Presents = Done!

This past weekend, I got all of my gifts wrapped! I think we have more gifts this year than ever before. Really. It took several hours to finish them all!

I don't even think we could fit anymore under the tree if we tried! We also hung another one of our wedding photos, right above the couch.

I was saving a spot with our engagement photo. Now it's a nice little pair. :)

I just can't wait to get our new sectional. I keep thinking about what it's going to look like in this corner. I might just have to rearrange the whole space! That's ok though, I'm pretty sure I'll manage. ;)

Now when someone asks if I'm ready for Christmas, I can officially say I am. All presents are officially bought and wrapped. 

Now we just need to get this short work week over with. Who's with me? 

Living Room Decor, December 2015

Happy Sunday, all. Did you have a great weekend? Mine consisted of a birthday party, a little shopping and a little decorating. Since I first put the tree up and started decorating for Christmas around the house, there have been a few small decor changes going on in the living room. Notice anything different?

OK, let me help you! We got all of our wedding photos from the photographer on Friday night, including our canvas! It now has a home in the corner of the living room.

This one was one of my favorite of our wedding photos. I love it here, especially with the light of the lamp shining on it. Of course, once we get our new sectional in here, this corner is going to look quite different! The lamp won't be in that spot anymore, but hopefully it will still look great.

I also did another pillow change up. I picked up a couple of more neutral throw pillows at Target and rearranged them to match the holiday decor a little better.

And I enlisted Trent's help to hang my seafan picture in the opposite corner of the room. I love this picture and didn't want to just stash it away after I took it down to hang our wedding canvas. So it's kind of hanging out now with my mini gallery wall.

This way I can still enjoy it from the couch. So needless to say, there are lots of frame and pillow changes happening here all the time. It never really ends around here.

Who has all of their Christmas shopping done already? I'm getting a lot closer...but still working on it. Ordered some items online this weekend so I get them in time for Christmas. I have a work conference this week in Pittsburgh, PA and leave Tuesday. So the wrapping of gifts will have to wait until next week. I won't be blogging until after I return either, but have one more post ready for tomorrow. 

Maybe next week I'll finally be able to blog about our Christmas porch and lights outside. :)

Kitchen and Living Room Updates

This weekend was pretty relaxing, but productive, too. It felt like fall for the first time, in the 60's and 70's. We had a fire in the backyard and had a few of Trent's family over on Friday night. Saturday we visited my family then went to the lighted parade in Alpha, and today Trent watched the Bears/Packers game with the guys, and I stayed home and cleaned around the house. I also redecorated a little, found some places for the last of the wedding gifts, and watched some movies. It was a nice little Sunday!

I did manage to snap a few photos in the kitchen and living room today of some recent changes around the house. I already posted about our new stove that we got last weekend. We still think it's pretty awesome.

We also got a Keurig 2.0! I've been making the Cafe mocha pretty much every morning. I can't believe how fast it is, and that we haven't gotten one of these sooner.

I washed and put away all of the new dishes, glasses, and mugs we got. I just wish we had more storage! I'll probably have to get rid of a lot of old cups and plates.

I can't wait until we can redo the kitchen and get all new cabinets! Ever since the foundation got worked on, the cabinets have been split apart and away from the wall. The foundation still needs work, unfortunately!

I did put my dishes back up on the wall after we used them in our wedding centerpieces. I just changed out a few of them.

In the living room, I changed up a few frames - Our guest book frame that all of our guests signed at the wedding is now in the center of the room on our floating shelf.

It replaces the picture of Trent and his mom that his sister gave him a few years back. I moved it to the side table though, so it's still in the room. It's just nice to change things up a little, but still have something else meaningful in its place.

It is probably one of the coolest mementos from the wedding. A nice alternative to a guest book, which would probably never be seen again for several years!

In the China hutch, I put the rest of my dishes away, along with the champagne flutes from our wedding, and our cake server and knife.

I think it's safe to say the hutch is completely full now!

My gallery wall got switched around, too. Though I think I need Trent to get home so he can move a couple of nails for me! We got that LOVE print on the right for a wedding gift, but it needs moved over a little bit to be centered. 

