Tackle It Tuesday - Entry Way Panels

Our "new" house has a lot of character, and while I may be embracing some of its more quirky features, these lacy things on the entryway windows had to go. The faded white lace pieces had been attached to the windows with string and thumbtacks, a "mistreatment" that even the Nester would not ignore.
I decided to choose a fabric with some robin's egg blue in it, as the front door and all surrounding paneling are painted that color. I fell in love with this gorgeous chocolate/blue damask from JoAnn's and used a little over a yard of it to make double-sided curtain panels with brown pom-pom trim. I love the new look - it feels completely different than the lace and thumbtacks!

And although we are still unpacking and trying to figure out where everything goes, at least the entryway looks polished and completed. Task tackled!

More tackles at 5 Minutes for Mom...

Ornament Exchange

on Friday night, in spite of foul weather threats, I picked up my friend Rachel and drove to the Blueberry House for a Christmas ornament exchange.

There was of course delicious food enticing, cozy candles glowing, hot coffee brewing, and ladies chatting. (and chatting and chatting and chatting!)

Somehow we managed to fit an ornament exchange amidst all the eating and talking.

Our ornament exchange always tends to get a little. . . shall we say, crazy??! We organize it like a Yankee gift exchange, in which we all draw numbers to find out the order of choosing. When each person gets her turn, she can either pick a wrapped ornament or "steal" an already-unwrapped ornament from someone else. An ornament can only be stolen three times before it is "frozen" for the rest of the game.

Naturally, there are always a few coveted ornaments. This year's top ornaments were a Christmas spider (unusual but totally beautiful), an entire nativity set of ornaments, a snowman ornament accompanied by a Starbucks card, and a coffee cup ornament reading "Don't Talk to Me Until I've Had My Coffee. And then, I'll Do the Talking." Unfortunately there are also those ornaments that nobody really wants either. If you happen to be the unlucky one choosing that ornament, you're stuck; because no one is going to steal that ornament from you!

Yeah, so I was one of those people that got a coveted ornament (the Christmas spider) which was immediately stolen from me. My next ornament was one of those "nobody really wants it" ones, and so I was stuck. :(

This is the story of my life, and this year I was not going to settle for the ornament that no one else wanted. I put my negotiating skills to work and managed to make a trade for a much better ornament - a gorgeous and very unique glass chocolate-dipped strawberry! (which I will have to take a picture of and show you all in another post!)

The picture I do have in this post definitely shows how I have learned to exercise my maturity and general "thirtyness" when at a public function. :)

Happy Monday!