Christmas porch

If you follow me on Pinterest, you'll be glad to know that I have now stopped pinning pictures of holiday-ized, wintry porches.  

I dreamed, planned, sold, bought, planned some more.  And I have the porch I dreamed of!

I'm happy to report that this didn't cost me a cent out of pocket.  I was lucky enough to sell a few things on the local classifieds (LOVE them) and spent only that which I earned.  If I sold a pair of Rosebud's jeans for $5, I was able to pick up a $5 item.  Magic!


I found the vintage sled by searching daily for on the classifieds, putting in my maximum budget of $15, then BAM, one day one was listed.  $15 for a sled that even had red runners (I was going to paint them red anyway).

The biggest hunt besides the sled was for the lanterns.  I wanted old fashioned but not really old, does that make sense?  These are from Ikea.  I paid $15 for the set.  Score!  I put candles in them from my stash.

The three trees on the left I already had.  I found a little pinecone garland for $2 and the red oblong box for $2. The throw blanket at the base of the trees was brand new from the thrift store for $2.

I had to wait a while, but found little ice skates for $5 after searching daily.  I hung them in front of a pine swag I won at Strider's work party years ago.  The branches in back were trimmed off the bottom of our tree when we were trying to get it to fit in the stand!  I had the hope sign and the mini canvas tote of pinecones already.

I so believe that if you can dream it, you can do it!  Even if most of my ideas are copied from others I can usually find a way to morph it into my reality and do it for next to nothing.  If I am patient it always works out.

I wanted a spot that would put a smile on my face every time I walked onto the porch.  Nailed it.

In search of the perfect tree...

...or in our case, a tree with character.  

While out for an errand on Black Friday, Strider and I stumbled upon a tree farm not too far from home.  We were interested enough that we went home, got the kids, and went back.  Apparently it was Christmas Tree Day.

We are usually late decorators and the real tree we get every year usually goes up around the second weekend in December.  I don't like being cramped or in pine needle mess for longer than necessary.  So this was a big deal for us.  Well, I thought about it.  I have a larger space this year plus if we cut down our own tree it would be fresher - less dropped needles.

We hunted and hunted.  This place had tons of trees but I was very picky and we were on a tight budget.  Too bushy.  Weird top.  Too full. Not slender enough.

Finally the owner (I think she was sick of trying to please me) pointed at a huge tree and said she'd cut off the top of it for less per ft price than the smaller trees.  Well, why not?

So here are my not small children in front of our "tree" so you can see by comparison what a monster it was.  Hee hee.  But hey, we didn't have to cut it.  And the top was pretty cool.

I'll be danged, it is the prickliest Blue Spruce you ever encountered.  Thank heavens she had gloves.

And they hoisted it up and we brought 'er home.

She's funky and different and, well, looks like the top of a really big tree.  And I love her.

Gearing up for Christmas

I decided since we're in a new place and new traditions are part of the package this year, that I would get an earlier start on Christmas then ever before.  For most of you that just means doing it when YOU are doing it.  I am a traditionally late Christmas decorator.  I got some fabric for $2.  It was about 2 yards of a vibrant red plaid grandma polyester.  I'm quite certain my grammy had a pair of pants made of this in 1979.

In order to cover my existing pillows but still remove easily I opted for an envelope closure on the back of the covers, which is also the easiest version in my opinion.

I wanted one to contrast so I tried to do an iron on applique but I think my fusible web was old or something.  When that didn't work I just sewed in on instead.

Two of my old pillows had green on them so they got to stay.

Ta-da!  All ready for Thanksgiving now :)  I wanted to finish dinner and come home to a place already beginning to show Christmas cheer.

We ate with Strider's fam this year.  We were missing one couple, but the rest of us enjoyed great food together.  We had a niece and a nephew born this year, so, much to be thankful for!

I've never volunteered for the rolls before, but have been happy with this version lately so I went for it.  Mmm.

Here's our nephew getting his first taste of solid food.  What better time than on the holiday known for food?!

Princess sang a song about gratitude for us.  It was a nice day.

November round-up

Regular season football done, we focused headlong into performing arts and...more football.  And our first kid birthday in the new house.

 

Potter was once again at home on stage in an amazing production of Tarzan.  A rare sophomore in the cast, he blended right in and the entire summer of workouts paid off in his rigorous ape role.

I'm so glad to see him gaining friends right away.  It's tough to change schools in 10th grade!

The day after Tarzan, he was in a drama class production called 60 in 60.  60 plays in 60 minutes.  Yes I'm serious.  They each wrote dozens of them, voted on the best, and performed in & directed the mini plays.  What a riot!

The day after 60 in 60 he got his cast off after 8 weeks. All better!

He broke his hand in September during Tarzan rehearsals.  The director asked him to get a black cast so it would blend in better with the costume.  He technically could have gotten it off just in time for opening night, but the hand wouldn't have been strong enough for the choreography.  So it was on an additional two weeks.

Jedi is trying orchestra this year.  He's a cute viola player!

 Bugs is in year #4 of the alto sax.  He's very good; I love listening to him and it takes me back to my days in band.  I loved it and I'm glad he does.

Bugs' team was invited to play in a Nevada Tournament.  Strider took off work and they drove down together for three days.

Bugs had the camera and recorded all the scenery he had never seen before.  Like red rocks.

Palm trees.

St George Temple.

They played three games and shut out their opponents completely for the first two games.  

Strider took him to lunch in Vegas.  Hey, now two of my kids have been to Vegas, but I still haven't been!

 They lost a tough one for the championship, though, and came home with second place.

They got home in the wee hours of the morning on his 14th birthday!  We had family coming up to celebrate, plus he was advancing from Deacon to Teacher at church.  Glad he made it back!

He requested cake pops instead of cake.

And pretended to blow out his candles.

So proud of my boy.  He's such a fun, responsible kid.  I rarely have to worry about things with him.  He remembers assignments, stuff for school or activities, things to take care of in church.  Really impressive for his age.  I'm thrilled he was able to be home for his birthday, even though I was scared to death as Strider drove through the night.

Prior to Thanksgiving I cooked up a lot of our garden pumpkins and made a bunch of pies.  I tried a couple different crusts to see which one I wanted to bring to family Thanksgiving.

We got to babysit cousins.  Bugs is the baby whisperer, so no surprise that he got Brooklyn to sleep!

She is hilarious with her faces.  This is what happens when she's listening to Justin Bieber on mommy's phone and daddy calls, interrupting the song:

The kids were laughing so hard.

I found some fabric at the thrift store and decided to makeover the living room for Christmas.

 Here's a preview.  Show you next time! (ha ha - selfie in the iron).


November, you were good to us!  But please, let's have less craziness this month.  yeah, right.