We finally finished the chair!!

I always get so excited to do projects, but it is never until I am in the middle of it that I seem to recall that I have no idea what I am doing, or that I'm not too much of a creatively minded person. It comes together okay most of the time, but I'm sure that trial and error isn't the most effective way of getting it there!

But alas, the chair is finished! And bonus, so that we can return the staple gun and extension cord to it's rightful owner, I did the matching ottoman today too.So here is the process and the mess...
The original chair (it has a matching brown corduroy chair, which may or may not get an overhaul now that I know what the whole process entails..)

The guts. The fun part was tearing the chair all apart. It was then that I realized I wasn't really sure that I how to go about putting it back together again.

My friend Allyson helped me try to wrap my brain around how to get the fabric back on the chair I had mutilated!
And now, after long breaks in between (when I actually wanted the mess to be cleaned up for a little while, and forget that I still hadn't finished the thing) Here is the final masterpiece!


and the ottoman...

The Christmas "wrap" up

Well, our little apartment is officially being cleaned up from the Christmas holidays. The wrapping paper pieces picked up and thrown away, and the tree, which was quickly losing its green beauty, ceremoniously taken down.

But we had a fabulous holiday. It was like taking a vacation without going anywhere!

Bobby, who has never in the history of our marriage, woken up first without the use of an alarm... excitedly woke me up in anticipation to the presents we had been gathering for each other. Bobby got a new fancy flashlight, a home-made apron (for his turns in the kitchen!!) some needed, though maybe not excited Sunday clothes, and a few fun toys. I was pretty Impressed with the presents Bobby gave me. Evidence that he had ventured into some pretty entertaining stores, like wet seal, solidified the fact that he really must love me!! He also got me 4 pairs of shoes (well one was a pair of slippers) after swearing that I had enough and that he definitely wasn't going to get me any shoes! He even got me the yellow salt water sandals I had envied on his stylish sister Katie.

The day continued with laziness and lots of yummy food. I, again, love the American traditions of elaborate food preparation and even more elaborate eating!


Bobby is now on book 6 of the Harry Potter series, which we have been borrowing from the library on CD. So the lazy day was entertaining with combination of the brewing intensity in the story, and the puzzles that we put together while listening.

I love holidays for so many reasons, but these year my gratitude is greatest for the excuse to not do much at all of consequence. Hope you all are also enjoying such Holidays!!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Well, Bobby put the crowning ornament on the advent calendar tree this morning, and that means that Christmas Eve is finally here!

We had a great calendar like this growing up, and Jeniel made us all replica's of this felt and sequin masterpiece for Christmas a couple years ago, and the tradition continues!

As children, we would always fight over who could put the star on the top, or whether it would be the star or angel that made it to the top of the tree. It was luck of the draw who got the number that had the star in it, so my mom got smart and started always putting the star in day 24- and the top spot on the tree had to be left open for Christmas Eve morning.

True to tradition, this morning the top spot was all that remained open, and because it was Bobby's turn, he topped off the tree and we knew that Christmas had finally come at last!!

And so we wish a Very Merry Christmas to you all!!

The Tinfoil Star

I have this new favorite, though childlike, tradition. I love it. It started a couple years ago when I was decorating the tree with my roommates and best friends. We were finishing it up and I realized that it was missing the ornament for the top! I couldn't imagine a tree without an angel or star on top. I got out a cereal box, and fashioned a star from the card board and covered it with tin foil, and then used half a toilet paper roll for the stand.

I had to admit, I was far more proud of myself than the star actually was worth, but I loved it.

And the next year, it wasn't a lack of decoration that necessitated it, but, frankly, I just wanted to make one to top off the tree.

This year, Bobby made the tinfoil star, and again, I love it! I can't help it, I feel like it is a silly but perfect little topper, and it just may have become one of our new Christmas traditions!

O Christmas Tree!

It is really to bad that we didn't have our camera with us when we went to get our tree...

We first set out Friday night, and I asked Bobby if we should take our camera. His response was that might be a little bit overboard on the picture taking. So the camera was left at home. But it turns out after running other errands, we didn't have time to find a very good tree that night, and vowed to set out again on Saturday.

Due to the conversation the previous night, I didn't take a second thought at grabbing the camera for the outing. But we did wish that we had it for this occasion. The snow was DUMPING down as we drove to find a lot with little trees that weren't too wimpy. By the time we got to one and got out- you couldn't even see through the giant flakes. We we walked into the lot with me clutching Bobby's arm, and trying to blink the snowflakes off of my eyelashes, the people working there said they wished they had a camera to document the sight of it. But in the dumping snow, we found our perfect tree.

I did run upstairs to grab the camera for the unloading of the tree off the car. It wasn't dumping as hard anymore, but it still made for a good photo!

festival of the trees

This is a little peep into our evening at the Festival of the Trees.

People are pretty dang creative. I wish I could remember the theme names for each of these pictures. That is half of what makes them so fun... From the Warmth of Christmas, to Screwed up Christmas Tree, and the Tall Man Club (the giraffe one!)

Here are a few that we liked, or at least that we thought were crazy enough to take a picture of!

This Morning

"I looked out the window and what did I see?"Snow covering every little bit of the trees