around the house

This evening I'm sipping Tazo cinnamon spice tea, sans caffeine. I'm flipping through the Juniper Ridge catalog, admiring this gift pack. I love that incense burner and of course, the incense. My eye also keeps wandering back to the Christmas fir sachet. The whole catalog is lovely. But no more shopping for me 'til after Christmas. Well, after shopping today over at simply photo: crocheted coasters, gift tags, and a "coffee" mini notebook. I'm geeked up about the coasters because I've long admired them in Jen's breakfast photographs.

For the sake of $$, it's probably a very good thing I wasn't able to snag soft trees earlier today. I tried, though! I was poised and ready at Stephanie Congdon Barnes' shop - empty at that point. I refreshed the page literally one minute later and the soft trees were sold out! Man. Someone out there is a master Etsy shopper! I'm thinking I might learn how to sew and crochet a little. Surely I could learn how to make soft trees and coasters by next December. I crocheted as a little girl, you know.

So anyway, here's what else I've been up to around the house - Advent and otherwise...

Christmas in the kitchen with who else but simply photo and port2port? The West Elm egg shakers stuck around, and a NOEL cookie cutter from my doctor joined the crowd:



I'm not trying to sound snobby, but I never knew I could find decorative items I liked at Hobby Lobby. I'm not a super crafty person (due to lack of talent), but during a hunt for baker's twine, I found stems of red berries for 99 cents. A few stems greet you at the top of our stairs:



Johnny hung a Christmas star on the door of our bedroom:



I added a poem to an inspiration ledge:



I'm no expert framer, either, but I rather like how this combo of Carson Ellis and port2port/Camilla Engman turned out:



I've confessed my love for little chairs before, and I found a tiny rocking chair at Hobby Lobby. Had to have it. I also found two ceramic brown eggs for 99 cents each. I would have taken a picture, but I forgot, and they look exactly like real eggs. Here's the chair on our dresser:



Now it's that laundry time, including the new clothes we found yesterday. I miraculously located a pair of jeans, a gray knit scarf, soft slippers for house-lounging, and a perfect brown sweater. I've never worn a scarf before, but I'm excited. It looks so "me."

After laundry & supper, I think we're gonna watch Pan's Labyrinth. I've heard it's amazing.