good bye holidays. by orange

The husband thought that I would resist taking down the holiday decorations until Feb. 1st due to my love of all things Christmas.  This weekend, the de-christmas-fication of the Nicholson household begun.  All things Christmas holiday, except for the tree, are put away in the closet.  And the tree, well I blame that on not enough time (not sure if that is 100% accurate).  We missed the boy scout tree pick up...so we have to haul it to the dump.  And my in laws started the "you know you're a red neck when"...(your christmas tree is up...still.).  This week, or next weekend - I promise.

For Christmas I recieved a gift card from my in-laws to one of my favorite places - Pier 1.  So, with the holiday stockings down, the holiday pillows put away I thought it is the perfect time to put that gift card to good use.  Check out my findings...

pier 1 pillows that I've been eyeing for some time...on sale!

new piece to put above the fireplace

vase for the mantle - on sale as well!

some fun recycled magazine rubberband-like balls for the center of the dining table

not a new item...but from pier 1 as well, I "re-purposed" it to the fancy/living room area

the final look

retail therapy with a gift card really helped lift my un-holiday spirits

school teacher. by orange

I think along with many other little girls, I grew up wanting to be a school teacher. Really because I loved chalkboards and chalk. I loved the sound that the chalk makes when writing on the board, I loved the cool chalk-holder my 2nd grade teacher had. The only part of chalk I didn't like was the feeling of chalk dust on my hands.

Recently, there is a craze going on with chalkboard paint. Oh how I want to get on this band wagon and paint a chalkboard somewhere in my house...unfortunately I haven't picked out where yet.

My chalkboard inspiration photos: