Christmas with the Pinos

 This being our first Christmas in our new home, I wanted to make sure to decorate it as much as I could.

Being five months pregnant, it took me a good three days maybe even a week to finish it all.

You'll see a lot of empty wall space because I haven't figured out what needs to go there. We moved in only a few months ago so I'm still feeling it all out.

Be prepared for picture overload, so I'll keep the text to a minimum.

By the way, I really need to learn how to use my camera. Good grief!

Enjoy!

THE FRONT

I just wanted white lights this year. I think they look so clean, bright and pretty. Kevin did a great job of hanging them straight. Straight Christmas lights are a must for me. Ha!

 

If you look closely, you'll see Homer Simpson in our window on the left. Kevin insisted. ;)

The gorgeous wreath my MIL made us. The woman can make some wreaths!

ENTRYWAY / FORMAL DINING ROOM

This is the first room you walk into when entering our house. It's our formal room. I went with red and golds in here.

Dining table.

My Nutcracker collection.

I love this tree and the way it turned out!

 

 KITCHEN

I added garland above our cabinets. I hope to add more stuff next year, but I thought this was a good filler for now. It looks so bare up there without anything!

FAMILY ROOM

I have this weird thing where I feel like my Christmas decorations should match my regular home decor. Since this room is in greens, blues, reds, etc. I figured silver/whites would go well with it all.

I'm really pleased with the way this tree turned out, too. It's probably eight years old, and the original lights are about to go out any day now, but she's still standing!

Some of my favorite ornaments.
Hobby Lobby was a lifesaver! This is the first time we've had two trees so all the silver ornaments and decor in this room are new. 

Decorations on our white console table.

The fireplace.

There should be a matching white bookcase on the right of the fireplace, but it's been backordered for days weeks, and it drives this OCD-er crazy!

I am fully aware that next year we will have a crawling eight month old and a lot of these decorations won't even be out for display, so I wanted to take advantage of a kid-free zone this year while I still had a chance.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a great Christmas with your loved ones!

First World Decor Conundrum

Thank you everyone for all the sweet words and congratulations!! It means so much to us. :)

I have a non-baby-related question to ask you.

Seeing as we're moving in TWO DAYS I'm trying to get a couple rooms decorated. One being the main bathroom, the other being the guest bedroom.

For the bathroom I'm aiming for something to this effect. The double panels to frame the bathtub. I feel like it looks so homey and welcoming.

I have had a heckofatime trying to find a cloth shower curtain with the grommets in them (in the color I want). In fact, I have had no luck. But while at TJ Maxx today I had the idea to just use curtain panels instead of cloth shower curtains. I found some in a teal color that I was aiming for. It ended up being a lot cheaper than purchasing two shower curtains, and since they aren't (hopefully) going to get that wet, they work.

So anyways, my question is: since I still plan to have a plastic shower curtain in the tub (but hid behind the curtains when not in use) do I hang two shower curtain rods??? I feel like it would look kind of funny. I got a thick brown-looking rod for the curtains, but what would I get for the actual shower curtain?

Not too sure how to go about that. Real first world problems here, people. ;)

Thank you!!

Red Solo Cup...I Fill You Up...

{If you haven't heard the "Red Solo Cup" song by Toby Keith, head over here so you'll know what I'm referring to during this post ;)}

On Saturday Kevin and I threw a pool party / birthday party (for Kevin) / UFC viewing party - all rolled into one.

When we decided to have one I couldn't figure out how I wanted to decorate for the party. And yes...I know I didn't need to decorate. But seeing as we don't have our own place, I really needed something to do.

We talked about getting a keg for the party, and when you have a keg you have to have red Solo cups, don't you?!

Hence, the theme of the party was developed.

I tried to make it as "classy" as possible. I'm sure based on the song the whole theme would seem somewhat ... what shall I call it? White Trash? But I was aiming for something a bit nicer.

I pinned some ideas on my Party Time board on Pinterest and went from there!

 I'll be honest - this wreath was not easy to make. I (and by "I" I mean my SIL) cut the cups in half longways, and then I hot glued them around a plain wreath I got from Michael's. It took a sweet forever! I tied some rope as a bow.

What better treat to put in a red Solo cup than red licorice!? ;)

I got the signs made from a vendor on Etsy. She was great to work with and I was able to customize the colors to fit the theme (which was basically red, white and blue - I thought it fitting since July 4th was just a few days prior).

