A few of my favorite things…

Hello! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! We are almost done shopping…but still not one gift wrapped. We LOVE the thrill of last minute. I guess. :)

Tis the season for FUN stuff – I don’t know about you, but I’m a total and complete sucker for anything Christmas-themed or related. If it has snowflakes, I’m hooked. Peppermint swirls, forgetaboutit. Glitter? Gah. I give up.

It’s the one time of the year I give into the stuff – because I have NO self control. And yes, I know STUFF has zero to do with the real meaning of the season, so it’s important to keep it in check.

But I love it, and it’s my blog, so I’m going to share some of my very favorites of this season with YOU. Or more specifically, I’m going to GIVE some of my favorites to one of you. :)

It’s my way of saying Merry Christmas, thank you, I don’t know what I’d do without you, paying it forward, smooches…all that.

So let’s get on to the good stuff, shall we?

If you saw my dining room post, you know I’m quite enamored with Walmart’s ornaments this year. I can’t stand it, they are so stinking cute. So I picked up a couple of the pretty trees:

Glittery goodness!

Pretty much every single night this time of year, I enjoy a big, fat mug of hot chocolate. So I got a (cute!) big, fat mug for you to enjoy some hot chocolate as well:

And while I was at it, I remember that I’m a bit obsessed with the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks. If you have not had it, please, I beg of you…GO NOW. Or as soon as humanly possible. Starbucks is not paying me to say this, but I wish they were.

OH my. It’s so stinkin’ good. So I got a $5 gift card so you can enjoy one and a half of your own Salted Caramel Hot Chocolates:

And then I remembered another hot chocolate I love, and that’s when I add a candy cane Hershey’s kiss to it and let it melt inside. Uhhh…YUM. I told you about these kisses here and I still love them now. And I’m not even a peppermint kind of girl really – but they are YUM:

This has turned into a hot chocolate post. Moving on…

The folks at Waverly sent me some of their beeeeautiful new holiday party-ware to try out. They have some really pretty plates, napkins and even cups, and I’m IN LOVE with all of it:

We haven’t hosted any holiday parties this year, so I’m going have hubby pry them out of my hands and so I can give them to you. Yes, I know it may be a bit late for you to use them this season too, but maybe next year? Honestly, I kind of think they could be used any time of the year – aren’t they beautiful?

And finally, my very favorite part. I know this one won’t be a big deal to some of you, but I LOVE THIS THING. I found a gift wrap storage thingamabob at True Value a couple of weeks ago:

And for all that is good…I finally found something that WORKS. For years I’ve had a few rolls in a long, thin storage bin, but it’s too short to hold most of our wrapping. Then last year I got one of those storage jobbies that stands up, but the wrapping was still too long.

I swear to you, I even considered taking my miter saw to them, to make them fit. I kid you not.

But they don’t have to be sacrificed now! This thing is the BOMB. It’s long enough, and holds a bunch of rolls. And instead of the wrapping rolling off our tower of Christmas bins every. time. I walk by – now they are all contained, and that makes me SO happy!

So I went back and got one for you too, because I can’t be the only one with this problem. Am I? Crickets.

It really is the little things. Candy cane kisses and a tall gift wrap tube, and I’m a happy Chick.  :)

Soooo, I’m giving all of these goodies away to one of you! I wish I could give something to every single one of you, I really, really do. I just hope you know how much I’ve appreciated your sweet comments, emails and support throughout this year.

To enter, leave a comment here. Tell us your favorite part/thing/food of the season. I’ll only have this giveaway open through Monday at midnight, so I can get this all mailed off to the lucky one on Tuesday.

For now, I’m off to write 75 Christmas cards:

I’m just hoping everyone gets them before Christmas. :)

Have a wonderful Monday!!

 

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Winners and a video

Hello all! I wanted to announce the winners of the Accessory Steals and Decor Steals giveaways before I forgot. :)

The winner of Accessory Steals $50 gift card is:

Melissa at Honey Bee Hive

The winner of the Decor Steals $50 gift card is:

Callie at Babbling with the Bowers

Congrats ladies! Email me at thriftydecorchick (at) gmail (dot) com so I can get you hooked up.

