I feel it in my fingers...I feel it in my toes!

Christmas is all around us, it's everywhere I go!
So goes the words of the song in "Love Actually," so goes my life as of now.

IT'S CHRISTMAS SEASON!!!!

And, to celebrate the Christmas season, a post.  Which I write while sipping a Tom and Jerry.  Mmmmm.

Here is Casa pv a la Christmas.  I've finally kind of gotten things to a point where I sort of like them upstairs (hangups:  carpet, dining room set, trim, finish on the buffet, upholstery on the Daytons chairs, fix the crooked little chandalier in the dining room...), so I'm ready to showcase!

Let's start with a sweet B&W shot of my Christmas tree, shall we?

Next, let's get a look at some of the rest of the room...we're kind of going with a blue-white-silver-gray thing.  Forgoing the traditional red and white Christmas colors for a bit of cool flair.  I'm leaving a little bit of red (tray on the table, tree skirt, kitchen decorations) and orange (throw, pillow) in there for some variation and a little extra color (gray walls aren't exactly bright and cheerful all the time).  I kinda like what I'm seeing here.

Hmm...all kind of looks better in black and white.  Ha.  Note the Halloween mug on the left.  Full of the Christmas Tom and Jerry previously mentioned.  Also note the shabbily-covered aforementioned Dayton's chairs.  Upcoming (within the next week...) project.  Just you stay tuned!

Here's the dining room.  Note the fantastic Christmas jungle in the background.  I *might* have to find a place to put a couple of them, other than in a group...  Opposite side of the room - my Nana's old dresser (repurposed as a buffet), some shelves, and a whole lotta decorations.

DangE  There's that Christmas T&J mug again...admittedly not very Christmasy, but I didn't want to completely change the entire set up.  And, just because it's sexy and awesome, a shot in vintage B&W.

Just one more quik little item of interest...picked up this little baby in Rothenburg, GE on a recent trip with my favorite gals - Mom and Seester.  Just have to show it off.  It matches the one I got my best girl Cablanch.  Matchy Christmas gnomes!

How cute is that little bugger????  Nothing like a tiny little Christmas gnome to make you smile at the end of a post.  I know I'm smiling.  Probably a combination of the gnome and the ending of "Love Actually," but I'll take it either way.

(note:  yes, I DO realize how often I used the word "Christmas" in this post...on purpose, naturally.)

Ummm...

I don't want to say that I love Martha again, or AGAIN rave about her awesomeness, but I'm going to say this.  During the Kitchen Cure thing that I'm failing miserably at doing, they had an article about the uber-organized kitchen drawers of a certain woman whose monogrammed-on-everything initials are "MS."

My jealousy-meter is off the charts.  Not because she has, like, FIVE citrus reamers, but because there's a place (and ROOM!!!) for everything in her kitchen.  Some examples:

Hello, three sets of measuring cups and two sets of measuring spoons.  WANT.  And I love how the towels are all rolled up like that!  I've got mine folded and neatly stacked according to what kind (dishrag, flour sack, decorative, etc) of towel it is, but this is pretty genius.  Talk about easily-accessible!  I'm also at least mildly jealous of the sheer number of kitchen scissors (yes, I was going to put "sheers" but changed my mind...) the woman has.  Our one pair perennially seems to be either dirty or in the dishwasher, getting cleaned.  As for the second pic...well, I just really want one of those rolling pins.  I do also like how everything is stored in those smaller containers - either by item type or by similar uses.

