I Can't Believe it's Already Christmas 2014

Wow. Two posts ago it was Christmas 2013, and here it is an entire year later. So much has happened, and through it all my kids just keep growing! Do you recognize that quilt? Yes, it's the one I pieced 3 years ago and still...have not...quilted. I've wanted to have the kids pose beneath this quilt since I started it 3 years ago, and pretty soon they're going to be all grown up - so here it is, even though it's not finished yet! My little munchkins look like perfect angels, don't they? I will say that none of them got any coal in their stockings, so that's good.

Welcome to our brand new home!

I didn't have the energy to go all crazy with lights outside this year, so it was pretty basic. Besides, I don't have the heart to make a bunch of nail holes on the porch roof faschia to string lights...yet...maybe next year I'll make more nail holes to light up the front of the house more.

In the previous post I described some of the, um, adventures we encountered during the building process. There are a host of stories still left untold, but at this point I'm just going to play "Show" and leave the "Tell" unspoken...

In previous years I've draped nearly every doorway with garland, but I felt like doing a cleaner, more simple look this year. Plus I didn't want to cover up the beautiful molding everywhere.

Here's a detail of the mantel. I had the carpenters use mitered crown molding laid flat on its back for the trim. I asked them to use squared-off wood for the inside and the outside of the crown, which hides the beveled edges of the crown seamlessly. The miters are perfect - they did a fantastic job. I installed the marble tile around the firebox. I love the texture and variegated tones of that marble!

Harvey the elf had a perfect seat for Christmas morning. I'm glad he figured out where he wanted to be this time - sometimes his apparent indecision would leave him paralyzed for a few days at a time. Silly little elf.

The kitchen valences are finally up! I didn't want to cover up the view to our backyard, but I needed my happy red color up there somewhere, so I made the valences as small as I could.

There was a small 8" deep space near the dishwasher, so I asked to have these diagonal slats installed to deal with piles. I admit it - I'm a piler, I've always been a piler, and I probably always will be. So this way at least my piles will be out of view. The problem is, out of sight, out of mind...and more than one parent permission slip or important school info paper has been lost in here. I guess I need to have a day of the week established to go through those piles weekly, but that would require more organization than I possess.

I love being able to hide the microwave and countertop appliances!

Vertical storage for trays and cookie sheets...

Here's my little knife drawer and chair for sitting and chopping stuff. I can't stay on my feet for a long time without a lot of pain in my legs (thank you, varicose veins) so this cutting station is great for me.

Hello, super convenient spice drawer right below the gas range!

More stuff out of sight - I love my pullout utensil storage. I bought the cannisters at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and had the cabinetmaker fit them into this area to the right of the stovetop.

This was the first quilt I made with triangles, long ago before Eliza was born. It's far from perfect, but I love the design and the snappy red and white color scheme. Unfortunately I bought inexpensive red fabric (before I understood the value of quality quilting fabric) and the reds bled all over the whites when it was washed. Sigh. So now it's my red and light pink quilt.

Here are the cubbies that I built. We have a very long and skinny space adjacent to the garage (behind the kitchen) that serves as the mudroom and laundry room. I've installed cabinets on the opposite side of this space (not done yet, maybe next month) and these cubbies are my attempt to keep the kids organized as they come home from school through the garage every day.

It's mostly made of MDF (the lower verticals are double thick because I glued 2 layers of MDF together) All of the MDF is faced with wood on the outer edges. The back of the cubbies is just the plaster wall, but there are cleats nailed/screwed into studs to support all the shelves and hooks.

It was less expensive for me to buy these ready-made hook strips from Home Depot (it was a special purchase item in a local store) than it was to buy hooks individually. I screwed sturdy pieces of wood into studs to serve as a reliable backer for the hook strips. I don't trust things screwed into sheetrock or plaster, even with anchors, when the kids are hanging their backpacks and stuff on them. Then I added some leftover trim I had hanging around to the bottom of the backer wood pieces.

These shoe boxes are a favorite thing of mine. I built them from leftover plywood and installed nice wheels on the bottom so they glide effortlessly. It's SO nice to have the shoe situation under control at last!!

Here you can see how I built the boxes: cleats for the box base were glued/nailed on first, leaving room in the corners for the wheels. The wheels are screwed into the box base. The cleats were placed 3/8" lower than the height of the wheels.