Friday, January 3, 2014

Christmas at #12

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Sadlon Road! I know I'm late, but that always happens so really, you should expect it by now.

I was going to start taking down my decorations yesterday when I realized that I should probably share them with the  three readers who haven't come by this season... If you're still there. And I don't want to make a ton of promises I can't keep, but you know I will, so here's another one: I got a tablet for Christmas, so it's a possibility I may post more frequently. It's also a possibility that I will be too busy crushing candies to do anything worth while. Yeah, it got me.

So then, here is Christmas at our house, 2013.


Outside decorations were kept fairly simple. A light in each window is somewhat traditional and boring, but it looks so pretty and classic. I added the lit garland around the door for more light, but it almost seems to emphasize how small the front door is in comparison to the total width of the house. Should I repeat next year? The lit wreath was actually here when we moved in. I don't think I will use it again next year because it seems like an oddball item. What I wanted to do was string lit garlands up the peak of the garage, swagging every 3 feet or so. I just ran out of time, after I spent nearly 5 hours (over the course of 2 days) removing fake fruit from individual window swags (also left behind) only to find that they were too small to fit our windows. Doh. And let's admit it, the weather was just too cold to get the Mister to cooperate (heavy ladders would have been necessary, and surprisingly, I can't do everything myself).


Daytime visitors were welcomed by 3 handmade wreaths hung on the lanterns in between the garage doors. The outside two wreaths were a snap to make because I had purchased some of those bendy forms that let you make a wreath without wire. Next year, I will buy an additional bendy form (at the Fryeburg Fair) so that they can all be uniform. My inner OCD was plagued by the square middle wreath. The inner artist really liked it though.  If I forced you to use the door to the mudroom this season instead of letting you walk through the garage, its because I thought you needed to see the wreath I made with my Mom. There may have been a lot of whining and wine involved... the whining may have been about worthless husbands, but I can't recall exactly. As I honestly believe every single year, this is the best wreath I have ever made, and I love it.



Inside the house was a challenge, I admit. It seems that I have way too many items to put out for Christmas (see this video I took for proof) and I couldn't decide what should go out in the new house because all I could think about was where it went in the old house. After a full day of putting out decorations (mind you, this is after 2 days of battling with the trees) I had enough of the decorating was satisfied with the end result. There ended up being a little Christmas in every room without being overwhelming.







Lesson learned: never put a sign like this in the way of your liquor cabinet around the Holidays. 





As usual, the snowmen dominated the kitchen, but they can't sit on the cabinets here like they did in Manchester, so I had to be a little more creative. My Mother in Law always urges me to leave them up all winter, and I might take her advice this year. I would say it depends on how quickly I get agitated with putting everything away.

The mantel was the first thing I decorated, and the only place in the house where I really had something in mind. I love the forresty outdoor look of it, though I wish there was an outlet within extension cord distance so that I could light up the twig snowflakes. These are the things you have to consider when building a house people! You know you're going to decorate a mantal for Christmas, put an outlet in for God's sake!


Don't you just love google auto-awesome? They decided to add the snowflakes here.






These fun/funky/wild garlands were actually left here by the previous owners (as was the retro sled that I paired with ice skates on the front porch). I love their untamed look, but I do wish there was about 3 feet more so I could drape it down the railing post you see to the right in the photo above.





Upstairs I kept it fairly simple, one little tree in each of the bedrooms and my Pottery Barn pillow guarded by Smokey at the entrance to our room.




As for the trees, I had always wanted two. After a long lecture from my husband however, I had every intention of saving money by just selecting one real tree this year. So when my Mom and I went up the road to Starkey's (literally about 1.5 miles up the road), I picked out the traditional evergreen tree that we used in the office.


But when I caught a glimpse of the concolor fir tree, I couldn't resist. It's like my hands were sawing away while I could hear the echo in my head "he's going to be mad!"

Christmas Mandy gets a little carried away sometimes. It was like I saw the sparkles on this tree way before google ever thought to add them.




Its tough to tell in pictures, but the needles are just humongous, and its so dense and gorgeous that it almost looked better without the ornaments and lights. Obviously, that didn't stop yours truly. To be fair, the tree was only $35, and I borrowed the stand from my Gramma - so it's not like I went crazy wasting money.

After I have spent the whole season with them in the house however, I have concluded that I probably wont get two trees next year. I don't really have enough ornaments to cover them both, and I almost never had time to sit in our office and enjoy the traditional tree. Let's just play it by ear next time, ok?


As for a few of the things you might have noticed as "new" or "different" since I last bothered to post, I'm going to do an update in a few days and let you know whats been going on around here... maybe.

Probably. If I clean up the craft room by the end of the weekend.



Let's just play it by ear, ok?

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