I put one photo from the wedding in one of the frames, but think I'll wait to switch the others out until we get our professional photos back. The little "From this day forward" sign was also a wedding gift. Isn't it cute?

Of course I already shared a little about our new Mr. and Mrs. pillows. They're still sitting pretty on the couch for now.

I cleaned and straightened up quite a bit today, folded towels and put them away, and ran the dishwasher, along with redecorating a little bit. So I think I had a pretty productive Sunday. I like my blogging and movie watching view a little better now I think. :)

That's all for now! I think I'll work on putting together that wedding link post...All of my wedding projects on one page. Hope to have that done this week!

Living Room Photo Change-Up

Is it really Christmas Eve? So excited! Let's talk decor for now, though. If you are familiar at all with my photo frame arrangement in the living room, you know it changes all the time. With the seasons, with new art I decide to create, or just when I get something new and frame-worthy. In this case, it was the latter. I got several prints of our Engagement photos. And I thought they deserved to be hung up on our walls.

Of course I love the new arrangement. It's unique and completely us. 

I added some other pictures around the living room, too. I already had some extra frames laying around that I hadn't found a place for yet.

Oh, and I hung up an 8x10 of us. The first 8x10 we've ever had. I hung it above the couch where my medallion from Hobby Lobby was hanging before...

 

...It's a little high though. So, I need to find something else to hang right below it. I don't know if another one of our engagement photos will work, or a print of some sort. I figure next year after we get married, we can hang one of our wedding photos under it instead.

In addition to new frames, I've been thinking about getting a new couch a lot lately, since we really need one! The cushions keep falling out, and we need a larger one with more sitting area. We've looked a little, but we'll have to look more after Christmas.

Is everyone ready for Christmas tomorrow? I've been lighting candles and sipping hot cocoa this week (along with redecorating)...oh, and watching lots of movies. :)

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Cheerful Yellow Frame

I'm really excited to share my new frame with you all today. It's cheerful and yellow, makes a statement, and it came that way, no DIY involved. Oh yeah, and it was $5.96 at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is normally not my go-to for stylish decor, but when you're there for two hours getting your tires changed, you start to find things you normally wouldn't look for.

Of course the second I saw it, I knew it was a great find and a great deal. If you're looking for a pop of color on your walls, you can't beat it for 6 bucks.

I had to do a little re-arranging of my frame wall...but that's nothing new. :)

Everything almost worked perfectly without having to move any nails around, but my new frame was just a little too low the way the nails were aligned, so I had to have my expert resident handyman come to the rescue and move the nail a little higher.

Other than that change, I was able to find a way for my other frames and artwork to be arranged in a way that still looked good together. I had to put away my pink painting which is my favorite, so I was a little sad about that. But I'm sure it will be back next spring. 

You can see the painting I'm talking about in this photo from my fall arrangement last year:

This wall has changed quite a bit since then. I feel like it's gotten a little more personalized, and not to mention more varied, which is always nice.

So glad I discovered this awesome frame. I love looking at it in the living room, and it's perfect for both fall and summer. But heck, maybe I'll leave it around all winter, too. We'll see :)

Latest Frame Arrangement Update

As of a few days ago, our living room frame arrangement looked like this:

Then this past week, I picked up one of John and Sherry's adorable Bee hooks at the only and only Target (And posted about these hooks here and here). When I was getting it out of the box, I noticed this cute description of why they chose to make a bee-shaped hook. Love these guys:

Anyhoo, bees don't necessarily have any special meaning for us, but I thought it was so cute, that even though I don't need any hooks at the moment, I decided to get it to support my favorite bloggers, and thought it would be a cute addition to the frame wall.

So here is the newest arrangement going on in the living room. And I know, I know...who puts a hook in the middle of the living room? How random. But, we already have hooks for our coats and keys, and I DIY'ed a necklace holder with plenty of hooks for those..so it will be on display in the living room for us to enjoy. And if anyone has any ideas as to what could possibly hang from said hook...I'm all ears.

Just the adorable-ness of it is good enough for me.

One idea I have is to hang a few skeleton keys from some string...maybe 3 - one for me, one for Trent and one for Saleen...

It's always a work in progress, so who knows!