Tag Archives: Home Updates

Deck the Halls, Part 1

4 Dec

Anyone who truly knows me knows that Christmas is my favorite holiday! And while I wanted to jump on the band wagon with everyone else who has already started decorating, my husband and I have an agreement to get through one holiday before focusing on the next. I’m not judging anyone getting a head start, (especially since I’ve been ready for Christmas since July!) this is just what we do. But, those who enjoy decorating know that it takes time to get everything ready, and if you wait until Thanksgiving to start decorating, you may miss your chance to pick up any of the decorations you may not have already thought of. And this is an even bigger ordeal if there’s anything that needs to be replaced or customized, which is the case for us this year.

When we moved into our house, I had a color scheme in mind for our living room, but it still took me two years to bring it to life. I wanted a pattern for the curtains, but trying to find one to fit the color scheme and that wasn’t too crazy for traditional me proved challenging. Now that I have them, I have no intention of replacing them anytime soon, but they just don’t go with our Christmas décor and it started to wear on me last Christmas.

So I picked out new ones for the holiday season at the beginning of November and then took the rest of November to alter. Where does the time go!

Our Year Round Curtains vs. our new Christmas Curtains

I didn’t like any options I found for an alternative valance, but Chris suggested a garland, and I think it was a brilliant idea!

Can’t forget the picture window

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4th Birthday

30 Sep

One of the things I looked forward to most when we bought our house was the opportunity to host events and have a place we’re proud to have our friends and family (when they visit) come and hang out at. And I think we’ve been successful in that after three Christmas’s, a rehearsal dinner, a 4th of July party and now two birthdays.

Both birthdays have been for our friend’s daughter, Felicity. Last year’s theme was mermaids and this year’s was dinosaurs. While we reeled in the party plans a little, I still really enjoyed decorating and took the opportunity to try to do better than last year.

But, first things first. If the weather’s nice, it’s always a pool party at our house, which meant the deck steps needed some attention.

We painted them last year before the wedding and we’ve just gotten some much rain this summer that the paint started chipping off and left Felicity covered in specks of blue paint last time she was over. So it’s time for a fresh coat, but first Chris power washed them to get off all of the flakes.

With the pool freshly painted and looking new again, I could now move on to the rest of the decorations.

Balloon garlands have been all the rage over the past few years, and I always think they look so nice and add so much to the décor without having to spend too much. I tried tying the balloons to each other like I’ve seen in some videos, but it just didn’t work out very well last year, although I was happy with what I was able to create.

Mermaid Banner and Balloons from Amazon

This year, I saw this tool I apparently overlooked because I found extra in my party supplies, but it made all of the difference, especially since we decided to put the garland over the door instead of moving our painting to put it above the table.

The directions are easy enough to follow, but don’t advise as to the spacing for the balloons so I originally tried filling every space in a very logical order, but it was just too big for the space and I had no way to attach it to the wall.

So, I rearranged them to be in every other space, simply removing those that were extra and then moving and adding balloons as needed. The spaces in the decorating strip were the perfect size for push pins to hold everything in place

My Version vs. Amazon

I think there’s some improvement.

The birthday girl playing with her new bead jewelry set. We had fun making rings, necklaces, bracelets and headbands.

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission at no cost to you! When you purchase through the links provided, you will be supporting Brittany Bower and helping to bring new content to the site!

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