Home Tour: Christmas Tree, Table, Mantle...sneak peek of new floor and kitchen

It's Christmas time in these parts and I hope to clean show you the rest of the Christmas decorations over the next week or so.  Plus, Mr. TSL and I (mainly me while he was at work) laid the floor in the kitchen and dining room over 3 days!  Pics of that in a sec.  We are hosting Christmas this year and I am super excited.  I almost alwasy do Thanksgiving and my sister in law does Christmas.  This year we switched!

I don't do "theme" stuff for Christmas.  Mainly because it would take entirely way too much planning on my part.  I often only buy Christmas stuff after Christmas, so I would essentially have to plan a year in advance. Not happening.  Plus, all the ornaments on our tree were mine and the mr's from childhood, or our kids picked them out.  We rock white and colored lights...I want white, mr and kids want colored lights. We hang both.  I am proud to say that other than picking up the brass candlesticks for the table ($10 for all of them on CL) I didn't buy anything for decorations!  I am planning to buy some napkins for dinner and maybe 3 disco balls to replace the silver ornaments on the table, but haven't done any of that yet.

As for now, here is our Christmas Dining Room tour.

Because we have so many stockings, we use a gold painted dowel rod hung with some Merry Christmas stocking holders.  This WILL NOT hold full stockings.  So, when Christmas comes Santa leaves the stockings filled on the floor!

I had been looking for a wool plaid blanket for a while to use as a tablecloth and had all but given up on finding one for cheap.  Then, I was helping my mom clean out some boxes and this was in one of them.  She told me to throw it away...I kept it.  

and that completes our Chistmas dining room tour....now on to some kitchen progress, new chairs, and new rugs.....

The pics are taken in really low light and the cabinets are more of an inky dark gray.  The pics are spot on for the fingerprints on the dishwasher though!

Pic of the newi-sh (I've had it for a while and not blogged about it) runner on the stairs.

 My new 8x10 Kilim Rug my friend was not diggin anymore, so we traded for a mirror I had from Hobby Lobby and a cake stand I hadn't used in forever!  I freakin' love it!  Thanks Erin! Plus, aren't those stools amazing....trash that Mr. TSL brought home for me.  He brought home 7 of them!  The Island is getting a makeover this weekend!

My new chairs I scored on Craigslist for $35 each.  The black one was originally bright yellow.  Couple coats of paint and the black is much better!  I originally thought they were Eames Chairs, but they are in fact vintage Krueger chairs and were advertised as "Fucky Little Chairs"  She meant funky, but now they are called fucky chairs.

xoxo

Linking to:

inspired by charm

SUNDAY: The DIY Showoff 

 MONDAY: Thrifty Decor Chick, Dittle Dattle,Between Naps On the Porch, Homemaker on a Dime
TUESDAY: Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog, Strictly Homemade
WEDNESDAY: Not Just A Housewife Sugar and Dots The Mommy Club  
THURSDAY:My Repurposed Life. House of Hepworths, Beyond The Picket Fence, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple 
FRIDAY: Fingerprints on the Fridge, Miss Mustard Seed, Remodelaholic, Chic on a Shoestring,  Shabby Nest
SATURDAY: Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello 

Faux Subway Tile Back Splash and Kitchen/Dining updates

So, our kitchen is slowly being redone.  We have been working on little projects here and there and it's coming along.  It's nearly impossible with a hubs who works full time, I babysit and spray paint things, we have 4 heathens and a plethora of other things going on, to completely tear apart our kitchen for the sake of aesthetics.   Slow and steady wins the race for us.  Plus, I lack funds to go much faster. Keepin' it real.

I am dying to have a subway tile back splash.  It will happen, but not until spring break.  So, I started out by painting the wall white.  It was already so much brighter.  I was going to patiently wait for subway tile.

One wild hair up my ass and a sharpie later and I drew on my subway tile.  I have had some people over and they went, "Hey you got subway tile, then I say nope just paint and a sharpie marker!! Plus Mr. TSL put up/made some shelves for the kitchen :)

Before we moved in:

                                Currently:

-ripped out the nasty ass crapet (yep tile looking disgustingly filthy carpet)
-painted the subfloor (temporary)
-moved the cabinets up and added a shelf underneath
-took out the cabinet above the sink and replaced with shelves
-put in above stove microwave
-changed all the appliances to black that we scored sweet deals on and/or got from craigslist
-took out weird pergola top off island and straightened the island.
-replaced the light with barn lights from upstairs
-replaced faucet
-painted walls, trim, pantry doors and shutter door medicine cabinet.


Now on to the dining room, the view from the kitchen when we moved in:

and now:

more dining room pics and some simple fall decorating:

my i will survive planter....i gently ease plants to their death, so i was hoping for a planter that encouraged survival!

xoxo

guess hoo's 9? Morgan!!

last tuesday morgan turned 9!! it's almost crazy that i have a 9 year old...that's right people she is almost 2 whole hands!  which is unreal because i am only 25 and i was 21 when i had her...i know i just lied, i'm 30.  yep, 6 whole hands :)

anyhoo, we planned her party and she wanted  a movie theme.  so, we decided on the sound of music, but i couldn't find it anywhere.  so i picked another kid's classic...parent trap, not the one with before she was a druggy slut lindsey lohan, but the classic with hayley mills.

i only got a couple of pics before my camera battery died. boo.  

we went with a yellow ombre balloons and streamers to mimic popcorn.  i picked up lots of big box candy from walmart and some popcorn boxes from party city, the girls loved this!  however, we will not be serving popcorn with 10 little girls in our house ever again.  with plush icky carpet and a lot of, "she knocked over my popcorn"  or "oops, oh well",  the floor ended up covered in popcorn and our neurotic border collie won't eat popcorn.  suckola.

my favorite treat for the party were the owl cupcakes!!

-happy birthday morgan!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy Poppins (that's what the girls use to call them!) Day!!

4th of July Love! 

Love love the hanger with the basket-note to self DIY this one!!

I am in LOVE with that BOATS sign!!

And my one true decorating love---the Tolix Chair!

Oh, how I long for thee!!  I would change my whole decorating to coordinate with your colors!!

-Make your life beautiful!!