Maternity and Hot Mamma all in one!

My sister in law, Laura is expeciting #2 VERY SOON. On Thanksgiving day, we ducked out for a bit into a super cold park for a few maternity pics. Stephanie (the niece) came along and we took quite a few sweet family/maternity photos.

Now, I have to preface these pics with the fact that Laura is pretty straight laced sorta gal... which is good. Someone out there needs to make up for my misgivings. LOL. BUT, totally contradictory to her personality, she drives a cute little hot yellow mustang. (girl after my own heart). I totally had to feature this mustang to let everyone know that Laura can cut loose with the best of us.

A little retail therapy

Gene and I had a bit of retail therapy this weekend. He seemed to be in the shopping mood, why I don't know, as that is very much NOT HIS STYLE. After we went to Bedford on Saturday and picked up this:

And this:
{pomegranate sented sachet from Greenleaf Mmmmm}

we went to antiquing on Sunday. We only went to 2 places, but found a few neat things. My favorite find was this:

Crazy I know. It's a birds nest in a branch, but how it's made and the shape of the branch is very beautiful. It'll be a piece of artwork on my wall because those birds have to be artists to create this!

I picked a cabinet for storage for Tanner's bathroom, a couple vintage aprons for my scrapbook room (I use them as curtains and need a couple more), a new ornament, a present for later. I also stopped by Michaels and found a couple scrapbook goodies I felt life would not be complete without.

The above dresser/island came today! That was fast, I told them whenever was fine, there was no rush. It's big. It'll take some getting used to. I'm just going to let it sit as it is in my kitchen for a couple weeks to determine if it's what I really want or not before I commit. It's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. I feel guilty with plans to cut it in pieces.

More pics after bit. Laura's been waiting!

I am invincible, I am INVINCIBLE .. I am... DOHHHH.

One of the ornaments from our tree. They were inexpensive, but I love these little candy cane type decorations. Traditionally, I like the old school 50's - 70's decor, with a splash of 1940's, but something about the swirly red and white makes me smile.

We did a good job of getting in the holiday spirit today. Gene was actually in the mood to do a little shopping {after a bit of a rough start} We went to bedford to see a door mom thought would be cool for the house, and as much as I agree, it was a lot of work, and I think a bit overpriced, instead we found an awesome dresser that we're going to convert into our island, at least that's the plan.

We stopped at a couple shops in bedford, including some antique stores and a neat little craft store, then came to town to stop at the new ReStyle shop by Sonja in Salon 1. (next to hineline). Stop in for some cute christmas gifts!!

Since we were out, we hit JCPenney and I got a couple shirts, and a little dress for the adopt a kid program I do every year for christmas.

Finished up at walmart, getting *one more* thing for madison (who does not NEED ANYTHING ELSE lol), another toy for the adopt a kid program - and something for Bud and Carol. :p

What I've been doing the past couple days:

More doors. I made a list of about 6 things to get done by xmas, and finishing up Tanner's door and the guest room door was at the top of the list. Tanner's door was kicking my ass tho, and I'd just looked at it for 2 months.

Finally, Thursday morning I decided that was the day, I was going to conquer that door. I kept my wits about me, didn't get impatient... but essentially, the entire door had to come off before I could fix it. that sucked. I finally figured out that not only is the header not level, but the door is not perfectly square. *sigh* they don't take much pride in these houses when they build them. We're trying to make something long lasting out of something that ppl didn't care about.

Anyway, the door now, PERFECT!! I stained it on Friday, and put the knob on this morning. It needs a couple putty holes filled and then DONE. (aside from all of them needing a coat of varnish.

Nicest one yet! Too bad I'm nearly done installing doors.

We're off to the dinner theatre tonight. 4 Christmas and roast beef sandwiches.

I got a makeover!

Ala Cullens

I feel really pale tho.

A view of some of the christmas decor

My antique silver tree. Nothing on it, It's just sitting in the rocking chair, I *like it there*, but completely impractical.

The pink tree. I lurve it. All pink shiny bright balls picked up at a garage sale for a quarter a box (in antique stores - around $5-$10 a box!)

Puddy Tat. cleaning himself in his new bed that I bought on Black Friday. He LOVES it.

Found the garland. The tree is about 95% done. Tanner has to put his ornaments on next week and I have to figure out where I left the angel for the top. Oh, and I have to tote all the empty boxes out to the icky shed for storage.