Favorite thing about the pic on the far left?  FOURTEEN THOUSAND WOODEN PICKS!  Dang, lady.  I like the organization system of the right three pictures.  Especially the lightbulbs thing.  I need to have a place like that for my lightbulbs.  Currently, they're all floating around in their boxes in a giant Cub box that we moved with.  Not very convenient (I'm putting that down as the reason why we have FOUR burnt-out lights in our entryway chandelier...).  The one thing I don't like?  The cup full of unsecured pills.  Maybe it's just because my stupid dog ate a couple of Ibuprofen back in the day that weren't put away in a shelf and I've thus become paranoid.  Maybe it's because I wanna have kids someday, and the motherly instincts that are currently laying low know that's a bad idea.  Maybe it's just because I cringe at the thought of an unknown number of possibly-dirty fingers digging around in there - not to mention all the fuzz and other debris that could get stuck to the pills.  Gross.  Whatever the reason, bad Martha lady whose name starts with "M."  Put those away.

The takeaway to this article, of course, is that I'm going to start going on a thirft store hunt for little "stuff" holsters for my house. Maybe I'll take the plunge and consider splurging on something from The Container Store or whatever. For right now, though, it's back to the Kitchen Cure, and completing weeks 2 and 3. :)

I. Love. Martha!!!

In an effort to avoid doing anything more on the Kitchen Cure (side note:  The majority of the fridge has been cleaned out, and it looks lovely so far!  Pics tomorrow, once it's all done...), I've been looking at the latest Martha Stewart mag, which lead me to Martha's website.

It's official.  I love this woman.  Or, the people who come up with all the ideas - whichever.

I'm currently lusting over this puppy:

It's not necessarily the items in the display, or even the color of it - so much as the "duh" of using a series of slim-profile boxes to create a moveable and unique shelving system.  I've got an area upstairs that I have no idea what to do with.  It's at the top of the stairs, so we can't have anything too big or bulky.  Previously, we had a small table there, but that just wasn't working.  It wasn't what I was looking for.  Something like this could be awesome.  Filled with pet-friendly items (as it will be on the floor-level), I can see it as a great place to plop seasonal items, much like the original picture shows.

Imagine it here:

Note my amazing Paint skilz.

I'm thinking something like this on the one side, and then perhaps a similar design on the other side of the doorway?  Too much symmetry?  Maybe.  In case you didn't know, the two farthest left rectangles represent already-present art.  The one above the proposed shelves represents something - probably in the form of a long, thin mirror - to take up more of the space on that wall.  It's a tall wall with the vault, and definitely needs something higher up.

I'm also considering the option of taking this design idea to the proposed built-in bookshelves opposite the hall doorway.

Ooohhhhhh, the possibilities!  Thank you, Martha!

Cure this!

So, I've signed up for the Kitchen Cure from Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn.  Because it needs to happen.  I've been staring at the cabinets and fridge/freezer for at least a good six months (let's be honest, it's probably been a year and a half...), thinking "there's got to be a better way."  Truth is, we don't have a very functional kitchen.  I've whined 14,000 times about how the thing is so Builder's Special, but the fact of the matter is - it's true.  There's barely anything that makes it unique and uber-functional.  The desk is great, but honestly that's the only part that I find to be really useful.  The island isn't perfect; there's no concealed location for garbage except under the sink; the cabinets aren't functional.

The first part of The Cure is cleaning out the fridge, freezer, and pantry.  Rockin'.  The good news is that we kind of went through the fridge a couple of weeks ago (though you wouldn't know it, by looking at this pic:

Dios Mio.  Okay, so the crispers below aren't all that full.  That's one bonus.  BUT, we found SIX JARS OF PICKLES.  Who needs six jars of pickles?!  Yeah.  THe bad news is that they can't even all be combined, since they're not the same - some Milwaukee's Midgets, some Gedney spicy something, etc, etc.  Six.  Plus, all those containers of leftovers don't help the situation.  I'm actually kind of stoked to go through the fridge again.  And BEYOND pumped to go through the freezer.  That thing's been needing help for a while now.  I'm happy to be giving it.
It's the pantry I'm more concerned about.  *sigh*  This is so very, very humbling, but here are the two halves (upper and lower) of the pantry.  I couldn't even tell you honestly what's in there, or where it might be located.  So sad.

See what I mean about it needing help?  Eek.  Pretty excited to get going.  :)  I wonder what will be next?!  I'm betting spice cabinets...  CAN'T WAIT!

