Favorite Things About Christmas/Home Tour

It’s that time of year when all sorts of people in bloggy land start Favorite Things and Home Tour parties! I figured I’d mash it all up and make it one ginormous post – are you ready?!

.rockettes.

After growing up going to NYC on a regular basis and then living there for 6 years, I can only associate one type of performance with Christmas: the Radio City Rockettes! Did I mention they are on the Netflix Instant Queue now?!

Nothing like a good kick line to get you in the mood :)

image from google.com search

.hot drinks.

Even though we’re living in the desert now, I still like to cuddle up with a hot drink and pretend it’s snowing outside, watch a Christmas movie, or just enjoy the quiet! Nutella Hot Chocolate is my drink of choice right now :)

Yup, something so amazing is so simple!

.tree.

Growing up, both of us always had a real tree! I miss having one, but it’s just been a better choice for us to have our fake one for right now. We got it the day after Christmas a few years ago for over 50% off and we don’t have to worry about it making a mess or running out of water while we’re both working and then leaving town for awhile. Keith is very impressed by the remote control lights.

It's covered with ornaments from significant moments in our lives - we've already run out of room for all of them!

.decorating.

When it comes to decorating for Christmas, I am always on a mission. If it doesn’t get done (start to finish) in 48 hours, it never will. Usually, I dedicate about four solid hours and do it all at once. I really like how the buffet in the dining room turned out this year!

The garland plus lights make it so cozy :)

.christmas cards.

This is only the second year we’ve sent out Christmas cards – every year before that was a massive email to everyone about our year. Now that we’re stationed far away from family, we enjoy filling everyone in on our adventures…I’ll post our card and letter on Christmas day!

Last year's card.

This year I’m hanging the cards around the door frame from the living room to our bedroom – I love the way it turned out!

I hate it when my phone gives me a crummy picture! Clara's battery only has a 40 minute lifespan these days, so I'm stuck with the phone until a new battery arrives!!

.cookies.

Who doesn’t love Christmas cookies?! I’m trying not to love them so much since I’m trying to figure out the status of my metabolism after changing several medications. It’s a losing battle. I love the chocolate dipped shortbread cookies and peanut butter blossoms, but my all time favorite are date balls!

Yes please!

image from google.com search

.food.

Some of you may remember the Christmas Eve post from last year. Well, the count down is exactly 7 days!! I am so excited for some stuffed peppers, meats, cheeses, and bacala! Just in case you’re a seasoned Italian Christmas Eve fan, I do not eat octopus, raw squid, eel, or smelts. I just don’t and you can’t convince me otherwise.

Olives, sharp cheeses, and sopresatta make me a happy girl!

.gifting others.

I am really starting to think my love language has shifted to gifts. I’ll always be a physical touch person, but I can’t help buying people lots and lots of gifts to shower them with love. I also love wrapping it in fun ways and making everything coordinate :)

This year I've got "Ho, Ho, Ho" and candy cane coordinating paper

.music.

 I have loved doing the Songs of Christmas series this year! I know I’m about four days behind, but it has made me so thankful for all the wonderful artists out there! Not many people have linked up, but I am enjoying it just the same – maybe I’ll start my own bloggy-land Christmas party next year!

.movies.

I am obsessed with Christmas movies :) I refuse to watch them during the year, but they are playing constantly after Thanksgiving! My new favorite this year is Christmas in Connecticut, but I also love Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, and The Holiday. It’s so hard to choose…but right now I’m in the mood for the Kranks!

Funniest. Movie. Ever.

.concerts.

As a kid, I went to the U.S. Coast Guard Band’s annual Christmas concert. Sadly, I haven’t been in quite a few years, but having our school Performing Arts Concert this week made up for it in a small way. I do miss the Boston Pops’ arrangement of Sleigh Ride though!!!!

The band on tour in Japan

 image from http://www.uscg.mil/band

Lots of parties to link up to!!!

Christmas Decorations 2011

Yup, it’s that time! Christmas music and movies are playing, the apartment is decorated for Christmas and I’m still struggling to decide which cookies to bake (too many choices!).

Before I forgot, I really wanted to share how we decorated this year (I’m also borrowing a friend’s 50mm fixed at a 1.8 f-stop lens for a portrait session, so I needed some practice). It’s fairly simple, but cozy :)

Welcome to Christmas in Las Vegas!

 

I collected all these little ornaments years ago from the awesome dollar store in NYC. The sled came from Keith's grandfather's estate and my MIL found all those gorgeous pine cones on a hike over the weekend!

I changed out the autumn scrapbook paper for Christmas themed paper. I'm planning on adding a ribbon to the Joy to the World sign.

My cookie jar (a medium sized glass jar from the antique mall) sits in front of the new cookie plate. We don't have kids yet, but that's the kind of plate I always wanted to serve Santa his cookies on as a kid, so now our kids can have one!!