I finally got video of the Thrifty Decor Chick segment taped -- this is the third try. :) I gave up on shushing the cats, so there’s a point when you’ll hear our (pee) cat doing her totally weird meow. It’s a little freaky sounding, so sorry about that. :)

Oh, and she’s rubbing against the volume control about half way in, so it gets a teensy bit loud for a few seconds. GAH.

But anyway…here you go!:

 

I’ll be back later with a HUGE decrapification project! WHOO!

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Get ready (cause here it comes!!)

Well hellooo! Hope you had a great weekend! We did a whole lot of marching band and not much else. :)

I just finally got all of the Halloween decor down a couple of days ago. (Well, except for the orange lights out front. And the stuff I forgot in the garage. And the trinkets in the car. And the nightlight in the Bub’s room.) But other than all that…it’s all put away.  :)

And now I’m really starting to think about the upcoming holidays – and getting really excited! Our season last year was full of all kinds of bad news – my father-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and then weeks later we lost my mother-in-law.

Needless to say, we just couldn’t get to everything -- it was the first year I can remember that I didn’t send out Christmas cards. I know it’s no big deal in the scheme of things, but that in particular really got me thinking about preparing for the holidays this year. So for the past few weeks, I’ve been making a list of the things I want to get done well before the end of the month!

First up…address our Christmas cards and get them ready to mail:

(Click on photos for sources.)

Guess how many boxes of cards I found in the basement last year? That would be THREE. I think we’ll have plenty. ;) Now, getting all four of us together for a decent Christmas photo – that’s the hard part.

I still hand address our Christmas cards – I actually quite enjoy it! I find it relaxing, and add in some Christmas music and hot chocolate and it makes for a lovely little tradition of my own. :)

Next up – going through the pile of toys:

OK, I may be exaggerating. Just a smidge. A skosh. Really, not much. Not at all. :)

The Bub’s birthday and of course Christmas are both in December – so we get the influx of new toys for the year within a span of a few weeks.

I. must. prepare.

I. must. prepare. when the Bub isn’t home.  ;)

Third on my list is to make a list and check it twice (wink). A few weeks ago I started a list of folks I don’t want to forget at the holidays -- there’s the mailman, the Bub’s teachers, friends and family of course. But also some folks we haven’t given to before – like the day care staff at our Financial Peace class, the waitresses at our favorite restaurant (if it tells you anything, they know us by name), and some of the great contacts I’ve made through blogging.

A few will get some of my yummy strawberry jam I made back in the summer:

It sure is good!! I know…I’ve already eaten a couple of the “gifts” myself.

And finally, because our kiddo is almost four and getting more fun with each passing day, I want to create new traditions that he’ll remember year to year.

I’ve heard the Elf on the Shelf can be quite labor intensive (on you-know-who’s part), but oh my goodness they are too stinkin’ cauuuute!:

Just look at that face!!

I guess he “watches” over the kids for Santa, yes? And he moves around the house every night, finding a different spot to hide. ACK! Adorable. Right up my alley baby.

And I kind of have a thing for advent calendars. Last year we got this cute Lego calendar:

My friend Richella told me about it, and even though the Bub was still a bit small, I couldn’t resist! He LOVED it.

I have a couple advent versions I’ve made and I highlighted them last year here. The little cardboard boxes are my favorite:

I love finding advent calendars you can make on your own – on a recent browsing trip through Pottery Barn Kids, we found both of these:

 

The tree is especially adorable just because it’s more than five feet tall and HUGE…but at $70, my mind immediately went into gear thinking how (relatively) easy it would be to make this one on the cheap! A huge piece of green felt, scraps of holiday fabrics and little embellishments and you could totally do this one on your own!

And Pottery Barn has a couple of advent calendars in stock, but this is the one that absolutely kills me:

Yes, because it’s pretty and adorable and a really cute idea. But it really kills me because it’s priced at $299. Gah, excuse me while I choke a little. What the what??

I know it would take some time, but some branches from a tree, (you don’t really have to use branches – how about some dowel rods?), some twine and 25 little spray painted buckets…you’ve got yourself an equally adorable advent calendar…for about $250 cheaper? Maybe?

