My last post [which was over a month ago, sorry about that...] showed the finished nursery for my soon-to-be baby girl. Well, two days after that post, she arrived! Isn't she cute?!
So life has been hectic in a completely new and unfamiliar way, to say the least. But I still have to put up Christmas decor! Maybe not to the extent that I did
last year [or every previous year since hubs and I have had our own place], and maybe with a lot of help from my mom, but it's up! And sparkly and gold.
This year I just decorated the living room. No extra wreaths and glass ornaments around the fireplace off the kitchen, no kitschy banner in the dining room [though I do love that thing...maybe I'll go dig it out], and no wreaths on the front door. Just the room that matters most, the one that I spend most of my time in these days. Because that's all that matters - for a warm Christmas-y feeling, I just want the glow of the lights on the tree at night, when I'm nodding off on the couch at 8pm.
This year I added a faux pine garland around the fireplace [which I bought for about $12 total from Joann's last January. And when I pulled it out of the decorations box, it took me about half an hour to remember why I bought it and where it was supposed to go. I should really write these kinds of things down.] AND - the teeny tiny little stocking! It was only $5 at Target, so I had to get it to match our others :) It's just so. damn. cute!
Definitely going to be the last year I put these blown glass thingies on the hearth, since next Christmas we'll have a toddler. An idea is brewing on how to make it sparkly and festive AND toddler-friendly though! [excuse me while I go write that down so I don't forget...] Stay tuned next December!
I didn't put near as much stuff on the hearth this year [a combination of not a ton of time to style it, and the fact that I was just plain tired.] All I really did was add a few silver glass things and a coupla reindeer to the stuff that was already there. Still festive, but won't take as much time to put away ;)
And the tree! Still smitten with my gold tree, btw. And she got a new topper this year! It's hard to see because the extra 5 minutes I stole to take these photos happened to be during the day, but it's made of capiz shell and it's lovely [and only $29 from Lowe's]
Another addition this year is Bea's first ornament, a 50s-looking ceramic reindeer [which, eventually, I'll paint her name and '2015' on it. Some day.]
And keeping with the woodland theme I established last year, a new little squirrel, fox and hedgehog [Target pretty much kills it every year, right?]
TIME TO GET REAL. Bloggers often portray a super-perfect existence that's far from reality [and even though I'm far from perfect, I still would clean up and move
clutter, arrange books and plants, and hide cords before photographing
the Haus for posts]. However, I appreciate when things are true, and when bloggers get real, and you can see that everyone has to *live* in their house, not just photograph it. So while this shot here looks pretty good [except for the remotes, notebook & pen, and iphone on the coffee table].....
Pan out a bit, and this is how it really looks:
[hello, baby gear. I never thought I'd buy you, much less let you hang out in my living room every day for all to see]
And this shot here:
Was zoomed in just enough to hide this view:
[Hello, little one! Hope you're enjoying your snooze!]
So! If you're still reading, thank you for hanging in there during my sporadic posts and long breaks! I hope you enjoyed this little update!
