I admit it... I tweak

At times I'm just not 100% satisfied with something I've done, and if so... I have to tweak it. I think I inherited this trait from my Father. It's a bit like being a perfectionist, which can sometimes drive you crazy, but... back to Christmas. I changed out the green snowflakes on the wreath for white, because really, are snowflakes green? I also moved the white trees to inside of the green ones, more balanced and more pleasing to my eye. 

I made more bows and added them to the banister.

The banister lit up. I love these metal snowflakes!

I found the purple hydrangeas and stuck them in the tree, 
I knew we had more than just 2! I'm done tweaking now and content with my work! 
Bring on the holiday company!

And the best for last! We have the Playmobil train from when the girls were little. I ran-sacked our storage unit until I found it, and tonight we set it up around the tree.

 Choo choo... the Christmas Express is now ready for grandbabies to come visit!

all decked out!

I wanted a change this year for my mantle... I found the 2 shabby chic iron trees and stands at Home Goods early in the season, and that became my inspiration. I found the "Believe" blocks at Target and the green and red ribbon at Hobby Lobby. It all came together and I love it!

It's good to believe!

Here's my new ribbon on a boxwood wreath on the upper railing.

Moving outside to my Flexible Flyer from when I was a young girl and used to sleigh ride, an antique for sure! It's part of our front porch decoration.

The porch at night

the front lights

the keeping room banister strung with snowflake lights

This year we added a new stocking to our family collection... one for little Nathan Morgan. A light blue snowman stocking, perfect for my sweet grandson!

 His parents both have snowman stockings too!

 My talented Mother-in-law started the girls off with these handmade needle-worked stockings when they were each born.

 Kelly and Kristin's are embroidered crewel and Alex's is counted cross stitch.

 We added needlepoint to the mix when the guys joined the family.

My Beyer Caroler collection

Our white porcelain Nativity that my Mother gave us when we were first married.

My hand painted ceramic tree that my college roommate made for me, thanks Pat! We still put it out every year!

so... the house is all decked out! Complete with skinny tree and 9 stockings!

to see the skinny tree tweaked with a few more hydrangeas look here 

I Admit It... I Tweak!

oh, and our special handmade Santa Claus's

  The house is festive and ready for company. Merry Christmas to all! It's been a busy weekend and now it's time to say good night...

Linking to The Inspired Room Christmas Home Tours

the decorating has begun!

My, my our family is growing, we almost take up the entire mantle! 
We added Nathan's stocking this year. 
I bought him a needlepoint snowman themed stocking to keep in the tradition of his Mom and Dad's stockings... a whole family of snowmen!

Here's our "skinny tree" again. We've decided to decorate it with unbreakable items this year since Carter is 21 months old and loves to throw balls, glass ornaments count as balls, so we're taking precautions and leaving those off.

The rest of the house is in complete disarray at the moment. I'm hoping to finish up tomorrow and get some semblance of normalcy back around here!

golfgal

looking back to a year ago...

I was curious about my blog posts from last year at this time. I wanted to see what I was up to then since I've been so bad about keeping up with blogging lately. Here's my November 30th post "My Christmas wish". My wish is the same for this year... "to be cancer free and healthy". I've been sick with a sore throat, head cold and cough for the past week so I am really looking forward to feeling healthy and good again! My last few illnesses have hit me hard. I feel like I have no immune system to fight even a common cold. And, I'm still fighting that same cancer. On Wednesday I go to the Thoracic Surgeon, Thursday the Radiologist and Friday the Oncologist to discuss my latest treatment options since finding out about 3 new lung nodules and growing lymph nodes. All too similar to the past two Christmas seasons, my holiday preparations are overshadowed by my health. My year has been overshadowed by my health.
But starting today I'm pulling out the decorations and getting started on this holiday! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Inner Artwork

This is my Oncologist's interpretation of my recent CT Scan. Unfortunately it's not good news, not at all what I wanted to see. My most recent surgery was back in June, they removed the tumor from my abdomen and radiated that area for 6 weeks, that area is clean. Nothing going on, Hooray! Worth the recovery and side effects for this good news. 
My chest and lungs are very busy though. The two larger criss-crossed circles measuring 2+ cm are lymph nodes. Increased in size from 3 months ago, probably because they are fighting off the disease that has decided to reside in my lungs. I have 3 nodules, measuring from 2mm to 11mm. With all this activity, comes a decision of what to do this time? I've had VATS twice, a year apart,  to get out 1 nodule at a time. I'm not opposed to VATS again, if.... my surgeon thinks he can get all this out and clean me up. My Oncologist is thinking chemo. I'm not opposed to that either, I just want to make sure we use the most efficient drug. The problem with fighting Sarcoma is the chemo's have not been that well researched. Some chemo's they know do not work, so why bother? Others work for other "similar" cancers so maybe it could work for Sarcoma. Then there are clinical trials going on with drugs that are hopeful to work. 
This is another time in my treatment of confusion... making me feel unstable and vulnerable. My Oncologist is talking to all my other Docs to get there opinions. I would like to see my Thoracic Surgeon this week to see what he can do. 


A third holiday season coming upon us, or I should say "my third" worrying about cancer and lung nodules. Kinda takes the spirit out of it all a bit. 

a new design plan

 If it all gets approved and comes together, GradGirl will be moving to a new place. 

Here's the living room space...

We'll have some painting to do, a few minor fix-ups, and a few new light fixtures to install, but we love a good project! The fun part will be changing up her living room. She's buying a new sofa, instead of using our 33 year old sofa from our first home back in the day. It's this one below, from Macy's, but in a darker shade of gray. Very chic don't you think?!

 And to add to the grouping... she'll have 2 of these chairs but with a slightly different arm and a pillow back 

 A wall unit like this would be great to display her aqua glass collection! 

We were thinking it would all look great with an exposed brick wall on one side...

The brick wall is hopeful, maybe later as a future project. 

We're waiting for final condo approval from the bank and for the repair items on the inspection list to be completed. But... the fun part is to plan the decorating! 

We love that part.

got all the red out just in time for the holidays! How's that for timing?!

Sometimes projects get put on the "back burner". I know you all know what I mean! We finished renovating our kitchen last March, and in doing so changed the colors in the keeping room. My sofa went from red to green, the corner chair and ottoman went from red to blue. I've had fabric all this time to redo the chairs in the breakfast nook and my desk chair. So... six months or so later I finally got around to doing them! 

Here's the keeping room decked out for fall

I got to play with a gun for this project. 

An ordinary electric staple gun is no match for an air compressor!

Using it was just like on the DIY shows... all that power and simplicity!

I decided not to go with the Ralph Lauren floral fabric I had purchased for the dining chairs, but had enough Annie Selke in two different patterns to do 2 chairs in each. 
I'm really not a "floral" kind of gal.

Makes it more fun and modern don't you think?!

Here they are all together, with our Scrabble game on the table of course!

I did the desk chair in a blue and green bee pattern that ties in great with all the fabrics.

So, just in time for the winter holidays when we typically decorate in reds and greens, 
this part of my house is all blues and green. 
I'll just have to change my holiday decor up a bit too!