Helloooooo, neglected blog!

Um...it's been a while.

We've painted the basement, I've finished the side table (the coffee table is almost done!!), and I've gone on a two-week siesta in Europe!  So, I've been busy for the last month.  Poor little blog has been a smidge neglected as a result - sorry to my two loyal readers.  :)

SO.  To the painting.  Let's go with the basement.  Ease back into this slowly, you know.

Here is what the basement previously looked like (as a refresher, in case you forgot, like I have already!):

(Note:  this is the former owners' decorating while the house was being sold...)

And now, TA-DA!!!!!!
(Warning:  This shots are action shots - taken while we were still painting/waiting for the paint to dry.  Until the basement is lovely and styled and decorated, I'm so not putting those pics online)

Primed!  Who knew only one coat would cover all that red!!??

The smaller side of the room - plus cat.  We went with a darker shade for the smaller side of the room.  It's SW Grandview.  We ended up having to paint two coats - the one coat over the primer just didn't do it for us - not sure why, but this was the first time we've ever had to paint two coats - and only on this side of the room.  Weird.

AND

(Hello, brother!)  This is truly the only picture I have of this side of the room - weird.  It's SW Spearmint.  Love, love, LOVE this color.  It's fantastic, and I can't get enough of it.  We painted the majority of the room in this color.  Someday, when we have a bookshelf on the only wall in the family room big enough for it, I think we'll probably paint the back of the shelves in the Grandview to tie it all in together.

So, there you have it.  We scrapped the lighter up/darker down idea, and just decided to do each part of the room in a different color (good call, Donnie Vendetta!).  It kind of delineates the two parts of the room.  The lighter side is going to be the TV/book area, and the darker area is going to be a game room/bar kind of zone.  Just you wait and see what we have coming down the pipeline...

Finishing touches - painted walls!

While avoiding doing laundry, I've been looking through some of my favorite design blogs today.  I've found lots of inspirational pics.  Since we finished painting upstairs and in the family room, my mind has made the shift from "what color paint should we use" to "let's decorate these blank walls!"  I like this shift in mind-set.  :)  So, here are some things that I've found.

Things I love about this pic:  that big wall shelf system.  It's got a kind of mid-century mod thing happening - it looks like it could easily flow back in time to "Mad Men's" Pete Campbell's home.  We've got one big wall in the family room that needs something there, and a series of shelves like this could be it.  Or a combination of shelves and pictures, perhaps?

This dining room is just yummy.  Of course, it's probably because I'm a fan of all things clear acrylic and dark wood.  But I really like it for the airiness of the room.  It evokes a feeling of calm and openness.  This is a room that I can imagine having brunches with the family or reading a book over a cup of coffee - all in my sweats.  It's comfortable and friendly, yet with just the right amount of elegance to keep it from being totally casual.  I guess one could say that this is the feeling I'd love my whole house to look like.

This picture makes me appreciate the impact of a large piece of art in a large room.  While a really large piece of artwork isn't really what the basement space needs, we could easily work it into the decor of the living and dining room area.  We have a (roughly) 3'x4' canvas over the living room couch, but nothing for the large dining room wall.  I may have to look into the option of echoing that larger piece of art with another one on the opposite wall.  Stay tuned, I suppose!

Green Machine

Well, the family room has gone from red to green.  My sister in law said that we should have left one wall red for Christmas.  :)  I think I'll skip it this time around.

It's not exactly the tranquil light green that I was hoping for, but I still like it.  We decided to go with two shades of green, rather than just one for the whole space.  The family room is pretty large - there's easily enough space on the one side for another bedroom - so we were thinking that the entire thing painted one color could be overwhelming.  Plus, we really couldn't decide on just one color.  Thankfully, my genius big brother Donnie Vendetta suggested painting the two spaces a different color.  Brilliant.  TV room on one side, and, I don't know - game room or something else similar on the other side.  Maybe a bari-ish area?  I'm not certain what's going to go over there, but I know one thing - I heart the green!!