Our Christmas Tree (with the new 'Let it Snow' banner hiding in the background!

Love this!! Found it at Creative Party Banners.

Meet Erwin. He will soon have a hat and scarf and I'm thinking of starting a series on Erwin's adventures!

The sideboard. We had a lot of left over garland and lights, so it worked out just perfect!

This small nativity scene was from Keith's grandfather's estate. I love how simple it is!

This year I bought stocking hangers, but I'm including this picture instead because I love how the lights from the tree reflect in the glass. We have a matching green stocking - they were given to us by our friends at Quietude Quilts!

I just love this ornament! It was made as a gift for my sister-in-law in high school and it stayed in the attic until I became part of the family and it fit perfectly on our tree!!

Last year I bought our first pickle ornament! More on that later...

Well, that’s the basic decorations for now…I’ll do a post later on the tree and our traditions and ornaments. Maybe by then I’ll have mastered this fun little lens!

Linking up to lots of Christmas parties!

 

 

 

Christmas Time Is Here…

I am so thankful that my in-laws are here!! Thanksgiving was amazing (a successful gluten free holiday meal!) and today we headed up to Mt. Charleston for lunch at the lodge.

All evening has been spent decorating the tree, finishing up Christmas decorations, and watching Christmas movies.

Merry Christmas Season from the McCoy's!

Come on, you had to know we couldn't stay serious for THAT long!

And the tree is up in all her glory (surrounded by piles of crafting projects I'm in the middle of)

Time for bed! More hiking tomorrow :)

Transformation Thursday: Fall Decorating

I’ve finally mustered up the energy to get ready for fall, but before I show you what I ended up with, check out the shelves! They’re almost done; the top shelf still needs some love, but I like how they are turning out!

Doesn't it look so much better?! That twiggy round thing on the top is a pumpkin, but the stem doesn't show, so I'll have to make it a better stem!

Don’t know the saga of the shelves? The plain and short is that I hung plates that fell, so then I built shelves. Except there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears – mostly just sweat and tears.

But the bigger news is that I finally got myself in gear and decorated for fall. I’m not into decorating for Halloween or Thanksgiving in particular, just fall, harvest, etc. Something I can do in September and not touch until I take it all down for Christmas.

My favorite part of the whole bookshelf is the new hurricane vase embellished with candy corn and ribbon!

Then there are the little votives I found last year that are filled with apple cinnamon and pumpkin spice candles.

My favorite decorated space is the key rack!

The little frames have sat empty for months, so I got some fun, fall-colored scrapbook paper and it turned out perfectly!

I’ve also found a cute little turkey candle votive and have a fall wreath hanging, but forgot to take pictures :)

In other autumn news, I made an infant pumpkin hat and am currently working on a candy corn themed one now!

This post is getting linked up to the party over at the Shabby Creek Cottage!

Transformation Thursday: The Dance Studio

I feel like this is kind of a cheat post. It’s more of a “Working Towards a Transformation” Thursday. I guess that counts.

Since I am now officially teaching dance more than physics, I feel it is my duty to make the studio feel more like a home and a permanent space.

Isn't this just plain icky?!

My first instinct was yellow since our colors are yellow and purple – I love a nice, warm, buttery yellow. And then my friend Melissa pointed out how yellow the floors are (and only half the lights are on!!). Ick. If the walls are yellow, we’ll all look sick every day!

Since we have those lovely windows over the mirror, I want the space to be light, airy, natural, and comfortable. Our kids join clubs and programs for a safe haven and when they feel safe, they’ll truly be able to develop their creativity and artistry.

Here’s the basic proposal I’ll be presenting to my principal:

This is theoretically the same view as the picture, I'm clearly not talented in much more than drawing straight lines with a ruler :)

I really liked the idea of a soft sage color for the walls. It would definitely meet my goals of creating a calming safe haven, but also using the natural light to my advantage and bringing colors of nature inside.

Eddie Bauer "Gardner Green"

The far wall will have “Dance is…” painted by some of our very talented graffiti artists in blue. I’d really love it if they could add touches of yellow and purple to tie in the school colors.

Valspar National Trust "Filoli Dark Iris"

I like how clean this style is, but we'll see what our artists have in mind.

image from google.com search

The lines under “Dance is…” would be clothes line or wire so that throughout the year, kids can add their own thoughts, drawings, and words that finish the sentence. By the end of the year, we’ll have a whole collage!!

On the right, above the mirrors and the windows, we really want to put a quote (the dance team was all over that and even had a suggestion!): “Dance is not just a movement, it’s a passion” is the current forerunner.

