The ultimate dual purpose piece of furniture

Oh my.

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Oh Christmas Tree...

Saturday we drove to Payson {and my husband's sister's family} with our tree cutting permit and my hunky husband chopped us down a Christmas tree.

He used my great-grandfather's saw.  That part was particularly special to me.

We did lots of hiking and the kids had so much fun picking up pine cones, spotting spiders and tossing stones into the stream.  We didn't find the tree on our first attempt {sigh} and we'd gotten pretty tired.  We drove to a second location and let the boys run out and get it while Gretchen snoozed in the car.


Then today we decorated.

I love how the lights from the tree sparkle off the ornaments, and make the tree smell like our own personal forest.  We could have gotten a pinon or a juniper, we got a juniper, and let me tell you, it smells out-stand-ing.  

I love the holidays.

Sewn Paper Garlands

I'm totally over the moon for my paper garland I made.  See below.  It was so easy and so fun. Gretchen didn't enjoy the process though since she couldn't help out.  I guess being 6 months old is hard sometimes.  Especially with two bottom teeth trying so hard to come out.

I'm sorry for the big break in posts.  I've got a huge list of things I want to talk about but not the energy and time to actually do it.  I think this whole lack of sleep thing is really killing me.  Usually I'm not one to spend time making things, except for when it's easy and fun and the result is stupendous.  This is stupendous to me.  I think it looks really great.  And this particular one could double for Cinco de Mayo decor too.  Ha.

I discovered this neat little project from mini-eco.  So so cute.  And so easy.  She explained how to do it the "right" way.  I just eyeballed the whole thing from construction paper.  I picked red, green, white and grey.  I love how it turned out.  

This is what Kate did:

Check out the tutorial here.  I'm totally into making easy pretty things right now.  I hope you like it.  Let me know if you make one too.  I'd love to see pics.

Our Halloween Home

Before we get to the creepy stuff, here's the new wreath and door mat we found at the Smith and Hawkin section of Tarjay a few months ago.  I just love the rosewood wreath.  And the suzani-style mat is just so cheery.

Here's more of what we did today.  I brought out our spooky tree so that Patrick and I could load it up with our mini Halloween colored and pumpkin ornaments.  

I also made my first bunting {ever} with darling orange and black plaid ribbon and a cobweb adorned napkin found at our local Hobby Lobby.  We also picked up the monogrammed pumpkin for the front door at HL.  We'd never been before today.  It was our outing for the day and Gretchen's midday nap.

Our red-dyed sunflowers from Trader Joe's {originally purchased for Sean's birthday} have started to droop and I thought they looked fitting for this creepy holiday.

I bundled up our first Fall rose blooms and plunked them in one of my favorite glass cups.  They're hanging out next to one of Frank's turban squash. 

We made two strands of bunting.  This is the one we hung in the living room.

Lastly, {and unrelated to Halloween} here's a little peek at my latest craigslist find.  A soft and cozy recliner wingback where we slip on our shoes - and pull over to the living room for movie viewing.  I know, Summer is over and that little spot looks a bit beachy.  But, having grown up by the beach, I feel like it's Summer all year long. And the beach really is that direction {about 400 miles ahead} as is our swimming pool, which will continue to get some use if our weather continues to top out in the 90's.

xoxo jen