12.24.2009

Merry Christmas!

I am sorry the posts have been so few and far between this month. Blame it on the holidays! (And the home improvement project that we foolishly decided to take on three weeks before Christmas...) But I promise I will be back in January with some good stuff!

In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday. I will see you back here after the New Year!



12.18.2009

My New Favorite Christmas CD

The day after Thanksgiving we love to drive up to the little town of Estes Park, Colorado, where they hold an annual Christmas parade just after sunset. The lights of the parade, the pretty floats and Christmas characters, and the music is just magical!

We all bundle up, as you can see!

This year we wandered into a little shop and discovered Peregrin Road, a local acoustic band. They were just sitting there, live, playing music from their Christmas CD, which I bought on the spot! It's a beautiful mix of guitar, Irish whistle (my favorite) and other things this non-musical person cannot identify.

All I can tell you is that I've been listening to this CD non-stop. Although Frank, Bing, Tony and the rest of the crew will always have top billing at my house, sometimes you just need a little variety in your Christmas music! I love to play this during my (few) moments of peace, or at night when the kids are in bed.

I promise I don't know these guys, and they are not paying me to say this! I just found something that brings me a little calmness and peace during the Christmas season, and wanted to share. Their CD sells on Amazon, or you can go to their website directly to listen and download. If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend it!

Have a great weekend!


12.15.2009

My Henry-Proof Christmas Tree Table

You all are very nice. I am still digging my way out of the drywall dust in my house, but luckily I don't feel stressed because of my lack of posts, because you understand! Plus, you are all probably too busy getting ready for Christmas to care what is going on in my house!

Here's a little project I managed to sneak in out of necessity. You may know that I have an almost-11-month-old son named Henry. He's crawling everywhere, and eating everything! When we thought about putting up a Christmas tree this year, all we could envision was digging glass ornament shards out of his little mouth. So, we improvised!

This table has been sitting in our basement, gathering junk. It originally had the same ugly legs as this table, which I renovated back in the summer.

As you can see, my accommodating husband changed out the legs for me. (The above photo is after the legs had already been replaced. And just in case you are curious, we bought the legs at Home Depot!)
I started by painting the table an antique white (Behr's "Country Dairy" in an eggshell finish). It took about four coats because I was impatient and neglected a primer coat. (Nothing new there!) Then I sanded the edges a bit and added a little knob. I love how it turned out!

I also love that I don't have to worry about Henry eating pine needles all month. Happy Holidays to all! :)


12.07.2009

In a Bad Place

I have not been around much lately. Besides the usual Christmas busy-ness, my house has been in an uproar. What used to be this:

...now looks like this:

We decided to convert our upstairs loft into a bedroom. It's been a fairly straightforward project-just adding a half-wall, door and closet-but really? Is there anything good about having a garbage can in your hallway?

So that's why I've been absent lately. We're in a bad place around here. Construction dust. My son finding pieces of stray drywall to put in his mouth. My daughter's footed PJs looking like she's been trudging through the gutters in them. The dog? Oh, the dog! His fuzzy hair is like a magnet for debris.

And in the midst of it all, trying to put up the Christmas tree and enjoy the yuletide. So you can see why I have not been showing you my Christmas decorations, our cozy nights by the fire sipping hot chocolate, and visits to Santa!

I hope to be back sometime soon with more traditional Christmas posts. In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying the season!