Happy Holidays!

I have been very absent lately but...

If you haven't seen Christmas Vacation then I worry about you, really.  We discovered a few people we worry about after sending this card to our family and friends.  Please tell me everyone has seen it!

P.S. I'll be entering The Paper Mama's holiday card contest so check it out! Thanks!!!

Christmas Decor

Our Family Christmas Photo

Even though its almost February I couldn't forget about our first Christmas not only in our house but married.  What an expensive holiday, decorations are not cheap! Several Joann's coupons later, I finally had the house looking somewhat how I wanted.

We opted for a fake Christmas tree just in case the pup would be too curious with a real one.  This was probably our safest bet for her being under 1 with a love of sticks.  We had to block off the sides of the tree because Reese was running along it looking out the window, knocking ornaments off on her way.

Very proud of her tree

We didn't have many options for hanging our stockings so we hung them from the railing.  

Kitchen Table Centerpiece

Kitchen Chalkboard

My garland was nowhere near as elaborate as I wanted.  I had big shoes to fill because my mom is pretty amazing at decorating her house.  Here is her garland for the entryway from the living room to the dining room.

I had high hopes of copying this but she's a pro at this.

Reese opens her own presents

Speaking of presents, Santa was really good to me this year..he's a good guy.  Batman got me exactly what I wanted, an iPad!  I have been glued to the thing.  My parents also gave us some refinished pieces that fit in perfectly.  One being this bench my mom reupholstered and painted.  I love the fabric we picked out, mostly my mom picked it out because I could not decide which room deserved it the most.  We found the bench at a yard sale over the summer.  The other piece is also amazing but you will have to wait to see that one.

Well, thats a glimpse of the Batcave this past Christmas.
I promise next year I'll get to this before Christmas.

Pomander Topiaries

At our wedding, I made tissue paper pomanders for every aisle.  Now that the wedding has come and gone, I'm trying to think of other uses for them.  I could very easily say that they had their hay-day but they were so much work that I'd like to see them have another use.  I'm decorating our bedroom in light blue and grey and coincidentally, my pomanders are light blue.

Wedding Day Photography by Jay Moore Photography

We were very fortunate to have several pieces of furniture passed down to us when we moved into our house.  We have Batmans grandma's bedroom set in our room right not and had our cable box and DVD box on either side.  I found it to be such an eyesore and was trying to think of a way to stack them and have more space on the dresser.  I told Batman we should take out the middle drawer and put them there and he looked at me like I had 3 heads.  So I took that as a no...for now.

I am an active Pinterest fan and found this.  REALLY?! Isn't it crazy when you see exactly what you were thinking/wanted and love it!  I showed Batman and it did just the trick.  What else is great about it? I can make topiaries for either side.  Double Whammy.

I didn't stop there.  I found these gorgeous pots and fell even more in love with the idea.  I got to work looking for fabric.  I didn't want something too busy because the blue is pretty bright.  I found this fabric and thought it would do the trick.

It was pretty easy to modge podge the pots, the hardest part is that Reese wanted to eat the scissors, then sit on the fabric, then jump on my head..it was a never ending battle.  It didn't require much fabric at all and I love how you can make it match any room.

If she could talk, she'd be saying, "Can I help? Can I eat this? Can I stand on it? What are you doing?"

I started with a straight line on the pot and rolled and modge podged as I went until it was completely covered.  I wasn't sure how to finish with the fabric so for one, I made a slight lip and folded it under.  The other I just modge podged until I was out.  This was quick and easy.

When I was all podged out, I put them on top of a jelly jar to dry...it doesn't have to be a jelly jar of course.

I bought my dowel rod, styrofoam ball, and some moss and was ready for completion.  Now, I have some matching bedroom decor and another use for my pomanders!

All I have to do is refinish my dresser.  Thats for another day!

Today is the Day!

Last night, not only did I catch up on my DVRed shows but I cleared out the office so I can paint it today.  I should really thank all of those expensive movie channels I pay for, if it wasn't for them not adding any new movies I would have probably put this project off again. So, thank you!

I haven't even made the trip to Home Depot yet but seeing all of my things in the hallway and this empty room are motivation enough! I haven't fully decided on my color yet, I'm hoping I will fall in love with something when I get there.

So here I am, in my empty office scoping my Pinterest "Office" board for some final inspiration while listening to Third Eye Blind.  I know that once its painted I will want to go on a shopping spree but I'll have to fight the decorating urges.  We bought bookshelves from Ikea months ago and they've been sitting in our room, still in the box, ever since.  To defend myself, they were out of the other 2 shelves I want so I'm still waiting for them to get them in.  It also helped us keep Reese from army crawling under our bed after she got "fixed."

Wish me luck! To be continued...

Pieces of Reese

A week after I married Batman, the silence in our house ended forever...we had a puppy!

I was hunting and hunting.  Did I mention I was hunting? I knew exactly what I wanted.  My childhood dogs were both rescues and that was my number 1 requirement for our pending puppy.  We were so lucky with the amazing dogs we rescued that I knew I had to rescue my own.

Sophi: My 2nd childhood dog

I couldn't leave out my Sophi dog.  She is the main reason I was in a rush to adopt.  I missed her so much when I moved out that I needed a dog of my own.  Unfortunately, all pictures of Corky (my first dog) were before digital cameras were a common household product.  That makes me sound old but in my days, high school students didn't have their own laptop and camera (not in my circle of friends anyway).  Corky was still one of my loves though...I still miss her.

Batman had two beagles as a child and was pretty partial to them.  We hadn't zoned in on a specific breed but we had some preferences.  I was leaning towards the lab side for my dog type.  This might sound really picky but I really wanted a short-haired dog.  The thought of my dog getting her hair did lost its appeal when my brain did the math of how much it is to have a dog in the first place.  We didn't want too big of a dog (we live in a townhouse and wanted to start out medium).  I looked on the internet and found a rescue company that I really liked.  They had several puppies in need of a home and I found a litter that looked exactly like what we wanted!

I convinced Batman to take an hour long road trip to meet the puppies.  He finally agreed but said we were just going to "look."  Silly boy..he should have known better!

We got there and fell in love with this little puppy

9 weeks old- Adoption Day

Talk about a chunky monkey right?!? When rescuing you never really know what you're getting but they said she was a beagle lab mix.  We say...she's a keeper!

4 months
Its hard to believe our little bat-dog has gotten so big in the past few months!

Her name? Reese! She's just the right color and happens to be my favorite candy!  She was almost named Rogue but surprisingly many people didn't know that X-Men character.  I liked Rogue because Roguey-Perogie would have been a pretty fun nickname.

Batman has never had a puppy before so boy was he in for a treat.  Training a puppy is a lot of work but she's finally getting there.  My girl can give high fives and she's just 5 months!

I could go on and on about this little nugget but I'll save it for another time.

So, what do you guys think she is? Those ears scream beagle right?