Before, lovely red:

We took this pic on the first trip through when we visited (and also knew that we were totally going to buy the thing!).

And after.  Unfinished, as you can see!:

That would be brother mine, paiting the lighter green side.

That would be PePe the cat in the window on the darker (potential bar/game room/something else) side.

Here's a combination of the two colors.  They're lovely.  Like I said, a little bit more intense (they both dried darker than they look here - naturally) than I was looking for, but I do like them mucho.  I just can't wait to do the decorating!  I see lots of black and white in my future...

OH, and one other little thing - this is my 50th blog (48th actual post, I believe?)!!!

Bedroom!

No, not ours.  I have a feeling that's going to be the last room "finished" in the house...first room painted, last room finished.  Naturally.

This is about the upstairs guest room.  When we bought Casa del pv, it looked like this:

Yeah.  My *personal* favorite feature was the wallpaper border.  Why?  Because A) it had FISH on it, and B) it was VINYL.  As in, the wallpaper border you put in your bathroom because it's water resistant.  Ever try to remove one of those borders?  It ain't pretty.  The vinyl top layer peels off pretty easily.  The bottom, sticky part does. not. budge.  I was pretty sure I could even hear it singing "We shall Overcome" with its little fibers all linked.  We ended up having to go to our trusty neighborhood Sherwin-Williams and get a wallpaper remover product (and then got asked by the nice fella behind the counter "How'd that Dif work for ya?" every time we came in over the next 8 months...).  The Dif worked a miracle, in case you were wondering.  Spray it on, wait some time, scrape it off.  It did leave a slight neon blue stain on the walls where it had been accidentally sprayed, which we just primed over once it was wiped and dry.  Wallpaper gone, it was time to paint.

We were looking to the future with this room.  We knew that we were going to plan to have kids probably at SOME point while in this house (settle down, sister...).  So, this room needed to look good as a guest room now, and make a successful transition to a nursery later.  Naturally, we went with deep chocolate brown.  That's a kid's color, right?  :)  We figured that we'd be able to add gender-specific details later that would look fantastic - a bold pink for a girl, a sharp turquoise for a boy.

But for now, it needed to function as a place where guests would feel comfortable.  So, it went from above (yikes) to below:

There are still things to do (art on the walls, for example...), but I think it's quite the improvement.  But then, I'm biased.  :)

Thanks, YHL!

So, while touring my favorite little blog, Young House Love, I found a neat little article about LA lady Nancy Meyers.  She's had her hands on some great rom-coms, ranging from "Father of the Bride" to the more recent "It's Complicated."  YHL was showcasing some of the great sets from her movies, and I had to stop at the first one!

I'm sure from past blogs, you've come to realize that I'm not much of a "shabby chic" or "country" or even "seaside cottage" kind of girl.  So, it's not necessarily the house that I'm interested in.

Look to the front left.  That's not a...is it?  YES, it IS a drum!!!  As a SIDE TABLE!  Yeah.  This is going in my house.  Once I get back from my much-anticipated European Domination Tour (round 1), this is going to be the first thing on my list.  I'm ideally looking for one that is older, used.  Something maybe with an old school or band logo on it?  Probably something in the red, orange, or even yellow color family.  Preferably with glitter.  So, keep your eyes peeled, world.

I feel now that I have to also note the awesome bench-turned-coffee table as well.  I love the color, and the fabric.  Sumptuous!  I could handle having that in my living room, or maybe even a screen porch (it would live in the downstairs entryway during the winter).  More and more, I'm coming to like the concept of something cushy as the coffee table, with a couple of trays as hard surfaces.  People are going to put their feet up on your coffee table anyway; you might as well make them comfortable doing it!  :)

One down, two to go...