A little drink area. I am a fan of striped straws and I finally had chance to use them!

The recipe for the punch was a six pack of beer (I used Corona Light), a container of frozen, pink lemonade, vodka and lemon slices on top. It was TASTE-EEE!!!

Another great Etsy find from this vendor! I love this rock. And don't doubt that I wont be putting this in our garden once we get a house! Ha!

Red Solo cups on strings of lights. These were fairly easy; made a hole at the bottom of the cup and stuck the light in them. They're still up right now so they're pretty sturdy!

A fun little banner. My SIL cut these cups in half too, I hot glued them onto the paper and we put white stickers on the cups. If you can't see it, it says "Lets have a party!" It was hotter than a mother out that day so the glue started to melt! We ended up taping the sides of the cups to the paper and it worked just as well.

Where it all started. ;)

My SIL (in the bikini) and her friends. These girls are young and skinny. I'm not envious at all...nope...not me... Ha!

Kevo, doing what he does best!

My BIL, Kevo and SIL.

It was a really fun (and late) night. I was pretty sick that day so I had to turn in early which I was really bummed about, but everyone had a great time and that's all that matters!

Now we're still recovering and enjoying the quietness of the house (my MIL is away on a cruise this week). 

My dilemma now is what to do with all these decorations!

{If you don't know the Red Solo Cup song by Toby Keth, head over hear so you know what I've been talking about this whole time.}

Fall-ing

I think I mentioned a bit ago that I changed up our living room colors from reds/oranges/golds, to light blues and greens. Exciting stuff, I know.

These aren’t the best pictures, but I was in a hurry at the time.

So with the new lighter colors, I wanted to decorate for fall using lighter colors. My goal was to stay away from oranges and reds. Here is the post where I filled you in on where the inspiration came from for my fall décor this year.

The silvers, bronzes and golds must be “in” this year because  I was able to find a ton of this colored stuff at Michael’s and HomeGoods!

Entranceway. Berry-vine-things from Michael’s.

Entranceway: I filled this candle holder with these dried mini-pumpkins things (I don’t know the exact name for them), and placed a candle on top. This mini silver pumpkin was also from Michaels.

Entranceway: This silver-mercury-glass-gourd I found at HomeGoods. I believe it was $9.99. I was able to find three different colors of these. It may seem like a lot, but I’ll get at least two months worth of use out of them every year and I just love that they’re different! I did the same to this candle holder as  I did to the other.

Entranceway: Metal, twig stand from HomeGoods. White pumpkin from Michael’s.

Side table in living room: Gourd from HomeGoods. Filled a small, glass vase with mini pinecone filler (that smells amazing) from Michael’s.

Tray on living room table: I was all about spray paint, my friends. These flowers used to be a light green. I didn’t feel like dropping more money on fake flowers, so I spray painted them a copper-ish color. Silver teapot from a second-hand store. Gourd from HomeGoods.

Other side table in living room: I spray painted this fake, white pumpkin (from Michael’s) silver, used silver thumb tacks to make the “P.” Placed it on a silver candlestick holder I already had. Filled the green basket with some more of the mini pinecone filler.

TV stand: More gold, mini pumpkins (from Michael’s) on glass candlestick holders that I already had.

TV stand: Silver pumpkin on the right from Michael’s. I made the wreath hanging from the mirror (my favorite part!).

Wreath: I took a garland from last year that I already had, cut the leaves off of it, and spray painted the leaves in silver, copper and goldish-brown colors. Hot glued the dried leaves onto the twig wreath (from Michael’s). Wrapped what was left of the berry-vine-things around it. Looped brown, wire ribbon through the wreath, then tacked onto the back of the mirror.

Kitchen island: Mercury glass candle from HomeGoods.

Kitchen: Patchwork pumpkin from HomeGoods, last year. I placed it on a glass cake stand I already had and put some of the mini pinecones around it.

Kitchen: Lighted twig pumpkin from Target. I happened to find a matching patchwork pumpkin (on the right) at HomeGoods this year!

Bar: Glass pumpkin from Target, filled with the dried mini-pumpkins things. I’ll probably take them out and wash the pumpkin and fill it with some cookies (once I find the time to actually bake some).

This is our front door. I didn’t do much here because we’ve had someone steal things out of our  front yard in the past. Sad, right? So the pumpkins are from Michael’s.

Hope you enjoyed it. I know I had fun with the process!