Inspiration Friday No.32~ Decorating the Christmas Tree

Decorating the Christmas tree use to be one of my most favorite things to do.  

I would spend hours putting the tree together, always with a glass of 

white wine in hand!  I loved finding the perfect spot for each ornament, 

always stepping back to get a full view before putting on the next ornament.  

Fast forward 2 children later and I still love having a pretty tree but I am 

less excited about doing the work!  Over the years I have decorated the tree in 

purple, light blue, dark blue, and mulit-colored ornaments...now I crave an all white tree 

with a simple burlap tree skirt.  But it is hard to have an all white tree because so many 

of our personal ornaments that I love are colored.  

We have solved this issue by having two trees!

I have my large fake tree in the front window, decorated in white, 

wrapped in ribbon and all, and my husband and children get a real tree 

and decorate with all the color and tinsel they desire!  Everyone is happy!!

Some of my favorite tree inspirations...

Pretty mantle!

www.beachcomber26.blogspot.com

I went to visit one of my favorite local stores, Shore Gallery & Design.

This is the first time that I have been during the holiday season 

and I was amazed that every inch of the store is beautifully decorated

for the holidays!

An amazing peacock decorated tree.

So much fun!

The front window is so beautiful.

Not Christmas tree decorations but I thought cool enough not to share.  

I found these unique knobs at TJ Maxx last week.

I was walking to the cash registers and stopped short when I saw these beauties.

I know I should have bought them, just to have them.

But I didn't.

They were only $7.99 for a pack of 4, which is a great price!

Ahhh, I should of bought them!!!

So is everyone all decorated for the holidays?

I feel like I am just about done decorating but there are 

still so many boxes everywhere!  

I need to wrap it up so I can literally start wrapping stuff up!!!

I hope you have a great weekend!

~  Kim

(most pictures can be found on my Pinterest  "Holiday Decorating" page)

Thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

My reason to be thankful...

love these two!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day spent with friends and family!

~  Kim

Inspiration Friday No.31~ Thanksgiving {gobble, gobble}

I have been so addicted to Pinterest since Halloween!

Now that Thanksgiving is here, I am pinning all sorts of yummy food and 

tablescape ideas.  Even though I have never cooked a turkey or hosted 

Thanksgiving dinner!  But I will be bringing a pecan pie (store bought of course) 

to my husband's grandmothers house.  I loooove pecan pie and haven't had

a really GOOD piece since my great-grandmother, Mama Hewett pass away.

Hers was the best!

My daughter and I will be making these adorable cookies for her class.

I'm not much of a baker but I figured even I could pull these off!

Cute cornucopia idea using a waffle cone.

Pretty tablescape.

Country Living

Eddie Ross

I absolutely adore this Thankful tree, what a great way to get the kids involved!

For homework my 4 year old son had to draw a picture of what he was most

thankful for his preschool class.  His answer... video games.  

He did draw his family playing video games with him, 

so I guess that's good!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a joyful Thanksgiving!!

{all pictures not labeled can be found at my "Holiday Decorating" Pinterest page}

~  Kim

Inspiration Friday No.30~ Christmas...yep already!

Posting this a day early because Fridays are always busy and my day to run errands.  

I keep forgetting to post and by the time I remember, it's late and I'm ready for bed!

I can't even believe that I am thinking about decorating for the holidays but Pinterest is really getting me excited.  I feel bad that Thanksgiving just doesn't get the credit that it deserves, but when they are playing holiday music the day after Halloween at the convenience store, 

you just can't help but to get in the mood!

So to start us off a little early, this week I am showing you my favorite holiday pins 

from my Pinterest boards.

The sexiest holiday dress.  Love this!!

Some nail sparkle to go with the dress.

...and to decorating the mantle.  

We removed the mantle from our floor to ceiling brick fireplace 

and the only time I miss it is during the holidays.

I love a pretty mantle, the lights...ahhh it's so romantic!

Centsational Girl

Did you have one of these Christmas trees?

My Grandmother had one and I loved it!  

So I know it's a little early but I'm sure I'll do another holiday decorating post after Thanksgiving.

I mean I just took down the Halloween decorations yesterday and I'm already thinking about when is the earliest I can put up our Christmas decorations!  You can see all of these pins and more at
my Pinterest page.

When do you start decorating for the holidays?

~  Kim

Halloween Party

We had a great time at our Halloween Party with our closest friends and their children.

I spent a lot of time hanging spider webs preparing for the party.

It's not the same effect in the daylight but I went around and took some pictures of our decorations.

It's amazing how some spider webs and orange lights turn our coastal cottage style home into a spooky place.

I left all of our usual decor in the bookcase and just added spider webs, lights, some leaves 

and a lighted skull.

The thing in the bottom middle is a strobe light, which really set the spookiness of our fireplace.

My daughter did a great job decorating this table.  She really gets into decorating, almost too much!  

She takes all the good stuff for herself!!

The opening between our dining room and kitchen, this is our bar area where all the food placed.

I got the idea to drip a red candle onto white ones from the Young House Love blog a few years ago.

This lantern is decorated differently for every season.  I wish I had picked up 10 more when I found them on clearance at Walmart for $4.  Yep, $4 and I only bought 2 and then one broke during our move.

It's a whole different feeling at night and all the lights are out.  Of course we had spooky music 

playing and I changed out regular light bulbs for orange ones.

The fireplace with the strobe light one.  The strobe light really was a hit when the kids started a dance party!

My costume was a peacock.  I found this eyeshadow tattoo at Party City.  I was a little scared to try it out, but the directions sounded easy enough.

This is the end product with my lashes from Sally's Beauty Supply.  Oddly the eyeshadow actually goes on kind of creamy and not powdery like I expected.  It went on easier than I expected but it started to crease not long after having it on.  It was fun but it didn't hold up like I was hoping.  The lashes were awesome though!  So much fun!!

My kiddos, the Storybook Witch and the police officer.

She loves having her makeup done!!

Me and my husband.

We did a wrap the mummy game, this is my daughter all wrapped up.  The kids always have a blast and the best part is when they rip off the toilet paper and have it flying all over the place!

Lot's of fun!  

~  Kim