A Little Christmas in the Trailerhood

After our delicious English Major Thanksgiving it is now time to decorate for the next holiday. CHRISTMAS!

Yay!  I love Christmas. But before I do that check out how my first Thanksgiving hosting looks...

This was our little "buffet" area. I used a vintage tablecloth to hide my uglios countertops.

The table also looked super pretty, if I do say so myself. I used my extra pillows for the chairs which made them very comfortable. 

Flameless candles are my new favorite thing for tables.

Thanksgiving was definitely a lot of fun but! The next thing was some Christmas awesome-ness! 

Here's a few of the boxes that I have for Christmas stuff.

Lucy of course finds the entire process fun and adventurous.

I love putting up the Christmas tree, I always use white, silver, and blues. I just think it looks so pretty! This year my roommate Jamie helped me decorate which made it a lot easier and way more fun. 

Here is our finished product! Looks pretty don't you think?? I can't wait til I have a bigger house so I can put the tree in front of a window or something. But it works well in the corner. Though the cats like to climb up and down it. Don't worry, all the ornaments are shatter proof plastic.

Oh! And I forgot to mention we have a new addition to our family. Meet Jamie's cat Sunny. She's from Nebraska too! She and Lucy get along great. Probably because they are both menaces. 

This is our makeshift mantel area since we don't have a real one we just hang up our stockings right here. I'm sure Santa will figure it out! The garland up top looks really pretty when it's all lite up, it won't be there for too long since I will be painting the cabinets soon but it does look really pretty.

I hide all the pretty glass ornaments in this pretty bowl on top of the fridge. Probably one of the safest places for them!

Hope everyone is enjoying the start of their holiday season! I really need to get to work on my Christmas shopping. Total slacker here!

Guest Post: Making a Room Divider

I love a good DIY project any day! Especially if it is cheap, fantastic, and has a function as well. Renee is here today to show us a neat and creative way to make a room divider!

Thanks Renee!

About Me
I am not a natural redhead. I wish I were! Oh well. I am black-haired former High School English
Teacher who found that she has a gift for analyzing data. I graduated from business school and
became a managing copywriter. I currently blog for work on home decor and lighting. I live with
my graduate school student hubby in a 750 square foot Los Angeles apartment with my silver
cat,Cleo.

I’m so happy that Meaghan invited me to do a guest blog post on DIY room dividers. Since my
apartment is 750 square feet, my living room and dining room are open plan design. 80% of the
time, hubster uses the dining table as his study station. I wanted to make a room divider so that
I could have a screen to delineate the living room relaxation area from the study area.

The cafe latte walls of my apartment complement its ornate white moulding. The tulip glass
sconces draw the eye to my Rembrandt wall art. The colorful 20" diameter Tiffany pendant in
the dining area caused us to rent this place. The fantastic online lighting retailer that I work for,
AffordableLamps.com, sells some Tiffany style lights like mine by lighting manufacturer Quoizel.

I researched 10 DIY room dividers from Shoeboxdwelling, Re-nest, Better Homes and Gardens,
Instructables, Weburbanist and Ohdeedoh. I decided to go with the cardboard room divider
tutorial by Instructables.com because I am confident with Exacto knives and papercraft. The
cardboard is free. Instructables will walk you through how to create a free-standing, modern
screen. I plan to color my room divider midnight blue and silver for winter.

I like to keep my home decor blue and orange year round but I add evergreen
boughs and silver for the holidays. If you need discount lighting this winter you
can buy 16" diameter pendant lights by Lite Source for less than $70. I like
the look of drum pendant lights over a low coffee table. Now for the DIY room
divider.

Materials:
cardboard

Tools:
utility knife
self-healing papercraft cutting board

Time: 2 work weeks or less

Step 1: Collect enough cardboard to make three sides of a screen. Avoid fruit stained cardboard
or ones that have carried meat. Wine boxes are an example of clean, dry cardboard.

Step 2: Set up a station for cardboard cutting. Since cutting out the shapes will take about two
work weeks, make sure you lock up your utility knife so your pet or roommate does not tread on
it.

Step 3: When you are well-rested and alert, cut out the necessary pieces over the course of
several days. I mentioned this because sleepiness and knives don't mix. You can keep the
loose cardboard in a gallon sized zip-top bag to stay organized.

Step 4: Assemble your screen. You can choose to fuse it together with glue. I don’t glue. I prefer
to keep mine like a puzzle that I can dissemble anytime.

Happy Holidays, DIYers!

Master Progression

My master bedroom has gone through a lot of changes in the last few years that I have lived at my house. It's gone from awful wall paper with weird roses and stripes to gorgeous gray. 

Check out the total transformation so far!

Here's the original look when I purchased the house in 2008:

This is what my room looked like basically for the first 3 years that I was in there, the only thing that changed was my comforter and the desk. I went from a little desk to a big one. The color, the furniture, the wall decor, that all stayed the same for a very long time!

Here's what my original plan for the master bedroom renovation was, to move around some of the wall decor and put rugs down and that kinda thing. I love that Picnik lets me write on pictures! It's kind of a dream come true!

There's still a lot of things that I want to do with my room but so far it's looking great! I really love the new color and the furniture that I have in there! I need to still make a new headboard and replace the curtain rods with actual double rods that are prettier. I think that would keep the sheers from looking so squashed. I also need to replace the mini-blinds on the smaller window.

I'm really loving it so far! It suits me and I have done it specifically to my tastes and that's it. I have it really well organized and it's totally functional. The only thing that makes me sad is my awesome twin-bed-hide-a-chair can't really be used since it's now at the foot of my bed. I suppose technically it could be but it would be a little weird to have my guest at the foot of the bed.

{funny visual moment}

I hope you guys enjoyed my random memory lane path of my master bedroom!

I'm gathering up all the supplies that I need to start on my kitchen remodel so stay tuned for all that excitement! I have to be the queen of DIY and budget on that particular reno! Just remember... increasing resale value!