Decorated for Christmas!

Yesterday, I put up my tree and rearranged my focal point shelf on the main wall of my living room. I need to grab some pillar candles for the crystal candle holders next to the mirrors.

Also, as a single woman in my house alone, I have a fake tree. I bought a pre-lit $100-ish tree last year. I've always had a real tree my entire life and the three Christmases my ex and I lived together, we had a real one as well. It pains me to have an artificial tree; however, it was really easy to put up and since I'm the only one putting it up and taking it down, fake the way to go for me!

Lastly, I did not buy one single NEW thing this year for decor. Last year, I bought the tree and ornaments for the apothecary jars and more. This year, I'm trying to save some cash and just make due with what I own already. It sure is tough, though, to walk through the holiday decor area at Target, so I try to avoid it!
























































































And, one of my favorite ornaments, which pays homage to one of my favorite places & hobbies:

























Happy Holidays, all!!!

Living Room Refresh

Just a few changes I've made in the last month or so....

I LOVED my green rug from Pottery barn for my living room, but turns out my pets' hair/fur liked it more and I could see every bit of golden retriever fur and white cat fur all of the time! Also, one of my kitties really thought the rug was a scratching post.......hmmmm....which was the pits for a $300 rug!

So, I got this number from Target for around $100 and I feel like if my kitty takes a liking to this one, then I won't be out so much money if I have to replace it! Also, while I do vacuum twice a week or so, this color works much better for dog and cat fur. Yes, it may stain easier if I spill red wine or something, but for day-to-day, it is a better color choice for me!

I grabbed some clearance pillows and a few 20% off ones from Pier 1 last week and decided on a sapphire/teal with purple combo, inspired by the small rectangular pillow!

PS, my 3rd date was fab and last night, there was a 4th!

Psst...........

I have a 3rd date with a dreamy guy tonight! Woot woot!

Wish me luck!

New roof, dead lawn....

The new roof was put on about 3 weeks ago!

Also, the spring time plan is to paint the house a warm mocha color, black shudders, and white trim.

Here is my old rusty brown colored roof:



































And, introducing......my new roof!!! The color is called "Driftwood" and they are architectural shingles.

My once lush lawn turned to crab grass and is now dead and gross. I think next year, I'll be throwing money at this problem and having a lawn service rip up my top layer of lawn and just start my lawn fresh! I guess it is the end of November, the grass does have a right to die at this point I suppose.....

I'm not proud....

....of my messy bedroom closet.























I only use this closet for tops! The best part of being single & living alone--every room's closet houses a different aspect of my wardrobe!

I bought this ClosetMade cubby thing about a month ago and just put it together today.
























I have a storage bin to the left and need ot take it out and go through it and see what I should keep & get rid of, but until then, the storage cubby does a good job of getting my frequently worn shoes in the spotlight and crap off of the floor!

Presto Changeo Loo!

I was bored with my black and white scheme in my bathroom......I needed a pop of color...maybe all of the apple candles I've been burning for the fall season have been subliminally making me yearn for a rich flash of red in my bathroom!

Anyway, here is the old look--well, semi-old look. Originally, I had a white shower curtain w/ a few black stripes at the bottom of it, but my two cats (who are primarily white) and my golden retriever go in and out of my bathroom--they especially like to linger around me when I get ready for work in the morning--- and the hair just stuck to it and then it was on the black bath rugs too.

I ditched the black bath mats about 6 months ago because of the major cat and dog hair that would accumulate on them in just a few days!!! So, I grabbed a plain white curtain and grey rugs.....they were okay, but a bit boring.























Now, this all started with a random trip to Kohl's and then a stroll through the bathdecor department. I found this shower curtain with white, grey, and black on it--perfect for my bathroom and then a flash of red! Awesome! And, it was on sale! (what's NOT on sale at Kohl's?!?)

The accent rugs are Thomas O'Brien from Target and were on sale too!

Deck Makeover!

So, my deck was just a deck---no idea how old it was, but man, it looked like if I didn't do a stain/water seal to it this year, one more year of water damage and snow would lead to its ultimate decay and wood rot. It seemed like a pivotal time in my deck's life!


















I hired my dad to make use of my parents' smallish power washer and he went to town on the deck. I could not BELIEVE how gross the deck was! Check out this pic of the railing in progress of being cleaned! (the clean part is on the left!) EW! Kiss mildew & dirt goodbye!!!!

















The deck after power washing:


















Progress pic (stain is a one-step semi transparent w/ water seal built in from Home Depot; 2 gallons at $32 each). Staining the spindles was the most tedious and time-consuming part....


















Application done & stain is drying (you can still see the brush strokes on the wet stain....) 4.5 hours later.....

















Final madeover deck: To be posted!