Wordless Wednesday

Up on the roof there arose such a clatter

As newlyweds, there isn't a whole lot that my husband and myself can do without assistance when it comes to home maintenance and handy work. We have figured out somethings on our own, but the big stuff usually requires assistance. What I'm saying is, we are not professionals... not by a long shot! So when I gave my husband puppy eyes and asked him to hang icicle lights on our house, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. He agreed and we arranged to borrow a ladder. Everything was going according to plan until we actually tried to get started!

First of all, this ladder did not seem very sturdy. I'm sure it was, but I would not have crawled up it. Secondly, the ladder only reached high enough for Billy to climb on the lower part of the roof. This means he would have to walk on the roof to get to the higher part. How he was going to do this and get the lights up, I'll never know! Anyway, long story short, I would not let him climb on the roof! He was making me nervous and he never even climbed above the 4th step.

After we x-ed the icicle lights idea, I remembered I had bought some LED lights after Christmas the previous year. I thought we could just put those in our bushes and put out the light up reindeer. That would look good right? Right. I go get these lights, and I realized that I bought the 'mini' strands. They are only 4 feet long. We have 5 big bushes. Not even one tiny strand per bush! X that idea too. If you're keeping count that is the second 'x-ed' idea in less than 30 minutes.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to save Christmas and salvage what's left of my hope of having lights outside for the first time! We have two trees in our yard. One is a huge 20 feet tall Bradford Pear or something. The other is a 4 foot tall, half dead, Japanese Maple (or something). Guess which one ended up wrapped in 'mini' LED lights?!



Did you guess right? These pictures are way too dark to tell, but the tiny tree got wrapped in lights. I think it turned out ok, but definitely not great. It's a solid showing for our first time, but there is room for improvement! Here are some more dark picture of the outside decorations!

This wreath is white with pink, green and purple ornament balls on it. I just love it!

My Dad made this snowman cut out for me a couple of years ago. It's painted on a big piece of wood. LOVE!

The goal for this year was to put out Christmas lights, and we accomplished it! We even got the set up on a timer! I'm so impressed! The goal for next year is to get the icicle lights up... somehow.

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Christmas with the Duncans

I've shown you my trees, now it's time to show you the rest of the decorations! My favorite thing about having a fireplace is getting to decorate it for Christmas. It's easily my favorite thing about the fireplace because we have never lit it and it is really just in the way the rest of the year!If that doesn't look like Christmas I don't know what does!

*Please ignore the printer sitting in the bottom right of the photo and the dog toy on the bottom left* Thanks.

Maybe you've seen something like the tree on the left? It's an antique that a few people in my family have. I had admired/stared at this one that was my dad's all season last year and wouldn't you know he gave it to me! I'm not sure why, but I just love it! The snowmen on the right sing some silly song about eating too much. It's cute.Nothing says Christmas like a fiber optic village!That little guy on the bottom appears to be getting smashed!And last but not least, the reason for the season! There are scripture verses written on all the figures.

In an upcoming post I will show you our outside Christmas lights! I am so proud that we actually got some up this year! 'Tis the season!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The temperature is finally dropping, Starbucks is serving holiday coffees and I have been shopping like a crazy person! It must be getting close to Christmas!! (although, the shopping like a crazy person has been known to happen when it wasn't Christmas) I love Christmas because I like to drive by and look at Christmas lights or snuggle up and watch a Christmas movie. Also, Christmas is just a great time of year! A lot of happy memories I have center around the holidays and I am always so excited to get together with family and friends for celebrations. Another thing I love about Christmas is dragging out all the decorations and making my house feel more like a home. The house just feels cozier when the Christmas decorations are out! I would have put them up in early November, but Billy would not allow it! Without further ado... here are some shots of the indoor decor!

This is our main tree that is in our living room. Our tree doesn't have a theme because when I was growing up our trees were always full of hand made ornaments and other sentimental ones we gathered over the years. I do think themed trees are beautiful, but for my tree I stuck with what I know!

Most of our ornaments were given to us, or we bought them for each other. The white and red one was made by my grandmother.


And of course we'd have Superman flying around on our tree!

Our second tree is in the dining room. I wanted a tree that could be seen from outside, so that is how it ended up in there! It has red lights and poinsettias instead of ornaments. Possibly that was too much red, but when I bought the stuff the day after Christmas last year it sounded like a good idea. I'm not so sure that I like it, but it's staying for now! It also needs something on top. I think a star would look weird... maybe a huge poinsettia?! haha

I have to say, the big tree that is in the living room is a dream to put up. It is 3 pieces, pre-lit... pure joy! The tree in the dining room, I found out this year, is one where you put each branch in individually. WHAT?! I did not know they still made these! It was not fun. If you don't already have a tree that puts itself up, I highly recommend purchasing one. The day after Christmas, of course!

