The Christmas I Sold My Soul to Bimart for $79.99

Christmas is, without a doubt, the most wonderful time of the year. Today, I got to use the leafblower indoors (more on that momentarily) and salvage fresh cypress greens (with berries!!) from a fallen tree across the street.

We had some wet, heavy snow last night and awoke to this festive scene...

The snow took out some branches across the street (only one at our house) and I put on my sweet waterproof Sorels to go splash through three inches of slush and drag a few armloads of wet branches back to the garage. Waterproof footwear makes me feel like I have superpowers. I should maybe shoot higher for my superpower abilities, but it's really pretty great walking through slush and puddles with dry feet.

Yesterday, I acquired not one but free two large birch logs from a Christmas tree lot that we didn't even buy a tree from! (Not pictured...yet.) Best time of the year.

This shall also forever be known as the year that I sold out and bought a fake tree, and then spent the last 24 hours since that purchase wondering why it took me so long to actually do it. I have pine cubes for my wax warmer and a fake tree, and it is fantastic. It's one of those "real feel" ones and looks pretty solid, even to my rather particular eye.

Ok, so, the freshly scavenged greens. I made this ...trough... from scrap wood a couple of years ago when we lived in Bend. Thought it'd look nice on the dining room table as a centerpiece, and (bonus) it smells good too. Which is perfect, because it helps sneak the fake tree by.

 LOOK at all these berries! So festive. If it was any more festive, nobody could handle it. It will not be residing on the kitchen counter all season. That was just to make sure it wasn't leaking.

But here at Casa McShoe, it's about to get EVEN MORE FESTIVE. You may recall me earlier in the post stating that I had occasion to use the leafblower inside. Technically it was sort of inside, with the blowy end pointed out the front door. We have a real tree sitting in a holder on the front porch, drying off so it could come in. It was a bit soggy from the weather last night. So it's been sitting there all day as it rains, which means the air is not conducive to evaporation.

I began to wonder, is there a better way to get the tree dry? Yes, yes, there is. It is sitting in my garage right now. And as I stood in my doorway at dusk as the neighbor walked by, staring at me as I blew dead needles and water everywhere, I thought to myself, is there a more fun way to get the tree dry? And we all know the answer to this: no, there definitely is not. So we will be decorating our dry Christmas tree in short order.

But wait, there's still more Christmas!

Normally I am not terribly into displaying random stuff on top of cabinets in kitchens. Or any stuff. But it's Christmas and I just bought a fake tree, so there are no rules anymore.

 There's even kitchy americana, which is normally strictly prohibited.

 Oh, look, more fragrant and festive fresh greens.

 Here's the rest of the kitchen, btw. Picture rail is finished and all but one piece of art is in place, though it's seasonally rearranged to accommodate the snowy pine swag thing on the right. I looove it.

 Here's a close-up on the arrangement on the table. I think it still needs a little work. Kind of heavy on the left and right, and it's reminding me a bit of Maleficent.

It's possible the resemblance is a little more in my head, but nonetheless, Maleficent is not very festive.

Wait, did another picture of my fake tree sneak in here? Oh, well...

A little cheer here...(minus the dead plant. That was an experiment that didn't go as I'd hoped.)

A LOT of cheer there, and there isn't even a tree in there yet!

And lastly, this flannel ribbon that I am pretty jazzed to use on gifts (and then surreptitiously steal and take home to use again for next year when the receiver of the gift isn't watching. I am coming to accept that I might actually be an old lady.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS!!

Update...

Here's the Christmas tree (the night before we took it down). It was a grand fir and it smelled amazing. 

 

Fa La La La La

Just worth acknowledging that there was this perfect Sunday afternoon where I sat at home in front of a fire for 8 hours.

It was glorious. 

Not Home for the Holidays: Christmas 2014 Edition

Fueled by this spectacular breakfast (3.5 slices of applewood smoked bacon, scrambled eggs with green onion, spinach, one slice of muenster and crumbled syrah-soaked toscana cheese and a sourdough English muffin) I unleashed Christmas on our house today. 

I got going on the living room yesterday and put up the mantle garland, which actually looks kind of blah in this picture. (The red walls though, wow. That is why we painted this room red.) Oh well, plenty of time for more pictures later this month!

Entry console with the very wrinkled scarf runner and festive ornaments. Since we're not doing a tree this year (that's the sixth year out of eight we've been married and haven't had a tree, usually due to travel, but twice due to moving) I put ornaments all over everything else. Most cabinet knobs have something, as do a few windows and some random hooks that are...around.

I just got these acorns into this hurricane and got my two pieces of fall decor in place, so I don't exactly want to give them up so soon. So, I Christmased it with an ornament. (See, ornaments everywhere!)

The pumpkin stays put, at least for a little while. This little vignette is in the dining room.

I know last year I called this the "Christmas kitchen" but this year it really is. I am feeling more clever than I should for thinking of putting rigid foam insulation on top of the cabinets so I could put stuff up there. (The crown sticks up a few inches, so things hide behind it and are too low to really see without any boost.)

That little wood sign is kind of kitchy and says "don't get your tinsel in a tangle" -- a good reminder from the elves at TJ Maxx ;) There are also some great pinecone balls with sparkle up there... Think I need some more up-close pictures.

Command strip kept me from putting a hole in the fridge panel, so the wreath can come down in two months without requiring a patch job.

I am most proud of the garland on top of the fridge. Placing it involved me, Todd, an extension cord, two coat hangers, one of my long clamps and miraculously no pinched fingers. The cord is very snugly run down from the top of the cabinets, down the side of the fridge and into the outlet in the back of the pantry cab. I then put it on a timer, so the lights switch on and off automatically (this is one of my favorite tricks for Christmas lights that always seem to be plugged into inaccessible spots).

