~JOYEUX NOEL PILLOW ON THE CHEAP~

~PILLOW IN THE MAKING~

My Mr. AGPMan and I got up extra early today so we'd be able to get lots of our Christmas buying done before the afternoon shopper crowds set in.

 

~CAN YOU SAY LIME GREEN?~

But, we were met with really stormy skies and massive Oklahoma wind and rain.  I actually love rainy days, I just don't like having to get out in it and the getting wet.

 ~FIVE LITTLE DOLLARS~

So, our plans abruptly changed and we decided to stay home.  My guy lit a fire and we settled in to do some other things instead.

~GREAT FEATHER PILLOW INSERT INSIDE~

I'm going to put the finishing touches on some decor (because I'm a bit behind in finishing things up) while my hubster works in his shoppe on man-things! I'm working on some special orders and a few things for my La Chaumière de Briarwood as well.

 ~GASP!  I REMOVED THE TAG~

(hope I don't go to jail under penalty of law!)

See the lovely (???) lime green Ralph Lauren pillow above?  Well, I snagged it at TJ Maxx for a mere $5 (original price was $40!).  The outside fabric was not to my liking but the inside held a fabulous duck-feather pillow form.  Feather inserts can be costly so whenever I can find them on the cheap I bring them home with me.  Anyway...I printed out the JOYEUX NOEL wording on fabric shown taped to the pillow form and later today I'm going to use it to fashion what I hope will be a sweet little pillow for our family room!

~PAINTED SIGNS IN THE WORKS~

The two metal signs above will be transformed this week as well!  I'm thinking something French sounding will look lovely painted on the front...maybe some roses, too!  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Hope your Saturday is awesome.  I"ll be showing you the finished pillow and signs, soon!

Blessings and love to you~

~AND THE STOCKINGS WERE HUNG~

 A couple of years ago while visiting one of our local off-priced stores I found these darling Christmas Stocking Hangers.  I loved them so much and was happy to snag two of the snowflake styles for my home.  They were a dark brown, almost rusty-ish in color, but this year I decided to paint them with my favorite cottage white paint from Behr (Home Depot/Cottage White).  I sprayed them first with primer (not my favorite thing to do!) and then lightly painted over the base coat with a soft sponge brush.  Just a little gentle distressing and whaaaa-laaaah!  Done!

 I bought one in the style of a Reindeer.  Not because I actually liked this one (no offense to Dasher or Prancer!), but because I desperately needed a third one and that was all that was left.  I like it enough to use it but as soon as I find another one, off he goes to my daughter~

 Here is what one of the snowflake Hangers look like in use!  This was taken in another corner of our formal dining room.  Promise to share more pics as the season presses on...

 Last year and the year before I bought four of these darling Poinsettia plates from a local gift store.  My budget only allowed me to get two at a time even though I distinctly remember getting them on sale for 20% off.  Sadly the store went bust this year (I mean they just closed up and were gone...no 'sell-out-sale', nothin'!) and I haven't been able to find anymore in the City.  They are from Andrea by Sadek in the creamy white.  I did find a set of four full sized plates on eBay...$65 plus shipping.  Bah!  I was hoping to collect twelve...probably not gonna happen.  I may look for them AFTER Christmas this year!  We'll see!

During the Spring, March I think, I was more than excited to get two of these fabulous Christmas wreaths on deep discount at Tuesday Morning.  The retail price was originally $50 (pleeeze!!!!) with a sale price of $39 (yeah, right!).  TM's price was $19.99...

 Well...they were marked down to $9.99 and the day I visited the store they were running half off their clearance items.  That would have made them $5 each and that made me very happy.  Only when I got up to the cash register they rang up for a different price...

They were actually $2.50 each.  WHAT?  No lie!  They were!

I'm in the process of transforming them with plans to hang them on our new French Doors in our breakfast room.  More about this soon.

I hope you are having an awesome day.  I have lots on my to-do-list today so I'm off for now.  Not fun stuff...grocery shopping and the like! :(  I'll be visiting more of you this weekend when I have some of the pressing things checked off and I have more free time!  I'm soooo LOVIN' what I'm seeing out there in blogland so far...

Love to you...

~O' CHRISTMAS TREE - Where Art Thou?~

~OUR MINI TREE~

 (sits sweetly on a little table)

I'm not sure what's happened to me over the past couple of days!  I just haven't been able to get my blog-thinkin'-head in gear!  For the past 48 hours I've kept saying over and over "C'mon Rebecca!  Get your pink on!!!  What's the matter with you, girl???" but it just didn't work!  I'm thinking I've had one of my mini-strokes or something!

I'm just sayin'...............................

Anyway...Happy December to you!!! :)

Are you ready for the Season of Light?

 ~OUR NEW 'PAINTED' CHRISTMAS TREE~

("if not for the MIRACLE she'd just be a tree!")

I hate to keep harping on the simple fact that my Mr. AGPMan's schooling is taking him away from ALL THE WORK FUN AROUND HERE, but 'tis true- tis true!  So...this year (for the first time in about, um, well...a LONG LONG LONG TIME!) I did almost all the decorating alone.  Except for my guy hauling down stuff from the attic and assembling the Trees I somehow managed to get our Christmas decorations up by myself.  All is now calm and,except for a few burned out bulbs (which I can't figure out HOW to fix), all is bright!

Life is good.

 ~JOY TO THE WORLD THE LORD IS COME~

Every Christmas we've lived in our La Chaumière de Briarwood (19 years) we've had clear twinkle lights outside.  Not only have they graced the outside of our home but they were wrapped around the tree-trunks and dangled from the branches, too!  Given all my hubster has had on his plate for 2011 I didn't even dare say a word about him putting them up this year.  It's funny how some stuff just doesn't seem very important in the grand scheme of things when you find you're just happy to have a little bit of alone time with the one you love.  Even though I'm missing something I've enjoyed for years it's actually been easy to put what really matters in place...

~PINK ROSES~

(of course!)

I'll be showing you more of our home over the next few days.  With the addition of our French Doors and the removal of our old back door some things have changed on the inside.  At some point during the season our old ceramic tile is coming up and plans are being made to open up the wall between our dining room and family room before our new wood floors are installed.  We aren't 100% sure on how we are going to do it (it's a load-bearing wall so we have to have help!) but surely we will find a way...  I'm soooo glad now the wood flooring we picked out in the Fall was delayed!  Some things work out better than you think they are going to~

~THE LAST PINK ROSE TIN~

I'll be visiting around this weekend to see what you are all up to...  

Happy Friday!

Love to you...