christmas in comfy house

The past few years it's been the same thing: Brian drags up the containers of Christmas decor, I dig through the contents, and end up with Christmas explosion all over the coffee table and floor. I wander back and forth between our small living room and kitchen, trying to decide where to put each item. And because space is lacking and I have too much Christmas crap (I did start a donation bag), I get frustrated and crabby. Yes, that is a pile of lemon thins and biscotti with two cups of tea on the coffee table amongst the mess. Mr. and Mrs. Claus needed a break.  

I don't do a lot of Christmas decorating; it's mainly just the living room and kitchen. The older I get, the less I want to do. In fact, I may have muttered, "I don't know why I bother" when I was in the midst of my frustration. But once it's done, I do enjoy it.

 

I have a fondness for vintage Christmas items...I saw this little Santa Claus tube in a shop and wondered what it was. I opened the top and - surprise! - there were matches in it. So cute amongst my Christmas candles.

It's been cloudy and gloomy for days, so the photo quality isn't the best in this post, but if I waited for the sun, I wouldn't be posting until who-knows-when.

See the yellow Pyrex bowl on the bottom of the cart with the wood beads in it?

It's a garland ~ another recent vintage find. I thought I'd be using this garland on the fireplace mantle, but it didn't happen. No matter, they look pretty just plopped in a bowl.

I've had these Debbie Mumm snowman plates for over 20 years. 

Not much going on in the china cabinet. The Meow bowl on top belonged to Zippo. 💔

Both the wooden pointing hand and the wooden Santa bells are also recent purchases from two different antique stores.

Moving on to the living room. Please overlook my paint-stripe-window on the buffet...I was experimenting with chalk paint and didn't finish...

The silver snowflake stocking holders were 75% off at Bed, Bath and Beyond after last Christmas. I put them on the mantle this year and realized I needed something for height in back of the snowflakes. I immediately thought of tall silver candlesticks. I looked in my candle box and didn't have any, so I stopped into Goodwill one day when I was out. I didn't want to pay full price for candlesticks that I was only going to use for Christmas. (Side note: I haven't been in Goodwill in ages. I rarely shop there anymore for several reasons: the store near me is now mostly junk; I don't go in there unless there's something specific I'm looking for since I'm working on clearing stuff out, not dragging so much in; and I can't stand the smell in there. There's some kind of funky odor that all the Goodwill stores have and it permeates everything. And the chemical air freshener that they pump through the store makes me feel sick. I can't buy clothes there anymore, as these odors are so embedded in the fabric, that no matter how much I soak the clothes, wash them and air them out, I can't get the smell out.)

Anywho! I found just the tall silver candlesticks I was looking for. And only 99 cents each.

I had to leave the candlesticks outside all day to air out that funky Goodwill smell, but they're all good now and gracing my mantle.

A vintage sleigh with ornaments and a bottle brush tree for the side table...

White and silver for the ladder bookcase this year...

The metal folding houses on top are from the Target Dollar Spot. The twin bird pottery vase on the middle shelf is my newest McCoy find.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might've seen my new bench from Joss and Main. We don't have a foyer in our home; when you walk in the front door, you're right in the living room. There used to be a console table in this space, and while it looked nice, I always wished for a bench where guests could sit down to take their shoes or boots off and put them back on. It was hard to find a bench that we truly liked and that had space underneath for a shoe/boot tray. This is not a sponsored post, just my honest opinion. We're very happy with this bench. The quality is wonderful and the bench is very sturdy.

As for Christmas decor in the bedrooms, I left the master bedroom alone, but put a few things on top of the dresser in the spare bedroom. A collection of Christmas mice...

and a child figurine reading A Christmas Story, as well as the book in miniature.

The hallway bath got a couple of bottle brush trees and mini ornaments in the tub.

Our front porch and deck that were under construction are now finished, so all I need to pick up is a Christmas welcome mat and a pine wreath for the front door. How about you ~ are you done with your Christmas decorating?

cautiously optimistic

I was sad to see October go. It's one of my favorite months.

Just seemed weird to turn the calendar to November yesterday.

Already? How can that be?

Though the weather did grace us with a 70F degree day and tons of sunshine. Who could ask for better than that on November 1st?

I'm glad I photographed The Maple Tree just a couple of days ago. 

I knew in a matter of days, all those red leaves would be on the ground.

Sure enough, here's The Tree today. It's been raining all day, which really accelerates the leaf-dropping process. 

