More of Our Christmas Home...

Our great room wasn't the only place that got the holiday treatment this season.  I love to spread the Christmas cheer throughout our whole house...including our master bedroom.  I don't decorate much in there, but the few additions I make sure enhance the cozy feeling I get while snuggling in bed. Everything is better with some string lights...am I right?!

Do you guys decorate your bedrooms too?!  What is your favorite area of the house to decorate? Don't forget to check out our great room all decked out here! :)

Blogger Stylin' Home Tours - Holiday Edition!

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a fab weekend...I know we did. We even got to cap it off with a little snow yesterday that really filled us with the holiday spirit!

And the timing of that couldn't be any better because, this week, Lindsay from The White Buffalo Styling Co. is hosting another amazing home tour series!!  The talented bloggers taking part in this blog hop are out-of-this-world-inspiring {not really sure how I got the invite, hmmm}...you won't want to miss a single day of it!

Decorating for Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year.  Everywhere you look, things seem to be a bit more magical.  The dropping temps outside are no match for the warmth that twinkle lights, garland and cozy throws bring.  Ahhhh, the holidays...they are the best!

If you follow me on Instagram, you've gotten a few peaks at our Christmas-ified home already, but this was my inspiration for this year.

I cannot wait to share our home with you on Friday, but until then, DO NOT miss out on the ladies below!  

Monday:

Lindsay - The White Buffalo Styling Co.

Roeshel - DIY Showoff

Jess and Monica - East Coast Creative

Laura - Finding Home

Jesse - Scout and Nimble

Sarah - Sarah M. Dorsey Designs

Angela - Number Fifty-three

Gwen - The Makerista

Brittany - Brittany Makes

Tuesday:

Ashley - The Handmade Home

Anneke - This, That, & Life

Gina - Shabby Creek Cottage

Cassie - Primitive & Proper

Caitlin - Desert Domicile

Jenna - Rain on a Tin Roof

Sarah - The Thriftress

Carolyn - Sweet Chaos Home

Jamie - So Much Better with Age

Shavonda - A Home Full of Color

Wednesday: 

Emily - Jones Design Company

Jamie - C.R.A.F.T.

Lucy - Craftberry Bush

Michelle - Decor and the Dog

Whitney - The Curtis Casa

Kristin - Bliss at Home

Summer - Simple Stylings

Sarah - Lacquer and Linen

Danika - Gorgeous Shiny Things

Kennesha – Restoration House Interiors

Thursday:

Kelly - View Along the Way

Jenna - SAS Interiors

Chris - Just a Girl

Kelly - Eclectically Vintage
Lindsay - Makely Home

Michelle - Iron and Twine

Amanda - Our Humble Abode

Julia - Cuckoo 4 Design

Bethany - Dwellings by Devore

Jennifer - Dimples & Tangles

Friday:

Shauna - Perfectly Imperfect

Traci - Beneath My Heart

Jen - The Chronicles of Home

Jennifer - Tatertots and Jello

Kristin - Hunted Interior

Eileen - A Creative Day

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Gabbi - Retro Ranch Reno <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Shannon - Shannon Berrey Design

Lakeitha - Lakeitha Duncan

Kristen - KFD Designs

Jessica - Dear Emmeline

Sarah - Royal Marigold

Carmel - Our Fifth House

See you guys on Friday!! ;)

What a Year.

Christmas Eve marked our one year anniversary of living in our house.  You may remember that even though we bought it in August 2011, the major renovations we took on didn't allow us to move in until the holidays.  I can't believe how quickly this year went by, and even more than that, I can't believe just how much our home has changed in such a short time.

Here are pictures of our house from Christmas Eve 2011...

And here it is Christmas Eve 2012...

Quite the difference, huh?

I'm so very proud of the hard work that hubby, my parents and I have put into this house.  Every single thing we have done turned this old house into our home.  I cannot wait to see what we can do in the year to come!

Oh, and before the holiday season is truly "over"...here is a little recap of our wonderful holiday, spent with both sides of our families.  First up, we travelled to Connecticut, with my parents, to visit my sister's family and to see their new house.

Then it was time to go to the in-law's and spend time with hubby's family.

Hubby and I didn't exchange gifts this year...which isn't something super new to us.  {We didn't exchange when we were saving for our house in 2010 or when we bought our house in 2011.}  We chose to pass on the holiday gifts, and do other things....like, say make an investment in lots of Christmas lights so hubby could go crazy outside....buy three extremely discounted rugs that we need for our house...and scoop up an awesome deal on Craigslist'ed campaign dressers.  We even decided to go nuts and get our lawn aerated and over-seeded this past fall.  Doing these "house things" makes us extremely happy, so we are okay knowing that since we are tight on money, Christmas gifts may have to wait until another year.  Heck, just creating our cozy home together is a gift in itself.  {Way cheesy, but 100% true.}

But we did manage to buy a couple gifts for some family members.  My favorites happened to be these UH-MAZING wood pieces that we got for our niece and nephews from the Smiling Tree Toys shop on Etsy.  Their handmade, organic stuff is totally worth checking out.  They even managed to rush my order and get it to me in time for our trip up to CT before Christmas.  In short, they rock!

I hope you all have a wonderful NYE...and a BIG, HUGE THANK YOU to each and every one of you for taking the time out of your day to keep in touch with me and hubby and our home.  It means the world to me, and I appreciate it more than you know!

I'll see you in 2013! :)

I Survived the Plague.

I’d love to be all cliché and say “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” around our house, but to be honest, it’s been looking pretty Christmas-y in our casa since Thanksgiving ended.  I was all set to reveal our holiday décor last week, but I fell victim to “the plague” {also known as a wicked sinus infection}.  Thanks to some meds, my new bff...the neti pot and some major R&R this weekend, I’m feeling much better.

Which is wonderful news for you guys because I’m sure you’ve been dying in anticipation to see entirely-too-many pictures of our house decorated for the holly, jolly season that is upon us. ;)  Last year, we moved into our house on Christmas Eve...so our house was truly lacking in the decorations department.  In fact, we were lacking in most things at that point.  So this year, hubby and I were ready to go all out for the occasion!!  There weren’t many areas of the house that we didn’t attack with lights and/or garland.

Hubby took care of the outside, and did a pretty fantastic job.  If you follow me on Instagram {retroranchreno} you saw this shot of his handy work.

I took care of decorating the inside of the house.  We have a skinny, little pre-lit tree that we’ve been using since we lived in our old townhouse.  It was perfect for that space because it didn’t take up much room, and it’s also perfect for this house since we have an open floor plan without a “great” spot to fit the tree.  I love the corner we tucked it into…and how we added some red lights to tie it in with the rest of the house.

I couldn't help myself and decorated our TV console...with an owl, of course.

The mantle is one of my favorite places to decorate...and shocker, I included an owl there too.  He was just too cute and furry to not come home with me from the store. 

And onto our buffet...turquoise and red...YES PLEASE!

Our dining room and console tables got new DIY winter-ish runners and some fun decorations.  The fabric was on sale and exactly what I was looking for...perfect!

Our kitchen got some pops of Christmas...



And so did our barn door...it's my absolute favorite.

And in case you weren't 100% sick of seeing pictures...here are a few more for good measure. :)

Anyone else looooove to decorate everything for Christmas?  I'm pretty sure we aren't ever going to be a glitter-free house again.  It's all over, no matter how much I vacuum.  Whoooops!

And since we DIY'ed some new runners and a bunch of displays, I'm linking up to the final week of Kim, Michelle, Chelsea and Rachel's Dare to DIY (Deck the Halls) link party!

Thanks so much for hosting such a wonderful series, ladies! :)