That's painting projects.  Okay, wait.  Let me be more specific.  That's ROOM painting projects.  We got the dining/living/hall/entry done this weekend.  Thanks to my AWESOME in laws, it was a breeze.  A five-hour, hot-because-we-took-down-the-shades breeze.

So, without further ado, here's a before (as in, WAY before - when we first looked at the house before we bought it!) shot into the dining room, from the living room:

Sorry, it's a little dark.  But, it shows off the lovely monochromatic look of the joint quite perfectly.

NOW, here's the after, from a different angle into the dining room, with a snippet of the kitchen beyond:

You'll have to excuse both the mess and the blurriness of the pic.  Painting is messy business, and my cell was the only camera I had on me.  :)  You can see how the new walls go with the feature wall (blue) and the orange (hmmm...it looks kinda salmon-y in this shot...) of the kitchen.  I also like that you can't see any of the golden oak trim that I'm dying to get rid of.  It makes the room look even nicer.

Here's a close-up of the three colors together:

I love them together!  Just a little cleanup of the lines, and we'll be good to go!

Up next:

Painting my Nana's dresser a lacquered black and moving it to the dining room to act as a kind of buffet table.  It'll go under those floating shelves on the blue wall.  My "nice" china (read:  the stuff that NEVER gets used...), table linens, and candle paraphernalia will make their home there.

Currently in the works, I need to finish painting a side table (a groovy 70s number with a built-in magazine rack) and an old coffee table a shiny white.  Our small jungle of houseplants will be living on the coffee table, and I'm not exactly sure where the side table will go - probably between this great set of old chairs I bought from my friend Erin (one is in the pic above - under the floating shelves!), which will be migrating to the living room until I twist my husband's arm enough to buy a new couch.  :)

Up next in room painting:

Another bedroom and the family room.  How many coats of paint and primer do you think it'll take to cover up this red??

Especially if we go with a lighter color. We're currently thinking a lighter celery green up and a darker moss green down, using the ledge that runs around about half the room as a dividing point. All that wood will be going white. Or, in the case of the fireplace, stone.

Long post short - it was a good weekend.

Oh, Martha.

Thanks to my little sis, I now have something new to marvel over.  There's a whole set of communities that are designed around the great Martha Stewart.  As the site says, these communities have homes that are "high quality" and "inspired by [Martha's] very own homes."  SERIOUSLY??  I can live in a home that's been inspired by Ms. Stewart's own homes?  Sweet.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kitchens of a two of these homes.

I'm thinking you're probably thinking "wow, B.  Those kitchens are sooooo different."  (is there a sarcasm font yet???)  Well, while they're not completely different, they ARE both lovely.  There's just something I like about the light and dark wood, plus the white countertops.  The mostly-neutral pallettes of both rooms are at once comfortable and stylish.  The slight splashes of color in there give just the right amount of life and breeziness to make me want to spend a lazy Sunday alternating reading and trying out new recipes.

To tell you the truth, I think I found my kitchen.  This little light-and dark is a trick that should be easy enough for me to do to my kitchen.  Because we're not planning on living in this baby forever, we don't want to dump a ton of coin into it, only to end up barely getting our money back when we sell.  It would be easy enough to stain the existing cabinetry to be a nice, rich darker color, and switch out the countertops that I HATE anyway to something white and clean-looking.  PS - IKEA has countertop service now.  Ta-da.

Soon enough, this  is going to look more like those.  And I can't wait!

PS - we're painting this weekend - get ready for some serious before-and-after pics!