On the left wall, we’ll have all sorts of posters creating a collage of iconic dancers and choreographers from a variety of eras, ethnicities, and genres. Most of my dancers have no other training than what they get at school, so they need exposure to the dance world outside of hip hop.

On the wall not pictured, the kids really want to include some sort of memorabilia from graduating team members. Their idea was hand prints with the name and year painted in it, but I hate the idea that they could get painted over. I think a good compromise would be to frame hand prints from each group of graduates (or even foot prints – we are dancers after all!). We could also do head shots of each graduating dancer with their signature – just to add something artsy fartsy!!

So, there’s my proposal. We’ll see what my principal thinks tomorrow!

…

It’s a party! Linking to:

Transformation Thursday: The Shelves

This has turned into an epic project. A week ago, I found some amazing thrift store plates that were perfect for the big empty wall in our living room.

My friend suggested using the baskets to add a natural feel and a bit of extra storage!

And then I spent an entire afternoon hanging them…

I LOVE IT!

In my insane quest to be thrifty, I hung the smaller plates using twine and hot glue. Keith wasn’t so sure about that, so he made me promise that if one plate fell, they were all coming down! About 2am that night, we both woke up to the biggest crashing sound I’ve ever heard! Needless to say – we took all the plates down instantly (with only one tiny casualty!).

But I was still determined to fill that wall with something.

So I continued my journey at Home Depot and Lowes :)

Some precut wood boards and Mini Wax Dark Walnut stain

A box-full of brackets

And I got to work!

I spray painted the brackets in Valspar's Golden Maize

And took my time assembling everything

It’s not quite a complete project since I’m still waiting for all my new plate stands to arrive in the mail, but I’m pleased with how it turned out!

iPhone pictures don't quite do it justice, but at least it's finished!

I’ll post a well-lit picture as soon as the shelves are full!

 

 

 

 

This post is linked to Transformation Thursday!

Miscellany Monday 7/25

This is my first time linking up to the Miscellany Monday posts by lowercase letters, so here goes nothing!

1) My super awesome sister Molly is in town, so we’ve been having fun showing her around and hanging out. She had a marathon of watching episodes of 24 with Keith yesterday, so everyone is happy :)

2) I’ve been working at getting my Etsy shop Dancing Willow Photography off the ground. I’ve had one sale so far (Thanks again Ana!), but am wondering what other creative things I need to start doing to get the store moving along!

3) This week is a big one for Clara the Camera and I! I’m doing at least one photo shoot with Ana from Life Sense and her three sisters some time later in the week. We’re hoping to do it at one of the “ghost towns” just outside Vegas. Then on Saturday I’m assisting a friend at a promotion ceremony at the Aria hotel. Getting excited/nervous!

Ready for battle!

4) So many house projects are getting done! Here’s a clue:

Stain and Spray Paint do magical things...

5) Hoping the government doesn’t shut down in August, because I’m about to start a countdown to our trip to Yosemite! Our backup plan is Lake Tahoe, so there will be an awesome road trip regardless, but I really want Keith to see this:

from huckleberryprairie.com

Blue, Yellow, & White Plates

After reading this post by The Nester ages ago, I’ve been determined to add a plate collage to our home.

I thought it was going to happen in our bedroom, but then I found these and now I’ve got it all planned out :)

How gorgeous will this look (minus the red one) in my living room?!

Can’t wait to see the finished product!

The “Over The Bed” Problem

Several months ago I had this problem (other than taking pictures with my phone and bad lighting):

The blue quilt and window treatments are a step in the right direction, but that big, empty, white wall is blech!

So then we got a headboard, but I still had to fill that big white space:

The prints on the wall, headboard, and pillows make a huge difference, but hanging burlap was a major fail.

Finally! Ross saves the day with sconces for $3.99 each and fake candles from Walmart :)

Much better!!

It's nice to have a little something there and not that huge blank space. I definitely need to soften up the lamp shades, but I'm pleased with the results!

I’m so glad this project worked out – it’s been a challenge to create a His/Her friendly, cozy bedroom. I like the mix of masculine lines (bed frame, square prints on the wall) and feminine softness. The sconces seem to blend it all together since they are cast iron, with garden-y character.

This post is being linked up to Transformation Thursday!

Gallery Wall Completed!

A few weeks ago I sent a few friends this picture:

All set up and ready to go!

I decided to go the professional route of hanging paper the same size as the frames instead of adding more holes to the wall. I appreciate all of those that reminded me that hanging newspaper on your wall for art isn’t cute :)

We bought a big frame for the middle, but realized we didn’t have a non-wedding picture. So last weekend, we headed to Red Rock with a friend and got lots of great pictures:

We ended up choosing the last picture and hung existing frames and pictures around the edges:

Another project finished!

I printed smaller versions of the other pictures from Red Rock to add width to the gallery. One more thing to cross off the list!