We might be a few months into our second year of marriage, but this year we got our very first Christmas tree!  Our new home needs a tree.  Clearly I had my priorities in the right order since the first order of business was to go purchase ornaments.  A couple years ago when we were registering for our wedding at Crate & Barrel I had seen a lot of cute ornaments.  Our first and only stop for ornaments was at Crate & Barrel.  Luckily for us there was a 30% off sale on all the ornaments!!  My husband and I filled up our basket with lots and lots of white, silver and red ornaments.  I was pretty sure we were buying too many, but figured we would return the ones we didn’t need.

It seemed like destiny as we drove up Massachusetts Avenue and right by a Christmas tree sale at the local church.  Instead of heading the Whole Foods or Home Depot to buy our tree we were going to get it from the church!!  They had a ton of options.  I am not really sure why we didn’t think of checking out the local churches in the first place.   At least we will remember this for next year!

After walking around the available “medium” size tree options a few times we quickly agreed on this guy:

Sorry for the crappy camera phone pictures.  It didn’t dawn on me to bring my camera … fail!  Anyways, after purchasing the tree we laughed a little at our lack of planning on how we were going to get the tree home.  It might have been December, but the convertible top when down and the tree when in the backseat of the car.  We made it home just before the rain started in.  Pretty good timing if I do say so myself.

We were home and had a tree and ornaments, but we were lacking lights and maybe more importantly a tree stand.  We threw the tree in a bucket and walked to CVS.  There we purchased a tree stand and 200 white lights.  Back to the house we went to decorate our tree!!

After a number of tries we finally go the tree straight in the tree stand.  The husband cranked the Christmas music and we spent the next hour or so arranging the ornaments perfectly.  Here’s a close up of a couple of the ornaments.

I am very happy with our final product.  Check it out …

What do you think??  I’m very pleased.  Our menorah and dradle looked great next to the tree throughout Hanukkah! Maybe next year we will buy a tree skirt and actually get some gifts under the tree :)  We did have a present under the tree for less than 24 hours.  Then I couldn’t wait any longer and gave my husband his holiday present prior to Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays!

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Centerpieces and/or flower arrangements can be quite costly this time of year.  With Thanksgiving over and Christmas right around the corner it seemed like the perfect time to share the DIY rose and cranberry center pieces we make every Thanksgiving.  My mom got the idea when walking through the flower section in Whole Foods a few years ago.  My mother use to be in charge of making the arrangements, but then my sister took over.  Check out our pretty Thanksgiving table will all the yummy food!!

My sister was kind enough to let me document the process of the center piece creation this year.  So here we go!

What you need:

  • ~27 Yellow Roses
  • 6 bags of whole cranberries
  • 3 square vases
  • water

Place the cranberries in the square vases and add water (but not all the way to the top).

Remove the leaves from the rose stems and hold it up to the vase to determine how much stem to cut off.  Cut off the stem.

Push the rose into the vase between the cranberries.  Then rinse and repeat!!  Each vase will hold about 9 roses depending on the size of the vase.

After you’ve put in all the roses add additional cranberries and water as needed so they are almost to the very top of the vase.  In this end this is what you get.

As you can see we miss counted the yellow roses this year and had to through in a few red ones. I think it still looks pretty cute!

Happy Holidays and DIY!

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I don’t know about the rest of you, but my man is HARD to buy for.  He tends to purchase the things he wants/needs on his own. Anything else he wants is technology related and seriously buying computer gadgets or as he says “nerd books” isn’t that much fun for me.  Annnnddd clearly getting him a gift is all about me, right?!?! Hahaha.

Personally I am not a huge fan of giving (or receiving) big gifts on valentines days.  All I really want is a card and some roses, which is totally reasonable if you ask me. :)  Valentines day is the perfect time to buy something fun for your plus one.  Here are a couple of my favorites present ideas …

Collar Stays

I got the husband collar stays from red envelope for Christmas and all I can say is they were a BIG hit.  Kind of fun and flirty and oh so perfect for a holiday based around being in love.

Steampunk Cufflinks

The hubby gave these to his groomsmen at our wedding as bridal party gifts.  Everyone loved them and I’m convinced they would also make a fabulous vday gift.  There are a number of cufflink designs looks sold on Etsy.

Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography

Cordless Helicopter

Given to my husband by his parents for Christmas.  Unfortunately I can’t take credit for this gift idea. He definitively enjoys playing with the helicopter, but Sophi (the dog) keeps him from doing so more often than not.  Sophi barks at the moving object and then immediately runs for cover … it is pretty hilarious!

And some additional ideas:

Happy Gift Giving and Happy Valentines Day (soon)!!

xoxoxo

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This Christmas we traveled to Kansas City, MO to spend the holiday with Alex’s family.  There is no ambient light and absolutely no “city” noise, which is a nice change of pace from DC.  I’m not a country kind of gal, but I love our little mini vacations on the farm.

First and foremost here is my favorite picture from the weekend! We put Sophi on the barrels of hay and the farm cat (Kitty) jumped up for the perfect Christmas Card shot.

Here are the other highlights from our Xmas break …

Santa’s Whiskers Cookies


YUMMO and let me tell you I’ve had far too many cookies this week.  They are kind of addictive and I just adore how they have the holiday colors in them.  Besides the cookies I made a cheese cake and my MIL made pumpkin bars so there is no lack of sweets in this house to choose from.

The Farm Pictures




And of course it wouldn’t be Christmas without the tree and presents!!

I hope you and yours had a fabulous holiday weekend.

Happy Christmas!!

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