still voting?

Thank you all so much for voting for Chatting at the Sky in the Weblog Awards. We are holding on to a solid third place position, which isn't too shabby considering that the competition has wielded some pretty strong endorsements, not the least of which is Keira Knightly. You know, the hot actress? With lots of fans? And lots of computers?

Remember you can vote once per day per computer. Feel free to ask your readers to vote too, as I know my winning a very nice but somewhat meaningless award is certainly at the top of your bloggy priority list. Thank you June, Kendra, Dana and Daisy, Laura and Nester for already doing this! You are so great.

And just think: if all my readers AND all your readers voted once a day for the next four days, it could really make a difference. Throw in the entire state of Rhode Island and we just might win this thing.

Voting continues until Monday January 12.

Here's a peek at my ballot for some contestants in other categories:

Best Parenting Blog: Blissfully Domestic

Best Diarist: Velveteen Mind

Best New Blog: Blog Nosh Magazine

Seriously, this has been fun. The begging for votes, the shameless promotion, the general selflessness of it all is quite refreshing.

As a thank you for voting, here are some before and after shots of my house. (Do I know my audience or what?)
The twins room the day we walked through the house for the first time and our heads began to spin...
And the twins room after our Fairy Godmother showed up to ready it for the ball. Cleans up nice, huh?
The downstairs hallway leading to the kitchen before we moved in. Check out the wood paneling.
The downstairs hallway now...with a little peek into some recent cabinet painting. But that's another post. Curious? Good. Now go vote.

come on-a my house

BooMama is having her annual Christmas Tour of Homes AND Julia at Hooked on Houses is having one, too. And as if that weren't enough, sweet Kimba is hosting an open house and its all just so much fun! I really really want to play. Is it okay to go to three parties at once? I'm thinking yes.

I've already shown my mantle, but here is a peek at some other little corners of the house. If this is your first time here, I offer you a heartfelt welcome. If you are a regular reader, here is your chance to nose around my new old house a little bit more. Come on in!
I bought the white thing at a yard sale and attached it in true Nester fashion. (she is my fabulously talented big sister. Aren't I lucky?) Then, I crammed it full of clippings from our yard. Cheaper than a wreath.

Our entryway.

A close up.
A closer up.

In case you missed it last week, here is a photo of the longest garland ever.

and here it is with fire.

I realized this year after 8 years of marriage, I have very few sentimental ornaments for our tree. Unless I can include how excited I was when I found these at Target's after-Christmas sale.
I still remember how sweet it was to see the sign: 90% off. With a quick glance over my shoulder, this pig was mine. All mine. Ahhh....memories.

That's me, distorted face and all,
wishing you a Merry Christmas from my home to yours.

Now go check out all the other homes on the tour at BooMama's blog...
And when you're done with that, you can link up at Julia's as well.
And THEN, click over to Kimba's just for kicks and look at HER beautiful home.
Have fun and thanks for visiting!

garland show and tell

One of the many benefits of having the Nester for a sister is getting first dibs on all her great ideas. The most wonderful Christmas garland ever is one of her best. She has been doing her mantle this way for years so I adopted some of her tricky garland ways several Christmases ago. I guess it's time to find a photo to put in that frame. Maybe that will be my New Years resolution.

This is our first Christmas in our new house. I've been looking forward to decking this mantle out with garland galore.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. Thanks, Nester for the great ideas!
Oh. And one more thing. I can't publish this post without showing you the truth behind the beauty: the casualties of my garland after a fire.
This is only a portion of what fell out as The Man repeatedly jostled it every time he moved the screen to poke the fire. The nerve.
And while I'm confessing things, here is our fireplace flue. I think we could market this and sell it online. Genius.

the craft bar

In the spirit of being thankful and celebrating the small things, I want to update you on the results of a post from the days of yore.

In other words, this post is long overdue. I am thankful for the free ideas you have all offered about what to do in my house. Unfortunately, I've not been so great at letting you see what I've actually done. For example, this project in my sunroom needed attention back in August. I read through all the wonderful ideas you had and then I proceeded to ignore them for the next 3 months.
Until now. Ms. J left a comment on the original post asking what I finally did with this wet bar space. It was just unused and strange, sitting there in the corner of the room.

I opted for practical and free over pretty and pricey and went with those of you who suggested we use it for crafts. I took out the wine rack to make space for books. But not before I lined the back with scrapbook paper.
Oops. Not enough. I can fix that.
Much better. Wanna see what's in the tin?
Dinosaurs, snakes and various sea creatures. And a pink spoon. And a polly pocket umbrella. I like to keep this tin up high because if I have it within reach, guess what is always strewn about the sun room floor? Better to pull it out on a rainy day.

