Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree…

Posted on December 15, 2010 by April

O.K, maybe the sweetie and I really aren’t “rockin'” around the tree as much as we are chillin’ around the tree. We aren’t exactly the “rockin'” types. And apparently this year we really aren’t the decking the hall types either, since there hasn’t been as much decking of the halls as there was this time last year. It might have something to do with a certain “event” on the horizon, or we could just be getting more lazy in our old age. The Sweets turned the big 3-1 yesterday, and I will be leaving my 20’s behind this coming April. Eek…

But enough about getting old and being lazy, on with the Christmas cheer!

My sweet mother bought me this tree at an after Christmas sale. Apparently it was less than $20 bucks, so I’d say it was well worth the money since it’s been 7 years and she’s still shining bright (the tree, but my mom is still shining bright too!). The star was a recent purchase at Big Lots, I’ve had differing varieties of bows and snow flakes topping my tree for the past several years. But this year, I decided it was time to finally get a star to top our tree. How traditional of me.

And speaking of traditional, I always decorate my tree with memories and family tradition in mind. So, ornaments from childhood, or that are reminiscent of childhood are a must. For me, the Pokey Little Puppy and Starbright, sum up my childhood interests.

And for the Sweetie…

Why Pacman of course. The man is still obsessed!

And if you look to the right of the tree, you will see our stockings that have been hung with care. Too bad the picture wasn’t taken with care, my camera doesn’t seem to have a shaky hands setting.

The three stockings are for the Sweetie, myself, and yes, we’re the weirdos that hang a stocking for the dog.

Above the stockings, is the mirror. I used a sharpie (no, worries it comes out with Windex and some elbow grease) to write a verse from Luke 2:14:

“Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.”

Although, I might switch it out for Luke 2:10-11:

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

And Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a nativity scene.

It’s not the most elegant nativity, but it holds special meaning for me. My mom purchased this at a discount store 25 years ago, back when I was in Kindergarten (Yup, I’m that old). I remember playing with these figures year after year. My mom gave in and finally let me take it home with me 4 years ago. And now it’s one of my prized possessions, and definitely the first of the Christmas decorations to come out of the bins.

I would love to share more, but that’s all I’ve got up so far. There’s still the Christmas table scape to do, and some finishing touches on the outdoor display. Or maybe not, like other bloggers out there, I am trying to make this Christmas a simpler one.

Estate of Mind

Posted on December 10, 2010 by April

With the planning of an “event” that still hasn’t taken place, I haven’t really set aside time to post all of the wonderful things I have planned to talk about. There’s a lot happening at the Yellow Casa, aside from the big event slated to happen soon (I won’t be sharing a date until after the big event, everytime a date is announced something happens and causes us to change the date. Call me supersitous but I’m not willing to postpone that most special festivity again.), we’ve got Christmas time coming up.

I love Christmas, the smells, the sounds, but more importantly, I love “reason for the season”. It’s truly a time to celebrate Christ, and His wonderous love.

Recently the Sweetie and I hit up the local Goodwill and various estate sales. Here’s a glimpse into some of my Goodwill Hunting and Estating adventures.

First up, milk glass bowls.

These beauties are from Anchor Hocking, and according to e-bay and other “reliable” sites, they could be from the late 1940’s to the mid 1970’s. I have a hunch they are the ’70’s variety. But aren’t they cute with their little handles? And at .59 a piece I just couldn’t pass them up. They are perfect for that late night bowl of Lucky Charms , not too little but not too much. However my jeans would say otherwise.

Next we have the cheese dome.

I’ve really been jonesin’ for one of these. It’s small, just perfect for a little pretty, and it only set me back $3. For fall, I put one of my many ceramic gourds inside. Much to my brother’s irritation, he couldn’t understand why I would want such a small “cake plate” and then not put cake in it, but a fake pumpkin. Boys, sometimes they just don’t understand “pretties”.

And some more milk glass.

Have I mentioned how much I love milk glass? Well, I really love milk glass and I seem to be building quite a collection of it. This candy dish was too pretty to pass up. At $5 it seemed a little high to me, but I loved it too much to put it back down. And so, it sits on our coffee table, looking pretty, I even put some Christmas peppermint in it. So Christmas-y!

And of course, the Sweetie and I can’t seem to leave a yard sale, estate sale, or thrift store without picking up a vintag-y looking book.

This was one of the Sweetie’s finds, he loves books with more than one story in them. So, this fit the bill perfectly for him.

Me and my shaky hands, makes for some pretty fuzzy pictures. This one isn’t as old as some of our other finds, it was last copywrited in 1960. Still a pretty cool book for a buck.

Here’s another fuzzy book. This one was one of my finds.

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Stories for Late at Night”, oooh spoooky! I love the cover of this one. Can you count how many Alfred’s appear?

Aside from estate sale-ing, and Goodwill hunting, we’ve been doing some of this:

Spying on the neighborhood, from the couch. Everything is better when done from your own comfy sofa.

Annie dog especially loves being sneaky about spying on the neighborhood, while lounging on the sofa.

And since the Christmas season is upon us, the Sweetie and I have been decking the halls of our casa.

More to come on Christmas at the yellow casa. We are still working on decking the halls. If we can make time in between our junk shopping hobby this weekend!

Hello Pinky…

Posted on December 2, 2010 by April

Over the long weekend, I thought it would be nice to complete the painting of my bathroom. If you remember correctly, I had started painting ole peachy blue way back in May. Being the procrastinator that I am, I’ve put off completing this little project until now. Actually, to be honest, it’s really not done yet. I still have some cutting in to do, and the cupboard doors still need to be painted. Unfortunately, those are still lime green, completely throwing off my soft blue soothing vibe.

Anywho, the ceiling of the bathroom was still the same old grubby white it was when we bought our little castle. So, off to Home Depot I went to purchase paint for ceiling. Now, being the novice I am, I thought that picking out paint for the ceiling would be a no brainer. I just wanted a boring white ceiling, that wouldn’t grow fun little organisms. A paint by Glidden seemed to fit the bill, it went on pink and dried bright white. Perfect! I would know where I had missed so that none of the old grubby white would show through my pretty new clean white ceiling.

Happily I went a painting, within an hour or so, my ceiling was pink, and slowly turning to white. Had I been thinking like a blogger I would have taking a picture at this point. But unfortunately, I was being very task minded and just wanted to gitter dun. And gitter dun I did. Within another couple of hours, my ceiling was bright white and pretty! I was thrilled! Until the next day, when the morning showers were finished. And I discovered to my horror that bathroom ceilings do not stay dry….

The above picture was taken after the ceiling had time to dry, so it was even pinker before. And no, that’s not something growing on the shower wall, that’s the plastic surround that we are planning on changing out someday. Hopefully soon….

Here you can see the pink spots more clearly.

But I would like to mention that after a week or so the ceiling paint seems to have “aged” so the pink isn’t as abundant. I guess I’ll just have to chalk this up to another home improvement lesson. Paint that goes on pink when wet, but dries white, does not stay white in a bathroom with poor ventilation.