Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful

Hey there! How are things in your neck of the woods? (hello, Al Roker) Things here are rolling along as usual... some good, some bad.

Let's start with the bad. I had to go into Hollister this week. I know. Pretty awful, huh? But, I love my niece and her Christmas present was inside that place. So, I braved the toxic fumes that hit you before you even open the door. You know when you walk past a woman who is wearing too much perfume, and you nearly lose your breath? Multiply that by a thousand. As if that weren't bad enough, annoying music is blaring throughout the joint. (Maybe I'm getting old).

The sales girl literally had to scream to me, "Can I help you with anything?" I wanted to say, "Yes. I'll take earplugs, a face mask and two extra strength Tylenol." But, I'm not that old, so I told her the name of the item I was looking for. Her response, "I have no idea what any of the names of the clothes are. Try looking around." So, not only is the atmosphere stellar, the customer service is, too.

I looked around for all of about 5 minutes before I couldn't take it any longer and decided that shopping online and spending $50 in shipping would be worth every extra penny.

Now, here's the really bad part. I dropped my iPhone in the parking lot and shattered the glass. Bah humbug!

Fast forward two days later, and I am shopping with my two year old at Tuesday Morning. I reach into my pocket for something and feel a sharp pain under the nail of my middle finger. I pull it out and blood is gushing everywhere. The pain and the bleeding won't stop, and I realize there is a shard of glass sticking out of my finger. Guess it must have loosened from my phone and fallen into my pocket. Luckily, I am able to stop shaking enough to pluck it out, but not before causing a minor scene in the checkout line. Yep. Definitely gonna shop online from now on.

Now for the GOOD...

Are you still with me?

Today on my morning ride to preschool, Adele and Moves Like Jagger came on. So, it made for a great car singing/dancing start to the day. Love that! But, even better news is that my grasscloth wallpaper that started out looking like this...




and this...


and led to this...



finally, looks like this...


No more distracting dark stripes. That's a beautiful thing!

I hope the good is far-outweighing the bad for you this week :)

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Welcoming Christmas

The weather outside is frightful! It's been cold, rainy and gray for the past two days, and apparently the sun will not be making an appearance any time soon.  So, come on inside...


Hopefully, the small touches of Christmas in our foyer will make you feel warm and welcome.


As you can see, I keep things pretty simple. Some small touches of greenery...





Some real, some not so much...


A little sparkle...



Festive and easy, so we can spend our time fighting the mall crowds, buying and wrapping gifts, attending holiday parties, chaperoning school parties, watching choir performances and preschool shows, baking Christmas cookies, taking 20,000 photos to get just one decent one for Christmas cards, stuffing, sealing and licking stamps for said cards, blogging about Christmas decorations focusing on the true reason for the season!

Hope you're keeping warm today :)

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