November excitement - 5 tips to prepare you for the holidays.

Happy Halloween weekend! Hope you all had a great time dressing up and scaring the crap out of each other.. Seriously best part of this holiday! Love it.

Now that this is over with, I am SO excited to start preparing my home for the MOST WONDERFULTIME OF THE YEAR. Seriously, my favorite time ever. Every year my husband tells me, we can not set up until December first, and then November 1st, we find myself watching Home Alone on TV, and dying to whip out that tree.

So I have convinced him that the day to begin this year will be November 12. (Although we plan to be putting up the lights out side in the next few days, before the snow falls...) Anyhow, some things that this house hold is excited for this time of the year.. I have decided that we are going full out traditional this year! Red, green and gold all over this place!

Anyhow... Back to business..

1- Wanting to go big for Christmas but don't know how you can spend all that at once. Start buying gift cards early at the stores that you find your self purchasing the most gifts.. This way when it comes to going to get all your goodies, you aren't going to be draining your accounts!

2- Some great ways to get that movie looking tree! A great way to add depth to your tree is to place 2 different size bulbs on the tree. It will give the illusion of more sparkle! As well adding lights far into the branches of the tree, will make the tree seem fuller. Its all about light placement people!

3- Love this glow of sweet Christmas lights but don't know where to place them but the tree. Place a strand above your upper cabinets and it will give that beautiful glow without the sight!

4- Nothing smells better in a home around the holidays then a live tree. Hate picking up all those pine needles? Try grabbing some floral foam, and find your nearest tree salesman (I love how they turn into little pop up stores!) they will probably have lots of extra branches that have broken off or cut, most people will give these away with little or no cost! Fill up your foam and you still get the aroma with no mess!

5- Don't forget to decorate your bathrooms! For some reason people forget this room, and it almost needs it the most! I love seeing little reindeer or a tree in the bathroom, makes Christmas just a little warmer in the home. Serious, nothing big or extravagant, but just a little something.

Thanks for reading!!

Basement reno budgeting

Well hello hello! So as I have said previously, we will be starting the basement renovation really soon and are starting to get quotes for some of the more difficult work. We are pretty avid DIY'ers but we really want this to look great, so that we can sell this place down the road. We are planning to have the framing and the drywall done by contractors. Not really to sure if the quote is good or not (cause this is the first one!) But we are really hoping to find something cheaper.. Shizaa..

So we are going to be starting demo this weekend, pulling down the small pieces of drywall that are currently being use less.. And some odd metal looking framing, that just is terrible.. Hubbie sold his home gym as well to give us more space for the renovation, great hubbie.


Let me know of any tips that you have for this big old renovation! Can't wait to hear from some people!