The Fight for Thanksgiving before Christmas

It's the confusing time of year where Thanksgiving gets somewhat elbowed out of the way by everyone jumping the gun to get the Christmas season started.

It's all a little overwhelming as a blogger.  Trying to keep up with the flow of everyone posting their mantles beautifully decorated with greenery and stockings, and creatively decorated trees.  I wish I could bottle their energy to get it all done like they do.  I guess this is really isn't that early compared to those in the magazine industry.  I believe they do layouts MONTHS in advance.

This really isn't Thanksgiving but I thought it had a fall feel to it with the burlap background.  It's a Hatch Show Print.  A really cool company that still makes posters on the original print machines in Nashville.

Thankfully (lol!) this Thanksgiving we will be celebrating with my family so that means travel for us instead of hosting the 30+ in-laws.  We switch up where we will be for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year.

This year we will be in East Tennessee at my mom's for Thanksgiving and then in Nashville for Christmas at the in-laws. Next year it will be the other way around.  Both are actually close enough that we can do day trips to allow for hubby's or one of the girl's work schedules.

I did some fall decorating which is getting us through until next week.  So...deep breaths until then and enjoy some "throwback" pictures of Christmas a few years ago.  They were taken when my kitchen was Roasted Red Pepper...pre-beadboard backsplash and the new fresh white/greige colors.

Vignette on top of the pie safe

Vintage Elf on a Shelf...he's behaving for the moment

Dollar Tree pre-made gingerbread house cookies use under a cloche.
I added sugar for the snow :)

By next weekend, I'll be wading through Rubbermaid totes and other boxes, pulling out the Christmas decor...trying to catch up!

Thanks for stopping by and God bless!
Angie I'm linking here:

COASTAL CHARM'S NIFTY THRIFTY TUESDAY

 

http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/themed-linkups

http://heleneslegacy.blogspot.com/2013/11/everyday-vintage-link-party_22.html

Greige or Grey or Gray or Beige - Whatever You Call It, It's Now In My Living Room

Gallery Wall
(sorry for the grainy iPhone photo)

As school was nearing the end this past Spring, I had great plans for repainting many rooms in our home during the summer break.  Most of the rooms had not been repainted since our house was built in 2003.  I was so excited.  I poured over color samples.  Pinned lots of great looking rooms for inspiration.  Well, as the old saying goes, "the best laid plans of mice and men (and decorators!) often go awry."  The last week of school, our friend, who is also a real estate agent, contacted us with an offer.  Wait, what??  Our house isn't even on the market!  That's right.  His office was working with a couple that had been looking for a place with acreage, storage, outbuilding, pond...our place.  They had been unsuccessful in finding exactly what they were looking for but our friend thought our place fit the bill.  He also knows that we had talked more than once of selling our place and moving back into town for the convenience of being closer to our kids' many activities.

Before Gallery Wall and Paint Color

So, we took the offer with a contingency of the buyer's home selling.  And we waited and waited and waited.  All summer we waited until our contract ended in mid August with no sale.  Yeah, mid August, when school begins and hectic schedules and busyness.  And my great plans were pushed aside.

Another Before

I took the Labor Day break to at least get our living room/breakfast area painted.  I used Valspar's Colonial Beige and had it color matched with Behr paint.  It is called a beige but it really is a great neutral between beige and grey.  This room gets a lot of light in the morning and changes during the day as the sun moves to the front of our house.  It worked as the perfect greige for my house.  From the photo, it doesn't look that much different than the original paint but it is.  For one thing, the new paint is a grey/beige and in an eggshell finish. The original paint (contractor grade I'm sure) had a pink fleshy color and was a flat finish.  Actually, the builder used flat finish EVERYWHERE in the house, including the bathrooms. Who does that?  The master bedroom and bath are next on my list.  Do you know what steamy showers do to flat paint??  It isn't pretty.  I'll try to post pictures of that when I redo the master bathroom.

Gallery Wall After

After painting the living room, I had the chance to rework my gallery wall behind the sofa.  It was by accident that I moved some of the pieces.  I thought I could remember where everything was before painting.  Thankfully, I couldn't remember and the result is even better than it was before.

I use a lot of orange and aqua in our main living areas and I love the combination.  It works perfect with Fall decor too!

As always, thanks for stopping by and God bless!

Angie