Things

I haven't blogged in quite a while... guess you've noticed! Not much has been going on and I've just not felt inspired. I've been trying to think of inspiration all night (well, maybe for just the last 15-20 minutes) and here's what I've come up with - a list of random thoughts!


1. My life would be much easier if: I had a dishwasher that worked, could teleport to work in .5 seconds, or if I could inherit a substantial of money.


2. I am going to see New Moon tomorrow with my SIL, a couple of her friends, and Billy's cousin. I could not be more excited!!! I wish I could take off work and sleep late so the movie time would get here quicker. I won't, I promise.


3. Starbucks has started serving (brewing?) their holiday flavors and they are just as delicious as I remember. Today I had a WHITE chocolate peppermint mocha for the first time and it was a-ma-zing! It tasted much like the regular peppermint mocha, but sweeter. MMM!


4. I am completely ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas and all things holiday. I have wanted to put up our Christmas decorations for at least a month! The hubs wouldn't allow this crazy behavior, so they still aren't up... but trust me, they're coming! I'll be sure to post pictures because our Christmas decorations are much more impressive than our Halloween decorations.


5. I actually like the "Party in the USA" song by Miley Cyrus. However, I was not too happy about her "Twilight" bashing comments I heard on the radio. She said "I’ve never seen it and nor will I ever." Miley, if a 23 year old woman can jam to your songs, anything is possible.


6. College basketball season has arrived :):):) AND the Cats are looking impressive already! No, they aren't great but I think they will be! If nothing else, they will be fun to watch.


7. I need to diet. Yeah.


8. I want a tattoo. I have always wanted one, but I just have no idea what to get! If it's going to be on my body forever, it's got to be good.


9. Oh... here's a big one... While on vacation to FL in October I found GRAY HAIRS! OMG. I've found some, like one at a time, over the last year or so. I've never found more than one until now. There were so many I could not pull them out!! I had a small freak out, but then moved on. Right now they just make my hair look shimmery in the light! lol I'm just hoping I don't have to start dying my hair at age 25. SHEESH!


10. My dog is probably the best dog you could ever imagine. We've had her since June 2008. We house trained her with a crate which worked amazingly well. Up until I was gone on vacation, she spent the night in her crate and the day while we were away at work in her crate. It broke our hearts to lock her up so much, but attempts to leave her out had resulted in poop on the floor. While I was gone on vacay Billy decided to try leaving her out overnight and she didn't poop! He left her out every night that week with no accidents. Then we tried leaving her out during the day... long story short, she now is crate-free and is also accident-free since mid October! I'm so proud of her! She's so good and such a sweetheart. Best.Dog.Ever. :)



Alright, that's enough! This is getting a wee bit ridiculous! Please excuse this random post in list form because I was too lazy/uninspired to form it into a comprehensive piece. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I'm hoping to start blogging more regularly, but I make no promises!

TRICK-or-treat

I had been saving this post until I could upload my pictures. However, it seems that is just never going to happen so you'll have to use your imagination! A couple days before Halloween, Billy and I carved pumpkins. Mine was a mask type face and his was a vampire getting ready to bite someone. He usually draws his own, but was feeling a little uninspired this year. I digress!


Halloween night we went to Anderson Co to my grandmother's house. Every Halloween we go over to her house, eat chili, play cards and hand out candy. Last year Billy and I stayed home to hand out candy, but decided to go this year. Anyway, as we were leaving I was loading stuff in the back seat of my car and I see this white thing sticking to my car. It's dark outside so I'm not sure if it's a bug or what... so I get closer only to discover that my new-to-me car that I am in love with has been egged! CRAP! I drive that Neon for 6 years and never get egged and I have my car for 8 months and here come the eggs! After saying a few choice words, I drove to a car wash and everything was solved. The hubby and I get home safely and head to bed around 1am after watching some tv.


Cut to Sunday morning. I open the door so the dog can look out only to find that our pumpkins we so lovingly carved 2 days before have been SMASHED to bits in the road! Some punks snuck up on our front porch and stole our pumpkins! I would feel better about it if they stole them and took then home to admire, but NO, they stole them and then immediately smashed them in the road! The scene outside our house looked something like this...

Now I have seen these things happen in the movies and maybe heard about them happening to other people. Just my luck I get not one but two Halloween tricks in the same year! Total bummer. The upside is that I had a good time at my grandmother's house and the pumpkins were good while they lasted! I hope you all had a trick free Halloween!


UPDATE: Here is my pumpkin
And here is Billy's pumpkin.
And here are our masterpieces smashed in the street! OY.