I also tried to think of a way I could use those wine glass holder things under the shelf.I have a bunch of these photo clips that I bought cheap before we got married.
Turns out they fit perfectly in the wine glass holder things (what do you call that?) Now I use them to hold photos and artwork.
Add a few crayons in a cookie jar and markers in a popcorn bowl, and we have ourselves a genuine crafting corner. Now it is ready for all that craft supplies they want for Christmas. Thank you for your advice!

more fall

As I said yesterday, my fall decor is pretty lame. I lack confidence in the decorating department. What can I say, I have The Nester as a sister. Who can live up to that? Still, looking at all your homes on Kimba's Mr. Linky has encouraged me to share in the fun anyway. After all, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful, right?
Take this festively decked out door, for example. I am so creative. And beginning with that will make everything else look better.
The beautiful thing about these mums with no pots is that they were really cheap at the farmers market: only two dollars.
Another cheap, potless mum. Pots are so much trouble. See? Lame.
Here are the things on my sideboard in my dining room. I found these sticks and acorns in our yard and stuck them in these jars. If I were to zoom out, you would notice that my mirror is not hung on the wall yet and one of my sideboard lamps is missing a light bulb. So I couldn't zoom out. You understand.
That's about the extent of it, folks. My fall isn't even very fall-y. It looks a bit more like spring in this photo. I get a little more brave at Christmas. Can't wait to cover that banister with garland.

poopie party

There is a POOPIE party going on over at Nesting Place today. You haven't heard of People Opposing Objectionable Pretend Plants In the Environment? (I know, it's should be POOPPITE, technically. But you know, whatever). Everyone who considers herself a POOPIE is linking up and posting photos of our fake plants: both our favorites and our fiascos.

Let me first say that the POOPIEs are not opposed to fake plants as a whole. Merely the fakes that look waxy and unnaturally bright and, well...FAKE.
This is my first favorite. I picked out these stems at Hobby Lobby using the Nesters' criteria: pick fakes that look as though they could be real, or at least could have been at one time.
Here's another favorite. These are the only fake flowers I have in the house. They have fooled a few people from time to time. I think it's because of the fake water in the bottom. I really like these. I know they are fake, but they are tasteful fake. And if you disagree, they were a gift from the Nester so take it up with her.
And here is my fiasco. I know it is wrong. It is all wrong. Previously I had a pot of real rosemary in that space. But real rosemary needs inconvenient things like light and water. So when it began to shed its needles like a Christmas tree, I set out to replace it with something. Hence this fiasco. It was a temporary fix. Inevitably temporary.

Do you have any fakes in your house? Are they fabulous or fiascos? Link up at the Nesting Place and let us see!

sunroom woes

I need help. See that room through those doors? That is our sunroom. I'm a minimalist and don't believe in furniture. Or this photo was taken the day before we moved in.
Here's the deal: there is sort of a wet bar in the sun room. The wine thing is broken. The faucet is 1964. And well, we don't really have a use for it, as we aren't what you would call an alcohol family. Not that I know anyone I would call "an alcohol family". You know what I mean.
I know there are tons of things to do with a wet bar besides serving alcohol from it. The problem is, I just can't think of any of them.
So help me. What do I do with this space?
While you think, here's a photo to prove we have furniture. The wet bar is there on the left, just out of the shot. Now help!

yeah, what she said

I have enjoyed reading all of your comments about your houses and the ways you think about cleaning them. One comment struck me in particular, as I think she says so eloquently what I have been thinking about in my heart:

"When I started thinking of my chores around the house as less of a drudgery and more of a way to provide comfort, ease, health of environment, and pleasure to my family, my whole attitude changed toward those chores. I would LIKE to say that scrubbing toilets became an act of love, but it didn't go quite that far. But I resented it less, and appreciated the home more, and appreciated more what our home provided for our family: shelter, a place for us to be together, to enjoy ourselves, to make memories. I think that viewing it as house KEEPING vs house CLEANING has helped transform our shelter into an abode, from a house into our home."

Well said, Mercy Project. I think this is a major point of Cheryl Mendlesons' book, the difference between keeping house and cleaning house. After all, I could technically hire someone to clean my toilets. But keeping can only be done by me. I am the keeper of my house, the one responsible for making it a safe little society for my family.

I really like that.