Working on our "bar area"

We have a wine fridge and had been keeping it hidden away in the office. We recently decided that if it was out in the main part of the house-- we'd use it more! So, I'm working on making a little bar area in between our living room and dining room. Here is what I have so far and a few ideas I'm working on.

I want to find some large shelves that have a place for hanging wine glasses and I plan on getting a table similar to this one to replace the temporary table:

 http://www.potterybarn.com/products/caprice-mirror-metal-entertaining-bar-cart/

(and as you can see, my dear husband is using our wine fridge for soda! Not okay. I'm hoping to kick his soda out after my trip to the liquor store this weekend!) ;-)

Fall!

Even though we're going to be traveling over Thanksgiving, I still wanted to decorate. Like I've said before- I blog these pictures so I can look back next year and see what I did!

A Painting, Gel Nails, and Robin Hood

this is a post of randoms, forgive me.

I got a gel manicure last week and I love it! It's just a nail polish that is cured under UV light so it lasts a loooong time. Supposedly for 2-3 weeks! I'm on week two and it still looks great. Above is the picture a day after I had it done and below is the 1 week picture. Now, what am I not crazy about? How freaking short the manicurist trimmed my nails! What in the world?? I didn't notice until it was too late. Boo.

Friday, I picked up the painting we had done of Jack Bauer--- I love it!!

Speaking of JB, here he is lounging on top of Mike while we watched movies on Sunday.

And finally, I was appalled to learn that my dear husband has never seen the Disney version of Robin Hood!!

It came out in the early 70's and was one of my favorite Disney movies when i was little. I'm determined to find it on dvd and make him watch it.

Ornament-aholic

Our tree is eclectic, with lots of different ornaments. Some are ornaments from childhood, some are vintage I've collected over the years and the rest are from local boutiques, Hobby Lobby, Target, Pottery Barn etc. Here are some of my favorite this year:

When I saw this ornament at a local boutique I had to have it! It's tough to find black dogs-- this is our Jack Bauer ornament!

My lion & lamb (I realize it's classic Christian imagery, but it's also a great Twilight reference!!)  

 a fun ice cream sundae & a cupcake from Pier One-- I have tons of Pier One ornaments:

 I had to represent my home state-- Boomer Sooner!

 But Mike has two degrees from Oklahoma State, we don't discriminate in our house:

 I have a growing collection of fairy tale themed ornaments, here are a few:

 this one represents our Hawaii honeymoon:

 Mike's favorite ornament on the tree!

 a giant NYC taxi cab to represent my favorite city. I'm hoping we'll head that way on one of our next vacations. 

Christmas Exploded All Over Our House

that's the text message my dear husband got last week while I was decorating for Christmas. I had tupperware containers everywhere with all kinds of ornaments, garland, wrapping paper and odds & ends. I guess I went a little wild at the after Christmas sales last year-- remind me that I don't need to buy anything when the sales roll around in January, okay? ;-) I tried to go a little bit more modern and fun this year. I packed away all of my gold and went with more of a red & white candy theme.

I'll start with the entryway:

The candy dish is from Kirkland's and the little Christmas sign is from a local craft fair:

 I believe I got the "ho ho ho" letters at Pier One last year. The tin tray was a Hobby Lobby find last week and the candle is from B&BW. Mike picked out the scent this weekend-- Homemade Cookies. Heavenly!!

The mantel-- the wreath is from Pier One. I put the garland together with greenery from Wal~Mart, & mesh ribbon, decorative picks, and ribbon from Hobby Lobby. The stockings are also from Hobby Lobby-- can you tell it's my favorite place?! 

 

 I always add ribbon and a decorative pick to my lamps-- I went with a completely different color scheme this year-- red & white:

  

 The tree! 

I plan on making a proper Christmas tree skirt but the temporary fix is just a big piece of red burlap.

 I made my tree topper this year-- I used styrofoam disks, red felt, wooden dowel rods and cellophane to make "candy". I really like the way it turned out.

   

 The chargers are from Target, the glasses are from Pottery Barn, and I've had the Santa teapot for years. You can't see them but I have some adorable jingle bell napkin rings that I got at Pier One last year. I can't wait to set the table and use everything for Christmas dinner this year! 

The Christmas House

**edited to add-- I have no idea why some of the pictures are only loading a little bit-- you can still click on them and see the whole tree.*

Here's the S@m's Club Christmas home. Every room had a tree and most trees had themes. All the decor and trees can be purchased at S@m's.

the formal dining room:

 the foyer:

 the formal living room:

 the game room:

 little girl's room:

 guest bedroom:

 family room tree and mantel decor:

 master bedroom tree:

 little boy's room:

  some iPhone shots of the family room and dining area: