In hope that St. Nicholas soon would be there...

 Well, the stockings have been hung by the chimney with care here at our house. The tree is up, the mantel is decorated and we even got the buffet up the stairs, decorated and (gasp) finally hung something on our walls. I'm even almost done with all of our gift buying!

First things first, the tree. It is the big symbol of Christmas, right? We were very happy with the tree we found this year, she's a beauty. I even found a coupon in our local Pennysaver for $10 off. Who knew tree lots put out coupons? That's what you get for leafing through the junk mail while eating your breakfast.

The tree itself was the only money spent here. All the decorations are old (well, 3 years old) and I got them from my Mom.

And just to the left of the tree is my ridiculous mantel.

I think my plan here was "add more greenery!" I really like to decorate with natural greens at Christmas time, mostly because THEY'RE FREE! The tree lots here throw all the cuttings into a big wooden crate and you can take whatever you want. They even put the crate outside the gate so that you can come after hours and get your free cuttings (which I've been known to do since I like to start my household projects at, oh, 9pm).

Yes, our cats do get stockings, but note how tiny they are. I usually just get them each a bag of treats and a new small toy. Don't mock me. 

Then there's the front door wreath, which doesn't go with the rest of the house AT ALL, but who cares. I think it's very Dr. Suess. I added the black twigs (which have little crystals on them, you just can't see them from here) and the red bow (IKEA ribbon...of which I should have bought about 12 rolls because I LOVE it).

And last but not least, the big reveal of the night, the $20 yard sale buffet is finally out of the basement! Here's the before:

Pardon the haze in this photo, I had just finished the first bit of sanding and wiping down when I thought, "oh, I have blog...I should be taking before and after photos" so there's quite a bit of dust in the air here.

This buffet was not in terrible shape to begin with. But, the veneer was chipped big time on the sides and the top was in bad shape. The chipped veneer meant that staining the thing would not work out. I wanted to paint it a taupe color, Adam convinced me to paint it brown. So, after bringing home lots of paint chips, choosing the right brown with Adam and painting the whole thing while he was on a business trip, we decided the brown was a terrible idea.

So, she ended up being black. At some point I decided all our furniture in our apartment (when we lived there) should be black. I think I did that so that the whole place wouldn't be "girly girl central" since I would be living with Adam. So now, black is kind of our go-to color. I am hoping in the future to change this.

Anyway, here she is now, in our living room, where our TV used to be.

Ignore that cord on the floor...that's the cable from when the TV was here. We need to pull that sucker back into the basement. I'll distract you from it....Look, we finally hung pictures on the walls! I mean, we've only been here 3 months, we can't do it ALL people! I mean, hanging those photos took 20 whole minutes, where were we supposed to find that kind of time? I love those stair pictures. We bought them at the big art festival in Baltimore (Artscape) a few years ago.

Oh and last (possibly least) is a photo of my little "thing" on top of the buffet. Mom got me this deer antler candle holder when we went shopping one day in October, I think, and has been holding on to it for Christmas. I love it...why I covered it up with more FREE GREENS and dollar store faux flowers I don't know. And yes, there is a spot for a third candle, and I would swear up and down that I bought 3 tapers at the dollar store the other day, but I think the girl only put 2 in my bag.

So that's it for holiday decor around here. I'm hoping to soon show off the side tables which are 98% finished. And this weekend we may be making the trek up to Pennsylvania (or as we call it Pennsyltucky) to peruse the Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Calico Corners outlets. My parents are going up with us and saying that they'll buy us a Christmas present while we're there. The weather men are calling for beaucoup snow on Saturday, so we'll see.

Keep on keeping on

I took a big step in the home buying process today. I have started to stop all email updates from realtor websites. I know, it's scary, right? So, yesterday we actually got some things accomplished! no. 1 We stopped by the yard sale at my aunt's house (she does it every year, its a BIG multi family sale) and got an antique buffet for an unbelievable $20! It will need refinishing and will likely be spending the first several months of it's life with us in the basement while I work on it, but that's okay because it has the potential to be a beautiful piece and if I decide I don't like it, we can always take it back to the yard sale next year...and maybe get $30 for it :) I'll post pictures later, it's sitting in my aunt's carport right now since we have to borrow a truck to pick it up (and of course we'll just be taking it to my parents' house where it will sit until we make the big move) no. 2 We picked out wallpaper for the dining room.

(Click on the picture to go to manufacturer's website).

I like it. I think the colors are a little off in this picture. The light green isn't so limey in real life and the blue background is more gray in real life. I won't lie though, it does remind me of this scene in Garden State. We'll be pulling/coordinating colors from the wallpaper to use for the dining room and living room (since you can see one from the other through the big open arch). Here's the plan:

Living room: Sherwin Williams Filmy Green SW6190

Dining Room above chair rail: Sherwin Williams Techno Gray SW6170. We really think any artwork we hang will look great against this. Trim...Pretty much everwhere in the whole house: Sherwin Williams Roman Column SW 7562 EDIT: THE BLUE BACKGROUND OF THE BLOG IS COMPLETELY THROWING OFF THE APPEARANCE OF THESE COLORS. RIGHT CLICK AND VIEW IMAGE IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT THEY SHOULD LOOK LIKE. Maybe I need to change this layout...but I like it so much! no. 3 I ordered fabric for the bedroom. This Robert Allen @ Home fabric was 60% off this weekend, and with my additional 15% off educator discount, I managed to get it for around $12 a yard (regularly $35/yard). I'm going to add some of this to the inside edge (where the curtains meet in the middle) of some plain white cotton 84" panels from Target ($17 for 2 panels) and hang them in the bedroom. I'll be getting my lattice/greek key obsession out, but not so much as to offend my husband's sensibilities. I ended up ordering double what I will actually need for the project because I don't think I will see this fabric at this price again for a long while. I might make a pillow, or maybe I'll add some to some to the edge of some pillow cases. Something will happen with it. Adam and I also did a little hunting for side tables, but he was shopped out so that will wait for another day. Just some side tables and an area rug and I'll be happy on move-in day! As I read over the last 3 posts I know they all seem very disjointed because I'm never talking about just one room. I'm hoping that I can devote posts in the future (after move-in) to one room/project/thing at a time. 1 week to closing, everybody! 3 weeks to empty house, 4 weeks til move-in day!