I’d like to get my prep for the holidays done this week, so I can focus on Thanksgiving and then the Christmas decorating!! Whoooohoo!

How do you prepare for the holidays? Do you have any fun family traditions? Have you made your own advent calendar? Be sure to tell us about them or if you’ve blogged about one – link it up in the comments! We all could use a little help making the magic happen.  :)

Christmas is only SEVEN weeks away! Can you even believe it??

**You can enter the Makia Creations and HomeGoods Mom Cave giveaways until Monday at noon. And there’s still a bit more time to link up your before and after project for this month here!

Weekend fun: Famous folk

Hey there! I hope you’re having a fantastic weekend! I’m getting ready for another trip to NYC next week (pinch me!). I mentioned last week that, thanks so my friend Rhoda at Southern Hospitality, I am off to a taping of the Nate Berkus show, along with a whole slew of decorating/design bloggers.

I can’t WAIT!

So, I’m in the midst of laundry and trying to find SOMETHING to wear that is worthy. (And not having much luck.)  ;)

It will be a thrill, to say the least, to be within feet of Nate! Isn’t he the cutest? It’s had me thinking of some of the famous people I’ve come close to in my life – it’s not a really long list, but a few trips to NYC sure has helped. :)

I LOVE hearing stories from people who have met actors and musicians – the good and the bad. ;) So I thought I’d share some of mine, although most are just “walk bys,” not so much interaction!

Years and years ago, my BFF and I were at the Indy airport picking up my (then) boyfriend, now hubby. We were waiting on him at the baggage claim when my friend gasped and grabbed onto my arm like a vise.

SARAHSHUTUPIT’SDAVEMATTHEWSSHUTUP.

OHMYGAWD.SARAH.

ISTHATDAVEMATTHEWS?

SHUTUPTHAT’SDAVEMATTHEWS.

Shut. up. It was Dave! Walking right towards us, guitar case in hand:

We FROZE.

(I should have explained first that we were BIG, early Dave fans – like we bought his first album, rocked out freshman year of college, went to every concert every summer, FANS.)

He was within feet of us, and then he saw us. The two girls clutching each other, googley eyed, mouths hanging open, staring at him, ready to pounce.

We saw the fear in his eyes. I don’t know how else to explain it – it was dear God, get me away from these freaky fans as soon as humanly possible, fear. :)

He turned on his heel and quickly walked out the nearest door. My friend, with zero pride,  RAN after him, pushing through the doors. I saw her look both ways and walk back and forth outside -- but he was gone.

Seriously, to this day, we think he literally took off running when he got outside. There was no way otherwise he would have gotten away that fast.

C’mon Dave!! We weren’t that scary!! :)

We found out later that he had come into town, by himself, to sing to a local girl who was sick in the hospital with cancer. No wonder he didn’t want to deal with us crazies, now we don’t blame him one bit.

I may or may not have mentioned my slight obsession with New Kids on the Block for roughly the past 20 years of my life. Roughly.

When they were on the tail end of their early careers, they came to town on their last tour and did a meet and greet at a local store. We stood in line for hours and finally got to get our autographs. My favorite, Jon, had quit, but the fans didn’t know that. They made up some story about an injury, and when I got to Jordan and asked him about Jon, he was not happy about it.

I’m thinking it was probably the 593th time in the past ten minutes he had been asked, so I guess I don’t blame him. ;)

Joe and Danny were complete and total sweethearts – so friendly and funny and nice. Jordan and Donnie, notsomuch.

But that was then, and I know it was just a bad day and they are all just the nicest, sweetest people in real life. I’m sure of it, OK? Don’t tell me otherwise. I’m not listening, nananananaaaaa! I don’t hear you!

Last February, I had the pleasure of meeting the amazing Harry Connick Jr. at the Blissdom conference in Nashville:

My friend AnNicole and I were so busy chatting it up with Kevin and Layla from The Lettered Cottage, we totally missed his performance! But we snuck up to the very end of the meet and greet line and were the last two to get a picture with him.

Heavenly. :)

And of course, on just about every New York trip, we see someone famous. Usually it’s while were out shopping or just walking on the street.

