This is my first real post in a long time! I wanted to post pictures of our home decorated for Christmas because I actually refer to these posts every year so that I can remember how I decorated the year before. Every year I pull down all the boxes of decorations to sift through them and it's like I've never seen them before in my life, true story. This year I *had* to rearrange my entire living room to accommodate my birthday present so I needed a new Christmas decorating plan anyway.
It all started with a discussion Preston and I had about how much he disliked our previous couch arrangement due to the fact that he couldn't see the tv well from his spot. Actually, that's not where the story of this couch started, let's rewind a few weeks ago to the day we took the couch out of the house to get it recovered. I had asked for my couch to be recovered for my birthday (apparently 28 is the age when you care more about what your couch is wearing than what you are wearing) and thanks to the generosity of my family we were able to do so. Preston and I had moved the couch into the house by ourselves so we were confident we could move the couch out of the house by ourselves. However, we did not consider the fact that neither of us could remember exactly how we got the couch through the front door. After about an hour of maneuvering the couch in every way I ever thought was possible, at best we had accomplished wedging it halfway through the door. It was at this point that our neighbor's family drove up having come in town for Thanksgiving. The dad stepped out of the car and asked "Need some help?" To which Preston responded, from inside the house behind the couch, "No, we're ok!" To which I responded, "Yes we need help." And so this sweet man and his son attempted, for the next half hour, with Preston's direction, to help us squeeze the couch through a door frame that begged us to stop. They finally had to remove the door from the frame, which was just enough to allow the men to force the couch out the door. Our helpers told us later that when they pulled up and saw the couch halfway through the door they thought, "Either those are really bad burglars or they need help."
Now fast forward to the day we received our newly recovered couch. Unfortunately we couldn't use the same method as before because not only did we not have the help, forcing the couch through the door frame wasn't exactly the best way to spare the new upholstery. So again, we maneuvered, we pulled arm muscles, we discussed, wash, rinse, repeat and somehow, someway, discovered the secret to getting the couch through the front door. As overjoyed as we were, we were also a little (a lot) mad about how it easy it was. I took
this picture to document the correct way to get our couch in and out of the house because otherwise Preston said that if we ever sell the house, the couch was going with it.
So we had finally managed to get the couch through the front door and even though our halls will have to be repainted (no worries, we keep extra paint in the garage for this very reason) we were able to get it into the living room. By this time it was about 10pm but I was determined to get the living room in order before I went to bed because I am a Bonneau and that's just what we do. Preston helped for a while but when he left to shower I took advantage of my freedom and found the perfect arrangement for our new living room. And when he returned, he thought so too. So without further ado, our newly-arranged, 2012 Christmas-decorated home:
Selma was on to me...
Patti and Selma were not interested in moving for the photos. They were
exhausted after a fun-filled day of photo shoots and endless attention
at our sweet neighbors' house.
I used jute ribbon that I bought from Walmart to hang the faux boxwood
wreaths that I found at Lowe's (which were bigger and less expensive
than the ones at Target). The red pillows on the leather couch are from
Target and the white sweater pillows are from Hobby Lobby. I think the red pillows on the grey couch are from Pier One back in my college days...maybe...I can't remember, but I did use them
last year.
I was in New York after Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law and
sister-in-law (see
this,
this,
this,
this,
this and
this post) and
wasn't able to decorate until the first week in December which is when
normal people decorate their homes for Christmas but we are going on vacation soon so I had to hurry to
get our decor out so that we could actually enjoy it! We cut down our
tree last weekend per tradition at Walls Family Farm (see
this,
this,
this and
this post) and decorated it with lights, tinsel and a few ornaments. My
plan was to hang Christmas cards on it but I'm only going to have like five cards before we head out of town and have to get rid of the tree so it doesn't burn the house down while we're gone so it's just not worth it. I think we might put the tree in the front yard because we didn't put lights on our house this year (Preston didn't want to die and we weren't interested in paying someone to do it for us to only enjoy it for a couple weeks). I told Preston we should put it on the front porch because who else has a 9-ft. tree on their front porch?
No one.