I hope you all had a great time on New Years Eve and your new year started off just like you wanted! I started 2012 by sleeping in after having a great time (and delicious food) with friends… perfect start if you ask me :D

Speaking of decorations, I completely forgot to share my favorite one! It’s in my kitchen:

It’s a garland in front of the window. The twigs are fake and the candles are not meant to be lit, but I love it so much I want to leave it there… for good! I’ve actually been thinking about how I could change it to make it say “winter” instead of “Christmas”, but so far nothing came up.

While on the topic of decorations, here’s our Christmas tree. I wasn’t there when my parents went to get the tree, and the one they got was a little weird and wonky, but we made it work. My mom actually bought an additional light string because even though the tree was as tall as usual, it was wider.

We decorated the tree as we always do: My mom is in charge of the lights, and I do the rest. I LOVE decorating the tree! This year I wanted to go with a white, red and silver theme, but since we didn’t buy any new ornaments I mostly used red cause that’s what we had. I usually don’t like the straw stars, but this year I used them and thought it all looked good. And I started a new tradition: Watching The Muppet Christmas Carol while decorating the tree. It’s my favorite Christmas movie!

Here’s a closer look at the presents under the tree:

I wrapped mine in plain kraft paper and used red and white striped paper yarn along with gift tags I found on pinterest. I also made sure to find a box for every present, just cause it makes wrapping easier and I think it looks nicer.

Speaking of presents… I took some more tree pictures with my new 50mm lens. Love all the bokeh!

And here are my favorites… I think I’ll use one of those for my Christmas cards next year.

I hope your Christmas was as merry and bright as mine and you got everything you wished for! What was your favorite present?

I hope you enjoy the holidays with your loved ones!

Last you heard of me, I was gonna go to Boston to visit my Au-Pair hostfamily. And I had a wonderful week with them! We hung out at home with their new puppy and their 6 foster kittens (I wanted to take home 2 of them so badly!), made mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie for and ate a ton on Thanksgiving, went to the mall, did some art… I really had a great time with them and miss them now.

When I came back I had another week off from work and used that to repaint my living room. And I’m happy to report that I really, truly, love it now! It feels like me and it feels like home, and that’s as perfect as it gets, right?

Let’s take a look back. Here’s the empty room when I moved in…

and shortly after that, with my furniture in it, but unpainted walls:

After a while, I painted the wall behind the couch and hung some pictures.

While I liked the turquoise color, it just wasn’t me.

And so I finally decided to spend more money on paint and make my living room mine.

Here it is now:

I picked out the wall color on a rainy day with no real sunlight, but I absolutely love it! It’s a neutral, warm greige, exactly what I wanted. I also added another picture ledge and but more pictures on the wall behind the couch.

And look! I finally bought a rug!

I love it! It’s so soft and fluffy and warm and just what the room needed!

As for Christmas decorations, I decided to not go overboard. I wanted to get a small tree, in a bucket, but then decided against it. Instead, there’s a bit here and there.

Next to the TV, there’s this:

That’s actually a string of lights with ornaments on them in the glass vase. The light is really beautiful, I should take a picture of it.

And then there’s the window sill:

I bought these pretties at Crate & Barrell and was a little afraid they might not make it home in one piece. But they were not harmed and I love them!

Then there’s some firs that I made. My mom’s pottery skills are way better than mine, but I think these are okay:

And instead of an advent wreath, I came up with this.

It’s nice and seemed like a good idea. Until this happened about 10 minutes into lighting the first candle:

Oh well. I just hope I can save most of the ornaments and remove them from the wax without breaking then.

Speaking of advent, time to light the last candle!

So how has your December been so far? It’s been mostly rainy and yucky here, not a lot of real daylight and we finally got a tiny bit of snow on friday… mixed with rain, of course. I have one Christmas present and ideas for most other ones, but I really need to get going on finishing them. Anyone else as far behind as I am?