On one of our first trips there, I was shopping right next to Christine Elise at Macy’s:

Remember her from 90210?

When I was in NYC earlier this summer, we walked by Melanie Lapatin, one of the choreographers from So You Think You Can Dance:

She was so beautiful in real life – pictures don’t do her justice!

On the way by the back door of the Promises Promises theater one night, we saw Sean Hayes and Tony Goldwyn signing autographs:

We didn’t have time to wait to get one, but it was a thrill to be that close. Hubby and I saw the show earlier this year and LOVED it – he’s a huge Kristin Chenoweth fan and I’m a huge Sean Hayes fan. :) Remember Tony Goldwyn from Ghost?:

The January after 9-11 we took hubby’s band students to NYC.  (An overseas trip was originally scheduled and that was canceled because of obvious reasons.) We had dinner at Tavern on the Green one evening with all of the kids and it was stunning.

At one point we walked by the restroom and the one and only Liza Minnelli was heading in:

That was pretty cool! 

I think my favorite brush with famousness is from a trip about seven years ago. We were heading back to our hotel (the Marriott Marquis – before it was $400 a night :) ), and we noticed a HUGE crowd gathered outside the hotel.

It was Jennifer Garner, shooting the limo scene for 13 Going on 30:

It was SO COOL! We watched forever, as they wound around the Marquis over and over and OVER. She was about ten feet away from us at times.

When the movie came out, my stepdaughter and I waited for that scene and watched like hawks, but we were just cut out of it:

Still, so fun and what fun experience!!

So those are my famous sightings. I’m sure there’s been a few more over the years, but it’s late on a Saturday night and my brain is MUSH.

Have you met anyone famous? Were they lovely or not so nice? SPILL it! (In a really nice way.) Any good sightings or stories? I’d love to hear!

And we’ll see if I see anyone fun next week! I’ll be sure to let you know. ;)

My craft “room”

 Well, it’s not really a room. There’s no real flooring, and zero drywall…but it works and I lurve it! I created this “space” a couple years ago, but recently have been making changes to make it function better and look cuter– as cute as cement walls and floors can get. ;)

The space started out like this a few years ago:

That would be a dumping zone. This is the first space as you walk down our basement steps, and because of that – everything just landed here. Well, most everything. It’s a big basement. :) Once this space was full, I would keep moving the piles around.

Last year, I added a folding table and shelving to hold wrapping and craft supplies and tools:

A few weeks ago, when I started the massive decrapification of the basement (AGAIN), I made a few adjustments – I have learned the way I had things placed down here contributes to the crapifying of the space every year.

The first change was to move a shelf that had most of my decor items from the back of the basement to this area – I found having in the back corner of the basement made it rare that I would actually walk back there and put the stuff away.

So I moved it to this area. Then I realized how much decor STUFF I actually had, and ended up buying another new shelf to hold more. I did a lot of thinking about where I wanted everything else as well, and moved it all around to function better.

Once I had everything in the right spot, this is what I was left with:

Schnikeys. Ummm…this was better than the before before! WAY. Even though I had put the table and shelves in this area a couple years ago, it didn’t prevent it from becoming a dump zone. The table actually encouraged it really.

But, after some rearranging, a whole lotta decluttering, and some fun additions, this is what it looks like today:

Ack!! Isn’t it precious? Yes, I know, as precious as cement can get?!

After I moved the shelves around, I thought hard about where I wanted to put everything on them. I realized a while back that the reason the table became such a pit was because the shelf with my tools was on the back wall – and that’s the one I use the most.

So when I was done with a project – done mentally and physically mind you – the last thing I wanted to do is put all the tools away! It was so much easier to throw them on the table. Because of this, I moved all of my tools to the first shelf as you walk down the stairs:

Brilliant. It’s the simple things folks. Do you know how many cans of spray paint were usually thrown on the “craft” table? Because I didn’t walk the extra ten feet? I know, it’s only ten feet. But mentally, when you’re pooped -- it’s miles.

The two shelves of extra decor are next. It will make such a difference having these so accessible! I used to trek around to a dark corner of the basement to put this stuff away, so it eventually, it just ended up in piles. I’m a piler, yes I am.