Paint! It's not just for sniffin'

So, I've been doing some thinking lately.  I've been thinking that I'm ready to finally take on the challenges of sanding down and painting a lot of things.  Like, a LOT of things.  Such as my Nana's dresser that I'm planning on transforming into a sideboard in the dining room.  And FINALLY finishing painting the oh-so-70s side table-slash-magazine holder of Nana's and putting it to use in the living room.  I've also decided (just today, as a matter of fact...) that I'm going to paint this coffee table that I've had since...my Junior year of college (!!!) a blazing white to go with the black and white thing I'm going with for the living/dining rooms.  I don't even take the care to wipe the water off that thing when I water the small jungle that lives on it.  It's just that ugly.  So ugly that a few water stains might improve the look.  Ouch, table.  I'm hoping that a fresh coat of white will help encourage me to take ownership of that baby, and keep 'er looking good.  :)

The biggest and most challenging change of all?  Painting the trim.  Now, I have to be honest here.  I hate our trim.  I really do.  I both hate the color and the style of it.  It would take me $.99 a foot to buy new stuff.  BUT, Thrifty Husband doesn't want to buy it new ("What would we do with the old stuff???"  Ummmm...burn it?).  I truly think, actually, that he just wants to teach me a little lesson about how hard it is to sand down and paint some 2300 square feet of trim.  I get it.  Lesson learned well in advance.  But I truly hate golden oak.  And this place is coated in it.  From the kitchen cabinets to the trim to the wooden blinds.  But, baby, that's all going to change.  STAT.  One of the major selling points of this house was the fact that the original owners hadn't upgraded a thing - making it the perfect price for us to be able to put a little sweat equity into it by doing it ourselves.  Golden oak baseboards?  Consider yourself warned.

And world wide web audience (of two...), seat back and tray tables in their upright and locked position.  The renovation plane is taking off!!


Oh, and to anyone who might have their panties in a bunch over the blog title?  Cram it.  Jokes are for laughin'!

paint love

Okay, I know I just posted another blog, but look at this!!!

I am NUTS about this paint color!  Well, other things too, but let's start there.  I think this is the gray we've been looking for!!  The only hitch in the giddy-up is that it's a Martha Steweart color, not a Sherwin-Williams color.  I'm hooked on SW paint because of its fantastic pigmentation and the fact that it's available at a small store dedicated only to paint, but I might be able to make an exception.  Or, bring the swatch to the local SW and find its counter.  :)  Either way, LOVE.

Next, I love the pops of orange with the gray.  Wait, what's that?  My kitchen is orange?  Huh.  Whaddaya know?  So, you're saying it's practiceally made to complement my kitchen????  Yepper.  I also love the red in there - which is the color I think I'm going to use as an accent in my kitchen.

I'm in love, and THIS TIME it's for real.  :D

Closet!

Yepper.  This is probably the best picture I've found that shows what I'm looking for for the closet in our entryway.  I'm not into the wire shelving, but I like the general setup of the closet, and like the baskets and all the different places to put stuff - all that storage!

I love the three shelves for shoes.  I wear roughly four pairs of shoes.  I have well over THIRTY.  Why do I only wear four?  Honestly?  Because those four are in the closet downstairs.  In a heap.  With Mr. Peavs's stank-ass man shoes, a pile 'o' sand (um, we *may* need to sweep the entry more often...), a box of other stuff, a couple of stacked baskets of, you know, other stuff...  I think you get the idea.
Another shot:

Mostly, this shot was about the hook in the corner (hello, dog stuff!), another view of the BASKETS to hold all my stuff, and that sweet mat under the wet shoes.  I'd put that kind of a mat on all the shoes, because the thought of having to empty out my shoes every time I put them on bugs me (back to four pair I'll go!), and I think the mats would look fancy and great.  Plus, having a solid shelf appeals more to me for concealment of stuff in the baskets - since the baskets are all about wrangling the stuff - as well as the overall look of the space.  I've never been a wire shelf kind of girl.  I kinda loathe them.
Enough about the shelves.  How about those stripey walls???  I love the idea of lovely painted closet interiors.  I've been bugging Mr. P to let me paint our master closet a bangin' hot pink (not gonna happen.  I've come to terms with that...) since we moved in.  I want to paint things that most people would prefer to ignore.  Like the garage.  I want that sucker to have some kind of great color (maybe yellow??).  And the insides of all my closets.  I like the stripes too because they're kind of unexpected.  Since our entryway is going to eventually be a nice dove gray, I think a pop of color like brightly-striped walls would be fun and interesting.
Here's the top shelf:

I like that extra little shelf in there.  I have no idea what I'd put on it.  Wait.  Are those bags?  BRILLIANT.  I only have a million of those little bags to wrangle.  I think I've found my option!  But, you know, not wire...

