store and only paid $15.00 for the thing because the lock was locked and there was no key with it. So, not only did he get this for $15, he also now had an excuse to break into something with his high-powered man tools!!!

He successfully removed the lock and wah-la! {We even got three bonus hanging file folders. Score.}

So here is what we're working with before the updates took place:

{Uggg-uh-leee.}

Being the expert spray-painter that I am, I was nominated by my better half to be the one to do the painting. I used a can of Krylon oil-rubbed-bronze paint that we already had {see below}. I removed the hardware on the drawers, washed it down to remove any dust or other unknown substances and got to spraying paint...

After several extremely hot minutes in the garage...

and {a little while later} a few minutes to re-install the hardware on the drawers...

here is the finished product:

I had to catch Ty, as he was already hauling it inside to his office when I stopped him so I could take a pic! What a difference!! The best part? We saw some new ones at Staples this exact size for ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS. Whaaaaat?! That's nuts.

The drawer labels: "important." & "not important." ;)

I hope you had a fun and happy Saturday, too.

Hardwood Complete!

Remember this:

Before

And this:

Well now it looks like THIS:

After!!!

Our make-shift "entertainment center" is strugglin'.
That is one of Ty's future project to-dos!

Ty's Throne (a.k.a. The Recliner)

I have to admit, even though I am not a huge fan of hardwood and how "un-cozy" it may be, it does look pretty good and I know that it is a lot better in the long run, especially compared to carpet. However, I am on the lookout for a nice, big, cozy area rug!! (I am thinking something in the brown family, since our walls and furniture is all pretty light-colored.) But for now, I will admire the handy work of my hubs, father-in-law, and mother-in-law!

I also had to post a picture of my new mantel decorations. Until recently, I still had my Easter decorations on the mantel... A little late in the season, huh?! FYI - I actually had my mom convinced that I drew that chalkboard... Nope! ;) Thank you, artists of Hobby Lobby!! I love it. It says, "Because when you stop & look around, this life is pretty amazing." What a true statement.

I'm calling this our "Back to School" Mantel

Goodbye Carpet, Hello Hardwood!

For a while now, we have been discussing re-doing the floor in our living room. Our kitchen is already hardwood (you can see in the bottom right corner the start of the kitchen floor) and Ty, being the lover of all-things-wood, was sweet to give me an option: hardwood the living room or hardwood the living room...

I, being the lover of all-things-cozy, consented to his plan with the understanding that we would have to purchase a large, cozy and lovely area rug. The compromise was agreed upon and our floor mission began!

10+ Year Old, Nasty, Dirty, Dingy (get my drift?) Carpet

My hottie DIY Husband hard at work

It was seriously so gross when we began tearing up the carpet. Dust, dog hair (we do not own a dog...), and only the good Lord knows what else was flying in my face as we began to destruct our living room floor.

I'm going to go ahead and hope say that he is aiming for the nail gun, not my head in this picture.

(He was getting slightly tired at this point; there were some pretty close calls with the mallet!)

Despite the drama that we have faced this spring with saws and fingers, I cautiously consented to run the miter saw to cut the board pieces down to size. Ty and Tim were inside laying/nailing the planks, so after Gina left it became my job to cut the wood on the saw. I'm not going to lie... I felt like a total HGTV DIY-er after about 10 boards.

Our garage today, HGTV tomorrow

Here is part two of the flooring project tale:

About 2/3 of the floor got laid on Monday. On Wednesday, we headed to Springfield to get the rest of the hardwood to finish it out. We took Ty's Patriot (smaller SUV) and he claimed that the boxes would easily fit. Not so. This was our riding arrangement on the way home from Springfield:

I felt like we were on a 2-seater bicycle. Let's just say the conversations were interesting.

On the way back to Bolivar, about 10 miles from home, we ran over something small on the highway. We didn't think anything about it until 5 miles later when we heard the back right tire going flat. (It adds to the drama of this saga to point out that just a few minutes before this, it began raining/lightening/slightly storming.) We pulled over and Ty said there was a huge gash in the tire from whatever we had hit. Plus, the weight of the flooring on that side probably didn't help matters.

The only big problem we had was that in order to get to the spare tire, Ty had to move all of the boxes of flooring that we had in the car AND it was raining! So, seeing as it was after 10:00 p.m. and both of our dads were likely already an hour into their beauty sleep for the night, we gave my brother a call to come help us out. We are very thankful for he and Mariah coming and helping us solve our little predicament. (THANK YOU!)

Donut and all, the patriot was rolling again and our hardwood was dry and ready to take home. It was a long (and cold) hour or so, but Ty was grateful to get the rest of the wood home so he could finish the floor. I will post pictures of the new floor soon!!