Decking the Halls...and Our Walls!

During the past few weeks, we have been busy decking the halls--and decking our interior walls! 

First on the agenda was decking the halls for Christmas!  I had purchased an amazing Pine-&-Poinsettia adorned swag to go above the front door and a coordinating old-fashioned street lamp to go by the door.  I was anxiously awaiting holiday decorating because it was going to look FABULOUS!  Then just two days later, all the Halloween decorations in our neighborhood went missing so I promptly returned the street lamp and swag to Hobby Lobby.  I should have known better than to sit out anything "loose" because the following story will prove my point:  When K-State kicked back into session this past August, a professor up the street from us had a tree stolen out of her front yard.  Yes, a tree!  It wasn't sawed off, or knocked off...using only their arms, the kids literally removed it from the ground and took off with it.  Anyhow, their antics made me realize I would have to become super creative with my outdoor decorations!

After some thinking, I decided that hanging wreaths on our windows might be the perfect solution.  After all, the potential thieves would have to enter our fence and I don't see that happening.  When Hobby Lobby had their wreaths marked down to $5, I picked up a dozen of them and talked Justin into helping me hang them one evening after work.  Honestly, I think I picked the coldest (and darkest) evening of the month to hang them.  Luckily, Justin was a good sport and went along with it.  However, my fingers were frozen solid and we called it a night before we could put the bows put on.  Finally, last weekend, I managed to tie the bows on the wreaths--I think the addition of the bows proved to be the much-needed finishing touch!

Our porch still needs some work.  I need to pick up more garland at the After-Christmas sales so I have enough to drape it on the railings next year...the straightness of this year's garland drives me nuts!  I also want a tall, skinny tree to go by the front door but I can't figure out how to tastefully secure it to the porch.  But in the meantime, I hope this little arrangement will bring a burst of color to our drab porch!  I picked up all the supplies at Jo-Ann's for a little bit of nothing and it came together pretty quickly.  The red things (whatever they're supposed to be) are super-glittery and look awesome when the sunlight hits them!

Last Saturday morning, we finally installed a hood over our stove.  The hood had been sitting in our basement for almost a year!  Last winter, we decided we were going to overhaul our kitchen and for whatever reason, we went ahead and bought the hood.  Needless to say, the overhaul didn't happen and I was finally tired of the hood collecting dust in our basement.

This is what the "stove area" of our kitchen looked like when we bought the house about 21 months ago:

And this is what it looks like now!  New stove, new flooring, new wall paint, running of additional wiring (can't see that part!) and the stainless steel hood.

It didn't dawn on us until we went to hang the hood, but the cabinets on that wall are all super deep.  Upper cabinets are generally 12" deep--but these cabinets measured 24" deep...meaning a previous owner hung "lower" cabinets as "upper" cabinets...???  Don't get me wrong--the extra cabinet depth allows for tons of storage space.  However, we realized that if we hung the hood flush with the front of the cabinets, the front of the hood would have stuck out far enough that we could not easily see nor reach the back burners.  If either one of us were shorter, it wouldn't have been such an issue.  Thus, we ended up installing the hood flush with the back of the cabinetry and thankfully, it doesn't look too out of place.

The last project on our agenda involved the long wall in our living room.  After  ayear of looking and months of saving up, I ordered some wall art that looked gorgeous in the catalog. After hanging the first set, I broke down and bought a laser level--it made the second set MUCH easier to hang!  I don't want to sound like a Negative Nancy, but the collage was not worth the money--the frames aren't square and don't lie flat, causing them to look a little uneven on the walls.  But hey, it was the best find for the amount of money I was able to spend, so I'll just live with them!