And, for an added bonus...

This mirror was part of the article.  I like.  I don't know where it would go - our entry doesn't have room for anything like this unless it's attached to a door (hmmmmm...that's an intriguing idea...) but I like the idea of a mirror in the entryway.  And the family logo on it is cute.  I've been looking for some kind of "est. 2006" piece for a while because I think it would be great to have something to showcase the year that we officially established our little union.

Images taken from this Apartment Therapy article.

If I were able to be a neater person...

...I would have a house like this.

As it stands, I could have a house similar to this, but probably less stark and slightly warmer.  And with piles of magazines and random Coke cans from the hubs.  I kid.  But, seriously.

Things I heart:

• those walls!  Between the red and that great dove gray (hello, lover), plus the nice white on other walls creates a clean, calm feeling for me.  Even with the red, it doesn't feel too bright or crazy.  It just kind of feels like more of an accent color than the statement wall.  I like that.
• those windows!  I would hate to clean them, but would love to look out them.  Plus, the brightness they would bring to the house would be incredible.  I'm not certain, but I think the top of the windows are maybe giant roman shades.  AWESOME.
• that lamp!  Okay, I know this isn't really that big of a part of the room, but I love it!
• and, is that celing concrete??  I'm IN.

And some shots of the outside of the house:

It's so peaceful and beautiful.  I'm not certain if it's part of the interior or the exterior.  Or, I guess if this house even really has...an interior and exterior separation (see the dining room picture on the link below).  All the stairs and concrete and everything else...it's just lovely.  Lovely and mod and fantastic.  WANT.

So peaceful.  I just wanna nap on the grass.  Lounge in designer glasses and swimwear.  Sip something bright and colorful.  With an umbrella in it.  Yum.

I just really dig this place.  WANT.

Images taken from this afticle at Apartment Therapy.

MAN

I see why the Young House Lovers are so popular.  They. are. frickin. BRILLIANT.  I really love today's posting about tabletop decor.  It's crazy how just a couple of items can be used so multipurposefully (is that a word??) to create so many different decor tricks.

This one is genius.  I'm trying to figure out where I would put it in our house.  On a side table near the couch in the kitchen?  As a "centerpiece" on the island?  Maybe even on the desk in the kitchen?  Either way, I'm going to be finding a vace and a candle and some rice.  Done and done.  And in love.

I mean, it's rice and a hurricane and a candle.  Why can't I think of things like this??  I guess I'm just the one who steals the ideas from the geniuses.

Speaking of stealing things, this next one is SO going to be making an appearance in my house come Christmas time.  Again, it's just so clever and simple.  And brilliant, of course.

What a simple concept.  And what a beautiful one.  I know that the YHL folks have said where they get everything at their casa, and I need to look up where they got this great lamp.  Fill that and a vase full of sparkly, beautiful Christmas balls.  And the moss in there is great!  I'm kind of thinking maybe even a giant pile of pine needles.  I suppse we probably wouldn't be able to reuse the Christmas balls if they were all kinds of full pine sap.  BUT, since you can get those in bulk at Target for super cheap...meh.

And, last but not least...a Halloween beauty.  A little Gothy, a lot good looking.  I just wish I had a "real" entryway to do something like this.  I'll file it away for later.  :)

I really like this piece.  I like the items on the table, but even more I really like the table itself.  I need to figure out where to put something like this.  Hrm.  I love the knobs, and the shelf underneat.  The color...  I like all of it.  Perhaps I could do something like this on the front step with an older table and some weather-resistant fixin's.  I can't wait till Halloween now.  :D