Gifting The Neighbors

This is the story about how we gifted our neighbors. Nothing extravangent, just something small that says - "we like living next to you. thanks for being so awesome."


First I took a blank box and layered some red tissue paper.

Then I filled it with homemade deliciousness.

I attempted to neatly fold the tissue paper on top.

Then on the box I tied one of my homemade gift tags and a felt tree ornament I bought at Target. I can't find them online to share with you, but they were 3 for $1 and they were in the ornament section.

* After looking at this picture I remembered to trim the trailing leftover twine.

Easy peasy. That's my theme for this year. 


So that's what we're gifting our neighbors with. Are you giving your neighbors anything? Did you bake any holiday cookies yet this year? If you have any killer recipes, I'd love to hear! :)

Nativity Sets Galore

It's so easy for me to get caught up in all the hoopla of Christmas. The twinkling lights and shiny ornaments distract me. I foolishly focus on decorating the Christmas tree and making my holiday cards. 


And that's why I love nativity sets. For me, they are a constant reminder that all this decorating and gift giving is done to celebrate the greatest gift of all - Jesus. My almighty Savior humbled Himself and entered this world as babe born in a stable. Nothing is sweeter or more sacrificial than that.


If my money tree ever produces its fruits, I'm going to purchase several nativity sets and fill every blank table with one. Then I'd walk all around my house smiling and crying and laughing because that's what the Christmas story fills me with - hope and humility and joy. 


In the meantime, I have selected 4 of the most beautiful nativity sets from Etsy to share with all of you. Each of these sets has captured my heart in a special way because I find them capturing the joy of Jesus' birth through their simplistic and rustic goodness.


*Disclaimer: I contacted all of these sellers from Etsy and it is with their permission that I am sharing their sets below. Some of the sellers even included a special discount for my readers in case you want to purchase one of these sets for your home. These are in no specific order - they're all stellar in my book.

Seller: Designs by Shandi
Link To Nativity Set
Discount: 15% with the code "RRBLOG"
I love how simple this set is. I especially love how baby Jesus is wrapped up with Mary and Joseph - it's exactly the way I imagine the proud parents to be on that first Christmas morning. And look at that sheep - adorable!

Seller: North Wind Metal Art
Link To Nativity Set
I love how rustic looking this nativity set is. It would look great sitting on a mantel above a fireplace! 

Seller: Lindsay Gaines
Link To Nativity Set
This set is so fun! I love the clay figures and the star above the creche. This would be especially cute in a kid's room!

Seller: Happy Bungalow
Link To Nativity Set
Discount: 10% with the code "snowflake11"
This set is stunning. I love how it is handmade with several different kinds of wood. You can see that a lot of time was poured into this piece. I also like how this set would be perfect for older children to play with. My mom had a set specifically for us kids to tinker with and I have many fond memories of playing with it as a child.


So there are my top 4 Etsy picks! But if I had to pick my most favorite nativity set of all time, it would be the Willow Tree Nativity Set. I love all of the Willow Tree figurines and this one especially captures the joy of Christmas morning. 

So what is your favorite Christmas decor item? Does your heart swoon over Christmas trees, or do you love nativity sets like me? Does anyone else have a favorite nativity set too? 

Light My Fire

I'm pretty sure the "aging University of Miami fan" guess was totally worth leaving you all hanging yesterday. Anyway, we made a purchase. A big one. But first let me give you a little backstory so you don't think we're completely crazy . . . 


When we were house searching our wants/needs list included things such as:
- 3+ bedrooms
- 1+ bathroom
- Oil or natural gas heat
- Basement
- Large, spacious kitchen
- Backyard
- Garage
- Fireplace
- Hardwood Floors


. . . You get the idea. Well, we were able to get a lot of things on our list (4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, oil heat, basement & hardwood floors) - but a few things were just not a part of the brick beauty that we fell in love with.

So we're going to add something. A wood burning stove!

This is an old Vermont Castings Stove. We saw it on Craigslist and decided to drive out to the boonies to check it out. We fell in love immediately, so we handed over $250 and took this baby home.


Here's where the trouble begins . . . actually installing the stove. Luckily my dad is a mason so he can help us with the whole process, because let me assure you it is daunting. 


A few things we need to do are:
- Work with our township inspector and homeowner's insurance agent to make sure everything is to code
- Install a slate base for the stove to sit on (it will be raised several inches off the ground) - this is because wood floors are combustible surfaces
- Bore a hole through the wall to attach stove pipe and carry it outside
- Decide whether we are going to use temporary pipe and then build a permanent brick chimney or use double-wall insulated pipe and box it in outside.


There's a lot to think about and a lot of decisions to make. We're still not even certain that installing the stove is a possibility. We may end up having to resell it if the installation process is too costly. We need to do some more research and planning. But, we're super excited about the possibility!


If all goes as we'd like, the stove will end up in the corner of our living room with a raised slate base. And yes, I will sit on the couch and lovingly adore it all the days of my life.

Until we figure out exactly what we're doing with this whole wood stove installation nonsense, there will be no loveseat purchasing. That's why among being beautiful and hot (get it?), this bad boy is also a game changer.