I didn’t really need two sets of shelves, but I was determined to sort the decor stuff and make it easy to find everything. I purged and still have this much left! A lot of this used to be in bins – things like candles, frames, to-do projects. Having it all out in the open is SO much better!

I moved the shelves with the wrapping and craft supplies to the back wall. My goal is to USE the table to wrap or craft – so now they are right there where I need them!:

Last year I came up with a way to store my wrapping paper, and it’s worked out GREAT! I drilled holes into the shelving and hung the paper rolls with twine:

Wrapping paper drives me nutty – all the unraveling, rolling, bouncing around. Argh! This has worked awesome! I love that they are out of the way and still allow for items on the shelf.

When I want to wrap something, I just hold it up, determine how much I need, then cut the paper. If the item is too large to hold up, it usually just goes in a bag.  :)

Once I felt like everything was in it’s place on the shelves, I moved on to the fun stuff. Whoohoo!

I decided a long time ago this spot would be as girly as it wants to be. I’m the only one who uses it, and even though I’m not what you would call a typical girly girl, I really wanted a space to just have fun with! Fun colors, fun prints, fun textures. This was the perfect spot!

The table is a simple folding table – and it is U.G.L.Y. on top. Last year I got some striped fabric and put it over the top with hot glue. This year, I wanted to amp up the fun and color a bit, so I went with this fabric instead:

Shut the front door…adorable. Aren’t the colors FUN? As you can see, I added the “skirt” with hot glue as well, so you can’t see these:

One is a bin I keep gifts in, one is a tool box for extra crap junk stuff.

The table cover fabric is from Hob Lob and was $6 a yard, 30 percent off. I only needed two yards. The fabric holds up surprisingly well! If I spray something like spray adhesive, or am painting, I just cover the table with scrap paper. (Usually the stuff they wrap my purchases with at Hob Lob!)

I literally hot glued it under the edges of the table. The skirt is leftover drapery lining and I glued that on too:

I wanted a cutting board for this table foreva, and decided to treat myself to one when I was done decluttering this space. It was $23 at Joann’s, 40 percent off:

Now I can craft, glue, cut, whatever, and not worry about the table. And it’s bright and happy! See the little green flower shaped thingy? It’s a silicon pot holder from Pier 1 – I got it for our kitchen, but realized today it would be the perfect little spot to rest my glue gun.

I tried it and by golly, it works!! (Yep, I sure did just say “by golly.”) The hot glue literally wipes right off of it. How stinking cute is that?

All the sudden I was finding the most adorable little accessories that worked with the colors:

The little clips ($1) and pencils ($2) were from Michaels – the pencils MATCH. Dying!!

Check out the eraser ($1):

I. am. dying.

Then I found this little pin cushion at Joann’s and couldn’t resist it:

Hmmm…maybe I am a girly girl?  ;)

The organization of this space was HUGE part of this project. The color and little extras were fun to add. But the biggest change in this area was the lighting. As you can see from the first couple pictures above, there was just a single light fixture for the whole “room.”

Because my hubby often works down here during the summer (more on that spot later), we decided to add more outlets in the basement. Since the electrician was going to be here anyway, I asked him to add another light fixture in my craft area, and then a third light so I could swag a little fixture over the table.

I found a little brass beauty at the local ReStore last summer – it was spray painted and waiting in our garage all this time:

Let there be light!! It makes SUCH a difference to this area! It’s so bright and fun and now I can see what I’m doing when I work. Whoohoo!

I bought a glass lamp from Goodwill last summer as well. I took it apart and spray painted just the brassy parts with the same fun green:

The $4 lamp shade was dressed up with a strip of extra fabric and some hot glue.

Can I get a “CAAUUUUUTE?!” Say it with me Squeezies!

My husband walked downstairs tonight and when he got down there, yelled up the stairs to me -- “Honey! It looks so cute down here! I love it!”

And that is why I love him. :)

The before shot that was really the half way shot, that’s how bad it was:

And my girly, bright after:

So worth all that work. I’ve got a few spring project I’ll be working on down here this week –- if they work out I’ll show you soon. Heck, I’ll show you even if they don’t.  ;)

 

Thank you to my sponsor: