Christmas at our house

Merry Holidays.

Amber and I are beginning new traditions. We were too busy on Christmas Day to open presents, so yesterday we had Christmas. We loved it. It wasn't stressful, and we stayed in our PJ's most of the day.

We love soaking up the ambiance of our new nest.

Our apartment has some interesting neutrals - which we were having problems deciding what to do with. While in Texas, and having access to cable, we devoured lots of HGTV decorating shows. My favorite is Color Splash. So decorating our newest home was very important.
We also had a severely limited budget, but we found so many great deals. We came to love Oak, and Country style in a whole new way, as our home came together. Not our first choice - but we love it. Thought you might like to see where we spend our time. Our color inspiration began with our fireplace. In it we found some lovely rusts, and a whole color scheme emerged.

We love our sheers - they shimmer. Maybe we went overboard with Rust - but we love it. The kitchen is a u-shaped space - with the kitchen counter opening to the dining area. We can cook, and look out our window to the golf course, or into the mirrors and see the sunset or the pond. The fireplace is in the middle of the north wall, separating the dining area and the living area.

Our apartment is a two-bedroom, compact but with a nice layout for how we live. Do you like our table? We LOVE it. We wanted to have a pub style table because we like to sit up high, and we wanted the dining area to also serve as our art studio.

We made the table from two tables, and some extra boards. Amber came up with the pedestal, and so I searched Goodwill, after finding out that each table leg was going to cost about $20 from Home Depot. Salvation Army was going out of business so we got some incredible deals. The two stools next to the counter were $7. The table top (which originally was a low coffee table) was $5.00 The table that had that lovely wood pedestal was $10.

One of our biggest money purchases is the cute country buffet on which sits our loaches (fish). It matched a dining set that we were initially given, but the lady needed it back, but we still love the piece. The kitchen cabinets, and the trim throughout the apartment is white.
The sideboard here to the left of the table is my all time favorite find. Talk about manifestation! I really wanted to have a storage unit in the dining room to hold all of our art supplies. I found the dresser at my favorite value village on a Monday when anything with a certain color is $.99. Yep. I found this dresser for ninety nine cents (regular price $89.99)- and I cherish it every time I look at it. It came home on top of our car, and then we added the little hutch on the top. We use this area all the time. We ate our Christmas breakfast here, we opened our presents here. We love to look out. We spent many hours here creating the little surprises that we sent out to a few people. With the window, and the mirrors on each wall, we can see the pond, the golf course, the club house, sunsets, geese, little boys sledding, and it is very peaceful and quiet. Sirius loves the view both out of the dining room and from the living room. Yep that's snow you see there. Over a foot of it. If you live in MN - it's not a big deal. It is huge deal here. Very little equipment to deal with it. People can't get out of the parking lot to go to work in snow this deep unless they have snow chains, a four wheel drive vehicle, or the wonderful little Toyota that we have that is solid like a tank.

One of my favorite places - oh my gosh,- the sun is shining. Yahoodie. I just opened my blinds so I can see the sun. I love the sun. So far this winter in Seattle, I have not gone more than about 4 days without seeing the sun. I enjoy every minute of it.

I'm writing at my desk that my sister gave me. I bought a single bed frame from her, and she told me, you're not going to like it once you put it up and it takes up the whole floor. She was right, so I had to get clever, and I LOVE this bedroom office that I have. It is cozy, it is warm, it is a lovely place to be. I added a recliner (have fallen in love with recliners - because I slept in one in Texas all the time - my snoring kept my daughter awake). My daughter found two bookcases at different times by the dumpster, I got my $129 dresser for $5.00 at the going out of business sale at Salvation Army, along with the recliner. I think I spent a total of $32 on furniture. Two lamps - .$99 ea. My sheer drape was $6.00 I splurged on new bedding and pillows, but got each of them at incredible deals.

Our space was and is important to us. We got the apartment at an incredible deal as well. We chose to live here because we need to feel prosperous and not feel like we are living in survival. Working very well. In all these years as an adult, I have never gone about the process of decorating a space. And here, we just took the time and did it, and now it gives to us whenever we are home.

Hope you are having wonderful holidays. We miss our friends and family. And we are having a fabulous adventure. Amber's birthday is Dec 22. I gave her a piece of Franz pottery that she had fallen in love with. And the matching teacup and saucer at Christmas. She's displaying it in our wonderful $5.00 entertainment unit in the living room. It is a powerful symbol to both of us, the Phoenician flight. We are in our major transformation. But that's what we came in for.
May you have a blessed season and year.