We're seriously crossing our fingers that we can get this installed and not spend a small fortune in the process. And we're very excited to see wood chopping and hauling in our future!

I'd love to hear your thoughts - do you think we're crazy? Have you ever installed a wood stove? Any tips or advice?

Game Changers

Last time I talked about our hunt for the perfect loveseat, Justin and I were still a little undecided on the Bella and wanted to try on a few more sofas for comparison. Since then we have visited Raymour & Flannigan, American Signature Furniture, Pottery Barn Outlet, Thomasville, and LazBoy again. We only saw one loveseat that we kinda liked . . . 

But it didn't come in brown, so it was nixed faster than the button flew off my pants on turkey day.


This one chaise was super comfortable, but it was equally ugly. So we smiled and sighed and moved along.

After feeling too much like Goldilocks, we battled our indecisive selves and decided to get the Bella loveseat from LazBoy. 


But the universe had another plan. We ended up making a big purchase that is going to change the layout of our living room and require some serious renovation work. What is it you ask? Here are 2 hints:
- It is old
- It loves hurricanes


192 blogger points to the person that guesses correctly!! Oh and make sure you check back tomorrow to find out what it is and how we plan on incorporating it into our home.


Has any one else had any game changers lately? 

The Hunt

I mentioned way back in our living room reveal post that our room was only about 60% done. Our to-do list looked like this:

     - Hang art/pictures on walls

     - Get a rug for the front door   completed!

     - Get a loveseat 

     - Paint trimwork

     - Find/make throw pillows   completed!

Well we've been working on that third item. Finding a loveseat. Who would have thought it'd be so hard? 


We wanted a loveseat that complimented the couch we already had. We were looking for:
- Higher back
- Wooden legs
- Slightly rolled arm


After an exhaustive online search, we decided to visit Wolf & Interiors. Both of these are fairly local stores that we've heard fantastic things about. So we had high expectations. These high expectations were immediately shot down by the store's equally high prices.


Then we decided to visit La-z-boy Furniture.

The one loveseat that we really liked was the Bella. 

We want to get it in a fabric that coordinates with the couch we already have. . . so we narrowed it down to these 2 choices.

We mapped out how much space the couch would take up. If you notice the frog tape - that's the length of the couch

You'll have to excuse the shoes / bags / artwork - just keeping it real people :)

After some serious photoshop efforts by Justin, we chose the couch in the "Mollasses" color. We went this past Tuesday to order it but had a change of heart in the store. We want to look at a few more places before we finally decide if it's the one for us. Try on a few more couches.

Yeah, we're those indecisive people.

This weekend we're planning on visiting Raymour & Flannigan and American Signature Furniture. Hopefully by Monday we'll have it all together!

Any recommendations? What do you think of the Bella - is she our beauty? Did your couch search take months too? 

Shopping Spoils

At the end of our dresser reveal post, I mentioned this local store that sells partially used craft supplies for super cheap. Well, if you read yesterday's post you would have seen that I'm all about saving moolah. So naturally a store that sells fabric scraps and wreath forms for cents, I was all over like white on rice.


I went to this store last week with my friend Amanda. It took us about an hour to really scour the store and discover the loot we wanted to call our babies, but it was so worth it. Wanna see my spoils? 


They have a big container full of old buttons. You can fill up a cup of buttons for $1.50. I specifically chose blue/gray buttons for a project I have in mind. You'll have to just hold your breath until I reveal the project. 

For 0.75 cents, this bag of burlap scraps was mine. Some of the pieces are smaller, but some are fairly large. I think I'm going to use this to jazz up the Christmas wreath I've been working on (details coming soon!).

For 0.50 cents, I bought this fabric scrap. It has red and pink hearts and glitter. I'm going to hem the edges and make a table runner for Valentine's day. It's the one day of the year I can decorate with pink hearts and glitter and you better believe George I'm going to milk that sucker for all it's worth.

* That glitter makes me giddy.


Now my big splurge of the day. . . For $1.75, I bought a fabric scrap that is 1 3/4 yard long and 56" wide. We were about to leave the store when Amanda spotted this baby lying under some other fabric scrapes. And when she decided not to buy it, my heart may have squealed a little. I am going to make this darling in to a beautiful tree skirt. It fits perfectly with my theme for the year! (Don't worry, I'll start talking about Christmas as soon as Thanksgiving is over!)

And lastly, this old wooden art piece was sitting in the corner at the back of the store. It's mustardy-yellow color called to me and asked if I would bring it home. For $1, there was no way I would let this baby go unnoticed again. You can see the black trim is missing on 2 edges. I'm either going to make 2 more trim pieces or pull the other 2 pieces off and paint the edges . . . I haven't decided yet.

Grand Total: $5.83 


I'm so excited to have all these new projects that need to be done! Is it too early to decorate for Valentine's day? What good spoils have you found lately?


ps: if you're interested in finding a creative reuse store near you, check out this link. Creative Reuse doesn't know that I exist and they certainly didn't ask me to write about their awesomeness - I just wanted all 6 of my readers to know about this great resource. All of the opinions I've expressed are entirely my own.