Organizing and decorating...

As soon as we got home from Thanksgiving with my grandma we set to work on decorating (the house was a total mess at the time, but it always is when boxes and things are being moved everywhere.) This is our little village. "Lily's flower shop" and a Newspaper building that I'm going to put the "Newport Miner" sign on it for where Youssef works.

The next picture is of the shelves that I put up in our bathroom... this is probably interesting to only me because it has been annoying me for a long time that all the stuff was on the floor and the door couldn't open all the way. It looks so tidy now and easy to clean. Things that make my life easier are always good.

Next is Lily's little area with her Tinkerbell house that I built last Christmas for her (it's mostly survived) the wall where my picture hangs is also where we can project netflix movies.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care" in hopes that a fire or smoke damage wouldn't happen right there... My desk is still really messy. I spent a good three months just doing a writing project. As in... I did nothing else that I didn't HAVE to do. Cooking food and basic clean up happened, but REAL cleaning, organizing, prolonged times of playing and reading to my kids, and any other project were totally out. It felt good to finish the fanfic story - http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5378333/1/ in case anyone is interested (and you don't have to have read the original books to like or understand it.)
This area around the fireplace is sort of a project storage area and sometimes I work there too.
Speaking of projects this is the beginnings of my latest art endeavor I was inspired to make it as I was working on the fanfic and then didn't finish it because I have a hard time doing more than one project at a time. It was extremely difficult to cut out the shapes and keep everything connected so that I can layer the strips of paper on it. As you see it in the picture the image is backwards because I have to work from the back to layer the paper... that's why the moon is backward and my initials are backward too. The sun beams and warm colors from it are going to mingle with her hair so they look sort of blended... Hopefully I'll be able to sell it. Haven't had too much trouble selling my art as long as someone sees it in person. ;] This is the first realistic people image that I've done. Quite difficult... especially the hair. I had to draw it all out first before cutting the poster board. Normally I just freehand the cutting, but couldn't with this because the hair and their faces were so complicated. I had to figure out where I needed to keep each element connected and what would go under what when I layer the paper. I'm going to call it "Opposites"
I don't have a before and after picture of my craft/scrapbooking/art/school room, but you can just imagine it if you take out the shelves and add a pile of stuff on the table that buried the image from anything worth looking at. I painted the shelves on the far left side and moved my cd player there so that I could listen to it when working (I love to listen to books on tape especially!) I ran a speaker into the bathroom too (the door on the left) so that I could listen to something other than the water when I do dishes in the only sink.
And this next picture was taken from about where my desk is (the farthest room away through the kitchen is the scrapbook room that you just saw.
Then from the other angle taken from where my piano is and the village. Youssef must have seen something shocking on facebook. It's a lot more open now that we got rid of the other couch that we didn't use.
Now for the tree! I've been told to put up this picture for a while now, but couldn't find our camera under all the junk I was organizing and throwing out. Now all I have left to organize is my computer desk and the fridge and pantry. So.. the tree. We went to a friends 40 acres and walked around for about an hour looking for the "perfect" tree. Youssef was beginning to wonder what in the world I was waiting for, "There are trees all around us. What's wrong with that one?" "Everything!" I was looking for one with strong branches an even shape, full but not TOO full, and most of all NARROW. All the "wild" trees are so ridiculously wide and this one was perfect. Actually, (trade secret) this is two trees that I wired together. They both fit the criteria except that they had a few bare sections were it wasn't as full. Take two and put them together and they fill in the empty parts of the other (so many metaphors for a marriage right there...) The star is really heavy and I wired it to the ceiling. Part of christmas for me as always been the ingenuity of creating something lovely from something that is less than perfect. hanging the ornaments just so so that the branches hang right (because they bend down) This is the first year that we actually HAVE a real star for the top. Every other year I always had to be creative with that as well.. from an ornament transformed to a tree topper to a dollar store star. This star has 50 lights and I feel like I've been waiting for the five past christmases of being married for this star... and the lights too! Normally I have to scrimp with lights and keep adjusting them so that they'll reach to the top of the tree. I put on three strands of 100 bulb red lights and one strand of 100 clear lights. This is a good trick.. instead of buying one big strand for 15 bucks or whatever and then some go out or they don't last long... get in on a sale that is like a buck for 100 strand lights and buy four or five boxes of the colors you want. If a strand conks out it's not quite as big of a deal. ;] I did splirge and buy bubble lights this year though... I've always wanted them.. it's sort of a childhood dream thing. ;]
Decorating for Christmas has gone much better this year... we've had a much better year than the last so it makes sense. A end of the year/christmas letter will even be written this year! It feels so nice to have a put together house... I need to figure out how to do little bits at a time WHILE I'm doing projects, but I get a little wrapped up. *sheepish*
Oh, and Renna's "kissy face" - She loves to give me kisses and this is how she wakes me up in the morning - with little baby kisses and giggles, so cute. ;]