We've been terribly busy since Thanksgiving so before getting to the Winter Holidays this year, here are some pics from the last three years here in the Nesting Ranch.
This is our fourth winter and it'll be 4 years total here this spring, 2012.
2008
When we moved in the whole house was primed white, even the fireplace. To remove the paint from the brick would be a gruesome task so we picked a colour closest we could find to brick and painted every nook and crany so it looked like brick ... and believe us, brick has a lot of nooks and crannies.
The mantle was painted a muddy woody brown to match the ceiling beams and faux leather furniture we had in the idea this would be a study but without old men smoking pipes just general guffaws over Bunberry.
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| Guffaw, Cosette! Har-har, guffaw indeed! |
Baked cookies on the dining room table on a cake platter.
A composite view of the
back yard that really shows Watchung Mountain 2 when the leaves are gone.
The sun rises every morning on the little downslope to the right & brightens our kitchen & dining room.
2009
I just
had to get the old C9 bulbs for the pine tree in the front of the house.
Of all the incorrect
foundation planting this pine tree is just the cutest and we love its welcome greeting every time we come home.
Above is Pumpkin the snowman - there's magic in that old hat! Marked $50 - rang up as $5 - sweet!
Pumpkin has since been spray painted white.
The garden chairs, while a great find for a pair at only $20 have a new life at someone else's house, they just weren't us any longer and were quite wobbly that only Pumpkin could sit in them.
Our welcoming foyer.
A nut wreath project that was painstakingly (burnt-by-gluegun-fingertips) and lovingly fastened together...
just to have a mouse trapped in the garage eat thru the varnish and hollow out the nuts
... and the bloody air filter of the car!
Nonetheless, a welcoming foyer all the same...
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| Various air ferns, glitter ferns, pewter urns and a silver Christmas Spider! |
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| From the foyer looking into the family room. |
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| Is this not eligible to be a House Beautiful magazine cover? |
& the curtains taste like snozberries!
They've since been retired...
tough stuff this pair - tried to bleach & whiten with Rit dye and there was no change at all!
We don't exchange Christmas gifts
rather we buy presents thru the year and get the really BIG ones for our birthdays.
So when we couldn't find birch logs anywhere, but in magazine spreads or catalog layouts,
for a birthday present some birch logs were purchased from Amazon.
Now, birch logs seem to be everywhere...
that said, these are still by far the highest quality so the purchase is in no way regrettable.
Back lit by twinkle lights used from our wedding.
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Little fat birds are the cutest
... on birch, moreso! |
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| Mrs. & Mr. Santa Claus |
The boys first Christmas!
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| So very helpful with the garland........ |
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| ..........and hanging wreaths |
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| .............. & don't forget putting up the tree! |
They had a very good first Christmas
2010
We decorated the same as 2009 really, other than a few blurry shots all I could find was two photos from New Years...
Below is a festive couscous salad with pomegranates, yellow raisins and pistachios.
We didn't take many festive pictures for winter 2010 because most pictures were all project based.
Mostly we started redecorating the nest, the results can be seen under September 2011 posts of room by room tours.
The living room went from this lemon cake...
to Benjamin Moore's Ballet white.
We had just acquired the perfect door to build our coffee table
and rose-marble topped end tables to refinish..
Oh, the blue painters tape, you ask? Well...
... we started a horrible journey with Pottery Barn towards a new custom sofa that over the next 6 months later would arrive, not just by scary delivery people, but also fabricated incorrectly twice after having confirmed in-store, in-person each and every time.
Happily we're very pleased with our
Mitchell Gold Bob Williams Sofa and both custom slip covers - for less than the 'whoops, our bad' comp-offer from PB.
There was a yellow silver lining though over the winter break and so much snow...
The Poulan Pro PR624ES 24-Inch 208cc LCT Gas Powered Two-Stage Snow Thrower With Electric Start
& on to 2011 next!