Bonus: the insulation rigid foam insulation I used to boost the top-of-cabinet decor above the crown molding has a shiny foil side, so it helps reflect the little lights even more! (The crown is nailed to the top of the cabs, so everything hides behind it unless it's on top of something. In this case, I cut up a 4x8' sheet of foam insulation, which is very light so it doesn't put a bunch more weight up there.)

I finally got a rug for the entry. That's the good news.

It's also good news that it looks this cute for the holidays.

Not good news: the door only opens this far with the rug in place. Thank you, non-level floors. I'm working on a solution for this, but it involves swapping out the door threshold and removing the sweep (the rubber thing on the bottom of the door that insulates). This is not exactly the sort of project I want to be experimental with.

This "rug" was just a piece of gray low-pile commercial carpet I ordered from Home Depot. I'm eventually going to paint a pattern on it so it doesn't look like a piece of low-pile, high-traffic commercial carpet, but for now it's just that. It looks pretty good, considering I haven't even added any binding to it yet.

Back to the dining room for an awful picture of my pirate nutcracker camping out on top of the china hutch... (We still don't have a working light fixture in the dining room, so it gets really dark.)

And another bad picture of a lovely garland on top of the cabinet in the living room. Exciting side note: I ordered glass shelves for this (finally) so I'll be able to start using it and not just piling fragile things in there.

And there you have it. Christmas 2014 at Casa McShoe.

Update: the pictures were bothering me, knowing you couldn't enjoy the full Christmasy awesomeness, so here are some better ones! 

No Christmas is complete without a bowl of ornaments...

 

Or two pictures of said bowl.

Ornaments everywhere. Except on a tree. 

And the tops of the kitchen cabs, up closer...

Christmas Kitchen

I have been waiting a long time to write this post. Over five years since we bought the house and redoing the dreadful kitchen was in the project pipeline, and close to six since we first walked through this house while we still lived in California in the spring of 2008. That was when I first started envisioning what you're about to see!

We're not done yet, but it's mostly details that remain. Important details, like finishing the bar counter, the backsplash, installing and painting trim and baseboard and probably other things I'm not thinking of, but it's mostly done. Here's the first round of "afters."

These are the pendant lights over the bar/peninsula, up close.

 This is the fixture over the kitchen table, from Lowe's.

 Looking into the kitchen from the dining room (previously impossible, due to the wall that used to be there).

Standing in the eating area looking south. You can kind of see the sliver of space behind the new slide-in range that will need to be filled with a bit of counter.

Another south-facing picture. The back of the bar, where your knees are if you're in one of the seagrass chairs, still needs to be painted. We picked up the paint to match the cabinets today.

The eating area and bar on the left. Counter still needs to be finished there. It's just plywood right now. Kind of splintery. We also have to figure out what kind of pads to put on the bottoms of the bar chairs. They have feet, but I'm worried about them scratching the floor. Everything I've stuck on so far just comes off, so I have to keep experimenting.

 From the dining room looking in facing east. LOVE the dishwasher.

All the dishwashers with the control panel on the top and just a blank stainless front were $$$$ but this was on crazy sale and really well rated. It's so pretty.

I'm thinking I'd like to get some remote-controlled puck lights to stick under the cabinets. The big upper on the left, anyway. The corner is pretty dark.

Deviation from our original plan, we ended up getting a new slide-in range. Slide-in is the kind without the back, so it doesn't stick up awkwardly above the wall. This was another well-rated, on-sale buy. I went in Monday night to Lowe's to talk with an appliance person and make sure it'd fit our space.

The site said it'd take until Jan 2 before it arrived, so I told the guy that Home Depot had the same thing and could get it to me three days earlier, hoping he might be able to match that. He paused for a second, then said he thought he might have one on the warehouse. This exact model. Turns out someone had ordered it, opened the top of the box and decided it wasn't going to work for whatever reason. So we got our range a full week before we thought we would; it was delivered the day after Christmas. I get to eat eggs for breakfast again!

The counters are beautiful. Next time for pictures, they'll be darker because I need to wipe them with mineral oil to protect them, but we are so happy with the choice.

The new faucet doesn't leak, which is obviously a very positive thing. Unfortunately they sent the wrong hose, so it's a regular braided hose instead of the chrome coil one, but I haven't dealt with that yet. I do love the faucet though, and it's perfectly in proportion to the giant, fabulous sink.

This is the trash and recycling pull-out. It's great. The silent-close drawers and cabs are spoiling us though, and we both have been accidentally slamming other things in the house that don't have that feature.

I have probably about half of the hardware on. All the single knobs are on but I haven't felt patient enough to try for the handles, other than the two in this picture. Lining up two holes is a lot trickier, and I am just plain awful at measuring. I try so hard, double check, and then somehow screw it up. I'd say detail orientation isn't my strong suit, but... have you met me? I'm not really sure what the issue is.

 This used to be the laundry room. I know.

Speaking of terrible measuring, why yes, I did in fact hang the mirror exactly 1.5" off center. How? No idea. Another product of careful measurement. Also notice the doors in front of the washer and dryer in the mirror!

Kitchen from the opposite direction, standing in the mudroom looking north.

 Again...

 Ok just one more. I just love it so much.

And lastly here's the dining room, looking mostly put back together except for the not-pictured old range sitting in the corner (anybody want to buy a five-year-old gas Maytag? It's a champ!) and the to-be-installed dining room light fixture sitting on top of it.

Can't wait to show you befores and afters when all the little details are finally all in place!