You all know that I don't frequent Goodwill too much anymore. Instead, I'm working more on decluttering and donating my stuff to resale shops instead of buying. However, I still run in once in awhile when dropping off a donation. I found that Target is still donating brand-new items to Goodwill. A woman walking out of the store had a gorgeous lamp that I commented on. She said it was new from Target and that she really got a deal. I didn't find anymore lamps, but I did find these two brand-new pillows. If you're familiar with the prices of new decorative pillows ~ usually $25 - $30 each ~ then you know I scored a deal for $5 each!

I also found these like-new suede loafers from The Walking Company. You can barely tell that these are worn. (The only way I will buy used shoes.)

Speaking of good deals, have you been to an Aldi lately? I haven't shopped there regularly in years, due to eating a clean diet and buying mostly organic foods. Well, Aldi is jumping on the organic bandwagon and now carries an amazing variety of organic and healthy foods. I got organic carrots, tomatoes, salad greens, ground beef, bread, olive oil, and canned pumpkin all for much less than at traditional grocery stores. I also found a healthy frozen spelt and veggie mix, spaghetti squash, jarred pasta sauce (for when I don't have my own on-hand...I got a regular marinara sauce and a specialty tomato butternut squash sauce, both with clean ingredients...always read the labels on food; a lot of pasta sauces have nasty ingredients in them, including soybean oil), pecans and even Kerrygold cheese! If you're not familiar with Kerrygold butter or cheese, they're from Ireland and are made from hormone-free, grass-fed cows. We don't eat much butter, but when we do, we use Kerrygold. There is nothing like it! The taste is so much better than the conventional butter we have here in the States.

Today's headline in the Chicago Tribune. We are nervously excited for this last game tonight! As I mentioned in a previous post, Brian's been a Cubs fan since he was a little boy. The Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908. I can't even fathom the excitement for Cubs fans and the city of Chicago tonight if when the Cubs win! Too bad my maternal grandpa isn't still around to be watching these games. He was a huge Cubs fan, too. He passed away three years ago at the age of 97. My mom posted on Facebook today, "I think if the Cubs win tonight, my Dad will rise from the grave." ha ha

I've got a vegetable lasagna in the oven, beers chilling for the guys, and wine for me. Bring on the game! 

slice of life ~ end of july

Like most of the country, the weather here has been hot and humid. I'm not complaining though, as I'll take this kind of weather any day over one of the harsh winter days that we have. You'd think with the high humidity that we'd have a lot of rain. But no, we're actually at a deficit. The grass is brown and crunchy. We did have a couple of good ol' Midwestern thunderstorms this past week though. I ran outside to get this photo of the sky a few nights ago, right before one of those storms. 

One perennial that thrives in the heat is purple coneflower. These are in my butterfly garden but seems the bees love them the best.

As far as annuals and the heat, these zinnias are in all their glory. I'm not sure what variety they are - they're not tall, but they've really spread in width. I've barely even watered them and they continue to produce these hearty blooms. These will definitely be one of my go-to flowers for next year. 

As I've said before, I don't go into Goodwill often anymore, but I dropped off four more bags of donation items the other day and ran in to look around. I found this crossbody fabric purse by LexiWynn. I Googled the name and found that this is a custom purse where you can pick your style and fabric ~ and this style is $85. I paid $5! This will be a cute purse for fall.

Even the inside is pretty.

I also found two of these vintage Paden City plates. I was immediately drawn to the pattern ~ I think it's so unique. 

Do you know Kimberly at Imagery by Kimberly? {If you don't, you should. :-) } I was one of the winners of one of her beautiful photos when she had a quick contest on Instagram.

Isn't it beautiful? That's one of her little ducklings, Ruthie. She posted this photo on her blog right after the shooting in Orlando, Florida.

I'm keeping the photo on bottom shelf in the main bath.

Yesterday was Brian's birthday. We went out to dinner at one of our favorite Thai places to celebrate. Brian tried pho for the first time and loved it. I tasted the broth and it was incredible: such a depth of flavor with subtle hints of ginger and star anise. The secret to delicious pho is indeed the broth.

When we got home, the birthday boy got his wished-for banana cake for dessert. As we don't eat processed sugar (for the most part), I found a healthy banana bread recipe online that used pure maple syrup, coconut oil, and whole wheat flour. I figured if I made it in a Bundt pan and frosted it, it'd be more like a cake. I also found a recipe for cream cheese frosting that's simply the cream cheese, pure maple syrup and vanilla extract. Turned out that the cake was a little dry. I was really disappointed but hubby said it was pretty good and he's been eating it anyway.

