christmas 2011 tour

i've never been one to go over the top with

christmas decor. i'm not that drawn to the idea of

transforming every room and every surface for the holiday's.

maybe it's because i feel  perpetually tired as a mom

to three boys and wife of a church planting pastor.

tired in a good way, but still, TIRED.

also, our home is small and our living space is open so a little bit

goes a long way!

this year i pulled some greens from the yard to make

 a swag for the front door. i see in this picture the holly is starting to curl up so it

may be time to cut some more. :)

our tree is a little guy and this year we opted to block

our back door for the month. we have a side door around

the corner that also leads to the back yard and our wood pile

so it's worked out pretty well.

brown wrapping, a red locker basket to hold some gifts for

out-of-towners, and some red lanterns hang around the tree which sits in a galvanized

bucket and is wrapped in burlap.

the mantle is a mix of silver, natural elements and red and white accents.

the stockings are held up with a bit of twine.

the boys come downstairs each morning to see how many days

remain before christmas.

the above chalkboard, by the way, has had many lives. it was

originally a silver framed mirror.

a simple grouping of candles and a couple of deer on the buffet.



and on the table a few decorative balls and some greenery from the yard.



otherwise, i've just tucked some greenery from the yard around the house.

y'all go check out all the great house tours over at the nester's

tour of homes and thanks for stopping by!

~ stacy ~

adapting a sconce

in my effort to draw out the makeover of the boys'

rooms i accomplished only one more tiny thing this week.

you may remember the wall treatment i finished up

several weeks ago behind bean's bed.

it's a dark little recessed area but a perfect nook

for his bed.

the outlet on that wall is wired to the light switch for the room

so i wanted to put up a plug in sconce.

then i started pricing them. good grief!

since that wasn't in the budget i found an inexpensive

candlelight sconce from lowes that i thought would be

perfect for the space.

only problem, not a plug in.

so, i did what any self respecting diy'er would do.

i adapted it.

all that was needed was a lamp cord set, some

wood screws and a cord mate.



all you do is take the two wires from the light,

that would normally be tied

into the wires from the wall box, and tie them

into the plug. the ground

wire can either be left alone or wrapped around

the screw on the mounting bar.

i picked up some wood screws because the screws

that came with the light

were not meant for wood. and because i was using

metal against wood i grabbed some washers.

the mounting bars would normally screw into the box in the wall or ceiling but

in this case i secured it directly to the wall.

and then i attached the fixture. easy peasy.

sorry, no styling photos around here! what you see is

what you get. :) who spots my nail gun waiting patiently for step 84 of boy room reno?

i have since gone back and put the cord mate on so the

cord is nice and tucked in behind a strip that adheres to the wall.

i spray painted it orb so that it will blend a little better. 

now, everyone keep your fingers crossed that bean doesn't

pull it off the wall!

~ stacy ~