 He's such a good sport.

deals to be had all over

Driving past our local library this weekend, I saw these chairs at the curb. I told Brian to turn the car around and I jumped out to give the chairs an inspection. Fabric still in good shape? Check. Frame still sturdy? Check. Sink into a well-worn hole when you sit down? Umm...yes. Heavy enough to practically give your husband a hernia as he tries to load them in the car? Another yes. Perfect for a college student and his roomies (after you text him to make sure)? Affirmative. Free is good.

While visiting said college student this weekend, I ran into the nearby Goodwill while Brian and Tim were working on Tim's taxes. I found this vintage child's cup for just 79 cents! While I think it's adorable, I have no room to display it and it's not going to be used, so it will go with me to my favorite antique consignment shop to be sold.

At this same Goodwill, I also found a set of brand-new queen-sized flannel sheets and pillowcases from Target. With a 20% off scratch-off ticket, the entire set was only $8! The bedding is in the wash now and will go on my bed later. 

I only pop into Goodwill once in awhile now since I'm really trying to reduce what I bring into my home. A couple of months ago, I found this set of retro plates which will also go with me to the consignment shop for resale. For me, it's a great way to make a few extra dollars.

The one thing I really can't pass up when I'm at Goodwill is quality apparel that one of us truly needs. On the same trip a couple of months ago, I saw this Land's End barn coat in Brian's size for only $7.99. I grabbed it off the rack before someone beat me to it!

Brian loves this coat. Not only does it look good (cool plaid lining, too), but he said it's warm and comfortable.

Speaking of the brand-new Target flannel sheets that I found at Goodwill (above), did you know that Target donates their merchandise to Goodwill? I don't know how that works...if it's close-out or clearance merchandise that didn't sell, or what. In the past, I've gotten a $50 lamp (Target price) for $13 and a $180 (Target price) chair for $35. Anyhoo, these were the latest Target donations that were in the store a couple of months ago - just so you can see some of the bargains that are to be had. I need new bar stools...these would've come home with me if they had've fit in my car. Perhaps my next car should be a SUV. ;-)

I didn't need this ottoman, nor would it go with my furniture, so I didn't buy it. Again, just to show what you can find at Goodwill. And no, I don't work for Target or Goodwill, nor am I getting paid to mention either of these stores. I'm simply a fan.

On to other stores and deals, have you been in Aldi lately? Did you know they now carry an organic line and and keep upping their selection? They started out with just a few canned and boxed items and now they've extended it to some produce, dairy and bread. Again, I don't work for Aldi nor am I getting compensated in any way for mentioning this store. Just passing along information about good bargains. 

Organic, cold-pressed coconut oil is only $4.99. If you're not familiar with the health benefits of coconut oil, do a Google search. There's a wealth of info out there! 

Not organic, but cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil (which is another healthy, "clean" oil and perfect for making salad dressing) is just $3.49.

Organic, steel-cut oats are $2.79.

 Talk about a healthy bread! This one rivals the "famous" Ezekiel Bread, which is a bit pricey. I don't remember the exact price ($2-something, I believe), but Ezekiel Bread is $4+ in other stores.

Now, my best deal of all this weekend turned out to be free steaks! We were grocery shopping at Trader Joes and my favorite employee was at the register. He's one of the managers who's been there for years. I hadn't seen him in awhile, so I expressed how nice it was to see him and that I had assumed he had been transferred to another store, or had quit. He told me that he was there just about every day and said he didn't know why I haven't seen him. 

Mr. Manager continued chatting with us as we were checking out and then he told me to go back to the refrigerated meat section and to pick out a couple of steaks! He said, "It's on me." I stood there with my mouth open as other customers started lining up behind us at the register. I said, "This isn't coming out of your wallet, is it?" He said, "No, no! Now run back there and get yourself some steaks." I couldn't believe my eyes when I got back to the meat section. There was filet mignon, rib eye and top sirloin. At $12.99/b., the sirloin steaks were the least expensive, so that's what I grabbed. I didn't want to be too greedy! I got back to the register and Mr. Incredible Trader Joe's Manager didn't even look at which steaks I had chosen. He simply took the package and stuck it in my bag. We profusely thanked him and walked out of the store still in a state of shock.

The funny thing is, I don't even normally eat steak. I haven't had a steak in many years, simply because steak doesn't appeal to me. My sister told me to freeze them for her, ha ha. I told her I was willing to try them. ;-) Even though I'm usually a good home cook, since I'm not familiar with steaks, I'm not sure what would be the best way to cook these. In a cast iron pan with butter? Would this cut of meat be best as a steak sandwich or served "as is"? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend ~ and that perhaps bargains were to be had by you, too.

Linking up with Thoughts of Home on Thursday #1.